Thanks to www.jstor.org I recently had the pleasure of reading The Ilioupersis in Athens by Gloria Ferrari (They provide access to scholarly journals to independent
researchers like myself.) Ferrari wrote
an incredible article on the representations of the Fall of Troy in
Athens. As we all know a lot of
unpleasant things happen that night; murder and rape within the sanctuaries of
the gods among those atrocities. The
gods, particularly Athena were not pleased and many of the Achaeans didn’t make
it home. Ferrari points out that a few
honorable things did happen; Aeneas rescuing his father and the rescue of
Aethra by her Athenian grandsons, the sons of Theseus, Demophon and Acamas. Ferrari wondered
why the Athenians would portray in painting, pottery and in the metopes on the
north face of the Parthenon such poor behavior on the part of the
Achaeans. She makes the argument based
on the minimal involvement of the Athenians in the leadership of the campaign and
based on the good behavior of Aethra’s grandson, that the children of Athena
could deny any wrong doing during the destruction of Ilium and blame all on the
“Argives”.
Ferrari explains this all much
better than I. It got me to thinking; so
much of my research is on PanHellenic myths, recited to PanHellenic audiences
at PanHellenic events. But here is a
case where Ferrari was analyzing a PanHellenic myth from the perspective of one
specific peoples. Local myths are often
contrary to epic, but here she is studying the way one locale sees the
epics. The distinction here is local
myth vs. perspective on PanHellenic myth.
A distinction I hadn’t made in my own studies.
A little aside here; I was taught
ages ago that all dreams have three possible interpretations; the basis story
line, how each person, place and thing in the dream represents an aspect of the
dreamer and the universal, allegorical significance of each person, place and
thing. I guess I’ve been missing the
middle step in my studies of classical mythology.
Ferrari produced a short,
well-written, well-referenced piece on a pertinent topic and I recommend it to
all.
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