Saturday, June 14, 2014

TFBT: Pindar's Victory Songs Part II


This is part two of my review of Pindar’s Victory Songs by Frank J. Nisetich.  This has been a beautiful book.  If you are a bibliophile you will know how sometimes you just dread to reach the final page.  I would encourage anyone who loves reading just to delight in pretty words, the right word, and the turn of a phrase to read this book.  Classists; if you’ve never read Pindar, just mined him for gems, you have missed so much and will find so much more to treasure.  

The Aeacides and Zero

Pindar quite often celebrates victors at the PanHellenic games who claim descent from Aeacus.  If you don’t know the hero, he was the son of Zeus (aren’t the all) and an island nymph named Aegina.  Aeacus, friend of the gods, had such a reputation for piety and justice that he became a judge of the dead in the afterlife.  Meanwhile, she bore him two sons, Telamon, companion of Heracles and father of Ajax the Greater of the Iliad.  Nisetich suggests that the other son Peleus was visiting King Akastos, Akastos’ wife Hippolyta offered herself to the hero.  Peleus rejected the married woman’s advances.  Consequently, “Because he had respected the claims of hospitality and chastity, Zeus…rewarded him with the hand of Thetis.”  The Nereid Thetis insured her husband’s immortality by snatching him from earth towards the end of his life and taking him to live forever in her father’s halls beneath the Aegean Sea.  Meanwhile   Thetis bore to Peleus, Achilles the hero of the Iliad.  Ajax and Achilles attained fame beneath the walls of Troy and spent eternity on the paradisiac Isle of White.   

In Olympian 8 the odean says of the clan (and I paraphrase a lot) “Aiakos, whom Leto's child and Poseidon, lord of the tide summoned to help them crown Troy with her ring of walls… Apollo … said to Aiakos; “In the place where your hands have worked,  Pergamos is taken…and she will fall through battle-might of yours, beginning with the first and ending in the third of your line.”  
Nisetich explains that this means that “Telamon, in the first generation  after Aiakos, sacked her the first time .  In the next generation  Telamon’s son Ajax” and his cousin Achilles besieged the city but “It was reserved for (Achilles’ son ) Neoptolemmos to destroy the city forever.“  

Nisetich logic seems perfect.  My confusion is that I was taught that the archaic counting system didn’t have “zero”.  For example, the Ancient Greeks thought the Olympics were 5 years apart. Pretend it is 2016.  You and I are in Brazil at the games.  The next one is 2020 in Japan.  How many years apart is that?  Easy; 2016 is the first years, 2017 the second, 2018 the third, 2019 the fourth and 2020 the fifth.  Was I taught wrong about the Ancient Greeks counting system prior to introduction of “zero”?  Or was Pindar just smarter that everyone else?

 

Immortal Zeus Let the Titans Go 

 “immortal Zeus let the Titans go.”  Pythian 4  This is about the clearest indication that the Zeus finally released the Titans defeated in the Titanomachy.  Hesiod claims that their leader Cronus was also released from Tartarus “And they live untouched by sorrow in the Islands of the Blessed along the shore of deep swirling Oceanus, happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, far from the deathless gods, and Kronos rules over them; for the father of men and gods released him from his bonds. (Hesiod, Works and Days 156)    Aeschylus, Fragment 114 Prometheus Unbound  indicates that Prometheus to betrayer of the Titans and the Olympians was released.  Pindar used the expression “immortal Zeus let the Titans go  as a sign that things can change;  an expression of hope.

 

The Antenorides and Helen 

Nisetich says that “Pindar tells us that the sons of Antenor came (to Cyrene) with Helen in their midst. Meaning , apparently that they accompanied Menelaus in his wandering after the fall of Troy.  Antenor has known for his disapproval of the marriage of Helen and Paris.  The Greeks spared him and his family when Troy fell. According to by Carlos Parada  (www.maicar.com ) Antenor and his household were saved that awful night because Odysseus and Menelaus were bound by ties of hospitality to him.  Antenor was their Trojan host during early peace negotiations.   Antenor and his sons ended up founding  Padua in  Italy

 

Man; a Shadow’s Dream  

“Man; a shadow’s dream”  Pythian 8   The shadow in question is the shade of a beloved ancestor.  The point is that we are the accumulation of our ancestors’ dreams and hopes.  As Pindar points out repeatedly the deceased delight in the successes of their descendants.  We discussed this in Hour 24.  I will ask in Hour 25, which reference we used for the discussion back then.

 

Alceme and her Family 

Nisetich declares that “Iolaos (son of Iphicles, son of Alcmene) had risen from the dead in order to kill Eurysetheus, the persecutor of Herakles and his children.  The Thebans then buried him again in the tomb of his grandfather Amphitryon.”  This sort of implies that Amphitryon the mortal father of Heracles and his grandson Iolaos enjoyed joint heroic honors at Thebes. 

Pythian 11 begins with Pindar calling upon the goddesses Semele ( in the company f Olympian goddesses) and her sister Ino (undersea with the Nereids) , Heracles’ mother Alceme and the local nymph Melia.  He refers to these Thebans as a “band of heroines. Heroic honors for Alceme?  Pindar buts here in the company of some pretty high powered gods.  Quiet the honor even if it isn’t heroic.

 

 A Crooked Phrase upon my Lips 

 “a crooked phrase upon my lips; sung out of tune”  (Nemean 7).  Pindar is apologizing for himself , but it made me think of Thersites in the Iliad 2.212 “chattering on Thersites of measureless speech, whose mind was full of great store of disorderly words... in no orderly wise”

 

Finally 

Pindar is full of sage advice and proverbs.  I have thorough enjoyed this book and found words to live by repeatedly both from the poet and his translator.  Let me leave you with one last thought.  

 “I would wish to lay my limbs in earth beloved by my fellow citizens because I praised the praiseworthy and scattered blame on those who deserved it”

30 comments:

  1. Do you know any source, other than Euripides Andromache, saying that Thetis reunited with Peleus and immortalized him?
    It seems to me that this would require a change of heart by Thetis so profound that it could not happen in Peleus' lifetime. And even if it did happen, Zeus would not allow it. He had enough worries with the first surviving son of Peleus and Thetis to risk conception of new children.

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    1. Maya,

      I only found one source for Peleus' after life in the halls of Nereus.

      But, I don't think Zeus had to worry about them reproducing. I think the only hero to sire a child in the after life was Achilles father of Euphorion and that was a late obscure reference.

      Odd that you should use the phrase "first surviving son of Peleus and Thetis". Apollonius Rhodius, in Argonautica says Thetis tried to immortalize Achilles with the old fire and nectar trick, but just like Demeter and Demophoon someone interrupted.

      As to Peleus' immortalization, I give up on trying to figure that out. All sorts of despicable people get heroic honors and a place in Elysium for no other reason that they were famous. A paradise wtih Medea in it, is probably one to be avoided if possible!

      Bill

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    2. I admit I cannot understand the immortalization business - are the heroes on the Islands of the Blessed truly immortalized like the gods, or souls in an afterlife?
      And if B is true, what about Kronos allegedly ruling them? Has he become an Underworld god, or has Zeus finally managed somehow to kill him and the other Titans?

      I referred to Achilles as the first surviving son because I was thinking of his six older brothers who got burned or boiled to death.
      Long after these events, my Thetis repents for the way she has arranged her family life. She realizes that Peleus has been a decent guy after all and has loved her but she has not loved him because she has not wanted to. She wishes to have stayed with him and all of their children to the end, and to have championed for peace.

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    3. According to Hesiod wheat csme forth on its on three times a year on the Islamd of the Blest.so if they had bread you just know they had wine. So apparently physical bodies while they were there and only spirirt forms when returning to earth. Protesilaus got conjugale visits with his wife. But he seems to bean acception. Apparently there was marrying in the afterlife Alcema and Rhadamathus for sure. Achillkes akso. So the had wine women and song, buto no children. Apparently the afterlife is not condusive to conception. I think it is notable that prosepine and Hades had done.

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  2. The saga of Zeus and the Titans is interesting.
    Early mythographers were quite content with Zeus keeping all Titans chained forever. However, development of ethics seems to have created discomfort with this supreme god keeping in chains most of his male relations, including his own father. Remember how in the Eumenides the Erynies say that Zeus cares much about other people's fathers while keeping his own father in chains; and Apollo cannot justify this fact and just says that the chains can be broken.
    In the same way, Greeks, or at least Athenians, began to feel uneasy about the continuing punishment of Prometheus. It proved that Zeus' hatred to humans was everlasting and relentless. Prometheus had to be released, so that some bit of Zeus' character could be saved (though, keeping in mind the overall performance of Zeus, I see pretty little to be saved).
    Hesiod tried very hard to solve the problem another way, by proving that Prometheus was no benefactor to humans. However, in my opinion he failed. He stated that Zeus allowed Heracles to shoot the eagle so that Heracles could have even more glory. However, if Prometheus did deserve the eagle, why should shooting it add to Heracles' glory? Heracles would win glory by this act only if the humans, despite all propaganda, still supported Prometheus.

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    1. Maya,

      Prometheus had maybe two temples right? He betrayed his own brothers and then betrayed Zeus. Do us humans really want him as our cultural hero?

      Bill

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    2. According to Pausanias, in two places Prometheus was downgraded to hero and given a tomb.
      He never had any temple, as he himself complained in Lucian's parody. However, he shared an altar with Hephaestus at the Athenian Academy, and a sacred grove with Poseidon at Colonus. I think it would be absurd to build a temple to the sole god who wanted humans to keep their resources to themselves.

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  3. The only version where Prometheus betrays the other Titans was invented by Aeschylus. He had to give his protagonist some hamartia, hadn't he? Otherwise, what a play would that be? Prometheus learns his lesson the hard way, realizes his mistake, tries to correct it to the degree to which it is possible, and the Titans forgive him.
    As for the betrayal of Zeus... Zeus doesn't enjoy much loyalty. He is "betrayed" (i.e. disobeyed or actively opposed) by Poseidon (more than once), Apollo (likely more than once), Hera (more than once), Athena (more than once), Demeter and Hephaestus. He reminds me a former boss of mine who kept complaining that everybody "betrayed" him. It never occured to him (or, apparently, to Zeus), that his own behavior was the cause. So why are you so harsh on Prometheus for betraying Zeus? Everyone else (at least, everyone of any importance) has done the same :-). Not mentioning that the humans were the tribe of Prometheus' child - and we are usually more loyal to our children than to unjust and ungrateful cousins. (When my Heracles complains that he is forced to serve his first cousin, who is the king despite being good for nothing, Prometheus murmurs, more to himself, "What a coincidence".)
    The first time Verdi's Aida was staged in the Soviet Union, some Party comissar objected against this opera "glorifying a traitor", i.e. Radames. However, the opera director gave arguments that Radames was actually a fighter for the rights of the oppressed and, in this respect, a good example to all Communists and proletarians. So the Aida was pardoned and staged.
    Every time when someone stretches beyond his tribe and the us-versus-them mentality, he is labeled a traitor.

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  4. Maya,

    Why am I so hard on Prometheus? Good question. He was at Mecone that meant he chose to be on the winning team. (Took Epimetheus along with him apparently.) He chose to leave his brothers to their doom when he couldn't convince them of their foolishness. Maya as fond of Zeus as you are (ha, ha) I thought the ones you would burn incense for are Atlas and Menoitios. They stood for what they believed in and resisted Zeus. Prometheus then tries to or actually does out-smart Zeus at Mecone. Maybe Prometheus thought he was helping us out, but his little stunt at the barbeque brought about the end of the Golden age, so it wasn't such a good move for us humans. For someone with forethought and foresight he sure wasn't a whole lot of help to everyone. Truth be told I suppose I like my heroes more Achillean than Odyssean. But, to quote Pindar (Pythia 4.294) even "immortal Zeus released the Titans". Thanks for prodding my conscience a little.

    Bill

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    1. Atlas and Menoitios are not exactly my soulmates. Indeed, they stand valiantly for what they believe in... but what they believe in is their family. Go to any country with neverending sectarian conflict and you will find hundreds of such guys in every remote village without sanitation and school :-). It is funny that when I was young, I sympathized with Antigone who has the same mentality. Now, I am fully on the side of Creon.
      Of course I have sympathy to Atlas for his help to Amphitrite. However, I cannot make much of him. What is most important about Atlas? That he supports the sky on his shoulders. Good for an Ayn Rand title. But I must omit this, and little else remains. My Atlas has the job of keeping Gibraltar accessible for ships.
      It is funny that, after you mentioned this, I see that I have made Atlas Achillean (and I never before connected the two). He is too emotional, often not in the mood of listening to rational arguments, and values manly courage too highly. For that reason, he encourages his son to hunt large animals, despite being warned about the dangers. So his short-sightedness leads to the death of the one he loves most - like Achilles.

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    2. Maya,

      What is this about Atlas help to Amphitrite?

      Bill

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    3. "Amphitrite, when Neptunus [Poseidon] desired to wed her and she preferred to keep her virginity, fled to Atlas. Neptunus sent many to seek her out, among them a certain Delphin, who, in his wanderings among the islands, came at last to the maiden, persuaded her to marry Neptunus." (Hyginus, Astronomica)
      Another author clarifies that "the god of the dark hair straightway carried off the maiden and overcame her against her will." So much about the "persuation".
      BTW, have you mentioned that girls in myth, when unwilling to accept a particular male, usually state that they wish to remain virgins? (E.g. Sinope and the Danaids.)

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    4. Maya, Thanks for the Amphitrite reference. I wonder if running to Atlas is short hand for running to the far corner of the universe.

      As to perferring virginity to marriage, that might have been the smarter answer. Polyphemus was in love with some nymph Glataea who admitted a preference for Acis. Things didn't end up too well for Acis after that, unlike Odysseus, Acis failed to dodge the mountain size boulder.

      Marpessa perferred the life-long love of the demi-god Idas rather being the passing fancy of Apollo and told him so. Idas happen to be the strongest man in the world at the time and Apollo was getting the worst of it when Zeus showed up to stop the fight.

      Helen got her choice of any grown man in the world. Thetis said "No!" to Zeus initially out of respect for her foster mother Hera.

      I always assumed that Artemis, Athena and Hestia's virginity were influenced by Zeus desire to avoid powerful grandsons and ambitious son-in-laws.

      Bill

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    5. As for Menoitios, the more I think of him, the more I doubt that he ever existed as a real mythological figure. Prometheus and Epimetheus at Mecone fit the Proto-Indo-European myth of the twin brothers with the primordial bovine doing the first sacrifice. Bruce Lincoln thinks that one of the brothers was sacrificed and became the first man to die and Lord of the Dead (the Vedic Yama). I start to suspect that in the original (proto) Greek story Zeus, angry because of the way Prometheus did the sacrifice, thunderbolted him or his twin brother, killing the victim and possibly putting him in charge of the newly-made Underworld. The names of both brothers are suppressed and they are called by epithets instead - something typical for Underworld gods and daimons.
      Subsequent development of the story required both brothers to survive, at least for some time. So Menoitios was inserted to take the thunderbolt. All we know about him is that he was severely punished for some unidentified act of hubris against Zeus. He, or an individual with a very similar name, later appears briefly in the Heracles story and is associated with both the Underworld (Hades) and cattle.

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    6. Maya,

      I agree that Menoitios is a little vague mythologically. I like you idea of Prometheus and Epimetheus not even getting really names. They fit nicely the whole IDE Twin myth. As to Hades; there is a reference somewhere to their dad Iapetus ruling in the underworld prior to Zeus' brother Hades.

      Bill

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    7. I took notice from your suggestion and included a dialog with Atlas:

      http://www.mayamarkov.com/fiction/diary_of_prometheus/eng_11_helios_and_selene.htm

      I imagine him similar to Ajax in both body and mind (Sophocles' Ajax). I've even given him a line of the Ajax.

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  5. The very idea of a philanthropic god is a late one. Throughout the Neolithic, Halcolithic and Bronze Age humans could not harbor any illusions about the "benevolence" of forces operating the natural world. So the early mythologies portray gods as devoid of anything even remotely resembling morality. Their gods can be benevolent to humans only if properly appeased, and often cannot be appeased in any way. They have created humans to serve their interests (a remnant of this has survived in the Genesis: "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it). And as soon as we stop serving properly, the gods severely punish or obliterate us.
    However, at some point in developing morality and building civilizations, humans started to wish something of this projected to Heaven. As Dodds said, they were no longer content with Achilles' understanding that "God's in his Heaven, all's wrong with the world". So the character of the supreme god was improved, and benefactor gods appeared. However, the process never advanced too far: the benefactors always act in opposition to the supreme god. Even in Christianity, the relationship between Jesus and his Father is also at a very low point while Jesus is among humans and helping them: he pleas to his Father to be spared from torture, and the plea is ignored; then he suffers as much as his mortal body can endure.
    In Greek mythology, there are two instances of divine benefaction of humans without expecting anything in return. The first one is Prometheus' gift of fire in its Aeschylean and later versions. The second one is Demeter's gift of agriculture in its later version (the mission of Triptolemus). In the earlier version fixed in the Homeric Hymn, humans have been given agriculture at some unidentified earlier moment, in order to feed animals that will later feed the gods by sacrifice.
    Hesiod belongs to the archaic era of amoral gods. It is unfortunate that his version of the Mecone episode is the only available to us. I wonder e.g. how much it is distorted by the poet's misogyny. However, this is what we have, and I'll try to reconstruct what must have happened at Mecone.

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    1. Maya, I've been thinking about the gods and justice. I remember reading an observation that the gods partying on Olympus seem oblivous to human suffering and their duty to uphold justice. We do see plagues brought on by injustice which some seer or thePythia has to explain, but rarely big conversation among the Olympians. Recently in Hour 25 we were reading Euripides. In one scene Hera sics Lyssa (madness) on Heracles. Lyssa objects that Heracles has done nothing wrong. It occurred to me that we were looking to the wrong gods for justice; not the Olympians' department. It was the old gods who were concerned with justice; the children and wards of best-beloved, most fair, thrice prayed for Night. Zeus himself feared Nyx, the gods could not turn Death from his course, all feared the Eumenides, Momus would have been the god of poets who shame people into doing the right thing. The Fates insure we all got our appropriate share and there was nothing the Olympian gods could do unless they drank too much wine. Themis herself seems to stand outside the Olympians and was of the previous generation.

      Odd isn't that the ultimate patriarch has a daughter in armor standing at this right hand and Justice is the power behind the throne.

      Bill

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    2. I think you are right! And I love Lucian's Momus.

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  6. First, it is impossible to fully reconcile the Prometheus story with the story of the Five Ages. Either they have been borrowed from different mythological traditions, or Hesiod has inserted additional ages. He states that the Golden Age was under Kronos, and the next ages were under Olympian rule. Which generation was at Mecone, received the fire and then was drowned? Its fate (exterminated by Zeus for failure to honor the Olympians) matches that of the Silver generation. However, what then about the Bronze Age men, with their spectacular annihilation wars? From the flood to the Trojan War, there are no human mass extinction events. So it seems that the folk of Prometheus were the Bronze Age men after all. However, this implies fairly long time between the Titanomachy and the Mecone conference. Especially with the long generation time of the Silver men (childhood + puberty = 100 years).
    Anyway.
    My reconstruction attempt: during the Kronos reign, unidentified Titans, most likely including Prometheus, create the "Golden Age" men. Why? Presumably to be used as soldiers in the expected celestial supremacy war (as in Norse mythology). This explains why they are all males and are not used as workforce.
    The men, however, are not used in the Titanomachy. It probably comes too soon and they are not yet ready. Prometheus has been expected to lead them in the war and, after they cannot take part, he also does not. Maybe they all die and Prometheus creates a new generation immediately after the war. Or, if we put aside the story of the Ages, they may survive the war and be the same men that we see later.
    Anyway, the victorious Zeus has to deal with a little problem: what to do with these men and with Prometheus, the only member of the team of their creators still at large. Prometheus is no ally of Zeus - after the sacrifice, Zeus clearly hints that they have a history of disagreements, or worse.
    The idea of Zeus is to turn the men into workforce, to supply the Olympians with sacrificial meat. I disagree that the Golden Age ended because of Prometheus' intervention - do you think it was he who called the Mecone conference? And I do not understand why it is often stated that gods and men were equal and would remain so if Prometheus had divided the ox into more equal parts. I mean, the simple fact is that husbandry was to become a function of men. Even if two persons eat equal shares, they are not equal if one of them has to pay all the food!
    Then, Prometheus takes the job of doing the prototype sacrifice. Hesiod says that he voluntered for this task. I am not sure, because of the clear pro-Zeus bias of Hesiod. He first tries to tell us that it was the Titans who were the rebels, rather than Zeus & Co. Now, he is trying to convince us that Prometheus started the hostilities first. I'd rather suppose that Zeus orders the task.
    What is the choice of Prometheus? A. To decline, actually admitting he is good for nothing. B. To assign the better portion to the gods, turning men into slaves of Olympus and surrendering his cause. C. To assign the better portion to men, giving Zeus justification to punish him. He accepts the task and invents a D.
    Zeus cannot at this point punish Prometheus without admitting he was duped, so he bans human use of fire. I don't think humans had used fire before; if they had, Zeus would have been unable to take the fire from them, as he was unable afterwards.
    Because the men can never become a true army without fire, Prometheus steals it and brings it to them. Zeus intervenes quickly, now having an excuse to bind Prometheus. Then, he orders technically skilled Olympians to create a human female. So he puts men on the rails of mainstream sexual reproduction, making them independent of their original creators.

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  7. Maya,

    What's the deal with no females involved with the Titanomachy? All the goddess and titanesses lived with Oceanus and Thetys. (Iris might have been an exception.) Come to think of it, none of the Titaness helped overthrow Uranus. And then comes the Gigantomachy and every god and goddess in mythology joins the fight against the earth-born Giants. Desperation?

    Bill

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  8. Maybe. At that time, Zeus has only a limited supply of thunderbolts because they are no longer produced (the Cyclopes have been slain). The Hundred-Handers are absent from the picture. Why? Maybe they decided that they had served enough and abandoned Zeus? Maybe Briareus was the last one that remained, and his wife convinced him to quit service? At least, I wish so.
    Without the Cyclopes, the Hundred-Handers, or any newer military technology, the gods are in serious danger to be besieged on Olympus and vanquished.
    BTW, I have recently read an interesting thesis on the Gigantomachy, you may look at it: http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/handle/10063/3279

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  9. The hundred -handers were the jailors of Tartarus. Someone had to replace the dragoness Campe. Briareaus got the bronze gate located in the Agean, his brothers got housed in Hades. Lovely jobs! Thanks for the gigantomachy link.

    Bill

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    1. However, Briareus came to rescue Zeus the previous time Zeus had been in danger. Now, with far greater danger, he is nowhere to be seen.
      I think the Giant onslaught would justify recruitment of all three Hundred-Handers. After all, the Giants are free and dangerous, while the Titans are chained (or, alternatively, pacified and released, if we take this variant of the story). I cannot help thinking that placing the Hundred-Handers at the gates of Tartarus from the beginning was to keep in control them, rather than the Titans :-).

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    2. Maya,
      Zeus rescued Briareus and his brothers from Tartarus, so they were glad to help him against their oppressors; the titans. So Zeus and the Hundred-Handers were even.

      Briareus showed up when Thetis called, but who isn't going to do a favor for the goddess of rescue. Thetis was the one that unbound Zeus.

      Giants never did any harm to Briareus, so maybe they saw no reason to show up.

      Bill

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    3. Exactly! I meant something of this sort, but didn't express it well enough.
      My Cyclopes are advised to do the same: "You do not owe anything to Zeus. He released you, and you helped him to win the war. Now, you are even with Zeus. You belong to yourselves. You need not serve him for eternity. Leave Olympus, find some nice far-away place to dwell, Earth is wide..." The Cyclopes, however, lack the sound judgement of the Hundred-Handers.

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  10. Maya,

    How about Nyx and Oceanus? What did they have to lose if the Giants won? Think those are misnomer on the altar at Peragamon?

    Bill

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    1. Oceanus had granddaughters on Olympus. I don't know what to think of Nyx. She is very elusive, and there are no stories about her. She had a cult, but hardly any myths. Perhaps she liked the world as it was, after all.

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  11. BTW, talking about Nyx, I remembered Eris, often said to be her daughter. We are told that, of all gods, Eris alone was not invited to the wedding of Thetis and therefore was offended and threw the apple. (Well, Zeus and Themis had somehow manipulated her, but let's not go deep into details.) However, I find it a bit difficult to imagine the other children of Nyx invited to the party :-).

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  12. Maya,
    Nyx's children included Death, Sleep, Momus, the Fates and Eris.

    Death would have been banned from Olympus and gathering of Olympians by law (See Artemis' cold comments at the end of Hippolytus.)

    But who would banish Sleep? Plus according to Homer he wed one of the Graces. So, I can see him being invited to such functions.

    I read a story where Momus got tossed from Olympus when everyone got sick of his constant criticism. The final straw being when he criticized the divine figure of a totally naked Aphrodite by complaining that her sandals squeaked. So, at least for a while he would have made the invite list.

    You have to invite the Fates, all of them, as Sleeping Beauty's parent found out.

    And Eris got grabbed by the forelock and tossed out of heaven too, so for at least a while she would have been on the list.

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