TFBT: Her Child, was also her Consort

If you are a bibliophile, I am sure you know the following experience.    On a long flight or in a remote location you get stuck reading a book that is a piece of propaganda full of lies and half-truths.  In order to save someone else from getting sucked into this mess you toss it into the garbage rather recycling or donating it to the library.   Or is it badly written and has a lame ending.  Or it is full of illogic and bad science.  Or the author makes a state of general and universal application that this is an "obvious projection of..." If it is so obvious why must the authoress point it out?    I read one of these books recently. I would have tossed it but I was on a five hour flight. In between the waves of nausea and disgust there were a few interesting if odd insights on Greek mythology.  This is the fourth in a series of blogs investigating these possible gems in the rubbish.  

“Eos, the Morning; mother of the sun.  In the classic pattern, her child was also her consort.” Walker 1983 

Okay, what the authoress is mentioning is part of Max Muller’s work on solar mythology.  Don’t say “SM” out loud!  A lightning bolt might strike you.  Initially, SM proved a great tool for analyzing stories about sun-gods, but its success and over-use proved its downfall. I am pretty sure that all the English translations of his work were burnt by an angry mob of intellectuals with torches and pitchforks.  You can read more here.  I believe what Walker hints at, is the belief that that Dawn births the sun each day only to see him sail away and die a bloody death on the western horizon.  Hence, the color of the sunset.   

The catch is there is no hint of this idea in Greek mythology.  The classical presentation of the sun-god’s day is this.   Helios wakes.  The Hours help hitch up his and his sister Eos’ horses.  Phosphorus (Morning Star) and Eos (Dawn) announce his rising.  He sails across the sky, lands on the far shore of the Great River Ocean.  The Hours greet him again and unhitch his horses.  He boards the solar barge and the gentle current of the River takes him to his eastern palace while he slumbers.  

 Eos, the goddess of the dawn is sister to Helios, the sun and Selene the moon.  Eos is also the daughter of the elder sun-titan Hyperion.  Eos also had a son Phaethon. “She engendered a son, glorious Phaethon, the strong, a man in the likeness of the immortals” [i]“Phaethon, that is, "the shining," occurs in Homer as an epithet or surname of Helios, and is used by later writers as a real proper name for Helios.) [ii]  So, with just the facts above, Eos is daughter of the sun, sister of the sun and mother of the sun.   

Also, Phaethon, son of Eos had a cousin Phaethon son of Helios.  Here’s what happen to the other Phaethon.  He was;

 

“presumptuous and ambitious enough to request of his father one day to allow him to drive the chariot of the sun across the heavens the youth being too weak to check the horses, came down with his chariot, and so near to the earth, that he almost set it on fire. Zeus, therefore, killed him with a flash of lightning.”  [iii]

 

What happen with just the confused facts above is that Phaethon, which is another name for the Sun-god, left his mother to see him sail away and die a bloody death on the western horizon.  Hence, the color of the sunset.  

You can see how the authoress and the doomed “solar mythologists” so long ago thrown into Tartarus like Hyperion could get the idea that Eos birthed the sun. 

 

There might be some hope for the authoress’ notion of Eos and “the classic pattern, her child was also her consort” if the Dawn goddess had married her brother Helios or if any other her sons; Tithonos [iv] or the brothers brazen-crested Memnon, king of the Aithiopes, and the Lord Emathion [v] had jumped in the solar chariot and crashed on the horizon, but they didn’t.   

 

---

[i] (Hesiod, Theogony 986)

[ii] (Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.) 

[iii] Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

[iv] ( Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.181)

[v] (Hesiod, Theogony 984)

TFBT: Unwove the Tapestry of his LIfe

If you are a bibliophile, I am sure you know the following experience.    On a long flight or in a remote location you get stuck reading a book that is a piece of propaganda full of lies and half-truths.  In order to save someone else from getting sucked into this mess you toss it into the garbage rather recycling or donating it to the library.   Or is it badly written and has a lame ending.  Or it is full of illogic and bad science.  Or the author makes a state of general and universal application that this is an "obvious projection of..." If it is so obvious why must the authoress point it out?    I read one of these books recently.  (Walker 1983). I would have tossed it but I was on a five hour flight. In between the waves of nausea and disgust there were a few interesting if odd insights on Greek mythology.  This is the second in a series of blogs investigating these possible gems in the rubbish. 

“As long as Penelope refrained from cutting her thread, Odysseus couldn’t die.  So he survived many dangerous adventures while she wove and unwove the tapestry of his life.”  Walker 1983 

If you don’t know the story of Penelope and Odysseus, here it is in a nutshell.  The mortal Queen Penelope stayed home twenty years waiting for her wandering husband to return from Troy.  At some point suitors began to arrive; one hundred and eight of them.  She attempted to forestall choosing one by announcing that she could not wed until she finished weaving a shroud for her father-in-law.  Each night she unraveled that day’s work.   

Many societies sing of a group of goddesses who weave the destinies of the gods and men.  In Greek they are the Fates; Clotho the Spinner, Lachesis the Measurer and Atropos the Cutter.   

What’s interesting and ironic about the quote above is that seems real similar to Helen of Troy weaving in Book 3.121 of the Iliad;  

“Iris…found Helen in the hall, where she wove a great purple web of double fold, and thereon was broidering many battles of the horse-taming Trojans and the brazen-coated Achaeans, that for her sake they had endured at the hands of Ares.”

Many commentaries noted this moment.  (Of course I am on a jet at the moment and have no access to references.) What they note with this passage is that the goddess Iris is about to enter the room and order Helen to lay aside her works and come see the duel for her hand.  All the Greeks and Trojans have set aside their arms.  It is as if as long as Helen weaves about the war the armies rage.  When she stops weaving of battle scenes, they cease to exist.   

The problem with the statement that Odysseus "survived many dangerous adventures while she (Penelope) wove and unwove" is that he was in no danger-when she began to weave the shroud.  As a matter of fact for most of her weaving he was the well-kept lover of a powerful goddess.   

Still an interesting notion.

 

TFBT: Agamemnon's Bath

I assume my readers, if any, are bibliophiles; lovers of books.  If so, I am sure you had this experience.  On a long flight or in a remote location you get stuck reading a book that is a piece of propaganda full of lies and half-truths.  In order to save someone else from getting sucked into this mess you toss it into the garbage rather recycling or donating it to the library.   Or is it badly written and has a lame ending.  Or it is full of illogic and bad science.  Or the author makes a state of general and universal application that this is an "obvious projection of..." If it is so obvious why must the authoress point it out?    I read one of these books recently.  (Walker 1983). I would have tossed it but I was on a five hour flight. In between the waves of nausea and disgust there were a few interesting if odd insights on Greek mythology.  This is the third in a series of blogs investigating these possible gems in the rubbish.

"The ritualistic manner of his (Agamemnon's) death showed it was more than simple murder". (B. Walker 1983).  

Let me start by pointing out that in Greek myth women and goddesses bath by skinny-dipping with their girlfriends.  Men are given a solitary bath by a woman.  

Hence, Hera bathes regularly in the spring of Canathus, the mountain nymphs bathe naked to make sure that everyone in their company is a woman, finally Artemis and Athena both got caught at different times in the nude by unfortunate hunters.   

Meanwhile; Baby Zeus was bathed by his mother Rhea in the river Nepa, Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra, Telemachus by Nestor's daughter, Odysseus by Nausicaä’s maids, Odysseus by his nanny, Odysseus after exacting a "solemn oath from Circe" is given  "a deliciously warm bath, wine in golden cups, and a tasty supper". Helen of Troy got the disguised Odysseus to her house, where she bathed, anointed and clothed him.  

In the examples above "peeping toms" died or suffered when stumbling upon the frolicking nymphs. But no hero died getting a bath from a babe.  So the quote for this blog is somewhat unusual;

 

 “The ritualistic manner of Agamemnon's death showed it was more than simple murder".   

If you don't know of Agamemnon's death, here's the short version.  He led the Greek forces at Troy.  To gain favorable winds for the fleet, he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia. This was second of his wife's children that he killed.  When he returned home in victory, his wife Clytemnestra literally rolled out the red carpet, wrapped him in a luxurious robe, tossed him the bath tub and stabbed him to death. If Agamemnon died in a "ritualistic manner" you'd think other guys died in the tub.  But they didn't.  

The only way I can explain the authoress' statement, was that she confounded “bath tub and “cauldron”.  Visually this is not too much of an intellectual leap if you've ever been in a wood-fired hot tub.  (See attached photo.) 

 

So the only way I can support her statement is by analogy or what Nagy calls metonymy (2015).  Ritual deaths involving cauldrons and female attendants?  That we can find references to; The boy Pelops was diced up and tossed into a boiling cauldron; he was restored by the Fate Clotho.  Under the direction of the witch Medea, Pelias’ daughters diced him up and tossed him into a boiling cauldron; that didn't work too well for him.  The spell worked much better on Medea' father-in-law Aeson.   

So it appears there was a ritual (magical) bath followed by death (or immortality.)

 

 If only Agamemnon had treated his step-children better!

TFBT: Adonis Too Was Castrated

I assume my readers, if any, are bibliophiles; lovers of books.  If so, I am sure you had this experience.  You end up reading a book that is badly written and has a lame ending. In order to save someone else from getting sucked into this mess, you toss it into the garbage rather recycling or donating it to the library.  Or it ends up being a piece of propaganda full of lies and half truths.  Or it is full of illogic and bad science.  I read one of these books, recently; Walker 1983. I would have tossed it, but I was on a five hour flight. In between the waves of nausea and disgust there were a few interesting if odd insights on Greek mythology.  This is the first in a series of blogs investigating these possible gems in the rubbish.

"Adonis too was castrated: gored in the groin by Aphrodite's boar-masked priest.  His severed phallus became his son the  ithyphallic god Priapus...Priapus carried a pruning knife in token of (Adonis') necessary castration before new life could appear on earth.  Castrating the god was likened to reaping the grain which Adonis personified.  His rebirth was a sprouting from the womb of the Earth."  

So, if I can translate this a bit. The “boar-masked priest” is usually described as Aphrodite’s jealous lover, the god of War; Ares (Nonnus, Dionysiaca 42. 1)  Only one source describes Priapus the god of lust, as the son of Adonis.  Occasionally he carries a sickle, (Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.)  The author goes on to suggest that other heroes are sacrificial fertility figures, like Ancaeus of Arcadia, and the Trojan Prince Anchises.

Ovid, in Metamorphosis 8.391 reports that during the Calydonian boar hunt;

“Ancaeus wielding his war-axe, and rushing madly to his fate, exclaimed, “Witness it! See the weapons of a man excel a woman's! Ho, make way for my achievement! Let Diana shield the brute! Despite her utmost effort my right hand shall slaughter him!” So mighty in his boast he puffed himself; and, lifting with both hands his double-edged axe, he stood erect, on tiptoe fiercely bold. The savage boar caught him, and ripped his tusks through his groin, a spot where death is sure.—Ancaeus fell; and his torn entrails and his crimson blood stained the fair verdure of the spot with death.”

In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite the Trojan Prince Anchises fears a fate similar to Adonis.  Awakening with the goddess in his bed, says to his lover, “ Yet by Zeus who holds the aegis I beseech you, leave me not to lead a palsied life among men, but have pity on me; for he who lies with a deathless goddess is no hale man afterwards.”

Apollonius Rhodius ARGONAUTICA 2.815 “And here his destined fate smote Idmon, son of Abas, skilled in soothsaying; but not at all did his soothsaying save him, for necessity drew him on to death. For in the mead of the reedy river there lay, cooling his flanks and huge belly in the mud, a white-tusked boar, a deadly monster, whom even the nymphs of the marsh dreaded, and no man knew it; but all alone he was feeding in the wide fell. But the son of Abas was passing along the raised banks of the muddy river, and the boar from some unseen lair leapt out of the reed-bed, and charging gashed his thigh.”

Apollodorus. The Library 1.9.12 “Phylacus marveled, and perceiving that he was an excellent soothsayer, he released him and invited him to say how his son Iphiclus might get children…And having sacrificed two bulls and cut them in pieces he summoned the birds; and when a vulture came, he learned from it that once, when Phylacus was gelding rams, he laid down the knife, still bloody, beside Iphiclus, and that when the child was frightened and ran away.”

Hesiod Theogony 176 “And Heaven (Uranus) came, bringing on night and longing for love, and he lay about Earth spreading himself full upon her. Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father's members”

Aaron Atsma observes; “There is also a vase painting depicting Khrysaor's son Geryon holding a shield emblazoned with the emblem of a winged boar--a likely representation of Khrysaor considering his boar-tusked, winged mother Medusa”  Various sources explain the name Chrysaor as meaning “golden aor”, “golden sword”, “golden falchion” or “golden sickle” 

 So in summary; Adonis castrated by the tusks of an apparent boar.  A boar “ripped his tusks through (Ancaeus’) groin.”  Prince Anchises fears a similar fate.  “…the boar from some unseen lair leapt out of the reed-bed, and charging gashed (Idmon’s) thigh.”  Iphiclus was psychologically castrated by watching his father wield a knife while castrating rams.  Uranus was castrated by a sickle.  And finally Chrysaor, the Golden Sickle was born when Perseus cut off his boarish mother’s head with a sickle.  

What that all means, I don’t know.

  

TFBT: Review of the "Destruction of Troy"

Memnon at Hour 25 recently pointed out a on-line posting of Destruction of Troy by an anonymous author.  https://archive.org/details/ExcidiumTroiae [i]

This short piece is apparently a medieval romance written in Latin.  It reviews all the details relating to the epic cycle, starting with the wedding of Peleus and Thetis and ending with the founding of Rome.  Apparently the author had neither Greek or Hesiod, but relies heavily on Virgil. Polyxena betrayed the secret of Achilles heel.  There are numerous typos and confused genealogies, but on occasion the story gives a different bent on our understanding of the epic tales or the perfect phrase.  The bulk of the beautiful language flew off to the tweeter sphere under WilliamMoulton2,  leaving here some thoughts for your consideration and contemplation.
 

Ares and Paris

The first story to discuss is Paris' expertise in training bulls to fight one another.  Paris is a Trojan prince and the story takes plays when he tended livestock outside the city.

 

 "Mars (Ares), being in the form of a bull, fought Paris’ bull, and Mars stood as the victor. Then Paris, seeing Mars in the form of a bull, surmounted his bull and gave Mars the crown which he previously put on his bull. And because he served justice and he did not hinder himself, he was called a just judge. This opinion of him spread out."

 I don’t  know this story.  I recall Ares taking the form of a boar to slay Adonis (Nonnus, dionysusica 42.1). But that was a matter of love and jealousy not athletics.  Zeus and Poseidon both take on animal forms occasionally, but that too is for love.  Zeus seduces Leda as swan, Europa as a bull, Antiope as satyr.  Poseidon took on a the form of a horse to rape his sister Demeter.   If I was looking for a comparative myth to understand Ares as a bull in a competition, I needed to think less literally

I vaguely recalled the story of Androgeus. A little explanation here.  King Minos of Crete was supposed to   beautiful bull sent to him by Poseidon, god of the sea.  Instead he kept it.  It went wild and all sorts of problem occurred.  Eventually, as one of his Labors, Heracles came and took the bull way to Greece.  It was released there and became a problem again.  Several heroes tried to deal with the bull including Prince Androgeus of Crete, Minos son while he was attending a funeral there near Marathon.  Androgeus died, Minos attacked Athens in revenge which lead to the Athenian Prince Theseus going to Crete and fighting Androgeus' half-brother the Minotaur, another bull.  But that is another story.  Here is what Apollodorus has to say about Androgeus' death.

"But he himself came to Athens and celebrated the games of the Panathenian festival, in which Androgeus, son of Minos, vanquished all comers. Him Aegeus sent against the bull of Marathon, by which he was destroyed. But some say that as he journeyed to Thebes to take part in the games in honor of Laius, he was waylaid and murdered by the jealous competitors. (Apollodorus Bibliotheca 3.15.7)  

You can find further discussion and explanation at item 332 in “Notes on Book 3 of the Library of Apollodorus” by J. G. Frazer.  So, what the stories have in common is;

• a divine bull; Ares/Poseidon's Bull,  
• competition; shepherds with their bulls on Mt. Ida / the competitors at the funeral of Laius  
• finally two princes who do or do not understand proper behavior in these situations; Paris/Androgeus.  The Cretan prince might have benefitted from the advice of Odysseus as we all might;

(Bk VIII:199-255 ) Noble and long-suffering Odysseus was pleased by her words, happy to find a genuine supporter at the games. He spoke to the Phaeacians now with a lighter heart...if anyone has the courage and the spirit, let him come and prove himself, in boxing, wrestling, running, it matters not: let any of you Phaeacians try, except Laodamas. For he’s my host, and who would quarrel with the one who shows him hospitality? Only a worthless idiot would challenge the man who welcomes him to a foreign land. He would ruin his own good luck… When we Achaeans fought at Troy only Philoctetes surpassed me (at archery). But I count myself the best by far of all the other mortal men on earth, who eat their bread. Still, I would not claim to compete with Hercules, or Oechalian Eurytus, archers who vied with the gods. That’s why great Eurytus died swiftly, and never reached old age in his halls, because Apollo, challenged to an archery contest, killed him in anger.

The Judgment of Paris

                                                                                                               

Traditionally the story of the judgment of Paris is a as follows as told by Helen and Ovid at Heroides 17: [115]

 "You say Venus (Aphrodite) gave her word for this; and that in the vales of Ida three goddesses presented themselves unclad before you; and that when one of them would give you a throne, and the second glory in war, the third said: “The daughter of Tyndareus shall be your bride!” I can scarce believe "  

I have to agree with the woman who was the admitted first cause of all time and all history.   Can’t believe that the virgin-goddess Athena and the pompous Queen of the Gods would bare it all before a lowly shepherd.  Below is the description of the Judgment from "Destruction of Troy";  

 

"Venus (Aphrodite), covered with a purple cloak,  holding the cloak before herself with two fingers, went forth towards him, and when she stood before him, with the cloak released she appeared nude to him. She thus said to Paris: ‘I will give you a fairer wife, so judge me the most beautiful.’ He, seeing indeed the appearance of the goddess or virgin, that she has young age, incensed with the rage of lust he said to her: ‘I judge you the fairest of all".

Only Aphrodite got naked!  That’s a lot more believable than the usual version.

Thetis and Fairy Lore

 

"Achilles, was son of Peleus and  (Thetis) that when his mother had been struggling, holding his heel with her two fingers, with his head down she dipped him in the water of the underworld which is called Styx. And then he was made to stand, thus iron could not pierce him in any way, unless only in the heel where his mother’s fingers held him when she dipped him."  

According to Wikipedia (Iron in Folklore) "..,iron is historically believed to repel, contain, or harm ghosts, fairies, witches, and/or other...supernatural creatures. ". Thetis the primer "fairy wife" seems to be protecting her halfing son from the affects of iron specifically.  Ironically, the Destruction of Troy mentions no iron tip on the arrow that killed Achilles. " Paris the king’s son, Hector’s brother shot his arrow at Achilles in his heel, and because he had toxified the arrow with poison, the poison stung through Achilles’ limb." No mention of iron 

Not Xanthus and Balius 

"Achilles commanded two untamed horses be joined to a chariot, and Hector’s body be bound by his ankles behind the chariot and be dragged past the walls."  This is an interesting point.  Would Xanthus and Balius agreed to this!  The horses that showed so much sensitivity at the death of Patroclus (Homer, Iliad 17. 426 ) They would participate in the desecration of Hector's handsome frame?  

Raptured Ganymede  

The text makes referenced to “raptured Ganymede’s honors."  This is a nice euphemism for rape and immortality.  I mention it here, because of  my favorite painting by Rubens; Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus.  Greek mythology is full of references to “rapes”.  The word is used universally, but I’ve never thought always accurately.  In Rubens work, Castor and Polydeuces discover their cousins Hilaria and Phoebe out skinny-dipping in the middle of nowhere.  (Greek goddesses did this surprising often.)  The twins are not ripping of their own clothes and joining the ladies as one would expect in a “rape” .  Rather they are using the girls beach towels to hoist them aboard their horses.  The take the girls home, introduce them to their mother whom they already knew and wed. Oh, they all and their sons became goddess and goddesses. Besides calling this a rape, we could call it a traditional bride abduction.  Likewise the rape of young Ganymede, admittedly a rape by our standards also involved abduction and immortalization.  “Rapture” just adds another variation on rape for us to consider.

Conclusion 

In short Destruction of Troy offers us a new myth about Paris and Ares and a new way to consider the death of Androgeus, son of Minos, a more believeable version of the Judgment of Paris,  fairy tale twist on Achilles,  variation on his horses Xanthus and Balius and another perspective on the word “rape” in Greek mythology. 

---

[i] Translated by Muhammad Syarif Fadhlurrahman[ http://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~0104febefc5dbc9ddb ] Sponsored by http://mitologia.blogs.sapo.pt Dedicated to João A. 

 

 

TFBT: Not Even Zeus Can Stop Me Now!

Recently, at “The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, version 4”  David H asked about some passage dealing with the will of Zeus, and the attitudes of some men toward the will of Zeus. He invited comments on what the role of the will of Zeus was to the narrator, characters, and audience of the Iliad at the time.  My comments are in Italics.  David had quite the list of things to comment on! 

First; Odysseus speaking to Diomedes, Il. Scroll XI “Diomedes answered, “Come what may, I will stand firm; but we shall have scant joy of it, for Zeus the cloud-gatherer is minded to give victory to the Trojans rather than to us.” Throughout the Iliad we see little internal dialogue or self awareness among the characters.  Since they can’t analyze their feels or motivations they just blame it on some daimon or god.  We also throughout the Iliad see some god invisible to them putting thoughts in their heads.

“And now the son of Kronos as he looked down from Ida ordained that neither side should have the advantage, and they kept on killing one another. (line 336 or so).”  According to the lost epic called the “Cypria”  this is the Will of Zeus, depopulation!

(Nestor) lashed his horses and they flew onward holding nothing back towards the ships, as though of their own free will.  You said, “This is speaking of the horses. But does the “as though of their own free will” imply divine purpose?”  Nestor’s experience reminds of of Alexander Dumas’ with post horses.   You know after he got rich with “The Three Musketeers” and “The Count of Monte Cristo” he traved all over the world.   I was just reading “My Adventures in the Caucasias”  To quote Dumas, “Evidently the smell of their stable had lent wings to the horses’ legs.” Nothing divine with Nestor’s horses knowing home.

Scroll XII Speaking of the wall and trench the Achaeans built to protect their camp and ships:    David, the wall around the Achaean camp is such a political hot potato here on earth and on Olympus above, that anything said about it can be discounted as exaggeration or motivated by some hidden agenda.  It is sort of like Nestor’s advice on chariot racing that has nothing to do with chariot racing.  The issues surrounding the wall, involved the maritime imagery in the battle scenes, the fact that Poseidon and Apollo were the slaves who built the walls of Troy (along with Achilles’ grandfather) and mortals not performing the appropriate rituals before beginning a big project.    

 

Scroll XIII line 784 Alexandros to Hector: Now, therefore, lead on where you would have us go, and we will follow with right goodwill; you shall not find us fail you in so far as our strength holds out, but no man can do more than in him lies, no matter how willing he may be.”  So we are back to no self-awareness, if you can’t do something it’s because the daimon of fear entered you.  If you can do something it’s because a god or more likely a goddess is backing you up. 

Scroll XIV Agamemnon to Nestor, line 51 or so…Is Nestor saying that the situation itself will allow no other outcome, and that this is so strong even the gods would be powerless to change it?     This is the usual sort of boast that ends with a lightning bolt, for example; “There Capaneus, because he said he would capture Thebes against Jove’s will, was smitten by a thunderbolt as he was scaling the wall.”  (Hyginus, “Fabulae” 68)  

“Nestor, if the Trojans are indeed fighting at the rear of our ships, and neither the wall nor the trench has served us...”  Is this Agamemnon deciphering the will of Zeus a posteriori. The wall didn't stand the attack, therefore we can conclude that the building of the wall was not Zeus' will?  Again, no self-awareness here, no, “Hmm, maybe the whole wall thing was a bad idea on our part, not as impregnable as we thought.  Maybe we should have put more effort into it.”  Don’t blame yourself, blame the gods.

Scroll XV … I thought this was especially interesting. It covers the whole development in the plot of the Iliad and part of the Odyssey, with all its twists and turns, as the will of Zeus which he will successively carry out, despite the appearance of fickleness on his part with the abrupt changes in fortune for the human parties involved.  David, it also indicates that Zeus was not all that subject to the Fates

In summary, the heroes of the Iliad have some free will, but since they rarely search their souls, they assume any stray thought or errant emotion was the “gift” from a daemon.  “daimon ” being the word they use when they are unsure as to which of the immortals is involved.  Keep in mind that the Will of Zeus, is depopulation! Horses have some free will too unless they push it too far like Achilles’ horses did and the Erinyes shut their mouths. (Homer, Iliad 19. 392)  There’s a lot more to the wall and trench the Achaeans built to protect their camp than  meets the eye. Be careful about saying;  “Not even the gods can stop me now!”  Because the gods are not necessarily as subject to the Fates as envious mortals like to think. 

TFBT: There is No Satan in Greek Mythology

Ben recently asked me about Evil in Greek mythology.  There is no Satan in Greek mythology.  No Iblis.  No god of evil or manifestation of such.  No horde of monsters gnawing at the roots of the universe.  There is neither boogey man nor things that go bump in the night.  And ghosts are rarities in the Ancient Greek mind.   

If Death is called “evil” (Iliad 3.172, 22.296, 16.46, etc.) it’s not because Thanatos is a bad guy.  He brings an end to pain and physical suffering.  He is the twin brother of sweet Sleep.  People call Death evil because they are not sure where he will take their disembodied spirits; the Isle of the Blest or Lord Hades’ dreary realm.  If people speak of “hateful” Hades (Pausanias 8.18.3, Argonautica 3.806) and “dread” Persephone (Odyssey 10.490, Iliad 9.454) it’s because they hate and dread ending up in their realm.  Lyssa (Madness) isn’t a baddie either.  She actually objects to maddening Heracles in Euripides’ play of the same ilk.  She is ordered to do so by Hera, Queen of the gods.  

Hera!  Now if we are talking evil, this might be a personification.  She didn’t like her stepson Heracles.  She stole his birthright (Pausanias 9.11. 3) and tossed snakes in crib (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 62) She made him mad several times.  She created the scenario where he had to perform his dangers and horrifying dozen labors of which Ovid calls (Heroides 9. 35) "The acts of (King) Eurystheus, the instrument of Hera's unjust wrath, and the long-continued anger of the goddess."  Not to mention attacks by miscellaneous other monsters and violent storms.   But as usual we can’t judge divine actions by human standards.  This life of suffering and violence, particularly a couple of the Labors are the very things that insured Heracles unwilting glory (kleos) and eventually immorality.  As a matter of fact his name Heracles = Hera kleos = the Glory of Hera.  As a matter of fact "From the time he [Herakles] achieved immortality, Hera's enmity changed to friendship, he married her daughter Hebe." (Bibliotheca 2. 160) 

Yes there are still some monsters left for other heroes to slay.  There are petty tyrants and foreign invaders.  There is even a witch of two.  But there is no evil of cosmic consequence battling the inherent good of the world. There is no Satan.