Sunday, January 31, 2016

TFBT: The Titan Perses and Zeus' Allies


I have written several blogs referencing “Hesiod’s Cosmos” by Jenny Strauss-Clay, in particular;  TFBT: Random Notes on Hesiod’s Cosmos ,  and TFBT: Clay's Five Ages of Man.  The former generated a lengthy conversation between my friend Maya M. and I.  I thought we had some interesting thoughts and insights.   This is my first attempt at unweaving the threads of our rambling conversation and reweaving them into coherent blog posts.

 I thought the bulk of our conversation was about Hesiod the composer of the Theogony and Works & Days.  In the latter he whines constantly about his foolish brother Perses.  I was wrong.  We actually talked  about the Titan Perses. 
 There is a theortical connection between the Titan Perses and Hesiod’s brother Perses.  The theory is that the third generation Titaness Hecate was the particular goddess of  Hesiod’s family.  The theory is based on where the mortal brothers grew up and Hesiod’s overly abundant  praise of  the otherwise obscure goddess Hecate.  The Titan Perses is the father of Hecate.  So I have always thought it is not surprising that one of the brothers is named after the Titan.  I was probably wrong about that too as you will see below

Some suspect that "brother Perses" was 100% invented, just a literary device. However, the Works & Days sounds too authentic. Possibly Hesiod indeed had a brother who took more of their father's estate than Hesiod was inclined to give him. In myth, Perses "the destroyer" is a 2nd generation Titan who never destroys anything. Hesiod describes him in the Theogony as "eminent among all men in wisdom", crooked or otherwise. If the translation is accurate, why is a god compared to mortal men unless Hesiod has another person in mind? Perses leads Asteria "to his great house to be called his dear wife". Maybe Hesiod's brother could also build a "great" house with the snatched portion of his father's estate. Then, Perses was presumably imprisoned in Tartarus for the rest of time,   Maybe Hesiod named his brother Perses not only because of him being "destroyer" of the estate but to have the unfortunate Titan Perses as his mythological double.  Getting your “foolish” brother tossed into Tartarus sounds like nice wish-fulfillment.
Hesiod didn't name his “fictional” brother Perses after the defeated Titan. He named the fictional titan after his real brother. For many of the Titans there is no proof of their existence until the Theogony. Titan Perses is only in the Theogony. The W & D keeps silence about Titan Perses.   

For many of the Titans there is no proof of their existence until the Theogony."Just think about it, "pious" Hesiod inventing gods!   We  browsed Theoi.com to check the Titans for authenticity. Criteria: if the Titan is mentioned by Homer or has a cult, he is likely to be authentic. The following Titans made it:

  • 1st generation: Cronus, Oceanus, Hyperion (barely), Iapetos (barely), Rhea, Themis, Tethys, Mnemosyne (barely).
  • 2nd generation: Helios, Atlas, Prometheus, Leto, Selene, Eos. We didn't count here the elder Oceanids.
  • Hecate stands out as a single "3rd generation Titaness" who is undoubtedly authentic, though none of her parents seems to be.

To the victor goes the spoils!" With the exception of Atlas, all the "authentic" 2nd and 3rd titans were allies of Zeus in the Titanomachy. One wonders why the Titan Pallas wasn't smart enough to join his wife and kids when the allied themselves with Zeus.

It is a pity that we have lost the Titanomachy. A fragment attributed to it says that Prometheus has been herald of the Titans. We have no data of the Hyperionides. Even if the remained neutral in the war or even if Helios fought on the "wrong" side, Zeus may have decided to keep them as irreplaceable experts. The same may have been true for Prometheus, if he was needed for the creation of humans. Alternatively, he may have been an ally and may have been assigned to human affairs at the 1st Mecone Conference, but we have no source for this. All we know is that he appears at the 2nd Mecone Conference out of nowhere and Zeus for unknown reasons gives into his hands both the bread and the knife (this is an idiom meaning "full control over the situation"; in this case, "both the ox and the knife" is more precise).
If Atlas took the side of Zeus like his brother Prometheus and Epitheus, he must have been honored with the job to support the sky. And it would be logical; as one modern Hellenist said, supporting the world seems too important job to be entrusted to someone pissed off for losing a war against you.
We have no data about Leto and Hecate in the Titanomachy; is there any evidence they were even been born at that time? If Leto has been an ally of Zeus, then he has betrayed her gravely. He has not made her goddess of anything (all the time she has is secured by her children) and, if we take the story of her flight as usually told, he has left her and their child(ren) at the mercy of Hera after impregnating her. The honors given by Zeus to Hecate are often understood to imply that she has been an ally of Zeus. However, this is not explicitly written, and there are other explanations. Maybe her honors were for the same reasons as those of Nyx and her brood., maybe she actually belonged to the progeny of Nyx. In the Homeric hymn to Demeter, Hecate opposes Zeus (and btw so does Helios).
It is funny that Styx and Hecate are referred to as allies, nice the goddesses and titanesses all stayed with Oceanus and Tethys during the Titanomachy. The goddesses didn't take up arms until the Gigantomachy. The Titanomachy (like the castration of Cronus) was a male affair except that Iris and her sister Arce, served as messengers of the Olympians and Titans respectively. So Leto and Hecate had no business there anyway.
Styx is a peculiar case. Hesiod explicitly writes that she was Zeus' ally, and the fact that she was a river goddess shows that she may be a "honorary male". So her portrayal in the Hymn to Demeter as picking flowers is sort of a laugh.
As for Helios, let's remember the Odyssey. When Odysseus' men eat Helios' cattle, how does Helios turn to Zeus? Does he use the "If I ever have..." expression, as Thetis does and as we expect from an ally? No, he says, “Father Zeus and you other gods, immortally blessed, take vengeance on the followers of Odysseus.. They have killed my cattle... If they do not atone for their killing, I will go down to Hades and shine for the dead instead.” This is not a formulaic request, actually not a request at all. This is an ultimatum by someone who has formidable power in his domain and cares little about Zeus.   Definitely doesn't sound like a proper personal conversation!
One wonders what Demeter said. According to the HH to Demeter, she didn't say much, even though all the gods at various times came and beg her to relent. Finally Zeus sends Hermes to Hades to discuss Persephone, "But she was afar off, brooding on her fell design because of the deeds of the blessed gods." Which means that Hades and Hermes "went apart" " And the strong Slayer of Argus drew near and said:[347] "Dark-haired Hades, ruler over the departed, father Zeus bids me bring noble Persephone forth from Erebus unto the gods, that her mother may see her with her eyes and cease from her dread anger with the immortals; for now she plans an awful deed, to destroy the weakly tribes of earthborn men" That "bids" sounds a lot like "begs".
Anyway, Demeter like Helios got her way without saying pretty please.

Monday, January 11, 2016

TFBT: Posidippus Epigram 55

I am a little disappointed in Professor Nagy’s latest “Classical Inquiries”  Posidippus Epigram 55  According to Nagy this epigram is about a girl named Nikomakhe who dies unwed. Nagy’s translates the opening of the poem as follows:  

Everything about Nikomakhe, all her pretty things and, come dawn, as the sound of the weaving pin is heard, all of Sappho’s love songs, songs sung one after the next, are all gone, carried away by fate, all too soon, and the poor girl  is lamented by the city of the Argives…But then, ah, there came the time when all her would-be husbands, pursuing her, got left behind, with cold beds for them to sleep in.” 

(I removed the required line about the local goddess raising the young person in question like a tender sapling.)   My disappointment with Nagy’s interpretation is that it is so specific that I found it unsatisfying.  I thought the purpose of poetry was to have several layers of meaning.  After all didn’t her mother Demeter loudly lament the wedding of Persephone to Lord Hades?  Can’t the Argive’s likewise lament the loss of their daughters when “carried away” by their husbands?  Can’t the age-group maiden’s lament the disappearance of their numbers one after the next as they are taken to their husbands’ homes? Can’t Nikomakhe and the Argives dread her becoming a spinster?  Only to leave behind all the would-be husbands when carried away by her own husband.  Here is another layer of meaning to the poem that should be addressed in any interpretation.  Maybe it is obvious  to people smarter than I and that’s why it was included.   

The phrase “weaving pin” is now the one used by Nagy instead of ‘weaving shuttle’ thanks to a friend.  The reason for the change should have been in the footnotes instead of taking up so many inches in the paper.   

After his new found insights on weaving pins, Nagy compares “weaving pins” to swallows at dawn.  [i]I expected at this point a discussion about how the battle before Troy stops when Helen stops weaving about it (Iliad 3.151-154).   Or how as long as Penelope day by day  wove Laertes’ shroud, and then by night would unravel it[ii]…Odysseus could not come home and the moment she finished he arrived at her front door.  Surely comparing the actions of young maidens to the dancing swallows that summon the sun, should have given rise to notions about the Fates weaving the fabric of destiny. [iii]  Disappointingly Nagy does not address this traditional interpretation of woman weaving either.

 Somewhat confused the intent of the rest of the paper slipped away from me.  I’m disappointed I am not smart enough to grasp the technicalities of this paper. 
 



[i] (Antipater of Sidon Greek Anthology 6.160.1–2  & Philippos Greek Anthology 6.247.1) 
[ii] Od. 19. 149)  
[iii] Greek Lyric V Anonymous, Fragments 1018 (from Stobaeus, Anthology) (trans. Campbell) :

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

TFBT; Thebes versus Olympus

Maya and I were discussing the conflict between Cadmus and Ares.  The dragon that Cadmus slew in founding Thebes was Ares' daughter.  But, Ares' wrath seems to run much deeper than revenging his monstrous daughter death.  The Olympian's anger seem particularly out of place considering that Cadmus is his son-in-law.  Details on their mutual descendants can be found at the link below.  My argument as to why the Olympians hated the royal family  of Thebes is an argument by analogy.  So please be patience. http://shortstories-bill.blogspot.com/2012/11/tfbtthe-divine-descendants-of-telephassa.html

My theory starts with Norse mythology.  When we discuss Odin, Thor and company we refer to them as the Aesir.  They were the Olympians of Norse mythology.  I think we've discussed that they were NOT really nice people.  Early in their history they tortured and killed a guest at a dinner party.  Just for fun.  She was divine. They killed her three times before she got the hint and went home to her people; the Vanir.  

The Vanir are another group of gods. Generally, they are called fertility gods, but that is simply because the family of Vanir we know are fertility gods.  Anyway the Vanir were pissed!  Apparently there were battle gods among them because the Vanir stormed Asgard and brought Odin, Thor and company to the knees.  The peace treaty involved an exchange of hostages and an alliance against the giants.  

The Thebaid suggests there is internal conflict in Olympus between the gods of eastern origin like Aphrodite and the more traditional Grecian deities like Hera.   The English translation refers to them as the Tyrian gods.  (The conflict here could be manifested too by the Theban theogony versus the Panhellenic theogonies that came more and more. To the forefront. For example  The Theban poet Pindar makes Europe the daughter of the Giant Tityus.  Homer at Iliad 7.324 makes Europa's son Rhadamanthys as a visitor to Tityus) Cadmus and his descendants had a stong streak of the divine in them. These Theban deities represent a clan of gods seperate from the OlyMpians and as distinct from them as the Vanir were to the Aesir.  So Cadmus and Zeus exchanged "hostages". Zeus wed Cadmus' sister.  This was not a one night stand, they had three sons.  Cadmus wed Zeus' grand-daughter.  According to prophecy The Olympians need the Thebans specifically  Heraucles and Dionysus to defeat the Giants.  Meanwhile the Thebans are a threat, so the Olympians curse the robe and necklace, orchestrate two wars, blast Semele, and arrange the deaths of Pentheus and Acteon.  But rather than just dying, Cadmus' nephews become demigods in the afterworld, Ino and her son become marine deities, Acteon's son becomes a agricultural deity, Dionysus storms Mt Olympus kicks in the blue doors of Heaven, boots Hestia to the hearth and enthrones himself with the rest of the twelve.  He brings with him Semele and his wife Adrianne great-grand niece of Cadmus.  The whole conflict between the clans is finally resolved by leaving Dionysus on his throne and with Hera adopting Heracles and wedding him to Hebe