I
visited a used bookstore while traveling on business lately. I had the pleasure of discovering “The Works of Hesiod, Callimachus, and Theognis” London 1879, by the Reverend J. Banks, M.A. Head
Master of Ludlow School. “Literally
translated into English prose with copious notes.” I
love books like this with a slightly different perspective and “copious notes”.
J.
Banks on the Muses addressing Hesiod at night. “These visits were by night, because the ancients deemed that the gods, who
had visited earlier and purer mortals night and day, denied their presence in
the daylight to the more depraved ages of the world.”
Banks[i] names
the primordial ash-nymphs born when Uranus’ blood impregnated Mother Earth; the
Meliae. “they were nine in number,
Helice, Cynosura, Arethusa, Ida, Cromne, Britho, Calaeno, Adrastea, Glauce”
These are the mothers of the Bronze Generation in Hesiodic mythology
“Crius, a god of supreme power in the earliest time
of Greece. “ Banks is pointing
out that Crius is mentioned by Hesiod among the important gods in the beginning
of the Theogony.
Banks
translation says, “And her Eros
accompanied and fair Desire followed, when first she was born and came into the
host of the gods. And from the beginning this honor hath she and this part
hath she obtained by lot among men and immortal gods; the whisperings of maidens and smiles and deceits
with sweet delight and love and graciousness.”
All the usual attributes and powers we associate with the mighty Aphrodite. But
Banks translations suggests that rather than being allotted this attributes by
Zeus and the Olympians she got them by the throwing of lots. As in "The
three gods [Zeus, Poseidon and Haides] overpowered the Titanes, confined them
in Tartaros . . . The gods then drew lots for a share of the rule.”[ii]
“Leto, or Latona seems to be the same as Night.” At this might seem a little odd, but I
believe Nagy suggests a certain darkness to her. It is not uncommon for
the younger gods and goddesses to have parallel honors to the previous
generation. Hence Hyperion and Helios are father and son gods of the
sun. Cronus and Zeus father and son kings of the gods. The
unpersonified Hemera and Eos both goddesses of the day. Atsma[iii]
and Cox[iv]
come to similar conclusions.
“Sole-begotten;
(Hecate) does not receive less but more honor, because she hg\as no brothers to
protect her …Pallas (Athena), Proserpine (Persephone) and Mercury (Hermes) are
all in Hesiod called sole-begotten”
[i] (Apparently following Tzetz. Ad Op. et
D.144.)
[ii] Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 7
[iv] The Mythology of the Aryan Nations. by Cox,
George William, 1827-1902. (I should
explain that “Aryan” was orginal name for the Indo-European peoples until the
name was tainted by Nazism and banished as politically incorrect. Another older name for the IE’s is the “Japhetic
Races” after one of Noah’s sons.
No comments:
Post a Comment