Over at the Kosmos Society we discussed
"justice" and a fellow member shared the defining moment in the
foundation myth of the juried legal system;
"It
is my duty to give the final judgment and I (Athena) shall cast my vote for
Orestes. [735] For there
was no mother who gave me birth; and in all things, except for marriage,
whole-heartedly I am for the male and entirely on the father’s side."
(Eumenides)
My friend added, "To
me, this doesn’t sound like a basis for justice, but a foundation for a
patriarchal justice system." I nodded sadly in agreement when
she lamented the lack of justice for Ancient women. But, walking my dog Derby last
night I recalled Marpessa. Here is her story:
“Apollodorus [1.7.8]
Evenus begat Marpessa, who was wooed by
Apollo, but Idas, son of Aphareus, carried her off in a winged chariot which he
received from Poseidon. Pursuing him in a chariot, Evenus came to the
river Lycormas, but when he could not catch him he slaughtered his horses and
threw himself into the river, and the river is called Evenus after
him. [1.7.9] But Idas came to Messene, and Apollo, falling in with him,
would have robbed him of the damsel. As they fought for the girl's hand, Zeus
parted them and allowed the maiden herself to choose which of the two she would
marry; and she, because she feared that Apollo might desert her in her old age,
chose Idas for her husband.”
So, Marpessa got a little justice (avoided an
undesirable marriage) thanks to arbitration by Zeus. Pausanias describes Briareus
as adjudicator or arbitrator between Helios and Poseidon for dominion
over Corinth. (2.4.5 & 2.1.5). The River Inachus with the
Rivers Cephisus and Asterion judged concerning the disputed land of Argolis
between Poseidon and Hera. (Pausanias 1.15.4)
I am seeing adjudication here as a third way to
justice, rather than just vendetta (violence) or jury. Odysseus adjudicated the
conflict between the suitors of Helen, via the Oath of Tyndareus[i].
An adjudication which insured that Marpessa’s cousins Helen[ii] and Penelope[iii] also had a say on who
they wed.
Bill,
ReplyDeleteHow do you think, why did Zeus let Marpessa choose? When Zeus himself set his eyes upon a female, she was never given any choice.
Maya,
ReplyDeleteIdas was a descendant of a Gorgophone and at the time, the strongest man in the world. His brother had supernatural eyesight and most of his cousins were the Spartan gods eventually elevated to Olympus; Helen, the Discouri, Hilara, Phoebe and four presumably warrior-gods like their fathers. The previous strongest man in the world beat up Hades, Hera, Death, Giants, various monsters and had to be seperated from Apollo in a similar fight. In other words based on previous experience men like Idas should not be fooled with littly.
The Olympians might have learned their lesson in their battles with the descendants of Telephassa; the gods of Thebes, most prominently Heracles and Dionysus . The first brutalized all the gods and daemons above and the second literally kicked in the blue door of Heaven and entered with wife and mother in tow.
Zeus was being cautious for once.
Bill