TFBT: Which Came First Aeschylus or the Toretoise?

 I had the pleasure of perusing “The Great Fables of All Nations”.[i]  There in the sand and sun I skipped through delightful anecdotes often of interest to the classicist in me. Here I present one from Aesop.  (b. 620 BC) This version translated by George Fyler Townsend

“The Tortoise and the Eagle A tortoise, lazily basking in the sun, complained to the sea-birds of her hard fate, that no one would teach her to fly. An Eagle, hovering near, heard her lamentation and demanded what reward she would give him if he would take her aloft and float her in the air. "I will give you," she said, "all the riches of the Red Sea." "I will teach you to fly then," said the Eagle; and taking her up in his talons he carried her almost to the clouds suddenly he let her go, and she fell on a lofty mountain, dashing her shell to pieces. The Tortoise exclaimed in the moment of death: "I have deserved my present fate; for what had I to do with wings and clouds, who can with difficulty move about on the earth?'"

An enlightening little tale, but somehow familiar.  I thought of the death of Aesop himself, but that was at the hands of the people at Delphi as Komroff pointed out.  So my curious had to wait until I crossed the border and was home again.  The death I was thinking of was the death of Aeschylus in 456 or 455 BC            

According to Ursula Hoff [ii] “According to Pliny and Valerius Maximus, Aeschylus, of whom it had been predicted that he was to meet his death on a certain days as the result of an object falling on his head, went out into the open, trusting in the clear sky, and was killed by a tortoise, dropped on to his head by an eagle.”  Both Pliny and Valerius Maximus wrote in the first century AD

So, was Aesop’s tale inspired by Aeschylus’ death or were the later writers’ anecdotes on Aeschylus’ death inspired by Aesop?

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[i] Ed. Manual Komroff, Tudor Publ. NYC

[ii] Meditation in Solitude, Ursula Hoff, Journal of the Warburg Institute , Vol. 1, No. 4 (Apr., 1938), pp. 292-294Published by: Warburg Institute , DOI: 10.2307/749994, Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/749994

TFBT: Winged Furies and Snatched Girls: Part II

In Part I, I concentrated on the victim’s in Agamemnon by Aeschylus who were avenged by the Erinyes.  In Part II, here I concentrate on the Erinyes themselves, with an emphasis on who summoned them, who they were and for what crime.

The Erinyes, that is the ancient goddesses Tisiphone, Megaira and Alecto don’t actually appear as characters in the “Agamemnon”.  But, they are referenced and many other characters are called “Erinyes”. Correspondence to the Erinyes is not unusual.  Pausanias (Description of Greece 8. 42. 1) documents well why Demeter is called an Eriny. In The Eumenides by Aeschylus they say of themselves to Athena “Daughter of Zeus, you will hear it all in brief. We are the eternal children of Night. We are called Curses in our homes beneath the earth.” (414)  But for now let’s keep to what Aeschylus has to say in Agamemnon.  They are winged like clamorous birds, not blind to men with blood on their hands, haunters of houses and weavers of Agamemnon’s fatal bathrobe.

1.     Zeus sends the Eriny Helen 

We are told at line 365, that Zeus long kept his bow aimed Paris until he released the bolt.  The bolt was Helen “brought her marriage to a bitter end, sped on to the children of Priam under escort of Zeus… ruining her sojourn and her companions, a vengeful Erinyes to be lamented by mourning brides” (745)  “… she, bequeathing to her (Achaean) people the clang of shield and spear and army of fleets, and bringing to Ilion destruction in place of dowry. (405).  Paris, of course broke the holy Law of Hospitality. 

2.     Some god send Eriny-like Agamemnon and Menelaus

 “Apollo perhaps or Pan, or Zeus - hearing the shrill wailing scream of the clamorous birds, those sojourners in the air space of these gods. And against the transgressors the god sends an Eriny at last, though it was late in coming”. At line 60 Aeschylus explains using the mystic work “houtōs” that the above refers to when Agamemnon and Menelaus were sent by Zeus, against Paris.  At line 110 there is more reference to Agamemnon and Menelaus as eagles, which leads to Chalchas description of them devouring a pregnant rabbit.  At line 810 Agamemnon returns bragging about the “ justice I exacted from Priam's city. “

3.     Artemis summons the Winds

Chalchas explains that Artemis is angry (135) at the “winged hunting dogs of her father (Zeus), for they are sacrificing a miserable frightened thing, together with her offspring that were ready to be born, “  This is Artemis a Trojan goddess angry at what the Achaeans will do in the night ten years in the future. If I read this right it is the Boreas; North wind she sends against the fleet as her pre-emptive Eriny. (Interestingly, Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 8. 239 refers Ares’ horses “which to roaring Boreas grim-eyed Erinyes bare”)

4.     Iphigenia can’t summon the Erinyes

At line 235 in order to attain Artemis favor and a change in the winds, Agamemnon  hoists his daughter onto the altar at Aulis as a sacrifice “with a gag upon her lovely mouth to hold back the shouted curse against her house “

5.    The Erinyes Avenge Atreus’ Bed

Cassandra offers a rather graphic visual on the Erinyes that still haunt the house of Atreus who “each in turn, they spurn with loathing a brother's bed, for they bitterly spurn the one who defiled it” (1185)

6.    Aegisthus Revenges his Brothers

Cassandra explains that “Children, they seem, slaughtered by their own kindred, their hands full of the meat of their own flesh; they are clear to my sight, holding their vitals and their inward parts – piteous burden! – which their father tasted. For this cause I tell you that a strengthless lion, wallowing in his bed, plots vengeance (1220) Elsewhere Aegisthus is compared to a strengthless lion (Clytemnestra being a lioness most the time.)  Later he admits that “I am he who planned this murder.” of Agamemnon. (1603).  Sadly other sources explain that Aegisthus was actually born and breed for this role. (Hyginus Fabulae 87)  In response to an oracle from Delphi, Thytes raped his own daughter to produce their avenger; Aegisthus

7.     Kassandra praying to Agamemnon’s Avengers (Orestes)

“I still want to have the chance, just for one moment, to make a speech - or a lament that I perform for my own self. I pray to the sun, as I face its light for the last time, that the enemies may pay a bloody penalty to compensate for my death as well” (1325)

8.    Clytemnestra claiming the role of priestess to the Erinyes

” I swear by justice, exacted for my child, by atē, and by the Erinyes, to whom I sacrificed that man,” (1431) Then at 1525 “Yet, as he has suffered – worthy prize of worthy deed – for what he did to my sweet flower, shoot sprung from him, the much-bewailed Iphigenia, let him make no great boasts in the halls of Hades, since with death dealt him by the sword he has paid for what he first began.”

9.    Clytemnestra Not Summoning the Erinyes for her impending doom.

“As for me, however, I am willing to make a sworn compact with the daemon of the Pleisthenidai (The Erinyes of the House of Atreus) that I will be content with what is done, hard to endure though it is. Henceforth he shall leave this house and bring tribulation upon some other family by murder of kin. A small part of the wealth is fully enough for me, if I may but rid these halls of the frenzy of mutual murder.” (1568)  This sounds to me like Clytemnestra is over and done with the cycle of revenge at least for here and now in the play. 

In table format;

Line	Who summoned the Erinyes?	Who was the Eriny?	What was the crime?
365, 745,405	Zeus	Helen	Paris' violation of the Laws of Hospitality *
60, 110, 810	Apollo perhaps or Pan or Zeus	Agamemnon and Menelaus	Paris' violation of the Laws of Hospitality *
135	Artemis	Boreas	Potential death of children
235	Iphigenia did NOT	…	…
1185	…	Erinyes	Violation of a brother's marriage bed
1220	Atreus	Aegisthus	Death of a Child
1325	Cassandra	(Orestes)	Death of an adult
1431, 1525	Clytemnestra	Clytemnestra	Death of Child
1565	Clytemnestra did NOT	…	…

* Specifically violating the host’s marriage bed.

Summary on Erinyes

In my mind, the Erinyes are most famous as the avengers of matricides (see The Eumendies), patricides (Theogony) and maintaining order, as when Iris reminds Poseidon that in a fight with his older brother the Erinyes will support the elder.  (Homer, Iliad 15. 200)  But, instead in Agamemnon, we see them involved with punishing adultery, infanticide and the death of a slave.  Hmm, I will have to think about this result!

Apparently any wounded party could curse the offender, if they weren’t gagged.  Still, Patroclus as a spirit visited Achilles in The Iliad with instructions for the future.  Surely Iphigenia could have visited with the neighboring Erinyes in Hades and cursed her father from there.  We know she wasn’t gagged in the hereafter because her mother says at 1555, “ Iphigenia, his daughter, as is due, shall meet her father lovingly at the swift-flowing ford of sorrows and shall fling her arms around him and kiss him.”