TFBT; Medea as Fury

 Hour 25, Harvard’s classical studies club is reading “Medea” by Euripides.  We are reading the translation by Ian Johnston.  He’s got a great site;  https://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/  In preparation for our July 17,  discussion I’ve now read the play three times.

Previously, I proposed that we look at Medea as an avenging Fury. We've had similar conversation about Clytemnestra in the past. I promised to follow up when I had a chance to look at the Greek. When Medea asks why she must be exiled. Jason, “You kept making all those bitter curses against the ruling family here. “ Medea “And I'm a curse against your family, too.” (607-9) I was struck instantly by a phrase from the last play of the Orestia, when one of the erinyes addresses Athena “Daughter of Zeus, you will hear it all in brief. We are the eternal children of Night. We are called Curses (Ἀραὶ) at home beneath the earth.” (Eumenides 415) The Greek from Perseus for Eumenides is;

πεύσῃ τὰ πάντα συντόμως, Διὸς κόρη. 415
ἡμεῖς γάρ ἐσμεν Νυκτὸς αἰανῆ τέκνα.
Ἀραὶ δ᾽ ἐν οἴκοις γῆς ὑπαὶ κεκλήμεθα.

Aaron J. Atsma at www.theoi.com says on the subject of Curses;“In the sense of curse or curses, the word Erinnys or Erinnyes is often used in the Homeric poems (Il. ix. 454, xxi. 412, Od. xi. 280), and Aeschylus (Choeph. 406) calls the Eumenides Arai that is, curses." I would also suggesting visiting his comments at http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Arai.html

Medea's line about Curses from her play is below in Greek and English from Persues;

Μήδεια; καὶ σοῖς ἀραία γ᾽ οὖσα τυγχάνω δόμοις.

Medea; Yes, and I am a curse to your house too. 608

LSJ explains that the word means “prayed against, accursed,”

An additional reference to Medea as a Fury can be found at Perseus; “O light begotten of Zeus, check the cruel and murderous Fury, take her from this house [1260] plagued by spirits of vengeance.1” Footnote 1 per Perseus; “The Chorus see in the murder the work of an Erinys （Fury）, one of the punishing divinities usually thought of as under the control of Zeus. That human agents may be sometimes regarded as embodying this spirit or serving as its unconscious agent is clear from Aesch. Ag. 749 and Eur. Tro. 457.”

 

 

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.” 

TFBT: Winged Furies and Snatched Girls, Part I

On July 7^th, at Hour 25 we begin the study of the “Oresteia”; a trilogy of plays by Aeschylus starting with “Agamemnon”.  In the Iliad, during the funeral games for Patroclus, (XXIII 326-343) Nestor famously and in beautiful detail advises his son on how to win a chariot race, specifically how to turn the post at the far end of the race.  Universally, scholars and researchers acknowledge that his advice has nothing to do with turning-posts.  I am coming to the conclusion that Aeschylus’ play “Agamemnon” has nothing to do with King Agamemnon. 

Rather the play is about; Furies, generally called Erinyes and children.  The Erinyes are more ancient gods than the Olympians, born of the divine ichor split when the primordial sky-god Uranus was ambushed and castrated by his own sons.  The Erinyes are fearsome, gorgon-like, winged goddesses clothed in black with serpent-entwined hair and arms.  The children we discuss here are young women, little boys and unborn baby bunnies.

 "… when Aphrodite went up to high Olympus to entreat Zeus to let these girls (Pandareus’ daughters) attain the moment of happy marriage ... the Harpies snatched them away and delivered them to the ministrations of the detested Erinyes." Homer, Odyssey 20. 68

Helen as Victim

The first reference to lost children is at line 49, starts with a pair of eagles screaming as they circle over their empty nest.  Screaming because they have lost their nestlings.  The winged wrathful creatures represent Agamemnon and Menelaus.  Though unnamed the fledgling snatched from their nest was Menelaus’ young wife Helen.  Aeschylus makes a habit of not naming characters in their “victim” role .  Iphigeneia herself is not named until line 1527 out of 1672.   Helen is snatched up by Paris and taken to Troy.  Helen was also snatched up by Theseus as a child and taken to Athens , snatched up by Menelaus at the end of the Trojan War and taken home, if we are to believe Stesichorus and Hilda Doolittle snatched by some deity (Hermes?) and taken to Egypt. Helen ever the handmaiden of the Erinyes is the tool Zeus’ uses to destroy Troy for the sins of Paris. She is called “a vengeful Eriny to be lamented by mourning brides.” (749)

Doe and Kits

Next reference to children is at line 119 where two eagles devour a rabbit bursting with a litter of kits ready to be born.  According to Calchas, the doe represents Troy and the atrocities that will be committed by the Achaeans on the night the city falls.  Oddly enough these two eagles (Agamemnon and Menelaus again) are the same eagles sent as Erinyes by Zeus to punish Paris' transgression of the laws of hospitality. (55)   

It is interesting to contrast the unborn bunnies with a litter of Argive beasts, (850) like lions  born from the belly of that wooden horse that leapt down and gorged themselves on royal blood.  Philip Vellacott in the Oresteian Trilogy (1956) points out that “locos” means both “litter” and “ambushers”.  He says that it is used here in reference to the Achaeans in the belly of the wooden beast.

The Unnamed Child

155 “It is a treacherous keeper of the household. It is an anger   that remembers, and it comes with punishment for whatever happened to a child. Such dire things did Calkhas proclaim,”  It struck me odd on first reading that Calchas didn’t say “Iphigenia”, but her name isn’t mentioned until line 1555.  Otherwise I would have expected “daughter”.  That not being said I wondered for moment if Aeschylus allowed for the death of the Broteides here.  The unnamed boy was the son of Clytemnestra’s first husband.  The child was son or grandson of Broteas, the ugliest man who ever lived.  As Clytemnestra avers in “Iphigeneia at Aulis” by Euripides “by force that thou didst take and wed me, after slaying Tantalus, my former husband, and dashing my babe on the ground alive, when thou hadst torn him from my breast with brutal violence.”  But the little boy, never named like the other victims in this play is never referenced. 

Thyestes Sons

At line 1095 Cassandra in fearsome trance points out “Behold those babies bewailing their own butchery and their roasted flesh eaten by their father!  The chorus doesn’t acknowledge that they know about “Thyestes' banquet” until several hundred lines later.  The boys, who the poet does name, but others have,  are Agamemnon’s cousins butchered and boiled up for a stew given to their father to eat.  Their father Thyestes suffered this vengeful deed in retaliation for sleeping with this brother’s wife.

Iphigeneia

And the finally we come to Iphigeneia taken up by her father’s ministers, her saffron robe falling from her,  and raised on the altar of Artemis and sacrificed in order to charm the Thracian winds.  (235 & 1414)  “Artemis, however, snatched her away and transported her to the Tauroi, making her immortal, and put a stag in place of the girl upon the altar." Stasinus of Cyprus or Hegesias of Aegina, Cypria Fragment 1 

Summary on Snatched Children

The snatched children in “Agamemnon” consist of Helen, the unborn bunnies, Thyestes' Sons and Iphigeneia.  Of the kits I can write no more, but continue to ponder and contrast them with the brood of the Wooden Horse. 

I find it interesting the both Helen and Iphigeneia became goddesses. Helen alongside her brothers and sisters-in-law were worshipped at Therapnae and she was divine patroness of sailors.  Iphigeneia was either one of the Artemis nymph-companions or confounded with Hecate.  Admittedly deification is a common destiny for the descendants of Gorgophone, but still one wonders at the coincidence. 

Likewise, I wonder at the lack of heroic honors for Thyestes’ sons.  Snake-bit baby Opheltes was given heroic honors and a PanHellenic game by the Seven Against Thebes.  Medea’s children got “solemn festival and rituals” according to Euripides (Medea 1377).  The boys' grandfather Pelops was reborn with physical perfection and later heroic honors at the Olympic Games.

Part II will concentrate on the appearance of the Erinyes in “Agamemnon” by Aeschylus