Chapter Seven; The Contradictions of Heracles
Heracles being the most popular of the Ancient Greek
heroes it only follows that he would be the most sung and written about. All those stories illustrate myriad different
aspects of the ultimate male. She warns
us against discussing the characters of Greek myth Heracles as” an actual being endowed with actual
childhoods” and suggests instead that, “If myth
is actually something like the collective equivalent of a dream. Heracles is not the proper object of our analysis;
rather we should be analyzing the workings of the Greek imagination…”
Among the contradictions Loraux discusses is Heracles
servitude to Queen Omphale. His mistress
insists the mighty hero swamp clothes with her.
This allows Loraux to touch on the hero’s homosexuality and the topic of
transvestism. As an amusing aside, Casanova
has a different perspective on mutual cross dressing,“The moment we entered she bolted the door, much to my surprise.
"I wish you," she said, "to dress me up in your ecclesiastical
clothes, and I will disguise you as a woman with my own things.”...“Our
disguise being complete, we went together to the dancing-hall, where the
enthusiastic applause of the guests soon restored our good temper. Everybody
gave me credit for a piece of fortune which I had not enjoyed”
Chapter Eight and Nine; The Immortality of Socrates
These two chapters on the immortality of Socrates are, of
course, a discussion on the immortality of all men. But, now unfettered by “actual beings” she
seems to leave behind the fact that the Ancient Greeks were indeed actual
beings with actual childhood and actual beliefs in the world to come. A careful reading can follow the logic of her
writing to its unsatisfactory conclusion.
But along the way a careless reader or one not schooled in the classics
and mythology might get lost in the labyrinth of Platonic quotes.
-
“…the wind
literally blows the soul to bits when it
quits the body and scatters in all directions…”. Which is contradicted by “Socrates is leaving, going to some happy land
of the blessed, the philosopher’s lot is that which Hesiod reserved for the
elite of the heroes of the Trojan War and which Pindar in his second Olympian
kept for the favorites of the gods”.
-
She talks about “Plato’s innovative theory of the immortality
of the soul.” as if Homer didn’t present
the options for an immortal soul in the Odyssey
-
She talks of “the
imaginary journey that Socrates takes under the spell of civic eloquence, believes himself to have made
to the Island of the Blessed.” and
“Socrates, stronger than the (strength of Heracles) in the mythical
accounts.” Is she implying that the
afterlife is imaginary and mythical?
-
And concludes with “We have tried to read Plato’s dialogue on
immortality as an argument playing on two levels; the soul is immortal, but
that immortality is upheld by the memorial that was Socrates’ unforgettable
body.”
I can’t make out here what Loraux believes. Does she think the afterlife is a fable? Does
she think the ancients thought the afterlife a fable? Is her translator true to her intent?
But maybe there is another issue at hand here. Not too far from Athens was the town of Eleusis.
The first great Athenian playwright, Aeschylus grew up there. It was famous for the Eleusisian
Mysteries. These are two great
ceremonies, that theoretically taught initiates the secret to immortality. Hercules, in
Euripides play of the same name, states that he was able to escape Hades
(Death) because he had been initiated into the he Eleusisian Mysteries . The
catch was that you could not reveal what you saw or heard there. The poet Aeschylus grew up in Eleusis. Several accounts charge him with being
indiscreet upon the stage. The audience
rose up and attempted to stone him to death on the spot. (To quote Loraux “Philosophers desire death,
declares the multitude, promptly offering them the fate to which they aspire. )
A trial ensued in which he was acquitted primarily because of his and his
brother’s bravery in service to the state.
Maybe Plato wanted to avoid a similar fate and consequently wrote in conflicting
terms about the immortality he and his teacher Socrates were sure of.
Chapter 10; Delphi
Revisited
For those that don’t know the stories of Delphi, I will
offer a summary here. The first thing
the twin gods Apollo and Artemis did after their remarkably short childhoods
was to slay the serpent Python. Python
had chased their pregnant mother across the world when it came time for their
births. In revenge the godlings quickly slew the semi-divine snake. Then just as quickly Leto’s children went across
the world seeking purification for the murder.
In those days, it meant finding a piglet and a king, but for some reason
the ceremony didn’t ever stick and it took some time for Apollo to get on with
his life. The first thing Apollo did was
found his famous oracle. He chose
Delphi. It was guarded by Python’s
snakish spouse Delphyne. Quite often in
Greek Myth a traveling prince rescues a princess from some asymmetrical monster
and as a reward gets her hand in marriage and her father’s kingdom. You wonder if these monsters are ravaging the
king’s territory or protecting his ravishing daughter. In point of fact, the oracle belonged first
to Mother Earth, then Themis, then Apollo’s grandmother Phoebe who turned it
over to him. Most mythologists consider
Phoebe no more than a place name on a family tree. Loraux agrees with all that and uses it to
demonstrate that “The feminine; the primitive,
the obscure, the completed, the time that has passed and therefore I always pat
or better that has been assimilated by what came after “
The thing that came after in this case is the rule of
Zeus and submission of the feminine to the male rule. And yet, the first book of the Iliad proves
that the will of Thetis is greater than all the gods combined. Can the Fates now be denied? And wasn’t it a goddess who orchestrated
every revolt among the gods?
She then argues
that ” the end of the story (Apollo
presiding at the Oracle on Zeus’ behalf) gives meaning to the beginning.” Well to use an Ancient Greek word; “dh!” Clearly that is
how a story teller shares his tale.
Still can we be sure the heavy handed Fates don’t do the same. Conversely, maybe our Dreams (which Loraux
belittles), our all-powerful self-regenerating Memories and the Stories we
choose to tell, all slay the alternative destinies that lay before us and drives
us head long into our own self-chosen fate.
She also has some great insights on menis; a famous Greek word for wrath with cosmic consequences. It is the first word in the Iliad. She says, “Menis: anger as memory, the most fearsome name for fury, an ill-omened word
that even the gods and Zeus himself do not dare to call by its proper name, since
perhaps only the
Erinyes do
not hesitate to speak of their own menis…Memory that takes the form of wrath poses a
danger for all others. It is something
to be feared and avoided.” And ends
with “Menis has been brought to an end. It
had to happen for the order of the world and myth has the task of telling this
story.”
Chapter 11; The Contradictions of Helen
If you read about Helen, you know the wondrous mystery
that is she. If not, Loraux covers the
topic wonderfully.
“So in the beginning there was Helen…If in
the beginning there is war, at the beginning of the war there is always Helen
and the painful lewdness that Paris chose on fine morning in a cool vale of
Ida.” All of which reminds me HR’s
comment in Helen
in Egypt, “The admitted first cause
of all time and all history.”
She reminds us that “Helen
first appears in the poem seated at her loom and the figures that she traces in
to the purple of the cloth say it all in the silent language of her weaving:
There she draws the trials the Trojans and Achaians have undergone for her and the
blows of Ares”
Then after reciting all the contradictions that Helen can
be she recalls that, “Stesichorus”
speaking of Helen’s travel to Troy says, “No, it is not true that you have gone…No
you didn’t got to Troy, only your double followed Paris.” Helen was “far
away in the land of elsewhere that for the Greeks is Egypt.” And quotes Menelaus, “To have labored for a phantom made of mist, labored for wind, labored
for nothing, this is more than Helen’s husband can bear after ten years of war
and long wanders. And when he cries out,
the immensity of my trials here below alone convinces me and not you. “
Chapter 12: What Tiresias Saw
You would think that a book about the feminine and
the Greek man would use the story of Tiresias living as a woman for seven years
as a key concept, but Loraux says, “Tiresias
did not see the coupling of two snakes.
It follows that he was not
transformed into a woman and did not have to become a man once more, before being
blinded for incautiously intervening in a dispute between Hera and Zeus
concerning the intensity feminine
pleasure.” Loraux goes with the
story that Tiresias’ blindness occurred when he saw Athena nude in her bath
with his own mother and then hints about bisexuality. She mentions several other rather
possibilities, each more abstract than the last. The most solid argument being, “Callimachus’ Athena…explains that she has
nothing to with this punishment which is certainly horrible but is a result of
the ancient law of Cronus: one cannot behold the gods against their will.”
In
short let me recommend The Experiences of
Tiresias. Loraux’s dense beautiful writing evenly covers the depth and
breath of Ancient Greek literature in search of what it means to be a man
sharing enlightenment.
Try the quiz on the above at http://gotoquiz.com/V4ZdG
