TFBT: Three Times and Then

In English there is a proverb; “Third time’s the Charm.”  It implies that on the third attempt one will meet with success.  Apparently, Homer didn’t know that proverb because in the Iliad it is more like “Three times and Then.”  Most famously; 

 

(Patroclus) “was making a terrifying shout, and he killed three times nine men. But when he [= Patroclus] rushed ahead for yet a fourth time, equal [īsos] to a superhuman force [daimōn], then, O Patroclus, the end of your life made its appearance to you.” (Iliad 16.785-787)  Center for Hellenic Studies trans. 

Rather than being slain like Patroclus, Diomedes is warned off by Apollo on his own fourth attempt at the god Apollo.  (Iliad 5: 432-442)  It only takes Poseidon three strides and with the fourth he reaches his goal—Aigai (Iliad 13:20)  

Thrice did swift-footed radiant Achilles spring towards him spear in hand, and three times did he waste his blow upon the air. When he rushed forward for the fourth time as though he were a superhuman force [daimōn] he shouted aloud saying, “Hound, this time too you have escaped death— (Iliad 20:445-450)

Asteropaios vainly tried to draw Achilles’ spear out of the bank by main force; three times and amid the fourth attempt Achilles slew him. (Iliad 21:175)  Again famously, the sad scene in Book 22 where Achilles chases Hector around the city, 

"Then, at last, as they were nearing the fountains for the fourth time, the father of all balanced his golden scales and placed a doom in each of them, [210] one for Achilles and the other for Hector, breaker of horses. As he held the scales by the middle, the doom of Hector fell down deep into the house of Hādēs”

Three times Zeus thundered from the heights of Ida as a sign and then Hector saw   Zeus was minded to grant victory. [Iliad 8:175]   Thrice Odysseus cries out as loudly as man can cry, and three times did brave Menelaus hear him.  Only then Menelaus turns and says “Ajax, noble son of Telamon, chief of your people, the cry of patient Odysseus rings in my ears.” [Book 11:465]  Three times Hector tries to drag Patroclus’ body away by the feet (18:155) and would have succeeded the fourth, but the goddess Iris summoned Achilles. (18:165) “Thrice did radiant Achilles raise his loud cry as he stood by the trench, and three times were the Trojans and their brave allies thrown into confusion [18:230]” and then the Achaeans with great joy recover Patroclus’ body.    At the funeral games Ajax and Diomedes spring at one another three times with murderous intent and then the crowd parts them. 

Finally;

“Thrice did he drag it round the tomb [sēma] of the son of Menoetius, and then went back into his tent, leaving the body on the ground full length and with its face downwards. But Apollo would not suffer it to be disfigured, for he pitied the man, dead though he now was; (Iliad 24:20)”

So, three time and then… is a regular motif in the Iliad.  Why?  I don’t know. 

TFBT: The Argonaut Menoetius

I was researching the Argonaut Menoetius of Opus.  First let’s not confuse him with the very glorious and outrageous Titan Menoetius, blasted into Tartarus for his “mad presumption and exceeding pride."(Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 8) 

We are speaking about a mortal man here.  There didn’t seem much to say about him.  He is father of Patroclus, (Il 9.608) an Argonaut, maybe the first to give Heracles annual heroic honors (Diodorus 4.39.1), "Menoetius, the child of Aegina and Actor." (Pindar, Olympian Ode 9. 69) was half-brother of Aeacus and grandfather of the goddess Eucleia who presided over the Greek victory at Marathon. (Paus. i.14.4)

But on closer examination, maybe there is something to say.  There is only on reference to Menoetius being an Argonaut; “Moreover Actor sent his son Menoetius from Opus that he might accompany the chiefs.”  (Argonautica 1.69)  It sounds as though he was a dutiful son rather than someone chasing after the glory of the ancestors.  

When young Patroclus kills the son of Amphidamas over a dice game, Menoetius whisked the boy off to Peleus in Phthia to be educated with his cousin Achilles. (Hom. Il. 23.85) Quite the loving father, not something you see often in Greek myth.  

Myth is skimpy about Menoetius, but as an Argonaut he would have known Heracles personally prior to the disappearance of Hylas.  And yet years later he offers up his old war-buddy heroic honors. 

Son of a nymph, he doesn’t rate as a demi-god, but Menoetius’ daughter

Myrto, with Heracles assistance, bore a gracious goddess in her father’s house.  (Plutarch, Aristides, 20. 6) Which has to say something about his dash of divinity and maybe even his piety. 

With a little optimism, the man I see when considering Menoetius is an honorable, loving man devoted to his friends and family, friend to demi-gods (Heracles) and if Plutarch is right,  family to the gods.  

 of Opus.  First let’s not confuse him with the very glorious and outrageous Titan Menoetius, blasted into Tartarus for his “mad presumption and exceeding pride."(Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 8)

We are speaking about a mortal man here.  There didn’t seem much to say about him.  He is father of Patroclus, (Il 9.608) an Argonaut, maybe the first to give Heracles annual heroic honors (Diodorus 4.39.1), "Menoetius, the child of Aegina and Actor." (Pindar, Olympian Ode 9. 69) was half-brother of Aeacus and grandfather of the goddess Eucleia who presided over the Greek victory at Marathon. (Paus. i.14.4)

But on closer examination, maybe there is something to say.  There is only on reference to Menoetius being an Argonaut; “Moreover Actor sent his son Menoetius from Opus that he might accompany the chiefs.”  (Argonautica 1.69)  It sounds as though he was a dutiful son rather than someone chasing after the glory of the ancestors.  

When young Patroclus kills the son of Amphidamas over a dice game, Menoetius whisked the boy off to Peleus in Phthia to be educated with his cousin Achilles. (Hom. Il. 23.85) Quite the loving father, not something you see often in Greek myth.  

Myth is skimpy about Menoetius, but as an Argonaut he would have known Heracles personally prior to the disappearance of Hylas.  And yet years later he offers up his old war-buddy heroic honors. 

Son of a nymph, he doesn’t rate as a demi-god, but Menoetius’ daughter

Myrto, with Heracles assistance, bore a gracious goddess in her father’s house.  (Plutarch, Aristides, 20. 6) Which has to say something about his dash of divinity and maybe even his piety. 

With a little optimism, the man I see when considering Menoetius is an honorable, loving man devoted to his friends and family, friend to demi-gods (Heracles) and if Plutarch is right,  family to the gods.  

TFBT: Francois' Sacrifice of the Trojan Captives

I came across this image.  It is universal identified as “Sacrifice of the Trojan Captive, 200-100 B.C.  From Vulci, Francois Tomb.”  Tineye finds it on-line 25 times, but none of the resulting URLs belong to a museum.  

Wolfgang Helbig describes the image this way in 1896, [i]

“The Museo Etrusco, founded in 1836 by Pope Gregory XVI was originally intended as the depository for the numerous antiquities discovered since 1828…The side walls of this room (VIII) are hung with copies of painting which decorated the interior of a tomb-chamber at Vulci, discovered by Alexander Franciois in 1857. And were afterwards removed to the Museo Trolonia alla Lungara at Rome… (He describes our painting as; ) the grisly sacrifice offered by Achilles a the funeral pyre of his friend Patroclus…Achilles in the presence of Agamemnon thrusts his sword into the throat of a captive Trojan.  The shade of Patroclus is also represented in now way differentiated from the living, either in appearance or armor.  Beside Patroclus is a female daemon with out spread wings.  Vanth; perhaps (an Etruscan) goddess of death.  While on the other side of Achilles  the Etruscan Charon; Charus.

My question is whether we are looking at a photograph of the copy, Helbig saw at Museo Geroriano Etrusco or the original sent to the Torlonia family in Rome?  The website for the Gregorian Etruscan Museum http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MGE/MGE_Main.html  makes no mention of this painting, nor does the image the room currently designated by VIII show them hanging on the wall. And;

“Alessandro Torlonia, heir to Giovanni, opened the collection to visitors in their family palace on Via della Lungara, close to the Tiber River, in 1893. In the 1960s, the museum was dismantled and the 77-room palace was converted into a 93-unit apartment building. The collection was put into storage and has not been publicly displayed. In May 2005 the family that owned the collection agreed to sell the collection to the city of Rome”[ii]    

So, what are we looking at and where is it?

---

[i] Guide to the Public Collections of Classical Antiquities in Rome: by Wolfgang Helbig, provided by Google Books

[ii] Wikipedia

TFBT: The Five Horseman of Patroclus’ Funeral

An Ancient tradition in Greek mythology and epic is funeral games in honor of the deceased.  The first (literally) and foremost of such games is in honor of the hero Patroclus in Book XXIII of The Iliad.  His best friend and king, Achilles announces a chariot race in honor of the deceased, lays out the prizes, sets the course and makes his retainer Phoenix judge of the event. 

 “First among them all stood up Eumelos, king of men, son of Admetos, a man excellent in charioteering.” Nowhere else in Greek literature or art is there mention of  Eumelos being an excellent charioteer.  But Admetos was famous for driving a chariot. In order to win his bride his future father-in-law Pelias required him to yoke a boar and a lion to his chariot. (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke 1.9.15; Hyginus, Fabulae, 50)  Admetus lived  his own private golden-age existence.  He  “dwelt in ease and peace upon their lands with many good things, rich in flocks and loved by the blessed gods.” (Hesiod Works and Days 120)  He was immune to death (Aeschylus, Eumenides, 728) and dined with the god daily.  So it was Apollo who yoked a lion and boar to Admetos bridal chariot and sent him to Pelias to fetch his future wife Alcestis. 

“Next to him rose mighty Diomedes son of Tydeus” A seer told Tydeus’ future father in law to yoke a lion and a boar to his kingdom.  One night in his entryway he found Tydeus whose shield bore a boar fighting with Polyneices of Thebes whose shield bore a lion. Adrastus married his daughters to the two exiled princes. “(Diomedes)  yoked the Trojan horses which he had taken from Aeneas,” The Trojans were famous for their horses descended from a small herd given them by Zeus.  Diomedes attained some of these horses when he defeated in a duel their master Aeneas, son of Anchises. 

Third arose fair-haired Menelaus, beloved younger brother of the penultimate bronze aged king Agamemnon and  yoked his fleet horses;  his own horse Podargos and  Agamemnon’s mare Aithe, given to Agamemnon by Echepolos son of (another) Anchises.  So, Aithe’s yokemate is Menelaus’ horse Podargos. Admittedly there are a limited number of horse names allowed in Greek mythology, but these two horses share names with Prince Hector’s lead horses Aithon and Podargos. 

“ Fourth in order Antilokhos, son to noble Nestor son of high-hearted Neleus, made ready his horses. These were bred in Pylos, and his father came up to him

to give him good advice”   At which point follows the most famous advise on how to win a horse race, center on how to turn the post at the far end of the race.  Of course, Nestor’s advice had nothing to do with horseracing but came in handy in when god-like Antilochus debated over the prizes after the race.  After the famous and lengthy discourse… 

“fifth in order Meriones got ready his horses”  Meriones, son of Molos,  is a Cretan and squire to Idomeneus.  We are told nothing of his horses here.

 In short two of the charioteers have fathers who were part of a boar/lion/charioteer trio.  Two of the charioteers drove horses that once belonged to Anchises.  One charioteer drove horses that shared a name with his enemy Hector’s horses.  One charioteer received the best chariot driving advice ever and we know nothing about one charioteer’s horses.

TFBT: The Turning Point

You are skillful at wheeling your horses round the post...                                                                   Iliad 23: 309

Just prior to the chariot race at the funeral games honoring Patroclus, Nestor gave his son Antilochos some advice on how to win the race.  It is widely-held that the advice didn’t have much to do with winning a horse race.  I hope to demonstrate that here.

Homer, with the omniscience available to him through the Muses states that Antiochos’ “father came up to him to give him good advice of which, however, he stood in but little need.” (Il 23:304-306)   His father than says, “Zeus and Poseidon have loved you well, and have made you an excellent charioteer. I need not therefore say much by way of instruction. You are skillful at wheeling your horses round the post,”[Il 23: 306-310] So, clearly Antilochos doesn’t need any advice on chariot racing and yet here it comes for those with eyes to see and ear to hear.

His father offers him “a certain sign which cannot escape your notice.” The sign ends up being; “a stump of a dead tree-oak” or maybe a pine, or an old grave or “a turning-post in days gone by” but in this particular case it is; the mark round which the chariots will turn before returning to the beach.  It appears that there are several different signs where this advice will be useful.

Nestor then goes on to give his son, who is universally acknowledged as skillful at wheeling his horses round the post, advice on how to round the post.  Mostly stuff about not getting the left wheel too close to the post and specifically; “..urge on your right-hand horse with voice and lash, and give him a loose rein, but let the left-hand horse keep so close...”

Then the five chariots are off across the plain.  Several things occur and then “ they were doing the last part of the course on their way back towards the sea that their pace was strained to the utmost”  with no mention about how skillful Antiochus turned the post.  If his father’s advice was really about turning the post, there is not mention that Antilochos benefitted by it or how he used it.  

The strategy that we hear Antilochos use is to squeeze out Menelaus at a point in the course where water had worn the track away, “The son of Atreus was afraid and shouted out, “Antilokhos, you are driving recklessly; rein in your horses; the road is too narrow here, it will be wider soon, and you can pass me then; if you foul my chariot you may bring both of us to a mischief.” But Antilokhos plied his whip lustily” Antiochus giving his horses rein passed Agamemnon on the outside (right side) of the track, forcing Menelaus on the left to rein his horses in. 

At the finish line Achilles presents the prizes, not fairly, but justly, recognizing those who should have done better.  Anticholos objected “Achilles,” said he, “I shall take it much amiss if you do this thing; you would rob me of my prize.“  Such hot-headedness, such unreigned passion is something  that Achilles can relate to and he gives Antilochos the promised prize.   At which point Menelaus, brother to Agamemnon the leader of the army objects that Antilochos robbed him of his just prize. Antiochus reigns in his temper “And Antilokhos answered, “Forgive me; I am much younger, King Menelaos, than you are…”; mentions Menelaus’ higher status, that he is the better man, bemoans the folly of youth, their hasty tempers and poor judgement.  He begs the older man to make allowance for his youth.  Then turns over the prize; a mare.

“O Menelaos, was your heart made glad within you.”

Menealus praises the young mans behavior in the past, allows that this was a one time thing and warns him agains similar behavior in the future; “I therefore yield to your entreaty and will give up the mare to you.”

 Looks like Nestor’s advice was beneficial after all, it helped Antilochos know how to recognize the “turning point” in the race, when to give rein to his horses and passions and when to reign them both in.