TFBT: Titanophobia

Uneasy Lies the Head that Wears a Crown


Zeus is the King of the Greek gods on Mount Olympus, but “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” In the first book of The Iliad the hero Achilles tells the tale of his mother the goddess Thetis rescuing the divine king from a conspiracy of Hera and Poseidon and Pallas Athena. The poet Hesiod tells us about the second generation of Titans, sons of the elder gods revolting against Zeus (Bulfinch uses the word revolt). Of course, the victorious Olympians hurled the Titans into far Tartarus in the black abyss of the netherworld. Next “because of her anger over the Titans, Earth gave birth to the Giants “ After a battle so desperate that for the first time in Greek mythology the goddesses took up arms, the Giants were defeated. Next "Now after Zeus had driven the Titans out of heaven, gigantic Gaia, in love with Tartarus…bore the youngest of her children, Typhoeus." Typhon in turn was defeated.


Those Gods Beneath the World with Cronus Heard our Quarrel

So at this point you would think Zeus’ reign should be secure, but maybe the Olympians have reason for concern.
Starting in Iliad XIV there are several references to the Titans and their King Cronus bound in the world below. As Sara S at Hour 25points out Hera at Iliad XIV.275 swears by the Styx and “invoked all the gods of the nether world, who are called Titans, to witness.” Tritogenia at Hour 25 points out that Theogony 780 Cronion sends the goddess Iris to fetch a golden ewer of water from the dread Styx “when by chance strife and quarrel shall have arisen among the immortals” And finally “It is better for both that he (Poseidon) yielded to my power despite his indignation, before those gods beneath the world with Cronus heard our quarrel,” (Maya M. - Iliad 15.220 ) It is the goddess Iris who delivers the message to Poseidon and uses her own arguments to convince him of the wisdom of Zeus’ words. So it appears that the gods take care to minimize strife and quarrels amongst themselves invoking their most awesome oaths. IIris would be the joiner or conciliator, or the messenger of heaven, who restores peace in nature. In Statius’ Thebaid 8.42 “Hades speaks of “ the Giants, and of the Titans, eager to force their way to the world above, and his own unhappy sire”


　

　


Unbar the Bolts of the Darksome Hollows

So the gods had reason to fear their strife being overheard by the Titans and arousing them into revolt. They appointed processes and goddess to handle their quarrels and placed “warders” like Lord Hades and the Hekatonkheires, namely Kottos and Gyes; and Briareos, to guard them.

But how could they escape? Hera called upon them to help with the creation of Typhon and to destroy Zagreus. Colluthus in the Rape of Helen 48 says [Eris was furious at being turned away from the wedding of Peleus & Thetis :] Fain would she unbar the bolts of the darksome hollows and rouse the Titans from the nether pit and destroy heaven the seat of Zeus, who rules on high." Although it all sounds a little ludicrous and un-Homeric it does remind us that Zeus all on his own slew the jailress Campe and released the Hekatonkheires and Cyclopes from Tartarus.

In addition to the examples of Hera, Eris and Zeus releasing prisoners from Tartarus, we know mortals similarly escaped from Hades; Theseus, Semele and almost Eurydice.

Finally we can recall Thetis releasing Zeus from captivity. None of the rebel gods spoke out against her or took up arms against Briareus her faithful ally. But if she could release Cronion so easily, how much more so the Titans if she wished since Briareaus is the “trusty warder” of the Titans.

This might explain the silence around her rescue of Zeus. The gathered Olympians; rebel or loyalist could not make known “strife and quarrel … arisen among the immortals” for fear of the Titans.


Even Immortal Cronion Released the Titans
Wondering what became of the Olympians’ dread of the ancient forces lying beneath the earth waiting, waiting for the first falling out among the allies of Zeus in order to return to power themselves? The riddles is answer in an Ancient proverb used by Pindar in Pythian 4.2; “Even Immortal Zeus released the Titans” Hesiod places them eventually on the Isles of the Blest ( Works and Days 156 )and Aeschylus makes them free to be the chorus in the lost “Prometheus Unbound”.

TFBT: Obscure References to Titans

This is a continuation of the series of papers generated by the continuing conversations of WilliamMoulton2 and Maya M.  This paper discusses obscure references to the nature of the Titans. 

A little background here; the elder gods in Greek mythology are called the Titans.  They were the twelve children of starry Uranus the primordial sky-god and wide-bosomed Gaea the earth; six male “Titans” and six female “Titanesses”.  The overreaching Titans were; the earth encircling river god Oceanus, Koios, Krios, Hyperion the primordial sun, Iapetus and the youngest Cronus.  Most of whom ended up in Tartarus along with their sons after Zeus took over.

According to Aaron J. Atsma  when the Titans overthrew their cruel father Uranus, “Krios, Koios, Hyperion and Iapetus were posted at the four corners of the world where they seized hold of the Sky-god and held him fast, while Cronus hidden in the center, castrated him with a sickle” provided by their mother. Hyperion was no doubt regarded as the Titan of the pillar of the east. Koios' alternate name, Polos "of the northern pol”), suggests he was the Titan of the pillar of the north” [i] Oceanus whose theoretical place of existence was outside this little drama and therefore “neutral” as he and the female deities were to be until the Gigantomachy.  

That leaves Iapetus as the Titan of the West; a likely scenario since that is the post inherited by his son Atlas and because Iapetus is the titan most associated with the realm of Hades.  (Iliad 8.479)    Iapetus’ sons became leaders among the Titans “rebelling” against Zeus, specifically glorious Menoetius whom . . . “far-seeing Zeus struck him with a lurid thunderbolt and sent him down to Erebus because of his mad presumption and exceeding pride." (  Hesiod, Theogony 507) .  Atsma also suggests  “Menoetius was perhaps identical to Menoites the herdsman of Hades, whom Herakles wrestled with in the underworld.”

Finally , among the Titan subduers of Uranus would be Crios at the south.  Krios has three sons; Perses the father of Hecate, Astraeus husband of the Dawn, and Pallas husband of the River Styx, chiefest of them all the Oceanides.  (Odd that two of Krios’ sons are wed to Zeus’ first allies.)   According to Atsma again, Perses as the dog-star may have been imagined with canine features. His father and brothers were all associated with animals--Krios was literally; the ram, Astraeus was a horse- or ass-featured and Pallas was a goatish god.   Astraeus’ sons were the Anemoi, the horse-shaped gods of the winds. Two of them Boreas and Zephyrus, were the sires of immortal horses. Zeus, god of storms, was sometimes described as driving a chariot drawn by the four horse-shaped winds.  

Cronus too might have had a touch of horsiness, considering  he was the father of the first centaur; Chiron and of Poseidon, the god of horses and sire of many divine horses himself. 

Robert Graves refers to the elder gods as “Titans, lords of the seven-day week”[ii] without any explanation I can find;

·      “Atlas as a simple personification of Mount Atlas…as the Titan of the Second day of the Week, who separated the waters of the firmament from the ware of the earth.”

·      The Oceanide and first wife of Zeus, “immortal Metis, as Titaness of the fourth day” 

·      “Rhea, paired with Cronus as Titaness of the seventh day”

The fact that Graves makes Cronus (aka Saturn in the Roman pantheon) titan of Saturday and comments that Hermes is the “god” of the fourth day, suggests that he is using the traditional Western etymology for days of the week.  That means;

·      Helios/Hyperion on the first day Sunday

·      Selene/Phoebe on the second day Monday

·      Ares on the third day Tuesday (I can’t explain the discrepancy.)

·      Hermes on the fourth day Wednesday

·      Zeus on the fifth day Thursday

·      Aphrodite on the sixth day Friday and

·      Cronus on the seventh day, Saturday[iii]

If we accept Nagy’s notion that the name of a son can reflect a main characteristic of the father; (CHS Open House discussion)  maybe we can make a few more assumptions on the ancient Titans. 

• [Hesiod 507] “Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled mad Clymene,”  Which makes this Titan; daring, (Atlas) arrogant, (Menoetius) and like the elderly Priam at Iliad 3.110 “in whatsoever an old man taketh part, he looketh both before and after,”  (Prometheus and Epimetheus).  Which suggests that Iapetus was eldest of the Titans.
• (Hesiod 375) “And Eurybia, bright goddess, was joined in love to Crius”  making Crius a starry, spear-brandishing destroyer.  

 

  

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[i] Theoi Project Copyright © 2000 - 2008, Aaron J. Atsma, New Zealand

[ii] Robert Graves, “The Greek Myths”

[iii] http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/Z50.1A.html  and  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_days_of_the_week

 

TFBT: Pindar's Victory Songs Part II

This is part two of my review of Pindar’s Victory Songs by Frank J. Nisetich.  This has been a beautiful book.  If you are a bibliophile you will know how sometimes you just dread to reach the final page.  I would encourage anyone who loves reading just to delight in pretty words, the right word, and the turn of a phrase to read this book.  Classists; if you’ve never read Pindar, just mined him for gems, you have missed so much and will find so much more to treasure.  

The Aeacides and Zero

Pindar quite often celebrates victors at the PanHellenic games who claim descent from Aeacus.  If you don’t know the hero, he was the son of Zeus (aren’t the all) and an island nymph named Aegina.  Aeacus, friend of the gods, had such a reputation for piety and justice that he became a judge of the dead in the afterlife.  Meanwhile, she bore him two sons, Telamon, companion of Heracles and father of Ajax the Greater of the Iliad.  Nisetich suggests that the other son Peleus was visiting King Akastos, Akastos’ wife Hippolyta offered herself to the hero.  Peleus rejected the married woman’s advances.  Consequently, “Because he had respected the claims of hospitality and chastity, Zeus…rewarded him with the hand of Thetis.”  The Nereid Thetis insured her husband’s immortality by snatching him from earth towards the end of his life and taking him to live forever in her father’s halls beneath the Aegean Sea.  Meanwhile   Thetis bore to Peleus, Achilles the hero of the Iliad.  Ajax and Achilles attained fame beneath the walls of Troy and spent eternity on the paradisiac Isle of White.   

In Olympian 8 the odean says of the clan (and I paraphrase a lot) “Aiakos, whom Leto's child and Poseidon, lord of the tide summoned to help them crown Troy with her ring of walls… Apollo … said to Aiakos; “In the place where your hands have worked,  Pergamos is taken…and she will fall through battle-might of yours, beginning with the first and ending in the third of your line.”  

Nisetich explains that this means that “Telamon, in the first generation  after Aiakos, sacked her the first time .  In the next generation  Telamon’s son Ajax” and his cousin Achilles besieged the city but “It was reserved for (Achilles’ son ) Neoptolemmos to destroy the city forever.“  

Nisetich logic seems perfect.  My confusion is that I was taught that the archaic counting system didn’t have “zero”.  For example, the Ancient Greeks thought the Olympics were 5 years apart. Pretend it is 2016.  You and I are in Brazil at the games.  The next one is 2020 in Japan.  How many years apart is that?  Easy; 2016 is the first years, 2017 the second, 2018 the third, 2019 the fourth and 2020 the fifth.  Was I taught wrong about the Ancient Greeks counting system prior to introduction of “zero”?  Or was Pindar just smarter that everyone else?

 

Immortal Zeus Let the Titans Go 

 “immortal Zeus let the Titans go.”  Pythian 4  This is about the clearest indication that the Zeus finally released the Titans defeated in the Titanomachy.  Hesiod claims that their leader Cronus was also released from Tartarus “And they live untouched by sorrow in the Islands of the Blessed along the shore of deep swirling Oceanus, happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, far from the deathless gods, and Kronos rules over them; for the father of men and gods released him from his bonds. (Hesiod, Works and Days 156)    Aeschylus, Fragment 114 Prometheus Unbound  indicates that Prometheus to betrayer of the Titans and the Olympians was released.  Pindar used the expression “immortal Zeus let the Titans go”  as a sign that things can change;  an expression of hope.

 

The Antenorides and Helen 

Nisetich says that “Pindar tells us that the sons of Antenor came (to Cyrene) with Helen in their midst. Meaning , apparently that they accompanied Menelaus in his wandering after the fall of Troy.  Antenor has known for his disapproval of the marriage of Helen and Paris.  The Greeks spared him and his family when Troy fell. According to by Carlos Parada  (www.maicar.com ) Antenor and his household were saved that awful night because Odysseus and Menelaus were bound by ties of hospitality to him.  Antenor was their Trojan host during early peace negotiations.   Antenor and his sons ended up founding  Padua in  Italy

 

Man; a Shadow’s Dream  

“Man; a shadow’s dream”  Pythian 8   The shadow in question is the shade of a beloved ancestor.  The point is that we are the accumulation of our ancestors’ dreams and hopes.  As Pindar points out repeatedly the deceased delight in the successes of their descendants.  We discussed this in Hour 24.  I will ask in Hour 25, which reference we used for the discussion back then.

 

Alceme and her Family 

Nisetich declares that “Iolaos (son of Iphicles, son of Alcmene) had risen from the dead in order to kill Eurysetheus, the persecutor of Herakles and his children.  The Thebans then buried him again in the tomb of his grandfather Amphitryon.”  This sort of implies that Amphitryon the mortal father of Heracles and his grandson Iolaos enjoyed joint heroic honors at Thebes. 

Pythian 11 begins with Pindar calling upon the goddesses Semele ( in the company f Olympian goddesses) and her sister Ino (undersea with the Nereids) , Heracles’ mother Alceme and the local nymph Melia.  He refers to these Thebans as a “band of heroines. Heroic honors for Alceme?  Pindar buts here in the company of some pretty high powered gods.  Quiet the honor even if it isn’t heroic.

 

 A Crooked Phrase upon my Lips 

 “a crooked phrase upon my lips; sung out of tune”  (Nemean 7).  Pindar is apologizing for himself , but it made me think of Thersites in the Iliad 2.212 “chattering on Thersites of measureless speech, whose mind was full of great store of disorderly words... in no orderly wise”

 

Finally 

Pindar is full of sage advice and proverbs.  I have thorough enjoyed this book and found words to live by repeatedly both from the poet and his translator.  Let me leave you with one last thought.  

 “I would wish to lay my limbs in earth beloved by my fellow citizens because I praised the praiseworthy and scattered blame on those who deserved it”

TFBT: Random Notes from Hour Thirteen

“Easily he gives power, and just as easily he ruins the powerful. Easily he diminishes the distinguished, and magnifies the undistinguished. Easily he makes straight the crooked and withers the overweening”  (Hesiod W&D 5-7)  Aren’t there lines like this in the Bible?

“another thing I have to say.  I shall do it well and with expertise, and you should put it in your thoughts.  Here it is; the gods and men have the same orgins.” Hesiod W&D 106-108 

” their overweening pride [hubris] and violent insolence [biē] reach all the way to the sky.”   Odyssey 15:329  Is Homer talking about the suitors or Titans?