In “Hesiod’s Cosmos” Jenny Strauss Clay present the Monsters as an
alternative to the Heroes. “Chrysaor mighty and armed like the Giants,
and who also unites with a nymph, the Oceanid Kallirhoe, represents and
alternative progenitor to the alternative race of mortals.” They were
the parents of three-bodied Geryon. I thought Clay’s mention of the Giants
interesting. Most
conversation in classical circles about “monsters” center on size and
asymetricity. In the wars of
succession, Cronus and Zeus allied with the monstersous Hectaonchires and
Cyclopes. But in the Gigantomachy the Olymians chose to ally with the
demi-gods rather than the other hybrid race descended from the gods; the
monsters.
Still the gods (and men) had their uses for monsters.
Three-headed Cerberus was the
guard dog of Lord Hades (Hesiod, Theogony 310), two-headed
Orthos, who was Geryones' herding dog (Hesiod, Theogony 309) Sphinx
was a scourge that held Thebes in suppression, that Hera sent upon them
(Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 52 – 55) "The
Nemeian Lion the goddess Hera, the queenly wife of Zeus, trained up and settled
among the hills of Nemeia (Hesiod, Theogony 327) The
Lydian King Amisodaros nourished the furious Chimera to be an evil to his
enemies.( Homer, Iliad 16. 328)
I
mention all the above because we are
currently reading ancient Irish epic tale “Táin Bó Cúalnge” The main character is Cuchulain son of
Sualtaim; Sualtaim Sidech (of the Fairy
Mound.) I assume that this means Cuchulain's father is of the
fay. Cuchulain is called "This young,
beardless elf-man". I assume the phrase elf-man is in reference to
Cuchulain being a “halfling”; half mortal, half fairy. Such men are consider very powerful in fairy
lore (King Arthurs’ father was a, er, let’s say “daemon” .) In Greek mythology the demi-gods were
considered very powerful, for example Heracles and Achilles.
I’ve
come to the conclusion that Cu Chulain; the Hound of Chulain is a monster. I finally realized this in reading the
description of the Brown Bull of Cualnge. Both show the same disregard for their
youth playmates. The phrase; “he threw
off the thrice fifty boys who were wont to play on his back and he destroyed
two-thirds of the boys.” Could easily
apply to their. The seem to have no
sense of strategy, their acts of violence are random; their appetites enormous,
their strength in human. The “Hound” has seven digits on each
appendage.
I’m
not half way through maybe the hound will redeem himself.
