TFBT: Law of Deification in Greek Literature

I love the literary laws in Greek literature, they make the cosmos such a neat and order place.  Laws like; 

• ·      “Monro's Law” which states that the Odyssey “never repeats or refers to any incident related in the Iliad."  (http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html   by Michael Gilleland, scroll down to “Monro’s Law”.  Excellent article. Also Monro, 1901 “Homer’s Odyssey” page 325)

• ·      “Jørgensen’s Law” That is; the Homeric narrator and divine characters are as a rule aware of the divine agent responsible for any given act or circumstances in the narrative. Human characters by contrast, remain ignorant of the actions of the specific gods unless they are informed by a divine character or, in the case of seers and singers, possess special powers.”  J. Marks excellent “Zeus in the Odyssey”.

• ·       “Maya’s Law” which says; that Zeus (and the rest of the gods) has a marked preference for mating with Ionians and barbarians.  Or more simply put; “Zeus prefers Ionian women!”

• ·      Or,   the “Law” that Zeus could not appear on stage in tragedies or comedies. 

So how about we come up with a Law of Deification in Greek Literature?   I see three ways to turn a mortal “deathless and unageing, even as the gods."

1) Get Zeus to do it; 

"Verily wise Zeus carried off golden-haired Ganymedes (Ganymede) because of his beauty, to be amongst the Deathless Ones and pour drink for the gods in the house of Zeus--a wonder to see--, honoured by all the immortals as he draws the red nectar from the golden bowl . . . deathless and unageing, even as the gods." Homeric Hymn 5 to Aphrodite

Zeus did the same for Dionysus’ brown-haired mortal wife Ariadne (Hesiod, Theogony 947 ff) and (according to the Cypria Fragment 1) Castor and Polydeuces.   

2) If, you are a god, make your mortal favorite a god, and don’t tell anyone;

"He [Dionysus] retrieved his mother [Semele] from Haides' realm, gave her the name Thyone, and escorted her up to the sky." Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 38

Artemis did the same for Hippolytus, renaming him Virbius and hiding him in Italy Ovid, Fasti 6. 735  

3) Be a Nereid.  It seems no problem for Nereus’ daughters to make someone or convince someone to make their favorites gods;

"As I [Helle] fell [into the Hellespont Sea from the back of the Golden Ram], Cymothoe [a Nereid] and Glaucus came swift to my succour; this abode too, this realm the father of the deep [Poseidon] himself awarded me [i.e. he transformed Helle into a sea-goddess], willing justly, and our gulf envies not Ino’s sea [the Gulf of Corinth]."  Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 2. 585 ff : 

Likewise Homer and Pindar both testify (Odyssey 5. 333 & Olympian Ode 2. 22) that Ino daughter of Cadmus and her son Melicertes were made immortal by the sea nymphs.   

Summary; to deify your favorite,

• ·      get consensus from the gods and the nod from Zeus or

• ·      do it yourself and don’t tell anyone or

• ·      be a Nereid. 

Admittedly, the marine deities work under a different dispensation than the rest of the younger gods.  Still, what’s the theoretical underpinning on deification? 

TFBT: Senecas Phaedra III

The Kosmos Society is going to have a reading of the Phaedra  Here are some of my random notes on the play by Seneca.

Observation;

• "835] At last I escaped the realm of eternal night, the dark world which in vast prison-house o’ershades the dead, and scarcely do my eyes endure the longed-for light. Now for the fourth time is Eleusis harvesting the bounty of Triptolemus, as many times has Libra made day equal unto night,"  So Theseus sat on the bench four years? 
• No gods on stage.  Is that a Roman thing?  Senecan thing?   No evidence or mention that Diana (Artemis) cared about Hippolytus.  
• One commentator suggests if Theseus has escaped Pluto, Hippolytus has gone to fill his place.
• “THESEUS: Who—say it!—has upended my  honor?”   Not, are you okay?  Not, who did this to you? But, who offended my honor.  Not a nice guy, but we know that from the way he treated Phaedra’s sister, Adriane

Beautiful;

• 1128 Seldom does the moist valley suffer the lightning’s blast; but Caucasus the huge, and the Phrygian grove of mother Cybele, quake beneath the bolt of high-thundering Jove. For in jealous fear Jove aims at that which neighbors on high heaven; but the low-roofed, common home ne’er feels his mighty blasts. Around thrones he thunders. 
• Grieving and tears and woe, and on my very threshold sad lamentation? – auspices that well befit a guest from hell.
• And something in its burdened womb this pregnant surge was bearing.  

Hearth vs. Altar

 No more justly did ever any hearth see blood spilled to the bow-holding goddess! Translated by Mark Damen (mark.damen@usu.edu)

 Never has blood been more justly spilled upon thy altar, O goddess of the bow. Translated by Miller, Frank Justus

Hated of Half-breeds

Probably the most despised “barbarian” in Greek mythology is Medea daughter of Aeëtes, king of Colchis.  Medea is also Phaedra’s first cousin.  But  Medea was more than a barbarian princess; she betrayed her father and country, diced up her little brother, convinced the daughters of Pelias to do the same to their father, sacrificed her children on Hera’s altar and tried to poison Phaedra’s husband.  So maybe the classical dislike of Medea had more to do with what she did rather than where she was raised. 

Medea and Phaedra’ mother were raised in Colchis.  The kingdom lies at the back end of the Black Sea up against the Caucasus Mountains.  Alexander Dumas¹ says that Mt. Elbruz of this range “is, says mythological tradition, the rock to which Prometheus was chained”.  This was the eastern edge of the universe in Ancient Greek thinking. 

To the North of this distant,  barbarian land lays the home of the barbarian women called the Amazons.  Hippolytus mother was an Amazon, as we are regularly reminded in the play.  Generally, when a Greek character prays to or swears by some obscure river god, it was the river back home on whose banks they were raised ²   Hence, it is notable that when Hippolytus calls upon a river god to witness Phaedra’s monstrous behavior he doesn’t call upon a local river god, but rather the Tanais of his mother’s homeland. 

I wonder if Seneca’s is hinting at Hippolytus’ mixed ancestry when Hippolytus discusses Phaedra’s mother Pasiphae and her brother the minotaur; “thy monster-bearing mother… did but pollute herself with her shameful lust, and yet her offspring by its two-shaped infamy displayed her crime, though long concealed, and by his fierce visage the hybrid child made clear his mother’s guilt.”  Is there a subtle comparison between the half-breed Hippolytus and the half-breed Minotaur?

Phaedra and then Theseus easily slander the half-breed Hippolytus, “Whence came this infection of infamy in our stock? Was that man nurtured by the land of Greece or by the Scythian Taurus and Colchian Phasis? The breed reverts to its progenitors and debased blood reproduces the primal stock.”

I can think of no “barbarian” other than Medea that is despised in Greek myth nor any prejudice against characters of mixed Greek/Barbarian blood.  Is this hatred of half-breeds a Roman thing? Asenecan thing?

___________________________________________________________________________

1.  Adventures in Caucasia, Alexander Dumas,
2. The most famous example being Achilles and the river-god Spercheus n (Iliad 23.141)

Seneca's Phaedra II

The Nurse isn't very good at seduction.  She should have tried accounts of other sets of lovers like Zeus did on Mt Ida with Hera.  Phaedra sucks at seduction too.  Sadly as Miss Manners points out, desperation does not make us more attractive.  Maybe it is just Seneca that sucks at seduction.

[580] “As some hard crag, on all sides unassailable, resists the waves, and flings far back the flood importunate,.”  We’ve heard the same metaphor for Achilles and Hector in the Iliad.

625] The overlord of the fast-holding realm and of the silent Styx has made no way to the upper world once quitted; and will he let the robber of his couch go back? Unless, perchance, even Pluto sits smiling upon love.”  Interesting description of Hades.

Hippolytus referring to his lustful step-mother, "O father, I envy thee; than thy Colchian step-dame (Medea) this is a curse, greater, greater far!” Just a thought here; "Curse" is a euphemism for Erinye.  Later he says, “(Thou art) a greater evil than thy monster-bearing mother (Pasiphae).”  No luck for Phaedra, she gets compared to her child-slaying cousin and monster-bearing mother.

 "Never has blood been more justly spilled upon thy altar, O goddess of the bow." Hippolytus compares killing Phaedra to Agamemnon sacrificing Iphigenia.  But Hippolytus was killing his father’s widow not for a good wind or in revenge for something, but just for making a pass at him.  No taboo is being broken. 

I was confused at first why Hippolytus would call upon these purifiers; “Tanaïs will cleanse me, what Maeotis, with its barbaric waves rushing into the Pontic sea?”    Tanais was a river-god of Skythia in north-eastern Europe,  the Maeotis is the Sea of Azov, and the Pontic Sea is of course the Black Sea.  Oh, dh!  He is calling on the waters of his mother’s homeland Amazonia for help!

Proverbs;

• ·      “Wanton weapons in his boyish hands” 

• ·      “Rich men, propped on empire, ever grasp at more than heaven allows? He who is too powerful seeks power beyond his power. “
• ·      “Love sways the monsters of the raging sea”
• ·      564] Why make the crime of few the blame of all?
• ·      “Loosen the reins!”  How often have the Kosmonauts and HeroesX students heard that coversation? 
• ·      “Sooner shall Tethys from her far western shore bring in bright dawn".   To translate -The sun will rise in the West!

TFBT; Ate

I was the reader at Petersburg Lutheran Church today.  Scripture was Matthew 4:1-11, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil...".  Satan tempts my Lord three times; 

• “bread”
• "To summon his angels"; which is heavenly authority and 
• "All the kingdoms of the world"; worldly authority. 

 Bread seems lame compared to the other two.  Of course,  all the time I am thinking of the temptation of the Trojan prince Alexander, otherwise known as the Judgement of Paris.  He got offered wisdom and glory by Athena (heavenly authority), Hera offered him power and a crown (worldly power) and that leaves Aphrodite offering the most beautiful woman in the world.  Oh, I get it, bread and sex are temptations of the flesh.   Apparently, temptation of the flesh is the most powerful, Paris sacrificed the world for a "loaf of bread".

I also, helped with communion.  I am one truly moved by the ritual.  It was the first time in decades that I assisted. It took three rounds to get everyone in the congregation through.  During the final ceremony I stood hand-and-hand with the other people at the communion railing.  God help us!  Here is the image that came to mind, from Guardians of the Galaxy