TFBT: Gods in our Midst

The full title is “Gods in our Midst, Mythological Images of the Masculine: a Woman’s View” by Christine Downing.

I am enjoying Professor Downing’s book. Her approach is more psychological than mythological. Her sources are often secondary (or tertiary) and obscure. She does a good job of summarizing the Homeric Hymns, without specific reference. She gives the well-read reader much to think about, but not necessarily to agree with.

Her discussion of Persephone’s Abduction got me wondering. I wonder if Hades chariot and Persephone’s abduction is the prototype of wedding rituals where  fathers chasing after in their own chariots; Icarus, Oeonamus, or Idas, trying to save their daughters from death?

A few quotes and occasional comments;

• “In all of Greek mythology none of the gods ever denies another’s existence – though they may fiercely dispute a particular claim to authority.” “Fiercely” being like ripping off the other’s wings or skinning them alive.

• “The whole exerts pressure on each of the individual gods...so that each of these powers becomes distinct not in itself as an isolated object but by virtue of its relative position in the aggregate of forces.”

• “The clearly ordered Olympian pantheon with Zeus at its head is a creation of Homer….Only in Homer…are the Olympians, the Olympians, dwelling together on the mountain top.” I wonder what Hesiod would have to say about that comment?

• “Even after Homer, Zeus still does not have a supreme position in cult, only in myth”

• “I must begin with Hades, because he got me into all this…” I don’t know if this is insightful to most folks, but it is a great opening line.

• “In both myth and rite, (Hades) is little more than Persephone’s shadowy consort.” I would suppose his “shadowiness” is due to the avoidance of his name and himself as a taboo topic, but it is a good observation by Downing.

• “A variant version relates that Cronus, rather than swallowing his newborn sons, threw the infant Hades into Tartarus...as he threw newborn Poseidon into the sea.” Interesting thought, but her source here is Carl Kerenyi

• “The story of the overthrow of the Titans is clearly at one level the story of the overthrow of a more ancient race of gods, that is of the displacement of an earlier cult by a later one.” This seems obvious, but there is no evidence the Titans were worshipped by the Mycenaean and the few titanic cults outside Cronus at Olympia are clearly coincidence of name.

• “The aniconic origin testifies to Hermes being a very early divinity. He is the herm. He is also the crossroad itself. Every threshold is Hermes. When silence falls in a conversation that, too, marks Hermes’ presence. He is there, at all transitions, marking them as sacred, as eventful, as epiphany. Our awareness of Hermes’ presence opens us to the sacredness of such moments, of those in-between times that are strangely frightening and that we so often try to hurry past. We never really know what may lie on the other side of any threshold. I think particularly of the moment of silence that may fall in the midst of a conversation with a beloved friend, when eye is locked into eye and one suddenly realizes how all the words have been evasion for this moment when soul gazes directly into soul.” Wow!

• “Hermes is also the only son of a nymph among the Olympians…all of the other Olympian gods except Dionysus are sons of goddesses.” Except Athena, we might add. “Where Hermes tries to hide his origin outside of the Olympian world, Dionysus flaunts his.” Well, according  to Graves, Dionysus rescues his mom Semele from Hades and sneaks her up the backstairs of Olympus under the divine name of Thyone. Heracles, to hide his mortal heritage,  is ritually adopted by Hera.

• “The difference between gods and men, the divine immortality of the gods as contrasted with the finite mortality of humankind so important to Apollo, is of little import to Hermes.” “Apollo focuses on the importance of clearly defined boundaries, the gulf between the divine and the human…When Apollo says, “Know yourself.” he means, “Know you are not a god”.”

• Apollo, “a god whom the higher imagination of the Greek so exalted and purified that death and blood shed became unclean things in his sight…scholars want to separate the “real” Apollo from this original more fearful side is…the beginning of such idealization in the late classical world.”

• “The children of the major gods serve to bring into focused view some particular aspect of their divine parent.” Students of Greg Nagy have heard this a lot. I thought I would just document and another scholar’s support for the notion.

• “Hephaestus is the only Olympian god who works.” That’s an interesting observation. Although Hera’s daughter Eileithyia serves as needed as mid-wife to the gods and Apollo Paean serves occasionally as doctor. But it is a good insight. Hephaestus has a heavy daily work load like his buddy Helios.

• “Among the Olympians, only Hephaestus was not imagined as physically perfect, divinely beautiful.”

• “Ares was involved in many other liaisons and (sired) many sons, most of whom were violent. But surprisingly there are no accounts of his forcing himself upon women”

• “I may know Zeus too well or rather may see him in a more forgiving light than many other women will. For I am a father’s daughter.” Reminding us of Athena’s statement in the Eumenides that, “I am for the male and entirely on the father's side.”

• “(Zeus) is represented as endowed with seemingly inexhaustible sexual potency. (Walter Burkett) has counted them up and calculated that Zeus had at least 115 mistresses.”

• “The Greeks understood Zeus as a god secure in rule, a god who maintains order without suppressing diversity, vitality, life…Zeus as embodying Greek polytheism, an order that includes without suppressing difference…the god ready to honor the sanctity of the guest, the stranger, the alien.”

TFBT: Who is the goddess of Menis?

My friend Maya asked about the lameness of Hephaestus.  I am going to ramble a bit answering.   The myths of Hephaestus lameness are over the place.

• ·      He was lame at birth due to his parthenogenesis. (Homer, Odyssey 8.267) 
• ·      His was lame because he was lame at birth and his mom threw him off Olympus.  (Homer, Iliad 18.140)
• ·      He was lame because he got between his bickering parents and got tossed. (Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.19)

All this is sort of beside the point; Hephaestus was the prototype for Typhon.  There are several accounts of Typhon’s conception, but the one including Hera involves a male deity this time

Hephaestus was not as scary as his brother, but there was a tale of his menis;

"[In the temple of Dionysus at Athens :] There are paintings here--Dionysus bringing Hephaistos up to heaven. One of the Greek legends is that Hephaistos, when he was born, was thrown down by Hera. In revenge he sent as a gift a golden chair with invisible fetters. When Hera sat down she was held fast, and Hephaistos refused to listen to any other of the gods save Dionysus--in him he reposed the fullest trust--and after making him drunk Dionysus brought him to heaven."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 20. 3

Being rejected by your parents and tossed out of Olympus could generate a lot of anger and the separation from his people as in the case of Demeter and Achilles indicates the menis kind of anger. Like those two he sat sulking in his tent or more accurately retired to his foster mother’s grotto where he “wrought many intricate things; pins that bend back, curved clasps, cups, necklaces” until the king sends a  messenger begging him to come back.  Which he does, the cosmic crisis is resolved, Hera freed and balance restored.

Maya, I tried to address your question about Hephaestus’ fall from grace and consequently triumphant return.  Now for another question that came up during the book club the other day.  Who is the goddess of Menis?

In the 18 Book of the Iliad Hephaistos tells his wife, that Thetis saved him when his “brazen-faced mother” tossed him from Olympus for him being lame. He says his soul would have known great sorrow had not Thetis and another nymph “caught me and held me”.  He lived there nine years before returning to Olympus No other among the gods or among mortal men knew about him except Thetis and the other nymph.  They know of course since, “they saved me."  Nine years is a long time for one’s menis to fester and rage. But rather than spending that time forging “a weapon in his hand more powerful than the thunderbolt or the irresistible trident,” (Isthmian 8) under Thetis’ guidance he turned his skills (and menis) to delicate jewelry and fine furniture. 

Towards the beginning of the Iliad (Book 1) we hear of a time when the gods revolted against Zeus and bound him in his throne. There had to be some menis there!   Would the perfectly balanced and ordered universe topple into the abyss?  No,   Thetis freed Zeus with opposition from none and restored the Olympic order.

In the last book of the Iliad the gods stand around Olympus wringing their hands and lamenting that they are helpless in the face of Achilles menis.  His wrath won’t abate until Hector’s body is returned to Priam.  So they invite Thetis to Olympus, give her the best seat in the house (Athena’s at Zeus’ right hand) a fancy goblet full of nectar and beg her to convince Achilles to give up the body (and consequently his menis).

So we have seen several time in the Iliad where when there was menis, there was Thetis.  So I would propose that in some positive sense that Thetis is the goddess of Menis

Dear Maya, if you have followed my argument back and forth through the Iliad and find some hint of truth in it, please follow me back to the opening lines;

μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος

οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί’ Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε’ ἔθηκεν·

Sing, O goddess, the anger [mênis] of Achilles son of Peleus,

that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. (Iliad 1.1-2)

If we think that Thetis might be the goddess of Menis.  We need to revisit Emily Schurr’s theory that the “goddess” addressed in the opening of the Iliad is not the unnamed Muse we presume.[i]  She suggests, “a previously undiscovered, and highly meaningful, subtext.” Namely that the Muse of the Iliad is indeed Thetis.   

“(A) hint is made even more resonant by the fact that Achilles' mother was, indeed, a goddess (Thetis) - and that the reluctance to name the singing goddess explicitly allows for this alternative interpretation to rise up in the audience's consciousness.”

The subtext and alternative interpretation in the audience's consciousness, strengthens if we accept Menis as an alternative name for Thetis, then sub-consciously we hear;

“Sing, O Goddess Menis of Achilles son of Peleus,

who brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.” 

---

[i] Emily Schurr, "Recreating the Creation: Reading between the Lines in the Proem of the Iliad," July 25, 2011.

TFBT: Christine Downing

I religiously attend the monthly used book sale at the local library.  Not too many scholarly tomes on Greek Mythology, but occasionally...  More commonly I pick up books in some way related to my favorite obsession.  Recently I found The Book of the Goddess; Past and Present, Editor Carl Olson.  Many of the articles in the middle of the book I found interesting.  The article that sang to me to me the most was The Mother Goddess among the Greeks by Christine R. Downing.

The focus of Downing’s work is on Gaia, of course, and her grand-daughters and great grand-daughters.  Downing’s resume is not the norm for my reading and she presses her argument too hard sometimes.  The piece is little referenced and, like me, assumes the reader is well read.  All that said, I find some of her insight concise and clearer than other authors.  I intend to read, “Gods in Our Midst”

A few quotes to consider;

“Tartarus is Gaia’s within-ness, Gaia is Tartarus’ self-externalization.”

“The others (primordial gods) are supplanted  Ouranos by Zeus, Pontus by Poseidon. She is not; indeed, she participates in the supplantation.”

In these goddesses (Metis, Leto, Artemis, Athena, Hestia, Aphrodite, Hera, Hebe, Eileithyia Demeter)  the Greeks represented in divine proportions the mother who abandons her children or holds them too tight, the mother who uses her children as agents to her marital struggles or to fulfill her own frustrated ambitions.” For example;

• “Of the major Olympian goddesses only Artemis had a mother – a mother; who she seems to have mothered from almost the moment  of her own birth.  The new-born daughter immediately sets about assisting with the delivery of her twin brother Apollo and on many other occasions rescues Leto from insult or danger.”
• Demeter’s boundless love for her daughter, Persephone seems at first glance to represent an idealized version of maternal devotion-yet a closer reading suggests it may be her overinvestment in her child that makes Persephone’s adduction by Hades a necessary denouement.”  As proven by Gaia’s involvement in the abduction as mentioned in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.

All and all a good short read if you are well read and know discretion.  

 

VftSW: PVFD

Years ago I was a member of the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department.  I remember some big fires downtown where everyone in the department was on the fireline for days.  Here the community jumped out to help move hoses when asked and then stepped back from the scene until their help was asked for again.  (The new police chief from down south was shocked that there was no need for crowd control.)

 I remember stopping at the fire hall during those events to change out of my soaked bunker gear into something drier.  On the tables were enormous bowls of finger food and civilians feverishly refilling air tanks so we could stay on scene.

I remember working with Search and Rescue.  I was hiking home from Hammer Slough.  At that moment many people in the department and many in the community were doing the same.  My bibs and boots were covered in that slick brown mud.  My wife met me at the front door with the biggest beaming smile. She’d heard the news: we’d found the toddler.

And I worked with the Emergency Medical Technicians in so many capacities over the years: flying them out to patients too close to death to move, hoisting them over our heads to get them into the back seat of the helicopter with their patient and send them into town; holding the fire hose on the EMTs while they stabilized a patient in a wrecked car reeking of electrical fire; of them working on a fellow firefighter who had collapsed during one of those big downtown fires. But, the EMTs weren’t on their own the doctors and nurses in the community along with a dentist, as I recall, came to help those nights too.

We had, still have and are part of a great emergency services team.  I couldn’t be prouder or feel luckier to live here and be part of it.

TFBT: Quotes for August

"For the gods are stronger than men." iliad 21.264

"The twin sons of Thracian Boreas came darting from the sky." Argonautica of AR

"People for whom written records play a small part or no part at all and with whom the scientific study of history is undeveloped...delight in factual information for its own sake." M L West

"Echecratides of Larisa dedicated the small Apollo, said by the Delphians to have been the very first offering to be set up." Pausanias 10.17.8

"Achilles is constrained by the social superiority of Agamemnon in offering no physical resistance to the taking of the young woman Briseis, his war prize, by the inferior hero."

Peleus in the Argonautica “For it is not I who will flinch, since the bitterest pain will be but death.”

Argonautica; “stood at the entrance, marvelling at the king's courts...“silently they crossed the threshold.”  “And quickly beneath the lintel in the porch he (Eros)strung his bow and took from the quiver an arrow unshot before, messenger of pain. And with swift feet unmarked he passed the threshold an” “645-673) She spake, and rising from her bed opened the door of her chamber, bare-footed, clad in one robe; and verily she desired to go to her sister, and crossed the threshold. And for long she stayed there at the entrance of her chamber,”

MLWest see a correlation between The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women and the parade of women Odysseus sees in Hades.  (Page 33)

One of them, (the ten lepers) when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.  Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”  Luke 17:15-19. In my life it is more like one in six.  

“ the narrative continues until the catastrophe that ended the Heroic Age” mlw

undocumented feature; a glitch in the new software. Ktina Hill

ML West translates “maia” as Nana

Demophron, isn’t that the male version of Demeter’s name ?

CARMEN NAUPACTIUM T ESTIMONIUM. #7  flee from the Hall swift thru the dark night

“Romans and other ancient nations pretended that they were the children of the gods, to draw a veil over their actual ancestors who were doubtless robbers” Giacomo Casanova

“Beware of the man of one book.” Casanova

Sent from my iPad

Sent from my iPad

TFBT: West's Hesiodic Catalogue

I am re-reading M.L. West’s The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women.  This must be a really good book because I just finished it and started all over again.  In case you are wondering about the title; Hesiod composed a sequel to the Theogony.  It is called The Catalogue of Women.  There is no intact copy of this five volume work by Hesiod.  There are many fragments, which West has tried to arrange in the correct order.   

Hermione’s Birth

Today I was reading West comments about the finale of this work;

“Menelaus is born; Helen is born (unexpectedly¹ ); everyone needed for the Trojan War is born…Menelaus got Helen, and she bore Hermione…The moment Hermione’s birth has been registered, there is an abrupt switch to the gods.  They were riven with dissension because of Zeus’ great plan to stir up a war, destroy large numbers of men and remove the sons of the gods to live apart in the paradise conditions they had enjoyed in the beginning.”

The fatal Oath of Tyndareus and the abduction of Helen, which would ignite the war, were separated by six plus year. I always assumed this was because; Homer/Zeus was waiting for Achilles to be old enough to enter the war or the sudden and coincidental death of Menelaus’ grandfather was the first chance Homer/Zeus had to arrange a romance. But this fragment (204.94ff) suggests that Hermione’s birth suddenly triggered Zeus’ Plan.  Why did Hermione’s birth stir up dissension? 

A Fundamental Change in the Conditions of Life

What follows are his comments about Book 5.201 (Fragment 240.95). 

“What follows is astonishing.  So far as we can understand it, it describes not the abduction of Helen and the consequent outbreak of the war, but a fundamental change in the condition of life.  Man was no longer to enjoy the easy abundance of hitherto.  He was to be forced to sail about the seas, to adopt a trading economy, Apollo observed with pleasure as people busied themselves to keep their children from starvation…Gales blew from the north, bending the forest and bringing down their leaves and fruits, making the seas crash on the shore with terrifying force, wearing down human strength and devastates the growing crops.”    

I have found no copy of Fragment 204 anywhere except for the discussion of Hermione’s Birth in Gonzalez’s article.  But, I think we can rely on West’s summary here.  Mythologically speaking we can blame the Theban and Trojan War for the “historical” Bronze Age Collapse and Hellenic Dark Ages.  But is Hesiod introducing a mini ice-age here? 

I will have to revisit an excellent lecture; 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Eric Cline, PhD) 

 

¹ Gonzalez says Hermione’s birth was “unexpected” whereas West tosses the word “abrupt” into the telling of the tale.  "Catalogue of Women" and the End of the Heroic Age (Hesiod fr. 204.94-103 M-W)  

 

 

TFBT: Random Notes on Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes.

Over at the Kosmos Society  we’ve been studying the Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes.   Here are my random notes;

Why Orpheus first in the catalogue of the Argonauts? Any significance to who comes next in the catalogue? West suggests that most epic catalogues spiral out from the initial location of the tale.

I find it interesting that seven of the heroes were “sent” on this quest;

• ·      “Actor sent his son Menoetius”,
• ·      “Canthus eager for the quest, whom Canethus son of Abas sent”,
• ·      “Phalerus of the ashen spear. Alcon his father sent him forth;”,
• ·      “146-150) Moreover Aetolian Leda sent from Sparta strong Polydeuces and Castor”,
• ·      “Ancaeus followed them as the third, whom his father Lycurgus sent,”
• ·      “Laocoon the brother of Oeneus, Oeneus sent to guard his son: thus Meleagrus,”

“Theseus, who surpassed all the sons of Erechtheus, an unseen bond kept beneath the land of Taenarus, for he had “followed that path with Peirithous; assuredly both would have lightened for all the fulfilment of their toil.” I wondered what this line was all about, but our discussion of Heracles cameo it makes sense. AR is explaining why Theseus was not on the boat. He was still stuck on that bench in Hades waiting for Heracles to rescue him. If he had been on the boat than the epic would have been him instead of Jason, so AR had to write him out of the story. With Theseus in Hades Castor and Polydeuces could rescue Helen in Athens and then join the expedition.

“185-189) Yea, and two other sons of Poseidon came; one Erginus, who left the citadel of glorious Miletus, the other proud Ancaeus, who left Parthenia, the seat of Imbrasion Hera” Per Maicar;  Parthenia is an old name for Samos . Joan V. O’Brien in The Transformation of Hera theorizes that prior to being summoned to Olympus by Hesiod and Homer, Hera was the local goddess on Samos and wedded wife of the river-god Imbrasus.

“no woe will be fatal, no venture will be unachieved, while Idas follows, even though a god should oppose thee. Such a helpmeet am I that thou bringest from Arene.”(ll. 472-475) He spake, and holding a brimming goblet in both hands drank off the unmixed sweet wine; and his lips and dark cheeks were drenched with it; and all the heroes clamoured together and Idmon spoke out openly: (ll. 480-484) “Vain wretch, thou art devising destruction for thyself before the time. Does the pure wine cause thy bold heart to swell in thy breast to thy ruin, and has it set thee on to dishonour the gods?” This is Idas, strongest man in the world after Heracles. If I recall correctly he would have beat Apollo to a pulp if Zeus hadn’t intervened. He has a bit of an attitude and I am sure his fiancée and future sister-in-law didn’t mind being abducted by the sons of Leda

“Glaucus the wise interpreter of divine Nereus” was once mortal. As was Leucothea who rose from the sea to speak to Odysseus in his epic.

“On that day all the gods looked down from heaven upon the ship and the might of the heroes, half-divine, the bravest of men then sailing the sea;” I only four count for demi-gods.

What is the significance of the mantle Jason wore on Lesbos;

• ·      Cyclopses making lightning bolt.
• ·      Amphion and Zethusbuilding the walls of Thebes.
• ·      Aphrodite as an Amazon.
• ·      sons of Electryon were fighting; Taphian raider”.
• ·      Pelops chariot race.
• ·      Apollo as a stripling shooting a giant.
• ·      Phrixus talking to the ram. (Ends up the winged ram that rescued him recommended that Phrixus sacrifice him.)

Really? Heracles turned prudish and passed on the maidens of Lesbos? He bedded Echidna! He was the one that convinced the others to leave this golden age existence?

“by command of Orpheus the youths trod a measure dancing in full armour, and clashed with their swords on their shields, so that the ill-omened cry might be lost in the air the wail which the people were still sending up in grief for their king.” Like the corresponding Curetes dancing about the crying Baby Zeus.

“And a fierce quarrel fell upon them, and violent tumult, for that they had sailed and left behind the bravest of their comrades. And Aeson’s son, bewildered by their hapless plight, said never a word, good or bad; but sat with his heavy load of grief, eating out his heart.” Some leader! Didn’t notice three of his men were missing? Heracles would be hard-to miss. And how come all the seers and helmsman had to make all the decisions?  My friend Helen says this is a new kind of hero, a Hellenistic hero in a democratic city.

“1332-1335) “Son of Aeson, be not wroth with me, if in my folly I have erred, for grief wrought upon me to utter a word arrogant and intolerable. But let me give my fault to the winds and let our hearts be joined as before.” Now that’s how you apologize!

AR says Amycaus “seemed to be a monstrous son of baleful Typhoeus”. None of Typhon’s children were theomorphic. All were hybrids or animals.

 “Aea; a huntress who was metamorphosed by the gods into the fabulous island bearing the same name in order to rescue her from the pursuit of Phasis, the river god.” (Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology)  Aea is also the name of the capital of Colchis. This is the distant and mysterious land where King Aeetes and his daughter Medea lived. It is near here that Aeetes’ father Helios rested each morning on his couch before the sun-god and his sister Eos, the Dawn launch into the sky. In “The East Face of Helicon” M.LWest (1997) argues Aea was tied to the Akkadian dawn goddess Aya. “It seems impossible to separate this Aea from the name of the Babylonian goddess Aya, who is the Sun-god’s wife and the goddess of sexual love” (p. 407). (Thanks to Jason Colavito for this insight.)

Start of Book Three; Enter the Olympians!

“36-51) So she said, and starting forth they came to the mighty palace of Cypris, which her husband, the halt-footed god, had built for her when first he brought her from Zeus to be his wife.”  So, sometime between the arrival of the Argo at Colchis and the final year of the Trojan War, Hephaestus caught his wife and Ares in the net got the marriage annulled and married a Grace.

  

“for she is full of many wiles.” Doesn’t disaster always follow when someone is described this way? 

“they were playing for golden dice, as boys in one house are wont to do.”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) In Norse mythology after the Fire Giants destroy what is left from the universe, from the boiling sea arises Balder’s estate with Hod, a handful of gods and the innocents who had hidden in his forested lands. The game of dice, with which the gods played in their youth while they were yet free from care, is found again among the flowers on the new earth. Some other quotes;

• ·      “Mars rolls his iron dice, and if they turn up snake eyes he sends a pair of nations to war.” Steven Pinker http://t.co/29oNJ39how.
• ·      Advice from Hades, “Don’t bet your future on the roll of the dice.” http://t.co/6VYeV0AAjr. 

“Eidyia his wedded wife, the youngest daughter of Tethys and Oceanus.”Is the fact that she is the last of the 3000 daughters an indicator that the age of the gods is over and the veil will be pulled between men and gods soon? 

“Medea then [they found] going from chamber to chamber in search of her sister, for Hera detained her within that day.” That time of the month?

 Eros’ reluctance to do his duty seems similar to Lyssa’s reluctance make Heracles slaying children at Hera’s command. (Euripides, Heracles 815) Aphrodite and hence her children and the elder Eros are outside the dispensation at Mecone. Maybe the goddesses really do need to beg this favor.

 Aeetes “angered most of all with the son of Chalciope”. This is his grandson and second in line to the throne

Medea calling on Hecate. How come all of Hecate’s stories are someone else’s; Jason and Medea, Zeus gathering allies, Hesiod’s praise, HH to Demeter. She never gets to be the star of her own myth. 

“thou then, hero son of Aeson, art minded to yoke Aeetes’ oxen, and art eager for the toil,” Yoking and plowing was the bride price for Admetus’ wife. This is the ritual act that ignited the Theban wars. In Ancient Greek aren’t toil and battle the same word? 

“Once he had heard a baleful prophecy from his father Helios, that he must avoid the secret treachery and schemes of his own offspring and their crafty mischief. Wherefore he was sending them, as they desired, to the Achaean land at the bidding of their father—a long journey. Nor had he ever so slight a fear of his daughters, that they would form some hateful scheme, nor of his son Apsyrtus; but this curse was being fulfilled in the children of Chalciope.” Oops! Misinterpreted that prophecy!

At this point I stopped reading thanks to the wise advice of my wise friend Maya.  Maya once said, “Bill, just because we are having a Book Club, doesn’t mean you have to read the book and just because we are reading a book, doesn’t mean you have to like it.”  Thanks Maya.