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Strata of Greek Religion in Aeschylus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

Friedrich Solmsen
Friedrich Solmsen
Affiliation:
Cornell University
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Extract

Professor H. J. Rose's thoughtful and suggestive article, “Mythology and Theology in Aeschylus,” has probably led many students of Aeschylus to reread his tragedies with an eye on the specific problems to which Rose directs our attention and also to rethink such impressions and views concerning Aeschylus' religious outlook as they may previously have formed. Professor Rose skillfully illustrates the difference between mythology and theology by contrasting the praise of Zeus in the first great chorus of Agamemnon with the references to Cassandra's experience which we find in a later part of the same play. It is probably true that there are in Aeschylus' work masses of traditional mythology that have not been reforged by his own creative imagination, not become organically assimilated to his own religion, but these are few and far between. On the whole, mythology provides the material which his vigorous and intense thought hammers into shape — into a new mythos which shows the gods acting as Aeschylus' own religious — or theological — convictions demand that they should act. In the larger part of his paper Professor Rose unless I have missed some points, is less anxious to separate the areas of mythology and theology by a clearly drawn boundary line, and to me at least this restraint seems very wise; for if one thinks too rigidly in the terms of these two concepts one runs a risk of cutting through the live tissue and of tearing asunder what has become intimately blended in the poet's own religion.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , October 1947 , pp. 211 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1947

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References

1 H. T. R. 39, 1946, 1 ff.

2 Ag. 160 ff., 1202 ff.

3 Cf. Wilamowitz, Staat u. Gesellsch. d. Griech. (2nd ed., Leipsic-Berlin, 1923) 50 ff.; F. E. Adcock, C. A. H. 3.688; M. P. Nilsson, Gesch. d. griech. Relig. 1 (Munich, 1941) 671 ff.; Eduard Meyer, Gesch. d. Altert. 3 (2nd ed., Stuttgart, 1937) 282 ff.; W. S. Ferguson, Hesperia 7, 1938, 31; also Ferguson's earlier paper C. P. 5, 1910, 257 ff.

4 Pl. Legg. 5, 729c; in the latter part of the sentence Plato actually uses the words “genethlioi theoi.”

5 Cf. Suppl. 17 ff., 42 ff., 167 ff., (291 ff.), 531 ff., 538 f., 574 ff., 592 ff., 1065 ff.

6 Cf. Suppl. 188 ff., 329 ff., 344 ff.; see below, p. 223.

7 See esp. Suppl. 85–102, 524 ff., 595 ff.

8 See e.g. Ag. 160 ff. (cf. Eduard Fraenkel as cited n. 19) 369 ff., 750 ff.

9 The chorus of which vv. 85 ff. form a part begins with a reference to the ancestry of the Danaid maidens; the stasimon which begins with the powerful invocation “Lord of lords, most blessed of the blessed” and ends with the praise of Zeus' omnipotence and ‘planning mind’ is in the main a lyric version of what Zeus did to and for Io. The motifs of Zeus' hatred of hybris, of his care for his descendants, of his protection of suppliants are hard to disentangle from one another. — It is not easy to say to whom the plural theoi genetai (v. 76) refers; Tucker, T. G., The ‘Supplices’ of Aeschylus (London, 1889)Google Scholar ad. loc. thinks of the “gods presiding over generation,” but this can hardly be correct.

10 Cf. e.g. vv. 167 ff., 590, 1064.

11 See esp. vv. 387–396; the legal aspect was probably also discussed in the lines that are missing before v. 334; see also v. 340. Yet the action of the maidens is not only at variance with the written laws concerning epikleroi but also with the unwritten laws of Aphrodite; see vv. 1034 ff. and below, p. 230. Cf. Kitto, H. D. F., Greek Tragedy (London, 1939) 20 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 For recent attempts at reconstruction see D. S. Robertson, C. R. 38, 1924, 51 ff.; G. Méautis, Eschyle et la trilogie (Paris, 1936) 66 ff.; K. von Fritz, Philologus 91, 1936, 121 ff., 249 ff.

13 See above, p. 212 and notes 5 and 9.

14 Pind. Ol. 8.15 f.

15 Sept. 304 ff. On the whole cf. 93–180; 181–286; 301–320; see especially vv. 167 ff., 175 ff., 217–222, 233.

16 Cf. vv. 375 ff., 421 ff., etc.; 397 ff. (see 409 ff.), 447 ff. Amphiaraus of course is blameless, his ethos contrasts with that of his companions (see vv. 568, 597).

17 Vv. 177 ff., 179 f. Cf. Eteocles at v. 76 f., 271 ff. (the meaning of vv. 271–278 is clear even though the text of at least two lines at the end cannot be reconstructed; see O. Regenbogen, Hermes 68, 1933, 58 ff. and below, n. 22).

18 Nilsson, op. cit. (see Note 3) 671 f.

19 Or. 26, 316 f. The passage is on various counts under suspicion; for discussion of it see A. Lesky, Wien. Stud. 47, 1927, 8 ff. Cf. also Eduard Fraenkel, Philologus 86, 1930, 1 ff., a paper which I have found most helpful since it studies the same choruses and passages even though with a somewhat different purpose. Cf. also Eduard Norden, Aus Altrömischen Priesterbüchern (Skrifter Humanistika Vetenskapssamfundet Lund, 1939), 148, 247, and pass.

20 Vv. 24 ff.

21 Vv. 1024 ff. Contrast the attitude of the Egyptian herald who knows neither reverence for nor fear of the Argive gods (“they reared me not” v. 894, also vv. 893, 922). At v. 520 Pelasgus urges the maidens to pray to the theoi enchorioi while he is absent. Curiously, instead of complying they burst forth into the hymn on Zeus, the “lord of lords” (vv. 524 ff.).

22 For a more accurate stratification of Greek religion as reflected in Aeschylus it would be necessary to distinguish between the theoi poliouchoi in the specific sense of the word and other έγχώριοι οἲ γῆν ἔχουσι including the rivers (cf. Suppl. 24 ff., 705). The poliouchoi of astyanactes are not necessarily local gods or deities belonging exclusively to the territory in question; they are not the rivers and wells but “inhabit” them and may possibly decide to leave them (cf. Suppl. 1018 ff.; Sept. 304 ff.). The chorus of the Septem do not implore Dirke and Ismenus to defend the city yet Eteocles promises (vv. 271 ff.) that in the event of victory they as well as the polissouchoi will receive proper thanks (Regenbogen, Hermes 68, 1933, 59, n. 1 comments well on the phrase πολισσοῦχοι χώρας but errs, I think, in regarding vv. 272–273 as subdividing this concept; Wilamowitz, Aesch. Interpretationen, Berlin, 1914, 106, n. 1, rightly finds additional groups in these lines. Walther Kranz, Stasimon, Berlin, 1933, 41 makes no attempt at differentiation).

23 Suppl. 207 ff., 222 ff.

24 In Agamemnon the function of the altars on the stage is almost but still not entirely decorative. In the Septem the altars are less essential for the plot than in the Suppliants, in Agamemnon they are less essential than in the Septem. Incidentally, compare with Sept. 93 f. τίς ἄρα ῤὑσɛται, τἱς ἀρ᾽ ἐπαρκἐσɛι θɛῶν ἤ θɛᾶν; Horace c. 1.2.25 quern vocet divum populus ruentis imperi rebus? after which question Horace turns to the invocation of various theoi poliouchoi — di quibus septem placuere colles he calls them in the carmen saeculare — and genethlioi (of the Julian family yet also as in the case of Mars, the auctor = phytourgos v. 36, of the Roman nation as a whole). Although the details in this part of the poem reflect contemporary Roman sophistication a Greek pattern clearly underlies. It is the pattern of cultic songs to which Aeschylus too is indebted. In Norden's view (op. cit., see Note 19, 128, 134 ff., 147 f.; cf. also 169 f.) this poem of Horace includes echoes of the carmen Arvale or similar old Roman carmina which in turn show the influence of Greek songs. These would be songs of the same type as those which according to our argument inspired Horace also directly when he composed c. i, 2 (cf. Norden 251; also 249 “Horaz schaut Griechisches und Römisches ineinander”).

25 See esp. v. 220.

26 Vv. 214 ff. (vv. 212 f. have so far defied explanation).

27 Sept. 127 ff., 145 ff. (cf. Wilamowitz's note in his edition to v. 161), vv. 149 ff.

28 He is panteles (v. 116) and pankrates (v. 255; cf. v. 161).

29 2.53.

30 Sept. 105 ff., 135 ff., 140 ff., 163 ff.

31 Sept. 152.

32 Sept. 105 ff. — I have suggested above, p. 215, that Aeschylus inferred this connection between Ares and Thebes from the myths relating to the early history of this city. It is of course also possible that he knew about a cult of Ares in Thebes although it must be said that no evidence for such a cult has thus far been found. L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States V, 401 speaks with great confidence of Ares' position in Theban cult yet the only passage that he adduces in support of his view is the same that has given rise to our problem (Aesch. Sept. 105 ff.). Cf. also L. Ziehen, R. E. s.v. “Thebai” (1501 f.) where the cults are carefully discussed.

33 Cf. the dual role of Zeus in the Suppliants (above p. 212) where he is the protector of his offspring but also protector of Justice.

34 Suppl. 632, 663, 676. Cf. the reference to Apollo in his diverse functions at Ag. 509–513; to Hermes, ibid. 514 f. At Sept. 105 ff., 135 ff., the chorus ask Ares to come to the help of his city, at v. 343 f. the manifestations of the war god are dreaded (see also v. 244).

35 Aristoph. Ran. 1045.

36 Theog. 203 ff. (Theog. 188–206 has been athetized by Felix Jacoby; for his arguments see Hermes 61, 1926, 157 ff. The question is too involved for a brief Note, so that I must here content myself with referring to Paul Friedländer, Gött. Gel. Anz. 1931, 256 ff. where the justice of Jacoby's procedure is questioned).

37 Suppl. 1037 ff.

38 Frg. 44 Nauck; see Rose pp. 9 f.

39 Eum. 213–218.

40 Theog. 321 f. George Thomson's conjectures at Eum. 217 f. seem to me gratuitous. Cypris' name alone would not suffice to indicate marriage yet does so in conjunction with Zeus and Hera teleia (this is probably the point also of Suppl. 1036, if I am right in reading this passage in the light of Eum. 213 ff.).

41 Cf. the recent paper by H. J. Wolff, “Marriage Laws and Family Organization in Ancient Athens” Traditio 2, 1944, 43 ff.

42 See Suppl. 1031, 1035 ff., and also the significant invocation of Artemis at vv. 141 ff. (esp. 149 f.). A similar antagonism between Apollo and Dionysus seems to have been presented in Aeschylus' Lycurgia; cf. on this trilogy Karl Deichgräber, Gött. gel. Nachr. 1939, 234 ff.

43 Suppl. 525 f.

44 Suppl. 100 where ϕρόνημα may however be an accusative. The text remains uncertain.

45 Cf. Ag. 176 ff., 182 f., 361 ff., 1563 f., Cho. 949 ff. Many more passages could be cited, but what is most needed at present is a closer coördination between characteristic passages and the analysis of entire plays.

46 Suppl. 97, Prom. 1 ff.

47 Cf. vv. 885, 970 ff.

48 See Suppl. 701–709, a passage with which we may contrast ibid. 360 or Pind. Ol. 8.21.

49 See esp. vv. 343, 381, 385, 478, 615 f., 641; cf. 627, 271 f., 313 ff. The chorus of Agamemnon sees the hand of Zeus Xenios in the fate of Troy (v. 362).

50 See esp. p. 16.

51 Cho. 306–509. Cf. the Darius scene in the Persians.

52 Cho. 489; cf. Pers. 629 (Persephassa: Cho. 490).

53 Pr. 209 f., 217, 1092 (a role of Gaia in the sequel is attested by her inclusion in the prosopa); Cho. 127 f., 489; see also Sept. 16 ff. For again a different aspect of Ge Meter see Sept. 16, also Suppl. 890 f. (899 f.); see further ibid. 116.

54 For the former situation cf. the Kommos of the Choephori which includes appeals to the Moirai, Gaia, the phronema of the dead father, the chthonioi theoi, the ‘curses of the slain,’ Zeus, Dike; for the latter cf. the Eumenides.

55 See esp. Cho. 246 ff.

56 Eum. 681–706, 794 ff., cf. vv. 921 ff., 970 ff.

57 Eum. 961 ff.

58 Eum. 919.

59 See above, p. 215.

60 Cf. especially vv. 916 ff., 1016 ff.

61 Cf. Hes. Op. 225 ff. “Those who give straight judgments to strangers and to the men of the land and do not go aside from what is just, their city flourishes and the people prosper in it. Peace … the nurse of children is abroad in their land…. Neither famine nor disaster ever haunt men who do true justice….”

62 Cf. Fraenkel, loc. cit. (Note 19) esp. 14 ff.

63 Note v. 1001, “Nestling beneath the wings of Pallas, the Father holdeth ye in reverence” (H. W. Smyth's translation which has been used repeatedly in this paper).