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Theology and Mythology in Aeschylus
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2011
Extract
I start by making two assumptions, as being facts known to every serious student of antiquity. One is, that Aeschylus was not only a poet but a theologian. The other is, that practically every Greek of that time, if he thought at all concerning deity, did so along mythological lines. The second postulate perhaps needs a little exposition. We have long got rid of the error which supposed the myths, or any of them, to form a kind of “pagan creed,” belief in which did or might constitute a test of orthodoxy. We know that creeds are rather rare phenomena, confined to a few religions, of which that of classical Greece was not one. No one in all Hellas was expected to declare that he believed in the Labors of Herakles, and no heresy hunts were started if someone doubted that Prometheus stole fire from heaven. Decent regard for the official cults was, indeed, in a general way, required of everyone, and the public conscience was liable to be shocked if some too bold thinker proclaimed that he did not accept the tacit assumption on which all such cults must rest, if their followers reflect on them at all, namely that certain beings superior to man exist. But everyone had from early childhood heard traditional tales about those beings, which agreed pretty well in their main outlines, no matter whether the teller or the hearer was Athenian or Boiotian, Spartan or Argive.
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References
1 C. Symmachum, I, 79.
2 Ibid., 201.
3 Ibid., 226 sqq.
4 Emped., 19 sqq., 160 sq., Mullach.
5 Cicero, Tusc, II, 23, when neo-Pythagoieanism was coining to the fore.
6 O. I, 24 sqq.
7 P. III, 6 sqq.
8 Aga., 160–183.
9 I hope, in a commentary on Aeschylus which I am now preparing, to defend my views on this and sundry other passages. There is no space to go into such matters in a short paper like this. But I would mention that, as Uranos is visible every clear day and Kronos has place in the Attic ecclesiastical calendar, it is strange, if they are meant, that Aeschylus should speak of them as gone and forgotten,
10 Aga., 1202 sqq.
11 Niobe, line 15 sq. of the new fragment, for which see Page in Greek Literary Papyri I (Loeb Library), pp. 8–9. Cf. Plato, Rep. 380a.
12 Fgt. 350: Sept., 702–703, θεοῖς μὲν ἤδη πως παρημελήμεθα, / χάρις δ᾽ ἀϕ᾽ ἡμῶν ὀλομένων θαυμάζεται. This is not as thoroughgoing an assertion as it might seem of being forsaken of the gods; Eteokles feels himself as good as dead already and therefore practically outside the province of those gods to whom a Greek normally paid attention and to whom he looked for benefits.
13 Suppl., 154 sq., 119–130.
14 Ibid., 291 sqq.
15 Ibid., 93–95, cf. 1057–1058.
16 Ibid., 96 sqq.
17 This seems at all events to be the general meaning of ibid., 99–100, whatever the exact reading.
18 Ibid., 91–92.
19 For instance, ibid., 104 sqq.
20 Cf. Suppl., 387 sqq., where the King suggests this.
21 P. V., 865, where I take παίδων with ἵμεροσ, not with μίαν.
22 For Aphrodite Pandemos, see Farnell, C. G. S., II, p. 658.
23 Fgt. 44.
24 See Pers., 216 and often, 232, 502, 206, 495, 219, 628 sqq., 497. In the last passage we get perhaps an example of an idea afterwards very common, that barbarians generally worshipped chiefly or only the visible gods, here Sky and Earth, 499.
25 Pers., 596, 876.
26 Pind., I. vi, 24–26.
27 Pers., 739 sqq. Here, incidentally, the god who sends the disaster is called Zeus, but how little more than “God” this means is indicated by Dareios immediately afterwards speaking of θεὸς in practically the same context, 741, with the plural θεοὺς between the two. Cf. the comment, supr., p. 3, on Aga., 160 sqq.
28 See Herodotos, I, 91, 1–3.
29 See Thulin, Die etruskische Disciplin, III, p. 57. I take the Asianic origin of the Etruscans for granted.
30 Pers., 742. The scholiast is of opinion, perhaps rightly, that Aeschylus means that God “lends a hand” (αυνεπιλαμβάνεται) whether the “hastening” is towards good or evil.
31 This was recognized, though somewhat imperfectly, as early as 1880 by Bouché-Leclercq, Hist, de la divin. dans l'antiquité, III, p. 145 sqq. See further H. W. Peake, The Delphic Oracle, p. 299 sqq.
32 It is M370 sqq. in Thompson, Stith, Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, Helsinki, 1932–1936Google Scholar.
33 J21 Stith Thompson.
34 The story of Battos (Hdt., IV, 155 sqq.) is a good example.
35 Arist., Eth. Nic, 1132b25; Aesch., Aga., 1564, Choeph., 313, fgt. 456.
36 Sept., 745 sqq.
37 Sept., 709, 723–725, and elsewhere.
38 Ibid., 576 sqq.
39 Ibid., 631 sqq.
40 Ibid., 686 sqq.
41 α 328 sqq.
42 Sept., 721.
43 Hes., W. D., 763–764; Verg., A., IV, 173 sqq.; θ 325.
44 The fullest source of information on this topic is Hopfner, Th., Griechischägyptischer Offenbarungszauber, Leipzig, 1921, 1924Google Scholar.
45 The Arts of Orpheus, Univ. of California Press, 1941, p. 294Google Scholar sqq.
46 Meno, 81a10 sqq.
47 See, for particulars, Boehm, F., De symbolis Pythagoreis, diss., Berlin, 1905Google Scholar.
48 As she is in Sept., 601 (which I think is Aeschylean, whether it belongs there or not), Pers., 1007, Aga., 386 and elsewhere.
49 Stat., Theb., I, 88 sqq.
50 Aga., 1188 sqq.
51 Aga., 135 sqq. For the interpretation, cf. E. Petersen in Rhein. Mus., N. F 66 (1911), p. 3 sq.
52 Aga., 205 sqq.
53 Soph., Ant., 621.
54 Aga., 231 sqq.
55 Aga., 811.
56 Aga., 823 sqq., 803.
57 Aga., 914 sqq.
58 Aga., 950 sqq.
59 Aga., 219.
60 Cf. Choeph., 461, Ἄρης Ἀρει ξυμβαλεῖ, δίκα δίκᾳ.
61 Suppl., 370.
62 Notably, as I argue in my forthcoming commentary, in the style in which the Chorus in Aga. address the queen.
63 Aga., 1500 sqq.
64 Matth., 18, 7.
65 See Choeph., 65.
66 The Scholiast on α 300, dogmatic as some moderns and with no better reason, roundly asserts that Homer did not know of the killing of Klytaimnestra, which is probably a historical fact and, fact or fiction, is necessary to round out the story. Eustathios, p. 1418, 34, shows, for once, better sense. Athena does not mention Klytaimnestra because her case is not in point; she wants to encourage Telemachos, by the imperfectly parallel case of Orestes, to stand by his father, not to incite him against his virtuous mother.
67 Cf. I 566 sqq., λ 279–280.
68 Fgt. 7 Vürtheim.
69 Tristram Shandy, Vol. IV, end of chap. 30.
70 Eur., Or., 268 sqq.
71 Choeph., 1048 sqq., Eum., 46 sqq.
72 Eum., 507 sqq.
73 So Apollo himself regarded it, if there is any truth in the story in Aelian, V. H., III, 44 (source and date unknown).
74 Eum., 186 sqq.
75 Ibid., 213 sqq.
76 Ibid., 658 sqq. For Aeschylus' medical knowledge, cf. Aga., 1121 sqq., Choeph., 183. The theory is called Egyptian by Diod. Sic., I, 80, 4, but, it would seem, is mentioned as Pythagorean (i.e., belonging to the medical school of Kroton? if so, perhaps we have a clue to the notion, cf. note 5, that Aeschylus was a Pythagorean himself), by Metopos ap. Stob., Floril., I, 64 (p. 29 Gaisford).
77 W. F. J. Knight in J. H. S., LXIII (nominally 1943, really 1945), p. 19.
78 Eumen., 734 sqq.
79 The arguments for this view are too lengthy to set forth here; I hope to present at least a summary of them in my commentary on Aeschylus, and also to try to explain the poor and jejune choral part of the surviving play.
80 Fgt. 201.
81 G., I, 125 sqq.
82 Especially W. D., 42 sqq., Theog., 562 sqq.