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Lecture 12: Aeschylean Metaphors and
Riddles
Focus
Passages
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I The Net of Dikê: Metaphors of Fabric in the AgamemnonA) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 355-366
355 Hail, sovereign Zeus, and you kindly Night, possessor of the great kosmoi, you who cast your meshed snare upon the towered walls of Troy, so that neither old nor young could overleap 360 the huge enslaving net of all-conquering Atê. I revere great Zeus of xenoi - he who has brought this to pass. He long kept his bow bent against Alexander 365 until his bolt would neither fall short of the mark nor, flying beyond the stars, be launched in vain.B) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 908-913
Why this loitering, women, to whom I have assigned the task to strew with tapestries the place where he shall go? 910 Quick! With purple let his path be strewn, that Dikê may usher him into a home he never hoped to see. The rest my unslumbering vigilance shall order duly - if it please the god - even as is ordained.C) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1114-1124
Cassandra: Ah! Ah! What apparition is this? 1115 Is it a net of death? No, it is a snare that shares his bed, that shares the guilt of murder. Let the fatal group, insatiable against the family, raise a shout of jubilance over a victim accursed!
Chorus: What Spirit of Vengeance [Erinys] is this that you bid 1120 raise its voice over this house? Your words do not cheer me. Back to my heart surge the drops of my pallid blood, even as when they drip from a mortal wound, ebbing away as life's beams sink low; and Destruction [atê] comes speedily.
D) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1372-1392
Much have I said before to serve my need and I shall feel no shame to contradict it now. For how else could one, devising hate against enemies [ekhthroi] 1375 who bear the semblance of philoi, fence the snares of ruin too high to be overleaped? This is the agôn of an ancient feud, pondered by me of old, and it has come - however long delayed. I stand where I dealt the blow; my purpose is achieved. 1380 Thus have I done the deed - deny it I will not. Round him, as if to catch a haul of fish, I cast an impassable net - fatal wealth of robe - so that he should neither escape nor ward off doom. Twice I struck him, and with two groans 1385 his limbs relaxed. Once he had fallen, I dealt him yet a third stroke as a prayer of gratitude [kharis] to the infernal Zeus, the savior [sôtêr] of the dead. Fallen thus, he gasped away his thûmos, and as he breathed forth quick spurts of blood, 1390 he struck me with dark drops of gory dew; while I rejoiced no less than the sown earth is gladdened in heaven's refreshing rain at the birthtime of the flower buds.E) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1596-1611
And when unknowingly my father had quickly taken servings that he did not recognize, he ate a meal which, as you see, has proved fatal to his family. Now, discovering his unhallowed deed, he uttered a great cry, reeled back, vomiting forth the slaughtered flesh, and invoked 1600 an unbearable curse upon the line of Pelops, kicking the banquet table to aid his curse: "Thus perish all the family of Pleisthenes!" This is the reason that you see this man fallen here. I am he who planned this murder with dikê. For together with my hapless father he drove me out, 1605 me his third child, still a baby in swaddling clothes. But grown to manhood, Dikê has brought me back again. Exile though I was, I laid my hand upon my enemy, compassing every device of cunning to his ruin. 1610 So even death would be sweet to me now that I behold him in the net of Dikê.II The Mixing Bowl in the House
F) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1393-1398 (continuation of passage E)
Since this is so, old men of Argos, rejoice, if you would rejoice; as for me, I glory in the deed. 1395 And had it been a fitting act to pour libations on the corpse, over him this would have been done with dikê. With dikê and then some! With so many accursed lies has he filled the mixing-bowl in his own house, and now he has come home and himself drained it to the dregs.III The Winged Hounds of Zeus
G) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 40-71
This is now the tenth year since Priam's mighty adversary, King Menelaos, and with him King Agamemnon, the mighty pair of Atreus' sons, joined in honor of throne and scepter by Zeus, set forth from this land with an army of a thousand ships manned by Argives, a warrior force to champion their cause. Loud rang the battle-cry they uttered in their rage, just as eagles scream which, in lonely grief for their brood, rowing with the oars of their wings, wheel high over their nests, because they have wasted the toil [ponos] of guarding their nurslings' nest. But some one of the powers supreme - Apollo perhaps or Pan, or Zeus - hears the shrill wailing scream of the clamorous birds, these sojourners in his realm, and against the transgressors sends an Erinys at last though late. Even so Zeus, whose power is over all, Zeus lord of xenoi, sends the sons of Atreus against Alexander, so that for the sake of a woman with many a husband he may inflict many and wearying struggles - when the knee is pressed in the dust and the spear is splintered in the onset - on Danaans and on Trojans alike. The case now stands where it stands - it moves to fulfillment at its destined end. Not by offerings burned in secret, not by secret libations, not by tears, shall man soften the stubborn wrath of unsanctified sacrifices.H) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 104-178
I have the authority to proclaim the augury of power given on their way to princely men - since my age still breathes Persuasion upon me from the gods, the strength of song - how the twin-throned power of the Achaeans, the single-minded captains of Hellas' youth, with avenging spear and arm against the Teucrian land, was sent off by the inspiriting omen appearing to the kings of the ships - kingly birds, one black, one white of tail, near the palace, on the spear-hand, in a conspicuous place, devouring a hare with offspring unborn caught in the last effort to escape.Sing the song of woe [aiai, Linus!], the song of woe, but may the good prevail!
Then the wise seer of the host, noticing how the two warlike sons of Atreus were two in temper, recognized the devourers of the hare as the leaders of the army, and thus interpreted the portent and spoke: "In time those who here issue forth shall seize Priam's town, and fate shall violently ravage before its towered walls all the public store of cattle. Only may no jealous god-sent wrath glower upon the embattled host, the mighty bit forged for Troy's mouth, and strike it before it reaches its goal! For, in her pity, holy Artemis is angry at the winged hounds of her father, for they sacrifice a wretched timorous thing, together with her young, before she has brought them forth. An abomination to her is the eagles' feast."
Sing the song of woe [aiai, Linus!], the song of woe, but may the good prevail!
"Although, O Lovely One, you are so gracious to the tender whelps of fierce lions, and take delight in the suckling young of every wild creature that roams the field, promise that the issue be brought to pass in accordance with these signs [sumbola], portents auspicious yet filled with ill. And I implore Paean, the healer, that she may not raise adverse gales with long delay to stay the Danaan fleet from putting forth, urging another sacrifice, one that knows no law, unsuited for feast, worker of family strife, dissolving wife's reverence for husband. For there abides mênis - terrible, not to be suppressed, a treacherous guardian of the home, a wrath that never forgets and that exacts vengeance for a child." Such utterances of doom, derived from auguries on the march, together with many blessings, did Kalkhas proclaim to the royal house; and in accord with this,
Sing the song of woe [aiai, Linus!], the song of woe, but may the good prevail!
Zeus, whoever he may be - if by this name it pleases him to be invoked, by this name I call to him - as I weigh all things in the balance, I have nothing to compare save "Zeus," if in truth I must cast aside this vain burden from my heart. …But whoever, heartily taking thought beforehand, sings a victory song for Zeus, he shall gain wisdom altogether. Zeus, who sets mortals on the path to understanding, Zeus, who has established this as a fixed law: "Learning comes by suffering [pathos]."
If you need more help with metaphor, see Seamus Cooney's Basics of Metaphors and Similes.Pindar's Pythian 11 is a victory ode for a winner of a foot race. In this poem Pindar discusses the murder of Agamemnon and the motivations behind it, including the sacrifice of Iphigeneia.
I have put together some comprehension and analysis questions that you should try to answer for today's focus passages.
FOCUS PASSAGE A:
1) How do you interpret the phrase: "the huge enslaving net of all-conquering Atê."? What is the metaphor? Who/what is the referent? What is meant by atê in this passage? Is there more than one possible meaning?
2) Zeus of xenoi comes up both in this passage and in passage H. Does the invocation have the same effect in this passage as in passage G?
3) How is the destruction of Troy characterized in this passage?FOCUS PASSAGE G:
1) What is the primary metaphor of this passage? Who/what are the referent(s)? Is there more than one possibility?1a) Why are the birds called "these sojourners in his realm"?
1b) Who/what is the Erinys in this passage?2) Why is Zeus invoked as lord of xenoi in this passage?
3) What do you think is meant by the "destined end"?
4) How do you interpret the final sentence of the passage? What are the unsanctified sacrifices being referred to here?
5) How does this passage compare to others in the play involving birds/other baby animals?
6) How is the expedition against Troy characterized in this passage?FOCUS PASSAGE H:
1) The chorus cites as a fixed law: "Learning comes by suffering [pathos]." Who is learning? Who is suffering?
2) The primary metaphor in this passage comes in the form of an omen - two eagles, who devour a hare. Who/what are the referents for each aspect of the metaphor?
3) What is the meaning/effect of the refrain: "Sing the song of woe [aiai, Linus!], the song of woe, but may the good prevail!"?
4) In the second to last stanza of the passage, whose mênis is being referred to?
5) In the second stanza, who are "the winged hounds of her father"? What is the effect of the substitution (metaphor) here? How does this passage relate to the other hound imagery in the play?
