How the consciousness of the hero lives on in the post-heroic world.
Key word for this time: pateres 'fathers' or 'ancestors', as in the name Patroklos / Patrokleês.
Related key word: ainigma (from ainos) 'riddle, enigma', derived from verb ainissomai 'say in a riddling way'. This word will return to play an important role in the Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles.
Amphiaraos, speaking from the dead as one of the pateres, visualizes his son, Alkmaion.
The word theaomai 'see' (in the dialect used by Pindar, thaeomai) is derived from thea 'vision'. A related word is theatron, which means literally 'instrument for seeing'.
The word saphês / saphes 'clear' has to do with clarity of vision. Thus a seer is a clairvoyant.
A) Pindar Pythian 8.35ff
[35] For you follow, at wrestling matches, in the footsteps of your mother's brothers. You did Theognetos proud, the one in the Olympics. Also Kleitomakhos, whose victory at the Isthmians gave proof to the boldness of his limbs. Making great the house[1] of the Meidulidai,[2] you win as a prize the words that once the son of Oikles[3] said [ainissomai],[4] when he saw [40] the Sons[5] holding their ground at Thebes, by the power of the spear,
at the time when they, the Epigonoi, [6] had come from Argos, on the second expedition. Thus he [7] spoke about those who fought: [45] "By inherited nature, the noble purpose [lêma] shines forth from fathers [pateres] [8] to sons. I can see [theaomai] clearly [saphes] Alkmaion, [9] wielding the patterned snake on his blazing shield, [10] in the forefront of the gates of Kadmos." [11]
We see here that the heroes in the age of heroes are stylized ancestors for the post-heroic age. If a man as an athlete in the post-heroic age 'did his ancestors proud', he also did the heroes of the heroic age proud. That is the logic of hero cult as a stylized form of ancestor worship.
B) Pindar Pythian 8.95ff
[95] Creatures of a day. What is a someone, what is a no one? Man is the dream of a shade. But when the brightness given by Zeus comes, there is at hand the shining light of men, and the life-force [aiôn] gives pleasure. Aigina! Philê Mother! Make an armada [12] of freedom for this polis as you bring it back to light and life, [13] back to Zeus! May Aiakos the Ruler be there. So also Peleus. And noble Telamon. And especially Achilles. [14]
For a detailed analysis of focus passages A and B, see the Heroes website: go to Texts and then go to Other Reading:
G. Nagy, "Refractions of Epic Vision in Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes and Pindar's Pythian 8."
What is a skia in Homer?
How is it related to psukhê?
Does the translation 'of' in 'dream of a shade' mark a subjective or objective genitive?
Note that aiôn means both 'life force' and 'eon.'
As we see from that analysis, successful persons in the post-heroic age are imagined positively as if they were "dreamed" by their ancestors in the heroic age.
Such positive "dreaming" is matched by a sinister negative "dreaming" when the hero is angry, as we see in focus passages C and D:
C) Aeschylus Seven 709-711... Yes, it [the daimôn] boiled over with the curses [kateugmata, from eukhomai] of Oedipus! True are the visions [opsis plural] of apparitions-in-dreams [en-hupnia], - visions of dividing the father's property.
This passage is the reverse of A and B.
There was a comedy by Aristophanes called The Heroes where the chorus of heroes at the beginning says the equivalent of "he knows when you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness' sake."
D) Aeschylus Seven 720ff... I shudder in dread of the goddess who destroys dynasties. She is not like other gods. She is the all-truthful [pan-alêthês] seer [mantis] of evils, the Fury [Erinys] of a father's cursing [eukhomai]. [725] She is poised to bring to fulfillment [telos] the curses [kat-arai], full of passion [thumos], that came from Oedipus, the one whose mind [phrên] was thrown off course. This discord [eris], destroyer of his children, is pressing ahead.
The vision of the Furies
The 'Fury [Erinys] of a father's cursing [eukhomai]': the 'of' can be subjective.
For a parallel theme of positive ancestral dreaming in modern poetry, consider focus passage E:
E) selections from Walt Whitman, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry (1892):
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many
generations hence,
Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt,
Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd,
Just as you are refresh'd by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I
was refresh'd,
Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I
stood yet was hurried
. . .
I too and many a time crossed the river of old
. . .
Closer yet I approach you,
What thought you have of me now, I had as much of you - I laid in my
stores in advance,
I consider'd long and seriously of you before you were born.
. . .
Who knows, for all the distance, but I am as good as looking at you now, for
all you cannot see me?
For a parody, consider focus passage F:
F) Allen Ginsberg "A Supermarket in California"
What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked
down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon
In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon
fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!
What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at
night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!
--and you, Garc’a Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?
I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking
among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.
I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops?
What price bananas? Are you my Angel?
I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans following you,
and followed in my imagination by the store detective.
We strode down the open corridors together in our solitary fancy
tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen delicacy, and never passing the cashier.
Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in an hour.
Which way does your beard point tonight?
(I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the supermarket and feel absurd.)
Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we'll both be lonely.
Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?
Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what America
did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a
smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of
Lethe?
Berkeley, 1955
Heroes can intervene in the present, either positively or negatively, as here:
G) Herodotus 6.188-191. The Persian fleet put to sea and reached the beach of the Magnesian land, between the polis of Kasthanaia and the headland of Sepias.[15] The first ships to arrive moored close to land, with the others after them at anchor; since the beach was not large, they lay at anchor in rows eight ships deep out into the sea [pontos]. Thus they spent the night, but at dawn out of a clear and windless sky a storm descended upon them and the sea began to boil. A strong east wind blew, which the people living in those parts call Hellespontiês. Those who felt the wind rising or had proper mooring dragged their ships up on shore ahead of the storm and so survived with their ships. But the wind carried those ships caught out in the open against the rocks called the Ovens at Pelion or onto the beach. Some ships were wrecked on the Sepian headland, others were cast ashore at the polis of Meliboia or at Kasthanaia. ... [191] There was no counting how many grain-ships and other vessels were destroyed. The generals of the fleet were afraid that the Thessalians might attack them now that they were in a bad situation, so they built a high palisade out of the wreckage. The storm lasted three days. Finally the Magi made offerings and cast spells upon the wind, sacrificing also to Thetis and the Nereids. Thus they made the wind stop on the fourth day, or perhaps it died down on its own. They sacrificed to Thetis after hearing from the Ionians the story that it was at this place that Peleus had abducted her, and that all the headland of Sepias belonged to her and to the other Nereids.
Achilles intervenes from the other world by unleashing his anger in the form of the 'wind from the Hellespont'.
So heroes can be models for the elites of the post-heroic age.
H) Pindar Isthmian 8.56a-62
Even when he [Achilles] died, the songs did not leave him, but the Heliconian Maidens [the Muses] stood by his pyre and his funeral mound, pouring forth a song of lamentation [thrênos] that is famed far and wide. And so it was that the gods decided to hand over the worthy man, wilted [phthi-menos] in death as he was, to the songs of the goddesses [Muses].[16] And this, even now, wins as a prize the words, as the chariot-team of the Muses starts moving on its way to glorify the memory of Nikokles the boxer.
In the next passage, Leonides, king of Sparta, is described as one of the Herakleidai, descendants of Herakles. So Herakles is for him and his men a model, even a model for death. We see in this passage the Three Hundred Spartans at Thermopylae, "preening for la belle mort"...
I) Herodotus 7.208-209. While they thus debated, Xerxes sent a mounted scout to see how many there were and what they were doing, for while he was still in Thessaly he had heard that a small army was gathered there and that its leaders were Lakedaimonians, including Leonides, a Herakleid in genos. Riding up to the camp, the horseman watched and spied out the place, but he could not see the whole camp, for it was impossible to see those posted inside the wall they had rebuilt and were guarding. He did take note of those outside, whose arms lay in front of the wall, and it chanced that at that time the Lakedaimonians were posted there. He saw some of the men exercising naked and others combing their hair. He marvelled at the sight and perceived their numbers. When he had observed it all carefully, he rode back undisturbed, since no one pursued him or paid him any attention at all. So he returned and told Xerxes all that he had seen. When Xerxes heard that, he could not comprehend the reality that the Lakedaimonians were preparing to kill or be killed to the best of their ability. What they did appeared laughable to him, so he sent for Demaretos the son of Ariston, who was in his camp, and when he came asked him about each of these matters, wanting to understand what it was that the Lakedaimonians were doing. Demaretos said, "You have already heard about these men from me, when we were setting out for Hellas. But when you heard, you mocked me, though I told you how I saw these events turning out. For it is my greatest aim, O King, to exercise truth in your presence. Hear me now. These men have come to fight us for the pass, and for that they are preparing. This is their custom [nomos]: when they are about to risk their psukhai, they carefully arrange [= make kosmos for] their hair. Know that if you overcome these men and those remaining behind at Sparta, there is no other on earth that will raise its hands to withstand you, my King. You are now attacking the fairest kingdom in Hellas and men who are aristoi."
Herodotus gives the genealogy of Leonides, King of Sparta (the Spartan pronunciation is 'Leonidas')...
J) Herodotus 7.204. Each city had its own general, but the one most admired and the leader of the whole army was a Lakedaimonian, Leonides son of Anaxandrides son of Leon son of Eurykratides son of Anaxandros son of Eurykrates son of Polydoros son of Alkamenes son of Teleklos son of Arkhelaos son of Hegesilaos son of Doryssos son of Leobotes son of Ekhestratos son of Agis son of Eurysthenes son of Aristodemos son of Aristomakhos son of Kleodaios son of Hyllos son of Herakles. Leonides had gained the kingship at Sparta unexpectedly.
K) Herodotus 7.224. By this time most of them had had their spears broken and were killing the Persians with swords. Leonides fell in that ordeal [ponos], an aristos man, and with him other famous Spartans, whose names I have learned, since they were worthy men. Indeed, I have learned the names of all 300.
Herodotus ponders the motivation of the 300 Spartans:
L) Herodotus 7.220. But I tend more to believe that when Leonides perceived that the allies were dispirited and unwilling to run all risks with him, he bid them depart. But it was not good for him to leave: If he remained, he would leave a name of great kleos, and the good fortune [eudaimonia] of Sparta would not be blotted out. When the Spartans asked the oracle about this war as soon as it first arose, the Pythia had prophesied to them that either Lakedaimon would be destroyed by the barbarians or their king would be killed. She gave them this answer in hexameter verse [epea], running as follows:
For you, inhabitants of wide-wayed Sparta, either your great and glorious city must be wasted by Persian men, or if not that, then the bound of Lakedaimon must mourn a dead king, from Herakles' line. The menos of bulls or lions will not restrain him with opposing force, for he has the menos of Zeus. I declare that he will not be restrained until he utterly tears apart one of these.
Considering this and wishing to lay up kleos for the Spartans alone, he sent away the allies rather than have them leave in disorder after divided counsels.
[1] The word oikos 'house' refers to the victor's ancestral lineage or "clan."
[2] Meidulidai is the name of the victor's ancestral lineage.
[3] Amphiaraos, one of the Seven Against Thebes, was the son of Oikles. The heroes known as the Seven Against Thebes had failed in their expedition against Thebes. Myth has it that Thebes had Seven Gates, each attacked by one of the Seven Against Thebes and each defended by a corresponding Theban hero.
[4] The verb ainissomai 'say in a riddling way' is derived from ainigma 'riddle, enigma', which is derived from ainos. Since Amphiaraos died in the failed expedition of the Seven Against Thebes, what he says here is obviously meant to be understood as if spoken from the grave. There is historical evidence for a hero-cult of Amphiaraos, located at the very spot where myth says that the earth had engulfed him, chariot-team and all, as he was riding away from Thebes after the expedition failed. Worshippers would come to consult Amphiaraos, who was believed to have the power of communicating with them from the dead.
[5] The Sons are the Sons of the Seven Against Thebes. Whereas the original Seven Against Thebes had failed in their expedition against Thebes, the Sons of the Seven Against Thebes were successful.
[6] Epigonoi 'The Descendants' is another way of referring to the Sons of the Seven Against Thebes.
[7] Amphiaraos.
[8] The "fathers" here are ancestors, that is, a succession of fathers through time, not a collection of fathers at one time. The word patro- 'ancestor, father' is found in the first part of the name Patroklos = Patroklês), which means 'he who has the kleos of the ancestors'.
[9] The hero Alkmaion is the son of Amphiaraos.
[10] In traditional Greek poetry, the image represented on a shield, in this case a snake, would be called a sêma.
[11] Kadmos was known as the primordial founder of Thebes.
[12] This fleeting reference serves as a nostalgic reminder of the glory days of Aigina, when its navy was still a major power, as in the Sea Battle of Salamis in the Persian War, described by Herodotus 8.40-97; note especially the role of the Aiakidai in 8.64 and 8.83-84.
[13] I translate komizô here as 'bring back to light and life' in view of the traditional correlation of this verb with the noun nostos.
[14] Compare Herodotus 8.64: "At sunrise ... there was an earthquake on land and sea, and they resolved to pray to the gods and summon the Aiakidai as allies. When they had so resolved, they did as follows: they prayed to all the gods called Ajax and Telamon to come straight from Salamis, and sent a ship to Aigina for Aiakos and the other Aiakidai [besides Ajax and Telamon]."
[15] Meaning "the place of the sepia." It was here, according to epic tradition, that Peleus and Thetis conceived Achilles.
[16] As I argue in Best of the Achaeans 176-177, the phraseology here implies that Achilles was destined to have a kleos that is a-phthi-ton 'unwilting', as explicitly formulated at Iliad IX 413.