Agamemnon’s Relationship Counseling: Ovid, Remedia Amoris 466-486

July 24, 2015 ~ Erik ~ Leave a comment

“Agamemnon saw (and what did he not see, since all of Greece was subject to his judgment?) Chryseis, captured by his own martial valor, and he loved her: but her foolish old father went all around weeping for her! (Why are you crying, you hateful old man? They’ve made a good match! You idiot, you’re harming your daughter with your meddling!) After Calchas, under the protection of Achilles, had ordered that she be returned and she was safely received home, Agamemnon said, ‘Well, this other girl has a fairly similar appearance, and, excepting the first syllable, practically the same name! If he knows what’s best for him, Achilles will give her to me willingly: if not, he will feel the weight of my power. And, my Achaeans, if any of you should censure this action, – well, it really is something to hold a sceptre in a mighty hand. For, if I am king, and no girl sleeps with me, Thersites may as well go ahead and take the throne from me!’ So he spoke, and had this to ease the burden of his earlier loss, and he set aside his concern, which was forced aside by new concerns. Therefore, take counsel from Agamemnon and take up a new flame, and let your love be drawn apart in opposite directions!”

Vidit ut Atrides (quid enim non ille videret,
Cuius in arbitrio Graecia tota fuit?)
Marte suo captam Chryseida, victor amabat:
At senior stulte flebat ubique pater. 470
Quid lacrimas, odiose senex? bene convenit illis:
Officio natam laedis, inepte, tuo.
Quam postquam reddi Calchas, ope tutus Achillis,
Iusserat, et patria est illa recepta domo,
‘Est’ ait Atrides ‘illius proxima forma, 475
Et, si prima sinat syllaba, nomen idem:
Hanc mihi, si sapiat, per se concedat Achilles:
Si minus, imperium sentiat ille meum.
Quod siquis vestrum factum hoc incusat, Achivi,
Est aliquid valida sceptra tenere manu. 480
Nam si rex ego sum, nec mecum dormiat ulla,
In mea Thersites regna, licebit, eat.’
Dixit, et hanc habuit solacia magna prioris,
Et posita est cura cura repulsa nova.
Ergo adsume novas auctore Agamemnone flammas, 485
Ut tuus in bivio distineatur amor.

No One Can Please Everyone: Three Sophoklean Fragments on Politics

June 19, 2015June 19, 2015 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ 2 Comments

fr. 524 (Polyxena, Agamemnon speaking)

“No helmsman of any army is able
To yield to everyone, to please them all.
Indeed, not even Zeus, who is better than me as king,
pleases all when he sends out rain or withholds it.
If he entered a mortal court, he would end up owing a lot.
How can I, born a mortal son of a mortal mother,
Manage to be better at governing than Zeus?”

οὐ γάρ τις ἂν δύναιτο πρῳράτης στρατοῦ
τοῖς πᾶσιν εἶξαι καὶ προσαρκέσαι χάριν.
ἐπεὶ οὐδ’ ὁ κρείσσων Ζεὺς ἐμοῦ τυραννίδι
οὔτ’ ἐξεπομβρῶν οὔτ’ ἐπαυχμήσας φίλος•
βροτοῖς δ’ ἂν ἐλθὼν ἐς λόγον δίκην ὄφλοι.
πῶς δῆτ’ ἔγωγ’ ἂν θνητὸς ἐκ θνητῆς τε φὺς
Διὸς γενοίμην εὖ φρονεῖν σοφώτερος;

Fr. 554 (Men of Skyros)

“War loves to stalk young men.”
φιλεῖ γὰρ ἄνδρας πόλεμος ἀγρεύειν νέους

Fr. 565 (Those Who Dine Together)

But, in a rage, he hurled at me and did not miss
With the foul-smelling pisspot. Around my head
The side shattered, stinking not of myrrh.
I was frightened by the wretched smell.

ἀλλ’ ἀμφὶ θυμῷ τὴν κάκοσμον οὐράνην
ἔρριψεν οὐδ’ ἥμαρτε• περὶ δ’ ἐμῷ κάρᾳ
κατάγνυται τὸ τεῦχος οὐ μύρου πνέον•
ἐδειματούμην δ’ οὐ φίλης ὀσμῆς ὕπο

Monday Morning PSA: What Does Honor Mean to the Dead?

May 18, 2015May 18, 2015 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ 2 Comments

Iliad 9.315-320

“I don’t think that I would obey Atreus’ son Agamemnon
Nor should the rest of the Danaans, since there is no recompense at all
For them to constantly struggle among hostile men.
The portion is the same for the man who hangs back and the one who fights hard:
The coward and the brave man fall into the same honor;
Both the lazy man and the man who works hard die the same.”

οὔτ’ ἔμεγ’ ᾿Ατρεΐδην ᾿Αγαμέμνονα πεισέμεν οἴω
οὔτ’ ἄλλους Δαναούς, ἐπεὶ οὐκ ἄρα τις χάρις ἦεν
μάρνασθαι δηΐοισιν ἐπ’ ἀνδράσι νωλεμὲς αἰεί.
ἴση μοῖρα μένοντι καὶ εἰ μάλα τις πολεμίζοι•
ἐν δὲ ἰῇ τιμῇ ἠμὲν κακὸς ἠδὲ καὶ ἐσθλός•
κάτθαν’ ὁμῶς ὅ τ’ ἀεργὸς ἀνὴρ ὅ τε πολλὰ ἐοργώς.

Achilles, of course, realizes that there are different answers for different questions…Oh, he also compares himself to a mother bird (9.323-325)

Agamemnon Took a Bribe for Good Reasons: Plutarch, How To Read Poetry (32e-33a)

April 15, 2015April 15, 2015 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

“The bee, naturally, finds in the strongest smelling flowers–even among the roughest thorns–the smoothest, most edible honey; in the same way children, who are nourished on poems correctly, will learn somehow to extract something useful—even something profitable–from poems containing poor or contemptible behavior. For, as an example, Agamemnon stands at first glance as contemptible because he releases a man from the army for a bribe, that wealthy man who graced him with the gift of the mare Aithê (Il. 23.297)

““A gift so they he would not follow him to windy Troy
But would enjoy staying at home, since Zeus had given him / great wealth”

But he did well, as Aristotle says, to prefer a good horse to a man of this type. For a coward and a man made weak by wealth and leisure isn’t worth a dog or an ass.”

῾Η μὲν οὖν μέλιττα φυσικῶς ἐν τοῖς δριμυτάτοις ἄνθεσι καὶ ταῖς τραχυτάταις ἀκάνθαις ἐξανευρίσκει τὸ λειότατον μέλι καὶ χρηστικώτατον, οἱ δὲ παῖδες, ἂν ὀρθῶς ἐντρέφωνται τοῖς ποιήμασιν, καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν φαύλους καὶ ἀτόπους ὑποψίας ἐχόντων ἕλκειν τι χρήσιμον ἁμωσγέπως μαθήσονται καὶ ὠφέλιμον. αὐτίκα γοῦν ὕποπτός ἐστιν ὁ ᾿Αγαμέμνων ὡς διὰ δωροδοκίαν ἀφεὶς τῆς στρατείας τὸν πλούσιον ἐκεῖνον τὸν τὴν Αἴθην χαρισάμενον αὐτῷ

δῶρ’, ἵνα μή οἱ ἕποιθ’ ὑπὸ ῎Ιλιον ἠνεμόεσσαν
ἀλλ’ αὐτοῦ τέρποιτο μένων· μέγα γάρ οἱ ἔδωκεν
Ζεὺς ἄφενος.

ὀρθῶς δέ γ’ ἐποίησεν, ὡς ᾿Αριστοτέλης φησίν, ἵππον ἀγαθὴν ἀνθρώπου τοιούτου προτιμήσας· οὐδὲ γὰρ κυνὸς ἀντάξιος οὐδ’ ὄνου μὰ Δία δειλὸς ἀνὴρ καὶ ἄναλκις, ὑπὸ πλούτου καὶ μαλακίας διερρυηκώς.

The Latin title of this poem is quomodo adulescens poetas audire debeat for the Greek title ΠΩΣ ΔΕΙ ΤΟΝ ΝΕΟΝ ΠΟΙΗΜΑΤΩΝ ΑΚΟΥΕΙΝ. The emphasis on how the young should read poetry is usually lost and probably for good enough reasons since the basic reflections on reading are not only for the young. But, caveat lector, this is not a textbook for children!

Ovid, Heroides 8.105-116 (Hermione Writes to Orestes)

January 4, 2015 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ 1 Comment

“When the Titan pushes higher his shining stallions,
I enjoy more freedom in my miserable sadness;
When night hides me wailing and weeping
In my bedroom, and I have stretched out on a hateful bed,
My eyes fill with swelling tears instead of sleep
And I retreat from my husband as I would from an enemy.
I am often this thunderstruck and unmindful of place
after I have touched Scyrian limbs with an ignorant hand.
But when I understand the sin, I leave the body touched by evil
And I know that I have unclean hands.
Often, Orestes’ name leaves my mouth instead of Neoptolemus
And an error of speech is the omen I love.”

cum tamen altus equis Titan radiantibus instant,
perfruor infelix liberiore malo;
nox ubi me thalamis ululantem et acerba gementem
condidit in maesto procubuique toro,
pro somno lacrimis oculi funguntur obortis
quaque licet fugio sicut ab hoste viro.
saepe malis stupeo rerumque oblita locique
ignara tetigi Scyria membra manu;
utque nefas sensi, male corpora tacta relinquo
et mihi pollutas credor habere manus.
saepe Neoptolemi pro nomine nomen Orestis
exit, et errorem vocis ut omen amo.

Hermione, daughter of Helen and Menelaos, was in some accounts married to Neoptolemus (Achilles’ son) even though Orestes (her cousin and son of Agamemnon) loved her. The conflict between Orestes and Neoptolemus over her, a sort of proxy for the strife between their fathers, continues in most accounts until Orestes arranges for the murder of his adversary. In this poem, Hermione writes to her cousin from her unhappy marriage with Neoptolemus (Scyrian, because he was born on Scyrus!).