by Jack Lindsay
By 750 the need for land was causing discontent, as we see from Hesiod. The Greeks never lost the feeling that the land should be equally divided out; and the demand for such a division was for centuries liable to become a revolutionary slogan. The ruling class had as their main policy the obstruction or diversion of such a demand. (There was a belief that once far back the equal division had existed; whether or not this was correct or was a dream picture of lost tribal fraternities need not concern us. As an emotion the conviction was potent.) One way out from the cramping situation was to become a sea-merchant dealing in metals and luxuries. Trade led to outposts in new lands east and west, and then to extensive planting of colonies. Thus Corinth founded Syracuse and colonized Kerkyra (Corfu), and many new towns were built up in Sicily and South Italy. Kyrene in North Africa was settled from the Dorian island of Thera, then by other Greeks from all over the Aegean. Colonizers spread north into the Troad and then round the Black Sea in the seventh century. Al-mina was a colony in North Syria, Naukratis in Egypt. There were few colonies after 500.
In ceramic art the Geometric style lasted through the ninth and eighth centuries, reaching its height with the new prosperous Greece of strong city-states and far-travelling merchants. By the early eighth century artists introduced figure decoration; by mid-century human forms appeared in scenes of some complexity; by the end of the period the rigid silhouette loosened.
In the generations following Homer, six more epics were com-posed to complete the tale of the Trojan War: the Cypria, which led on to the Iliad, the Aithiopis, the Little Iliad, the Sack of Troy, and the Returns, which led on to the Odyssey with the Telegony to complete the tale of Odysseus and his family. Our main source of information about these cyclical epics is the summary made by Proklos, who may have been a grammarian of the Antonine Age or the learned Neoplatonist who died in AD 584. As far as we can judge, the poets lacked the aesthetic and moral unity, the force and depth of Homer, though at times they tried to imitate him. Here we are concerned with them only in so far as they amplify the story of Helen, and we can treat them as a single group, mainly of the seventh century, by which time writing was widely spread in the Aegean. The full cycle may not have been completed till the mid-sixth century; when they were collected is obscure.[92]
The Cypria was far the most important of the group for our purposes. The poet to whom it was most often attributed, Stasinos, was called Homer’s son-in-law. It began with an explanation of the causes of the war.
Zeus plans with Themis to bring about the Trojan War. Eris [Strife] turns up while the gods are feasting at the marriage of Peleus. She starts a dispute between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, as to which of them is the most beautiful. The trio are led by Hermes at Zeus’ command to Alexandros on Mt Ida for his decision; and Alexandros, lured by marriage with Helen, selects Aphrodite.[93]
Thetis, sea-goddess, was marrying the hero Peleus, who had mastered her despite her shape-shifting. Pindar knew the version that both Poseidon and Zeus wooed her; but Themis declared that her son would be more illustrious than his father, so the two gods gave her up.[94] The Iliad says that she refused Zeus because she had been reared by Hera; so he married her off to a mortal.
Themis who appears in relation to Zeus’ Plan was another of the goddesses expressing man’s relation to his fellows; she was later abstracted as Law, Justice, Right. Her name is cognate with the Old English Doom, a customary and settled relationship or position (later turning into law proper and its decisions). Ordinances or oracles of the gods, or traditional dooms, were themistes, which held society together. Themis was the spirit presiding over the whole mass of particular themistes, giving them coherence, uniting them with the life of man. At Troizen there was a plural form, the Themides. In Homer Themis convened and dissolved the assembly, and she ruled over the feast; she was thus the spirit of the two most important times when men got together, arranged their lives, and enjoyed themselves. As ruler of the equal feast, she was one of the dividers or distributors like the daimones.[95] In the text of Proklos the councillor of Zeus is given as Thetis, an obvious slip of a copyist for Themis, who also had a prophetic role and was linked with Nemesis (whom we shall soon consider). Plato, in objections to any suggestion by poets that the gods plotted or abetted evil deeds, says:
If anyone asserts that the violation of oaths and treaties of which Pandaros was the author, was brought about by Athene and Zeus, we’ll refuse our approval; nor can we allow it to be said that the strife and trial of strength between the gods was instigated by Themis and Zeus.[96]
A scholiast cites the passage from the Cypria giving the reason for Zeus’ Plan: ‘There was a time when the countless tribes of men, though scattered about, oppressed the breadth of the deep-bosomed earth. Zeus saw it and pitied, and out of his wise heart he resolved to relieve all-fostering earth of men by causing the great struggle of the Ilian War, so that the weight of death might empty the world. Then at Troy the heroes were killed and the Plan of Zeus was fulfilled.’ Proklos only says that Zeus held discussions with Themis; the scholiast adds that Zeus first caused the Theban War, then meditated destruction by fire from heaven and by water, but Momos prevented him, persuading him to ‘marry Thetis to a mortal and to produce a girl of great beauty. These two means would provoke war between Greeks and Barbarians. From that moment earth was solaced as a result of the great number of dead men.’ (Zeus is mentioned in a fragment of the Cypria, probably at the interview of Nestor and Menelaos after the rape. Nestor speaks: ‘Zeus, the author who brought all this about, you don’t want to name; where there’s fear, there’s also restraint’ — aidōs.)[97]
Momos seems an odd character to come into such a serious discussion, but, personifying criticism and censure, he was said to be Zeus’ confidant; and we later are told that of all the gods he held Aphrodite alone blameless.[98] Hesiod’s Theogony gives him a weighty place among the children of Night: — Doom and black Fate (Kēr), Death, Sleep and the tribe of Dreams, Momos and agonizing Grief, the Hesperides, the Moirai and the Keres, Nemesis, Deceit, Friendship, hateful Age, and ruthless Strife (Eris). Sophokles wrote a satyric drama Momos, apparently the preface to Eris and Krisis which dealt with the Quarrel and the Judgement of Paris.[99] The Cypria gives no explanation as to why Eris turns up at the marriage feast; later versions made her act out of pique at not being invited — just like the bad fairy or witch in many folktales, eg the Sleeping Beauty.[100]
We see that already the idea of a war waged simply for Helen’s sake, with the result of the breakdown of a whole civilization, is not felt to be adequate. Some grander and more philosophic cause is needed. The encyclopaedic spirit of the age and the effects of Ionian rationality are at work on the poets. Such a set of events is felt to need as its basis a clear assertion of the will of a supreme god, with a sound reason behind it. Zeus supplants Aphrodite as the prime agent of the seduction; we see thus the first corrosion of faith in the magical force of Helen’s beauty and in Aphrodite’s power.[101]
The theme of a high god deciding to destroy mankind has a wide distribution. It appears in the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh, in the literature of India and Egypt, and many other regions; in ancient Greece it further appears in the tale of Deukalion and the Flood. It is well known to Hesiod, who in Works tells how Zeus wiped out the race of silver for failing to honour the Olympians; indeed his whole concept of a series of races implies successive destructions and creations.
Homer is much concerned with the will of Zeus, but not in terms of a cut-and-dried scheme such as the Cypria gives. In general he sees the god’s will directed to increase the glory of Achilles and Helen; for the rest its operation is complex. Ancient commentators often looked back on the Iliad with the Cypria in mind, so that the school of Aristarchos had difficulty in distinguishing the Will of Zeus in the Iliad from the later interpretations. In those we find the Will taken as Destiny (among Stoics) or identified with the sacred prophetic Oak of Dodona. The boule or boulai of Zeus becomes a common term or i
dea in epical and hymnic poetry, without any reference to the legends of the Cypria.[102]
Proklos does not suggest that the Cypria explained why the three goddesses found Paris on Mt Ida; but the plan of Zeus, aimed at provoking war between Troy and mainland Greece, explains why the umpire is a Trojan prince. No apple of discord is mentioned. ‘Then Alexandros builds his ships at Aphrodite’s suggestion and Helenos foretells the future to him and Aphrodite bids Aineias sail with him, while Kassandra prophesies what will happen afterwards. Alexandros next lands in Lakedaimon and is entertained by the sons of Tyndareos [the Dioskouroi] and then by Menelaos in Sparta, where in the course of the feast he gives gifts to Helen. After that Menelaos sets sail for Crete, bidding Helen supply the guests with all they require till their departure. Meanwhile Aphrodite brings Helen and Alexandros together, and after their copulation they put very great ktēmata aboard and set sail by night. Hera raises a storm against them and they are carried to Sidon, where Alexandros takes the city. From there he sails to Troy and celebrates his marriage with Helen.’[103]
The Cypria here disagrees with the Odyssey, which sets the first mating on Kranae. It explains why Paris went to Sidon, but adds a war exploit which seems to contradict the Odyssey’s remarks about presents from the king there. (The late Diktys of Crete elaborates the episode. Paris, driven to Cypros, sails with some ships to Sidon where the king entertains him; he treacherously murders his host and sacks the palace; in his retreat he is attacked by the Sidonians, but escapes with the loss of two ships. Here Paris reduplicates his role as guest who betrays his host.) But Herodotos tells us that the Cypria recounted how ‘Alexandros came to Ilion from Sparta in three days, enjoying a favourable wind and calm sea’. He may have had a different version of the Cypria from that used by Proklos (or his authorities), or the episode of Sidon may have been later interpolated to make the Cypria harmonize with the Homeric references to Sidonian gifts.
Proklos goes on: ‘In the meantime, Kastor and Polydeukes, stealing the cattle of Idas and Lynkeus, were caught in the act, and Kastor was killed by Idas, and Idas and Lynkeus by Polydeukes. Zeus gave them each immortality on alternate days. Iris next informs Menelaos of what has happened at his home [oikos]. Menelaos returns and plans an expedition against Ilion with his brother, then goes to Nestor. Nestor in a digression tells how Epopeus was destroyed after seducing Lykos’ daughter, the tale of Oidipous, the madness of Herakles, and the tale of Theseus and Ariadne. Then they travel over Hellas and gather the leaders, detecting Odysseus when he pretends to be mad, not wanting to join the expedition, by seizing his son for punishment at the suggestion of Palamedes.’[104]
We have two lines of the Cypria: ‘Kastor was mortal and the fate of death was destined for him; but Polydeukes, scion of Ares, was immortal.’ The Cypria may well have mentioned the tale of Helen as a young girl being carried off by Theseus; her brothers attacked and sacked Aphidna in Attika, where Kastor was wounded in the thigh by King Aphidnos; failing to find Helen, they sacked Athens. Ploutarch cites some epic lines about Alykos: ‘In spacious Aphidna Theseus killed him in battle for Helen with her fine hair.’ But there seems no link between the cattle raid of the twins and their attack on Aphidna. There, they rescued Helen and captured Theseus’ mother, Aithra, who became Helen’s attendant and went with her to Troy. (The Athenians tried to explain the episode away by saying that Theseus was absent at the time.) The rape of Helen by Theseus, it has been said, suggests a forcible ravishment by Paris in the original version of her departure; but if there ever was such a primitive account, it has been obliterated by the stress on the roles of Aphrodite and Zeus.
Proklos goes on to say that the fleet gathered at Aulis, put to sea, and lost its way. The Achaians sacked Teuthrania in mistake for Troy, then were scattered by a storm. They re-gathered at Aulis, where Agamemnon, hunting, shot a stag and boasted that he surpassed Artemis. The goddess sent contrary winds and he had to sacrifice his daughter Iphigeneia to her. But Artemis snatched the girl away to the Tauroi, making her immortal and putting a stag in her place. (Euripides based his play on the Cypria.) At last the Achaians, landing at Troy, sent envoys to demand Helen and her treasure. Refused, they attacked the town and wasted the countryside. ‘After that, Achilles wants to see Helen, and Aphrodite and Thetis [his mother] contrive a meeting between them.’ (Achilles had been too young to be suitor of Helen, but may well have wanted to see the woman for whom the war was being fought.) He gets Briseis as a prize and Agamemnon gets Chryseis. Then comes the plan of Zeus ‘to relieve the Trojans by detaching Achilles from the Hellenic Confederacy’.[105]
A scholiast tells us that the Cypria ‘says Helen’s third child was Pleisthenes and she took him with her to Cypros, and the child she bore Alexandros was Aganos’. This multiplication of her children erodes the Homeric picture.[106] But the most striking addition to the tradition by the Cypria was the account of Helen’s birth. Nemesis is her mother. The poet writes: ‘After them [? the Dioskouroi] she bore a third child Helen, a wonder to men. Once lovely-haired Nemesis, mated in love with Zeus by overpowering necessity, gave her birth. Nemesis tried to escape. She didn’t want to mate with her father Zeus, son of Kronos. Shame and indignation [nemesis] vexed her mind. So she fled from him over the land and the dark water that knows no harvest. But Zeus still pursued. He longed in his heart to catch her. Now over the waves of roaring pouring sea, now over the Ocean’s stream and the bounds of the earth as a fish she sped across the enormous sea, now over the furrowed land, always turning to such dread creatures as dry land nurtures, so that she might escape him.’
We have already met shape-shifting in the episode of Menelaos and the prophetic old man of the sea, and in that of the wooing of Thetis. Whether or not the Cypria told of the latter episode (which it might well have done in view of the importance of Thetis’ marriage in its scheme), the mating of Zeus and Nemesis has its clear parallelism with that of Thetis and Peleus. One mating begets the great heroine of the Trojan War, the other its great hero, Achilles. The shape-shifting motif is particularly alive in shamanist cultures such as the Siberian, and gives a mythical expression of the shaman’s possessed experience of a spirit flight through the elements. Thus the Kalmuk hero Karacha runs off with Joloi’s wife, chased by his own wife Ak Sakal:
But Karacha turned his steed and escaped the hands of Ak Sakal
before Sakal turned her horse that blackwinged heroic steed
has become a blue dove, soared aloft and flown away.
But at once the brown horse became a blue falcon,
struck it from the rear, swooping from heaven aloft.
Prince Karacha now afresh became a red fox
and hid himself in a forest, and the horse became a black vulture
and swooped down from above and so pierced the forest,
his feathers fluttering in the air. Yet again the other escaped
and became a white fish and sped plunging through the water.
The horse became a beaver, dived after him to the bottom of the water,
siezed him on the bottom of the water and so at last Ak Sakal
seized Karacha the prince.[107]
Here then in the Cypria is the first of our sources to mention Helen’s mother, and she turns out to be Nemesis, not Leda. One point which strongly argues for Nemesis as the original mother is the fact that her shape-shifting, her birdflight through the air, readily explains the idea that Helen was born from an egg. Between the Nemesis tale and the story of swan-Zeus embracing Leda there seems a transitional form in which the egg of Nemesis is brought to Leda. Thus Apollodoros, seeking to conflate various legends, begins by saying that swan-Zeus copulated with Leda and that on the same night Tyndareos lay with her, so that she bore Polydeukes and Helen to Zeus, Kastor and Klytemnaistra to her husband. But he adds: ‘Some say that Helen was a daughter of Nemesis and Zeus. She, fleeing from Zeus’ embrace, changed herself to a goose, but Zeus then took the likeness of a swan, and so mated with her. As a result of their copul
ation she laid an egg. A certain shepherd found it in a grove and gave it to Leda. She put it in a chest and kept it; and when in due time Helen was hatched out, Leda brought her up as her daughter.’[108]
With Nemesis we are back with the fate-goddesses variously represented by the Moirai, Erinyes and in some respects Themis. We must not consider such deities as personifications gradually made into goddesses; rather the reverse is true. Homer does his best to remove the vital elements of divinity from them, since his Ionian attitudes make him the partisan of the Olympians against the old earthmother cults. The more the fate-mothers were formalized as minor figures of justice or retribution, the more they became servants of the Olympians, with no large demands of their own.
Later we shall deal with Nemesis as a goddess; but here we must note how her name belongs to the same category as daimōn and moira. It comes from nemein, to share, deal out, dispose; Homer uses the verb in particular of meat and drink. Nemein is used of the gods. Nausikaa tells Odysseus: ‘It’s Zeus himself the Olympian that allots [nemei] good fortune to men, both the good and the bad, to each man at his will; to you he has given these things and you must endure them.’ Apollonios Rhodios speaks of the Nymphs of the Land, Chthoniai, ‘who share out [enemonto] Libya among themselves’. Also the Odyssey uses nemein of herdsmen grazing flocks, giving each beast its share of pasture. Plato writes of sharing out ‘enough land for pasture and tillage’. The cognate word nemēsis is used of land division. Homer, we saw, used nemesis to denote moral indignation roused at the sight of undeserved good or bad fortune: the wrong sort of share. In time it came to mean an avenging justice. Themis, in turn, had the same root as tithemai: to set or lay down. Dikē originally meant the ‘showing’ or ‘indicating’ of the requirements of themis; and we can probably trace here again the idea of definition by limits, with dikē at the outset signifying boundary or mark. Once again we come back to the share in land as the share in life, and to the problem of defining the limits of a man’s (rightful) share.[109]
