#arcesilaus

[putridintercourse]

arcesilaus - chainsaw mastication

[babyrdie]

PERSEUS & CIA (PART 2)

Parte 1 here! Part 3 here!

ANDROMEDA

Euripides wrote a play entitled Andromeda about Perseus' rescue of Andromeda, but the play is lost. From the surviving fragments, it’s possible to learn a few things. For example, Perseus, while passing through the region, initially thought the chained Andromeda was a statue. Although he wasn’t in love yet (because he thought it was just a statue), he praised the supposed "artwork", which indicates that Perseus found Andromeda beautiful.

But ah, what hill is this I see, with sea-foam flowing round, and what image of a girl in chiseled stone that perfectly renders her form, the beautiful product of an artful hand?

Fragment 125. Translation by John Gibert.

Perseus asked Andromeda if she would repay him for saving her, and Andromeda promised that she would be whatever he wanted, whether as a slave or as a wife, as long as he saved her. Which gives me the impression that, in Euripides' version, as soon as Perseus realized that Andromeda was a woman and not a statue, he thought of saving her with the intention of having her marry him in return. The fact that Andromeda even offered to be a slave in exchange for being saved shows how desperately she wanted to live.

[...] and when he became much attached to him Crantor asked him, quoting a line out of the Andromeda of Euripides:— O virgin, if I save you, will you thank me? And he replied by quoting the next line to it:— Andromeda: O take me to you, stranger, as your slave, Or wife, or what you please.

Life of Arcesilaus, III. Translation by C. D. Yonge.

In John Gibert's translation, Perseus's question is “Maiden, if I should save you, will you show me gratitude?” and Andromeda's answer is “Take me, stranger, whether for servant, wife, or slave”.

There are other fragments, but I didn't put them here because I read them in a Brazilian translation (translation by Clara Lacerda Crepaldi) because the English translation of all the fragments is paid and I won't pay anything in dollars, so instead I'll summarize what was said. It's a bit complicated to know who's speaking, though. Anyone who's read an ancient Greek play knows that it's often the Chorus speaking and not the main characters, which makes things more confusing in cases of fragmented plays. Anyway, here:

The play seems to take place at night, as there are references to night. Andromeda, for example, admires the stars. In more than one fragment, Andromeda laments the situation she is in, about to be devoured by a monster. She doesn’t understand what she did to deserve this misfortune and compares herself to a pasture. One fragment suggests that Andromeda isn’t only lamenting out loud, but also crying. In addition, she mentions the chains. 

Andromeda talks about her friends and also talks to the nymph Echo, who is present in this play and is apparently in a cave. One fragment is apparently Echo repeating Andromeda's last word, which is "Olympus." Andromeda believes that it is better to mourn with friends. The Chorus emphasizes the absurdity of the situation, saying that Cepheus has no mercy and fathered a daughter only to send her to Hades for the sake of the country. The Chorus says this after Andromeda asks them to mourn with her, as the relief is greater when mourning together. Perhaps the Chorus were friends of Andromeda? I really don’t know for sure.

Perseus flies in on Hermes' sandals and mistakes Andromeda for a beautifully crafted statue, but eventually realizes that she’s a living woman. He tells her that he feels sorry for her seeing her like this. Andromeda asks Perseus to have mercy, Perseus asks if she will show gratitude, and Andromeda offers to be his servant, slave, or wife. At some point, what appears to be Perseus says that he doesn’t cause misfortunes to others because he fears that those misfortunes will come back to him. Someone I assume is Andromeda tells someone else, who I assume is Perseus, not to make her cry by giving her vain hopes since the future is uncertain. There is a comment from someone about how afflictions are sweet once they’re overcome. Someone, I assume Perseus, says that he has achieved fame but not without afflictions. There is a line about a person being more instigated by audacity and youth than by reason. More comments about the future. Eros is invoked to either dispel love (it is said more in the sense of not making the beautiful seem beautiful) or else to help both. Comments about love and lines that seem flirtatious. Someone, I imagine Perseus, is forbidden by another person to have bastard children because, although they’re worth as much as legitimate children, they aren’t treated the same way. One person says that the other is blessed to have money because a rich person is honored by others, but the answer is that although they have money they aren’t blessed in circumstances. I imagine the person answering is Andromeda, because she’s rich and is in a horrible situation.

The sea monster is spotted by someone, who is certainly not Andromeda (as she is referred to in the third person. Maybe it's the Chorus? They usually narrate things like that). After the monster's defeat, the people of Aethiopia appear bringing gifts and apparently the monster's defeat is celebrated. More comments about the future, destiny and luck. Finally, some trade is being made.

Parts of this play have also been preserved in the Suda, a Byzantine encyclopedia, including: the dialogue in which Perseus asks if there will be gratitude (passage epsiloniota, 258) and Andromeda makes the proposal (passage alpha, 1367), part of Andromeda's lament (passage alphaiota, 245), a phrase related to the sky (passage alphaiota, 122), a phrase related to chariot-ride (passage iota, 531), etc.

It’s theorized that this was probably the first PLAY to depict a man falling in love with a woman IN THE MOMENT OF PASSION. I’m not talking about poems and I’m not talking about a man loving a woman, I am talking about a play specifically showing the exact moment in which he fell in love and this was apparently a very important theme of the play. It’s also commented that perhaps Perseus' entrance was an innovative detail, since apparently he appears flying with Hermes' sandals.

In Lycophron's Alexandra, Cassandra mentions this episode when telling how, in the towers of Cepheus (Aethiopia), a petrel (the monster) went in search of a woman (Andromeda), but came across “the eagle son of the golden sire – a male with winged sandals” (Perseus) and was killed by him.

[...] And he shall visit the towers of Cepheus and the place that was kicked by the foot of Hermes Laphrios, and the two rocks on which the petrel leapt in quest of food, but carried off in his jaws, instead of a woman, the eagle son of the golden Sire – a male with winged sandals who destroyed his liver [...]

Alexandra. Translation by A.W. Mair.

Tzetzes, in his scholia of Lycophron, gave more details. He says that Cassiopeia compared herself in beauty to Hera or the Nereids and she/they asked Poseidon to send a sea monster, which he did. Having consulted an oracle about what to do to save Aethiopia, King Cepheus offered his daughter Andromeda to be devoured by the monster and, for this purpose, bound her with chains. Perseus, after killing Medusa, was passing by and felt sorry for Andromeda, so he petrified the monster. After rescuing Andromeda, he married her. As far as I remember, this is the only version I've read that had Hera in the story.

"And the two rocks"; Andromeda is the daughter of Cepheus, the king of the Ethiopians, and Cassiepeia. When Cassiepeia was arguing about beauty with Hera or according to others with the Nereids, Poseidon sent a sea monster at their request, which was ravaging Ethiopia. Cepheus, after an oracle was given, offered his daughter Andromeda to be devoured by the monster and bound her with iron chains to a rock near the city of Ethiopia, Joppa. At that time, Perseus, having just beheaded the Gorgon, was passing through these places and, taking pity on Andromeda, he showed the head of the Gorgon to the monster and at the same time drawing his sickle, he turned part of the monster into stone and cut off the rest, and having rescued the girl, he married her. That the events concerning Andromeda took place near Joppa is testified by Aristeides (sch. hyp. t. t. 208 3), Libanius (IV 1109 R), Procopius (I 19 p. 100 20), Josephus (b. J. III 420); and someone of them says: "The city of Joppa, the prison of Andromeda", another again says that "there Io, having defeated Argos, became a human". The kepphos is a winged sea creature, hunted with foam, but now by misuse kepphos is said to be the sea monster.

Ad Lycophronem, 836.

He also interpreted that by implying that Perseus destroyed the monster's liver, Lycophron used the story of Heracles killing the sea monster at Troy, which had come to devour the princess Hesione, to compose the myth of Perseus. Tzetzes then claims that this is nonsense, since Perseus wasn’t swallowed like Heracles.

[...] “Liver-worker," because just as Heracles was consumed by the sea monster, so too was Perseus swallowed by the sea monster, which gnawed at his liver and he escaped and saved Andromeda. "Winged-sandaled" because of the winged sandals on his feet. He babbles, he prattles, not knowing what he writes, as also "liver-worker"; for the sea monster did not swallow Perseus as it did Heracles. It seems, however, that Lycophron, drunk with the luxuries and gifts of Ptolemy, transferred the story of Heracles and the sea monster according to Hesiod to Perseus and Andromeda. [...]

Ad Lycophronem, 839.

He also says that Phineus, Andromeda's fiance and uncle, plotted to kill him but Perseus petrified him.

He turned Phineus, the brother of Cepheus who was betrothed to Andromeda and plotted against him, into stone by showing him the Gorgon.

Ad Lycophronem, 838.

Furthermore, the Suda says that Lycophron of Chalcis apparently wrote a tragedy called “Andromeda.” Perhaps it is on that theme?

of Chalcis in Euboea; son of Socles, and by adoption of Lycus of Rhegium. Grammarian and tragic poet; he is one of the seven who are named the Pleiad. His tragedies are: Aeolus; Andromeda; Aletes; Aeolides; Elephenor; Heracles; Suppliants; Hippolytus; Cassandreis; Laius; Marathonians; Nauplius; Oedipus (1 and 2); Orphan; Pentheus; Pelopidae; Allies; Telegonus; Chrysippus. Of these, the Nauplius is a revision. He also wrote the so-called Alexandra, the obscure poem.

Suda, lambda,827. Translation by Malcolm Heath.

According to Hyginus, Andromeda's mother Cassiopeia boasted that her daughter was more beautiful than the Nereids. This offended Poseidon, who ordered the Aethiopians to offer Andromeda as a sacrifice to the sea monster he was about to send. Perseus was passing by, flying with Hermes' sandals, and seeing her there decided to rescue her. Perseus wanted to marry Andromeda, but her father and fiancé did not want this and planned to kill him. He heard about this, killed them both using the Gorgon's head, and left with Andromeda. Interestingly, I think this is the only version where I saw Cepheus actively try to stop the marriage in such a cunning/violent way.

Cassiope claimed that her daughter Andromeda's beauty excelled the Nereids'. Because of this, Neptune demanded that Andromeda, Cepheus' daughter, be offered to a sea-monster. When she was offered, Perseus, flying on Mercury's winged sandals, is said to have come there and freed her from danger. When he wanted to marry her, Cepheus, her father, along with Agenor, her betrothed, planned to kill him. Perseus, discovering the plot, showed them the head of the Gorgon, and all were changed from human form into stone. Perseus with Andromeda returned to his country. [...]

Fabulae, 64. Translation by Mary Grant.

He also tells that both Cassiopeia and Cepheus tried to dissuade Andromeda, but she still wanted to marry Perseus.

[...] Nor did he receive less kindness from her in return for his good deed. For neither her father Cepheus nor her mother Cassiepia could dissuade her from following Perseus, leaving parents and country. About her Euripides has written a most excellent play with her name as title.

Astronomica, 2.11.1. Translation by Mary Grant.

Pausanias also mentions the myth in which Perseus rescues Andromeda while explaining why the water in a region was red, reporting that a local tradition said that it became that color because Perseus washed off the blood in the spring. The fact that Perseus had to wash off the blood makes me wonder if the monster's defeat was different here, whereas in the more usual tradition he was simply petrified and not attacked.

[4.35.9] [...] Red water, in color like blood, is found in the land of the Hebrews near the city of Joppa. The water is close to the sea, and the account which the natives give of the spring is that Perseus, after destroying the sea-monster, to which the daughter of Cepheus was exposed, washed off the blood in the spring.

Description of Greece, 4.35.9. Translation by W.H.S. Jones.

According to Pseudo-Apollodorus, Cassiopeia boasted that she was more beautiful than the Nereids, which offended both the Nereids and Poseidon. Poseidon then sent a flood and a monster to invade Aethiopia, but Ammon predicted that this could be avoided if Andromeda were used as a sacrifice. Cepheus was then forced by the people to do so. When Perseus appeared, he fell in love with Andromeda and told Cepheus that he would save them as long as Andromeda was given to him as a wife. Promise made, Perseus killed the monster and freed Andromeda. However, her fiancé and uncle, Phineus, plotted Perseus's death because he wanted Andromeda to marry him. The plot was discovered, and both he and his accomplices were turned to stone by Perseus, who used Medusa's head.

[...] Being come to Ethiopia, of which Cepheus was king, he found the king's daughter Andromeda set out to be the prey of a sea monster. For Cassiepea, the wife of Cepheus, vied with the Nereids in beauty and boasted to be better than them all; hence the Nereids were angry, and Poseidon, sharing their wrath, sent a flood and a monster to invade the land. But Ammon having predicted deliverance from the calamity if Cassiepea's daughter Andromeda were exposed as a prey to the monster, Cepheus was compelled by the Ethiopians to do it, and he bound his daughter to a rock. When Perseus beheld her, he loved her and promised Cepheus that he would kill the monster, if he would give him the rescued damsel to wife. These terms having been sworn to, Perseus withstood and slew the monster and released Andromeda. However, Phineus, who was a brother of Cepheus, and to whom Andromeda had been first betrothed, plotted against him; but Perseus discovered the plot, and by showing the Gorgon turned him and his fellow conspirators at once into stone. [...]

Library, 2.4.3. Translation by J.G. Frazer.

Sophocles wrote a lost play entitled Andromeda on this subject. Here, I once again resorted to Brazilian texts written in colleges and made available for free because they are part of the published thesis, since it was getting boring to look for the plot of the fragments in English. The writer of the moment is Wilson Alves Ribeiro Jr. Ribeiro contextualizes that the date of the play is uncertain and it is not possible to be sure whether Sophocles or Euripides wrote a play entitled “Andromeda” first. It is theorized that in an Attic cranium with a white background by the Phyalian Painter, dated 440-435 BC, currently preserved in Akragas, in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, there is a scene that possibly corresponds to a representation of Sophocles’ Andromeda, more precisely to the moment when Perseus finds Andromeda tied to the rock. There is a scripture that identifies Perseus as Euaeon/Evaíon, son of Aeschylus. Euaeon/Evaíon was an actor, so it is quite apparent that this painting specifically depicted the performance of a play based on the myth, and the actor playing Perseus was Euaeon/Evaíon.

As for the fragments, ten short fragments survive. The beginning of the play shows Cepheus and his entourage chaining Andromeda to a rock. Imprisoned, Andromeda mourns either with her mother Cassiopeia or alone. When Andromeda is alone, Perseus appears and sees her. He makes a deal with Cepheus to marry her in exchange for saving her, defeats Phineus — it’s theorized that the outcome of the contest may have been announced by a messenger, as is typical of plays —, and leaves with Andromeda. The play seems to use Perseus as a Greek model of bravery while Phineus is a “barbarian” model of cowardice. In one of the surviving fragments (frag 126) someone says that Andromeda was chosen as a sacrifice by the polis because the “barbarians” had the custom of sacrificing people to Cronus since ancient times.

Philostratus in Imagines described paintings, which we can't be sure actually existed or whether Philostratus invented them for literary convenience. In any case, one of them depicted Perseus rescuing Andromeda. The description is extensive, so I'll give it a brief description, but you can read it here in Arthur Fairbanks' translation. The monster is already dead and bleeding profusely, which Philostratus says is the reason the sea is red. The winged god Eros, here a young man (which the author points out is unusual. Philostratus was from the Roman period, by the way), helps free Andromeda from her chains. Perseus is said to have asked Eros for help in defeating the monster, which he did. Perseus himself is hiding Medusa's head, fearing that he might accidentally petrify someone because there are Aethiopians in the scene who show up to offer Perseus things. Both Perseus and Andromeda are emphasized by their beauty, and they look at each other while Andromeda seems to feel a mixture of feelings: fear, incredulity and relief. I got the impression that the monster's defeat here was different. In addition to Eros's interference in the monster's defeat — Eros was in some visual representations, but usually to symbolize the erotic desire between Perseus and Andromeda and not to kill the monster —, the monster is bleeding. How would it bleed while being petrified? It's different from most other fonts, but I don't think it's different enough to be an alternative myth.

This myth has also been represented in visual art, for example: 1, 2, 3.

Alternative myth

Conon tells a rationalized version of the myth that is quite different from the usual one. Here, Andromeda was not under threat of death from a monster sent by Poseidon, but thought she had been kidnapped by one of her suitors and cried out for help (her father had approved, but decided not to tell her. So she didn't know that it was, like, supposedly a legitimate betrothal). Perseus happened to be traveling there by coincidence (he wasn't returning from Medusa thing) and, taking pity on Andromeda's screams, saved her. Andromeda then married Perseus.

The 40th story tells the history of Andromeda quite differently from the myth of the Greeks. Two brothers were born, Kepheus and Phineas, and the kingdom of Kepheus is what is later renamed Phoenicia but at the time was called Ioppa, taking its name from Ioppe the seaside city. And the borders of his realm ran from our sea [the Mediterranean] up to the Arabs who live on the Red Sea. Kepheus has a very fair daughter Andromeda, and Phoinix woos her and so does Phineas the brother of Kepheus. Kepheus decides after much calculation on both sides to give her to Phoinix but, by having the suitor kidnap her, conceal that it was intentional. Andromeda was snatched from a desert islet where she was accustomed to go and sacrifice to Aphrodite. When Phoinix kidnapped her in a ship (which was called Ketos [sea monster], whether by chance or because it had a likeness to the animal), Andromeda began screaming, assuming she was being kidnapped without her father's knowledge, and called for help with groans. Perseus the son of Danae by some daimonic chance was sailing by, and at first sight of the girl, was overcome by pity and love. He destroyed the ship Sea Monster and killed those aboard, who were only surprised, not actually turned to stone. And for the Greeks this became the sea monster of the myth and the people turned to stone by the Gorgon's head. So he makes Andromeda his wife and she sails with Perseus to Greece and they live in Argos where he becomes king.

Narrations, 40. Translation by Brady Kiesling.

And, as a continuation of that version of Suda in which Medusa is simply an ugly woman who Perseus kills, after he does so he marries Andromeda, who in this very alternative version was found in a temple.

[...] And from there he went into a country that was ruled by Cepheus and he found in the temple a virgin maiden called Andromeda, whom he married [...]

Suda, mu,406. Translation by Jennifer Bennedict.

RETURN TO SERIPHUS

Pindar describes Perseus petrifying the people of Seriphus (note that it is the people here. It isn’t Polydectes' friends, it’s actually Seriphus) when he returned in revenge for the slavery and rape Danae suffered because of Polydectes. This is the only source I have found that mentions slavery in any sense, and it’s also the only source in which Danae apparently actually was abused by Polydectes.

[...] when he did away with the third sister and brought death to sea-girt Seriphus and its people. Yes, he brought darkness on the monstrous race of Phorcus, and he repaid Polydectes with a deadly wedding-present for the long slavery of his mother and her forced bridal bed [...]

Pythian Ode 12. Translation by Diane Arnson Svarlien.

In Lycophron's Alexandra, there is what appears to be a reference to Perseus petrifying Polydectes and the people of Seriphus. It says "men" and not "man", so I think it’s unlikely that it refers to the version where only Polydectes was turned to stone.

[...] Fashioning men as statues from top to toe he shall envelop them in stone [...]

Alexandra. Translation by A.W. Mair.

According to Hyginus, when Perseus returned with Andromeda to Seriphus, Polydectes feared Perseus' power and attempted to kill him. However, Perseus discovered the plan and petrified him with the Gorgon's head.

[...] Perseus with Andromeda returned to his country. When Polydectes saw that Perseus was so courageous, he feared him and tried to kill him be treachery, but when Perseus discovered this he showed him the Gorgon's head, and he was changed from human form into stone.

Fabulae, 64. Translation by Mary Grant.

According to Pseudo-Apollodorus, when Perseus returned to Seriphus he discovered that Dictys and Danae had taken refuge at an altar to escape Polydectes. For context, the altar is a possible refuge because assaulting someone there could result in an offense to the guardian deity — examples: according to Pseudo-Apollodorus, Pelias, by killing Sidero inside the temple of Hera, displeased Hera, who purposefully planned Medea as his misfortune; In post-Homeric versions, Achilles, by killing Troilus inside Apollo's temple, caused the god to later kill him; Ajax the Lesser attacked Cassandra inside the temple of Athena, and on the way back was punished by the goddess; Neoptolemus, for having offended Apollo either intentionally or having offended his priests unintentionally, was killed by Orestes at Delphi. Anyway, Perseus went after Polydectes in his palace, where the king had gathered friends, and petrified everyone there. Afterwards, he made Dictys king of Seriphus and returned the gifts given to him by the gods, although he kept Medusa's head.

[2.4.4] [...] And having come to Seriphus he found that his mother and Dictys had taken refuge at the altars on account of the violence of Polydectes; so he entered the palace, where Polydectes had gathered his friends, and with averted face he showed the Gorgon's head; and all who beheld it were turned to stone, each in the attitude which he happened to have struck. Having appointed Dictys king of Seriphus, he gave back the sandals and the wallet (kibisis) and the cap to Hermes, but the Gorgon's head he gave to Athena. Hermes restored the aforesaid things to the nymphs and Athena inserted the Gorgon's head in the middle of her shield. 

Library, 2.4.4. Translation by J.G. Frazer.

Tzetzes says that Perseus went with Andromeda to Seriphus, where he discovered that Danae and Dictys had taken refuge in a temple because of Polydectes. Perseus then went to where Polydectes was holding a banquet and turned everyone to stone with the head of Medusa. After this, he gave the kingdom to Dictys and returned the divine gifts. He did not keep Medusa's head and instead gave it to the goddess Athena, who put Medusa on her shield. The "dog of Hades" is his cap, as it can also be referred to as the "dog-skin of Hades".

Perseus himself, with Andromeda, went to Seriphos. Finding his mother had taken refuge in the temple with Dictys because of Polydectes, he went to Polydectes' house and found a grand banquet. Showing them the Gorgon, he turned them all to stone. He gave the kingdom to Dictys, and Hermes took the sandals and the dog of Hades from him and gave them to their rightful owners. Perseus gave the head of the Gorgon to Athena, who fixed it in the middle of her shield. Others say that she fixed it on the ornament she wore on her chest, which is why it was called the Gorgonion from the Gorgon. [...]

Ad Lycophronem, 838.

Strabo says that in revenge for Polydectes trying to abuse Danae, Perseus turned all of Seriphus to stone with the head of Medusa.

[...] it is said, and when he brought the Gorgon's head there, he showed it to the Seriphians and turned them all into stone. This he did to avenge his mother, because Polydectes the king, with their cooperation, intended to marry his mother against her will. The island is so rocky that the comedians say that it was made thus by the Gorgon.

Geography, 10.5.10. Translation by H. L. Jones.

[dolphin1812]

Waterloo may be a digression, but Hugo’s giving it the feeling of having a plot by focusing on specific “characters” in this chapter. He still holds to his point on the overall chaos of battle by switching rapidly between them; the first paragraph alone covers various men and battalions, most of whom die suddenly within that very paragraph after being introduced. In addition to the randomness conveyed by this rapidity, Hugo specifies the unexpected ways in which many of them were killed as well. To offer just one example:

“A sergeant of the English Guards, the foremost boxer in England, reputed invulnerable by his companions, had been killed there by a little French drummer-boy.”

The “invulnerable” is suddenly killed at the hands of one who appears weak; experience and strength only offer so much protection against this form of carnage. 

This section honestly feels like parts of Homer’s Iliad (as well as the mythology around it). The “weak” killing someone “invulnerable” resembles Paris taking down Achilles after the events of the epic and towards the end of the Trojan War. Similarly, the “listing” of deaths is common in several books of the Iliad where the focus is less on the feats of individual characters than the totality of the war itself, with many of the fallen characters being given a brief description of their deaths at most. Some examples from this chapter are:

“ Baring had been dislodged, Alten put to the sword.”

“ out of three lieutenant-colonels, two lay on the earth,— Hamilton wounded, Mater slain. Ponsonby had fallen, riddled by seven lance-thrusts.”

And here’s an example from Butler’s translation of Book XV of the Iliad:

“ Hector killed Stichius and Arcesilaus, the one, leader of the Boeotians, and the other, friend and comrade of Menestheus. Aeneas killed Medon and Iasus. The first was bastard son to Oileus, and brother to Ajax, but he lived in Phylace away from his own country, for he had killed a man, a kinsman of his stepmother Eriopis whom Oileus had married. Iasus had become a leader of the Athenians, and was son of Sphelus the son of Boucolos. Polydamas killed Mecisteus, and Polites Echius, in the front of the battle, while Agenor slew Clonius. Paris struck Deiochus from behind in the lower part of the shoulder, as he was flying among the foremost, and the point of the spear went clean through him.”

There’s a similar trend of giving quick lists of deaths, with occasional background (”lieutenant-colonels” vs “leader of the Boeotians”) or information on how they died (”seven lance-thrusts,” “point of the spear”). Overall, it’s quite gruesome and monotonous, making the battle as a whole feel senseless, gory, and dull in contrast to the “heroic” exploits of individuals, who are praised for participating in this same activity because they’re somehow considered distinctive (like Napoleon and Wellington here or any of the major Greek or Trojan heroes in the epic poem).

As in the rest of the epic, some characters are given moments of “glory” that highlight their courage and/or strength. In this chapter, Wellington stays standing in the middle of a rain of bullets even as his aide dies by his side, not flinching in the face of the French forces. While this certainly adds to the drama of the chapter, it also glorifies Wellington to an extent (which, of course, further raises the tension).

Spoilers below:

It’s notable that Hugo doesn’t only use this language for Waterloo; he takes this same approach to describe the deaths of most of Les Amis. He even makes the comparison explicit, quoting the Iliad immediately after they die. And of course, where Enjolras goes, classical metaphors will soon follow. He was the only one not wounded (suggesting invulnerability, like Achilles), and he’s also called “Apollo” (a deity) before he dies. Hugo certainly wants the reader to view their cause as glorious (hence the descriptions of Enjolras), but he also wants to underscore the pain and senselessness involved in any form of battle. It’s less “battle is awful and should be avoided at all costs” and more “we should live in a better world where les Amis wouldn’t have died like this, fighting for basic human dignity.”

[arcesilauskrp]

★ WELCOME TO ARCESILAUS !

𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗟𝗔𝗨𝗦: 𝗀𝗋𝖾𝖾𝗄 𝗁𝖾𝗅𝗅𝖾𝗇𝗂𝗌𝗍𝗂𝖼 𝗉𝗁𝗂𝗅𝗈𝗌𝗈𝗉𝗁𝖾𝗋, 𝖿𝗈𝗎𝗇𝖽𝖾𝗋 𝗈𝖿 𝖺𝖼𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗆𝗂𝖼 𝗌𝗄𝖾𝗉𝗍𝗂𝖼𝗂𝗌𝗆, 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗅𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋 𝗈𝖿 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗌𝖾𝖼𝗈𝗇𝖽 𝗉𝗅𝖺𝗍𝗈𝗇𝗂𝖼 𝖺𝖼𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗆𝗒.

𝗐𝖾𝗅𝖼𝗈𝗆𝖾 𝗍𝗈 𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗟𝗔𝗨𝗦, 𝖺𝗇 𝟣𝟪+, 𝗆𝖾𝗐𝖾-𝖻𝖺𝗌𝖾𝖽, 𝗈𝗋𝗂𝗀𝗂𝗇𝖺𝗅 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗋𝖺𝖼𝗍𝖾𝗋, 𝗌𝗅𝗂𝖼𝖾-𝗈𝖿-𝗅𝗂𝖿𝖾 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗎𝗇𝗂𝗏𝖾𝗋𝗌𝗂𝗍𝗒 𝗋𝗉, 𝗌𝖾𝗍 𝗂𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗌𝗍𝗎𝗇𝗇𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗒𝗈𝗇𝗌𝖾𝗂 𝗎𝗇𝗂𝗏𝖾𝗋𝗌𝗂𝗍𝗒 𝖼𝖺𝗆𝗉𝗎𝗌. 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗄 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝖽𝖾𝖼𝗂𝖽𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗍𝗈 𝗉𝖺𝗒 𝗎𝗌 𝖺 𝗏𝗂𝗌𝗂𝗍! 𝗐𝖾 𝗐𝗈𝗎𝗅𝖽 𝗅𝗈𝗏𝖾 𝗍𝗈 𝗌𝗉𝖾𝖺𝗄 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗌𝗈𝗈𝗇!

𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝗃𝗎𝗇𝖾 𝟣𝟨, 𝟤𝟢𝟤𝟦. 𝐧𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝗀𝗎𝗂𝖽𝖾𝗅𝗂𝗇𝖾𝗌 ╱ 𝗆𝖺𝗌𝗍𝖾𝗋𝗅𝗂𝗌𝗍 ╱ 𝗅𝗈𝖼𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇𝗌 ╱ 𝖽𝗈𝗋𝗆𝗌 ╱ 𝗌𝗉𝗈𝗋𝗍𝗌 & 𝖼𝗅𝗎𝖻𝗌 ╱ 𝗆𝗈𝗌𝗍 𝗐𝖺𝗇𝗍𝖾𝖽 ╱ 𝗋𝖾𝗌𝖾𝗋𝗏𝖾𝗌 ╱ 𝖺𝗉𝗉𝗅𝗂𝖼𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇𝗌

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Basics of Hellenism: Philosophy Introduction

A significant portion of Hellenism rests on the philosophy of ancient Greek philosophers. Modern Hellenism's core tenants come from the following philosophers:

Thales of Miletus

Anaximander

Xenophanes

Pythagoras

Heraclitus

Parmenides of Elea

Zeno of Elea

Leucippus

Socrates

Plato

Aristotle

Antisthenes

Aristippus of Cyrene

Pyrrho of Elis

Epicurus

Zeno of Citium

Arcesilaus

Antiochus of Ascalon

Plotinus

There are a number of schools of philosophy that modern Hellenism draws from, all of which come from the above philosophers. These schools are:

Milesian School

Xenophanes

Pythagoreanism

Heraclitus School

Eleatic Philosophy

Pluralism and Atomism

Sophism

Cynicism

Cyrenaicism

Pyrrhonism

Epicureanism

Stoicism

Platonism (Academic Skepticism, Middle Platonism, and Neoplatonism)

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The expansion of Greece

 Section 1. Causes and character of greek colonisation

Difference of Greek and Phoenician colonisation

The cause of Greek colonisation is not to be found in mere trade interests. These indeed were in most cases a motive, and in some of the settlements on the Black Sea they were perhaps a leading motive. But the great difference between Greek and Phoenician colonisation is that, while the Phoenicians aimed solely at promoting their commerce, and only a few of their settlements, notably Carthage, became more than mere trading-stations or factories, Greek colonisation satisfied other needs than desire of commercial profit. It was the expression of the adventurous spirit which has been poetically reflected in the legends of the "Sailing of the Argo" and the "Home-coming of Odysseus"­­­­ —the same spirit, not to be expressed in any commercial formula, which prompted English colonisation.

[…]

Relation of the colony to the mother city; Oracles; joint enterprises

Wherever the Greek went, he retained his customs and language, and made a Greek "polis." It was as if a bit of Greece were set down on the remote shores of the Euxine or in the far west on the wild coasts of Gaul or Iberia. The colony was a private enterprise, but the bond of kinship with the "mother-city" was carefully fostered, and though political discontent might have been the cause which drove the founders forth, yet that solemn departure for a distant land, where a new city-state, protected by the same gods was to spring up, always sealed a reconciliation. The emigrants took fire from the public hearth of their city to light the fire on that of their new home. Intercourse between colonies and the mother-country was specially kept up at the great religious festivals of the year, and various marks of filial respect were shown by the daughter to the mother. When, as frequently befell, the colony determined herself in turn to throw off a new shoot, it was the recognised custom that she should seek the oecist or leader of the colonists from the mother-city. Thus the Megarian colony, Byzantium, when it founded its own colony, Mesembria, must have sought an oecist from Megara. The political importance of colonisation was sanctified by religion, and it was a necessary formality, whenever settlement was to be made, to ask the approbation of the Delphic god. The most ancient oracular god of Greece was Zeus of Dodona. The Selli, his priests and "interpreters," are mentioned in the Iliad; and in the Odyssey Dodona appears as a place to which a king of the west might go to ask the will of Zeus "from the lofty oak," wherein the god was conceived to dwell. But the oak-shrine in the highlands of Epirus was too remote to become the chief oracle of Greece, and the central position of Delphi enabled the astute priests of the Pythian Apollo to exalt the authority of their god as a true prophet to the supreme place in the Greek world. There were other oracular deities who foretold the future; there was, not far off, Trophonius at Boeotian Lebadea; there was Amphiaraus in the land of the Graes, not yet Boeotian. But none of these ever became even a rival of the Delphian Apollo, who by the seventh century at least had won the position of adviser to Greece. 

[…]

[…]In the second place, colonization led to the  association of Greeks of different cities. An oecist who decided to organise a party of colonists could not always find in his own city a sufficient number of men willing to take part in the enterprise. He therefore enlisted comrades from other cities; and thus many colonies were joint undertakings and contained a mixture of citizens of various nationality. This feature was not indeed confined to the later epoch of colonisation; it is one of the few facts about the earlier settlements on the Asiatic coast of which we can be certain.

Section 2. Colonies on the coasts of the Euxine, Propontis and north Aegean

The legend of the Argo; The Pontos (Black Sea); Propontis; Significance of the Odissey

The voyage of the Argonauts in quest of the golden fleece commemorates in a delightful legend the memorable day on which Greek sailors for the first time burst into the waters of the Euxine Sea. Accustomed to the island straits and short distances of the Aegean, they fancied that when they had passed the Bosphorus they were embarking on a boundless ocean, and they called it the "Main," Pontos. Even when they had circumnavigated its shores it might still seem boundless, for they knew not where the great rivers, the Ister, the Tanais, the Danapris, might lead. The little preliminary sea into which the Hellespont widens, to contract again into the narrow passage of the Bosphorus, was appropriately named the "vestibule of the Pontus"—Propontis. Full of creeks and recesses, it is happily described by Euripides as the "bayed water-key of the boundless Sea." The Pontus was a treacherous field for the barques of even experienced mariners, and it was supposed to have received for this reason its name "Euxine," or Hospitable, in accordance with a habit of the Greeks to seek to propitiate adverse powers by pleasant names. It was when the compass of the Euxine was still unknown, and men were beginning to explore its coasts, that the tale of the wanderings of Odysseus took form. He was imagined to have sailed from Troy into the Pontus, and, after having been driven about in its waters, to have at last reached Ithaca by an overland journey through Thrace and Epirus. In the Odyssey, as we have it now, compounded of many different legends and poems, this is disguised the island of Circe has been removed to the far west, and the scene of the Descent to the Underworld translated to the Atlantic Ocean. But Circe, the daughter of the Sun, and sister of King Aeetes who

possessed the golden fleece, belongs to the seas of Colchis; and the world of shades beyond the Cimmerians is to be sought near the Cimmerian Bosphorus. The mention of Sicily in some of the later parts of the poem, and the part played by Ithaca, which, with the other islands of the lonian Sea, lay on the road to the western Mediterranean, reflect the beginning of the expansion of Greece in that direction, But the original wanderings of Odysseus were connected, not with the west, but with the exploration of the Euxine.

[…]

Chalcidian colonization; Chalcidice

If Miletus and Megara took the most prominent part in extending the borders of the Greek world eastward of the Hellespont, the northwestern corner of the Aegean was the special domain of Euboea. The barren islands of Sciathus and Peparethus were the bridge from Euboea to the coast of Macedonia, which, between the rivers Axius and Strymon, runs out into a huge three-pronged promontory. Here Chalcis planted so many towns that the whole

promontory was named Chalcidice. […]

Section 3. Colonies in the Western Mediterranean

Pillars of Heracles

Above all, the earliest navigation of the western seas was ascribed to Heracles, who reached the limits of the land of the setting sun, and stood on the ledge of the world looking out upon the stream of Oceanus. From him the opposite cliffs which form the gate of the Mediterranean were called the Pillars of Heracles.

[…]

Importance of Cyme in European history

The people in whose midst this outpost of Greek civilisation was planted were the Opicans, one of the chief branches of the Italic race, The colonists were eminently successful in their intercourse with the natives; and the solitary position of Cyme in these regions—for no Greek settlement could be made northward on account of the great Etruscan power, and there was no rival southward until the later plantation of Posidonia—made her influence both wide and noiseless. Her external history is uneventful; there are no striking wars or struggles to record; but the work she did holds an important and definite place in the history of European civilisation. To the Euboeans of Cyme we may say that we owe the alphabet which we use to-day, for it was from them that the Latins learned to write. The Etruscans also got their alphabet independently from the same masters, and, having modified it in certain ways to suit themselves, passed it on to the Oscans and Umbrians.

Origin of the name Greece from the Boeotian Graeans;

To Cyme, too, western Europe probably owes the name by which she calls Hellas and the Hellenes. The Greeks, when they first came into contact with Latins, had no common name; Hellenes, the name which afterwards united them, was as yet merely associated with a particular tribe. It was only natural that strangers should extend the name of the first Greeks with whom they came in contact to others whom they fell in with later, and so to all

Greeks whatsoever. But the curious circumstance is that the settlers of Cyme were known, not by the name of Chalcis or Eretria or Cyme itself, but by that of Graia. Graii was the term which the Latins and their fellows applied to the colonists, and the name Graeci is a derivative of a usual type from Graii. It was doubtless some trivial accident which ruled that we to-day call Hellas "Greece," instead of knowing it by some name derived from Cyme, Eretria, or Chalcis. The west has got its "Greece" from an obscure district in Boeotia; Greece itself got its "Hellas" from a small territory in Thessaly. This was accidental. But it was no accident that western Europe calls Greece by a name connected with that city in which Greeks first came into touch with the people who were destined to civilise western Europe and rule it for centuries.

Sicily; its position in history

The next settlement of the Euboean Greeks was on Sicilian, not Italian, ground. The island of Sicily is geographically a continuation of Italy—just as the Peloponnesus is a continuation of the great eastern peninsula; but its historical importance depends much more on another geographical fact. It is the centre of the Mediterranean; it parts the eastern from the western waters. It has been thus marked out by nature as a meeting-place of nations; and the struggle between European and Asiatic peoples, which has been called the "Eternal Question," has been partly fought out on Sicilian soil. There has been in historical times no native Sicilian power, The greatness of the island was due to colonization—not

Migration—from other lands. Lying as a connecting link between Europe and Africa, it attracted settlers from both sides; while its close proximity to Italy always rendered it an object of acquisition to those who successively ruled in that peninsula.

[…]

Dorian Colonies: Syracuse and Corcyra

While this group of Chalcidian colonies was being formed in north-eastern Sicily, Dorian Greeks began to obtain a footing in south-eastern Sicily, which history decided should become the Dorian quarter. The earliest of the Dorian cities was also the greatest. Syracuse, destined to be the head of Greek Sicily, was founded by Corinthian emigrants under the leadership of Archias before the end of the eighth century. Somewhere about the same time Corinth also colonised Corcyra; […]

[…]

ἠ μεγάλε ‘Ελλάς (Magna Graecia); Conjectured origin of the name Hellenes = Greeks

These cities, with their dependencies beyond the hills, on theshores of the Tyrrhenian sea, came to be regarded as a group, and the country came to be called Great Hellas. We might rather have looked to find it called Great Achaia, by contrast to the old Achaean lands in Greece; but here, as in other cases, it is the name of a lesser folk which prevails. If the Hellenes, the old Greek inhabitants of the plain of the Spercheus, had been conquered by the Achaeans, the conquest was forgotten, and the two peoples had gone forth together to found new cities in the west; and here the Hellenic name rose to celebrity and honour. It was no small thing in itself that the belt of Greek settlements on the Tarentine gulf should come to be called Great Hellas. But it was a small thing compared with the extension of the name Hellenes to designate all peoples of Greek race. There was nothing to lead the Greeks of their own accord to fix on Hellenes as a common name; if they had sought such a name deliberately, their natural choice would have been Achaeans, which Homer had already used in a wide sense. The name must have been given to them from without. Just as the barbarian peoples in central Italy had taken hold of the name of the Graes, so the barbarians in the southern peninsulas took hold of the name of the Hellenes, and used it to denote all settlers and strangers of the same race. Such a common name, applied by barbarian lips to them all alike, brought home to Greek traders the significance of their common race; and they adopted the name themselves as the conjugate of barbarians. So the name Hellenes, obscure when it had gone forth to the west, travelled back to the east in a new sense, and won its way into universal use. The fictitious ancestor Hellên became the forefather of the whole Greek race; and the fictitious ancestors of the Dorians, Ionians, and Aeolians were all derived from him. The original Hellenes lost their separate identity as completely as the original Acolians and Tonians had lost theirs; but their name was destined to live forever in the speech of men, while those of their greater fellows had passed into a memory.

Section 4. Growth of trade and maritime enterprise

[…]

The life of farmers in Boeotia, 8th century, described in Hesiod’s Works and Days

The bust was identified for a very long time with the Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger, but it may actually represent Hesiod.

The Boeotian poet Hesiod has given us a picture of rural life in Greece at this period. He was a husbandman himself near Ascra, where his father, who had come as a stranger from Cyme in Aeolis, had put under cultivation a strip of waste land on the slopes of Helicon. The farm was divided between his two sons, Perses and Hesiod, but in unequal shares; and Hesiod accuses Perses of winning the larger moiety by bribing the lords of the district. But Perses managed his farm badly and it did not prosper. Hesiod wrote his poem the Works to teach such unthrifty farmers as his brother true principles of agriculture and economy. His view of life is profoundly gloomy, and suggests a condition of grave social distress in Boeotia. This must have been mainly due to the oppression of the nobles, "gift-devouring" princes as he calls them. The poet looks back to the past with regret. The golden age, the silver, and the bronze, have all gone by, and the age of the heroes who fought at Troy; and mankind is now in the iron age, and "will never cease by day or night from weariness and woe." "Would that I did not live in this generation, would that I had died before, or were born hereafter!" The poem gives minute directions for the routine of the husbandman's work, the times and tides of sowing and reaping, and the other labours of the field, the fashion of the implements of tillage; and all this is accompanied by maxims of proverbial wisdom.

Modern Mount Helicon. Hesiod once described his nearby hometown, Ascra, as "cruel in winter, hard in summer, never pleasant."

Historical significance of Hesiod’s Poem; The Theogony; Hesiod’s cosmic system; Hesiodic school

Apart from the value of his poem as a social picture, Hesiod has a great significance as the first spokesman of the common folk. In the history of Europe, his is the first voice raised from among the toiling classes and claiming the interest of mankind in their lot. It is a voice indeed of acquiescence, counselling fellow-toilers to make the best of an evil case; the stage of revolt has not yet been reached. But the grievances are aired, and the lords who wield the power are exhorted to deal just judgments, that the land may prosper. The new poet is, in form and style, under the influence of the Homeric poems, but he is acutely conscious that he is striking new notes and has new messages for men. He comes forward, unlike in his own person; he contrasts himself with Homer when he claims that the Muses can teach truth as well as beautiful fiction. In another poem, the Theogony, we are told that the daughters of Zeus taught Hesiod as he fed sheep on the hill-sides of Helicon; they gave him for staff a branch of bay. The staff was now the minstrel's emblem; for the epic poems were no longer sung to the lyre, but were recited by the "rhapsode" standing with a staff in his hand. Then the Muses breathed into the shepherd of Ascra the wizard power of declaring the future and the past, and set him the ask of singing the race of the blessed gods. In the Theogony he performs this task. He sings how the world was made, the gods and the earth, the rivers and the ocean, the stars and the heaven; how in infinite space which was at the beginning there arose Earth and Tartarus and Love the cosmic principle; and it is notable how he introduces amongst the eldest-born powers of the world such abstractions as love itself, memory, sleep. These speculations on the origin of the universe, and the attempt to work up the popular myths into a system, mark a new stage in the intellectual development of Greece. There were other works composed by various bards who merged their identities under Hesiod's name; and, as we have seen, these Hesiodic poems had a decisive influence in moulding the ideas of the Greeks as to the early history of their race.

Hesiod and the Muse (1891), by Gustave Moreau. The poet is presented with a lyre, in contradiction to the account given by Hesiod himself in which the gift was a laurel staff.

Boeotia was always an unenterprising country of husbandmen, sympathy with trade or foreign venture, though his father had come from Aeolis. But the growth of trade was the most important fact of the time, and here too the colonies reacted on the mother-country. By enlarging the borders of the Greek world they invited and facilitated the extension of Greek trade and promoted the growth of industries. Hitherto the Greeks had been mainly an agricultural and pastoral people; many of them were now becoming industrial. They had to supply their western colonies with oil and wool, with metal and pottery, and they began to enter into serious competition with the Phoenician trader and to drive eastern goods from the market.

Roads in Greece; Danger of navigation

Greek trade moved chiefly along water-ways, and this is illustrated by the neglect of road-making in Greece. There were no paved roads, even in later times, except the Sacred Ways to frequented sanctuaries like that from Athens to Eleusis and Delphi, or that from the sea-coast to Olympia. Yet the Greeks were still timorous navigators, and it was deemed hazardous to sail even in the most familiar waters, except in the late summer. Hesiod expresses in vivid verses the general fear of the sea: "For fifty days after the solstice, till the end of the harvest, is the tide for sailing; then you will not wreck your ship, nor will the sea wash down your crew, unless Poseidon or Zeus wills their destruction. In that season winds are steady and Ocean kind; with mind at rest, launch your ship and stow your freight; but make all speed to return home, and await not the new wine and the rain of the vintage-tide, when the winter approaches, and the terrible South-wind stirs the waves, in fellowship with the heavy autumnal rain of Zeus, and makes the sea cruel." About this time, however, an important advance was made in seacraft by the discovery of the anchor.

Development of ship building; The penteconter; Aegaeus; The bireme; The trireme comes into more general use in Greece not long before 500 B.C.; The beak (embolos)

Seafaring states found it needful to build warships for protection against pirates. The usual type of the early Greek warship was the penteconter or "fifty-oar," a long, narrow galley with twenty-five benches, on each of which two oarsmen sat. The penteconter hardly came into use in Greece before the eighth century. The Homeric Greeks had only smaller vessels of twenty oars, but we can see in the Homeric poems the penteconter coming within their ken as a strange and wonderful thing. The ocean deity, Briareos, called by the name of the Aegean, appears in the Iliad; and he is probably no other than the new racer of the seas, sped by a hundred hands. In the Odyssey the Phaeacians, who are the kings of seacraft, have ships of fifty oars (The secret of building this kind of galley has been lost. Modern shipwrights cannot reproduce a trireme. In later times the Greeks built ships of many banks-five, ten, even forty.). But before the end of the eighth century a new idea revolutionised shipbuilding in Phoenicia. Vessels were built with two rows of benches, one above the other, so that the number of oarsmen and the speed were increased without adding to the length of the ship. The "bireme," however, never became common in Greece, for the Phoenicians had soon improved it into the "trireme," by the superposition of another bank of oars. The trireme, propelled by 170 rowers, was ultimately to come into universal use as the regular Greek warship, though for a long time after its first introduction by the Corinthians the old penteconters were still generally used; but the unknown shipwright who invented the bireme deserves the credit of the new idea. Whatever naval battles were fought in the seventh century were fought mainly, we may be sure, with penteconters. But penteconters and triremes alike were affected by the new invention of the bronze ram on the prow, a weapon of attack which determined the future character of Greek naval warfare.

Fleet of triremes made up of photographs of the modern full-sized replica Olympias

 Tradition of an ancient naval battle between Corinth and Corcyra (664 B.C.)

The Greeks believed that the first regular sea-fight between two Greek powers was fought before the middle of the seventh century between Corinth and her daughter city Corcyra. If the tradition is true, we may be sure that the event was an incident in a struggle for the trade with Italy and Sicily and along the Adriatic coasts. The chief competitors, however, with Corinth in the west were the Euboean cities, Chalcis and Eretria. In the traffic in eastern seas the island city of Aegina, though she had no colonies of her own, took an active part, and became one of the richest mercantile states of Greece. Athens too had ships, but her industries were still on a comparatively small scale, and it was not till a much later period that her trade was sufficient to involve her in serious rivalry with her neighbours. But the most active of all in industry and commerce were the Greeks of Ionia.

 Section 5. Influence of Lydia on Greece

Lydian coinage; Electron staters

In the meantime Lydia had made an invention which revolutionised commerce. It is to Lydia that Europe owes the invention of coinage. The Babylonians, Phoenicians, and Egyptians made use of weighed gold and silver as a medium of exchange, a certain ratio being fixed between the two metals. A piece of weighed metal becomes a coin when it is stamped by the State and is thereby warranted to have its professed weight and purity. This step was first taken in Lydia, where the earliest money was coined somewhere about the beginning of the seventh century, probably by Gyges. These Lydian coins were made of the native white gold, or electron—a mixture of gold and silver in which the proportion of

gold was greater, A bar of the white gold of Sardis was regarded ten times the value of a silver bar, and three-fourths of the value of a gold bar, of the same weight. Miletus and Samos soon adopted the new invention, which then spread to other Asiatic towns. Then Aegina and the two great cities of Euboea instituted monetary systems, and by degrees all the states of Greece gave up the primitive custom of estimating value in heads of cattle, and most of them had their own mints. As gold was very rare in Greece, not being found except in the islands of Siphnos and Thasos, the Greeks coined in silver. This invention, coming at the very moment when the Greeks were entering upon a period of great commercial activity, was of immense importance, not only in facilitating trade, but in rendering possible the accumulation of capital. Yet it took many generations to supersede completely the old methods of economy by the new system.

Early 6th century BC Lydian electrum coin (one-third stater denomination)

Religious character of Greek Coinage

It was highly characteristic of the Greeks that their coinage marked from the beginning by religious associations; and it has been supposed that the priests of their temples had an important share in initiating the introduction of money. It was in the shrines of their gods that men were accustomed to store their treasures for safe-keeping; the gods themselves possessed costly dedications; and thus the science of weighing the precious metals was naturally studied by the priesthoods. Every coin which a Greek state issued bore upon it a reference to some deity. In early times this reference always took the shape of a symbol; in later times the head of the god was often represented. The Lydian coins of Sardis, the coins of Miletus and other Ionian cities, bore a lion; those of Eretria showed a cow with a sucking calf; Aegina displayed a tortoise, and Cyzicus a tunny-fish; and all these tokens were symbols of the goddess who, whether under the name of Aphrodite or Hera or Artemis, was identified by the Greeks with Astarte of Phoenicia. 

Aegina coin type, incuse skew pattern. Circa 456/45-431 BC.

 Section 7. Cyrene

[…]

Arcesilaus; The Arcesilas vase

[…]but the chief source of the wealth of the Cyrenaean kings was the export of silphion, a plant which acquired a high repute for medicinal virtues. In those days it grew luxuriantly in the regions of Barca; now it is extinct. The sale of silphion was a monopoly of the king; and on a fine Cyrenaean cup we can see Arcesilas II. himself watching the herb being weighed and packed. It was in the reign of this king that Barca was founded, farther west. He quarrelled with his brothers, and they left Cyrene and founded a town for themselves.

The Telegony of Eugammon, c. 600 B.C.

Cyrene held her head high in the Greek world though she was somewhat apart from it. A Cyrenacan poet arose, and continued the Odyssey and described the last adventures of Odysseus. His poem was accepted by Greece as winding up the Epic Cycle which was associated with the name of Homer. His work was distinguished by local pride and local colouring. He gave Odysseus a son Arcesilaus, and connected the royal line of Cyrene with the great wanderer. And he introduced a flavour of those Libyan influences which modified Cyrenaean civilisation, just as the remote cities of the Euxine received influences from Scythia.

 Section 8. Popular discontent in Greece

Increase of trade and industry. Slavery.

The advance of the Greeks in trade and industry produced many consequences of moment for their political and social development. The manufactures required labour, and a sufficient number of free labourers was not to be had. Slaves were therefore indispensable, and they were imported in large numbers from Asia Minor and Thrace and the coasts of the Euxine. The slave-trade became a profitable enterprise, and the men of Chios made it their chief pursuit. The existence of household slaves, generally war-captives, such as we meet in Homer, was an innocent institution which would never have had serious results; but the new organized slave-system which began in the seventh century was destined to prove one of the most fatal causes of disease and decay to the states of Greece.

— John Bagnell Bury

Obtenido de “A History of Greece to the death of Alexander the Great“. pps. 79-112

[spreadgreatideas]

“Where you find the laws most numerous, there you will find also the greatest injustice.”

– Arcesilaus

Read more Collectivism Quotes: The Danger of Giving the Group Priority Over the Individual here: https://spreadgreatideas.org/quotes/quotes-collectivism/

[aporeticelenchus]

It's hard to top Alcibiades gossip, but reading ancient commentators giving absolute mean girl level comments about how Arcesilaus' philosophical lectures were awful but at least the audience could be entertained by his pretty face is MAKING MY NIGHT.

Then there's some more shade about how he's not even a real Academic, he just called himself that to make his Academic boyfriend happy. This is so petty. I love it.

[escapismsworld]

Plato's Academy mosaic.

Roman mosaic of the 1st century BCE from Pompeii, now at the Museo Nazionale Archeologico, Naples.

Academy:

The philosophical school founded by Plato (c.385 BC). It derives its name from it's situation in the olive grove sacred to the hero Academus on the outskirts of Athens. The school was organized upon a corporate basis, and Plato's primary aim was to subject potential statesmen to an educational process designed to produce the philosophical insight necessary for government. The curriculum was probably similar to that described in the Republic and included mathematics, political theory, and dialectic. Plato himself taught there for almost 50 years and was succeeded by Speusippus and Xenocrates. This first Old Academy was succeeded by the second or Middle Academy under Arcesilaus of Pitane and Polemon which embraced the doctrines of scepticism and engaged in controversy with the Stoics. A reconciliation, however, was effected by Antiochus of Ascalon (c.78 BC), who reverted to the teachings of the Old Academy. In the 5th century AD the school became the centre of Neoplatonism, particularly under the headship of Proclus, and was finally dissolved by Justinian.

[studylatin]

The Arkesilas Cup from Vulci (c. 560 B.C.): an example of fine vase-painting. The king—Arcesilaus II of Cyrene—is clad in a petasos (“un couvre-chef en pointe”). He sits on the left, presiding over his attendants as they weigh and organise various trade goods. Inscriptions specify their tasks, e.g. ΦΥΛΑΚΟΣ in the southwestern corner (φύλαξ, “guard”). It has been postulated that the goods in question were bundles of coveted “silphium” (a now-extinct seasoning-aphrodisiac-medicine); “il y a des filets, sans doute remplis de silphion”, claims La Bibliothèque Nationale de France).

[thoodleoo]

good morning to the Boeotians, led by Peneleos, Leitus, Arcesilaus, Prothoenor and Clonius; they came from Hyrie and stony Aulis, from Schoenus, Scolus and high-ridged Eteonus; from Thespeia and Graea, and spacious Mycalessus; from the villages of Harma, Eilesium and Erythrae; from Eleon, Hyle, Peteon, Ocalea and Medeon’s stronghold; from Copae, Eutresis, and dove-haunted Thisbe; from Coroneia and grassy Haliartus, Plataea and Glisas, and the great citadel of Thebes; from sacred Onchestus, Poseidon’s bright grove; from vine-rich Arne, Mideia, holy Nisa and coastal Anthedon, who captained fifty ships, each with a hundred and twenty young men, and next to those from Aspledon and Minyan Orchomenos-

[mythodico]

(les) Achéens

description: participants grecs à la guerre de Troie, aussi appelés Danaens, Hellènes ou encore Argiens (de la ville d’Argos); tous les prétendants d'Hélène se retrouvent autour d'Agamemnon pour qu'il puisse reprendre son épouse Hélène enlevée par Pâris

liste des achéens: Acamas, Achille, Agamemnon, Agapenor, Ajax le grand, Ajax Oïlée, Alcimus, Anticlus, Antilochos, Arcesilaus, Ascalaphus, Automédon, Bias, Calchas, Diomède, Eléphénor, Epeius, Eudoros, Euryalus, Eurybates, Eurydamas, Eurypyle, Guneus, Hélen, Ialmenos, Idomeneos, Leitus, Leontée, Lycomède, Machaon, Médon, Meges, Ménélas, Menestheos, Meriones, Néoptolème, Nestor, Nireus, Palamède, Patrocle, Peneleos, Philoctète, Phoenix, Podalirius, Podarces, Polites, Polypoetes, Promachus, Protesilaus, Prothoenor, Schedius, Stentor, Sthenelos, Talthybios, Teucer, Thersites, Thoas, Thrasymedes, Tlépolémos

[aboutanancientenquiry]

“A Laconian cup from Vulci

A beautiful Laconian cup depicts Arcesilaus II, the King of Cyrene, overseeing the weighing and loading of goods.

Written by Josho Brouwers on 11 April 2015

Sometimes, we are very fortunate as far as our sources for the ancient world are concerned, such as when you can link archaeological evidence to information gleaned from written texts. Take, for example, the cup that graces the top of this article (the original file is from Wikimedia Commons).

It’s a fascinating object. It was made around 560 BC in Laconia, so in a workshop in or near the city of Sparta. In textbooks on Early Greek art, this cup is usually cited as an example of the vibrant art of vase-painting in Laconia in the mid-sixth century BC in particular (since it compares well with the austere reputation that the city-state possessed from at least the fifth century BC onwards). Archaeologists discovered this cup not in Greece, but in a grave in Vulci (Etruria), where the original owner probably found the subject matter of interest.

A closer look

The scene on the inside of the cup is a commercial one: a number of figures are weighing and loading some kind of good, perhaps bales of wool. The figures weighing seem to be standing on a floor of some kind – perhaps, it has been suggested, the wooden deck of a merchant vessel. The stacking of the goods recalls, as John Boardman has pointed out, similar depictions from Egypt.

The awning features a variety of birds, as well as a monkey. The little leopard (or cat?) underneath the chair of the seated figure further suggests that the scene is set in an exotic location. The figures are given name labels, one of which makes clear that the seated figure’s name is “Arkesilas”, i.e. Arcesilaus II, the King of Cyrene known from sources such as Herodotus’ Histories. The scene must be set in Cyrene, the capital of Cyrenaica, and shows the King overseeing the weighing and loading of goods.

Arcesilaus was a member of the dynasty of the Battiads, the son of Battus II. According to Plutarch, who’s not exactly the most trustworthy of ancient writers, Arcesilaus was nicknamed “the Harsh” because of both his appearance and his behaviour. On the cup, he is shown in a comfortable pose, wearing a petasos (sun hat) and holding a sceptre in his left hand. As a high-ranking figure, he is depicted as much larger than the other human characters.

Why would this king be depicted on a Laconian cup? Despite its reputation as a strictly military powerhouse, Sparta maintained normal trade relations. Archaeology has confirmed that Sparta’s trading partners included people in North Africa. Cyrenaica was famous for one trade good in particular, called silphium, a type of plant that is now extinct, but which in ancient times was used for medicinal purposes and for seasoning. It has been argued that the bales of wool depicted on the cup are actually sacks of silphium being weighed and loaded onto a ship.

This cup – the “name vase” of the Arkesilas Painter – is thus loaded with information. The object itself was made in Laconia and somehow ended up in Italy. The decoration features a scene set in Cyrenaica, with a depiction of a king known from written texts. The ancient world may have come down to us in fragments, but sometimes we’re fortunate to get a number of different pieces of the puzzle that fit together and offer more than a fleeting glimpse into the past.”

Source: https://www.ancientworldmagazine.com/articles/a-laconian-cup-from-vulci/

[arcesilauskrp]

★ WELCOME TO ARCESILAUS !

𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗟𝗔𝗨𝗦: 𝗀𝗋𝖾𝖾𝗄 𝗁𝖾𝗅𝗅𝖾𝗇𝗂𝗌𝗍𝗂𝖼 𝗉𝗁𝗂𝗅𝗈𝗌𝗈𝗉𝗁𝖾𝗋, 𝖿𝗈𝗎𝗇𝖽𝖾𝗋 𝗈𝖿 𝖺𝖼𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗆𝗂𝖼 𝗌𝗄𝖾𝗉𝗍𝗂𝖼𝗂𝗌𝗆, 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗅𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋 𝗈𝖿 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗌𝖾𝖼𝗈𝗇𝖽 𝗉𝗅𝖺𝗍𝗈𝗇𝗂𝖼 𝖺𝖼𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗆𝗒.

𝗐𝖾𝗅𝖼𝗈𝗆𝖾 𝗍𝗈 𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗟𝗔𝗨𝗦, 𝖺𝗇 𝟣𝟪+, 𝗆𝖾𝗐𝖾-𝖻𝖺𝗌𝖾𝖽, 𝗈𝗋𝗂𝗀𝗂𝗇𝖺𝗅 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗋𝖺𝖼𝗍𝖾𝗋, 𝗌𝗅𝗂𝖼𝖾-𝗈𝖿-𝗅𝗂𝖿𝖾 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗎𝗇𝗂𝗏𝖾𝗋𝗌𝗂𝗍𝗒 𝗋𝗉, 𝗌𝖾𝗍 𝗂𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗌𝗍𝗎𝗇𝗇𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗒𝗈𝗇𝗌𝖾𝗂 𝗎𝗇𝗂𝗏𝖾𝗋𝗌𝗂𝗍𝗒 𝖼𝖺𝗆𝗉𝗎𝗌. 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗄 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝖽𝖾𝖼𝗂𝖽𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗍𝗈 𝗉𝖺𝗒 𝗎𝗌 𝖺 𝗏𝗂𝗌𝗂𝗍! 𝗐𝖾 𝗐𝗈𝗎𝗅𝖽 𝗅𝗈𝗏𝖾 𝗍𝗈 𝗌𝗉𝖾𝖺𝗄 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗌𝗈𝗈𝗇!

𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝗃𝗎𝗇𝖾 𝟣𝟨, 𝟤𝟢𝟤𝟦. 𝐧𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝗀𝗎𝗂𝖽𝖾𝗅𝗂𝗇𝖾𝗌 ╱ 𝗆𝖺𝗌𝗍𝖾𝗋𝗅𝗂𝗌𝗍 ╱ 𝗅𝗈𝖼𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇𝗌 ╱ 𝖽𝗈𝗋𝗆𝗌 ╱ 𝗌𝗉𝗈𝗋𝗍𝗌 & 𝖼𝗅𝗎𝖻𝗌 ╱ 𝗆𝗈𝗌𝗍 𝗐𝖺𝗇𝗍𝖾𝖽 ╱ 𝗋𝖾𝗌𝖾𝗋𝗏𝖾𝗌 ╱ 𝖺𝗉𝗉𝗅𝗂𝖼𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇𝗌

[hellenismosonline]

Basics of Hellenism: Philosophy Introduction

A significant portion of Hellenism rests on the philosophy of ancient Greek philosophers. Modern Hellenism's core tenants come from the following philosophers:

Thales of Miletus

Anaximander

Xenophanes

Pythagoras

Heraclitus

Parmenides of Elea

Zeno of Elea

Leucippus

Socrates

Plato

Aristotle

Antisthenes

Aristippus of Cyrene

Pyrrho of Elis

Epicurus

Zeno of Citium

Arcesilaus

Antiochus of Ascalon

Plotinus

There are a number of schools of philosophy that modern Hellenism draws from, all of which come from the above philosophers. These schools are:

Milesian School

Xenophanes

Pythagoreanism

Heraclitus School

Eleatic Philosophy

Pluralism and Atomism

Sophism

Cynicism

Cyrenaicism

Pyrrhonism

Epicureanism

Stoicism

Platonism (Academic Skepticism, Middle Platonism, and Neoplatonism)

[absentiadevils]

( tilda swinton, 60, nonbinary, they/them, angelic, justicar ) It’s been a while since we’ve seen SERAPHIM. I hear they’re ANGELIC and they reside in SILVER CITY. Some may say they act SUBSERVIENT & PARANOID, while other’s claim they are BENEVOLENT & METICULOUS. With that being said, their soul will always remain a little crooked.

full name:  Arcesilaus Seraphim other name(s):Phi,Sera role:justicar occupation:The Judge date of ‘birth’: 500 BC  race:angelic gender . pronouns: nonbinary. they/them orientation:unknown spoken languages:insert the list of babel, celestial, abyssal hometown:Big Light H current residence:Silver City pet(s):Arcadia (Snow white owl) faceclaim:Tilda Swinton height:5'11 eye colour: evergreen w/silver & gold specks hair colour . style: ranges from a strawberry blonde to a platinum blonde . usually pinned up or cut short dominant hand:right tattoo(s):N/A scar(s):one hollow scar that always seems to be a 'raw' injury in their abdomen. rarely seen unless shirt is off religion:The Grace addictions:N/A alignment:Lawful Good hogwarts house:ravenclaw

history: They don’t even remember who they were before they became a creation of the Gods. Seraphim has no inkling of their age in numbers or the first time they realized they exists under the veil of light. It was since the day they awakened they did whatever needed to be done to serve their father. They never felt the appeal of sin, even when their brother Lucifer parted ways with the holy trinity. Their loyalty knew no boundaries, and then came the Great Fall.

Judge them. Much like Eve took a bite of that apple, she watched as each of her own family fell from their former glory. It was right after the Great Fall that they was called upon to start judgement on those that lost their sight with the light. The immortal war would never end until they were able to eradicate the mistakes that fell from the flock. 

Destroy their fallen brethren so they can be built again in the image of their father. Years have passed as they still sit on their perch, lean forward to look over the case in front of them. Temptation was a sin all in its own, and almost every case before them was - GUILTY. It never dawned on them that their own logic could be compromised by the light, but sometimes Seraphim can see something else in the eyes of the angelic swarmed with the darkness of sin.

Every now and then that chime entered the back of their mind, “Are we wrong?”

wanted connections:

Once upon a time; in their many years of existence perhaps they encountered your supernatural when they were human. Be ready for their genuine questions on why they missed their ascension ope. GUILTY; oof, those siblings of theirs that came before them to be heard, and they ultimately caused your fall. 

Eradication; they’ve judged you more than once in their lawful mind, and now they understand that you just can’t do good. So now...well, you must be dealt with.

Are we good?  Perhaps the only beings able to make them question their judgement. A few had to have fallen that they later speculated may have been a mistake.  Two peas; another justicar or angelic much bathed in the light as they are, but are more radical than they could ever fathom to be.