Literature and Arts c-14

Glossary

agathos ‘good, noble’

The most transcultural of the many ancient Greek words that we can render as “noble” is agathos. But there are many others too that we encounter, for example esthlos in the sense of “genuine” and the Classical kalos k’agathos, meaning literally “beautiful and noble”. Still others include khrêstos in the sense of “useful (to society)” and Aristotle’s own favorite word for “noble”, spoudaios, which conveys the basic idea of “earnest, striving for a goal”. When we consider the comparatives and superlatives of agathos, the semantics become even more varied and complicated: besides beltiôn “better” and beltistos “best”, for example, we find pherteros “better” and pheristos “best”. The latter two forms are derived from the verb pherô in the sense of “carry off as a prize”. This concept is a primary symbol of the social status inherent in aristocracy.

agôn, plural agônes: coming together; contest; agony; ordeal; trial

The word agôn at its most basic means any sort of assembly, but it usually has a competitive aspect to it. The English word “agony” comes from this word, and for the hero it means the ordeals he or she undergoes during his or her lifetime. Theseus refers to Herakles’ murder of his wife and sons in madness as an agôn (Euripides, Herakles 1311). Because the hero is a human and mortal, the suffering and ordeals s/he undergoes are an important part of the narrative of her/his life.

Heroes are remembered in ritual re-enactments of their ordeal in seasonally recurring events such as athletic contests (see entry for athlos) and tragic drama (which were also performed as a contest, with three playwrights competing against each other).
agorâ, pl. agorai ‘public assembly, place of public assembly’

In the agorâ most of the political activities of the polis took place. In Athens the agorâ contained the law courts and many other public buildings central to the workings of the Greek democracy.

aidôs shame, sense of shame; sense of respect for others; honorableness

See also nemesis.

Gloria Ferrari Pinney, noting that this complex concept can not be translated with a single word, describes aidôs this way: “aidôs is ‘honor’ as well as ‘shame’; it is a property allied with dikê, which all citizens must display, but it is also an afflication from which virtuous men do not suffer. From textual references we garner not what aidôs is, but what it does as an indispensable mechanism of social order: it keeps under control those who are incapable of exercising agency--by nature, females, children, and slaves--and prevents men who have power from using it in an arbitrary and destructive manner. aidôs works as a constraint or inhibition” (from “Metaphors and Riddles in the Agamemnon,” Classical Philology 92.1 (1997), p. 6). She also argues that the central metaphor for aidôs is a covering of some kind: a curtain, a veil, a mantle.
ainos authoritative utterance for and by a social group; praise, fable; ainigma: riddle

An ainos is a special type of speech, directed especially to those who are capable of understanding it but coded so that those who are not capable will not understand the true meaning. There are three requirements for the listener to understand the ainos correctly: that person must be intellectually capable (sophos, see entry), morally capable (agathos, see entry) and emotionally capable (philos, see entry). The last requirement is particularly important: when Phoenix tells the story of Meleager in scroll 9 of the Iliad, he specifically says that he will tell it because all those who are listening are philoi. The emotional connection of the listener is often the quality tested in the telling of an ainos. That is, the teller of the story is saying: I’m going to tell a story, let’s see if you can get its meaning. In the testing of loyalty that characterizes the second half of the Odyssey, the qualty being tested is the emotional connection of being a true philos. An example is the story of her dream that Penelope tells the disguised Odysseus in scroll 19, where she explicitly asks for an interpretation.

Another example of an ainos in the Odyssey is the story in scroll 14 that the disguised Odysseus tells his swineherd Eumaios about how Odysseus procured a cloak from him in Troy. Eumaios responds that the stranger has told an excellent ainos.
The meaning ‘fable’ comes from the association of ainos with Aesop’s Fables. That is, each ‘fable’ had a moral to the story, whcih someone inside the culture who was qualified intellectually, morally, an emotionally, would understand. The tradition changes as these sorts of connections are lost, so that eventually the point, or ‘moral’, of the story has to be added on.
aitios ‘responsible, guilty’; aitiâ ‘responsibility, guilt; cause, case’

Aeschylus’ Eumenides is a representation of the first murder trial at Athens. The first murder trial is a foundational concept for Greek democracy, which decided disputes in the courts and juries and did not give power to individuals to decide responsibility for crimes. In the play the Furies themselves are set up as protective deities (i.e., Eumenides) for the polis: they are chthonic (earth-dwelling) powers that watch over the processes that determine who is aitios. Similarly, local heroes were imagined to be dispensers and guardians of justice for the community.

akhos ‘grief, public expression of grief by way of lamenting or keening’

The type of grief called akhos is an intense one that can easily change to anger, as we see with Achilles’ grief over the death of Patroklos in the Iliad. The public expression of grief through lament was traditionally performed by women at the funeral for the dead. Two words for this performative lament are goos, which is performed by relatives of the deceased, and thrênos, which is performed by ‘professional’ singers. At the end of the Iliad, we see laments of the goos variety performed by Andromache, Hecuba, and Helen for the dead Hektor. In Scroll 24 of the Odyssey, Agamemnon describes the funeral of Achilles, and he says that the Muses came to sing a thrênos for the dead Achilles. The songs of lament are the first songs sung in remembrance of the dead hero, and are therefore important in defining the kleos of the hero (see glossary entry for ‘kleos’). Lament songs can also rouse feelings of vengeance over this death, and thus in some contexts it is considered dangerous to allow women to lament. Consider the power of the lament of women in rousing men to action in the story of Meleager and Kleopatra in Scroll 9 of the Iliad or the role of the chorus in Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes.

alêthês (adjective) ‘true, true things’; alêtheia (noun) ‘truth’

Archaic Greek poetry refers to panhellenic myth and poetry as “truth” [alêtheia] while local versions of stories about gods and heroes are pseudea or “lies.” Such a conception of truth and fiction is at work in the opening lines to the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus:

For some say that you were born at Dracanum; others say on windy Icarus;

some say you were born in Naxos, divinely born, snatched from the thigh,

and others say that at the Alpheius river

Semele conceived and bore you to Zeus who delights in thunder.

Still others say, Lord, that you were born in Thebes,

But they lie. The father of gods and men bore you

far from men, hiding you from white-armed Hera.

As Gregory Nagy argues: “various legitimate local traditions are here being discounted as false in order to legitimize the one tradition that is acceptable to the poet’s audience.” (See Greek Mythology and Poetics [Ithaca, 1990], p.43.)
The Iliad, as panhellenic poetry, - that is, poetry for all Greeks - must assert a version of the Achilles story that supersedes competing local variants. It does this in two ways. First, it leaves out or leaves obscure many local details that would not be common to all versions. Secondly, it often incorporates multiple variants, in order to be all inclusive.
The archaic Greek concept of truth [alêtheia] is fundamentally connected with the idea of memory, and more specifically, memory by way of song. A-lêtheia means literally “not forgetting.” When a poet asks the Muses for poetic truth, he is asking for total recall by way of song.
aretê ‘striving for a noble goal, for high ideals; noble goal, high ideals’

The noun aretê is fundamentally connected with the superlative adjective aristos (“best, noblest”; see also agathos).

A key word for the aristocratic ideal is aretê, usually translated as “virtue”. Such a translation does not, as we will see, do full justice to all the implications of this word. As Jaeger has argued (Paideia I 3-14), the ideal of “noble morality”, as conveyed by the word aretê, can best be understood by considering Aristotle’s description, as in Nicomachean Ethics IV 7-9, of the megalopsukhos or “high-minded” man. For Aristotle, such a man has to be aristocratic or noble, that is, kalos k’agathos, literally “beautiful and noble” (cf. Nicomachean Ethics IV 7, 1124a4).
It is essential to reiterate that Aristotle intends this criterion to be primarily moral, not social, and the same can be said for the criteria of Aristotle’s teacher, Plato, whose own view is encapsulated in a fundamental principle attributed to the words of Socrates himself: most simply put, aretê cannot be taught (Protagoras 320b).
Aristotle’s emphasis on the moral foundations of aretê is made manifest by the models that he cites for nobility. In Posterior Analytics II 13 (97b15), he describes Achilles and Ajax, premier heroes in the epic poetry of Homer, as the ideal examples of this high-mindedness, this megalopsukhia. Aristotle highlighted the same two heroes in a song that he himself composed: the philosopher’s exquisite artistic composition is addressed to aretê personified as a goddess and instantiated in the aretê of the honorand of the song, Aristotle’s friend Hermeias of Atarneus, “who died to keep faith with his philosophical and moral ideals” (Jaeger I 13). By featuring Achilles and Ajax as premier models in his “hymn to aretê” (lines 13-14), Aristotle “expressly connects his own philosophical conception of aretê with that found in Homer, and with its Homeric ideals Achilles and Ajax” (Jaeger I 13-14).
In this regard, the etymology of aretê becomes pertinent: the most plausible explanation is that it is derived from the verb ar-numai “strive to achieve”, conventionally combined with direct objects denoting noble goals. We may note that Aristotle’s generic adjective denoting the concept of “noble”, spoudaios, is derived from the verb speudô in the sense of “strive”. It is as if aretê as an “achievement” is the very act of “striving” for that achievement.

 

aristos ‘best’, superlative of agathos; aristeia: designates the hero’s great epic moments that demonstrate his being aristos

For aristos, see also agathos and aretê.
In the Iliad, when Achilles officially withdraws from battle, he warns his fellow Greeks that they will one day regret that they did not honor “the best [aristos] of the Achaeans.” Achilles’ threat comes all too true, and his own greatness is proven by the magnitude of the devastation that his absence causes. Similarly, when Achilles does return to battle, his aristeia causes countless deaths for the Trojans, including Hektor’s, who was the best of the Trojans. The boasting that Achilles engages in throughout the Iliad is sometimes off-putting to modern readers, but it is important to realize that Achilles boasts are part of his attractiveness for the ancient Greek song culture. Many Greek love songs and laments were sung for Achilles, who, as a youth cut down before marriage, represented the ultimate tragedy for the Greeks.
We may compare the charisma of Muhammad Ali in the documentary When We Were Kings. Muhammad Ali is well known for saying, “I’m the greatest,” and we might think of Achilles declaring that he is the “best of the Achaeans.” From the right person such a declaration is not insufferable arrogance but can be quite attractive. Such a statement, both for Ali and for an ancient Greek hero, is “on the record” - Ali’s statement is preserved though the modern media of film, but the Greek hero’s statement would also be preserved though the poet who “quotes” him in song. Ali’s other statements about himself might also remind us of qualities of Achilles as a hero: “I’m young, I’m handsome, I’m fast, I’m pretty, and I can’t possibly be beat.”
atê, plural atai: veering, aberration, derangement; disaster; punishment for disaster

As you can see from the definition, the meaning of atê includes the a whole range of aspects of committing some wrong. It can mean any of the steps in the process or the whole chain of events: the derangement that results in the wrong choice, the disaster that follows, and even the punishment, divine or human, for the choice that began the chain. When Agamemnon realizes that he does Achilles in Scroll 19 of the Iliad, he says that it was atê which made him take Briseis away: it is only the impending disaster of the burning of the Greek ships that makes Agamemnon realize where he went wrong.

One of the metaphors used for atê is a veering away from a straight path. Another related metaphor is that of a wind storm that blows a ship off course. Consider the wind, breathing, and blowing imagery throughout the Agamemnon (especially in the first choral ode) when the condition of the adverse winds at Aulis begins the atê that will characterize the Greeks behavior during the sack of Troy and will culminate in the ‘punishment’ Agamemnon finds waiting for him as he returns home.
âthlos (aethlos) ‘contest, ordeal’; âthlêtês ‘athlete’

The Greek word for the hero’s labor and for the athlete’s competition is the same: athlos. Our English word “athlete” is derived from this Greek word. According to tradition (Diodorus of Sicily 4.14.1-2), Herakles was the founder of the Olympics, and he competed in every athletic event on the mythical occasion of the first Olympics. On that occasion, he won first prize in every Olympic event. This tradition about Herakles is the perfect illustration of a fundamental connection between the labor of a hero and the competition of an athlete at athletic events like the Olympics. The hero’s labor and the athlete’s competition are the “same thing,” from the standpoint of ancient Greek religious concepts of the hero. In Iliad scroll 19 the labors of Herakles are called athloi, as they are in Euripides’ Herakles, line 827.

In the ancient Olympics, the program of events in athletic competition (called agôn or athlos) was organically linked with concepts of the hero as a sacred being who is worshipped by the local community for his or her powers of blessing the community with fertility and prosperity (when the people are just) and harming it (when the people are unjust). Athletic competition, which had its origin in funeral games held on a seasonally recurring basis in honor of local heroes, was understood by the ancient Greeks to be a reenactment of the ordeals or athloi (plural) of the hero honored by the games.
biâ (biê in the language of Homeric poetry) ‘force, violence’

The following discussion is adapted from G. Nagy, Best of the Achaeans (Baltimore, 1979), pp.45-48:

Among the areas of heroic endeavor that serve as conventional points of comparison when a hero boasts, we actually find biê ‘might’ (e.g., Iliad XV 165) and the equivalent of mêtis ‘artifice, stratagem’ (e.g., Iliad XVII 171). In this connection, we may note that the reference in Odyssey viii 78 to the quarreling Achilles and Odysseus as the “best of the Achaeans” seems to be based on an epic tradition that contrasted the heroic worth of Odysseus with that of Achilles in terms of a contrast between mêtis and biê. The contrast apparently took the form of a quarrel between the two heroes over whether Troy would be taken by might or by artifice. The scholia to Odyssey viii 75 and 77 point to such an epic tradition, where Achilles is advocating might and Odysseus, artifice, as the means that will prove successful in destroying Troy. We may also consider the testimony of the scholia (A) to Iliad IX 347, from which we learn that Aristarchus apparently thought this particular Iliadic passage (IX 346-352) to be an allusion to precisely the same tradition that we are now considering, namely, the rivalry of Achilles and Odysseus as indicated in Odysseyviii 72-82. In Iliad IX 346-352, we find Achilles in the act of rejecting the request of Odysseus that he rescue the hard-pressed Achaeans:
Let him [Agamemnon], Odysseus, along with you

and the other kings

devise a way to ward off the destructive fire from the ships.

He has indeed labored greatly in my absence,

and he has even built a wall and driven a ditch around it

--wide and big it is--and he has fastened stakes inside.

Even so he cannot hold back the strength of Hektor the man-killer.

(Iliad IX 346-352)

In effect, the words of Achilles defiantly and ironically challenge Odysseus, Agamemnon, “and the other kings” (IX 346) to rely on artifice at the very moment when they are desperately in need of his might.
There are still further allusions to the theme of a dispute over might against artifice. Our Iliad preserves, in evocative contexts, the very words which must have signaled the rival means to a common end. The word biê ‘might’, on the one hand, is a conventional Iliadic measure of Achilles’ superiority, as in the following juxtaposition:
presbuteros de su essi: biêi d’ ho ge pollon ameinôn
You [Patroklos] are older; but he [Achilles] is much better in biê

(Iliad XI 787)

The word mêtis ‘artifice, stratagem’, on the other hand, characterizes Odysseus in particular: in the Iliad and the Odyssey, only he is described with the epithets polumêtis ‘of many artifices’ and poikilo-mêtis ‘of manifold artifices’. He is frequently called Dii mêtin atalantos ‘equal to Zeus in artifice’. The polarity of biê ‘might’ and mêtis ‘artifice’ is clearly visible in old Nestor’s advice to his son about the art of chariot racing:
Come, my philos, put in your thûmos every sort of mêtis,

so that prizes may not elude you.

It is with mêtis rather than biê that a woodcutter is better.

It is with mêtis that a helmsman over the wine-dark sea

steers his swift ship buffeted by winds.

It is with mêtis that charioteer is better than charioteer.

(Iliad XXIII 313-318)
In such a traditional celebration of mêtis ‘artifice’ at the expense of biê ‘might’, we see that superiority is actually being determined in terms of an opposition between these qualities.
With these passages serving as background, we now move back to the evidence of IX 346-352, where Achilles is defiantly challenging Odysseus and the other Achaean chieftains to survive the Trojan onslaught without the benefit of his own might. As his speech draws to a close, the final words of Achilles to Odysseus can be understood as conveying an underlying awareness and even bitterness. Let the Achaeans, Achilles tells Odysseus, devise “a better mêtis” to ward off the fire of the Trojans and thus save the Greek ships:
that they should devise in their thoughts another mêtis that is better

and that will rescue their ships and the host of the Achaeans

who are at the hollow ships. For this one [this mêtis],

which they now devised during the time of my anger, does not suffice.

(Iliad IX 423-426)
The reference is to Nestor’s original stratagem to build the Achaean Wall, and this stratagem actually is designated in that context as mêtis (VII 324). Ironically, Nestor’s later stratagem, to send the Embassy to Achilles, is also designated in the narrative as mêtis (IX 93). Ironically too, Odysseus is the one who is pleading for what the Achaeans most sorely need at this point, the might of Achilles. For the moment, the mêtis ‘artifice’ of Odysseus (and Nestor) is at a loss, and the biê ‘might’ of Achilles is implicitly vindicated.
daimôn, pl. daimones ‘supernatural force (= unspecified god or hero) intervening in human life’; eudaimôniâ ‘state of being blessed with a good daimôn’
The word daimôn is most often used of a supernatural force that someone cannot immediately recognize or name. For example, Socrates was apparantly charged and convicted of introducing new daimones and of not believing in the same gods [theoi] that the polis worshipped. The prosecution would not have wanted to name Socrates’ divinities as theoi, and therefore calls them daimones. In Plato’s Apology, Socrates plays on the wording of the legal charge against him when he explains why he has led his life as he has. He claims to have a little daimôn inside of him, that spurs him on to question men’s faith in their own knowledge.
In the language of hero cult, heroes are often referred to as daimones, intervening in the lives of people as talismans of fertility and upholders of justice.
The ritual occasion of warfare collapses the distinction between ‘warrior’ and ‘war god’ - but only at the precise moment when the warrior comes face-to-face with his own martial death. Epic records that moment with the expression “equal to a daimôn”. Compare the following passage from Iliad XVI:
Then Patroklos sprang like Ares with fierce intent and a terrific shout upon the Trojans, and thrice did he kill nine men; but as he was coming on like a daimôn, for a fourth time, then, O Patroklos, was the hour of your end approaching, for Phoebus [Apollo] fought you in fell earnest. Patroklos did not see him as he moved about in the crush, for he was enshrouded in thick darkness, and the god struck him from behind on his back and his broad shoulders with the flat of his hand, so that his eyes turned dizzy. Phoebus Apollo beat the helmet from off his head, and it rolled rattling off under the horses’ feet, where its horse-hair plumes were all begrimed with dust and blood. Never indeed had that helmet fared so before, for it had served to protect the head and comely forehead of the godlike hero Achilles. ... [805] At this his mind went into derangement [atê]; his limbs failed him, and he stood as one dazed.
Just as warriors at the ritual moment of death in battle become identified with the god of war, so brides and grooms on their wedding day can be said “equal to a daimôn” or “like the gods.” Numphê means both ‘bride’ (e.g. Iliad XVIII 492) and ‘goddess’, that is, ‘nymph’(e.g. Iliad XXIV 616).
dêmos, pl. dêmoi ‘district, population of a district; community’

The word dêmos refers to a local community. It is also the word most frequently used to refer to the Athenian democracy.