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015 - Third Dynasty Minor Divinities · Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome

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  Speaker 1: Section fourteen of Myths and Legends. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Lauren Lazarus. Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and
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  Speaker 1: Rome by E. M. Barons. Minor divinities the Harpies. The harpies, who,
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  Speaker 1: like the furies, were employed by the gods as instruments
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  Speaker 1: for the punishment of the guilty, were three female divinities,
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  Speaker 1: daughters of Thaumas and Electra, called Iloh, Occipiti, and Selino.
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  Speaker 1: They were represented with the head of a fair haired
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  Speaker 1: maiden and the body of a vulture, and were perpetually
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  Speaker 1: devoured by the pangs of insatiable hunger, which caused them
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  Speaker 1: to torment their victims by robbing them of their food.
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  Speaker 1: This they either devoured with great gluttony or defiled in
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  Speaker 1: such a manner as to render it unfit to be eaten.
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  Speaker 1: Their wonderfully rapid flight far surpassed that of birds, or
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  Speaker 1: even of the winds themselves. If any mortal suddenly and
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  Speaker 1: unaccountably disappeared, the harpies were believed to have carried him off.
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  Speaker 1: Thus they were supposed to have borne away the daughters
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  Speaker 1: of King Pandarias to act as servants to the Erinnyes.
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  Speaker 1: The harpies would appear to be personifications of sudden tempests, which,
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  Speaker 1: with ruthless violence, sweep over whole districts, carrying off or
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  Speaker 1: injuring all before them. Erinnyes humanities furii diirai, the Erinnyes
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  Speaker 1: or furies were female divinities who personified the torturing pangs
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  Speaker 1: of an evil conscience and the remorse which inevitably follows wrongdoing.
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  Speaker 1: Their names were Alecto, Megaira, and Tisiphone, and their origin
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  Speaker 1: was variously accounted for. According to Hesiod, they sprang from
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  Speaker 1: the blood of Uranus when wounded by Cronus, and were
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  Speaker 1: hence supposed to be the embodiment of all the terrible
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  Speaker 1: imprecations which the defeated deity called down upon the head
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  Speaker 1: of his rebellious son. According to other accounts, they were
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  Speaker 1: the daughters of Night. Their place of abode was the
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  Speaker 1: lower world, where they were employed by aides and persephone
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  Speaker 1: to chastise and torment those shades who, during their earthly
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  Speaker 1: career had committed crimes and had not been reconciled to
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  Speaker 1: the gods before descending to Hades. But their sphere of
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  Speaker 1: action was not confined to the realm of Shades, for
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  Speaker 1: they appeared upon earth as the avenging deities, who relentlessly
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  Speaker 1: pursued and punished murderers, perjurors, those who had failed in
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  Speaker 1: duty to their parents, in hospitality to strangers, or in
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  Speaker 1: their respect due to old age. Nothing escaped the piercing
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  Speaker 1: glance of these terrible divinities, from whom flight was unavailing,
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  Speaker 1: for no corner of the Earth is so remote as
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  Speaker 1: to be beyond their reach, Nor did any mortal dare
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  Speaker 1: to offer to their victims an asylum from their persecutions.
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  Speaker 1: The furies are frequently represented with wings, Their bodies are black,
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  Speaker 1: Blood drips from their eyes, and snakes twine in their hair.
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  Speaker 1: In their hands, they bear either a dagger, scourge, torch,
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  Speaker 1: or serpent. When they pursued Orestes, they constantly held up
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  Speaker 1: a mirror to his horrified gaze, in which he beheld
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  Speaker 1: the face of his murdered mother. These divinities were also
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  Speaker 1: called humanities, which signifies the well meaning or soothed goddesses.
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  Speaker 1: This appellation was given to them because they were so
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  Speaker 1: feared and dreaded that people dared not call them by
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  Speaker 1: their proper title, and hoped by this means to propitiate
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  Speaker 1: their wrath. In later times, the furies came to be
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  Speaker 1: regarded as salutary agencies, who, by severely punishing sin, upheld
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  Speaker 1: the cause of morality and social order, and thus contributed
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  Speaker 1: to the welfare of mankind. They now lose their awnspiring
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  Speaker 1: aspect and are represented more especially in Athens, as ernest maidens,
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  Speaker 1: dressed like Artemis in short tunics suitable for the chase,
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  Speaker 1: but still retaining in their hands the wand of office
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  Speaker 1: in the form of a snake. Their sacrifices consisted of
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  Speaker 1: black sheep and a libation composed of a mixture of
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  Speaker 1: honey and water called nephalia. A celebrated temple was erected
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  Speaker 1: to the humanities at Athens near the Areopagus Moirai or
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  Speaker 1: Fates Parkey. The ancients believed that the duration of human
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  Speaker 1: existence and the destinies of mortals were regulated by three
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  Speaker 1: sister goddesses called Clotho, Lachisis, and Atropos, who were the
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  Speaker 1: daughters of Zeus and themis. The power which they wielded
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  Speaker 1: over the fate of man was significantly indicated under the
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  Speaker 1: figure of a thread, which they spun out for the
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  Speaker 1: life of each human being from his birth to the grave.
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  Speaker 1: This occupation they divided between them. Clotho wound the flax
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  Speaker 1: round the distaff, ready for her sister Lakisis, who span
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  Speaker 1: out the thread of life, which Atropos, with her scissors,
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  Speaker 1: relentlessly snapped asunder when the career of an individual was
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  Speaker 1: about to terminate. Homer speaks of one Moira only, the
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  Speaker 1: daughter of Knight, who represents the moral force by which
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  Speaker 1: the universe is governed, and to whom both mortals and
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  Speaker 1: immortals were forced to submit, Zeus himself being powerless to
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  Speaker 1: avert her decrees. But in later times this conception of
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  Speaker 1: one inexorable all conquering fate became amplified by the poets
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  Speaker 1: into that above described, and the Moirae are henceforth the
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  Speaker 1: special presiding deities over the life and death of mortals.
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  Speaker 1: The moirai a represented by the poet as stern, inexorable
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  Speaker 1: female divinities, aged, hideous and also lame, which is evidently
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  Speaker 1: meant to indicate the slow and halting march of destiny,
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  Speaker 1: which they controlled. Painters and sculptors, on the other hand,
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  Speaker 1: depicted them as beautiful maidens of a grave but kindly aspect.
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  Speaker 1: There is a charming representation of Lakisis which depicts her
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  Speaker 1: in all the grace of youth and beauty. She is
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  Speaker 1: sitting spinning, and at her feet lie two masks, one comic,
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  Speaker 1: the other tragic, as though to convey the idea that
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  Speaker 1: to a divinity of fate, the brightest and saddest scenes
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  Speaker 1: of earthly existence are alike indifferent, and that she quietly
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  Speaker 1: and steadily pursues her occupation, regardless of human weal or woe.
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  Speaker 1: When represented at the feet of Aides in the lower world,
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  Speaker 1: they are clad in dark robes, but when they appear
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  Speaker 1: in Olympus, they wear bright garments bespangled with stars, and
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  Speaker 1: are seated on radiant thrones with round on their heads.
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  Speaker 1: It was considered the function of the moirai to indicate
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  Speaker 1: to the furies the precise torture which the wicked should
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  Speaker 1: undergo for their crimes. They were regarded as prophetic divinities
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  Speaker 1: and had sanctuaries in many parts of Greece. The moirai
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  Speaker 1: are mentioned as assisting the Katates to conduct Persephone to
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  Speaker 1: the upper world at her periodical reunion with her mother Demeter.
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  Speaker 1: They also appear in company with Alathea, goddess of birth Nemesis. Nemesis,
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  Speaker 1: the daughter of Nix, represents that power which adjusts the
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  Speaker 1: balance of human affairs by awarding to each individual the
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  Speaker 1: fate which his actions deserve. She rewards humble, unacknowledged merit,
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  Speaker 1: punishes crime, deprives the worthless of undeserved good fortune, humiliates
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  Speaker 1: the proud and overbearing, and visits all evil on the wrongdoer,
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  Speaker 1: thus maintaining that proper balance of things which the Greeks
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  Speaker 1: recognized as a necessary condition of all civilized life. But
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  Speaker 1: though Nemesis in her original character was the distributor of
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  Speaker 1: rewards as well as punishments, the world was so full
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  Speaker 1: of sin that she found but little occupation in her
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  Speaker 1: first capacity, and hence became finally regarded as the avenging goddess.
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  Speaker 1: Only we have seen a striking instance of the manner
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  Speaker 1: in which this divinity punishes the proud and arrogant. In
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  Speaker 1: the history of Niobe, Apollo and Artemis were merely the
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  Speaker 1: instruments for avenging the insult offered to their mother, but
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  Speaker 1: it was Nemesis who prompted the deed and presided over
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  Speaker 1: its execution. Homer makes no mention of Nemesis. It is
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  Speaker 1: therefore evident that she was a conception of later times,
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  Speaker 1: when higher views of morality had obtained among the Greek nation.
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  Speaker 1: Nemesis is represented as a beautiful woman of thoughtful and
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  Speaker 1: benign aspect and regal, bearing a diadem crowns her majestic brow,
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  Speaker 1: and she bears in her hand a rudder, balance and cubit,
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  Speaker 1: fitting emblems of the manner in which she guides, weighs,
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  Speaker 1: and measures all human events. She is also sometimes seen
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  Speaker 1: with a wheal to symbolize the rapidity with which she
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  Speaker 1: executes justice. As the avenger of evil, she appears winged,
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  Speaker 1: bearing in her hand either a scourge or a sword,
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  Speaker 1: and seated in a chariot drawn by griffins. Nemesis is
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  Speaker 1: frequently called Adrastea and also Ramnusia from Rahmnas in Attica,
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  Speaker 1: the chief seat of her worship, which contained a celebrated
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  Speaker 1: statue of the goddess. Nemesis was worshiped by the Romans,
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  Speaker 1: who invoked her on the capital as a divinity who
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  Speaker 1: possessed the power of averting the pernicious consequences of envy.
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  Speaker 1: End of Section fourteen