Thursday, 23 February 2012

Agamemnon

Agamemnon was the brother of Menelaus, and husband of Clytemnestra, he was father to Electra and Orestes. His mother and father where King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae. Legends make him King of Mycenae/ Argos, thought to be differant names for the same area.
 The Trojan war started when Helen was kidnapped, or taken away, by Paris. Helen was married to Agamemnon's brother, Menelaus, and thus Agamemnon commanded all greek soilders to fight troy to win her back.
 When Agamemnon returned from Troy he was murdered. (according to the fullest version of the oldest surviving account, Odyssey Book 11, l.409f.) by Aegisthus, his wife's lover. The story says that the scene of the murder was in the house of Aegisthus, involving ambush and death of Agamemnon's followers. In later accounts, his wife does the killing, or both her and her lover, inside the palace.
 However, If Agamemnon was murdered in his wife's lovers home, this would suggest Agamemnon knew of the cheating, and/or he was friends with Aegisthus. Well, thats what i have just worked out anyway.
It is beleived, that the murder was induced not only by Clytemnestra's love for Aegisthus, but also because he went to war over Helen of Troy. Which, to be honest, is a fair point, she could have beleived he loved her.

Wednesday, 1 February 2012

Actaeon

I have not heard of this Greek person before, I mean, i recognise the name. But not really its story.
Apparently, Actaeon's father was a priestly herdsman, called Aristaeus, his mother was Autonoe. He was, like Achilles in later times, trained by the wise centaur Chirion. None really know this story well, the details vary quite considerably. The only certianty is that Actaeon suffered from the wrath of Artemis, goddess of the animals, her wrath proved fatal to him, and that he was turned into a stag and ripped apart by his own hunting hounds.
The now standard version of this tale, offered by the Hellenistic poet Callimachus, is that Artemis was bathing in the woods, and Actaeon stumbled apon her whilst hunting. He stopped and stared at her, caught up in her ravashing beauty, and in doing so he saw her naked. When Artemis noticed him, she forbade that he speak, if he did so, she would turn him into a stag, as punishment for seeing the naked form. Unfortunatly, once she had said this, Actaeon heard his hunting party, and he called out to them. On doing so, he was turned into a stag, and his hunting hounds, not recognishing him, tore him apart. In some accounts, the dogs where so upset by the death of their master that Chirion made them a statue so lifelike that the dogs thought it was there deceased master. But there are so many accounts. One is that he was Zeus' rival for Semele, his mothers sister, and in a nother account, by Euripides' Bacchae, he boasted that he was a better hunter than Artemis.
The names of the hounds.
According to Ovid.
Males: Melampus, Ichnobates (Echnobas), Pamphagos, Dorceus, Oribasus, Nevrophonus, Laelap, Theron, Pterelas, Hylaeus, Nape, Ladon, Poemenis (Therodanapis), Aura, Lacon, Harpyia, Aello, Dromas, Thous Canache, Cyprius, Sticcte, Labros, Arcas, Agriodus, Tigris, Hylanctor, Alce, Harpalus, Lycisca, Melaneus (..a greeks name, think the was a king..), Lachne, Leucon.
Females: Melanchaetes, Agre, Theridamas, Orestitrophos
Other than Ovid.
Dogs: Acamas, Syrus, Leon, Stilbon, Agrius, Charops, Aethon, Corus, Boreas, Draco, Eudromus, Dromius, Zephyrus, Lampus, Haemon, Cyllopodes, Harpalicus, Machimus, Ichneus, Melampus, Ocydromus, Borax, Ocythous, Pachylus, Obrimus;
Bitches: Argo, Arethusa, Urania, Theriope, Dinomache, Dioxippe, Echione, Gorgo, Cyllo, Harpyia, Lynceste, Leaena, Lacaena, Ocypete, Ocydrome, Oxyrhoe, Orias, *Sagnos, Theriphone, *Volatos, *Chediaetros
"ὁρᾷς τὸν Ἀκτέωνος ἄθλιον μόρον,ὃν ὠμόσιτοι σκύλακες ἃς ἐθρέψατοδιεσπάσαντο, κρείσσον' ἐν κυναγίαιςἈρτέμιδος εἶναι κομπάσαντ', ἐν ὀργάσιν."
Translation
"Look at Actaeon's wretched fatewho by the man-eating hounds he had raised,was torn apart, better at huntingthan Artemis he had boasted to be, in the meadows."