,.
Dreams in Greek Tragedy Although it is primarily addrl'sscd to the hc1lenist. the literary critic and the psycho-analyst. this book require.:; no specialized knowledge either of G reek or of psydo-analysis. Every Gr('Ck text and word is translated.
It is hased nn the premise that grea t poetry is 10(',II('d at the confluence of culluraJJy-ddincd artistic ohjectives and of a psychological realism reflecting the unchanging and timeless uncon·
scious. Whereas most Homeric dreams are psychologically implausible being employed a~ 'dream stage-machinery' dreams in tragedy are convincing from thl' psycho.;Jn
can therefore he examined as though they wen: the dreams of real people. This hypothesis has far-reachin)!. implications. If the unconscio us is a bridge IinkinJ.: us with the past. then an analysi~ I)f Greek tragic dream s bring~ us closer both to the psychology of th e Greeks in general and of their traJ.:ic poets in particular.
Th e allthor is Professor of Etl11l(}o psychology at the Ecole des Nallt es Etlldes al Paris, and has laitlel! 9 books al!d soml' 230 articles.
California will shortly be publishing a collection of his essays entitled Ethnopsychoanalysis: PsychoanalySIS and Anthropology as Complementary Frames of Reference.
DREAMS IN GREEK TRAGEDY
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
DREAMS IN GREEK TRAGEDY An Ethno-Psycho-Analytical Study
GEORGE DEVEREUX
UNIVERSITY OF CA LIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley and Los Angeles 1976
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRE SS
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California ISBN: 0-520-02921-6
Library of Congress Calalog Card No. 74-27288
«:I
B3.!Iil Blackwell [976
All RighlS R eserved. No pari of Ihis publication may be reproduced, Siored in a retrieval system, or Irl.llsmitted, in any fonn or by any means, electronic, mechanical, pholOCopying. re<:ording or olherwise. without Ihe prior permission oflhe publisher.
Pnnud in Grillt Bnlilin
~ ater~1
To KENNETH
J.
DOVER
Professor of Greek. University of St Andrews for his early encouragement" and constant help in friendship
Contents Preface
IX
Allthor's Note
XI!!
Acknowledgements
xv
GENERAL INTRODUCTION Bibliography l.
XVII
XXXVi
ATOSSA'S DREAM (Aischylos: Permi) Bibiwgraphy
2. 10'S DREAM (Aischylos: Prometheus Bound)
Bibliography 3. MENELAOS' REACTIVE DEPRESSION AND DREAM (Aischylos: Agamnnrun 410-426) Bibliography 4. THE DREAM OF THE ERINYES (Aischylos : Eumenides) B ibliography
20 25 53
57 140
147 166
5. KLYTAIMESTRA'S DREAM I N
STESICHOROS' ORESTEIA Bib!wgraphy 6. KLYTAIMESTRA'S DREAM IN AISCHYLQS' CHOEPHQRO/ BibliograPhy
7. KLYfAIMNESTRA'S DREAM IN SQPHOKLES' ELECTRA Bibliography
169 178 18! 214
:219 2')1
8. THREE EURIPIDEAN DREAMS · VARIATIONS
ON A THEME (Euripides: Rhnos, Hekabe, IphigeMia tlrrumgrt
I. II . III. IV. V. VI.
2J7
!he TalUioTIJ)
Bibliography
312
Index of Ancient Authors and Works Index of Modern Authors IndO{. of Ancient Persons, Gocb, Beings, etc. Index of Persons, non-Gcaeco-Roman Index of Places, Peoples, Groups Index of Proper Nouns
347 350 356
vu
36 1
362 365
Preface At each critical moment of history there cl.ists some discipline whose practitioners, like Thoukydides' Athenians, seem to have been "born into the world to take no rest themselves and give none to others". During the Renaissance, these gadflies of the mind were the classical philologists. Today, they happen to be the psycho-analysts. It i3 perhaps the remembrance of the turbulent beginnings of classical philology- which
made possible the birth of the modern mind- that accounts for the generolL'l openmindedness wherewith someo[ lhe greatest Hellenists of our time encouraged me to elucidate Greek problems by means of the psycho. analytical method of enquiry. On t he most concrete level, this book seeks to demonstrate the psychologicaI" credibility of the dreams Aischylos, Sophokles and Euripides had devised for certain of thei r personages. There can, of course, be no question of aclfUJlly psycho-analysing a Greek poet long since dead, nor a dramatic per90nage born from his imagination. \Vhat can be shown, is that the dreams one encounters in Greek tragedy are authentically dreamlike : that the dream Aischylos devised for his K lytaimestra could have been dreamed by her, had she been a real person, though it could probably not have been dreamed by the Sophoklean Klytaimnestra. But that demonstration is possible only if one goes through the motions of an "as if" psycho-analysis of the fictitious but plausible Aischylean Klytaimestra and of her dream. The conclusions such an operation yields are, strictly speaking, "constructs", whose logical status is exactly the same as that of the equally inferential "construct" that Aischylos, in causing Agamemnon to speak as he does, meant us to assume not only that his vocal apparatus was like that of any man, but also that his early training had caused him to speak Greek rather than Persian, and to express hirru;elf in a manner befitting a High King instead of like the slack, bitter and brittle usurper Aigisthos. All this, Aischylos assuredl y meant U 5 to take for granted, even though he did not say so explicitly in any passage of his Omttia. I wish to $tress that, in taking such inescapable inferences, constructs or conclusions for granted, one adheres strictly to the basic critical principle that one's sole concern is that which is within the drama itself. Moreover, in so doing, one preserves the most essential quality of the text: its status as a work of art. For, the moment one refuses to take these indispensable inferences fo r granted, the Ortsl~tJ. ceases to be a work of art and is reduced to the status of a mere storehouse of grammatical and lexical problems and puzzles, many of which can-as Chapter 3 indicatesbe solved only by re-introducing into one's discourse precisely those inescapable logical constructs which, quite unwarrantably, one had previousox
ly rejected on the grounds rhat they are not explicitly mentioned in the text. My basic me thodological position is therefore that a psycho-analytical scrutiny of dreams narrated in Greek tragedy is much more than a wanton intrusion of the psycho-analyst into a discipline not his own, without authority other than his own ex cathedra assertion that, since the data fir his method, his enterprise and modUJ operandi are legitimate. I note, however, from the outset that, since psycho-analysis is a powerful and precise tool of research, I have endeavoured to handle it with the respect a fine tool deserves. I have tried to interpret Greek data as cautiously, patiently and responsibly as I formerly interpreted the utterances and behaviour of my psycho-analytical patients, for "off the cuff", "wild", psycho-analysis is quite as much out of place in the interpretation of Greek data as in that of clinical material. 1 concede, of course, that some professional psycho-analysts-and many more who, judging by the fact that they belong to no recognized psychoanalytical organization, are not qualified psycho-analysts, though they a.fe at times mistakenly believed by the general reader to be representatives of that learned profession I_ fail to display in their "applied psycho-analytical" writings the caution and self-discipline the real psychoanalyst is expected to display ill his clinical work and writings. The bad name such performances give to psycho-analysis in classical circles can be counteracted only by showing that psycho-analytically responsible and philologically not grossly amateurish discussions of Greek data have something of value to contribute to the advancement of classical studies. For, though passing rhetorical and ideological fads now and then make fashionable headlines, Gresham's law does not operate in the sciences: in the end good science inva.fiably drives out bad science. I also concede that the eJttremely complex logico-epistemological problem of the applicability of psycho-analytical methods and interpretations outside the clinical-therapeutic field haos not been carefully thought through even by some authentic psycho-analysts, who regularly write outstanding- and at times inspired-papers on "applied psycho-analy. 5is". But I can plead that 1 did think through nearly every aspect of this problem in the course of the last forty years, helped in th is undertaking by my early training in mathematics and in theoretical physics, as well as by my attempt, throughout my working life, to keep in to uch with new developments in logic, epistemology and scientific method. Though in this work the application of psycho-analysis to Greek data is justified only heuristically- by showing that it broadens and deepens one's understanding of texts containing dream-narralives-it is hoped that readers interested in the logical validity of the procedure per it will find it to have been demonstrated with the necessary rigour in certain of my earlier publications, whose complex analyses and proofs I cannot begin to outline in the present work.2 , E"cn $() judicio"," a scholar a. B. l\l. W. Knox (O,di/>tJ.< al TMbu, '957, p. '97) calls Arthur Wormhoudt's : Til. MtJ.
JJ'hwtn. GhsIraI,
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Prtjau At this point I wish to expre:u the hope that the open-minded reader will not impute to me views which I manifestly do not hold . This plea does not sum superfluous. B. M. W. Knox (op. cit., pp. 197 f.), a HeUenist with impeccable credentials, pointed out, firmly but tactfully, that some H ellenists have unfairly indicted Freud for holding views about Sopholcles' Oidi~us TyrfllUlos which Freud had exp1ieitv and tmphot~olf.y rejuud. The less temperate Wilamowitz would probably have exclaimed. as he did on another occasion: "Kan n man denn nicht lesen?" I make this plea with some insistence, for I know, from my own first contacts with psychoanalysis, that it is "strong medicine" which is not always easy to take: the temptation to set up a straw man, call him Freud and then knock him down, is, at times, almost irresistible. Ou tloe ~ub"Lalltive ievc:i, the present book advance:;; the thcis that great
art is located at the confluence of culturally imposed artistic means and objectives and of a subjectivel y determined psychological realillm. ThUll, in Chapter 4, I note that the slowly awakening Erinyes' account of their dream about Kl ytaimestra's shade-..... hich a moment before was actually performed on stage-is singularly impoverished. They report only that "reproach"-of unspecified origin-smote them in sleep, in dream. In a droma, this impoverillhed account of the dream scene just enacted is aesthetically fully satisfying, though in epic podry Agamemnon's deceitful dream bears being repeated three times, in almost identical words, in the space of some seventy verses) In fact, in the epic, that dream's aesthetic adequacy depends primarily on the recognition of its (deceitfully) oracular quality~and thot quality of the dream is made evident predsely by its repeated full narration. 4 But the aesthetic satisfyingness of the Erinyes' impoverished recall of their dream is largely contingent upon the psychologically persuasive evanescence of their dream's actual content. The Erinyes, aroused by their anxiety dream from an induced-i.e., quasi-drugged--deep sleep, struggle hard to wake up: they must fight off both their sleepiness and the lingering imprintS" of an all too vivid dream. Better still, the one thing they diJ recall - the reproach for their neglect of duty- not only helps them to wake up, but can immediately be used as a self-exonerating device, for they, in turn, at once reproach the god who, by putting them to sleep, made them forget both their duties and their righ t!;. The requirements of dramatic logic assu redly make some sort of awakening sum indispensable after the dream enacted on-stage-but the aesthetic and dramatic quality of the scene Aischylos actually devised results directly from its flawless psychological realillm. Its beauty ill a consequence of its (193!r'!j66),' '973, EtJuwpSJCfuuutIy.. CompUmDdarisf. (1940-1972), '972; Art and Mythology: A Gen~ral Theory (in) B. Kaplan (ed.) : StuqiJI, Ptr~it;1 Cfon-Cull:Ilral!1, ,gGl; The Struclure of Tragedy and the Structure ofth~ Psych~ in Aristotl~·. P"ditJ (in) Ch. Hanly and M. Luerowitz (cds.) : Pf)CIIodMlysu
xu
Prefaa
finality: once seen, or read. it cannot be imagined otherwise; no alternative is conceivable. I conclude with two profC$Sions offaith ; The Greeks were not buildings, statues, coins, papyri or other relics. They were human beings and, in the Fifth Cenlury B.C., rather more successfully human than we arc. Were it otherwise, I would probably be able to write an Ag4ntlmnOn of my own, instead of being reduced to commenting on Aischylos' drama- be it but to remind myself of what greatness "the naked ape" is capable, lest I utterly lose hope in the masochistic orgy of our age, upon which the shadow of tyrannies past, pl"est'nt and still to come falls like a leaden shroud. The Athenians were Athenians- they did nOI play at being Athenians. Perikle:s and Euripidc:! we re themselves- not masks put on by actors impersonating "the Athenian", "the statesman" or "the poet". For each culture is at once itself and a complete specimen ofCuiture, as each man is himself and a complete specimen of Man. And it is precisely the uniqueness of each and every man and culture which e nables them to be compkte specimens of Man, and of C ulture. In studying Greece, Aischylos or his Agamemnon, we encounter ourselves.
George DaerllJJ(
Paris, July (975
. alenal
~
:lerechos de al.llor
Author's Note Psych()-atl.tJryticai and Anlhr()jxJ/ogicai Concepts are always defined- at times more than once-and, in many cases, illustrative clinical and ethnographical material is cited in footnot es. Further information can be found in Charles Rycroft: A Critical Dictionary of Psycho-Analysis, London, Nelson, 1968-a handy and reliable little book (71 ).
Every Greek and £atin word is translated (in parentheses) livery lime it occurs, save only when a whole section is devoted to a particular word. (Thus, in the long passage dealing with the word C'd~l, I translate the word once only: the first time it occurs in that passage.) TM New Translations are as literal as possible, without regard for elegance of style. The three Euripides texts were specia!1y translated by Mr Philip Vdlacolt. Spelling : Greek words a nd names are transliterated strictly and consistently, even when this goes against familiar usage. Thus I write Homeros, not Homer. An added advantage i5 that Oidipous denotes the mythical personage, while "the Oedipus" denotes that complex. Ki{'taimestra, Klytaimnestra. Both spellings are attested, the former being probably the more ancient form of the name. I-not altogether arbi· trarily--call the Aischylean (and Euripidean) Queen Klytaimestra, and the Sophoklean one K lytaimnestra, for this distinction saves space. Place names are given in the modern spelling, for few non-Hellenists own classical atlases. H omeros (ifhe existed) was never called Homer in his lifetime. Athenai still exists but is now called Athens, at least in English. Abridgtmlnts: When referring to ancient sources, I use the standardand, regrettably, latinized--convenlional abridgements (A. Ag. ""' Aischylos: Aglllmemnon ). I deviate from this convention only in respect to Homeros. I write Hom. IJ. (Homeros: Ifias) and not simply II. If Homeros existed, he should not be robbed of hill glory. If he did not exist, the non-Hellenist reader is more likely to guess what Hom. If. $lands for, than he would had I written simply " /1.". At any ra te, a complete list of such abridgements is given in the Index of Ancient Authors. A k l odem AI/thor's }lame, followed by: "ad loc." refers to his commentary, in his edition, on a certain passage. Thw;: "A. Ag. 426 and Fraenkel ad loc." refers 10 Fraenkel's commentary on that verse in his monumental edition of Aischylos' Agamemnon. Some Exp/ar.atory Footnolts are of no interest to certain categories of readers, though they arc indispensable for others. W ha t is a commonplace for the Hellenist must be explained to the psycho-analyst and to the anthropologist - and vice versa of course. The general reader will do well to read all the footnotes, save only those which simply list ancient sources. T he many references to my own work require a word of explanation.
xiii
Author's No/4 Clinical Data. Ethical and legal considerations oblige every clinician to " disguise" some of his material. By citing data I myself obtained, I could besure that they represent the actual utterances of patients, for one does not disclose one's pat ient 's idcm ity when one cites only brief remarksor incidents. Ethnological Data are also largely deri ved from my own field work, ~im ply because every anthropologist knows better the tribes he himself has studied than those he only knows through books. My Theoretical Work h cited largely bttause the present book presupposes my theoretical outlook, which I began to elaborate many decades ago. The Few Repetitiolls can easily be justified. ( I) The Helle nist, wishing to consult, in the course of his own work on a particular drama, only the chapter referring to the dream found in that tragedy, should not be obliged to search the rest of the book for an explanation of a particular psychological process discussed in connection with another dramatic dream. This attempt to make each chapter a selfcontained whole parallels my attempt to make the book itself answer all psychological questions that the H ellenist may want to as k, without obliging him to consult technical works. I (2) It has been my experience that readers unfamiliar with one of the disciplines used in a pluridiscirlinary work, may forget a point made-and made repeatedly- elsewhere. A slight amount of repetitiveness is, therefore, admitted but also affirmed to be purposive: sparing the reader some inconvenience is, I think, a jUlltifiable procedure. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ADDENDUM
My Rtpeatedly Cited Book,' Etlmopsychanalyse Compllmentariste, Paris, Flammarion '972, will soon be available in English: Elhnopsychoanalysis, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1976 (?). My Papers: Art and M yt hology ; The Structure of Tragedy and the Structure of the Psyche in Aristotle's Poetics; Observation and Belief in Ahchyloo' Accounts of Dreams; Manifestations de I'InconseieOl dans Sophokles: Trachiniai 923 sqq.; The Psychosomatic Miracle of lolaos; Stesichoros' Palinocics; The Exploitation of Ambiguity in Pindaros O. 3.27 and two previously unpublished papers are now available in book form: Devereux, G. : Trag/die tt Poh it Gucques, Eludes Elh'llopsychoanaiytiquts, Paris, Flammarion 1975. , Th is implies that th" numeroUS referene"," to modern psychological ..... orD are in_ lended only as guide-lines for possible further ...,..,arch. I have done my best 10 make rc<:ourst to psychological WorD unneceuary for the Hellenist reader. , An exceptionally generous critic of one of my earlier boolu mildly chided me for some repetitiveness. But, though that book dtes perhapo half a dO'Zrn tim"," Bertrand Ru!SCll's solution of the ~11~ "Epimcnidcs parado>:" (7a>, pp. 101 If., 5~3 If. ), at one point, wh~ it is fWl d ied for the srotmh lime, he did nol think ofil himself and therefor<: accused me of havill8 perpetrated a (non-existrnt) logical elTOr .
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Acknowledgements My debt is great 10 a number of scholars who gave help unstintingly, regardless of whether they agreed with my approach and views wholly, in part, or not at aiL Professors E. R. Dodds, K. J. Dover and Hugh Lloyd-Jones read the whole manuscript. The comments they offered arc identified either by their names, preceded by their tilles, or else by their initials (E.R.D., K.J.D., H .L.-J.). Dr C. A. Behr, Professor Walter Burkert, the latc ProfessoT Eduard Fraenkel and Professor Sir Denys Page generously answered questions on specific points. Since I have- perhaps imprudencly- not always followed the advice given to me, obviowly I alone am responsible for this book's shortcomings. Mr Philip Vellacott kindly prepared literal translations of the three Euripidean dreams. l owe a genuine debt also to the student-members of the work groups into which my 1968- 1969 seminar on the ethno-psycho-analysisof dreams in Greek tragedy was divided : Aischyl05: Persai : Mmes A. Castanie, M.A., J. Thibaut, M.A., MM. J .-P. LargiUet, Ch. Sanchez. I was also stimulated by an unpublished paper which my friend Miss R. Padel, M .A., wrote for her Oxford tutor. Aischylos: ChoephrJrM: Mdles C. Chernet, A. Payen (now Mme Chapelier), M .A., MM . J.-L. Breton, M.A., J.-B. Chapdier, M.A., R. Notz, M.A. Sophokles: Elektra: Mme M . Boccara, Ph.D. ; Melles E. Derva ux, A. J einov, MM . A. Prenanl, A. Sotto, M.A. Euripides: Rhesos: Mme C. Monpin, MM. J. Comeau, R. Danto, A. Mallet, G . Monpin, P.-M. Rousseau . Euripides : Ht kabe: Mmes D . Cakuleva-Diamantis, A. GuerrandHermes, H. Vanel, Melles M. Fournier, M. Grandjus, M . J .-L. Mercier. Euripides: Iphigt Mia amongst the Taurian.s: Mmes Olga Perianez, Ph.D. , M. Bretin-Naquet, M .A., Melle Ch. Abravanel, MM. G. Perrolier, P.-L. Verheyt, M.A. For reasons stated in Chapter I, my personal debt is greatest to the group which studied Aischylos' Ptrsai, not because that group worked better than the others, but because my own initial analysis of Atossa's dream was unsatisfactory. Mrs Jane Wenning Devereux, B.A., edited and typed most of this book, gl'eatly helped me with my research and provided a number of valuable comments, identified by her initials (J.W.D .) in the text. A visiting Fellowship of All Souls College, Oxford (January to June 1972) gave me, amongst many other things, badly needed leisure to think over and to improve countless passages of this work. xv
Acknowledgtmmls Messrs Basil Blackwell & Matt have put me in their deb t by dedding to publish a book on which the opinions of the referees were sharply divided . The Aischylos translations by H . W . Smyth (from the Loeb Classical Library, Aesch)'/iIS ), are reproduced here by permission of Harvard University Pr~ (Copyright © by the President and Fellows of Harvard University). T he J ebb tramlation of Sophokles' ElekfTa is reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press. The L . J . Beare translation from Aristoteles' De Divinatione per Somnum, from The Oxford Translalion of Aristotle (Volume 3, 193 1) edited by W . D. Ross, is reproduced by permission of the Clarendon Pr~ . T he M. H ubba rd tr_nsiat ion from Ari..toteles' Po~lics, from Ancient Lilerary Criticum: The Principal Texts in N ew Translations (Oxford, 1972), edited by D. A. Russell and ~-r. W interbottom, is reproduced by permission of the Clarendon Press. The frontispiece is reproduced by permission of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, U.S.A.
General Introduction
Though addressed not only to the Freud-less Hellenis t and the Greek-less psychologist, but also to the lover of great literature, this work reflects my belief that- clarity of presentation can make even technical discllSSiolU accessible and perhaps interesting to the thoughtful reader, no mailer what his professional background may be. It is intended for those who believe in the intelligibility of great poetry and deem the effort to understand it worth while. "Love that passet h understanding" has no place in the appreciation of
art and precludes a priori the coming into being of a true science of aesthetics and of a psychology of artistic creation. The enquiry undertaken here is meant to have a paradigmatic import. On a purely technical level it seeks to prove the applicability to dream narratives found in surviving Greek tragedies! of Cicero's dictum: "even dreams contrived by poets partake of the essence of drc:ams".l This conclusion does not differ greatly from Abraham's finding (2) that there are fundamental affinities between myths and dreams. Before I discuss far greater problems- important alike for the lover of poetry, for the culture historian and for the literary critic-I must specify the means which enable one to determine whether a dream devised by a poet is, or is not, authentically dreamlike. Limitations. I discuss only actually narrated or represented (chap. 4) dreams, occWTing in the survi ving dramas. I do not study; (I ) Dreams which are not narrated, but simply mentioned, in order to indicate that reality confirms their (unspecified) prophetic content (A. StPI. 710 ff. E. Tr. 921 fT. ). Of course, even the clinician occasionally hears a " forgotten" dream mentioned in this manner and is, a t times, able to help his patient remember it (1111, pp. (;t06 fr.). I believe Ihat Eteokl es' dream(s) could be reconstructed and I have, in fact, done so for my own enlightenment, though, in a sense, that was unnecessary, because the rest of the tragedy is but an expanded and decoded narration of Eteokles' non-reported dream(s).) (2) Brief, metaphorical allusions 10 dreams. I did, however, include the 1 For a justification of the exclusion of ccr~ain types of data pertaining to dreamll,
Ott
below . • H aec, c tiam ,i fiCla ! un! a poeta, non abount tamen a consuclUdinc IOmniorum . Cie. d. diri". 1.42 • • Thcoc dream> may have Ix:cn narrated in Ai3chyloo' (1001) Oidi"" ... (H.L.-J.).
xvii
General Introduction snake-spider nightmare metaphor in A. Suppl. 684 (chap. 9), because it sheds light on snake and spider type dreams in ancient Greece. (3) Dreams allubd to in/ragments were excluded because: (a) Their cOnlext d id not survive and therefore cannot provide a substitu te for the " analysand's" free associations. (b) In my discussion of Menelaos' dream (chap. 3), I show that, had vv. 412 f. survived only as a fragment, the psychiatric and psycho-analytical conclusions one would have drawn from them would have been partially misleading. Only when read in context does their real meaning become fully discernible. The PsydwlogUtJl Plausibility oj a Litn'tJI)' DrttJm quite as much as the realism of Rembrandt's painting of a beef carcass can be ascertained in terms of specifiable criteria. All that matters is that the criteria in terms of which one affirms that the Aischylean Menelaos' dream is realistic, whereas the Homeric Agamemnon's dream (Hom. II. 2 init.) is not, must have a counterpart in at least one sdtntifo system of psychology. It simply won't do to assert that the photograph of a running horse is unrealistic because itdoes not resemble the time-hallowed representation of the "flying gallop"- a gait no rtal horse can assume (55, pp. 497 fr.) .• The criteria in terms of which I seek to tl':'5t the psychological plausibility of dreams in Greek tragedy-and the implausibility of the Homeric Agamemnon's dream- are those of psycho-analysis. I know no other technique of ascertaining a literary dream's plausibility or implausibility than that of " psycho-analysing" it. It is hardl y necessary to add that this logically valid "as if" procedure no more turns the poet's Mendaos into a real person lying on my analytical couch, than the finding that the texture of Rembrandt's beef carcass correctly represents the texture of high quality steak renders that painting edible. Last, but not least, the demonstration that Mendaos' dream is properly oniric does not 11lctsstJriry imply that Aischyloo carefully set out to contrive a psychologically plausible dream. My goal is not the elucidation of the poet's true intentions, which, unlike certain critics, I do not profess to know. I assume only that he tried to write the best drama (and dream) he could devise. For the rest, I set myself the straightforward task of studying what he had, in fact, done and of ascertaining whether what he did do is "true to life" in terms of the specifiable criteria and techniques of dream-analysis. The AuwmtJIU Production oj Psyeh%gi(tJ/-tJnd Psychologi(tJ/ry IntrrprtlabkMtJtn1lll, by poet and cobbler alike, is inevitable. The mind is simply UMble to produce any other kind of material. It can produce the psychologically interpretable idetJ of a nail-it cannot produce an actual nail, which, qua object, is psychologically not interpretable. The metallurgically un.sophisticated Aischylos described the properties of bad bronze so well that an electrochemist could explain why bad bronze reacts to polishing tX"try as described by Aischylos in A. Ag. 390 f. (see • Yet it is precisc:ly in tenns of "flying gallop" "psychological" criteria that ~rtain eritia auert the tack of pla1.Ulible and consistent chatacterizatio
Cpo abo Aristacdlm' ailictiDtion of Hom, Od, 23.2tk2+ (13),
'alenal
~
:lerechos de al.llor
GeTllfo1 lntrodtution Fraenkel, ad loc.). Since all men dream, we need 1101 suppose that Aischylos, SophoklC!l, Euripides had to read Freud in order to devise plausible dreams. But I had to read Freud in order to demollstrale their plausibility. In short, throughout this book I have put into practice P. Maas' (60) maxim: "As regards subject matter the classical scholar must often turn for help to other branches of knowledge {tfi;hnical, etc. )." TIle legitimacy of this procedure is beyond doubt. The only question is whether I have applied it competently. Delibemle "Psychologizing" is of course not to be imputed to most early authors, for recourse hJ p~ycholugy .. ~ all arti~Lic Jevin:; is .. lw.. y~ a rdatively "late" development (10). Aischylos described and expressed (psychological) conflicts credibly. The madness of Aias (5 . Aj. ), though 1101 analysed psychologically hy 1M pod, does furnish cilUS to the clinician. But that is all. Perhaps the first poet not only to describe psychological happenings but also to explain them psychologically- though 1101 in terms of a systematic theory (3, )-appears to have been Euripides. This, in a sense, explains my choice of dramatic dreams as a means of dcmonstrating the psychological realism of great poets-for just as, according to Cicero, the dreams they devise are dreamlike, so are the actual dreams of any human being, be he Descartes, Newton or an Eskimo, none of whom ever heard of modern dream theory. I think I can state this mailer metaphorically clearly enough so as not to havc to labour it: the pineal gland functioned appropriately long before it was identified- and continued to function as before, even when Descartes believed it to be the seat of the ",ul.
Tm Use of tm PsychcrAnabtu;al Method needs no defence, at least for the open-minded reader; it has been tested in the crucible of about eighty years of clinical practice, involving tens of thousands of patients. I have, moreover, found many outstanding H ellenists singularly receptive to this approach to Greek problems. I therefore content myself with making two points, which even psycho-analysts do not stress sufficiently. ( I) Being a therapeutic method, psycho-analysis is interested in transforming the "bad" into the "good". It is more interested in sublimation than in neurosis. Sophokles' private-because human- Oedipus complex does not much interest the psycho-analyst; he mainly tries to understand why and how Sophokles-but not Stupsiades- managed to turn his private problem into a cultural achievement, by sublimating it. The botanist does not degrade the rose through his attempt to understand how it can absorb manure through its rOOh and yet produce altar offOleS from iu flowers. Moreover, by learning to understand how Sophokles managed to turn his private problems into OidipfJIl.1 tm King, one also learns the art of helping Strepsiades to use his conflicts in a less self-destructive, more creative manner. If this be " muck-raking", we cannot have enough of it, if men are to be helped to become better and happier (18). (2) No psychological system has, to my knowledge, been found more applicable to-nor is more frequently applied to-the study of literature and of art than psycho-analysis. This too is, I think, a valid argument in favour of a psycho-analytical study of dreams in Greek tragedy. ThllrratiOMl and the Unpleasant in the analysis of the roots of a dream-or
Central Introduction of a drama-sometimes disturb the non-psycho-analytical reader, though the botanist does not expect the roots of a rose bush to resem ble its flowers. In dream it i ii the repressed that manHests itself- and it stands to reason that no one rtpresses wishes a nd sentiments noble alike in his own eyes and in those of his group. 10'5 metamorphosis into a cow shows well enough that the wish her dream expresses is deemed unworthy of a human being (Chap. 2). As to the non-rational character of d ream processes, it hardly cal!s for comment. H ungry horses do dream of oats, but the oats they "eat" in dream are un real and they wake up hungry. The scientific psycho-analyst's task is not to de ny that unpleasant material underlies a d ream- but to analyse its trans/ormation into poetry, in great works of art on{y. He may not deny the irrationality of the dream process-he must seek to discover the rules that govern t his nocturnal, o niric dementia. The task of the scientist, in all domains, is to discern the rules governing an a pparent c haos (28, p. xxii). The query of those who may ask whether these "rules" are there, was answered o nce and for all by the great physicist-philosopher Ernst Mach : " There are no laws in Nature-save only those weput into it." I have, in each case, tried to indicate that what I saw in a text could be there in Greek, in Aischylean, Sophoklcan or Euripidean, in ethnographic and in psycho-analytical terms. The onus probandi that I am hallucinating, rests, I think, squarely upon the shoulders of dis.osentcrs. I realize that some of my interpretations are likely to arouse discomfort or anxiety and therefore a defensive rejection. But many myths, as transmitted , also distur bed both the ancients and the moderns.' Man's life is conflic t and therefore anxie ty. Even bowdlerization cannot obliterate those " nasty" elements of myths which reflect human anguish; it can, at best, thinly disguise them (16, 25). The rejection of an interpretation,just because it is unpleasant, cannot make it untrue. The student of M an must learn to put the anxiety his work elicits to a constructive use ( 19). ClinKal and Ethnographical Paralkls are therefore cited without implyi ng that the Greeks in general and the tragic poets in particular were half neurotics and half Hottentots. M y approach implies that Greeks, neurotics and H ottentots are equally human ; that they could not be Greeks, H ottento ts or neurotics, unless they were human to begin with. Unless we undentand the Greeks first as human bcings, ....'C ca nno t- pact Wilamowitz- understand their Greekness at all, nor would their life and culture have any relevance for us (18). I do not consider it necessary to discuss this matter further; a controveny with those who condemn an appeal to such parallel data is hardly useful. ' Pi. O. 9 .3 ~ : refusal to mention impious tales, whi ch Aischylos tried to moralile ; Platon (Rmp. paaim, etc.) and even Euripides (HF 1346) called them the Ii.,. of poets. (Cp. abo E. HF 1317 ,'S. 13.f5;fr. 292.6 f.) The myths of Ouran-=- and of K ronos scandalized many: from E. HF 1345 to Luc. phi/ops. 2; from Pn:Uer- Robe;n (67, I, p. 354) to the self-profCSRd a ntipurilan Sdtman (73, p. 12). T he detait of a /lfflile (non -testicular) CA.r rA .ion was implicitdy denied by GrupP" ( 15. t . p. 432; ~. p. 1366) . Ni l..",n (6$, , 1, p. 52 t) speaks fit'S, of a 10IDI castration. b ut quicldy becomes tess specific. Only Wilamowitt (78, t, p. 93 note I) _peaks unflinchingly of a penile castration.
ater~1
do par
Central Introduction But I cannot refrain from expressing my distress over an authentically great Hellenist's contemptuous remark, that Euripides' Orestes and Elektra are not personages but "abnormal case-studies" ('If, p . 175). Quite apart from my fundamental disagreement with this opinion as literary criticism, it shocks me to think that any human being--even a deterioratcd psychotic vegetating in the closed ward of some hospital-should be thought of 33 a "case history", rather than as a human being in distress. Three decades of clinical experience have taught me to respect my feHow man and to empathize with the grief and misfortune that led him into so tragic an impasse. Psychotherapy teaches each of its practitioners to say: "There, but for the grace of God, go I." Viewing a psychotic simply as a "case history" makes a humane and efficient psychotherapy impossible. Calling Euripides' Elektra or Orestes "c33e histories" assuredly precludes all empathy and therefore also valid literary criticism.
TM Literary Dream TM DreamlikmlSs if a Littrary Dream. The means of 33certalmng the rightness or wrongness of Cicero's dictum with respect to a particular literary dream constitutes a problem which, I believe, h33 never been tackled fonnally, even though countless literary dreams have becn studicd by psycho-analysts. Although I obviously cannot fill here a major lacuna in the theoretical framcwork of "applied" psycho-analysis, the critcria or tests I cite do fit the instances studied in this book; many of them doubtless have a widcr applicability. (I) Dream Metaphors can be persuasive only if the majority of readers experiences at onct the shock of recognition. Two examples suffice to demonstrate this point: ( I ) Hom. It. 22.199 fr.: Achilleus' momentarily unsuccC$.'lful pursuit of Hektor is compared to a dream. Wilamowitz (77, p. 100) reacted to it with a shock of recognition; he called the metaphor beautiful but unbearable. This does not oblige one to a$Sume that Wilamowitz once saw himself in dream, dad in Hektor's armour, pursued by Achilleus, or vice versa. Perhaps he only dreamed of running to catch a Irain and not advancing at all.6 I note that inhibition dreams of this kind (2R, p. 253) inspired also a GI1!ek myth and even a Greek philosophical speculation about the nature of the (mathematical) continuum. (a) Apollod. 2.4,7.: The inescapable Cretan hound pursued the un· catchable Teumessian vixen. Zeus himself could end this paradoxical hunt only by turning both the hound and the vixen into stonc.7 (b) Zenon's famous paradoxofRcetfooted Achillcm' inability toovertake • This dream metaphor'. impul is greatly intensilird by the fact that in Hom. 11. :II, the ICene is anticipated by Skamandros' punuit of AchilleWi in a truly nightmare-like manner -Ihough 1M' ocene is ~ot comparrd to a nighlma...,. The postponing of ouch a (OIIlparisD~ untih ~ . I99 fr. greatly increues the metaphor'. emotional impacl (J.W.D.). 'Cp. also the Oknos myth (PaWl. IO. ~9.,,) and the lale of Penelope'. weaving of a Ihroud (Hom. Od. 19.1,.B ff.) ,
:Ie autof
wi
General Introd#ttion
the turtle that started before he did, is- as regards its form-also indirectly patterned on the experience of an inhibition dream.! (2) A. Suppl. 887 f.: The Danaides compare the ruthless H erald both to a spider and to a snake, in a nightmare metaphor. Now, both spider (I, 21 ) and snake dreams are quite common. I even had occasion to discuss this metaphor with a candidate in didactic psycho-analysLos, who had formerly had both spider and snake phobias. (II ) Type-Dr~ams are sometimes mentioned in literature. In S. OT. gBI If. Iokaste tells the anxious Oidipous that many men dream of cohabiting with their mothers. Both Hippias (Hdt. 7. (07) and Caesar, ( Plu . Gaes. 32; Suet. V. Gaes, 7) are supposed to have had such dreams and Artemidoros devoted a long passage to drealTl!! of this kind (Artemid. J.79). But a difficulty arises at once: None of my patients ever reported a flagrant and completed (heterosexual) incest dream involving a parent.9 Similarly, my Mohave informants told methatsomepersons (and especially mournen) had " type" incest dreams (23, p. 172)-but were unable to cite actual parent-child incest dreams. Whether the Greeks and Romans aClUally had such dreams--or, like modern patients, merely had diTguised (symbolic) incest dreams which, on awakening, they narrated as flagrant incest dreams ("secondary elaboration")-I do not profess to know. I merely believe that neither Iokaste's nor Platon's assertions (Rmp 9, p. 571d) necessarily prove that the Greeks had such drealTl!!, in a flagrant and undisguisedform. On the other hand it is probable that ancient audiences, who-like moderns- had only more or less transparent symbolic incest dreams, recognized their own (di.fgu ised ) dream experiences in Iokaste's and Platon's sweeping statemenU! and responded to them with something like "recognition". (III ) Some TJpt Dreams, mentioned neither in metaphors nor cited as type dreams, are readily recognizable as authentic: for example Menelaos' sexual frustration dream (A. Ag. 420 fr. ). This dream credibly combines two separate types of frustration dreams: erotic dreams interrupted just before consummation takes place and mourning dreams in which one tries in vain to clasp the dream-image of the departed. This finding has certai n literary consequences. Though Aischylos certainly knew Homeros' (Il. 23.65 fr. ) account of Achilleus' dream about Patroklos, he could have written A. Ag. 420 ff. even if he had nol known H omeros-as Milton could have written S01mel xxiii, or l/ Penseroso, even if he had nol read Aischylos. All three simply described a common type of dream-experience. (IV) Tilt Credibility of Some DWJnz-Narraliws is enhanced also by the presence of similar events in a myth- fo r the similarities between the operations of the mythopoeic and of the dreaming mind are manifest.Jo I ~lajor ~hinken who have .solved diffieult problefllll in dream, in a symbolic form , in_ clude: Descartes (n, 72, 79), Agassiz and Hilpr«ht (37), Kekul': ( /9, p. 318) and Poincare (66) . • Wone still, I cannot om,and r«aU a nagrant i,,( t:'lt dream ofth;' type rtpOrtnl in th~ poycho-analytica11iterature. I heard from a colleague a labia" patiem's dr~am of incest with her mother, and one of my patiena once ddib<:ratdy had an ;ncestUO\1ll masturba_ tion famasy, while anolher regularly had in cestuous (bord erline p>ycholic) ran~asies but nt,~r dmf1",. 10 E.g. snakes in Alkestia' bridal chamb<:r (Apollod. 1.9.15) and in a modern bridal
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Gmeral Introduetion (V ) Observable Sluping Behaviour can also provide clues. Traces of a seminal emission in sleep usually justify the inference that an erotic dream had been dreamed (36 ). Men have concluded long ago that sleeping dojp, who whine and whose !e1P twitch, dream of the hunt (Lucr. 4.991 fr.). This view is indirectly confirmed by the electro--encephalographic finding that predators dream more- and more orten-than do herbivorous animals (53). TillS datwn has a direct bearing upon the Erinyes' sleeping behaviour (chap. 4). I already noted a furthe r, strikingly persuasive, detail : on awakening, the Erinyes recall only that reproach smote them in dream, but make no reference to the (on-stage) intrusion of Klytaimestra's shade into their dream. Such an impoverishment of the dream's content, on awakening, is quite common. (VI) MallY " Litnary" Dreams can be shown to be persuasively dreamlike only after they are analysed. I must re-state hcre my fundamental, if heuristic, principle: if a dream-narrative can be satisfaclOrily analysed in the usual way- by applying to it the techniques of dream-analys.is- then that dream fiu Cicero's specification: it is genuinely dreamlike. Most chapters of this book instance this method and indirectly but conclusively confirm it. I confine myself here to entering one caveat. No psycho-analys t is perfectly analysed and devoid of all scotomata. I cited, in all humility, an embarrassing example of one of my own scientific overs.ights elsewhere (28, p. 161 ). A similar blind spot prevented me from seeing at once how authentically dreamlike Atossa's dream (A. Pm. 181 ff. ) really is; I felt at first that it was only an ull-dreamlike allegory. Fortunately for me, my scotoma was dissipated in time by a group of my students, who, for some reason, had no unconscious need to scotomize that particular issue. Once my scotoma was dissipated, the dreamlike nature of Atossa's dream became evident to me. And this leads me to a further criterion. (VII) "Therapeutic" Effect. In a clinical setting, the correctness of a dream interpretation is usually confirmed by i15 beneficial effects upon the patient. He gains new insights into his unconscious problems, recognizes the existence-and dissipation-orhis scotoma and produces new material which he could not have produced had the dream interpretation not abolished the inner obstacles to the recall and narration of that material. Now, neither Aischylos nor his Atossa are on my psycho-analytical couch. Neither of them can "benefit" by the "correct" interpretation of Atossa's dream. But one person did profit, exactly as a patient does, from my students' discovery of the key to Atossa's dream: J am that person. For their comments not only enabled me to interpret correctly Atossa's dream - they also made me look inward and anal)'5e the obstacle which had prevented me from seeing at once what was so evident to them. Ironically, the point I failed to discern in this particular instance happens to be directly related to a theoretical point I appear to have been thefirst to make in psycho-analysis (12). Like most psycho-analytical discoveries, it does not concern a pleasant matter. I was able to make this discovery and was dream. A virginal fiancie dreamed that the bedroom ,he shared with her mother was invadni by . nak"". She wa. very frightenni, but her mother calmly pickni up the snakes and threw them out of the window, saying: "Don', be afraid! I have be<:n bitten ma ny lima by,nakes and have suffered no ill effects."
GmnDl l nlroduction
able to apply it in a number of instances. But, in tills particular instance, my scotoma returned momentarily~as a different one returned in the instance I reported elsewhere (:t8, p. 161 ). The psycho-analysed person's fight against the insidious attempts of repression to regain lost ground never ceases: the battle lines move back and forth as long as one lives. This, perhaps, is why many religions hold that lasting wisdom and insight come only at death. I hope that this frank description of two momentary victories of my repressions over my insight-their temporary regaining of a lost hillockwill encourage the non-psycho-analytical reade r who, at some point, finds it difficult to follow my reasoning, to look inward and ask himself what prevents him fr om seeing what is so evident to me. I hope he will do so without embarrassment, for I have just shown that even a professional, who had spent years on the analytical couch and had listened to patients for many more years, has occasional relapses. They are unavoidable-but can be overcome if one is but willing to listen; as I was willing to listen to my students, only one of whom, so far as I know, had been analysed.1! 1 must now answer the foreseeable criticism that I have failed to enumerate the objective chara cteristics of real dreams and, a IMtion, of authentically dreamlike literary narratives. Even if it we re possible to enumerate them- apart from obvious traits, such as the presence of a dream wish, of a wish-inhibiting dream censor, of symboli;::ation, of overdetermination, etc . (2Q)- 1 could not do it within the framework of this OOok. Even Freud had not enumerated all characteristic dream mechanisms in his monUInentai Th~ hllerprelalicm of Dr~ams (39); many o f his followers have discerned additional ones. Also, my manner of analysing the dreams under consideration implicitly highlights many characteristic dream processes. This being said, 1 can make up for the unavoidable incompleteness of my list of criteria only by calling attention to the existence of an exttrnal criterion, which, 1 hope, will be of special interest to the Hellenist. Th~ Corruption of a Text by the copyist is- with the exception of deliberate tamperings- governed by the general rules which underlie all parapraxes (40, chaps. 6, 7). The copyist usually copies accurately what he understands and is able to lalerate, bu t will make mistakes when copying "Though none orlhe dreams S1udied in Ihi. work requires one o/iln type ofproot of its dreamlike natute, I mention it al least in a fooltlote, for the .tudent ofGr<:ek dreams may find it usefut in determining the dreamlike character of lllher literary dreams. In certain instances an extremely transparcnt and aimOllI allegorical dream reveal. ill affinities with real dreams only by the pnsence of lOme paradoxical detai!. Penelope" dream of the eagle who kill. her geese (H om. Od. 19.509 ff. ) would Ittm implausible a. a dream, were it not for the paradoxi cal tea", she .heds in d~am. Dodds (33, p. 1~3, nOte ~1 ) tried to ""plain Ih~ tea", a. m anifestations of an " ul\"crsion of affect" in dream. H nwever, an invcrsion of affect in d ~am mlUl have a disarnib/e moli"alum, and .uch a motivation fllnJlol Ix detected in Pcnelope'. CaM. I have t"c.-.:fore urged thai the no longer y<>ung-{lnd, jNJce Homeros, nOi alwayo faithful-Penelope (Sr.\". V. Gwrg. t.!6; seh. Lye. 766; seh. Theocr. ,.,) ~acted ;n dream with ~nuin. sorrow 10 th e impending death of her young .uito", (and, perhaps, 100'c",) ( /3 ). This view suggests that hcre--as in many other pa$S3gcs (64, p. 'lIO ff. )_the excttdingly proper Homer.. had expurgated something unpl easant: in this cuean early tale of Penelope'. indiscriminate amoun--withoul managing to efface IIl1tell.tale IrlletJ of that tradition.
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
General Introduction a badly written, difficult and/or anxiery-arousing text. This aCcounts for what is at least a preliminary finding: " illogical" and anxiety-arousing texts, such as dreams, the ravings of insane dramatic personages, etc., tend to be miscopied and to turn into so-called "loci deo;perati" (E. Suppl. 990 ff. )-as is shown by the ungth of the apparatus mlicus of passages of this type. But the rule is not absolute: a genuinely dreamlike narrative, like that of Atossa (chap. I) , may be so well disguised and seem (affectively) so harmless an "allegory", that the copyist will copy it correctly-for its innocuous "surface" permits its amc:iety-arousing latrot content to slip past his "censor"- as it slipped past mine, until my students taught me better.12 If the existence of such deceptive exceptions is alwa)'ll borne in mind, it is safe to say, in the firllt approximation, that the corruption of the text of a dream narrative tends to suggest that the narrative is authentically dreamlike. Also, but again onry in the first approximation, the emendation of a corrupt and anxiety-arous.ing dream-narrative is likely to be more difficult than the correction of errors that slipped into a psychologically innocuous text, for the editor of a psychologically perplexing or anxietyarousing text will occasionally reject precisely the psyC/U!logjcalry most suitahk emendation, because it puzzles or disturbs him as much as it did the copyist{s) or earliest editor(s), as in A. Ag. 412 f. (chap. 3). These criteria fOr the determination of the dreamlikeness of a dream narrative suffice for present purposes. Psychologicalry Implausible Dreams deserve at least a cursory mention. Being both an anthropologist and a psycho-analyst, I have listened to the dreanu of jungle-dwelling primitives and of doctors of philosophy or medicine ; to those of normals and of borderline or even psychotic patients. What I heard convinces me that, at least in historical times, all human beings' dreams are "dreamlike" in terms of identical criteria- though they assuredly differ agreat deal as to the manner in which they are remembered, subjected to secondary elaboration and told to asso rted listeners for a variety of reasons (22, pp. 139 ff.; :34, p. 39). In fact, there are, especially in literature, certain "conventions" as to how to milk a dream (conVlntionalry) "dreamlike" (33, chap. 4), which do not differ, in their essence, from certain conventions concerning the manner of making a narrative "artistic" (15). For reasons repeatedly alluded to in this book, H omeric dreams containing long discourses are un-dreamlike precisely because they fit the literary-esoteric convention that important dreams should include long speeches. IJ & to the dream narratives of Ailies Aristeides, the Rhetor (3), I must, for brevity'S sake, speak apodicticaJly: it is evident that, on awakening, they were subjected to a rather heavy-handed "secondary elaboration", in accordance with the flagrantly neurotic waking needs and wishes of the "dreamer". " In fact, in the nOW wholly sUP<'neded first draft of the At~a chapter, I referud precisely to the o:cellent stale of the transmined tO:I to lupport my (erroneous) conten· linn that Atosaa', dream·narrative w"," only an allegnry, devoid of any truly anxiety· arousing content. Cpo chap. I. Il Hom. If. !l.6 ff.; !l4.6& ff. j H om. Od. 4.78, If.: 6.13 If.: etc.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
GmtTal Introduction
I must speak at somewhat greater length about Artemidoros' Drtam Book for-at a time when psycho-analysis was still ridiculed-Freud, casting about for respectable (or at least time-hallowed) precursors, gave somewhat undeserved praise to Artemidoros, in the first (hislorical) chapter of his The l ,ller/mila/ion of Drtams (39). I will conlent myself wilh making two points: (I) Artemidoros ( 1.79) gives an elaborate classification of OlJt1/ dreams of (completed) incest between mother and son. Yet, as noted before, such dreams are practically never dreamed, even by the aculely psychotic (supra). (2) Throughout his book Artemidoros mentions dreams in v.:hich the dreamer's own body is deformed in some impossible way. Both my own clinical experience and that of the colleagues I consulted, indicate thaI so radical a disruption of one's own "body image" in dream is found only amongst psychotics-and rarely even amongst them. Since Artemidoros (Book 5) credibly asserts that many of the dreams he discusses were actually told 10 him, in his professional capacity and since his clients were hardly ambulatory psychotics, I suspect that their dreams had lost nothing in the telling. In order to get their money's worth from Artemidoros the dream interpreter, they had unwittingly elaborated the dreams they had tUtualry had, until they became significant in terms of ancient dream-interpretation, and began to reAect primitive theories of organ autonomy (28, chap. 13). BUI, in the process, they became utterly incredible as dreams of non-psychotic clients. Given, then, the strilting psychological implausibility of many Homeric dreams devised according to literary conventions and also the nearcertainty that the dreams of the rhetor Ailios Aristeides and also those of certain amongst Artemidoros' clients had been subjected to a radical secondary elaboration, one cannot but be struck by Ihe genuinely dreamlike character of dreams narrated in Greek tragedy- dreams whose affinities with real dreams will be highlighted by nearly every page of this work. Lilerary Dreams- present al ready in some myths (Pi. O. 13.63 ff.)-netd not be psychologically implausible. Both real and invented dreams have found their way into literary works. But even the complete incorporation of a rt al dream into a drama automatically subjects that dream to a kind of "secondary elaboration". I t loses some of its meanings and gains new ones, by being placed into a different setting. I will indicate in due time (chap. 8) that all three surviving Euripidean dreams appear to be poetic elaborations of one of Euri pides' own (perhaps more or less recurrent) dreams. But the attribution of two of them to womm (to Hekabe and to Iphigeneia) necessarily changed part of the meaning the real model of these dreams had for the man Euripides. (This may explain why the Charioteer's dream seems to me the most dreamlike of the three.) Further sources of sea>ndary elaboration are cult ural and literary conventions regarding the manner in which dreams are to be narrated. Convenlions regarding the "proper" manner of narrating a dream, even for non-literary purposes, exist already in primitive and ancient society (59, 74,34). Dreams and their telling can also be influenced by their being dreamed by a patient "for" his therapist (22, passim), or "for" someone else (N ).
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
Central Introduetion
XXYU
A dream devised by a great poet may be beautiful and rich in unconscious overtonesl4-and yet be more poc:try than dream. The Sophoklean Klytaimnestra's dream is assuredly great poetry. It affects the plot-though less than in A. ChlU'.- and, after one digs through layers of cultural meanings, one does discover its unconscious content (chap. 7). It can be usefully contrasted with the Aischylean Klytaimestra's dream. At first blush the latter's oddly maternal- and even masochistically slanted--dream seems at variance with her virago-like character-enough so to delight those who deny that there is sound psychology in Greek drama (;6, 46, 80, etc.). But even the lucid commonsense psychologist will readily realize that it is particularly fitting that a manifestly virile and aggressive Kl ytaimestra should express her inhibited feminine-maternal traits in a dream (chap. 6). Whether used in a metaphorical sense only (supra) or actually designated as a dream, a dramatic dream modelled- like that of Menelaos (chap. 3)--on a real dream, impinges like the blow of a sledge-hammer on the audience's unconscious, compelling each man's inner self to participate in the dream-experience which is re-told on stage. I t obliges the spectator to cross the "rim" and, in crossing it, to abolish it- becoming at once the pursuer and the quarry.IS As to Euripidean dreams, their "dreamlikeness" appears to decrease in accordance with their chronological order .16 The latent content's keynote -the motif of the "primal scene"17-is struck by the dramatically almost gratuitous dream of the Charioteer (E. Rh. ). This key motif then undergoes an increasingly literary elaboration in the other two Euripidean dreams, though this impairs only slighdy the oniric character of the latter. In E. ~T the dream is dramatically almost indispensable. Perhaps the increasing literary elaboration of the key motif--of the nuclear "model"- was compensated for by Euripides' increasing insight into its latent content. That content seenu nearest to the surface in his IT- where the dream is assigned to agirl. It is this that may have enabled the male poet to distance himself sufficiently from what I believe to have been one of his own dreanu. I concede that this explanation is, at best, plausible ; the real facts cannot be known. Experience simply shows that the more freely a poet exploits his unconscious, the more he learns to tolerate it. In that sense only, creauvework call also be thought oras a kind of self-administered psychotherapy.ls LiltTary Dreams and Dream-Boo/u. Ancient writers on dreams and on their ,. The role of the "ncorucio.... (_ inspiration _ the MUHS) in poetry was probably always sensed by pocu. T hough nOling thaI he had lUll undcntood the implications or the drcaffi3 he had inv" nted, Ih" novdist W. Jensen (49) accepted (50) their anal)"is by Freud ( ~I ). Cpo abo Kris (54): a briltiant book, maJttd, in my cotimate, only by Ihe unnect;:IQry concq>t: "regression in the service of the Ego". I offered "lscwhcre a theory of artistic c...,ativity Jt/H invotving this conc<:pt (f 5). "On the "closed uni"cne" unity of the two in E. IT. , cpo chap. 8, note 97. t . Ritchi" (68, p. 345 fL ) proposes the sequence: Rh., Hn., IT. " Primal sa.ne: the child 's real or imaginary ""pcrience ofpa...,ntal coitus. It i. plainly mentioned in A. Diel. 810 ff. t. Cpo Goethe's famous remark: "I had a choice between .... riting W.,.fhet and commit. ting l uicide." The analysis of defence mechanisms weakens them; that of sublimation. Itrengthens them (jf)~and creative work is iublimatioD at iu best (t5).
xxviii
Gnurtzl IntroductWn
interpretation fali, in the first approximation, into two categories. Both Artemidoros-though he claims to discuss also some dreams told to him by his clientsl9_ and Macrobius appear 10 use apriorislic systems of interpretation. Pseudo-Hippokrates (ilUomn. ) probably, Aristote1e! almost certainly (Arist. ilUomn.; diJ div. .fomn. ), use a system which is partly inductive (based upon observation) and partly hypothetico-deductive. I cannot discuss here the various classifications of dreams u$lXl by the ancients, for modern scholars still disagree on the exact syslem of class.ification they used (33, chap. 4 ; 75, cpo 3, pp. 171 ff.) j fortunately it is not necessary for me 10 do so. ,"'hat matters is that, since literary dreams are, on ont level, cuhural artefacts, meant to be "significant", one would expect them to fit dreambook systems better than inductive, scientific ones, since, qua cultural artefacts, they are, in part, meant to be ,onsriousv> understandable for theatre-goers more or less familiar with traditional systems of dream interpretation. Dream-books are manifestly interested in prophetic or clairvoyant symbols, whose meanings they seck to ascertain. Poets are interested mainly in inner meanings and then (wittingly or unwittingly) cast about for--often traditional-symbols, capable of expressing these " meanings". Hence, dreams devised by a few great poets (e.g., Homeros) and by many minor ones do, in fact, fit primarily " literary" and therefore also dream-book "models". Of course, this does not necessarily imply that even such pre-patterned dreams lack an interpretable latent content, though it ~omes discernible only after the layers of cultural meanings and purposes which covcr it are, so to speak, ":lCraped off" and, after being separated from the dream's core, are used as "associations". This is well exemplified by the Sophoklean Klytaimnestra's dream (chap. 7), and by my analysis thereof. Given this cultural background of the literary dream, it is extremely striking how genuinely dreamlike both Aischylean and Euripidean dreams are. They are not simply dream-book type omens masquerading as dreams. In fact, Euripidean dreams appear to be variations on a real dream's theme., though the dramatic personages to whom they are attributed. try their best to makt them sound like oracles and Ift al them as prophetic or clairvoyant. Still, with one striking exception (A. Ag. 420 ff., cpo chap. 3), Aischylean dreams, though plausible as dreams. do differ somewhat from Euripidean dreams. I will attempt to highlight these differences by contrasting the different accounts these poets give of the history of the Delphic oracle (A. Eum. init.j E. IT 1:.135 ff. ), whose antiquity both of them take for granted. lO Thus, Aischylos favoured tales of reconciliation: the peaceful transfer of the oracle's ownership is part of a non-conflictual evolutionary process. There is no hint of such a continuity in Euripides' account of how Apollon wrested the oracle from the chthonian deities: the new "management" turns a haphazardly run self-service workshop into a briskly businesslike It Artemid. book 5 also 1.45, 1.78, 1.79. ,. Brelich (8, p. 300) plausibly ouggcsts thaI Creek ideas about dreallil may have a preHellenic origin.
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
General Introduction
oracle factory, while the di~possessed Earth defiantly sends men dreams that compete with the shrine's high-priced oracles, which profess to interpret the Pythia's inspired ravin~. In Euripides, the dream (= oracle) is not immediately processed by experts (E. Htc. 87 fr. ) : it corresponds to the Pythia's as yet "untramlated" ravings. A faint trace of this is discernible even in Aischylos: 10 first tells her recurrent dream and then reports that her father Inachos asked oracular shrines what it meant (chap. 2). According to Euripides (IT 1259 ff. ), the dreams which compete with the official orade rise from the depths of the Earth- that probably symbolize the timeless depths of the unconscious. This, "Euripides the Irrationalist" (32) may well have understood)1 The E. IT choral passage about the history of the Delphic oracle is, in a sense, an "explanation" of Euripides' BaJ;clwi, which instances, in part, the "theory of dreams" enunciated in E. IT. This, in turn, casts doubt upon the often expressed view that E. IT- which I hold to be one of Euripides' most meaningful dramas-is simply an escapist adventure story. Though I will have occasion to refer repeatedly to the following matter, I must mention here at leas t in passing one radical difference between many Homeric, etc., dreams and all but one (A. PV, chap. 2) of the dreams in the surviving tragedies: it is the absence of articulate speech in the latter, on the one hand, and the occurrence, in at least one drama (E. IT 52), of what is certainly an inarticulate human voice. TillS is quite dreamlike. 22 Summing up, Artemidoros would have had a field day interpreting most Homeric dreams and also many dreams devised by lesser ancient authors. But he would probably have failed to sense ml)St of the implications of Aischylean and Euripidean dreams: those he would have detected would have been oracular, rather than properly psychological. Culturehistorically this means that the manner of tOlltriving literary dreams had changed between the age of H omeros and that of the great tragic poetsthough the change was by no means complete.2l The causes of this change are, for the time being, not discernible- at least to me. Since the change is perhaps most manifest in drama, one might think in this connection of the far from negligible similarity between "seeing a dream" and seeing a play (chap. 3, note 287). But that is as it may be. What does matter is that the appearance of psychologically plausible dreams in tragedy seems to have given a more realistic turn to at least one Greek theory of dream interpretation: that of Aristoteles. 1I Unborn Mohave Ihamans ·'dr~am" Ih~ c",alion mylh already in Ihe ma l~mal ("3, pp. 7!1+ r., no fr. , n~ If., cpo 30, chap. 9). Cenu-al AUSlralia"" caU mylhical times; "dream lime" (69); thil il oonfirmed e'·en by the mOSI conservalive all1hropologislll (35). 21 Since E. 1T 29' If. is wmewhat corrupl and also cootai"" a lacuna, J can do no mOre Ihan nOI~ thai, if cerlain conje<.:lurcs al 10 Ihe meaning of Ihe <;orrupl I~xl and ax 10 the conlent oflhe lacuna are corr«t, Oresla millakes inarticulate animal sounds for Ihe voices of Ihe Ennres. A.. to the Sophoklcan Ai;u (S. Aj.), he apparently did nol notice in his madness thai the animals he mistook for his en~mies produced (like Aiscl>ylos' deeping Erinyes) j""rtindllk sounds. Thil il psychiatrically in/eresting. A patient of mine oI"ten mumbled \0 Ih~ poinl of being uninteUigible, SO "" to oblit~ ... te "modestly" what she d""med 10 be "improper" (chap. 6, nOles '27, '78) . .. Dreams of Ihe "old" Iype arc found in Hdl. 5.56; PI. Cri/o +I-" eIC.; ep. Deubner ~",b
(9, p. IS) (B.R.D.).
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
General Introduction Dreams in Tragedy Realisti, Dreams in Tragedy and their Interpretability. Just a~ the scholastics' faith in Aristotelcs' greatness as a biologist could be proven right only by modern biologists, so only the professional psychologist can prove or dis~ prove the- sometimes approving (ps. ~Long. de sublim.; 15.3 ff.) and sometimes condemnatory (PI. Rmp. 3.8 p. 3g6a ff., etc.)---observation of ancient critics that the tragic poets were perceptive students of the abnormal,:U i.e., of a condition in which the unconscious plays as great a role as it does in dreams, which (according to Freud's well-known remark) are " the royal road to the unconscious." Yet, even though the tcs t case of the tragic poets' psychological realism is, in terms of this view, their hand~ ling of dreams, a systematically psychological and even psycho-analytical study of Greek tragedy-dreaIl1.'l is, so far as I know, still wanting (63, 61, 57). It is this gap my book seeks to fill. I t goes without saying that, both according to Greek thought and modern research, the dream is, in a sense, a metaphor. And it is at this juncture that one can, by citing certain Aristotelian texts, not only understand the basic resemblance between metaphor and dream, but, what is more, get a glimpse of how the "meaning" of the meta phor (and of the dr-:am) is "en~ coded " by the poet (or by the d reamer ) and how the encoded "message"in the sense in which this word is used in communication theory rather than in occultism-is then decoded. M etaphor. "For it is the nature of a riddle that one states facts by linking jm~bili ti ",s together (of cou ne, o n e cannot do tius by puto ng the actual words for things together, but one can if one uses metaphor)" (Arist. P Od. 1458a24 ff.). " But by far the: most important is to be good at metaphor. For this is the only one that cannot be learnt from anyone dse,25 and it is a sign of natural genius, as to be good at metaphor is to perceive resemblances" (Arisl. P Od. 1459a5 ff.; M . Hubbard's translation, 47, pp. 121 f.). Dream inlffprelation. "The most skilful interpreter of dreams is he who has the faculty of observing resemblances. An yone may interpret dreams which are vivid and pla in. But speaking of 'resemblances,' I mean that dream presentations are analogous to the forlllS reflected in water , as indeed we have already stated . In the latter case, if the motion in the water be great, the reflection has no resemblance to its original, nor do the forlllS resemble the real objects. Skilful, indeed, would he be in in terpret~ ing such reflections who could rapidly discern, and at a glance comprehend, the scattered [dislocated G.D.] and distorted fragments of such forms, so as to perceive that one of them represen ts a man, or a horse, or anything whatever. Accordingly, in the other case also, in a similar way, some such things as this [blurred image] is all that a drea m amounts to, for the internal movemen t effaces the clearness of the dream" (Arist. de diu. somn. 464b5 ff.; J. L. Beare's translation). lOSc"eral psychologically sophi5ticated Hellenists hne shown th is to be true: Dodds (31 ,33, eIC.) ; Bezdechi ( ~); Blail
" T his fits what I note elsewhere in this work; it is irnp
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
General Introduction
xxxi
The rrwdus operandi of the poet and of the dreamer on the one hand, and that of the literary critic and of the dream-interpreter on the other hand, arc, thus, d early complementary. The poet conslrucls a metaphorriddle-dream; the dream-interpreter disasstmblls the dream-riddlemetaphor and then re-asstmbles it "correctly". He con do this, for he is able to recognize the hidden similarity between the model and its distorted copy. The poet creates a stylized copy of reality which, despite its enigmatic character, preserves, in a recognizable form- though on several levels (overdetermination)-the essence of what it represents ("original").u The poet turns reality into a dreamlike metaphor ; the dream-interpreter re-converts a metaphor-like dream into reality. Both must be able to discern the "invariants" : the latent similarities both hidden and revealed by manifest d issimilarities.17 Neither psycho-analytical interpretation nor structural analysis go much beyond this Aristotelian insight ... for example in the case of my demonstration (chap. 8) that all three Euripidean dreams express the same intra-psychic reality, by means of three different metaphors-and therefore produce almost the same effect. Unfortunately, it is precisely in this respec t that the psycho-analytical decoding of a dream (metaphor) sometimes meets with criticism, though already Aristoteles noted that all men are not equally skilled either in contriving or in decoding m etaphors (dreams). I must therefore seek to strengthen my point by an analogy. Ophthalmologists test colour blindness by showing the patient a piece of paper covered with variously coloured dots (Ischihara test). People with normal colour vision immediately discern that certain dots form a number-a 5. But people with defective colour vision will discern a very different number-a 2. Now, though I have normal colour vision, I can, for some reason, easily make myself see the way a colour- blind person does: I first discern the "5" and then , very rapidly, also the "2" ... but never the two simultaneously (complementarity of perception patterns) (30). It stands to reason tha t a person having normal colour vision may not say that the colour-blind person is "hallucinating" the number " 2"- nor vice versa, of course. Charges of "wild " interpretation are often equally unjust. The "2"---discernible almost only for the colour blind-it there. even if persons having a normal colour vision do not see it)1 M ore will be said about this matter in connection with the inlUl' complexity that makes Aischylos' seemingly monolithic outwlZTd simplicity possible. This being said, it does not matter very much whether a poet " intuitively" contrives a plausible dream or whether, a5 I bcli"v". the thr"e Euripid~an dreams are poetic elaborations of one of his own dreams (chap. 8) . .. Arinotd ...• discussion of the relatiornhip between the object and ill dislOJ"tni mirror image(s) in moving water is perhaps the first all .... ion to .. continuo .... transformatiom", such as are studied in topology and in some other branches of modem mathematiC!. " "Invariant" is used here in an alm"'t mathematical oellK: as that part ofa (mathe_ matical) exprCSllion which does not change when the exp/"CSllion as a whote is .ubjected to a series of transfonnatiOn.t. T h ...., when one twill", a rubber ball, Ihis does not modify the "oeighborhood retatiornhip" between adjacent poin'" On its surface . .. A welt-known thWr<:tical phyaicis t said to me: " I have no trouble following psychoanalytical reasoning, fOJ", as a phyaiciol, I am accwtomed to look behind the fa~adc of thUl.8s." The colour-blind are good at recognizing camouflaged objec"'.
:Ie autof
GtrUfaJ IntTothution Though this was probably a recurrent dream, the actual dream-narratives are so well integrated with the plots of the tragedies in which they occur, that he could not have d reamed all three l Xactry as be re-told them .lSI I simply note that certain peculiar arrangements recur also in the works of other great artists : even the epicene sensuality of a number of Leonardo da Vinci's paintings is psycho-analytically interpre table.30 The recurrence of a pa ttern in a n artist's work proves its uncoruciow im portance for him a nd may represent a- partly effective-attempt to master some trauma o r conflict by means of repetitive fantasies or dreams (s6).J1 Such a recurrent artistic exploitation of the same b33ic pattern reRects, on the one hand, the stability and continued influence of the conflict- but, on the other hand, a lso the (at least palliative, and, in the best cases, truly sublimatory) stability of the "counter-measures": that of the well-controlled IIlUrosis quite as much as that of the sublimatori{y crtativt character structure.
T he Prublem
of Survival:
Genius
It is a crucial- and, 1 think, relatively neglected--question why, after a lapse of nearly 2,500 yean, Greek tragedy can still move the modern reader---even in a Ra t prose transla tion, even in a capricioWl "Nachdichtung". Parts of the text arc corrupt; our understanding of classical Greek is im perfect; scholars debate the exact meaning even of well-preserved. texu; we can never qui te think- nor fully feel-the way the Greeks did. \ Vhat, then, continues to move- and even bewitch-us in these ancient texts, most of whose c uhural context is irretrievably lost? M uch research is needed before we can understand why K imon could marry his (presumably patern al) half-sister Elpinike (Plu. V. Cim. 4, etc.), apparentry without und ue anxie ty-though neither the reader nor the a uthor of this book could do so. But we must a lso recall tha t Kirnon could not have married his utmne half-sister, either without anxiety orwith social approval. And, I think, insufficient attention has been paid to the fact that, at the time of this permitted b ut unusual marriage-ridiculed in Eupolisfr. 208Kimon was a dissolute, uncultured, a lcoholic boob (as shown by his nickname) and that, apparently, even lattr 011, Elpinike was ne ver a decorous Athenian lady (Plu. V. Cim. 4,14). " Historical psychology" can explain :to Their anginal model can hard ly hav~ be<:n a friend', dream which he told to Euri_ pida .. . for in that CaM he would /Wt ha,'e uliliud illl Lalenl contenl a nd Itructure, but &orne of illl "manifest content". Also, diselming un,,'1 dreams wilb others wal Ihuught to be unmannerly: Thphr. eMF. 3.3, ,6. t t , ~!i. l C. " Freud (42). Another of Freud', interpretationl of Leonardo', p5~hology-the "preda tory bird "" mOlher" equ al ion- ha" in the meantime, been confirmed by ar<:ha",," logical findings. Bradley (7), citing ~'I ellaart (52) , notes that at \!atal H ilyilk (Shrine I) ea(:h of a female deity', b.c ... 1lI contained the , kull ofa griffon vultu,.." wh""" protruding beak rq>resented the nipple. "An ouutand ing H ungarian novdiln,j.il.nos Kodol.il.nyi, wh""" work!! have, regrettably, ne"er beo.n translated, uti Ji za in several of hi. nO"els-historical as well as modem-t he lame family constellation: a Item rather, a mOlher who dilappcared inexplicably, a kind stepmolher, an envied younger male half·sibling, causing the departure from home of the older IOn. Bu t thi. recurr ent pallern i., in each case, ,..,.worked. in a brilliantly diffe,..,nl but equally pcnuasi,'e manner. T his constel lation Cl>u1d IH autobiographical .
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
GtM'aJ 1I1trodueti0l1 why Kimon U1U.ld take this step, as cultural considerations explain why he was permitted to take it. But only psycho-analysIs-which bears in mind his ,ar{y conduct-can explain why this marriage did actually take place. I cannot retrace here the reasoning of my two studies on the problem of the "appeal" of works of art (15, :1J). I can only say that whereas our access to most of Aischylos' or Euripides' " tools" is defective or partial, we have total access to the crucial element of their creative work: to its un,onsnous tonln/I, provided we are willing to open the deeper layers of our minds to its impact. For most great Greek tragedies- and other works of great beauty as well-deal with the eternal preoccupations, desires and frustrations of thc human mind-and especially of its unconscious layers. Each man must deal somehow with his Oedipus complex. Few of us deal with it the way the Oidipous of myth did---even fewer the way Sophokles did: by the sublimation of subjective conflicts into a masterpiece. I have conceded elsewhere (15) that our defective grasp of a great artist's tools and the limited "convertibility" of the "currency" wherewith each culture permits its members to bribe their Super-egos, do create barriers to a full appreciation of works of art not of our time and cultural area. But I hold that we do have a near-complete access to the nudau of each great work of art, WMUIKT its historical and cultural setting may be: to its " unconscious" content as reflected in the work of art; we can even discern the congroence of the structure of the work of art with the slnuture of the human psyche (27). This implies that on one, crucial, level the great artist is also a great realist. He is psychologu:al{y plausible-and never more so than when he brings to the fore the latent problems of everyone partaking of the human estate. In this sense:, then, the present work is a study of the psychological realism of the tragic poets-especially in respect to that (unconscious) portion of the psyche which expresses itself in dreams. And, in demonstrating this realism, I hope I contribute something also to our understanding of the possibility of the survival of great art across countless years and culturally seemingly insuperable barriers. I need only define the nature of the great poet's realism. Th, Realism oj P,gosos is, on anatomical and physiological grounds, totally spurious. Yet, in some peculiar manner, Pegasos continues to "persuade" us. In one sense: his persuasiveness partakes of that of the incredible plot of the Didipous TyraMos, or of that of the inedible beef carcas,., painted by Rembrandt. We accept the incredible----or the inediblebecause the artist endows it with "beauty" ( 15). But Pegasos also has other realistic creden tiais, the most persuasive of which are his (implausible) wings. Psycho-analysts have concerned themselves a great deal with the meaning of riding for the unconscious: with the oddly ambiguous symbolic reciprocity between the rider and the ridden, whose roles are surprisingly interchangeable both in rituals and in dreams.Jl The erotic significance of dreams of flying was discovered long before Freud (39, chap. I ) .3l not~ 104; chap. 8, not~ 76; chap. 9 nOI~ 6g, abo II, '4, 17,51t. " ModeTn neurological Iludies of lleep ahow thai periods of dreaming .... e usually pre.:eded by a brief erection (6).
"Cp. chap. 3,
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Gmeral intruductiun I hold that the persuasiveness of winged Pegasos consists preci.lely in his cumbining the realistic representation of a horse with a symbolic allusion (wings) to the fantasmatic ClJft of what riding ( = flying) represents for the unconscious mind. A very similar problem arises in connection with the " credibility" of myths. I formerly thought that we accept the incredible clements of a myth as part of a "package deal": we pretend to believe the un believable, in order to be able to enjoy the tale. Today I feel that this conception reflects only the operations of the conscious mind, whose importance no person in his right senses will underestimate. I n psycho-analytical terms the silUation is, however, somewhat different. \Ve accept the "fiction" as a whole, and particularly its objectively least credible elements if- and onry if- they reflect, symbolically, the unconscious, fantasmatic components of the tale's credible part. This permits certain systematically repressed thoughts to become almost conscious, for myth-makers and great poets feel and utter the "unthinkable"- but do so in accordance with a special code of the proprieties: with the rules of art (15). The (psychological) realism of Pegasos is inseparable from the truthfulness of Apollon Loxias, the prophet. "The Lord whose oracle is that at Delphi neither speaks nor conceals, but indicates" (Heraclit.fr. 93 D-K). Behind the "indication" that .i.I Pegasos, there is, at once, the world of magnificent real horses and the world of actual dreams of riding and flying. Such, too, .i.I the psychological realism of the dream narratives of Greek tragic poets. At the other end of the spectrum slands the Chimaira, no part of which corrC!Sponds to a real and wnok creature: this juxtaposition of disparate fragments seeks to condense too many fragmentary and split meanings into an inacceptable pseudo-whole. For the non~archaeologis t it represents on!» the total negtUiun of reality: the chimaerical. H aving no compelling and unified counterpart even in the affecl~laden fantasies subtending weird dreams, it lacks the character.i.ltic iruvitability which even dreamers or seemingly " absurd" dreams experience. Lacking what is technically called a "system-adequate closure of the configuration" (Gestalt), the Chimairaand Chimaira-like literary productions (including Ailios Aristeides' heavily re-worked "dreams")--can only perpetuate the conflict ruminatively, obsessively, but cannot provide a katharsis-let alone a sublimatory resolution--of the anxiety. And this brings me to a hypothesis which I can state here only in the most succinct manner. What little is known of satyr-plays permits one to affirm that the Greek tetralogy provided a doub k katharsis. The tragic trilogy made the intolerable acceptable by means of btaury--the terminal satyr-play made the same t;~ of intolerable material bearable through riotous humour. In short, in the tetralogy intolerable ("ego-dystonic") unconscious material was provided with two passports to consciousness: the aathetic pa33port of tragedy and the humorous pnSllport of the .mtyrplay.:H .. I dilCuuro ebewhen: the equivalence of the IWO alibis: An "obscene" stGry becorna .odally acceptable if i . .. told "bo:auliCully enough" (So OT) Dr "wittily rnough" (A. Did. BID ff. H.L.-]. ) (IS). Cpo chap'. I, note 34; B, note 19o.
~ atet"~1
Central InlTrK1uction
xxxv
The Compuxi/its of Simplici!>'. A further foreseeable objection was well formulated by Fraenkel; for Verrall "Aeschylus was too simple and solid ... he wanted him more complex" (38, I, p. 57). Fraenkel then adds (p. 59); " Headlam was more attracted by psychological complexity than by simple grandeur." I fully subscribe to Fraenkel's verdict- but with one crucial caveat; Headlam's "psychology" is a home-made "flying gallop" pseudopsychology and the complexities that Verrall devised resemble those a shrewd lawyer creates to obfuscate a straightforward issue. But that, in a way, is beside the point. The crucial issue is the distinction to be made between the simplicity (or complexity) of the "objul" and that of its explanation. It is an almost universal rule that the appearance of a streamlined outer simplicity-such as the "simple grandeur" of Aischylos-is a direct consequence of the "object's" inner complexity. The harmonious and indeed grandiose simplicity of a modern jet-plane's contours is made possible by the incredible complexity of its inner parts. The jagged, complicated contours of a World War I plane reflected the primitiveness and simplicity of its inner parts: its "complexity" was all on the surface-as it is in Lykophron or in certain modern "poets". Compared to the streamlined dolphin---closest to man in its intelligence-the "Portuguese man-ofwar", a very simple organism, is sheer "gingerbread". Equations of incredible complexity underlie Einstein's "simple" conclusion ; t "" mc~. I confidently affirm that infinitely more complicated psychological processes underlie a two-line Simonides epigram than subtend the cryptic pseudo-ravings of Lykophron's Auxandra. Man's mind-and, afortWri, the mind of genius- is, whether one likes it or not, a singularly complicated device. In studying its operations-and never more so than when that mind comes up with an incomparably lean and spare utterance : with an Aischylean dramatic passage, with a Simonides epigram, with Einstein's basic formula---one must constantly bear in mind the great mathematician Lagrange's warning; "Nature simply does not care how great the mathematical difficulties are wherewith it confronts its students." Precisely because the solid, majestic, monolithic simplicity of Aischylos is glaringly obvious, the assumption is inevitable that almost incredibly complex thought processes rendered that noble simplicity of the "object" possible. Simple grandeur results from the perfect articulation of real complexities. I italicized the word "real", for much depends on it. The great fugal movement. of Mozart's Jupiter symphony sounds simple and smooth : its dazzling contrapuntal sophistication is revealed only by a meticulous analysis of the score. Of course, a conductor wishing to be "different" can euily destroy this impression of total simplicity, by instructing those who play the "middle voices" to play too loudly. That, I think is comparable to the means--condemned by Fraenkel and rightly condemned by rum- used by Verrall and by Headlam to make the interpretation of Aischylos seem complex. Clever complexity-mongers tend to forget that at the end of their road there still is Aischylos himself, in all his majestic "nmplicity" .
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
GtnlTal [nuodlution
I must pursue this analogy a little further . During a rehearsal, a conductor may well irutruct those who play the middle voices to play more loudly, to test the correctness of their performance. This will insure that they will play tht$(: middle voices well, but withoul und ue loudness, at the actual PtrformDnc,. Given the homophonic character of scientific discourse (58, pp. 22 ff. )though, I feel, not of great poetry (48)- 1 am, throughout this book, compelled to behave as dOC'S a conductor dunng rthtarsals. I must highlight now the treble, now the alto, now the bass, for the nature of scit ntifie discoune offers no alternative. But I have-with love and reven:ncealways borne in mind that at the beginning of my diocourse there is the awesomely complex simplicity of Aischylos or of Euripides and that these same venerable texts also mark the end of my road. J have, therefore, been mindful also of another of Lagrange's maxims: "Seek slmplicity, but distrust it!" I have tried to look at the detaii.J with the micr~ope, the better to understand their subordination to--and importance for- the whole. I have sought to analyse the aerodynamic subtleties of the hawk's ana tomy and motion, the better to apprehend in the end the fierce slmplicity of ill! soaring ascent and lethal dive. I have not tried to display my subtlety, but to understand the subtlety of the means Aischylos used to achieve simplicity. I hold, in conclusion, that the weaver's an, which produces the seamless web of great tragedy, is greater by far than that of the maker of a crazy quilt, for each of his threads runs unobtrusively the whole length of the warp or woof. Nothing in
0.
work of geniUll is gro.lUitoUll and tran:lilient. I 0.00
know that 1 have discerned only some of the threads of the great purple cloth that Agamemnon trod when walking into the immortality of fate and fame. I only ask that it be conceded that I have done so scrupulously and with reverence.
Bibliography
( I) Abraham, Karl: The Spider as a Dream Symbol (in) Stlecud Papers of Karl Abraham M.D. New York, Basic Books, 1953. (2) id. : Dreams and Myths (in) Clinical Papers and Essays on PsychoAnarysir. New York, 1955. (3) Behr, C. A.: Aelius Aristides and 1M Sacred Tales. Amsterdam, 1968. (4) Bezdechi, Stefan: Das psychopathische Substrat der " Bac,hantinnm" Euripides', Archillfiir die Gesehichlt der Medh.in 25:279-306, 1932. (5) Blaiklock, E. M.: The Mole CharacttrS of Euripides. Wellington, N.Z., 1952. (6) Bourguignon, Andre: Recherches Recenles sur Ie R~ve , us Temps Mrxiemn no. 238:1603- 16::z8, 1966. (7) Bradley, N.: The Vulture as a Mother Symbol, American Imago 22 :47- 56, 1965. (8) Brelieh, Angelo: The Place of Dreams in the ReligioUll World Concept of the Greeks (in) von Grunebaum, G. E. and Caillois,
atet"~1
Gmt'fal IntroductWn
(9) (10)
(II) ( 12)
xxxvii
Roger (eds.): Th4 Dream in Human Sodttits. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, 1966. Deubner, Ludwig : D, Ineuba/iOIU. Leipzig, 1900. Devereux, George: Mohave Coyote Tales, Journal of American Foikl{)J', 61 :233--255, 1948. id. (and Mars, Louis) : Haitian Voodoo and the Ritualization of the Nighnnare, Psychoanalytic R,view 38:334-342, 1951. id.: Why Oedipus Killed Larus: A Note on the Complementary Oedipus Complex, InltnUJtiornJi Journfll of Prycho-Analyris 34:132-
1953· ( 13) id.: Penelope's Character, Psychoanalytic Quartlrly 26 :378--386, 1957. (1 4) id.: Obsessive Doubt, Builetin of the PhiltJdtlphifl Association for Psychoanalysis 10:5()-55, 1960. 14 1 ,
(IS) id.: Art and Mythology: A General Theory (in) Kaplan, Bert (ed.): Studying Pmonfllity Cr~s-Culturfllly. Evanston, Illinois, 1961. (16) id. : The Exploitation of Ambiguity in Pindaros O. 3.27, Rheinisches MuseumftJr PhilolDgie log :28g--2g8, 1966. (17) id.: Fausse Non-Reconnaissance, Bullttin of the .Menninger Clinic 3 1:6s-78, 1967· (18) id.: Greek Pseudo-Homosexuality, SymboltU Oslotnses 42 :69-92, 1967. ( 19) id.: From Awry to Mtthod in the Behavioral Sciences. Paris and The Hague, 1967. (20) id.: Observation and Belief in Aischylos' Accounts of Dreams, Psychotherapy and PsychosomtJtics 15: 1 14- 134, 1967. (21 ) id.: The Realistic Basis of Fantasy, Journal of the Hillside Hospital 17 : 13--20, 1968 . (22) id .: RtaJity and Dream: The Psychotherapy of a Plaim Indiatl. (Second, augmented edition), New York, 1969. (23) id.: Moluwt Ethnop'sy&hiatry. (Second, augmented edition), Washington, D.C. 1969. (24) id. : The Nature'ofSappho's Seizure in Fr. 31 LP, Classical QuarterlY 20:17- 31, 1970 . (25) id.: La Najssance d'Aphrodite (in) Pouillon, Jean and Maranda, Pierre (eds.): EchangtJ I I Communications (Melangl s liui-Slralill), 2.1229-11152. Paris and The Hague, 1970. (26) id. : The Psychotherapy Scene in Euripides' Bacchae, Journal qf Hellenic Slwfits 90:35- 48, 1970. (27) id.: The Structure of Tragedy and the Structure of the Psyche in Aristotle's Potties (in) Hanly, Charles and Lazerowitz, Morris (cds.): PsydwanaJyJis fJIld Philosophy. Ncw York, 1970. (28) id. : Essm d' Etlmopsychiatrit Genirall. Paris, 1970. (Second edition 1973)' (29) id.: The Psychosomatic Miracle of lolaos, Lo Pa,olfl del PllSSato 138 : 167- 195, 1971. (30) id.: EtJuwpsychanalySt Complimmtarisil. Paris, 1972. (31 ) Dodds, E. R.: The al&.:>c of Phaedra, Classiwl Review 39:102- 104, 1925. (32) id.: Euripides the Irrationalist, Classical R,new 43:97- 104, 1929. (- in The Ancimt Ilk" of Progress. Oxford 1973).
XXXV""
Grnnal Introduction
(33) id. : Tlu Gruk! and 1M irrational, Berkeley, California, 195 1. (34) id.: Pagan and Christian ill an Age of Anxiety. Cambridge, 1965. (35) Elkin, A. P.: The Australian Abrmgines. Sydney, [964. (36) Ferenczi, Sandor: Pollution without Dream Orgasm and Dream Orgasm without Pollution (in) FUfl1leT COllln'bulions IQIhe ThelnY and T edmiqIU of Psychq-Analysir. London, 1926. (S7) Fodor, Nandor (cd.) : Eneydopadia of Psychic Science. London ( I934?) (s.v. : Dreams). (g8) Fraenkel, Eduard: Au chy lus : AgollUmllOn 2, 3 voh. Oxford, 1962. (39) Freud, Sigmund: The Interpretation of Dreams, Standard Edition 4- 5' London, '955· (40) id.: The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, Standard Edition 6 .
London, IgOO. (41 ) id.: Delusion and Dream in J ensen's GradiufJ, Standard Edition 9 . London, 1959. (42) id. : Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood, Standard Edition I I . London, 1957. (43) id.: Some Drealll5 of Descartes: A Letter to Maxime Leroy, Standard Edition 2 I. London, 196 1. (44) Greene, W . C.: M oira (Torchbook edition). New York, 1963. (45) Gruppe, 0.: Griechische Mytholagie und lUligionsgeschichle, 2 vols. MUnchen, 1906. (46) Howald, E. : Du griechisdu Trogiidie. Stuugart and Leipzig, 1930. (47) Hubbard, Margaret (translator) (in) Russell, Donald A. and Winterbottom, M. (cds. ) : Anamt Lit"ary Criticism. Oxford, 1972. (48) Jakobson, Roma n a nd Levi.Strauss, Claude: " Les Chats" de Charles Baudelaire, L 'H omme 2 :5-2 1. 1962. (49) J ensen, Wilhelm : Gradiva, 1903 (English translation appended to the American edition of Freud (41) of 1917). (50) id.: Drei unverofTentlichte Briefe (Zur Geschichte von Freud's Gradiva.Analyse), Ps;·choanalytische Bt~gung 1 :207- 211, 1929. (51 ) Jokl, R . H .: Psychic Determinism and Preservation of Sublimation in Classical Psychoanalytic Procedure, Bulletin tlj. tlu Menning" Clinic 14:207- 219, 1950. (52) j ones, Ernest : On tlu Nightmart. London. 1931. (53) j ouvet, Michel : The States of Sleep, Scimtifo: American 216, no. 2: 62- 7 1, February 1967. (54) Kris, Ernst : Psychoanalytic Explorations in A,t. NC\v York, 1952. (55) Kroeber, A. L.: Anthropology2. New York, 1948. (56) Kubie, L. S.: Manual of Emergency Treatment for Acute War Neuroses, War M ediciru 4 :582- 598, 1943. (57) Lennig, Robert : Traum und SinnestiiulChung bei Aischylos, Soplwkles, EuripithJ (Dissertation T Ubingen). Berlin, 1969. . (58) Levi-Strauss, Claude: Le Cru et Ie Cuil. Paris, 1964. (59) Lincoln , j . S.: The Dream in Primiti~CulturtS (Reprint, with a new preface by George Devereux). New York, 1970. (60) Maas, Paul : T extual Criticism. Oxford, 1958. (61 ) Meissner, 8. : M)·thisches und Rationales in d" Ps) ·chol()gie thr Euripideischen Tragiiditn (Dissertation Gi:ittingen) . Gottingen, '951 .
atet"~1
do por
Gerural Introduction (62) Mellaart, J.: Deities and Shrines in Neolithic Anatolia: Qatal Hu yUk 1962 ArchaeoiogJ> 16:29-38, 1963. (63) Messer, J. St.: Til, Dream in HorneT and Guek Tragerfy. New York, 19 18 .
(14) Murray, Gilbert: The Rise ojthe Greek Epic4. Oxford, 1960. (65)" Nilsson, M . P.: Geschichle dtT gritchischen Rdigion 12. MUnchen , 1955. (66) Poincare, Henri : The Foundations oj Science. Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 19 13. (67) Preiler, Ludwig and Robert, Carl: Griechische Myth%gu~ . Berlin, 1894- 19 2 1. (68) Ritchic, William: The Authentici!yojthe Rhesus oj Euripides. Cambridge, 1964· (6g) R6heim, Gtza: The Eternal Ones oj the Dream. New York, 1945. (70) Russell, Bertrand: Principles of Mathematics. Cambridge (England), 1903· (71) Rycroft, C.: A en'tical Dictionary oj PJ)·cho-Analysis. London, 1968. (72 ) Schonberger, S.: A Dream of Descartes, International ]()Urnal oj Psycho-Analysis 20:43- 57, 1939· (73) Seliman, Charles: The T wel(Jt Olympians. New York, 1962. (74) Toffelmier,Gcrtrudeand Luomala, Katherine : Dreams and Dream
Imerpretations or the Dieguei\o Indians of Southern California, PsychfHlTIQlytic Qunrterly 2: 195- 225, 1936. (75) Waszink, J.: Die sogenannle FUnfteilung der Traume bci Chalcidim und ihre Quellen, MneT1loJ)·ne (Series 3) 9:65-85, 1941. (76) \Vilamowitz-Moellendorff, T ycho von: Die dramatischt Ttchnik des Sophokles. Berlin, 1917. (77) Wilamowitz-Modlendorff, Ulrich von: Die /{iOJ und H OrlltT. Berlin, 19 16 . (78) id.: DtT Glaube dtT" Helle'lllIl, 2 vols. Basel and Stuttgart, 1959. (79) Wisdom, J. 0.: Three Dreams of Descartes, illumational Journal oj Psycho-Arudysis 28: 1 1- 18, 1947.
(80) ZUrcher, Walter: Dit DarSleliulIg des M enschen in Drama des Euripides. Basel, 1947.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Chapter
I
Atossa's Dream (Aischylos: Persai)
•
Atrusa's Dream
ATOCCA (BACI..\EIA) t60~an,v IIDl
,8,
olio )'\NaiK' MIIJOV(,
I)IJhIll"Frr1l01CI nEfXllCOtc l'!CXTlIll:VT], flB' o:Vn .6wpllcoiav, ele 6IyIV IJOAEiV, ~I Tt Taw vUv brn"pE1TEcrCrro: 'lT01Iv, KaAAel T' aJJWOIW, 1(0:1 KaclyvT'rTO: ytvovc Ta\rroV' 1Ta-rpav 6' ~valov fl ).ltv '006:60:
,85
KATlfKll ACXXoOcCX yoto:v, T')5e ~j3apov. TOVrW c-rO:CIV TIV', We iyw '56t::ow Opav, nVxflV {v aMi!AOIC\" 1I'aic 6 ' !\.lOc Ila1JWV KCl"reTXE K6:rrp6wEv, ClpllaC1\I 6' lino ~lV
.1&t]cl.
xi!
'90
a\rrw Kol ;\twaS\!' m' a0.tvwv ~
,.;;is'
rnvpyoii-ro C'TOAfj
tv f1v!aICI,.' eTXEV eOapKTOV cr61l(1, T'! 0 ' kq>a5q:~E, Kat xepoiv lVTll 61'llpov 8\acrrap6;coa KOO ~p".6:JtI ~(<;% 6VEV XaAIVWV !(ai JUYov 6paVt\ !lEcov.
' 95
TrI1rTEI 0 ' t~ naTc, KallTcrnlP TTaplcTCXTal bapetoc ohcrtlpwv c'W TOv 6' 6-rrwc 6~ %e~c,
TTmAovc
p~yvvclV
al-lfl cWlJ<XT1. (Smyth's text)
Translation;
Atossa (the Queen) : I dreamed that nvo women in fair vesture, one apparelled in Pcnian garb, the other in Dorian atlire, appeared before mine eyes; both in stature far more striking than are the women of our time, in beauty flawless, sisters of the selfsame race. As for the country wherein they dwelt, to one had been assigned by lot the land of Rdlas, to the other that of the barbarians. The twain, to my fancy, seemed to provoke each other to a mutual feud ; and my son, made aware of this, strove to restrain and to soothe them, and yoked them both to his car and placed the co!lar-straps upon their neeks. The one bore hersdfproudly in these trappings and kept her mouth obedient to the rein. The other struggled and with her hand rent asunder the harness of the car; then, free of the curb ( ?) , dragged. it violently along with her and snapped the yoke asunder. My son was hurled to the ground and his father Dareios stood by his side compassionating him. But Xerxes, when he beheld him, rent his garments about his limbs. (Smyth's translation) (The exact details of the manner in which the woman in the Dorian garb frees herself and, none the less, drags the chariot along are not altogether clear; cpo Broadhead ad loc. and my comments, infra. )
~
a
ida par
Atossa's nr,mn
3
InJroduction Atossa's dream confronted me with unexpected difficulties. For reasons to be enumerated below, it struck me as a " literary dream"-as a mere allegory. The " final" draft of this chapter was ready when, in quick succession, two unpublished reports on this dream! made me realize that I had missed the essence of its meaning, and that the chapter would have to be completely rewritten. The important methodological implications of this fortunate mishap are discussed in the General Introduction. The facts that misled me were: ( I ) The text's excellent state, not only in comparison with that of other A~chylcan dreams, but even with that of the Aischylcan corpus as a whole. The few and unimportant errors are easily rectifiable ; the apparatus crilicus of th~ passage is exceptionally short. Differences of opinion about the meaning of certain details do not create problems of interpretation for the psycho-analyst. At first, 1 deemed this to be pTlmtl facie evidence that this text's latent content was not disturbing enough to cause ilS many copyists to perpetrate defensive mistakes.2 Such mistakes represent what I call (1 7, chap. 113) the "this far and no further" reaction: " I have heard all I can tolerate". My failure to grasp this dream's essence well exemplifies such defensive blind spots. The dream's unconscious "message" simply did not Tla&h me until the reports of my students and of Miss Pade! confronted me with it. (II) I did not recognize that Atossa was "present" in her dream, let alone that she was doubly present. (3) The dream is manifestly prophetic and clairvoyant. I ts message is duplicated on awakening first by the bird omen, then by the Messenger's report and at last also by the defeated Xerxes' return. Proofs of the dream's oracular character are " laid on too thick". Even Dareios' (non-clairvoyant, 739 If.) gho:st treats it as an oracle. I simply failed to see that, as in actual dreams, the real content of this dream simply reflects the past. (4) The day's residue exerlS almost no influence on the imagery. Only the anxious mood of many preceding days is echoed by the dream's oUI~me-as is the case, for example, also in vv. 133 ff. (5) No one is puzzled in the least by the dream's meaning; all seck only to avert its disastrous "prophecy" (11111 IT.) .3 Since that is less illdjIJidlUl1 behaviour than a reflection of Greek cultural practices, it caused me to assume that what precedes this series of cultural reactions is also primarily ' The work-group report of fou r of my students
(~"" Agn~
Castanit, M.A. , and
J os)' Thibaut, M.A., MM. J.-P. LargiUet and Chr. Sanchez) and a papn Miss Ruth Padel, B.A., had written for her Oxford tutor. 1 Patient& producing " deep" material fumble and commit many laps"". II is difficuillo ncall ~~ one'. own dr<:am, leI alone Ihal ofsomeone elst:. Analysamb oft~ fo.-ge\ all or part oflbeir dreams. ThOle whojol them down in the middle of the nightsometima cannol r=notrucl the dram from their . ketclty nota-and arc allim"" even unable 10 decipher them. On writing down one'l dreams, cp. Freud 38, pp. 8g ff. and Abraham I , chap. 5. On Ihe difficulli... ~ remembering the drauns of others, cp. ltO, /J4Ssim. , But I note the absence of an cvil-dispellill8 exJ'O'uu of Ihefanta.un-
:Ie autor
4
Atossa's Dream
cultural in nature: an allegory rather than an authentic dream. Atossa is specifically concerned with the shadow her dream casts on her waking experiences (603 ff.). The ritual seeks to control not only the events, but the anxiety reaction as well (36), for in Aischylos the waking reaction to a dream is the most effective clue to its "meaning" ( 18). But the bird omen appears to decrease Atossa's faith in apotropaic rituals, for the hawk (= Greece) does not spare the eagle ( = Persia) even after it seeks asylum at Apollon's altar.4 (6) The literary quality of Ihill dream narrative ill not orthe highest. It
lacks Aischylos' compelling vision and the torrential power of his pot:tic diction. In trying to contrive something outlandish cnough to pass as both dreamlike and "exotic" (Persian), Aischylos seems to have harnessed the racers of his imagination to an ornately cumbersome coronation coach ... or, better still, to a royal hearse. To insure absolute transparence, he d evised a quasi-allegory and not an immediately penuasive dream. Instead of letting fantasy reinterpret the real world, turning the commonplace into sheer magic, he tried to manufacture the substance ofa fan tasy world and therefore (predictably) failed to bring into being the uncanni!J rtalistie atmosphere of a dream.' In short, the difference between dream and allegory is also the difference between great and merely good poetry. A stylized lura/die lion representing Scotland is only an allegory; a realistic lio n chasing an adolescent dreamer through endless corridors is the stuff of dreams and of great poetry. The great poet grasps reality with his bare hands; in making it his own, he endows it with magic. The merely good poet either plods along, passively stepping into the footprints of a non-thrilling reality or else d evises a weird but non-persuasive "world" of his own. Such a contrived world of images and events is queer rather than strange and outlandish rather than poetic, for great poetry's springboard must be, a lways was and will ever be reality,.as the dream's springboard is the real waking experience of the previous dar rearranged into an uncanny pattern, fitting the requirements of the irrational instincts. Poetry and dream have much in common with the "uncanny", which is at once "homely" (heimiseh _ familiar) and "secretive" (heimliell) (39). Thus, the uncannily dreamlike scene in Henry James' Tlu Turn oj lhe Screw (42), in which the children pretend not to notice the "supernatural" happenings all about him, derives its compelling power solely from its intensification of reality. Dream, myth and great poetry re-structure reality in a new way. Allegory and the "literary dream" arrange extrava-
gant elements in a conventional manner 7 (cp. chap. 7), The inl-:rpretation • Oil the eagle» a .upplialll not protected hy Apollon, because of Xerxes' lacrileges at Delphi (Hd t. 8.35- 39), cpo Broadhead ad v. ~07. , Of course, the extent ofh;' failure mwt be apprais<:d by AiKhylean .tandaro.: what is a failure for Aischylos would, I fed, be a triumph for a Bakchylid.". (Though it is in_ Ipiud in part by prof.,..iollal jealousy, One probably cannot go wrong in accepting Pindaroo' ."timate of Bakchylid",,' worth, cpo schoU. Pi. O. 2. '54b, N. 3.t 43, P. 97, t3'. ,66; cp. also po.-Long. subl. 33.) But I admit that ttrtainty is impossible . • The day residue; cpo Hdt. 7. ,6; AdS!. wDmn. 46 ,a, 7 fT., .,tc. , A somewhat pedcotrian analogy will clarify the diff" rence between realistic dem.",u rearranged in a new way and unrealistic clements arranged in a traditional way. A
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
AUJSsa's Drtam
5
of a dream must account primarily for the affective and other latent forces responsible for the distortion of the usual arrangement of fairly ordinary elements, which need not even be represented by means of symbols in order to create a dreamlike, mythical or poetic sequence and imagery. The ltructure---in Levi-Strauss' sense (.17, 48, 49, .50, .~jl ) -is all that matters. In an allegory, or in a literary dream, the individual symbols alone need be decoded-often simply with the help of a trivial dictionary of symbols. Once this is done, the allegory becomes completely transparent. But Aischylos asleep is, of course, still Aischylos. Though At0553's mIJnijest dream is, on this level of analysis, almost an allegory, it contains enough persuasive touches derived from the world of dreams, myths and poetry to reveal its dreamlike origins, if one can hut discern them. I had, at first, failed to recognize these touches. But, enlightened by my young friends, I now hold that this is a genuine " dream", disguised as an allegory. The question is simply: what caused Aischylos so to disguise the dream? The simplest and m ost plausible assumption is that, when he decided to devise a dream for Atossa, the first fantasies that Hitted in and out of his preconscious mind were so anxiety-arousing that they could not be permitted to enter his conscious mind until they acquired a heavily allegorical varnish, whose (cultural-dramatic) meaning was almost clamorously ohviow. This exemplifies the " red herring" resistance I described in connection with certain dreams so startlingly "telepathic" as to distract cn'UJin analysts from the scrutiny of their latent content (25, pp. 412 ff.).1 The transformation of Aischylos' initial preconscious fantasies into the actual dream-imagery is probably understandable in terms of kistotel~' obscrvation 9 that, on awakening and while presumably still in a twilight state, the images of the actual dreams are replaced by different ones. This type of secondary elaboration is discernible in several of the rhetor Aristeides" own dreams, and also in the " dreams" which some of his clients told to Artemidoros. tO These serondary elaborations helped to smuggle the latent content of Ais,hylos' fantasi~ past the sentinels of his waling mind- though, once written down, the allegorical fa~ade apptIJrs to the dream's modern intnprettr as the means which smuggled its latent content past Atossa's dream censor. This, too, is part of the poet's skill, which enables him to represent his fantasies as real and to contrive psychologically c,edible personages. Of course, this "smuggling" called for the disguising of the latent material: for a borrowing of the appearances of an allegory. And it is by who .c:quin:o a ohiny ncw &l
:, y, .t unreal cl<:menu. The realistic alTllngement is <1+6 _ 'i the allegorical one: x+y " ~. But when dream, myth and poetry I,"nif""" it circle into an clliptC, tWO qualities remain ;lW
Alossa's Dream
6
means of such a disguise that the dreamer (or the poet) "socializes" the latent content ofbi! dream (or fantasy). He tells it in a "culturally proper" manner, which turns the actually dreamed dream- the actually fantasied fantasy- into a "culture pattern dream"ll in dream-oricnted primitive society- and into a work of aft in more advanced groUps.12 There is some evidence that Homeros also indulged in such practices. His long and elaborate dreams are, for all practical purposes, lacking in affective impact and afC implausible as dreams. By oontra!Jt, his short dream metaphor (Hom. I l. 22.199 f. ) and Penelope's brief erotic dream (Hom. Od. 20.87 ff.) arc totally believable. Penelope's medium-length dream about eagles and geese (Hom. Od. 19.509-581 ) is even analysable as a dream ( nl). The " aJlegorization" of the initial pre-conscious fantasy may perhaps have been further facilitated by the male poet's need to invent an elaborate dream for a woman, by the Greek's wish to invent a suita bly " Persian" dream for Atossa, by that of the Marathon fighter to idealize his foe Dareios and by that of the Salamis and Plataia warrior to represent with compassion X erxes, the vanquished sacker of ills city. I have shown so far that what prevented me from detecting the " dream" behind its allegorical fat;ade also helped shed light on the psychological factors which caused Aischylos to conceal, even from himself, the latent content of his fantasy. I can therefore turn at last to the scrutiny of the narrative and to its interpretation, stressing in my Commentary precisely those details of the allegorical fat;ade which permitted Aischylos to ward off a conscious awareness of the latent content of hi., own famary- and which caused me to scotomize the latent content of his text.ll An allegorical fat;ade, able to di vert even a psycho-analyst from the scrutiny of its latent content, well deserves detailed study, for , like Atossa 's audience, I "interpreted it all too lightly" (520) at firs t. Commmlary Serial Dreams are fairly commonly encountered in clinical practice. They differ from repe titive dreams in that their manifest content changes, even though their conflictual core remains the same (2, 4, 40, 29). In successful psychotherapies, serial dreams reveal the patients' development and maturation.!. In this instance we may assume that Atossa's dream is not simply repetitive ( 176 fr. ) but serial: it is the worst and least ambiguous (179 f.) of a series of dream s. This is indirectly substantiated by the fact that the dream is immediately followed by an even more catastrophic, "51, chap. '; 9 2-97).
~p.
Dodds 3 1, chap. 4. "Official dr~am" : cpo Malinoww (53, pp.
" On the "aesthetic alibi", playing the rol e of a secondary elaboration, cpo 13. " I have noted elsewhere ( 17. ./><Wi",) that an oblc:uive preoecupation with the immediately pem:ptible (behaviou r, etc.) is animated less by a desir~ to be resporuibly scientific than b )" th~ need to use the ()/'PtIl'(lIICtS of "sd~ntificallty" as a defence agairut insight into -ilrt. T his dd"~nlive "s<:i~nlism" is ill QbviQWI in we Kin5e)' rCp
• alenal
~
echos da al.llor
Atossa's Dream
7
unambiguous and dTtamlikt bird omen (20S fT.), which, in turn, 15 followed by catastrophic news and by the defeated Xerxes' r eturn. Tlu Dream &qvnut is quite singular. The narrative refersfosl to the two women and to their pre-existing quarrel. Only then is Xerxes mentioned and it is quite striking that even though the yoking is mentioned, Xerxes' subsequent mOllllting the chariot is not even hinted at. We simply see him thrown from it. At that point, Dareios is also seen in the dream. The wording 5uggesu-at least to me-that, in a dreamlike manner, he is "suddenly" there, for there is no hint that he was present aU along. Schematically represented, the narrative is focused successively on: The tall women and their quarrel, Their harnessing by Xerxes. (Somehow Xerxes is suddenly in the chariot), The rebellion of one of the women, Xerxes' fall, Dareios' " appearance" and compassion, Xerxes' self-hwniliation. Tlu National Identity of the women is clear. One represents " Persia", the other Mainland Hellas. It seems unnecessary to discuss the details of their distinctive dresses.u There is, however , one paradoxical detail which appears to have been overlooked: the Dorian-clad woman rebels only afl" being yoked. This simply does not fit historical facts :· (I) Xerxes' Greek subjects fought quite well for him-especially the Ionianized, though originally Dorian, Halikarnassians.16 At the time of Salamis, the Mainland Greeks hoped in vain that Xerxes' Greek subjects would defect (Hdt. 8.19 ff.). They rebelled-and then only ineffectually, for the distrustful Persians had already disarmed them- at the end of the battle of M ykale, by which time their mutiny made no difference (Hdl. 9.103 ff.). (2) Aischylos could not have alluded to the pro-Persian Thessalians and Thebans, who never rebelled. The initial yoking represents perhaps the occupation by Xerxes of evacuated Athens (Hdt. 8.61); the rebellion the now homeless Athenians' continued resistance, chiefly at Salamis. Only one other alternative is possible. In Greek tragic diction, a planned but frustrated act is sometimes spoken of as though it had been executed.17 In a sense, this corresponds to wish-fulfilment in dream. It seems simplest to lay that AischylOli is somewhat impn::dse in th is plWlage, both as regards ethnic regalia and as regards historical events. While this is understa ndable in a dream, it does attract one's attention to "Cp. Broadhead luI \I V. '55, '76, 183, 185. T he Mainland woman wears a Dorian dress mainly beo::ause, as a rule, the WOmen oflubjugated Ionia did not wear il. Athenian women wore eithet" the Ionian or the Dorian dress. Ai3chyIOl_the Marathon, Salamis and Plataia fighter ( Vila p. ~, Dind.)~et"tainly did not mean to represent Ihe Doriam as the sol, champiollll of Hdw. If The neighbouring loni&rIJ influenced the language of the Halikamasslan inscrip-
tions (K.J.D.). 11 S. A}. 1126; S. DC 1008; E. Ion '500. E. IT. 359 is lea convindng: the tense is imperfect (K.J.D. ); aha E. ~I. 665, 66g.
Material
:Ie autor
8
Alossa's Dream
the symbolic nature of the scene. A psycho-analytical scrutiny of this vagueness will help reveal the real psychological identity of the two women. T he Sisurhood of the two women can be interpreted in various ways, depending on how broadly or narrowl y the ethnic identity of the Persianclad women is defined. ( I) If she represents the Persians onry, she is sister to the Mainland Greeks because Xerxes himself is a descendant of Danae (v. 79) through her son Perrell.'!, forefat her oflhe Persians (Hcll. 7.61, 150). (2) She can represent also the Meda, who-through Medos- are descended from Aigeus-King of Athens-and M edeia (Apollod. 1.9.28, e tc.). (3) If she is meant 10 represent also X erxes' Greek subjec ts, the "sisterhood" is self-evident. These considerations suffice for the elucidation of this narrative as an allegory. In the study of its latent content, a different kind of sisterhood will be relevant. The Sex oj the "HrJTsts" is unmistakable. They are women ( 181 , etc.) and sisters ( 185); they wear women's clothes ( 182 f.). This is somewhat anomalous. On all monumen ts known to me, chariots are pulled by stallions. Some texts, such as the Iliad (23.295,409,5 12, etc. ) do speak of one or two mares pulling chariots. In mule chariot races, female mules were used (Simon. lOP = 7Bgk == IgD). Sophokles, in speaking of Orestes' (imaginary) team, refers to it in the feminine ("mares")- but calls the two animals individually "stallions".I! Perha ps the co l1~tive gender of a pair ofyokcd hor:;es HIlI.ld a l times be Ihe feminine plural, even if both members of the pair were slaHions. But in this dream Aischylos clearly chose to represent two contending nations as women, though, contrary to Roman and modern cwtom,19 at that time the Greeks did nQt ap pear to have habitually represented their country or nation as a woman, even though the names of countries are feminine in Greek, because yf1 ( = earth) is feminine (E .R .D. ). Hence, the onl y explanation of Aischylos' decision to represent nationalities as women is that their yoking could signify also their sexual domination (infra). The chario t is clearly triumphal, and triumph has manifest sexual connota~ tions.1O The significance of the fact that this is the Queen Mother's dream will be discussed further on. TallTltSs ( 184 f. ). These two women surpass in stature " those of our own time")1 In Greek though t, tallness was a significant component offemale "S. El. 703 r., 734 r., 737 r. vs. 4111 r., 744; ep. W. H . Barrett ad E. Hipp. 1131 {3, pp. \104 f.}. ,. Dca Roma, Bri tannia, Germania, H "ngaria, La France .. Marianne, etc. Even: La M~", patrie! For earlier ~riods ep. (I I). Motherland (~Q'I"plc): PI. Rmp. 575d ; PI". (II) 7911E; Paus. 10.114.11, "te. u 33. Cpo S""t, J . 01,.. 1111 . On th" ",." of a battle, G"nghis K han told his lroopi thaI if they wen: victoria ... they ... ould mo"nl the choicot c....,.slT.s-whi" h, in the .teppes, ~r" g.ldings (/s) - and Ih" wi",s of th" ,'anq ,,"hed. II Whether a sUp"rlati\'e or a comparative is meant (Broadh.-ad ad loe.) it ind~ant ror p...,..,nt pUrposcI. TaU d""am m.,..eng<:ro : Hdt ,s.,s6, 7.n; PI. en. 44"; T a<:. Hist. 4.83, etc. (E.R.D.).
• alenal
~
echos :Ia autor
Atossa's Dream
9
beauty.21 Heroines and heroes are always tall.2l Goddesses appearing in human guise are strikingly tall.l.t The tallness of these women is therefore only to be expected- but no matter what "of our own time" (TWlI viJv) may mean eJsewhere,u here it is psychologically more than a manner of speaking.26 These tall women are representatives of the past: of the world of childhood. Indeed. since small women can also be beautiful, the recurrent connection between taUne!Jl and beauty in Greek poetic imagery requires comment. For the small boy, his mother is beauty incarnate, however ugly she may be. Only in one respect are all mothers alike: they are taller than their small sons. Later on, a son grows taller than his mother and, by that time, usually realizes that, because she had aged, she is no longer perfectly beautiful, even if she was formerly lovely.21 This may help him 10 surmount, in adult life, most of his earlier oedipal desires.1B But the oedipal element can linger on in the form of a systematic linking of tallness with beauty. Perspectives surviving from the infantile pastwhich is the eternal "present" of the unconscious-make the adult man Jed that the beautiful young women of his generation are less tall than the mother of his early childhood. There is conclusive evidence showing the survival of infantile "perspectives" in adult life.19 The tallness of these women does not suffice, by itself, to prove the presence of oedipal elements in this dream. But it greatly strengthens the conclusions drawn from other aspects of the dream. The Pre-Existing Quarrel represents historically either the Ionian revoh, which the Athenians encouraged (Hdt. 5.97 fr.), or clse Dareios' earlier invasion of Greece, or both. What it represents psychologically will be discussed later on. I simply note that this quarrel forces Xerxes to try (0 reconcile the women by yoking them togethn-. raking must be discussed before "yoking together" can be analysed. n Cp. the examples cited by Grocneboom ad loc.; X. Ou. 10.<1. "Only one source asscrIJ tha t Hcraklo ....!U smatl: Pi. J. 4.53- "but at that point he u. about to fight a giant" (K .J.D.). Hektor'. size sums 10 increase .... hen he dons AchLUeu. ' armour, which he had ! tripped from Patrolclos' corpse (Hom. ll. 17.~IO If.). (Cp. Q.S.
7.445 fT.) • .. Hom. h. GIr. 1175 t, h. VIII. 84 f., ete. U Cpo Ftacnkel a4 A. At. 53<1. "But not even the notion that human fathen are images olthe uni\'ersal falher Zeu, (Plu.fr. 46 Sandb.) can justify MUtTay'. translation: earthly. ., On the nexus between this fael and the myth aCthe lost Garden of Eden, cpo R6heim (55)· "Thoush •.>ncom>ncm, S""",,'ophiJ'll ..nd marked prdhencc:s fw ugly .... omen do cxUt!U pervcnions. A multimiUionairc, who could have alforded the lovdiest misttfSSo, wa. attracted mainly to the slallernly chambermaids of low-class hotels. " I laW in early childhood what seemed to me to be a monstrously taU pig. I subscquentlywondercd why I never again saw an equally tall One ... unlill realized Ihat I had appraUcd that pig'. taUnCSI in terms olmy own childish 5tature. Sueh infantile pcnpcctivcs appear a lso in what one may caU Brobdingnag-ian dreams. In one CIU<:, the disproportion between the dreamer'. stature and that of objecIJ appearing in dream permitted a fairly exact determination olthe period orhis ehildhood to which this adult's dream rcfct"T'ed (8). Another adult patien t reaeted with anguish-and with the feeling of reliving his unhappy childhood-Io an exhibition aC gigantic furniture, meant to pcnuade parenIJ to buy nursery_size furniture for their ehildren. Even infantile experienco of passive motion (being carried) can reappear in disguiscin certain drcama (14), The past is always with w .
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Atossa's Dream That yoking-espccially that of human beingslO-reprcsents subduing goes without saying. That the harnessing of women represents also a sexual triumph can be indirectly but conclusively proven through the symbolism of riding, rather than of harnessing. Proof that a "yoking togttlur" stands for a complicated sexual relationship will be adduced in a moment. I begin by noting the Greek poetic prac tice of calling girls "fillies")l The term for "saddle horse" (KV.1'lc) probably had a female and sexual meaning already in Alcm. Jr. 1.50 P- so West (63), with whom I concur. In the comic poets it denotes a sexually active or promiscuous womanll and even the female genitalia (Eus!. 1539.34). The riding = coitus equation is, so to speak, universal. One of its clearest expressions is Genghis Khan's promise to his troops (note 20) . Examples of the Greeks' using captive women as concubines need hardly be cited. These data suggest that a woman yoked symbolizes a woman sexually subdued. Further indirect, but highly suggestive, evidence is that being attached to a man's chariot polt represents for the woman a sexual connection with the charioteer (infra). Tht Initial Toking Together presents, as noted, certain historical difficulties. No already "yoked" Greeks rebelled successfully against Xerxes. The initial yoking together must therefore be treated symbolically. Politicall y, it reflects the age-old idea that conquest and co-ordination is the best way of ending interminable wars. Poetically, it appears to parallel the "yokelike" ( t30 if.) bridging of the H ellespont, which later on suddenly broke its "yoke" (Hdt. 7.34). J will return to thi!! symbolism in a moment. In terms of dreaming, the yoking represents an at least incipient wishfulfilment . In A. Ag. 420 fr., M enelaos almost manages to clasp H elene in his arms ; this corresponds to the initial yoking. But Helene eludes him and the dream ends in frustra tion. In Atossa's dream too, one, already yoked, woman ultimately frustrates Xerxes by not pulling his chariot. Instead , she
breaks loose and spills him.H The close structural parallelism between M ene/aos' manifestly erotic dream and the dream about Xerxes' misadventure is amongst our first indications that the latent content of the latter dream is also erotic. Now, "to yoke together" (cv3WyvvlJ1) commonly denotes marriage; Greek spouses are "yoke-fellows". In A. Pers. (133 fr. ), a lonesome wife.
longing erotically for
h~r
husband who is off to the wars, is said 10 be
"yoked alone" (lJOv63V~), perhaps because her warrior husband had a camp concubine. Of course, in this instance the yoke-fellows are not husband-and-wife. I will prove later on that they are sisters married to the same King. Aischylos brilliantly translated the relatively egalitarian "yoking together" of technically monogamous Greek couples (S. Tr. 539 f.) into Persian .. Cpo the It ill proverbial Caudine yoka. "Though no exampte of this is proserved in the lurviving worb of Ai...,hylos, il is common in Euripida (5~, p. ~3~ ). A. CJrce. 794 conccrns 01"(:11«. 11 Or, perhaps, one assumin g a special coital position; coil .... invenus : Ar. Lp. 50, VlJp. 50 1; Pl. Com.ft. 174.1 8. (K.J.D.) . .. The equation : UlUCal M by a mounl _ thrown nffby a wo man, is commonplace e~'en
in humour.
. alenal
~
:lerechos de al.llor
Atossa's Dream
"
terms. The image of co-wives, yoked to the chariot of their Lord, well reflects the Persian husband's dominance over the women of his harem. But there is more to this. I will show in due time tha t the image of the two sisters yoked together (as co-wives) hearkens back to a historical fact which plays, with regard to this dream, the role of a day residue. roke = Bridge"" Rape; Sea = Mo/her. In Persian terms, the yoking of a woman to her husband's chariot reflects her forcible sexual subjection. The yoking of the Hellespont represents violence done to it. One is not surprised to find that-be it intentionally or not- the strophe describing the "rape" of the Hellespont ( 130 fT. ) is answered by an antistrophe which describes the marital yoking of Persian ladies ( 133 fT. ). Now, the conjoining of horses and ships- both subject to Poseidon-is ancient (A. PV 46, f. , Tzetz. Lyc. 156 f. }- and it is precisely by means of ships tied (yoked) together that the H ellespont was "yoked". Also, in a singularly confusing-because overly exuberant- mixed metaphor Aristophanes (Lys. 60 ff.) strikingly commingles the mounting of a horse with the boarding of a ship, in what may well be a hint at coitus inwrsus.J.4 That the forcible yoking of the Hellespont was felt to be an incestuous rape is suggested by the sea being called "undefiled" (578).J5 Indeed, next to the Earth, perhaps the most common maternal symbol is the Sea, precisely because, in the child's imagination, the mother is "pure" and "undefiled" .l6 The hridging=yoking of the "immaculate" sea must therefore almost certainly be viewed as the son's symbolic sexual defilement of his mother.17 The Proud Bearing of the harnessed Persian woman is compared by Broadhead (ad vv. 19<>-193) to that of a lowering Grenadier guardsman. I do not feel that this comparison is particularly apt. Everyone familiar with horses knows that the stance of a horse just standing around is markedly slack, unless the horse is under tension or strongl y stimulated. The firm, "proud" ("collected") stance of a ridden or harnessed horse, jeeling the reins, strongly contrasts with his ordinary "slacknCS5" . This .is the most concrete model for the harnessed Persian woman's stance: she feels the reins ( 193). ,.. H ere even the ordinarily outspoken lranslation and commenU of Coulon and Van Dade arc .urprisingly reticent and undear. And let il not be objecled lhal Ihis is just a comedy quip. ru noted (General I ntroduction, note 34) both comedy and satyr pla)"ll represent a /z"""'TIIW dd'"encc: against the SQ1IJI! anxiety-arousing material which tragedy renden tolerable by HMr means. It is logica l that the tensions of the tragic trilogy .hould have been ",,!axed hy th e llalyr play whi"h wu appended to it. On the ba5ic link belween anxiety and humour, cpo Freud (35). "Groeneboom abo cil.,. Hom. II. 1.:114; E. IT t '93. Mazon cit.,. the A,~to . .. Cpo fantasi.,. of parthenogen.,.;' and the conviction, commonly cncoumer.:<:! in the anaiy3;' of only children: '"mother cohabited with father on ly once: 10 conceive me". The infantile need to deny the mother'. "unchastily" explains why many children (repealedly) reprcu sexual information given 10 thcm (37). Some rcaCI with rage to any "cnlightenmenl" about parental sexual activiti.,. given to Ihem by play",at.,.. As Bertrand Ro.uscll once rcmarked 10 me: "For the Mediterranean man, his mal her is a sainl-all other women are harlots." I doubl that the earli.,.t oca deity was Okeanos or Poseidon. It must have been a (molher-) goodeu. "The mythical ne>
infra.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Alima's Dream " But there is also a second model, which those who take it for granted that "post coltum ornne animal trisle" simply cannot envisage)8 That model was brought to my attention by memlH:rs of a sexua!1y saner culture.
According to Ihe Mohave Indians: "one can always tell who has made love the night before: they carry themselves proudly and their eyes sparkle". As indicated in the preceding note, that was also the classical
view. The Persian woman's bearing is proud, for her harnessing symbolizes her sexual gratification, and would have been so apprehended by a non-puritanical Greek.l9 Tm Ham Symbol's Choice is heavily overdetermined. \vhy female (human) "horses" pull the chariot will be shown in a moment. Riding in a chariot clearly symbolizes Xerxes' triumphant accession to power. A stallion played- in a sexual conlext- a decisive role in Dareios' accession to the throne. From amongst those contending for the throne, it was decided to select the one whose horse, at a gathering arranged for that purpose, neighed first (Kh1']SWV = omen). Dareios' groom took his master's stallion to the appointed place one day ahead of the meeting and let him cover a mare. The next day, on being ridden to the same spot by Dareios, the stallion na turally whinnied at once, calling to the mare he had covered there the previous day. This made Dareios the Great King of Per.lia (Hdt· 3· 8 5-86)·4O Last but not least, a riding accident of Dareios (H dL 3.1 29 f.), which was an indirect cause of his invasion of Greece (Hd t. 3. 134), served as a model for the chariot accident. The horse symbolism is, th us, heavily overd eter mined and therefore appropriately dreamlike also in this respect. Th Disparate and ret Alike T eam is an important feature of the dream. The tendency to distinguish between members of a pair appears to be basic- and not only bC{:ause the prototypal symbolic yoke-ma tes are h usband-and-wife. The distinction may seem arbitrary at times : in the equus rx;Wher ritual only the r ight-hand horse of the victorious team was sacrificed. 41 The Iliad d istinguishes between yoke horses and trace horses (7, p. 143 If.). Achilleus hitched two immortal and one mortal horse to his chariot.": Adrastos' chariot was pulled by the immortal horse Areion and b y the mortal horse Kairos.4l These disparate teams provide a model for .. I note that this dictum;" grOloSly distorted by being quoted in this abridged fonn. T he complete ci tation lpecifically txt:ludu from this rule ,."",kind and cocks . .. T hat a woman can take pride in "sexual" harnaaing WM well understood by Freud, who is thador<: loathed by mod"rn "feminists". The sartorial fads of an age of "female Ii~ration" oonfinn Fr<:ud"1 viCWI: "Ilave ankleu", dog-coUar ncckla«ll, strong chain belu, etc., ar<: the height of CUrT<:nt fashions. Abo. according to newspaper rq>Ortl, the numerous "emancipated" female membeR of Charles Manson's "family" called him "god" Ilnd "devil" and took pride in being his "slaves". Like alll"ntuitOllS revolts, that of the women, too, is a cry fo r firm but loving discipline. That th" "Women', Li~ratjon" movement should have sta rted in matriarchal America will not surprise the clear-sighted . .. The veRion gh'en in H dt. 3.87 abo concer... the oexuality of mara . ., Plu. QWUJt. RDm. 97, p. 287A; FatUII s.v. october equw, p. '78.S; cp o 61, 273 fr.; 59. pp. ,26 fl'.; 114) • ., Hom. I I. ,6,'52 and my diJcussion of such disparatc teams in Skythia ( t5) ; cpo abo the mod~", troika . ., Antimach. ap. _ PaUlI. 8.2,5.9. Mare yoked with . taHion: Hom. 11. 23.295,
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Atossa's Dream Xerxcs' disparate team in AtO.'lSa'~ dream and, uldmatdy, for thaI of Ihe soul in Pl. Phdr. 246.44 Tlu ClmtmtiollS Ttam, which causes a chariot accident, has no Homeric precedent. A Homeric war horse throws the team into confusion only when mortally wounded. Even then, it does not break away, destroying the chariot: it is cut loose after dying, in order to save the ehariot.4l Chariot poles, etc., break also in the lli3d, but never because 01lt of the horses is rebellious. 4' The slight ~imilarities between this dream-accident and Homeric accidents are, thus, not due to Aischylos' imitating Homeras, but to both describing rtaf accidents. 47 As to the many tales of both horses getting out of control,4s they are not relevant here. If a pre-.AUchylean model of a contentious team survives, I have not found it. But Pia LOn, while coudellluiug J.><.>Clli, frcdy oorruwed their imagery. The Aischylean dream team may have served as a model for the allegory in Pl . Phdr. 246-though with a difference: Aischylos (though not Atossa) approlJts of the rebellious woman-mare, while Platon condemns the "bad" hone. 'Ve shall also see that, in Aischylos, the rebellious woman represents the Super-ego, while in Platon the disobedient hone represents man's "Jower" nature (the Id). I must now record a finding which I am unable to explain satisfactorily. Disregarding real chariot accidents in war or during races-which must have been common cnough- a surprisingly large proportion of mythical horse andlor chariot fatalities is due to someone'! interference with the sexual impulse, be it his own (Hippolytos), that of another person (Oinomaos), or even that of the mares themsdves (Glaukas). Abo, uue such accident leads to a piercing of the groin (Sen. Phaedr. 10gB f.) ; ano ther tale of a chariot accident is a bowdlerization of the tale of Ouranas' castration (Orph.fr. 58 Abel = Athenag. s. 20, p. 940).49 The existence of a statis.tically significant nuus between such accidents and sexuality is striking and tends to increase the credibility of my view that sexuality is also at the root of this chariot accident dream. The Details iftlu Accitlmt are, on the whole, well discussed by Broadhead (tJd 194- 196). The rebellious woman first freo herself of the reins and the harness; then she breaks the yoke, probably in the middle. But Broadhead errs in assuming that, a t that moment, the pole tilts upward, causing Xerxes to fall backwards. In saying th is, Broadhead ignores both the H omeric precedent in which Eumc:Ios' c hariot pole tilll! downward, so that he falls forward (H om. If. 23.393 fT. ) and the laws of physics. Indeed Xer><eIi, who is obviously alone in the c hariot, necCMadly " drives" the team, standing well infront of the axle: this makes the chariot a lever of the second class. Hence, the moment the yoke snaps, X erxes' weight forces the pole dDwnward, causing him to fallforwtJrd, on hisfau. ,. Rouueau', reference 10 A. CIwt. [02 1 ff. is far-fetched: the learn Ihere is neither dispsrale nor rebellious US) • •• E.g., Hom. JI. 8.65 fr., ,6.466 If. .. E,g., Hom. II. ,6.370, ~3.39' If. ., On Homeric accident.s in general, cpo 7, pp. gil fr. •• E.g., the myth relold in Aisc.hyIOll' 1000t tragedy J/~Iiotks and in Euripides' largely lost Phtuthon. "Incomplete list:! of horse accident.! are to be found in: Hyg. /ah. 250; Tiimpel (•.v. Myrtila. $7, call. 33,8, 3520); Cook (6, 1.32!H,).
'.
Awssa's Dream
That the pole of a plough or of a chariot symboii:zcs the phallos, is shown by the oracle's ad vice to the elderly and childless King Erginos: "fit a new tip to your old plough tree" (Paus. 9.37'4)' H e is to take a young
wife.5O What really matters is that being unhorsed (o r thrown from a chariot) symbolizes to this day- even in slang- a rebellion of the woman against her $exuai partner and rcpresenl.$ the latter's "unmanning". Thill, 100, suggests that, in a d ream, the chariotpQfto would tilt downward, even iftlu laws of physics did not oblig~ it II) do so. That, in dream, a realistic failure of high ambitions should be symbolized by a castration equivalent is only to be expected, for dreams regularl y translate adult problems into infantile symbols. That an infantile representation of political ambitions is appropriate also on other grounds will be shown below. Last but not least, Xerxo;' chariot accident may echo Dareios' horse accident (Hdt. 3. 129 ff.), which is linked with Atossa's brttJ.ft ulcer (Hdt. 3.133 f. ), and which in turn leads to 1m- persuading Dareios to invade Greece (infra). Dareios seems to be suddenly "there", in a suitably dreamlike manner. Two points deserve notice; ( I) The father can only stand ·there and pity his son. This probably parallels Helios' inability to prevent the fatal fall of Phaethon. Neither father can help his unhappy son. (2) Dareios appears in Atossa's d ream. In accordance with Greek dream theory, this should represent a "real" experience also for his ghoot. I t is thererore striking that, during the necromantic scene, Darcios' ghost ;5 totally unaware of Xerxes' m ishap, until he is informed of it (6g3 ff.). When told what happened, he can only lamen t, criticize and give advice, which consists mostly or general moralizing, and contains only a few pol itically unimportant recommendations concerning preparations for Xerxes' return. When all is said and done, in this great and dramatically impressive scene Dareios' ghost is as u nhelpful as his dream image is; in both scenes he can, in the last resort, only feel sorry for Xerxes, but can provide no real help." XeTXu' T earing of his R obes, though attested fairly early for Gree<:e, is probably more oriental than Greek. It is, above all, a natural reaction of despair. In mourning for something lost, one regularly furlhtr incrtases one's lossC'l; mourning is inseparable from self-aggression . This matter is discussed in Chapter 3. T he Bird Omen, which is both a replica and a sequel of the dream, also supports the dream's sexual interpretation. Riding, including riding in a .. Here the tip of the pole is equ ated with a wife. Cpo chap. 7 for a d iscussion of the symbolic equation: girl = phallc. (]1', 1'1'). " It is noteworthy that Aischylos, the Marathon fighler, never once mentions Dareios' "8gn:sllive imperialism. He rq>.-.:senll him half as a sage, half u an idealized, AugustUl_ like prince. That , after Salamis, he was seen in that light by 1M Pm;""J is possible : Slendhal's young protagonists were all Bonapartists, forge lting the fla ..... of Napoleon's regime and its tragic collapse. But Aischylos' idealiution of Dareios is more than poetic empathy; it ,hQWJ ITMU Qfan identification with the enemy (60), a phenomenoo repeatedly observed throughout history (e.g., amongst certain of H itler', victim!, at times in grotesquely exceu1ve fonn).
. alenal
~
echos de autor
Atossa's Dream
'5
chariot, can symbolize flying; Greek myths of winged horses and teams are nurneroml.'l ~ was discovered long before Freud (34, pp. 37- 38, etc.), dream! of flying are usually ereetion dream!; landing or falling after a dream flight symbolizes detumescence. Since Atossa is a woman, the motif of flying is-appropdate1Y-lIot part of her dream, but orthe omen which follows it. Other similarities are also evident. Xerxes falls to the ground; the eagle lands on Apollon's altar. Apollon does not protect the eagle; Darcios cannot protect his son, who, like a suppliant, lies at his feet. Both dis· appointing protectors are male, for a strong and possessive mother tends to feel, both while awake and in dream, that she is the only one able to proteet her son. The bird omen even duplicates Xerxes' rending of his clothes, for the falcon plucks the eagle's feathers (208 f. ). But there is also an inversion: in the dream, the danger threatening Xerxes is in front of him; in the omen he is threatened and pursued from behind. Perhaps the dream represents his unsuccessful attack on Greece, and the o men his headlong flight after defeat. One also notes tha.lthe first part of the dream represents an interaction of Xerxes with the women whose batks are turned to him ; in the second part, Xerxes lies, probably on his face (since he fell forward, supra), at Dareios' feet. This much is probable. \Vhether something can be made of it is questionable)}
lnttrprttation The Appropriateness qf a Dream- ils suiting the dreamer and the dreamer's current situationS
P~g""",,,
'he '"am. o f Hdi oo, Trip'olemoo, Med cia, e'c.
"Coitus [JI" anuml with female "eulluchs" ;" fint reported from Lrma: Xanth.fr. 19, FHG 1.39 - FGH 765f", 4 (jacoby) = Alhen. 12.lr, p . 515i Hsch. MiL fr. 47, FHG 4.171. Homoo.cxual prostitution of the Ct1,laved Phaidon : D.L. 2.105; Au\, CdL 2.r8. Homoocxua.l threatening of Ihe defeated: Suet. }. Cats. 22. Homoo.cxual altack on adultercn: Ar. Nul!. t083 (and Dover ad loe.), PI. 168; X. Mm! . .:1;.1.5; Catull. 15.19. Hor. &1. 1.2.44; Val. Max. 6.1.13; Apul. Mil. l~. For a gencraltheory oI.~omal "retalialioo" , cpo ~7. chap. 7. Homoo.cxual "attack" by a fathu-6gu"" the abduction of Ganymcda by leu. (Ho m. 11. 5.~65, 2o.~3~, etc.) and of Pdo,," by Po
Matenal
:Ie autol
·6
Atona's Dream
I note, as a general principle, that the " dream-space" is always an extension of one's own bod y . '~ This implies that the dreamer is always, in some way, present in the dream. That the objects and persons one dreams of are fa cets of one's own psyche need hardly be demonstrated. I assumed at firs t that Atossa was present in the dream only in this very general sense. But the reports of my students and Miss Padel's unpublished paper persuaded me that, though Atossa herself did not realize it, she was definitely present (in disguise) in the dream. Before I can prove this, I must consider Aischylos' and his Atossa 's biased appreciation of Xerxes' real ambitions (and their representation in dream) and contrast it with a morc objective appraisal of X erxes' policies. Filial Piety and Oedipal Rivalry play, in this drama, equal roles in Xerxes' real and dreamed behaviour. His advisers tell him that he must show that he is no t an effeminate, stay-at- home king (753 fT. ). It is his duty to a venge his father's defeat and to execute his plans. Xerxes' mobilization of far greater forces than those which were defeated at M a rathon is, on the one hand, prudent and, on the other, a sensible admission that only exceptional warriors could have defeated Dareios. Xerxes can hope to defeat Dareios' vanquishers only with an infinitely larger army than the one his great father had deemed su ffici en t for a kind of colonial expedition. Thus, from the Persian point of view, both royal duty and filial piety impel Xerxes to carry out his father's plans and to avenge his defeat. But though avenging Marathon was an obligation for the Persian Great King this d ocs nOt preclude that the wish to surpass the father was also a n e urotic compulsion for the son ( infra ) .56 The view that Xerxes' attack on Greece was motivated b y hybris simply d oes not fit known faclS. It reflects no t only a purely Greek attitude, but Aisc hylos' personal theological stance as well. This being said, the instability of Xerxes' character is probably a historical fact , often highlighted by Herodotos,S7 and quite credible in the case of the son of a great, "self-made" father and of as strong a mo ther as Atossa (infra). H is dream-behaviour can therefore seem rifftnsiwly grandiose (lnly if it is viewed as the reflection of an (Ildipal ri valry with Dareios. The opinion that the son's compulsive atlempl to rival his father- and, in Illis instance, to out- perform him- is impiously presumptuous may be safely attributed to Aischylos: he is our o ld est kn own authority for the Phaethon myth, in which a son tries, with fatal resul ts, to rival his father Helios as a charioteer. s, The main task of the psycho-analyst scr utinizing this dream is to show .. Onen "including" lhe ma lernal body, ds fmllasitd (56) . ,. Cpo X~."""' /lmonal rductanc~ (Hdt. 7.5 If.) to attack G r<:«~; h~ is compelled to do .0 by a decepliv~ dream, comparable to that of Agamemnon (H om. II. 2.1 If. ). " Th e coun tl ess passages indicating this arc lisled by i..q.and (46, pp. 55 f.), I.". X ~r"",", subseclion "Sa penonnalite·. " I note Vt")' 'mln./i,."y lhat, linc.: Aischylos' sclf-rompued epitaph mentions only hi. "alnur as a soldier, he may ha,·e en"ied the {arne of his (older ?) brnther Kym:g~il"Oll, wh n fell performing a f~at nf supreme valour at Marathon (Hdt. 6.114)-fighting (with Aischylos) agail13t the very OardOi whom the Pmdi glorifies. I base this tentativ~ interpretation on a mcdern clinical case, .imilar, excepl for glory and genius, to the Kynegciros·AiKhylOl preceden t. In both instane",", the swviving IOldier_hf"Qthcr became an alcoholic (.ro, chap. I; for Aischylas' alcohol ism , cpo chap. 4, App. Ii) .
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Aloud'S Drtam
'7
that this rivalry is reprtstnttd as oedipal in the dream of Atossa, who, in a typically human and even more typically maternal way, projtcts the equivalent of her own lobute-like urges upon her son. For this is her dream: she represents X erxes in d nuJnner which suits her repressed impulses and wishes, whose nature is sufficiently indicated by her gen eral attitude and particularly by her hint (851 ) tha t Xerxes is her favou rite son . Were this Xerxes' own dream, it could be held that it is a dream of oedipal ambitions brought to nought. But thc dream is Atossa~s. I concede that, once in a great while, one does encounter cases where A dreams what one would expect 8 to dream : where A sums to dream as 8 's "deputy" ( II , pp. 36g--372; and cpo chap. 4). But in such cases A 's and 8'5 desires and impulses are parallel. And it can hardly be urged that this dream represents Atossa's oedipal s tri vi ngs and their collapse. Atossa could dream of Xerxes' oedipal hybris and its catastrophic if her dream expressed her (ambivalent) "counterconsequences oedipal", Iokastc-like impulses.59 H er ambivalence is revealed by the contrast between the dream's triumphant initial scene and its wretched ending. If so, Atossa- i.e., her counter-oedipal Jocasta complex and her rejection of it- is represented by the two women, who are sisters. Their conflict is a reflection of Atossa's inner conflict; this is a very common symbolization of conflict in dream. The proudly harnessed Persian woman represents the compliantly feminine Id-component of Atossa's counter-oedipal complcx,tiO And, even if one d isregards the J ocasla-complex element, one is still able to assu me that Aischylos' Atossa has, unconsciously, nol yet abdicated as a female: The Choros talks explici ~ly enough aboul Persian (grass) widows yearning in bed for their husbands' embraces (133 ff.). I[ so, the rebellious Dorian woman represents Atossa's Super-ego: the sorial mother who struggles against the demands of her Id. She gives preference to her sta tus as Dareios' widow over her sexual-maternal status. In this struggle the forces of inhibition win: the chariot is tipped over and Xerxes is blamed and punished- for Atossa's wishes. This fits the adult's tendency to blame hils own " improper" fantasies on his children (26, chaps. 4, 5). I recall again that Platon turned this image around, by borrowing the poet's m eans. This is common enough behaviour amongst philosophers.61 What may have facilitated this jugglery is the subtle contradiction between Aischylos' and his Atossa's appraisal of the whole situation. For, in the last resort, the Greek poe!'s "good" was the "evil" of the Persian Queen . Though realistically the rebelling woman Stems to
onu.
OJ That, oontrary to prevailing opinion, it .. the par~nt'. La ius 01' J oe.. ta oomplex which frigprs the child's Oedipus complex, has been d emonmated by me mseveral publ'cationl (g, 11, fl]. chap. 7, ~tc . ). 00 I must postpone for the moment the manhalling of historical arguments favouring this interpretation. " Ploutarchos the Platon~t (tl. Jlrq{.. L·iTt. 10, p. 8, D_E) ci tes part of Sapph.f,. 3 t LP but turns ,II mean,ng upside down (.1>1). Nietzsche's "Alia. Unvergingliche iSl nut dn Glrichn~und die Dichter lUgen zu vie!" delib:rately turns Goethe', words into thcir oppoaite, by mean' of Ihe preli,,: lUI. Not the poet butlhe phila.opher is the unupen tant liM.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
,8
Arossa's Dream
represent politkally the human striving for freedom, viewed as "nature" CopvcIC)- in a dream, she psychologically represenl'l Atossa's Super.ego and "the law" (v6I.1oc). At this point I must turn to the historical substratum, playing here the role of the day residue in Aisthylf1s' fantasy (= Atossa's dream). I firmly believe that Aischylos, and perha ps most informed Athenians, knew the facts I cite. So far I have simply noted the one-ness of the yoked-together but incompatible sislns, who arc respectively Atossa's Id and her Super-ego. But one must also ask why Aischylos (unwittingly) ,host the image of yokedtogether m In'S. The q uestion requires an answer predsely because Aischylos makes much of thei r being sisters (v. 185). The ont' fact which commentators appear to have overlooked is that Atossa- as Ai:lchylos certainly knew- had aetualiy twice been a "yoke fellow" of one of her 5isters. Specifically, she and her s.i~ ler Artystone had both been married to Dareios (Hdt. 3.88). I now hope 10 show that Atossa and Artystone did not make good cowives. Herodotos (7.2-3) reports that Atossa's oldest son Xerxes had to contend for his nomination as crown prince with Dareios' firstborn , by a wife olher than Artystone. Though Xerxes was certainly helped by Demara· tos' shrewd- and typically Spartan-legal advice (30), H erodotos reo marks that Xerxes' success was a foregone concilJ.'lion, " for Atossa Wa.! ail.powerfu.l". Yet elsewhere, Herodotos (7.69) notes that Artystone was the wife Dareios IOlJlld most. Now, even if one assumes tha t Art)'lltone's two ~ons d id not contend for the throne simply because XcrXC$ was 'heir senior, two facts must be noted; ( I ) Artys tone, the "best beloved", and her two sons, Artames and Gobryas, onl y rate one mention each in Herodotos.62 Artystone's sons held only minor post5 and, like their mother, lived apparently in a kind of princely twilight. (2) The "all-powerful " Atossa-though nol "best beloved " - rates, how· ever, countless mentions. It is therefore impos."lible not to conclude tha t Atossa had successfully contended for supremacy with the "best beloved" co·wife and sister. Even thO$C uninformed of the internal workings of a royal Persian harem cannot but feel that victory over a "best beloved" (which, in that period, meant: sexually most satisfying) co-wife could not be achieved without much struggle and scheming, especially if the ulti· mately victorious wife was almost certainly the older of the two and was, in add ition, sexually already somewhat shopworn (infra). Thus, wittingly or unwittingly, the image of the contentious sisters and yoke-fellows appears to have been paTtiy suggested to Aischylos by Atossa's and Artystone's having been both sisters and rivalrous co-wivc:s, traces of whose dissensions a re still d iscernible in H erodotos' account. But even this analysis is not exhaustive, for we have a great deal of additional and very relevant information abou t Atossa's sexua l life. Atossa's first husband was her brother K amb)'lles II (Hdt. 3.31 ), a mad but legitimate king, son of K ing Kyros the Great. Subsequently, she had to share Kambyses' favours with another of her si~ ters. This unnamed sister, ., Hdt, 3.88; 7.6g; 7-7'.J.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Atossa's Dream
'9
who dared to oppose Kambyses by pleading in favour of their disgraced brother Smerdis, was slain by Kambyses for her pains (Hdt. 3.32). These data suggest that, as a wife and lover, AtoMa was inferior also to this other sister-as she was inferior to her in family loyalty, though not in caution and cleverness. Mter Kambyses' death, Atossa was made to marry the false Smerdis, who pretended to be her dead brother-and it is striking that, unlike another of this usurper's wives (Hdt. 3.68 ff.), she did Mtning to unmask him. One can once again only admire her prudence, though hardly her integrity- for the false Smerdis manifestly married her only to improve his chances of successful usurpation. Mter the slaying of the false Smerdis, she became the wife of Dareios, whose only claim to the throne was that he had dethroned the false Smerdis (Hdt. 3.70 ff. ), and had also contrived to outwit by a trick one of his co-conspirators, who had also hoped 10 become king (supra). Dareios then consolidated his rule by marrying simultaneously (the already twice married) Atossa, her virgin sister Artyslone, also a daughter of the defunct real Smerdis (Le., Atossa's niece) and, finally, the daughter of Otanai.e., of the man who had done most to unmask the false Smerdis and had therefore felt entitled to contend with Dareios for the throne. These four marriages fully secured Dareios' flanks, linking him by marriage with both his legitimate and his usurping predecessors and with his erstwhile rival for the throne as well. Two of his wives were apparently virgins. As to Otanes' daughter, she had had one husband only, whileAtossahadalready had two: one was her incestuous brother-husband and the other the murderous (and pseudo-incestuous) impersonator of her brother Smerdis. Alossa was, thus, obviously a woman well able to take care of her interests; outliving husbands and getting the upper hand over all her co-wivesincluding her virgin siSler, who bore two sons to Dareios and was the "best bc:1oved" of his wives. This took some skill in the murderous climate of dynastic chaos and harem intrigues. It is also noteworthy that Xerxes was the first Great King since Kambyses II to accede to the throne without slaying his predecessor or benefiting by the latter's "suicide" or in some irregular manner (Hdt. 3.64). H e managed to achieve this by means of a twisted interpretation of " primogeniture" which was made persuasive less by Demaratos' legal chicanery (which furflished only a pretext) than by Atossa's irresistible infiuence.63 But, marrying two men in succession so as to make them kings,'" brought Atossa at least the rewards of queeruhip and royal bedfellows. Giving birth to a king and then having to sleep alone, as dowager queen, was less " For traces of olher lucassIul manipulations of the rules ofIUccess.iOn-be il by primogenitli«' or by ultimogeniture-mentioned in Greek sources, cp. (30) • .. It has been argued thai DauiOl had come to the throne legitimately, lince the mOlt legitimate d.umant, his father Hystaspeo, had, "becatwe of his age", not participated in the conspiracy. But Herodoloil does not say 1<1. And old age would nol have prevented Hy1tupa rrom rulling through hiJ IOn and other generals and satraps. Hyswpes was clearly sct aside by his J01I, though he was hardly decrepit: inscriptioN allest that Dareioo later 00 emplo)"ed his own father, Hyswpes, ... a general and even that hiJ grandfather was .till alive. ThiJ proves that H yswpes was notoeni]e and therefore abo lhat DareiOl had
UlUrped
the throne
to
which his rather bad a better claim.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
'0
Atossa's Dream
satisfying. Something in this woman, who had first married her real brothlr and then a usurper who claimed to be her brother, could well have wondered (preconsciously). why she could not be also her son's Queen-Queen for the fourth time and for the third time by incest. I t is well to recall here that when Oidipous was haunted by the dread that he might commit incest, Iokaste calmly told him that mcn often dream of bedding with their mothers. This mother of an exposed son took Oidipous' worries surprisingly casual!y (S. or g80 ff.) - though her exit, when discovery became inevitable (vv. 1056 ff.), showed that she knew well enough whom she had married. Even psycho-analysts do not like to mention that a good many mothers-and especially widowed ones-have quite discemible Jocasta complexes, which trigger peculiar forms of acting out--even if such activities are alleged to be only means enabling such mothers to retain their hold over their SOnli.65 Atossa is, in" fact, exactry the kind of mother modern sociological research shows to be incestprone (62, pp. 85-93. 125). It will perhaps be objected that Aischylos did not inlmd to represent this Atossa. But the fact is that this Atossa did exist-a fact which Aischylos could not hut have known. And I cannot but recall once more that the truth, however much one seeks to conceal it, always slips back into the lie, in some guise.66 It is a token of Aischylos' genius that the historical truth slipped back into his drama precisely in the form of a dream experience. This is what distinguishes the poet from the journalist. More tentatively, I would like to mention now a historical datum which may have unconsciously inspired Aischylos to select a c3.lItratiorHype dream fatality. Dareios had severely injured his leg (ankle) jumping off a horse (Hdt. 3.130 f.). He was cured by Demokedes, who shortly thereafter also cured Atossa of an abscess of the breast (Hdt . 3.133 f. ).67 Better still, incited precisely by Demokedes-who had reasons for wishing to see Greece invaded 63- Atossa urged Dareios to conquer Greece. In so doing, she used arguments very similar to those which the Aischylean Xerxes' "bad" advisers used to incite him to attack Greece. Thus, Atossa appealed to Darcios' manhood (Hdt. 3. 134); the Aischylean Xerxes' " bad" advisers appealed to that of X erxes (753 fr. ). This transposition is, to say the least, curious. Like so many other distortions of fact, this too manages to preserve (in the form of a projection) that which it strives so hard to modify.
Bihliography ( I) Abraham, Karl: Should Patients Write Down their Dreams? (in) Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho-Anorysis. New York, 1955. (2) Alexander, Franz: Dreams in Pairs and Series, International Jounlill of Psycho-Anarysis 6 :446-452, 1925. (3) Barrett, \'1/. S.: Euripides, Hippolytos. Oxford, 1964. oJ Agrippina and Nero (Suet. Nm' ~8) . Real eqllivalents c:xi.t . .. Cpo chap. 6 for data; also ( ro, r6, itS) • •, On the breaot _ female phalloo eqllation, cpo chap. 6 . .. Being senl ahead, as a spy, would have freed thi. captive physician.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
AIMsa's Drtam
"
(4) Baumann, H . H. : Dher Rcihenfolge und Rhythmus der Traummotive, lCeniraiblall fliT Psychothtrapie und ihre Grenzgebiele 9:213-228, 1936 . (5) Hehr, C. A.: Aelius Amtides and 1M Saued Taul. Amsterdam, 1968. (6) Cook, A. S.: ZtIlS, 3 vols. Cambridge, 1914-1940. (7) Delebecque, Edouard: u Cheval dans l'!liadt. Paris, 1951. (8) Devereux, Geor-ge: The Psychological 'Date' of Dreams, Psychiatric Quarterry Supplnnent 23:127-130, 1949. . (9) id.: Why Oedipus Killed Laius. A Note on the Complementary Oedipus Complex, International Journal of PsytlurAnarysis 34:13214 1, 1953· (10) id.: A Study of Abortion in PrimitilJe Societies. New York, 1955,2 '975. (II ) id.: Therapeutic Educatitm. New York, 1956. (1 2) id.: Penelope's Charact~r, PS)'c/wanaiytic Quarterry 26 :378-386, 1957. (13} id.: Art and Mythology : A General Theory (in) Kaplan, Bert (ed.): Studying Pmo1/ality Cross-Culturalry. Evanston, fIlinois, 1961 . (14) id.; The Perception Motion in Infancy, Bululin ojtht Menninger Clinic 29:143-147, 1965. (15) id.: The K olaxaian Horse of AIkman's Parthmtiun, Classical Quarterly 15 : 176- 184, 1965· ( 16) id.: The Exploitation of Ambiguity in Pindaros O. 3.27, Rheinisches Museumfrb" Philowgie log :2~98, 1966. ( 17) id.: From An.n·t{)' to Mttlwd in the Behavioral Scunw. Paris and The Hague, 1967. (18) id.: Observation and Belief in Aischylos' Accounts of Dreams, Psyclwtlurapy and PsychosomtJtics 15:114- 134. 1967. ( 19) id.: Reality and Dream: the Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian. Second, augmented edition, New York, 1969. (20) id.: M ohallt Ethnopsychiatry. Second augmented edition, Washington D.C. 1969. (2 1) id.: The Nature ofSappho's Seizure in Fr. 31 LP, Classical Quarterry 20:17-3 1,1970 • (:22) id. : La Naissance d'Aphrodite (in) Pouillon, J ean and Maranda, Pierre (eds.): Ethanges et Communications (M elanges Uvi-Strauss), 2.1:22g-1252. Paris and The Hague, 1970. (23) id.: The Psychotherapy Scene in Euripides' Bocchae, JourntJi of HeLlmic Studies 90:35- 48, 1970. (24) id.: The Equus Octobtr R itual Reconsidered, Mnemosynt 23 :297-301, '970 . (25) id.; Psychoanaiyru and the Occult (ed. and contrib.). Reprint. New York, 1970. (26) id.: Essais d'Ethnopsythiatrie Cenbak. Paris, 1970. Second edition 1973· (27) id. : EthlllJpsychanalyse Compl1mrntarisu. Paris, 1972. (28) id. (and Devereux,J. W.): Les Manifestations de l'Inconscientdans Sophokles: Trtuhiniai 923 sqq. (in) Psychanalyst et Sociologit comtrU Methodes d'Etude des Phinomines HistonqUl!set Cuiturtls. Bruxelles, '973. (29) id.: Trois Reves en Sirie et une Double Parapraxe, Ethnopsytlwlogit (in press),
or
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
~2
AtMsa's Dream
(go) id.: Quelques Traces de la Succession par Ultimogeniture en Scythie, Inter-Nord 12 :262- 27°, 1972. (g l) Dodds, E. R. : The Greeks and the irratwnal. Berkeley, California, 1951.
(g2) Fenichel, Otto : The Symbolic Equation: Girl = Phallus, (in) The Collected Papers 010. Fenichel 2, chap. I. New York, 1954. (gg) id.: Trophy and Triumph (in) The Collected Papers of O. Frnichel 2, chap. 10. New York, 1954. (34) Freud, Sigmund: The Interpretation of Dreams, Standard Edition 4-5· London, 1958. (gS) id.: Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious, Standard Edition 8. London, 1960. (36) id.: Obsessive Acts and Religious Practices, Standard Edilion 9. London, 1959. (37) id.: The Sexual Enlightenment of C hildren, Standard Edition 9. London, 1959. (38) id. : The Handling of Dream Interpretation in Psycho-Analysis, StdndiJrd Edition 12 . London, 1958. (39) id.: The Uncanny, Standard Edition '7. London, ' 957. (40) Gahagan L.: The Form and Function of a Series of Dreams, Journal of Abnormal ilIId Social Pvrckology 29 :404- 408, 1935. (41 ) Hamdorf, F. W.: Grnckische Kuftpersonijikationen dtT lIOrhtlltnislischtn ~eit, ch . 5. Mainz, 1964. (42 ) James, Henry: The Turn ciflht Screw. London, 18gB. (43) Kinse y, A. C. el af.: Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Philadelphia, 1948 . (44) id.: Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Philadelphia, 1953. (45) Krauss, Friedrich S. and Kaiser, Martin (trarulator.;) : Arttmidorw lIOn DaldiJ: Traumbuch. Basel, 1965. (46) Legrand, Ph.-E.: Hirodolt: Intkx AnaryliqlJl. Paril;, 1954. (47) Uvi-Strauss, Claude: Anthrofmlogit StruclurtJle. Paris, 1954. (48) id. : Lt Crn tt Ie Cuit. Paris, 1964. (49) id .: Du Miel aux Ctndm. Paris, 1966. (50) id.: L'Origine des Manum de Table. Paris, 196B.
(5 1) id. : L'HommeNu. Paris, 1971 . (52) Lincoln, J . S. : T1u DrtlJm in Primitivt CuItWtS 2• New York, ' 970. (53) Malinowski, Bronislaw: The StXU4J Lift of Savages in Norlh-Wesltm Melanesia l . London, 1932. (54) Ritchie, William: T he Authenliciry oj the RJusus oj Euripides. Cambridge, 1964. (55) R6heim, Geza: The Garden of Eden, Pvrchoanal;'lic Review 27:1-26, 177- 1 99,194 0 . (56) id.: Psychoanalysis and A"throjJQlogy. New York, 1950.
(57) Roscher, W. H. (cd.) : Ausftihrliches Ltxikon dtT griechiJchtn und riimischen Mythologit. Leipzig, 1884- 1937. (58) Rousseau, G. S.: Dream and Vision in Aeschylus' Oresteia, Arion 2:101 - 13 6 , 1g63·
(59) Scholz, U. W.: Studi,n zum altitalischtn wui altriimischtn MflTskult wui MarsmYlhru. Heidelberg, 1970.
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Atossa's Dream (60) Thompson, C. M .: Identification with the Enemy and Loss of the Sense of Self, Psydwanaiytic Q.uarterly 9:37-50, '9¥'. (61) Wagenwoort. Hendrick: Zur magischcn Bedeutu ng des Schwanzcs, Strta PhilologKa AmipontamJ. Inrubruck, 1962. (62) Weinberg, S. K .: Inust Behaviur. New York, 1955. (63) West, M . L. : AJcrnanica, Classical QU4TUrry 15= 188--202, 1965-
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Chapter 2
lo's Dream (Aischylos: Prometheus Bound)
,6
lo's Dream
IW
aId yap ~lC ~OI1TOOMVlJ.EYal k TTap&EvC;lvac TOVc !IJOVc 1TapT]Y6poW Mlclel Ilveolc' " W ~. £vSal~ KOpr] ,
,.{ "ITap6evt\nJ SapOv,
!~6\1 00 1 yal-1O\l
"TVXdv IlEYkrOVj zruc yap 1I.!tpov fW.e.l TrpOc coO Ti{laATT'TQI Ka! evvaipEdlc\ K&rrP1V &0.£1' oJ 5', W Trei, IJTi 'TrOAaKTiC1]c AExoc TO ZT]VOC, cW..' l~EA6E TTpOc Atpvt]c Ik&Vv MllJWVa, TfOhlVQC j30vcraCElc TE 1TpO C TTaTpOc we av,.o ATov 61JIlQ A~"'C1J 1T66ov." (Smyth's text)
Translation 10 : For visions of the night, ever haunting my virgin bower, sought to
beguile me with seductive words, saying : "0 dalTUei greatly blest of fortune, why tarry in thy maidenhood so long when it is within thy power to win (mating) of the highest? Zeus is inflamed by thee with passion's
dart and is eager to (enjoy with you the gifts of Kypris). Do thou, my child. not spurn the bed of Zeus, but go thou forth to Lerne's meadow land of pastures deep and to thy father's (herds) and where his caule browse, that so the eye of Zeus may find respite from its longing." (Smyth's translation modified) (I replaced the misleading word "union", which suggests a marriage or a durable relationship, with "mating", restored the real sense ofv. 650, whose overt sexual nuance Smyth bowdlerized and " flocks " with "herds", scilicet: of catti~ onry. ) (At v. 648 I write, with Page etc., lTapSevW!;t.)
. alenal
~
:lerechos de al.llor
la's Drtam
'7
Introduction
The PV hall
50
many subtly nuanced references to dreaffi'S and oracles
(24) that one is at first al most disappointed to encounter in it only l o's relatively straightforward oedipal wish-fulfil ment dream, which is of a type commonly met with in adolescents, in primitives and even in highly educated members of culturally backward nations (30, chap. 6). In fact, were vv. 645-654 a fragment, and were little else known of l o, he r dream could be analysed in a very few pages, for this dream's complexity is revealed mainly by lo's and Inachos' waking reactions to it. 1 The focus of this chapter is almost exclusively lo's dream and its immediate consequences. Her "metamorphosis" into a cow- which Koure· tas (45, chap. 5) interprets as a bouanthropic psychosis1-concerns me only in so far as it is a consequence of her dream.
Tut and Trans/ation
Since the dream is, at least superficially, very transparent and therefore not markedly disturbing, the copyists did not play havoc with the text, whose state is quite satisfactory. M ost modern editions differ only in their spelling of a few words) M y translation is based on those of Smyth and Mazon. , T his finding ii, incid=.tally, =pollllibl~ for my not discwsing hen: Ihe dreams pre· ocrved in fragmClltll . • I d isagree only wilh a few detaw of Kouretas' analysis. J E.g. , v. 650: <.VYOlpdo l (Smyth, Page), ~VI'"lptc:eOl (Ma20n, Groeneboom). The differences in spelling do nOI affect the word's meaning.
,8
10's Dream
Objtctive Aspects of the Dream
The Dream's Repetitiueness proves it to be partly ego-dystonic. That layer of l o's mind which strongly craves a sexual union with "Zeus" is tenaciously shackled by her Super-ego. Psychologically, the dream reflects this inner struggle; dramatically, it is a kind of Selbstgespriich-a d ream-debate with o neself. This finding suffices to disprove Lennig's view (48, pp. 82 f.) that 10 is the wholly passive recipient of a divine command and that she anxiously tries to be-or to play the role o£- a totally obedien t girl. I will show that lo's demand to be guided by her father's. wishes is an unconsciously seductive manceuvrc. The Locale where the d ream manifests itself i~ strongly emphasized: it haunts l o's maiden bower (1fap6£vwv) (646). It could be held that this is simply a poetic way of saying: " the dream haunted me, because I am still unmarried". But it is not a ltogether improbable that the Greeks may have dimly felt that certain types of dreams tend to be dreamed in certain rooms or in certain beds. I m ust deal with this hypothesis very briefly, so as not to interrupt the main argument with too long a digression. (I) Most early Greek dreams are dreamed indoors; that of Rhesos' charioteer (chap. 8 ) is a striking exccption. 5 By contrast (s upernaturally caused) visions, hallucinations and illusions tcnd to occur outdoors.6 (2) M ost early Greek dreams come to those who sleep alone? or at least do not sleep with a person of the op/XJJite sex.s (3) H ea ling dreams visit those who sleep in Asklepios' temple (34, 2. 145 if.). (4) Dreams of a special sort arc dreamed when one sleeps on the pelt of a sacrificed ram (Paw. 1. 34.5, cpo 33, p. 126, note 43). • The influence of rcsi5tanccs (cven on .cientific work) is well exemplified by the fact that, even though AischylO$ speaks only of 10·.f61ItiT (PV 656, psychologically alllicipated by 653), Lennig (48, p. 81 ) "inexplicably" speaks of her "parents". T his lapsu. is the more noteworthy as the PV docs not mention 10" mother " I lfll-just a. A. Suppl. fails to mention the moth er (. ) of 10', descendan,,: of the Danaides (chap. 9). By m ista kenly speaking of 10" "paren ts ", inst ead of her father Qnry, Lennig unwittingly atten uat es the unconscious oedipal provocativeness of 10" daughterly confession. Such lapses, "ju5tifying" the scotomization of the obvioWl, bedevil also the psycho-anal yst, myself included (30, p. ,6, ). '1 could find no early Greek reference to the kind of notoriously vivid " sn apshot" dream one has while <:at_napping during the day, at times omdoon- perhaps bc<:ause Jignifolfnl dreams were supposed to be dreamed at night (and indoon?). Rhesos' dream (Hom. /I, 10.494 If.) ill fl a:lh-like in iu hrevily, but ill dreamed imide the t~nt and at nigh t, • Hcs. Th.. 1 If., cpo Q.S. t~.306 If. Also man y pa=lges of the Iliad. , Agamemnon (Hom. II. ~ . , If. ; for he dedares later on, und er oath, that he had never slept with Brillei> : Hom. II. 19.258 /f. ) ; Rhesos (Hom. ll. '0.494 If.) ; NaWlikaa (H om. Od. 6.t3 If.) ; Penelope (Hom. Od. 4.787 If., 19.509 If., ~o.87 If., etc. ). In tragedy: 10; Menelaos (wap. 3); Atossa (<:hap. t , indirectly highlightffi by A. Pm. t33 If., etc.); Iphigeneia (wap. 8); Rhesos' charioteer (chap. 8). Perhaps for dramatic reasons, A. &pl. nowhere mentions Etcokles' wife. One cannot imagine Aigisthoo .haring Klytaimcstra'. bed the night .he has her fatal dream (chaps. 4, 7). Cpo Heracl. fr r. 8g and 73; also Lennig (48, p . ~1!6, note 8). • The Eriny"" II~ together (chap. 4). Hekabe .hares a tent wi,h other capt;"e women (<:hap.8).
'alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
lo's Dream
'9
(5) The sceptical Artabanos "vicariously" dreams Xerxes' dream, while sleeping on Xerxes' throne-bed (Hdt. 1.17).9 (6) Bifor, dreaming a typically virginal (oedipal) dream (chap. 8), Iphigeneiajirsl dreams of being asleep in her girl's room, back home in Argos (E. IT 44 ff.).10 ( 7) That the long solitary Penelope should (regressively) have almost virginal (oedipal) dreams is only to be expected. What m atters hm is that she has them upstairs (Hom . Od. 19.53), in her quasi-maidenly boudoir, for during Odysseus' absence she does not sleep on her marital couch which, being built around the stilJ rooted slUmp of an olive tree (H om. Od. 19.190 If.) , was manifestly located on the ground Hoor.n I do not urge foolhardily that oed ipal dreams were thought to hang about every maiden's bower, waiting to appear to its occupant as soon as she feU asleep.12 But there may well have existed a belief that certain types of dreams tend to come to persons sleeping in certain places. This hypo-. thesis has the added advantage that, if one takes the Aischylos text literally, the d ream becomes as firml y located in "space" as are certain Homeric dreams, which specify that the dream stands at the head of the sleeper's bed (33, chap. 4). Tin Visions (b.pEIC) are referred to in the plural, but probably only in order to stress the dream's re petitiveness. Nothing suggests that more than one dream-personage addressed 10 in anyone of her dreams, nor that different personages sought to persuade her in successive dreams (on the plural, cpo chaps. 3, 8). In fact, one cannot even be sure that 10 "saw" anything in dream, for these "visions" do not " act" - they only speak. Aischylos probably called them "visions" simply because the Greeks ordinarily said: " I saw a dream." l) More important still is that the shape, identity, sex, etc., of these visions is not so much as hinted at; even their voice does not identify them. This lack of information further underlines the dream's endogenous character, for clinical data, daily experience and Greek texts alike prove that very familiar persons can appear in dream in disguise, I. or may be seen in dream too dimly to be recognized . I note, injim, that even though Dodds (33, chap. 4) is unquestionably right in urging that most dream-figures tend to be authoritative father• Vicarious dreams do aUt (Hdt. 7.17 cpo 17, p. 3Sg ff. ), bul, despile the bad example set by some psycho-anal);.IS, .hould not be interpreu:d as being telepathic. ,. n,..,a ..... of being olrnply ... Ieep appear to be race; I have heard only one such dream from a patien t. Dreams of dreaming (na dream within a dceam") seem to be more com mon; one IUch dream W8$ obtained from an elderly Mohave Indian (36, p. ,68). II One could argue that Ihe solitary Penelope's dreams unwittingly in.piced lal.,. tal.,. of her grass-widow adulteries (enumerated by R05Chec ..... Pan 653, col. 1380; Gcuppe 41 2. ,8+6). But il could abo be argued that Homecos bowdlerized early traditions of this type (55). Penelope's dream is also oedipal, since it could have been dceamed by Hippodarncia. " Peoples' situation determines both the nature of their dreams and the place where they .Jeep: a maiden hu oedipal dreams in her "bowec" (J.W.D.). II Cpo also Lennig (f8, p. 247, nOle 1 12) . "Eagle _ Odysseus (H om. Od. 19.5-18); Snake _ O<estes (A . CAot. 5+3 ff.); Wol ...,. ... OdyqeU! and Diomedes (E. Rh. 78:3, cp. chap. 8), etc.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
,0
l o's Dream
figures,I' the coaxing tone of la's dream personage shows that she (?) lacks the authority to command . The vision is simply a procuress (infra), whose words derive what little " prestige" they possess from the fact that they are "heard" in drtam. What makes them impressive is not the loftyslatus of the dream-personage but the inherent prestige of anything dreamed. T he Semier of the d ream is not specified . This further confirms the dream's endogenous nat ure, even though the vision acts as a procuress for Zeus. There is no hint that Zeus himself sent this dream to 10, the way he despatched a deceptive dream 10 Agamemnon {H om. I l. 2.1 ff.}. I notc in particular that in most early Greeks texts-includ ing, pact Lennig (48, pp. 199,201, 291 r.), tragedy- the sender of the dream is usually specified . Hi Where-as in this case-it is neither specified nor clearl y inferable, the dreamer perceives external reality "clairvoyan tly" (A. PerI.) , or else is stimulated by sounds perceived in sleep (E. Rh. ).17 Only erotic dreaJrul are always represented as endogenous : as motivated by desire'!' Sueh dreams a re neither "sent" visitors nor mere intruders. They simply "surface", being reflections of the dreamer's own desires.t~ Even the dream's re{;urrence- its obstinate efforts to overcome l o's inhibitions-indicates that it reflects a wish. I ndeed, the occurrence of a tempting command, not to speak of a complcte fulfilment of the wish in drtam,2fl proves conclusively that the actual gratification of the wish is not (yet) possible in rta/ity--and for is not (yet) acceptable to the waking mind. The Opening Phase of the dream speech-of the only Aischylean dreamoration.....-.differs from the traditional H omeric mOOel described by DOOds (33, chap. 4). The speech does not begin with: " You are asleep, lo !" This omission may have two causes: ( I) Unlike what happens sometimes in H omeric epics, the dreamer herself narrates her dream. (2) The specification that this recurrent dream haunts 10'5 room suffices to situate the dream both in space (bedchamber) and in time (night). This means that this significant dream- vision addressed Io----as required by Greek convention- at night, in her own bed, and while she slept. The Message-which is, for all practical purposes, the sole manifest content of the d ream- appears to be conveyed to 10 in a psychologically noteworthy man ner. I stress also elsewhere (chap. 8) that dreams involving m:tual audirory "Or virile mother fisura U.W.D. ). " Zeus, oup ..... Eteolr.lo' d ream is sent by Oidipous' CUl"KS (A. Sqn. 709 If.) ; Klytai· menm', by the w.... th of Ag~memnon'llhade (A. CIwt., S. £t.); the Erinyo dream of being reproa ched by Klytaimestra'. shade, .... hich appcan on stage (chap. -I) ; Hek.a~'s dream is "scnt" by Polydoros' shade (chap. 8 ), ctc. "On the perc~ption of . timuli in .te~p and on their lram.formalion into drc:ams, cpo Anst. ;",_. 462al 9 fr. " Pcnelope's drc:am (H om. Od. 20.87 If.) ; r.l endaO<\' drc:am (A. Ag. f'9 fr. ). 10 In fact, much of the modern concept of Gr",,1r. exogenous dr~ams is bardy tenable. Greelr. ac<:oun~ of dr~all1! usually indicate, al Ie... t implicitly, the praence of a uilh for a particular kind of dream. Dodd. (33. chap. -I ) h ... pro\'~ J1 th is for the oupposedly highly "exogenous" incubation dreams . •• P~nelope actualty cohabi u with Odysac\ll in drc:am (Hom. Od. 20.87 fr. ). That is what 'ffap(!I~ implia for I/JOWU- harillJl a bed- though LSJ does not seem to realiz~ ;t.
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
10's Dream
3'
smsalions are extremely rare, and dreams of hean'ng articulate speech practically nQn-exe;t(;nt. Though some dreamers assert that they have "heard" words or sentences in dream, a closer scrutiny nearly always reveals that the dreamer simply "knew somehow" what a personage "told" him in drearn. 21 Now, the Greeks themselves knew that a "message" could be conveyed to a dreamer (or to a person in trance) without his txperitncing a uditory sensations or hallucinations. Such a "voiceless" communication was well described in connection with Sokrates' daimon. 22 This being said, I nQlle Ihe its! feel that Aischyloo meant to suggest that l a's dream included auditory sensations, accompanying the reception of a mC$Sage. I deem this to be so even though the text says, in essence, only : "the vision said, .. I understood", and not (more fully) : "the vision said ... J heard . .. I understood". 1 think that Aischylos' omission of " I heard" was due to his text already containing another indication that 10 had auditory sensations in dream.2l I hold that the characterization of the voice as ;\doc (s mooth, soft, gentle) necessarily implies that 10 had auditory sensations in dream. Mazon's translation: tnl)U ,aressonts seems too literal; ;\doc suits a 110;" better than the wfmis it utters.24 Smyth's translation: "seductive" is even more misleading, for a seductive IIQj,e would seck to arouse l o's sexuality then and there and to direct it 01 the s/Jtakn. But, in l a's dream, her sexuality is expected to become aroused only after she wakes up and to be directed not at the dream-personage but at Zeus, whom that personage actually names, and to whom it refers in the third person. Though I stress once again that ;\doc refers primarily to the quality of the dream voice, characterizing it as smooth or soft, this does not mean that Mloc cannot secondarily refer also to the crafty persuasiveness of the dream-message. If, however, M[OC is made to refer also to the message itself, it acquires an added nuance: the "smooth, gentle" voice utters "slick, insinuating" words, brimming with a d(Ctitful benevolence-for the 11 One evening, inJanuary '970, 1 discW$<:d this matter with a psychologically sophisti_ cated hetlcnist, who claimed that he Itta,a s""echo in dream. The very nex t morning he told me that he hadjulIl had such a dn:am-rightly adding Ihal "proving me wrong" w"," one cause-or objective--of hi. dream. But, ruin' we examined hi. dn:am more closdy, he conceded tI,al it fully confirmed my vicws. H e had dreamed of hearing a . ""cch emanating from a radio in the room adjoining his- but, owi ng 10 th e thickn.,.. of the intervening wall, Ihat "spetth" was nclllluk,slandahl,. In .hort, he simply heard in dream the fOWla of spen:h- and nothing bUI ilS sound- for he could not hear U}/ull w"'" ""id. \Vha. h" "h"ard" i" dream wa. only a kind of mumbling; a ty"" of pseudo-spen:h wh ose ,ignificance I have analysed elsewhere ( ~I ) . Cpo also my comments (chap. 8) on E. IT 52. U Plu. de gtn. $0(1, 20, p. 5BBE, cpo Chalcidiu. 255, p, 288 Wrobel. Plu. V,Lyc. 23. ~; Lywu rg
"na
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
lo's Dream course of action it recommends will, quite predictably (infra), be catastrophic for 10. The last objective aspect of 10'5 dream is that it does not seem to have elicited any strong affective reaction while it was dreamed . This is in sharp contrast with the distre!iS and perplexity she experiences on awakening and with her somewhat unusual behavioural reactions 10 lhe dream's command. For the moment I simply note this d iscrepancy, which will be discussed in detail in connection with Io's "associations" to her dream.
The Manifest Content Though as a rule I discuss the various elements of a dream in the order in which they appear in the text, 1 must, in this instance, discuss first somc relatively minor details. I ndced, the dream's two most salient elements: the "vision's" crarty argumentation and its insistence that 10 should mate with Zeus at Lerne, must be discu!iSed last and consecutively, for they arc not only inseparable logically, but also lead directly to the analysis of the dream's latent content. lo's Protracted Virginiry (648) is emphasized strongly enough to prove that her dream was triggered by her sexual frustration. But this does not imply that Aischylos imagined his 10 as being much over sixteen or seventeen years of age-and not only because, knowing that upper-class Athenian girls married when they were still "mere children" (X. Dtc. 3.1 3), he probably assumed tha t this was customary also in mythical times. The main consideration is that, even though the Greek gods did not hesitate to abduct extremely immature bOYS,2l they do not seem to have seduced barely nubile girls. (This can be inferred from the behaviour attributed to such girls both before and after thei r seduction by a god .) One of the most significant aspe<:ts of this passage is that the dreamvoice not onl y makes 10 responsible for her unduly prolonged celibacy, but also insists that it is within lo's power to terminate this undesirable sta te. The dream-voice is far more explicit on this point than is, for example. "Athene", who simply scolds Nausikaa for making no preparations in view of her "impending" marriage (Hom. Od. 6.13 ff. )- which, incidentally, never takes piace. 26 Canymed.,., the Pindaric (0. l.~."> fT. ) Pdop8, elc. U Considering that, in the surviving venion of Ihe 0&'1,-" Odysseus docs >11)1 marry Nausikaa, who appears to be in love wilh him, it is striking Ihal- unlike thai of Agamem_ non (H om. II. 2 .[ ff. ) -h.,n is nol ca lled a "d...,eitfu] dream". l ... l.,ad- pr<:dictahlyAri.tarchos ath.,tizw 6.~44 f. ] canno\ discu"" her., all Ihe later stories which tell of a marriag., between Nausikaa and OdysKus' !IOn T d.,machoo. They are listed hy WOrn.,r (63 S.v. coil. 3~ r.), who docs not realiz., that "bowdlerIUillon" is wrilten larg., on aU of Ihem. I hold, for my pari, Ihal til., author of Dur O
• alenal
~
ethos :Ia al.ltor
la's Dream
33 One thing, at any rate, is certain: unlike Hippodameia's prolonged celibacy,27 that of 10 was not due primarily to her father's interference, nor, as the sexual character of her dream indicates, to a H ippolytos-Iike sex phobia- which some choose to label: chastity. It might even be added that both the dream and lo's and Inachos' reactions to it provide perfectly plausible dues as to the causes of lo's long and self-imposed sexual frustration . As so orten happens in real life, l o's celibacy is due to her oedipal fixation on her father, which- also as in real life- is tacitly reinforced by Inachos' own unconscious "counter-oedipal" daughter fixation (infra).28 The Desire of Zeus' Eye (for 10) (654) is to be relieved by To's sexual compliance. The conventional explanation is that, in Greek thought, the eyes are traditionally the seat of 10ve.29 But it seems to me that the moment this expression is recognized to be a figure of speech, one is compelled to ask just what straightforward expression this figure of speech replaces, why a periphrasis is used at all, and why, in Greek idiom, Ihe 0'(, rather than some other organ, should be the seat of 10ve.30 1 begin by noting striking- and systematically overlooked---differences between A. PV 654 and allegedly parallel passages. The latter either use the plural, to denote bath eyes, or the singular, to denote the (ullilary) sight of (both ) eyes. Since Zeus is not a one-eyed Kyklops, the fact that Aischylos speaks of Zeus' "eye" ill the singular should, I feel, be taken into account in interpreting this figure of speech. This singular is especially striking in a myth which mentions many-eyed Argos (677 fr., etc.). Furthermore, this figurative expression occurs in a dream. Now, it stands to reason that what, in a wakillg discourse, cm! (in the first approximation) be treated as afOfoll de parllT, musl be treated as a vigorously cOllcrtle symbol when it is part of a duam.31 But the main consideration is that the ordinary "figure of speech" interpretation of this verse fits neither the To myth nor the classical Greek outlook, which our still Victorian thought habits cause us to scotomizeand this even though every amour ofa god (or goddess) involving a mortal partner tells the same tale and teaches the same lesson . This is so true that I will not waste time on proving that words meaning "to love" are hardly ever found in such stories.l2 Instead, I immediately turn to lo's adventure. " And , p<:Thape, also that of th~ girl P~ncl0p", wh""" f"th~T did not want her to lea\'e him (Paus. 3 .20.10) . ,. According to numerous S(lurcel, Oinomaoo delayed Hippodameia'. marriagc ix<'ausc h ~ hinucif wu in lovc wilh her or had actually cohabited wi,h her (Apollnd. Ep. 2.4 If.; Luc. CIkorid. '9; li yg.f~Q. 253; Tzell. Lye. t;:.6) (1lo). "G~neboom, ad loc. , ciles only E. H ipp. ;:'2;:'. Barr~tt, commenting E. Hipp. 525, ciles furl her examples. ThomS(ln, seeking in "ain 10 refute Fracnkel"s illlerprelalion of A. Ag . .p8, provides a veri tabl e torrelll of "parallel" p"""'g<::s in his edition. C po also Mahen (52) . .. It i., 1 think, in hi. PhYJiDl6V' 0/ Marring' thai Balzac remarked lhat men lo,·c wilh Ihdr eyes and Women with thcir ears. On car = vagina, cpo Jones (f",O'). 'I The American colloquiali.m: "I rode her hard", ult~red in a real convenation. means primarily: " 1 made her work hanl and toe the lin~." In dream, this apreuion wou ld certainly .ymbolile a violently domineering saual act. In waking life, an aeroplane is primarily a means of tramportalion; in dream primilrily a $ymbol of erection. "One cxcq>lion is perhaps Hom. II. '4.3'7. But in S. (I",uk) (Page 58, p. '14, v. 10) the word "love" is wed sarcastically precisely in connection with Zeus' desire for 10.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
34
10',$ Dream
The dream speech indicates that the desire of Zeus' ~ can be appeased only by l o's sexual compliance, and both Aischylean and o ther references to l o's affair with Zeus mention, or clearly imply, ont embrace onb> (infra). That- if a colloquialism be permitted- is about par for the course. I cannot begin to dte the evidence showing that the same is true of nearly every authlnticalry m)'ihicoi account of such affairs-the data would easily fill a volume,ll As every Greek girl in her right mind- for example, Marpessa (infra) -kncw, a Greek god's "love" is simply a sudden, imperious ereclion. His "love" disappears as soon as the sexual act is completed and
detumescence sets in,)· Such things arc reported even of mortals: a
singh~
"wet dream" ended for ever an Egyptian's desperate "love" for the hetaira Thonis, whose high fee he could not afford to pay (Plu. V. Dem. 27.5 f. ). The point need not be laboured. I have repeatedly shown H that, in most socielie>, romantic love is the exception rather than the rule, and, far from meeting with social approval, leads mostly to grievous trouble. (Cp. Ps.·Sen. Oct. 557 ff. ) For those willing 10 face fact s, the last word on the love affairs of gods with mortals was said by Euripides (Ion 436 ff., 1557 ff., etc.). It is in the light of classical tex ts-and not of penny novelettes-that "the de>ire of Zeus' eye" must be examined. That "the d e>ire of Zeus' eye" simply means a divine tumescence would be self·evident even if I we re unable to cite-as I will in a momcntmassive evidence supporting Ihis interpre tation. I moreover assert con· fidently that Aischylos inlentkd to suggest this, and that his fifth century B.C. audience so understood Ihis figure of spcech- though dry-as-dust 5choliasls, both old and new, did not.36 This being said , I now propose to justify in detail my view that Zeus' yearning eye is his erect penis. The eye = penis symbolism is, to begin with, perfectly traditional in Greece. In fact, some Greek monuments show phalloi provided with eyes: 54, p. 103 (K yathos, Berlin no. 2095), p. 106 (Paris, Petit Palais, no. 307), p. 107 (Krater, Berlin no. 3206), etc. Psycho-analy tically, Freud's equating Oidipous' self-blinding with selfcaslration l7 is conclusively validated by the fact that whereas in one " 1 cite, at random , ~lIS' upordlo-album ofhiJ amoun: Hom. II. 14.31 3 fr. " MaIn good.,...,. ar~ nO difrer~nI. Eos, ".tuck" with th~ ..,nil~ TithonOl, confines him to a palatiat padded cell and chases other m~n (Hom. fr. VIn. 223 fr. ) . ThetiJ leaves Pd~",,' abod e long before the death of th~ir !IOn Achill eus (Hom. 11. /MJJ;m). The tale of o.,meter·.lasting 10\,e for the gr~ying la.ion «()o... M et. 9'4~~ f. ) is not m yth but vintage Holl ywood, as is that ofEos (Aurora) rating her head on the (lId Tithon05' shoulder (Stn. Ag. 6~~ (. ). Though Od)'!&CU!' afTain with Kalypso and with Kirke last a while, these ladies are not auth~ntic immortals, and belong to th~ fol k tal~ (ep. 8, pp. [6 fr. and/NJuim) rath er than to myth. l! Cpo 12; '4 ; 26, pp. 86, 9~; 30, chaps. [0 and!! , et~ . "Iu to AischylOl' eanhy approach to Kltuali ty, Ar. Ran. t045 fr. i, the I;;IN>IL-ing!y absurd quip of a comic poet who had cer tainly read, e.g., A. Ag. [222, Cw. B94 f., 9[1, f T",..) /,. 243N', D id. 610 fr., etc. AischylOl wearing a clerical collar is an unrustorica.1 and, indeed , revoltin g modern conceit. "But th is docs not exdud, the supplementary conclusion that Oidipous also had many good realOn$-in addition to those he him..,lf mentiorLI (S. OT [334 fr. )-for d.,.troying his eyes (32).
. alenal
~
echos :Ia autor
la's Drtam
35
tradition (Hom. II. 9.453 fr.) the "incestuous" Phoinix is cursed with sterility ("castration" ), in another version he i! blinded [E. (Phoinix) Jr. SI6Nl; Apollod. 3.13.8, etc.]. Bryas is blinded by the girl he had raped (Paus. 2.20.2), etc. (32) . iUlotht:r kvd, liIt: Gr=k equali..,,,: chillJ = eye of tIle house lS also exemplifies the eye = penis symbolism, for the child = penis equaOn
~till
tion is clinically commonplace. It is, moreover, encountered chiefly when "seeing" is conceived as an active, outward-dirccted performance ("looking" ) .l9 This makes "desire of the eye" = "erection of the penis" a certainty. As regards lliis text in particular, the correctness of my interpretation is confirmed also by the subsequent- and peculiar- recurrence of the eye motif. As already noted, Zeus' olle (big?) eye anticipates Argos' myriad (normal-sized?) eyes (569, 677 ff. ). The simultaneous surveillance of the (manifestly ru tting) 10 by these ma ny eyes is, after the slaying of Argos, replaced by the TtCUTrent stings of the gadfly (olcrpoc = rUl) .~ The anticipation of Argos' many eyes by Zeus' one eye is rooted in the symbolic equation: big = many. This means of symbolization is commonly encountered not only in dream, but also in the analysis of certain very promiscuous-because oedipally fixated-women , for whom the many organs ofthcir lovers provide, in the aggregate ( 16), the equivalent of the enormous paternal penis of the lillie girl's fantasi es-a penis which she never ceases both to crave and to dread .• 1 Excursus. A more indirect argument which, taken by itself, wou!d not be conviucing, but which, taken in conjunction with the data citeU aoove, docs appear to support my interpretations, is that, in the fo myth, Zeus' penis is symbolized also by another one of his own organs. In A. PV 849, etc., and in A. Suppl. 3 12, etc., the touch or caress of Zeus' "hand" upon II cp. DOOds ad E. 8 a. 1308, citing A. Pm. 169. CiI«. 934; E. A"dT. 406, /Olt 1467 (bul al ... some eX<:q)lions to th e rule) . ,. Cp. "9, p . .y>6 ff. Cpo carlOO"" repreenting active looking by mean. ofra~'S cmanating from the eyes. \Vhen l eeing is conceived as a pa..s;\'e-r~"ptive performance, Ihe eye can repreent the vulva ( , 8) . T he """ual ambiguity of the eye i. not n"ique. It is duplicated by that oflhe n""" (64 ), whose fu rther ambiguity, Qn a diffe",nlle" el, is underscored by a G erman riddle : "What has ill back (Rlickm ) in fron t, ill root ( Wurul) on top, and i" wings (l'lilgd) and lip (Spita ) below ?" .. I TttaU tha t, atthi. point , 10 is """ .. ally awakened-tho: kind of girl whO$<: passionate_ ness Aischylos himself describ«l (fr. 243N1). More On this point below. 'I The fantasy of the destructively huge paternal peni., wh ic h girl. evoke during the oedipal . tage Qf deveJQpment , continu es to haunt many of them even after they au no longer "too smaU" 10 be able 10 admit an adult man 's organ. I n some CMa, this pe ... isteot fantasy leads, in adult life, to (unconsciou.) attemp" to " t onfirm" ii, by meanl of highly sr/« ti<'e al1ac u of"aginismu •• Painful comraClio ns, mal;ngin tromission almOIl impco.sible, may occur wh en l uch a woman .""Its to cohabit wilh a man whQ repreent. for her a father figu",. A colleague provided especially . trikiog information about a PTOILtilule, who - by d efinitio.-has l1rong, un resolved oedipal fixationa: .he had attack:! of vaginismus only whe" a client w"," o ld eno ugh to be her father. H owever, the man's relati"e age may play no role whate,'(:r in w ch a llaCQ of vagini$mus: a certain young " ·Oman patient btgolt to have . uch allacu when her equall y young hwband (unexpectedly) became a father .urrogate for her. So far as I lnow, this connection betwee n "aginismus and the fanta. y of th e "huge" paternal penis has not yet bc<:n reported in the psycho-analytical literature.
Irls Dream 36 the cow l a's "forehead" helps her both to give birth to Epaphos and to resume her human shape. Now, Kouretas re{;ognized long ago (45, p. 257) that in these passages Zeus' "hand" is really his penis. 41 But Kourecas could have greatly strengthened his argument by pointing out that, according to Cook (10, 3.4¥I fr. ), the "neura" of Zeus' hand (s), which Typhon = Typhoeus excises, actually stand for his penis. And both K ourelas and Cook could have made their respective interpretations more compelling had they pointed out Q/hn similarities between the 10 and T yphoeus myths: (I ) Zeus' excised " neura" are hidden in the (furry) pelt ofa she-bear·] ( = vagina denlala ). (2) Zeus' " hand" touches (in an act of symbolic coitus) l a-the-cow's forehead, which the Greeks often described as "curl y-haimi".o04 It is my conviction that in these myths both the bear's pelt and the cow's curly forehead represent the female pubic hair: the female "escutcheon" or "shield" .4! Only in this way can I account for the Greeks' tendency to emphasize the relatively inconspicuous "curliness" oflhe forehead of cattle (E. Ba. 1185 ft., etc. ), their preoccupation with the forelock of horses (X. Eg. 5.6, etc.), and their conviction that a fleshy "clot" on the newborn colt's forehead acted on mares as a strong aphrodisiac;46 What lends added plausibility to this interpretation is that Zeus himself gave birth to Athene from his split skuil.41 \'Vith this I can close my demonstration Ihat the "desir e of Zeus' eye" is his imperious tumescence. I hold that for any Greek of the classical age the symbolism would have been self-evident (32).
Tht Drtam-Spuch T ht Drt am-VoiCt . As already noted, the word "visions" does not suffice to prove that lo's was a visual dream, nor is there anything to indicate that the (unidentified) dream-speaker was sen t by Zeus . I now propose to show that the surviving fragments of S. Inach. (58, "That 10" lU
., I have the imprasion .hal most individ ualized G reek mythical bean arc female-as are Artemi,' young acolyt"", th e "liulc bears". (But K.J.D. observes that wc-bears with cubs arc mOre aggressi,'c than male bea .... ) Thu nced mcan 110 more than Ihat the Greekll felt w mething to be " feminine" abou t aI/ bears-a. most people feel that all cat., regardless of their sex, arc somehow "feminine". {A stri king proof of mankind', . pontancoUll tendency to equatc cats with the vuh'a com"" from the Maori ('lI).) •• Domatic bovin"" do occasionally ha ,·c somc curly hair bctWt"e1l their horn •• Perhaps Greek callIe, Ir:ss rcmoved than modem callie from the aurochs, had evCII curlie r forchearls. ( I recall that, lOme years ago, a German zoologist manag..:!. 10 "breed back" domatic ca ttle to a bovine resembling the aurochs.) ., Th e lame may be true of Athenc·. awe.inspir ing Aigis. Fe renczi {37} reports that a mother regularly frightcned and disciplined her ob<;trepcroUllliulc son by a duplay of her pubis (whi ch mobilized hu cast.ralion anxicty) . .. Ari.t. Hit 57~a~ , j Ae!. NA. J. 17, 14.,8. 0) AJI SOl.ltce5 disc~ b~ Cook (10 3.6S6 If.). Cpo chap . 5 •
. alenal
~
:larechos de al.llor
lo's Drtam
37
pp. 22 fr. ) do /10/ permit us to identify the dfeam-~peaker as IIenne~. 1 concede that some echoes of the A. PV dream scene are discernible in these Sophoklean fragments. But I also maintain that Sophokles' mind operated so differently from that of Aischylos that he ultedy transformed whatever he derived from his great predttessor: it suffices to compare the Sophoklean Klytaimncstra's dream with that of her Aischy!ean equivalent (chaps. 6, 7). Moreover, the fac t that the PV is a tragedy, while the Inachos is a satyr play, would also automatically increase differences between the two accounts of Io's "seduction". It is evident that just because, in Sophoklcs' Inachos, H ermes-contemptuously called Zeus' lackey (vv. 2, 23)-acts as Zeus' emissar)" this does not prove that he appeared "incognito" also in the Aischylean l o's dream, alld thi~ fu,- scvcraJ rea'NIl~ : ( I ) Though H ermes, the patron of heralds, is, in principle, a persuasive speaker, 10 is notfu.lly persuaded by her dream. This parallels somewhat the Sophoklean Hermes' failure to persuade I nachos. But there are also crucial differences: (a ) The invisible dream-speaker seeks to persuade 10; the visible Sophoklean Hermes seeks to persuade only Inachos-the fragment does not even hint at his addressing 10 in any way. (b) I n the PV, only the dream-personage speaks- I o does not answer. Judging by what survives of the blGchos, Hermes carried on an unsuccessful and scurrilow debate with I nachos, in the form of a stichomythia. (2) The content of l a's recurrent dream is presumably the same every time. Dy contrast, though Hermes also appea.r~ twice at l nachos' palace, he is visible the first time, and (theoretically) invisible the second time. (3) The superficial resemblance between the unidentified dreamspeaker and the (theoretically) invisible H ermes promptly breaks down when one considers that both the dream-penonage and the visible H ermes only speak, whereas, when Hermes returns "invisible", he manifestly does not try persuasion, but is up to a practical trick (v. 21 ) : most probably, an abduction. (4) In A. PV, the dream-speaker remains unidentified. In the Inachos (vv. 5 ff. ), Hermes, though wearing Hades' cap, is recognized . (5) The Ahchylean dream-speaker's "soft voice" recalls the "whispers, very rapid" (lnach. 20), which arc relatively dreamJike. 4 ! But this seemingly striking simii<..-ity vauishe~ tbe momeut one recalls that whc reas the (understandable) dream-voice does not permit the identification of the sp<:ai<er, Ihe "invi$ibl,," H ermc.· (inarticulate?) sounds-recalling the "voice" in E. IT 52- promptly disclose his identity (v. II ). (6) The sounds produced by H ermes present a difficult problem, especially if one assumes- as 1 think one must- that the sounds which betray his identity (v. I I ) are the same as those which madden the hearers (v. 16 : ~av(a). As regards the latter, Page (ad loe.) recalls the sound of the pipes heard by 10 in A. PV 574. But the effects produced by these two series of sounds arc diametrically opposed: the former madden the hearers, the latter are soothing to the point of bringing sleep (Vm>oS6Tac). But I concede at o nce that it is hard to s~ why the brutally harassed .. On h"''';''8 j"~umJ.>rd'Cll>iulo:: (lllurn:d) ' peecl, ;" <1...:-...". cpo '''P'-'', "Ole"'.
38
la's Drtam
and driven 10 should consider the pipe's soothing sounds as still another of her many affiictions.·9 For me, the maddening sounds produced by Hermes recall another sound heard by 10: the angry buzz of the stinging gadfly, which keeps her on the run.SO Not wishing to venture on even more slippery ground by fe-examining the-in my estimate-still far from clear relationships between Argos, the double of Argos, Hermes and the gadfly, I will conclude my remarks on Sophokles' It/achos by reaffirming that, despite its few superficial affinities with the A. PV dream-scene, it does not permit us to assume that the dream-voice is that of Hermes. The identity of the dream-speaker can only be established by a psychological scrutiny of the " inner evidence" furnished by the Aischylean text itself. SUptr-tgo and ld. As a rule, both hallucinated and dreamed voices speak either on behalf of the Super-ego-Iaying down the law, enunciating taboos and addressing reproaches to the subject--or else proclaim the demands of the Id. But even psychiatrists seldom stress adequately that, in both cases, there is a striking complicity between the Super-ego and the Id. (I) A voice, which sums to express the Super-ego's point of view, not only tends to stress the subject's moral degradation, but also formulates its reproaches in extremely obscene terms. 51 (2) When the voice speaks on behalf of the Id, it tends to oorrow its arguments from the Super-ego, in a consummately hypocritical manner. Thus, as will be shown further on, even though the vision urges 10 to allow herself to be deflowered, all its arguments art: derived from the Su]Xr-ego'~ arsenal of "good" reasons. H ence, lo's craving for coitus- and, as will be shown, specifically for incestuous coitus- is Tt/msenttd by the dreamprocuress as an unselfish act of piety towards the supreme god. This dream-speech is, thus, clearly the work of a dazzlingly perceptive practical psychologist.'2 But I must add also that such a clever hiding of instinctual strivings behind a far;ade of reasons borrowed from the Super-ego is more common in waking life than in dream- though it is occasionally encountered also in dreams, such as that of 10. This being said, the role of the Super-ego, both in 10's dream and in her subsequent behaviour, must not be minimized. In A. PV, both (the immobilized ) Prometheus and (the hounded, errant) 10 arc represented (in principle) as the "innocent" victims of Zeus. Yet, 10 takes it for granted •• A just barely acceptable explanation may be Ihal Ihese soothing $Ouncb make it ~'en more difficult fOl" her 10 .Iay awake and 10 run. BUI I note Ihal, $0 far ... I know, only one tioJlllJlic animal i, Irained 10 fC$pond with in~reased speed to lh~ 50und of a pipe t \'m, and especially, when weary: the racing dromedary. As a rule, herosmen play Ihe pipe $0 a. 10 soothe their hero. and floch. (The make-charmer', .nake i. "01 a domestic animal; only a lamed one.) ,.. Even the buning of a gnat disturbs Klylaimes lra's light Jleep (A. Ag. Sgl f.) . A (figurative) ning awaken. Ihe Erinyn (A. Eum. 155 fr. ). SI E.g.: hallucinaled accm.alion' ofperverled pracliceo, of incClIUOUI propen.iti.,., elc., tend 10 be woroed very obs«:nely indeed- Ihereby gratifying the reproached person'. "condemned" inclinalions . .. Cpo the .triking remark of another good praclical psychologist, Ihe banker J. P. Morgan : "Whenever a man does something, he alwa),! has two reasons for doing il: a good reason and a real rason." This quip is directly applicable 10 10'1 dream.
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
[o's Dream
39
that ProrrulMus is punished for some offence (564 f. ) and, at vv. 578 ff. , she at least wonders what offence Zeus found in her. I cannot persuade myself that her bewilderment is purely rhetorical or else motivated solely by the pious conviction that the gods never wantonly harm a mortaL ') It is by raising this question (578 ff. ) that 10 confesses her still unconscious guilt: her incestuous cravings. 34 The childish need to exonerate gods and parents at any cost is, of course, not denied . It presupposes onl y a fairly naive kind of reasoning: (I) 1 am weak and need to be protected by someone aU-powerful and good (parent = god). (2) If! am punished or hurt, it must be because of my wickedness-evcn if I am unaware of having sinned." (3) It is more tol~rable and more reassuring to assume that I have (unwittingly) sinned than it is to assume that m y paren ts (gods) are bad and wantonly cruel. (4) If! have been punished because I have (be it unwittingly) sinned, then there is something I can do about it : 1 can accept the punishment and mend my ways. If, however, I am hurt even though I am good, then there is nothing I can do to help myself: I must concede a total lack of control over my fate.36 In short, though in real life the "normal" sequence is: " I sin ... I am punished", in the hidden recesses of the mind the sequence is : " I am punished . . . thtrifore I must have sinned. "n The Procuress. Though no explicit statement reveals the iden tity or even the sex of the dream-speaker, I call that soft-spoken personage a procuress, for reasons which are partly realistic, partly psychological and partly literary. (I) Since this dream is clearly endogenous, in that the course of action which it advocates i5 motivated by la's long inhibited sexual cravings, psychologically the dream-voice is la's own: it speaks for that part of her mind which struggles against the hesitations and inhibitions of the more conventional- and, in this instance, partly more rational- layers of her mind. In short, though the voice professes to plead the cause of Zeus, it actually advocates-with typically feminine deviousness (infra)-the gratification of lo's own erotic needs. (2) The gentle-voiced speaker unmistakably musters the arguments every wom an wanting-but not quite daring- to be seduced wishes to 1I The clev~r parall~b usuaUy dra .... n between Aischyl05 and th~ &>ok ofJob may satisfy Ihe theologian and Ihe moral philoeoph~r-Ihey do no' .. !lofy .... lea.. one poycho. anaIysl: the present writer. S< Mu~h of what l .-P. Vernant (67, ch ap. 5) fays about Oidipous' self. betraying can be applied, m~taJis mutandis, al"" 10 10', wonder_ behaviour in th~ rarly parlll ofS. ing about her offence. OJ Cp. the widdy attested willingness of primitives accused of murder by w;teh eran to confea that they might ha ve done the deed unintentionally and wilhout even being aware orit (35, pp. I~I ff. ) . .. Snell'. theory of "action" in Aischylran drama (65) overlooks this crucial poiOl. " An adolescent patient, constantly told by his mother that he W8$ "bad", fd t obliged to H bad, 1(1 as to preserve bis unconscioUl but computsiv~ faith in Iti. mother'. infalli _ bility. H is deJinqueney wall mrant to p rove h is mother righl. Thi. i. a perfect example of what I call "being a deputy neurotic" ( /7,30, chap. 8).
or
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
10'£ Dream hear.' ! Better slill, these arguments malch so closely those of {he procuress in one of H erondas' most fiercely realistic mimes that I am almost tempted to believe that H erondas not only imitated reality-as did Aischylos- but also parodied the Aischylean lo's dream.'9 In short, although I can hardly speak as an expert about this matter, I simply cannot imagine a male procurer reasoning the way the dreamvoice does. T ilt Dream- Voiu's j\1ethod of Persua.flon is as timeless as it is efficient. Like some confessors of royal mistresses, the voice advocates misconduct in the interest of a " higher morality"- it favou rs that "better" which is proverbially the enemy of the "good". Indeed, if one star ts from the assumption that the supreme god is entitled to whotever he desires, and that his wanting it suffices to make it good,60 the "moral" lone of the dream-speech is impeccably lofty. It is, moreover, a commonplace that what a god desires is precisely what he delights in forbidding to man. This is, in fact, primajacie evidence of the divine nature of his wishes.6t All theology ultimately founders on the reef of its attempts to represent the gods as both good and omnipotent, for omnipotence can be demorutrated only by the systematic transgression of all rules. Aischylos knew and accepted this fac t, which SophokJes chose to ignore. Euripides, wiser than an theologians and political scientists before or since, faced squarely- and " Cp . Fr~ud'. dictum , that ~v~n in ca""" of rape, on~ part oflh~ "viClim's" p:sych~ abeu the rapiSI. I' "Oh chUd": A . I'Y 651; H~n",d. I. QI. N~edl"""y long ch .... d ly: A. PY 64B; H erond. I.QI. Ben~fiu : A. PY 648 f.; H erond. 1.26 fr. Deity: A. PY 649 fr.; H erond. I.';w fr. Glorious lover : A. PY 648 f.; H erood . 1.50. Kypri. : A. PY 650 ; H .,rond. 1.62. H oly ril'" (lopbl: y
'alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
.'
la's Dream
in despair-the ab.rolull incompatibility of goodness and of total power, which the onc who has that power always dreads to lose: e.g., Zeus in A. PV. That is the real thesis of the Bakchai: only by goi ng mad can man tolerate the total and eternal incompatibility between goodness and nearomnipotence. Far from deviating, in the Bakchai, from his life-long search for truth, Euripides draws, in that drama, the one true conclusion no one, before or since, has dared to draw. Though it is fashionable to claim that Euripides was not a real philosopher but only a poet ta inted with die teachings of the sophists, I hold that his Bakchai's philosophical import transcends anything Platon ever wrote. The "enigma" of the Bakchai is our own-all too comprehemibJe- refusaJ to understand it. But I am straying from my topic. I have already noted that, given the right of the gods to an immediate gratification of their sacred whims, the speaker's arguments are flawlessly "pious". After the opening verse, not a word is said of l o's sexual needs, nor is she promised ecstasy in the god's embrace. She is simply urged to cater piously to the god's sexual needs. But the dream-voice's cleverest trick is probably its relative honesty. It promises 10 no reward other than the gratification of her avowableand indeed. princess-like-ambition to acquire immortal glory by a (oneshot ) union with the most exalted of lovers.62 The voice's arguments would be less credible were other rewards also promised. Indeed, the tragic fate of girls who had mated with a god was notorious. Even Zeus could not protect his mistresses either from Hera's anger or from abuse by their own kindred. In early Greek texts, the riskiness of divine love-affairs was always taken for granted. Permitted to choose between Apollon's passing infatuation and Idas' lasting love, Marpessa chose the mortal suitor_63 The attempts of some girls to fight off a divine rapist6' also prove that divine matings did not tempt prudent girls. Daphne even preferred to be turned into a laurel6' rather than submit to Apollon's embraces (Paus. 10.7.8, etc.). Kassandra had tricked Apollon into giving her something for no thing, but, by rendering his gift useless, he caused her to perish miserably (A. Ag. 1202 ff., etc.). Summing up, a Greek heroine desired by a god faced what is called today a " double bind": "heads he wins, tails I lose". She was usually punished, whether she yielded or resistcd.
1011.941, etc.) . In modcrn Greek
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
lo's Dream
I n fact, mythical heroes dreaded the embraces of goddesses almOllt as much 3..'1 heroines dreaded those of the gods. 68 This explains why, despite her cleverness, the procuress meets with enough resistance to force her to reappear in l o's dream night after night. But I hasten to add that the ascription of resistances to 10, far from dis~ proving the view that the real source of her dreams is her sexuality, strongly confinru it. lo's sexuality carries the day onl y after it turns the tables on her Super-ego and adopts its hypocritical pseudo-morality, which-since the dawn of time-has permitted many women to perpetrate one of the most profitable fr auds of history, though they have paid for it with irreparable damage to their femininity and human dignity. Many a woman persuades her man-and herself-that she has no spontQJ1L(JUJ interest in sex and derives little pleasure, if any, from it. 69 She may even profess to yield only out of a selfl ess concern for her partner's pressing needs. This explains why 10's own sexual urge betrays itself only in the speech's initial reference to her prolonged virginity (648).70 But even this is not the full story. T he Id- which in the psychologically adult woman craves love-and-sex--cannot borrow the Super-ego's lofty hypocrisy without becoming contaminated by the Super-ega's no torioWJand always prt-genital-corruptibility. This explains why the voice, instead of urging To 10 enjoy love's delights, advises he r to coin her virginity. 10 is told that she is imprudently hoarding a highly marketable commodity: her hymen ; the moment to dispose of it, in a seller's market, has come. This argument satisfies l a's Super~ego. for in such a course of action the gifts of golden Aphrodite art:: gratifyingly contaminated wilh the prt::genitai ordure of Ploutos, whose name does not resemble tha t of the infernal Plouton in vain.71
For many reasons, Lerne (6Y2 fr., 677 fr.) is a most suitable setting for Zeus' union with 10. (I ) Mylhologif;ol Considerations make Lerne an appropria te place in two respects. But I must, alas, deal with these matters most summarily, for the full proof of what I have to say about Lerne in myth could be cited only in But this 5toppmthem no mor~ than n:volUlionaries ar~ otopped by th~ knowledg~ that, throughout hutory, r~\"olutiolU-lik~ Kronos-ha\'~ d~\'ou~ mOSI of,heir child r~n. "Odyssew: H om Od. 10.296 If.; Anchi$co: H om. h. V(n. ISo If., an ticipal.-d in w. t02 If., 145 If. .. Cpo H~ ... 's pr~t~nc.,. and h~r angry blinding of T~iresi ..., who had daud to reveal that woman'. s~xual pl~ ... ure i. nin~ times great~r than that of man (Hes. Mtwmp,f', 275 M .W.; ApoUod. 3.6.7; Tutz. Lye. 683; O v. Md. 3.320; Hyg fab. 75) . ,. This self_deception, form~rJy ~ncourag.-d by th~ c1~rgy, i. today actively fost~r.-d by its natural heirs: by th~ theoreti cians of th~ " \\'om~n'. Liberation" mov~mwt-on~ of whom at leMt ;. r~port.-d to have pu blicly admitttd that .h~ i. bisexual. "Throughout history, th~ Sup<:r...,go has lived comfortahly with dowries, bride-prices, alimony paymw"', and even with prostitution. But it will n~\'~r learn to toln'at~ Lo'·~' freely given and reciprocated, th~ pur~ gifts of Aphrodit~, whom 'h~ Greeks alon~ had 5e1Ue enough to call ~ (:: pure and holy) (6,1, Supplem~ntband I, p. w ).
. alenal
~
:lerechos de al.ltor
lo's Dream
43 a monograph. I can only state here that the views expressed in the next two sub-sections are-be they right or wrong- based upon a careful study oC aJl the evidence. This being said, the sceptic can simply skip the paragraphs devoted to mytho-chronology and my tho-to pography, particularly since I cite only a fraction of the sources I have consulted. (I) MythtJo.Chronology. A. PV 652 If. implies that Lerne was well watered at the time of Zeus' mating with 10. This means that this hap~ning antedalls another important event: when, in Inachos' time, Poseidon unsuccessfull y contended with H era for supremacy in Argos, he spitefully made Argos a "thirsty country" (sch. E. Or. 12 7). I am convinced that this myth has affinities with l o's adventure. At any rate, Poseidon did not make Argos well watered again until, generations later, he cohabited- also al I...ermwith one of lo's descendants, the Danaid Amymone,'2 in what I tentatively believe to have been a water-dowsing rite.1l (2) MylJw. /opograp/v. On the basis of considerable preliminary research, I state, as a general principle, that certain localities are linked with certain types of mythical happenings. On the basis of my da ta, I hold that, in several significant respects, l o's adven ture is just the kind of thing that is likely to happen at Lnne. I cite here-with a summary indication of the main sources-{)ne myth and ritual only: the one which Nilsson (56, 12, 591 ) calls the most obscene of all Greek rites. The fact tha t such a rite was perfonned at Lerne-which also contained an entrance to Hades: the bottomless AJkyoneian pool (Paus. 2.37.5 f. )-will, I hope, make more acceptable my final hypothesis that there corresponded to the 10 myth a (far less obscene) pastoral fertility rite, whose locale was almost certainly also the pasture land of Lerne.H The myth reports that, trying to keep at least symbolically his promise to the dead Prosymnos (or Polymnos), Dionysos fashioned a figwood phallos and inserted it into his own anus .7~ With this, I must conclude my discussion of the mythological appropriateness ofLerne as a setting for l o's (forced )76 mating with Zeus. I must now turn to Lerne's concrete characteristics, which also make it a suitable locale for divine amo urs. II . T hz Outdoors. Lerne is the DrauJStfl, so admirably discussed by Wilamowitz (72 1.175 fr. ): it incarnates the non-social and therefore non-human world. Remote from the city ("rr6Alc) governed by law and custom (v6010C), it is the world of nature ('PVctc), re presented by domestic animals (A. PV 652 If.)-and even of monsters, such as the Hydra. The .. Aischylos' losl salyr p lay A mJ"'lO'l' Urr, 13, 14 NIl dea l! with thu myth. ' l Cpo abo H~ra's annual revirgination in an Art;"" opring, the Kanathos ( Pau,. !I.S8.!I {.J, which needs to be re-e..amined. ,. T hai the whol~ 10 mylh complex d~ nOI contain a single rd'~rene<: to agriculture is manif.,.l. Thai, for Ihe agricultural Greek, the pastoralut was, in a way, prl-human, practising "non-Gr""k" ntcs, was a bly d~mon'lrated by V idal_Naqu~1 (6;9) . " Pa ..... !I.37'5; Amob. adD. MI. 5.~8; Clem. Alex.prolr. !I.3• . For the many othersour<:CI, cpo Hoefer, 631.V. Polymnos, 0011. 2657 It The nalUre of the a nnua l ..«rei ntcs at ~e (Paus. ~.1 7.1) can easi ly be inferred from the som<:what atlenualed forms of Ihal rile recorded in Luc.u Ua Syr. 16 and in the sch. ad loc. Iconography: perhaps Nibson , 56 i . pI. 35, figs. !l, 3 (so interpreted by W. Burkert, pen. comm.) (,) . ,. Cp, the Danaido-Aigypliadai rape-marriage, Ihe salyr'. allcmpl 10 rape Amymone. ProIynmm' c Polynmos' extortion of Diouysos' consent, etc.
MatefKlI
:Ie autof
lo's Dream agricultural and city-dwelling Greek usually visualized this wo rld In an unrealistic, fear-inspiring way (68, 70).77 It is only a slight exaggeration to sa y that, in the Greek view, the dangerous, m ysterious, animalistic Drausu n encouraged and almost incited impulsive, lawless and, at times, un natural sexual activities. 7s Greek data confirming this are not hard to filld. ( I ) Phaidra, hau nted by her incestuous cravings, fantasied that she could find relief only "outdoors"- i.e., in the o pen country (E. Hipp. 228 ff.), where she was, of course, likely to meet the hunter Hippolytos. This is by no means an exclusively Greek reaction .79 (2) A good many (illegitimate ) matings between gods and mortals took place outdoors. BO All this suggests that the "outdoors" d eculturalizes man a nd incites the gods to be thei r most d ivinely lawless selves. (3) Living outdoors, a way from the city, was, at best, felt to be a token of backwardness. At worst, it was viewed as a symptom of perverseness approaching insanity.s1 (4) In Greece, raving, ecstatic group rites were performed mostly outd oors. The mountain-roaming (6pe.1!3acJa) of the M ainades is paradigmatic in this respect (6). In short, precisely because Lerne io! "the outdoors", it io! Ihe ideal kind of place both for unlawful couplings and for t he occurrence of hallucinated " Th is conception of the "outdoon" m ay explain in part that ablenc., of a "feeling for natu~" which so d iSt~ SOme 19th C~ntury, ci1y-dwdli ng English hellenists, for whom natu,"" in the r aw .,.a. the Lake Di...ic.t. ,. Cpo the PTOI5ymnOO myth, .upra. ,. A M ohammedan Malay girl, unconKiowly, but al$o irnoil tibly, attracted to a de.pised Sakai jungle-dweller. felt Ihat only the nocturnal jungle-wh"", . he waS likely to run into lhis Sabi-could <:001 her " inexplit:able" fe"erishnCM and allevia le her distress (9)· " Apolion rapo Kre... a in a cave (E. 1 011 '7, ele. ) ; p"""idon mates with T yro near a river (H om . Oli. t 1.~35 If., etc. ) and with 10" descendant Amymone in the . wamps of !.erne, ele. It was outdoors that a calam ite Itole Sophokles' cloak (Alhe n. '3.605 ). Cpo the mountain roaming Mainad es, etc. 01 Timon (Ar. Av. 1548, 1;'1.809, etc. ) . Euripid .. , the alleged mioan thrope, was said to ha"eworked in a ca,'e (Eurip. G"WJ. p . 4, 5.11. 23 If., Schwanz). H is detraelon p robably put it about that this eritie of th e gods and the E.'IIablishmen( rm:mbled hi. own cave-dwelling K yklops. Ucllcrophon wilhdrew from mankind wh en he bc.:ame mad (P i. I . 6.44. etc. ). Burkert (6) noted Ihat Ihe mad wOmen ofGrttk myth roamed the wilds. R uth Padel (57) found Ihal even some non_mylhical G reek psychotics shared that tendency. It i. perhaps not fortuitous that our word "idiot" i. derived from l~'~ .... penon in a private 'I ation of life, al",, : " individual" as o p posed 10 'lfoAIC (city) and even as opposed to ".killed man" (LSJ ). The S1andard Wolof (Senegal ) notion of the madman;": he who apart from the group (17 ). But Ih e tendency to flee the community is nOI a universal characteristic of Ihe psychotic. The insane Sedang !\Ioi usually does disappear inlo Ihe jungle and, unlCM found, perish", there ( II ). BU! the psycholic M ohave Indian hardly ever r uns away (26), perhaps bc.:aust:, unlike t],e Sedang, who is normally afraid of the lurrounding jungle, the Mohave dO<'S nOI dread his semi-dcsert homeland. T he only Mohave Indians who deliberately lefl Ihe Iri!,., for evcr were ceftain brav"" weary of life, ""ho sough t to be killed performing ""me supreme feat of valour in enemy lerrilory (1/6, pp. 4'1'6 If.). The m"",ly " alienated", who insist On Itaying in Ihe community SO as to display i~ il their " JOe ial negativilm" (30, ch ap. 3) !O Ihe limil [Greek cyn ics, mediaeval "fools in Christ" (3), modern hippi"" ctc.] , are in reality clamouring either to be expelled or 10 be hdped 10 control Ihcm""k.,._ bo'h of which lIOCieli.,. lacking failh in thetmelvcs mIlK to d o.
Ii,''''
. atenal
~
echos :Ia alAor
lo's Dream
45 experiences caused by solitude, which is a fonn of sensory deprivation.12 But u rne is not only "the outdoors" in general- it is a Draumn of a special kind, whose nature further clarifies the meaning of 10'5 dream. (III ) l.mlt is PllJlure und for Inachos' callie only.il I particularly note the lack of any reference to horse herds, though "horse-pasturing" is one of Argos' regular H omeric epithets. M The emphasis, in both A. PV and A. Suppl., is on cattle only. This is made clear by a whole series of facts: (I) 10, the priestess of Hera (A. Suppl. 301 ), is meta morphosed into a cow; (2) H era herself is a cow goddess (~Tnc = cow-eyed, cow-faced ); (3) Zeus cohabits with 10 in a bull epiphany (A. Suppl. 30 1); (4) Inachos is not only a king but also a river god and, as such, IS necessarily horned like a bull; (5) Argos is a cattle herder (A. PV 677, etc.); (6) Gadflies do harass cattle (Apollod. 2.5. 10, elc.). All this renders meaningful the dream's command, that 10 is to cohabil with "Zeus" near or amongst Inachos' cattle-behaving sexually like a cow. Whether she ac tually complies with this order-and I note that, in A. PV, the pa$agc concerning the dream and its immediate consequences docs not mention Ihe cohabitation- and what the consequences of her compliance were, does not concern me in this study. From the point of view of dream analysis, all that concerns me is the implicit dema nd that 10 should behave in a sexually an imalistic manner. B1 Hence, all that requires elucidation here is the meaning and import of this demand in dream. The simplest inference is that, psychologically, the re is something about the union advocated by the dream that is incompatible with human, but compatible with animal, sexuality.86 Obviously, I cannot enumerate and discuss here every d ifference betwccn human and infra-primate, mammalian sexuality. I therefore mention only cursorily some details (which I analysed in full before drafting this chap ter): details which conc~rn events postdating l a's u He.i~08 appean 10 have haUuc;inated lhe M uses while herding .heep (H e.. Th. 1 If.). Oil 1WO U.S.A. Pueblo Indian .h~p herd.,." ha ll ucinating, cp. 30, chap. I. For a oo.ic bibli
lo's Dream
dream and her expulsion-or perhaps, Ilightl 7- from Inachos' palace. ( I) Th4 Gadfly represents l a's state of frenzied rul," which, though she cannot control it, deeply distresses her still relatively human, although mad mind, which survives her metamorphoois. 89 Clinical data also confirm the gadfly = rut equation.90 I can do no more than stress once again that great poets unconsciously figure such things out, though the literary critic- and sometimes even the psycho-analyst-finds it difficult at times to comprehend the logic or the poets' fantasies. . (2) Th4 A1!onymilj>,!/ Animal St xuality is obvious. Amongst most mammals below the primate level, a lmost any available partner will do. Conceivably, the nonnal a tergo animal coital position contributes to thjs non-differentiation of parLncn.91 I n mankind, a somewhat similar anonymity and indi~cri m inateness call be achieved by recourse to the a lergo position, or at least to positiom requiring a minimum of bodily contact (40, pp. 170 ff.), or by the use or masks- as in (pre-World War II) Rhenish and Bavarian carnivals and, perhaps, in some ancient sexual rites. (3) "Incest". As research on the sexual behaviour or animals progresses, it becomes increasingly evident that they can develop spontaneously most or the perversiom which a more naive age deemed to be exclusively human. But there is Ollt sexual "deviation" no animal can either learn to practice or to avoid: incest. 92 For incest, as distinct from inbreeding, is unimaginable without the concept of kiruhip.9l "I add th;" &p«incation for, once expelled, 10 can, tike a runing, runaway heifer, race around in search of an aroused bull- as in Ihe mOIl! p«uliar metaphor found in Q.S. 10.438 If. .. On olctpaw "" to rut in a frenzy, cpo LSl) 1.1.'. o. Cpo a related IIOr)' in Callim. fr. H)oh Sehr. _ ~,p. 356 Pf. Cpo a l.$o Ihe dUlreu of certain neurotics who fed "driven" despite Iheir beller judgment (17, p. 11~ f. ) and Ainu cases of uncontrollable imu sei zu res (66, 73), etc • .. A very sensual girl in her twenties had had a number of anxiety dreams in which the was attacked by a gadfly, and thu both before and afler heT defloration. In dUD," me wu particularly afraid thal.he might swallow the gadfly (cleady an echo ofinfantile fantasies of oral impregnation, reinforced by the ulli experience of having had a gadfly enter her IlOItril), or else that the gadfly might attack heT eye. (Thu rem;nd~ one of Argoo' many eyes which, in one "e";on (A. PV 567 if. ), are replaced afleT his dealh by on, gadfly). (On: eye _ vagina, cpo 18.) I n her dreanu, .he reacted to thl'Se "attacks" hy covering (' ·masking") her face with her forearlTl.ll and by Jlrollgly bending her body forward, in a way which recal l. Ihe """,ual prl'Sentalion" posture of rutting female monkeys (74) . (For the co",,"ng of the face inslead of the pubu, cp o 19. ) Beller !till, .he .pctltll_1y added thai a gadfly'. bite generates a heat which resemble the heat .he feels when ..,,,uaHy "",cited, and thaI the itching, which elicilll a need 10 Kralch, feel. like the n«d for coitu •• I note Ihat th;" modem 10 had not read Aischyloo, had n"'·eT heard the word O<'Sl,," and therdore did not know thaI, in biology, il denotes both Ihe gadfly and rutting . • , The ventro-,·entra] position ;& 30 deeply ingrained in human behaviour thai an ancient statue (MUSC(> Nuional", Naples, cp o 49, pl. 25) representJ the balf-goat Pan cohabiting with a she-goat in a quasi_,'en\rO-ventral position, resembling the traditional position of the Trobriand Islanders (511, p. 283 If.), elc . • , One could probably leach a male taboratory animal to avoid cohabitation wilh h;" molher, by giving him an electric shock only when he tries to mount a female the eAJItriII1lnUr forbids him to mount. BUI even that trained male would nOI have learned 10 avoid "incell"- he would have learned only 10 avoid an electric shock. fl A human being can even commit sodo-psychological incest without inbreeding- for
• alenal
~
:lerechos de al.llor
l o's Dream
47
I" .short, aocurdiuK to hh wout, Aischylos (WhOK iuc. cdiblc tcn;cuOili Us
regularly underestimated) says all that matters in the fewest possible words (673 f.): " Forthwith my form and mind were distorted ." lo's menial metamorphosis was a sine qua non condition for her being able to comply with the drea m's command which, as I will show, urged her to commit " incest"- like a cow. This being said , I feellhal we have no rea$On to complain that, in the PV, Aischyl03 did not refer dirtttly to lo's bovine coitus with Zeus. For I hold that it is precisely this omission which forces us to see how heavily over-determined the whole incident is and therefore compeh us to explain it in tenos of several frames of reference.9-4 The evidence, 50 far, can be convergently summed up in te rms of two differeut fralDcs of n :fen:m:e.
(I ) Psychologically, 10'5 dream implies that the sexual union she craves is not compatible with human, but is compatible with bovine, sexuality: she craves incest. (2) Socia-culturally, the dream- voice orders 10 to perform a (ritual ?) act similar to bovine sex acts, in the "shape" and manner of a cow (cp. perhaps, Pasiphae and the "bull", ApoHod. 3.15.8; also: M ykerinos' daughter, Ha t. 2.129- 131). As rega rds l o's madness, tbe first explanation suggests that she m ust already have been abnormal to crave an incestuous union. The second explanation suggests that, in order to behave as commanded , she had to work herself into a state offrenzied (bouanthropic) madness,Q~ or, at least, had to simulate such a madness so as to do the normally tabooed thing wi thout being impeded by excessive guilt feelings and inhibi tion.96 I hold, in short, that if 10 had nol craved a sexual union of a type forbidden to mankind, though freely practised by animals and by Greek gods, i.e., had she not craved incest: ( I) she would not have tarried so long in her vi rginity; (2) she would not have needed repeated anxiety dreams to persuade her, 'nd (3) the dream would nol have had to specify that thc union was to take place near I nachos' cattle herds- i.e., in a bovine setting and manne r. I must now, for reasons of expository convenience, indicate that "Zeus" example, by cohabiting with his .tepmotheT (E. Hipp.; Plu. V. Dem. 38). eo.,,"cr&ciy, he can inbreed without committing ineat (lOCio-psychologically) if-a.! happened in Due case, in tI,,, '9':;00- 1", unwiuingly marries hi> . i.."r r,..,m whom he had h=n "".... rated in childhood. By c(lntrast, animal. do inbrero, but without committing . ocio-psychological in"""t. This basic point was, I think, fi rst made hy Lowi. (51), though I ha"e considerably elaborated its corollari.,. (jl, chap. 7) • .. On the basisofrigorous epistemological and logi cal considerations, I have repeatedly .hown (~j, ~7, .5' ) thaI a myth----or indeed, any human activity wha lsoever-which i. explained in terms of <me frame of refe""ncc o,,{, is, SO to sp"3k, not <:xplaint
Ir)'s Dream can, in fact, be Inachos, for, by settling this problem at once, I can substantially abridge my discussion of lo's waking :-eactions to her dream and of I nac hos' responses to l o's revelations. (IV) "Zeus" = InlUhos. ( I ) As already noted, Inachos, being a river gOO, is necessarily horned like a bull- and Zeus mounts the heife r 10 in the shape of a bull (A. Suppl. gOI). (2) It is today a commonplace, even amongllt the most naive critics of Freud, that man's image of the deit y is patterned upon the child's image of the parent (45). Both Platan (Legg. 9g 1A) and PloUiarchos U". 46, 86 Sandb.) saw in the parent the image of the deity. This parallels the Greek notion that Agamemnon's kingship was patterned o n that of Zeus, though modern scholars realize that the reverse is true. O ne should also recall that one of Zeus' principal epithets was: father (of gods and of men), and this even though he personally engendered neither Poseidon, Hades, H era,ete., nor, e.g., Theseus, son of Poseidon. (3) According to certain traditions (supra), Hi ppociameia, whose virginity was also unduly prolonged, committed incest with her father Oinomaos, and her myth is manifestly related 10 a pastoral (horse, mule) fertility ri te (20).97 (4) If one assumes the existence of a rite, the horned Inachos and 10the-heifer can suitably impersonate Zeus in a bull epiphany and cow-eyed H e ra.98 (S) If one considers only the dream, the symbolization of Zeus by l nacho, ill dream would suitably di sgui se from lo's "dream censor" (Freud) her incestuous craving for her fathe r. I n short, in the present context, and as regards the dream's command viewed psycho-analytically, it does not matter in the least whether 10 wished to cohabit with "Zeus" or with Inac hos, whether she " did" so in a human o r in a bovine form, nor even whether this " happened" in dream, in fantasy, in a hallucination during a ritual, or simply in the course of a non-ritual incestuous act. All that matters is that the triggering force of all these alternatives presupposes, in A. PV, an oedipal-incestuous craving on Io's part. Once th is is made clear, one understands also why Lerne is explici tl y defined in dream as the grazing place of Inachr}S' cattk. For incest, which, as already noted , greatly troubles an ordi nary person, does not worry animaJs'19 or, for tha t matter, gods and their like. Precisely because lo's dream advocates a divi~ mating, that union must, of necessity, be incestuous from the human standpoint-which, in turn, explains lo's madness. .. I note that Nau.ikaa, whose dream somewhat n:sembles that of 10 (supra), belonged to a royal family which practism brother_lister incn!. On this latter point, and on the
partial bowdlerization of this dear statemen t in the Of!yJUY, ep. Vidal-Naquet (69) . .. Cp. Semele demanding, on Hera's advice, that Zeus cohabit with her lhe .....Y he cohabibwith Hera (Apollod. 3..4-3; H yg.fdb. 167, 179). " Diogcnes ap. D. Chr. 1 0.~ 9 ; ep. also the commenu of Knox (14, p. 'l06) and Vernant (67, chap. 5). Thi. ",ali.tic view antedates tales of the avoidance of incest by bona (Arist. HA 9.+7 f; Plin. HN 8. 156; Varro RR ~ .7.9 ; Ael. NA +.7 ) or by camels (Ael. NA 3.47). (I could find no talts of cllttle avoiding inctst.) These late tales we", perhaps meant to condemn the animalistic exhibitionism of the eyni",.
• alenal
~
edXlS de al.llor
lo's Dream
49
Associalwns to tlu Dream Associations, which help one to interpret the dream, are provided both by lo's reactions to her dream and by InachOll' complementary response to lo's telling him her dream. These responses-which are paired, reciprocal "acting out" patterns-are of exceptional usefulness for the understanding of this dream's latent content. One of our most te lling data is the contrast between lo's affective state during her dream and her very different affective response to her remembrance of the dream . l o's Ajfeclivt Stau While Dreaming is not clearly specified; this is unusual in Greek traged y.1oo Still, lo's emotions during her dream are not beyond conjecture. The use of the word Mfoc (smooth, insinuating) practically guarantees that the dream·affect was not altogether unpleasant; the command she received in dream was not greatly at variance with her- already preconscious -sexual desires. None the less, the fact that she had to be urged on in dream, suggests some fear of her desires and so does the perplexity she feels on awakening. In dream, she eludes responsibility for her wishes by projeding them on "Zeus" (supra), as she projects her consent to such a union on the d ream-voice, which only provides 10 with reasons for doing wha t she already wishes to do. Even the fact that the conflict is "solved" in dream is a means of exonerating the dreamer (39) . But even these indications of struggle do not prove that 10's dream was primarily a genuine anxiety dream. Had the dream been violently egodystonic, it would presumably have disturbed her sleep--and this lo's dream failed to do. At the same time, the dream was not wholly egos}'fltonic either, for othe rwise she would simply have dreamed of cohabiting with "Zeus" . l o's Waking Responses to her dream are, as already no ted, aftecuvely far more intense and uncomfortable than was the affect she felt while dream· ing. This finding is crucial for the correct interpretation of her dream. On awakening, lo's dominant emotion is: perplexity. The command she fC{;eives in dream is twofold; ( I ) "Cease to be a virgin", Le., contract a union ; (:): ) Contract a union with "Zeus" (a t Lerne). I hold that lo's perplexity on awakening is d ue to the fact that she rea cted differe ntl y to t h e two compone n ts of the dream· command . The dream did not upset h er while asl~p, for in sl~p and dream the unconscious, governed by Ihe pleasure-principle, usually has the upper hand . It is only on awakening that 10 becomes disturbed, for Ihe waking mind is subject to the reality-principle (38), which includes taking into account also the "reality" of law and custom (vO]JOC). Most people have had the experience of being disturbed, on D.wakming, by a dream whose manijtJl 100 ThUl, the dreaming Me ndaos' initial happin .... SOOn turns into a mournful fmltra· tion (chap. 3) . In dreaming of a grieving Dareio&, Atossa exprr:ues the grid.hI fed s while
dreaming (chap. I), etc.
MatcfKlI
:Ie autor
lo's Dream content Stems hannless enough: their subsequent distress is caused by the seemingly innocuous dream's lalmt eontent.l(ll Now, in mythical Greek society, which did not depreciate sexuality even in women, a dream-command to contract a (nonnal) union would not have distressed, but gladdened, a princess--especially one who had been a virgin far too long.!02 In fact, a Greek princess would not have needed such a dream-command. At most, her dream might have suggested to her that she should marry the particular king or noble she desired.l03 She might even have dreamed of making love with a suitable future mate, and would have felt no distress or shame because of her dream. The classic example is the dream Athene sent to Nausikaa (Hom. Od. 6.13- 51). which, as already no ted, has many elements in common with l o's dream. Yet Nausikaa is not in the least disturbed by her dream's command. for a suitable husband is implicitly promised to her ; she joyfully h3.'ltens to carry out the dream's instructions as soon as she awakens. Even better evidence is furnished by the erotic dream of a mythical married woman. Penelope is not ashamed of having made love in dream with her absent hus band Odysseus. She only regrets that the dream was not reality (H om . Od. 20.87 if. ). Even the Sophoklean K lytaimnestra's erotic dream frightens her only because her dream partner was Agamemnon, the husband she herself had slain (chap. 7). I therefore hold that if the dream had urged this more than nubile princess, belonging to a society which valued female sexuality, to marry a suitable partner, the dream would have elicited no discomfort. In fact, had that been l a's desire, she might not have dreamed of being simply commanded to forsake he r virginity- she might very well have dreamed of actual love-making. This indicates that what elicits perplexity and discomfort in 10 is not the warning tha t it is ti me for her to cease to be a virgin, but the command to surrender her virgini ty to an outlandish parmer: "Zeus" (cp. chap. 7). The perplexity becomes immediately understandable only ifone assumes that " Zeus" symbolizes a labO(J(d partner: Inachos. It also explains why, in the dream, an initial refe rence to l o's protracted- and frustratingvirginity is followed at onu by an elaborate description of the sexual frustration of her prospective partner. This shift of focus constitutes a brilliant description of the self-disculpating, Super-ego-bri bing defence by projection ("not I but you desire tabooed sex" ) commonly encountered both in dream and in waking life. Summing up, a mythical Greek princess did not need a dream to tell her that sexuality is good- she took tha t for gramed. BUI she would have needed much dream-encouragem ent in order to surrender to a tabO(J(d sexual partner. This view is fully confinned by lo's waking behaviour. The normal 101 In [956, I dcvdoped a proje<:liv~ 16 1 wh..., Ihird pari ...::....:aLs Ihe anxi~ly Ihe Idlmt conleni of the amwcn given 10 Ihe finl 1""0 ques tion. elicits. T he test ...·as recently vali daled !tatislicaUy by my . tudent , D r Ma[hilde Boccara ti). '" I recall again [hal many upper-class Alhenian girls married soon after reaching puJ.>.,rty. '0' Th~", JUTVi,'''' [0 Ih;" day Ih ~ European folk J.>.,lid Ihal a girl can $tt her fUlure .poU$C io d ream, or in a mirror (62), ~tc.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
la's Drtam
5'
Grttk rt3ponse to a disturbing dream was to "sterilize" it, by telling it to the sunlight and, at times, also by performing apotropaic rites.1001 But 10 does nothing of the kind. Instead, she tells her dream to her fath er Inachos. This represents a complicated neurotic manc;euvrepartly evasive, since she "pUlS it up" to Inachos. H er telling the dream to her father is Jess a narrative than a "confession", and a double-edged one at that. Indeed , on one level, it is an unconscious (or perhaps already preconscious) attempt at seduction: in compliance with the dream voice's latent advice, 10 informs Inaches of her "availability". Such devious seductions are common n ot only in daily life, but also in psychotherapy and even in projective psychological testing (cp. chap. 3, note 108). But, on another level, Io'~ "confession" is a demand for plLl1i~hment. A scrutin y of Inaches' reactions to Io's account is therefore imperative. Inaches responds to lo's perplexity and to her attempts 10 leave the decision up to him with a perplexity reaction of his own. Instead of taking a stand, he consults tum separate oracles. 10' This is perhaps the only case in which a ritual oracle is asked to clarify a dream oracle. But the repea tedly consulted oracles' responses are at first riddling and incomprehensible (658 If. ). At this point, something need be said about oracles in general. Fenichel (36) noted that the " m isunderstanding" of oracles is psychologically determined . This is true, so far as it goes, but involves the erroneous (implicit) assumption that an oracle's utterances are not only " meaningful", but also that they have one "real" meaning only. But the fact is that no oracle has a real, inMrml meaning. It has no meaning olher than tha t which the oracle's client ascribes 10 it because of his own subjC{;tive needs, fears and inclinations (25).106 In short, when consulting an oracle, the client unwittingly invites the oracle to substitute for a meaningful though perplexing rtal quandary a verbal " riddle", inherently devoid of any sens, whatron-, and which still leaves the task of solving his problem-now disguised as an ora cular riddle-to the client. In fact, the sole benefit a client derives from consulting an oracle is the dubious privilege of blaming the oracle for his own ~ubse quent mistakes (25).107 I hold that the first replies the oracles gave to Inachos were inherently ,.. A. P~r~. ~oo If.; E. H« . 68; E. IT 43 fr. On the p5y<:hotherapeulie I,I$C of lunlight, cpo E. Ba. '264 fr. , discussed e!sewhtte (g8) . For the primacy of.igh t- which is the only ""no<: n"",e. normally uimulat~ before birth-as the principal mediator of reality and as the mind 's main defence agairut the dllrk world of
MaterKiI
;Ie autor
lo's Dream no more riddling than the last. They seemed more riddling to Inachos only because his mind was not yet made up. When he finally decided to resist lo's tacit seductions, the new oracle suddenly became "understandable" 10 inachos. For, by then, all he wanted was an excuse for expelling 10, as Ihough she had openly tried to seduce him and had actually managed at least to tempt him. lot In short, while Inachos still hesitates between yielding to and resisting temptation, \0'1 the answers of the oracles ·stem obscure-to him. \Vhen his mind is made up to resist temptation, the oracle's last answer stems suddenly comprehensible-Io him. I hold that it would have seemed comprehensible to him even if it had consisted of the He brew alphabet or the table of multiplication. I stress here a we11.J:locumented fact: repeated consultations of an oracle could nol change the tenor of il5 response (Hdt. 7.141 ) ; all that they could change was the client's mood . . Returning to 10, in expelling her from his home Inachos literally forced her to comply wit h the manifest dictates of the dream-voice, for the most natural refuge for 10, the o utcast, WaJI pfCi;isely the half-wild pasture land of Lerne. l1O The pr«:eding paragraphs presuppose that the daughter's oedipal advances are tacitly, but well, understood by the father, who is at first tem pted by this stimulation of his so-called "counter-oedipal" (Laius) complex. III But, as he sends messenger after messenger to tw() oracles and, as time goes by, his Ego gains the upper hand over his Laius complex, he decides to ge t rid of the temptation once and for all. Otherwise expressed, in expelling 10, he both punishC3 her for her incestuous " availability" and protects himself against her tempting "seductiveness". Had he not been tempted, his "understanding" of the oracles would have been, predictably, very different. One last point to be made is that Inachos is, at this time, apparently a widower, for, in A. PV, lo's mother is no more mentioned than are the mothers of the Danaides in A. Suppl., or the mother of Hippodamcia in the non-genealogical parl5 of the tales concerning her. As both common sense and daily experience show, such a familial situation is likely to intensify the attachment between the widowed or divorced father and his "'lnaGhos repealedly ilen l m~ngen bolh 10 Delphi and to Dodona. buc we are Itoj cold outright of the two gave at last a "dcar" reply. I think thaillull reply came from Dodona- partly bo:cauile Dodona was Zc"" own oracle, pardy bo:caUJe, at A. PI/830 If., Ihe oaks ".peak dearly, nOI in riddling terms" to 10 and, finally, bo:cause, at A. PI/668, the oracle threalen. lnachos 10 enforre iu orden with .{nu' typia.l weapon: the thunderbolt. ," Or, culturally speaking, relisling the order 10 perform an obscene pastoral fertility rile. ". It is well to T«aU here all the heroes exposed in infancy and laved by herdsmen or even nuned by female domestic animals. Such tales reveal well the way the G~b imQli"rd life in the pasloral "wilds". '" I uy "so-called" for, as I ha" e .hown elsewhere, both ontogenetically and logically Ihe Laiu.-eomplex preced es and eliciu the child', oo:dipal reaction. (15, 3/, chap. 7). My theory has Ihe advantage of being bas.ed not on adult fantasies, bUI on experimentally verifiable, biological and physiologica l faclS. I I is therefore-needless to say-inacceptable 10 Klein·iam. But 1 think ;1 would have been acceptable to Ferenczi, who had a dedication to hard facu, which is bo:coming increasingly unfashionable am<>llJ!llt eertain analysIS, more intcrested in "philosophy" than in 5<;ien<;e.
It·";,;,,
. alenal
~
echos :Ia autor
lo's Dream
53
unwed daughter. And, as any social worker, psychiatrist or even policeman can tell, in such situations incest is a far from rare consequence of this intensified attachment.lll Summary. Io's repetitive dream reflects a breakthrough of the instincts in dream. The inhibiting anxiety is experienced only in daytime. The strife between the two is described with great subtlety. In dream, 10'5 wishvoiced by the dream-figure---explicitly takes cognizance of the existence of inhibiting forces and crowds them off the stage on which the dream unfolds itself. The dream-voice urges her to yield to her impulses and to overcome her scruples; the inhibiting force is, by contrast, not represented directly in the dream. I t manifests itself only in the waking state, eliciting anxiety and forcing 10 to indulge in self-punitive acting out, which takes the fonn of a damaging confession.
APPENDIX
I have deliberately left to the last a striking parallel of father-daughter incest, in which the daughter's quasi-transfonnation into a cow is a consequence of the incest. The Pharaoh Mykerinos raped his daughter, who then hanged herself from shame; her father caused her corpse to be buried inside a handsomely manufactured cow, which apparently served as her coffin (Hdt. :2.1~9 ff.). It is precisely the modification of the narrative sequence-the replacing of the pre-incest metamorphosis into a cow by a post-incest "entombment" into a cow-shaped sarcophagus-that highlights the importance for the understanding of lo's dream of the notion that incest is animalistic, non-human behaviour. The tale of Pasiphae (submitting sexually to a bull, hidden insidt an artificial cow) serves, in a sense, as a bridge between the tale of 10 and that of Mykerinos' daughter. III
BibljograPhy (I) Anonymus: Hikaya/ Hang Tuah (H. Overbeck trans!.). Mtinchen, 19~~·
Baker, S. J.: Language and Dreams, International Journal if PsychoAnalysis 3 1 : 171 - '78, 1950. (3) Besanc;on, Alain: Lt Tsarevilch Immoli. Paris, 1967. (4) Boas, Franz: The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay, American Muswm if Natural His/ory, Built/in 15 pt. I. New York, 1907. (S) Boccara, Mathilde: L'Imagt des Rapports Interpersonntls d TraWTs un Nouvtau Tu t. (Ph.D. Thesis, MS.). Paris, 1969. (~)
III Cp. 61, 7'. Two of my Itud enu, MdJe Eliubc:th Pimare, a ps)'chiatric social worker, and Mme Anniek Le Gum, M.A. , a psycho-analyst, had recently stud ied a group of girlt who became incenuoualy pregnant. Their data confirm me vieW! expressed abo,"e. I " For the willingnell ofa male animal to try to mount Ihe .talue of a femaJe animal u a USt of its lifdi.keness, cpo Paus. 5. !l7.3: yet tIt4t statue represented an q(y maff.
Material
:Ie autor
54
lo's Dream
(6) Burkert, Walter : Homo Ntcans. Berlin, 1972. (7) id.: Perwnal Communication, 1970. (8) Carpenter, Rhys: Folk Tale, Fiction and Saga in 1M Homme EpicsJ. Berkeley, California, 1958. (9) Clifford, Sir Hugh: Tukang Burok's Story (in) TM Furth4r Side of Silence. New York, 1922. (10) Cook, A. B.: <:,ro.s, 3. Cambridge, 1940. ( I I) Devereux, George: Sedang Field Noles (MS. ), 1933- 1935. (12) id.: Social Structure and the Economy of Affective Bonds, Psychoanary/ic Reuiew 29:303- 314, 1942. (13) id.: A Note on Nyetophobia and Peripheral Vision, Bulletin oftk Menninger Clinic 13 :83-93, 1949· (14 ) id.: Heterosexual Behavior of the Mohave Indians (in) R6heim, Geza (ed.) Psycho-Analysis and the Social Sciences 2. New York, 1950. ( 15) id.: Why Oedipus Killed Laius: A Note on the Complementary Oedipus Complex, International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 34: 13214 1, 1953· (16) id.: Anthropological Data Suggesting Unexplored Unconscious Attitudes Toward and In Unwed Mothers, Archillts of Criminal Psyclwdynamks 1=564- 576, 1955. (17) id.: Tkrapeutic Education. New York, 1956. ( 18) id.: A Note on the Feminine Significance of the Eyes, Bulktin oj tk Philatklphia Association for Psychoanalysis 6:2 1-24, 1956. (19) id.: The Displacement of Modesty from Pubis to Face, Psychoanalytic Review y.z:391-399, 1965. (~.zo) id.: T he Abduction of Hippodameia as 'Aition' of a Greek Animal Husbandry Rite, Studi e MaUriali di Staria delle Religioni 36:3-25, 1965. (~.Z1 ) id.: Mumbling, Journal oj the American Psychoanalytic Assoeiation 14:478-484, 1966. (22) id.: Rapports Cliniques et Phylogenetiques entre les Odeurs et les Emotions dans la Nevrose CaraClerieile d'un Hottentot Griqua, Psychopathologie Africaine 2 (no. I) :65- 76, 1966. (23) id.: From Anrielj ta M ethod in the Behavioral Sciences. Paris and The H ague, 1967. (24) id.: Observation and Belief in Aischylos' Accounts of D reams, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 15: I 14- 134, t 967. (25) id. : Considerations Psychanalytiques sur la Divination, Particulierement en Greee (in) Caquot, A. and Leibovici M . (eds.): La Divinalion vo l. 2, pp. 449-471. Paris, 1968. (26) id.: Mohave Elhnopsychiatry and Suicide . (Second, augmented edition), Washington, D.C., 1969. (27) id.: La Naissance d'Aphrodite (in) Pouillon, Jean and Maranda, Pierre (eds.) : Echanges tI Communicatio1U (M ilanges Levi-Strauss), 2.1229-1252. Paris and The H ague, 1970. (28) id.: The Psychotherapy Scene in Euripides' Bacchae, Journal of Hellenic Studies 90:35- 48, '970. (29) id . : P.rychoanalysis and the Occult (ed. and eontrib.) Reprint (hard cover and paperback). New York, 1970 .
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
10's Dream
55
(go) id.: Essms d'Ethnopsychiatrie Glnlrah. Paris, 1970. (Second edition, 1973)· (3 1) id.: Ethnopsychanalyse Complimentanste. Paris, 19T~. (32) id.: The Self-Blinding of Oidipous (Dodds Festschrift), Journal oj Htlkn~ Studits 93 :36-49, 1973· (33) Dodds, E. R.: Tiu Grub and the Irrational. Berkeley, California, 1953· (34) Edelstein, E. J . and Edelstein, Ludwig: Asclepius 2 vots. Baltimore, 1945· (35) Evans-Pritchard, E. E.: Wikhcrqft, Oracles and Magic among tlu Aumdt. Oxford, 1937. (36) Fenichel, Otto: The Misapprehended Oracle (in) The Colltcud Papers ojO. Ftnichel, 2. New York, '954. (37) Ferenczi, sandor: Nakedness as a Means of Inspiring Terror (in) Further Contributions to tlu Tluory and Technique oj Psycho-Analysis.
London, 1926. (38) Freud, Sigmund: Formulations of the two Principles of Mental Functioning, Standard Edition 12. London, 1958. (39) id. : Moral Responsibilities for the Content of Dreams, StlJndard Edition 19. London, 1961. (40) Gorer, Geoffrey: Himalayon Village 2. New York, 1967. (41 ) Gruppe, Otto: Gritchische Mythorogie und RtligionsgeschichU 2 vols. MUnchen, 19o6. (42) Jones Ernest: The Madonna's Conception through the Ear (in) Essays in Applied Psycho-AnalYsis, 2. London, 1951. (43) Junod, H. : Tk Lift oj a South Ajrican Tribt. London, 1927. (44) Knox, B. M. W . : Oedipus at Tlubt s. New Haven, 1957. (45) Kouretas, Demetrios: 'Avw\J.o).,ol XapaKTilpec E[C TO 'APxo1ov 6pO:llo. Athens, 195 1. (46) La Barre, Weston: The Ghost Dance. New York, '970. (47) Le Guerinel, E. N.: Contribution a I' Etude des Micanismes tk Difense tI tk l'Adaptation che;; des Consultants Ajricains en Voit tk Divtloppemtnt Rapidt (M.A. Thesis, MS.). Paris, 1971. (48) Lennig, R.: Traum und Sinnestliuschung bti Aischylos, Sophokles, Euripidts. Berlin, 1969. (49) Licht, H. : Sexual Life in AncienlGruw. London, 1956. (50) Loeb, E. M .: Personal Communication5. (5 1) Lowie, R. H .: The Family as a Social Unit, Papers ojtlu Michigan Academy of Science, Aru and Leiters 18:53-69, 1933· (52) Malinowski, Bronislaw : The Sexual Lift oj Savages in North-Western M elanesia l • London, 1932. (53) Malten, Ludolfus: Die Spra&k tks rnenschlichen Antlit;;es jm jrlihen Griechentum. Berlin, 1961. (54) Marcade, J ean: Eros Karos. Geneva, 1965. (55) Murray, Gilbert: The Rise ojtk Greek Epic4. Oxford, 1960. (56) Nilsson, M. P.: Geschichte dtr griechisckn Religion 12. Munchen, 1955. (57) Padel, Ruth: Unpublished MS., 1970. (58) Page, D. L.: Literary Papyri, Poetry (Loeb Classical Library). London, 1950.
56
la's Dream
(59) Page, D. (L.): The Homeric Odyssey. Oxford, 1955. (60) Rasmussen, Knud : Across Arc/ic America. New York, 1927. (6 1) Riemer, Svend: A R esearch Note on Incest, American Journal of Sociowgp 45:56&-575, 1940. (62 ) R6heim, Geza: Spiegdzauber. Leipzig, 1919. (63) Roscher, W. H . (ed.) : Ausflihrliches Lexikon der gritchischen und riimischen Mythologie. Leipzig, 1BB4- 1937. (64) Saul, L. J.: Feminine Significance of the Nose, Ps;'ChQanalylic Q.uarlnly 17:5 1- 57, 194B. (65) Snell, Bruno: Aischylos und das Handeln im Drama (Philologus Supplement 20.1). Leipzig, 1928. (66) Uchimura, Y. , Akimoto, H ., and Ishibashi, T. : On the Imu of the Ainu Race I (in Japanese with an English Summary), Psychiatria il Nrurologia ]ajXJnica 42: 1- 69, 1- 3; 1938. (67) Vernant,J. P.: Ambiguite et Ren vem:ment (in) Vernant, J .-P. and Vidal-Naquet, Pierre : MYlhe It Tragidie en Grtce Ancienne chap. 5. Paris, '972. (68) Vidal-Naquet, Pierre: The Black Hunter and the Origin of Athenian Ephebeia, Proceedings of the Cambridge Phi/q/ogical Soddy no. 194:4g-64, 1968. (fig) id.: Valeurs Religieuses et Mythiques de la Terre et du Sacrifice dans l'Orfyss'e, Annales: Economies, Sociilis, Civilisalions 25: 1278-1297. '97°· (70) id.: Chasse et Sacrifice dans l'Om/ie d 'Eschyle (in) Vernant, J-P. and Vidal-Naquct, Pierrr: : My/fit it Trag/die en Gr~ce And,,,,,, chap. 6. Paris, 1972. (71) Weinberg, S. K. : Incest Behavior. New York, 1955. (72) Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Ulrich von: Der Glaube tin- Helunenz. Basel, 1959. (73) Winiarz, Wiktor and Wielawski,j.: Imu. A Psychoneurosis Occurring among the Ainus, Psydwanaiytic Review 23:/81-186, 1936. (74) Zuckerman (Sir) Solly: The Social Lift of M onk':}s a"d Apes. London, 193 2.
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Chapter 3
Menelaos' Reactive Depression and Dream (Aischylos: Agamemnon 41 0-426)
Menel04s' Reattive Dtpressirm and Dream
59
Preamblt Aischylos' account of Menelaos' dream and, indeed, the passage that leads up to it, are a nonpareil performance, even for one of the greatest poel5 of all time. The perfect, musical blending of the metre with meaning, quite as much as the alternation of sharp images with appropriately blurred ones combine into a dazzlingly complex and sweeping torrential poetic eloquence, in which image caps rea listic image with an absolute parsimony of means. Each word opens new vistas of perception, indispensably clarifies and completes what went before and hints at what is to come. An additional halo of meanings, of singular richness, is provided by means of poetic enumerations, whose impact is further increased by their flawl ess arrangement. There is perfection in the overall logic of the whole passage, in the complete realism of all detaib, and in the manner in which their enumeration fits the inherent structure of the objective event. It is extraordinary for an y poetry to have all these qualities- great poets at their best often achieve less. But Aischylos achieved more: this choral passage, shimmering with m·any-faceted, allusive overtones, is almost more than poetry- it is, at times, sheer archaic magic surging from the depths of the human psyche. It is also the psychologically most persuasive Aischylean account of a dream experience, made more compelling still by the manner in which it is narrated : it is practically an epitome of Freud's great study, j\fouming and MeUmcholia (71). There arc few passages in the world's treasury of poetry which confirm so well Freud's repeated assertion that the poets had intuitively anticipated much of his work. This is another way of saying that all great poetry is psy,hoiogicaily realistic, in tha t it reflects objective reality through the medium of psychic reality (fantasy, dream and affect). Even when a merely good poet- not a great onc-simply seeks to describe external reality, his writings are poetry not because the reality he describes well is beautiful, but because, in describing it, he reveals- at times unintentionally and even against his will- his own reactions to it. It is not my purpose to suggest that Aischylos meant to epitomize the symptomatology and psychodynamics of a reactive d epression, nor to praise him for having donejU5t that in a poetical form. My analysis of this passage seeks to do more than just interpre t the psychopathology of Menelaos' grief and the latent content of his d~am . I aoo try, as best I can, to shed some light upon how a great poet's mind operates: upon the almost incomprehen,ible sureness ·or his lauch, in saying things both varied and moving in a few words marvellously arranged so as to tighten their interdependence: while CJl:panding their scope. In affirming that much patience and some familiarity both with the things the poet seeks to describe and with the functi oning of the human mind enables us to identify nearly all strands of his web and to define their reciprocal relationship, I also affirm the intelligibility of artistic creation and creativity and of the mind of a geniUSj! for I believe that the great poet has--spontaMOusb' and simultaneously- access to all his inner reLOn this won (so).
POrn!
1 d isagree ... i,h Fn:ud (69) who, I belie,"e, abandoned his altempllOO
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
60
Mnulaos' Reactive Dtpmsion and Dream
sources, while ordinary men have access to their's only at different limes. I think I have identified most of the componenu of this passage and have defined most of their reciprocal relationships. But whereas it probably took Aischylos only a few minutes to write these verses, I had to devote three yean to the exploring of each word and conjunction of words individually, both in a cultural and in a psychological penpective,l I discovered new details on each reading and learned something from each commentary of the text. I think 1 have discovered Marry all that some philological and a not inconsiderable clinical competence can detect, when animated by a passion for poetry. But I have assuredly not discovered all this passage contains, because the poet's genius, quite as much as the psyche of the simplest patient is, by definition, inexhaustible (14). My analysis of this passage will not teach anyone to write good poetry, but it may increase one's faith in the intelligibility of even the greatest poetry and of the most creative mind. I am not analysjng here Aischylos the man, nor have I an ything to say about his personality, in the clinical sense. I am scrutinizing one of his most magnificent performances. I try to highlight its infinite richness and subtlety and only say: this is how a great poet's mind works. The reader can decide for himself how much of what I say is literary criticism and how much a psychological analysis of the operations of the mind of a genius. For me, the two are not simply inseparable, but almost identical. The great mathematician, K . F. Gauss, once remarked: " I have had my res ults for a long time now- but I do not know as yet how 1 shall reach my conclusions. " Sophokles said of AischylO$ that he did the right thing-but without Imowing what he was doing (Athen. 10-428F) . These two remarks do not simply explain the nature of genius ; they also guarantee its intelligibility. M ellwdoltJgicai Inlroductron. Since Menelaos' dream is the climactic symptom of his depression, I must, exceptionally, scrutinize with equal care also the passage which depicts his distress. Indeed, already pseudo Longinos ( 10.1 ) noted. that poets describe groups of meshing symptoms, forming a syndrome, andananalysis ofSapph .Jr. 3 1 LPproved him right (n, contra 110). The length of the passage studied- and its intricacies- inevitably make this chapter wmewhat long. But what Lagrange said of Nature also applies to great poetry : it does not care with how great difficulties it confronts its students. I propose to show, in addition. tha t not just the content, but also the manner of the narration is psychologically persuasive. In a genuine sense, its poetic perfection is also prima facie evidence of its credibility. In discussing problems, I must, time and again, deal with matters unfamiliar to the student of Greek drama as literature. I would plead that if Fraenkel had to devote a big page offine print to the elucidation of the metallurgical credibility of a passing and ~etaphorical allusion to bad bronze (ad A. Ag. 391 ), it stands to reason that the far more complex and important intricacies of a distressed mind call for an even more detailed commentary. • However, the gr~al ~t need limply express himself- he need not identify and label every one ofhil "mo,''''''. Since that iI what the erealive poycho!os;ic:al cril;c mun do, hil talk ii, in a way, harder than that of the poet he Itudia (J.W.D.).
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Mnu/(U}s' Reactiw Depression and Duam The Text J print is, with two exceptions-one being v. 413 &fl1~V Dindorf, and the other v. 426--that of Fraenkel,l though I place my quotation marks somewhat differently (infra) . Also, for the convenience of the non-Helknist, I arrange vv. 421 f. like Frankel, for J regularly refer to him. Unlike a few editors, J place no part of the text between daggen, for I do not think this passage contains any locus duperatus. I note, in fine, that, except for v. 426, I offer no new emendation of my own, for, in each instance, at least one of the emendations already proposed gives a psychologically satisfying sense. The Crn7Uptions in this passage attest its clinical credibility; Aischylos' text appears to have disturbed at least one copyist enough to cause him to perpetrate erron. Now, clinical experience shows that the nature ofa lapsus not only helps to restore the correct sense, but also sheds light upon its latent content-for a lapsus is always a compromise between what the poet wrote and what the copyist could tolerate. In that $ense, the copyist's lapsus is sometimes similar to a bad pun or to a portemanteau word-as my discussion of the corrupt word in vv. 412- 413 (A£lICTOC) will show. In short, though the philologist cannot but deplore the text's defects, their psychological scrutiny promotes the psycho-analytical comprehension of the text as a whole. 4 At the same time, one must be extrcmely vigilant when trying to rectify an error, for lapses are, at times, almost grotesquely contagious.' The Interpretation and Emmdation of the text of a "psychiatric" description, which can still convince and move the reader, must make controversial words and meanings fit clinical realities, for the nature of depressions has changed as little since Aischylos' time as has that of inferior bronze. I simply stress that just as Fraenkel (ad A. Ag. 391 ) could cite on this matter the opinion of an electrochemist. without implying thereby that Aischylos owned or managed a bronze foundry, so I do not mean to suggest that Aischylos had read Freud. I assume only that he used his eyes and his empathy, for there was no lack of mourners after Marathon and Salamis. Moreover, the symptoms of depression arc both visible and striking; also, the depressed often insistently communicate their though ts and feelings to anyone who will listen (71). This last comment is crucial from the viewpoint of the text-critical rule enunciated by P. Maas: " we must go ... in matters of content, by the author's presumable knowledge or point of view." Maas also adds that, on certain matters, the editor ofa text must consult the outside expert (as Fraenkel did). In plain language, when I discuss Aischylos' description of an abSn"lIohlt depression, the question is not whether Aischylos had read Freud-but whether I have done 50.6 l I d isrq:ard here Fraenkd', very tentath·e emendation of the last word ofv. 4~6, which he, himself, relegated to his apparatus criticus. • For a formal theory of the scientific ap!oitability of erro.. , cpo ('9). I Baktt'. discuuion (3. p. 4-(6) of Australian mispronunciations of for~jgn worn. includes. mttence 10 Ihe mi¥rOlllIncUllion of a name-Coun:oisier-whicll Baker mis_ sJltilJ: Courvoissitt. X argued with a native of Brooklyn about the correct pronunciation of "oyster". In the end X, annoyed by his interlocutor, said: "AI any rate I never oy
• Having failed to do so, Thomson (ad A. logical comments "absurd".
.
A,. 416) calli Fraenkel's penuasive plyclw_
6,
MtntltUls' lUattivt DtJJTlssion and Dream
Though I will have to mention this matter again, I indicate that Aischylos himself had had the experience of grievollil personal loss. His
brother Kynegeiros fell with a good deal of glory at Marathon and I am inclined to think that Aischylos- like some other mourners- partly identified himself with his heroic brother.7 This may perhaps explain a peculiarity of the epitaph Aischylos wrote for himself. It mentions only his (Kynegeiros-like) heroism when facing the Persian host, but does not even allude to his fame as a poeLI As to Aischylos' capacity to describe extreme fear and anguish, it need no longer be demonstrated ( 18). In short, I impute no knowledge to Aischylos which he did not manifestly have. Still, one "JlJeal seems in order. A. Pers. 249 ff. (and passim) is poetry and not a treatise on naval tactics, though it does yield information about naval tactics to a historian or to an admiral. Though A. Ag. 410-426, too, is primarily poetry and not a monograph on depressions, it tells the psychiatrist that depressions have not changed much since Aischylos' time. Hence, since the non-corrupt and non-controversial portions of the text fit clinical realities perfecdy, one's first working hypothesis, as regards the resl, must be thai it also makes psychiatric sense.9 This technique is no different from that of emending, e.g., a hypothetical defect in the surviving Aischylean account of Salamis, in the light of a knowledge of seamanship. The final argument militating in favour of the clinkal accura<:y of this text is that it describes an extreme emotional state, which is psychologically "simpler" tha n are (culture-bound) logical thought processes or systems of classification.lo We can feel Menelaos' elemental grief in our bones, for he writes about timeless human beings- as must every tragic poet ifhis work is to be more "philosophical" than history.!1 But we respond less 10 Stralon's "love" sorrows, for, being those of a homosexual Greek of the decadence, they are both strikingly (and n eurotically) idiosyncratic and also narrowly culture-bound . And yet, though humanly more universal, Aischylos' Menelaos is more differentiated than is Straton, whose individual differentiatedness, like that of a great many people living in periods of socia-cultural decay, is artificial, uncreative and even self-destructive (52, chap. 6). , Cpo my comrru.nlll on the ambiguous phantom in v. "[5. On the death of Kynegeiros, cpo H dt. 6. [[ ... I If one _UTI\C:I tba t AischylOl drew for cluel upon his own experience ofgrief, (lne presupposes seif-observation. Cp. Page'. ( t ,8, p. ~7) commentS on Sappho'. capacity for setrobservation; also (/3). Cpo also chap . .., appendix ii • • For a oimilar defence of a psychiatrically appropriate old emendatioo of Sapph. ft. 31.9 LP, cpo (/3). '. Cpo the admirable and intricately wroU8hl slUdi"" of j ._P. Vemant and his col laboraton On the culture-linked alIpttlll ofGrcck conKio,," thought proccoses and _)"Stems of clas!ificalion. "Amt. PIXt. 145tb5.
• alenal
~
echos de al.llor
Mmelaos' Rtactiw Dtprtssion and DTtam
XOPQC " 10::" Iw, SWj.la SCllJa Kal TTp6IJOI, Ie:, Mxoc Kcxl CTi~1 'iIlA6vopfC." TTO:p£CTI oyac 6:'r!IJO\JC Q:A01S6povc 6:rr1-
O:ffllJivwv 16~Tv. S' 1irrEpTT0VTIac ¢ClJCX S69;1 S6IlWV avaca:1V. CTOVC
TT~
N~V
4'5
st KOAoccWV
fx6EToo XaPlc w8pl, 61J1JCrrc.w S· tv IXxflV(OOC lpp£l TTaC' 'AfpoSiTa. 6vElpOcpcnrrol st ~IJOIIEC 1Tap1:ICI 561;00 q.tpovcal X~1V IJCI'T'Qlw' ~<X\I yap, EiiT' &:v keM TIC 80KCiiv 6p5::v, Tf(xpa)'M~aca
Sla
XEpWv ~~ b.vIC, 0':' lJ.clojcnpov TfTEPOTc 61Ta80Tc Iinvov tKV.EV601Ct. [mipc.rr' 6TTaSoOc' Vnvov KV.ruea.] (coni. G.D. et K.J.D. ) (Fraenkd's text, modifitd) V. 411 End of quotes. Many other editors end the quotes with v. 4116 V. 413 aipfllJlvwv Dindorf is preferred to afEllJlvwv V. 4116 My Itntative emendation is given in square brackets. See the commentary on that verse.
Paraphrast
Given the multivalence of countlC$ words and expressions in this text, as well as its extreme density, no verbatim translation can render its content adequately for the Greek1ess reader. This obliges me, exceptionally, to provide not a translation but a paraphrase. "Alas, alas for the paJace, the palace and its Head. Alas for the nuptial couch and for the imprints which Helene's body left on it while, through her embrace, she expressed love for her husband." One can see the silence of the (socially and subjectively) dishonoured, the non-vilifying, the incredulous (and suspicious), who sit apart (from the othen). The yearning for her, who is beyond the seas, wjIJ m ake it aeem thai a
phantom (mis)govems the palace (and makes Menelaos himself also seem ghost-like). The fair forms of the statues (of lovely girls) seem hateful to the hUllband . In the inanimate (but, perhaps, also hungrily searching) gaze of his eyes, all of Aphrodite (libido) is gone to wrack and ruin. Mournful dream apparitions seem to bring joys that are vain, for vainly, when in fancy one sees what is good, the vision, slipping sideways out of the (dreamer's) anns' (embrace), is gone-never again to assume (follow, ilT!itate) the winged gait ("allurt" ) of sleep.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Mtnelaos' &active Depttssion and Drtam The Choros' Sourus of Information are as spedfiable as Aischylos' opportunities for direct observation. This greatly enhances the psychological credibility of a tale which refers to events ten or twelve years old. This lapse of time need not cast doubt upon the accuracy of the Choras' recall of (striking) royal behaviour or of a royal dreamp in a culture which valued dreams and in which Menelaas' personal tragedy affected everyone (vv. 427 If.) It is, aesthetically, hardly necessary to ask where the Choros got the infonnation it now transmits to us. But I hold that the psychological persuasiveness of the tale h greatly enhanced if one specifies the Choros' sources of information; Vv. 409.1- The palace prophets lament in public. Vv. 411]. Menelaos' behaviour is not only observable but also fiu cultural expectations. The complete congruence between what the ChorO!! expected to see and what was, in fact, seen, helps one as.'lUme a correct recall of correct observations. Vv. 413-419: It is to be noted Ihat, once past the stuporous state, the depressed insiJltntiy narrate their feelings and thoughts (7 1). The (inferable) insistence of Menelaos' self-revelations would also insure their correct recall. Vv. 420-426; We do not know whether Menelaos told his dream to his whole household, or only to a few persons close 10 him. But, in a dreamvaluing culture, the correct recall of thi! dream would be greatly facilitated by its being a typical mourning and sexual frustration dream. It goes without saying that the Choros' talc-and the perronage of Menelaos-are Aischylean inventiollJl. I am simply trying to stress thatwefe the situation real--one could lend credence to the Choros' narrative - which, in turn, enhances the plausibility of Aischylean fictions. But there is one important conclusion to be drawn from all this. Menelaos' dream is so "appropria te" (and dreamlike), thal--even though he certainly knew the Iliad-we are no more obliged to suppose that A. Ag. 420 fT., imitates H om. It. 23.65 fT., than we are obliged to assume that Milton's SOIiTUI xxiii is an imitation of Menelaos' dream. Zl A Seneca's inventioru are largely bookish, even if he follows no model. A great poet's inspiration is life, and never more so than when an Ai!chylos recalls the grieving Homeric Achilleus' dream.
"Kroeber (93, chap. ~I) calls Moltave culture a "dr~am culture". In such a culture a shaman could tell me One of his former patients' dream in almost the same worth ill 1932 and in t938. Studies ofmodem non·literate folk barth (/05) also show that people who do not routinely rely on writing can p"MOrm impressive feats of memory. "At age t6, I had nOI read either of these dreams-which did not prevent me from trying, in dream, 10 endasp and hold back the elU$i\'e dream·vision of my ucently deceased brnlhcr.
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
Mnul(JI)S' &actilJl DepwsWR and Dream General Comment: Structure and Progressioo (vv. 410-419) Verses 410-4~6 form an organic whole. Each part is linked to every other part, and the points of linkage are also natural points of division j they coITcspond to ".utkulatiolls" in Angyal's ( ~) holistk psychology. The very interdependence of the parts presupposes their distinctness: one can speak as legitimately of connecting separations asof separating connections. I know, mOI'COVer, few poetic passages which so clearly reveal what Meyerson calls: u Cheminemenl de la PerISh (11 2)- that great and realistic inner logic which informs all great poetry, but is seldom as discernible as it is in this instance. 14 This compels me to devote a good deal of place to this narrative's structure, examining it from several points of view. Though all these diverse scrutinies end up by highlighting Aischylos' genius, I do not think I have, at any point, yielded. to the temptation to indulge in the purely lyrical literary criticism so rightly condemned by Kitto (9 1, p. v). For, in my estimate, it is the extraordinary poetic quality of this passage which renders it psycho-analytically so exploitable. Not that Aischylos was familiar with Freud's Mourning Dnd Mtlancho{jIJ (71)! It was Aischylos' own experience of personal (Hdt. 6.114) and national grief, undislOrtingly transmuted in10 poetry, that makes this passage superior to many an account of reactive depressions found in psychiatric textbooks. I note, in fine, that this intricately woven passage is of special interest to the metalinguist. The constant re-evocation of what went before and anticipation of what is to com!:'!, givcs it a polyphonic quality, which scientific discourse does not possess.u Prophecy, Foresight, Anticipation. Verses 408 f.: "while the seers ('ITf>O'JIi'iTal) of the house with many a groan, spake thus" (Fraenkel), have, I feel, misled certain commentators, causing them to assume that some or all the next 17 verses were uttered by the seers and have a prophetic characterj16 This matter is of some importance for the placing of the quotation marks (infra). But, just as non semper Meum tmdit Apollo, so Greek prophets did no t prophesy incessantly. The real clue is that, both in S. OT and E. BD., Teiresias, the prophet pDr excellence, mainly defines the situation or problem and gives sensible advice which foretells, non-prophetically, the logieDI{y previsible consequences of a situation of stress. In other sources, the soothsayer reduces what the client apprehends as an omen to a practical matter.17 Instead or requiring external info rmation for thdr e1ucidatioll, ,. I have I tressed eJsewh~re that th~ sci~ntist is constantly biased in two contradictory ways: uncritiQIII over-cmpathy and defemive under-cmpalhy (99) . I have done my 001 to avoid-l hope not without success-both these pitfalls in discUS$ing this pasIoIIge, which has a lingular appeal for me (note 13, supra). u Uvi-Straua (g8) righdy deplores the inescapably homophonic characlC:r ohciClltific discourse, but did not note that his persuasive and intricate analysis of a Baudelaire po<:lIl (01) w,w;tti.,Sly h ;ShliShl> the (implicitly) polyphonic qllalityofl!!irca. poe.icdiclion. " Fraenkel, ad loc., evCII cil'" the employment of dream-interpreten in SOInC modern Greek houteholtb. 11 Mice gnawed a hole inlo a luperstitious man's sack of meal; the 500uaayer he consulted told him to have ;1 patclled by a cobbler (Thphr. Cluzr. 16.6). For Mollave parallels, cp. ~, p. 175; Ht, p. 150.
66
MmiQ(}s' /UlUtive Depression and Dream
vv. 408 f. tell us that household prophets were often simply spok~men for the court and advisers in situatiOl1ll of stress. There is even evidence that these prophets are not in a trance: they lament Menelaos' misfortunes. Now, though massive anthropological evidence proves that trance states are painful, almost the only emotionally distraught prophetess in a trance state is Kassandra, who will be per~onally affected by the misfortunes she prophesies. 1B I cannot think of any early Greek account of a prophet, prophesying misfortunesJor others in a trance state, who is "lamenting". Though the Delphic oracle was traitorously pro-Pernan, the cool manner in which it prophesied catastrophe for Athens can hardly be ignored (Hdt. 7.140 fr. ). The view that the prophcu do not prophesy because they are not in a trance is confirmed by the fact that their words, as quoted, are grammatically flawless. They are clearly not glossalalic at this point.19 These considerations must be taken into account in deciding where the quotes should end (infra). I hold that the prophets, speaking for {he palace, simply lament Helene's elopement and, as reasonable men endowed with normal foresight, know that M enelaos will not leave the abduction of a nonpareil wife unavenged and will mobilize both his own and his allies' resources to obtain revenge. regardless of cost (427 fr. ). If one absolutely insists. one could also take the "those who" formulatiOM of vv. 4 12-4 19 as IOgUal predictions. If one imagines the prophets to be familiar with reactive depressions, one could- though just barelyview these verses as predictions or prognoses: " anyone who has swtained so great a loss will behave thw and so". There are more than enough examples of "if so ... then" predictions of the course an illness will take in the Hippokratic corpw. But though a psycho-analyst might ptrhaps venture to guess that a cuckolded husband would have a dream of the type described in vv. 420 ff., I must insist that there seems to be no early Greek example of anyone fore· telling the dream someone else will have.2\) Even the reverse procedurethe attempt to elucidate the meaning of a dream by consulting oracles (A. PV 658 fr. )-is attested, I think, only once. h is, on the whole, logically simpler and poetically more satisfying to imagine that vv. 412 fr. only record what at least the prophels-who, as crisis-specialists, would be the depressed Menelaos' chief confidantes-had occasion to observe and had been told by Mene1aos himself, and which they made public. What appears to have created the impression that vv. 412 fr. were "prophetic", is a brilli~tly employed artistic device: anticipation. Prophecy presupposes an inspired foreknowledge of the future . Artistic " I n A. A,. 107~ ff., she is desperate. In E. Tr. S08 fr., .he is manic (elated) ... a defence agailllt depres.tion described in any textbook <Ji J'lIychiatry (63) . " Doddo (55, p. 92, n. 68) holdo that Kleomenes' bribing of the Pythia (Hdl. 6.66) proves her not to have bent gloaaolalic. II KeJnI . impler tn assume that when the Pythia knew what me waI t:lIpeCted to say, abe waI owl glouolalic but only artificiaUy riddling-as wu Lykophron'. Alexandn (_ Kawondra). The simulation of trance is common in all lOCietic. wbich value that .tate. Jt Hdt. 7.1,5 is not a true propbecy, but a workin,g hypothosis .
• alenal
~
:lerechos de al.llor
MeneltlOs' RetlCtive DepremQ1l and Dream anticipation presupposes only that the jNJll knew, or "sensed", what he would write !lext. Anticipation tightens the structure and coherence of the narrative; it scatters h ints whose full meaning does not become evident until the narrative's climax is reached.!1 The nature of poetic anticipation is best highlighted by anticipation in music. The melody contains a note, falling on a weak beat, which is dissonant with respect to the accompanying chord. The "premature" melodic note is then repealed (or swtained) on the strong beat, while the accompaniment strikes a new chord, consonant with the originally " prema. ture" note. The tension created by the discordance on the weak beat is resolved into a harmony on the next strong beat. One finds many such anticipations in this Aischylean text, only one of which can be discussed here. Doubles of variow kinds are m entioned: the imprints (411 ), the phantom (41 5), and the statues (4 16) all anticipate the "(dream) vision" (425). Better still, though " dream apparitions" (in the plural, v. 420) clearly indicate that Menelaos' dream is repetitive, in a way this plural also enfolds in its capacious embrace the three anticipatory references to "doubles" just cited. But I must insist t.hat these clues are Aischylean anticipations of the dream and not the prophetic utterances of the palace soothsayers. Though al ready H omeros knew that hungry horses dream of oats (H om. Od. 20.88 ff.), the "imprints of H elene" (v. 411 ) lead up neither to a prophetic prediction nor to a psychiatric prognosis of Menelaos' dream. The anticipation is the peel's artistically and psychologically convincing con· trivance: the " day residue" (v. 411 )21 is mentioned before the dream is told. I seek to state here only a principle; I do not analyse all anticipations in this extremely tautly structured text. l ) All that matters is that these anticipations make the relentless progression of the passage irresistible; the sweep of its logic is also that of an emotional illness approaching its climax-and that of Fate. Logical and Chronological Sequence. The moment one discards the untenable prophecy hypothesis, the order of the narra tive becomes both logically and chronologically perfect. Vl'. 408- 411; As spokesmen of the Court, lhe distressed prophets lament when they discover H elene's elopement during Menelaos' absence. Vl'. 41 0 f. defin e the place and the personages (Menelaos' and H elene's ghostly imprint) . But, in crying "woe", the prophets also foresee (IIQ11prophetically) the elopement's impact on Menelaos. The Choros assumes responsibili ty only for the correct reporting of the prophets' words. Vv. 4 12 f describe Menelaos' first visible reactions on his re turn- most of them are culturally predictable. Vv. 414-419 trace the gradual transformation of the initial psychomotor (and partly cultural) symptoms into the affective-ideational symptoms of a prolonged reactive depression. 11 Cp. F. L. Lucas' ( /07, p. 83) comment On an enlry in young Napoteone Buonaparte's notebooks: "Ste Helene, petite ile." The number of anticipalory dUal in S. 0 Tis proverbial. n Hd !. 7.16; Ansi. j/lJOffl/l. 461al4 If. Cpo chap. I, nOle 6. .. Cpo my commenl on "non.vilifying" (v. 4 (2). I also nole that "!f6p
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Mtntlaru' ReQCtiut Depmnon and Dream
68
Vv . 42()-426 prescnt a frustrated restitutive manceuvre in the form of a dream which seeks (in vain) to restore the sta/us quo tJTIlI. A word may be added about Mendaos' "transformations" in the course
of this narrative.
In vv. 410 r. he is King. In vv. 412 f. he is still King enough to respond, even in his stunned state, with socially privileged symptoms (dishonour, sitting apart). In vv. 414 ff., the King turns into a depressed man, increa~ingly alienated from reality, which includes his royal statUJI. In vv. 420 fr., he has achieved the acme of a private status- (H eraclit.
ir BgD-K)-
he sleeps and dreams as would any other deserted 10veO" The P.rychfl/{)gical SeqUlnce must be scrutinized from a different point of view. Let us imagine that vv. 412- 426 are narrated by Menelaos himself. Would he narrate the details in that ()f(Jer to his psychotherapist ?~5 If the
answer is yes, this would enhance the psychological plausibility of the narrative's sequence and structure, as distinct from its content, Probably most patients begin the psycho-analytical session with a narration of the last night's dream. A few othen, and especially those who resist the treatment, devote the first nine~tenth5 of the session to providing background material for and commen ts upon the dream which they do not narrate until no time is left for its analysis. They build up to an IlIUxpf&itablt c1imax.2 6 Deplorable as this procedure is in a psychotherapeutic session, it is a superb literary device; once the dream is told, the Choms' attention shifts from the King to Hella!! as a whole. What is a negativistic resistance in a psychotherapeutic setting, exasperating to the therapist, is used here sublimatorily to create suspense in a characteristically archaic Greek mannerP The poet simply d oes creatively what the patient does (auto-)d estructively. The latter is as stubbornly "constipated" as a three-year-old; the former is a master of suspense. Anyone unable to grasp the decisivenC$S of this distinction cannot be trusted to tell a chamberpot from the theatre of Dionysos- no r the extent to which the analysis of a poet's sublimatory use of the selftame mechanisms which the neurotic uses d estructively, contributes to our understanding of the poet's genius. In short, precisely because the psychological sequence-here used to create magnificent suspense-is the same as that of the neurotic's delaying tactics, the sequence itself grips the reader and enables him to experience its psychological realism. It is the great poet's way of speaking to our comparatively mediocre minds in a manner which can stir echoes in us. TM Sodo-Cuflural and 1M Subjective Elements in psychiatric illness, and the manner in which they interact, having been one of the main themes of my life's work, I must, even at the cost of some overlaps with what I say .. Evrn Artemidon- simply claims speciallignificance for royal dreams; he does not say that their duams do nOI resemble tha-e of men in a prh'ate station (cp. Hdt. 7. 17). And the Greeks arc not Mala)'l who d.,.ignal~ the sl~ep ofltings by a special word . .. I have adduced elsewhere (.~5) ~,'idence for Ihe exUt~nce of genuine (recall-andinsight ori~ntcd) poychotheniPY in fifth century B.C, Gre«<:. ,. Eteakl.,. (A. &Pl. 709 ff.) also does this-with magnificently poelic relIultJ. In a sense, that drama is, itself, the narration and anal)'lis of El~kl.,.' ntver-reportcd dream. I f On the jXIItponem~nt of aucial details, cpo FnleIlkei 6~, 3, pp. 805 ff.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Menelaos' Retutive Depression and Dream
fig
elsewhere, devote a brief section to this aspect of the narrative. I hope that the Hellenist- who mu.st so often deal with fragments of tragedies and poems-will feel thai Ihe few inevitable repetitions are atoned for by the experiment I propose to make. 1 begin with the arbitrary assumption that vv. 412 f. have only survived as a fragment , and will momentarily analyse: these two verses as though they wc:rc: indeed a fragment. The "performances" enumerated in thc:sc: verses constitute essentially " non-behaviour"; the first symptom listed is silence and all but the last begin withan alpha privative, indicating non-behaviour . Silence, jJ4T se, has no immediately discernible psychological or interpersonal dimension. \'Ve may imagine that the silent Menelaos "scans" the situation and appraises its social significance; perhaps also its personal relevance. His feeling "dishonoured " is, on this level of analysis, only a sociocultural appraisal of his status as a cuckold- a finding congruent with reality. Non- vilifying introduces the first hint of deviance. H e docs not exhibit socially expectable behaviour, such as Achilleus, offended and deprived of his woman by Agamemnon,28 displays. Also, this trait implies, for the first time, the orientation of Menelaos towaTds another human being; at the absent Helene. Disbelief-and-suspiciousness broadens Menelaos' "visual" field, since it includes his Court. This "broadening" of Menelaos' " interes t" is, however, made possible by a momentary diversion of his preoccupations from Helene (whose elopement his restitutive disbelief negates neurotically) to his Court, whom- with typical disregard for mutuall y exclusive views, so regularly encountered in the operations of the unconscious mind- he suspects of complicity in an elopement which, simultaneously, he simply canno t believe to be: real. The sitting apart reprc:sc:nts a socially predictable, patterned consequence of his suspicio usness, but also of his sense ofOOng socially disgraced. Thc:rc: is, thus, in this imaginary "fragment", an oscillation between idiosyncratic ("improvised") mourning reactions to a personal loss and the exhibiting of socia-culturally patterned reactions to the same stimulus. This is how the situation would appear ?5ychologically, were vv. 412 f. an isolated fragment: the non-behaviour there enumerated appears to be largely socially patterned, exemplifying the type of disorder I call "ethnic" (48, chap. I). But if we termina te this Gedankenexpniment and read vv. 412 f. in its survivi ng context, w., im.m."diat..!y r..a lize that M en..!aos does nOI display primarily the "etiquette of distress". His negative symptoms, and especially his sitting apart (and his silence), not only acquire the quality of genuine personal symplOIIl.'l, but Menelaos' self-isolation is also a conditio sine qua rwn of the deAcction of his attention from tangible reality to Helene's phantom, which, o bviously, exists only in his own mind ... and, in the last resort, of a total loss ofinterest in-of a deca thecting of-c:xternal reality. Vv. 412 f. , which the student of typical Greek reactiolU to loss could, .. Hom. 11. 1.106 £1'. I nOle Ihatthe war of Troy prc:suppooa Mendaos' being deprived of hia woman; the ItUuJ p reoupposeo Achilleus' being deprived of his. The u ruClural parallelism is Ilrimg.
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
70
Menelaos' Reactif)t Dlprtssion and Drttlm
within his frame of reference, rightly apprehend only as socially prepatterned distress behaviour, appear:s, in the light of what follows, also a.os a $ubjective mourning reaction. The entire passage admirably illustrates
the subjective experiencing and symptomatic utilization of what, on the cultural1evel. is clearly the "etiquette of distress". This, in turn, is further highlighted by the Chorus' impersonal (" those who" ) wording of vv. 412 f. in particular and by the manner in which, as the narrative progresses, the
"those who" first becomes "the husband" and then the highly individualized dreamer- for in dream even Kings live in a priva te world. Las t, but nOlieast, after v. 41 3, the symptoms ascribed to Menelaos become at once less socially pre-patterned and increasingly severe. This, too, fits a finding I stated elsewhere (,,8, chap. I ): a psychological di50rder which borrow5 most of its 5ymptoms from culture ("ctiquctte of dhtrcss") is less $evere than one where culturally pre-patterned distress (or " disorder") behaviour no longer sufficcs to providc relief29- forcing the deeply di5turbed person to improvise his own symptoms and, in so doing, to manifest his "social negativism" (,,8, chap. 3). I conclude this excursus by pointing out that the proof just adduced, that vv. 412 f. mcan one thing if one pretends they are a fragment, but have important additional meanings when read in context, further justifies my policy of not discuss.ing in this work dreams preserved only in fragments. S)'mmtlry is evident in two respects: ( I) The narrative begins and ends with simulacra: with the eloped Helene's imprint on the bed and with the memory of her vani~hing in dream . ('2) Vv. 41 0 r. are clearly a direct qlrotation of the prophels' words. (In vv. 41'2- 419, M enelaos himself is totally inactive. His behaviour is "negative": three of the symptoms ascribed to him begin with an alpha privative, which underscores the absence of behaviour. This passage is purely descriptive.) The first PllsitilV act the text (implicitly) attributes to Menelaos is the telling of his dream, which otherwise no one would have known about. In that limited sense, vv. 420-4'26 are a qu,m-quotatirm, since they reproduce- perhaps third-hand- M enelaos' own talc. Symptoms Listed Vv. 412- 4'9 enumerate the following clinical symptoms: (I ) Negativistic mutism; ('2) Subjective self-depreciation echoing a social lou of face; (3) Inhibition of anger by residual love; (4) Refusal to believe that the "inconceivable" has actually happened, and suspiciousness; (5) Physical withdrawal; (6) A restitutive hallucination of the absent one, which makes the hallucinator himself gh05t-like; ,. I rn:all the general principle that .,v"ry symptom is a compromise between the uninhibited wiah and the intra.po~hic fo..., .. which inhibit ill O\l.,n and immediate
manifestation.
. atenal
~
:lerechos de al.ltor
MerlelGOs' lUlUtivt Dtprmion ond Dream
7'
(7) Adverse reactions to beauty; (8) The typical gaze of the stuporoWlly depressed; (9) The decathecting of outer reality- its non-investing with libido (which facilitates hallucinations) ; ( 10) The culminating, reality-alien symptom : ajTUSlraling erotic dream. In short, MeneJaos' state is compounded of mourning, of melancholia and of what some psychiatrists call a schizo-affective state. T orn between love and hatred, he rope-walks on the boundary between the real and the imaginary, responding now to the external world in terms of inner 1lI:"c ds and at other times subordinating inner experiences to the demands of outer reality. The " boundary" between the real and the imaginary, and a lso between "inside" and "outside", materializes and de-materializes in exactly the same way in which this process was described elsewhere in terms of purely epistemological considerations, which cannot be recapitulated here (39, chap. 24 ; 52, chap. 2).
General Gummenl: The Dream Narrative (420-426) I t is hardly necessary to recall once again that Menelaos' dream is one of the most persuao;ive found in Greek literature. I therefore proceed directly to a general scrutiny of its main characteristics. M erlelGOs' Sleeping Behaviour is not even alluded 10. This is noteworthy, for the observable behaviour of sleepers who dream preoccupied Aischylos a great deal (40); in A. Eum. the restless, dream-haunted sleep of the Erinyes is even represented on-stage. This striking omission oppears to imply that Menelaos had private sleeping quarters making a direct observation of his sleeping behaviour by third persons impossible. But this explanation is insufficient, for 'in some instances (40) the dreamer herself refers to her light and restless sleep, while in other instances the dream-haunted sleeper's shouts echo throughout the palace (chap. 6). The simplest, and artistically most satisfying, hypothesis is that the poet advisedly left it to his audience to imagine what the dream-haunted Menelaos' sleep was like.» The Dream's Plausibility is revealed by both positive and negative data. ( I) Pun/iut Elnnents: (a) An yone could visualize Menclaos' dream on the basis or his own experience. (b) h none the less contains highly individualized clements, befitting only Menelaos.ll JO I not~ that, quite apart from the ~>;penmentally d~term;ned faet that men hav~ lL brief erection before th~ bo:o.gin to ~am ( /0 ), ~rotic dr<:ams are normal1y accompanied by visibl~ ~tio'" and IIOmetimes even by em;'\S;ons of ..,men. iC this Jast hypothesis is contidered, at JelLSt tentatively, the "impri nt" (tracc.) of v. ofll gains an added antici patory nuanCe--one that Thorruon refers 10 (lLd loc.) in connection wilh the tr&ceo of an adultery: Liv. I . ~ : "~sti,i4 lLlieni vin, Collatine, in leeto sunt tuo"-lave that, in thi. instance, the "imprint" (traceo) could conciWably anticipate Menelaos' own ( hypoth ~tical ) ciream-emiDion. JI An analogy: 1M "OedipU5 complex" (an inductive geneTalization) is not- a pa tient ' • • ubjeetiv~ mannerofr:xperi~ncing it is_analysable. Similarly, one e&nnot treat "cholera"; one can cure only a patient who has that illneu.
7'
Menelaos' RllUtiw Depression and Dream
(c) Unlike several of his symptoms, Menelaos' dream has almost no cultural COnleot. This makes manifest the proc~ of a progrcs.'live "privatization" (48, chap. 15). (d ) The dream is almost wholly visual and only marginally-ifal alltactile. (Housman's k ftlyoc (42 3) is unconvincing.] (e) Waking reality is not reproduced mechanically; there is SOIlU symbolic "distortion". (f ) The recall and narration of the dream arc realistic (infra). (g) The text is more corrupt than that of any other Aischylcan dream. This suggests that its latent content disturbed the copyist(s).
n=.
The details are vivid but not sharply focused; this fits both daily experience and scientific observations. Nearly all details of AttnSa's dream narrative are sharply in focus (chap. I) here, as in ordinary life, Wt are asked to visualize the scene; thus, only at v. 426 do we learn that the vision was winged. The blurrings and lacunae of real dream narratives are here "provocatively" replicated for artistic ends: we are asked to sharpen the focus and fill the gaps in accordance with our personal experiences. It is easy for the clinician to imagine that Menelaos himself r<x:alled and narrated his dream in just this manner. For when the affect mobilized by the dream is so ,ongrl"nt with reality as to revive, on awakening, a preoccupation with real problems, the latter practically obliterate the dream: at times the person barely recalls what his dream "was about" or " impJied".ll In such cases the sadness or frustration- which is all one may recall about one's dream- may pervade most of the following day . .. Dieguei\o Indian bo)", who did nO! have the "COrTn:I" kind oI"power.giving drNm, are lold to dream "correctly" Ihe next lime ( /33). A Mohave Indian linger quarrelled in dream with his dream_imtruclOI'" (for lOngs are Iuppc&edly learned in dream) over how a certa in !(lng should be l ung (5 ~, chap. 9). .. Eteokl.,.' allusive remarb aboul hi. """.narraled evit dreama (A. &/11. 709 If.) may, perhap, illuJlrate this proceu.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Menelcws' Re4ttive Depression and Dream
73
I particularly note that though the vanishing or the dream image is reported. we never learn what waking image replaced it (Arist. insomn. 458b2o ff. )-for, at v. 427, the Choros switches from Menelaos' grief to that of bereaved H ellas. In short, we are not given "associations" to the dream's manifest content. \Ve can observe only the intensification of the dream-frustration on awakening ... un til one man's despair brings disaster to all of Greece. In short, the quality of the narrative also enhances the dream's credibility. The Day ResidtuH- repeatedly mentioned already--can be disposed of in a few words. It is clearly the hollow imprint H elene's body left behind. That vacuum- which " nature abhors"- is inadeq uately filled by the phantom and by the lovely statues. This makes it foreseeable that the dream-vision will also prove unsatisfactory. Only the real Helene's return- and, perhaps, the slaying of Paris as well- would genuinely gratify Menelaos; the uncompleted erotic dream is but an added source of frustration. T he Dream-Wish is as manifest as is the (ambivalent) counter-wish which, in this dream, practically usurps the role of the dream censor and explains the near-complete lack of symbolization. I note in passing that this substitution of a counter-wish for the dream censor, though evident in ma ny dreams, and especially in frustration dreams, is hardl y ever mentioned in psycho-analytical literature. The dream censor (or Super-ego) is usually treated as a totally autonomous instance, little a ttention being paid to the problem ofils mobi/i-Ullion by an (ambivalent) counter-wish, nul ema nating from the Super-ego. "Frustration Dreams" belong to more than one category. The two types that interest us here are; ( I) Dreams in which the frustration is part of the dream's manifest content. Menelaos' dream is, as the analysis of the text shows, of this type. and is akin to inhibition dreams. in which the goal pursued is not attained.H But I note at once that few Greek erotic dreams are frustrating in this sense . .. unless one dreams of Helene (infra). The young man who ceased to love the expensive hetaira Thonis, after he had a gratifying erotic dream about her (Plu. V. Dem. 27.5 f. ), is a good example, particularly since it indicates that the young man's love was not tha t of the " soul". In fact , this satisfying dream reminds one ofDiogencs' observation that it is a pity one cannot satisfy onc's hunger by rubbing one's abdomen, the way o n e can satisfy one'~ sexual needs by masturbating (D. L . 6.68- 70) . One cannot but feel that, like some modern sex researchers who may remain unnamed, neither Diogenes, nor the aforementioned young man sensed that. in order to be satisfying, an orgasm must have an important, inter-personal psychological dimension.l6 .. Hdt. 7.16; Ansi. iJuonur...6,al.l if., etc. u Cpo Ih" dr"am m"taphor in Hom. If. 22.199 f., and V. Am. n.9OB. Olher examptes in Cook (1 / , 3.401. 1), who cit"" approvingly Boll', allusion 10 the Oknos myth, which he rightly assumes to be patterned on an inhibition dream. I n fact, I fed that Hom. 11. 211.199 f. may, in a way, p repare th" ground for Achillern' frustrating dream about P. troklOi (Horn. I I. 23.99 fr. ). JI The limilarity between the "sex" Itoriesjust dW:uued and the lale of the pauper who
Matenal
:Ie autor
Menel(U)s' Reactive Depression and Dream Though I can hardly agree with Platon's many -hints that physical love is incompatible with the "love of the soul"-for truly adult people who "make love" do actually creole thereby their love-Platon's remarks, together with the stories just discussed do hint at a certain affective deficiency in Greek love relationships, or at least in many of them.n I n fact, completely gralifying spontaneous emissions were even ascribed to Zeus. to Poseidon and to H ephaistos (44). But I concede at once that, in a few instances, where a great emotional involvement was present, even symbolic cohabitations (E. Ale. 354, etc., the Laodameia myth) gave pleasure. Even a mere kiss (Theocr. 2 . 126 f.) was supposed to provide an almost complete gratification of body and souP! But this seems true only of heterosexual loves. Skythinos (AP 12.22 ) finds no relief in masturbation, for he is enamoured of a boy. I disagree with Professor LloydJones that Theocr. 12 is an authentic exception to the rule. (2) Other dreams have a gratifying manifest content, which brings about frustration only on awakening. They are well exemplified by Penelope's erotic d ream about the absent Odysseus (Hom. Od. 20.88 fT. ), which, though it almost certainl y involved a dream orgasm, left her bitterly disappointed on awakening; the text calls this dream evil (Kaxa) (cp. Thcocr. 2.58: a love potion is "bad"). Sappho's reaction, in Ov. Htr. 15.125 If., is clearly modelled upon this H omeric dream . Its equivalent in myth is the vanishing of the almost rescued Eurydike-a scene comparable to an awakening from a pleasant dream only to find that reality does not confirm it.J~ Bue Aischylm' talc achicvC5 more than any of these two types of frustration dreams can achieve. Menelaos is frustrated already in dream: the vision eludes him. That the near-completion of his desires in d ream will be a source of frustration on awakening goes without saying- and to this frustration is added the real Helene's elopement. But, if v. 426 means what I think it means (infra), there is also the further intimation that his subsequent dreams will be even more disappointing. If this view is accepted, one begins to get a glimpse of just how "dense" a great poet's text can really be: one dream, of great simplicity and persuasiveness, implies four separate levels of frustration. This alone suffices to justify the view expressed in the General Introduction, that a great poet's outer solid simplicity presupposes a dazzling complexity of its inner "works". Worsening Repetitive Dreams are common in Aischylos ...o I will cite in due time the two textual intimation$ (vv. 420, 425 f.) suggesting that ate his bread while $melHng the pleuan! odoun of a cookshop-for which the cook a,kn! 10 be paid-has. I think, bttn overlookn!. "Compkuoll$ exceptio", exist: H om. fl. 6.429 f. , ~~.447 If.; they were discussnl else. where (43). Cp. alw parts of X. 0«. .. As is shown by its being fo!lown! by deep. Cp o ugrand, ad loe. H The Eurydike rescue-motif has unoonlelable American Indian equivalents (76, u). This tend! to confirm that it is patternn! upon a disappointing awakening from a pleuan t dream . •• PI': lo's dream become increasingly compelling. Pm : Alossa tells the last and wont of her dreama. &J>l., Eteokles' deea ..... teem to get wane. The two "once only" drea",* are found in GMt. and Eum. (See the relevant chapten.)
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
MultlGOs' Reactive Dtpression and Dream
75 Menelaos' dream is but the first of a gradually worsening series. Here I mention only clinical considerations. Even perceptive laymen note that dreams triggered by recent traumata tend to recur.'l Considering the severe trauma Menelaos had experienced and the ten-year war he then had to wage to restore the stalUS quo ante, the non-recurrence of his dream- in an increasingly disappointing formis psychologically inconceivable. The fact that the initial (narrated) dream was, in itself, frustrating, makes the above conclusion a certainty. The SjJaJial Arrangement can best be anal}'lled by assuming that, as in many early Greek dream narratives (55, chap. 4), the dreaming Menelaos realiSlically visualizes himself as lying in his bed. If so, Helene's vision is abow him and would be above him even if she were not winged. Though this coitus inlJlTsus is clearly modelled upon nightmare-inspired representations of the rape of young men by the Sphinx or by certain other female monsters-who, apart from some minor details of their anatomy, are often both lifelike and beautiful (as in the frontispiece of this book), this arrangement also represents a "moral" reality accurately. The eloped and triumphantly amorous Helene is as clearly the "superior" as the abandoned and dishonoured M enelaos is the "inferior" paNner in this ghostly embrace. '2 In short, this spatial arrangement shows that Helene has the whip hand; Menelaos is helpless and unable even to prevent her premature escape.o
Q;wtes: Only vv. 410-411 explicitly quote the words of the prophets. Three arguments-in addition to the psychological ones already citedmilitate in favour of this view. (I) The symptoms listed in vv. 412-41 3 are said to be visible (16dv). This probably means that the Choros reports its own observations, rather than those of the prophets. (2) Long direct quotations, especially of dreams, are, I feel, an epic" rather than a tragic stylistic device. Thus, in H om . I l. 2.8 if., Zeus tells the Dream to convey very accuraltry a certain dream message to Agamemnon. At 2.23 if., the Dream scrupulously carries out his instructions. At 2.60 if., Agamemnon himself narrates his dream exactly as he dreamed it . .. E" en adults, woo had graduall::d from universilies, have: at tima duanu of"Matura" examinatiON. ProfCSSOl' Lloyd -Jones tells me that he dnamed of having to take GreaU again since becoming RegiUll Professor of Gre<:k at Oxford. T he marked rcpc:titivenCSlo of ( 19t4- 19IS) combat dreanu umud so incompatible with the wish-fulfilment theory of dr~aming , that Freud was Jed 10 d~\'elop Ih~ theory of a primary "death i,mincI" (;_), which I deem clinically unn"" ......ry (41. p. 399), though the "rep..tition com pu lsion" theory, which accompanies iI, is impe«ably lOund. I hold thaI the rt:J>"tilion of a real trauma in dream simply seek.. 10 d"poK of the psychological repercussions of the trauma, by dev"ing a fictitious " happy ~nding" for th~ irremediahle. ThaI the C...,.,b knew oflhe OCClU'l'ence of "sah'aging operalions" in dream .. attated by ineubation dreanu mentioned elIewhcn: and by the dreanu of Ailios Ar"tddes ,1 On the superior VI. inferior posilion in the sexual ac t, apecially in dreamll, cpo chap. 9. For rept'ClCntatiom of llUcivious women mounting men, cpo ('09) : pI. 137 (Athens National Museum ); pI. 15~ (lkrlin Museum, F ~4[4; Chavalo,' painter), elc . •, That the coitus in"enus position affirms woman', superiority Wall explicitly stated some: yean ago by a feminist spc:aking on the: Fum:h SUIte: Radio (ORTF). It is tht ltandard coital poslure in a matriarchy invented by Roberl Gra"a (8,) . •• And Near-E:utern (J 10, passim).
u).
MaterKiI
:Ie auto.
76
MeTllltws' ReactilJt DtJwtsrion and Dream
By contrast, in tragedy the dream is either actually enacted on stage (A. Eum., dream of the Erinyes), or else reported bythedreamerinperson. 4 ' Only in three cases is the dream reported by someone else: in A. Ag. by the ChOtOll, in A. Choe. also by the Choros and in S. El. by Chrysothemis, and in some of these cases (A. Chot.) those who report a dream seem to have heard it from the dreamer.4lI A. Ag. admittedly does not specify to whom Menelaos told his dream. Fraenkel's suggestion, that he told it to the palace prophets, is attractive but not inevitable, pardy because Menelaos' dream is too transparent to stand in need of an interpretation by experts (though this practice was common enough, E. Hee. 87 ff. ). and partly because his dream is manifestly not prophetic, and is nowhere said to predict the fUlUre. The $cene depicted in the dream will never take place in reality. It reflects exchwvely the affective frustration experienced by the still enamoured Mendaos. The most obvious alternative would be to place ¥Y. 410-411 and vv. 420-426 in quotes. However, two direct quotes in the same Choral song, separated by only eight verses, seems to me to be alien to tragic diction and especially to a lyrical passage in tragedy. This being said, the placing of the quotation marks does not affect the interpretation of vv. 410-426 in any way. This explains why certainty regarding this matter is impossible. The Structural Anarysis of VV. 410--411 provides important clues to the manner in which their content, and especially the meaning of the last two words, should be interpreted.47 The fundamental datum is that ¥Y. 408 f. specify that ¥Y. 410-411 are a laTMnt. This means-in principle as well as in tenos of observable clinical facts-that the general content and structure of the lament's fint verse will be echoed, with greater specificity and with certain variations, by the second verse. It is also safe to assume that the greater the poet, the more numerous and more complex will be both the affinities and the contrasts between the two paired verses. TheConceplua! Echo is clearly discernible. V . 410 mentions first an object which is at once a material container and a social matrix: the palace, and then refers to its animate content: the prince(s). V. 41 t , too, mentions first a material container which is also a social matrix (the nuptial couch) and then refers to its quasi-animate content: the imprint of Helene's body.·a One also notes that v. 411 is more specific than v. 410: there is a passage from the general to the particular; from the social to the individualleve!. The second item mentioned in v. 41 0 is Menelaos (infra), who, at the .. In A. Pm. by Atossa, in A. &PI. (very brieAy) by Eteok.les, in A. PV by 10; in E. Htc. by Heka~, in E. ITby Iphigencia ; in E. RiI. by the Chariotttr • .. I note in pauing that two of the three dreams lold at oecond hand are the dreams or Klytaimnestra and that. in A. CIr«. Orestes "te....,. out" the report of the dream in the coune of a .wift stichomythia. ., The following paragraphs OWe a great deal to the exemplary anal),,;" of Baudelaire's poem: "I:.es Chau", by R .Jakobson and Cl. Uvi-Straua (87) • .. Th;" in terpretation, and the view that this Unprint is felt to be quui_animate, will be justified rurther on.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Mtnt{aos' Reactive Depression and Dream
77 pa..-licuhu- IIIUlllellt uQC_ribcU by the: lameul, is nOl physically ill the lx:d which he formerly shared with Helene. But, in tenns oflhe interpretation offered below of the meaning of cd~1 opv..lwop£c, the kind of imprint the eloped Helene had left on the bed once required the amorous cooperation of Menelaos: the weight of his body pressing down on Helene's body during an embrace. Hence, even though the bed may actually have preserved only Ont imprint of one body- of Helene's body- that imprint was produced by the t;ombintd weight of two bodiC'5, in the course of all often repeated aC1.4~ This full y justifies the use of a genuine-non-generic -plural, which none the less has some affinities with the (generic) pseudo-plural at the end of v. 410. Last, but not lc:ast, the syntax of the two verses is the same: (a) V. 410: repealed expletive, ..-epeated lingular noun, conjunction ("and"), generic pseudo-plural. (b) V. 41 I: expletive, singular noun, conjunction ("and"), genuine plural noun-and-adjective (with a few overtones of the singular). The Van'aliens and Reciprocities between these two verses are so numerous and so subtle that, despite a certain repetitiousness which this mode of presentation entaib, they must be listed separately: (a) V. 410: a singular followed by a generic (pseudo-)plural. V. fll : a singular followed by a genuine plural. (b) The repeated expletive and repealed noun (singular) at the beginning ofv. 410 are balanced by the plural two.word (plural noun-andadjective) ending ofv. 411. (c) The lemunal (lne-word p>;t:ndo-plural or v. 410 b a lanCe:! the 011\;word singular at the beginning ofv. 411. (d) If one disregards the expletives and the conjunctions, which help v. 411 to duplicate internally v. 41 0, one notes that (0) Vv. 41 0-411 do not have a single consonant in common. (~) Amongst vowels they have in common only a and 0, and a single diphthong, which is, moreover, simply a case ending:--ol. (e) The metra of the two verses are different, but well geared to each other. A more complete and, at the same time, more varied and complex echoing and balancing of v. 410 by V. 411 is hard to imagine. This does not mean. of course, that Aischylos deliberately and laboriously planned thae corrcspondences and eontra.:lU, any more than Dauddaire planned those which Jakobson and Levi-Strauss (87l highlighted in his poem: "Les Chats". Such subtle and manifold eorrCllpondencCII and contr a.1U are the characteristic features of great poetry-and only of great poetry. The literary critic, laboriously tracking the Right of Pegasos through the air, can at times detect them- but can never predict them. It is the hallmark of great art that it makes the unprt dictable seem inevitable in retrospect. 410 SClIl(X is primarily an important building: a palace, illl great hall or even the city.5O But the lamenting prophets do not foresee the collapse ., Exactly the same iJ true of the imprint(l) which the en laced bodies of Sappho and Phaon had (repeatedly) loit on the gnw, cp o Ov. HOT. 15.147 f., and i'li'~' .. TIle meaning "ho.....,..top" appeal'll to be relatively late.
,.
Menei(J()s' Rtactipe Depression and Dream
orits walls and pillars, except in a figu rative sense,SI Hence, SWlla must be taken here also in a sociological sense. It denotes all those whom "the sorrows of the hearth within the home" (427 f. ) -the personai troubles of
the palace's main inhabitants-affect as directly and as inevitably as though they, too, lived in the palace. The king's private sorrows "involve" them, no matter how much they munnur and complain (44-B ff. }.52 This much can be safely asserted even of Greek society, in which a ''.fictitious residence" did not determine a man's social identity.sl A royal 6W1oIC certainly included people who, though they did not actually live within its
walls, had to htha~ as though they did; they were part of the retinue.~ In short, SWlla is a " gravitational field"; but even this lends no real support to the co-residence seemingly mentioned in v. 400. One other consideration militates at least indirectly in favour of the view that this S&lJa should be taken in a primarily sociological sense. Though the walls of the palace clearly sheltered the nuptial couch (411 ), it ioJ, I hold, not certain just where this palace was located.55 What matters aesthetically is the link between the (social) S&lJa and the -rrpOIJOL, and the nexus between the actual building and the nuptial couch. It is this &oncurrenl exploitation of the various matrices or meaningll of a word which gives poetic diction its durable shimmer (30, 46). 410 npOllOt "" prince(s) is morphologically a plural, but functionally a singular : it is a so-called alluiive or generic plural of a type encountered also in vv. 41:2-413.~6 One good reaJlon for holding that TTp6IJOI is such a spurious plural, is that the plurals ofvv. 41:2 f. clearly referonry to Menelaos. This-as Dr C. A. Hehr points out to mC-lluggeal.'l that the pseudo-plural in v. 4 10 anticipates or leads up to the pseudo-plurals of vv. 412-4t3, which even Fraenkel recognizes as such, and which will be discussed further on. I begin by demonstrating the awkwardnesses which result from taking "The collapse of a palace can .ymbolize a dynastic catastrophe in dream (E. I T 46 If.) ; the reve~ symbolization doe. not ""em to be as commQn. II Thit view it Grttk: a K ing'. private grievances can cause a war (H Qm. II.; B dt. 1.3); Aristophan"" ( A ...... !l26 ff. ) even satirizes th it process. J) A Sedang MQi bachelor', hoJy raid.,. in the village dubhQuse; hi. "fireplace JOul"the basi. of hi. human .,.tate and social affiliation- resides in his parents' hearth_,cQn.,. (Sl / )_ .. The exact "CCIUUS" C>f the u:\~ in qu""tion cannQC and n«d nQt be det cnnined. I doubl Ihat Helene's <>ath_bound (H"".fr. \104.76 M.W. _ Pap. Berol. tQ560; cp_ Paus. 3.24.10) CX-IUiIOn--IWQ d' wn()Il1 (Odr=us, AchilleUl) lried IQ "dodge Ihe draft".hQuid be Ihought of as being pari of Ih~ u:\~ the prophets had in mind at Ihis point. "Venc 400 ("hQuse of the Alrddai" ) doe. nOI, in my ""Ii male, shed light Qn this geographical problem. In fact, I am not even l ure that ...,.so 400 really indiCllt.,. thai Agamemnon and Menelac- dwelled under the same roof. ThQugh I cannot argue this point here, it is lur~ly a finding C>f some importance that, despite AischyIOll' prestige, his (,,/I'lul ) domiciliary innovation [Qund nQ imitalon_ On non_imitatiQn cp. (5:1). V. 410 doe. nOI indicate a CO_relidence, for "princes" is a pseudo-plural . •• Cp_ Fraenkel on Ihe allusive plurals in vv. 412 , 1618, 1625 ; A_a-. 886; S _ 366, (and J cbb ad loe.) ; S_ AnI. 1263; E_ Her. 13"9; E. PMin. ¥' (and Peanon ad loe). But Fraenke[ doe. not nrognize that ".p6~I, too, il such a pseudo-plural. (On plurals of this type, cp, in general Wackcmagel 1:17, 1.94 ff.) Why, apart from metrical reasom, Aischylc- chOle to u"" here Ihe generic plural waa discusaed in theltn.JClural analysis of vv. +10-+" (supra) .
or
'alenal
~
echos de al.ltor
Mmelaos' Reactive Depwsion and Dream
79
1Tp61J01 for a genuine plural, denoting both Menelaos and Agamemnon .5' ( I) It obliges one, first of all, to deny-as do Denniston and Page-any nexus between TrpOllOl and the nuptial couch of Menelaos and Helene. I am not prepared to impute so abrupt a discontinuity of Ihe poetic discourse to Aischylos, who was neither a schizophrenic nor a modem "poet"-two lemu which, in time! of cultural decay, are practically inlerchangeable. In their case no normal person-sometimes not even the psycho-anaiyst--<:an reconstruct the unconscious conneclion between two successive but logically unconnected ideas. In the case of great poets and even of some quasi-malingerers, the existence of the inner links of a sequence can always be sensed.s8 J deem it almos! sacrilegious to believe Aisehylos capable of so totally isolating the nuptial eouchs9 from what went before and what comes after. It is conceded that, in a social sense, this bed is the core of all that the OWjJCI stands for. But the 5WIJCI was already lamented for; taking the bed onry as the core of the palace leads to a trivial redundancy. The fact that in this drama60 M enelaos and Agamemnon supposedly share !he same palace may suffice to link the Atreidai brothers with the palau, but signally fails to link both of them with the bed. In fact, stressing this sharing of !he abode so as to take Trp6IJOI as a genuine plural even disrupts !he obvious link between the 5WIJCI and the bed viewed as its social core. (2) If one assumes Trp61J01 to denote Menelaos and Agamemnon, and postulates a nexus between both of them and the nuptial couch, one is confronted, first of all, with the fact that, of all the Greek heroes, Agamemnon had the least to do with Helene's couch. Not having been one of her suitors, he did not even aspire to il. No! even a hint at a sororate--either successive or simultaneous--can be envisaged here, despite Greek precedents for such matings. 61 Almost the only hint of a (highly indirect) "sexual" nexus between " It cannot very well denote the oath_bound suitors (H .... 204.6. fr. M.W. ), though, in a mat"ginal way, theyan= part of the Atrcidai's "house" (cp. lupra). J have e'·en COn· lidued the outside possibility that this worn might refer to the " royal couple". Btu, when all is laid and done, the POc:tI.saW Helene emuging from other peoples' trials and tribulationI with her make-up intact, every curl in place and ready to become a godd .... (""p. E. Tr., passim). Also, one cannot treat luch a dislinctly masculine plural as a feminine "generic gender", in the St;JUt: in which the feminine plural of "deer" dCllignal"" the lpecies, or the way "maro" sometimes doignalo a pair of )taUions hitched to Ihe same chariot (cpo 4, pp. 2o.t f.). No plural such ... "'~).LOL designat"" even a hero and his WdriiJ;, bride, luch ... Theseus and Hippolyte or Heraklts and Deianeira C~3) . Not even Lykophron wou td have called Menda". a nd ht. ".tcnla'jo.... ly (and therefOr<: spuriously) feminine Queen : 'lfpO\1o\ • .. A neurotic, ''fearful'' ( >= hopeful) of being di
Material
:Ie autor
Be
Merulaos' Reactive Depression and Dream
Agamemnon and Helene is the marginal tradition that Iphigeneia, the illegitimate child of Helene and of Theseus, was raised by Agamemnon and Klytaimestra. 6l I hold thi~ nexus to be at once too un-sexual and too indirect to justify the leap-from the two Atreidai to Helene's couchwhich this view would impute to Aischylos. S. Aj. 13116J (Teukros to Agamemnon): " Your wife--or your brother's should I say?" is, likewise, hardly evidence for Agamemnon's erotic interest in Helene. The bitter Teukros clearly mocks what he considers to be Agamemnon's (in his eyes excessive) eagerness to recover Helene--of which more anon. The point of T eukros' sarcasm is, afcourse, that even though Agamemnon is not Helene's husband, he carries on as though he were. As to Aischylos, he did not depict, either here or elsewhere, Agamemnon's behaviour as husband-like-be it absurdly or otherwise. The sole purpose of the preceding paragraphs was to show that even a specious distortion of non-Aischylean passages cannot conjure up any erotic link between Agamemnon and Helene's couch. A funher crucial consideration is that even though this passage stresses the erotic distress of Menelaos the man, neither early epic poetry, nor Greek tragedy, nor Herodotos explicitly claim that the Trojan war was notically motivated: that its principal objective was the recovery of Helene, as a source of nutic tklights. In Hom. Ii. 2.70 fT., go fr., 255, 285, etc., as in A. Ag. 534 fr., the recovery of the stolen treasure is almost as important an objective as the recapture of Helene, who, in E. Tr. 860 ff., is meant to be judged and punished. In fact. almost the only ones----except Paris (Hom. It. 7.350 ff.)-to hint that the war's real main~pring was Helene as a Jouru of notic gratiftcatwns, are the Trojan elders who. seeing her pass, say in effect: "It is worth fighting for so much 10veliness."64 What really motivated the war--even for Menelaos and therefore, a fortiori, for Agamemnon and the Greek host- was that in ancient times no one could afford to let an injury to oneself or to an ally go unavenged, lest the foe get the idea that one can harass members of that group at wi1l.6~ All this has very little to do with Menelaos' private longing for his luscious ., Paw. 2.22.7; Douris FHG 2.+70.3 .. Tzetz. Lye. [03; Ant. Lib. 27 and Papa thomopoulos ad loc.; sdl. Hom. /1. 13.626; EM I.V. -I"e, ele. 01 Which Ewtath. 7~.21 inexplicably linb with Hom. / 1. 9.327 (cp. Jcbb ad S. Aj. 13[0 ft), rather than with Hom. II. 9.338-34t: The Alreidai went to war for lovely-haired Helene's we. Arc they the only ones to love Ihcir [«:IpectiveJ wives (plural!)? .. Hom. /1. 3,'56 fr.; A. Ag . .w8 ff. does not diJprove this view: it mcn to the murmurings of the malcontents, who seck to cheapen the larger issues involved~as in M. kh. 523 fr. Similarly, in Hom. If. 9.338 ff., Achillcus' outhunt is speciowly worded, 5(1 as to link the Atrcidai'l C/IJIU bllIi with hiJ own grievances over the Sriscis mattef; it does not reflect the general Grttk view of the causa of the Trojan war, as praented, c.g., even in Hdt. Llff. .. Shortly afief I was adopted into a Sedang Mol village, I fired my ff:volve!' at nigh t, to scaff: off a wild feline which was trying to raid my hen-coop. In a moment all the men came tumbling out of their hull, anned to the teeth, to rescue me from what they believed to be an attack by a not-too-du,tant Sedang village, which had grievances against the French. Since previo ..... to my adoption the Sedang of my village-who also had a grievance against the Fff:nch-had been markedty hostile to me, 1 asked Ihem why they ~/IW came to my rescuc. They replied: "You are now one of us, and if forc;gne ... gol thc idea wtlhey could attack you with impunity, Ihey would soon gCI the notion Ihat we had DO ingn:lup loyalty-and would then attack anyone ofUJ, in the bcliefthat we would not
'atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Menekws' RtactiN Depression O1ld Dream
8.
bedfellow, and even less with a possible personal nexus between Agamemnon and Helene. A further difficulty is that the plurals ofvv. 412- 413 clearly apply only to Menelaos, for no matter how deeply Agamemnon felt for his brother, he was not likely to go into a state of stuporous depression over his brother's erotic distress. This, too, makes it even logically improbable that the text would refer in a single word to Agamemnon (paired with Meneiaos) and then forget all about him for countless more verses. It could be objected, of course, that, since w . 410 r. are uttered by the prophets, they constitute a prophecy stric/o sensu: that the prophets, wing their special gifts, foresee the ultimate doom of Agamemnon, and not only the ~gi,aJly predictable hardships of a war. This assumption is not tenable. Vv. 408-409 specify (supra) that the prophets wail; they do nol prophesy. They lament what is; they do not bewail what their second sight--or even their logic--<:auscs them to jomtt. 1>6 Indeed, though v. 410 could- just barely- imply either a prophecy or a logical prediction, v. 411 can refer only to the present-to what is here and now. This suggests that v. 410 also concerns only the present; that even prophets do not always prophesy. Here they simply act as spokesmen for Menelaos' entire retinue. 67 H ence, both the logic of the affects (" primary process thinking") and that of concepts ("secondary process thinking") justify the view that 'ITp4iOI denotes Menelaos only, for onl y this assumption renders Aischylos' poetic discoune genuinely coherent. And I hold that the Agamemnon must be treated-first, last and aU the time-as great poetry, in which no word rattles around in a vacuum. If, like Denniston and Page, one denies any link between 'ITp6~01 and :>.txoc, the nuptial couch becomes a bit of furniture floating, like Mohammed's coffin, between heaven and earth. Finaily, since the essence of great poetry is it! inner continuity, the fact that (the plurals ofw. 412-413 included), the whole passage (w. 410426) refen onry to Menelaos also makes it mandatory not to drag Agamemnon into it. In short, 'ITp6llol- an allusive or generic plural-dcsignatcs only Menelaos, for, at this point, he is the only man who has a legitimate interest in Helene's indiscriminately hospitable bed. 4tt :>.txoc is not a randomly selected item from the palace's furniture inventory. The prophets lament over a contextually relevant bed- not over an odd chair or frying-pan. They lament over the marital couch, which, precisely because it is d eserted by one o f the spouse., evoke.. inteme erotic 10nginw;.68 Even Greek erotic dreams seem to occur chiefly in bedalmost never while asleep outdoors. retaliale en masse." Thil, needles> 10 !lay, is exactly Agamemnon', and Iphigeneia's reasoning in E. IA (11I74f., 1374 IT. ), and very similar to the reasoning in Hdt. 1.3 . .. Contra, TholIUOn ad loc., d ting PI. Tim. 7~ a-b. "This, I repeat, hints 11.1 whal Ais.chylos concei"ed the stalus of Mykenaian household prophets to be. ft Cpo A. Pm. 133. 543. Since humour (i.e .. comed)') deal. in a diITereJl1 and mOre defensive way with the aJaiety arousing malerial of tragedy, I fed entitled to die Do" er (p. I '9, ad Ar. Xd. 734): in vulgar Greek humour, a man alone in bed II likely to masturbate. [But, Jl"f Dover (p. IS3), I doubt that At. ,vllh. 676 refen to masturbation.]
8,
Memlaos' Reactive Deprtssion and Dream
For Aischylos the bed nearly always has a sexual or parasexual connotation.69 The same is true of many Greek and Roman authors:70 Q.S. 14.151 ff. is espedally relevant here. The text of v. 411 does not specify whether the bed was primarily that
of Menelaos, in which Helene joined him,?1 or primarily that of Helene, to which Mendaos had free access,71 or whether it belonged to both spouses equally,?l Since the text says nothing about the matter of "ownership", I do not propose to discuss it. I simply note that data bearing on this point are available in many Greek sources and deserve to be systematized. Like the BWlla, the bed over which the prophets lament has two aspe<:l:I Of dimensions. In one sense it resembles the tangible edifice, in that it shelters the nuclear couple, whose ro-kabitatioR (and co-itus) creates and holds together the in-group. In another sense it symbolizes this human dyad, at the precise moment its members engage in the act which creates and reaffirms their interdependence ... just as BWlJa symbolizes the household in the very act which is the essence of thcir interdependence: in the act of dwelling together. Thus, just as SCllJa "is" both the edifice and the dwelling· together of the household, $0 the bed "is" both the marital couch and the amorous union of those who share it. This bed must therefore be thought of in sexual tenns. This, in turn, means that 'lTpOIJOI can denote onv Menelaos and that crlfX:ll fLAWopeC must be linked to what happened in thiJ bed. The rejection of both these compelling conclusions would cause hlxoc to rattle around in vv. 4104 11 , unconnected with what comes before and after. I even fear that if this separation of the bed from its COntext continues, the ncxt ~ tcp will be to get rid of it altogether, as something that slipped in from a furniture catalogue written on the verso of some old papyrw, and to replace it with a "chaster" doormat, on which properly Ahrens-ian footprin ts may be left without offence to anyone. 411 crij30l flMtvop£c: The meaning of these words has been needlessly obscured by controversies. This obliges me to begin, exceptionally, with a scrutiny of the second of these words. 1j1lA6:vop£c has one meaning only and is always applied in a very specific way. 'oNere it not for unwarranted doubts about the meaning of CTII3oI, ., Al)(oc : Sexual: A. PV 557,895; Ag. 1~24 (despite the doubts of Wilamowitz and Fraenkd; cpo Denniston and Page). Parasexual: nest containing offSpring: 50 (5 J) ; &pt. 292 (where the Choroo abo fean tape). limp"": Pm. ' 33,543; Suppl. 39 (anti-sexual); fro 242 N'. EWl\: Aj'. 27 (indi«cl : the <:ouch is the nuptial one), '93, 1+47, 16~6; EIUII. 2!7; Pm. 543; StpI. 364 (rape?) ; Suppl. 141, 151. Non-sexual (from <:OnI""t ) : Ag. 13 (watchman'. bed). 559 (.oIdia" pallet a t T roy) ; 0-. 318 (tomb). Uncerlain (mutilated verse): Pap. 0-9'. 2249·1+ ... Cpo the oo~tan t harping On the bed '" <:oitw equalion in OV. HOT. 16.~0, 35, 156, 26.j., 268, 318; '7.~2, 195, etc. In E. Mtd. 140, Page (ad loc.) suggests that bowdlerizadon replaced Mnpc with U>i1<>. "Something of the sort is implied by Fraenkd's "husband-loving steps" theory. 1J A defemible point, aince Menel30l moved 10 Sparla, but cp. e. Ph. 14, ror Laios' "owning" 10Wle', bed. "~a clinician, I am impressed with the ~hological import ofa spouse's tendency 10 daignate a double bed as "the", "mine", "yours", or "Olin", and abo, where twin beds an: tued, 9f prefer~nCCl for making love in Ihe hu.band', or in th~ wif~', bed (cp. Plu. Y. Dian. 3.9).
..t,..
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Mtnli(J()s' RelUlive Depression and Dream no one would feel impelled to impute to '{HAO:vopEc, as used in A. Ag. 4' I, a meaning it cannot have and does not have anywhere. For the sake of eJl;pository convenience, I cfutinguish between this word's manifest meaning and the use to which it is put. In the most literal- and only genuine-sense, this word means "man (husband) loving". It designates either the woman who loves her man,74 or one of her (usually erotic) lUis, which ill a manifestation of her love. It cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, denote a husband's love for his wife-not even that part of his love which ill a response (&vrtpwc) to his wife's loving behaviour. There is no exception to this rule and the transparent etymology of the word makes any such exception impossible. H ence, Smyth's translation: "the imprint of her body so dear" (i.e., to the husband) is inadmissible. The word apparently cannot even designate an action of a loving wife which does not manij utty reflect that love. Indeed, though a wife cannot love her husband unless she is sufficiently alive to breathe, her breathing cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be called " husband loving". The Denniston and Page hypothesis, that CT( ~1 '{lJAO;VOpE:C means " husband-loving tracks" and represents a condensation of the meaning : "places where the one who loved her husband used to walk" is therefore implausible, for no matter how delightful it may have been for Menelaos to watch Helene's promenade, her wal king about did not manifest her love for him. Similarly, even though it took the T rojan elders' breath away to see H elene walk past (H om. IJ. 3. 154 ff.), her passing by was not a manifestation of her love for the elders. Nor, for that matter, did it express her love for Paris. I can find no text in which a woman is called " husbandloving" while she is engaged in an activity which does not reflect her love. Hence, neither the promenading of a still faithfu l Helene, nor the tracks she left while stroHing about, nor the place where she used to walk can be called "husband-loving". Literary considerations also militate against such an assumption. The image of a lady walking around charmingly in- let us say-a \Vatteau garden, simply does not fit Aischylos' imagery, nor are promenadesDmourlUSts or other-a classical or even a mythical theme. I cannot think of any mythical lady promenading. If she goes out, she does so with a set purpme : she goes somewhere, to do something definite. The promenade hypothesis introduces a rococo nuance into a lean and virile text. The notion of a condensation so extreme as to be practically a riddle is also questionable. Such verbal intensity d propos of II sentimental tableau , inherently incompatible with the classical taste,7J could perhaps be expected from Lykophron, Moschos or Ovidius---or the poets of the AnthologiD PalD/ina ; an Aischyl05 does not fire a cannon at humming-birds, Fraenkel's view, that H elene's "husband loving" steps once brough t her to the nu ptial couch, is neither sentimental nor incompatible with the real sense of Ql1A6vopK Fraenkcl could even have strengthened his hypothesis by linking these steps with the manner in which Helene's "It is ne'''''' applied to a boy'. love for his adult lover, i.e., to hOllloCl5eXual afrain. " O nly Sappho'. Itecl-edged objectivity cou ld have depicted IUch a promenade with_ out violating the canOlU of clauical taste.
;Ie autor
Menelaos' Reactive Deprtssirm and Dream dream.image approaches the sleeping Menelaos (v. 420 ff.). The Fraenkel hypothesis is simply unnec~arily complicated, because it tries to take into account Ahrens' erroneous assertion (infra) that crlfxn must refer to some activity or trace ofthejeet ( I). As regards usage, 'il1;\~C seems to be applied only to a woman's love jor her husband. This is true of Aischylos and, so far as I am able 10 ascertain, also of other poets. It never seems to denote a woman's love for her lover, and this despite the fact that the Greeks had no word meaning exclusively " husband"; the primary meaning of OmlP is simply "man". 76 I t is precisely this specific meaning of the word &viJp-and of'ilI;\O:vopEc which is derived from it- which makes Klytaimestra's lying references to her "husband-loving" transports (A. Ag. 856), so outrageous. Distorted uses of a word notoriously help one determine its authentic meaning. Last, but not least, I stress-for reasons which will become apparent further on-that, in Aischylos, 'ilv..6vopEc has notie connotations. In A. Pns. 136, it describes the erotic yearning of Persian ladies for their absent husbands, fo r whom they long and grieve, while lying alone in bed (A. Pm. 133). This strictly circumscribed application of 'ilIM;vop€c renders incomprehensible the attempts of Klausen, Wilamowitz and Mazon to make it apply to Helene's love for Paris, be it before or during the actual elope· ment.n Indeed, from the purely literary point of view, vv. 410-411 deal exclusively with the chaos hft behind by the eloping Helene. From the rociologicai point of view, the Greek conception of marriage must be differentiated from the Judeo-Christian one. Unlike American divorce courts, which hold that a woman was sufficiently married to be entitled to a ruinous alimony even if her marriage was never consummated, the Greeks did not rate an unconsummated union as a marriage.78 This latter finding is of crucial importance since, according to Greek tradition, Helene and Paris did not cohabit--i':ven adulterously- biforl their elopement. The union (lJ.j~lc) did not take place until after they left Mendaos' palace:19 This being so, one doubts that even Helene '. AiKhylOl even uaes thio word in order to differentiate between man and ""oman, cp G. ltalie, In,ux Authykw, s.v., (. (86). "Th~ refermce to the elopement from the husband in v. 404-specilicaUy by means of the word ~, .. oilcc, which recalls the )',mc6:'oIOj>C'< ofStesich.fr. 46 P aoo the x.'~p""c of sch. E. Or. 249, -abo malta unlikely a further reference to the actual fligh t in v. 'Itt. " In E. El. 12/4 ff., the Dioskooroi order Elektra to marry Pylades, on the grounds that her marriage with the good peasant was never consummated; they lpeciry that the is a virgin m iscalled ''wife''. The marriage m~ntioned by HcrodotOl (2.181), which, because of the hmband'. SlUe/We impolence (cp. Freud 70), was, foc a while, not OOIllummated, was ",,/ a Grotlc union . ... Cpo PaUll. 3.22.2; sch. Lyc. 87; v . .A .... 1.651 and R""her ( '''9) I.V. Helene, col. '939. Lehrs' (97, p. (6) affirmation tlmt, in the /(ypria, an adulterous union took place already 1oif()f'1 the elopement, is inadequately documented. Ov. Hrr. 17 and t8 may, perhaps, imply a wi" to commit adullery already in MenelaOl' palace, but the adultery is not said to have been COIlSUl'D11UIted bd'ore the dopemenl. In fact, the endless allusioIII 10 ;4m.s of elopement may, perhaps, suggest that even Ovidius did not believe that !he adultery was consummaled before the /light, though hi. baroque rhctorie makes cena.inly 00 !hi. poiot impossible.
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Mnui(JlJS' Reacli" DepTesrion llIld Dream and Paris considered themselves "married" before their cohabitation. In fact, they probably did not consider themselves married before reaching Troy, where a Trojan marriage rite may have been performed. I note here that Ovidius labours the distinction between an affair and a marriage almost ad nauseam, and d0C5 :;0 ~pecifil:ally ill COILIlCl:liuli with Helcm: and Paris.iJO The fact that a Greek god's casual coilUs with, or rape of a mortal woman are both called yallQC, does not contradict this view, for that word can also denote simply coitus. Though A. S. Owens (in his edition of E . Ion) (117) tries to justify the designation of Apollon's rape of Kreusa (in v. 10) as a yalolOC ( ::;:: marriage), by citing E. Hel. IgO, which :;0 des ig~ nates Pan's irregular matings, he overlooks a crucial fact : G ree k gods simply do not marry mortal women, nor even nymphs and their likethough they expected their "inferior" mates to remain faithful to them. 11 This caused Marpessa to prefer the mortal Idas, who would marry her, to Apollon, who would not (Hom. It. 9.557; Apollod. 1.7.9). In fact, paradoxical as this may seem, only goddesses actually married mortals or ex.mortals; gods did not.n The fact that both Aischylos and Euripides should use the word y6:llQC to denote precisely the seduction and/or rape of a morloJ girl by a god is, as A. Ag. 1207 puts it, " according to custom". It perfectly tallies with a point I made long ago (42, pp. 356 ff.; 52, chap. 7) : a marriage rite only consecra tes what, in the last resort, remains a forbidden act; hence, the rite cannot abolish all neurotic guilt feelings. U But even if...-umtrary LO trddiuUIl-om: asliumes that Helene and Paris cohabited already in Sparta and that, thereafter-again contrary to custom- they considered themselves " married", and therefore viewed Helene's steps, following those of Paris, as " husband-loving", this still does not give Ihis meaning to v. 41 I-and it is the meaning of Ihis verse that matters here. The point is that v. 411 is uttered neither by Helene nor by Paris. It is uttered by the Choros- by Agamemnon's most faithful retainers-who only repeat what Menelaos' loyal prophets said. I deem it inconceivable that lluse men would have considered Paris and Helene married, and would have viewed what Helene did jor PDrii SDU as evidence of her husband-louing nature ... and this no matter what Paris and Helene may have thought about it. Let it not be forgotten that the selfsame Choros stubbornly refused to view Klytaimestra's long concubinage with Aigisthos 10 Ov. HII". ,6.'97,3'9 r.; '7.195, ~te. H~ also describ<:s bod, Hypoipyle aud Ariadne as seduced but unwed (HII". ,6.297). " ru Apollon, who n~v~r wedded even a goddess, expected Koronis to be faithful to him. (Cp. TUII. 21-35 in 57, i. pp. 21-::15. ) On divine rape!, cpo chap. 8, nOle 17.5. 11 wand T ilhonot, h. Hom. i~ I'tII. '18 If.; Hebe and Herakles; possibly Dem~ler and Iasion, though Ihe only "sourc.:" tn him al thi! ill lal~ Bicdermcier (Ov. Md. 9.422); I'eleut and Th~lis; 0..1)""<''''' K alypoo a"d Kirke, ele. II was Ihis lendency of g<Xldeues to contract ltllllil.. hypogamous IIIIIrriIIl'J, ralh~r than th~ir ""sua! amoun with men, which seemed to have ang«<:. &01. 10560 - ft. woj..g6 If. M.W.). I l In the worb jutt cited, 1 highlighted particularly Ih. fact that, among the Mohave Indians, DIll)' forbidden (incoluow) cousin-marriages in\"oJv~ a marriage rilUllI and only they are slI/IJIOS,d to be indiJsoJuble.
M tntla4s' Reactiw Depression and Drtam
86 a:I
a true "marriage"lU-evcn though, unlike Helene and Paris, Klytai-
mestra and Aigisthos could punish them for their obstinacy.15 Swnming up, regardless of what CTlj301 means-and its meaning is quite transparent~IACcvopEC can only refer to some act---or to the trace of some act- performed by Helene, which was a direct manifestation of her love for her lawful, wedded husband, Menelaos. criJk)l must be discussed in detail, for it gave rise to needlessly complicated explanations, devised by editors who unquestioningly accepted Ahrens' sweeping assertion that all words derived from the same root as CTI~I denote the activities of the feet and the tracks they leave. Yet SchUtz, Headlam, Thomson, Verrall and Smyth recognized that CTI~I refers here to the imprint of the body- but did not justify their (often
partly wrong) translations. That is the view I propose to defend here. t. Imprint
of body
( I) S. Ph. 33: cmm'l yE eatedly lIepl on such pallets while doing anthropological fieldwork: broken twig> ha"e sharp points . ., Hom. Od. 114-1155: """~. II One could, somewhat gratuitously, speculate that the bed was not remade until Menelaoo' «:turn, SO as 10 prove Ihat Helene had not commiued adultery in il before she eloped (supra), and abo thai, like many moumen (80, pp. B6 C.), M enelaoo ordered !lull nothing belonging 10 H elene should be tampered with. Such "pieties" leek to negate the reality of the lou-a psy<:hological defence (hat will be mentioned in conntttion with
'alenal
~
:lerechos de al.llor
8,
Mme/tw' Reacntlt Depression and Dre(Jm
therefore rightly- though in a somewhat Victorian language- writes: "yet printed with her embraces". In plainer terms, crljXll flACrvopEC designates the imprint Hdnu's body had so orten left on the: bed, while making love with Menelaos. It goes without saying that during such acts onry Helene's body would leave an imprint on the bed.\IO This means that the imprints left by Helene during her marital embraces differed only in tkplh from those SM tJlone had left on the bed during Menelaos' absence. The plural presents no real problem and it is not necessary to assume that it is a "generic plural" of the type found in v.•po and in vv. 412 f. The last imprint Helene left on the bed simply evokes, in a condensed form, the many imprints she had left on it in the course of her years of lovemaking with Menelaos. It is this captJeily of the {(lSI imprint she left on the bed to eooke the mtJ1!y earlier ones which justifies the use of the plural. Before discussing the evocative powers of the last imprint, which the prophets- and, perhaps, also Menelaos-actually saw, 1 must show Ihal traces of love-making inte rested the ancients ever since Homeros (Ii. 14. 346 ff. ). (I) Ov. Her. 15.148 f.: "Agnoui pressas noti mihi ca espitis herbasi/de nos/ro curuum pondere gramen erat." Sappho sees that the bent stalks of grass still preserve the imprint of the combined weight of Phaon's body and her own, once enlaced in on (J{;/ cif 101le.91 The sight of this imprint induces Sappho to lie down upon the still bent grass, so as to ((call more vividly former erotic jOYS.92 (2) Throer. 2.136 f. evokes a much more elusive trace: the lingering warmth the husband's body left in the marital bed.91 The interest of the ancients in such erotic traces is even more strongly highlighted by the existence of rules requiring them to be erased. ( I ) A Pyt hagorean, on getting up in the morning, had to remake his bed and crase the imprint his body had left on it.!1-4 ( Protection against witchcraft ?) (2) Ar. Nub. 973. A well-b rought.up nude lad had to sit in the gymnasion in a manner which concealed his organs. On getting up, he had to smooth out the concave imprint (EfSw;\ov) they left on the sand , so as not to stimulate his lovers or admirers. 9 ' to A realism of Ihis Iype may be safely ascribed 10 Aischylos, who was famous for hill (necessarily "ol>o«ne") satyr plays (11 ,*, p. x). 1\ T he aHusion to the 'Dmbinltf .... eight of enlaced bodies COntrasts with the subsequent reference ( 178 fT. ) to th., pT""!n1 wdghlle!oSness of her now solitary body (" Haec mea non magnum corJ><'>R. pondus habent" ), "" wa.u:d . by love ""rrow that jf ohe leaped into the ..,a, the air would be able 10 buoy it up. [The allUllion here is presumably to the practice of lying birds to the bodies of thO&<: who ritually leaped into the lea, in the hope that the birds' wing·bealll would dow down their fall. On this practice, cpo C. Gallini'. I lud y of Katapontismos (75).] t1 These verses may havc been ultimalely inspired by AiKhylos' CT1p.o, " Shakespeare ",fen 10 the "rank sweat·' which pervades Ihe love-couch of Hamlet '. murderous mOlher and unck . .. Cp. P.·M. Schuh! (/32, p. 255) ; w. Deonna ( '7, p. (71 ) ; O. Weinreich ( ',*0, p. 180). (References furnished by Professor W. Burkert. )
,,1o.Mpo<.
"915 .. . KIl cll,,, 976 oI&<.Mew Tot~~ jpaCTod~v fi~c ~I\ .a-r.v..lmw. Cpo abo Dover ad Ar. }fub. 973. A proper Greek lover wuintUQled only
in the boy'.
male organ (38).
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
88
Mnulaos' RetUtive Deprusion and Dream
This Aristophanic passage is crucial for the understanding of lhe Aischylean expression under discussion. ( I) Aischylos uses criJxn in a somewhat unusual sense; Aristophanes' use of d6c.uAov to designate a Iwll()w {" negative"} imprint is 50 unique that LSJ does not even give for d6c.>).ov the meani ng: " hollow imprint"," (2) Both Aischylos and Aristophanes describe hollow imprinrs capable of eliciting both erotic feelings and a sense of frustration. 97 (3) H elene notoriously had a sexually arousing d6wi\ov: a double, though,98 as Fraenkd indicates, it is no t really relevant here. {4} A. Ag. 41 (}---4'26 is full of allusions to doubles (crlJ30L, ¢CIJO:, 6<.jJIC and, with some restrictions, Koi\occ6c).9!1 (5) The foreseeable objection, that Aischyl05 refers to the imprint of a j t mau body and Aristophanes to that of the malt organ, strengthens rather than weakens the postulated nexus between these two passages. Solid clinical evidence (62, 37) demonstrates the existence of the symbolic equation: " girl = phallos {of her father or lover)". Massive Greek mythological da ta prove the presence of this symbolic equation in ancient Greece {.N).1 00 The d5wAov {"double")1OI aspect of CTifklt-the equivalence of the imprint left by an organ and of the organ itself- is significantly highlighted by the fact that TXIlOC means both the footprint and the foot.I02
2. CTifkll and tlu drtam The fact that this imprint is on the bed and plays, at least affectively, the role of a double, recalls the fact that Admetos intended to place in his bed A1kestis' portrait statue (E. Ale. 348) in order to derive (partial) erotic gratification both from the embracing of the statue and from erotic dreams: this statue was aClUally meant to elicit erotic dreams about Alkestis. Now, like Alkestis' statue, but unlike Helene's phantom (0p6:q.La and b.jJtc) Helene's CTifkll are not only visible, but abo real. They may therefore be pres umed to play, with regard to M enelaos' dream, the role of a " I ofl~n wond~r ..... h"th~r, in poking run al th~ bold complexit y of AHchylean tragic diction (Ar. R,m. 818ff. and passim) . Aristoph.n"" did nol laugh also al Ih" <:xceses 0( his own comic diction . • , On a...-.vtC in Ar. Nub. 974. cpo Ikwer ad loco tl The myth 0( H elene', oT6w.l.cv must be rellud icd from the l tart, for the valwohl" essays 0( Premcntcin ( 121), Pisani (/22) . Zielinski ( 143), Vemant ( 1;16) and Davison ( /05) do not ""'plait all the l urvivi ng (d ire.:1 and indire.:t ) rd"erences to it (54) and aTe not psycho-analytically orien ted • .. CpoV emant ( 136, p . ~5 7) , though I disagree wilh his interpretation o(lhe Aischylean """,eccel (infra) . til The Aristophanic ho llow double 0( Ihe convex male organ may pnlutps be remotely inspired by the worldwid. fantasy (205, 44, 18, ch.p. 16) 0( the " revcnible" male orJan, a u .,.ted for dusic... l a ntiquity by Ad. NA. 6.34. (Chap. 9, note ~.) t.t On the psychological meaning of the "DoppelgingeT", cpo O . Rank ( 126). '" Cp. E. Ba. 1134. DI;x1ds (ad loc. ) cit ... also E.fr. 350, Ca.11.I11. 14.1&l. G rtgoire cil"" E. H«. 1058- 1059' Compare also Ov. Hor. 15. 186, where " pedem" stands for Phao n. I I iJ perha.,. this double seme of IX""c which induced AiKhylOl to \UC here nilk" in • tlightly rpeci.al JenSe.
'alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
MerlllQ()s' Rtactil)t Deprtssion and Dream
Bg
" day residue" (cp. chap. I, note 6). The fact that it is h>eated in the bed in which real love-making once took place, reminds one that Artabanos, when sleeping in Xerxes' bed, had the same dream the king had had there (Hdt. 7. 17).IOl In short, MeneJaos' dream fills Helene's hollow imprint with her d ream-image.
3. The thoiu
of the word CTlj30l
This remai ns the only problem to be discussed, for, as Ahrens noted, words derived rrom the same root usualb'--though, as we saw, not alwaysrefer to footprints, to walking, to walking upon, to treadi ng with the feet . Now, rhyt hmic movements in general and even rotation and oscillation, which cause vertigo, not only tend to elicit--or, in the case of vertigo, to accompany- sexual excitement, but tend to symbolize such excitement in dream, in fantasy, in magic and even in humour.I04 ( Il PS}'tlwlinguistics has much to contribute to the clarifi cation of the meaning of crlj30l, for treading has a coital significance in many languages. I deliberately choose Latin examples to illustrate this point: Coho = the coital activity of the cock (Col. 8.5.24). In the dialect or Picardy cauquer (from: calcare) signifies: to coitize and evokes, by assonance, the word "coq" (_ penis and cock). But calco also means 10 tread (so as to crush, e.g., grapes in a vat ) l~ or even to crush in a mortar (Apic. 2.3) -which is notoriously a coital symbol in m any cultures. 11lIi '" Cpo Ov. Htr. IS.I¥! fr. (supra ). '04 II io a poychological commonplace Ihat rhylhmic mO""m~n ts Can symbolizc coit"" in dream. This probably oheds new lighl on Grttk. rituals involving owings and specifically On the proWem of " Phaidea On the swing"---discusscd by Picard (11'.) withoul any rcal awareness of the lCXual oymbolism in'·olved. II may also ex plain why, in Greek lovemagic, a wry-neck was lied to a wheel and rotaled (Thencr. 2. 17}-a practice which remindl one of Ixion lied 10 a !Urning whttl (Pi . P. 2,40 fr. ). (Vertigo-like .se!Il-ation, can OCcur either during orgum, or when gelling up aficr co; tus.) As regards spcciallypes of pusive rhylhmic movements, it is not without interesl Ihal the firsl cavalry group men_ tioned in Greek mythology are the Amuom. As I nOled elsewhere ('14,!l9, 36), IheN: ;' a curiO\.lil equivalence of the ridcr and the ridden in dream , in fantasy and cven in belief, regarding posussinn. and Ihis rega rd l.,.. of Ihe aClual sex of Ih" rida- and of the mount. I ndeed, even the male rider spreads his thighs like a coitized woman. As 10 Ih~ mount , I ciled in the aforemen tioned papers Ih" ou.r:uive fanluy of a pallent about a phalloslike objttt protr uding (rom the horse'l back and penelra ting Ihe ridcr'. crotch . On c of my oludenll, M. J can· Luc Mercier, I"CCClltly mowed me a carloon 5equence, in which a horsewoman is mounted on a horse whose dorJal "phallos" penetralo her vagina (cp. Ac!. NA 6" !l a nd 78. p. "' J. In _ pornographi c maguine, .hcre i. mention ofa woman 's bicycle, whOle seat is provided wilh a mobile penis activated by the pedals. Furtha- evidence for the nexus belween r hythmic movements and sexual excitement is provided by a Far £Utem 6~,cjIo<: (dildo) , which ltimulales the woman only while . he wailea or rocks herself. It cona.iall of a light, thin-walled silva- ball containing a small and heavy metal op her.,. The laner rolls around when th" wnman movo rhythmically, and imparts vibralions tn the Ihin walls of the opherc which contains it. It is aJso to be noted that al leUI one Greek word ("lflTuAoc) denoto repetit;" e rhythmic movements (E . Hipp. ' 464 and Barrell ad loc. ) . Even rhYlhmically oWl:lling and diminishing (" pulsating") s(Hn>dcan symboliz" collUl in dream, cpochap. 8, nOle H uman famuy, at ill higho t and al itslowO I, is much the same everywhere. ,. , CaIO RR Il ~ lin.; VaIT. RR 1.54.2, etc. , .. Cpo chap. 7, note 66.
,,.+
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
go
Mmelaos' Reacliw Depression and Dream
"Treading" or " walking upon" has, moreover, usually a specifically triumphal connotation, which degrades the "trodden" partner,lO? Even "climbing" and, ajOrtiDri, "climbing on" are marked coital symbols,lOS From "walking on" to "weighing down upon" (or; compress) is but a short step. In Latin comp1tSJio means: coitus (Hyg.fab. 187, etc.). But compreui() evokes in turn also a crushing weight on the: chest, which suffocates the dreamer-as happens typically in the real nightmare (Alpdruck) (BB). This characteristic of the nightmare is made evident also by its Greek name : t~Il6:ATl1C = the leaper, he who lea ps upon,lOO (2) Psych(Jwgp also provides support for the views I propound. In fantasy, in dream, and even in slang the foot represenlS the penis,lIO and, both Mimnermos (fr. 15 D .) and a proverb of Rumanian peasant women postulate a ne>;us between lameness and exceptional male coital prowess.111 Also, just as the foot represents the penis, so its imprints or tracks can represent the traces of coitus: (a) Prov. 30.19 describes four kinds of invisible tracks: those of the eagle in the air, those of the serpent o n the rock, those of the ship in the sea, and those of the man in the woman. (b) Two girls, who were friends and were in analysis with different ,., Suet. V. riiCtus. 1.22 : Caesar s.e.:ms to imply that he will force his defeated foes 10 rellate him Iymbolically. InJ .• M . de H ertdia: Trophlu ("Medaille" v. 14) : "l'el,al~n by .. bl;nd m"n [whn ~an'l ..,., wh~ ... his blows fall] and from being coitized '(aggressive l Iang word) by.- lame man [who comts down 011 you in heavy throotsJ ."
atet"~1
MrntlQ()s' RttUtif)t D tpression and Drtam
9'
analysts, dreamed at approximately the same time that their bed linen was covered with (male) footprints. Both had been deflowered relatively recentl y and were ashamed of having taken severalloven in rapid succession. But the traces of unlawful coitus can also be represented by stains of (symbolic) semen, not nectssarify emitted by a man. In A . Ag. 1192, the Erinyes "spit" (ernhrTovcav) on the bed adulcerously "trampled on" (1TaToiiv"n) by the husband's brother. Again, we find that " trampling" denote; forbidden, hostile coitus, and it isa psycho-analytical-and psycholinguistic--commonplace that spittle'" semen and that spitting = ejaculation.1l2 In this passage it is admittedly Thyestes who commits adultery and the Erinycs who "spit" on the bed he defiled. But I hold that their spitting actually stands fOT Thyestes' adulterous ejaculation. The Erinye; may be said to "spit" on the bed by lmaJIS ifThycstcs' seminal discharge, for, in the last resort, Thyestcs' act may be a consequence of the curse weighing on the descendan ts of Pelops,lll and therefore also a consequence of the Erinycs' influence upon him : they cause the curse, under which that dynasty lies, to snowball further, by inciting the commission of additional aceuned deeds, by Thyestcs, Atreus, and their descendants.!l. Summing up:
(I ) In v .•p I CTj~1 denotes the imprint of the whole of Helene's body, during the marital embrace (qllACr:vopEc). (2) The visible CTj~1 are at once a kind of double, in the mythological sense, and a " day residue" which triggen off Menelaos' erotic dream. (3) Aischylos probably used this word because walking and other rhythmic movements tend to symbolize coital activity in dream, and footprints the trace; of such acts. If the arguments just presented have one real me rit, it is that they dispose of the need to impute to Aischylean diction a riddling condensation devoid of psychological validity. For Aischylean condensations always strengthen the impact of his utterance-while here the various alkgtd condensations greatly weaken it, and urip it all psychological relevance.
or
412-413: Plurals or Singulars? Our manuscripts have singulars thr
out, which the metre- and other considerations as well- render inacceptable. Those who refuse to treat thc:se verses as a locus dtsperatus always modify the case endings- usually turning the singular nominatives into plural accusatives. (But the scansion of these verses and of their responsion is still controvenia1.) The first question to be asked is how Aischylos' plurals turned into singuIII II was, if I am no t misinformed, usual in certain areas 10 caU adullery: ".pitling On !he husband'. bed". III In one'. preoccupation with T hyesles' cune, whom AlTeUS had caused to cannibalizc hit c.hildrcn (A. A,. Hllg fr., ctc.), onc sometimes forgeu ihat Pelopo, too, was accuncd for havingllain Myrtilos (cp. Roscher IZ!} I.W.}. '" My fonnu]ation of the s.cnsc in whicb T hy""'les' act il,;/I (l way, an act of the Erinya, it strengthened by Uoyd·Jones' (104) discuWon of the St1Ut in which the lupcrnalurals
r.
"caUIC" men to do c.,.il deed.!, ilIId in particlilar by his carnmell lll on A. NirNH \'Y. t~ (Pace): "God fint causo" rault to grow in a man, when he is minded ultcrly 10 ruin his aUk."
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
MeMlaos' Reactiw Depression and Dream lars in the hands of a not-too-perceptive copyist. I submit that this resulted from the copyist's cormt!>' taking lfp61lO1 as referring to Menelaos only (supra). Having reached this correct conclusion and probably realizing that Agamemnon would not have exhibited the symptoms of a stuJXlrous depression, he failed to understand the plurals-and therefore also the sense-of these verses; he therefore turned the plural accusatives into grammatically and metrically monstrous singular nominatives. I hold with Thomson (ad loe. ) tha t the corruption ofthese verses began not with the word transmitted as AalCfOC, but with the corruption of the case endings, the copyist assuming that lfQplCTI ••• I&:Tv called for the singular nominative (cp. E . Tr. 36 f.). What, precisely, is the sense of the Chores' use of plurals? R ealizing that Menelaos cuts a pitiful and most unheroic figure, the Chores deems it best and most tactful (45) not to describe his behaviour in a pointedly personal manner. It says in effect: "The distressed visibly exhibit the following symptoms."10 Menelaos is not mentioned by name, nor are specific- and unheroic-symptoms directly attributed to him. I nstead, we are given a description of a "textbook case" of stuporous depression, which Menelaos' behaviour instances. This procedure is more than merely tactful; it is a lso supportive. Every psychotherapist hu had occasion to soften a painful confrontation or interpretation by saying: "This usuairy means ... " - for the neurotic is often inclined to believe that he is the onry OM so afflicted, or so depraved; a reference to Ihe similar flaws of others diminishes his sense of total isolation. ll6 In shor t, the violence the copyist did to the case endings and to the metre is as understandable as the Chores' reason for using a plural of tact (" those who"), instead of the more pointed, but aho less delicate, singular ("Menelaos' symptoms are .. . " ). The plurals are, moreover, both stylistically and aesthetically appropriate. They effect a transition between the "allusive plural" of v. 410 (Tfp6\J01) and the singulars used from v. 414 onward. Also, while the symptoms listed in vv. 41'2- 413 are unheroic, those described from v. 414 onward are sufficiently poetic and "heroic" to make the use of singulars and direct references to M enelaos as a person-and not just u a specimen member of the "class of all the depressed"- aesthetically acceptable and even desirable. 412 lfapECTl [ ••. lOEb'] ( = one may, it is possible to [see)) Us accepted by most edito~, though one hears it questioned now and then, because lTCrpeICI occurs in v. 421. The first thing to be no ted is that, in v. 421, this similar-looking word has an altogether different ~ignificance: "are present". The use of similar-looking and -sounding words, having different meanings, is an acceptable stylistic device, which reminds o ne of '" I n S. OT l,l86 If. lhe "generatiOfUl of men" an: an attenuated equh'alenl of this (but also gnomic). 'It A girt patient l~n6ciously insisted lhat onty .h~ wasdq>ra ved enough tomaslUrbatebut I poinled out Ihal the existene(: of a word for thai activily proved that she Wall nol atone in indulging in self-gratification. Only aner this rassurane(: was given could sh~ admit what, in h.,.. opinion, rt411y set her aparl: certain genuinely um..ual mUlurbaL.i.on fatrltUju
(45)·
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
Menel(JlJ$' Reactiw Depression and Dream
93
the ancient affinity between poetry and punning. Moreover, if, as seems necessary, one treats the dream as the nocturnal equivalent of Menelaos' waking symptoms,lI7 it is stylistically elegant to begin both the Jist of Menelaos' waking symptoms and the account of his nocturnal symptomof his dream- with very similar-sounding, though conceptually quite different verbs. In short, I hold mxpecTi to be sound, precisely on the grounds on which a small minority of Hellenists would challenge it.1l8 41 2 clyae = silence. It is the first listed symptom and the only one which lacks the privative prefix 6:-. It is therefore a "positive symptom" ("acting silent") and not a "negative" one ("deprived of speech"). It is distinet from the negative symptom 6:AOt66povc ". non-vilifying. Now, a hurt or offended Greek would normally either lament or curse, or do both. But Menelaos is silent, partly no doubt because he is stunned ("psychomotor retardation"), but partly also because his silence is a both psychologically appropriate and culturally encouraged "distress behaviour". His mutism differs radically from the involuntary aphasia or aphonia of Sappho (Jr. 2B = 20 := 3ILP), whose seizure does not have even one symptom in common with Menelaos' depression (43). Aischylos, who excelled in composing torrential lamentations (18), hardly felt unable to write one for Menelaos. If his Menelaos is silent, it is because the poet so intended it: because he had observed the mutism of stuporously depressed moumers---of whom there must have been many after Marathon and Salamis (cp. Hom. fl. 7.425 ff. ). Let it also not be forgotten that while some distressed Aischylean personages utter long laments, others indulge in long, ominous silcnces.I 19 Menelaos' stunned, negativistic, psychologically appropriate and culturally suitable silence is, thus, unmistakably Aischylean. I ts mention in thefost place anticipates Menelaos' last (visible) symptom: his sitting apart ( 6:fTl~v, infra), which not onl y presupposes mutism, but is also the opening gambit of a manreuvre whereby Menelaos expects to regain "face" (infra).i20 412 d:ThlOVC, though it implies both loss of honour and of "face", does not refer primarily to public contempt for a cuckold still too enamoured of his wife even to curse her (6:AOI66povC). Verses 412 f. do not emphasize primarilY Menelaos' srx:ial handicaps, but his subjective symptoms. Menelaos' feeling of worthlessness is a salient symptom of his "mourning reaction",121 for every loss--even in the absence of sincere ' " Cpo my commenlll on v. 4l10: ruv&fi~o""c. abo A. Cit«. a53: 1&1" TTap.m. Thomson cites E. Tr. 36 f. ," Ar. &In. 911 Jr. mentions the long silence! of his mourning Achillcus and Niobe. Olher data in Nauck TGF>, pp. 50 f. " . MOfI cultu ......pccify under what circumstances people should be .toical or should display grief. The (Itill evolving and adaptive) Mohave Indian creation myth blames Ihe forebears of the Americans for being the only ones not to cry at the dead god Matavilye'. funcnl. But a deserted Mohave husband would nOI display sorrow (4", 90 tt) . ", Freud CJTOneoualy contnulll the Idf-depreciation of the melancholiac with the "lack" ofself-contempt in mourning (71). Evuy mourning practice is a rihuJ self-degradation and therefore a token of subjective self-depreciation. I hope to discUIS the psy<:hology of mourning on another occuion, for I annot even begin to outline it here.
"' cr.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
94
Mene[QlJs' lUactive Depression and Dream
grief.- is experienced as a narcissistic injury. In Helene's elopement "proves" Paris to be "superior" to the smug Mendaos, who, unlike Agamemnon, did not even think of providing a chaperone for his wife during his absence from home. In societies which take it for granted that a man and a woman left alone will Qutomati(ally copulate (39, p. loB), the failure to show anticipatory jealousy is not oilly socially improper (Hom. Od. 11 .44 1 fr.) but also an insult to the wife's sense of her own desirability,lll In short, what matters here clinically is not that the cuckolded Menelaos is socially dishonoured, but that heJuls dishonoured by his loss. I note in
passing that a great many alleged problems of Homeric and Greek "psychology" would disappear if commentators were mOfC aware of the reciprocity-the complementarity relation- bctwttn the socio-cultural and the psychological txplanatiQns of a given attitude or behaviour (39, 48,52). 412 6).Ot56povc (= non-vilifying) does not simply repeat, with an added nuance, something already implicit in Mendaas' silence (clyac). The Choras once again goes beyond a purdy descriptive statement ; it appraises the significance of what it observes. In emotional Homeric society ( uS), vituperation was acceptable and even expected behaviour, as was haughty or angry silence and aloofness (cp. infra). These two reactions were acceptable "alternatives", in Linton's sense ( [02, pp. '273 ff. ) ; they could even occur in succession: Achilleus first curses Agamemnon and then sulk.'! in his tent. He first chase one and then another culturally acceptable reaction to a particular socio-cultural stimulus. By contrast, MencJaos' non-vituperativeneilS is not a culturally acceptable alternative but deviant behaviour: a symptom and/or a defect.IM The Choras, manifestly recognizing that Mendaos had reasons for hating Helene, apparently txpttkd him to revile her. Menelaos' failure to do so is therefore noted in a manner which defines his "sdf-rC!Slraint" as a symptom, whose causes are made clear almost at once (414 ff.). The embittered Mendaos is still too much in love with Hdene and too obsessed with her to be able to curse the adulteress fittingly. His anger prevents him from lamenting his loss, while his love inhibits his impulse to curse her. This is a classical Iype of ambivalence, already described by CaluUUll (85) : "Odi et amo" (I love and 1 hate). The anguish of being torn between contradictory emotions is admirably highlighted by Catullus' choice of the word: excrucior, whose etymology recalls cruciflXion.1H Ambivalence is always markedly present in depressions and in mourning: the death of the mourned person is also viewed as an intentional ,1> Despite the rhetorical question: "Are the Atreidai the ollly Olltl to lo,·e their wives ?" (H om. II. 9.338 fr. ), Ac.hilleus don. not grieve O...,r the I.... of Brisei.; he is angered by the blow to his boundless narcissism (5<;h. H om. Od. 3. ~67, etc.). For the Kwakiutl Indian, any lOllS or grief i1 a "lOllS of race" (6, <:hap . 6). '" Cpo Paria' claim that M enda.,. wu practically throwing H dene al him (Oy. H".
t6·~99)·
'" Cp. the well.knmo.·n story of a Spanish knight, who wu deprived of hi. knighlhood for responding ;,uuuquatt/y t o a stimulus: imtead of killins hi. wife's lover, he "only" caurated him. u, Since the crucified man ', welght islupporlM by his .pread anno, his breathing is as inhibited u il is in certain anx.iety attacD.
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
MmeIMs' Reactive Dtpression and Drtam
95
desertio n. t 2l> The selfsame ambivalence is present also in schizo-affective states, in which generalized inactivity (psycho-motor retardation) also results rrom the reciprocal inhibition of contradictory impulses, contending with each other for the use of the skeleto-muscular system .127 It is also important to stress that " non-vilifying" should, in this case, be taken as resulting from a simple suppression, and not from a total repression of anger. U8 The word 6:A0166povc provides the key to Menelaos' dream. Simultaneously enamoured and angry in a waking state, his conflicting sentiments manifest themselves successively in his dream: the love he still feels conjures up H elene's phantom, but his anger puts the phantom to flight before the sexual union can be completed in drearq (infra).1 29 412-413 an-Icrovc = disbelieving, distrustful (suspicious) is Wilamowitz's ( 1885) emendation, adop ted also by Fraenkcl.!lO The codexes (FTr) have &'StCTOC =: more pleasant,IJI which makes no sense in the present context, though Sch . Tr tries to justify it by twisting the meaning of vv. 4' z~41 3 out of shape. I ts absurd interpretations are generally ignored j Sch. Tr. simply proves that the corruption is an ancient one. The only acceptable emendation is, I fed, ernlcrovc. My objections to other emendations will be enumerated further on. &nICTOC (in the nominative) was first proposed and then abandoned by Hennann. Margoliouth retained i t, but the n viole ntly tampered with both verses. His text is a typical period piece: 1\"OpEcn ely', O:-TlI-IOC, &AA' &Aol80poc &nlcroc ~I-Iq.avwv 15tlv. Denniston and Page object to this emendation on two grounds : ( I) They assert that arilJQVc d::Aol56povc tmlCTOVC "are not comfortable yoke fellows". But Fraen kel cites other typically Aisch y!ean triplets " . E. Ak. 386 )"';I'+"IIC, 39' 1I"po)"';ITnlc; H opi I ndia"", cpo (8;9) . I.ments over a d~alh often have reproachful o'·~rton .... Crav~ gifts are given ,pitefully ( 4Z, pp. +VI fr.); they ~m to say: ·'You have taken 10 much from m~, you might a' well take ;t all." SelfaggtU1ion in mourning ~haviour u II. dire<;t oomcquence of inhibited aggrusivity toward... the "deserter", which is und~nlandable in tenru of Frcud'sfos/ theory of ..,If_ aggression, well documented by Dollard 1/ al. (56). The cannibalutic fantasies and acts of mournen (H dt. 3.38; cpo Ihe mourning Demeter's cannibalization of Pelops) represent a\tempts to cancel the lOllS. Cpo inf.... : ~~"''''c. 111 Th~ competition between aggressive and pa.ssi\·~ impukes for the servi«ll of the body can even traumatize the articulatio"" and produce psychosomatic arthritu. Euripides may ha'·e &eII.w. thu; hilIlolaOil is a classical " arthriti c personality type" bolo ... S"/>P,.uiMr.; "Since, despite my anger, I llill lov~ her, I will nOl cune her, though .he we ll deserves it." /lq1rWWfI: ··1 am ""I angry : I lo,"~ her, "" alwa ys." r felt it nCCt;WI.ry 10 clarify this, sin~ e-,·en the psychologically pero:pti\"e Winnington- I ngram (1 4T) confuses th...., term •. H e claims that HippolYIOil supprtSSU and Phaidra rtprusts h~r sexuality : the exact n:'"ene u true. Phaidra u only tOO painfully awan: of he ... and consciously seeks to inhibit it. HippolytOll claims to fccl no sexual urge-but bis tongue, which speaks of the hard...hips his way of life entails, ~tra)'l him al once (1367 f.). m T he .itualions here, in vv. 420 fr. and in E. AtuIrrm!. involvediffuenceo in the relation ship ~twecn love and hale. Hen:, love and hateco-(:Xut, bUllhe former (ontrols the latter. In vy. 420 love u followed by hat~ (infra). In E. AMralfl. 6~7 fr. hate prececlesthe renewal of Meoela",' love for Hdene. I .. Groeneboom writes c",{nc, following Schwerdt. III The Doric comparative of IlSUe.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
96
Mtntlmls' Reactive Deprnsion and Dream
of adje{;tives and I hold that three resonant, acoustically and morphologicallyll2 similar words suit well a tolling, typically Greek and typically Aischyiean, enumeration of grievous symptoms. (2) They find this word's meaning inappropriate: "there is no question of M enelaos not beluuing that Helene has left him". But lho.t is eXIJClry what Menelaos WfJuld do. m In fact, Denniston and Page's bewildennent suggests that the copyist miscopied the word because ~, too, did not deem such a reaction credible and appropriate. Yet in Greek tragedy even a man personally far less involved than Menelaos can react with dazed disbelief to news of some ghastly misfortune and may even (almost) fail to comprehend it. Theseus' stunned exclamation: "What do you tell me?" (S. OC 8g6) is psychological1y credible; it is not a gratuitous and conventional comment, whose sole purpose is to keep a stichomythia going and to accelerate its pace. But o:rdCTOvc also has a second nuance: it suggests not only disbelief but also mutrusl (suspiciousness). Such a reaction is also to be expected from Menelaos, whose love inhibits his anger towards Helene(6:AoI56povc). Failing also to see the appropriateness ofthis suomi reaction and bewildered by the two concurrent and interrelated meanings of 6:rrICTOVc, the copyist (almost predictably) perpetuated a lapsus calami. The fact that, of all proposed emendations, onry 6:rriCTOVC would have bewildmd the copyiJl, further increases its plausibility. The appropriateness of both nuances of 6:rrICTOVC, in the present context, is easy to dcmonstrate. ( I) Dubel~f: Menelaos finds reality intolerable. What did happen, should not have happened, and therefore could not have happencd ; "dcnn nicht sein kann was nicht sein darf". This attitude is explicitly foreshadowed by v. 408: H elene dared the undarable (6TAaTa TAi5:ca).l:l-f Better still, a denial of Helene's elopement, by means of an outland ish "explaining away" of the real facts, goes back at least to Stesichoros.1lS I stress at once that Stesichoros' tale is relevant here, not bC{;ause it offers an altemative "explanation",!Jb but onry because Stesichoros, too, den~d lhe reali!J of Helene's escapade. The following comments will clarify the psychological processes which make possible "disbelief" in observable and observed reality: (a ) One's notion of what is "possible" is all too often congruent with . "137 one,s preconceptIOns as to wh at 'IS" proper. (b) One's notion of what is "possible" can therefore radically distort one's perception (and/or recognition) of what one sees,1lI ". Alllhrtt begin with an alpha privative and evcu Denniston and Page think tluo, the correcl word began wilh an alpha privative. '" Freud asked a vi.itor for news of his defunct dillCiple K, Abraham-negaling his death. Wilamowiu. ( ,885) undentood the di.belid. ,," An Ai71".. ""planation of v. 4 1,5 (aupra). '" Hom. /1, 3.4~3-4~6 was ...:jecled by Zenodotos, because he deemed it improper for a godd.,.. to bring a chair for a mortal. Cpo Leaf, ad loe, W I analysed lICVeral c...... of "fauss.e non·reconnaissance" (one of them occurring in dream) which resulted from a ...:fusal 10 admil Iha, one had witneosM an "impossible" (_ improper) occurrence (36).
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
M~ltJos'
&tJCtive Depression tJnd Dream
97
(c) Common sense, daily experience and clinical practice alike prove that the negation of painful scnse-data is a kind of magic, which defensively seeks to arrest or to undo an emotionally intolerable occurrence.1l9 (d) Conversely, a grievoUll loss can be negated also by m eans of a fausse reconnaissance. l40 (e) Certain private mourning "pieties" also negate the reality of the loss)·' At fint, Menelaos negates the reality of his loss simply by means or a stunned disbelier; later on, he does so by means or a dream, whose first half manifestly begins to restore the status quo ante. Such observations show that Fraenkel is perfectly right in holding that M enelaos is in a state of stunned disbelief. By doubting the reality or his tragic experience, Menelaos wards off ptJrt of its impact upon his psyche. Such " delaying tac ti Q;" account also for cases of " delayed mourning" ,142 which occur even in primitive societies ( 11 ). These delaying tactiQ; make the tragic event more tolerable when its reality is penniued at last to impinge fully on the m ind, for some of the "work of mourning" [Trauerarbeit, Freud, cpo (96)] was performed (by the unconscious) already during the period of partial denial. I use the word "partial" advisedly, ror a fausse non-reconnaissance is not a primary reaction. The observer first recognizes the person and/or the event and then, unable to tolerate reality, "cancels" his initial unpleasant perception and/o r recognition, sometimes even replacing it with an accepta ble, soothing dream or fantasy. I.) In short, since H elene dared the undarable (408), she "obviously" did not elope. This justifies Menelaos' defensive refusal to believe the evidence of his senses and the repo rts of his courtiers. That is how the human-and also the mythopoeic and poetic- mind operates. T he logical and realistic psychologist must o.ccept the illogical and un realis tic modus optrtJndi of the emotions-and then render it comprehensible. (2) Dishust (suspiciousness) is the second aspect of Menelaos' reaction ; it can be made comprehensible in two ways: (a ) Paris carried away not only Helene, but also Menelaos' treasure and at least two of her handmaidens.l" It is of considerable interest that no lI. After a falal accident, th e victim', parenu screamed "No! No!" as they flung Iherru.el,..,. on the cOI'J'H'. N"",,~pers oflen reporl thaI even me", bysLand= scream "No!" u.o/riI. " luicide·. body is already hurtling from a high window. Profasor LloydJones reminds me that "No!" was M rs K ennedy'. fi ...1 utterance when President Kennedy was .hol. 'oo After Ihe death of a dose friend, I rq>caledty expc1'ienced Ihe shock of (pseudo. ) "ncogni lion", when seeing in Ihe ,Irecl some lall and corpulent man, walking with my late friend '. characteristic gait. H' Cp. Queen Victoria'. elaborate nqation of Prince Allxrt'. deat.h (80, p. 86 f. ). In E. Ak. 348 fr. , AdmetOOl plam to negate Alkeoti,' death by placing her portrait-Itatue in his bed . .., Well analysed by H. Deuuch (.l'll). ,.. Bomber pilots, whose Crew:! had been killed in a crash, were kept as.l«p until Ihey managed to drtDm of a MppUr ending to the crash (94). Psychologically, this therapeutically effective "happy ending" d ream is akin to SteoichO!"OS' oI!I<.».o v (double) device, wruch abo makes a "happy ending" poeaible. , .. The theft ill rq'ICIItedly mentioned in unquation:ably ancient paMaga of the JliIJd. ru 10 the handmaidens, even if H om. /1. 3.1++ should Ix an inlerpolation, it alfllOlil certainly antedatel A. AI.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
MerulaM' Reactiue Deprmion and Dream really ancient source tries to explain why this big theft and group exodu5 was not detected and prevented. It is, thus, perfectly "logical" for Menelaos to SUSPC(;( part of his household of complicity;l.' it also permits the still enamoured husband to divert part of his anger from Helene to his household. (b) Paranoid reactions (5uspiciousness) are common in depressions caused by a grievous loss and can even have ritualized conscquenCC'5.146 Paranoid suspiciousness after a loss i~ explicitly mentioned in E. Ale. 338 ff., 368, fr.: Admetos now distrusts everyone. In a puzzling passage (A. Ag. 838), Agamemnon-whom no friend appears to have betrayedalso expresscs distrust of those close to him. I • 7 Summing up, chrlcrouc denotes two distinct but simultaneous attitudes: a defensive disbelief and a (psychiatrically predictable) paranoid suspiciousness. Failing to grasp this, the copyist miscopied the word. Also, thriCTOVC is the only proposed emendation whose cOlTuption into 6:8ICTOC can be reconstructed in terms of the psycho-analytical theory of parapraxes (slips of the pen, etc.) (infra). I will now deal with some other proposed emenda tions, noting at once that those which do n(J1 begin with an alpha privative (un-) are automatically less likely than those who do. As to the palaeographical probability (or improbability) of the various proposed emendations, I do not discuss it, for it is obvious to the Hellenist and of no imerest to my other readers. (I) Some proposed emendations simply duplicate all or part of another symptom or listed state, ( I) Shame, disgrace (a'1CXICT', Hermann) feebly duplicates the much more appropriate &-r11JOVC. (2 ) U naware, unseeing, unmoved, insensitive, inaccessible (aiCTovc, Dindorf, 6:81\ICTQVC Blass) could, I think, rcfcr only to the household's inability to "get through" to Menelaos- but that is implicit in the very next word (6:qlTl~v). (II ) Not praying (to the gods, presumably for Helene's return) (~lcrwc, Denniston and Page) is, as Professor Sir Den)'li Page admits, "a very long shot"-though the Lloyd-Jones translation (103) act::epts it: "not beseeching". The combination: "not reviling, not beseeching" is poetieally attraetive. Unfortunately, the normal meaning of 0:A1CTOC is: not being prayed ,., I am not raising here a question " 'hich did nOI occur 10 Ihe Greek... It i$ dearly Ihe tradition thaI Mend aos left his wife withoul a supervisor during his a~nce which led, on the one hand, to the view thaI he had practically IhrUSI Helene a! Pari. (Ov. HtT. ,6.299) and, on me OIher hand, to the lale thaI, before leaving for Troy, Agamemnon enlr\lSled Kly r..imolra 10 a bard', ca,.., (seh. Hom. Od. 3.267; Eustath. ad Hom. Od. 1466.55). , •• Some Australian lribes alleviate mourning-grief by a paranoid projeclion: they ascribe even the most natural dealh 10 ..m;ery, and olay a randomly c.hOfen member Oflhe Irihe ' USpe<:led of wilchcraft (58). This permits me mourner to displace his resentmenl from me "deserter" (the deceased), whom he cannOI "'ertiw/.J punish-though at times he trio 10 do jUlI mal (89) - 10 Ihe accesaibh" hypothetical "murde,..,....". '" On the wording of Ihal "ene, cpo Fra enlr.e1, Groeneboom and Denni"on and Page. Agamemnon', remarlr. Ihal D,'1y OdysseUl was ",,"Silltlll!1 faithful 10 him may, however, hint at Aias' ,..,belliou. auempt '0 aveng<' a g....,... injw,ice. This being .. id, A. AI. 838 may be meant to be "prophetic" or .imply gnomic. Cpo E. HF III fr.
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Mtntlaos' Reactive Depmsion and Dream
99
10.1 41
Applied to Hades (contrasted with the Olympians) it means: inexorable, not yielding to prayer.I~9 But, though in v. 415 Menela05 i~ (probably) ~pec tre-Iike, this does not make him similar to Hades. In short, I cannot accept this emendation. (UI) Fasting, .starving (oneself), would admittedly add a further realistic and specific symptom to the list. But words having that meaning would not have puzzled the copyist, for in Greek texts fasting is a common symptom of depression and of mourning. (I) &chovc (Wecklein, Thomson) : H om. Od. 4.788 (the anxious Penelope) ; E. Med. 24 f.; E. Hipp . 277; E. Suppl. 1105, etc. (cp. LSJ s.v.). (2) 6:13alTovc (Killeen , 90, p. 253, cited by Italie, 86, Addendum, s.v. T')5Vc; cpo Hdt. 1.162 ). But Fraenkel shows that, in A. Ag. 151, Aischylos applies that word to human flesh-to that of 1phigeneia-which, by definition, is unfit for consumption. Fraenkel's argument is not weakened by the clinical fact that cannibalistic fantasies do occur in mourning. (3) &-rraC"T'OVC has, I think, not been suggested by anyone, though it is Homeric and , with one exception, concerns the depressed and the mouming.I!IO A slight but nOi negligible furth er objection to all emendations meaning: fasting, is that it is a behavioural symptom, whereas Menelaos' other symptoms are predominantly intra-psychical. (IV) Pain, grief (6:AYICT', Enger, Smyth), is inacceptable for several reasons: (I) Unlike the other symptoms, it is general, rather than specific. (2) As such, it should either be listed first (implying: his grief elicits the following symptoms),I!1 or else last (implying: the symptoms just dud reveal his grief). But it is the penultimate symptom mentioned- for "sitting apart" is also technically a symptom. (3) Smyth, who adopts this emendation, offers a misleading translation . " In the anguish of his grief" ~uggests an agitated depression, of a type Aischylos ofll::n described ( 18). But Menelaos' depression is sluporous- a stale Aischylos also described well , e.g., through long silences (cp. Ar. Ran. 911 ff. ). (V ) Like vapour (6-rIJOC We, Murray) is more or less patterned on Hom. Il. 23.100 and it may be urged that it anticipates A. Ag. 41 5 (speclre, ghost). But had Aischylos actually written "like vapour", he would hardly have been misunderstood and the word's H omeric background may perhaps even have protected it from corruption. Few accept Murray's emendation. I disregard Mazon's aliTwc; it adds nothing to the content or syntactical clarity of these verses. Summing up, not one of the emendations considered is psychologically as suitable as &-rr!CTOVC; this, to my mind, is a decisive consideration. '" In Hom. h. Mere. 168, codex Fr gives it as an ahernati ve to 4-rrgC"'lOI: Hermes and M aia, living in sotit ude and nol y~t ltnown as dei ties, are starw:d of s.acrificn, or ar~ not p.-.yed to. Cpo Page'l apparatus criticus of hi. new Aischylos edition: 6:;>.1<:..[(",. '" Euph. 911; AP 7.€43' /0 14.1909.3. ,>0 Exception: Hom. Od. 6.2,50: Odyssew had not ealen for some tim~. Hom. 11. 19.346 (AchiUeu. mourning); Hom. Od. 4.,88 (Penelope fearing for her son) . Hom. h. en. 200 (Demeter mourning for Persephone). II! Smyth'. t,.wL2litm actually pull it fint.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
<00
Meneicros' lUlU/illt Depression and Dream
The ProctJs of Ihe Com~ption of crtriCTOVC into &6ICTOC is perhaps not beyond conjecture, though the reader is asked to imagine that every statement made regarding that particular process contains the word "per-
haps" or "probably". The transformation of the plural accusa t i ve(s) into singular nominalive(s) is not discussed here, for I already noted my acceptance of Thomson's explanation of this corruption. For the sake of simplicity, I use, in this seelion only the singular nominative form of words; this does nol imply that I finnly believe that the corruption of the case-endings antedates the corruption of the word in question. My initial assumption is that we are not faced here with a deliberate attempt to "improve" the text. Had that been the case, the copyist would not have substituted for the-to him puzzling- " disbelieving+ suspicious" the truly inappropriate "more pleasant". For, had he intended to "improve" the text, he would surely have written one of the words conjectured by modern editors, denOling fasting, withd rawal, etc. My second assumption is that had the slip of the pen been due to fatigue or to inattention, the copyist would probably have produced a meaningless word (oox Ilihili) corresponding to an ordinary "misprint": a haplography, a dittography, an anagrammatism, etc. This 3$Sumption, while plausible enough, is admittedly slightly less plausible than the first, but still good enough for its implications to deserve study. These two assumptions lead me to the third and crucial one: Like Denniston and Page, the copyist no doubt felt that " there is no question of MenelaOll nat believing thai Helcne hll3 left him", though I indicated that that is just what he would do atfirst. Good indirect evidence shows that, like everyone, the Greeks expected a sentence already begun to end in aforesuablt way. The comic poets often exploited this anticipation by frustra ting it: by writing the unexpected word instead of the expected one.I~2 Technically, the already begun sentence seems to have: " Pragnanz", in that only one (expected) "cloture element" seems appropriate at that point. The comic poet disrupts this Prllgnanz by providing an unexpected cloture element which is, at times, actually the antonym, or quasi-antonym of the expected word. J conclude that if the copyist felt "disbelief" to be inappropriate, according to the psycho-analytical theory of parapraxes,1S] there would have intruded into his mind that word's antonym: nat doubting = not un-believing.u4 Such a word would appropriately begin with an alpha privative: 6:6kTtrCTOC.ll5 But that would not utterly obliterate the already corrupt word the copyist read : &iTICTOC. The result would be a .., The locus classicus is AT. Ran. 1206 fr.: Aischylus ends all of Euripid.,.· declamations with '"he lOll his oil flask". '" Even opponenu of psycho-analysis seldom queslion Freud's Iheory (67, chaps. 6, 7) that paraprax.,. are often very .uhtle and heavily overdelC1"m;ncd (73). Some even reclify an earlier parapraxi. (4/): a ditlographic error in numbering paragraphs is sometimes unwitlingly rectified by Jkippinglhe nol numkr, aI in: I, ~, 3, 4, (4),6. , .. Greek aUlhon often express a positive Slale of affairs by mean. of a doubt. negalive : "1!Ql1Ul-m;ndful" for: "mindful". ". For Ihal 'p"lIing, cpo Thphr. M.toph. 3'; ..,h. Hom. 0,1. ' .100; P~p. (u •. c.) Ig4.26. It fiu the parapraxis kiter than the rnwc UJual spelling.
r.b/.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Mendcros' Reactive Depression Imd Dream
.m
"compromise"-a so-called porunanteau word.!~ The corning into bemg of a true portmanteau word was, in this instance, facilitated by the fact that amCTOC and 6:6fCTQCTOC do nO! $can alike: the latter has one syllable too many. The compromise word, to scan properly, had to be a real word: 66lCTOC- which (alrnO!St predictably) does not begin with an alpha privative. Now, it could be objected that 661CTOC is not a true portmanteau word, bttawe it is not a (meaningless) neologism. But the mere fact that it is meaningles" in this context makes it psychologically and syntactically into a neologism.m My argument is somewhat strengthened also by the finding that 6SICTOC is highly corruptible and that 6:rrICTOC can replace a different spelling of the same word. E.HF. 675: 6:6/=. Ploutarchos writes: l(WJ./crT]v. SlObaios writes: 1161=. H ere, of course, we deal with synonyms. S. Jr. 570 N2: &mICTOC is spelled here arrlCTOC (Hsch . I, p. 2 4~ ) ; Nauck holds that H esychios' &-rraparrlCToc is a corrup tion of &-rrap
,.,
M tnllar)S' Reactive Depression and Dream
confused, quasi-negativistic silence, characteristic of a depression, into a stunned spetXhlessness characteristic of a state of psycho-physiological shock; characteriostic, like Sappho's (fr. 3 1 LP) speechlessness, of a severe anxiety aHack, which, as noted, does no t have even one symptom in common with M endaos' depression (43). (2) 6:IPTJ~V = sitting apart (Dindorf, Wecklein, Sidgwick, Smyth) is more satisfying in every r espect: it presupposes and in a sen se climaxes Mendaos' previously listed symptoms. It also suggests both a further clinical symptom and a culturally moulded response. Both will be dis-
cussed after dealing with Fraenkel's objections. Fraenkel wonders from whom Menelaos may be isolating himself; obviously, from his household. Given the arrangement of H omeric palaces, even as visuali:ted by the tragic poets, a king seeking privacy, especially when annoyed, could only sit apart, in a manner indicating that he was not to be disturbed. In Hom. ll. 1.4gB, Zell.'l is not offended or humiliated ; he is, at most, annoyed by Hera's partisanship a nd wishes to be left alone. 1'8 Fraenkel holds that H om. I t. 15.106 f. and Hdt. 4.66 are incompatible with the sitting apart of Menelaos. In my estimate, the situation is as follows : Hom. II. 15.106 f.; Zeus, offended by the rebelliousness of the other gods, sits apart in haughty isolation. Though he is offended, he knowsand Athene reminds the other gods of this fact- that, when the chips are down, he is still the M as ter. In Hom. h. Ger. the mourning and resentfully withdrawn goddess is also able LO retaliate againM those who have offended her. So, of course, is Menelaos : though cuckolded, he is still the King: he can fantasy and execute a revenge restoring the status quo anU. Cpo Q .S. 3.130 ff. Hdt. 4.66: At the annual victory feast a Skythian warrior, who had not recently distinguished himself, must si t apart from the banqueting heroes. His state of mind is not described, nor need it be. Though humiliatedfor the timt being and unable to retaliate directly, he no doubt expects-like Zeus-to recoup himself soon. For the moment his best tactics are to manifest a contemptuous aloofness towards those who despise or pity him. His stance sa ys: " I could not care less!" ISll Needless to say, an ollentatious sitting apart is, in addition, also a veiledand at times only partly conscious-attention-getting device: the more a man withdraws, the more his fellows will plead to be noticed and listened '" Cpo Hom . fr. Ctr. 354 ff. and passim for D~m~Ier. ," There is excdlent n'id=c~ in support of this interpr<:tation from another nomadic cavalry group: the Crow Indians ( /06, pp. 35-43, esp. 3M8). Each )'ear two military societies, the Lumpwoods and th~ Foxes, com~t ed for the biggot "scor-e" ofwar honoun. Any member of the society which scored highest in a given year could take the wife of a member of the losing group if he had n'er bun intimate with her. Once an unscrupulo,-" man claimed the faithful wife ofa member of Ih~ losing lIOCi~ty. Though Ih~ wif~ \~arfully denied having bun unfaithful , and though both th e hlllband and the tribe knew that sh~ spoke the truth, her hUAband lIernly ordered her to follow Ihe liar to his tent. H is lIoicism was, prmictably, much admired and mad e the deceiver [""" \h~ face he had gaioed by belonging to thaI yea r'. highest scoring society. T hat, precisely, seems to have been the purpooe ofth~ I...,..', , Ioicism: il r<:preseoted what psyciliatrisll call a "passive.ag,","i,·e" couDter·attack.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Menelaos' Rt4CliDt Depression and Dream to by him.l60 Last, but not leas t, the brooding aloofness of a god or of a King is ominous: it suggests the possibility of a sudden and violent retaliation--directed, in this case, at those whose carelessness pcnnitted Helene to escape. Menelam' aloof sulking is as threatening as that of Achilleus (Hom.ll. 15. 106 f., cpo Thomson ad vv. 412 f. ). This behaviour is clearly a culturally acceptable and culturally patterned "alternative" ( 102, pp. 273 If.) reaction to a shaming loss: since Menelaos withdraws. into silence (CIYOC), he cannot lament loudly;161 since love is inhibiting his anger, he cannot curse (&7<.ol66povc). His apartness is, thus, not only culturally pau,e rned and therefore acceptable; it also permits him to regain some of the lost "face", for even in an exuberant warrior society the stoical bearing of grief is often admired (A. Sepl. passim). Viewed in this social context, Menelaos' sitting apart is both a prestigeregaining and dishonour-negating manceuvre. But the silting apart can also be viewed as a psychiatric symptom: a token of withdrawal and of inward-turning. If his four previously listed reactions are viewed as culturally "normal" responses to an extreme loss, his sitting apart represents mere sulking: a social response. But if they are viewed also as symptoms of a depression, the sining apart, which climaxes the four previous ones, is predictable on clinical grounds and beautifully balances the first of Menelaos' listed symptoms: his silence,162 to which it hearkens back. The alternative, &:
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
MentlaM' ReattilJt Deprusion and Dream with five words only may have no parallel outside music.l64 They build up to a climax: one has the impression of having understood- and the very next verse forces one to revise retroactively most of what one trunks one has understood. In short, Ct'f'TjIlEvWV greatly enriches these verses; Ct'f'~lIlEvWV does not. In the case of an Aischylean tex t this finding should carry great weight, even though certainty is impossible. Vv. 414-,119: General Sense. These six verses list the last-and most extreme-of Menelaos' waking symptoms. Though seemingly two dilitinct symptoms are mentioned, the second is a dife{;t consequence of the first and its extension from the particular (beautiful statues) to everything the eyes behold: the outer world as a whole. After vv. 418-4 19 nothing further can be said about Menelaos' waking reactions: the scene is set for his d ream-response. In interpreting vv. 416-419, one must- as I will have occasion to recall - firmly bear in mind that the whole passage (vv. 410--426) is focused on Menelaos' person and behaviour. Everything else is brought in only for the purpose of shedding light on Menelaos' reactions and is therefore alluded to only in passing. None of the "stimuli" to which he responds (at times by a non-response) is elaborated in O1Iy way jor its own sake. H ow true this is, can best be shown by noting that each and every one of the hems external to Menelaos-cach of the "stimuli"- referred to in vv. 414- 419 has given rise to controversies, even as regards their ascription to a particular person. This is as true of the phantom (v. 4 15) and of the statues (v. 416) as of the eyes (v, 4 18), So mueh alleged vagueness, in the space of six verses only and always with regard to something "external" to Menelaosl6' to which he reacts, is simply not credible in the case of a great poet, Not unexpectedly, all vagueness or doubt disappears the moment one realizes that every word is focused on Menelaos' ftac/ions /0 stimuli, and not on the stimuli themselves. Vv, 412-426 are not only flawless; they are also extremely concise and always to the point : the point being Menelaos' state. If they are viewed, as they must be viewed; as an exquisitely organized list of Menelaos' symptomatic reactions to various segments of reality, culminating in his non-responsiveness (which is also a reaction) to reality as a wlwle, one understands why, at v. 420, the poet turns from Menelaos' waking reactions to external reality to h is dream response to "inner" stimuli. The correct interpretation is therefore the one which contributes most to a psychia/n'c understanding of Menelaos' distress, This is something aU solutions, except those adopted by Fraenkel, fail to do, for their focus is never Menelaos' response, but the stimulus which elicits it.l66 , .. The key mOlif of the first mO"ement of Bectho"en ', Fifth Symphony and of the last movemem of Mozan'. Jupiler Symphony each contain only four noto. Moreover, whereas in Bttlhoven', case tho<: four noto invotve only two ton o in a 'imple rhythmic arrangemem: , in MoulTt', case the four different not", are even of equal length. ' " I treat the "eyes" as "exlernal" because Ihey $land for whal they ptmit'e. ACluatly, the key word ofvv, 416-419 is •.... p06ha (infra). ,.. Those who do "'" accept Fraenkel', interpretations could he compared to psychologisll who focused their altemion exclusively on the pitch of the hetl which made Pavlov', dogs Jaiivate--or on the brand of meat-powder he used in conditioning his dogs-
'alenal
~
ethos :Ia al.llor
Mrnelaos' RtlUtive Dtprtssion and Drtam 414- 415 Tf66c.>16' lmt:p'ITOVTlacl ¢CJ.i(I ~u 6OJ.KiIV &v6:cctlV. = Through longing for her who is beyond the sea, a phantom will seem to rule the palaec.167 Tf6&l1 6' \rrrEplfOVTlcxc. Just as 'IV. 4,0--4 !' state the COfICTtU causes of Menela~' visibly a bnormal behaviour, described in 'IV . 412- 41 3, so v. 414 specifies the fnycJwwgical cause of an d usive state of affairs, described in v. 4'5. Theitalicized words are crucial for a correct interpretation of v. 4'5, for with w . 4'4-415 one passes from the observablt to the inftrtntial: from sense data to psychological interpretations. v. 415 has given rise to divergent interpretations- probably because the commentators focused most of their attention on ¢c;.tcx and, secondarily, on 56g:1. Little attention is paid to what the !pOC\Jcx sums to be doing, though it is this which helps one to elucidate the vexing ¢ c;.ta problem. This obliga me to begin my discussion wit h the last two words. 66lJ.Wv &v6:cctlV. The Choros indicates that the palace is not governed normalry-not as it was governed before H elene eloped and Menelaos went into a stuporous depression. It doe'l not take much imagination to assume that, at that point, life in the pa lace was chaotic. Confronted widl an unprecenden ted crisis, the household displayed a "catastrophic reaction"I68: only the most indispensable tasks were performedprobably inadequately. Now, it is of some interest that part of the corrup t A. Chat. '31: 1I'Cx: ava~1J.EV 66).L01C = "how shall we be (become) rulers of the palace ?"I69 also refers to a badly, and even lawlessly, governed palaceto the slain Agamemnon's palace misruled by usurpers- which Elekna and O relle! desire to take over and to govern properly and lawfully. While this parallel passage is not, in itself, conclusive, it doe'l strengthen the impression that one of the reasons why M enelaos' palace seems to be ruled by a ¢C\Ja is that it is in a temporary state of chaos.I7O I hold, in short, that the ruling of the house by a phantom refers also to the misrule which occurs when not an efficient queen, but an insubstantial phantom holds the reins. The Choms concllldes that a phantom rulac, partly becaust there is misrule and general confusion.17l Though this much seems practically certain, both on the basis of commoruense expectations and of everyday experience with homes newly deserted by a wife, or thrown into disarray by her illness or death, the a bove observations take into account only one-somewhat pedestrianrather than OIl his dOS'" conditioned oati'·ation, ill reS/JO"" to a bell. H ence, not F raenkcl '. but T hornmn'. i,,'~ re'.'ion. of vv. i , 8-i'9 a<e ·'.hourd". >IT Mazon 14k." unwarrantable liherti." with the fint word. H e translates: " L'amou r Ie \'Wt." , .. T his tenn, coined by Goldstein (79), denotes the confused behaviour which patients with certain types of brain lesions nchibit when confronted with even relatively minor 1UIUfW/d !ltuations. Grou~ of normals subjected to extreme and unpn:ccdeuted .tress al ... mani r."t "catastrophic reactions" (1'3) . '" But Ib is verse is COlTUpt. ,,. Fraenkel ci les E. Alldnm!. 8s7, in which H ennione;, called 66 ....... 6vacc .... It may be a coincidena, but it is evident thai Hermione, 100, miserably misruled Nroplolemc-' plIb"...
'" T hat a H omeric royal household was effectively run by its queen .hould be evident to any readuof the 04Yuty, tho",h the ro",h work was done by the llerVanu (A. ChtH. 14).
",6 aspect orlhe vivid imagery orv. 415. None the less, thi.! practical side of the situation cannot be disregarded entirely in app raising the meaning of these two verses. ~u ="il [the phantomJ will seem" must be considered next. As so often. Fraenkel make! the really important point, by drawing attention to the parallelism of ~q.LCX ~l and 6velp6cpavrol . .. ~al, and by stressing that the 4pOqlO is to the waking Menelaos what the dream-image is to the sleeping Menelaos.172 I will postpone a discussion of the implications of this remark for an
understanding of the word qJ6qm and streu here only that Fracnkel implicidy highlights the non-concrete character of that which "seems" to be and to act in a certain way. Considering that v. 414 specifies a ps)'Clwlogical cause or motive for the situation described in v. 4 15, I hold that the future SOI;u means that a conclusion will iruvitahv be drawn from observabl, modes of behaviour and situations, in accordance with the (inferential) psychologicai causes mentioned in v. 414.l7l The main point is that the conclusion drawn by the Choros is {Jbjecti~ly false, though metaphorically and psychologically convincing. The Choros does nOt affirm that an {Jbjecti~ly real phantom governs the palace; it says that the palace is in the state of disarray it would be in ifa mere phantom governed it. Its statement is, Oil one kud, an "as if" statement. But even this does not illuminate the full scope of the imagery which Aischylos' use of the word opaCI!a evokes. I t is therefore to the controversial meaning of this word that I now must turn. ¢c~a is held by most H ellenists to refer to H elene;m but others believe that Menelaos is meant.1n Smyth's translation leaves the point unsettled, as does the Denniston and Page commentary. Both Fraenkel, who does take a position, and Denniston and Page, who do not, point to grammatical difficulties in making opac~a refer to Menelaos. Denniston and Page also mention grammatical difficulties in making opacl.lO refer to Helene. This forces one either to tax Aischylos with a slipshod ambiguity or to credit him with a masterfuHy contrived one. I choose the second alternative, partly because of a methodological principle I enunciated elsewhere (39): the most productive datum is the one which seems to present the greatest difficulties. ( I) ¢qm = Helme is, as Fraenkel says, bolh satisfying poetically and in conformity with human experience : the yearned-for wife seemr to haunt ,,, But this does noljustify taking-at adil tinguished Helleni.tsugg.,.ted tome-v. 4'5 to mean "he will dr.sm falsely 1hat Helene;" still queen in hiJ home". "'?Iazon's notion, that the future U\:11 means that (all"!ady in vv. 412- 413 ) the prophets dc:ocribe ill at/rxlltc., how M~daOil willl"!act when learning:, on his retum, that Helene had eloped. hal found lillIe acc~tancc. Thus, Professor Sir Denys Page rej~ts it (personal wmmunication). " 'Triclinius, Stanley, Pauw, Healh, Brumoy, W. \'on Humboldt, Klausen, Welcker, Bamberger. Scwell, Ccmington, Paley, D. Milman. L. Campbdl, Wilamowitz, Plall, Murray, Mazon, Fraenkd, etc. m Schiltz, Blomfield, &:holdlcld, Ahrens, Nagellbach. Wecklein, Pl u.u, Headlam, GroendXlOm. Thomson seems undecided.
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Mtntlaos' &(Utive Depression and DTtam the palace and everything in it reminds Menelaos of her. One might almost say that Menelaos "feels" her presence, the wayan occasional amputee feeb JU, "phantom limb": he seems to experience paiu where the now amputated limb once was. But it is a crucial fact that the opaclla of H elene can "rule the palace" only because A1entiQ()s is obsessed with her: she influences life in the palace only through the longing she impifei in the distressed husband. For it i.5 clear that H elene's opaCIlCI is not "external" and "real". It is a common mistake to assume that in Aischylos all phan toms and the like are as "real" as the Erinyes in his Eumenides; SOT1U! of them are as subjective, as psychogenic, as the Erinyes of Euripides' Omlts. 176 This view, supported by my interpretation of the implications of ~I, pennits one to reject decisively the occasionally still expressed theory that the opaCIlO is H elene's well-known Stesichorean E1&.lAOV. Fraenkd rightly questions this view, stressing that the Stesichorean d8wAOV is a "mythical miracle" while this opaq.ta is a "general and purely human experience". An additional argument is provided by lw()--apparently overlookedaspectli of the d8w).ov story. No venion, be it early or late, so much as hints that Helene's d8wAOV lingered on in Menelaos' palace after her flight- for the simple reason that it came into being only llfttr her elopement. Furthermore, Ihe fint text in which Menelaos is explicitly said to have met- though only at Troy and during part of his homeward voyage - H elene's e18wAov, is Euripides' Helme (vv. 582 fT. ), and there is no indication that Euripides borrowed this detail from anyone clse. I note, however, that when the real Helene fint id entifies herself to Menelaos, he is afraid and thinks she is a phantom (opaclla, E. Hel. 359)·177 Be that as it may, it is possible-but not more than possible-that Aischylos used the word ¢C\.lCl because he remembered the tale of Helene's dBwAov. II is, however, not only logically preposterous, but also thoroughly unpoetic to hold that he meant to suggest that H elene's nal double continued to rule the palace in an operationally meaningful way. This being said, I would go one step further than Fraenkel, while still remaining within the bounds of a purely psychological conception of the genesis of this opaqla. Menelaos is pathologically depressed; bOlh his physical (O:
of an experimentally produced "sensory deprivation", notoriously capable of inducing hallucinations even in normal subjects (7, 83, 99, 100). In short, I hold that Menelaos is represented as actually hallucinating the longed-for absent Helene. Such "restitutive" hallucinations, which unconsciously seek to negate the loss (&lTICTOVC, supra), occur at times even in normal but deep grief. The mourner's attention is diverted from the external, sensible world, Thill ill con6rmed by the data cited in chap. 4. '" II ;1 an echo of the Aischylean 6w'p6opcnm>" that the Euripidean Helene at once a.!IIiUfCS Menela", that Ihe iI. DO nocturn&l apparilion (Wlt'TifW'Toc, E. Htf. 570) ? 170
Malenal
:Ie autor
Mmelaos' Reactive Depression and Dream which no longer contains the all-important lost beloved, to the inner world which preserves and keeps "available" her image-an image which is then restitutively " re-projected" into the "outer" world, in the form of a hallucination. HI This conception of the cpclclJ.a a5 Mmelaos experiences it, can comfortably co-exist with the notion that, as far as the Ch(l1os is concerned, the cpclCIJ.(l is a metaphorically worded conclusion, derived from the ungoverned paJace's disarray. Indeed, more than one passage ofvv. 41 0-426 implicitly contrasts the normal Choms' perception and definition of the situation with that of the pathologically depressed M enela();'l .l"79 (2) cpclCIJ.(l "" MenellUls, who is but a shadow of his former self. Taken in so narrow a sense, the idea does seem "prosaic" (Fraenkel), but it need not be so taken. Fraenkel also holds that the parallels usually cited in support of this view- and especially S. Phil. 994 and S. OC lC>9"-"are " not pertinent".11O Both Fraenkel and Denniston and Page feel that it is difficult to attribute such 'a meaning to the isolaled word cpclclJ.a; Fraenkel also urges that in the usually cited parallels the wording is more elaborate. I do not feel that these arguments are really decisive, even if cpclCIJ.CX is taken in the very pedestrian sense that Menelaos, exluJusud by grief, is now but a shadow of his fonner self. I think that cpclclJ.a ha5 far broader implications, not only in this passage, but in general- implications which culturally detennined scotomata cause us to ignore. What I am about 10 say is so contrary 10 our thought hahill that I mU5t kad up gradually to my interp~tation. I begin by noting a self-evident fact: in Greek thought the behaviour of the non-violent insane is very similar to that of the shades. The behaviour of Tithonos-an admirably described case of senile dementia (Hom. h. Ven. 233 ff.)-greatly resembles tha t of Patroklos' ghost at the end of Achilleus' dream (Hom. II. 23.99 fr. ) or tha t of the gibbering shades of the Nekyia (Hom. ad. I I , passim). A seer can see as gibbering shades even men who are still alive, but whose irresponsible behaviour has doomed them {Hom. Od. 20.345 ff.)-and it is of spttial interest that, once they are slain, their shades do behave (Hom. Od. 24. 1 fr.) very much the way the seer antidpaloriiy saw them. This similarity between the seer's vision of the behaviour of the doomed and the actual behaviour of their shades proceeding to H ades is explicable in terms of a peculiar Greek thought pattern. (a ) It equates the state of 1M doomed with the state to whith they are doomed jill (b) Even an outcome as yet only predicted by an omen {Hom. ad. '" While editillg his po!Ithumow book, I repeatedly "consulted" Ihe late Professor R. Linton in dream. ,-" Cpo especially vv. 41&-417. , .. Other possible pan.lleb ofluch a type are: Pi P. 8.95 f.; A. Ag. 79, 839; S. Aj. 1<15 f.j E. PMin. 1543, etc. III Theocr. !l. II O Simaitha rompara he"l!lf to a mere wAll puppet (&ayo;rc). 111 E. AI.::. provides sevenl examples. At v. 387, A1kestis "")'I: "You can""y tha i I no longer exist"; al v. 5<17 me I laIO : " The olle doomed III die iJ dead." AI v. 434 AdmetOl laYS of the IliIlliving Alkestil: " She alone JUri ill my place."
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
M enelMs' R4lUtivt Depression and Dream 20.121 r.), or an action planned but never executed, is at times spoken of as having been ~ rformed;iU (e) A person wrongly believed to have died mus t undergo symbolic rebirth (Plu. Q.R. 4, p. 264C If.; cpo also chap . B) . One cannot even object that the doomed sui tors of the Odyss{)' arc mortal, while Menelaos will be translated alive ill the Elysian Fields (Hom. Od. 4.560 If. ), for Tithonos could be said to be even more immortal than Menelaos. More important still is that, in some Greek texts, the behaviour and mood impuud to certain shades is barely, ifat all, diltinguishable from the /Utual behaviour and mood of real mourners (E. AI&. 347, etc.). The best example is Achilleus' state and mood in H ades (Hom . Od. It . 488 fr. ). Conversely, the inevitable result-and implicit purpose-of many mourning customs is to make the mourners' life as j oyless as that of the shades is believed to be. ln The ultimate equivalence of the mourner and of the one he mourns for is underscored by the belief that one can die in someone else's place. This belief is reflected not only by myths l804 but also by the convictions of historical personages.185 Such beliefs are not limited to G reek culture and are, moreover, encountered also in clinical practice.l86 H aving indicated the similarity of behaviour of mourners and shades and the equivalence of the mourner and the deceased, I must now scrutinize more closely the behaviour of shades, which closely resembles that of the non-violent, depressed insane, such as Tithonos. The facts can be stated even more pointedly: already in H omeric poetry the shades behave "abnormally" in terms of human standards; they gibber, they drink raw blood,1B7 etc. In short, the conduct of shades b that of human madmen.l88 Now, since the behaviour of moumers is similar to that of the shades- with whom they identify themselves to the point of seeming at times possessed by theml89_ it is both culturally and "psychologically" appropriate to apply to a depressed mourner the term cp6:C)lO:, which can also denote a shade. In other words, Menelaos can be viewed as a cp6:q.to: not only because, exhausted and made ineffectual by his grief, he is only "a ghost of hb former self" but, above an, bet:ause his pallwlogitolly '" c po chap. I , nole '7. "' Cpo AdmelOll' claboralc mourning projects in E. Ale. 3~8 fr. II< A1k.,.li, di.,. in AdmcIOII' pIa.,., (E. Ale.) ; Cheiron renounces hi5 immortality in favour of Prometheus (Apollod. 2'~'4, II ). '" Am.. Aris t~jd ..., the ncurotic chronic invalid, firmly belicval that variou. persons dUM: whim h.II.1 olio:<.l iu hi> .lc:-.. ol- .. f....,1 rcyc;olo:<.lly mCUliu",:d by Behr <5, pp. 9, 97; cpo Aristid . .5.~.5, ctc.). ,.. A paticnt reported thai during his adol escence he believed Ihal, for compl icated I~tistical reasons, eilher hc or his be'll fricnd had to dic prt:maturt:ly. He was unable 10 recall whclher hc had formed this conviction WOrt: or aftcr hi! friend'. prClll.BlUrC dealh . lIT The drinking of raw bull's blood waJI believed to be lethal (Plu. V. 17rem. 3 ' .5). '" I dcmoll$U'atcd on two occasions (49, 51 ) that the behaviour of all . upernatural bei"," is cxplicitly or implicitly considered "mad" by ordinary ltUIMn standards, aJI is colUidered insanc thc behaviour of human beings in
Mnultro$' Reactive DejJTession and Dream intensive mourning makes him as "abnormal" as Greek shades were believed to be. (g) ip6q.La = Helene as miJnifested through M eneilllJs. I specify at once tha t I do not mean: "An apparition (Helene) will seem to rule the house, by reason of his (Mcnelaos') longing for her (Helene) who i5 oversea.s." (Denniston and Page somewhat strenuously urge that Greek idiom will not admit this meaning.) As already indicated, our key data--our most productive data-are that: (a) Equally competent Hellenists could argue in favour of either the q.6qla = Helene notion or the q.6q.lO = Menelaos interpretation, and (b) Grammatical objections (of admittedly limited persuasiveness) can be cited against either of these two interpretations. These findings suggest that, since the two existing alternatives seem to be equally probable and (grammatically) equally questionable, Aischylos - who knew Greek better than any modern scholar can possibly know ithad a purpose in choosing this ambiguous wording. I repeat : it is safer to credit Aischy!os with a superbly contrived ambiguity than to tax him with a slipshod one. I hold that in this passage Aischylos simply evokes--or conjures up-a state of affairs which each reader or theatre-goer can apprehend in the manner which is most likely to move him. For one, the most moving image is that of a pathologically depressed Menclaos, similar to a shade : mad, shadowy and ineffectual. Another will be most deeply stirred by the belief that a restitutively hallucinated Helene rules the palace. l90 There is evidence that Greek pocl.3 so worded certain passages as to permit the reader to understand them in accordance with his preferences. 191 For me, the most logical- and most moving---conception is that Helene is hallucinated (as an internal parasite) by Menelaos who, by hallucinating her, not only becomes himself like unto a phantom, but also mediates his hallucination to his household. In the negative sense, this means that the house hold is adrift, as though a mere phantom held the reins: little of what should normally be d one is accomplished- and even less is done well. But in the positive sense, much of what is happening, much of what is done, is done in response to-as a consequence of-Menelaos' total absorption with the hallucinated phantom of Helene. Other-"ise expressed, the neglect of usual tasks is attributable both to the absence of the nesh-and-blood Helene and to Menclaos' stupor. But many unusual activities occur in response to Menelaos' hallucination of Helene. Both the neglect of ordinary tasks and the performance of non-routine acts, in response to the new situation: to Mene!aos' grief and to his hallucinating Helene, can be metaphorically described as resulting from the governing of the palace by a q.6c~a.192 What must be avoided at an cost, is the Cpo my argumena against 3$luming that a " real" phantom of Helene ill weant. Cpo my discussion of Pi. O. 3·~7 (35) • ... A oom~whal pedestrian anal<>gY will clarify my meanina: : th~ hOUlehold of a newly bereaved husband ",iII neglect routill~ a<:tivitieo; ;t will not SWttp the rooms nOr c:ooIt regula. meab. ilU/lad, ;\ will perform many non·ro\ll;ne a<:I; ";lies, ouch.., .:omforting the bereaved, fending off intruding vi&;tors, el<:. I .. lJI
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
M ellelaos' &attivt Depression and Dream
'"
notion that others also see the
Invests with affect, bttomes preoccupied with.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Metu[Q()$' Reattivt Depression and Dream compensates one in port for the "humiliation" any loss involves. Indeed, since the lost one now "exists"-as an introject- "inside" the mourner's self, from which he can evoke the vanished one at will, the humiliation is, at times, partly replaced by a kind of grandiosity, because the (inner) self now "contains" also what it formerly felt to be the most precious thing in the (outer) world. t96 But the coming into being of such an introject presupposes, as a matter of course, a Mcathecting of external stimuli, which continue to tempt the psyche to resume contact with reality. It also requires an almost obsessive clinging 10 this, by natu~ evanescent (cp. the dream), image of the lost one, which must compete with stimuli emanating from the real world for the occupation of psychic "space". In this sense, too, Menelaos' alienation from external reality is a kind of restitutive manreuvre, since his cherished "internal" Helene inevitably loses some of her intense psychological reality every time he pays attention to the external world . Last but not least, were Menelaos real, the clinician would expect- and find-that Menelaos had partly identified himself with this introje<:ted image. t97 Now, in so far as this introject is, so to speak, a "phantom", M enelaos who harbours it and who (partl y) identifies himself with it, also partakes of the nature of a phantom. It suffices to recall in this context what was said above about the similarity between the behaviour the Greeks impu.ted to the dead and the behaviour they expected from the mourners. In short, whether one holds, as I do, that Menelaos actually hallucinates tlelene, or assu me:! only that he "introjectc:d" her image wit h out (hallucinatorily) re-projecting it into the "external" world, Aischylos' use of the word 1p6:q.ta in this passage is fully justified by psychiatric considerations. 4/6 EV~v 6t KOhOCcWV = the shapeliness of statues; this is the most natural and only app ropriate translation. The word order stresses the quality of the statues more than their natu.re and an analysis of v. 417 will justify this emphasis. Hence, the nature of the statues is of seconda ry importance, though some commentators focus their attention only on KOAOCcWV and indulge in complicated speculations regarding their nature. All noted, the real objective ofvv. 416 f. is to tell something about MenelaO!>, rather than about the statues. This fits, as noted, the fact that vv. 412- 426 are concerned entirely with Menelaos: they list his symptoms, which are made perceptible by the situation in which he finds himself and by the petSOl).S and things which surround him, and to which he reacts. For these reasons I deal only briefly with suggestions regarding the ,.. Thi. is 10 be taken quite literally. When a certain young man', greatly idealizM girt·frieod ~haved in a qui t e un· ideal manner, he lold hu; "Go away and do nOI disturb my happy dream. of you." Compare also the pride ofth....., who knr::w penonally a defunct great man; also the descent of the Holy GhOilt on the Apostles. '07 Cpo infra, my discussion of v. 418. A primitive humer may eat Ihe heart ofa .Iain lion, 10 "" 10 be«>me Iion.like hinuclf. Cpo abo the pioUll ealing oflhe corp5a of dcce»ed relatives, Hdl. 3.99and amoogsloonlemporaryprimitiva (77) . Thisarchaicnolion appean 10 have inspired cerlain modern experiments, which allegedly .how thaI t'"ltming is al leasl facilitated if the experimental ani mat is fed Ihe brains of an already taught animal. I hasten to add that the nsults of these experiments are highly controversiaL
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
Mnulm:Js' Reactiw Deprtssion and Dream nature of these 1<:0Aocooi. The correct definition is that given by Fraenkel: they are statues of lovely girls; Attic I<:opcd, such as adorned Athens, particularly during Aillchylos' you th. lin It is important that even though the sculptors of 1
non and Achilleus, he hall no camp-roncubine. '" For th., data. cpo Fraenkel, Vanant (136, pp. 251-:164) and th., anci.,nt SOun:es and modem authoritia they quote.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
"4
MeulQlJS' Reactive Deprusirm and Dream
I begin by brieRy recalling some facts: (a) KOAOCOOC appears to be a pre-Greek word. (b) It did not acquire the meaning of "colos:!al" until the KOAOCcOc of Rhodos was buil t, long after the-death of Aischylos. (c) Herodotos ap plies this tenn only to certain Egyptian stames 20' never to G reek ones.
(d) Disregarding Egyptian statues and late Greek "colossal" ones, the tenn is known to have been applied in early times onfy to the improvised, crude figures used in calling the dead at K yrene,206 and to crude wax figu rines burned at Thera in ritual oathings involving a conditional curse of tkath. Nothing proves that the buried slabs of stone of Mideia (Dendra), or grave-sicks, were ever calltdKOAOcc6c (cp. LSJ s.v.). It is this last set of data which is most relevant in the present context. EUIJ6pv excludes the possibility that he had crude, real K07I.cx:col in mind, as the absence of a ny hint at magieal practices excludes the possibility that the Aischylcan J«)7I.ocool wei"C "magical dou bles".;!Ot Still another argument, which someone having only a nodding acquaintance with psycho-analysis might perhaps advance, mus t also be discarded. This argument would run: Menelaos refuses to become unfaithful to Helene even by admiring lovely statues; in so doing, he seeks to show her how she should have treated him. I hope that both what was said so far and what will be said in the next sec lion, will suffice to discard such an assumption. 41 7 Ex6n-oo X6:pLC wSpl = are hateful to the husband, i.e., to Menelaos ... and to no one else, for no one else's wife eloped to Troy. lO, Cp. lIbo D.S. 1.67.1 lind [.47 .2 and C. H . Oldfatber, ad loco I.. Adm~tos inl~nd.! 10 call OUI Alkatis' name while ~mbracing b~r stalU~ (E. Ak. 3:)1 )· •• , As Fraenkd poin u out, al.., witb "'illn! 10 A. A,. 45-4. ' " Also, linco: only love-magic could he ~nvisag~ h~"" One cannot..,., bow sttonal .o).o <eol could he used in trying 10 bring back o"t woman only. I n Theocr. ~. [[0, only one figurin~ (~c) is used. It is, moreo\'er, unimaginable tbal .o~o.ct:w could he a "generic plural" auch as those in vv. 410, 41~-'P3. E. Au. ,:;, doa not imply magic o r a ritIIGl caI.Iina of tho: dead.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
MIMUws' lUlUliDe Depression and Dream
"5
Before discussing this reaction, I note that it further militates against the "double of Helene" theory, for in Greek myth the portrait-statue (double) of a deceased penon can comforl nOI only Zeus (Finn. Mat. dt errOT. prof. rtl. 6, p. 15Z), Admetos (supra), Laodameia (supra), but even grieving dogs (Apollod. 3+4). The saddened, but not pathologically depressed, Choras ret:ognizes the objective beauty of the statues, which would delight any normal person. It is therefore precisely the abnormality- the paradoxical reaction-of Menelaos which it highlights by stressing, through the word order, that it is the beauty of the statues which Menelaos cannot bear. One can do no better than quote here a remark Murray ( 113, p. 33) made in another context: honey tastes bitter to a man ill with jaundice. Of course, one does not have to view Aischylos as a precursor of the Protagorean theory that man is the measure of allthingll. One need credit him only with the capacity to describe a common symptom of severe mourning reactions. And it is certainly a symptom he intended to describe, for I have shown long ago ('IB, chap. 3), that, in order to be able to provide (partial) relief from a pathological inner tension or conflict, a symptom must be 'socially negativistic": paradoxical, contrary to custom and provocative, be it only by its "absurdity". The Choros' objective definition of the statues as "beautiful" contrasts with Menelaos' subjective and "absurd" reaction.ZOII Culturally prescribed mourning rites often taboo everyt.hing beautiful and enjoyable, replacing at times something inherently beautiful with its deliberately fkgraded equivalent. 110 In E. Ale. 430 fT., Admctos forbids all pleasant things for a year. But such taboos, though cultu:rally imposed, also meet psychological needs more than halfway. E. Ale. 434 fT. appears to imply not only a loss of the capacity for enjoyment, but also, I feel, a negative reaction to beauty, which , in extreme mourning, can be experienced as excruciatingly painfu1.21l Though such reactions, even in Menelaos' case, are in part simply tokens of a "morose delectation", which invo lves at times a bitter and almost spiteful augmentation of one's distress,2l2 the mourner's reaction to beauty is rooted in Beauty's very nature and meaning. Beauty appears to be intolerable at the /Kak of a great grief (though it can subsequently provide cOrrUort), partly because it mobilizes deep emotions at a moment when one's best defence against grief is selfanaesthesia-a total psychic numbness. For, as Hanm Sachs ( 13l ) put it: - The Ume COn'..... between 'he objec,;ve ChorOl· apc<:latio"," and M~n~laOl· actual iubj ectiv~ rapoll$C, is also manifat in Q).0150j>0vc (supra). II. E. Ai<. 4'a5 If.: Human being. arxl ~v= hona are 10 made ugly by shearing. On Good Friday, Greek Orthodox churcha rcplacc Ihc musical ringing of bells with a nonmusical ("pi lchlest" ) rhythmi c hammn-ing on plaob. Cpo al!l(l the "mufflrd drums" of military fun"rals. m A distinguished and very mwicat sciemist tost his wif" afl". n"arly fifly y..an of happy married life. For many montll'l he not only found listening to greal music unbcarabl", bUI couid not ~voen hum, as was his habit, gT"at chwical mdodia whil" shaving. My own reactions to muoic aftn- a beloved dog'. death were similar. ~II Cpo a King making a "clean .Wttp·', by spitdully and ~lf-dd~atingly killing hillut .wviving bodyguard during his haldlong Hight. Wha t mat ten is nol 11,,, truth of the lIary, bUI the (aCI that 5uch behaviour was lwown 10, and und~tood by, the Grech.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
.. 6
Mnuiaos' Rltuliw Dtprwion and Dream
the: problem of beauty is not how to understand it, but how to endure it. The unbearahleness of beauty in great grief reveals, better than anything else, the power of great art- and of sexuality at its best-to move mankind. For I hold that it is not "piety", but the depth affeding a strongly ex~rienced embrace can mobilize, which explains why so many cuhures taboo love-making during periods of mourning.2ll In a sense, the points just made simply broaden the scope of Fraenkel's perceptive remark: "Every statue of a beautiful woman is more than the d eserted husband can bear, for it reminds him of her whom he has lost." Indeed, one can, on the basis of psychological considerations only, and without anachronistically imputing to Aischylos a true anticipation of Platon's theory of forms,lJ4 assert that in so Jar as Helene's main- and almost only-quality is that she is the perfect prowtyjJt of feminine beauty, Menelaos would experiencc any statue of a lovely girl as an attenuated "portrait" of Helene. It would elicit, albeit with a sense of longingm for the more perfe{;t original, t he kind of reaction Helene herself would elicit. However, since the real Helene had grievously offended Menelaos, hi; negative reaction to these statues can be viewed in port also as an unconscious manifesta tion of his inhibited anger (aAOI56povC) which, as will shortly be seen, manifests itself also in his dream . The fact that even a widower- not cynically desened by a beloved but despicable wife--can react negatively to beauty is no counter-argument, for the irrational unconscious-and sometimes even culture (89)--can view death as a (bitterly resented) "voluntary" desertion. Thu finding is highly relevant in the present context, for an unconscious resentment towards a real "deserter"-or even towards a person whose death the unconscious fhfints as a desertion-often manifests itself in oven or symbolic aggression towards objects connected with that person.116 Such a "counter-aggression" permits one to vemilate one's anger, while denying any hostility to the "beloved" (&AoISOpovC). In short, it is on the subjet/iut (psychological) and nol on the cultural (magical) level that these statues are txpnienctd by Menelaos as genuinebut inadequate- "doubles" of H elene. This explains why Aischylos ,host to designate them by the tefITI KOAoccol ." This hypothesis is inl~nded 10 I~nd furth~r su pport 10 F...,ud'. Iheory thai th~ eJ("Ihis is beauliful" is derived from Ihe experience: "Ihis is lexually arousing" (68, p. [S6, not~ ~). A CUriOUl happening will confino [his. Some yean ago, I Will asked, at the last moment, to deliver a lecturc on love, before a professional audience. Having had no time to prepa..., the lectu~, I read , with only lIight chango, my paper on art (30). simply .<:placing the word "art" with "Iovc". ,,, Vo.'hich I totally reject. . '" Cpo infra: ax'lvia,c. ,,. A da<:rted Or disappointed, but still enamouud, lover frequently 1050, mislays or deltroys "accidcntally on purpose" the gifts or photographs of an unfaithful belovmoften in a mimner which greally imxmvenicnces him: ( I) I analysed cl5cwhere (41) the mislaying ofa photograph, madc possible only by the sinwltantollS miaJaying oran urg<:ntly nttded book. (lI) A young man, tonn~nted by his capricioUl and promiM:uoUl girl-friend, fint "mislaid" a cigarette hold~r shc had givcn him and. after finding it again, "accidentally" bit down on it hard enough to break it- and tochip a tooth .... well. The mourner identilio himse:f with the dead- be inflicu pain on th~ "desener" by, e.g., beating his own breast. peri~nce:
. atenal
~
ethos :Ia al.llor
MtntlQlJS' RtactilJt Dtprtssion and Drtam
"7
- ; lloe corrCCI unde rstanding of vv. 418-419, which desc ribe the culminating symptoms of Menelaos' waking state. 418 6111Krrwv 5' tv axl1V!OOC deno tes some deficiency of M enelaos'22t eyes. Some hold , however, that the eyes are those of: (I) The statues,211 or of (2) The absent Helene-eyes which normally radiate her beauty (A. Ag. 742),22) or of (3) Both H elene and M enelaos. 224 I will justify my view that ?l.1enelaos' eyes are meant, further on. There is a lso disagreement over the kind of deficiency the word axl1viat c-a word whose use in this passage strikes Groeneboom as "strange" -denotes. Ancient lexicographers glo$$ it aJ arropia: or Trwla: (strai ts, difficulty, need, want). This word often denotes a partial or rt/atilJt deficiency only.m (I) Mazon translates: " [Ies statues] n'ont pas d 'yeux"; but statues tW have eye!. (2) Dennislon and Page suggest that the eyes are the least lifelike part of a statue. But Ihe painld eyes of Greek statues were sufficientl y lifelike to dispense early Gree k sculptors from having to invent the technique of hollowing out the irises.126 ." A near-psychotic jazz musician fdt that the late jan su:ophonillt Charlie Parker W3.5 God and actually praym to him. H is subjedit"f and deviant behniour can only be de""ribed by using the cullurdlterm " worlhip" in a quite literal ..,IIK. ". A ""tient, bon> in Grcat Britain but .aioed in America, one day ,aid "bectle" where American w.age would eall for "bug". Qu."tioned on Ihis poin t, he fint attributed his choice to his British background. However, his very next associations made it dear, It'nl 10 him, Ihat he had said "beetle" in Ot"da 10 lWtJid saying "bug", which had anxietyarousing overton." for him ("bugger", a British lerm). m Similarly, agirl complained that her uftk oid and drprtJ.Stdlove. handled he. body as though it w~ simply "meat" (MI: A."h). no I am indebted for Ihis Jugg."lion 10 my alUd enl, M. Alain Sotto. U1 Butler, AhreN, Kennedy. Naselabach, Wrd.lein, Wilamowi~, Smyth, Fraenkd. Ul Klausen, Hermann, Schij~, Muon, Thomson, Dennistnn and Page. n, Heath, Sidgwick, H eadlam, G r""neboom. lH Verrall; he postuJat." an inltnlitmdl ,·aguen.,.., on the basis of a ua&Oning which I seem unable 10 gr3.5p and therefnre cannot discu.u. us Cpo LSJ: 6:rrop1" is absolute only when further qualified (.mopJ" "V«). But cpo A. CIw. 185: Ihinty (al..,.",) lean ( _ tean of Inng;",) . ... A minor oddity of the "eyca of ualua " interpretation is ita incompatibility wilh
nB
Mtntla(JS' RttUtivt Depression. and Dream
(3) Others hold that the absent Helene's eyes are meant- an absence which Menelaos experiences as a need. T his sttnu too complicated and I am not even sure that this idea is compatible with the text. All these alternative interpretations are inspired by the easily documentable211 Greek view that the eyes stimulate love. For the moment I note one objection only: despite or because of the absence or lifelessness of /kse " eyes", Menelaos' ardour is unabated: hils dream is erotic. It is necessary to prepare the ground for my discussion by formulating two general principles: ( I) When, in a descriptive (non-gnomic) passage, a great poet suming?J fails to identify explicitly the "thing" he mentions, what he says about it wually permits a precise identification of that "thing".228 (2) When a great poet is, in fact, ambiguous, the ambiguity always serves a poetic objective (35, 59). Since, in this passage, an ambiguity cannot be shown to serve poetic ends, VerraH's ambiguity hypothesis becomes untenable. What is required at thill j uncture is a logical anal ysis of what Aischylos actually says in this passage-because, as a superb realist and psychologist, he could say nothing else. ( I) Throughout vv. 410-4 19, all statements consist of two verses onl y. One may therefore even consider replacing the comma at the end ofv. 417 with a period- at least mentally. (2) The subject (in the nominative) of the sentence is "Aphrodita". Whatever happens to "her", happens only because of a " deficiency" of (or: in) the eyes. The logic of these venes is the same as that of vv. 414415 ; the fint verse specifies the on·going (affective) cause of the d evelop. ments described in the second verse. (3) Vv. 41B-419 descri be an on-going proctss. Something is currently happening to "all of Aphrodita", because something has happened- and continues to happen- in (6' tv) the eyes. However: (a) Nothing happened to Helene's eyes-they simply shine now in Tro y. The expression 6' tv does not fit the view that their passi ng outside M entlaos' visual field is m eant. (b) The statues' eyes did nol change, for they can/lOt change objectitoely. If they do not radiate love now, they never did, for what is not, cannot cease to be. Two possible objections can easily be disposed of: (a) Like the statues as a whole, their eyes suddenly ceased to appeal to Menelaos. If so, only Menelaos' "eyes" have changed. This implies, moreover, that vv. 41 B-419 simply duplicate vv. 41 6-417, which describe the purely perceptual degrada tion of the (o bjectively still beautiful) statues. ( ~) Helene's flight made her statues comparable to an "empty" statue, oniin"ry experience, for il t"citly impli ... th"t, while H elene wu Itill with McnclaOl, the eyes ofthc . t.a.tue:s-r"th". th"n Hdc:n,,·, o,,"n- noused hi, passion. It is only wh"n a beloved wife is ,.bJent that th" h tl!band is Itimula.tM by h". "p7 The array oflexU dtM by T homson is mOSI im pressi,·c-Ihough quile inappropriate in the present oontat (infra). Cpo abo L. Malien (108). no Sina, in Alcm. Jr. '.::'9. the Kolaxaian horse rq>rucnu a 1_& girl, lhaC horse cannot be th" Iwmely Mongol pony; it un only be the fumds_ Ferghana.typc racer (3.11).
• atenal
~
edXlS de al.ltof
MerlelDOs' Reaeliw Depression and Drtam
"9
in which the deity does not dwell. But there is no evidence that a li~ mythical perwn could ever "animate" his or her own portrait-statue,2Z1I Also, a reference to an "empty" statue would be anachronistic. That notion appears to be post-Aischylean and probably H ellenistic (Suid. s.v. Heraiskos). (4) There is a marked logical progrusion in vv. 41 0-426: though each detail presupposes the one which precedes it, and prepares the ground for the one which follows it, the poet never hack-tracks. H owever, (a) If H elene's eyes are meant, vv. 41 8-419 would hearken back directly to vv. 414- 415; (b) If the statues' eyes are meant, vv. 418-419 would simply "explain" vv. 416--'P7, which- incidentally- require no explanation. This notion would also disrupt the logical progression in a rather absurd manner: the unattractiveness of the statues in their entire!), would be "explained" by the relative deficiency of Ollt part of the statues: their eyes.2JO Logic dcmands that vv. 418-419 should not constrict and particularize, but rather generaliu and txpand the statement made in vv. 416- 417 about a particular (statues). Vv. 416--417 "explain" vv. 4t8- 4t9-not vice versa. (5) The passage a.s a whole lists increasingry severe symptoms. Now, since vv. 416--417 describe Menelaos' hatred of the statues, the tension would decrease if vv. 418-419 were held to describe me rel y an indifference toward the eyes of the statues. This indifference could represent an "escalation" of M enelaos' dislike of the statues only if it encompasses all external reality.2lt Contextual considerations make it mandatory to conclude that Menelaos' "eyes" have. in some respect, become " deficient"-and this quite apart from the fact that only his "eyes" can "change" . ( I) VV. 410-426 describe Menelaos' state onry: his reactions, or his failure to respond- which, psychologically, is also a kind of "response". Other things are mentioned only in order to highlight the abnormality of M enelaos' reaction to thcm.212 (2) They make no pS)'chological statement about anyone else. Thus, vv. 4'4- 4' 5 mention H elene's physical absence only in order to highlight Menelaos' reaction to it. There is not even a pa.W.ng allusion to Helene's psychological stale in Troy.m Even ,he eloped Helene's former love ror Menelaos ("tAavopEc) was mentioned only in order to underscore the magnitude or Menelaos' loss. (3) Vv. 412- 4'9 deal with psychiatric symptoms only- and nothing "psychiatric" can be said about anyone except Menelaos. (4) Something quite striking can, however, be said abou t the eyes or a '" No mythical statue c... cr "behaved" JptmlantalU/y, in an optralilmaJ!! specifiablc ~1lJC. E"cn Prolesilaos' and Alkcstis' ltatues had to be "quickened" by drea.rtu and by phyoical contact. ""It makes ~nse 10 say: '" dislikc Kriliu-in fact, , loathe all tyranu." It is poor logic to tay: " I hale tyran~Krilias beha"ed ohjectionably toward EuthydemOl" (X. MntI. r.a.~9 f. ). m For this meaning of "lie' 'A~IT", cpo my oommenu on .... ,pg. '" It is the "beauty" of the !latues ..... hich mak"" it ob,oio .... that Menelaos' dislike of
them is pathological. H) Thil is significant, lince vv. 406-.j.07 represen' her as irresponlibly casual, while Hom. II. 3.171 ff. (and passim) stresses her reman<: and 5hame.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Mmelaos' Reactive DtlJTtss£on and Dream deeply di.,turbed man. A Greek poet would have had to be both singularly unobservant and ignoran t of tradi tion, had he failed to nOle an emotionally deranged person's abnormal gaze.B4 (5) A failure 10 include so striking a detail into a list of symploms would run counter to the Greek poets' tendency to list all of a dislUrbed person'51 '5 salient symptoms and to describe them well (Ps.-Long. 15.1 )-too well, in fact, for Platon 's taste (PI. Rmp. 396a, f. ). (6) The appearance of a severely depressed person's eyes is characterized by a " deficiency". His eyes are du1l2J(l and usually immobile. They also seem "sightless",217 for the depressed mourner's attention is focused e ntirely~and even obses.osively- on the " internalized" image of the lost beloved,m with whom he identifies himself. In short, the eyes (qua organs) arc: deficient in lustre and animation; their gaze is also deficient, for it resembles that of a sightless person.2J9 In fact, under the impact of a sudden and brutal loss, the depressed may stumble about like a blind man. Though, neurophysiologically, the depressive in a state of shock does "see", he collides with people and things as though he did not. I note only in passing that the eyes of the depressed sometimes become fleetingly reanimated and seem to search avidly240 for the beloved (or her '¢:C\.lcx)-but, since the beloved is not there for him to see, his gaze soon turns inward once more. This too leads up, both poetically and logically, to the real meaning of v. 419; The appearance of Menelaos' eyes betrays his lack of interest in what surrounds him. They arc: lacking in sparkle and animation, for their gaze is turned inward : toward the absent Helene', " internalized" image. This interpretation would be correct even if it were held that ¥Y. 414 f. describe a re-projection of Hc:lene's image into the "outer" world, in the form of a '¢:C\.lo- which, incidentally, would imply a blurring of the boundary between "inside" and "outside" W-ofa boundary which plays a crucial role in normal psychological functioning (supra). '" IIwu Pmi< fro 5: .... ias' eye<; E. HF: Herakla' eye<, well diM:waed by Blaiklock (9, chap. 7) ; E. Alc. 385 : Ii):Tlvla transtates v . •p8 ao: blank gaze. m But this does not justify Vernant'. (136, '.1.61, note 3'l) attempt to bring the blind seer Teiraiu into the picture. '" Cpo my comments On vv. 4t4- 4t5 and On v. 419. ". I liress thrse d eficieneie< mainly because Proforor LLoyd-Jone< rigbtly objects to the LSJ lranslation, in which " blank" gaze i., in the IiUMi sense, a positive (though bad ) "quality" and not a "lack", ". " H unger" (Smyth ), "starving" (l'raenkeJ ) . ..I Already Edward Tylor (/34) IU8Kated Ihal belief in ("eKlemal" ) ghOoots is derived from ("internal") dreams about the dead .
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
MtMlaos' &tUtive Dtpressitm 41Id Dream
'"
What really matters is that even a re-projecting of Helene's internalized image into the "outer" world, in the fonn of a visual hallucination (q>O:Q.La), may be unable to dicit enough real affect in Mcnelaos to "quicken" his eyes.2-4l His preoccupation with lhis hallucination may even increase Mene1aos' depressive " lack of animation" (general psycho-motor retardation) .
Appmdix ( I) Smyth and Fraenkel translate OxT]vicnc as "hunger" or "starving". This translation, though semantically unjustifiable, does reflect the principal p~hologjcal "overlone" of the moumer's experience of need (and loss). H e regressivelY experiences the loss of love as a (pregenital) oral frustra tion : as hung~r.Ul Even cannibalistic fantasies can occur in mourning (33), for the " internalization" of the lost person is experienced as a restitutive " oral incorporation". In depressive neurosis (7 / ) and even in funeral rites (Hdt. 3.99), the "loss of love" is oflen compensa ted by overeating; the affect-hunger is regressively replaced by food-hunger, which often has cannibalistic overtones.2oU Self-starvi ng in mourni ng2.J can be interpreted as an unconscious defence against "restitutive" cannibalisticnecrophagic aavings. This summary statement suffices for present purposes, since the nexus between mourning and abnormal feeding patterns (including hunger) i.o; brought to one's atten tion not by Aischylos' own text but by its (interpretative) translation. 246 (2) It is pomble to explain_ at lea.t tentatively and in part-why, apart from metrical considerations, Aischylos preferred the word OxT]vla to &TropIa or TrEvla. His choice appears to have been partlY determined by a "clang association".lo47 Given the affinities of poetry-and especially of a choral ode-with music, it stands to reason that the poet will choose words not only on the basis of their conceptual content, but also on tha t of their acoustic kinship with other words whose meaning has certain cor.ceptual affinities with that of the word he actually selects. This procedure has nothing in common with the "clang-associatioll5" of a schizophrenic's discourse, in which the (logically spurious) linking of successive words, in tenns of their acoustic .., An afl'l!Clivoly frozen. deprcssffl and schizoid patien t claimed th aI his visual fanta.ies - A' onrr. nhlr",n". fM'TV~rl..n, udi"ic and ~v~n "mnn,lmll'" in .h" " ('"".hi" k" """ ... ru.h ..
word-filled him wilh "terror". BUI he described th em in a mechanical, nlfrr:tI#ss toue of voice; his facial expression remained ..... ooden and, ..... hen pressed for comments, he would reply: " T h..., f.n,uies and visions mean nothing to me; li k., everylhing ebe, they ~m very remote from me" (34, 37) . ... T he G~b .....ere aware of Ihe m«hanism 01' r"llrO$ion : A. A.f. 75 compaTel Ihe old 10 children. Platon (/.g. 67~c) even appea rs 10 hne scnsed Ihat al! psychologica l di uu rb_ ances involve IOlIle regression to earlier '.,ays of being • ... Thus, Demeler'. mourning explain. her cannibaliution of Petops (Pi. O. 1.40 fT. j, elC. A man' .....i.e loved apples ; he detested them. Bul during her one long ab!.ence he ate them wi th pleasure-"on her behalf". , .. Achilleus: H om. II. 19.346; Demeter: H om. k. Or. lIOO fT. , etc• ... I hope to publish eventually the considerable amounl of chullical, primitive, and cl inical data I have alSCmbled on ritual, mythical, fantasied and real feeding disturbances in actual, delayed and neurotic mourning, in a separate study • .. , This i. oonunon in CreeIr: poetry, though I canno t cite here other examples.
Mmtlaos' Reactive D epression and Drtam
'"
affinities only, brings into being an almost exclusively acoustic "continuity" of the text. This, in turn, produces an irrational and impoverished, because conceptually d iscontinuous, discourse.2d By contrast, even though the poet's choice of one word in preference to another (of similar meaning ) may be secondarilY determined by that word's acoustic affinities with another, conceptually alro appropriate, word, his choice deepens and enriches his discourse by means of acoustic evocations of relevant, related ideas. It is po~ib le, therefore, that Aischylos chose the word IXxT1V(QlC because of its acoustic affinities with Oxciw (or 6:xtw) "" grieving, mourn-
ing. 249 419 fppEl ".5:c· 'Afp05 !Ta is psychologically straight out of Freud, since Aphrodite stands here for what ~he 5tands for in Empedokles (frr. 16-18, 71-75, 86-B7, 95, 98, 128, 151 OK), and what Eros or libido stands for in Freud: that which lends the world around us not only the quality of beauty but even the quality of uality and ,elefJtJTlCe. It 5ignifies that the resonance of affecl5 gives emotional reality to the sense perceptions. In technical terms, a world animated by this Aphrodite is a world "cathecled (invested) with libido". A decathected world- like Hades-i5 colourless, irrelevant and even intellectually just barely apprehended (Luc. Cal. 22 ). As one of my patients put it: "I can see- I know- that this armchair is red, but I do notful its redness. It is all very remote from me."HO The preceding verso- which reveal MenelaQ!l' 10$.'l of interC!5t in a reality so "flattened" that it can no longer feed the hunger of his eyes- prepare us for this bitter summing up. This reaction is not onl y psychiatrica!ly predi c table ; it is also manifestly Greek. Admetos says much the same to the dying Alkestis: "You have taken from me the delight of life."2JI The word lppel substantiates this interpretation: Fraenkel rightly insists that lppt\ implies both a degradation and a ruinous-and a t times violent--disappearance. It therefore both hearkens hack to Helene's abduction- which Menelaos would no doubt like to imagine as involuntaryHL-and anticipates her "flight" in dream (425- 426). This degradation of reality, its loss of relevance, is an inevitable result of Menelaos' turning inward . Aischylos even makes it clear that Aphrodite's disappearance is not an objective event. It is a consequence of Menelaos' reaction . It ;sfo, him onry that Aphrodite has disappeared. The world has no psycho-affeclive reievtJTlCe other than the one our cathecting it wiih libido attributes to it. This verse is the proper climax of vv. 415- 419 and opens the way for Menelaos' .., A self-diagnoscl schizophrenic even publi$hed a kind of schizoph renic Iheory of Language (rlll'). _It is quile improbable that he was (even unconsciously) Itimulated by ~'1v("\c's extremely faint acoustic affinitiel with 6:xl p\c ( = the white poplar, of infernal nrigin) or with 'AXlpv ( _ a river of the Nether World) • . .. Such remDrK. are commonly made by depressive palienll. '" E. Ak. 347: a. yQj> IlOU TIP'+"v 1~.(M>v ~IDV. III This conception underliel Stmch.J•. '5 P and DII myth . of her "double" ( E. Htl., etc.), as well as pa»agel which emphasize that she was a helpl .... victim of Aphrodite's will (Hom. Qd. <13.<1<1<1 fr., on which..,., (,8); E. T •. 9+8 fr., 10,P f., Nc.; Corg. He/.
fr.
II
n ._K.).
'alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
MnulmJs' lUat/ive Depression and Dream dream- for the dream of a man no longer in affictive contact with reality. But it is abo this verse which fOn:!l hadows v. 426, as I read it : the degradation of Aphrodite anticipates the degradation of Helene's dreamapparition. m 420 6VEIp6cpCWTOI "" dream apparitions, clearly hearkens back to CT(~I (v. 411 ) and to opOclla (v. 415) and also to KOAOCCWV (v. 416) (Fraenkel). This, too, is an indication of the exceptionally great internal coherence of this whole passage. The repeated hearkening back to what went before and anticipation of what is to come gives this entire passage the taut and manifold internal logic of a strict fugue . I t will, moreover, be shown in a moment that the very next word, taken as Fraenkel takes it, furth er enhances the internal cohesion of vv. 41 0-426 , by linking the dream with Menelaos' d epression. 420 "TT"f'oI&TlIlOVfC "" mournful. 25-4 The crucial choice is between: (I) The view that this word describes H elene's appearance in dream (Denniston and Page). (2) The view that it represenl.5 the dream as a consequence (symptom) of Menelaos' reactive depression (Fraenkel) . .. and .as a cause of its intensification. It also foreshadows the frustration and v. 426. I will now discuss these views, indicating at once that I prefer Fraenkel's interpretation. ( I) Denniston and Page are psychologically correct in urging that Helene appears to M enelaos "as he would have her". Unfortunately, they then proceed to specify that Menelaos visualizes her in dream "not as she is, happily mated with Paris, but . .. sorrowful, returning in tears to her lost husband; and that is gratifying (XOpIV), however unreal (IlCXTalav)". (But cpo infra, v. 426.) It is not denied that Menelaos, particularly while awake, might wish a repentant Helene to return to him in tears. But, as indicated above (6:).,OtMpovc), Menelaos, like nearly all men in his situation, is ambivalent. His waking and relatively rational wish is replaced in dream by a less rational, more irntinctual wish. The crucial consideration is the erolic character of the opening scene of his dream, which begins with an attempted sexual embrace. This suggesl.5 that Mene1aos does not dream of a fUlure scene, for which there is no precedent. He dreams of a particular pseudo-future scene: of a restoration of the status quo ante, whose erotic character is anticipated by v. 411. I call this scene a pseudo-future one, because the unconscious (which fuels dreams) is "timeless" (Freud) : the desired. erotic union actually begins 10 happen in dream. Now, the fact that the dream-image of Helene is capable of triggering an erotic reaction sets certain limil.5 to the manner in which the appearance of that image may be visualized. What Denniston and Page seem to visualize is, mulalis mutandis, the kind of decorous scene depicted in Plu. V. Dion. 51 . I : Dion receives tenderly the Z>J Orph.fr. 347 (x.. pt:>v 6' 6AAII..,w..,v tppov 1fo:>'v.pyo< 'A6ftVTI), cil~ by Thonuon, does not support his view but mine: wilh Ihe loss of the (arlisan's) hands, peoonified slUJI
(Athene) is gone. , ... My objCCtiOlU to Housman'. gratuitous emcndalion of this word are relegated to footnote !N)!I:.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
MtMlo.os' Reactive Depression and Dream tearful Arete, whose adultery-unlike that of Helene-was involuntary. Such a scene could lead to an erotic union consolidating the reconciliation. But weighty reasons militate against this manner of visualising the Aischylean H elene's dream image. One must visualize a "sorrowful" H elene, " returning in tears" in tilt Aischylean manner. Now, Aischylean grief-reactions are nearly always extreme (18). A repentant and sorrowing H elene, as visualized by Aischylos, would not be a gently and humbly grieving woman. Aischylos would have fantasied a Helene frenzied with despair: dishevelled, clothes in disarray and eyes reddened with tears. He would have visualized her like his Kassandra (A . Ag. 1072 Jr. ) or like that of Euripides ( Yr. 306 if.). She would have resembled also Euripides' Phaidra (E. Hipp. 170 ff.), and even more his Antigone (E. Phoin. 1485 fr. ). I submit that a woman resembling a "bakcbante of death" (E. Phoin. 148g f. ) could not elicit a normal erotic reaction even in dream. Even less could a "properly" repentant Euripidean (E. Yr. 1025 fT.) Helene--one who meets H ekabe's standards. I concede, of coone, that Mykenaian wamon, as depicted by the poets, did rape distressed female captives.2S5 But such a deed is performed by hate-lilled men, drunk with blood, and not by grieving husbands like Menelaos- Ieast of all in an erotic dream that brings joy, however vain that joy may be.2~ In short, XOpIV-llaTa!av notwithstanding- automatically excludes an incipient erotic dream scene with a (characteristically Aischylean) despairing H elene, or even with a decorously tearful Ploutarc hean Arete. Hdene's drcam-imil.ge iI as ~ l.Ipremely 8edl.lctive ;u ever, at !caM at the beginning of the dream.ln The Denniston and Page interpretation of this word therefore cannot be retained either on the basis of literary considerations or on the basis of psychological experience. (2) Fraenkel holds that this word serves to represent the dream as one of the consequences of Menelaos' grief. This is psychologically inescapable, for Menelaos' dream has a psychological plausibility only if it is the noctu rnal counterpart of his waking depressive symptoms: if it climaxes, in a subtly conlr(1!ling way, the preceding enumeration of his symptoms. M oreover, it permits-and, indeed, almost obliges--one to visualize H elene's dream-image as totally enchanting and seductive, for, as said above, M enelaos' first "dream-wish" (Freud) is to restore the statu.s quo ante, with all its delights. Fraenkel further strengthens his case by stressing that E. Alc. 354 was not directly inspired by this Aischylean passage. H e insists that both passages simply reflect a basic human experience. In saying this Fraenkel, who professes to be sceptical of psychology, uses precisely the kind of realistic psychology commentaton of great poets should use- and so seldom do. '" Cp. the rape of Kasundra by the Ir:uer AiRS (JliOli PmiJ fro I E._W .), thc Theban women's fear of rape (A. &pj. 292, 304), Clc . . .. Ezamples in which diJlreUed and dilheveUed women, stunned by rce<:nt misfortunes, were comfortingly lakm to bed by a ltindly man hardly rep~1 OCCurrCnces which are psychologically analogous to Menclaos' straightforward and at leasl iniliatiy joyful erotic dream. on The degradation of Helene', appearan e<: in JtuJJlqwtll dreamll will be dilCussed in connection with v. 4W.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
Mtnel(J(Js' &attiue Depression and Dream
"5
I conu:dc:, of l:uunc, that Fraenkd's tnmslation underscores more explicitly than does Aischy!os' Greek text the causal nexus between the mourning and the dream and lach the syntactical ambiguity of the word 'Tm>6fIlJ.OVEc. But the fault- iffault it be-is not Fraenkel's; it is a consequence of the nature and limitations of the English idiom j2SB English ~imply does not permit one to make the causa! nexus as aBusive-and elusive-as the Greek idiom does. I must now briefly deal with passages certain commentators cite in connection with this word. References to E. Ale. 348 (or 343- 347) are legitimate, even though the eloped Helene is completely unlike the almost dead Alkestis. Admetos relies buth on the presence of Alkestis' portrait statue in his bed and on erotic dreams 10 provide at least momentary affective and erotic solace. The recourse to a sculptured double of Alkestis is reasona ble in terms of Greek eschatology, for, as I urged long ago (2;, p. 268.0), the shades of the dead behave like moumers,2$9 and are therefore eroticaBy non-stimulating. This explains why, in Hyg. Jab. 104, Laodameia makes love with Protesilaos' statue, rather than, as in most other traditions, with his returned shade, or else in dream. In both Admetos' and Laodameia's case the portrait statue probably insured that the dead spouse would appear in dream neither as an d5w;\ov, nor as a gibbering, bloodless, sexually unappealing shade, but as that spouse appea red while alive: in a guise capable of eliciting a sexual response, satisfying at least in dream .260 By contrast, a number of other passages cited by certain commentators al"C irrelevant. I n Mdeagros (AP 5.1 66),261 no one appean, nor is expected to appear, to anyone in an erotic dream. The poet simply wonders (hopefully) whether the unfaithful Heliodora has longing and tearful erotic dreams ab01lt him. This situation differs so radically from the Aischylean one that Denniston and Page wisely refrain from citing it to support their conception of a d reamed of- nUl dreami ng!- Helene. Indeed, nothing in the Melea· gros text suggests that Hdiodora might dream of a repentant Meleagros, comparable 10 the Denniston and Page Helene- for the good reason thai Meleagros has nothing to be repentant about. The citing of this text is simply a token of Verrall's habitual psychological insensitiveness, directly connected with wha t Fraenkel calls his taste for Silver Latin literature (64 I , p. 57). Verrall's two other "parallel" passages are no better or more relevant. Prop. 4.7.5 refers to a funeral, and does so in a manner which makes an y ." I even tried to "improve" Fraenkel's translalion, fi~t in English, and then in French, Genaan and Hungarian. Not ODe ormy efforts was even a shade more exact than Fraenkel's tran.tl.ation; mOlt of them were much inferior to hil. m Though Dale (ad E. Au. 343-347) cites E. Hi"". ' 13' fT., which does ",,/ describe the future behaviour of Ihe ......ann, but the fUlure nOlI-behaviour of the tieDd, she manifestly had in mind only the "objective". conceptuallimilarities between the two passages. She did notRe Ihat the mOurner imitates, by aelf-denial, Ihedull existence of the dead , or Ihat the Homeric dead behave like mourners; they mourn the loss of their life. , .. I note that the oommentalon I consulted do not quole Ov. H(r. ' 3.1°5 fT., which i. relevant at leal! in oonnection with E. Au . .. , Cpo Howruan (6.5. p. a6g).
MtntlatJs' Reattive DepressioTl awl Dreom appeal to the symbolic equation: departure = death otiose (cp. " Partir, c'est mourir un peu"). I n Prop. 4.11.81, a loving, deceased spouse compassionately addresseos her mourning husband, speaking of hi; dreams of her. This situation, too, is psychologically totally different from that depicted by Aischylos. Groeneboom's reference to Milton (Sonnet xxiii) is, if possible, even more irrele-v:ant. Though the dream-image of Milton's wife also eludes his embrace, the scene evoked seems to me tender rather than erotic; in addition, Milton's dead wife was a paragon of vir1\le. This Sonnet may have psychological affinities with H om. Od. 1 1.204 ff.; it has few with Menelaos' dreams. Artificial, psychologically unrelated " parallels" of this kind d o no t illuminate a teJIt- they obscure it. H ence Fraenkel, showing wisdom quite as much as literary taste and psychological acumen, refrained from citing such pseudo-parallels.m 4fJ2-4fJ3: T lu S)'Tllax of these verses is said to be perpleJIing. Denniston and Page speak- perhaps over-emphatically-of " fran tic incoherence", and emend the text. Others, including Professor Lloyd-Jones, are prepared to tolerate two anacoluthon!, or an incomplete sentence, largely on the grounds that this would be quite dramatic. I do not presume to settle a point of syntax on which greater experts by far disagree. As a lover of poetry, I have a good deal of sympath y with the argument that the sudden breaking off ofa sentence has dramatic impact. But that is beside the point, for I must speak here as a psychologist. I begin by noting that a dream is an " illogical" experience, while speech is a predominantly logical structure. This explains why patients reporting their dreams oCren speak haltingly and grope for words. Also, the Choras probably heard the d rea m narrated by the depressed M enelaos (supra)- and the sentences of the depressed do tend to trail off and not to be completed. H ence, even though the dream is reported in the third person, it is not too far-fetched to suppose that the Choros' syntax was affee ted by that of the original narrator, M enelaos. I have often enough heard Mohave shamans- and even psycho-anaJ)'lts- grope for words while ". H owman conjectures ""e~_c .. ""nuasive. for ,HveiWOYtc. The conjecture is gratuitous, for "II'tV81\_c. interpreted in Fraenkel's manner, makes o;cellellt SCIUC. HOllIman's conjecture is, mort':Qver, psychologically n:dundant, for nearly all dN:ams are ""nuuive wAile IM.J wI. Exceptions to this rule are dreams .... hkh the dreamer reo:ogoizes as dreams already while dreaming them, and so-called "dreams within dreams". H ead lam'. attemp ts to jwtify this emendation by citing A. At. 274: "h it to penua.;ve dreams that you pay regard?" is unconvincing ; the relatively sceptical Choros' ,,"",efj implia a ,II
'alenal
~
edXlS de al.ltor
Mnul/Jos' Reacljl)l Dtprtssion muJ DWl1n
"7
reporting their patients' dreams, particularly when, as happens in this
inztance, the dream-events take an unexpected tum, Another general point may abo be made. I repeatedly cited ancient opinions on the capacity of the tragic poets to reproduce correctly the disordered sptt(:h of distressed or insane persons. It is therefore probable tha t certain parts of such passages, which modern philologist!! treat as loci tkspnati, may be exactly what Aischylos or Euripides had written. Others may have become corrupted as a result of the attempts of ancient critics and copyists to force an originally relatively incoheren tly written discourse into the strait jacket of strict grammar and syntax. But I hasten to add that intentionally incoherent passages can easily btcomt even more incoherent in the process of being copied.26J What matters here is that, dtspitt the relative incoherence of the sentence, its PVChological sense is not only clear, but is not even greatly alTected by attempt!! at emending the text. With this, I can now turn to the details of these verses. 422: xaplV = (sexual) joys or delights. That the context calls for a sexual connotation seems self-evident j that this term often has erotic connotations was shown by Barrett (ad E. Hipp. 513 IT., 4, p. 433). The word ~dlM (423), meaning "the good" in general, simply extends the deceptiveness of eroli, j oys experienced in dream to all dreamed good and pleasurable experiences. This is only 10 be expected, for, to the Greek, sexual pleasure was "a good". The psycho-analyst will readily concur with this view.264 422J.: IJ<XTOOcXv' ~av yap = idle, vain. The crux of the matter is that whereas Penelope feels cheated only on awakening after dreaming of making love with the absent Odysseus (H om. Od. 20.87 IT.), Menelaos is frustrated already in dTtam, for the union is nol consununated even in dream.26' At this point, a crucial consideration intervenes: in all classical texts known to me, and in many post-classical ones as well, erotic dreams are fully gratifying while tMJ last; the most conclusive example is a young man's dream about Thonis (Plu. V. Dtm. 27).266 The exceptions to this rule are the present dream and, strikingly, also the erotic dreams of otlur men about Heitne.lfJ7 This is not surprising in the case ofa woman of whom Stesichoros (fIT. 15, 16 P.) and others said that only her double cohabited with Paris (and with Deiphobos). In Greek myth and poetry, Helene is the kind of narcissistic, man-destroying woman (vv. 689 fr.) whom her lover possesses the least when he enfolds her most completely.268 No one ever holds more than her " double" in his arms. Some dim undcrstanding or '0) Let anyone who doubts this try to copy quickly a specimen of a ilChizophrenic "word salad", such as can be found in most psychiatric textboob. , .. Cpo Freud (68, p. I !l6, note II and supra). '" Maron , ad loc., arbitrarily IIIlYS that the dillllppointmenl is due to MenclaO$' prmuJ/u.u 4U01ktniltg. Bolh mlMtllOVlC and v. 426 disprove this. The disappoinunent is parI of the dream. , .. Had Menelaos' dream been gratifying, the Trojan war might welt ha-'c failed \0 take place. .., Lyc. 8110 ff. (MenelaOll), 1111 ff. (Paris). t7t ff. (AchilJeus). 111 Cpo CatuliUll' Labia, the Abbl! Prt\'lIIt's Man on Loeaul, P. Mmm~'s Carmen, etc. In H om. OJ. ... ~77 !T., Helene plaY" vnca.lly Ih~ "doubl~" of the wives of the men hidden illllide the Trojan hone, 10 as to make them bettay themselves.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
MtntlQfJS' &Q&/ive Dtpression and Dream this fact may have incited Stesiehoros to invent frICis,v> a " double", rather than some other device which would also have exonerated Helene in the eYe!l of posterity. And, not surprisingly, this jus tification- seen psychologically---condemns the shallow Helene mart than could have done a tale of her consenting, deeply amorous elopement with Paris. The emphasis on this dream's deceptiveness is, thus, legitimate, especially if one considers certain monuments representing male erotic dreams. A glance a t the frontispiece of this book shows three facts. (I) The angle of the erect penis is quite abnonnal. Instead of pointing upward, it is forced downward. This would not only be painful, but does not even fit the angle at which the erect penis is (correctly) represented on "obscene" vases. (2) No ill3Crtion has taken place, nor is it likely to occur later on. The tip of the penis barely touches the introitus or the clitoris. (3) The woman's wings are almost spread, a nd her webbed feet a re strongly braced. This, together with her general body posture, wit h the contraction of her biceps (standing for the non-representable contraction of the muscles of her wings) and with the play of her leg muscles, suggests that she is TU'JI descending upon the sleeper, but is taking to the air, leaving him. Also, the persisting erection sugges ts that she does so prnnaturtly. Now, one risks misunderstanding this bas-relief if one asserts that it intentionally depicts the phallos for "obscene" reasons-urging perhaps that many genuinely obscene vases also show the penis just on the point of being insertedl69- and this quite apart from the fact that vases of that type do not show dream. and that this ba._relier does not show an incipitnl insertion that will be completed. This bas-relief must be compared with pictures of fe male monsters with clawtd (or otherwise non-human) feet, who begin to rape a man in a nightmare scene. In such pictures, too, most or the erect penis is usually visible-and, again, not for obscene reasons. This manner of representi ng rape (in a nightmare) underscores that Teal coitus is not performed . What such vases depict (psychologically) are anxiety erections, leading at most to a (dream-)ejaculation ante P()f/as- as in the case or Hephaistos, frustrated by the sudden disappearance or dematerialization of Athene, whom he was trying to rape.210 This does not mean that erotic dreams prematurely interrupted by the dreamer's awaktning do not exist. Such awakenings are usually due to the "moral" scruplC$ of, e _g. , timid and virgi nal adolescent$ _ By contrast, when the " frustration" is due to a strong though latent hostility toward the (ambivalently desired and hated) dream-partner, the frustration is usually part of the dream: it is not caused by a premature awakening. In such cases, the dreamer usually wakes up only after the dream partner eludes him. This is clearly what happens in thi~ instance. In fact, we leam that Menelaos had almost managed to enfold Helene's vision anly through being told that , he suddenly eluded his embra~e . m It suffices to conclude with the observation tha t the unexpected "good" , .. E.g., Sphinx: Id:ythOOl, Atht n, National Museum, 450 B.C. PlJt:e K ou...,ta. (9"), on 1""1 """," tht union io hardy approximated • • 70 All CaU in Pow.,]l (123 ) . m 'In.. same is true of " .... lou. accounb> of how Alh.,.,e e luded Heph,.iotoo.
~
a
ido por
Meneloos' &fUtive Depression and Dream
"9
(keM) is-or is first thought to be- illusory and evanescent (Luc. Gall. 5 f., Tim. 20, 41 , etc.). Mankind, the tragic species, has learned early to be sceptical of hope. Prometheus (A. PV 928) take! pride in having given hope to mankind ; in A. Ag, 49t If. , the Choros doubts the good news that Troy had been taken, etc. (Vain terrors : A. ChIN. 287). Polykrates' consistent good luck was held to foretell a final misfortune (Hdt. 3.43). The point need not be laboured (Luc. Gall. 25). 423: 60KWv Opav (6pq:): Whether or not one emends these words,21l their basic psychological import remains the same: the dreamer only thinks he sees something good (Helene) . This excludes from the start the possibility that a "real and external", i.e., Homeric, dream-perronage had entered Menelaos' dream. What he thinks he sees is an image of his own desire! surfacing from his donnant mind. Excursus: There is nothing to impel H elene herself to intrude into Menelaos' dream from the outside, and no goo sends her double to him .271 If Helene appears, it is because Menelaos wants her to appear- and dreams tha t she does. This may not fi t the earliest Greek dream theory, but it would be well to rCi:a llthat Aischylos wrote psychologicall y plausibleand therefore great- poetry. H e did not try to provide case material illustrating a Greek treatise on oneiromancy. That is one reason why this dream deviates so much from routine Greek literary and "dream-book" types of dreams, and why it is so close to real dreams. Now, the capacity of men to invite and even to provoke their own dreams (55, pp. tlO, 294) is attested by tragedy (E. Ale. 354 tr.), incubation rites ( 19, 57, 84, 139), clinical experience, and even by such sayings as: " dream brings counsel" or " I 'll sleep on it " . 27~ But, once one admits that H elene appeared to Menelaos in dream in response to his unconscious wishes, one must admit that she eluded his dream-embrace in accordance with ano/hn of his wishes. T his makes it impossible to appeal to the Greek th(:ory of the externality and autono my of dream figu res, in order to explain H elene's fl ight in this extraordinarily plausible dream. Her appearance cannot even be attributed to love magic. No such magic is mentioned and, had it been used, it would probably have brought back the real H elene and not her d ream-image. Also, had a magician tried to evoke only H elene's phantom- to fumish a n erotic dream to M enclaos- that dream would not have been a frustrating one.27J Above all, though Aischylos no doubt knew the theory of the autonomy of dre am_ v i.ion" h e was great enough a poet to Sense Ihat the behaviou r of III 6oJi/' (Den nis lon and Page, Page, T homson l. m Let it not be argued Ihal a god cau"!d this dream , .o as 10 incite M enel aoo to start the war of Troy which, in ae<:orciance with Zeus' will , is to destroy the race of heroes (C.JIIT.fi. I, Allen). Neithe.- the lliDd nor H elene', conduct at Troy suggest thi •. '" Whether the dream i, wi,h fulfillment (Freud , 66), problem solving (Rkers, I ~7) or real ity I""ting (French, 65J, it i3 evident that one drea m! of something because one consciously at" unconsciously wishes to dream of it, cpo infra . ." In the E urydike myth the gin is rea! enough- it i3 Orpheus' hreach of one of the conditions of the gift which cancels it. Cpo a Mohave Indian Orpheus and E urydilr.e type of myth (l'l'j.
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
'30
M enelaos' RtfUlivt Deprtssion and DrMm
such apparitio ns fitted the irrational and uncorucious wishes of the dreamer in tlJtry respect. If he knew that Menelaos' desire invited Helene into his dream,l10 then he must have sensed also that it was M enelaOll' anger that put her to flight, bUDU.U this insight underlits th, theory if tht alkged autO/10m) of dream personagt.r. T he Greekls, like everyone else (lor ), had bad dreams, and dreams which ran counter to the dreame r's CMscious wishes. I will deal with this problem in the last section of this chapter. 424 : 'TI"cxpaM6~aca Sill. XEpWV = (slip) asid e, out of his arms. As noted, the twice-mentioned dccepliveness (422 f.) of the joy suggests tha t the drea m embrace was not consummated .271 Now, wcre Helene a dreamsending, her flight might conceivably reflect her own wish to tantalize Menelaos. But this is clearly an endogenous dream, even by strict Greek standards. This means, in plain language, that Helene's image does not flee but is pUllojiighi by M enelaos himself: his desire brings her into the dream as his anger expels her from it, bifore the union is consumma ted. I have already no ted that "unvilifying" (6:AOl56povc) (v. 412) reflects the ambivalence of MeneJaos: Jove and hate co-exist in a waking stale. In dream. these contradiclOry sentiments appear sUtce.isivtry: love and longing cause Helene to appear in the dream, but a surge of hatred forces her to vanish before the union is consummated-for, as everyday experience shows, attempts to cohabit with a resented person n~ often fail. In this instance we need not content ourselves with guessing: v. 419 (a ll libido has gone 10 wrack and ru in) practically says: Menelaos is made impotent by his anger. This also explains H elene's " flight ": i l enables M eneJa05' (temporary) im potence not to become manifest in drea m. I I is, moreover, psychologica lly only to be expected that a "justifiable" dislike (v. 412), which is denied an outlet in waking life, will find an expression in drea m, though wilhout an awareness that the d ream events have any nexus with the inhibited resentment. Therefore Menelaos dreams thai H elene eludes him, but is unable to grasp that it is his hatred that puts her to flighl in dream. The fact that, in dream, Menelaos does nOt overtly bid H elene to be gone-thai she sums 10 escape of her own volition- is nOI o nl y pro perly d reamlike, bU I fils particularly well into a dream abou t a woman like Helene, who, being frustrating in reality, is made to be frust rating also in dream.l79 BeUer still, by causing Helene to escape him also in dream , Menelaos manages 10 acquire yet anot her grievance.2&O Otherwise ex.,. As the hu~ger or Pelle!opc', loills illvited Od}'$$'!UI ill10 he, dream- for the hUllger of her soul should Ilot be overestimated (~8). m For a drunk.'. fUlile gt"abbillS at a fl ute girl , cpo Luc . T in<. 55. m I n E. Tr., Mendaos' hatred precedes the resurgellce of his love (Iupra) . .,. A p"ych~allalytical anecdote will highlight this. All old maid dreamo that a visibly arow.cd Ilude mall is approaching her bcd. She timidly asks him; "What will you do to me?" The man replies; " I don' t know, lady-thil is)'\nlt" dream!" ..0 The Gr~i. tyrant, Dion ysios (Plu. V. Dloll. 9.S}, could, like any primitive, blame, in a wa king .tate, rhose who harmed him ill his dream (8~, p. 129 f.l . But evell modem "normlllo" soTTl."imes lake a di
atet"~1
Mef/lloos' Reactive Depression aruf Dream pressed, the dream reconfirms MencJaos' self-definition as a noble and devoted victim. 2U The point need not be laboured : the amorous but still resentful Menelaos first brings Helene into his dream and then expels her from it. And, by dreaming that she eludes him, he (a) repeats the real desertion in dream, (b) makes Helene res ponsible also for his dream frustra tion, (c) accumulates new grievances against her, and (d) manages to conceal from himself his rejection of the faithless Helene. One thing is clear: in the described dream (s), the vision escapes- it does not change shape during the dream,212 That change takes place lint only between successive dreams. 425: ~~ 6<.jI1C = gone is the vision. The wording recalls ~JkxKtv ~I).l<pa (v. 407 ), which describes the eloping Helene's light, carefree step. Both expressions evoke the image of a casual, thoughtless evanescence. Neither the real Helene nor her dream double arc burdened by scruples over the grief their vanishing causes. The day residue of this dream detail is the real H elene's elopement. But this expression may also have another dimension. It may hint at the totally persuasive (A. Ag. 274) feeling of the inevitability of even the most outlandish dream sequences. H owever strange a turn dream-events take, in dream they seem inescapable. The sudden sta temen t: "gone is the vision", creates a feeling of finality, which the next words further reinforce.28J 425: 00 ~CTtpov is alleged to have two possible meanings. It goes without saying that the choice one makes will radically affect the meaning of v. 426. ( I ) Forthwith is wholly present·centred. It excludes neither a bleak, dreamless future, nor the recurrence of similar dreams. Its sole merit is that it conjures up well the feeling of inevitability so common in dream. This alternative needs no further scrutin y, for it obliges one to hold that v. 426 describes an absurdity (see end of next section). (2) N el!eTllgllin does open a vista on the future , however bleak it may be. It express<;s a typical mourning reaction, closely paralleling the oV ••. Sdmpov (never again) (H om. ll. 23.46) of the mourning Achilleus. But it is important that Achilleus only claims that none of his future sorrows will affect him as tkepty as his grief over Patroklos' death. The " never again" is only qualitative: it concerns the unique intensity of an ex~ ,., Let it nOt be ans ....ered (hat thi1 i1 not a Greek .tance. The maxim that one should do the greatest good to one'. friends and the greatest harm to one'. fOCI would not have been invented, had no Gredt been lufficiently maooehistk ~ turn the other cheek: Sokrat.,. proclaimed that it is better to suffer than to do injustice. But this "moral victory" further depreciat"" Helene and .adi1tically heaps ooab offirt, on her head. It permits Menelaos to deny h;' latent anger: in thi1 respect, one deals here .... ith the well-known "inversion of affects" in dream (66, pp. 471 ff.). ZIZ As noted above, Arts t. illSDfM. 4S8b20 ff. refers ~ a change of the dream imagery on awakening (retroactive fabification? secondary elaboration?). zn I n Greek thought, there 5CCmI to be little difference betwccn "leaving" and "being left by" a dream or by something comparable to a dream. Luc. Coli. 6 says that when the eyes are kft wilh the IWCCIJl .... of a dream it iI hard to wake up. But Luc. Coni. 17 oars Ihal IIllI.n ktwu life: WI if h wen: a dream,
Mmelaos' &aclilM Depression and Dream perience. AchilJeus' "never again" forces one to ask here the crucial question : just what is it that will "never again" happen? The notion that a man in Menelaos' position would never again have any kind of dream about Helene is absurd even in terms of daily experience. I t is also contradicted by the text: in v. 420 6vE1p . (I ) Ifou ~CTIpoV means " forthwi th", v. 426 can concern only the dream vision's manner of vanishing or else Menelaos' immediate rtacticm to this disappearance. But since--certain editors and LSJ notwithstandingit does not have that meaning, this alternative need not be considered . (II ) "Never again" permits various conjectures. ( I) M enelaos will never again dream of Helene. This conjecture has already been discarded on both psychological and textual grounds. (2) Mendaos will repeatedly have the same dream, feeling tach time that Helene's vision has eluded him for ever. I doubt that Aischylos would have led up to such a meaning by "never again". Two commonplace psychological observations also militate against this view. (a) Since each successive recurrent dream uses as a day residue the preceding day's (van'able) experiences, no two of a series of recurrent dreams can be tolalry alike-a fact e~n psy&ho-ana/ysls seldom sIms suificimtry. (b) While having a recurrent dream, one is usually aware, already in dream, that one has had that dream before and knows its general 'out, .. AdmetOl, whose situation is different, doe! not expect his purdy palliative dramA of Alkenis to deteriorate (E. Aic. 348 If.). '" For thr~ other collSC<:uti"e plural datives, Professor Fraenkel kindly ....,ferred me to A. Sipl. 747 f. ... I have tried to infer the general content of the genuinely missing reply 10 E. lh. 1300 from its impiJel on Agaue (45).
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Mmei(l()s' Reaclilll DeprlSJ1,'rJn ruuf Dream
'33
come. This makes a total "never again" reaction in dream improbable. 2a7 (3) M enelaos' future dreams will be even more disappointing or even worse. Atossa's dream i:! clearly the las t and the most traumatic of an increasingly upsetting series of anxiety dreams (chap. I). This proves that the gradual degradation of recurrent dream~ was known to A.ischylos. I therefore feel that, both philologically and psychologically, the most plausible hypothesis is that Menelaos' future dreams of Helene will be even more disappointing because Helene's image will become degraded.28B These considerations are made very plawible indeed (infra) by a famous precedent for such a dream deterioration: by Achilleus' dream of the dead Patroklos. In Hom. Ii. 23.65 ff., AchiJleus sees in dream a perfect double ofPatroklos as he once was : lively and handsome. But the moment he attempts to touch him, Patroklos' glorioWl double turns into a smoke-like, feeble, gibbering shade, such as inhabits Hadel in the OV'ssey (bk. II ). How degraded such shades are, is best shown by their similarity to the non-aggressive insane.289 The blood-sated ghost of Odysseus' mother is at firs t also lifelike, but the moment her son seeks to clasp her, she too deteriorates into a typical, wretched shade (Hom. Od. 1[.204). I cannot stop to clarify the psychological reasons for this degradation of Patroklos' double and of Odysseus' temporarily reanimated mother. I simply note that both become degraded when the men indirectly responsible for their death seek to touch them. I cite these incidents onl y to show that the degradation of dream-doubles and their like goes back at least as far as Homeros. Clinical examples of the deterioration, in dream, of the image of unfaithful loved women also exist.290 A New Emendation of v. 426 is advanced conditionally. It can be dispensed with ifone accepts Franz's translation of tha t verse-though not of oli ~pov as " nicht zum zwnlen Mal"-and if: (a ) one emphasizes "befiogelt" and (b) bean in mind that the German word "Gang" can mean not onl y 'I T A patient reported a recurrent childhood dream, patterned upon the Tarzan stories. LiolUl punued him and great apes racued him. But t he details wen: different COIch time and he recalled being curiou. iN each dream /WW he would be rescued III;' time. A Greek , who knew the Eleklnl myth and had $ttTl A. CIwt., wo"ld have been similarl y ea~ 10 discover hiJw things would be done in S. EI. or in E. EI. I often wonder whethe~ the itita oftlie theaue was inspired by dreams, which are, in a way, private d ramatic perfonnanccs. n ' The cauus and drcam-conscquences of Mendaos' ambivalence are described in conntttion with v. 4.:1:4. llf Hom. ad. ilO.345 If., Hom. h. Vtn. ~33 If., etc. (supra) . ... A mall, wantonly descrted by his beautiful and beloved girl -friend, had at fil'$t dreamo g ..... o.Iy ...,...mb1in& tha, of l\lclldaOi. But, as time went by and the girl even made an attempt to harm him, her appearance in dnam began to deteriorate. H is mOlt striking dream during thia period was the following ; he IIo:t out to vilIit thc girl who, in his dream, was imprisoned. After many difficultico and a protncted argument with thc fcmalc prison_ director, he was permitted to Jtt her in a huge, empty, domed, ttment rotunda, whose windows (in thc dome) wen: obstructed by heavy It"",1 mesh. The girl henelfhad greatly changed. Emaciated and rouged , . hc resembled a middlc-aged s\re<:lwalker and wore only a poison_green, dirty bikini of sleazy, artificial .ilk. (This image w.u inspired by a hook ilJUII\l1Ition, which thc dream ~lso degraded.) I n dnam the girl'l manner was, moreover, SO vulgar, provocative and sulky that thc dreamer cut the convenation .hort and Icft almOSI at once. I wonder whcther Denn iston and Pagc'. notion that mve~ \Kl"'C ..,fen loa tearfully repentant Helene doe not reflect a relatively correct intuitive appra ioal of the meaning of v. 4116, erroneoU$ly imputed to v. ~o.
'34
MtnllQQS' Reoctiu. Depression and Dream
"the going" but also, very strictly: the gait, the characteristic manner of someone's progression. Disregarding Franz's translation of the last two words of the preceding
verse, he wrote: Das (nie wieder) be.fiugelt nacruchwebt clem Gang des Schlummers. (My italics. ) : \Vhich never again winged floats-after the grnllg (= gail ) of slumber. So emphasized, the translation can imply that Helene will never re-
appear winged,floating (like Sleep), but may very well reap pear wingless and therefore unable to "float" after Sleep and in the manner of Sleep. Ir tlris interpretation of Franz's translation is accepted, no emendation is necessitated by psychiatric considerations reinforced by ordinary experience. But, since Fraenkei rejects it, only the emendation I advance in the following pages fits the experiences of those who were deserted and therefore also the psychiatric considerations derived from a study of such human experiences. This should be borne in mind, in appraising the validity of my conjecture. As to the authorship of the emendation: I evolved the TIQ/ion that v. 426 should mean "winged follow (adopt ) the 'gait' of sleep", but the drtifting of the actual emendation is due to Professor K . J. Dover. H e comments: "no one would worry if the movement of a bird were so described." For the short last syllable he quotes A. Ag. vv. 208 and 239. 426: The RetToactit't Model: This much-discussed verse has, so far as I know, never been scrutinized in the light of E. Rh. 211 fr. . . . . . . . . . TnpO:rrovv IllllfJCOIJOO AVx(1J KV.ru60v lTOAEIl(OIC 5vceVP£Tov, TacppolC TTEACr:JWV K.T.A.
Dolon, proposing to spy on the Greeks, dad in a wolfskin, says: "fourfooted I will imitate the wolf's gait, to the enemies undisttrnible, the trenches approaching", etc. I begin with the external similarities between A. Ag. 426 and the fint four words of the Euripidean text. ( I ) Both opening words refer to a manner of progression (winged, fourlegged), which approximates a non-human way of locomotion: that of a "bird"29\ or a wolf. (2) The second word has in both cases the function of a verb in the future tense, which relates this unusual "gait" to what comes after. (3) The third word is, in both instances, in the genitive and stands for a "species" in general: 1m wolf, the sleep ("Sleep"). (4) The {ourtl! words actually have the same root: ldAev(I-. In E. Rh. 212 , it dearly denotes the wolrs species-characteristic gail. (5) I hold v. 426 to refer to a degrada tion of Helene's dream image, and note that E. Rh . 211 f. manifestly refers to the " degradation" of Dol on into a wolf. (6) In both cases there is deception : incipient dream-joys and plans of spying both faiL Some indirect similarities may also be listed : DI On winged Sleep, cpo Sauer .. p. /1. 14.290.
'119, ' .v.
H ypnoo; on Hypnoo as a bird, cpo H om .
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Menef(J()s' Reactif}t Depression and Dream
'35
(I) The disappearance of Helene's dream-double and perhaps even the non-reappearance of her initialry lovely dream-self are partly replicated by the non-recognizability, the twn-discernibility of the dhlgubed Dolan. (2) The meaning of 6-rra50Tc (6-rra50vc') = to follow ( = to get close), is also present in E. Rh. 213: Dolan will approach the Greek trenches. So many similarities are not likely to be accidental. Moreover, the radical Euripidean t ransformation of the Aischylean image and of its context (dream into spying) is just what one expects to happen when a great poet's verse resonates-perhaps unwittingly-in the back of the mind of one of his peers. 291 Let us now examine the individual words of v. 426 in the light of the Euripidean " modd" -the "copy" serving to clarify the meaning of the corrupt original. 426: TT'11:poTc is almost the only word that could refer directly to some future change in H elene's dream shape. It is usually held to be a dative of manner: winged = by means of wings. But] . Franz translates: btjffigelt :0< winged, treating it as the equivalent of what, in English, would be a past participle, used as an adjective. (Winged dream: Luc. Gall. 6; cpo E. Phoin. 1545.) If so, the future dreams could be about an unwingtd (wingless) Helene. This would satisfy the demand that the verse should hint at a deterioration. It hi obvioillJly not possible to sunrey here all beings or things imagined as winged by the Greeks. I concede that some monsters were winged, as were the d oubles of the dead-but add at once that not all the bloodless, gibbering shades in Hades seem winged in the Nekyia (Hom. Od. I I ). I am therefore inclined to imagine Patroklos' initial dream-double as winged, but buoming wingless as it deteriorates into a smoke-like shade and slips away. But whether I am right or wrong in making this assumption does not greatly affect the present discussion. Cases in which wings betoken beauty are fairly common. Like Pegasos, the Alkmanian dream-horse, whose beauty surpasses that of all others, is winged (Alcm. Par/h.fr. 1.49 P). The Erinyes' lack of wings seems part of their monstrousness- precisely in Aischylos (Eum. 250). The Peleiades, whose weight inCreMes the burden their father Atlas must bear, are wingless (A. Jr. 3 12Nl), though in ordinary tradition they are winged doves. Last, but not least, "winged" is a common Homeric laudatory epithet for wordS.291 All things considered, the emphasis in this verse seems to be on: (never again) winged. 294 This does not exclude the textually and p"yc:hologically valid inference that Menelaos will have future dreams of a witlgkss (deteriorated, perhaps shade-like) Hdene.29s ,., On Ihe error of assuming Ihal a gr<:al poellike EuripidOl would dj'NI/y « ho con_ erele evenu inslead of radieally transmuting them, cpo (31) . .., It is a cu riou. coincidence Ihal Ih" moment h .. mOlher', sh ade eludes his embrace, Odysseus addr ....... her in (fonnulaic) winged (,",p6wTa) wordt (Hom. Od. 11.2(4). Could lOme dim memory of this pa ....R" have contributed, thrQ>lghf'u IJuociDl;"u, to the shaping of this Aischylean lext? Such things can .-.:gularly be observed C'o"en in the didactic p'ytho-anal)1i11 of gifted and norma1l;lUldidata. ,.. The Greek language tends to emph/lJize the fin! word . 291 Btdich (13) undencores the affinity between the dead and "the uatiOll of dreatm".
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Mnulaos' Reactive Depression and Drtam One may sum up by saying that one purpose of repetitive dreams is to master a trauma. Unlike what the sleep therapy of pilots of crashed bombing planes sought to achieve (94) , the best way for Menelaos to master his trauma is to degrade H elene in dream, until she becomes undesirable. And that would ea sily happen if her initially winged, lovely dream-double became, like Patroklos' double, degrad ed into a (wingless) gibbering shade. This would fit Menelaos' latent anger (involving death wishes) quite as much as the word mV6Tll.lOVEC applied to the dream apparitions (420). Last but not least, the supernatural, "ethereal" winged beauty of H elene in the initial dream (-series ?), itself reveals destructive wishes. Not only do some schizophrenics, haunted by hidden aggressivity, give "ethereal" responses t o th e Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), but a momen t's refle<:tion sh ows that idealization is, in the last resort, a manifestation of hostility: it is a reje<:tion of the real beloved, as SM is.296 426: &!raSorc, transmitted by the manuscripts, is deemed accep table by Fraenkel. I t yields the sense: "following the ways of sleep".Z97 But Dobree's widely acce pted emendation &!ra5oVc' gives the sense: "following on wings the ways of sleep" .298 One of th e difficulties here is the fact that &!raSorc is related to a large number of wo rds h aving other forms:!99_ a point I cannot discuss here. Fraenkel objects to crrra5oVc' on the grounds that this verb should govern t he person or thing followed and not its p ath . But Denniston and Page hold that such an extension needs no defence. The problem disappears if K£MVeotc (JdAru6a) means not " path" but "gail" - which is a "thing", that can be "followed" onlY by imitating it. The sense " 10 follow" = " 10 imitate, to do like", becomes defensible ifKEAeV60lc (JdAruea) (emended ) means: "gait" or "manner of movi ng". This does nOI even require a radical extension of the basic meaning of the word transmiued as &rraSotc.lOO And, o n the whole, it is safer 10 extend slightly the nuance of a wor d than 10 widen a grammatical rule, especially here, where 1T"1tpotc (if correct) is a d ative of man ner. Vernanl ( 1.16, p. 1157) 5trc:ssa that one can alway. discern I'er-.ephone lurking behind He1~n~; the m:xU! between the two i. aJro highlightai by th~ faci thaI both had been abducted. Hd ene may ev= have fur.her conn<:<:tion. wilh the dead, .inee D. Chrys. or. 11.{0 lays that Helene did not sail, Dowra ( /.2 ) concluda that Henna carried he. off 11t'1IIIg1t tire airs. But, unlike other Olympian., the winged Huma psychagogos ( 1.25) carried (guided) the dead. ifHerma did carry Helene off, she mwt be imagined ... a ghostly double. I have aJro cOllllidered a (new) alternative: Helene went to Egypt by wing the tunnel Protetu had dug from Egypt to Thrace under Ihe sea floor (Lye. 120). This, too, would mike her Uke unto ghosts, who notoriolDly dwell tIlldcrgrotllld. 'M This is strikingly confi rmed by tbe commonpla<:e finding that some men "'idealize" and maternali:.c their "'beloved" wi".. to the point ofbcing impotent wilh limn-but not with " degraded" harlots (70). This, of course, serves tbe purpose of fTU!trating the "idealized" wife.
on"
.., LSJ '.Y. an-r,.,e
II .
... LSj ibid. Professor Lloyd-jon.. agrees th ai 6tro&oVc' is probably right . ... E.g., with f1TW'I" I note a curiow coincidence: In X. An. 7.3.43, this verb i.I linked with hoofprints: ..I;> c-.IJ!<.> ...." h,.,.."", ImdIo: _ follow the trfll;ks of hones. - Cpo LSj '.v. hr'" 11.4, wruch cites Pi. O. 2.22 : (this saying) befits; Pi. O. 13.47: lui table; PI. 4. 632C: agrodng with; Pl. R. 406d: the like to these; PI. 14. 635C: follow the voi<:e oC reason,
• atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Mnu/40s' ReIKtiw DepwsUm and Dream
'37
In short, there is much to commend c!maSoVc', especially if the whole verse is hdd to refer to some manner ofbcing or of behaving (in accordance with a model) that will not happen again. 301 But a word may be said about translations which make the dream (-vision) a "companion of sleep". So far, I have found only one literary text affirming the existence of such a companionship. In Luc. bis accus. I, Dream stays awake with Sleep and is Sleep's interpreter. But the notion that "wings" (whose?) are Sleep's "companions" seems difficult to entertain- particularly since Sleep is represented as winged far more onen than is Dream. It is also worth noting that, in literary texts, the wings of Dream and its Hying are mentioned far more often in connection with the Dream's sudden vanishing lOl than in connection with its approach. This does not prow that Aischylos did rwt visualize Dream approaching on wings, as does Sleepbut it is another little thing to give one pause. It also seems very hard to reconcile the notion that dream mightjolkIw Sleep going away--yet the (to me unacceptable) conception of " forthwith" (supra) would require one so to visualize things. So far as I am able to detennine, up to Aischylos' time sleep and dream either departed simultaneously, or ehe the dream ended bifort sleep departed. As repeatedly noted, even Aristoteles did not speak of a continuation of the dream after one wakes up: he spoke only of the transjormation of the dream images into otkn images. In short, I do not see how one can accept "forthwith" (depart) and imagine sleep departing (ceasing) bifort the dream departs. I hardly need to add that I make this point not in order to clarify further what v. 426 sa}'3, but to muster another argument against the "forthwith" (departs) conception. p6: i'mvov = of sleep. This word could be capitalized, to denote Sleep personified or the God of sleep. But it is not indispensable to do so, for the context shows that some gtntral characteristic of sleep is meant. Now, in descriptions quite as much as in plastic representations, the god Sleep is most often delicately-winged: his flight is a gentle floating (Hes. Th. 763. etc.).lOJ In short, Sleep has a characuristil; "gait" both in its approach and in its departure. Also, even though Dream (-personages) and Sleep are not the same, one cannot imagine dream-personages tramping heavy-footed in the wake of dream's light. floating approach or departure. This, admittedly, does not (omjJtl WI to visualize all dream· personages as winged, though winged dream-beings are far from rare. 3Of But I hold that Helene', image in this dream is winged, for I have noted above that certain monwnents show dreamers seduced or raped by wingtd female creatures. But there is an even weightier argument in support of my view, provided by the learned, versifying librarian Lykophron, HI ~ Dennislon and Page point out, the "neva again" of v. 425 automatically implies the future, 10 that there is DO need for a futm'e participle. ,,1 Luc. GaU. 6. Compare the .low.footed appmac.h and swift departure of Riche. (Luc. T"". 20, 25, 29), which are compared to Drearm. (Luc. Tim. ~o, fl.) ... Cp. abo Sauer, ap. lSlg, I.V. Hypnos. l+O Alcm. PllTfirm. fro "49 P: winged dream hone (Bowra; I concur, for "und". th" li#U 1I00<:I'' makc:llittl" 1IeJUe: it would nOI ev"n luffi,,, to make D'"am a chthonian);
PatrolclOl' double (rupra), etc.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
'38
M enellU!s' &attive Depression and Dream
who almost certainly had the corre<:t text befofe him, and-better stili-aU of whose images are lklibn'Qkly dm"valive, since they are parts of a series of poetic puzzles, meant to challenge sophisticates. Lykophron split up the imagery of A. Ag. 420-426 into three, partly overlapping, images: (I) Paris' dreamlike, empty-armed embrace of H elene's traditional double ( 112 if.). Significantly, v. 11 2 contains the equivalent afhoth the Aischylean ov ~I:."nPOV and the Homeric ov ... Snm:pov: never again (8nm:pav . . . oliK).
(2) Achilleus' distracting and frustrated dream of Helene ( 171 tr. ). (3) M endaos' yearning for the winged phantom (¢qJa TTTflvov) of his elwive H elene (820 fr. ). Precisely because Lykophron is derivative, I conclude that the text he had before him must have suggested that Hdene's (first dream-) image was winged, and moved in a manner resembling the gait ("allurt") of sleep. This brings me to the last word . 426: KtA£VeoIC (codd.), Fraenkd holds, is the original seat of corruption: he feds that some copyist had read the word 6:x6Aov6oc, perhaps in a gloss; Thomson (ad loc. ) points out that, in codex Tr., OxoAoVeolC is actually written above 6TTa501c- and 6xoAoueew and related words do imply: conforming to. H ence, Fraenkd may well be right in holding that the corruption began with KeAEV60lc-but not the way he visualizes il. Before discussing this matter, I note that I cannot find any trace anywhere of Sleep having a road, a path or even a wake of its own. There are no data that would permit one to aKribe a path to Sleep-or, for that matter, to Dream. The people of dreams do have a country of their own and true dreams do emerge from the Gates of Horn and false ones from the Gates of Ivory. But these data do not authorize one to claim that Dreamlet alone Sleep-has a road or path of its own, not even in the dusive tense in which one can speak of the "road" of migTating wild geese. What Sleep does have is something else, that the w,ord KV.Ev6oc does, in fact, also denote: a mode of walking, a gait, or, more generally in metaphor: a way or course (of doing). I t has that sense in E. Rh. lZ I I f., Jmcistiy where an imitation of the wolf's gait is described. 305 The last word should therefore be ldMvea- for the last syllable need not be 10ng,306 though opinion on this point is far from unanimous.301 At any rate, I find the image evoked by the sense "path" or "wake" (Mazon) aesthetically less appealing that the sense "gait", " manner of moving". Above all, the latter gives a sense which is in better conformity with the dream experiences of rtal abandoned husbands or lovers and also with the psycho-analytical theory of frustration dreams caused by desertion. I therefore hold that JdAev6a refers to Dream's winged "gait", which J,t, TlTpCrnow ~,~ljco~alP.V>
. atenal
~
ethos :Ia al.llor
Menel(UJS' Reattiw Depression and Dream
'39
Helene's wingless, degraded image will never again be able to assume in Menela~' future dreams of her. But I recall, once more, that this tentative emendation is not indispensable if, in Franz's translation, one accentuates bejiiigelt and nacruchwebt and takes Gtmg to refer to sleep's (winged) "gait" (manner of progression) jJ03 in short, if one holds that these words indicate precisely what will "never again" happen in Menelaos' dreams of the flighty Helene. For my part, I insist only on this mttming of v. 426 and leave it to better grammarians to decide whether the un-emended verse can-as Franz appears to think- have that meaning. AJ for the non-Hellenist reader, he should bear in mind that great Hellenists often disagree about the grammatical acceptability of a difficult passage. 426: Summary. If this verse is to match the perfect clinical appropriateness of the sixteen preceding lines, it must mean : (never again) will Helene, appearing in future dreams, have the lovely, winged "allure" (gait) of sJeep. This sense is also that of a palaeographically possible emendation: If''ripwr' ona8oVc' VTr>xIV ldAruea, which I like but neither strongly advocate nor really question.3OIl At any rate, the proposed sense has a proper Aischylean "density" and the difficulties one has with ("mental") punctuation in connection with " never again" tend to suggest that Aischylos condensed, as was his wont, a great dea1 into a very few words.
Condusions The source of Greek-and other-theories and beliefs affirmjng the externality and autonomy of dream personages is the-perhaps unwitting -attempt to explain why, for example in "had" dreams, the behaviour of dream personages fits neither the dreamer's rational expectations nor his COnsciOlU wishes, and also why some dreams are " deceitful".llo Needless to say, a dream can be considered "deceitful" only if one generally expeds dreams to be veridical.lll Some groups which, unlike the Greeks, who see-sawed between a completely ordered and a relatively capriciolU conception of the universe, believed in a perfectly ordered universe, resolved the problem of such perplexing drea ms in two ways: (I) They postulated that all dreams mean something, but that one is often unable 10 discern their meaning (4.:1). or (2) They held that all dreams mean the opposite of what they sum to ... Fraenl<el cites the tran~Jation, but does not interpret il . ... Tbe main reason fOT my hesitatioo is that &rroSo(sc' governs here an "internal accusative", which can (O\·er a multitude of sins, espedaUy when propoaed u an emendation. One ofmy eminent advisen holds the emendation to begrammaticallyimp<'l
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Mme/acs' Reactive Depression and Dream mean.ll2 In certain re\lpects this theory of the meaning of dreams has marked affinities with a radically pessimistic conception of life and fate.lll At any rate, the G reeks were unable to take the deciosive step of concluding, like Freud, that dream figures behave in accordance with the dreamer's wuIJflseious- i.e., repressed and denied- wishes which, by definition, are flagrantly im;ompatibu with his conscious desires. Indeed, were it otherwise, such wishes would not be repressed and would therefore not need to find an outlet and a gratification in dream. For man does not dream what no part of his self does not desire, be it but unconsciously, and much against his conscious wilDH Greek myths prescnt Menelaos as a conflict-torn, indeciosive man. The dream Aischylos attributed to him suits such a man perfectly. It begins with a near-complete fulfillment of his conscious wish to hold Helene in his arms, but ends with the fulfillment of his unconscious, angry wish to cast Helene out of his life. In sayi ng this, I do not suppose for a moment that Aischylos figured out all this consciously, in pursuit of an artistic objective. Here, as elsewhere, Sophokles' appraisal of Aischylos strikes the right note: Aischylos did Ihe right thing, often without knowing why and how he did it. (Athen. IO.428F.) That is the hallmark of every great poet.
Bibliography (I) Ahrens, H. L .: Studien zum Agamemnon des Aeschylus. Philologus, Supplemmtband 1 :213 fr., 477 fr., 535 fr., 1860. (2) AngyaI, Andras: Foundations for a Science if Personality. New York, 194 1 •
Baker, S. J.: The Australian lAnguage 2• Melbourne, 1966. Barrett, W. S. : Euripides, Hippolytus. Oxford, 1964. Behr, C. A.: Aelius Aristides and the Sacred Tales. Amsterdam, 1968. Benedict, Ruth: Patterns of Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1934· (7) Bexton, W. H., H eron, W. and Scott, T. H.: Effects of Decreased Variation in the Sensory Environment, Canadian Journal if Psychology 8:70-76, 1954. (8) Bezdechi, Stefan : Das psychopathische Substrat der " Bacehantinnen" Euripides', Archiv flir die Gesehi,hu deT" M edhin 25 :279--306, 19311.
(3) (4) (5) (6)
Jll ArtcmidorOI giva exampla of milIintcrprcted dr~alllll (e.g., 5.72) as well as of duams that muM be interpreled "in reverse" (1.4, 2.53, ele.). But one has the impression that he comidcn both type! as somewhat exceptional. '" Sedang M ill : The unborn child i. askrd by the Supematurals what il wisha to be : man or woman, rich or poor, etc. H e becoma the oppoo ite of whal be doircs to become (.u ). Zaghawa: In a folk laIc a man wi shing to obtain what he uaUy needs, must ask for something inappropriate and ulICless; he must also believe the oppooite of what the SupemalUrau tell him (135). 1 have read the news mrdia in a similar spirit for deeado and have IICldom gone wrong. ,,, Though thiJ iJ the erux of Freud's theory of d reams (66), even Freud had difficulties with certain dreams of this type. T his !rd him to evolve the logicall y quotionable and clinically wcless theory of a "primary" death instinct (7ll) .
. atenal
~
ethos :Ia al.ltor
Mtnel(Jl)S' Reactive Depression and Dream
'4'
(9) Bla.ikJ.ock, E. M.: Till Mal' CharaettrS oj'Eunpidu. Wellington, N.Z., 195 2. (10) Bourguignon, Andre: Recherches Recentes sur Ie Reve, us Temps MorkrMs no. 238:1603- 1628, 1966. (II ) Bowers, U. G.: The Hidden Land. New York, 1953. (12) Bowra, C. M.: The Two Palinodes ofStesichorus, Classical Review 13: 245-25 2, 1963· (13) Brelich, Angelo: The Place of Dreanl.'l in the Religious World Concept of the Greeks (in) von Grunebaum, G. E. and CalHois, Roger: ThlDream in Human Socitt~s. Berkeley and LosAngeles, 1966. (14) Cook, A. B.: Zeus, 3. Cambridge, 1940. (15) Davison, J. A.: De Helma Stesichori, Quadmri Urbinati no. 2 :80-go, 1966 . (16) de Her\!dia, J.-M.: us Trophies. Paris, 18g5. ( 17) Deonna, Waldemar: Quelques Croyances Supcrstitieuses de la Greee Ancienne, &lIU4 des EtutUs GUCqUlS 2 :169-180, 1929. (18) de Romilly, Jacqueline: La Craink el l'Angoim dans Ie Thi4t" d'Eschyu. Paris, 1958. ( 19) Deubner, Ludwig: De In&ubatione. Leipzig, 1 goo. (20) Deutsch, Helene : Obet versaumte Trauerarbeit, Almanach tier Psycho/VllJ{yse, pp. 194-207, 1938. (21) Devereux, George: Stdang FuM Noks (MS.), 1933- 1935' (22) id.: Mohave Coyote Tales, Journal of Al1Iffican Folklore 6, :233-255, 1948 . (23) id.: Catastrophic Reactions in Normals, American ImlJGo 7 :343-349, 195°· (24) id. (and Mars, Louis) : Haitian Voodoo and the Ritualization of the Nightmare, PsychIJanaJ.ytic &view 38:334- 342, 1951. (25) id.: Primitive Genital Mutilations in a Neurotic', Dream,]ournal oj llu AmnUan Psychoanalytu; Association 2 :483- 492, 1954. (26) id.: A Counteroedipal Episode in Homer's Iliad, Bulletin of tlu Philadelphia Assoaation for Psychoanab'sis 4:90-97, 1955· (27) id.: Therapeutic Education. New York, 1956. (28) id.: Penelope's Character, Psychoanalytu; Quarln{Y 26 :378-386, 1957. (29) id.: Obsessive Doubt, Bulletin oj the Philadelphia Assoaation for Psychoanalysis 10:50-55, 1960. (30) id.: Art and Mythology: A General Theory (in) Kaplan, Bert (ed.) : Studying Pnsonality Cross-Culturaily. EvanSlon, Illinois, 1961. (S I ) id. : The Enetian Horse$ of Hippolytos, Antiquitl Classique 33 :375383, 1964. (32) id.: The Kolaxaian Horse of Aikman's PartheMion, Classical Quarterly 15: 176-184, 1965· (33) id.: The Abduction of Hippodameia as "Aition" of a Greek Animal Husbandry Rite, Sludi e Material; di Sloria tUlle Religioni 36:3-25, 196 5. (34) id.: Loss of Identity, Impainnent of Relationships, Reading Disability, Psychoanalylu; Quarln{Y 35:1B-s9, Ig&). (35) id.: The Exploitation of Ambiguity in Pindaros O. 3.27, Rhtini.fchu Mustumftir Philolngi~ 109 :'lBg--'lgB. 1966.
142
M enelaos' &acliVl DepwsWn and Dream
(36) id.: Fausse Non-Reconnaissance, Bullttin of tm Mtnninger Clinic 3 1:6g-78, 1967· (37) id. : La Renonciation a l'ldentite: Defense contre l'Aneantissement, Rtuue Frtulfaist tk Psychanalyst 31 :101 - 142, 1967. (38) id.: Greek Pseudo-Homosexuality, Symbolat Osloenm 42 :69-92, 1967· (39) id.: From Anxie~ to M ethod in the Behavioral Sciences. Paris and The Hague, 1967. (40) id.: Observation and &lief in Ai5chylos' Accounts of Dreams, PsydwthtrapJ and PsyclwJomatiu '5:114- 134, IgG7. (41) id.: Orthopraxis, Psychiatric Quarterly 42:726-737,1968. (42) id.: M ohaw Ethnopsychiatry and Suidde. (Second, substantially augmented edition.) Washington, 1969. (43) id.: The Nature ofSappho's Seizure in Fr. 31 LP, Classical Quarterly 20:17-31, 1970 . (<<) id.: La Nais.sance d'Aphrodite (in) Pouillon, Jean and Maranda, Pierre (eds.): Echanges tt Communications (Milanges Uvi-Strarm ), 2.1229-1252. Paris and The Hague, 1970. (45) id.: The Psychotherapy Scene in Euripides' Baccluu, Journal of H,lltnic Studies 90:35- 48, 1970. (46) id.: The Structure of Tragedy and the Structure of the Psyche in Aristotle's Potties (in) Hanly, Charles and Lazerowitz, Morris (eds.): Psyclwanalysis and Philosophy. New York, 1970. (47) id.: Psychaarudysis and the Occult (ed. and contrib. ) Reprint (hard cover and paperback). New York, 1970. (4B) id.: Emis d'Ethnaps)'Chiatrie GenErale. Paris, '970. (Second edition, 1973·) (49) id.: Wahnsinnige Glitter (Lecture, University of Basel ), '970. (50) id.: The Psychosomatic Miracle of 101a05, La Parola .ui PtJJSDlo no. 138 :,67- 195, 197 1. (5 1) id.: Drogues, Dieux, Ideologies, MtdUD no. 103: '3- 20, '972. (52) id.: Ethnopsyclumalyse Complimmtarisk. Paris, 1972. (53) id.: (and Devereux,]. W.): Les Manifestations de l'lnconscient dam Sophokles: Trtuhiniai 923 sqq. (in) Psychanalyst el Sociologie ,omme Mithodn d'Etude.us Phinommes Historiques et Cullurels. Bruxdles, t973. (54) id.: Stesichoros' Palinodes : Two Further Testimonia and Some Comments, Rlu!inis,hes Museumfiir Philologu 116: 20&-209, 1973. (55) Dodds, E. R.: The Gretks and the Irrational. Berkeley, California, 1951. (56) Dollard, John II al.: Frustratian and Aggression. New Haven, 1939. (57) Edelstein, E. J. and Edelstein, Ludwig: Ascltpius 2 vols. Baltimore, 1945· (58) Elkin, A. P.: Tht AuslrDlian Aborigines. Sydney, 1964. (59) Empson, William: Sellffl Types of Ambiguiryl. New York, 1964. (60) Evans-Pritchard, E. E.: Wikhtrf!ft, Oracles tJnd MtJgic Among 1m Azandt. Oxford, 1937. (61) Fenichei, Otto: A Critique of the Death Instinct (in) The Colleckd Papers ofO. Fmichell . New York, 1953. (62) id. : The Symbolic Equation: Girl .. Phallus, The Collected PtJ/NTS of O. Fttlichel 2. New York, '954.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
Mtntlaos' lUa&tiw Depression and Dream (63) Flashar, Hdhnut : M elandwlic lind !l-telunc!lUliMr in tUn IIl€dil.inis"s.cn Tkrnitll AnJike. Berlin, 1966. (64) Fraenkd, Eduard : A,schylus, Agamnmwn 2 . Oxford, 19611 . (65) French, Th. M . : R eality Testing in Dreams, PsythotJtUdytic Quarterly 6 :6!!- n, 1937· (66) Freud, Sigmund: The Interpretation of Dreams, Standard Edition 4-5' London, 1958. (67) id.: The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, Standard Edition 6. London, 1960. (68) id.: Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, Standard Edition 7. London, 1953. (fig) id.: Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood, Standard Edition I I. London, 1957. (70) id.: On the Universal Tendency to Debasement in the Sphere of Love, Standard Edition II. London, 1957. (7 1) id.: Mourning and Melancholia, Standard Edilion 14. London, 1957· (7!!) id.: Beyond the Pleasure Principle, SUJndard Edition lB. London, 1955· (73) id.: The Subtleties of a Faulty Action, Standard Edition 22. London, 1964· (74) id. : Analysis T erminable and Interminable, Standard Edition, 23. London, 1964. (75) Gallini, Clara: Kalapontismos, Studi t Materiali di Stana rklh IUligioni 34:6 I-go, 1963. ( 76) Gayton, A . H. : The Orpheus M yth in :-forth America, Journal tif Ameritan Folklore 48 :!! 63~93, 1935. (77) Glasse, Robert : CannibaLisme et Kllru chez les Fore de Nouvelle Guinee. L'Homme vol. 8, no. 3, 211-36, 1968. (78) Glueck, Nelson: Daties and Dolphins. New York, 1965. (79) Goldstein, Kurt : T k Organism. New York, 1939. (80) Gorer, Geoffrey: Death, Gritf and Mourning. New York, 1965. (81 ) Graves, Robert: Tk Golrkn Fleece. London, 195 1. (B!! ) Grubb, W. B. : An Unknown People in an Unknown undo London, 1911 . (83) H eron, \V., Bexton, W. H. and Heb b, D. 0 .: Cognitive Effects of Decreased Variation in the Sensory Environment, American Psydwlogist 8 :366, 1953. (B4) H erzog, R .: Die Wunderheilungen von Epidauros. Philoiogw , Suppletrur.tband 22, no. 3. Leipzig, 193 1. (B5) H ousman, A. E.: The Agamemnon of Aeschylus, Journal of Plrilology 16 :244~91, 1888 (p. ~69). (86) Italie, Gabriel : Inrkx A,uhykus2• £.eiden, 1964. (B7 ) Jakobsen, Roman and Uvi-Strauss, Claude: " Les Chats" de Charles Baudelaire, L'Homme 2, no. 1 :5-'2 1, 1962. (88) Jones, Ernest: On the Nightrrnlrt. London, 1931. (89) K ennard, E. A.: Hopi Reactions to D eath, American AnthrtJ/JoUJgist 39:49 1- 49 6 , ' 937· (go) Killeen, J. F.: Aeschylus, Agamemnon 41!! f. , Classkal PkiloUJD 55: 2 53-254, IgGo.
an
'44
MtntIIWS' RelUtiue Depression and Dream
(91 ) Kino, H. D. F.: Greek Tragedy. Garden City, New York, 1954. (92) K ouretas, Dcmctrios : L'Homosexualile du Pere d'<Edipe cl ~ Consequences, Annales Medicales (Athena) nos. 5-6, 1963. (93) Kroeber. A. L. : Handbook of the Indians of California (Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 78). Washington D .C., 1925. (94) Kubie, L. S. : Manual of Emergency T reatment for Acute War Neuroses, War M edicine 4 :582- 598, 1943. (95) Laforgue, R ene: On the Erotization of Anxiety, In lemational]oUTTUJi ~ Ps.Y'ho-AnaIysis II :3 12-32 1, 1930. (g6) Lagache, Daniel : Le Travail du Dewl : Ethnologic et Psychanalyse, Rt /lUl Frlllifoise de Psy,hanaiyse 10:6g3- 708, 1938. (97) Lehrs, K.: Popular, AuJs4t~t . Leipzig, 18g6. (gB) Uvi-Strauss, Claude : Myth%giqUl!s I: Le Cru d It Cuit. Paris, 1964. (99) Lilly, j . G: Effects of Physical R estraint and of Reduction of Ordinary Levels of Physical Stimuli on Intact, Healthy Persons, Group for llu Advancement of Psychiatry, Symposium 2 : 13- 20, 1956. (100) id. : M ental Effects of Reduction of Physical Stimulation on Intact, H ealthy Persons, American Psychiatrit Association Research Report 5:128, 1956. (101 ) Lincoln, j . S. : Th Dream in Primitive Culturel (with a new preface by George Devereux) . New York, 1970. (102) Linton, Ralph : Tlu Study of Man. New York, 1936. (103) Lloyd-jones, Hugh (tra nslator): AeschylUJ, Agamemnon. Englewood Cliffs, New j ersey, 1970. ( 104) id.: The JUJlice of -{tllS. Berkeley, California, 1971. ( 105) Lord, A. B.: Homer and other Epic Poetry (in) Wace, A. J. B. and Stubbings, F. H .: A Companion to Homer. London, 1962. ( 106) Lowie, R. H .: A Crow Woman's T ale (in) Parsons; E. C. (ed.) American Indian Life. New York, 1925. ( 107) Lucas, F. L.: Tragedyl . New York, 1962. (108) Malten, Ludolfus: Die SpracM des mtTISchiiclun Anllit;:es im.friJMn GriecMnlum. Berlin, 1961. ( 109) Marcade, jean: Eros Kalos. Geneve, 1965. ( I IO) Marcovich, M.: Sappho Fr. 3 1: Anxiety Attack or Love Declaration? Classical Quarttrly 22 : 19-32, 1972. ( III ) M cNichols, C. L . : Cra{), Weather. New York, N.Y., 1944. ( 112) Meyerson, Emile: Du Cheminement de la Pensle. Paris, 193 1. ( 113) Murray, Gilbert : Euripides Dnd His Age2• London, 1955. ( 114) id. : Aeschylus, Tlu Creator of Tragedy. Oxford, 1962. ( 115) Nilsson, M. P.: Goiter und Psychologie bei H omer, Archio for Religionswimnschaft 22 :363-390, 1923-1924' ( 116) Oppenheim, A . L .: The Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East, TrDnstUlions cif tlu American PhilolasophicDI Society n.s. 46 (pt. 3): 177- 373, 1956. ( 117) Owen, A. S. (ed.): Euripidts, Ion. Oxford, 1939. ( 11 8) Page [Sir] Denys: Sappho and AkIUUS 1 • Oxford, 1959. ( 11 9) id. (ed. ) : Euripides, M edea2 • Oxford, 1 g64. ( 120) Picard, Charles: Le ~ notaphe de Midea elles Colosses de MeneIas, Revue til PiriltJlogU 59: 341--354. 1933·
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
MeneiMs' Reactillt Depression and Dream
'45
(121) id.: Us Religions pdheUiniques. Paris, 1948. (122) Pisani, Vittore: Elena e l'Ei5wAov, Rivista di Filologia t di /stnu:ioflt Cla.ssiea 6:476-499, 1928. (123) Powell, Benjamin: Erichthonius and the Three Daughten of Cecrops, Corntll Studies in Cltusical Philology 17. New York, 1906. (124) Prementein, A. von: Ober den Mythos in Euripides' Helene, Philologus 55:634-653, 18gG. ( 125) Raingeard, P.: Hennis Psychagogue. Paris, 1935. (11I6) Rank, Otlo: D er Doppelganger (in) Psych()atwlytiscM Beitragt Lur Mythenf(Jfschung. Leipzig and Wien, 1919. ( 127) Rivers, W. H. R.: ClJnjlict and Dream!. London, 19116. (128) Rohde, Erwin: Ps)·ehe. London, 19115. ( 129) Roscher, W. H. (ed. ) : AuifiJhrliches Lexik()n tkr grUchischen und romischen MytJt%gie 6 vok Leipzig, t884- 1937. ( 130) id. : Das von der "Kynanthropie" Handelnde Fragment des Marcellus von Side. Abhandlungen der phi/()/()gisch-lrislonschen C/tuSt der Konig/ieh S&hrischen Gtstl/schaft der WissensdUlften vol. 17, no. 3. Leipzig, 18g6. ( 131 ) Sachs, Hanns: T he Creatiw Unc()nsci()us. Cambridge, Massachusetts, '94 2 • (132 ) Schuhl, P.-M. : Essai sur /a F()rmati()n de /a Pensle Crtcque. Paris, 1934. ( 133) Toffelmier, Gertrude and Luomala, Katherine : Dreams and Dream Interpretations of the Diegueno Indians of Southern California, PsychotJnlJ!ytic QuarterlY 2: I 95..-..1l25, 1936. (134) Tylor, E. B.: Primitiw Culture 2 vols. London, 187 I . ( 135) Verheyt, Paul: Pour une Approche Synthltiqut--Psychanaiytique et Fomti()nnelle-dts Conies (M.A. Thesis, MS.) Paris, 1971. ( 136) Vernant, J .-P.: My the et Ptnsie chez Les Greesl. Paris, 1966. (137) Wackernagel, Jacob: VIJT/tsungen aber Syntax. Basel, 1920 and 1924. ( 138) Webster, T. B. L.: Greek Art and Literature, 700-530 B.C. Otago, N.Z., 1959. ( 139) Weinreich, Otto : Antike Heilungswundtr (Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorabeiten 8, no. I ), 1909. ( 140) id. Ein Spurzauber, A"hiv flir Religionswissensehaft 28 : 183- 184, 193°· ( 141 ) Winnington-Ingram, R. P.: Hippolytw: A Study in Causation (in) Euripidt, Entretiens Hardt vol. 6. Geneve, 1960. ( 142) Wolfson, Loui.s : Le Schiz.o et Its unguIS. Paris, 1970. ( 14,3) Zielin.dti, Th.: De Helenae S imulac ro , £os 30:54-ih, 1927.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Chapter 4
The Dream of the Erinyes (AischyJos: EwntTlWs)
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
,,8
The Dream of till Erinyes Tt~t
KAYTAIMHCTPAC EI6WJ\ON (Vr. 94-116)
(Klytaimestra's ghost appears on-stage and reproaches the sleeping Erinyes.) 6paTE lTATIyac 1"ere6E KapSlac MEv. (Hermann) 103 [She continues to reproach them.) 6vap yap o~c vW !Q.VTClIIlTlCTpa KaAW. I .6 XOPOC (1J.V¥1l6c.) KAYTAIMHCTPAC Elt.UlAON
1.1\1101,.' W, &v1'!p 0' oiX€Tal IjIEVywv "TI'p6cw" q.!),.o\ yap fkw OVK !~Tc lTpoalKo-rEC. XOPOC (1lIYIJ.6c.) KAYTAIMHCTPAC EI.6WAON
&yO\!
VrrvWca:IC ICOV KCIToIKTi3£]C
120
lTaeoc·
5' 'OplCTTlC Tilc5E IJ'lTpOc oiXETat.
XQPOC ("y"",.) KAYTAIMHCfPAC EIl!.WJ\ON 3ELC, lrTrvWca:1C' otnc. avacniCIJ TaxOC;
'r! COl TTirrpwrCXI TTpCry]..LQ 1TA"r" TElixElII 1
125
KAYTAIMHCTPAC EI6WAON
IiTTvoc TT6voc "TE mplo1 CVVW~l &1v1lc opaKaiVllc ~~EKi)pavav IJWac. XOPOC (IlVY~ Ol1l"AoUC 69Jc.) Aal~,D,a~n,af~L\al3t,
IPpCx30v.
130
KAYTA[MHCTPAC EI6WAON 6vap 51~IC &f\pa, Mayyaivelc 5' &m:p KVWII IoIlP1llvav OCrrrOT' tKMhrwv ".6vov.
TI !iNC; OvICTW. \.If) a: vl1«'rroo "TTOvOC, \.I"S' ayv()!'1C1Jc TrT;lla J.LaA6ax,6t:Tc' Vnv'll. 135 6:Ay"oov fjTrap tvS!KOIC Ove!SECIV. (Vv. 136-139: further reproach and incitement to Ihe pursuil. Klytaimestra's ghost vanishes.) XOPOC (Vv. 140-154: the Erinyes wake up and encourage each other to wake up. They feel hurt becalL'le Orestes escaped them while they slept. They blame Apollon, who protects Orestes.) !J.LOI S' 6veiSoc !~ OvelpcXTWV lloMv '55 hvofEv S!Kav SI"P"AcXTOV IlECOAal3£T idvTP'll
VITO "ptvac, VITO Aol3Qv.mXpEcrl J.LacTbcropo<: 5atov 6aplov ~ T6 'mplflapv KpVoc fxtiV.
,60 (Smyth's text)
'alenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
The Dream
of the Erinyes
'49
Translatron KlylaimMtra's Ghost : Mark ye these gashes in my heart, whence they come. (Verse 109) (Vv. 104- 11 5: she further reproaches the Erinyes.) Klylaimestra's Ghost: 'Tis in a dream I , Klytaimestra, now invoke you. (V. 116.) Choros: (begins to move uneasily, uttering whining sounds). Klytaimestra's Ghost: Whine if ye will! But the man is gone, fled far away. For he hath friends not like to mine! Choros: (continues to whine). Krytaimestra's Ghost: Too heavy art though with sleep and hast no pity for my misery. Orestes, the murderer of his mother here, is gone! Chom (begins to moan) . Klyt4imestra's Ghost: Thou moanest, slumberesl. Wilt thou not anse at once ? What task hath been allotted to thee save to work ill? Choros (continues to moan). Kb>taimestra's Ghrut: Slumber and travail, fit conspirators, have destroyed the might of the dreaded dragoness (she-serpent). Choros: (with whining redoubled and intensified) : Seize him! seize him! seize him! seize him! Mark him ! Klylaimestra's Ghost: 'Tis but in a dream Ihou art hunling thy game and art whimpering like a hound that never leaves off its keenness for the chase. What W(Jfk hast thou afoot ? Arise! Let not fatigue ovennaster thee, nor let slumber so soften thee as to forget my wrong. Sting thy heart (liver) with merited reproac hes; (Vv. 13&-139: Klyiaim estra's ghost further reproaches and incites to the hu nt the sleeping Erinyes.) Clutros (Vv. 140- 154). (The Erinycs wake up and encourage each other to wake up. They feel hurt because Orestes escaped while they slept. They blame Apollon, who protects Orestes) : R eproach, coming to me in a dream, smote me like a charioteer with goad grasped tight, under my heart, under my vitals (lobe of the liver). 'Tis mine to feel the cruel, the exceedingly cruel smart of the doomster's direful scourge. (Smyth's translation) (Words between parentheses are more accurate alternatives to Smyth's somewhat overly lofty expressions. )
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
'50
The Dream of tk Erinyes
Introduction The magnificent boldness of the Erinyes' dream as theatre tends to divert one's attention from its eschatological complexity and psychological plausibility. Yet, it is the combination of these two factors which turns what could have been mere melodrama into a scene of matchless dramatic tension. The stroke of genius which put both the dreamers and their joint dreamvision on stage, made the appearance of Klytaimestra's double (d5wAov) both a dream and a haunting. By contrast, the dramatically also effective appearance of Dareios' ghost (A. Pm. 681 fr. ) does not produce det'p emotional reverberations, for a mere spectacle, however brilliant and moving, cannot match the penetrating and compelling psychological realism of the Erinyes' dream. I cannot demo nstrate the psychological authenticity of this d~am unles.s I deal first with the purely objective aspects of the scene and then reconsider its eschatological implications, i.e., the far-reaching and striking reciprocities between the Erinyes, Klytaimestra and even Orestes himself. For an eschatologically satisfactory understanding ofthil; scene presupposes its psychological scrutiny, and its psychological comprehension an eschatological analysis.
L Objectiw Features
The En'l1yts' Sleep, induced by Apollon, gives Orestes time to p~pare his final exoneration. The theme of o ne god putting another to sleep, so as to gain time for his proteges, is ancient.1 The Erinyes themselves compare their having been put to sleep to the manner in which Apollon intoxicated the Moirai, so as to wrest from them special privileges for Admetos (T23 fT., 727 fT. ). This, too, is an ancient motif: Dionysos plies the angry Hephaistos with drink, so as to persuade him to return to O lym pos.2 The Erinyes, asleep on thrones inside Apollon's $ancluary (46 8'.) snarl, and rheum oozes from their eyes (53 fT. ).l When they become visible to the spectators, they whine and moan in sleep.4 Klytaimestra's comparing them to hounds dreaming of a hunt (131 ff. ) strongly suggests that their limbs twitch (infra). It is this comparison which will pennit an analysis of their (visible) dream. FORMAL ASPECTS OF TilE DREAM
( I ) The visible dream closely parallels Homeric precedentl.! A dream 'Hera persuades HypllOl to put Zeus to sleep (Hom. II. 14.231 It). Paus. 1.20.3, ele. Cpo the Fran<;:<>is Vue. , In A. Clw. lo!l8, their eyes se.:rcte blood. I note, as IUl aside, that, judging by Arislophanie comedy, inflammations of {he eyelids mUllt have been COnunDn in Athens. An ophth.almologist told Professor Dover that in IeVUC, chronic conjunctivitis the eyelids can bleed. • 1NY1I6c, O)'1l6c, vv. t20-129. 1
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
The Dream
of the Erinyes
'5'
figure appears to the sleeper, stands near him and says: "You are sleeping.'" The main difference is. that, in A. Eum. 94. thi.s statement is reproachrul and ironic : £VOOIT' &Y. (2) The fact that all the Erinyes have the same dream is, by contrast, unique,6 though psychologically plausible: The Erinyes lack individuality -and not only in this drama. Their " I" is more than a choral convention. In myth, they u5uaUy come into being and function as a group. In practice, when viewed collectively, they have no more separate and distinct individualities than have the multiple heads of Kerberos or the three bodies of Geryones, though a single Erinys can exist (Hom. II. 9.571,
etc.). II. The Nature
of lhe Erinyes
TJu Appearance of Aischylos' Erinyes is described at some length. According to tradition, their frigh tful appearance caused pregnant women in the audience to miscarry (Vita p . 4, Dind. ). But their IUluol appearance- the costume they wore on-stage-is far less relevant for the understanding of thei r role and dream than the fact that, in accordance with Greek traditions, Aischylos held them to be both hounds and serpents. ( I) The Ennyes were often called "hounds"-but on the basis of their behaviour rather than because of their actual shape.7 They track the criminal by the scent of blood which clings to him,- and this ghastly odour fills them with joy (253). One may conclude from their whines while dreaming ofa hunt that, like hounds, they whine eagerly when they follow a blood spoor. 9 They suck the blood from the (bleeding?) limbs of their living victim 10 and drain him of the last drop. The criminal is visualized as a hunted beast: Orestes is a fawn or a hare,1I whose coursing is anticipated by a reference to Pentheus' fate, which was that of a hunted hare (26 f.). This, too, shows that the Erinyes were hounds only functionally, for the human Mainades, who track and rend Pentheus, are also "hounds" (E. Bo. 731, ' 977)-but in this sense only. At the same time, the Erinyes are functionally not only hounds but also hunters and, specifically, "maslel"!l of hounds".n I On thit detail. cpo Dodds, 17. chap. 4. • Verrall', claim (38. pp. 168 ff. ). Ihat, in E. lIF 815 ff. , the Chol'lll!l has a collective dream. is nOI generally acceptffi.. • A. <:A«. 9~4 r., 10~; EII/7I. 131 fr.• 246 r.; S. EI. [388; E. £I. '342. Ar. Ran. 47~, elC. (Elet.lTa as a bitcb : A. CItot. 447.) ' A. Evm.. 1130; E. £1. ' .'34.\1; AI. Rmt. 4711. • Confirmed by A. Eum. 4114. where they screech while hunting. Dreaming dot!": Lua·+99I~.
A. Elim. 183. 1114; At. 11 8g. "A. Eum. III , 147 r., 1146, 3116; E. £1. 836. !lA. Eum. 1131. cpo Nann. Dim. 311.100; in arl.they are repfQenlffi. as hunlreoses. cpo Rapp. s.v. 34 co1. 1335. In E. Ba. the muterofthe Mainadic hounds is Agaue. l"epfQenling DionfSW (731 . 67~). or else Lyaa (977). But there is abo a CUriOWII reciprocity betweeD these hound_like MainadlS and their prey. In E. Ba. 7SJ. they themselves are tracked; al 8711 they "are" a doe hUDIffi. by Penthe.... • "hounds". This detail is relevant ror my IUhle· qUeDt discussion of the nexu. belween the EriDYes and 0...,.1<,.. If
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
'5'
TIu Dream oj the Erinyes
What matters most for the understanding of this dream is the comparing
of the sleeping Erinyes to hounds who dream of hunting. The ancien! and widespread belief that sleeping hounds who whine and twitch dream of hun ling, has now received powerful experimental support : brain-wave patterns which indicate dreaming (and which are not unlike waking patterns) occur far more often in sleeping predators (dogs, cats, humans) than in herbivorous creatures (2, 24). Though Aischylos certainly did not originate this interpretation of the behaviour of sleeping dogs, he did use it with consummate dramatic skill and psychological persuasiveness. (2) The serpentine nature of the Erinyes is, of course, also mentioned (126 C. ), for the notion that they arc serpents (A. Clwe . 1050), or own and handle snakes, or sprout snakes is traditional and is reflected also in art.1l But it is of interest that A. Eum. mentions their venom orten and their serpentine nature only once ( H!6 f. ). These repeated allusions to their venom may be meant to remind one of the serpentine Orestes' poisonous bite in Klytaimestra's dream (chap. 6). Even more interesting is that Apollon threatens the Erinyes with his own "winged serpents" (= poisonous arrows) ( 181 ). It is, thus, a case of serpent threatening serpent and therefore parallels Klytaimestra's dream. For she, who is repeatedly called a serpent in A. Choe. (994, 1047) and a (two-headed) amphisbaina in A. Ag. 1233, dreams ofbcing bitten in the breast by a serpentine Orestes (A. Choe. 527 fT., 923), though in reality her neck or throat will be cut (see Appendix i). The serpentine character of the Erinyes, of Klytaimestra (who avenges Iphigeneia's death) and of Orestes (who avenges Agamemnon) cannot but underscore that the Erinyes are not only spirits, but also quasihuman beings who kill the kin-slayer. A curious passage (A. Choe. 119) perhaps suggests this: Agamemnon's avenger might be either a Daimon or a man.
III. Erinyes
c
Klylaimeslra
It is ofll~n said that, in calling the Erinyes daughters of the Night, Aischylos (322, 416, 745, 792) implicitly repudiated the earlier tradition (H es. Th. 18S) that they were born from the castrated Ouranos' blood, which fell on the earth. But, in my estimate, this is an altogether secondary point. Aischylos may have simply tried to resolut. by these means, a more fundamental difficulty: the problem of the existence of the Erinyes in lime. The Hesiodic tradition involves a paradox. Since they were bom out of a quasi-parricide-out of Ouranos' blood---one would expl':{;t the Erinyes to harass Kronos. Yet, even though, in some traditions.l~ Kronos is subsequently castrated by his own son, Zeus, so that onc can speak of an "appropriate retribution", one ex~cted element is strikingly missing: "Rapp.,
I.V.
34 coll. 1314 ff.
"Tim. fr. 54, FHG ,.20,9; Lye. 76, .
86!l:
sch. Lye. 86g a.nd
Tz~tz.
a.d Ioc.; Porph.
an',. 16; 10. Lyrl. U mlns. +44, p. 78.13 Bell., etc.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
The Dream of the Erinye.f
'53
I know of no text which claims that the EriTl)'es harassed the parricidal Kronos. This 5Uggesl.'l that K ronos' crime simply brought into being a class or type of avenging deities which, in practice, do not trouble the original parricide Kronos, but only mortals who commit an equivalent- i.e., divi_ type of crime, I cannot discuss here at length something self-evident but oflen overlooked: the commission of "divine" crimes is a fundamental characteristic of gods, of divine kings, and even of mortals who temporarily acquire the superna tural powers that enable them to perform actions forbidden tomen, Some such persons actually become superhuman (or acquire temporarily the power to achieve the near-impossible) precisely by means of a (ritual) crime (chap. 2). The greatest Greeks of the elassical period apparently failed to grasp this characteristically archaic notion and tried to cope with the "misdeeds" of deities by bowdlerizing them, thereby preparing the ground for the decay of religion. I' But the major difficulty lies elsewhere. Regardless of whether the Erinyes were born of Ouranos' blood, or were daughlers of the Night, Aischylos and others also hint that, like GelegenhtitsgIJtter, they come into being each time a person unpardonably insults a member of his family or sheds his biOCKi. I note in particular that in such instances the name: Erinys.Los at times in the singular,I6 and this despite the fact that H esiodos, Aischylos and many others speak of the Erinyes in the plural: there are usually three Erinyes, lacking individuality and working as a team. This finding justifies the view17 that the Eriny(e)s was (were) originally simply the vengeful ghost(s), or was (were) at least homfrom the shed blood of a relative whose death could not be avenged because the killer was precisely the one who should have avenged his death.l 8 Only later on were these vengeful ghosts re-defined as infernal spirits, having a kind of "continuous" existence in time, but totally inactive until re-animated and mobilized by a kin-murder and attn'buled to the victim. This, rather than the two alternative genealogies of the "original" Erinyes, is the real problem. It would seem that the Greeks held simultaneously IUJ(l di~rgtnt beliefs concerning the manner in which the Eriny(e)s "originate (s)". Such double beliefs are quite common. 19 .. I hop" lodiscws this oopious malerial ebewhere. H "", r note only that the Aischylean Ennyes themselves speak scathingly of Zeus' dealings with the vanquished Kron os (A. &m. 64,1 IT.), pointing out that this precedent does not justify Orest""' deed. "A. 5.pl. 79' (Oldipo ...• ErinYO)j A, CIuH. 6:11, elc, Plurals in Hom. I I. ~1.41~, Od. ~.135, 1I.~So; H es. Th. 47~. "Propounded by Rohde (33, pp, 178 ft, 451 f,); cp. NiLo.son (311.100). Contra ( /7, p. 'l l, note 37). II I have taught for three decades that criminal law came into being not in order to I Uppress the practice of the vendetta, but in order to permit society to COP" with kinmunier, in which the vendetta is impossible, Evrn nineteenth-century Albania lacked a mechanism for dealing with kin-munier and thm: is a record of the first altempt of the Chcymne Indiall3 to deal socially with abortion ( _ kin_murde.) (:l3, p. 436; utold more briefly in 26, p. 119). II Cpo the two Mohave I ndi"n theorieo concerning th o origin of twinl (4) and Linton'. (~5, p. 36~) discusaion of the mutually incompatible belief. held by modem man about ghosts. Th"", fin~ imply thai the discrepancy betweeo the eschatology of the H omeric
'54
Tilt Dream of Iht ErinyllS
But, as in the case of the two sets of Mohave beliefs concerning twins, it is possible to discern a nexus between the two Greek theories of the origin of the Erinyes. lO The basic consideration is that, whether or not they "exist continuously" in time, Ihe Erinyes become "operational" on(y if kindred blood is shed, and Clast /0 be "operational" the moment the slayer is punished.l! I think it would be anachronistic to consider that the "continuously existing" Erinys aTC comparable to Platonic " ideal fonns", on which the "operational" Erinyes, who come into being after a kin-murder, are modelled, and from which they are "derived," The real relationship between the inoperative and the "operational" Ennyes can be derived from much morc concrete eschatological data. The Homeric Nekyia makes it dear that the shadowy and senseless ghosts of mortals simply "hibernate" in Hades; only when given blood to drink (Hom. Od. 1 1.36 ff. ) do they become reanimated and "operalional".22 Exactly the same thing appears to be true of the Erinyes. In a vague and shadowy way, they "exist in time" even when there is no kin-murder to be avenged.ll But, just as ghosts in Hades are re-animated by blood, so the Erinyes are re-animated by the thrilling smell of blood (supra) and are supremely active precisely while drinking blood. But, once the kin-slayer is sucked dry, the Erinyes- like Homeric ghosts-seem to relapse into a shadow y pseudo-existence. There are direct references to this alternation of the Erinyes between an active and a passive state. Disregarding for the moment their sleep and awakening (A, EUIII, 46 fT. ), Vy, 313 fT. ma ke it clcar that they become active only when angered by a kin-murder. When a man does not arouse their wra th they pay no attention to him and remain dormant). There is even a hint that the blood of the victim itself can become dormant or be de-activated by purifications (280 ff. }.l' Jltkyilt (H om. 0<1. ! I) and that of the rest of the Homeric epics doe! not JujJiu as proof of
the extraneous, intrusive character of the lit/gin.. That proof must be adduced by riiff"'''' means. ,. I di$regard here Ihe problem of whether my interpretation io simply a "rediscovery" of an actual, unifying Greek belief, in tbe Kns<: in whieh Uvi·StraWli hold. that the thought pallern. htdete<:ts in myth. are de'Mal1y present (in a latent form) in the mind. ofpnmitivCl, Or whether I hal'e limply "constructed" a unified eonceptioll of the origin of the Erinyes, which Ihe Greeks " ,,,1<1 lun'~ evolvrd, had they cued to do 110. It lufficClto lIote thaI the psychoanalyn'. "con$lrUClion," C:1o) are, a. a rul~, !IOOner or later confirmed by the rceo"ery of reprCSS<:
'''a/
'alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
The Dream of the Erinyes
' 55
In short, while not aroused by the shed blood of kindred, the Erinyes resemble the sword suspended above Damokles' head.26 'When a kinmurder takes place, the hair on which the sword is $illIpended breab and the sword-like the active Erinyes- becomes " operational". But, as soon at it pierces its victim, the sword ceases to be operational (until the next occasion) ; so do also the sated Erinyes. A ph~ical analogy might also help. When there is no kin-murder to be avenged, the Erinyes "exist" only in the sense in which the "potential" energy of a flower pot p laced on a window sill "exi5u". "Vhen there is a kin-murder to be avenged they become " operational"- as, when the flowerpot is jolted and hurtles downwards, its (intangible) potential energy becomes trallllformed into (tangible) kinetic energy. The best indication of this is that there is no myth 4 the Erinyc:s-they appear (as avengers) only in myths centred on great sinners. But there is more. When the Erinyes of a slain relative vengefully suck the blood of the slayer, the blood they drink is idmlical with the victim's blood. In fact, the key issue of A. Eum. is precisely whether the son is his mother's killllman by blood {606 and passim).17 By draining him of his blood and thereby tuming him into a bloodless shade,lB they seem to replace the blood which the victim had loot with identical blood drained from thekin-slayer ; this represen ts a kind of retaliatory blood re-transfusion. This fact, together with the ErinY3' coming into (active) being because of a kin-murder and oul of the victim's blood, proves that, as Rohde indicated, the Erinys (c:speciaHy in the singular) is originaUy the victim, or, rather a produd of the victim. This, in turn, explains why the word aVrCxpovoc ( _ self-slayer) designates primarily not the suicide, but the kin-slayer.lSI My final argument is that the Erinyesdo not achieve an active, continuous existence even after turning into Eumenides. I will show, further on, that they continue to be mere potential deterrents (6g6 ff.) who simply refrain from spoiling fertility if man behaves himself, but do nothing to promote that fertilit y activefy, so as to reward the just and piollil man. This is a culturally primitive notion. This somewhat long preliminary statement about the existence of the Erinyes in time is indispensable for a full understanding of the reciprocity between Klytaimestra's double (dSWAOV) and the sleeping Erinyes. It i~ implicit in Rohde'~ theory, which m y argumentll simply sharpen and strengthen, that the Erinyes are, in a sense, Klytaimestra's ghOl!t artd, in another sense, a product of her shed blood.JO This leads to the seemingly perplexing insight that the dreamed Klytaimestra is aprodud of her ownprodudS: of the Erinyes. Her vengeful "ghost(s)" dream (s) of her vengeful double. :leW! (H om. II. 14.23 1 If.), fo r ZeW! effectively exisu even while ", Ieep, while the inaetive Erinyes baTdy exist . "eic. TUll:. 5 .~1.61 ; H o r. ad. 3. 1.7. .. 1 'note (infra) that their , " cking of btood r .sembt ... ~"cx
"lei me kill her a nd then die."
H
A. Chot. 400 actually hints at thla.
Material
:Ie autor
156
Tiu Dream bftM ErinyeJ'
I begin by noting that the early Greek dreamer usually dreams of things and persons which exist before he dreams of them. Thus, Athene must fashion a personage before that personage can intrude into Ihe sleep of- be "dreamed" by- Penelope (Hom. Od. 4.795 ff.). Klytaimeslra's ghost also exists before its intrusion into the dream of her own ghost(s). There is a curious reciprocity here: if Klytaimestra's double had not intruded (Super-ego-like) into the Erinyes' dream, the Erinyes would have remained inactive, since Apo!lon had put them to sleep. BUI, if the Erinyes had not dreamed of Klytaimestra's ghost, her ghost would have remained non-operational. It is the Erinyes' dream of Klytaimestra which enables her to exist " actively." This is clearly a "boxes within boxes" situation: the image in one mirror replicates the image in another mirror and vice versa. Each turns the "potential" energy of the other into " kinetic" energy. Logically, this situation is quite close to the Cartesian "cogito ergo sum", for the one whose existence his thinking proves is precisely the one who does the thinking which proves his existence. It is not certain that this vicious circle can be satisfactorily resolved even by an appeal to Bertrand R ussell's "theory of types" (35, pp. 523 if.), but even if it could be so resolved, what matters is that Aischylos himself lived before Russell's theory came into being. This "boxes within boxes" statement is therefore one which passes for "wisdom" in theology and in metaphysics. It is a kind ofidle " wisdom", that fascinates the child quite WI much as the adult. because it produces a mental vertigo.J1 AJI that matlen in this context b that the image of the producer being (re-)produced by his product is found also elsewhere in Aischylos. But I stress to his credit that he presents it only as a striking poetic image and not as ventriloquist wisdom. In A. Ag. 839 we find the moving expression: t16VJ;\ov CKliie ("'" the ghostly double of a shade), which, so far as I am able to determine, is unique in ciassicalliteralure,12 and creates a feeling of emotional depth- not of philosophical profundity-by a " mirror reflecting a mirror" construction. As so often, it is the poet's correct (emotional-aesthetic) use of affectively rooted symbolism which shows up most cruelly the threadbareness of Ihe philosopher's abusive attempts to turn (real) ajftltiw elements into (metaphysical) profundities. Still considering the scene on a purely poetic-dramatic level, I recall "As a. child, I was ~ntranad by th~ pictuu of a girl holding a pictur~ ofa girl who held a picture, etc. I n the Iycte I became fascinated with the notion lhat our hu.,·enly bodi.,. may only be the ato"'" oflarg~r bodi.,., etc., and Our atolIl!lthe heavenly bodi.,. of a 'mall« univene, etc. In a novel by Jama. Branch Cabell the gods thenueJ...,. have gods of tbeir own, etc.- an idea already impli cit in Luc.]. Conf. (ZeU5 and the Moirai). Even Platon'. doctrine of forms can lead to a "boxes ..... ithin boxo" vertigo: to the notion that the fornu (on which the sensible world is allegedly patterned) presuppose an absolute "~rfect" Fonn (~rhaps th~ .ph~re) . But, if so, there should be an even mor~ <SOter;c "Form" of perfection, etc. I can foresee the verbal refutations ..... hich Platonicians could advance, but do not propose to waste time On refuting &heinprobkmt. I hold that any endlas vista of "wisdom" of the "box.,. within boxes" type, which cannot be adequately solved by an application of Russell'. lheory, is ~ priori nons.tl1lica! . .. Fraenlr.d (ad loe.) . hoWl that its .imilariti.,. ..... ith S.fr. ~98N' are purely verbal. Other, even more spurious, " parallels" are cited by Thormon ad A. At. 839. On th~ inherent grammatical difficulti.,. oilhat vene, cp. o"nru.ton and Page, ad lot.
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
The Dream of the Erinyes
' 57
what I notal at the very 5tart ; what the spectator's corporeal eya saw as a ghostly haunting, they knew to be, JOT the Erinyes, a perception of the inner eye. This, incidentally, decisively militata against the bracketing of A. Eum. 104 f.,ll for it makes the very necessary point that some things are visible only in dream.l-4 In short, 5ince the Erinyes are Kl ytaimestra's ghost (s)-born from her blood and wrath- her ghost is dreamed by her ghost{s). So far, I have simply pointed out that certain "existence in time" and "independent existence" problems must be solved before one can fully grasp the sheer poetic compellingness of this scene. And the understanding and, indeed, reliving of this scene as poetic drama is an indispensable prerequisite for its psychological interpretation as a dream.
IV. The Erin)'ts
=
Omtes
While the affinity between Klytaimestra and the Erinyes whom she "produces" is us ually taken for granted, the fundamental resemblance between Orestes and the Erinyes tends to be more or less overlooked, perhaps because of the constan tly repeated assertion that the Aischylean Erinyes are "objectively" real, while the Euripidean Orestes' Erinyes are simply hallucinations (E. Or. 396). This view is questionable, and not only because, in A. Eum. 417, the Ennyes are defined simply as (perhaps incarnated) "Curses" (apol), which impinge upon Orestes, or else as punitive delusions (c5:TTJ) (A. Clwt . 467). More important is that, in A. ChI)(. 105 1 tr., the Choras insists that they are fancies and a close reading of the text shows that even Orestes claims only that he sees them and that they are real ro him (A. ChI)(. 10¥J fT., 1053 f.). The specification: OVK del ~<Xl T&V5E TfT]I.IO:rWV !~{ does leave open the possibility of his being partly aware of the subjectivity of his "pereeptions"- as hallucinating patienUl are sometimes partly aware of the subjecti vity of what they seem to see, though they react to their hallucinations as though they were real. I cannot assert dogmatically that this loophole reflects an objective insight on the part of Aischylos, for the ambiguity of this passage may well be only that of poetry. But even ifthe latter .....ere true, it would only prove once again what Freud never wearied of saying: Many of the psychoanalys t'! insigh($ were unwittingly anticipated by the poets." The view that, in one sense, the Erinycs are hallucinations can, in part, be adhered to even in interpreting their actual appearance on-stage, for the dreamed double of K lytaimestra alsu appears on-stage. Xenophancs' view (Jr. 15 D-K), that the Supematurals are the projections of man's J} Aa dOCI Schiilz, followed by ThOffiSOll. "Ptthapl Ix-cause they vanish when "pcn;r:ived" by ~orpo",al ere. as Patrok.los' double vanishes when Achilletllltt'u to embrace him (H om. II. ~~ .99 fr.; cpo Od. 11.2"4 ff. ). Cpo also pI .• Hp. iJu""",,. 86 r., and Arist. de dill. JDnII. 463al7 fr., on the possibility of pw:civing an incipient illnC"" ,,"g in dream-a detail I d isc .... elscwhen: in this book. Mazon inappropriately cites A. Ag. 179 . .. Dcopite his general outlook and rhetoric, which I d eem inacceplable, there is mu ch lruth in A. Gn:t:n'. (.1'2) aso<:rtion that then: is a deep and special connection between the ",odd view of tragedy and the ply<:ho-analytical. ·outlook.
'5·
TIu Dream of 1M Erin)·t$
mind, lurks, I believe, even behind Aischylos' conscious thought and "will to believe", Equally important is that, even after their " transformation", the Eumenides never full y accept the view that the mother is no t kin to her children - that they do not have the same blood. That theory is propounded only by Apollon (657 IT.). The Eumenides do not lxplicitly accept it ; they are simply bribed to behave as if they did. In practice, this means only that they retain the right to punish the matricide under a new dispensation: not as a kin-slayer, but as a slayer of a member orlhe social " in-group"as guardians of peace within the dry (infra). And the sociologist will conclude that, even when acting in that capaci ty, they will continue to punish the mother-slayer more SllltTlry that the slayer of a mere "fellowcitizen- as Zeus punishes more severely the slayer of a hearth fri end than of a random stranger. In practice, there can even exist considerable discrepancies between the " closeness" demanded by the formal pattern of descent (kinship ) and the closeness resuhing from the coming into being of what Befu ( f ) calls " pef$Onal kindred". M oreover, it is no accident that, in a manifestly non-matrilineal myth, Ixion's slaying of his father-in-law is called the first kin-murder (Pi. P. 2.32, etc.). In short, even Apollon's theory of descent fails to negate the social closeness of mother and child, which makes mother-slaying so atrocious. The obvious fact that the Eumenides never lxplicitly accept the view that mother and son are not of the same blood, implies thai the Erinyes, which arise from the slain mother 's blood , are, in a sense, also kin-slayers (filicides) , since-for them- the mother's blood from which they spring is identUal with the matricide's blood which they intend to ingest. In that sense they are the products of both Klytaimestra's and Orestes' (identical) blood. But there are even more tangible similarities between Orestes and the Erinyes: (I ) IfOrestcs' hands are bloodstained (280; cpo A. Choe. 1055 f. l, so are those of the Erinyes (41 f. ) and of Aigislhos (A. Choe. 72 ff.). (2) If the Erinyes are serpents (supra), so is O res tes in Kl ytaimestra's dream ; their venom, quite as mueh as their sucking of blood, closely parallels the avenging- and therefore Erinys-Iike-Orcstes' venomous bite and bloody nursing in the A. Choe. dream (chap. 6). Even more significant are certain functional equivalences: ( I) Like the fugitive Orestes, the Erinyes are ou/casls. They, too, spread poiJution, impair the fertility of everything they touch (infra) and are loathed and despised by both gods and men.l6 One passage is particularly illuminating: like Orestes, the y give their (fema le) " parent" - the country that gave them birth (58 r.) 31-ca use to repent of having reared them. Also, like exiled, fugitive kin-slayers. they too appear to have no home. More will be said of this in connection with their acquiring a home after becoming the Eumenides. (2) As stated above, the Erinyes behave like (ki n-)murderers.
r., [9+ r., 3+7 f., 365 ft , 377 if. , 644 If., 72 [ ft , 884, ttc. n II is r«&llt
It E.g. , 6g
the (female) Earth.
. alenal
~
ethos :Ia al.llor
of the Erinyes of Kl ytaimestra, tJuir aggression The Dream
'59
(a) As representatives against Orestes amounts to fil icid e- a fil icide which Klytaimestra ha d attempted but failed to carry out (A. Cllot. 888 f.): hence, they 100 an: genuine kin-slayers. (b) A person who commits an infamous murder puts the victim's clotted blood into his mouth and then spits it out (chap. 6). The Erinyes too suck the blood of their victims and can be made to spit it out or to regurgi tate it (183 ff. ); they also d rool venom (= blood, cpo chap. 7) (477) 780 ff.). (c) Such murderers lo p off the limbs-and assuredly also the genitals" -of their victims (chap. 7), and the Erinyes are explicitly said to preside over variow mutilations l9--especially over the castration of boys.4O Their symbolic feminization of men is highlighted also by their being the patronesses of impalements ( IBg f. ).41 I will return to this matter in connection with my discussion of sterility and fertility. Far more importan t even than these functional equivalences between Orestes and the Erinyes is an often overlooked fact: A. Eum. describes not one but tlOO purifications and social reintegrations : that of the avenging, matricidal O res tes and tha t of the avenging, " filicida[" Erinyes (= K1y- taimestra ) : The o utcast Orestes regains his country and royal sta tus. The wandering, homeless (58 f. ) Erinyes find a home in Athens and c hange from despised, pollution-spreading o utcasts into honoured deities. But there is more. The polluted murderer Orestes is, by definition, doomed to be childless (354 ff.; cpo A. Chot. 1006), for such a pollution renders sterile every unpurified {kin-) murderer. Only sch. S. Ant. 126 asse r ts that the Erinyes are no t c hildless. However, as soon as he is exonerated, Orestes takes it for granted tha t he will now have posteri tyor at least that his people, previously polluted and rendered sterile by his deed, wi!! not become extinct (762 ff.) This " recovery" can be di rectly linked with the transformation of the Erinyes, goddesses of sterility, into the Eumenides, (alleged) goddesses of "fertility" (infra) . A parallel evolution can be noted also in conne<:tion with Orestes' recovery from madness. Orestes is clearly mad at the beginning of the Eumenides (3 78 JT. ), as he was mad al ready at the end of the Chotpizo,oi. But, a.t first, the Erinyes are also mad ;.2 it is becaust they themselves are mad that they are ahh to make their victims mad .•l H owever, a s soon as they are " reformed", they are " For nipple"" ph allos, cp o chap. 6. .. A. Eurn. 188 : d!Vc • •, A. Er.m. 306, 328 fr., 341 fr. I hav" shown d s..whe..., (,,) that , as a rule, only ,hOI(:
gods who are themseh'CS occasionally mad are inclined
to
madden mortals.
Material
:Ie autor
·60
The Dream
of the Erinyts
no longer txptcttd to provoke homicidal fre nzy not caused by drunkenness (8S8 fr.).« This implies that the E u menides cease to cause violent madness because they themselves (temporaril y) cease to be mad. H ence, the
exoneration of O restes and the appeasing of the Erinyes represent also a kind of ritual "»$ychotherapy" which appeases the rage of both the killer and the avenger .•5 In short, the basic similarity between Orestes and the Erinyes is manifest in various ways, throughout A. Eum. This is as true of the similarity between the a s yet unexonerated Orestes and the Erinyes, as of tha t between t he exonerated Orestes and the Eumenides. But, as in the caose of all ritual psychothera py (which does not bring about true insigh(46), one has reason, he re too, to expect that iu beneficial effects will only be transitory or intermittent. As regards Orestes, this is alluded to al ready in A. Eum. 443 fr. : though repeatedly purified, he is nl1t yet IcgaUy exonerated. H ence-despi te mome nts of relief (vv. 280 if.), which are psychiatrically plausible-his troubles and madness continue unabated. He is not much better off afte r his exoneration by the Areapagos. Other myths record his subsequtnt attacks of madness (E. I T, etc.). H e docs not recover fully until he "castrates" himself- a typical punishment meted out by the Erinyes ( 188)-at least symbolicaUy, by biting off one of his fingers . 47 Last but not least, O restes, the dream-snake (chap. 6), finally died of a snake bite (seh. E. Or. t640). The "incomplete" or "transi tory" social rehabilitation of the Erinyes is a more complex problem. It will be scrutinized in the next section, which is ICI:i of a n c1Ii.cunu:s than iL may seem at fint glancc.
V. Erin)'ts = Eumeniths Sterility/&rtility: Kinsman/Stranger: Ncedlessly complicated theological theories seek to explain the role the Erinyes-who generally cause slerility- allegedfy play in insuring fertility. Even if this role were an active one, it would suffice to stress that, in primitive thought, he who has "control" over something can use it either for beneficial or for nefarious purposes; his "control" is both absolute and ethically neutral. 48 In this frame of reference the Erinyes correspond to the shaman as witch; the Eumenides correspond to him in his capacity as healer. Speaking strictly of Aischylos' Erinycs = Eumenides, the fi rst part of of Ihe drama stresses exclusively their capacity to render sterile,49 which is .. T his detail may hearken back to the intoxication of the Moirai (723 If.) . .. The rage of Oresto , who still seeks purification, sums to frighten even Apollon (11311 If.) . Cpo his rage over his impoverishment (A.~. 1174 f.) • .. On this point, cpo in general ( IS, chap. I); for Greek equivalents, cpo (1 4) . ., Pam. 6.3~.2. On real and mythological c....,. of cllll!ration by biting, cpo (13). On finger-loss as "castration", cpo Dodds (17, p. t 30, nOle 79). Circumcision (mythical) by biting: :11, p. 245 . .. The M ohave shaman can Cure illness X because he Can also kill by inAlcting 1M! illness-and vice '·eru, ofcol1ne (to, passim). " ,88 If., 345 If., 780, 785 if., 8,0 fr., 824 fr., 830 fr. Tbere is the same emph:uls also in A. CAN. 188, ~6~ f., (po:rhaps 280), 503, 6,11 fr. U), 631, L005 f.
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Thl Dflam
of tM
Erinyes
,6,
mentioned both by them and by their interlocutors. This is to be expected. for they overtly dishonour Kypris, goddess of love (:2 15). Things are different when it comes to their fertility-promoting role. Athene alone speaks ofit (895, 907. e tc.) as a positive deed the Eumenides will actiVliy perform. The Eumenides themselves speak of their role in fertility in a different way: at v. 9:21 ff. they propose to pray for fertility; at v. 938 they h~ that sterility will be averted; and at 958 they pray that girls will live long enough tofind a mate.so All thi5 does not suggest that the Eumenides have the power to promote fertility other'!'.·ise than by prayer to ~u pc::riur puwenl. Even more imponallt is that in the second of these utterances-and, by implication, also in the third-they are talking mostly of averting that which could impair fertility. The real point can be made quite briefly: the very primitive Eumenides are bribed 1101 to unleash their fertility-impairing powers. They are represented all basically evil-doing deities, who can be bought off. The sacrifices and honours paid to them are "protection money". In short, the Eumenides are well-bribed Erinyes; they are given $Omething so that they will not spoil all one has. One ~ ncounters such a conception of the gods in many primitive societies." Even in connection with the punishment of crimes, the "rehabilitation" ofthe Erinyes is conditional. The moment a man slays his kin, the Eumenides revert to being Erinyes and punish him as brutally as ever (6g6 ff., 930 ff. ). In 5hort, they correspond to a Damoklean sword, for a fear of retribution is necessary for the good functioning of the city (6g6 ff. ). One might say that the "package deal" offered to them by Athene includu the promise that, when conditions warrant it, they will be free to manifest their wrath in their old, Erinyes-like manner (927 fT., 952 fr. ). All told, it is Aischylos and his Athene, rather than the (bribed) Eumenides thnnselves, who ~tress their role in promoting fertility. And, if I may venture a personal opinion, Aischylos shows himself a good psychologist in making the Eumenides' right to function, on appropriate occasions, as Erinyes, part of the " deal". Had this escape cia1llle not been included, the Erinyes would not have accepted the pact. Had they accepted iI, their consent would have been psychologically impla usible, for the Aethiopian cannot change his 5kin, nor Ihe leopard his spol'l.,l And this brings me to an Aischylean insight which both Frazer and Freud resta ted, believing it to be new. There must be a stringent law prtdsely against kin-_Iaying [""It that crime become commonplace (45)6 ff., 513 ff.), for oedipal murder is a con$tant temptation. Equally striking and socially even more relevant is the fact that Aischylos twice (545 8"., '1.70 fT. ) links crimes agairut kin with crimes against .. Mazon ern in transbting: "'they will live at the side or their husbands" . The Ailchylcan wording does not exclude" primi death in childbed, though too much should not be made of this. • , Sedang agriculturnl ritao limpty buy off the deities who, without that bribe, would hann the crops. No Sed.IIng deity actively f()llers fertility (1) . Hausla sacrifices allo seek only to buy off deities who are primarily spoilers (.'/0, 37).
uJeTC'ID.13.113.
TIll Dream oj the Erinyts strangers.3l This seemingly paradoxical equating of the kinsman with the stranger is nol even specifically Greek; it is human.S4 And let it not be argued that the fact that, in Homeros, "foreigner" (~tvoc)-especially in the vocative-means mostly: " friend" is decisive, for the name of a xenophobic Spartan law (~~VT)AO:cio:) reveals that that word had also hostile nua nces. The relationship between ~tvoc = friend and ~ ... alien ( = foe)'! is much the same as that between Eumenides and Erinyes. Both reflect man's basic ambivalencc: his Schopenhauerian " nonnal neurotic" inability to tolerate either excessive distance (strangeness) o r complete closeness. The early obliteration of the xenophobic nuance of ~tvoc by its euphemistic nuance: " friend" reflects-like the invention of a Zeus Xenios- the need to bridle automatic (fear-inspired ) hostility towards the stranger.S6 The basic meaning of the word-even when it is used to designate a friend- never loses the meaning: "member of the outgroup"; it designates those who are neither ki nsmen nor fellow-citizens. All this shows that the stranger is the target of hostilities dtjltcted ( under pressure) from the kinsman, who, being close to us, can wound us more than a stranger can. Aischylos therefore rightly implies that the samt law protects both, for kin-slaying and the slaying of strangers are psychological equivalents. This pseudo-dichotomy can easily be linked with the sterility-fertility dichotomy, as "govtrned" by the Erin),es-Eumtnidts, for in the sexual sphere, too, man must strike a balance between extreme endogamy (incest) and extreme exogamy (miscegenation), hoth of which were forbidden in Greeee. n As with aggression in the kinsman = foe equivalence, so in the course of his psycho-sexual development man regularly deflects his ero tic impulses first from his mother to his sister (A. Chot . 240 f ) and only then to the "outsider"- wife-and it is hardly necessary to recall here the extent to which A. Eum. stresses the "outsider" position of the wife (657 1f.).!8 Summing up, only in terms of hopeful pieties arc the Eumenides to be considered as fertility-protecting " reformed" spoilers. Underneath this euphemistic fa~ade, and despite Athene's stubborn insistence upon the good they will do, the Eumenides are only well-bribed Erinyes, spoilers of the good earth's natural fertility, who promote fruitfulness only by not ruini ng it, as long as men honour them and behave well. The moment a man sins, the Eumenides promptly resume the old functions of the Erinyes. " In 270 It, these crimes are also linked with crimes agairut th e god •. Vv. 544 ff. link parenu and guest: the former are entitled to piety, the latter to respc<;l. j . For the Mohave equation: ki mm .. n .. alien, cp. 10, pp. t28 ff. .. Bul the meaning "alien" ma y"" a late d:usica l development (K.J.D. and E.R.D.) ; yet, sec now J. RoUJC; Eurip;dt:: U t B.ud'llnles I , p. 32, '970 . .. The selfsame ambivalence i. ~H ected by the verb 64xo~'''' which can mcan either a friendly welC(l"'" or a hostile ambu$h (7). "On the laUe. taboo, cp. my di.cussion of Hi ppodameia (6). 11 Rohde (33, p. -l5' .75) ""en argues that, given the patrilocality of Greek malTiage, the wife (_ mother) uood in especial need of an Erin ys protecting her from her h",~d and affinal kin. The Melanesians ofDobu solved this problem more equitably. The couple livCl alternatingly in the hwband's and the wife', villagCl of origin, both $powc:ll being expooo:d in tum to the malice and witchcraft of their respecti"e affinal kin ( 18, pp. 2 ff. and passim).
. alenal
~
echos de al.ltor
The Dream
of the
Erinyes
And it is of crucial importanct: in this Contt:xt that tht: rt:fottnt:d Eumenides' appearance remains as repulsive as that of the Erinyes (990). In short, any other conception of the Eumenides is inspired by modern pieties and ancient hopes, rather than by Aischylos' mercilessly logical drama.
VI. Ana?Jsis of till Erinyts' Duam T ill InlffprtlatirJn of the Erinyts' Dream is child's play. Their nature, function and bloodthintiness make them hunt Orestes. Put to sleep by Apollon -so expert at interfering with Ancient Deities'9 when they threaten his favourites-the Erinyes drtam of continuing their hunt (A. Eum. 131 ff. ), and behave like dreaming hounds. This detail is psychologically most realistic. A dream in which one performs a task one has failed to complete in a waking state60 is a "guardian of sleep" (Freud 19 , pp. 678 ff. and passim). The Super-ego---here represented both by the Erinyes' duty and by Klytaimestra-is temporarily "bribed" by the dreamed performance of a task net performed in a waking state; this dispenses t he dreamer from having to wake up and actually do his duty.6l The effectiveness of such self-deceptions or mock performances in dream is regularly reinforced by the extreme vividness of Ihe corresponding dreams, which can even lead to the attenuated or schematic execution, in sleep, of the ampler movements and vocalizations which would normally occur in tht: waking performance of the dreamed act (5) (cp. chap. n. 146). I feel that these sketchy movements in dream may even correspond to what experimental psychologists call "a preparatory set" (28). I note here a curious coincidence. The Erinyes hunt while asleep. In A. Choe. 897, the infant Orestes is said to have nursed whik practically asleep-an anomaly discussed in chap. 6. In concrete terms, the Erinyes, who "art" hounds. behave in dream like hounds dreaming of a hunt.62
a,
" A. Eum. '72.723,7 28; E. Ale. '0 If. .. Some subjects who. in a waking stale, eould nOI soke the puzzle: OTTFFSSENT, solved it io dream. T hese letlers are Ihe initiab: of Ihe fir'!t len numbers . •, The .ubotilution of a .ymhalic aCI for a real performance i. also common in daily life. Good wuha and bltuings arc often offered in lieu of elf.xtive help. The mclinl of a promise is sometimes treated 311 equivaleol lou.ping Ihal promise. Once, when I reminded a person of a promise he had repealedly made bUI had nOI kepI, he replied in a hUrl tone of voia: : " But haven't I promised it ?" This manceu,.,.e is pilhily lummarized by a Hungarian adage: " Here is nOlhing- grasp il firmly (Jen il escape you )." I ts lublimaled and logical form;' scientific inference or prediction. expected 10 be COn finned by experience. J am"" Clerk Maxwell made his equation. more .ymmetrical by adding to th em a small tel'm which nothing in his actual experiena: justified. H. Herlz Dnumed that this term had 10 have an equivalent io rea li ty--and discovered Ihe Hertzian wav"" (3"). Cpo T hai",,' (logical?) prediction of an eclipse (based perhaps on Babylonian ra:orch) and u...errier'. exclusively mathemalical " dis«wery" of the planet Neptuo e. But it is extremely probable thaI, both historically and lubjectively, l uch scientific activities are refinements and p,," cti· cal . ubl imations of the archaic tendency 10 treat words, symbols, proph""i"" and Ihe like 311 full equivalents of reality. One notes in Ih is context the frequency of aelivities which unwittiogly ","" prophecies 10 come true (8, 67).
'I Cpo supra for the experimental evidence.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
,64 Of course, the Super-ego caRnot be permanently bribed by the drtQmed execution of the assigned task. Sooner or later it intrudes. in some disguise, into the dream: here, the impatient and vengeful Klytaimestta's doubleforctl the dreamers to wake up and attend to their task. But, since this Super-ego representative is actually part of the dreamers' own psyche, it is part of the Erinyes' self which goads them to wake up. This, too, is clearly represented in the Aischylean dramatization of the dream. Klytaimestra's double compares her reproaches to goads ( 136: Idvrpov) and, after awakening, the Erinye:s themselves compare the reproach coming to them in dream- for they do not mention having dreamed ofK.lytaimestra!- to a goad smiting them in the vitals ( IS6). It is easy to see that the pricking of the Erinyes with a goad is selfgoading. The Goad (Jdtrrpov) is the Erinyes' original and most characteristic weapon, which they use already in Hom. Od. 15.234. It is mostly in later texts that they use the whip, rather than the goad.63 This parallels the evolution of horse-driving technology in Greece.6o< It is an archaic feature of A. Eum. that goads are mentioned in connection with the Erinyes' dream only, for in vv. 136 and 156, they do not wield the goad against their victims; they are told to jab themst lvts with the goad of self-reproach ( 136) and, on awakening ( t56), they admit that the goad of reproach had smitten them in the "vitals" (
APPENDIX 1
The Throat or ..Neck plays a curiously prominent role in A. Eum . Apollon accuses the Erinyes of being involved with throat-cuttings (187). Orestes claims he stabbed Klytaimestra in the throat (592), and this is confinned by A. Chot. 883 f., 1047. This may, perhaps, explain why he subsequently says that the judgment about to be given wBI decide between his living and his suicide (?) by hanging ( 746). It isjust pDS$ible that these recurrent references to the throat were unconsciously motivated by the oral sucking content of Klytaimestra's dream in A. Chot. 531 ff. and by the many references in A. Eum. to blood-drinking and blood-sucking from the victims' limbs6' by the Erinyes. These interpretations clearly hearken back to the biting of Klytaimestra's breast in dream and are greatly strengthened by two considerations: 11 Rapp, I.v. Erinytl3i, (all. 1~14 ff. «,-examination of Homeric pa.uas'" in which goads or whips ar~ used is likely to be rewarding, for th~ whip is a later inv~ntion than Ih~ goad. I nOI~ her~ an inter.,.ting and -Iugg.,.tiv~ fact: th~ /miJ draft animal which must be driv~n with a goad is !h~ reindeer, for Lts (hick fur prolects il against Ih~ luh. OJ 264 C., 299 fr. (?), 357 f. .. A
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
The Dream oj the Erinyes
,65
(I ) Though Orestes claims to have cut Klytaimestra's throat-which fits the decapitation mentioned in A. Chtx. (883 f., 1047)-Klytaimestra's ghost shows the Erinyes a wound in the breast (heart) (A. Eum . 103),66 which hcarkcm back to the A. Chtx. dream. (2) Orestes apparently expects to hang bimselfby the neck, though this is a most unusual form of suicidefor a man.67 I suspect that the throat-cutting theme should, in the last resort, be viewed as an echo of the tale about the male echidna's decapitation by the female-precisely because it contradicts the reference to the breast bitten in dream and also the chest-wound Klytaimestra's ghost displays.6S
APPENDIX II
DrunJuruuss. Aischylos knew of several types of intoxication : that which reveaill man's real thoughts Uf. 393) ;69 that which clouds judgment (A. Suppl. 409), and that which elicits homicidal fury (A. Ewn. 8S9 ff. ).N ThU indicates that, unlike what one observes in some primitive groups, in Greek culture the effects of alcohol were variable.71 While I am about it, I might as wdl say that I do believe Greek traditions concerning Aischylos' alcoholism.72 Some modern Hellenists piously imist that this is to be taken figuratively,71 but I feel that tlW is as gratuitow and squeamish an Ehrenr,/tllllg as that whieh denies Sappho's lesbianism (12). Had Kratinos been a greater poet-or had more of his work survived-Victorians would no doubt have denied also his notorious alchoholism,7~ though Kratinos bimsdf admitted it in his nVTIVll (The Wi"" Flask), which carried off the first comedy prize from under Aristophanes' nose. As a clinician, I do not consider Aischylos' turbulent eloquence incompatible with alcoholism-quite the contrary! The fact that, in his MyrmidonlS, he turned the relationship between Achilleus and Patrokloswhich. in Homeros, is a non-sexual comradeship--into a homosexual affair, M So Smyth. Some othen translate: " look upon thCS<' woumb with yOllT heart", rejecting Hermann', emendation: Murray, Thomson, Groeneboom, Mazon, Rose (also E.R.D. and H.L.-J). 1 may therefore be wrong in accepting the emendation for poyehelogical reaJOlIlI. Nothing crucial fOT my argumetH is here at ltake . • ' Thio is documented and discussed ebewhere (16). M The ract tbt.1. dead mother',ghOiI still carria the wOllnds which callSed her dea th ;. mentioned ~isely in connection with MDlIwr fa ther-avenging matricide. In the Nether WOI'Id Eriphyle'l wOllnds are still visible (V . Am. 6.#5) • .. A C1)IIlIJIOIl Greek theme : Ale.fr. Z.9LP ( _ 10+0 .. 53 Bgk.),/r. Z,,(.3LP ( _ 66D '" 57 Bgk.) ; Thgn. 500; Ion Ch.lr. ID; PI. Tim. 6oa, ete. H Drunken ~wls are oI"ten docribed, Clpecially by later Greek authon. "Amongot the warlike Mohave, many drunb peaceably fall asleep ( r o, pp. SOl5 «.). By contrast, drunken Plaim Indians tend to become violent (9', pp. 13 «.), etc. 1JPIll. ft. ISO Sandb. ( - Slob. 3.18.3l1) ; Q. Qnw. '·5 p. 6lI:lIE, 7· '0 p. 7'5 D-E; Chamacl. ap. Ath. I . ~~a, 10.4lISf'. (Ploutarehoo had access to the worb of Sta imbrotOi and of Ion ofChiOl, K .J.D.) "Murray '19, p. +7; Sclunid 35 1.~ . 114.5, etc. They disn:gard the question ofsources; this iI unhillorical. "M. EtJ. 5~ ff.; cpo Crat.fTT. tall, 18s, etc.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
The Dream of tlu Erinyts
·66
further strengthens this view, for the nexus between alcoholism and homosexuality- and especially latent homosexuality- is notorious. Peak intellectual performances in a state of intoxication are not uncommon,?' and my opinion on this point is hardly biased, for I have admitted in print my almost irrational loathing of alcohol and alcoholics. The time has come to stop treating most Greek biographers as malicio us gossips and, instead of wasting time on the "rehabilitation" of great poets like Sappho and Aischylos, to study the manner in which a g reat poet's sexual perversion (12) or alcoholism affected his work. 76
Bibliography ( I ) Befu, Harumi : Patrilineal Descent and Personal Kindred in Japan, American Anlhropo(qgist 65:1328-134 1, 1963(2) Bourguignon, Andre: Recherches Recentes sur Ie Reve, Us Temps Modemes no. 238: 1603-1 628,1966. (3) Devereux, George: Sedang Fid d./V"oles (MS.), 1933- 1935. (4) id.: Mohave Beliefs Concerning Twins, American Anthropologist n.s. 43:573- 592, t941. (5) id.: Acting Out in Dreams, American Journal if Psychotkrapy 9: 657-660, 1955· (6) id.: The Abduction of H ippoda.meia as "Aition" of a Greek Animal Husbandry Rile, Studi e Alalmali di Sirnia delle Religioni
36'3-~5,
1965· (7) id . : The Exploitation of Ambiguity in Pindaros O. 3.27, Rheinisches MuseumjUr Phi!ologie I09:2B9-2g8, 1966. (8) id.: Considerations Psychanalytiques sur la Divination, Particulierement en Grece (in) Caquot, Andre and Leibovici, Marcel (cds.) : La Divina/ion, vol. 2, pp. 449-471. Paris, 1968. (9) id.: &aliry and Dream: The Psychotheropy of a Plains Indian . (Second , substantially augmented edition.) New York, 1969. ( 10) id.: Mohave EthlUJpsychiatry and Suicitk. (Second, substantially augmented edition.) Washington, D.C., 1969. (II ) id. Wahnsinnige Golln- (Lecture at the University of Basel, MS), 1970. (12) id.: The Nature of Sappho's Seizure in Fr. 3 1 LP, Classical Quarterg 20:17- 31, 1970 . (13) id.: La Naissance d'Aphrodite (in) Pouillon, Jean and Maranda, Pierre (eds.) : Echanges et Communications (Mtlanges Lim-Strauss), 2. 1229-1252 . Paris and The Hague, 1970. (14) id. The Psychotherapy Scene in Euripides' Bacchae, Journal if Hellm;c Studies 90:35-48, 1970. ( 15) id.: Emu d' Elhnopsychiatrie Ginirale. (Second edition.) Paris, 1973. " I was present when two brilliant young math~matical physicisu .hook, long ~nough ~" en more brilliant young malhematician, moring in an alcoholic stupor and got from him a mumbled- and eo>rTu/- answer to a difficult mathematical problem which they could not solve. ' . This d~ nQI m~ that l lubsctibc:: to the genius .. madman ablurdity. to awaken him, an
• alenal
~
:lerechos de al.llor
Tk Dream
of Ik ErinytS
(16) id. (and Devereux, J. W. ): Les ManifcSlations de l'Inconscient dans Sophokles : Trachiniai 923 sqq. (in) Psychanalyse el Sociologie comme M elJuJtus d'£tude des Phbwmtnes Hisloriques It Culture/so BruxeHes,
1973· (17) Dodds. E. R.: The Greeks alIi lhe Irrational. Berkeley, California, 1953· (18) Fortune, R. F.: S",cerers of Dohu. London, 1932. ( 19) Freud, Sigmund: The Interpretation of Dreams, Standard Edition 4-5' London, 1958. (\la) id.: Constructions in Analysis, Standard Edition 23. London, 1964. (21) Griaule, Marcel and Dieterlen, Germaine: Le &nard Pale, Paris, 1965· (22) Green. Andre : Un CEil en Trop. Paris, 1969. (23) Hoehel, E . A.: Associations and the State in the Plains, American Anthropologist 38:433- 448, 1936. (24) Jouvet. Michel: The States of Sleep, Scienlifo; American 2 16, no. 2:62-7',1g67· (25) Linton, Ralph: The Study of Man. New York, 1936. (26) Llewellyn, K. N. and Hachel, E. A.: The CheyenM Way. Norman, Oklahoma, '941. (27) Merton, R. K.: Social T heory and Social Structure. Glencoe, Illinois, 1949· (28) Mowrer. O . H . : Preparatory Set (Expt{;tancy) : Some Methods of Measurement, Psychological Monographs vol. 52, no. 2, 1940. (29) Murray, Gilbert: Aesch;·lur2• Oxford. 1962. (30) Nicolas, Jacqueline: "Les Jumcnts des Dieux", Eludes Nigirnnlles no. 21, IFAN·CNRS (no place, no date). (3 1) Nilsson, M. P. : Geschichlt der griechischen Religion 11. Milnchen, 1955. (32) Poincare, Henri: TMFoundalionsofScience. Lancaster. Pennsylvania. 19 13. (33) R ohde, Erwin: PsycM. London, 1950. (34) R oscher, W. H.: Aurjiihrliches Lexikon dtT griechischell und romischen Mylhologit. Leipzig, 1884- 1937. (35) R ussdl, Bertrand: Principles oj Mathematicsl . New York, 1938. (36) Schmid, Wilhdm : Geschichte der griechischen Literature, 1.2. Milnchen. 1934·
(S7) Tremcarne, A. J . N.: The Ball of 1M Bari. London, 1914. (38) Verrall, A. W.: Faur Plays tif Euripides. Cambridge. 1905.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Chapter 5
Klytaimestra's Dream in Stesichoros' Oresteia
K{yttJinustra's Dream in Sl4ichorQl' Oresteia Preambu We possess a Stes.ichorean, an Aischylean and a SophokJean version of K.1ytaimestra's dream. The inner affinities between these three variants are highligbted in the course of this chapter and the next two. The problem I discuss here briefly is whether it is clinically possible for a dream narrative inspired by one, or even two, earlier dream-naITatives to be still authentically dreamlike. ThiJ question can be answered in the affirmative, on several growtds. (I) One can start with the assumption that Stesichoros invented a (dreamlike) dream for his Klytaimestra, which then elicited the invention of (related) dreamlike dreams by his two gTeat successors. The process is the same as that which one observes when, after A narrates one of bis dreams to B, the latter partly echoes A's triggering dream in a "responding" dream of his own. I once observed this phenomenon while doing ethnopsychiatric field work amongst the Mohave Indians (IS, pp. 182 fr. ). A dream of my interpreter (night of November 16/ 17. 1938) heavily influenced the dream one of my informants, E.S. (who had heard the interpreter tell her dream) had the very next night. (2) All three dreams can also be viewed as credible reactions to the same strong stimulw--dream reactions which have many internal affinities. This process is exemplified by the dreams dreamed by several patients in respome to the deaths of King George V (.~3) and of President Roosevelt (31, 35) and also by the dreams of psycho-analysts and psychiatrists who had seen the previous evening a film showing the subincision rites of Australian tribesmen (13, chap. 6). (3) Since Aischylos doubtless knew the Stesichorean K lytaimestra's dream and Sophokles both the Stesichorean and the Aischylean versions, the three narratives may also be compared to "dreams in series" (I, ~, 24, 14, pp. 472 fr., 2/). In serial dreams a key problem besetting the patient is worked through-or at least tackled- in different and yet closely interrel~led
ways.
In short, three completely discrete sets of clinical considerations validate the hypothesis that a dream narrative irnpircd by an earlier one can, despite itll derivative character, still seem authentically dreamlike.1
Th4 Stesichorean Preudint Sttridu"Mfr. 4~ P (= 4ll: B = 15 D)-the only surviving pre~Aisehylean account ofKlytaimestra's dream-influenced both Aischylos and SophokJes. Their versions therefore permit one to settle, once and for ali, the eJ[act meaning of Stesichoros' crystal~c1ear tClet, needlessly obscured by some hair-splitting interpretations. The Text is correctly printed by Page, whose apparatus criticus contains , I note in passing Ihat <XInSiderations (2) and (3) fully 6t a theorem I enunciated ebewhere ('0, pp. 76 fr.; 18, chap. ,6, 10, chap. 3): The Nlme raulu can be "btained by inval,igatinr one man 01' one culture ."m".... tiveiy, Or a large number mmen or of cull""" crooI.sectiOl1al1y. This meorem is derivable from the mathematician'. "erg<>dic hypothesis" , which plaY' a crucial mle in the ea.lculus of pmbahilitios.
Klytaimestra's Dream in StliUhoros' Oresteia all that is relevant and rightly ignores gratuitous tamperings (36, p. 52) with the manwcript tradition:
Ploutarchos, who cites it,l considen this dream to be patterned on life and reality ; this justifies a realistic psychological analysis of this fragment. Translation: [Klytaimestra] dreamed therecamea serpent with a bloodied crest, and out of it [crest] appeared a Pleisthenid king [Orestes]. Commtnu: The two verses together describe a dream about the appearance of the Pleisthenid King.l Who Pleisthenes may be is immaterialonly the identity of his descendant matters here-and that identity can be determined solely by the manner in which he appears. The key problem is therefore the manner in which the Pleisthenid King appean out of-what? Three theories seem to exist. (I) Delcourt (4, p. 22) translates: "et brusquement" ce fut[Agamemnon]". (a) This might imply an oniric " fausse non-reconnaissance" (12 and my comments on A. Ag. 412-413) rectified already in dream. Fausse nonreconnaissance dft:ams do exist ( 14, pp. 41 5 fr. ), but it is almost inconceivable that be: 6' 6:pa should simply mean: be: TOO = bc:T&n: (= next), or that the complex procc.» of a mi~perception and of i(3 ~ ubM:qucnt rectification should be described so briefly; H om. Il. ' 3.70 If. describes something similar at length. (b) It might imply the appearance of the snake and then that of the Pleisthenid King (with or without the simultaneous disappearance of the snake) . (c) It might imply the metamorphosis of the snake into Agamemnon. But bc: 6' is most unlikely to denote a metamorphosis, even if ~op6:vTJ = ~~£op6:vTJ . Basically be: 6' means the emergence of "something" out of "something else". Also, I know of no pre-Aischylean precedent for a dream· metamorphosis. The analogous metamorphosis described in Hes. Th. Ig<>-I91 (16) is 'lot a dream·event. I admit that "snake into man" metamorphoses do occcur elsewhere in culturally significant real dreams.~ I also concede that in some myths an animal shape must be shed and the • Plu. rJ. ser" num. ~ind. 10. p. 555. I Wilamowitz hold. thaI the fi ... t verse describe! a mooitory dream and the second the prompt realization of what corraponrl.! (ann tnlJpredltlla) to it. The only pu-Atschylean d",am which comes true Im",.ptty is that of Rhesoo, d reamed just befo", he was Il";n (3-'1, p. 75). But in H om. II. 10.496 If., the slaying is mentioned bifort the dream which aonOunces it. AI"", 5t",,;chol"Ol ' poem was {one pn:sumes} lufficiently long to make a conderuatioo of almost half of the On:su:s myth into two Lina improbable . • This translation implies an ac<:q>tance of Hartung'. theory of the meaning of lip<>:, which is rightly queried by Denniston 15, pp. 311 If.). 'In Mohave Indiao dreaRlll the hikwl r (similar to the two headed amphisbaina, A. J233, etc.) can allwoe the appearance of--
A,.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llOl
Kly/aimestra's Drtam in SWiclrorol Oresteia
'73
"real" human form assumed in preparation for an effective action,6 but these arguments are inappropriate, for, after all, Klytaimestra's slayer is not Agamemnon but Orestes. (2) If one holds that he 0' 6pa means: he ToVTOV TOO op6lcovToc (out uf the wlwle ~nake), then the Plcilithenid King emerged (in an ul1spccificu manner) out of the snake 41 a wlwle-conceivably out of its (shcddable) skin. But this awkwardly leaves us with the snake's shed skin, standing for the snake as a whole. 1 (3) The Pleisthenid King emerges from the snake's bloody (and split) crest. If so, he 0 ' stands for he ToVrov -roO K6:po:TOC. Dr C. A. Behr suggests to me that this view is syntactically probable because IU!!:pa (head) is the immediate antecedent.! It is this interpretation I propose to defend, less for syntactical reasons9 than because it fits both Greek thought patterns and beliefs and the different contexts of Klytaimestra's dream in the Aischylean and Sophoklean versions thcrecf, for that is the onry way in which this problem can be tackled. 1o It seems best therefore to analyse what the text says and implies; this, together with Stesichoros' interest in cephalic birth (ft. 56 P. and ft. 62 Bgk.) should suffice to highlight the inadequacies of alternative interpretations. ( I ) The snake is a chthonic creature, representing the wrathful dead (A. Chot. 37 ff.): Agamemnon. (2) The snake's head is bloody and, in Sophokles (chap. 7), Agaplemnon's head is stained with gore, both because it is split and because the mW'der weapon Wall wiped UII hi~ hair. Nu other lIIajuI- pcrwuage of the Orestes myth has a bloodstained head up to, or at this time.1I \'\fhat matters most is that no alternative interpretation so far proposed takes into account the crucial and strongly emphasized goriness of the skull which, in A. CJwe. 546, is retained, but transposed to another protuberant organ: to the nipple, and, in S. El. 445, is connected outright with Agamemnon's
hoa
blood.
'74
KlytairlllStra's Dream in Stlri,horos' Oresteia
(4) The emergence or appearance of the Plcisthcnid King out of his sire's split skull parallels the cephalic binh of Atbenc, out of Zeus' split skull ,ll Other quasi-cephalic "binhs" are also re ported: (a) Ad. NA 9.33 ( = Hippysfr. S, FHG 2.12 = 22, test. 422): At Epidauws, the priests of Asklepios d ecapitate a woman ; o ne of them then extracts manually h er tapeworm, through her truncated neck. H er head is
then replaced on her neck by the god. (b) IG IVl, no. 123.23 ( = 22, /1st . 423)' A tale of dreams and visions: Asklepios' priests seek in vain to remove Arislagora's tapeworm (via the neck) by decapitating her. The god himself puts back her head, cuts open her abdomen, removes the worm and sew! her up aga in. (c) IG lVI, no. 123.25 ( = 22, /lsi. 42:1:): A-perhaps visionary- man
(Asklepioo ?) removes, by abdominal surgery, the masses of ta~worms wherewith Sostrata was baJT]a. "'" pregnant. (d ) IG IV 2 , no. 122 .21 (""' {,/2, tesl. 423): A mother's dream: AlIklepios cuts off her dropsical daughter'S head, and hangs up her body upside down, draining off the flu id. (Blood is drained from the ablated penis of the Iquus oc;l()ber by suspending it. (17)) A few details deserve notice: (0-) All four persons from whose body something i~ extracted are female, though in the Stesichorean Kl ytaimestra's dream the snake is male. (f3) Before the extraction the woman is, so to speak, "pregnant"; explicitly in Case (c), implicitly in the other three cases. (y) (Snake-like) tapeworm = foetus : explicitly in Case (cl. This is understandable : ph}'5iologically the foclm is a kind of parasite or tumour. The draining of body fluids in Case (d) recalls the draining of the amniotic fluid; its sexual significance is further rcinforced by the IqllW oct()ber analogy. (5) Decapitation=cacsarean. This is evident in all four cases. (E) Caesarean birth recalls Greek beliefs concerning the manner IR which young vipers arc born. (3) Somewhat as in Stesichoros, in Case (d) the drcamer is not the patient, but her mother. (5) Orestes' emergence from the snake's skull is retained in a symbolic, but structurally identical, form by Sophokles: a huge branch (Orestes) sproutsjr()m OM end of Agamemnon's sceptre and I will show that Agamemnon's sceptre = phallI)! = snake (chap. 7). (6) The generative powers of a snake's cephalic end arc made manifest by the myth of the H ydra, whose decapitated necks sprout new heads until they arc cauterized with fire. This motif, too, is present in Sophokles, but in a "split" form, which linJu sprouting and cauterization in a manner familiar both to psycho-analysIS and to structuralists. One end of the sceptre sprouts when the ()ther end is thnut into the fireplace-i.e ., is scared. The Sophokiean splitting and re-uniting of this motif may have been inspired, on the one hand, by the Aischylean (CIuJe. 607 ff. ) reference to the burning, in a hearth, ofa (sceptre-like) log representing Me1eagros' II All sources fully analysed by Cook (3, 3.656 If.). C:mld this paralldi.sm shed at least a trace of light on the lIil1 punling cult-name: Zeus Agamemnon? (Lye. 33~, 11~3 Iq., 1369 sq.).
. atenal
~
:lerechos de al.llor
KVlaimutra's DretJm in StesidwTOS' Oresteia
'75
"extemalsoul," and, on the other hand, by beliefs in phalJoi found in lit fire-places, which can impregnate girls (chap. 7). (7) Not only is the equation: snake _ phallos commonplace, but a snake's split and bloodstained skull greatly resembles the glans: the meatus is cleft-shaped and the glans is reddish and moist.il (8) The view that Orestes emerges from the phallic snake's skull is made even more plausible by certain additional considerations: (a) Venom = semen.14 (b) V enom = hlood. H Aischylos (Choe. 545 f. ) retains the venom+blood+milk ( = semen) 16 theme: this motif will be discussed further on. (e) The sexual element in the venom = semen = blood motif, made evident by the alleged aphrodisiac quality of such a mixture,17 anticipates the latent erotic element in the Aischylean KlytaimcstTa's dream (chap. 6). (d) The Stesichorean imagery implies that Orestes emerges from the snake's head as fully formed as Alhene emerges from Zeus' skull. Now, A. Eum. 658 ff. affirms tha t only the father procreates the child. This might imply that, figuratively speaking, the father ejaculates a kind of homunculus (Hp. Genit. 1.1.7 p. 470 Littre).18 (e) Even the goriness of the snake hints (in reverse) at its generative powers, for the prophylactic mutilation of Agamemnon's corpse (chap. 7) certainly included the ablation of his penis, presumably b~ause of the fear that his ghost (or chthonian snake equivalent) could procreate an avenger. 19 (9) The notion that the father's skull.phallos ejaculates a homunculus can be readily linked with Hippokrates' belief (GeniI. 1.1.7 p. 470 Littre). that the semen ultimately comes from the head (brain) (30, pp. 108 ff.). (10) It is not altogether unlikdy that even the word ." king" is not a purely grandiloquent designation. Orestes could not he called " king" until after Agamemnon's death: his "kingship" was, so to speak, " born" " Cp. th~ " bloody brid~groom" of a corrupt biblical pasuge regarding MOIIeS ' (?) circumcision. (Exwf. 4.24 fr.) "\\'aste product _ ..,m~n ; a vi~w m~ntioned but rcj«ted in AriSl. G.A. 18, p. 724~6 fr. Minos ejaculates v~nomous insects (Apollod. 3.[!l. 1 and Fraz~r ad loc.: Ant. Lib. 41 and Pa~lhomopoulos ad loc. ).Th~ eq uation; small creatura = foetus or baby is common· place. Nesoos ' ejaculat~ is poisonous, being COn1.amin.ated by the H ydra'. v~nom; Apollod. 11.7.6: D.s. 36.4-5. Quilling (in R~htr 3 1 3.\'. Neuos, col. !l80) detects a similar hint in S. Te. 580: 1fPOcjXl).wc· 6""'1"" ..1",,< , 1m, but his opinion doe'! not seem generally accepted. " T he H ydra" poisonous blood inf""...ha. of .he wounded Nc:AoI (Apollod. 2.5.2 ; PaUlI. 1I.:J7.4; D.S. 4.11.38; Hyg.fab. 30). Suicide by drinking bu!l'. blood; Plu. Y. TItnft.
",
II F.... milk = venom = semen, ..,., chap. 6. "Cp. the Nasos references, supra note 1+ "A thr:ory mentioned but r~j""ted in AriSl. G.A. 1. 17, p. 7!11 bl2 fr., 1.18, p. 724b36 f. II is also held by the mDIriline.ol Hopi Indians (6), <;p. chap. 7· nOle 55. "The dead hero Astrabakos fathered Demaratos (Hdt. 6.69), ~tc. For a direct, if (predictably) sare""tic, reference to this belief, ep. E. Suppl. 545. (But 1 quat ion, with Wilamowirz, the $Oundncso of DUmmltr'., Wcicker's, Samter'. and Nihson'l (29 1'.100) far-naching inferences from this passage and from Hom. 11. 22.72 fr. and Tyrt. 10.25 (Bcrgk).) Tala of .nak~ paternitia abound not only in GrttCe (Alcundmo the Creat), but also in many primitive societies.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Kl;'laimestra's Dream in Stnichcwos' Oresteia from Agamemnon's split skull, Needless to say, this view is advanced most Imtativery, even though such (quasi-punning) allusions are to be expected from an ancient Greek poet. ( II ) A further ttntative observation is that the avowed purpose of many ancient craniotomies may have been the releasing of "something" lodged in the patient's skull.llI This may PClssibly have (indirectly) led to a tacit belief that an avenging Alastor could emerge from a split skull, by means of a kind of "cephalic cae$3.rean". Viewcd in this light, the man Orestes was horn normally from Klytaimcslra, while Orestes the Avenger, the H eir (and King) "emerged" from Agamemnon's split skul1.21 Summing up, the Stesichorean dream shows Agamemnon, in the fonn of a threatening ch thonian snake, with bloodied crest, approaching Klytaimestra ; then out of the gory (and split?) skull there appears Orestes, King became avenger and avenger because King (5. aT. 132 fr. ). The phallic symbolism of the snake and the nexus between the emission of blood = venom = semen and the male cephalic birth of Orestes add an erotic dement to the anxiety elicited by Ihe appearance of the snake. The same erotized anxiety will be encountered also in the Aischylean and Sophoklean versions of this dream, for the latent content of a dream or myth is as resistant to change- as invariant (8, 10, 11)-as is its structure (28). The m ore general relationshi p between the Stesichorean theme and its Aischylean and Sophoklean variants will become evident in the course of the analysis of the latter dreams. In conclusion I note that since, in fantasy , killing is regularly equated with castration, and thc killing of a man LJy his woman with the vagina dentala fantasy, the represe ntation, in the Stesichorean text, of Agamemnon as a serpent with a split skull is psychologically and eschatologically appropriate. H e is a (chthonian) serpent because he is dead-and, like some other infamously murdered spectres, the wound that killed him is still visible on his spectral bady.n That the "castrating", murderous Kl ytaimestra should have guilt-dreams is not surprising. An ancient Icelandic saga records that a man who had had his slave Gilli castrated, had three prophetic dreams that warned him that his slave would kill him- as he actually did. ( 26). The concept of "castration anxiety" has a psychological counterpart and complement: " the anxiety of the caslrator"- which psycho-analYSIS have, so far, chosen to ignore. ,. T he &dang trephined a penon " 'ho had loed 10 commit luicid~ by drinking tobacco, M 10 re!~1l$C the poioon (7, 19). " Cpo th e "caesarean" deli,'er ies of Z ew ' twO potenlial mCU;Mon : of Alhene the hei,..,.. ( h rlu.poc) (Ac. Av. ,653), from the .plit skull , and of Dionysos, fint exeW:.:! from ~mele', womb and then from Zeus' "thigh" (which is probahl y a euphemism) . One notes that bot h the crani al sutures (Hd t. 9.83, etc.) and (to this day) those of the nether parI of the pe nil and scrotum arc called ~a,f). Much could be said about the role of the latter type of . uture in embryology, in congenital genital deformities (.17), in ri tual mutilation. (33) , in perverted rima l pra ctices {,13), in dreams (9) , etc. , whi ch would . hed light upon the na tureofZeu.''' paterna l womb" (Nonn. 9. [I ). Unfort"nalely, an adequate discuss ion of this matler would take one 100 far afield. I abo reel that A. Ag. 156g If. implie!l that another Alastor is ~ti!lto come: Orestes. 21 This beli ef is quil" tena ciou. : Eriphyte'. spectre still bean the wound that killed her $<)
(Y. Am.
6.44~).
Cpo chap. 4.
. atenal
~
:lerechos de al.llor
K~taimestTa's
Dream in Sitsichorfls' Oresteia
'77
Appendix THE ECHIDNA 'S RE PRODUCTiON
Greek beliefs concerning the reproduction of the viper- which, unlike, e.g., the cobra, is viviparous- are, as a lread y Ailianos (NA i .24) realized, relevant for the understanding or poetic treatments of the Orestes and Alkmaio n myths,2l Three aspects of that reproductive patte rn are re levant : (i ) The male wraps himself around the female (Ad. N A 1. 24). (2) The female bites off the male's head during coi tus (Hdt. 3.109). (3) The young kill their mother by emerging not from her vagina, but th rough her abdominal wall. I will now discuss these three elements: (I) In A. CIwl . i049 f., the Erinyes are descri bed as interlaced by snakes. The wrapping of the male snake around the female snake thus stands in a symme trical relationship to the tale that Klytaimest ra immobilized Agamemnon by means or a net.l. Such symmetries are important, both structurally and psycho-analytically. (2) The decapitation of the male during coitus- which ne<:cssarily draws blood- is mentioned by many sources)! Only Nikandros indicates that some males manage to escape alive, though wounded. The similarity with the Stesicho ros tut is manifest. (3) Two versions of the birth of young vipers exist: (a) They gnaw their way thro ugh the female's abdominal wall, thereby avenging their sire.l6 This recalls the tale tha t unborn lion-cubs, though apparently emerging from the lioness' vagina, des troy her womb wit h lheir claws (Hdt. 3.108). This latter lale is discredited by Aris!. GA 4.5 p.
773a . (b) The thin flanks of the female vipe r simply burst open from the pressurel7-as do, supp<>liedly, also the flanks of the female pipe-fish (Ae!. NA g.60, 15. 16). One source of the absurd tales abou t the birth of young vipers may be the female's viviparousness, which, as H dt. 3. 109 and Nic. Tim. t35 pI .. Serpenll an: d05dy linked wilh the Alkmaion~Amphiaraos mylh. T he dealh of Opheltcs linb make and child. Eriphyle was bribed with H armonia's necklace, shaped like an amph isbaina (Nona. Dimo. ~.'+4 If.); as 10 Harmonia, she became a .'''l",nt (E . 8a. 1330 If.). Given his life underground, One i.surprised nm 10 find ArnphianOi regularly represenled as a serpent. Then: is even a de<;apitation and a split skull in Itu myth: he brinK" Tydeul the skull o£ MeJanipJXl", whose bnin T ydeus owaUows (Apollod. 3.6.8). As 10 maternal blood, i1 is mentioned in E. (Alcm. )ft. 71 N'. Though scanty enough, these data jwtify Ailianos' linking of A1kmaion wilh viperine n:production pallenu -and my linlcing the laller wilh the Stcsichorean lCrpenl'. splil skull . T he pallern seem. ehange-rosistanl. , . A. A.,. 868, 11 1.5; ep. A. CIIot. 506, 999, eiC. " Hdl. 3.109; PI.-Aris\. MiT. 6+6b .6; N ie. TItn.• 26 If. and ochol;a ad loc.; Ad. /VA. ' .24· u Hdl. 3. 109; Ael. /VA t.24 (discredited in Ad. /VA ' .5.16). U Ad. /VA 1.5 .• 6 ciling Theophraslos, whose masler, Arinoldes, colTI':Ctly described the vipe-r's r-eprod=tion (Arist . HA 556&<15, etc.). II And sch . ad loe. (Busaemaker). On 11\.,.., mallen ,he ocholl . • 29 If., provide little help. Cpo allo 15, p , 173, on Nic. TM-r. 126 If.
'78
Kbtaimestra's Dream in Siesichoros' Oresteia
note, diffen from the oviparousnesJl of many other snakes. This may explain why, in A. CIwt. 543 ff., Orestes stresses so much his own and the dream-snake's birth from K lytaimeSlra's womb. What is most striking about this part or the tale is the conception orthe viper's vagina a s a "one-way street": it admits the penis but is unable to emit the young. As regards the tale's two themes, each of the two ascribes to vipers behaviour which occun in in.su l.r: ( I) At the end of the coitus the praying mantis d evours her mate, beginning with his head. Similar androphagous coital behaviou r occurs aho in other insects (37, chap. 7). (2) Some insects' young actually emerge th rough t he wails of the female' s abdomen: one of them is the midge Miastor, whose young are born already pregnant (paedogenesis) (37, chap. 7). I note here, once and for aH, that human fantasies about sexual behaviour can usually be matched by equi valent gtlluint behaviour occurring in other species, such as insects.
Bibliography ( I) Alexander, Franz; Dreams in Pairs and Series, International Journal of PsydlO-Anal}'Sis 6:446--452, [925 . (2) Baumann, H . H .: Ober Reihcnfolge und Rhythmus der Traummotive, Zentralhlat/flir PS;'Chothl!T'apie und ihre Grenzgebide 9 :213- 228, 193 6 . (3) Cook, A. B. : Zeus, 3. Cambridge, 1940. (4) Delcourt, Marie: Ortstt tl Altmion. Paris, 1959. (5) Denniston, ] . D . : T he Greek Particles1 . Oxford, 1959. (6) Devereux, George: Hopi Field Notts (MS.), 1932. (7) id.; Stdang Field Notes (MS.), '933- '935 · (8) id. : Why Oedipus Killed Laius: A Note on the Complementary OedipWi Complex, Intl!T'nalional Journal of Psycho- Anarysis 34: 1 3214 1, 1953· (9) id. : Primitive Genital Mutilations in a Neurotic's Dream, Journal of Ik American Psychoanalytic Association 2 :483- 492, '954. ( 10) id.: A Stu4Y of Abortion in Pn'm jtive Socitlies. New York, 1955,1 1975. ( II ) id. : The Exploitation of Ambiguity in Pindaros. D. 3.27, Rheinisches MuseumfiJr Philologit 109:289- 298, 1966. (n) id.: Fausse Non-Reconnaissance, Bulietin of the Menninger Clinic 31 :6g-78, 1967· ( 13) id.: From Anxielj' to M ethod in the BthauilJral Scitncts. Paris and The Hague, 1967. ( 14) id.: Reality and Dream ,' The Ps;'CIlOtherapy of a Plains Indian. (Second, augmented edition.) New York, 1969. (1 5) id.: Mohaw Ethtwps;·chiatry. (Second augmented edition.) Wa!Shington, D.C., 1969. (16) id.: La N aissance d 'Aphrodite (in) Pouillon, J ean and Maranda,
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Krytaimestra's Dream in Stlsiclwros' Oresteia
( 17) ( 18) (19) (20) (21) (22) (23) (24) (25) (26) (27) (28) (29) (30) (3 1) (32) (33) (34) (35) (36) (37)
'79
Pierre (eds.). £Changes d Communications (M I/anges Llci-Slrauss), 2. 1229-1::152. Paris and T he H ague, 1970. id.: The EtpUlS October Rhual Reconsidered. Mnemosyne 23 :297-301 ; 197°· id.: Essau d'Ethnopsychiatne Glnbale. Paris, 1970. Second edition, 1973· id.: Stdang Suicidt (MS.). Lecture given before the Institute of Social Anthropology, Oxford University, '972. id.: EtluwpsydUJIUJlyse Complimen/ansle. Paris, 1972. id.: Trois Re:ves en Serie et une Double Parapraxe, ElhlWpsychologie (in press). Edelstein, E. ]. and Ludwig : Asclepius I. Baltimore, 1945. Fairbairn, W. R . D.: The Effects of the King's Death upon Patients in Analysis, International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 17:278-284, 1936. Gahagan, L.: The Form and Function of a Series of Dreams, Journal of Abnormal and Social PSJ'chology 29:404- 408, 1935. Gow, A. S. F. and Scholfield, A. F. Nicander. Cambridge, 1953. Kelchner, G. D.: Dreams in Old Norse Literature and their Affinities in Folklore . London, 1935 . Kreisler, Leon: Les Intersexuels avec Ambiguite Genitale, Uz Psychiatrie dt l'Enfant 13:65- 127, 1970. Levi·Strauss, Claude: Anthropowgie Structurale. Paris, 1958. Nilsson, M . P.: Geschichte der griechuchen Religion 12. M unchen, 1955. Onians, R. B.: The Origins of European Thought . Cambridge, 195/ . Orlansky, H.: R eactions to the Death of President Roosevelt, Journal of Social Psyehowgy 26:235-266, 1947. Ritchie, William : Tk AUlhenticiry of the Rksus of Euripidts. Cam· bridge, 1964. R6hcim Gba: Psycho-Analysis of Primitive Cultural Types, International Journal of Psycho.Analysis, 13: 1- 244, 1932. Roscher, W . H . (ed.) : Arufohrliches Lexikon der gritchisCMn und rlimiscMn Mythologie. Leipzig, 1884- 1937. Sterba, R . F.: Report on Some Emotional Reactions to President Roosevelt's Death, Psychoanalytic Reuiew 33 :393-3g8, 1946. Viirtheim, J.: Stemhoros' Fragmmle und Biographie. Leiden, 1919. Wigglesworth, V . B.: The Life of InsteLI. Cleveland and New York, 1964·
Matenal
:Ie autor
Chapter 6
Klytaimestra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi
,8,
Kfytaimtstra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi
XOPOC
We aVn'l MyEl OPECTH( kai TroT TEharri1 KtIl KcxpavoVTal Myoc; XOPOC tv crrapy6:voiCIlftI100c 6pllical SIKT)v. OPECTHC
nKttv Sp6ltoVT' l5ol;£v.
5'7
,.Ivoc jX>pS:c xp~lOVTa. vEOywtc 56:K0c; XOPOC o:\rn) npoaCXi lJaJOv t.I Twvelpan. OPECTHC Kol Tf(~C chpc.rrov oVEtap ~v \mo C'T\.ryOVC;
XOPOC WCT' tv y6).cnm OPECTHC
6p6J..L~v
aillaTOC wocal.
OCrrOl )J6:Talov' 6v5p6c ~v nEMI
XOPQC t~ Iimx>v Khlayy£v hrm'lllMl.
il S·
535 (Smyth's text)
TrlJJlSialiQIl ChorDS: She dreamed BIle gave birth \0 a serpent- such is hcr own accoun t.
Drum: A nd where ends the tale and what its consummation? Chams: That she laid it to rest, as it we re a child, in swaddling bands. Oresus: What food did it crave, the new-born noxious thing? (stinging or biting beast, cpo A. Sup,,/. 8~n ) . Clwros: She herself in her dream offered it her breast. Oru Us: Surely her nipple was not unwounded by the loathsome beast? (the loathsome one). ChoTOI: No; with the milk it drew in doued blood. OTu lu: Sooth, ' tis not meaningless-the vision means a man . ChOTOS: Then from out of her sleep she raised a shriek and woke up appalled. (Smyth's translation) (The words in parentheses were added by me ; they are alternatives to Smyth's expressions.)
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
Klytaimestra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi intruduttion Few AischyJean passagt::l reveal the inexhaustible richness of his poetry better than his Klytaimestra's dream. Each nuance belongs to several networks of meaning, for his art transmutes an extremely broad gamut of facts-<:ultural and other- into dream-poetry. Each detail is linked- at times by almost invisible threads- to many other details. This is an important fact, for the great poet enchants and fascinates not so much by what he provides but by what he demands: each verse chaHenges the reader to multiply its echoes by detecting its countless overtones, and its many links both with o ther passages and with the poet's world as a whole. For, Platon notwithstanding, not the least of the true poet's resources is his capacity to reveal the ultimate truth- which is psychological reality---even, and perhaps especially, through what objectively is an untruth: he highlights the very essence of reality through the metamorphosi5 of its concrete manifestations. I note again that, more than the finest real racer, the imaginary winged Pegasol conjures up the essence of speed, and especially the unconsciuus meaning or horse back riding. For Pegasos' "absurd" flight is roOied in the symbolic equation: dream-flight = erection or sexual excitement. It seems to me that PlalOn's ultimate "reality" is as eerily one-dimensional as the "pure" note, devoid of overtones, produced by the "andes Martenot". But poetry is like the rich, "impure" note of the violin, whose overtones are audible, and, in a sense, are even amplified by the human ear.' This is why K lytaimestra's lie that she had nursed Orestes (w. 896 fr. ) reveals the psychological truth even more poignantly than does the Nurse's credible affirmation that (only) she had nursed him. It is KIytaimestra'slie which makes her failure to nurse Orestes seem as monstrous as it really is: cpo A. Ag. 856, for a similar brazen lie. It will predictably be objected that, al w. 544 fr. , Orestes himself claims to have been nursed by his IYlother. _ beeause Ihal i, what he IYlust have been told. Far from being the kind of contradiction that delights certain critics, this is the touch of the consummate psychologist. The harsh, possessive mother of a patient had for many years concealed rrom him the fact that (because of an illness) she had nursed him only for a few weeks and had then entrusted him to one o r more wet-nurses. Significantly, when this man, then in psycho-analysis, asked his mo ther for information about h is wet-nurse(s), his mother claimed to remember nothing about her (o r them) -reasserting once more than she alone was his "real" mother and nurse. This case speaks for itself and disposes of the "contradictio n" between the Nurse's statement, Klytaimest ra's claims and Orestes' naive belief in his mother's lies. This, then, is the "lying" art of the poet, which reveals the undislDrud psychological truth by means of a misrepreuntaticm of objective reality. The psycho-analyst can grasp the aliveness of this art only if he is will to defer , Thus, when an orch.. lra play. only C -E-C , Ihc car will none 'he 1_ "hear" 'he (miuing) G, which is present only a. an Overl0ne. The ear will therefore hear the whole
chord: C-F.,..(G)-C,
.84
Klytairntstra's Drtam in Aischy/os' Choephoroi
to the poet, who, by means of the extraordinaril y multivalent "density" (29) of the poetic utterance, brings into being the wonder of reality, for he alone has the key to it. In Literary CriticiJm, one must note, first of all, that, in tragedy, Kly. taimestra's dream is told not by her, but by a third party: by the Chorm in A. Choe.; by Chrysothemis in S. El. Also-and this is true especially of A. Choe. but to a lesser extent ors. El. as well- infonnation about the content of the dream is elicited by questioning the informant(s). By contrast, nearly all other drcall1.'l in surviving Greek tragedies are reported by the
dreamer in person and, moreover, never in the course of a stichomythia. The Erinyes dream (A. Eum.) is both represented on the stage and then (partly) narrated. Though from the literary point of view Klytaimestra's dream is prophetic, from the psychological point of view its "prophetic" character is almost irrelevant. Moreover, Klytaimestra considers it ominous or prophetic only after she wakes up, terror-stricken (929). This not only fits Greek belief, but also undersco res that the defining of this dream as prophetic is not part of the "dream-work" proper, but of the dream's secondary elaboration, on awakening, in response to its affective core. In tragedy, the defining of any dream as prophetic is always an imputation.2 The ascription of a prophetic character to this particular dream is facilitated by thc fact that it manifestly does not reproduce a past ellent, for not Klytaimestra but the old Nurse had suckled Orestes.3 This leads 10 the not altogether correct assumption that the dream concerns the future onb'. Actually, it is not the manifest content of the dream bUI in far more important affective core which is rooted in the past: it reflects guilt feelings and self-punitive impulses related to Klytaimestra's inadequacy as a mother (infra). Moreover, in her dream, Klytaimestra belatedly performs a task she had failed to perform at the proper time. Such dreams are fairly common and are exemplified by the Erinyes' dream (chap. 4). Also, in a psychologically plausible manner, this belated dream-performance of a neglected duty includes a built-in punishment-as does the Erinyes' dream: the snake bite anticipates the goad of self-reproach in the Erinyes' dream (chap. 4). Thus, there are basic psycho-analytical and structural affinities between Klytaimestra's dream and the dream of her own Erinyes. These considerations show that, as soon as it goes beyond the obvious, literary criticism leads directly to psycho-analytical insights, simply because great poetry deals persuasively with human personality. Repetiti1JeTUsS: Given the complexity of the dream a nd its countless links with other passages and with various customs, a certain amount ofrepetition will help the reader to follow my argume nt, without having to leaf back in order to locate the information needed at a given point. Though aClithetically unsatisfactory, repetition is helpful in following complex reasoning about complex facti. Dream QJU/ Context: The analysis of Kl ytaimestra's dream would be a Cp. 33, passim; 66. "Terror is the dream'. interpreter" (A. CJwt. 929) • • Moreover, "" is the cao.e in many primitive groupo, .he nunt:d him"" tklllalld and nOt "on II<:hr:dule" (749 ff.). This practice is, inexplicably, not mentionr:d in (52). 1
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
K!Jtaimestra's Dream in AischyuJS' Choephoroi fairly simple task ujt were all that survived of A. Chot. (cp. chap. 3). But, as is, it must be interpreted in its context. Now, parts of that context seem to contradict certain details of the dream- but only in order to reveal, through objectjw untruths and incompatibilities, the dream's underlying psychowgical truth- a poetic technique which I discussed a moment ago. If, for example, we did not possess the Nurse's credible statement (749 ff.) that sill alone had nursed Orestes- i.e., if vv. 749--760 were missing- the dream's manifest content could be held to reproduce (with one nightmarish distortion only) memories of Klytaimestra's nursing of Orestes. If so, her subsequent plea to be spared- reinforced by the baring of her breasts which, she claims, once suckled Orestes (vv. 8g6 fr. ; cpo E. Phoin. 1568)-would have to be taken as a legitimate reminder of the "debt" a son owes to the breasts that fed him. But the Nurse's account renders both these plausible and "objective" interpretations untenable. The truth of the dream is more psychological-and hence more elusivethan objective. The dream must therefore be analysed " in situ", with special reference to vv. 27 fr., 311 fr., 535 fr., 749 ff., and 896 ff. ( I) f t!. 32iJ., which describe the outward, observable manifestations of Klytaimestra's dream, provide only one striking datum. Thill passage mentions a cry of terror during the dream- but the actual dream-narrative does not even hint at an outcry. In fact, though the giving birth to a serpent, its savage nursing at the breast, its swaddling and being put 10 rest are horrible enough, the dream narrative itself does not even hint at any terror Klytaimestra may have experienced whik she performed these tasks in dream (cp. chap. II ). Yet, her matter-of-fact activities in dream would be routine and anxiety-free only if her baby were human. This casualness increases, if anything, the oniric character of her dream- for real dreams, like great art, make the near-impossible seem not only natural and credible, but even inevitabJe.~ How, then, can one reconcile the reported cry of terror with Kl ytaimestra's tranquil and matter-of-fact dream behaviour ? The simplest assumption would be that Kl ytaimestra cried out in terror when her horrible dream awakened her at night. The text does not forbid such an interpretation, and may perhaps even encourage it. An alternative would be to suppose that the matter-of-fact behaviour of Klytaimestra's dream image is supplemented by the terrified- and terrifying --outcry of the sluping Kl ytaimestra. This would imply that the calm dreamed behaviour emanates from one level of psychic functioning and the frightened shriek from another level . Three arguments may be mustered in favot1r of this interpretation: (a) Sappho's (fr. 31 LP) mind is lucid-all her abnormal reactions to a painful situation are corporeal (physiological). I have shown elsewhere (39) that her objectivity is unimpaired precisely because she soma/ius what, in most cases, would be psychic pain . • Similarly, an uno:pected tum of a Mozart melody or a bold modulation in Schubert are . wiling when heard for the fi~t tim~. But, on", h~ard, th~y S<>em totally inevitable; one cannol even imagine afterwarda that they could have bcc:n compoo.ed differently. Cp. also (50) and chap. I.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
,86
Klytaimestra's Dream in AischylOJ' Choephoroi
(b) Concurrent verbal and postural behaviour may be cOnlradiclory, each reflecting one aspect of an ambivalence.' (c) Klytaimestra's tranquil performance in dream, which contrasts with her terrified outcry in sleep, can perhajn be correlated also with the Greek view that dreams are "intruders"; that dream personages (the dreamer', own dream-image included) perform a kind of play before the sleeper's inner eye. But this is certainly the least strong orthe three points that can be made in this connection. The most revealing aspect of Klytaimestra's dream-behaviour is the actual activity to which it leads on awakening. Frightened by her ominous dream, she sends libation-bearers to Agamemnon's tomb, so as to appease his angry (278) shade. It is therefore to this ri te that I now turn. (2) In 00. 27 ff., the mourning libation-bearers' behaviour practically duplicates K lytaimestra's dream activity. They, too, bart their breasts (cp. E. Phoin. 1491; Theocr. 15.134) and Ihen traumatiu them with blows. Even the libation they offer recalls the mixture of liquids Orestes draws in dream from Klytaimestra's breasts (infra). (3) Vv. 749ff.- pauerned in every res pect on Hom. It. 9-485 ff.Lestablish that only the Nurse suckled Orestes. Klytaimestra's dream is, thus, not a distorted replica of earlier events, and her demand to be spared (896 ff. ), bC{;ause she had "nursed" Orestes, is a factual dC{;eit-but one which reveals important psychological truths. Moreover, several details of the Nurse's account echo altitudes present in the dream and in the lie. (a ) Baby = (witIC3ll) beast (13oT6v) = snake baby (cp. Hom. Od. 19. 53 0 ). (b) Nursing is troublesome and saps the woman's "soul" = snake bite (cp. chap. 7 and E. Phoin. 1433). (c) A reward is expected-as in vv. 896 ff.- for the nu rsing. Vv. 896ff. which contain a pack of lies and especially Klytaimestra's claim to have nursed Orestes must be scrutinized further on. These are some of the facts which I must rt/Jfa~dly rC{;all in the course of my analysis of this dream. The Observobk As/Nc/$ of K lytaimestra's dream have already been partly discussed elsewhere (33). Klytaimestra dreams in her bower (~VX6c) (35).7 A terrifying voice, inextricably commingled with the wrathful breath of sleep, c{;~lOes through the women's part of the palace. This much is clear. The rest is n01although, except for v. 32, most editon print the same lex!.! But the • Cp. the heroic Antos' fear-diarrhoc:;u before ,el baulO'l {Plu. V. A .al. ~9.5 and p;lS$im) ; Henri IV of France .hook like a leaf before riding into combat. As to clinical data, one of my palientll spoke lovingly of hit brother--bul hit posture on the couch wall th at or a pugil;'t. Cpo Sen. Plumb. II~I , and (1'4) . • Even the ,potted tunic it "tramformed" into $Oiled diapers. Bowdleri~ed in Q.S. 3,-475 fr. {inrra). 7 R ow.seau (95, p. 123) tri C! 10 r eprClent thi, bower as a kind of oracular adrton. This borders On the absurd. The dreaming of a 'ignifica nl dream in a particular chamber docs not turn it into an oracular ohrine. • I di..eg:o.rd, as irretevant in this discussion, variations in the arrangemen t of the verse patterns.
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Krytaimestra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi translations of Smyth, Mazon and Thomson differ from each other in significant relpects. In seeking to decode this cryptic passage, I fed that one must look beyond lcJtical and syntactical problems : thcse verses must make sense in tenns of Aischylean (and Greek) beliefs about dreams and, I submit, also in tenns of psychology. I do not profcss to have all the answers. I simply seek to define the difficulties and to comment on them. The basic problem is whether the shout and the breathing do or do not emanate from the same source. But it is best to postpone the discussion of this question until after the other problems have been considered . The terrifying shout emanates from an unspedfied "power", which interprets dreams during the dream, to the household as a whole. Those who hear the shout understand the meaning of the dream at once, though they do not know (as yet) what Klytaimestra is actually dreaming just then. If, as one must suppose, "interpreling the dream" is to be taken li terally, this means that those who hear the shout are given the "interpretation" of an (ongoing) dream ( = ridd1e),9 withoul knowing (as yet) what the dream is. They simply learn the solution of an as yel unknown problem. Another example of this type of procedure is psycho-analytic technique, which consists in discovering the "questions" which the patient's utte rances (unwittingly) answer. This may be contrasted with what happened at the Delphic oracle. The client first heard the Pythia " rave" glossolalically,IO then the priest told him what the Pythia' utterances "meant". Yet, one cannot but suppose that here the shout is both inarticulate and "intelligible", in a general way.11 It conveys affici- and, in Aischylos, the basis of dream interpretations is the dream's affective impact, cpo A. Ch~. 929 and (33). II is therefore obvious that the scream- qua manijeltation of the dream's a.ffective content- rates as its "interpretation": Klytaimestra has a bad dream which, as everyone assumes at once, can only refer to her punishment for Agamemnon's murder. All this the women infer from the shout. I strcss the word "infer", for I have shown elsewhere (35) that the text of the oracles handed to clients simply substituted for a real and meaningful quandary a verbal puzzle inherently devoid of sense, between whose various possible "meanings" the recipient still had to choose. In this instance, what the women alTectivcly infer from the shout happens to be COrre<:t. \Vha t reinforces the impression that the shout occurs during the dream, but is not part orthe dream's manifest content, i8 that Klytaim es tra behnves in dream in a very matter-of-fact and efficient way : she gives birth to a snake, nurses it, is bitten by it, swaddles it and then lets it rest. Not a word hints at the txptrienct of pain or of anguish in dream, though one would expect • Anst. p".j. [.. ~8a2+ fr. I. Cpo chap. 3, note 19. [I A Sedang Moi shaman once shouted in dream: "Ghost! ghost!" and was 110 obviou$ly ;n the clutch"" of a nightmare, th at he had to be awakenM by (hose: who oaw him thrallh about. AlIusumed-correct1y-that he had dreamed of being allackai by ghosts, though th ey did not know exactly u·iu1.1 he had dn:amM until he told them aft" being awahncd ( 14). Similarly, if I hear a ICr~am, I can gUCSllthat IIOmeone is in pain, even though I do nOI know wh~thcr that per'llOn has a k;dn"Y·ston~ attack Or ill being auaultcd by a robber, ,~.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
,88
KrytaimestTa's Dream in Ais&hylos' Choephoroi
that to be part of the dream. Then, her task calmly completed, she screams (535). Now, there arc dreams whose affective impact seems incompatible with their manifest content. One may have what sums to be a pleas3m dream and yet feci very deprcsscd on awakening. (H om. Od. 20.87 fr.) Conversely, a Malay who dreams of being bitten by a snake is cheerful on
awakening: his dream forme!]s luck in amorous intrigues
( 11 ) ,11
Better still, affect can become total1y i.osolated from symplOm a nd performance.ll Sappho's mind, as described in]r. 31 LP, is totally lucid, for all her anxie ty is transposed to the somatic level (39). These data show that it is psychologically possible for Kl ytaimestra to scream only at the end of a dream which "should" arouse anguish, even though her behaviour in dream is quite matter of fact . One might even say that her dream behaviour can be calm and efficient precisely because the horror which the dream "should" inspire is manifested on a different level of functioning, in the form of a terminal scream (535). I the refore accept the view that the scream is, in fact, that of the dreaming Klytaimcslra. But I canno t unconditionally agree with Rousseau's flat assertion (95, p. 103) that the actual dream event during which she screams is the one when she is bitten. While I concede that this is possible, she could have screamed just as appropriately during the pangs of giving birth to the snake. However, v. 535 stongly suggests a scream on awakening, as does the reference to the sleeper's heavy breathing.14 On the whole, the text does not penni! one to detennine accllralery the dream event which cawed the dreamer to ~c ream. Moreover, thu va gueness of the narrative, as regards the timing of the scream, only increases iu psychological persuasiveness, for the handling of time in dream is notoriousl y capricious, precisely ~ause the dream is timeless (chap. 8). There remains the problem that the text Stems to d ifferentiate between the shouting "power" and the heavily breathing sleeper. This is confirmed by the fact that the shout is frightening, even though one would expect K lytrumestra's scream to express only pain or a nguish. This difficulty is not insuperable. Greek dream theory viewed dreamfigu res-and the dream itself- as intrusions fro m the outer world. More important still is Klytaimestra's claim that she is not on(y a mortal woman and wife, but also the Atreidai's Alastor (spirit of vengeance: A. Ag. 1501)- though the Choros holds that an Atastor simply abets Kl ytaimestra (1508). This explains, I feel , wh y the sleeping woman, undergoing a painful experience in dream, docs not scream with pain and fright o n her own behalf, but shouts terrifyi ngly and breathes wrathfully in kr capacity " I ddiberatdy do not cite heu Pendope'spstuM-paradoxical tears during her theoretically "encouraging" duam (Hom. Od. 19.535 ff. ). That dream has, for Penelope a! she ..,,11y is, a " discouraging" meaning (24). "For certain neurotic housewives, e>:tremdy efficient house-clea ning is a means of maalering anxiety (47). "One might even imagine the ""rea m to be that of the' neonate, physically emitted by the sleeping moth er. In one instance an adolescen t, while dreaming ofbeing attacked by a tion , gro..... led in .Iup, j U$! as the lion growled in hi, dream. But luch "vicarious vocalizauoos" in sleep a re 10 rare that they deserve on ly a footnote. (There may be a human tendency to imitate an aggressive animal'. sound, K.J.D. )
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
KlytaimutTtJ's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi as an Alastorl~who, at this point, is abo the one who will insure that she will be punished. In this sense, her threatening, audible, AlaslOr-like shout and her matter-of-fact dream reaction to great pain and danger show that the Alastor who shouts thrQUgh Mr vocal chords is, in the last resort, Kl ytaimestra's own punitive Super-ego. This is tht more cred ible as, in dream, she herself gives birth to and nurtures her own Alastor: Orestes. Apparendy this A1astor uses Kl ytaimestra's vocal chords as Aponon uses those of the Pythia- for the terrifying shout and the threatening anxiety dream are both products of her Super-ego. As 10 the dreaming, the tc:xt specifies thai it ila p}X"m;u a tllliuuiglJl (34;
Tiu Dream's Conttnt Tlu Stesichortar/. Modd's snake is preserved, though in A. Chot. it represents not Agamemnon but Orestes. The model's narrative structure is, however, discarded. The reverse happens in S. EI.: the snake is replaced by a sceptre, but the Stesichorean na rrative's structure remains unchanged l6 (chap. 7). Before examining the dream's manifest content, detail by detail, a general problem must be consldered. Serpents pervade all of the Omuia and especially the Chotphoroi. Sooner or later, nearly every important personage is called some kind of snake.17 Agamemnon is only a partial exception, for the serpent in Aischylos' Stesichorean model is Agamemnon (chap. 5). Since, in Aischylos, the dream-snake is Agamemnon's son and avenger Orestes, it is obvious that, in A. Chot., too, the shadow of a serpentine Agamemnon lurks behind the serpentine Orestes. IS Moreover, whereas in the Stesichorean model the serpent Agamemnon gives (cephalic) birth to a human Orestes, in A. Chot. the- figurative viper Klytaimestra gives birth l9 to a serpentine Orestes. 20 This development reflects well the pitilessly irresistible progression of even the logically most absurd anxiety dream. Speaking specifically of K lytaimestra's human image in her own dream,2t the fact that she gives birth to a snake makes her sufficiently "Profossor Lloyd-Jones thinu, however, that an Ala.tor ..,,,1 the dream. The tip (head) both of the serpent and of tht sceptre "produces" O"""tes. 11 K1ytaimeslra: Ag. 1233, C/roe. 249, 994f (twice) , 1047; Klytaimestra'. Erinyes: Chof. lOy>, Eum. 128; Aigisthos: CIwl. 1047; Orestes: 527, 544, 549, 928; cpo also Apolloo·. I.
alTOW1:
Etmf. 181.
"Cp. chap. 8 for the equi ..... lence of the avengt! and Ihe avenged . Rousseau (95, p. 122) complainllthat interpretations of K1ytaimestra', dream coofU$C tht literal (Orestes) and the Iymbolic (Agamemnon ) ..,rpent. H e docs not..,., Ihat the two are the same. " Perha]» like a viper (chap. 5), or like a Lioness (A. At. 1258), whose womb her young were thoU3ht to deslroy (Hdl. 3.U.-.8). ,. Since the liain Agamemnon is, in Stes;choros, a chthonian dream_snake, Klytaimelra, his stayer, is bitten on Ihe breast by her snake-<:hild. See atso Mohave belief! about the snake-like babies of sn~ayel"l] (38, p. 253 f. ) . "Sina: Ihe puts O"""tes to the breast, she cannot be snake-slM/Hd in her own dream, though I note that drums about femate Illllkes are reported from pre-Greek anliquity (85, p. 253)·
Klytaimtslra's Duam in Aischylos' Choephoroi
serpentine for the purposes of the dream, even if one ignores both her diabolically serpentine charac ter and the fact that (in Stesic horos) her murdered husband, the father of Orestes, is a snake. The wife and mother of snakes can hardly be anything but a snake (in human shape). The dream requires nothing more than thai . As 10 the fact that : Serpent = Agamemnon (Stesich.) and Serpent = O restes (A. Choe. ), it creates no problem, especially in Kl ytaimestra's dream. \Vomen fantasy with almost monotonous regularity that they acqui re a phallos- that of the husband- by being given a child; i.e., child = phallos (of the husband).ll There is even striking Greek evidence for this view. Poseidon boasts that the gods always make their women pregnant (Hom. Od. 11.249 f. ), but, instead of impregnating the raped Kaini5, he gives her a penis (25), tuming her into a (penis-proud) man who worships only hiJ own spear. 2J Serpent-Birth is explicitly mentioned (527, 928) . Some of my students have argued that this event did not frighten Kl ytaimestra, for, instead of discarding the you ng snake, she promptly nursed it- which, incidentally, is not realistic, for Ihe newborn hardly ever nurses at QnCt.24 But I think these observations are too literal and disregard, as to fright, the overall impression created by the dream (supra), and, as regards the compression of time,2, both the timelessness of all dreams and Cicero's accurate observation that nothing is too weird or too absurd to happen in dream.2 6 1 feel that the reference to birth has two purposes: (I ) To underscore Kl ytaimestra's viperine character. (2) To permit Orestes 10 assert his identity with the snake, by stressing that both he and the serpent-baby came from the same place (543). Before I go further, I must scrutinize the details of this birth. That a live birth- such as tha t of vipers- is meant, goes without saying. U nlike most serpents, Klytaimestra docs not lay an egg. This point is worth noting, for her mother, Lcda, did lay an egg.27 I also note that, despite Greek myths about "caesarean births" (Dionysos, Asklepios) (chap. 5), and des pite the belief that the viper's young burst through the abdominal waH2! while the young of the lioness destroy her womb,N Orestes must be imagined as being born in the 11
On this equation I cite, once and for all, H . Deuuch', g r<:at book: Th. Psy
W
(13) .
.. Apotlod. Ep. \.QQ and Fraze r ad loe. Oddly enou gh, another Gre<:k spear_wo nhipper i. named Parthenopaioo (A. &pt. ~~9) . .. After gi"ing birth, the mother produces at fint not milk, but Ixatings (o:oIO$t rum ). R eal milk ;' produced somewhat lal~r. In ..,me primiti"e societ ies lhe c hild i. put 10 t he breast o nly after milk production hu begun (2, pp. 80 f. J. " I n dreams, A. Ag. 893 f. and e hap. 6; in tragedy a. a whole, cpo 4" , . Cie. d•• div. 7..7','46. " H elene: Apollod. 3.10.7; H yg. ~s' ,on. 7..8, ctc. I n other "cn ions she was ke pI in a box (Apotlod. 3. l O.~ ) . Lale tales of the egg_birth of her brothers, the Dioskou ro i (",h . H om. Od. tt.7.g8 ; Kh. Lye. 88; sell. Ca ll im. in Dian. 7. 37. ) were probably inspired by tbe Moliom!s myth (I byc.f,. 28Sf4P .. 16B = ~D) . "According to a Tikopia n myth, caesa rea n birth existed bifoTt binh per ""gillam (I, quoting Raymond Firth ). Such nOlions arc rooted in infantile theories of reproduction (navel _birth), aJ.., encounte,-.,d in adult neurotics. ( I, my, dr, treated . uch a case.)
"KlylaimeslIa = liona.1, A. tlg.
1~5B.
. atenal
~
:lerechos de al.llor
Klylairruslra's Dream in Aischylol' Choephoroi
'9'
normal way. At the same time, one notes that the neutral term : "place" (xwpoc) which Orest es uses, specifies the plaa f rom which ( womb), rather than the path by which (vagina), Orestes " left" the mater nal body.lO But the fantasy that birth is an inuolun/ary expulsion is not wholly absent. I t is simply transposed to a later phase of Orestes' life : as a child he is sent to Strophios (A. Ghoe. 679) ; late r on, he must exile himself after his matricide CA. Ghoe. fin .). T his, again, is the process of the " motif-split": the expulsion-fantasy is detached from the (a ctive) birth, but reappears twice in connection with Orestes' later fa te. I n short, there is no direct allusion to a viperine, "abdomen-bursting" birth, though a husband-slaying, viperine wife would deserve that fat e. But she gives birth in a manner which does not ha rm her a/first. Still, vi perine or leonine models for matricidal births are not altogether forgotten. Like the "expulsion", the matricide, too, is simply detached from the birth, and occurs after a certain lapse of time: in d ream the ma tricide occurs during the nursing; in the plot it is postponed until Orestes is an adult.ll Even so, in at least one text (AP 9.126) Kl ytaimestra mentions two alternatives: a stab in the breast [as in the dream and (with H ermann ) in A. Eum . [03], or else a stab in the belly (which recalls the viperine birth; also T ac . Ann. 14.8). In short, neither the fa ilure to specify the manner of the baby's emergence nor the nOli-synchronicity of t he birth and the matricide suffice to obliterate the underlying viperine birth motif. T his justifies the anc ient view (Ae!. NA [.24) that Orestes beha ved exactly like a young, fat her-avenging, mother-destroying viper. Nurring = LibaliOlI. I have already pointed out that the ritual gestures of the libation-bearers, as well as their libations, closely parallel the dream. I now propose to scrutini ze these similarities more closely. ( I) Since both Orestes (in dream ) and the dea d (chthonian) Agamemnon are "snakes", they are "equivalent" in every significant respect. Thus : (a ) Orestes = Agamemnon's (human) Erinys = Agamemnon (chap. 4) . (b) The Avenger = The Avenged. W hen no avenger is available, the sla in man is given a spear, so as to enable his ghost to be his own avenger)2 (2 ) Agamemnon is given a {jquidlibation (X0>'!) , made of milk, honey and wine : H om. Od. 10. 518, 11.26. But in ancient times bloody sacrifices were also offered to the dead.J l \ Ve are entitled to ask why no bloody sacrifice is offered in this case, b y a queen who could well affo rd it. •• Interprelers of this dn:am, who do nOI read the texl carefully enough, might be: tempted. [0 vi"", Ihit birth as an allusion 10 Oresl"" (fint aod /or "o:<:ond) exile from hi, home, bc:cauu: the neurotic oono:i\"o of bir th as an expulsion. But the lext (1I<7\m,;w: quilled ) forbid. Ihis inlerpretalion. In A. ChOl .- a. in Olher lalo of vip<:rine birth"bc:iog born" is n:presen [ed as an at/illt p<:rformance On the pari of th e baby-nol of the mOlher (44, chap. 6). "The comprep ion of this inler\"al in the dream iJ a characlerislically dreamli ke operation, cp o supra , nOle 25. II &.-0. 47.6g; Eur. Tr. 1147 f.; Poll. 8.65; Ister ap. EM 354.33 fr.; AB 237-30 f.; c p o 90, p. sBs. " Cpo 81, I ', p. 180 ; H om. II. 23.175 fr.; also H om. Od. [[ passim.
MatefKlI
:Ie autof
'9'
Klylaimutra's Dream in Aischylas' Choephoroi
I submit- not dogmatically and yet with some confidence-that bloody sacrifices uvivifod the dead, as in Hom. Od. 11 .3:2, etc.l4-and that is 1M fast thing KlylaimtStra wou.ld wish Mr sacrijiu /0 bring about. By contrast, like lIu rsing,l~ liquid libations presumably appeased (put to rest?) the angry dead- which is what K lytaimema aims at in dream with regard 10 the hungry serpent-baby and, in the waking rite, wit h respect to the angry Agamemnon- but both limes 100 late.J6 Yet the similarity is even more far-reaching. I n reality K lytaimestra caused the Nurse to suckle O restes in he r place. She delegates the libation rite to Elcktra17 and to her house slaves, who actually comment o n Kl ytaimestTa's not performing Ihis rite in person (45 ff. , 89 ff., etc. ). But blood--clolltd blood, on the ground- is none the less mentioned also by the bearers of the bloodless libations (66 IT., etc. ) and, in dream, Orestes sucks clOlltd blood from the nipple (533) (infra). Also, the libation, containing milk, will sooner or la ter ciot,JII and, a s we have already seen, in dream milk is mixed with clotted gore. (M ore on this point below.) I t is this incomplelt duplication of the dream by the libation that reveals the real'nexus between the two. I n certain primitive societies, which hold that all dreams mus t come true, one can ave rt a major calami ty by a n a nticipatory mock enactment of the dreamed-of catastrophe (68, p . ·54, etc.) , which represents the dream's inevitable but "miniaturized" realization (Aristid. passim). I n short, both the libation and the dream-nursing are meant to be apotropaic, and both fail to achieve their purpose: th e libation doc:1 not soothe Agamemnon's wrathful shade, nor does the dream nursing render the avenging serpent-baby harmless. }o'or the libation is not o ffered lovingly and in person, just as the infa nt Orestes was not lovingly nursed at his mother's breast. The vicariousness and lovelessness of both performances render them ineffectual, though K lytaimestra's deputies perform their respective tasks with loving tenderness. But Ihat love comes from them and not from the murderess on whose behalf they a ct. The psychological spuri ousness both of the libation and of the dream nursing renders them ineffective. A further- and extremely important-similarity between the libation and the dream nursing: the tr ansformation of a "good" libation into "bad " offscourings (vv. 98 ff. ), will be discussed further on. The Fear of a Bite is, in the case of a woman as vi ri le and unmatern al as Klytaimestra, almost certainly a manifestation of the " female castration anxiety", which often equates the (erecti le). nipple with the penis, the rest of the breast with the scrotum and milk with semen (36). A literary consideration also sug~ts this inter preta tion: the Stesi.. Cpo Od)lS!leU5' promise to ""e ritice a / .. /;1. ram and >wI a bafrt" heifer (H om. Od. ff.) to T eiresias-i.e., to the only ghost whose wits are unimpai red even in Hades (Hom,Od, to.492 ff. ). l' H om. 11. ~~.79 ff.; A. CIwl. 5~9 . •• She is biuen wIIil, nu ... ing. "Who, in S. £1., talks of "nurturing" or "'nuning" Oresles (chap. 7) in a manner which recalls the tirade of the NUn<: in A. CIwl. 749 fT. I. I am Indebted for tM point to my friend a nd Itudent, M . Roger NOl2, M .A • 1 0. 5~ 1
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Kgtaimestra's Drtam in Aisehylas' Choephoroi
'93
chorean serpent's bleeding crest is preserved or replicated in this dream by the bleeding nipple. The Aischylean modification of the Stesichorean motif presupposes the symbolic equivalence: snake _ penis = nipple (cp. the Qatal HOytik vulture-beak nipples) . It could even be argued that the bicten nipple motif replicates in reverse the bicten penis theme of the vagina dentala motif (Folklore r-,'lotif F 547. 1) ; an interpretacion supported by clinical findings.l~ It goes without saying that some babies do painfully bite the nipple. But the point is that whereas some women react to this with anguish,40 other mothcrs takc pride in their malt babies' violent nursing. What matters here is not that some babies do bite, but that this would make a woman like Klytaimestra anxious. After all, in Greck belicf, the Mainades nursed young panthers and the like, ostentatiously (counter-phobically) dmying their fcar of being bitten. 41 I venture to suggeSt that, underlying the fear of the baby's bite, is the fantasy that nursing represents a kind of cannibalization of the mother,42 which, in some primitive cultures, is expressed almost explicitly.~l A1though there seem to have been no Greek tales of children canni balizing their parents, H erodotos was apparently fascinated by the practice, found among certain" Indians", of a funcral cannibalization of deceased relatives; he mentions this custom twice (Hdt. 3.38, cp o3.99). Also, I have shown elsewhere (43, chap. 5) that the imputation of cannibalistic impulses to babies is a projection on the baby of the parents' te1rnophagic impulses - and it need hardly be recalled that many Greek myths mention the parental cannibalization of children; Kronos, Tantalos, Thyestes, Tereus, (Lykaon?), etc. Th Bile of the Nursing Serpent appears to have more than one root. ( I) Even in modern Macedonia, if a cow's milk contains traces of blood, this is thought to be due to a serpent or a daemon having nursed at her udder. 44 In India, the sacred temple cobras are given bowls of milk. Mohave beliefs about snake-headed babies are cited further on . (~) For the woman, being bitten by a snake can also symbolize coitus, and especially defloration. Alkcstis' bridal chamber was full of snakes (Apollod. 3.9.15). Clinical data paralleling this scene exist .•' In some folk beliefs snakes may even seek to crawl into a woman's vagina.# U An analytical patient gn:a\ly dreaded injury to his p.onis- and this not only during actual coitus: he catd'ully ..... rapped his penis in a blanket before masturbating, fantasying all the while that he was "torturing, oh $0 gently !"-a girl's nippit. (Thoe wcre the patient', own
wordo.)
.. Cpo infra; H~ nuning HerakJes, and Mohave belid's about snake·headed babies (38, pp. 257 If.) • ., AUltralian wOmen nurse dingo dog puppies (7, p . 22 ). Ainu women nurse hea.r cu bs (s8), etc . •, Cp. the reference, in the next section, to Ihe symmetry between this dream and the feast of Thycstcs (nOie 57 ) . .. E.g., the Papuans of Geelvink Bay, infra, notc 51. "Infonnation provided by my student, Mme D. Cakule;·a.Diamantis, . a nati,'c of Macedonia (8) . ., Cp. General Intr<;>duction, notc 10. Phallic gian lll; chap. 2, nOle 41. .. Even though M. E. Opler (84) has tried to pr<we--absurdly, .. La Barre h .. !hown (6#, p. 3~7 )-that in Jap4Ul the 'nake is not a phallic symbol, he mentiolUl the belid'that a
• atenal
~
ethos :Ia al.llor
'94
Krytaimestra's Dream in Aischyfos' Chocphoroi
That nipple-biting during nursing is related to sexual excitation will be shown in a moment. This indicates that a nursing dream is also a sexual excitation dream. T/i( Biting of the Nipple is viewed as a major problem in man y cultures, and leads to a variety of beliefs, only two of which can be considered here. In many Euro-Asiatic steppe and tundra cultures, babies born with teeth are bdic\'cd to be<:ome shamans (and witches) Jate r on, and are said to bite the nipple while nursing. 47 I think it is not hazardous to suggest that Orestes resembled an evil shaman in several wa ys : he commiued matricide, he had repeated attacks of madness, he underwent severa! magical cures, he ended up by (shamanistically) mutilating his finge~1 and even displayed what may be Iykant hropic traits for, in E. IT (296 fr. ), he rages in the midst of the cattle like a rabid wolf. Now, in pleading for her life, Klytaimestra got.-s out of her way to drn)', be it only implicitly, that Orestes was born with teeth: she "rC{;alls" Ihal he clasped her nipple with his gums (ov?-.ov) (8g8). But this id yllic deta il is an invention, for not Kl ytaimestra but the Nurse gave Ihe breast to Orestes (749 IT. ) and Klytaimeslra's failure 10 nurse OreSles may well have been traditional, for it reappears, ralher surprisingly, in S. El. t 143 fr., where the virgin Elektra claims to have been the onry o ne 10 "nurse" (figuratively) the infant Orestes (c ha p. 7). In A. Chot. K lytaimestra's spurious claim~9 is part of her attempt to lend force and persuasiveness to the baring of her breasts (infra). Her reference to Orestes' nursing with his gums is therefore automatically suspect. I ts main objective is apparently to drny lhat he had teeth that could bite, and therefore to deny also the ominous realism of her dream.~ This explains her mentioning the "gllms" .......-.ofwhich mo re anon . Needless to say, the pro blem here is not whe ther the "real" Orestes was born with teeth. What matters is that he bites the nipple in Kl ytaimestra's dream. This means tha t Aischylos represents Kl ytaimestra as the type of (masculine) woman who dreads nuning, fean the baby'~ ("castrative") bite and views the infant as a destructive, predatory parasite. Such women are not only commonly encountered in paediatric practice, but the con· snake may crawl into the vagina of a girl who sleeps in the fields. T his latter fanl.uy is 5Q common Ihat C,'cn a no ....d dealing with thc lI.-lau Mall re"olt (9~) mcntion. its exploitation in the interrogation ora captured lI.-lau Mau wOman. Among theji"aro Indian'. not a snake but a wate, daemon emen the "agina of a bathing woman, in the form of a fi.h or watet" inoccl (b), p. 22 1) . Alexandros the Great waS allegedly fathered by a serpent (Plu. V. Ala. 3.1). But in such tales Ihere i.J ~t"..r an all .... ion 10 thc intromiuion or the serpent's i>ttlu. Thi. forcd one to aSSume that the serpent i. thought to crawl into the "agina h'(ldjirsl, 1lI il dOC! in an obscene no ....d ( , ) and that iu venom plaY' the role of semen. Profruor Verdeniu, brought to my attentions Onians' (83, pp. 108 If.) finding Ihal , in some Grcek belief., the semen ultimately originates in the head (as, incidentally, dOC! l nake ~·enom! ) . (Cp. Plu.fr. 50, Sandbach and H es. Op. ~87:::A1c. Z 23.8 f. LP, abo chap. ~ for Greek rnerencd to .... enOmou. semen.) T he fact that in . uch tal es th e makc', tnti,. body functions '" a phallos ;., alm ost certainly related to the dinicaHy well_known body .. phallos nJualion (51 , 69) . ., R6hcim (93) lim many . ueh data; the bclin i. also found in some Amerkan Indian tribes: a nuning Na,-aho baby was oburwd!O hurt it, mOlher ( ~, p. 8, ) . .. Cpo A.i>lid. 0 •. 4B'~7' Thi. ;• • ymbolic ..,If-e,,,,,>>.I;O,, . .. Olher . puriou< cia,,,,,, A. Ag. 887 fr., E. ,u,d. 256; Ar. &n., '469 f. (K .J.D. ) . ,. For a fUfther untruth, cpo " Lie Sequence", infra.
~ atet"~1
KLytaimestra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi
'95
ception of the baby as a parent-destroyer is actually a standard belief in variow cultures.'1 It was present in Greek culture and is mentioned in A. C~. 749 fT. The Nurse calls the infant Orestes " as witless as a btasl" (753 ). In nursing him she had made great sacrifices, spending her "soul" a nd performing irksome, somewhat disgusting and realistically described tasks.52 The biting of the nipple by a snake can be readily linked with a contemporary Macedonian belief (noted supra). Aioschylos' dream-imagery probably drew for inspiration on a similar popular superstition. Even more relevant is the Mohave Indian belief that if a pregnant woman (or even her unborn child's father) kilLJ a snake, the baby wil[ be born "snake-headed". sl Since its poisonous fangs would bite the mother's nipple, it is only fed mush.54 The mother's killing of a snake and then giv_ ing birth to a snake-headed baby likely to bite her recalls Greek tales of the viper's reproduction (chap. 5) and the fact that Klytaimestra herself is called a viper (vv. 249, 994), who, in dream, nurses a snake-baby. In both cases the birth ofa snake-baby resul ts from a killing. [The dead Agamemno n is a chthonian snake (chap. 5»). More significant t han any and all these data is the tale of Herakles' nursing at Hera's breasts. According to D.S. 4.9.6., the infant H erakles was exposed by Alkmene out of fear of H era, who was, however, persuaded to nUflie him herself. But the infant Herakles nursed (and bit ?) so fiercelySS that H era, unable " "Our children detroy us": Papuan! of Gulvink Bay (9." p . 9 [; cp. 22, p. 307). Nuning is short, for it ruin. the mother's breasu and sexual allract;ven=: lI-Iarqueuns (71, p. 165), etc. On pan:nt ~annibalizing impulseo impul.d 10 children, cpo n, chap. 5. Greek myths, tOO, uAttt belief in the parent-detroying propensitie of , hi/tlrln ( Krenos, Oidipous, etc.). Klytaim esu·a'. dreaming of her fatal nuning of the baby Orelte and her being .Jain by the a""/I Orele t how that tale of parri cidal adul ts are d erived from fanla. sies about potentially pal"<:fll-detroying babie (Oidipoul). Gorer and Rickman (s .,) describe the Creat R ussia ns' belief that all babies are angry and dangeroUll crealure<. That such conception. of the nature of children arC simply projeclion. "f the parents' hostility to ~hildren upotl their childr en h"" been copiolLlly documented elsewhere (n , chaps. 4, 5). The " pan:nt-a",n,mg" propen. i!;e imp uted even to unborn v;pen (chap . 5) and to children (E. SIiPP!. "43 ff.; cpo Alhene 's spetth, ,·v. '2 ' 3 ff. ) allO presuppose: their polen. tial dangerousllos 10 o""U.s- but in the guise: of a socially acceptable reaction-formation agai mt parricidal impulseo. Murray'. linking of Oreate a nd Hamle t dimly hints at it (80, chap. 8) ; E.J olies' (61) linking ofOidipoUll and Hamlet enunciates it. One may even speculale that the infant Heeakl e ' .laying of two serpents (Pi. N '
,,,,,,/I
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Klytaimestra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi
to bear the pain, threw him away (D.S. 4.39. 2.). U nder the circumstances, one is not surprised to learn that Herakles subsequently wounded Hera in llu breast with a poisoned arrow (Hom. II. 5.39 1 ff. )-i.e., with what Apollon ca!ls a "flying serpent" (A. Eum. 18 1).'0 In these versions, the biting Herakles' rejection by a bad " mother" (Hera ) and his subsequent wounding of her breast with a poisoned arrow parallels ~int by ~int Klytaimestra 's fa ilure to nurse Orestes and his biting her nipple in dream, in the shape of a serpent-baby. The two narratives are identical, both structurally and as to laten t contentY One begins to see now why, in a society which views babies as devouring beasts and nursing as a hardship which causes pain and drains the woman who nurses (or even a glorified male "wet nurse" like Phoinix), royal babies were regularly entrusted to nurses- and also why K lytaimestra dreams of nursing a serpent-baby. M others in other cultures react differently. Though the Mongols, too, held that biting nurselings born with teeth eventually became sorcerers (shamans), Hoelun's command, that her son, Genghis Khan, spare his rebellious brother because that brother had nursed mort whtmentty than he did, betrays maternal pride in such sons. Their violent nursing probably suggested that they would beeome illustrious warriors (56). I note, as a n afterthought, that even though the Mohave also feared the bite of female snake-headed babies, I happen to know of no example of girl babies being said to suck violt nlly-nor of a recourse to the "tyranny of the breast" to tame rebeHious daughters. The basic consider3.tion in my linking this dream with v3.rious customs from many groups is the fundamental rule that what is cuslom in culture A can and docs appear as a subjtClivefanlasy, etc., in a member of culture B. This rule was justified logically in a work which also insta nces the possibility of predicting from an individual's privatt fantasits the occurrence of a corresponding forma l belief or practice in arwtha culture (22, pp. 76 ff. ; 44, chap. 3) · ~8 These considera tions do not exclude, of course, the possibility that Klytaimestra's snake- nursing dream is rooted in part also in some lost Greek popular supersti tion.'9 Summing up, Klytaimcstra's dream i5 less prophetic than guilt-laden. Klytaimestra having been a bad mot he r, it is foreseeable that her son •• Endless tales, wi th many variants, were told about H era's adoptive nun ing and even about her pretended gi"ing birth to H erakl es. PrelJer_Robert (86, ~.:I, p. 427, note 2 and passim ) ci te: Paul. 9.:l5.~. Eranosthena. (ap. Ach. T at. inl,. Aral. 24 (in) E. Maass: Comm . in AMI. rrliq., p. 55) ; po.-Erastosth. Calasl . 44; K h. Arat. 469 ; Kh. Germ. Caes. BP, p . t04 Sr.; Lyc. 13~8 If. and K h. ad loc.; Hyg. "SIron. :1.43; Hsch. S.V. &IV'H~C; forvaseo ibid. I, p. I7t, note 3: :1.2, p. 427 , note I . " I note as a coincidence thai the biting"" eating of K lytaimestra by her serpent-baby is, in some raopttlO, .ymmetrical to Thyata.' "unwittingly" eating of his Own children. The occurrence of such .ymme trical incidenlO within the StmIt! group of myths m rprisa neither the psycho-analyst nOr the structural ist. "On the almost incred ible variet y of cultural and individual ....·3ys in which the "in. verted penis" idea manifa.tJ ;tsdf, cpo zoo 43, chap. 16. The same is true of the "beinp without anus" fantally (8z, :U, 67, p. 394). ,. Cpo su pra. Hannonia's amphisbaina.shaped necklace is SO GOflSlTucted that the two heads ohh., ".nake" are exactly level wi th her nipples (Noon. DUm. 5.'++ ff.), and I recall Ihat Hannonia herself is eventually metamorphosed into a serp<:nt (E. Ih. 1330 If.).
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
Kly/aimestra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi
'97
would retaliate. Had she nursed him, she would have given him "poisoned" (un-lovingly given) milk; he repays the quasi-"poironous" (cp. A. EIU1I. 813) (non-maternal) milk given by Klytaimestra's delegate, the Nurse (infra), with a poisonous bite. On a different-and, at this moment, more important- level of (overdetermined) symbolization, Orestes' attack also has an incestuous meaning (infra), symbolized by an oral-biting attack. Seen in this light, the symbolism is plausible. Since the Oedipus complex is infantile, it lends itself especially well to symbolization in terms of (infantile) oral-biting aggressivity,6Il rather than in terms of a more mature genital ilclivily. MDtenuJi Blood is often mentioned in connection with Orestes. This is to be expected for various reasons: (I) He has to avenge the blood of Agamemnon, by shedding that of Klytaimestra. (\I) The Erinyes never cease urging that Orestes' blood is that of his mother (A. Eum. 606 f. , etc.), and it is fairly clear that he obtained this blood already in utero. In this perspective, the unborn child is automatically a "blood-sucker"-as are the Erinyes (chap. 4). The reDI foetus is fed by the mother's blood stream. (3) Orestes was purified of the matricide with the blood of a suckling pig CA. Eum. 448). I note only in passing that purification from filth with filth, though it scandalized Herakleitos (Jr. 5, D-K), is a fairly widespread custom. What does deserve mention is that, in A. C/wt. ga, the selfishly sent funeral libations are treated as though they were off-5COurings (KCl%ppaTa). But the real problem is why, in Greece, such purifieations called for the blood of a suckling pig. I do not believe that this was simple due to the relative cheapness of piglets. The use of a pig is understandably beeawe of that animal's chthonian connections. But the need to kill specifically a young-a SlKkling-pig has, to my knowledge, never been fully explained. This rite may hint at an earlier form of purification with the blood of one's own child, in which "purification" is combined with punishment61- but this is, at best, a guess. I must content myself with pointing out that the we of a suckling pig in purifications presents a problem which I do not feel able to solve at present. Clotted Blood flowing from a freshly inRicted wound is, as Ailschylos the soldier could not bUI know, an impossibility.62 Why then did Aischylos specify clo/led blood? Two related clues readily come to mind : (.) The treacherous murderer !pits out hu viclim'. c lotted blood (A . ft· 354; cpo EM, p. 118.31 ). (2) The Erinyes, whose saliva is venomous CA. Eum. 736, BoI), or whose heart (bllastr) secretes venom (813), can be forced to spit out the"":'" by //wI. clolled- blood which they have sucked from their victims' mutilated .. An analysand reported having Ittn the bathlub full of waler ilIId blood when his ,isler was born. He was !Old thai the stork Iha. had broughl Ihe baby had severely bitten the finger of the mother or the midwife ... he could not recall which (chap. 9) . • ' Cpo the feast ofThyest""; abo Harpil8td (Hdt. 1.119) . •• It it one of the body'. horru:ostatic mechanisms (g)-lacking in haemophiliaa-thal, as blood continues to flow, ita clotting capacity increases. This permits the sealing-off of
the wound by a blood-clot.
,gS
Klylaime.slra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi
limbs CA. CIi«. 183). Perhaps Aischyl03 thought that venomous saliva or snake venom was a coagulant.6J But even these suggestive clues do not fully explain why, in the dream, blood clots at onu, and neither does the reference by the libation-bearers
(who bring a bloodless sacrifice) to Agamemnon's permanently clotted blood. in which the ground is steeped. The most plausible source of this paradoxical dotting of blood may ~ the fact that "Tpt~ ( = to nurse) means basically : to congeal, to solidify. In Hes. Th. 182, it is even applied to the "congealing" (genesis) of
Aphroditc.6o! Aischylos' repeated references to the eating of dotted blood leave liule doubt that this practice both horrified and fascinated him.65 Stimulated perhaps by the meaning: Tphpw _ congeal, solidify, he caused the weird dream-baby to drink milk (w hich will "solidify" him) and to suck dotted blood, as do the equally serpentine Erinyes. In short, the poet disregarded here what the battle-hardened soldier knew; contrary to daily experience, he made dolled blood flow from a fresh wound-perhap~ so as to underscore the snake-ba by's affinities with the serpentine Erinyes (chap. 4). This objectively absurd, but symbolically logical, detail therefore increases the authentically oniric character of the dream. I even venture to suggest that this mention of dotted blood may have been inspired by a paediatric fact, so visible that even primitives like the Navaho Indians have o bser ved it: the neonate sometimes regurgitates (clotted) blood, which he swallowed during birth (2, p. 61 ). The Mixture of milk and clolld blood h01.'l an ethnological parallel. The standard food of the warlike Nih· Hamitic Masai, who originally came from the North, consis.ts of a mixture of milk and blood drawn from the cattle's jugular (= throat!).66 This mixture is then dotted or curdled by adding to it cow-urine and ashcs.67 1 note that this food contains the three principal fluids that a cow can provide: blood, milk and urine. The similarity between the mixture which Orestes draws from the breast and the libation offered to Agamemnon has already been discussed. Orestes' Venom is not explicitly menlioned (but then, neither is the poisonoU!lness of Klytaimestra's milk, infra). Still, vv. 530, 532 do not let us forget that the nursing infant is a snake : the awareness that even a feeble baby-snake's bite is venomous suffuses the entire dream·scene. Orestes is, moreover, called a serpent also outside the dream narrative and is manifestly a human equivalent of his father's serpentine and venomous Ennyes. The avenger oftheweak68 - because dead-Agamemnon, Orestes, ., Actually, mOlt Inake venOms are not coagulants but anti·coagulants . .. For a docU$lion of that pa$SIlgc, cpo 40 • • , As it made anxious an anthropologist ob!.c:rving the eating of dOlled blood in East Africa (3~, p. 48) • .. The Sleppe cavalry nomad, who rum .thort offood or water, also draw, blood from his mount'. jugular • • ' Cpo Merker (79), or any .tandard ethnography of the Masai. The A. CIr«.-Muai parallelism neatly iU .... tratel R 6heim'. view (9 ' ) that customs ar<: .imply transpositions, to the cuhurallevd, of infantile impuloes, fanuuies and activities . .. Despite A. CfIIN. 3~3, I t.a.ke d:~
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Kvunmestra'J Dream in Aischyllll' Choephoroi is himsdfweak in dream- a hdplQli lJalJy-snakc-lJut hi:; bite i~ nou etheless fatal. At the same time, since Orestes is sent by Apollon to avenge Agamemnon, the baby-snake can be appropriately compared to one of Apollon's poisonous "flying serpents" (arrows; A. Eum. 181 ), wherewith he threatens Klytaimestra's Erinyes, who seek to avenge the slain mother. In short, the poisonousness of the baby-snake's bite is self-evident . If I say even this much about the matter, it is not because I wish to labour the obvious. I only seek to highlight once again the dazzlingly complex and yet superbly spare texture of each of Aischylos' lines. The moribund Aristophanic myth of hollow Aischylean grandiloquence (Ar. Ran. 836 ff. ) deserves to be laid to rest at last. Rare are the poets who say half as much a.!I Aischylos, in twice as many words- at least to those willing to listen, willing to let the dramatist's words reverberate in the deeper layers of the hidden mind (32, chap. 23). For one must meet the poet's demand for attention not only with the conscious mind, but also with one's unconscious, which mystics call: the Soul. One must give him the rarest of attentions-that which discerns the ohvious. Kvtaimestra's Venom = Poisonous Milk. In A. Ag. 1260, Kassandra compares K lytaimestra to a "poisoner". I n terms of her actual deeds this accusation is undeserved. But if one looks deeper into the matter, the charge may be more than a gratuitous accusation or-as in the Southern United States-a figurative characterization ("she is poison"). As already noted, Klytaimestra is repeatedly compared to various serpents (supra). The Erinyes which she--or her murder-produces are abo venOlIlow,69 and in one inlltam.:e they are said to produce venom from their "hearts". For the moment I recall only that, even though the real Klytaimestra had her throat cut, the ghostly K1ytaimestra displays a brt4J"t-wound (A. Eum. 103, Hermann). This recalls the dream far more than the details of her actual slaying. The notion that Klyta imestra's milk might have been thought poisonous therefore deserves close scrutiny. &fore I so much as mention regularly observed clinical facts, I note that- be it intentionally or not- Aischylos himself specifically speaks of the metamorphosis of something "good" into something "revolting". A funeral libation- which contains milk- is normally given lovingly and is therefore "good"; it also earns the giver the gratitude and good will of tilt: dC(;ca.:;cd. But in A. Clwe. the libation is givell Hot from love uut frOHI fear and guilt. Elektra, quite as much as the Choms, discusses at length the cynical and absurd aspects of this "gift". In vv. 97 ff. cspecially, thc libation is called-and treated as-"off-scourings": as the morally and physically contaminated remnants of ritually washed-off soilure (11Iacl1a). The libation (xorj) becomes (because of the spirit in which it is sent- not even given70) id entical with K<X66:PllaTa (= defilements) left over after a ritual cleansing. It earns the sender not gratitude but hatred. No child analyst could state more clearly the essence of my argument regards the friendly OhorOl). T he equation : child ... old .. feebl e is a conunonplace in Greek tragedy--u is tbe fcebleno::Q of dream personages (33) . .. A. E"m. 78~, 801, 813, cpo chap. 4. ,. A:i Orates ....... only vicariOUJly blcut·fcd, by tbe NUIK, not by his motbcc (Iupra).
KrytaimlStra's Dream in Aischyios' Choephoroi than does Aischylos; milk given vicariously and/or without Wl)t is totally evil; it carries contamination, as do the off-scourings of ritual cleansing. In a word, milk so given is "poison ". even where the hiring of wet nurses is routine, if this causes the mother to lose interest in her baby. This being said, I now tum to a scrutiny of Klytaimestra's performance --or non-performance-as a mother and, in so doing, will cite clinical findings showing that such a mother feeds her infant "poisonous" milk. Klytaimestra was called a "raging, infernal mother" (A. Ag. 1235) long bifort she turned against Agamemnon's children, and A. CIwe. 749 If. proves that she did not even nune Orestes. Yet, for the infant, the giving of the breast represents a gift of love; milk = love. Refused, or reluctantly given, milk is "hate". Hence, one may well ask whether Kl ytaimestra was ever maternal---even before the sacrificing of Iphigeneia turned her into a wild beast- particularly since, in pre-Euripidean texts, one cannot but feel that that sacrifice is a convenient alibi, rather than the real cause of K lytaimestra's savagery. Nor can one forget that, in Euripides' Ttltphos, sM advised the maimed hero to threaten to kill the infant Orestes, so as to force Achillcus to heal his wound. 71 This is not the behaviour of a good mother, though Euripides was almost the only poet who could---even in his Eiek/Ta- persuasively attribute ordinary human traits to this she-monster. In short, it is inconceivable to view Aischylos' Klytaimestra simply as a bad mother j in the Om/tia she is all bad. Now, from the infant's point of view, the bad mother par t:>:ctlltfICt is one who does not give milk (= love)--or at least does not give it lovingly. This is a commonplace in child psycho-analysis. But, in certain instances, such bad mothering elicits in the neglected child the fantasy of "poisoned milk". The belief of having been fed poisoned milk in infancy is commonly expressed by schizophrenics and also by borderline patients, who had very bad mother'll,?l or whose mother'll were unable or unwilling to nurse them, or who were handed over to a wet-nurse (749 ff.), or with whom the mo ther's milk disagreed,n or who were botde-fed, or were fed mush rather than milk.7. Of course, the only intermittently insane Orestes is, especially in Aischylos, not a true schizophrenic. He simply has bouifin dilirantts-a psychiatric disorder common amongst primitive and archaic peoples.7 5 He ;., a "borderline" case. We can even explain why the son of the unloving, non-nursing, hostile Klytaimestra became not a chronic schizophrenic, but only an intermittent psychotic, who finally " recover'll" permanently. In view ofa case I myself analysed (28,30), and of certain other clinical data, I venture to " T his radically diff~n from th., advice Ihe Q... een of Epc:irOll gave to T hemistoklCll (Thu. 1.136; Plu. V. TMm. 24.2). Th~ Td~phos myth d~arly impliCll a oonditionaJlhrcal \Q Ih~ baby; the Themistokla story refen only to a Molossian supplication rite. T> At did On~ of my patienu, who had this milk "" poison fanlasy (28, 30). " I wnfidenLly expect a ps~hialric study of ....ch mothen 10 r~veal an unconscious hostility 10 the child. 70 Th~ mush.feeding ofMarq ... csao babia is r<::Accled in many myths of man-destroying female daemon. (71, pp. 204, 2 14,2211) . 70 On th~ hm;jfk dllimnl. ~ithcr as a hyncrical psychCdis masqu~rading all a schizophr~nia in complex cultura, or as a schizophrenia maaqucrading as a hy>tcricai psychoW in archaic or primitive cultur<::S, cpo 41, chaps. 9, 10) .
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Kly14inustra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi
'0'
suggest that he was saved from an irreversible, permanent p.osychosis by his Nurse, who had lovingly breast-fed him on demand.76 But this would not prevent Orestes, neglected by his mother, from fantasying that his mother had fed him "poisoned milk", or at least that she "would" have fed him poisoned milk had she nursed hi m at all. That K lytaimestra herself dreams of being bitten in the breast by her poisonfanged baby would, in the case of a real patient, mean that the dreaming mother herself views her own milk as (symbolically) poisonous. Thus, the infant's venom simply repays the bad mother for the veno mous milk she " fed " him-by not nursi ng him at all. I concede, of course, that the poisonousness of Kl ytaimestra's m ilk is not explicitly mentioned, but recall that neither is the snake-baby's ve nom. I feel that the commentators, quite as much as the scholiast (s), make too little of the fact that O restes draws milk a nd dalled blood from the nipple. I have already discussed the biochemically impossible dolling of freshly drawn blood. Here, I simply note that this one verse (533) suffices to suggest that it was a loatMonu mixture ( = poison) O restes had sucked from the breas t, and that Aischylos' compliance with the rule of the verse-forverse stichomythia enabled him 10 say just enough, wi thout becoming obvious and revolting.77 The hypo thesis that this mixture is poisonous is indirectly confirmed by A. Eum. 184, where the Erinyes regurgitau "cloued" blood (sucked from bleeding limbs), mixed with their lIenomous saliva. In A. Clwe. 533, milk uplates the venom of A. Eum. 184. The fantasy of poisonous milk has, moreover, a biochemical model, and th is quite apart frum lIn: wdl-kllUWII fau lhal the milk uf sollie ("bad "?) mothers ac tually disagrttll with their babies. Lac tose, a major source of calories in m ilk, can be digested by nearly all babies, for the immature organism easily sC{;r~tes the lactase necessary to digest il. But there appear to be genetic (" racial") d ifferences in the capacity of adult organisms to secrete t1lough lactase to digest lactose (75). The Greek "race" may have been unable to do so, for adult ancient Greeks consumed milk mainly in the fonn of cheese, in which lactose is already transformed into a substance mo re digestible for adults. In fact, in Hom. Od. 9.297, Polyphemos' drinking of unmixed milk is ostentatiously the climax of his ,euolting (cannibalistic) repast. 78 Somewhat oversimplifying matters: for races whose adult members do not secrete much lactase, milk (containing lactose) is a kind of poison- as is sonu mothers' milk for their babies. The folklore equivalent of Ihe mothcr who yiclds "poisonous" milk appears to be the sexual "poison damsel",79 whose close connection with '.!M:>"", poychologically uninformed paediatri$lS, a".io .... to plea.«: rducta"t mother.!, uill advocate a (poy.;hologicaUy harmful) nursing "on schedu le". M OIit primitive have betteTilense in Ih is repect, and the Nursc""p«<:h is an import4Ilt document for the "udent ofGrcek child_rearing practices and, therefore, of Greek penonality (3 1) . "The pace ofa stichomythia (1111 be slowed iflhe poet desires it; cpo E. BII. tWg-70 and Dodds ad loe. AI pOinted oUi d...,where (..-6), rule which .hackle the poetastC1' !end wingo to the true poet'. illlpiration. ,. I note Aischylos' harping upOn the facl that the Erinyes repeatedly drink uIlmiuJ blood (A. 0 -. 577 f.. ctc.) . ,. Folklore Motif F~~j cpo some "A1~ndu legeru.ill".
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
'0'
Klytaimtstra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi
serpents is traditional. The poisonous mother's malt equivalent is Minos, whose ejaculate is venomous. SO Cpo also Nessos. Underlying all this is the near-universal conception that all bodily secretions have marked (healing or poisonous) magical properties. Milk is no exception to this rule. Though a bad mother 's milk is "poison", human milk was also used as a healing medicine in ancient Greece,S! Tht Breast VI. Serpent }.i/otif must be analysed in terms of the ract that both Klytaimestra and Orestes are cal!ed serpents-and that Orestes' poisonous bite repays the giving of "poisonous" milk- or the lion-giving of mother's milk. A crucial consideration is that a masculine woman like Kl ytaimestra (A. Ag. II ) tends to view the breast as a kind of phallos and its milk as semen (supra). The phallic breast is, in a sense, pitted against the phallic snake-baby. The dream therefo re reflects a kind of duel of phalloi ... an idea documentable for ancient Greece. 81 Of course, like all symbolic dream activities, this, too, is ambiguous. A masculine woman pitted her breasts against the phallos, boasting that she could squirt her milk further than a penis could squirt semen (6). But other virile women view the breast as obnoxiously hyper-feminine: the Amazons allegedly amputated both their breasts, in order to diminish their femininity.S} In other traditions the Amazon amputated only her right breast, so that it would not be in the way of the released bow-string. I propose these interpretations with considerable misgivings: they are possibilities, but.no more than that. I mention them mainly to show that I have not overlooked the possibk "duel of phalloi" clement, but refuse to assert that something of the rort was present in Aischylos' mind, be it but in the form of an unconscious fantasy. Tiu Swaddling Bands are interesting, precisely because their mention seems dramatically so gratuitous.i.4 The best guess is that, since son = father," the swadd ling bands symbolize the often-mentioned net which immobilized the doomed Agamemnon. But this is, at best, a plausible guess, which sheds less light on the dream itself that upon what caused Aischylos to mention this detail. 86 10 Apollod. 3.15.1 r., Ant. Lib. M t l. 41.4 f. Semen = milk is a common ~mbolic equa· tion. BU! I note a curious contrast: exposed to air, milk (and blood) ."""Ilia/t, while semen fiqutMS.
"Nie. AUX. 356, cpo Aris!. ap. Plin. HN~8.74; also Diose ~.70.6; Gal. 6.775, t~.~65; PHn. NH 28.72. "Cp. the opposing phalloi on a b,as_rdicffrom D.::los (76, p. 55 ). The a"owed purpose of this tablet;' to remind one ofbomoerotic "Iovc·'. But the (unconscious) aggressive element in homosexuality ( /5. 3/) ;. rcvealo:d by the faclthat these phalloi face each other in the manner of .word. or spear!. In Mohave Indian belief, an ithyphallic giant guards the narrow bridge which the souls of thc deceased mu.t emu and .trikes at them with hi. phalloo. Som<: phalloo_proud young },-johave men boast, however, that they would strike back at him with their own (38, p. ~~9) . I) As, until """"ntly, the Sltopzi al .... did (87) . .. It ;. interesting only as information aoout neonate nursing, followo:d by .waddling and . leep. But Aischylos hardly in.erted thil detail for the benefit of latter-day ethnographers. II &e chap. 5, o pecially the comments on the Pleinhenid king . •• In addition to countleM referc:nco in A. Ag. to the netting of A3amemnon, I cite, almost at random: A. CIr«. 4~, :.06, 529, 557, ~~, 99fj, ,0,0 fI'.; A. E"",. 459 fI'., 63~ •
• atenal
~
echos de al.llor
Klytaimes'ra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi But it deserves mention that swaddling also occurs in a Mesopotamian dream in which Isillar wraps the king into a baby sling (85. p. 207a). Orestes' lntnpretalion of 1M Dream (540 fr.) seems, from the literary point of view, heavy-handed and unnecessary: Athenian audiences were not slow-witted. And, as noted repeatedly, I deny that Aischylos' torrential eloquence was ever over-abundant. \Vhat stems redundant to the literary critic may contain what, for the psycho-analyst, is an essential datum. I submit that the dream-interpretation passage has a purpose: oracles, as Fenichel (50) has shown, are inJrnently ambiguous. I, for my part, hold (3j) that their ambiguity is a conditio sine qua non of their bang oracles. Hence, they come "true" only after being interprtltd in a particular manner, which rruzkes them come true. This also applies when the interpretation turns out to be "objectively" correct-as when Themislokles mtuk the victory at Salamis possible by clutching at the one encouraging oracular word: " holy" Salamis (Hdt. 7.143). But it holds true also when the oracle is "misinterpreted". Not the Delphic oracle's utterance, but its " misundmtanding" by Oidipous (or by Kroisos), caustd the predicted misfortune. It is because he seeks to avoid killing his foster-father Polybos and marrying his foster-mother Merope, that Oidipous is led to kill Laios and marry Iokaste. By thinking that the great empire which a battle with Kyros will destroy is Persia, Kroisos destroys his own country (Hdt. 1.53 fr., I.go). (Cp. chap. 2, note 106; chap. 8, note 146.) Not the prophecy (or dream) but its interpretation makes it "selffulfilling". In ancient Greece, an uninterprtltd dream apparently had no consequences. In short, I hold that Orestes interprets the dream, out loud, in a particular way, so as to make it come true in that particular way. Differently interpreted, the dream's outcome would have been different. Left uninterpreted, it may have had no "consequences" at all. This makes the dream-interpretation passage dramatically indispensable. I deal here only with thefunction of Orestes' interpreta tion of the dream. The actual interpretation of the dream must be postponed until vv. 986 ff. are also examined detail by detail.
THE BREAST-BARING SCENE
A careful scrutiny of vv. B96-8g8 is long overdue, even though the s tandard text is sound, its meaning clear and the sc h o li on a liule less
fatuous than usual. What makes this passage interesting is that it contains one brazen lie, one hydrodynamic absurdity and an all but impossible synchronicity of cause and effect. I hope to show that each of these poetic "erron" brilliantly highlights psychological truths. I begin with a general remark. Literary critics (95) have noticed that Klytaimestra's claim is contradicted by the Nurse's credible affirmation that she alone had nursed Orestes-but have not come to grips with the problem. Yet, as already noted, the fact that Kl ytaimestra had not nuned Orestes appean to be traditional, for in S. El. 1143 ff. the virgin Elektra
clairru to have been the only one to "nurture" him (chap. 7).
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Klytaimutra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi Most critics do not discuss t his contradiction. They feel, perhaps, that Klytaimestra is just grasping at cultural straws---or they let it go as an Aischylean lapsus. Now, as a general principle, when so great a poet su ms careless, one should enquire whether his "lapsus" has a poetic purpose : whether it is a means of highlighting an other.yise elusive and yet important psychological truth." It is especially appropriate to envisage this possibility in a drama which contains also ano ther "lie", whose purpose, tOO, is to highlight an unspoke n deeper truth (supra) . The position taken- and justified- here is t hat the lies and absurdities contained in these three verses shed a great deal of light upon the personality of the Aischylean K lytaimestra and are indispensable for a complete understanding of her dream. I begin by discussing the concrete de tails of th is passage. The breast-baring sune replicates in a waking state the baring of the nursing br(ast in the d ream. This is cred ible behaviour after a dream,18 and echoes the breast-baring of the libation-bearers (vv. 27 fT. ). T he fie- though it cynically and deceitfully cla ims a right to the respect a c hild owes the breast that nourished him (H om. If. 20.80 ff.)-is inspired also by the dreanl (v. 928). Since she had nursed the snake-baby in dream. Klytaimestra ma y have felt that her claim 10 have nursed Orestes was valid . The unconscious mind, quite as much as certain primilive and archaic peoples, feels that a dream-performa nce is real, and that a " right" acquired in dream gives rise to a valid claim in waking life.89 But one can also envisage a "legal fiction"l00 which reinforces the previous o nes. If, as is likely, the Nurse was Klytaimestra's own slave, Klytaimestra could probably have claimed "credit" for the n ursing of Orestes. This fantasy of "vicarious physiological fun ctioning" is as striking as it is easy to document, since it is often implemented by actual cultural practices. 91 Bul even if Kl Ylaimestra consciously felt thai the nursing of Orestes by " 1 have urged elsewhere that the objec tively unbdie"abJe gossip that Sappho had been a prostitut e and had committed . uicid~ for th e 10"e of Phaon indirectly confirms the credibk tradition that she was a genuine lesbian (39) • .. Arist. de dw. s01IIn. 463a~:.If. A man drt4mtd that he broke his leg. The next morning, carel=ly descending hi. home', perfec tly safe front .t~ps , he "accidentally on purpose" broke hi. leg. (Informant: a colleague, cpo 78. ) .. f\ l..cngua Indian dreamed that Grubb had stolen hi. pumpkin and asked for com~s.ation. though he admitted that Grubb ~ou1d nOt have otolen it, ha ving been away at that time (57, pp. 1 ~!r13Q) . An Iroquois can claim on awakni ng the object or favour he had obtained in dream t¢ J. Even a modem man may demand that his repeated (bu t unktfJl ) prom~ be accepted in lieu ori ts fulfillment (chap. 4, note 6t ) . •• Legal fictions are COmmOn even in primitive law (14). " Cp. the rule evaded by Ona" (Gm. 36.9). The barren R achel caused her hand_ maid en Bilhah to conceive and to bear "her" children (Gm . 30). Pliniu. (HJ( ~9. t. t9) wrote that . Iave ownen ..... alk ..... ith the fttt of t heir (litter-bearing) sJa,·cs, etc. A patient, deliriom ..... ith fever, fantalia! that one ofhis subordinatot should and rould ddaecate in hi. stead. Ilrigadier M. R. R oberts pointa! out to hi. over-eager brigade major, J ohn !'.hslcn- who came running ..... henever the brigadier left his tent- that even brigadiers had to do their o..... n defaecatin g (77. chap. 'I ) . A . yatematic exploration offantasies (and legal fictions) ofvicariow phyaiolOSi cal functioning- ..... hich are patterned upon the r~\aJ state-is long o,·erdue.
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Kryt4imestra's Drtam in Aischylos' Choephoroi her slave was vicarious nursing, for which SM could claim "cullural credit" ,92 this did not abolish her subje{;tive guilt feelings. In dream, she herself wittingly puts the snake-baby to her breast, exposing herself to a fatal bite. This being said, I now pas.! to the dhcWolloion of the actual lie and of the cultural practice which it seeks to exploit. The TyrDnny oj the Breast is described in vv. Sg6 If.: Klytaimestra bares her bosom to Omtes, half commanding him to stop (rnlcx~c) and half demanding shame-respect (af6£cm)9l- a ll on the basis of a lie, or at least of a fiction. The gesture itself is traditional,94 but by no means specifically Greek.9~ It exploits the very widespread belief that, by being nursed, the child contracts a lifelong debt. This has a direct bearing on the meaning of this display. The view that it simply represents supplication disregards the element of cr;mmtmd-Qr at least of irresiollible persuasion- which is involved in this " dunning" for a lifelong "debt" to the maternal breast. Crucial gestural differenOO'l are also disregarded. ( I) The suppliant takes hold of his proleclr;r's chin and knees and beseeches him by these parts of his body. He may-ritually orthreateningly-also hold his chosen prote{;tor's child as a hostage or th reaten to defile his ahars. 96 (2) The dunning mother displays and lifts up her r;wn breast and appeals to it-to a part of her r;wn body. Now, there is ample evidence that the holding or displaying of various parts of OIU'S own bt1dy is not so much a supplicating as an aggressive, commanding-QI' even defiant and offensive ----gesture.lI1 In short: ( I ) The breast-display is maternal role-playing : a commanding self-manipulation, representing a dunning for an old debt. (2 ) Supplication is infantile role-playing: it involves the manipulation of the prottcUJr's body; holding on to it creDtts, so 10 speak, a " debt" of the kind a parent owes to the child. Ev~John Locl<~ equated his SCfVan t's work with his own (K.J.D.). On this word and its ~rotic nuances, cpo infra . .. Hom. Il. ~~.79 f.; E. D. 1~06 r., Or. 5~7, I4t, PlIoi•. 1568 f.; AP 9.t~6. Professor Do"er attracled my allention 10 a vase (Cd . 500 ... c.) (n, pI. 50): a mod,er (or sister) IOcing her I0Il (or brother) off to war, imitates H~kabe rather ineffectively, for me is wearing a vest under her oul~r garment . .. Cpo the Hodun story (note 55). I nOI~ in powing that, like Klytaimestra and l okasle (E. PM;".), . he whom Orient&! hilltQrian. call "Mother Ho:iun" Wal a "lIrong", widowed mother, who is rn~ntioncd mostly after the prnnatun. death of her hlUoond Yesubi. Like "Madame M~" (Laetizia Huonap.arl c), .h~ is much more the .trang mOlher Ihan the pliant wife. This famity constellation ;s Ihat of many conqucron (27). M TelejIMs "",},: sch. AI. Ach. 332; Hyg. fdh . 101. T/umirlrJ:;ks: Tltu. 1.136: Plu. V. Thtrn. "4. Cuicatured in AT. Ae},. 3a6 ff., ntsm. 68g ff. In Gen. 3a.~6, Jacob hold, the angel untH he obtains the bleaing he craves. In A. Suppl. (787 fr. ), the luppliQtion is reinfon:ed by th" .h...... of .. temple-defiling suicide; cp. Hd,. 7,'4', " Pnlir: Ancienl Egypt (D.S. 1.67.6); modern Egypt (K.J.D.): Vietnam (penonal observation); Sedang (ditto). V~IIId: Sparta (Plu. LacIJ#l. Ap. 3, p. ~4t B) ; Peman Empire (Plu. mcd. (·i,l. 6, p. 246 A. elc.). Cpo AItemid. 4.~3. Anw-: Mohav~ (, 8). Bre/UI: Mohave (s6). 17tumb ("fig"): Mediterranean area. Two sfrreo.'fintm ("horns") : Mediterranean area, etc.
u
OJ
","'"
,06
Klytaimeslra's DTeam in Auehylos' Choephoroi
This mt:aru that Klytaimestra issues a command and duns for a debt, in the guise of a supplication . The details of how Greek mothers bared their breasts arc discussed by Lear,n but the gesture itself, in A. Choe., deserves further comment. In Hom. ll. 2:qg tf., Heka be's geslUre is described: she lift.s her aged (and flaccid ) breasts with her hands ... as does many a nursing woman whose breasts are heavy with milk. Quite apart from the fact thai. since Klytaimestra must still be imagined as sexually attractive and therefore firm-breasted (infra)-so that she need not "lift" her breasts-the lext gives no de tails and stage directions have not come down to us. We can be sure only that, since Klytaimestra was played by a male actor, the displaying of the breasts was reduced to a
sketchy approximation of the Homeric Hekabe's geslure.99 Far more important than the a ctor's actual performance on-stage is the nexus between the dream and the murder scene. In dream Klytaimestra actuallyoffm her breast to the serpent-baby (531 ). The dream gesture and the stage gesture represent a kind of motif-splitting: the H omeric breastlifting is inverted in dream j the baby is lifted to the breast. The breastdisplay is emphasized only in the murder scene. But thi~ is at best a minor point, requiring no elaborate analysis. I note in conclusion again, that I know of no example of a maternal command given to a disobedient daughter which is reinforced by the display of the breasts that nursed her. Professor Dover plausibly suggests to me that, since daughters are not fighters, occasions for adjuring them strongly were different and fewer. I accept this ru; a valid explanation based on reality- but feel I should add a second , more "psychologi cal", explanation: I know of no Greek mention of baby girls who nursed violently and painfully- but admit that girl babies are seldom mentioned. This may perhaps mean that girls owe a lesser debt than boys to their mothers. tOO But there is present here also a deeper and more oedipal element, which deserves to be cons.idered as carefully as the "oral debt" theme. Sexual components: at5ec(u "" show shame-reverence. 'AI5Wc--etymologically connected with o:l50To: = genitals-has many shadings: shame, reverence, modesty, bashfulness. Now, in most languages. words denoting affects have many nuances which do not fully overlap with tho~ of their supposed equivalents in olhn languages. The word ol5Wc assuredly has no real equivalent in English. IOt ., In hi! edition of th~ lIi4d~, p. 5¢, App. G-!) f. "Had the aetordilplayed arlificial. flaccid breasll, thcromie poets would probably ha,·e had a fidd day with ;t--c:ith.". "·h",, th~ play was fint producnl , Or when it was r"v;ved~ mocking the 5Cen~ as they mocked th" Euripidean Td~phoo' ...,al"tie rags, which wer" the finl ofa ",ries (Ar. A'h. 4'4- 431 ). '" Both Ih" Nurse and Pho;nix complain aboul th" trouble of ra;..;"g boys (H om. ll. 9.49~ If. ep. E. Plwi~. '-433), (I recall thatth~ mortality ofboy babies is high~r than that of baby girls. ) ,., T o mak" mallen wone, languag" A may routinely associate c.".tain alfecll wilh certain reaction' in 3 mann.". which "'!eml wholly inappropriate to p"nons 'p"alting a diff~r~nl tongue. Thul, I Wa5 star tled by the information that Ihe (aggressive) Sedang call
'alenal
~
:lerechos de al.llor
Krytaimestra's D1lam in Aischylos' Choephoroi I confidently state that ol6Wc always hall a Iluam:t: of St:xualityY12 The point of the display of the breast is that the adult son is shown that which he !hould cease 10 see all soon as female breasl'l begin to arouse him sexually. This is why this geslUre elicits a sexually ti nged shame. to) The second meaning of al5Wc (reverence) has a somewhat different source. The display of the materna! breast is a lso expected to elicit a p.sycho-stxual rtgressionl()ol to the outlook of infancy-to the time when the maternal breast represented nourishing love: the summum bonum which elicits reverent awe. Reaction 10 the Display: Though his duty aJ champion of the Trojans preven ts H ektor from obeying Hekabe's tender but commanding gesture (Hom . II. 22.80 f. ), he is obviously moved by it. H e would, one feels, have complied, had it been possible for hi m 10 do S0, for Hekabe is consistently described as a good mother. 'We cannol but believe her claim Ihat she had lovingly nursed the infant H ektor, stilling his hunger (= grief),IO:l Of course, Hektor displays reve rence, and even awe, far more than sexual shame. But e\'en a reac tion of awe does not automaticalry exclude a partly sexual reaction.106 Before I contrast H ektor's reaction with that of Orestes, I nole that the Greek poets also mention the non-maternal, "otic display of the fema le breast as a means of seductive supplication: Whe n the recaptured Helenc bared her breast to the ' wrathful Menelaus, the sword fell from his hand and he kissed his irresistible wife. 107 Disregarding the sexual element, the baring of the maternal breasl represents, as was shown, a " dunning" recall of an old dt:bt. III fac t, tbt: display reproduces the opening phase of actual nursing, in the hope of mobilizing memory traces of oral gratification and dependence onry. Because old Hekabe's breasts are too flaccid to arouse erotic responses, the erect penis an "angry" penis (suggesting the occummce ofanger-erections) and Ihat a nude Sedang man feehl "shame" (lim) when s.een by another man, but "anger" (116) when s.een by a woman. The (drunken) H ungarian'. tendency to "rejoice with tean" is a proudly lIc:lf-ucribed ethnic U"ait for H ungarians, though it mWII SttIl1 r.illy or degrading to non_Hungarians CU', chap. 6). '11 E"en the Homeric "aIS':', 'A~yolo," (H om. II. ~.787, 8.11118) has a sexual nuance. The Argives are to be shamed into displaying their manhood- wh ich, in Greek thought, includes that viril41 which the dfuninate and cowardly Dionysos iIO con.picuoudy lacks (45)·
I.' OidipoWi
j uotified his self-blinding by ,-uaUing that he .,,'" what he should ""
or '117' If.). M oha"e woman may insultingly display her breast to a man, and even offer 10 nurse him; th;. impli.,. tha. she regards him as an impolCnt boy c h ild ( ,6). She i"'pules 10 him a regression from manhood to infancy . .., The Greek expr.,..ion is hard to trandale exactly: " forget worri",," (Mazon), " lull pains" (A. T . Murray), "comolation" (Lang, Leaf, Myers). AI regards the wording, there is mention of the ~6~,,0, of Hekabe', robe. Thi. word can denote "hollows" in general-including even Ihe vagina and the womb. Tbat sense is a ttested already in E. Hel, "4.5 (lyrical puaage) and (for a linUS of the womb) in Hp. Nal. Pun. 3' . ,.. Cpo the worship of the)'Olli in India. On the "phallOl-awe" of certain women, cpo 55; on its presence in Sapph.jr. 3 ' LP, cpo 39. A grotrsque mistalr.e can sometimes high_ light an important p'ychological connection. One of Professor [)o\·e.', leu able lI udenls translated H elene', reverent words to PTiamOl: "a!6doc TO 1'01 Icc," (H om. /1. 3. (711 ) as: "You are a fool ish man"_ influenced by the Engli.h idiom: "You're a prick!" ..' N. LJJ. 1.5) ft; E. Atub. GIIO, etc. km,er ha~'e seen (S. , .. A
,08
Klylaimu tra's Dream in Aisclrylos' Choephoroi
and resemble her milk-heavy breasts of yo re, she is able to mobilize early and gende memory traces in H eklor,lOS who must remind himself of his dutiCli as Ik champion of Troy in order to disobey this tender maternal command. He resists it, but in a reverent and loving spirit: the man triumprus over the child and the son. Being psychologically nonnal, he refuses to " regress". The neurotic Orestes is in a very differen t situation. To begin with, Kl ytaimestra's breasts ma y not be imagined as pendulous, for she had not nursed Orestes-nor, one may suppose, her daughters Elektra and
Iphigcneia. Such a multiparous, but non-nuning, beautiful woman's breasts can he firm a nd attractive even past the age of fifty . This hypothesis is confirmed by at least two references to a still on-goillg sexual relationship between Klytaimestra and Aigisthos.IO!l Orestes therefore sees firm and youthful breasts-not the pendulous breasts of an aged or nursing woman- and such breasts can hardly evoke f01' him tender and pious memo ries of the nu rsing breast--evcn of those of his old Nurse. They appear to remind Orestes chiefly of their capacity to thrill Aigisthos the adulterer - and this angers him (904 ff., 917). K lytaimestra does not improve her chances of survi val by ineptly saying: " I was the om: who nourished you and with you I would grow old" (goB). Her remark only underscores that she is not yet old and unattractive. H ence, Orestes reacts to her wish to live with him with oedipal horror- as if in response to a maternal attempt at "seduction" (919), which it probably is (c p. chap. 2: 10 and Inachos). Last, but no t least, one must recall that, since Klytaimestra's tale of nursing Orestes is a lie, Orestes had fUl11n' before had a glimpse of his mother's breasts. For this reason, too, they cannot evoke memories of comforting milk. If they subjectively affect Orestes at all, they do so only sexually, as the sight of an y pair of firm breasts would affect a young man. What makes him hesitate after the display is not /Jltsonal emotion but a cultural reflex. An anxie ty-arousing sexual reaction on the part of Orestes can be inferred also on the basis of other considerations. Having been sent a broad early, Orestes had no time to develop a sense of kinship with Kl ytaimestra. In fa ct, the lack of this sense of kinship between mother and son- which is the legal and psychological theme of A. Eum.- no doubt facilitat ed Orestes' slaying of a woman whom, though she is biologically his mother, he apprehends functionally o nl y as a seductive woman : as his father's sensual, adulterous wife. In this respect the sending abroad of the child Orestes is a psychologically necessary detail of the plo t, for it increases the credibility of the matricide. lO. Thai m~mory IraCes ofth~ nursing breast ar~ p,..,..,nt even in adult hood it proven by "Isak""'er phenomeno"" (s9 ) and by B. D. Lewin't (70) d~mollltration that th~ " dream screen"- the background in fronl of which the dream e\'~n b occu r-is actually (he image of th~ breast, at seen by th~ nurseling. , .. Vv. 904 If., 9'7; bUI vv. ' 32 fT. probably refer 10 Ihe time of El~ktra'. finl youth. Professor Do\"~r ooncun: " I agree t hat we should thin k of Kl ylairnestrll as still having olrong sc,,-apP"a l. The idea Ihal .h ~ and Aigisthoo are JliII allractiv~ to each other is important. " cr. A. A,. ,651" ClwH. $9+, 8g3, 90$, S. EI. $89. th~
'atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Krytaimestra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi
"'9
This selfsame lack of dairy familiarity would also facilita te a non-filial, sexual reaction to Klytaimestra's displayed breasts.l1o I hold, in short, that Orestes reacted to the display of Klytaimes tra's breasts not filially but sexually- which only further exasperated his frustrated oedipal jealousies, thereby facilitating matricide. lll These findings bring one to a conclusion well known to child psychologists: some mo thers- and especially inadequate ones-behave very sed uctively towards their infant sorn. This is confirmed both by clinical data and by primitive and peasant customs.III Now, though maternal seductiveness is a psycho-analytical commonplace, it is always discussed somewhat gingerly, perhaps because, at the beginning of his career, Freud allowed some of his patients to persuade him that they had been physically seduced in childhood. After he realized that these tales simply misrepresented the PV·dwlogica/ seductiveness of parents, he and other psycho-analysts soft-pedalled- though they never denied outright-seductive parental behaviour. Still, so far as J know, I am the only clas.sical Pllycho-analyst (19, 23, 44, chap. 7) to have drawn the inevitable conclusion that the child's Oedipus-complex is trigge red by the pre-existing J ocasta (or Laius) complex of the parenlS, which manifests itself in seductive behaviour, particularly on the part of the mot her who, as modem experimental evidence proves, is genitally aroused by nursing. III II therefore makes good psychological sense tha t, in the most famous of all inces t my ths, Oidipous was exposed at birth-i.e., presumably bifort Iokaste ever nursed him . And, therefore, i t also ma kes excellent psychological sense that, in S. OT (707 ff., g80 ff.), this (bad, non-nursing) mother tenaciously ridicules the dreams and hints concerning incest, which greatly alarm her son-husband. The conclusion is inescapable tha t the possibility that she may have ma rried her son disturbs her not at all"0 Amongsl the Azande, whose kings marry Iheir daughlers, Ihe daughlers are senl away al an early age, $0 thai no "falher-daughler" sentimenll may devdop and OboU"1JCI laler on the coming into being of a sexual rcsponse (48). The following custom, which I qUOle from memory, has $imilar implicatiorn: in a arlain European peasanl !l()Ciely, brolheNisler marriagcs were formerly $Ometimes arranged , $0 as 10 a\·oid Ihe dividing up oflhe family's land. One Oflhe [UIUre spouses was lho:refore nOI raised at home, hut was .enl rar away, 10 as "'" 10 devdop . ibling-fedings lowards hi. (or her) fUlure $poute. On f,uuiliad ly as an oboeade 10 >eX"al aro ..... l, q ... \V",,'oom,a,d,'. >o",~,..h", ""lroorll<: aclS"menu (99, chaps. 14- 15) and Iheir crilique by Loo:b and Toffdmier (73). H' Cp. H amlel" jealousy of his unde'. sexual intimacy with hi. mol her (6, ) . One of my I'I"in. I ndian palient> leli home during hill adolc:sa:nce, " 'hcn he found his widowed molher in bed wilh her lover, for he had unCQnsciowly desired 10 become his falher's oedipalluccc:ssm {37, pp. 290 f. and passim)-a hope commonly observed in falherless boY' and, multll;" muldtufu, abo in mOlherless girls. '" Navaho mOlhers and Hungari an peasant "..,I·nurses soothe aying (boy) babi ... by stroking the;" genilals: sexual slimulalion replace< or reinforces Ihe soolhing and affeclionate giving of the b...,aSl. A baby boy, laken from Ihe breast before his hunger is stilled, promptly hu an (anxiely) ereclion. '" A nursing wOman sometimes iruisu on giving d,C breast 10 her husband or lover. Amongsl the Navaho, if Ihe woman has "100 much" milk, CUSlom demands thai Ihe hUllband draw offtlx: excl'Sl (.II, p. 90) . The SlriCI Mohave taboo On a man's kisoing his (even non_nuning) ,,-ire'. bre:a.11I constilUi(:l a cultural dc:fer.cc again.1 whal appean 10 be a lU"(lng lemptation 10 " imitale" incal by such an aCI (17).
"""
Klytaimestra's Dream in Aisch),los' Choephoroi though it panicks Oidipous. A better way of instancing the J oca5tacomplex would be hard to devise.114 I n short, while the display of the breasts is primarily a dunning, it is secondarily also a counter-oedipally actuated seduction, comparable in pari, to Helene's seductive-supplicating display of her irresistible breasts to the murderously angry Menelaos. One would expe<:t as much from a woman like K lytaimC5tra, who happens to be also H elene's sister. The Gums play no role in suction. The baby's lips enclose the nipple hermetically. T his permits the creation of a vacuum in the oral cavity, which d raws the milk from the breast. It is a matter of hydrodynamics only, discernible by commonsense reflection. T he funct ion of the gums is different. T hey simply clamp the nipple, keeping it in position and preventing its (accidental or voluntary) premature withdrawal. The more elusive, the mo re frustrating the nipple is, the harder the baby's gums-and, later on, t eet h~wi1l clamp it. No ne the less, K lytaimcstra's claim that Orestes nursed with his gums , does have a psychological sense. H ad she nursed OrC5tcs, she would have done so callously (supra). H ence, her infant son would have had to clamp he r nipple very hard, to prevent itspremalure withdrawal. II ' But Kl ytaimestra was an even more frustrating mother: she did not nurse OrC5tcs al all. T his is why her lie ascribes so great a role to Orestes' gums and why, in dream, the snake bites he r nipple. For only frust rated babies "bite" the breast, trying to prevent its escape and-as the adult imagines i t~" punishing" i t for its elusiveness.ll6 K lylaimestra's fit abo ut Ihe gums simply means: " Ilad 1 nursed Orestes, he W()uld haw had 10 clamp down hard on my reluctant nipple". H er dream says: " I deserve being bitten in Ihe breast for not having nursed my son." I n short, both the factual lie and the fanlastic dream reveal an important psychological tru th. Furthermore, there is also---in accordance with the law of ove rdelermination~anOlher nexus between the biting (teet h) of the dream and the sucking gums of the lie: Kl ytaimestra's absurd refere nce to gums seeks to dmy the possibility of a fatal bite conjured up by the d ream. No wo man who had lovingly nursed her baby would have had K lytaimestra's dream~and none would have ascribed an absurd role to the gums during nursing. Above all, no mother who had lovingly nursed her son would have been slain by hi m~probably nOt even if she had suhre"' Fr~l1d'l ofl_...,~atcd r~mark . that his disco"~ri,," were amidpaled by th~ poets, ;. confirmed by th~ faci Iha! a fine novelist, Mary R~naull (89, p. 93 ) highlighted Ihis Sophokl~an trait faT bc:tl~r than c~rtain psycho-analysts, who keep on writing about S. T - bl1l diM.x1 mO!ltly Ih~ nuane,," of ;nauuUllt ' .. rs~ fran
o
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Klytainuslra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi
'"
quentty killed the boy's father. Hence, no matter what tradition and the text insistently harp on, the real (not just: the plausible) cause of Orestes' matricide was Kl ytaimestra's inadequacy as a mother and, serondarily, her "infidelity" to her emotionally immature son, who hated Aigio;thos with an oedipally jealous hatred and felt that his mother had " cuckolded" him quite as much as she had cuckolded his father. I cannot do better than cite v. 917: "Sham~ forbids me that I should mention this infamous salary." The full impact of this verse can be felt only b y those who sense tha t this "sha me" and silence are not inspired simply by cultural regulations but a lso (and perhaps even primarily) by Orestes' need to concealespecially from himself- the oedipal jealousy which motivates so much of his rage.117 Nursing Followed by Sleep is the nonnal sequence. In Hom. Il. 22.79 ff., Hekabe recalls that Hektor nursed, was appeased and then slept. In tire actual dream-se'juence, Orestes is swaddled and "sleeps", after nursing and biting (526 fr. ) . But, as alread y noted, Aischylos mentions rest btjore its cause (nursing), but specifies, of course, that it is the end of the dreamhappening. By contrast, in the lie (8g6 fr. ), the infant is said to nurse while very drowsy-a manifest impossibility, as anyone taking the trouble to watch or to ask a young mother will discover. For it is this lapsus which makes K lytaimestra's lie a psychologically credible self-betrayal-and her need for punishment is pitilessly revealed by her dream. I ndeed, in reallife, so obvious a lllpsus- the affirmation of so manifest an impossibility-in the lIlid~L of a lie on whose credibility one stakes one's life, wo uld reveal that the liar had a compulsion to confess (D.S. 2. 14.4) and a need to be punished (88}-and tha t is easily inferable from Klytaimestra's dream. I also note the word order in the lit: though sleeping and nursi ng are rep resented a s simultaneous, sleeping is again mentiontd first, whereas in the drea m-narratillt the final satiated sleep is simply men tioned btjort its cause (nursing), the sleep being realistically represented as the end of the tale (dream). This striking narrative sequence, like the word order in the lie, may, perhaps, be correlated with two fact s. The Nurse's narrati ve does not mention the satiated baby's slee p, but d oe:s mention that her own sleep was interrupted by the hungry bahy's cries. A s to Kl yLaimestra, 5he huuif is, in fact , asleep wlliu nursing her serpent-baby in dream. In her lie, however, it is the baby (Orestes) who is drowsy whih (allegedly) sueki ng hi. non-sIteJillg mother's nipple. Since a dream-nursing is, objectively, no t real and since very drowsy babies d o not nlil"lSe, the symmetry between the two fictions- the dream and the lie--is manifest also in this respect. Such symmetries and echoes cannot be intentionally contrived even by '" Though ~lalino ...... ki believed he had "proven" the inapplicability of the Oedipus t heory to a matr ilineal society, which allegedly- but only allegedly (9 .. )-denies t he existence of paternity, even children in orphan ages ud adopted children dc,·clop fu ll _ blown Q"dipus complexes in the usual way. Or"'t"" oedipal jea lousy of Aigisthos i. as authentie II' Hamlet'. hatred of his murderous and aclulterous unde (61), who behaved elUlCtlyas Aigislhos had behaved. On Oresta' affinili a ..... ith Hamlct, cpo G. Murray (80, chap. 8).
Krytaimt£tra'.s Drtam in Ai.schylo.s' Choephoroi the most experienced psycho-analyst, but seem to "come naturally" to a great poet. The literary cri tic, quite as much as the psycho-analystplodding along far behind the poet-can at times, with great effort and patience, follow on the ground the shadow of Pegasos flying effortlessly through the airs. These findings have some bearing even on a problem of textual criticism. The order ojword.s in the lie (sleep before nursing) and the interruption of the Nurse's sleep by the hungry baby's cries explain in part why I feel that, in the dream-narrative, vv. 528 f. (mentioning "being put to rest" = to sleep) are in the right place and should not be transposed after vv. 5:29-33, which tell of the nursing which led up to sleep. Though this point has already been made in the General Introduction (and passim ), I wish to stress here once more that, at this juncture, I am not "psycho-analysing" Aischylos. I am simply retracing the relationships between three interrelated passages of his drama and clarifying the nexus between the various images and narrative sequences. It is the manner in which the poet's mind operates that lends to his personages that psychological plausibili ty which this book seeks to highlight: the great dramatist's personages are real enough to be as anal ysable as if they had existence and being. In analysing the shallower and more obviously cont rived personages of a It.s.ser poet, one invariably ends up by analysing the author onry-for he does not create psychologically credible, and therefore analysable, personages.
ltuerpretatiOl1 The Ps)'cho-Anarytica{ interpretation of the dream should, by now, be selfevident: Klytaimestra, harassed by guilt feelings over not having nursed her son and a lso over Agamemnon's mu rder, fuses the two self-reproaches into one, and, in so doi ng, also fuses Agamemnon with his natural avenger, Orestes. This explains why Aischylos turned the Stesichorean snake, representing Agamemnon, into one represen ting Orestes. Before I go further, I must clear up one point of considerable importance:. Though the masculine (A. Ag. II ) Klytaimestra behaves in a highly non-maternal and sadistic way towards Orestes, in dream she is almost masochistically maternal, since, though bitten in the breast, she swaddles Orestes and lets him sleep. This contrasts sharply with H era's throwing away the violently-nursing infant H erakles (supra). T his implies Ihat, in her dream-behaviour- which deviates utterly from her real conduct- Kl ytaimestra does, after all, fulfil her femalem aternal potential for nursing a son at her breast. This discrepancy between her actual and her dream conduct only increases the plausibiliy of her dream, for, especially in the case of masculine, non-maternal women , one often observes behaviour which is a di.sgui.sed manifestation of the need to play the mother. Kl ytaimestra's choice of a weak, effeminate (305) lover, whom she has to protect and who owes everything to her, is typical of certain viragoes, who find an outlet for their inhibited maternal impulses in marrying a weakling. III II. Her calling the deaJ Aigisthos "valian t" (893) Jrul.nifestly negates the real facUl,
• alenal
~
ethos :Ia al.llor
Krytaimestra's Dream in Aischyws' Choephoroi
"3
The inference that Klytaime:nra does in dream what she failed to do in reality is strongly supported by the fact that in A. Chot. she "makes up" in dream for her failure to nurse Orestes, while in her S. El. dream she symbolically remmes her interrupted sexual relations with Agamemnon. These differences are only to be expected, for whereas, in A. CIwl., she ios chiefly a bad mother, in S. El. she is main ly a murderous wife. I n both dreams she "atones" for her sins of omission (and also of commission)- in each case with fatal results. ' One also notes that in A. Chot., though the dream threat emanates from Orestes, K lytaimestra---on awakening--seeks to appease Qnry Agamemnon's shade. This is partly justified, since she no doubt feels that only as long as Agamemnon's wrath lasts would he---or his Erinys-incite Orestes to avenge him. However, despite her dream, she is self~ destructively blind to the fact that Orestes has also strictly personal and realistic grievances against her- his exile and loss of fortune-as well as two infantile grievances: his mother had not nursed him and had also frustrated his oedipal ambitions, by making not him but Aigisthos Agamemnon's successor in her bed. Klytaimestra's oversight of these resent~ ments is typically self-punitive and explains her subsequent tactical errors: the display of her breasts which, never having nursed Orestes, elicit no tender gratitude, and the implicit seductiveness of her wish to spend her- not yet attained---old age at Orestes' side, which only stimulates oedipal anxiety and anger in him. The dream therefore clearly reflects the Super-ego inspired need to confess and to atone, commonly encountered in psychiatric practice (88) and already mentioned in D .S. 2.14.4. It satisfies self-punitive needs: Klytaimestra herself puts the serpent-baby to her breast and exposes herself to his bite. There remains to be discussed a matter connected with a major controversy amongst classical psycho-analysts. Freud's first theory asser!ed that all dreams represent wiosh-fulfillment. \Vhen confronted, during World War I, with repetitive and unpleasant war dreams, in order to preserve his wish-fulfillment theory of dreaming, Freud invented the primary death instinct, which such dreams supposedly gratify (53). Since this "instinct" has no clinical applicability (42, p. 399), and since there is no imaginable way of detennining its existence,1I9 I refuse to view Klytaimestra's dream as gratiiying a (non-existent) prilTUlry death instincl. I hold that her dream contains erotic instinctual gratifications, for--a~ already iloted- nursing involves a sexual arousal. Her "gratification" is, which are constantly ,!r(:ISe<\ in A. Ag. and in A. GMt. This maternal, old~r wife-o.on!ike younger lov~r, pattern is clearly P!"ekIIt in ~arly myths about various mother-godd esses and their juv~nile son_husbands. Though partly ohliterated, traces of the same pattern ar~ discernible also in tl,e relatiol1llhip between Iokaste and Oidipous, especialty in S.
OT. '" Cpo 97, '.vv. Instinct Thwry, o"ath I nstinct, ~tc. Anempa to link tbis " instinct"..,me hav~ don. (f, 111, 611)-with the second law of thermodynamiQ are absurd, for a ')'Item is not proptikd lowar
"4
K{yl4imulra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi
however, tainted by anxi
( t) Arsan, Emmanuelle: L'Anti-Vierge. Paris, 1968. (2) Bailey, F. L .: Some Sex Beliefs and Practices in a Navaho Community, Papers of lhe Peabody Museum of American Arduuology and Ethnology, Harvard UnilJlJ'sity voL 40, no. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1950. (3) Bateson, Gregory and Mead, Margaret: Balinese Clumu;ter (Special Publications of the New York Academy of Sciences vol. 2). New York, 1942. (4) Belmont, Nicole: Us Signes de La Naissance. Paris, 1971. (5) Bernfeld, S. and Feitelberg, S.: The Principle of Entropy and the Death I nstinct, lntenultional Journal ~ Psyclw-Analysis 12:61-81, 1931. (6) Sriehl, Walter and Kulka, E. W.: Lactation in a Virgin, Psyclwanalytic Quarterly 4:484- 512, 1935. (7) Buschan, Georg (ed.): Illustrierte VOlkerkunde 2. Stuttgart, 1923. (8) Cakuleva-Diamantis, Dobrila: Personal Communication. , •• The fint chapters of one ofLaforgue'. boob (65) cite striking examples ofquesu for punishment, disgulsed as unbridled quOIts for sexual pleasure. '" The Sedang hold that a mother Ingitu 10 love her baby only after she starts 10 nurse him (14, ~r/, p. 318). Amongst primitives, infanticide seldom occun afler the onset of nuning; c:JIceptiollll to thi. rule are quite rare (r/r/). '" This double fraud provides the baa;' for the American "alimony racltet".
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Klytaimestro.'s Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi
" 5
(9) Carmon, W. 8.: TJu Wisdllm I>jtlu Blidy. New York, 1939. ( 10) Chombart de Lauwe, M.-J.: Un Mllmi! Autre: l'Enfance. Paris, 197 J. (II ) Clifford, (Sir) Hugh : "At a Malayan Court" (in) ThtFurthtrSide of Silence. New York, 1922. ( 12) Cochrane, A. D .: Elie Metschnikoffand his Theory of an " Insti nct de la Mort", lnternational Joumal of Psycho-Ana£Vris t5=265--270, 1934· ( 13) Deutsch, Helene: TM PS;'cho{og)' of Women 2 vols. New York, 1944- 1 945. (14) Devereux, George: Sedang Fuld Noles (MS.), 1933- 1935 . (15) id . : Institutionalized Homosexuality of the Mohave Indiam, Human Biology 9:4g8--527, 1937. (r6) id.: Mohave Orality: An Analysis of Nursing and Wl':aning Customs, Psychoanalytic Quarterly 16:519-546, 1947. ( I7) id.: H eterosexual Behavior of the Mohave Indians (in) Roheim, Geza (ed.): Ps;·choo.nalysis and tJu SoOal Scientes 2. New York, 1950. (IB) id.: Mohave Indian Verbal and Motor Profanity (in) Roheim, Geza (ed.) : PS;·chotlllalysis alld Iht Social Sciences 3. New York, 1951. ( 19) id.: Why Oedipus Killed Laius: A Note on the Complementary Oedipus Complex, International Joumal of P.I)'cho-Alwlysis 34:13214 1, 1953· (20) id.: Primitive Gellital Mutilations in a Neurotic's Dream, Journal of lhe American Psychoallalytic Association 2 :483- 492, 1954. (21 ) id.: The Denial of the Anus in Neurosis and CuJture, Bulleti'l of 1M Philadelphia Associa/ionjor Psyclwanalyris 4:24- 27. 1954. (22) id.: A Study of Abortion in Primitive SoOeties. New York, 1955,~ 1975. (23) id.: Therapeutic Education. New York, 1956. (24) id.: Penelope's Character, PS;'choQ//alytic Quarterly 26:378--386,1957' (25) id.: The Awarding of a Penis as Compensation for Rape, International Journal of Psycho-AnafF.ris 3B :398--401. 1957· (26) id.: An and Mythology: A General Theory (ill) Kaplan, Ben (ed.) : Studying Persollality Cross-Culturally. Evanston, Illinois, 1961. (27) id.: La Psychanalyse et I'Histoire: Vne Application a I'Histoire de Spane, Annales: Ecollomils, Soci/ lis, Cilli{isaliotlS 20:18- 44, 1965. (28) id.: Loss of Identity, Impairment of Relationships, Reading DisabiliIy, Psychoanalytic Quarterly 35 :1 8--39,1966. (29) id.: The Exploitation of Ambiguity in PindarOs 0.3.27, Rheinisches Muslumflir Philologie 109:2Bg-2g8, 1966. (30) id.: La Renoneiation il. J'ldentite: Defense conlre J'Antantissement, RtVIlI FraTlfaist de Psychanalyst 31 :10 1- 142, 1967. (31 ) id.: Greek Pseudo-Homosexuality, Symbo{tu Oslotnses 42:6g-g2. 19 67. (32) id.: From Anxiety to M tthod in the Behavioral Sciences. Paris and The Hague, 1967. (33) id. : Observation and Belief in Aischylos' Accounts of Dream~, Psyclwlherapy and Psychosomatics 15:114- 134, 1967. (34) id.: L'Image de l'Enfant dans deux Tribus, Mohave et Sedang, et son Importance pour la Psychiatric Infantile, Revue de Neuropsychiatrn injantilt 16:375-390, 1968.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
216
KiylfJimtStra's Dream in Aischylos' Choephoroi
(S5) id.: Considerations Psychanalytiques sur la Divination, Particulierement en Greee (in) Caquol, A. and Lcibovici, M. (cds.) : LtJ Divination. Paris, 1968. (S6) id.: The Realistic Basis of Fantasy, Journal of tlu Hillside Hospital 17: 13--20, 1968. (37) id . : Reality ond Dream: The Psychothn-apy of a Plains Indian. (Second, augmented edition), Ncw York, 1969. (S8) id. : Moha/M Ethnopsychiatry and Suicidl. (Second, augmented cd.), Washington D.C., 1969. (S9) id.: The Nature of Sappho's Seizure in Fr. SI LP, Classical Quarterly 20:17-3 1,197 0 . (40) id.: La Naissance d'Aphrodite (in) Pouillon, J ean and Maranda, Pierre (cds. ) : Echangf$ et Communications (Melanges Lilli.Strauss ), 2. 1::129-1252. Paris and The Hague, 1970. (41 ) id . : The Structure of Tragedy and the Structure of the Psyche in Aristotle's P~tics (in) H anly, Charles and Lazerowitz, Morris (cds.): Psychoanalysis and Philosophy. New York, 1970. (42) id.: PS)'Choanalysis and the Occult (ed. and contrib. ) (Reprint) New York, 1970. (43) id.: Essais d'Ethncpsychiatrie CeniTale. Paris, 1970. (Second edition 1973-) (44) id.: EthnopS)"Chanalyse Complimentariste. Paris, 1972. (45) id.: I.e Fragment 62 Nauck l d'Eschyle. Ce qu'y Signifie XI\OYNH.r, Revue dls Etudls Grecquts 86: 277--284, 1973. (46) Dodds, E. R,; The Greek.s and 1m Irralional. Berkeley, California, 1951. (47) Ellenberger, Henri: Die Putzwul, Der Psychologe 2: I-IS, 1950. (¥I ) Evans-Pritchard, E. E.; H ercdity and Gestation, as the Zande See It, Sociologus 8:400- 413, 19S2. (49) Fenichel, Olto: A Critique of the Death Instinct, The CoUecltd Papers fifO . Feniclull. New York, 1953 . (50) id.: The Misapprehended Oracle (in) The Collected Papers of o. Fenichel2. New York, 1954. (5 1) Ferenczi, Sandor: Guliiver Fantasies (in) Final Contribuliolls to lhe Problems and Methods of Psycho-Analysis. New York, 1955. (52 ) Ford, C. S. and Beach, F. A.: Patterns of Sexual Behavior. New York, 195 1. (53) Freud, Sigmund: Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Standard Edition 18. London, 1957. (54) Gorer, Geoffrey and Rickman, J ohn : Tlu People of Creat Russia. London, 1949. (55) Greenacre, Phyllis: Penis Awe and its Relation to Penis Envy (in) Loewenstein, R .M.: (cd.) Drives, Affects, B eho.vi()f. New York, 1955· (56) Groussct, Rene: L'Empirt des Sltppes, Paris, 1941, (57) Grubb, W. B.: An Unkllown People in an Unknown lAnd. London, 19t I. (58) Hallowell, A. I. : Bear Ceremonialism in the Northem H emisphere, American Anthropologist 28:1 - 175, 1926.
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Klylairruslra's Dream in Aischylo.r' Choephoroi
"7
(59) Isakower, Otto: A Contribution to the Patho-Psychology of Phenomena Associated with Falling Asleep, lntmzational Journal of Psyeho-Analysu ~~:466-477, 1936. (60) James, Henry : Tk Tum of the Screw (many editions). (6 t ) Jones, Ernest: Hamlet and Oedipus. London, 1949. (62) Kapp, R. 0.: Comments on Bernfeid and Feiteiberg's, " The Principle of Entropy and the Death Instinct", InttrnationalJourno.lof Psycho-Analysis 12 :B2--86, 1931. (63) Karsten, R .: The Head-Hunters of Western Amazonas: The Life and Culture of the Jivaro Indians of Eastern Ecuador and Peru, Societas SeUnliarum Froniea.' COmJMTItationu Hurrumarum Litterarum
7 no. I. Helsingfors, 1935. (64) La Barre, Weston: The Ghost Dana. New York, 1970. (65) Laforgue, Rene: Psyehopathologie del'&htc. Paris, 1944. (66) Lennig, Robert: Troum und Sinnestduschung hei Aischylos, Sophokles, Euripides. Berlin, 1969. (67) Uvi-Straus.os, Claude: L'Origine des Manitres de TaMe. Paris, 1968. (68) Levy-Bruhl, Lucien: Les Fonetions Mmtales dans Its Sod/tis lifbitum. Paris, 1910. (69) Lewin, B. D. : The Body as Phallus, PS)'choanalytic Quarterly 2 :24-47, 1933· (70) id.: Sleep, the Mouth and the Dream-Screen, Psychoanalytie Quarterly 15:419- 434, '946. (71) Linton, Ralph: The Marquesaru (in) Kardiner, Abram and Linton, Ralph: The Individual and his Sociery. New York, '939. (72) id.: Personal Communication. (73) Loeb, E. M. and Toffelmier, Gertrude: Kin Marriage and Exogamy, Journal of General PJ)'lhology, 20: ,BI- 228, 1939. (74) Lullies, R. and Hirmer, M.: Gritchische Vasen der rtifarchaischm Zeit. MUnchen, '953, (75) MacCracken, R. D.: Lactose Deficiency, Current Anthropology III, nos. 4- 5: 47!r517, [97 1. (76) Marcade,Jean: Eros Kalos. Geneve, 1965. (77) Masters, John : The Road Pasl Mandalay. London, 1961. (7B ) Menninger, K. A. : Man against Himself New York, '93B. (79) Merker, F.; Die Ala.rai. Berlin, 1904. (Bo) Murray, Gilbert: The Classical Tradition in Literature. New York, 1957. (8 1) Nilsson, M. P. : Geschichlt der griechischen Religion 12. MUnchen, 1955· (82) Nori>eck, Edward: Trans-Pacific Similarities in Folk-Lore: A Research Lead, Krother Anthropological Sociery Papers no. 12 :62--6g, 1955· (83) Onians, R. B.: The Origins of European Thought. Cambridge, 1951. (B4) Oplcr, M . E.: Japanese Folk &lief Concerning the Snake, Southwuttrn Journal of Anthropology 1 :24!r259, 1945. (Bs) Oppenheim, A. L.: The Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East, Transtutions, American Philosophical Sode!>, n.s. 46, pt. 3. Philadelphia, 1956.
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
"s
Klyl6imlSlra's Drttlm in Aischylos' Choephoroi
(86) Preller, Ludwig and Robert, Carl: G,iechisdu MylhologU.. Berlin,
1894- 1 92 1. (87) Rapaport, lonel: intTl)duction d fa PsycJl(Jpathoiogie Collect jUt: La Sec" Mystiqr.u dts Skoptzy. Paris, n.d. (88) R eik, Theodor: C,st4ndniu,wang und Straflediirfllis. Leipzig, 1925. (8g) Renault, Mary: TJu BuLlfrom thtSta. New York, 1962. (go) Rohde, Erwin : Psyche. London, 1950. (g l ) R6heim, Geza: The On'gin and Function of Culture. New York, 1943· (92) id.: The Nescience of the Aranda, Bri/irk Journal of Mediud PsycholoD 17 :343-360, '937. (93) id. : H ungarian Shamanism, (in) R6heim, G. (cd.) : PS)'choanalysu and the Social Sci/netS 3, 1951. (94) Rosenberg, S. B. H.: Reis/ochlm naar de Getluinkbaai op Nituw
Guinta 1869-/87°. C's Gravenhage, 1875. (9S) Rousseau, G. S.: D ream and Visjon in Aeschylus' Oresteia, Arion 2:101 - 136 ,196 3. (96) Ruark, Robert: Something of Value. New York, 1955. (97) R ycroft, Charles: A Cn'tical Dictionary of Ps)dwanorysis. London, . g68. (g8) Wallace, A. F. C.: Dreams and Wishes oflhe Soul, Ameneon Anth,,,. pologist60::2S4-248, 1958. (99) Westermarck, Eduard: The flisrory of Humor. Marriage. London, 1901.
~ a1er~1
do por
Chapter 7
Klytaimnestra's Dream in Sophokles' Elektra
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
KlytaimntStra's Drlam in Soplwklts' Elektra XPYCOOEMIC h6yoc TIC aVrl)v knv Elcl&'Tv 'ITO'TpOc ToO oov n: )(CqJoV OOnipav ol-llAicrv D.66vroc fie q>&c' fha T6vS' tipEcnov 1ri'j~al A~VTa odiTrTpov OVq>6pe1 lToTI rohoc, TavOv S' AtYIc60c l)( Tli TOUS' ww ~AaCTtlv f%lVoVTa 6WJ..6v, 4> l
417
420
(Jebb's text)
Trallslation Chrysothemis: " It is said that she [Klytaimnestra] beheld our father returned to light, near her [in bed] once more. Then he took the sceptre once his, but now borne by Aigisthos- and planted it into the hearth, and from it [the sceptre] a leafy branch sprung upward, which overshadowed all of Mykenai's land. " [Subsequently Klytaimnestra "sterilizes" her dream, by exposing it to Helios, the Sun. She (catastrophically) persi~ts, however, in calling it an ambiguous dream (SlCcWV ovelpwv). She also hopes that if its omen is good , it will affect her ; if bad, that it will affect her enem.ies (645 ; cpo Daniel 4. 19).]
'alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
KlytaimnlStra's Dream in Sophok/es' Elektra
'"
Cotntnents; The following views will be justified further on: ( I ) "Near Mr [in bedJ": cpo Bachli (3, p. 54): "sich wieder zu ihr legle". Nothing more explicit should be imagined to occur al this point. (2) "Tiu luarth" is, pate Jebb (ad loc.), indoors- it is the hearth alluded 10 also in v. 270. (3) " In/o" the hearth; so Mazon (in hised.) and Vernant (96, p. loB). Bowra's translation "on" (6, pp. 223 ff. ) means the same thing. Jebb's "at" ill, in view of what Agamemnon's gesture symbolizes, a euphemism, which he repeats more or less also at v. 270. (4) "Leafy brant"": Mazon's "laurier" seems inexplicable. Till Prob/mi. The Sophoklean Klytaimnestra's seemingly transparent (allegorical) dream is far more difficult to analyse than the Aischylean Kl ytaimestra's dream. The Sophoklean dream's "transparency" is the equivalent of a "red herring resistance" (34, 412 fr.) in clinical psychoanal)'3is. II persuades those who ignore the great mathematician Lagrange's warning: "seek simplicity, but distrust it", that they understand at on" all that such a pseudo-transparent dream contains. Actually, the latent psychological content of the Aischylean KlytaimOSlra's dream lies immediately below the "surface" of its manifCllt content. In the case of the Sophoklcan dream, a thick layer of literary and cultural traditions and meanings separates the two and must be pierced before the dream's latent psychological core can be reached. In short, the latent content of the Aischylean dream is encoded only once; that of the Sophoklean dream is encoded twice, and the two codes are not of the same kind. The tech niq ue of analysis to be used here, albeit somewhat similar to that used in the analysis of Atossa's dream (chap. I), must therefore be a particularly sophisticated one. In fact, the psychoanalyst's task begins where that of the philologist ends. S/esichoros, Aischylos and Sophoklu. Like his two predecessors, SophokIes, too, causes hill Klytaimnestra to have an ominous dream, but attributes a very different kind of dream to her. Yet, this externally jnnovating dream has a latent content very similar to that of the serpent dreams which Sophokles did wi choose to imitate. Before this can be proven, a great deal of literary and philological spade-work must be done. The first point to be made is that, the Sophoklean dream's "perspective" is closer to that of the Stesichorean dream than to that of the Aischylean dream, whose "perspective" is sui The Stesichorean and the Sophoklean dreams emphasize the dynastic element; the former mentions the Pleisthenid lein!;, emerging from a serpent; the latter the scepl" of the Atreidai. They appear to highlight the replacement of one ruler by another: in thill perspective the punishment of Klytaimestra is only a means to an end. It may be objected, of course, that Ploutarchos cites the StCllichoros fragment in order to illustrate the delays of divine vengeance L and therefore emphasizes mainly K lytallnClltra's punishment. But this finding is not conclusive, for Ploutarchos is not above citing a poetical fragment out of contexf, in order to illustrate a point which is the direct opposite of the point the poet sought to make (3 1). Aischylos stresses
generu.
L Plu.
m. nun!. villd.
10,
p.
sssA.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Klytaimnestra's Dream in Soplwkles' Elektra mainly the punishment of Klytaimestra, the bad mother; the reestablishment of the lawful dyniUty is, at leiUt in the dream, simply a consequence of the vengeance successfully exacted for a private offence. This interpretation is reinforced by the fact that whereiU the physiological-instinctual element is stressed in the Aischylean dream to the point of constituting ib; manifest content (nursing and biting), it is barely hinted at in the Sophoklean dream (near-coitus with a ghost) and probably also in the tantalizingly short Stesichoros fragment, whose latent sexualprocreative content WiU discussed elsewhere (chap. 5). Since, in determining the latent content of the Sophoklean dream, I will have occiUion to refer to the Stesichorean and AischyJean modebs which Sophokles did not replicate, I must prove at once that certain of their motifs, which Sophokles deliberately excluded from his Kl ytaimnestra's dream, unintentionally reappared in ollln passages of his drama (37). A careful documentation of this statement is indispensable, not only in order to avoid the reproach of having taken into account that which is "oub;ide the drama" (Ta mOc 1"00 6p6;llaToc), but also in order to justify in advance my many references, in connection with Astyages' second dream (Hdt. 1.108), which Sophokles did imitate, to Astyages' first dream (Hdt. 1.107) which he did not manifestly imitate. I begin by stating a general principle: when an author deviates from a traditional model, the discarded motifs tend to reappear- at times in a somewhat perplexing manner-in a passage of his work which is largely unrelated to the passage in which a pre-existing model is wholly or partly di:'lcarded or elsc radically modified. I have called this unintended and out-of-context reappearance of discarded motifs: "slippage" (37). From the philological point of view, this resembles the process whereby a gloss slips into the text, while from the psychoanalytical point of view it resembles what Freud called "the return of the repressed" (52). The uncontrollable return of the repressed is ~o well known, that it constitutes the point of a certain category of jokes which may be summarized iU follows: "You will get your wish if you manage not to think of a rhinoceros for twenty-four hours." This prohibition causes the person so instructed to think of a rhinoceros. I have fully C}
In connection with S. T,.
". lippage" in
Th~r. ~ . IIO
9 ~ 3;
a briefer disc .... ion will he found in my analysis of a
(31) .
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llOi
KlytaimJU!slra's Dream in SfJpholdts' Elektra
'"
fIlako him fcar tbat hill uaughter Mandane's ~on might dethrone him, by marrying her off to a Pmian, who, though of high birth, is only a secondclass citizen in the e mpire dominated by the Aledes. (Hdt. 1.107). Th~ apotropaic or prophylactic device, which is m~ntioned neither by Aischylos nor by Sophokles, is innovatingly borrowed by Euripides: the usurpers, instead offorcing Elektra to remain single, marry her off to a free pe:uant . (E. El. 34 fr. ). In short, while discarding both the dream and the dreaming, Euripides borrowed and brilliantly developed what, in Herodotos, is the inurp1t1ation of a dream (related to the dreams others ascribe to Klytaimnestra) or, if one prefers: Astyages' rtactions to his dream and to ilS interpretation. This "slippage" becomes even more striking if one bears in mind that, in certain cultures, in which much attention is paid to dreams, the dream itself, its telling, its interpretation and the drealllel"'~ n:anions to the interpretation must, from the cultural point of view, be treated as a single and indivisible sequence (29, pt. I, chap. , ).3 It is even possible that it w:u this slippage which enabled Euripides to discard so completely both the dream-epiwde and its content. I must now turn to the ma nifest slippages in Sophokles. SusidUJrean Slippages: In the Stesichorean text, there is mention of the snake's "bloody crest". Since the sources of this Stesichorean detail have already been explained (chap. 5), I limit myself here only to this explicitly described image. Aischylos displaced the bleeding from the head to the nipple. Sophokles eliminated it entirely from the dream, but mentions immediaJeiy afur the dream (445), that the bloodstained murder weapon Wa:! wiped offun AgalllclllIlon's head, (;ausing his already doven "cn:st" tv be doubly bloody. For the literary critic, this detail, mentioned immediately afta- the dream, is part of its conteJ\t; fOf the psycho-analyst, it is a "free association" to it. Be it context or free association, the literary critic, quite ru much as the psycho-analyst, must take it into account in seeking to detennine the meaning of the dream. But there is more. The tale of the bloodying of Agamemnon's head is followed at ()flU by a description of ~CXaAlc~6c-of the apotropaic ablation of his corpse's extremities. Since I will show that this practice, too, is relevant for the understanding of the dream, I must consider it here in some detail. This rite manifestly interested Sophokles: he seems to be the only classieal author to mention the amputatwn detail twice.~ Now, it is j",,,,,uiuu.bk that olle of the amputateu "limbs" ~ hvulu IIvt have Ueell the phallos (32) ... especially in the case of Agamemnon, whose murderers sought to datroy his ljn~llge, root and branch (cp. E. Suppl. 514 f. ). Possibly, the earlier remark (98 fr. ): "Aigisthos cleaved Agamemnon's head with an a;<\:e like a woodman fells an oak" (opOc), not only anticipates the bloodying of his head, but also indicates that the comparing of Agamemnon to a felled oak- rather than to a slain lion or bull-is doubly significant: (I) It anticipates the dream-appearance of the sprouting sceptre, for sceptres were made of wood, adorned with gold . • Cpo also Dodds' IottOnd thoughts On Ihis matter (40, p. 39) • • Cpo S. ( Tr";l:---W).
KlytaimJUstra's Dream in Sophokks' Elektra (2) In myth, Dryas' (the Oak-man's) limbs are lopped off by his mad father, who thinks he is pruning a vine. (Apollod. 3.5.1 ). The assumption that this rite has a bearing on the dream seems supported by a curious fact: the amputation, though mentioned also in A. Choe. 439, is oot echoed by the Aischylean K lytaimes tra's dream, in which Orestes sucks blood (a nd milk) from the nipple. Now, in a fragment from another drama (Jr. 354 N2) Aischylos mentions another aspect of this apotropaic rite: the murderer takes into his mouth a clot of the victim's blood and spits it out. Thus, just as this (oral) aspect of the rite hall affinities with Klytaimestra's manifest dream in Aischylos, :so the Sophoklean reference to another a.ospe<:t of the same rite may be presumed to have a bearing upon his Klytaimnestra's dream. Having already mentioned that Sophoklcs imitated the dyna.ostic perspective of the Stcsichoros dream and also its (inferable) latent sexual content, I now turn to; Aischyltan Slippages. The most striking element of the Aisch ylean dream is the nursing of the serpent at the breast. It focuses one's attention on Klytaimestra's breasts and on the nursing of Orestes so strongly, that the Nurse's (genuine) claim to have nursed Orestes from the moment of his birth (A. Ghot. 749 ff. )-a sacrifice whose fruitlessness she now laments (cp. E. Phoin. 1433) -and Kl ytaimest ra's (lying) claim to have nursed Orestes (A. Ghoe. 8g6 ff., goB) forcibly remind one of the dream. The Aischylean dream makes these contradictory claims an integral part of the esselltial warp and woof of the Ghotphoroi. The Sophoklean dream COl\lains, of course, no allusion whatcver to nursing. NOlie the less, Sophokles took over from Aischylos the contradictory claims concerning the nursing of Orestes. That his Klytaimnestra should claim to have nursed Orestes (776) at the breast (llaCTwv) is perhaps natural enough. What is less so, is that, in S. El., Kl ytaimnestra's claim is contested by Elektra, who, like the Aischylean Nurse, claims to be the only Ollt in the house (KOT' OTKOV) to have "nursed" Orestes, and, like the Nurse, laments the wasted devotion ( 1143 fr. ). Now, had the Ghoephor(}i never been written, Elektra's words would at once be taken to mean /mly "tend er nurturing", which is the secondary meaning of the basic word Tpi'fKL', whose primary meaning is: to nurse at the brcast.s But anyone familiar with A. Chot., from which the motif of competing claims is borrowed must-be he an Athenian theatre-goer or a modern student of Greek- stop and remind himself that, unlike the Aischylean Nu~, the virgin Elektra can refer only to tender nurturing; that the Sophoklcan K ly taimnestra's claim to have nursed Orestes at her breasts (lJac£wII) is meant to be believed (776) . I do n(}t believe Sophokles to have tried to persuade us that Elektra gave Orestes the breast, nor do I feel that he expressed himself o bscurely.6 One's momentary bewilderment is due to one's awareness that the Aischylean Nurse, whom Elektra rcp laces here, did nune Orestes at the breast. It is this awkward and incomplete transposition of the competing nursing claims in A. Ghot. and the unrtlaltdnesJ , In A. CiJo,. bOlb th e Nunc ( 7.;,0) and KlytaimCltra (8g8, 908) usc: forln$ oClhis word 10 denote laclation; in S. El. ("43. "47) Eleklra uses illO denole mere nurluring . • No he did express himsc:lf obscurdy in connection ..... ilh the llippage at S. Tr. 9~3 (37).
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
Klytaimnalra's Dream in Sophoklu' Blektra of these p~gel to anything else in S. '£1., which show that the dillcarded Aischylean motif of n ursi ng in dream "slipped" indirectly into the Sophoklean text. The only alternative would be to assume that Sophokles knew-and meant to refer to--certain highly unusual biological facts; a hypo thesU which I am not prepared to accept.7 These slippages of elements derived from the Stesichorean and the Aischylean dreams suffice to show that they kept on haunting Sophokles' mind even after he decided to discard them. They may therefore be legitimately cited in the course of an attempt to elucidate the latent meaning of the Sophoklean Klytaimnestra's dream. They also absolve me, in advance, from having to justify the use I will make of Astyages' first dream (Hdt. 1. 107), even though Sophokles borrowed details only from his second dream (1.108). Astyagcs' two dreams encode (symbolize) the same (latent) meaning in two--cxte rnally divergent- ways. Thill statement fits both what we know from various mythologies about recurrent or paired dreams and what psycho-analysts have been able to learn from the analysis of such paired or serial dreams (I, 4, 30, 57) which are, in the last resort, variations on a theme. This links them with recurrent dreamscommon especially in childhood and adolescence-in which the same meaning is repeatedly encoded in the same way. In short, the carefully selected group of non-Sophoklean dreams which I exploit in this chapter are all variations on the same theme: plus t;a change, plus c'est la meme chose. Borrowing is, both psychologically and culturally, a complicated proCCIlI. Not only are traits available for borrowing often nat oorrowed but, when borrowed, they may be discarded after a while, because they do not fit easily into their new context (65, p. 46, cpo 66, pp. 3'29 ff.). Even useful arts may be lost (OI)-as the art of writing was lost during Greece's Dark Ages. The impulse to borrow is, moreover, always partly counteracted by inertia and by outright resistances. Items are borrowed mainly for more or less unconscious reasons, and these "reasons" continue to adkre to the borrowed items even after they are incorporated into a new setting (36, chap. 8). Taken as a tkviation from the Stesichorean-Aischylean model, the Sophoklean dream is an innovation. But, when taken in conjunction with an Aischylean metaphor (A. Ag. g66 ff.), with two H erodotean dreams (1.107, 108) only one of which was manifestly imitated, and also with 1 The production of milk by a ~'iTRO i~/lJcla it extremely rare' I know of One reliably reported case only (7). A girl'. (or a virgin female animal'.) mammae can, howe"cr, occasionally produce colostrum (bees tingo) . T he Mohave India,," claim to be able 10 induce a flow of "milk" even io a post·menopausal grandmother, who must nune her orphaned grandchild (19). Nic. AI",. 14 f. pra.cribes young girl's milk as an antidole for a pooon; this is noteworlhy, "" Nikandros does not pre
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
KlylaimlltS/ra's Duam in Sophoklts' Elektra certain Near Eastern models upon which the Herodotean dreams are patterned, the Sophoklean dream seems dai~·atj1l( . The Aischylean metaphor has more elements in common with the Sophoklean dream than has the Herodotean vine dream. But it is the existence (and interpretation) of the latter which probably incited Sophokles to incorporate into his Kl ytaimnestra's dream additional details borrowed from the Aischylean meta phor, but lacking in the Herodotean dream which resembles that metaphor in some respects. Succinctly stated, most of the Sophoklean dream's elemellis were borrowed from an Aischylos passage, but thtir incorpora tion into an (innovating) dream was made possible by the existence of the structurally somewhat similar H erodotean vine dream, whose (on tent also has affinities with the Aischylean metaphor. So far I have shown on ly how the Herodotean dream permitted the borrowing of addi tional tlemettLs from Aisch ylos. I must now explain why SophokJes borrowed these elements fo r a dream dealing with the myth of the Atreidai, rather than for one dealing with another myth . It suffices to cite two reasons : ( I ) The' inurprttatioll of the Herodotean dream is vay similar to that of the Aischylean and Soophoklean dreams, though totall y unlike the intended "meaning" of the Aischylean Kl ytaimestra '5 lying metaphor. (2) The Kyros myth has one crucial and unusual element in common with Atreus myth. Since H arpagos failed to expose K yros as instructed , Astyages decei ved him into eating the flesh of his own children (Hdt. 1. 119), as Thyes tes was deceived by Atreus into feasting on the flesh of his children.S T he only structural difference between the two traditions is that Astyages' warning dreams precede, while that of Kl ytaimnestra follows the cannibalistic reast. Moreover, in the Aischylean Klytaimestra's dream it is the baby who canni balistically a ttacks its parent. This " inversion" is not at all surprising, since parental and infantile devouring impulses are symmetrical and mutually reinforcing (35. chap. 5). These two findings suffice to explain why Sophokles borrowed elements from Aischylos and rrom Herodotos, in order to devise a new kind or dream fo r Klytaimnestra, rat her than for another personage, belonging to a different myth cycle. The process of borrowing having been clarified, one can proceed to a detailed scrutin y of Sophokles' actual models. The Manifest M odels or the Sophoklean dream are A. Ag. 966 IT. and Hdt. 1. 108. I n accordance with the programme outlined at the beginning of this chapter, I analyse first the cultural (philological, literary, historical) aspects of these models; the few symbols I mention are ofa type which the literary cri tic is accustomed to take in his stride, and does not consider particularly psychological. A. Ag. 966 ff. - a lying, flattering speech Kl ytaimestra addresses to Agamemnon- provides most of the elements of the Sophoklean dream: I cite (basically) Fraenkel's translation, inserting in square brackelll words which help to clarify the meaning of the text . • A. Ag. 121 7 If. , 1594 If., etc. E,"en FracnkeJ who, in h3 edition of A. A,. (ad 1594 If.) , 5trCSSCS dilferenco bctwttn (hc ""ani Mlya80 and Alre", u$Cd 10 deceive the victimized falhen, ad mits the $imi larity bctwttn the two cannibalistic feas ts.
. alenal
~
echos de al.ltor
Klylaimnestra's DTtam in Sophokks' Elektra
"7
"For as, when the root remains, the foliage returns to the house, stretching over it a shade against the [scorching] dog-star, so, by thy [Agamemnon's] coming home 10 the hearlh of thy house, thou dost signify that warmth has come home in winter, and when from the sour [unripe] grape Zeus is making wine [ripening the grapes wi th heat], thcn at once there is coolness in the house, when the consummate master is moving about the house." Most of the elemtrW of the Sophoklean d ream are present in this speech: the re turn of Agamemnon, the hearth, the sprouting of the plant, thc great shadow it casts. T he sceptre is not mentioned, but what it rep resents -protective sovereignty- is the theme of the entire passage. The only missing element is the coital theme, mentioned neither explicitly, nor in a transparent allusion. 9 But the Aischylean passage also diffens from the Sophoklean d ream in several respects. T hough it shares many elements with the latter, these elements are juxtaposed in a different way: the structure of the two accounts is not the same. For example, the luxuriant foliage's great shadow is mentioned before there is any reference to the hearth. A furthe r difference is that whereas both the Aischylean speech and the Sophoklean dream concern imaginary events- the one being a lying flattery, expressed in the form of a metaphor and the other simply a dream- the Aischylean speech is meant to deceive, whereas the Sophoklean dream is a reliable warning, which the Sophoklean Klytaimnestra simply refuses to believe, and stubbornly holds to be ambiguous.1o I n short, the borrowing of Aischylean elements is obvious;\! the non-borrowing of iheir structure is equally manifest. One must therefore find another source, from which Sophokles horrowed the structure, th e designa tion of the narrative as a dream, and, specifically, a dream, which not only contains similar elements, but whose interpretations and consequences are the same as those of the Sophoklean K lytaimnestra's dream . Only if another model, providing precisely the dements missing in the Aischylean speech, can be discovered, does one understand why Sophokles was able to borrow some of the elements of the Aischylean speech (metaphor). In this borrowing, the second model functions as an intennediary betwecn Aischylos and Sophokles: it serves as a link between the two texts. Astyages' stcQnd dream (Hdt. 1.108) is the Sophoklean dream's main model, content-wise, structurally, in its interpretation and, above all, in • I would hesitat" to ViUe that "o""rshadowing", """.mth in winter ", "ripening grapes" and "moving about" hint at a "deep" sexual meaning. ,Vhether they do or do not, could only be dcterminrd if one could put Aischylos on th" analytic couch. Since thaI cannot be done, speculations bordn-ing on "wild p"ychOlinalY""" an: nOI JX'rmissible
1.50, go). ,0 S. £I. €45; cpo 6, p. "''''5 . One cannot link thi.o detail with the tradition that Kassandra's prophecies fall o n deaf ears. K assandra is unable 10 penuade; Ih e Sophokl"an Klytaimnestra refuses to be persuaded . " Bowra cites (6, p. ~5~ ) an example of an almost literal borrowing: A. Ag. 1343, t345, cpo S. EI. 1415 f. u It is hardly n~ to explain why Sophokles did nOI borrow the fM ni jrsl demen ts of lh" first dream. Urination can M I be fitted into Sophoklean drama, though it i. a recurrent them" in Ari.stophanic comedy £.9*, s. vv. citeo about a dozen ;nstances) .
Comedy regularly breaks taboos,
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
,,8
K!ylaimntstra's Dream in Sophokus' Elektra
being, unlike A. Ag. 966 ff., a dream. But it can be shown that even though Sophokles did not borrow any of the manifest ekments of the first Astyages dream (Hdt. I. I 07), these clements are, none the less, present in the lalent
content of the Sophoklean dream,12 I will therefore show that both of Astyages' dreams are Near Eastern "culture paltem dreams"ll or r esemble certain mi racles, which can, both psychologically and structurally, be treated as dream equivalents. I present here, for th e: moment, only the raw data, though in some instances I add a word or two in square brackets, indicating the element of the Sophoklcan dream with wruch some detail will eventually be linked. Asryages' First Dream: The urine of his nubile, but as yet unwed, daughter Mandane floods Astyages' capital and all or Asia (Hdt. t.(07). It roretells Astyages' dethroning by Mandane's son Kyros (Cyrus, Kurush).!' N ear Eartem Equivalents: A Mesopotamian dream book list.'S a large number or urination dreams (76, pp. 264~66) . Moreover, the only Mesopotamian dream which roretells the logically unroreseeable accession or a penon-Qr the dreamer's son- to the throne is a urination dream (76, p. 265a). There is one major difference only between Astyages' (or Mandane's) dream and the Mesopotamian urination dreams. Ir I understand Oppenheim's translations and comments correctly, in Mesopotamia only men dreamed or urinating. There were, however, also dreams about the urine (not: the urinating) or remales: some men dreamed or drinking their wives' urinel' (76, p. 266a). This finding seems to make Ktesias' attribution orthe urination dream to Mandane herselr culturally inappropriate, at least wiThin the rramework or Near Easlern patterns. The urination dream has several links with Astyages' second dream. It roretells the same dire event; the same message is encoded in two difrerent ways. In both dreams that which Mandane produces (urine, vine) emerges rrom her genitals,16 and both spread inordinately. I note in this connection that in many Mesopotamian urination dreams the urine $puads oul (divides into several streams?) as soon as it emerges rrom the meatuS.! 7 As to the urination dream's link with the Sophoklean dream, I state, for the moment apodictically, that it appears in Klytaimnestra's dream in disguise only; it is represented by the hearth: by fire. Asryages' Second Duam: A vine l ! sprouts rrom Mandane's vagina and "Fint called "official dreams" by Malinowski (; 0, p. 92 If.). Renamed "culmre patt ern drellIlU" by Lincoln (64, p. 41 ) and introduced undu Ihal name inlO Greek uudies by Dodd. (39, chap. 4). Their occurrence ;. uudentand~bk both 'n cultural (j6, ch ap. 9) and in psychological (ltg, pt. J, chap. 7) terms. In some societies Ihe young are instrucled 10 have "corn:et" dreams (95). "Cle . ap . Ni c. Dam. FHC 3.399.65 attributes IhiJI dream to Mandane herself. " For similar Mohave Indian dreams, cpo 3"', p. 136. Some Micronesian w",men urinate during the orga.m (23). " I specify Ihat in bolh inslances Ihe vagina is mean!. In 1.106 ,,1601(.>\/ should nOI be lranslaled as "womb" (Ra""linoon ). 1 have yel 10 encount er a primitive wOman who doa 110/ believe thai she urinales from the vagina; even modern female college graduates oflen do nol know that the urinary meat!!' ;. located out.ide and above the nginal introit!!'. "Since th .. actually happens to some men when they urinale after coitu" the Mesopotamian urination dreams may conceivably be "posl-coital dreams". Bll! thai is aJ il may 1<. " The domesli c, gTapc-bearing vine i. meanl, cp. LSJ ' .v. 4~""l"oc. COmpa .... C .... 40.9 fr.; A. At. 970.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia ai.JIor
Klyll1imneJtra's Dream in SophokltJ' Elektra
"9
overshadows all of Asia. (Hdt. 1.108) . Since this dream is dreamed after Mandane's marriage, she may be presumed to be pregnant at that time . .}fear Easltrn Equivalents (I ) X erxes' dream (Hdt. 7.19) : the otive garland he wears o n his head first sprouts luxuriantly and then vanilshes. [The olive recalls item 5, infra ; the garland may correspond to the sceptre.!~J (2) Nebuchadnczzar's dream (Dan. 4.10 fr.) : a huge tree is cut down but not uprooted [A. Ag. g66]. It is, for the time being, bound with strips of iron and brass [golden sceptre], but the prophet predicts that it will sprout again, later on. (3) Pharaoh's imprisoned butler's dream (Gen. 40.9 If.): a vine sprouts and divides itself into three branches, which produce grapes. The butler presses them and serves their (fermented ?) juice to Pharaoh . [Branching: Mesopotamian urination dreams; drinking the juice: drinking urine( ?).] (4) The miracle of Aaron's rod (.}fum. [7.8) : The rod, representing Aaron's headship of the Levi tribe, sprouts during a contest with the rods of other tribal leaders; this makes him supreme in all Israel. (5) The miracle of Athene's olive tree (Hdt. 8.55) : though burned [hearth], it sprouts again, thereby foretelling the ( Phoenix-like) rebirth of Athens from its a..'lhes and its ultimate triumph over Persia (13). This miracle's links with theNear East are self-evident; I know of no pre_Persian_ Wars precedent in Greece, for the Euboian vine (infra) ils no real precedent. Since, in S. El., the sprouting sceptre is substituted for the Stesichorean and Aischylean In(J.ke, another Nea r Eastern miracle also deserves mention : (6) Aaron's rod turns into a serpent (Exod. 7.10) ; this is a challenge to Pbaraoh'5 supremacy.20 As regards Greek equivalents, the male meaning of trees in Greek dreams was discussed by Bowra (6, p. 225). Nothing need be added, save that Klytaimnestra's cioubts about the meaning of the dream may, in part, be due to the fact that such dreams tend to be good omens for the dreomer, rather than (as in S. El . 480 if. ) for someone else. It is important to stress that such dreams seem to be closely linked with the successful overthrow of established authority. This probably explains why X . Cyrop.~in which Asl}'ages' relations with K yros are afTectionatedoes not mention these dreams. I note in conclusion that sudden sprouting seem to have interested Sophok.lC5. He mentioned, in his lost Th),tstts (fr. 235 N~ ) , an Euboian vine which sprou ted and ripened grape! daily (<::p. E. Ph . 229 fr.) . Since, in this case, only th<:: bunches of grape sprout suddenly. tha t incident is a very incomplete parallel to the S. 1:.1. dream, but has some affinities with A. Ag 966 if. and with the dream of Pharaoh's butler. I repeat thaI 1 cite it here not as an equivaJent, but as evidence ofSophokies' preoccupation with this theme. "CIclln-rpo" = ).vxolc CT''''''''''II'IT'''1\ (the campion rose, or which garlands aN: made, cpo Ps.-o.c.3.100) . .. T he "contcst of . hamans" element (cp. Apollod. E/>. 5.2 fr. and conotlc:u similar
,,,eat:
cont",u;n many eultu .... 84, etc. ) ia repc"'"""ted by the tran. for""'t;on ofth" rocIo of Pharaoh'. IOOth ... yen into serpenl•. B ut Aaron'. serpent ti"'
affinitics with the dream or one
or my patients 1.35, chap. 6).
KlytaimmSlTa's Drtam in Soplwklts' Elektra Tht Htarth Vemant (96, passim) conclusively proves that, even though the Athenian woman had to leave her native hearth and join that of her husband, the hearth is the female centre of the "social space" oCC\lpied by the household. ' ·Vhat matters most hcre is, however, the subjective "dream-meaning" of the hearth. In interpreting the S. El. dream as a wital dream, Vernant (96, p. loS) ne~ari ly takes it for granted that the hearth represents the female genitals. It is this symbolism which 1 now propose to document in some detail. I begin by noting that since what is left of the Stesichorean dream does not describe the behaviour and the location of the serpent, and since the Aischylean dream mentions, in addition to the serpent, only the breasts, the hearth may-despite A. Chot 49-wdl be the one wholly new element in the manifest content of the Sophoklean Klytaimnestra's dream; the sceptre is clearly a substitute for the Stesichorean-.o\ischylean serpent . It may even be argued that, by U5ing a more allusive symbolism than Aischyios, Sophokles could afford to introduce "coitus" into the (a/tnt content of the dream: the .Aischylean nursing and biting, described explicitly,21 is replaced in Sophokles by a symbolic coitus. This finding fits my thesis (24) that the amount of labood instinctual material represented in an authentic work of art is proportional to Ihe amount of symbolization. Before discussing in detail the hearth symbolism, some attention mUlit be paid to the more concrete and pragmatie aspects of this dream hearth. The Hearth is lnd()()fs. I t is, presumably, the one ncar which Agamcmnon was slain (5. El. 203, 266 ff.).22 But it is self-evident that the hearth which Vernant considers to be the female centre of the house was the one located indoors .. . where Agamemnon was slain during the banquet (203). The following considerations also support the view that the hearth was loca ted indoors : ( I) In Homeric passive ("listener" ) dreams, the dreamer "does not suppose himself to be anywhere else than in bed" (39, p. 105). The same is certainly true of several tragic dreams: A. Ag. 420 ff. , E. Rh. 782 ff. , and probably also orIo's (t\. PV64s ff.) and Atossa's (A. Pm. 176 ff. ) dreams. Iphigeneia's dream (E . IT 44 ff.) manifestly begins with her lying in bcd. Though in tbis dream Kl ytaimnestra is an onlooker, rather than a (Homeric) listener, she remains passive throughout the dream. This creates a strong presumption that she "supposes" herself in bcd- indoors. (2) Nothing in the text suggests that Agamemnon had to walk any distance, let a lone go outdoors, 10 reach the other sacred hearth. (3) It is an outside possibility that the reference to the "shadow cast" by the branch mighI also suggest an indoors hearth, for Vernant {96, " I recall, ho ....·~\'~r, pr~"iously ciled ~xp"r irn~nu (chap. 6. nol~ 113 ) whkh pro\'~ Ihal nursing ~licits snual cxcilem" nl • ., Contra : J"bb, ad ....... I 7 If., who locat.,. th" dream hcarth oUIJide. in 'he aV~1\ (court).
'*
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
• Klytaimnestra's Dream in Sophoklts' Elekt:l'a
'3 '
p. 124) clearly links both woman and the hearth with the shade:Zl the hearth is equated with the woman (infra). (4) Much more persuasive is the fact that ghosts tcnd to reappear where they were slain; since the Sophoklean Agamemnon was slain during the banquet, he was necessarily slain indoors, for no Homeric outdoors banquet is suggested by any detail or hint. One can foresee the objection that a Greek quecn's marital couch was not located in the great hall, ncar the sacred indoors hearth. But, according to Lorimer (69, p. 426), it was located just there, between the back wall and the hearth . An even morc obvious retort is that no plausible dream reproduces reali ty photographically: it stylizes it. In o rder to be able to introduce the hearth symbol, Sophokles had to displace Klytaimnestra's bed. But there is more: one can actually trace the dtformation of reality in the Sophoklean dream back to a realistic Aischylcan detail. The Aischylean Agamemnon was not slain during a banquet, but while being bathed (A. Ag. 1 107 ff.). If one could suppose that Sophokles knew the ground plan of the Palace of Pylos (97, fig. 35) or of some similar palace, one could urge that at Pylas the bathroom, with a built-in bathtub, was located next door to the chamber containing the hearth. But it is more probable that Sophoklcs had in mind somewhat simpler arrangements : one notes that the slain Aischylcan Agamemnon does not fait (as would be more natural at Pylos) into the bathtub, but into a (portable) hot water cauldron (A. Ag. 1128 fr. ). Be that as it may, the Aischylean bathing scene, which took place- quite realistically- indoors, contributed to Sophokles' placing the dream's bed and fire-place indoors, by mcans of recourse to the mec hanism of "condensation" commonly met with both in real and in literary Greek dreams (39, p. (06).2-4 Hearth = Vulva is an almost self-evident symbolic equation, whieh it is easy to document for Greece. I begin by citing Artcmidoros' explicit statements : ( I ) Heart h = oven = woman in her procreative capacity ( 1.43). (2) The hear th represents the life and the wife of the dreamer ( 1.74). (3) A woman warms a man the way fi re does (2.9). (4 ) A frying pan represents a lecherous woman (2.42 ).15 Artemidoros' equations are not late inventions; they are foreshadowed in much earlier works: ( I) M el issa~s ghost tells Periandros' emissary to remind her husband that he had "baked his loaf in a cold oven"-that he had eommiued " H e liots in this connection somc of th e following text:!: X. £Con . 4.~, AgtS. L~4, Hell. 3+19; Pl. Phdr. ~3ge; Plu. V. Age•• 9.5, Ap. Lac. '3, p. ~ogC. But in A. Ag. g66 ff. and Hd t. t.l08 the shado .... ing obj ec t io not in the hou"" (cp . chap. 8, nOle 53) • .. A literary consideration deserves at lealt bricf mention. T hough the word ,C>c assuredly denotes that light which differentiates the Earth from gloomy H ades, it may pnlrajll anticipate alJo the mentioning mthe (lit) hearth. Such anticipatio!lll are common in great poetry. Like modulatio!lll in m".ie, they insure the cohesivcn= of poetic discourse, by providing an aMOCiati\"e-all".ive link bet,,·un nlCces;;ive images. If this li terary argu_ ment ;1 accepted, il also helps One imagine a hearth localed indoors. 11 Cp o ibid.: mortar = wife, pade = husband, cpo note 66.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
'3'
Krytaimnestra's Dream in Saphokld Elektra
necrophilia with her corpse (Hdt. 5.92 1'), c( 59). This tradition has affective affinities with K lytaimnestra's necrophiliac dream,16 (2) The hearth, in S. El, 266 ff., is the recipient of (semen-like) libations, poured into it by Aigisthos, appersonating (89) Agamemnon. This passage is immediauly followed by a mention of his cohabitation with KI Ylaimncstra .. . into whose vulva he pours another kind of "libation".
(3) The Roman equus (Xtob" rite 27 is also relevant here, since the sacrificed stallion's "cauda", suspended above the sacred hearth, dripped blood into it. I have, on Ihe basis of compelling anatomical and physiological considerations, shown that this "cauda" was not the tail but the penis of the animal (33). I have shown so far that the hearth is a symbol of the vulva and vagi na: it is a recipient for the phallos (here represented by the sceptre ) and for semen, or semen equivalents. But, without ceasing to symbolize the vagina as it really is, the hearth can at time:s also symbolize the female organs as they are sometimes fantasied 10 be. The fantasy in question is repo r ted not only by neurotics, but a lso b"y normal women and child ren; it is also encountered more than once in myth. It is the symbolic equation: father's phallos = mother's phallos (acquired from father during coitus) "" foetus and /or child)! I have documented this fantasy for Greece so copiously elsewhere (32), thai I will mention here only one- very telling- Greek example, already cited in chap. 6: Though Poseidon boasts that a god always impregnates his mistresses (Hom. ad. 11.249 f.) , he himself docs nol impregnate Kainis. frultad of a baby, he gives her a penis: he t ransforms her into a man (22). Taking he reafter this equation for granted, I will now dte examples which show that the hearth, though often rep resenting the female organs, as they are, can also represent them a s they are sometimesfantasitd to be. ( I) At least two hearths contain a phallos capable of impregnating a n unwed girl and the child so conceived becomes a dethroner or at least a successor of a king .19 , . On Greek necrophilia. cpo (59) and (.:17) ' II might, ..,f wune, be argued that I , mysdf. had express«! the opinion (.:17) that if there be coi tus in H ad .,.. it e..,uld only be witus Pt. dnum. Now, in Greek, then: is actually a wnnttliOI1 between "O\'el1" (I'II'I/O<), the privy (A.r.fr. 353; H sch. '" ~OTfpWv) and the dunghill (1""'100) (CalliIJLJ'. 2,6 Pr.). 1 would not think <.>f arguing that Peria ndros cohabited with his wife', corpse anally. I .imply note that both necrophilia and coitus per anum ar~ unfruitful, "" i. an anal wha bitat ion with A.ph rodit e'. slatue (Luc. Amer. 14 fT. ), and that coitus per anum with wOm en $C<'ml to ha,'~ been common enough in Greece ( ~7 , 41, cpoalso H dt. 1.6t ). ~'I ore over, since ooth necrophilia and coitus per anum arc perve ... i..,n., both roult from a contaminali..,n ofscxuality by aggression (U, pp. 3~4 If.). " Plu. QU6(1t. Rom. 97, p. 287A ; F.,.ws '. \' . october <'rt. Rom. 10.3238 If. (Cp. D.H. Ant. Rom. 4.' f.; Ov. Fast. 6.627 If.; Liv. '. 39; Plin. HN 36.27.11(4 ). Numitor'. son. killed by Amuliu., is called Aiguthos. (85, ' .\'. Romulus, cit.,.. D.H. "',/. /Wm. 1.76 If.; Str. 5.3.2; Sen·. V. Am. 1.273; Appian. ap. Photo Bibl. No. 57 p. 16h35 Bekker; Tletz . Lye. 1232). This murder apparently justifiel R omulUl' accession to the
• alenal
~
echos :Ia autor
KfylailTl1Ustra's Drtam in Sophok/a" Elektra
'33
(2) Even a hearth which does not contain a phallos can emit a spark (= semen) capable of impregnating an unwed girl. The child, so conceived, is named Caecuhu and is deemed to be Vulcanus' son .J() In this case, too, t he dethronement motif is almost to tall y eliminated: Cae<:ulus simply shares with Romulus the trait of having been a bandit before founding a city (Praencste).ll There are, moreover, hearths which contain a baby-equivalent, and femal e organs which behave as though they were hearths. ( I ) Althaia's hearth contains a firebrand which is apparently the "external soul"-or even the "doublc"- of Meleagros, who has just been born.l2 (2) Hekabe dreams of giving birth to a firebrand; to the nefarious Paris.)l The links of this tradition with the structurall y symmetrical miracle which announces the birth of thc tyrant Peisistratos (Hdt. 1.59) will be discussed further Oil. I Can mention only in passing the somewhat tangential belief that o ne can be born, or reborn from the fire or from a cauldron, or <:an be "reborn" immortal by having fire burn away one's mortal parts. J • \Vhat is, by <:ontrast, relevant is that fires <:apable of <:ausing pregnancy, or else symbolically " pregnant", tend to be associated with sexuall y active, and even hyper-active women. Kl ytaimestra is notoriously polyandrous (Stesichor.fr. 46 P = 26 B = 170) ; Romul us' foster mother is named " Lupa" (bitch-wolf) (Plu. V. Rom. 4.3) ; H ekabe behaves like a rabid bitch (E. Hec. 1173; Q .S. 14.347 fr. ) and- probably after bcing stoned- actually turns into a female dog (E. Ht e. 1265)'lS And leI it not be objected that K yros' foster-mother is called " Bitch", even Ihough Kyros is not born from fire , for I win show subsequcntly that fire is part of the latent content of Astyages' firsl drcam. Summing up, the hearth may be said to symbolize the vulva, while the sceptre stuck into it represents the phallos. This leads up to a scrutin y ·of the relationship between the hearth and the sprouting of the (phallic) sceptre which it now contains. The Hearth aJ a "Terrain" motif is seldom given sufficient attention; it is Vernant's (96, p. t 14) interest in the social significance of the hearth which throne and permits the relati,"(" atl("nuation of the ,,"urpalio n motif. That mo tif is also mUled in Ihe Sen·iUl T ulliu. myth: he , uecttd. hi. falhe r-in-l aw. Jt Cpo the nume rous a ncient soure,,", ("i led by Powell (78), which mention HephaislOS' premature ejaculation. T he . pontanroU5 (non -coital ) ejac ulations of the gods are a lso capable of procreating childRn (J!l). " c...cc ulu. i. nO' only falhercd. by fire but , after his exposure, i. found near a fire ; h is lIame may be connected wilh blinking (perh aps while tooking at a bright fire). V. Am. 7.579 If., 10,544; cpo Varro ap. se t.. Veron. ad V. Am. 7.681 and Servo V. ArR. 7.678.; Solin. ~.9. lZ A. ChIN. 607 f.; Apoliod. 1.8.2 and Fra zer ad loc. , cpo also ( 13). lJ Pi. Pae. 8; e p. E. Tr. 9'9 ele. T o make mati .. ,. e,'e n clearer , in H yg.fdh. 9' snakes emerge from Ihe burning lorch- a deJail deri\"~-d perha ps from the lost E. Aux. (so Frazer ad Apollod. 1.8.2) (cP. 9 1). ,. Rebinh from fin:: the Phoenix (Ov . Mel. 15.392 fr. ; Sial. Silv. 2.4.36) ; from a cauldron: Pdop5 (Pi . O. 1.37 If.; Apollod. £p. 2.3 ) ; an old ram (Apollod. 1.9.27 ). Burning to acquire immortali ty: H erakl",,: (S. T,. fin. ) ; Demophoon (Hom . h. Co. 235 fr. ), Achille... (A.R. 4.86g fT., Apollod. 3, ' 3.6 and Fruer ad loc.). "On sioning, as Ihe (QWI of Ih e metamorphosis: (86) .
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Kl;'laimnestra's Dream in Sophoklts' Elektra leads him to sIress Ihat the s<eptre sprouts only after being thrust into the hearth. Yet, there is something particularly arresting about this detail. Not one of the non-Herodotean models or precedents so much as mentions the "soil" (or soil equivalent) from which the plant sprouts. Even A. Ag. 966 ff. simply mentions that the plant is Ilot uprooted and there is a hint of the same kind in Dan. 4.9 ff. By contrast, Hdt. 1.108 specifies that the vine grows from Mandane's genitals. For both the structuralist and the psycho-analys t this specification may be held to refer retroactively als<> to the (im plicit ) " tcrrain" from which urine is produced (Hdt. 1.107). Its mention in the second dream can, so to speak, be treated as a "once and for all" clause.l6 Even more mi king, particularly from Ihe literary vicwJXlint, is thallhe "terrain" is mentioned in the discarded Aisehylean prcccdcnt. In A. Chot. 543 Orestes goes out of his way to substantiate his interpretation of Klytaimestra's dream, by strcS5ing that bolh hc and Ihe scrpent came out of the same place: out of KI),laimestra's vulva. In short, whereas the "terrain" is part of the interpretation in A. Chot., it is part ortllc dream itself in S. El. This falls just short of being a genuine (displaced) slippage, sincc, as strcssed before, in a dream-oriented cult ure the dream, its telling, its interpretation, etc., form an indivisible whole. By COntrast, the ser pent's Orestean swaddli ng bands ( A. Chot. 544) may not be treated as "terrain". They faintly recall thc iron and brass strips which bind the dream trce in Dan. 4.[5. and the gold covering of the Atreidai's sceptre .17 The conception of the maternal sex organs as a "terrain" from which something can sprout, filS well Greek ways of thinking. Oidipous, in committing incest, is said to have ploughed (a nd seeded) the furrow from which he himself was born.J8 (A. Sept. 752 IT., cp o E. Ph. 17 If. ) Hearth (Fire) and Urination. Thro ughout this chapter I ~tressed a clinically commonplace finding: it is nO I easy to disregard or to "forget" things at will. What is ostentatiously ejected by the front door, usually re-insinuates itself in disguise through the back door. If Sophokles knew Astyages' vine dream, he also knew his urine dream.)\I Traces of the urination dream should therefo re be discernible in the lalmt content of the Sophoklean dream . .. I have already ,ubstanlia ted thi, view by citing, in nOl~ [6, popular idea s about female urinalion. " This comparoon does not undermine whal is !.aid. furl he. on, alxrul such metal bands, since il was . hown above Ihal child: pilaU,,". A discU5llion of the lOCial and psychological meaning of .waddling would, unfortunately, <<:quire a great d ea l of l pace. Cardul slUdies of Ih is practice . how Ihal in wme cu\turo, where sw addling i, rouli"e, the infanl is ,-iewed as danger(\{" both 10 olhen and 10 himself: Ihe swaddling ""rvo 10 .eslrain him. ( 7", p. 107 fr.• with ci tal iom of additional lit eralure. ) Cpo alw the gold teaf covered rorpso of royal Mykenaian babi",. " T he group of my students who, in 1968-(ig, worked on the S. £1. drea.m, drew many interoting parallels between it and the Oidipous myth (and Oedipus complex) . Since their Ilnding> were more suggotive Ihan conelu,ive, I do nOI outlinc them here, 101 this merely ,u&golive ma.terial shou ld prejudice the reader against the genuinely wndusive data pl"OC'nled in Ihi. chapter. " H en>
circulation by 429 B.C. Also, Sophokles
sup~ly kn~w
HerodotOli .
. atenal
~
:lerechos de al.llor
Klytaimneslra's Drtam in Sophoklts' Elektra
'35
Even though Sophokle~ did /Lot w now .my of till; manlfest dellleIltli of the dream about Mandane's urination, that dream can be linked with the one totally IltW manifest element in the Sophoklean dream: with the hearth. Though the introduction of the hearth motif is culturally extremely plausible (supra), the fact remains that Sophokles sefuted this symbol from amongst a number of other, cultura!ly equally plausible, alternatives, such as the sheath of a sword, etc. His prifert1lCe for the hearth calls for an explar.ation. Sophokles' "good" (and conscious) re3.'lon was the cultural suitability of the hearth; his "real" (and unconscious) reason for seltcting it from amongst equa!ly appropriate alternatives was the existence of a ps)'chological nexus betwten firt (hearth) and urination. Before proving this latent nexus, I propose to recall first the manifest similarities betwee n the S. El. 417 ff. and the Hdt. 1.107 dreams. ( I) Both "mean" the same thing; the same warning message is encoded in two different ways. It is encoded in a third way in Hdt. 1.108. (2) In all three dreams an extremely copious-and, indeed , overwhelming- "thing" emerges from the female sex organs or their equivalent, the hearth. (3) In all three, the thing produced spreads out al (mce. Since I have a lready shown that these dreams are Near Eastern culture pattern dreams, it is legitimate to stress again that in numerous Mesopotamian urination dreams the urine "spreads out" (divides into branches?) apparently the moment it emerges from the meatus (76, pp. 264- 266). (4) I n all three, an almost supernatural Jtat is performed- and urinary fcat~, particularly in dream, reflect ex(.:c:s:;ive ambition:'o (5) Urinary feats are attributed almost exclusively to men, largely because women cannot perform urinary trielu. 41 (6) In this dream, the feat is not a qualilalillt but a quanlilatiw one. This may conceivably- but only conceivably-explain why Ktesias attributes this dream not to Astyages, but to Mandalle.42 Indeed, popular misconceptions notwithsta nding, the urinary stream of women is more copious and stronger, since their urethra is shorter and wider than that of men. 4l (7) The "qualitative" ("trick") feat motif is, however, symbolically anticipated in Astyages' first dream: the vine sprouts sk)"Ward.44 I now turn to the manifest nexus bet.....een urination and fire (hearth), on whkh the evidence is not simply conclusive but overwhelming. ( I) There exists a statistically significant correlation between bed~Cp. Fr<::ud: 47, ~Ol, ~04 r., w8 r., 468 fr., 48, 6.j, fr., 49, [7:; fr.; 53, 9 1 r., 5 4, go; 55, 102, 187 fr. Cp. espttially one of Freud'. own urination dreams (47, 468 fr. ), in which he malches H erakles' cleaning out of Augciu' stables. '[ Somali folkJor,: stresses this female "handicap" ,:83, p. 20~ ). Child study- even amongsl primiti~cs (10, p. ~8:;)_ho~ that little girls Iry to duplicate malt urinary fealll. Convcnt.:ly, some primiti>·t boys perlonn feats .hnwir.g thcir masculine "superiority", by exhibi tionistically "urinating backward, like women and mares" (16) • • , CtCl. ap. Nic. Dam.fr. 65, FHG 3.399' . J Information prnvided by ProfCllOr Pierre Aboulkcr, M.D. "A Mesopotamian man's dream of urinating skyward fOr<::tell! hi. SOli'S brilliant <:arCer and the shOrtllClS of his own life (76, p . 26:;b) . I notc, as a curious coincidence, 11", 1 """'IUllli>~ call II", uri" .. ry 'y",cm a "\rCC".
Klylaiml1tstra's Dream in Sophoklts' Elektra wetting and firesetting (74). I, myself, had occasion to study such a case (i8). (2) The psychological basis of this nexus was at least briefly outlined by Freud (56, cpo 43), in a paper only a few of whose interpretations are frankly speculative. (3) In a number of cultures the nexus between fire and urine J..'l explicit.~S
(4) Myths, literary works and jokes readily link fire with urine.46 (5) As regards rites, it suffices to refer briefly to the equus october ritual (su pra) and to recall, in addition to the equation: blood = semen, also the almost commonplace equation: semen"" urine (76, p. 265a).·7 (6) The fire = urine nexus is also confirmed by the finding that the same "message" can be encoded tither by means of afire symbolism, or by means of a urine symbolism. What makes such symmetrical encodings possible is the well-known technique of "symbolization by opposites" in mythology and folktales, qui te as much as in literature, humour and dreams. Both structuralism and psycho-analysis recognize the affinity between structurally or afTectively symmetrical narratives. I . already mentioned that the nefarious birth of Paris is foreshadowed by Hckabe's dream of giving birth to a firebrand. A symmetrical (water) miracle foretold the nefarious birth of the tyrant Peisistratos: The wain in the sacrificial cauldrons bubbled over, though no fire was lit under them (Hdt. 1.59). I doubt that the overflow of water from the cauldrons-which universally symbolize the female organs-is meant to represent the breaking of the birth wa ters (amniotic fluid). The " bubbling" clearly suggests that the water represents urine, which docs bubble .•' I t may therefore be asserted with considerable assurance that there is a strongfantarmatic nexus between fire and urine. Though Sophokles com., The Mongol is forbidden to urinate into fire (56) . Yuma Indian ...·oman can render themselves barren by urinating into fire (45, p. t59). S«Iang Moi mcn bare their so: organs to prevn.tjungle fires, when they burn down paru of the jungle to dear new fields ( ' 05 ). The staple food of the Masai is a mixture of milk and blood (cp. A. CII«. 546) curdled with ...ku and cow's ~rint (73). E ven IYlQre striking is the alleged tradition that urine (though not water) cculd put out Grttk 6~; this idca would never have ari'ICn wen: the ill'lp~I" to urinate inlO fire non...,xiSlcnt . .. Most .trikingly in the cue of Gulliver in LilIiput (9") . Zeus ca~ both lightning (fire) and rain_ and Strepsiades professes 10 b<:lie,·c that Zeus caU$el rain by urinating into a ,ieve (Ar. Nub. 373 f. ). The relevan<:<: of this joke for our purposes is incr~a.scd by the fact that Zeus the bolt-hurler (~,""'JlGTI\~) is turned into Zeus the excrement thro ...·er (Cl
••
Klytaimneslra's Dream in Saphokles' Elektra
'37
plete1y discarded the urine theme of Astyages' first dream, he reintroduced its latent content (fire) into his Klytaimnestra's dream, by inventing a completely new dement- the hearth- for which there is no equivalent in his Stesichorean and Aischylean models. Gra~s and Urinatian
I must now deal with two loose ends. It is extremely striking that in several sprouting dreams the plant is the domestic grape vine (6.l1TTtAoc). It is mentioned in Hdt. 1.108, in the dream of Pharaoh's butler and in the Aischylean Kl ytaimestra's metaphor, though not in the Sophoklean dream.49 The grape yields, of COUl''!lC, )'ellowish wine. In dream, Pharaoh's butler actually gives Pharaoh the (fermented ) juice of the grapes LO drink and the Aischylean Kl ytaimestra's reference to "wine" seems to imply drinking.~ Mandane's urine floods Asia- and floods usually cause deaths by drowning. Last, but not least, Mesopotamian men dreamed of drinking their wives' urine (76, p. 266a).51 I note these facts, but hesitate to make anything of them: the data are not copious and explicit enough for their interpretation to carry conviction, even if one added that olives- which are mentioned in two analogous accounts (dream of Xerxes, miracle of Athene's olive)-also yield a yellowish fluid . Some speculations may be advanced also in connection with the wineurine-milk ne,",us, as long as it is clearly stated that what I offer here are sJNculations, and not interpretations. Milk, which is so important a motif in the Ai~chylean'5 Klytaimestra's dream, is totally lacking in the manifest content of the Sophoklean dream. However, the principle that nothing is ever totaU)' forgotten or discarded makes it desirable to look at least for traces of the milk theme in the Sophoklean dream. As indicated previously, Mandane's copious urination is a " phaHic" feat, "proving" (in fantasy) that she is any man's equal. A relatively minor collateral detail may also be recalled here: the vine in the butler's dream has three branches and produces grapes and wine. Now, Ploutarchos did not have to read Freud to discover tha t the number "3" is a male symbol.~l
This being said, I recall here again that there is on record (7) at least . , Cp., howevu, the Sophoklean and Euripidean references to th~ miraeutous vine of Euboia , 5upra• •• Cpo the Aischylean Agamemnon's faHing into a cauldron: he is apparently both wounded "lid tlroWMd; few oommentaton take Ihis latter detail into accoun t (A. Ag. 1l~8 fr.) . .. The drinking of female urine-and particularly of that of prostitutes-is a wellknown perversion. Pathan wOmen urinale into the moutlu of o;aptiV<:!l. I n some areu of Siberia, where only the rich can afford the intoxicating m .... hroonu, the poor intoxicate thenuelves by drinking the urine of the rich. A more magical theory ofsuch urine drinking is proposed by La Barre (60, p. (78). Even horses lick up their own urine, if they are deprived of salt. For M ohave urine drinking dreams, cpo 30, p. [38. n Plu. Ql=rl. RDm. 2. p. 26.tA (probably I pcnis+ 2 testes). I note dUI;! th" p;uu.ge deats with nuptial torches (fire).
'3'
Klj>taimTllstra's Dream in Soph()klu' Elektra
one case in which a woman took great ("phallic") pride in her ability to make her milk spun further than a man's pha1!ie products can spurt : it proved her superior to men.$J She dearly equated milk with semen and (male) urine. T his is not surprising, since in belief, custom and fantasy (dream) alike, all bodily secretions are usually interchangeable.5-4 The equation: milk = urine = fire may- but onv may-thus provide ajaint connection between the (omitted) milk motif and the (new) hearth motif.
Till Sceptre Though I have tried, throughout this chapter, to discuss first the objective and cultural aspects of the various dream items and to interpret their symbolism only afterwards, this section would become needlessly labyrinthine if I did not discuss the sceptre symbolism first, particularly since this symbol is so transpa rent th at its interpretation is not likely to meet with much opposition. Sceptre _ Slaff - HUl7UJn Helper: S. DC 848, 1109. Sctptn = Serptnt is made evident by the fact that Aaron's rod can either tum into a serpent (Exod. 7.10) or else bud (Num. 17.8) and does so in both cases in a power-conlest. Snakes are entwined a round Hermes' rod and t he equivalence of various types of rods and sceptres is, despite minor differences, fai rly obvious (96, p . [08, note 2). This makes it fairly certain that, in the Sophoklcan Klytaimnestra's dream, a sceptre is substituted for the Stesichorean-Aischylean serpent. I also note, somewhat tentatively, that whereas the Aischylean serpent is swaddled (A. Chat. 529, 545 f.), the sceptre of the Atreidai is notoriously covered with gold--of which more anon. Sctptre = PluJllos is impJicit in Vernant's view (96, p. 108) that the dream represents coitus- and Vemant is nol in sympathy with psychoanalysis. Cpo also the myths ofphalloi in the hearth (supra), and Luc. VH 1.2:2.
The Sprouting rif the Sceptre, after being th rus t into the hearth, appears to reflect the view that the father is the child's sole progenitor (A. Eum. 658 fT. ) : the father seeffi'l to deposit a kind of homuncuJus into the woman, who then nurtures it.~s Bu t the sprouting of the sceptre may also hint at continued sexual potency, which in some groups-such as the Shilluk (Ol )-is a prerequisite for the holding of royal power. Though Greek hero myths are less explicit on this point than are Shil!uk practices of G reek divine myths, ~ enfeebled old kings oflt':n yield the royal power to a suc" The .ymbolic equation.: nipples = penis, breast '" testes, are commonly met .... ith in clinical practice ( ~8) . ,. One can bewitch a person by geuing hold of ~n)' of hi! bodily secretions, Or of his hair or nail clippings. Being ..,.il..! in dream by ""y of one', wife. bodily secretions is believed by the Moha ve '0 cause illness (3 Q , p . '38) . "This theory of procreation has been somewhat too confidently link..! with patriliny: the matrilineal Hopi Indians have identical th~ es (11) , whil e th ~ p
. atenal
~
ecr.os de al.llor
Klytaimmstra's Dream in Sophokles' Elektta
'39 cessor:37 the "overshadowing" motif in A. Ag. 966 and in Hdt. 1.108, quite as much as in S. El. 417 fr., may well point in the same direction. Now, I have already indicated that the sprouting of this sceptre is comparable to the sprouting of Nebuchadnezzar's chopped-down tree and of Athene's choppcd-down and burned olive- and that all are comparable to the ritual mutilation ofa corpse (or body), which Apollod. 3.5.1 explicitly links with the pruning of trees or vines. In addition, I have already noted that it is inconceivable that llaex,a;\\ q.lOC should not include also the ablation of the corpse's sex organs, since that is an extremely common way of mutilating corpses,~! and, as said before, the usurpers tried to uproot Agamemnon's entire lineage (even fathered by his ghost?). I therefore hold that the sceptre represents not simply the phallos of Agamemnon, but, specifically, his dbLl/td member. This spe<:ification will render more comprehensible what will be said subsequently about the "circulating" sceptre. We possess a good deal of information a bout the sceptre in question, which will materially contribute to the clarification of iu meaning in the dream. Tk Origin of this sceptre already foreshadows its transmissibility: Hephaistos made it and gave it to Zeus, who handed it to H ermes, fo r transmission to AtreWi (H om. Il. 2. 101 ). It may be said that this sceptre "circulated" (Th. 1.9) even before it reached At reus, and was then transmitted to Atreus' heir (cp. the Trojan royal sceptre: Q.S. 2.136 fr.). Th COft of the sceptre is a n unspecified kind of wood,59 stripped of its branches and bark and therefore so permaI1ently dead that Achilleus represents the possibility of its sprouting again as the very prototype of the absurdly impossible.~ The fact that, in S. EI. g8 C, Agamemnon is compared to an oak sheds no light upon the nat ure of the w ood of which the sceptre is made- but may strengthen the view that a W()oden objeci can repre;ent in dream one of his organs. Tk sceptre is "goidtn"-i .e., either wrapped in thin sheet-gold or else studded with gold nails or rivets.61 If, as I think, a wrapping in gold foil is meant- for the dri ving of too many nails into wood might split it-some interesting inferences may be made. The Atrcidai's sceptre, which sprouts .. Pde"'-AchilJe",-NeoptolemOil (E. Androm.); Kadmos-Pentheus (E. B". ); Pher"". (E. Ale); Laerles_Od ysseu. (Hom. ad.), ep. 85, • .vv . .. CopiolCl documentation in (]~), \0 which may now be added the irnpauibility of laking foreskin trophies from th e circumci.ed Aqu iyawasa (77, p. 2 1, note la), and references to pc:nis trophies in ancient Egypt (0.5. l.tB.~, 1.55.8 f., etc.). Admiral Coligny's Adm~I"
corp&<: wa < 10 mutilated <.1"" "8
th~
St n .. r.h"J "m~'W'< n;s'" m_cre .,.
th~
Calvini... _
who, incidentally, reciprocaled during Ihe uprising in the Languedoc (6], pp. 505, elc.). Even a woman's pubis may be "scalped" : th~ Princ!:S:ie de Lamballe 's during Ihe French revolution; Cheyenne Indian women'. by the lroopc:n of a Colorado National Guard Cavalry Regimen t (s8, p. 178: a veiled all",ion 10 this fact) . .. The branch whi ch 'prou'" from il is, likewise, un.pecified; as n01ed, Mazon'. "laurier" is graluito", . .. Hom. If. J . ~34' Though Achille", speau specifically orlhe speaker'. sceptre and not of the Atrcidai, this makes no real difference (¢" p. 108 It ). especially a.s regards the malerial of which """PIres were made. " J ebb ad vv. 417 ; cpo Hom. fl. 1.15, ~46; 2.~68; ad. 11.9[, 36g.lfgolden nails were used, M ykenaian .word handl"" adorned wilh gold or .ilver nails sugS"'" how this ""as done (69, p. ~fu; 97. p. 5[7). Cp. the name (or tpithct) Chrysaor.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Klylaimne.slra's Dream in Sophoklts' Elektra in dream, is wrapped in gold;62 Nebuehadnezzar's dream tree, after being cut down, is bound with iron and brass, but will flourish later on. (Dan. 4. 15, 23.) J ust what purpose t hese bands of metal served the Biblical text does not tell. Whether they were meant to inhi bit the stump's sprouting during that King's madness, or to prevent its splitting and rotting until the time came for it to sprout again- after Nebuchadnezzar became a great and glorious King (Dan . 4.34 ff.)-is anyone's guess. I insist here simply on the UchniqlU of ringi ng wood with metal. I begin with a reference 10 an ancient Ephesian stone pounde r or pestle, ringed with tin inlays,6J which I assume to be decora tive imita tions of the fu nctional metal bands which prevent wootkn pounders and pestles from 5plitting.64 The metal sheathing of the Atrcidai's sceptrc may well be an imitation of bronze.ringed staves, wherewith one occasionally pounded the ground or smote an opponent. T races of a rough use of sceptres exist in the H omeric epics.6' Therefore no t only wooden pounders, but also early wooden rods ("sceptres") destined for rough use may have been bound with metal bands. Now, the Ephesian pounder in question has a striking particularity: it is even more ostenta tiously phallic in shape than any pestle must be. T he glans and the sulcus coronarius are accurately imitated.66 Thus, since the sceptre in K lytaimnestra's dream stands at once for the phallos and for the child produced by the phallos, it is of some interest to note that both male organs and babies arc, at times, "ringed"- sometimes with metal- both actually and symbolically.67 "As were the COrp:les of royal ba bies in Mykenai {Iupra., note 37}. " Fint published by Cook, 12,3.898, fig. 73 ' , pI. 67 . .. As technology develops, functional elementt often turn inlO mere decorath'e elements. Though there;' no pott ery in clay. l""" Polynesia, Ihe decorations of Polynesian pottery· equivalents show tbat Polynesians made coiltJ pollery before Iheir migralion 10 their present home . .., H om. /1. J.~45; ~ " 99; ~65; Od. 2.80. The hypolhetical bronte ringed .taves I have in mind may bave resembled Ihe metal·ringed bamboo lath; of policemen in India. " Tbe "pestle =- pen;''' and "mortar _ vagina" equalions are widespread. Greece: Artemid . 2 . 4~; Mohave (3 Q) : Ikuilc:o (65, p. 45), elC. n P,ni.J: T he prol""tive tying of a Siring around Ihe foreskin a nd the OCcurrence of peniNheatm amongst primitives. I n parts of I ndonesia the skin and glands of Ihe pen;' may be incru"ed wilb precious ' Iones, elc. Cerlain South Amn-ican Indian. increase tbe pleasure of their wives by ringing the sukus coronariw with a goat'. eyelashes. Ancient alhldes in training and also certain slaves were inlibulaled witb melal rings (~). A neurolic patient sometimes put a padlock around hi. ocrolUm ( ~8) . A neurotic wife, mucb enamoured of her hu.band, adorned hn- hwband'. penis wilh ribbom and boWl (68). A patienl bad fantasies about a penis lied up with ' lring, like an old.fasbioned salami or like a rolled roa." and-wing rubber bands--onoe lried to lie up his own penis in such a manner , SO as to increue the pleasure of his m;'lress, after seeing a picture of a Far Eastern bard.rubber ring IUpposed to promole erection by tbe compression of the dorul vein of the pen;'. Perveru sometimes put metal rings amund Iheir flaccid organs, which, after an ereclion ,,",ues, mus, be removro with metal . a,..•. Some use wedding rings for such purposes: Ih;' .hros ligbl upon t he wroding ring .ymbol;'m. Bahy: The most obvioUll equivalents are swaddling bands, all in A. CIwt. 529, etc. Even mOre striking;' the tradi · tion Ihallhe Egyptian " Kadmos" gilded "Semele'." prematurely born infant, "Dionysoa" (_ "Osiris") (D.S. 1.23.4 f. ). Th;' gold .heath apparently replaceo ZeUll' "Ihigh" - wbich m ay be a euphemism mentioned by Greek tradition in th;' conlext (E. 8 fJ. gG, de.).
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Kly14imntStra's Dream in Soplwkles' Elektra
'4'
I strenuously insist that I do not cile these facts so as to suggest that sceptres were gold plated in order to make them symbolize a phallos and /or a baby. I seek to indicate only thaI the gold plating of the sceptre dots 1101 preclutk its being a pha!los or baby symbol. An yo ne reading more into my remarks Iha n I inlended, is ir responsibly indulging in "wild psychoanalysis" which the real psycho-analyst is the first to condemn (50,90). I will return to the problem of golden organs in Greek t raditions somewhat further on. The Problem of Circular Transmission must now be considered in detail. Perhaps the mO$! striking example of something that circulates, with the circulation twice ending by a return to the one who, at one point of t he tale, "emits" or sends it out, is the H ydra's poison. The story is so wel! known that I do not document each of the steps in the "circulation" or this poison; only unusual versions are substantiated by the citing of an ancient authority. The H ydra is particularly poisonous; after killing this monster Herakles uses its body-fluids to poison his own arrows. With one of them he slays N~ who raped-(lr tried to rape (37) -Deianeira. The dying NcsSO!S gives Deianeira his blood and semen, persuading her that, used at the proper time, it would insure H eraklcs's fidelity to her. \Vhen Herakles proves unfaithful, Deianeira sends him a robe smeared with this poison, that kills H eraklcs. The c hain is: H ydra- H erakles- Nessos- DeianeiraH erakles. H erakles, ready to be burned alive on Mount Gite, gives his bow and arrows to P hiloktetes, who consented to light the pyre. Philoktetes is subsequently bitten by a hyd ra (water snake), or, according to Servo V. Am. 3.402, is wou nded by a poisoned arrow (resembling his own). The chain is: the H ydra- H erakles- Philoktetes- a hydra (poisoned arrow). The pattern discernible in familial curses (67) ~mbles this one. Su bsequently Philoktetes ~ lays Paris with one of his arrows. Then, at Krimisa, Philoktetes builds a temple to Apollon-the-Wandtl'"tr (,AAal6c) (Lye. 913 ff. ).68 This is one of Apollon's rarer epithets and may therefore be significant, though the fact that the archer Philoktetcs should have built a temple precisely to Apollon- an archer god- is natural. I cite this tale of the circulation of the Hydra's poison since, like the sceptre, it returns to the one "emitting" it- and, in ract, it does so twice ( Herak.les and Philoktet(3). (Cp. Apollon's arrow: Q.S. 3.83 fr. ) The Circulation of the Sceptre, so strongly emphasized by the text, may possibly be cited as an argument mili tati ng against the view that the ~ceptre ~ymboliz:es Agamemnon '~ phallos.6!I Instead of rctrcnching m)'1lclf behind Cicero's argument: "Nihil tam praepostere, tam incondite, tam monstruose cogitari potest, quod non possimus somniare" (Cic. de diu. 2.71.146) (cp. chap. 6, note 26), I propose to show that it is precisely the sceptre's circulation which proves that it represents, in dream, the phallos of Agamemnon. For gotd-teaf CO"trw baby corps.e! (note 37). For Pythagoras' golden thigh cpo 8, p. ~3 . I I But that epithet may mean only: absmt from home (K .J.D.) . .. And/ol'--1U Vernanl luggeslll (.96, p. , og)- his son, which, symbolicaJly (child _ phallos), is much the same.
'4'
KlytaimnlSlra's Dream ill SQphQkks' Elektra
The basic consideration was admirably discussed by Snell (88, p. 5, fig. 2), in another context. Some lacunae of the Homeric vocabulary pertaining to the living body and iUi o rgans or parts, together with certain early Greek representations of t he body on vases, suggest that the Greek's body image resembled a completed "ji~aw puzzle" (contra: H erter). I have shown elsewhere that such a body image-and the notion of a ncar-total organ autonomy which goes wit h it- is far from rare and is both culturally (ethnologically) and clinically interpretable (35, chap. 13)· I cannol attempt to broach here the immense topic of circulating organs and of vicarious physiological functioning in myth, in belief, in ri tual, in informal custom and also in (neurotic) fantasy.w I will therefore define only three of the notions which appear to underlie the sceptre symbolism in this dream, a nd will illustrate ea ch of them with one Greek example only- aski ng the reader to take it on faith that many other examples exist. ( I ) Circulaling "'gans: The three G raiai have only one eye and one tooth between them and use them in rotation. (A . PV. 792 ff. ) (2) The a rmlating "essence" (" mana" ) is exemplified by Cheiron's ceding his immortality to Prometheus. (Apollod. 2.5.4 ; 5. 11.1 0.) (3) Ablaud "'gans continue loJunction: At Delphi, women can " awaken" Dionysos' phallos. ( Plu. de Is. tt Os. 35, p. 365A.)71 I recall in this connection my conviction that, in the course of the ~O:CXaAlq.l6c to which Agamemnon's corpse was subjected, his phallos, too, was ablated.72 OfcoW"Se, in reality Agamemllon's phalJos Wall not grafted onto the body of Aigisthos and then regrafted onto the "body" of Agamemnon's ghost. Even the manifest dream does not go quite so far : it is the sceptre that twice changes hands. But it seems probable that, underlying this relatively plausible symbolic representation, there is the fantasy of the circulating organ and , a/or/jori, of the circulating essence. Before I tackle this problem, an important fact must be noted : In vv. 266 fr. , which list almost all of Aigisthos' usurpatio ns-including his usurpation of Klytaimnestra's btd- the usurpation of the sceptre is strikingly omitted. n T his omission becomes even more striking once one notes that the dr/am mentions only the usurpation of the sceptre. Such almost ostentatious omissions are psychologically highly significant. 74 Even purely '" A study of Ihis notion is on the point of b<.ing completed. Cpo chap. 6, note 9'. Cpo also the phalloi in hearths, dm:US$Cd in connection ....ith the hearth symbolism, supra, nOle ;29. "The corpse'. extremities were cut olf,'" that the crippled ghost could noltake revenge. Since dead hero:>es could father human children (H dt. 6.69) and . ince Agamemnon'. murderers tried, above all, to destroy his descendants (and avengers), one would have to .....ume, on these grounds onl y, that his phallos was ablated , even if the taking of phallic trophies were far le!ll widespread than it actually is (j.a). Cp. Nil'lSon (75, J', p. JOo), also supra. " T here is no mention of a scepln: ;n A. Ag. ¢6 If. either. "A p.'Iychoanalytic colleague could not interpret one of his own dreams, in whicb then: was a fUhbowl containing three fishes named M ark, Matthe.... and Luke. When I said: "What about John?" my COllealfUe replied: "Now I undenta~d my dream- it is about a man named J ohn." (The fonner Christian symbol: fish _ Christ makes this interpretation a certainty, though that l ymbomrn i. derived from the initial.s l.x.a.y.C). 1!
~ atet"~1
KlyttJimrwlrtJ's nrtmn in SophaHn' Elektra literary considerations require that vv. 266 ff. should be viewed as complementing the dream. Vernant (96, p. 107) considers it anomalous that the (effeminate) Aigisthos should move into (the manly, A. Ag. II ) Kl ytaimnestra's palace, the wayan Athenian woman moved into her husband's home. But surely the real point is that, in so doing, Aigisthos behaved like any newly made king of the pre-patrilineal- and even like many new kings of the heroicperiod. Menelaos hi mself moved into Tyndareos' (and H elene's) palace at Sparta, u Oidipous moved into Iokaste's palace at Thebes.7s Many myths describe the "normal" procedure of killing the king and marrying the widowed Queen; Aigisthos simply inverted this traditional sequence. But even so it is fairly apparent that the moment he began his usurpations and, above all, began to share Klytaimnestra's bed, he took over Agamemnon's social niche and functions, for it is only a slight exaggeration to say that Kings were made in the Queen's bed.76 A Queen, seeking to seduce some yout h, offered him not only her favours, but also the throne: she contemplated viricide. But in E. Hipp. 1010 Hippolytos spontaneously rejects this potential offer. In short, a crwporeal phallos acquires the additional quality of being a royal phalJos, through cohabitation with a Queen. It is in this sense that one may find in the dream a trace of the notion of a transmissible, circulating "essence" -the essence in question being royal status. Even sociologically Agamemnon's recuperation of the sceptre in dream is incompltle, until he "re-consecrates" it by implanting it into the hearth (= Klytaimnestra). Only then can the scep tre sprout once more." These findings explain also why Aigisthos' is called a cowardly lion. (A. Ag. 1224.) Like Blaydes, Paley, Headlam and Mazon, I hold that "Lion" was the name-title or title-name of the High King of Mykenai. 71 It is perhaps the script Aischylos used which prevented him from writing "Lion" instead of (like the copyists) : " lion". It is of great interest that only in A. Ag. 1259 (and nowhm else in the Oresteia). Agamemnon is called a lion ... whose place in bed is usu rped by a mere wolf: Aigisthos. One should perhaps write " Lion" (At<.:lv) in both instances. 79 Once Lion is capitalized, the expression "cowardly Lion" becomes understandable, for a personally worthless man can still be the Lion King ; the insults which Achilleus heaps upon Agamemnon, the man, prove this. (H om. II. 1.122 If.)eo "On the socio-historically tra ... itional character of the latter episode, cpo (i'5) . ,. Cpo AtClSlll'. Ihree royal husbands, H dl. 3.88 elc. (chap. I) . " So phyliological a re-consccration is nOt un-Greek . Hera ga"e the adult H erakles the breast (Iupra); SOme monuments represent H era as actin g out a birlh of H erakl ... Cp o chap. 6, nOle 56. " M ylonas not .. that the Pdopidai came from Asia, where both real and symbolic liom abounded (E.R.D. ). The usual argument is the lion-gate of Mykenai; an additional and perhapl better argument is that""9< Agamemnon wean a lion', pelt (Hom. II. to. ~3). "Lion" is a .uitable lille for a paramount King, cpo "Conquering Lion of Judah". But, I doubt that A. Ag. 1~58 and A. CIwt. 938 shed light On litis problem. 7t In A. CIr«. thefirst and only time Agamemnon'. natural heir Oresles (togelher with Pylades) is called alion (v. 938) u while he rcas.scrts his claim to the thron e by killing his mother. For A. Ag. u~4 1 cannot accepl Fraenkel's explanatio.... H George III'. re.;UrTent ps}'Chotic bou ts did not aboluh hi. royal !Calus. Similar historical examples exist.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Krytaimnestra's Dream in S()ph()kles' Elektra I n fact, for the sociologist, the notion tha t Agamemnon's sceptrephallos has to be properl y re-consecrated by cohabitation with the Queen (and not simply with the IOOmall Klytaimnestra) parlly explains why, in the d ream, coitus is represented by a thr us ting of the sceptre into the hearth, instead of by means of an undisguised coital dream (corresponding to the direct reference to Aigisthos' adulterous coitus in vv. 266 fr. ). On the basis of Vernant's anal ysis of the function of the hearth, it could reasonably be argued tha t the hearth represents the Queen's fem inine parts bellff than do the actual organs of the IOOmall Klytaimnestra. The symbolit:: cohabitation of the royal sceptre with the queenly hearth is a better symbolic revalidation of Agamemnon's royalty than would be an explicit coital dream. I must strongly stress that the arguments I just advanced arc sociological and literary, rather than psychological. They deal wi th more or less conscious and socially mo ulded symbols. The psychological reasons explaining why the dream represents coitus symbolically, ra ther than explicitly, will be discussed fu rther below. Considering the role of royal cohabitation- a ritual act almost approximating a sacred marriage (lep6c ycrll6c)-in the d ream and its sociological implications, many problems would be left in suspense without a careful scrutin y of the na/ure of Aigisthos' usurpations (listed in vv. 266 ff. ), both in strictly sociological terms and in terms of their psychological implications as well. For, as wil! be seen, so far-reaching and manifold an usurpation, the replication of so many of the absent- and then murdered- K ing's functions and roles, must have both a socia-cultural basis and psychological conxqucllccs. ( I) T he socia-functional basis of Aigisthos' usurpa tions is the fact that, as soon as he began to occupy thc segment of "social space" formerly occupied by Agamemnon, he became sIJCiairy the same "person" as Agamemnon. What is involved here is the concept of social representation and of functional substitutability. Indeed : ( I) H e who wears a mask is Ihe one his mask represents. (2) Ifboth A and B stand in a rclationshipx to C, then A is functionally substitutable to B (and vice versa), but only (a) With respect to C (and his equivalents), and (b) Within the framework of the x relationship. I n classificatory kinship systems this functional substitutability ( /7 ) can even entail a slJdal tum-implementation of selfhood (71 ), creating the mistaken impression (36, chap. 6) of a pS)'Chol()gical lack of the sense of the "self" (67).81 (II) \Vhat, from the sociological point of view, is functional substitutability, is, from the psychological point of vie w, what Sperling {89l called an "appersonation" . It seems superfluous to examine one by one the "Two Sed ang ~-Ioi cousins (and ben friemb) had married the ume man. I asked OI"Ie of them: "Arc you j ealous .... hen your husband cohabilS with your cousin and co-wife?" Th e young woman- a .Irong character and an individuali.t- rc-plied: "Why mould I? She i. {for .uth p~rp""'JJ the ..... me penon as I." In sueh _ :ieli..,. e,'cn subjcctivc feelings may be expro<ed in terms of a .rocial relationship Of" role. A planter, who genuinely loved hi. native miltro<, . aid \0 hcr: " I low, you; you areasWltlgirl." She replied affectionately : " I love you- you arc my hurb,...d." Some othcr form. of social substitutabili ty werC discUSK
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Klyloimneslro's DretJ1ll in Sophoklts' Elektra
'45
psychological consequences of all of Aigisthos' usurpations, though I wish to stress once morc that, in vv. 266 if., the pouring of libations into the sacred hearth- which jebb (ad loc.) rightly dee ms the same as the one nea r which Agamemnon was murdered (203)-precedeS" a mention of his "pouring" another kind of "libation" into Kly taimnestra herself. I will consider only the fact that Aigisth05 wears Agamemnon's robes. His doing so can be fully j usti~ed by socia-economic considerations. (I ) In Greek (and Mykenaian) society fin e textiles represented much work and were very valuable. Even Periandros was stingy enough not to place Melissa's clothes on her funeral pyre (H dt. 5.92), (75, p. 179). (2) The robes in question may well have been part of the King's regalia; they were no more "cast-ofrs" than the sceptre was a "secondhand " stick. But this socia-economieally fully undcrstandable wea ring of Agamemnon's robes52 also has psychological dimensions or consequences, whieh supplement and complement its cultural dimensions (32,36, chaps. 4, 5). A wholly convincing- because unexpected-
Two H omeric passages show that the ancients were aware of the fusion of the clothes with the body in the body image: (I) Hom. fl. 16,4 1 fr.: Patroklos dons Achilleus armour; he expects to be mistaken for Achilleus and to behave like his friend. (2) Hom. fl. 17.209 fr. : Achilleus' armour, stripped from Patroklos' corpse, fits itself (by shrinking?) to Hektor's body. Ares thereupon ente rs him (as he occasionally seems to enter Achilleus), so that his (expanding?) limbs are filled with (Achillean) valour and might. In short, Hektor becomes-partly even physically- a double of Achilleus, though- .rign!ficanlly-not ofPatroklos, since the latter also simply appersonated Achilleus. I hold that these H omeric passages help us understand the psychological .. A good equivalent it Penelope's demand thaI her fUlUre husband should be abl e to bend Od)"S5Cus' bow (Hom . Od. ~I.'4 "A personal experien(e has similar implka tion •. In '943, at the end olt tle day I finl put on Ihe uniform of a U.S. Naval Officer, I do.z~ off in an armchair. When I 1>o.gan to wake up, I saw a sleeve with gold braid lying on my lap and woke up completely wilh a olart : I had not rccogni~~ the .ICl':\·e (and hand ) a. my O" ·n. ,. Cte. f r. 8g; Ich. AT. Ao. '553; Plin. HN ,.22.1 , e.e. Ethnology furnithe even mare striking example. The men of certain South American Ind ian tribes routinely bring about a luxation 0{ the penis, and are th erefore able to conceal i . inside the skin and the fatty tissue of the lower abdomen, which plaY' .he role of"clothing" ( 1/, glI). According 10 Ihe Sedang Moi , the placenta is the cloak (_ blanke» of .he foet us ( 15). T he M ohave Indian baby'. cradl e· board no. only appears 10 he treat~ as parI ofil.! body, but e,'en delimits Ihe "social.pace" the baby inhabil.!: Ihe baby i. not an inhabi tant of the hOlls-e, bUI of the cradIc. If a uadlcd baby dies, only its cradle i. burned; only after it ceases to be c",dl~ is the house burn~ down al il.! death (20).
fn.
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
'46
K!,ytaimnestra's Dream in Sophoklts' Elektra
dimensions and consequences of Aigisthos' wearing Agamemnon 's robes: his complete social usurpation and his psychological appersonation of Agamemnon. H e may possibly have worn on occasion even Agamemnon's lion-skin cloak (Hom. Il. 10.:23). If those who hold tha t the name-title of the H igh King of Mykenai was " Lion King" are right- and I think they are-Aigisthos even appropriated Agamemnon's " name" . IS If, as I think, the sociological concept of " functional substitutability" and the psychological concept of " appe rsonation" have a bearing on Aigislhos' complete usurpation of Agamemnon's role, functions, (perhaps ) name-tiele, queen, etc., this, too, renders more plausible the view that the circulating sceptre of the maniftsl content of the dream is a reflection of the fantasy of the circulating organ (and "essence" ), which I believe to be present in the latent COnient of the dream. But even if this inference is not accepted, the least that can be said with assu rance is that the " circulation" of the sceptre cannot be viewed as evidence disproving the inescapable interpretation of the sceptre as a symbol of the phallos, of the hearth as a female organ and of the thrusting of the sceptre into the hearth as a coital symbol. That much is admiued evcn by Vernant, who cannot be suspttted of being sympathetic to psychoanalysis. Excursus." Greek traditi on kllew of golden organs: the " rea l" (?) golden thigh of Pythagoras (Arist.fr. 19[ R. ) and the (faked ) one of Alexandros the fal se prophet (Luc. Alex. 40). Burkert (8, p. 23) speaks in this conne<:tion of shamanistic dismembering and rebirth rites; Dodds speaks of tattooing (39, p. 163). Both theories imply lesions of the body. This view is indirectly supported by the fact that Komaitho cUlsoffPterelaos' one golden hair (Apo!Iod. ~.!.4 . 7 ., etc.) as Skylla culS off Nisos' purple hair (Apollod . 3.15.8, etc.). The alread y cited gilding of the prematurely born Osiris (which seems to replace the prematu rely lost protection of the womb) tends to suggest that golden, or gold covered, organs or parts of the body are somehow to be linked with bodily lesions: the gold may either be a prosthesis86 or a protective covering, pa!liating a real or symbolic defect. I recall o'nce mo re also the gold-leaf covered corpses of royal babies at Mykenai. The problem of these golden organs is too complex to be discussed here; it is not even certain that sufficient data have survived to penni! them to be satisfactorily interpreted. M y sole purpose here is to show that the few existing traditions concerning golden organs do n.ot militate agairut the inte rpretation that the ("golden") sceptre of the Atreidai is, in. dream, a phallos. The Evolution of the Dream is inseparable from its affective tone. The trend of the d ream can be clarified only if, like Vern ant (96, p. [08), one admits from the start that it is a transparent female coital dream ; such " I recall Ihe r~p"almly formu lalffi hyp<'llhesi. Ihal "' MinO!!" ,..alI a title also oonslrued all a name-all wall p"rhapl ' ·Pharaoh". r am ~"en in Iympalhy ... ith Ih~ hyp<'llhesis, formulated by a fin~ and scholarly novel is t, ~f i.s ~hry R~nault (80), Ihal "'"7 Eleusinia n year_king was limpl y called K~rk yon, Ihe tille scrving also as a nam e. Cpo supra, " Lion" , nOle 76 . I I I n which ca.sc "thigh" ma y ..... e11 be a cup hcmi.m. Cpo Pdop" ivory .houlder , ... hich is a prool.hesis.
• alenal
~
ecr.os de al.llor
Klytaimmstra's D ream in SophokUs' Elektra
' 47
dreams are repeatedly a ttested for Greek women,S7 though less often than fo r men, perhaps because male erolic dreams leave visible traces (42, Itsl. 423, no. 14, etc.). Structural considerations- which I must repeat again, so as to enable the reader to bear them constantly in mind- also support this interpretation. In vv. 266 ff., the libation poured into the hearthprtctdts a reference coitllS; in the dream concubitus is alluded to bifort there is a symbolic rep resentation of coitus with the hear th. T he d ream is manifestly dysphoric and, were it a real dream, the dysphoria would be experienced already in sleep : it is an anxiety dream. ( I ) The anxiety dream sent by Agamemnon's wr athful shadell8 is obviollSly not a simple wish-fulfi llment dream. Indeed , in principle all dreams about the dead a re ominollS.89 T hey arc more ominous tha n usual if the dead person is seen to carry something (ps.-Hp . i1l.fomll. 92)- a5 Agamemnon carries his sceptre. (2) Dream coitus with dead penons, who are 1101 heroes receiving a cult,90 is especially harmful, for twO specifiable reasons: (a) Many groups believe that the dead lure the living to the land of the dead, by providing for them instinctual gratifications (COitllS, food) in d ream (30, passim). (b) I n addition to the dream being ghostly and nec rophiliac, K lytaimnestra's coital partner in dream is "inappropriate", nOI only because she herself had murdered him, but also because, in a waking state, she would not ijnd him desirable. I cannot discuss here the vexing problem of such dreams, which stem to run counter to the wish-fulfi llment theory of dreaming. I must content myself with citing some clinical observations. Dreams of coitus with an inappropriate partner seem to be especially frequent in limes of great and realistic psychological str es5. 9t T his is particularly true of women who unconsciously equate coitus with aggression and are therefore obliged to "erotize anxiety".92 The mingling of erollc elemenl.'l and of anxiety explains why this dream - like that of Mendaos (A. Ag. 420 ff. )--can be divided into two acts. (I) In the first, m anifestly IWII-symbolic, part of the dream, Agamemnon simply lies down beside K lytaimnestra (3, p. 54). Since this meaning of the opening venes is justified in connection with an analysis of the location of " Penelope: Hom. Od. !I\l.88 ff.; Demaratos' mother : Hdt. 6.6g; etc. Epigraphic evidence: fit, Itsf. 4~3 ( ., IG IVl, I) no. 4.:1: (with a snake), lell! explicitly in nos. ~3, 39, 4 1, 4l1: ; ItSI. 4~6. &veeal other testimonia concern homosexual dreamJ of men . .. A. Cho
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
'48
Klylaimnl$tra's Duam in Sophokld Elektra
the hearth, I consider here only the extent of Agamemnon's activities in these opening verses. (a) Even though ol.l1Akw can also designate actual coitus,93 I hold that, in these verses, it denotes only corporal proximity. (b) It would be aesthetica lly unsatisfying if the opening part of the dream included an explicit coitus, repeated s;'mbolical!J in the second pan of the dream. It is not denied that this can happen in some dreams-but such a sequence would be hig hly unusual. A comparison with the sequence in vv. 266 fr. will help clarify matters, even though it does not involve a dream. Coi tus is first Sj'mbolically represented (the poured libation) and is then referred to explicitly. T his could happen in a dream which is not particularly anxiety arousing: the initial symbolic representation of coitus would lead to an increase in the pressure of the instinctual d rive upon the " dream censor (17, pp. 505 ff. ). When the resistances of the la tter are overcome, an explicit coital dream can succeed a symbolic one. But Klytaimncstra's dream is an allXiel)'-arQusing, guilt-laden and necrophiliac dream. 94 It would be psychologically more plausible if such a dream, beginning with a situation which under normal circ umstances would lead to coitus, suddenly turned symbolical, so as to prevent a sudden, panicky awakening.~~ Only by recourse to symbolism, a/the crucial moment, can the dream continue 10 perform its function of " guardian of the sleep" {47, pp. 233 f., etc.)-though at the cost of depriving the drea mer of a complete gratification. Exactly the same happens, in a somewhat different way, in M enc:laOll' d ream, where, despite desire, a complete d ream coitus would a bo be psychologically intolerable (chap. 3). These considerations require that 6\.uAlav should not be taken to signify coitus- and, so far as I know, it is not ta ken in that sense by a ny commentator. Understanding that wo rd to refer simply to a lying down side by side, causes the dream sequence to become psychologically plausible and aesthetically satisfying ... and it is never superfluous to reinforce accepted interpretations by new considerations. But this conception of the dream seq uence also has a further advantage: it sheds some light upon the paradoxical consequences of the dream : K lytaimnestra's logical(y unjustifiable dou bts a bout the meaning of the dream (64S) become pS)'chological(y understandable the moment one realizes that, while objectively ominous and generally dysp horic, her dream abo contained, at least in a symbolic form, instinctuaHy gratifyi ng elements. H er perplexity is a direct consequence of the "erotization of anxiety" in the dream.96 " S. OT 367, 11 8~; H d l . 1.IBQ; E. Htl. '400; x. Smp. a.QQ, Mm,. 3. 11.4, etc . •• On ancient Credo necrophi lia, cpo (59) and (27) . .. Cpo chap. 6 and Ihe rrferenceo il conlaim 10 ,uch awakenings, and eopcclall y to lha l of the AiKhylean K lyta;meolra. " The erotization of am, iCly i, much more commonly mel wilh than one may think. Two selll of dam must . uffiee for present purp<>SC!. T he fi nt concern. Ihe occurrence of .ponlane<>u. ejaculation. in adoleocClI1< during di fficu lt examinations. The second ConCern. penom who compul$iyety seck risks in conne<:tion ... ith sexual aCli"ilieo: risks of dete<:lion and ocanda l. risk.. even of disease or pregna ncy. T he classical .ludieo are Ih..e of Laforgue (61, 62).
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Krylaimneslra's Drtam in Soplwkld Elektra
'49
Psychokgical lntnprelalion: Nearly everything in this section is already foreshadowed by the rest of the chapter. K lytaimnestra dreams symbolically of coitus wit h her murdered hushand's ghost. Were Klytaimnestra a real patient, I would probably try to discover whethe r her's was a post-coital dream: o ne in which he r real bedmate-the effeminate but m urderous Aigisthos-is transformed into a killer of women. After all, Aigisthos Wall a close kinsman of Agamemnon; under normal circumstanees, he would have had to avenge his death. This fact is, so far as I know, rather consisten tly overlooked. 97 All that need be added here is that- precisely because she is (defensively) "manly" (A. Ag. I I , elc.)- Kl yt.a.imnestra is just the kind of woman who would experience coitus as an aggression. She would therefore prefer an effeminate, subordinate husband to a virile and independent one ... and yet be disappointed by he r chosen spouse's lack of vi ri lity. The sprouting sceptre in the hearth is a reflection of her phallic ambitions, but is also retrospectively maternal, since she is not about to conceive a child either by Aigisthos, or by the ghost of Agamemnon. What matters most psychologically, is the close link between coitus and murder in this dream,-a link made more dreadful still by the fact that the " phalJos" in question, though certainly ablated in the course of the I-IOCXah1q.&6c, yet returns : in dream in the form of a circulating sceptre, and in reality in the form ofa murderous, exiled son, who also "circulated" - a nd was believed dead. But the psychologically most interesting aspect of the dream is its pSlwm-transpareney, which eonr.t'al~ how d~ply its trll t' latt'nl oontent is buried. Genuinely transparent dreams are commonly dreamed by children and hysterics. Genuinely opaque dreams are often encountered in the analysis of obsessive-compubives. But pseudo-transparent dreams, which conceal the dream's real opacity, I have encountered mainly in the analysis of severe character-disorders with manifestly perverted and even criminal leanings, and with almost uncontrollable acting-out tendencies. Since this characterization is fully applicable to K lytaimnestra, the dream is plausible also in th is respect. Yet a caveat must be entered here. Every pari and alIpcc t of the dream is psychologically plausible. What continues to disturb me about it, is the manner in which these individually plausible aspects, details and structures are put togelher, creating the impression of something cOll/n·lIed. H ence, despite everything that can be shown to be psychologically plausible, I continue to feel that, taken in its entirety, th is dream is more literature than dream. If a patient told it to me, I would suspect that the actual dream had, on awakening, undergone a considerable amount of (perhaps unwitting) "secondary elaboration"." This finding explains why I have left to the last the scrutiny of this dream as literature . .... Kin·murder creata insoluble problems in societia based on the vendetta principle: the murderer is also the avenger. Cpo chap. 4, note ,8. n CpoGeneral l nlroduccion, regarding dreams recorded by Artemidoroo and regarding the dr<:ams of Ati$ceida the RhelOr, which arc, al long last, available to the p
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
250
KlyUlimnestra's Dream in Soplwkln' Elektra
Literary Aspects: As a literary device, the Sophoklean dream is less satisfactory and functionally less ne{;e5Sary than is the Aischylean Klytaimestra's dream. Yet, it i~ a more literary dream than its Aischylean equivalent. Both these findings indicate that the motif of Klytaimnestra's dream had be{;ome threadba re through too much use. Sophokles tried to renovate it, by changing its manifest content; Euripides simply eliminated it from his EkktTa, though he hints at it in E. Or. 61B. I hold that the Sophoklean dream is d ramatically less satisfactory than the Aischylean one, because it encourages the stay-at-home daughten and the Choros more than it encourages Orestes, who appean only some 600 verses later. In this and other respects, the dream is a far smaller driving force in the development of the Sophoklean plot, than in that of the AischyJean narrative. On the whole, except for upsetting Klytaimnestra and encouraging her helpless antagonists, the dramatic role of the dream is negligible. It is less satisfactory than its Aischylean equivalent also in some other respects. Anyone- be she Kl ytaimestra, an English charwoman, or a German secretary- would be badly upset by a dream like that of Klytaimestra in A. Chat., whose manifest content is close to basic human anxieties, to fears of mutilation, etc. If the Aischylean Kl ytaimestra told one her dream, one would seem foolish if onc asked her: "What about this dream upset you?" One would sound foolish even if onc were a simple pygmy hunter, for the anxiety arousing nature of that dream is both self-evident and extreme. By contrast, one would not sound foolish if onc asked the Sophoklean Klytaimnestra: "What upset you about this dream?" Moreover, if one did ask her that question, she would not, like the Aischylean Klytaimestra, reply: "Can't you see for yourself?" She would explain- at length. I have, in dfe{;t, done little more in this chapter than ask that question and provide K lytaimnestra's answers, with such commentaries as Artemidoros would perhaps have added to her explanations. The point I seek to make is that this dream's capacity to frighten the one who dreamed it is not due to its manifest content-save only for the appearance of a dead person. I ts truly frightening content becomes evident only aflu it is interpreted-eith er the way the Greeks interpreted dreams, or the way a psycho-analyst in terprets it. What is most frightening about this dream is its latent content- and that content would be most clearly perceived in thl': dream, for it would be accompanil':d by a marked df$phoria. I concede that such dreams do exist and that it is a touch of (unwitting) psychological subtlety which caused Sophokles to devise a dream whose most frightening element is its [aUnt content. which would be more clearly perceived during the dream than on awakening. But this subtlety is likely to be lost on the audience, fo r much cultural, literary and philological spadework had to be done before that latent content could be brought to light. Another dramatic defect of this dream is that its manifest content does not anticipate the climate and deed of terror which it heralds ... while the terrifying Aischylean dream does anticipate it. That the climactic scene should be simply foreshadowed, rather than fully anticipated, by the dream is defensible from the literary point of vicw. What is less defensible •
. atenal
~
:lerechos da al.ltor
Krytaimnestra's Dream in Sophokles' Elektra
'5'
is that it should be the deeply disguised lalent content of the dream which foreshadows it. The understatement is, to my taste, too extreme. Given the tenousness of the nexus between the dream and the murder, and given also the fact that it is only the hidden, latent content of the dream which foreshadows the murder, two conclusions seem permissible: ( I) The dream, taken by itself, is psychologically plausible enoughthough more plausible for the psycho-analyst than for the lay Athenian spectator. (:2) For the rest, I cannot persuade myself that it plays any truly necessary role in the Sophoklean tragedy. It is, in some respects, a literary heirloom, which tends to clutter up the scene, simply because one refuses to get rid of it. One moves it from the mantlepiece to the piano and then to a shelf, one tries to renovate it by giving it a new coat of paint (a new manifest content) ... but it still r emains an encum brance. Stesichoros and Aischylos had already squeezed the last drop of dramatic usefulness out of it. Euripides quietly turned the old battle-horse out to the pasture, and contented himself with an indirect allusion to it, in a drama which dealt with the aftermath of the murder only (E . Or. 618). I t is probably Sophokles' failure to renovate and to rejuvena te this traditional motif which persuaded Euripides tha t nothing further could be squeezed out ofit. It is not without interest that, on the whole, later mythographers and writers ignored the motif of Kl ytaimnestra's dream. The main literary conclusion to be drawn from all this, is that a dream can be psychologically plausible and interpretable, witho ut necessaril y serving any useful literary end, and the prime literary requirement with respec t to any motif is tha t it should be necessary.
Bibliography ( I) Alexander, Franz : Dreams in Pairs and Series, In temationalJoumal of Psyeho-Anarysis 6:446-45:2, 1925. (2) Ashley Montagu, M. f. : Ri tual Mutilation among Primitive People, Ciba Symposia 8:421 - 436, 1946. (3) Bachli, Erich: Die kansl/emelle Funktion VQn OriWlspriicllen, TrdumtTI usw. in tier grieehiscllen Tragodie. Winterthur, 1954. (4) Baumann, H. H .: Ober Reihenfolge und Rhythmus def T raummotive, Zentralblatfftir Psycho/herapie und ihre Grenzgebitu, 9 :2 13-1128, 1936 . (S) Hehr, C. A.: Aelius Am/ides and tile Sacred Taies. Amsterdam, 1968. (6) Bowra, C. M.: SQPhrx:lean Trageqy. Oxford, 1960. (7) Briehl, Walter and Kulka, E. W . : Lactation in a Virgin, Psychoanarytic Quarterly 4:414- 5 12, 1935. (8) Burkert, Walter: Das PrOOmium des Parmenides und die Katabasis des Pythagoras, Phronesis 14 :1- 30, 1969. (9) id.: Jason, H ypsipyle and the New Fire in Lemnos, Classical Quarterly 20:1 - 16, 1970. ( IO) Burrows, E. G . and Spiro, M. E.: An A/QU Culture. New Haven, 1953·
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
252
Klytaimnestra's Dream in Sophokks' Elektra
(I I) Caspar, Franz: Some Sex Beliefs and Practices of the Tupari I ndians (Western Brazil), Rillista do Musal Pau/isla n.s. 7:1103-244, 1953. ( 12) Cook, A. 8.: Z eus, 3. Cambridge, 1940. (13) Delienne, Marcel: L'Olivier: Un My the Politico-Religieux, ReIiIUl fk l'His/{Jire fks RdigionJ 178:5--23, 1970. ( 14) Devereux, George: Hopi FuM Noles (MS.), 1932 . ( 15) id.: Sedang Field Notes (MS.), 1933- 35. ( 16) id.: L'Envo1.itement chez les I ndiens Mohave, Journal de fa Srx:iiti des Amiricanistes de Paris n.s. 29:405- 412, 1937. (17) id.: Social Structure and the Economy of Affective Bonds, PS)'chaanalytic Revuw 29:303- 314, 1942. (18) id.: The Social Structure ofa Schizophrenia Ward and Its Therapeutic Fitness, Jaurnal of Clinical Psychapathology 6 :23 1- 265, 1944. ( 19) id.: Mohave Orality: An Analysis of Nursing and Weaning Customs, P!JIchaarwlytic Quarterly 16:519-546, 1947, (20) id,: The Mohave Neonate and I ts Cradle, Primitive Man 21 :1 - 18, 1948 , (21 ) id.: Mohave Paternity, Samik~a, Journal rif the Indian Psycho-Analytical Sociely 3:162- 194, 1949. (22) id.: The Awa rding of a Penis as Compensation fo r Rape. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 38:398-401, ' 957· (23) id.: The Significance of the External Fem ale Genitalia and of Female Orgasm for the Male, Journal oj Ihe American Psychoanalytic ASJociolion 6:278-286, 1958. (24) id.: Art and Mythology : A General Theory (in) Kaplan, Ikrt (ed.) : Studying Personality Cross-Culturally. Evanston, Illinois, 1961. (25) id.: Sociopolitical Functions of the Oedipus Myth in Early Greece, Psychoanabtic Quarterly 32 :205- 2 14, 1963. (26) id. : The Exploitation of Ambiguity in Pindaros O. 3.27, Rheinisches Musalmfiir Philalagu 109:289-298, 1966. (27) id.: Greek Pseudo-Homosexuality, Symbolat Oslaenses 42 :69-92, 196 7. (28) id.: The Realistic Basis of Fantasy, Journal of the Hillside Hospital 17:13-20, 1968 . (29) id.: Reafily and Dream: The Psyclwlhnapy of a Plains Indian. (Second, augmented edition.) New York, 1969. (30) id.: Mohave Ethnopsychiatry and Suiciu. (Second, augmented edition. ) Washington, D.C., 1969. (SI) id. : The Nature ofSappho's Seizure in Fr. SI LP, Classical Quarterly 20 :17- 3 1,1970 . (32) id.: La Naissance d'Aph rodite (in) PouiHon, Jean and Maranda, Pierre (eds.) : Echanges et Cammunitalians (M /langes lilli-Strauss), Paris and The H ague, 2 .1 229-1252. 1970. (S3) id.: The Equus Oc/()btT Ritual Reconsidered, Mnemosyne 23 :297- 301, 197 0 • (34) id.: PS)'choanalysis and Ihe Occult (Reprinl). New York, 1970. (35) id.: Essais d'Ethnopsychiatrie G/nirale. Paris, 1970. (Second edition 1975 ·) (S6) id.: Ethnopsychanalyst Campllmmlariste. Paris, 1972 .
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
Klyl4inwsh'a's Dream in Soplrhkks' Elektra
'53
(37) id. (and Devereux,]. W.): Les Manifestatiornde I'Inconscient dans Sophokles: T,achiniai 923 sqq. (in} Psyduvudyse et SrKiologu comme Mttlwrks d'EWdt us PhiTwmlnes Histmiques tl CultUTels. Bruxelles, 1973 (38) id.: Trois Reves en serie et une Double Parapraxe, EthnopsychoiogU (in press). (39) Dodds, E. R.: Tht Greeks and tk Irrationol. Berkeley, Calirornia, 195 1. (40) id. : Pagan 4IId Christian in an Agl tif Aw{)'. Cambridge, 1965. (41 ) Dover, K.].: Eros and Nomos, Universi{)' ofLondon Institute ofClassicai Studies, Bulletin 11:31- 42, 1964 . (42) Edelstein, E.J. and Ludwig: Asclepius 2 vols. Baltimore, Maryland. 194-5· (43) Erlenmeyer, E. H. : Notiz zur Freudschen Hypothese nber die Zahmung des Feuers, Imago 18:5- 7, 1932. (+4-) Fenichel, Otto: Tk PsydwantJiytic Thtory of N turosis. New York, 1945· (45) id . : The Symbolic Equation: " Girl _ Phallus" (in) Tk Golilcted Papas ofO. Frnichel2. New York, 1954. (46) Forde, C. D.: Ethnography or the Yuma Indians, Universi!Y of California PublictJtwfIS in American Arduuology and Ethnology 28, no. 4, pp. 83- 278, 1931. (47) Freud, Sigmund: The Interpretation of Dreams, StandtJrd Edition 4-5, London, 1958. (48) id. : Fragment uf a.1l Alla.l ysu. uf a. Ca.se uf H yste ria., Standard Edition 7· London, 1953 · (49) id.: Character and Anal Erotism, StandtJrd Edition 9. London, 1959. (50) id .: "Wild" Psycho-Analysis, Standard Edition II. London, 1957. (5 1) id. : Great is the Diana of the Ephesians, Standard Edition 12 . London, 1958. (52) id. : Repression, St(Z1Jda,d Edition '4. London, ' 957. (53) id. : From the H istory of an Infantile Neurosis, Sianoo,d Edition 1]. London, 1955. (54) id. : Civilization and its Discontents, SttJnoord Edition 21. London, 196 I. (55) id.: New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, SttJndard Edition 22. London, , g64. (56) id. : The Acquisition of Control over Fire, SlandtJrd Edition 22. London, 1964. (57) Gahagan, L. : The Form and Function of a Series of Dreams, ]OUTntJ[ of AbnormtJl Qnd SocitJl Psyclrhlogy, 29:404- 4OB, 1935. (58) Grinnell, G . B.: Tk Fighting Cheyennes, Norma n, Oklahoma, ' 958. (59) Kouretas, Demetrios: Trois Cas de Necrophilie dans l'Antiquite, Comptes Rmdus, 5~ Gongri s de PsychitJtrie tt de N eurologit dt Langue FrtJllfaise pp. 705- 71' . Strasbourg, 1958. (Go) La Barre, Weston: Tk Ghost Dance. New York, 1970. (61 ) Laforgue, Rene: De I'Angoisse a l'Orgasme, Revue Fr4liftJise de PsychantJlyse 4:245-258, 1930- 1931. (62) id.: Psy,hopathologU de i'Eckc 2 • Paris, 1950.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Klytaimne.slra's Duam in Sophokles' Elcktra
'54
(63) Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel: u s PaysQns du Langutdot. Paris, 1966. (64) Lincoln, J. S. : Th, Duam in PrimitilJt CUl/Uftl, New York, 1970.
(65) Linton, Ralph: The Tanala, Field Musuem pological Series 22. Chicago, '933.
of Natural History, Anthro-
(66) id.: The Tanala of Madagascar (in) Kardiner, Abram and Linton, Ralph: The IndillidUilI and hu Soci,!>'. New York, '939, (67) Lloyd-Jones, H ugh: The Justice of Zeus. Berkeley, California, 1971. (68) London, L. S. and Caprio, F. S.: Sexual D eviation. Washington, D.C., 1950. ( ~ ) Lorimer, H. L.: Homer and tlu. MCJnummu. London, 1950. (70) Malinowski , Bronislaw : Sex and Repression in Savage Society. London,
'9 2 7. (71 ) Mauss, Marcel: Une Categoric de J'Esprit H umain: La Notion de Pel'3onne, celle de " Moi" (in) Mauss, Marcel: Socia/agie et Anthra~ pologit. Paris, 1950 . (72) Mead, r.,·Iargaret and Metraux, Rhoda (eds. ) : The Sturfy of Culture at a Distan(t. Chicago, 1953. (73) Merker, F.: Die A/afQi. Berlin, 1904. (74) Michaels, J. J.: Disorders of Characttr. Springfield, Illinois, 1955· (75) Nilsson, M . P.: Gt schichtt der gritchisclltn Rtligion 12. MOnchen, 1955. (76) Oppenheim, A. L. : The Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near~East. Transactiolls, Amn-ican Philosophical Socitty, n.s., vol. 46, pt. 3, 1956. (77) Page, Denys : HistoT)' alld lilt Homeric Iliad. Berkeley, California, 196 3. (7B) Powell, Benjamin: Erichthonius and the Three Daughters of Cecrops, Cornell Studies in Classical Philology 17 . New York, 1906. (79) Preller, Ludwig and Robert, Carl: Griechische Mythologi" , 189419 21 . (80) Renault, Mary: The King M/JJ/ Die. New York, 1958. (S I) Rivers, W . H. R . : Psychology and Ethnolagy. London, 1926. (S2) Rohde, Erwin: PV'che. London, 1925. (83) Roheim, Geza: Psycho-Analysis of Primitive Cultural T ypes, Inll!TlUltional Journal of Psycht}-Anarysis 13: 1- 244, 1932 . (84) id.: Hungarian Shamanism (in) R6heim Geza (eeL) : Psychoanarysis and tht Social Scitnces 3. New York, 195 1. (B5) Roscher, W . H . : AusjfJhrliches Ltxikon dtr gritchischen und romischen Mythologit. Leipzig, IBB4- 1937. (86) id. : Das von der "Kynanthropie" handelnde Fragment des Marcellus von Side, Abhandlungm dtr philologisch-histarisc/ren Classe dtr Konigljch Sachsischen Gesellschaft tkr Wisstnschajten 17, no. 3, 18g6. (B7) Seligmann, C. G.: Th, Cult of Nyakang and the Divine Kings oj the Shilluk. K hartum, 1911. (BB) Snell, Bruno; The Discouery of lhe A1ind. Cambridge, Massachussetts, 1953 · (Bg) Sperling, O. E.; On Appersonation, International Journal of PsychoAnarym 25: 128--132, 1944. (go) Sterba, R. F.: The Abuse of Interpretation, Psychiatry 4 :9- 12, 194 1 •
. atenal
~
echos de al.llor
KlylaimMstra's Dream in Sophokles' Elektra
(91)
(92) (93)
(94)
'55 Stinton, T. C. W.: Euripitks and tlu Judgnunt of Paris (Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, Supplementary Paper ii). London, 1965. Swirl, J onathan : CuflifJt1"s TralJtls. 1726. Teitelbaum, H. A.: Psychogenic Body Image Disturbances Associated with Psychogenic Aphasia and Agnosia, Journal of Nervous and Menial Disease 93:581 - 612, 1941. Todd, O. J.: Intkx Arislophaneus. Cambridge, Massachusetts,
1932 . (95) Toffelmier, Gertrude and Luomala, Katherine: Dreams and I;>ream Interpretations of the Diegueno Indians of Southern California, Psychoanalytic Quarterly 2: 195--225, 1936. (g6) Vernant, J.-P.: Mythe tI Pensle ,hn: its Crees. Paris, 1966. (97) Wace, A. J. B. and Stubbings, F. H. (eds.): A Companion to Homer. London, 1962. (gB) Wagley, Charles and Gaivao, Eduardo: The Tapirape (in) Steward,J. H. (ed.): Handbook oJSoulh American Indians 3 (Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 143). Washington, D.C., 1948.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Chapter 8
Three Euripidean Dreams: Variations on a Theme (Euripides: Rhuos, Hekabe, lphigllleia amongst 1M Taurian.r)
Three Euripidean Dreams: Van'a/iDns on a Theme
'59
Introduction Though the arrangement of this chapter differs appreciably from that of the chapten devoted to the three versions of Klytaimestra's dream, my analysis of the three surviving Euripidean dreams concerns a very similar problem. Klytaimestra's dreams may be compared to dreams dreamed by three different persons in response to the same strong stimulus, which is part of the "residue" of the previous day. The three Euripidean dreams seem to be the equivalent of what, in clinical practice, are called "dreams in series" or " paired dreams": they are repeated dreamed "responses" to some basic and, at times, quite early problem or trauma. Although I do not neglect the latent content of these dreams, one of my main objcctiva is to show that countless manifest, latent, structural and psycho-analytical aspects of these three dreams are so deeply interrelated, that the dreams in q uestion must be considered as variationsby the sa17U! "composer"-on a single theme: on that of the so-called "primal scene", which is the child's real or fantasied, but always anxietydistorted, experience of his parents' coitus. If, as 1 hope, I can demonstrate this, my findings have some bearing on the still controverted view that the drama Rlusos, which we possess, is the Rhesos of Euripides, and not that of an " unknown author" having the same title as the hypothetically lost Euripidean drama (134). Since the whole controvcny is most ably discussed by Ritchie (125), who, like myself, holds the Rlusos to be authentic, I can dispense with a general recapitulation of the problem, limiting myself nrictly to a discussion of the fundamental similarities between thc dreams of Rhesos' Charioteer (E. Rh. ), of Hekabe (E. Hee. ) and of Iphigeneia (E. IT)-and , of coune, to the psycho-analytical scrutiny both of the dreams themselves and of their basic similarities. However, since, in this case, what matters most is the presence of a great many similarities, I do not analyse the dreamJ individualb'. My analysis is focused on the points of similarity, for it is this that interests most the Hellenist. But this does not mean that 1 short-change the psycho-analyst! Given the fact that nearly every item of each of these dreams has its counterpart in the two others, the analysis of the similarities is also a full analysis of all of their details. Moreover, just as, in clinical practice, one can annlyse two or more dreams- especially if they are obviou~ly "serial" or "paired" dreams, dreamed by a patient during the same nightsimultaneouslY, to it is legitimate to analy~e these dream-variations on a single theme joint!;. Though this may be an innovation in the psychoanalytical study of literary dreams, it is only very slightly innovating in tenns of clinical practice. I state emphatically that I did not set out to prove the authenticity of the R.hesos. In fact, I was struck by the !imilarities between the three dreams btjore I discovered that the authorship of that drama was disputed. Much of the first draft of this chapter was written before Ritchie's excellent book (125) fell into my hands. Whatever flaws this chapter may have, that of starting from a preconceived idea is not one of them. t • Simi\""ly, I did not go to the Mohave I"d.ia.n resen·"t.ion 10 ;nveotig"te their p-yclIi .. tric
Three Euripidean Dreams: Variations
011
a Tkmu
One last word may be said about the somewhat unus ual organization of the material presented in this chapter. As alread y indicated, the concurrent analysis of "serial" dreams is by no means unusual (48, passim). I therefore note only that a separate analysis of each of the three Euripidean dreams would have doubled the length of th is chapter. I also realize that I would probably have facilitated the acceptance of my interpretations, had I placed the terminal sections at the beginning of this chapter. But I decided to adopt a different order of presentation, so as to illustrate a relatively new rwthod of analysing what the literary critic calls "parallel passages"- such as serial dreams. I am confident that those who read carefully the texts or the translations of the d reams under scrutiny, will have no difficulty following my argument. I concede that this chapter is not exactly "light reading". Tho~e who rend it attentively will no doubt decide for themselves whether the effort was worth their while. ideM and praclices in order 10 pro"e Freud righi- for at Ihat lime ( 1938) I was an opponenl of psych04nalys;'. I ....·as forced 10 become a Freudian by my Mohave data (19. pp. ~ f. ) .
~
a
ida par
262
Three Euripidean Dreams: Variations on a Thnne
PHCOY HNIOXOC )Cae' IiTTvov S6I;a Tt(: TTopk,.aToo· hrrrov<: yap &c le~ K&SlcpPT]~&-rOW 'Pnot' 'TfapEerC:X:, dBov, w<: 6vap 6oKwv, AVKov<: trrt~~a<: !Spalav ptcxlV' &lvoll"Tt: S' oVN 'Tfw~ucii<: ~lVOV TplXa, i'jAavvov, alS' lppEyKov l~ &pn]PIWV 6v1J6v lMovOOI K6:ve)(ohllOv cp6~T]V, tyw S' alJVvwv &ilPOO: t~EYE!polJal nWAolclV' lvvvxoc yap t~c.::.plJa cp613cx.
780
1'011.101
78, (Nauck's text)
EKABH <1> CTEpoTfO t!.lOC, <1> O
68
TlnOT' aipolJal {VVVXoc oV-rw 5ellJa<:l, cpaq1a<:IVj W 'TfOTvla XMv. ~QVO"IM'tpVywv 1Ji"i"ftp 6vdpwv, crtrO'TfhrrfOlJal lvvvxov 6<+'tV, ~v m:pl 'TfaI86c llWO TOO ~30lJivov KaTa 9pijKT]V 0:1.1,,1 nOAv~eiVT]c"ft "iAT]C evyaTpOC SI' 6vdpwv [fib yap} cpoIXpav [6<+'1V l\.laOov] t6OT]v. W X66vlot 6Eol, a::xaTE 'TfaiS' tlJ6v, &: IJ6voc oi1<WV ~p' IT tllWv """v XIOvWST] 0p~K1lv KaTt)(u ~dvov 'TfctTplov CflVAco
70
75 80
85
"he'
95
(Meridier's text)
141lrENEIA lx KalVo S'
~K.EI w~
cpJ:povca cpO:q.tctTa,
42
TTpOC aleEp', ei TI Sfj ,.68' ler'lxKoc. \I-nvctI TiicS' crrra),Acrx6E1ca Yi"ic oha:111 tv "Apyel, TTapewa.CI S' tv Idoolc WSEIV, X60voc 8t varra CEIc6ijval ~, cpruyflV 5t t<6:~w erOca epry"ov elcl&l11 S6IJWII TThvolITa, ".m. S' tptl'f'I)lOV rnyoc fk~Afl~ 'TfpOc ovSac t~ 6:Kpwv eraell&v, M~w
C80f tv
45
• alenal
~
echos de al.llor
Thre~
Euripilkan Dreams.' Variations on a Thrnu LilMal Translations
E. Rh. 780-788: "And in my sleep a delusion (dream-image) !tood by me; for the horses which I tended (fed?) and used to drive standing by Rhesos in the chariot- as it appeared in my dream, I saw that wolves had mounted upon them and were perched (hanging on) their backs; and both of them, beating with their tails the hair of the horses' skins, were urging them on; and they (the horses) were snorting, breathing forth rage from their throats, and tossing their manes high [Reiske]. And I, trying-to-repel the beasts from the horses, woke up; for nocturnal terror was rousing me." E. Hec. 68-97: "0 dazzling-light of Zeus, 0 dark night, why am I in the night thus lifted with fears, with apparitions? 0 august Earth, mother of dark-winged dreams, I send-away-from-me ( = send back?) this vision of-the-night, which, about my son who-is-being-kept-safe in Thrace and about my beloved daug hter Polyxene, a fearful sight, in dreams I perceived, I understood . • 0 gods of the Earth, save my son who, the one anchor still of my house, inhabits snowy Thrace in the keeping of his father's (guest-) friend. There shall be something new, there shall come some tearful tune to tearful women. Never before did my heart shudder and fear so incessantly. Would that I might see here the inspired soul ('+"'Xl')) of Helenos or Kassandra, 0 women of Troy, that they might j udge (interpret) my dreams. · 2 For I saw a dappled fawn being tom by the bloody claw of a wolf, after being dragged pitifully from my knees by force. And this is (also?) the fear I have: there came ihe ghost of Achilleus above lhe topmost crest of his tomb and demanded as a gift-of-honour one of the much-suffering Trojan women. Therefore from my (child), from my child turn this away. you gods, I beg."l E. IT 42-60 : "Now the strange apparitions, which the night has brought to me, I will tell out to the open-sky (aI6l')p), jfindeed it is any help to do this. It seemed in my sleep that I had got away4 from this land and was living in Argos and that I was sleeping in the midst of the maidensquarters; and the back ( = surface) of the earth (X6ov6c) was shaken with heaving. And I fled and standing outdoors saw the cornice of the building falling, and the whole house in ruin, dashed to the ground (ouSac; also: • Not" tm.,t "dreams" is twic" in the plural (infra). Th" middle section, between asterisks, is anap ..."tic . • Th" mum of escape are not specified. This may /JerIMJn imply that not a real escapo:, but only .. rqRSSion in tim" is mean!. Cpo infra. 1
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
264
Thret Eunpilkan Dreams: Variatwns an a Thenu
1J6voc 0' tAtlofSr) c'rii;\'oc, We l~£ IJOI, 66lJ'o.lv TraTJ'41wv, tK 0' rnlKpCr:vwv K61lac ~av6o:c K~lvOl, ofetrlJa 0' MpW'rrov ;\.a~Tv, KC%yw TIxVT)v 11')vo' I'lv lx,w ~WQ)q6vov TLI1C1>c' 06pal\loy Mav We 6avoVlJEvov, ..:;\.alovca. TOWap 0' WOE CVIJ~W T66E' TffivT]K' 'Ople'rT] c, ou KaTT]p~61JT]\I ~yw. c'rii;\.01 OiKWV e!ci TTaio£c cipcrvEc' tMJCKOVCI 0' ovc av xtpvLfkc ~wc' ~lJaL
50
55
yap
ovo' au CVVCnvaI TOWap k cp(;\ovc
lxw·
(Gregoire's text)
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Thee Euripidtan Dreams: Variatiom on a Tlumt pavement, floor) from the top of the roof-trees. And a sjngle column was left, as it seemed to me, of my father's house; and from the capital of it there hung down Jight-colourcd hair;3 and it assumed the voice ofa man. Then 1, observing this rite of killing strangers which I have, sprinkled it6 with water, as if it we re about to die-{I) weeping. I interpret the dream thus : the one who had died is Orestes, and he it was for whom I perfonned the ritual; for the pillars of a house are its male children; and those whom my holy washing touches, die. I have no ot her friend s who fit into my dream. "7 These translations sacrifice elegance of style to absolute literalness, for here the literal content alone matters. S The Dala and Ihnr Exposilion. The basic data are of three types: ( I ) Dreams narrated by the dreamer. The texts and translations are given above. A ssociations: The passages immediately preceding and succeeding the dream-narratives; aho direct all usions to the dreams in the rest of the relevant dramas. Thus, though the appearance of Achilleus' ghostrecalling that of Polydoros in the Prologue-is known to Hekabe only by report, it is an association to the dream, fOf she says: " And something else also frigh tens me" (E. Htc. 92 ff.). . Collateral Matmal: E. (Antiope)fr. ~203 N2 duplicates both the content and the spatial arrangement of one element in Iphigeneia's dream : hair (of ivy) tops a column. 9 F. Robert's (127) plausible view, that Orestes planned to enter Artemis' temple from above, is also a datum. The collapse of the palace in dream resembles the so-called " Palace Miracle" in E. Ba. 586 If. T he obscure manner in whicn the "descent" of the hair is described somewhat re<:alls the strange manner (E. Ba. t t t t fr. and Dodds ad loe. ) in which the tree ontO which Pentheus is perched, is made to "collapse" (is uprooted), bringing Pentheus within the reach Ortne murderous Mainades - as the hair ends up within the reach of Iphigencia's hands. These images seem Euripidea n. Other Euripidean images, whose content or structure- but not both- also resemble a dream element, are memioned either only in passing, or else not at all. As in the other chapters, Greek, ethnological and clinical data are only used to strengthen certain interpre tations. The texts are treated conservatively; they did not have to be strained to '''H ung down" - a vexing expreosion (M. Hada" "sprouled forlh"; Gregoir<:: l u this passag~ th~ colour ~cr.o6O(; = l S to be light, Ihough in PI. Lys. ~17d a dark colour may be meant. I n thu drama the word is also applied to the colour of blood and oloit (vv. 73, 633) . • Praumably the Mi, (M. H adas: "him"; this cannot be right , for Iphigeneia does not ooonnot as ret Ih~ hair and a person. G~oir<:: "this column", which E.R.D. thioks may be right). 1 Interpn:tation by an e>I'.cl",ion of the unsuitable-perhaps refiectillfj: uncertainty. (The ioterpretation does prov~ to be wrong. ) " I gratefully acknow ledge Mr Philip Vcllacon'. help with these tranllatiorn. I, whO$('. nati,'e language is not English, would not have dared 10 brutalize it to ouch an exlenl, in order 10 achieve absolule lileralneu. I Cpo E. n... I '70. On the "hair _ ivy _ curly" nexUl. cpo 144, p. '35, note I. " poussai~n1·· ) .
IQ
On the Greek symbolic equation: tree '" column, cpo inrra.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
,66
Three Euripidum Dreams: Vanoa/ions on a Tkmt
yield up their meaning. Unequivocally outlined realistic Images are occasionally "completed" . Since a realistic wolf claws the fawn fatally, qf/er that young animal was torn from H ekabe's Jap, and since no one else is present in the dream, nor anyone in reality nul symbolized by Ihe wolf, I sec no alternative to the view that the wolf himself lore the fawn from H eka be's lap with its claws. The wolf must therefore be visualized, at least to start with, as "arched " over the sealed H ekabe's knees: the wolf's front paws on her lap, its hind legs on the ground. By contrast, in I phigeneia's dream, 1 do not "supply" or even imagine the sound the crashing of real masonry would produce, partly because dreams are mainly visual experiences, but mostly because one sound- · that produced by the hair- is explicitly mentioned in the later part of the dream. In fact, one notes- and can interpret- the absence of sound in the first part of the dream only because there is a sound in its second part. Finally, I have tried to mention cvery anomaly and /or Jlriking omission in all three d reams and have interpreted somc of them. My description and quasi-structural analysis of the Euripidean dreams' manifest content is almost entirely objective, in that I seek to highlight similarities between the three dreams. I identify these patterns by means of a technique comparablc to the Aristotelian "decoding" of the changing refle<:uons of an object in moving water; the pattern is revealed by whatever remains inva riant in the successive transformations of these reflections. I deliberately refrain from exploiting fully the techniques of structural analysis ( /8), in Ltvi· Scrauss' sense ( /08, etc.), for chat would make this chapter considerably more difficult to read. Besides, since structuralist and psycho-analytIcal mcthods arc, I believe (46, 57), complementary, their interpretations tend to converge. I simply add thaI my psychoanalytical interpretations arc here as conservative as the inherent complexity of psychic processes-and especially of those of a great poet- wiH permit.tl Unfounded charges of "wild" over-interpretation will not simplify stubbornly complicated processes. All dream elements mesh and each of them is heavily over-determined even in poetry. This made many cross-references unavoidable. T hey could be kept at a minimum only by assuming that the reader would thoroughly familiarize himself with every detail of these drearm, before reading their analysis and interpretation . SO~ Euripidt an Characteristics of the three dreams may now be enumerated. The Euripidean atmosphere and outlook of the dreams, as well as of their pathos is, I thin k, unquestionable. Also Euripidean is Ihe use of children--or of child-equivalents- to achieve that pathos (note 134). Rhesos' horses are carefully lended and the Charioteer's concern for them is almost maternal. Hekabe's dream-faw n is lap-nurtured. "Orestes'" hai r is sprinkled, though in a typically ambiguous, Euripidean manner: the hair of baby brothers is washed protectively; that of sacrificial victims with murderous intent. The dream personages are quite active- more so, for example, than " F",ud said thaI If one could but analyaefulry One singte dream, the patient's analysis would be finished.
• alenal
~
echos
ja al.llor
Three Euripitkan Dreams: Variations on a Theme in A. PV, or in A. Eum.- and the imagery's vividness is worthy of a poet said to have studied painting. l1 Yet, the drearru are relatively nonflamboyant: though they have, or are believed to have, a prophetic or clairvoyant dimension-deceptively so in E. IT-the imagery is appreciably closer to that of the real dream than to that of the allegory, or of a dream diosguised a.'I an allegory (A. Pm., and, to a lesser extent, S. El.). Something like a Euripidean dream could, I think, be dreamed also by real Greeks or by modern dreamers. This finding fits both the widely accepted view that Euripidean perwnages are credible and Dodds' observation that Euripides handled the irrational in a psychologically realistic manner (63). Since 1 hope to show that all three dreams represent a reaction to the same intra-psychic tension, derived from the same (real or fantasied ) "outer" eJl;perience, I might as well express here a view which, as my experience of men and the world increases, seems increruingly persuasive to me: reality's representation ( = science) may well be only the rational common denominator of irrational fantasies- a common denominator which strips off Pegasos' win~ and the hippocampus' body and tail, leaving only the horse of daily experience and of textbooks of zoology . .. while the winged Pegasos and the real hippocamp continue to haunt our dreams (cp. General Introduction). The great merit of Euripidean dreams is that though they are peopled with the oniric equivalents of Pegasus, they do not stray into the non-world of the Chimaira (as do some of Ailios Aristeides' dreams). These considerations appear to justify my analysing first the manifest contenl and structure of Euripidean dreams and only then teasing out also their latent content by psycho-analytical means; I found this procedure useful also in clinical work (48). TI1roughout, I seek to highlight the accuracy of Euripides' observations, the realism of his exploitation of the material and, above all. the dazzling skill he shows in preserving the structure and latent content o f his (hypothetical) model-ofthe Primal Scenein his three creatively divergent variations on a basic theme. The Dramatic Funttion ofa dream is to influence the plOLll The secondary elaboration which this presupposes does not make the dream psychologically less interpretable than sought incubation drearru.14 The Charioteer'~ dream is, strictly speaking, a stylistic device and not a driving force; Lesky ( 107) would probably call it a "reaction". Its " prophecy" (rule: clairvoyance) is immediately fulfilled ( = verified).! ' The dream barely reach es into lhc drama. A sluggish spectator in dream, the Charioteer becomes (compensatorily?) hype ractive on awakening. "On Ihis tradition, cpo '3-1, i. 3, p. 314 and note 3. Cpo V. Eurip. 116 If. Il I therd"orequestion Ri tchie'. ( 125, p. 1(9) view, thai the E. Hn. Prologue (which the dream presupposes) could be dispcrned wilh itruc!Unlly. On the Itructure of E. Hn. cpo infra. "On incubation drea ...... cpo 64, pp. 110-116, ~03, nOIC 83 and passim; 67, ~ , pp. t4 5 If. Though if an Jroquou drca ..... Ihat he receives a gift, he mwn be given il also in reality, hi, dream, too, i. interpretabte ( 1-#1 ) and 00 are .intitar "ooul wish" drca ..... from Kamtchatka, etc. Cpo chap. 6, note 89. "Th.i.o i. of H omeric in.pinlion. Ritchie ( t2$, p. 75) noles that th e only olher Greek dream fulfilled with equal rapidity is that ofRhesol h;~lr, H orn. Ii. 10: 497.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
Three Euripitkan Dreams: Variations on a T hnne
Guilt-ridden because of his initial inactivity, he irrationally accuses H ektor of murder and horse-theft. Now, according to a number of other sources, Rhesos' invincibility depended on his horses' eating Trojan grass and d rinking Trojan water.16 Only in E. Rlz. does his invincibility depend on his spending a night on T rojan soil. n T his slight modification of the tradition was probably necessary, since othenvise even the distraught Cha rioteer would have realized that it would be self-defeating for Hektor to steal Rhesos' horses. La H ektor may simply have cast a longing eye on Rhesos' horses, having just renounced his claim to Achilleus' team in favour of Oolon, whom he hardl y expected to fail. 19 What better substitute could there be for that immo rtal team than R hesos' horscs?20 Though such a thought might cross even a H ektor's mind, he would certainly never act upon it. The Charioteer's irrational accusations are mere " projections", motivated by his obsessive preoccupation with his horses, even in dream. The Charioteer did not intuitively read Hektor's thoughts, even though, still befuddled by sleep and by shock, he might have been especially sensitive to subliminal clues. If he is " right", he is accidently so, and Euripides so intended it; he ha rdly meant to represent the Charioteer as a mind-reader. Besides, the Charioteer's c haractcr matte rs less for the plot than does his dream. In short, though the quarrel reveals much abou t the Charioteer, all it tells one about Hcktor is tha t this magnanimous ma n would deal gently even with a distraught and irrational subordinate. The dramatic functi on of the E. Hec. dream must be appraised first in relation to that drama's much maligned nructure.21 The presence of a "break" in its middle is a misapprehension of the modern mind, obsessed with the importance of young girls.22 Athenians may have viewed .. s.:h. 11. 1<'.435; EU!lalh. in II. 8[7-',6; A~ciWl Nyugr.fr. 3, i, p. ~30 Ribbco;k ; V . .'len. 1.469; Serv. V. Am. 2.[3; M yth. Vat. [.~03. This may be an allusion [0 an Asiatic manner of demanding feallY. Xerxes asked Greek ~itie'l for earlh and water: (Hdt. 7 . 3 ~ ) ; a~cording to Hungarian tradilion , Ihe conqueror Arp;l.d (IX Cent. .... D.) asked for earth, wa[er and grass (for his hona) . Such data may j usl cnnceivably hinl al a loot (rad i[ion thaI, in exchange for hill help, Rh rsos asked 10 be recogniud as suzerain, or at leaOl as su preme commander (cpo Gdon's ~onditio!U, Hd t. 7. I~8-162 ) . " Thi., 100, may suggCSt "laking possession". In Central Europe, the room in which a ""vereign On~e oJept, was known eV.,r after a. Ihe e. g.. Maria Thn-esia room (cp. also E ngland). A Maori king mWlt be ca r ried acrOSS land whi~h does not belong to him; were hill foot to tread iI , the land would become hill ( ~p. also H ippi as' loss ofa toolh: H dt. 6. (07). " M oreover, in E. Rh. , [he hones praumably grazed On T rojan soi l ; they were ha rdly s[olen before that, as rep,){[ed in la I C sources (V. Alii. 1.469 and Servo ad loc., elc.) . I. And rightly 110. E. Rh. itself highlights the un reliabililY of primitive and an~ient """ tind. (808 ff., .,te.). '·A~~ord ing to Patin ( "9, 3, 2, p. 155) th., naWl betw,",n the two leaOU was fint pointed om by T h. Borel ( IO) . l ! Even R itch ie ( '25, p. 109) rel uctantly ~onced"" Lhat the E. Htt. Prologue is not ind ispenlable. Were that 110, one would also ha" e 10 abandon [he drea m, which presuppose the Prologue. The dogma of the bad ~omlru~tion ofvarious E uripidean pia)" . hould be reconsidered. W. N. Bale. (7, p. '99) nOles that E. Tr. gi" e5 an impression of unity when performed, though nOL when read. The appreciation of a Grttk drama'. unity requires visu al imagina[ion. Zl They ..,Idom an: cynoourCll in primitive and non'occiden[al societi." ( /03 ). Some Hellenists, appalled that no words an: wasLed On Mauria's consumma ted ..,If-=ifi~e
r.
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
Three Euripidtan Dreamt; Van'a/ions on a Tlume
Polyxene's fate simply as a prelude to the greater tragedy of the lasl male Priamid.21 Polyxene's impending immolation only pushed Hekabe 10 the brink; it took Polydoros' mu rder to make her topple over it. That this is as it should be . .. by Greek standardsH ... would probably have been more ob~ious in Aischy1ean or Sophoklean tragedy, since Euripides anticipated at times the modem (and Hellenistic) interest in young girls. At the same time he was also a better culture historian than his peers: myths show that Mykenaian women we re freer and socially more importa nt than Athenian oncs.2S Yet even Euripides was sufficiently Perik1eanat least in his works- to rep resent a young girl's death simply as a means to the end that tru.ly matters.26 Even in Euripides' last play- the lAthe key problem is the shore-bound Achaian fleet and not I phigeneia's doom, and this despite the fact that the poet grew bolder with agc.27 T here seems to be no exception to the rule that a young girl's death is incidental,28 and this quile apart from the fact that it necessarily takes place off-stage, while the main action unfolds on-51age. 29 H ekabe's own reactions also show that Polyxene means less to her than Polydoros. Though briefly grieving and praying in the end over her daughter's known plight, she prays first and chiefly for the hypothetically endangered Polydoros (59 f. ). Also, though she does not beseech Agamemnon to save Polyxene, in order to avenge her son she pleads like a procuress that Agamemnon owes her something fo r the sexual use of K assandra's body (824 f.),30 which is a commodity to be sacrificed for her brother's sake.)1 (E. Hmul. ) ~v~n aMum~ Ihal a pa.ssag~ has bun lost ( 133). Maluuia'. (and perhaps Euripides' ) conl~mporaries felt ~haps that Ihal i. wha t young princ.,...,. wer~ there for. But Prof.,...,r Dover llrongly disagrttS with this last hypothesi, and he may well be right and I wrong. " Helen"" having mad~ hi, peace with th~ Greeks, ,,,.Ionger counu. But it is hard to 'Ie<: why Menelaos doe. not "count" al A. Ag. 89f1. - unlw he is still believed to be IOSI at sca. Fraenul'. notes, ad loc. arc implausibl~, I think. l< Tills is &aid in the SCllS(: in which Wilamowitz (in hi. ed. of E. HF) said that "il is a~ ;t .should be" !hal Euripides should have been regularly defeated not only by Sophoklcs, but also by leMCr men, No agrttmenl i. implied in either CMe, " I ~islen:d elsewhere (.,5) my disagl'ttm~nt with the cUSlomary underes limation of the Athenian wife'. role, !hough I certainly do not concur wilh iu o,uC$timalion by C. Schman ('35, chap. 7)· " E. EmMA. scetm focused on Alhens' fate and On the paren u ' grief. In S. Anl.- an admiuedly W~U -<: OfUtructed play- Krn>n is cr uohed not by Antigon e'., btlt by H aimon', death, whim climaxes and end! th ~ Iragroy. Th e paramount imporlancc of Klytaime-tra'i d~ath in A. Chol. , S. El. and E. El. does nOI di,prov~ my point: Aigisthos is only a . habby and .hadowy wufJ'cT and Klytaimes tra mallen mainly because Ordlcl malte" ev~n nwre. " And, as often happens, also more traditional in forn' (E, Ba.) : cp. Ih e reappearance of the fugue in Beethoven', late works. "Perhaps bttau.st; fictitious to Euripides' concemporarie- (K.J.D. ) . But cp. Plu. V. Thtm. 13.3, V. Arisl. 9.1 f. and the .ap~",,6, (scapegoat ). "On Ih .. dichotomy, cp. (5,,-) . .. Cp. Hom. II. 24.477 ff.: for H eklor'. lake, Priamus kisse- Achilleus' murderous hand., Paru of E. H«. read like a ,avage parody of the Homeric outlook. " Cp. Plu. Amal. ,00 B: A Grttk 5Ometime- prostiluted hi' wife, but never hiJ I'l'DmtMS. (But cp. Luc. Col. to. ) The m~n of Sardis app.arently contemplated laving their Ii".,. by .urn:ndcring their . pou .... to the beoieger (P.o. ·Ph... Pard. Min. 30, 3'~ E IT. ) "routine practice among the euhurally man-<:enten:d AUllraliaru; ( 136) E. Ale. i. clearly man a:nten:d: PherC$ is a man, AdmetOl both man and King-Alkoti. is only a woman;
Thm Eunpidean Dreams: Variations on a Theme
The I~t word on all this is said by Iphigeneia : it is the sons that matter (E. IT. 57). The "break" disappears the moment one overcomes the modern obsession with the imporlance of young girls and re-learns the dynastic outlook.12 It becomes equally non-existent if one remembers that the topic ofa Greek traged y is an event or problem, and not a personality.3J The already adequately tight structure of E . Hee. is made completely coherent by Hekabe's dream, whose fawn symbol represents both her son and her daughter. Few literary dreams have so high a degree of dramatic functionality. By comparison, this dream's influence on the plot, while great, is not of paramount imporlance. It does transfonn Hekabe's agitated dep ression and despair into a fierce, scheming, brutal courage; more striking still, her passivity in dream is replaced by a savage activity. Euripides might have achieved the same ends also by some other means, though hardly by a dramatically and poetically more compelling one. What more one could ~k from an- admittedly superblyforeshadowed-dramaticdream is hard to see. Moreover, the dream echoes also the appearance of another phantom: that of Achilleu! (E. flee. 37 f. ). As 10 Iphigeneia's dream, in order to avoid repetitiousness, the discussion of its dramatic functions must be postponed until later. I therefore list here only its most salient consequences. The d ream practically turns Orestes into a QCTtp6noTIlOCl4 and makes Iphigeneia bloodthirsty. This, together with her conviction that her brother is dead, decre~es Orestes' chances of being recognized and increases the risk that he will be i5l Arist. Pod. 1450023 fr. This makes it implicitly desirable, though difficult, to draw original characters ('+l9b36; '45Db'9; '4::'31:>22; '4W33 ). Euripides met this challenge boldly aod brilliantly. In E. lAo Ihe traditional mylh is nOI substantially tampered with. But Agamemooo, Mendaos and even AchilieWI are Ihoddy because the Achaiam arc .hoddy for going to war over a worthless Helene; cpo An.tophana' contcmptUOU!l pretence (AeM",. ::"::' ff. ) that the Pdoponnaiao war was fought Over the kidnapping of twO harlou. ,. I.e., inlo a man millakenly believed to ha,'c died abroad, who, when he returns alive, must undergo a kind of rebirth ceremony (Plu. Q.R. ::., p. 264 D. ff. ). S. El. ~ ff. specifics that . uch a man was then held in high honour. The rebirth ritual in'·olved his entering his old home from above (through the roof). That, prffisely, is how O..,.t.,. aod i"yladCl intend to burgle Artemis' shrine (E. IT. 113 ff.). Cp. F. Robert's excellent dis.cussion ( n7) of this project-though he overlooked ito nexus with the hysteropOimOl rebirth ritual. l! Ariat. insomn. 4::.8b2o, cp, 462U5.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Three Euripidean Duams: Variamns on a T hetm Viewed in ano ther way, in Greek d rama the uream narrative b fuuctionally akin to a Messenger's speech.J.6 It is, in a sense, "News from Nowhere"-and Ihe reporting of unca nn y (dreamlike) occurrences by M essengen is even more characteristic of Euripides than of his two great peers.17 The Charioteer's account of his dream gives relief to his stor y and may even suggest that the human wolves were as.'listed o r sent by a Supernatural Being. H is sudden transition from sleep to wakefulness explains in part also his wild accusations and pcrhaps even his (medically premature) wound-delirium a t v. 83S. n I n so fa r as H ekabe mentio ns the appearance ofPolydoros in dream, her narrative is also akin to a Messenger's report. As to Iphlgeneia's dream-narrative, it is "News from Nowhere" par uctllenct; technically, it fuses the functions of Polydoros' prologue allll of H ekabe's dream-liarrative into vue. Doth ill E. He!;. amI in E . IT. the dream narrative is so elosely integrated with the prologue that it can be distinguished from it only by means of purely external criteria. Psychologically no separation is pD$Sible: the content of the prologue is, in both cases, funnelled into the drama by means of a dream-as off-stage happenings afe funnelled into E. Rh. th rough the Charioteer's d ream. Tk Psychol9gical Appropriatene.ss of Dreams increases their plausibility. The d ream is a highly individualized produc t oCthe psyche; the C harioteer could not have dreamed Iphigeneia's dream.l 9 A real dream fits the dreamer at a given point of his existence; in literature, a plausible dream mus t also fit the plot. 40 All Euripidean dreamJ satisfy these requirements. I examine here only the general appropriateness of the dream for a given dreamer at a cer tain point in time; the appmpriatenes.o. of the symbolization, of regt"<3ion in time, and so forth, is discussed in the corresponding sections. The Charioteer is almost obsessively preoccupied with his horses; he sees all life and his own duties in a horse perspective. Though R hesos is murderedfirsl, the Charioteer is awakened only by his dream of danger to his horses. This is not only psychologically subtle, but also echoes the H omeric Do/ootia (Hom . II. 10) in whieh-save for a final whistle ( IO.S02 ) - both the murder a nd the theft are apparently committed in complete silence. Also, I can a ttest from personal experience that even the C harioteer's heavy sleep is plausible : Rhesos' army had been a long lime on the march . and had, no doubt, faced danger.! en route. For the liMIt time in many weeks the Charioteer need not sleep with one eye open. Objectively, his ,. Char"ctcru.:;caUy, Kly",imCl""" dream u. told not by henelf, bu' by !he Choroo (A. CIu>t. 523 ff. ) which, in Ihis instance, does not comm~n! bul informs-aIle",,! to begin with . I n S. EJ. her d",am is reported by Chryaothemis. " E. Ba., HI':, Hipp. , lA. etc., cpo (54) . .. Ritchie (U'j) : added relief, pp. 75 , t38 ; delirium : p. 13'. H A hysteric does not dream like an oh&essive, oar a .... oman like a mao, nor a child like an adult (75. pauim). An Eslrimo does no! dream like an I ndian (54, chap. 4) . Several adolescents boarding in a therapeutic $Chool for devia~t youngsters tried to dcttive their rapcctive therapist!, by exchangiog their dn:aou. The fraud w"" dete<:ted almOllt at once; the borro.... ed dreaou simply did not "fit" the alleged dreamcn (3~, pp. 27t ff. ) . .. Pt.-Hp. 111$I11III. 88: Aris!. i/l.Ul1M. 462al5 ff.; Hdt. 7.16: Emp.fr. ,oS D-K: Cie. do divi~ . 2.67: Lucr. lUll. TeI". 44'3, 5.7 24: Patin ( 119. 2, p. t~ and n. I) ; Dodd. (64, p . 118) , etc.
'7'
Thrtt Euripitkan Dreams: Variatirms on a TMme
d ream is a symbolic understatement : it phrases a military disas ter in ter ms of a horse then. Even this is perceptive: the survivors of bombings may obsessively- and defensively- grieve most over the loss of a keepsa ke. Hekabe's dream is equally appropria te, because its symbolism is both regressive, a nd present-centred. In dandling her "baby" ( = fawn) on her knees, the old woman regresses to the happy times before the siege of Troy, while the old Quttn hopes that her son would avenge the fall of Troy and rebuild its razed walls. Her maternal dream is tragically appropriate. Unlike young Antigone, or Intaphernes' wife, this old widow cannot say: " Ah well, I can always have another chi!d."~l But, at the same time, the old Queen's dream is prescnt-centred: she is the only possible leader and defender of the captive Trojans. I phigeneia's dream also filS her. Hekabe is a Queen, for whom the state is more important than its ruler; I phigeneia is a princess in distress, mo re family ( = dynasty) than state oriented. }<'or her: "l'Etat e'est Papa!" --or at least Orestes, who may yet restore the might of the House of Agamemnon, as distinct from that of still mighty Argos.~2 Her own dreamhorizons are almost as narrow as those of the Charioteer, and, as befits a formerly sheltered princess, who is now a privileged captive, her dream is the most self-centred of the three. Not one of the three d reamers could have dreamed the dreams of the other two; eac h dream fits onry the one to whom it is attributed. The general app ropriateness of these d reams may therefore be held to have been proven alread y, though the analysis of their o ther fea tures will furnish further proof of their appropriateness. T lu Manner of Dreaming is unusual in all three dreams, though whether Euripides realized this is uncertain, for most people take it fo r granted that their own manner of dreaming is the natu ra l one.4l Even Greek dream books have relatively little to say about atypical ways of dreaming. The E. Rh. dream is not only unusual, but of a type well understood already by Aristoteles.44 I t is elicited by the impact of sounds on the sleeper's sensorium; these, the dream-work converts into appropriate imagery and then incorporates into the dream, with rela tively little dis tortion. I n so doing, the dreamer denies their external origin, by "properly" reacting to them in d ream; this dispenses him from waking up at once, in order to respond to these stimuli a lso in reality (chap. 4, nOle 61 ). Such d reaming is a lip service which the dreamer pays to reality, for it helps the d ream fulfil its role of guardia n of sleep.41 Reality's contribution to this d ream is ., S. AnI. 909"""<)12; H dl. 3. "9. E,·e n Euripides' Andromache wilt ~ar anolher child (E. Amirom. ), to comfort her for the loss of rulyanax (E. T road. ). Bul, in H ome,..,., P oly_ doTOS i. not H eka~'s son and is killed in combat . .., Th e COnIralIl U e'= mD..., complele : th e Trojan dyna:ny w .... aUlochthonow; the Pelopidai, like many other mythical rule,"", were outside,"", immigrants or even usu rpe,"". E.lT. 5'0 implies only miuule (cp. Thu. 1.111.) • .. A clinical psy<:hologist discovered only during his own analym Ihal hi. d reaming in colour w.... rdati vely unU$ual. "Amt. i/Uomn. 462al5 fr.; d. diD. JOIlln. 46Sa5 ff.; ep. Dodd.< (64, p. 114) for G r~k dreams of this type . • , S. Freud (75, passim). This brilliant hypothesi. has now r<:<:eived experimental confirmation. Subj cc'" permitted to sleep, but awakened as SOOn as their electroencephalo_ gram indicates that Ihey are beginning to dream, do not feel rested. If this is done
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Three Euripirkan Dreams; Variations
011
a Theme
at least as great as the contribution ofthedreamer's psyche; the Charioteer's dream achieves almost the maximum of reali ty awareness a dream can achieve. Moreover, the extemal sounds which triggered the dreaming process ultimately awaken the sleeper. Hekabe's dream has similar characteristics, Ihough more in lerms of dream-book theory than of psychology. It, too, is said to have been elicited by an "external" stimulus: by the appearance of Polydoros' phantom (cp . chap. 4)' The spectator probably expected him to appear to Ius mother as he appears to them: in his "real" shape (d6wAOV). However, Hekabe's "dream work" transforms this "stimulus" (= double) into a fawn. This is less realistic than the Charioteer's transformation of sounds into a very appropriate imagery. Still speaking in terms of dream-book theory, the anxious H ekabe's contribution to the content of the dream is therefore greater than that of the tired but unanxious Charioteer; the reality aWareness of her dream is, moreover, less great than that of the E. Rh. dream. Iphigeneia's dream is unusual in scveral respects. It is a d ream in colour: the hair is light coloured (~cxve6c) . .fIi Sound, barely, alluded to in the Charioteer's dream (snorting), plays a great role in it. It is not clear, eithcr psychologically or in terms of dream-book theory, just what triggered her dream, but it is clinically conceivable that a real sound, perceived (heard) in dream, Itrmillatd it. I phigeneia's own contribution to her dream's manifest content is ma:'timal, while her dream's reality awareness is minimal- a fact undef"5cored by its double misinterpretation. Its most ~ujk.i Ilg fCiltuu; h that I vhigcm:iil dream.J uf lodllg aJleep (rClitillg) ; thel'c is no typical Greek dream-figure to tell her that she is asleep .• 7 This makes her dream seem a jorml jruste of thc somewhat more common "dream within a dream". None of my analysands ever reported dreaming simply that he was asleep.48 There are, moreovcr, faint hints that dreaming that one sleeps was known to H omerOS,49 but the evidence is too allusive to warrant its being discussed here. What is certain, is that nothing in E. IT. indicates that lphigeneia has a "dream within a dream". In a sense, Iphigeneia is simply doubly asleep: in reality al well as in dream. This implies both a double distortion and a double repudiation of the dreamthought and dream-wish: one notoriOUSly feels less responsible for one's dreams than for one's waking acts and thoughts (80). Dreaming that one sleeps or dreams represents, from the viewpoint of the Ego, a double denial of responsibility; from the viewpoint of the Id--of the world of the instincts-it means that the dream wish must crash through two barriers. The text actually hints at a double distortion (sacrificial priestess, oev~ra1
nigha in a row, neurotic .ymptonu appear. W. Dement (, 6) ..... elt summarizes the<~ Cpo abo (94) . •• One notes that th~ Chariotecrdoa not mention the wh; t~nC$S of hit horse<, though that would be compatible ""'en with a routine '"black and while" dream. T he fawn , too, rould oecm dappled even in a black_and_white dreo.m . • , On ouch dream personage< cpo Dodd. (64, chap. ,.) . • , A borderline patient dreamed that he was in bed; whether hc had "LJ~ dreamed that he was skqnng could flOt be ascertained . .. The figure appearing in dream saY' : "you are asl.,.,," . Hom. II. 2.23, 23.6g. Od. ,..So,.. cp o Dodds (64, p. U2, note '3) for other examples. experim~nlJ.
Three E!l.ripidean Dreams: Variah·ofU on a Th41nt mourner), perhaps determined by an ambivalence: the dream makes the formerly gentle princess bloodthirsty (348 f. ).XI The conjugateness of the two affective polarities: "compassionate vs. bloodthinty" and "sacrificing (killing) vs. mourning" may also reflect the two-fold layering of the dream and its ambivalence-and so might its double misinterpretation. What is remarkable in all this, is the progressive increase in the three eonsecutive drea mers' contributions to the manifest content of their respective dreams. The decrease in the dream's reality awareness which this entails is compensated for by its increased awareness of the unconscious (infra). Moreover, in all three instances, Euripides plausibly manipulates and varies the "depth" of the dream and this is something none of his predecessors even attempted to do. Symbo/i<:alion, an essential part of the dream work, distorts, and therefore attenuates, the intra-psychic slress sufficiently 10 prevent it from disrupting sleep. \'Vhen a dream actually awakens the sleeper, as in E. Rh. and perhaps in E. IT., this rep resents, in parI, a failure of the symbolization process. In the first approximation, the amount of symbolization in a dream is a moderately reliable measure of the disharmony between the Ego and the (ego-dystonic = inacceptable) latent material reflected by the dream.'t The symbols are, moreover, not contrived haphazardly. They are heavily overde te rmined: constructed out of day residues, personal experiences, cultural elements and the like, in accordance with the dreamer's personality. Even the articulation of symbol A (representing X ) with symbol B (representing Y) is part of the symbolization process. While it is imrxmible to construct compn:hen~ive dictionariC3 of symbols, it has become increasingly evident that certain ty~ of intra·psychic problems are likely to seek expression in dream. s2 The relative predictabilit y of the emergence of certain types of problems in dream- though in an unpredictable form - is an important determinant of the interpretability of dreams. Amongst the bt'Slclues to the identityof dream-thought X, represented by symbol A, is thaI which, in commonsense terms, is atypical either about A itselr or about its setting. The silence of the wolves, their un-wolf-like failure {o Ulle their fangs, their human use of their limbs, elc., reveallhal they are human. Moreover, their failure to bite eliminates from the dream the intolerably anxiety-arousing element of cannibalism (56, chap. 5). The fawn presumably behaves in a fawn-like manner, but its position in space on Hekabe's lap shows it to be a child. The contribution of the day residue to dream symbolism will be highlighted by the analysis of the wolf symbolism in the E. Rh. Cultural considerations also help one identify the X represented by symbol A. In all three dreams the victim is light in colour (infra). This, together with certain psycho-analytical considerations (infra), suggests that the victims are-or are viewed as-female. This inference is further supported by the ,. This may perhaps be understood all a delayed reaction 10 her having almOSI been sacrificed at Aul;': .he now '"hands on the lrauma·' (infra) . U On dqrecs of distortion in dn:am, cpo PI. Rmp. 571 C-572b. " Period. of dn:aming, ... del ermined by mean. of electroencephalograms, an: a1· moot invariably p~eded by a brieftumacence, cvcn in thccase ofvcry old men (11).
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
Three Euripickan Drtams: Vanations on a Thtmt
'75
finding that on most Greek vases women are lighter in colour than are men- an indication that they lead an indoor life (139, pp. 97 if. ), though the tendency to Ihink of women as lighter in colour is not exclusively Greek.'3 All I tried to determine in the preceding pages is the manner in which dream-personages are represented by means of diversified but invariably overdetennined symbols. Tlu selJ-repmmtation of llu dreamlr in his dream is inferable mainly from his setf-referable dreamed sensory exjJtrimcts. I insist on this specification, for two reasoru. First, every dream personage being a product of the dreamer's own psyche, it also represents him, or at lea..o;t part of him. Second, a dream may seem to imply a dreamed sense-experience, though, on closer scrutiny, that experience may nol be part of the dream: though one may dream of to uching or lifting an object, sensations of texture and weight may not be present in the dream. A statement may be part of the dream but not the (dreamed) experience of luaring it (chap. 2, note 21 and infra). Iphigeneia says that a "voice" emanated from the hair: in this case one may infer an acoustic dream experience precisely because the voice makes no statement (inrra). At times, the dreamer may not even dream that he is present and is actua!ly witnessing the dreamed occurrences, though this is oflen obscured by the Greek formula: " I saw a dream."SoI I know of no case in which a Greek drearrur simply said that he " knew sOmllww" tha t certain things were happening in dream. Significantly, the only human personages in these dreams are the dreamers themselves. This suggests that the dreamer's body-Ego (or nuclear Ego) is, in that respect at least, intact. Only the portions of the body-Ego projected outward, onto other "personages", are distorted sufficiently to assume a non-human form. It may well be that the integrity of the dreamer's body-Ego is preserved, wholly or in part, precisely by this projection, or extrajection, of dishannonioWl material. E. Rh. The Charioteer's self-representation is realistic; the dream even shows him sleeping o n the ground. He is defin itely "present", though he turns acoustic stimuli into visual images, and then "amplifies" the marauders into wolves.l' His regression in time is quite minimal: the dream's wolves may recall those of his native Thrace, which he just left. E. Hte. The dreamer's self-representation is also realistic, though less so than in E. Rh. She regresses to the time of her las t ( ?) maternity, and visualizes herself as seated. She specifies (credibly) that she had had visual experiences. On the other hand, though (objectively speaking) large: areas of her body seem to be in contact with "outer" objects (seat, fawn, forepart of wolf), no tactile or weight experiences are repo rted . Also, "Nea rly alt dll$!lical Malay texts !tress the light (olour of lxautiful wOmen. Though the (r-fongolic) Hungarian ...... ere ori gina lly yello..... ish, H ungarian peasants call ..... omen: feitlrnlp _ whit e folk, though they too work outdoon. Cpo E. Bn. 457 f. and Dodd! ad loc. , cpo chap . 7, note ~3 . S4 A dreamer saw, in a vivid dream, an obj ect 1M way he could II« it only ifhe were lying flat on hi. IlOrna(h in front ofit. Yet he lpecified that h" did not fttl that he had personally
witn05ed. 50me of the dream :sceno. He just "knew it" somehow (46, chap. 6, {ax 39, Dream H-ii). OJ On such amplifications, cpo Ansi. d. div. :!!>nIn. 4611blO If.
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
'76
Three Euripifkan Dreo.nu: Variations tm a Theme
though a real wolf would growl, acowlic experiences are not mentioned . E. IT. Self-distortion is most marked in Iphigeneia'$ dream : a ripe adult, she regresses to her girlhood. Only some parts of her dream acti,-:ilY are congruent with present realities. Though it .is in Taurike that she actually lies on her bed and sleeps, she thinks she doe! so in Argos. Later on, she stands and officiates as a priestess. Visual experiences arc ex plicitly mentioned ; auditory ones-though probable-are only imp!ied.~ The earthquake dream implies the experience of being shaken or rocked; psycho-analytical considerations make this a near certainty. Objectively, her (washing) hands should have tactile sensations, but this is not explicitly menlioned. External objects are, so to speak, kept at ann's length; in Hekabe's case, aU object! are in contact with her body. Yet, on the whole, lphigeneia's self-representation is adequately realistic, for a dream experience. Other dream personages art rtpust nled symbolicolly, either as animals behaving in unusual ways ,S1 o r as inanimate object! in unusual motion, or "behaving" in peculiar ways. Three animal species are represented: wolves, horses and a fawn, and we fortunatel y possess extensive information about Greek beliefs concerning them.~s In addition, both Freud and E. Jones had analysed the role of wolves and of horses in fantasies, in dreams and even in folk beliefs concerning dreams.!9 Tlu Wolf Symbolism. Greek beliefs concern ing wolves were numerous and varied. I mention here only a few salient facts. Except for Leto's connection wilh pregnant (sexual) she-wolves, the few known mythical wolves secm to be male and arc associated primarily wit h ApoUon (who, like his sister Artemis, is associated also with the wolf's prey: the deer) and secondarily with the cult of Zeus on Mount Lykaion. As a dreaded, eerie, nocturnal predator, the wolf suitably symbolizes the father of the primal scene (infra).60 The Greeks' awareness that male wolves mate with female dogs may have a bearing upon the (inferable) arched posture of the wolf in the dream of H ekabe, who later on turns into a female dog. tit In E. Rh. the wolves "ride" the white "horses"; the sexual meaning of this symbol was well known to the Greeks. The real problem is therefore not what, but precisely whom, the wolves in E. Rh. and in E. Htc. symbolize. This uncertainty is characteristically dreamlike. E. Rh. The primary source of the wolf symbolism is a day residue. Ritchie ( 125, p. 76) plausibly conjectures that Odysseus had stripped Dolon of his wolf-pelt and had put it on, a s a disguise; he holds that Odysseus appears, so disguised, as early as ¥Y. 565 fT. and that the word .. She say1 : the hair anumed the "oice of a man: . he docs nOt say: I Ma,d its ,·oice. Cpo supra, and chap. ~ . ., Animal dreams are far more COmmOn among children Ihan among adults . Primilivao also lend 10 dream of animals and w, apparently, did Ihe Greeh, even in drama. Ritchie cita ( /25 ) A. Ag. 1258 f. and E. lIu.; he could have added Kl yta;m""tra's dream (chap. 6 ).
" (1.1'0) s. vv. Hinch, Pferd, Wolf; also O. Keller (97 ) I.w., Art~mid., passim. .. Wolf: (79). Honao (;6, 79, 93) . .. Cpo U.S. slang: "wolf" .. sexually predatory male. "Neilher heMt , nOr father" (A. Diel. 781; L1oyd~ona ' conjecture). "As did an Ephesian woman for a while: Callim.f,. looh !khn. _ 2, p. 356 Pf.
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
Three Euripidtan Duams: Variations on a Thtml (spoils) (592) alludcs to this pelt. In the dim light the Charioteer saw two prowlers (773) but speaks of only Ollt murderer (741 ), This sho,"", that the wolvcs derive primarly from the tWO (seen) prowlers and only secondarily from the one (unseen and inferred) murderer. Also, it is just barely possible that the two wolves represent additionally a splitting into two of the one murderer on the one hand and, on the other hand, a "contamination" of Ihe pelt-less Diomedes by the pelt-wearing Odysseus. This hypothesis is attractive, because thc exactly symmetrical oppositc happens in E. Htc.: Polymestor and Odysseus a re "condensed" into one wolf. Cultural influences in this symbolism are more complicated . Some commentators unjustly ridicule Dolon's disguise, both in the Iliad ( to.333 f. ) and in E. Rh. (208 f. ). Yet, many primitive hunters successfully disguise themselves as animals.61 Moreover, given the Greeks' dread of wolves, anyone who saw at night something that looked like a wolfwouid hardly stay long enough to take a se<:ond look.6l Besidcs, even an educated modern may feel uncomfortably anxious in the dark, which upsets his visual habits and makes him think he "sees" (hings.~ This means that Dolon's plan was sound, both psychologically and in terms of the neurophysiology of night vision: the dimly seen, wolf-skin-clad prowler Odysseus was transformed in dream intO a real wolf. This day residue is supplemcnted in this case by culturally determined associations of the " A usually implies B, etc." type. In the Dolal/ria (Hom. II. 10), Ihe Achaian chiefs wear fur robes at night.65 Om: (prt::{:onscious) dlaill ofa$Sociations is th us : (;old night-fur robefurry wolf (in dream). A second chain has as it.; starting point the nexus between spies and bows and, perhaps, between bowmen and pelts.66 A third one may be rooted in the equation: spy = outlaw ( ="wOlf").67 These latter chains of associations, reinforced by the first chain and by the day residue, would also lead to a wolf dream. The convergence of these associations with the day residue accounts for Ihe overdetermination of the dream symbols. Also, Odysseus' wcaring of Dolon's wolf-pelt exemplifies the Euripidean dual-unity of aggressor and victim (infra). A further source of the wolf symbolism is regression: in Thrace, the hol'Ses' main enemy was the wolf. Last but not least, Odysseus and Diomedcs are CltVAW~QTa
"Cp. European prehistoti c cave paintings; bushman ,oclr. paintings in South Africa (aloo Aktaion ?). Cpo now my rrUK/dj4 ~I Pl>isi. GU'lUU, Pui. '975, chap. 9 • • , The Cuman~ (Kipchau) deliberately bred huge /J.'I,;I. cattle-herding d~ (~till luT\'iving in H ungary under the name of"komondor"), ... a. [101 to mistake th em al nighl for wolv.",. The French call a cerla;n moment of nightfall: "enlre chien el Loup"_ wh= one can no longer Ieilihe Iwo apa rt. I'roftsSOr [)over tells me Ihal Ihe present-day u.eep. dogs of the Epei ..... look like wild beaus ("polar bears") tnd are very fierce . .. Th is has a neurophysiological basis. At night peripheral vision is sharper Ihan macular vision . If nne lee! SQmelhing from Ihe cnrner of one'. eye and Ihen lurns futl face lowards ii, 10 take a "b<:lter" took, Ihe objecl may "disappear". Command os operaling al nighl were therefore trained to use--and Ie> rely upon- their peripheral (latcral) vioion (".5) . •• Lion : Agamemnon ( 10.2]- 4) , Diomed.", ( [0. 177-8) ; panll>u: I\l enelaos ( Io.~9 ) . "Odyss<:w' bow: 10,~60 If. Bowman's pelt: Paris in Hom . II. 3.17 If. Cpo vases On which oowm= wear a pell o\'u their left arm; Ihis m.ay possibl y e"plain why the Iliad d""" nol mention the archer'. gauntlet. OJ Cp. Ihe ... ell-known Creek equation: "outlaw ... wolf".
".
Three Euripitkan Dreams: Van'a/ions on a Thnne
wolves for Rhesos' horses (as H eklor and Dolon would wish to he for those of Achilleus). E. He" It is less easy to account for the wolf in Hekabe's dream. Some of its sources may be the automatic pairing of a fawn with its principal natural enemy, the wolf, and Polymestor's residing in Thrace, which, as noted, was wolf count ry. T his symbolization may also anticipate Polymestor's blinding, which makes him walk on all fours, like a wild beast {E. Hec. 1058 f.}. The wolf = O dysseus problem is even more difficu1t. O nce before Hekabe had seen Odysseus in a (diffe rent) disguise (HtC. 24 1 ff., cpo Q.S. 5.278 fT.). Some hold this to be a Euripidean invention, mainly because seh. E. Nt(. 243 calls this story implausible. Possibly the equation: Polymestor = wolf, led- by a "contami nation" of the type just discussed-to the equation: Odysseus = wolf. The condensation of two men into one wolf echoes, in reverse, the splitting, in E. Rh., of one killer into two wolves. Such symmetries are both structurally and psychoanalytically important. Both Polymestor and Odysseus are, moreover, predatory. The form er preys on Polydoros' gold; the latter acquires Achilleus' armour b y questionable means.68 A third consideration is of a diffcrent kind: Odysseus is twice represented in d rea m as a wolf; both times in Euripides. A third- non-Euripidean- reference compares prudent Odysseus to prudent wolf-torn horses.69 This is a further example of "representation by opposites", already known to Arremidoros. One also notes that, in the Charioteer's dream, Odysseus the wolf actually "altacks" horses. Not even Athamas, Lykaon or Danaos is so systematically brought into conjunction with wolves. The " naturalness" of this symbolism does not weaken the argume nts jU5t advanced. The preceding considerations only explain why Hekabe could represent Odysseus as a wolf. The real source of this symbolism is proba bly different: having made Odysseus into a wolf in E. Rh., Euripides simply repea ted this symbolization in E. Hrc. This hypothesis furthe r strengthens the view that the Rhesus was written by Euripides: a great poet does not repeat himself mechanically: Euripides substituted for the "splitting" in E. Rh. a "condensation" in E . Hu . The Horse Symbolism is well motivated in the E. Rh. dream. On olle level t he hor:ses are not symbolical at aU; they are simply " themselves". On another level they represent Rhesos, whose "badge" they are, by means of the pars pro 1010 device.70 I n so far as the horses represent Rhesos, the dreamed attack on them is a symbolization by understatement, whereas the symbolization of the attackers by wolves is a symbolization by overstatement or amplification. A further argument is Euripides' unusual proneness to call a young person metaphorically: lTWAOC = colt, filly .7t .. The (radition. concern ing Ihi. malWr are contradiclory. Th eir form dep"nds On whether an amhor favours Od)lS't!U' or Ai:.... Euripido' un-Homeric dislike ofOd)'lM'us is notorious, cpo nOle 148 . .. Plu. Smp. 2.8. [ p. 615 F. For wotf_lorn horses in general cpo38, OIp. p. 179, no(e 9. ,. Thi.! is made ttrlain by the subst itution of Rh esoo ' ha'~ng 10 ' p"nd one night on Trojan s.oil, for the tradilion Ihal hi.! horses had to Ix fed and walered there, cp. supra, nOle ,8. 71 On thi.! peculiarilY cp. Rilchie ( /?5, p. 232 ). Olhc .. use this word in ,he..,nt<: of "young penon" mOrl: seldom.
. atenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Thm Euripidean Drtams.' Variations on a Theme
'79
The detennination of the sex of these horses is difficult but important. Though Orestes' chariot tt am is spoken of in the femini ne plural ("ma res") each of the individual animals constituting it is called a stallion.1l Yet one cannot claim that for the horse, as for the deer,n the Greek generic gender is feminine. This kind of epiceneness is not limited to horses ; in Greek ox (or cow) (f3oVc) and bull (raiipoc) are time and again used interchangeably.74 I do not profess to know whether thC$e curious fluctuations regarding the sex of animals should, or should not, be correlated with the polyvalent sexuality of the Greeks (45, 60). It is possible that some (Homeric ?) Greeks harnessed mares because the Greek chariot harness did not give the charioteer much control, and most mares arc gentler than stallions.7! Yet on most vases the horses harnessed to a chariot are clearly stallions. T o complicate matters further, in classical times the cavalry horse was apparently always the sta!lion and yet, paradoxically, "charger" (KEAne) also meant a sexually loose woman (LSJ s.v. III ) (riding = cohabitation) (chap. I , note 32). The symbolic confusion between the horse and the cavalier, between the rider and the ridden, is also q ui te widespread . In Haitian voodoo belief- as in those African beliefs from which voodoo is derived-the possessed (" ridden" ) human is at times ridden by a spirit-horse, and yet, at the same time, the possessed (ridden ) one is the spirit's horse.16 I n the nightmare the " mare" (= phallic mother) lies suffocatingly upon the " ridden " dreamer (93).77 T o these considerations may be added the Greeks' manifest dread of being bitten by their horses and also their myths of man-eating mares (59).1 8 The Charioteer's dream vision must, thus, be decoded on more than one level. Objectivel y, Rhesos' horses respond to the wolves' attack with violence and it is important to recall that a range-bred stallion, or evcn an occasional ma re, is quite able to handle- and even to kill- an attacking wolf (38, p. 18:2, note 5) .79 Yet, in dream, the Charioteer feels that his team must be rescued by him . This is a typical "primal scene" rescue fantasy j it does not reflect an Qbjecliw ap praisal of thc "dange r" threatenn C po W. 5. Barr~1t (6, pp. ~04~0~, ad v. 'lSI ). Sch. E. Ril. 'l39: Euripides turIU the H omeric Achilleus' 3tallioIU into mares .
1.5J I .V. v,a"",< . •• All in A.R., in T<:Spc<:1 10 Ihe brazen-hooved bovines.
1l
" J. K. Andenon (." pa..im) seems at limes 10 sa y as much. Even in quite recent limes, the Arab', war_horse was th e mar~ ( t2-/ ). Very ferocious mart'! exi"; lactating mares can b.. q uile dangerous. 1. The same article (27, cpo -/3) ci tes a Euro-Amcncan clinical c"""" involving obsessi"e' dou b, abou' whether the ridden w the rider ;' "masc;uline". One sour<:<: of the confmion may be that ,I", rider sl,addle, the nlOuut (q,. d",1'. 3, "ut~ ' 04), " J on.,.' 1x>ok is a work of great erudition , which ciles man)' popular belief. abom the nightmare. The l ilualion correspondl to "coi lm inver5U$" (e. g., a. in the case of5phin "es and other f=-talc monsten . hown in G r~k vases), d e. i,·abl e, in part, from the small child 'i ftar that the mother, whQl'le bed he .haT<:S, would "sexually" roll upon rum and l uffocale him (chap. 9) . "X. Eq. piU'lim, abo Anderson (.,) . C po the mares of Diomedes and of GlaukQl'l. It was shortl y aner her maling in the form of a mare (Pau •. 8,'5.4) Ihal Demeter partly canni balized Pdop:'!. Cpo (!i9) on mourning cannibalism and zoophiliac fanta.i.,.. 70 Around ' 930, in Arizona, a stallion, rcpeal<:dly put into a ring to fight a mountain lion (puma), rqularl y killed the big cat, which is larger and mare dangerous than a wolf. Rh<'SOl' "rna,..,." are in a Sla te of rage (786).
,80
Thru Euripitkan Dreams: Variaticms on a Tlur&
ing RhesOll' horses or th e "victimized" mothe r of the primal scene.SO That
these particular horses arc nol helpless is suggested also by their belonging to Rhesos: the figu re of R hesos, b lended with Ihal of BislOnian Diomedes, of the savage, man "eating mares (59), notoriously lurks behind the figure of the still prohlematical " Thradan R ider",I! The mother's violent erotic response in the "primal scene" is often misinterpreted by the child as panic.Sl
It is no teworthy that whereas the horses "attacked " by the wolves survive, Rhesos, whom they represent, and the C hario teer, who wishes to f escue them, are killed or at least mortally wounded. This fits the primal scene fantasy perfectly (infra). Psychological considerations cannot help us solve the objective (philological) problem of thc scx of Rhesos' hol'lles. They only highlight the characteristically dreamlike confusion between--t: dotncslicatM_ wild animals (86) • .. V . A.If. 6.80 . -?: bronz~ hoo\"m; H yg. Fd. 30 •
••
Thrtt Euripitkll1l Drtams: Variations on a Tkme
,8.
that, for the early (though perhaps not for late) Greeks deer were totally gentle creatures.as H ow did a fawn stray into Hekabe', dream? Sin<::e no day residue a<::counts for its presence, its appearance, in dream, is to be explained primarily not in terrru; of Hekabe's psychology, but in terms of that of Euripides. 1 already indicated that the wolf probably strayed into E. Htc. from the E. Rh. dream; the fawn seems to anticipate Iphigeneia's associations 10 her dream. 86 Moreover, I deem it self-evident that, in E. IT., the eattleslaying (2g6 ff.) Orestes' madness is lykanthropy; there is, thm, a symbolic "wolf" also in E. IT.- and Rh., flee. and IT. are the only surviving Euripidean dramas which contain dream narratives. This suggests a certain continuity in Euripides' fantasy--of his "idea" of what a dream par excellence is about. Were Hekabe "real", we could account for the appearance ofa fawn in her dream only if we assumed that she knew that her tragedy was made possible by the (Jphigencia = ) hind sacrifice at Aulis, so reminiscent of the foreseeable fate of her daughter Polyxene. \ 'Vhethcr H t kabe "knew" this, is anyone's guess. That Euripides knew it is proven by his IT and his lA. This, in turn, brings me to the vexed problem of the dream-fawn's identity and sex. In appraising this problem, one must bear ill mind that, though it is a primal scene dream, Hekabe's dream is dreamed from the rrwtkr's and not, like the other two, from the (hild's point of view. The, fawn-child is between her and the aggressor; this is a (neurotic) maternal version of the primal scene, and may account, in part, for the uneertainties n;ganJillg the fawlI'~ no,., which b ;",Ji=,lubly Ijllked with lht; prouicfU of whether the fawn stands for Polydoros, or for Polyxene, or for both. That the fawn represents H ekabe's child is certain, both from the philological and from the psychological point of view; the symbolization ofsmalJ children by small animals is extremclycommon ( H3, etc.). One notes, however, that, later on, the Choros calls Polyxene, in the Euripidean manner (note 7t), a "filly" (142 ). The Greek language gives no help: o.acpoc in the feminine is the generic word for deer of both sexes. British Hellenists transla te the word as "fawn". But Schmid (134), Bii.chli (5) and some other Germans translate: " Hindin"; M6ridier and also Duclos translate in French "biche". This would be conclusive if one could be sure that the dream is about Polyxene "nly. Unfortunately, Polydoros' ghost Itlls us that he appears 10 his mother (in dream, v. 30 and sch. ad loe.), and it is on behalf of Polydoros that H ekabe supplicates the gods. The fawn must therefore- be it wholl y, or in part- symbolize Polydoros.'1 even tried to ~m~nd "horned" Dr.) . ·· The hind sacrificed in Aulis is mentioned in E./T. ill v. ~8; only '4 vv. before the dream_narrative begins (411) . For the appearance of a dream dement now in a dream and now in an associalion to a dream, cpo infra. T hai the "preface" to a dream i. also an ....,a...ion 10 it, need h.....dly be ",sued . ., One could argue, pahapo, that, since PolydorOlS' ghost is transformed inlo a dco:r in dream, the dream-work may also have chang..! hi. """. One cou ld ""en cile a. a parallel -albeil a f""ble o".,......lh~ fact that the corpse ofKai"eus ",'as found to be that of a woman (Hyg.fah. '4.5; Sen'. V. Am., 6.488 ). (Sir J. G. Frazer'. not e to Apol1od. £pil. 1.22 refe ... to • passage in Sent., which alleges tbat PJalon or Aristotelcs spoke of a change of sex in " I n Anacr. fr . 63 P ( _
$1
B ", 39 D)
(I
Z~nodotO!l
0 3 •.5~,
I.I ~O
"""
,8,
Three Ermpidtan Drtam.s: Varia/jollS on a Thnne
The theory that the fawn may repre..ent only Polyxene ii, thus, hard to accept: the evidence of Polydoros' speech seems conclusive. Moreover, one dreams more often about vague anxieties and worries than about concrete fears, and Polyxene's impending fate is a source of fear, rather than of some vague anxiety. Only afteT telling her dream does Hekabe specify that something tIse also troubles her. Save for a brief allusion in v. 75. it is then only that she proceed to speak of Polyxene. This hardly permits one to put Polyxene squarely in the centre of H ekabe's dream. In fact, it is psychologically probable that her fears abou t Polyxene made her anxious also about the supposedly safe Polydoros and caused her to dream about him. Of course, we may not eli minate out of hand the possibility that a ~cond dream-about Polyxene dropped out of the text. But H eknbe is apparently almosl conscious of a condensation: the plurals in v. 89 and also in vv. 74- 75 arc therefore to be construed as allusions to this insight. The blending or condensation of the two children into one is psychologically greatly facilitated by the faci that both their names begin with Pory-and also by the inner connection between the two second halves of their names: (guest) gift (6wpov) and guest. friend (~evoc). The two are, moreover, the last of Hekabe's surviving children that are still hers: she specifically stresses that Helenos (who had made his peace with the Greeks) and Ka$Sandra (Agamemnon's concubine) are no longer accessible to her (87- 88). If these interpretations are acceptable, there is no need to suppose that the text of a second dream (about Polyxene ?) fell out after v. 91." The condensation theory has other adwlIHage$ as V>'eU, ;1 $uppor •• the view that Hekabe's dream also condenses Polydoros' enemy Polymestor and Polyxene's persecutor Odysseus, into a single wolf. These two sets of condensations not only greatly increase H ekabe's anxiety but are also dreamlike enough to give the dream imagery the necessary oniric ambi· guity. The final advantages of the condensation hypothesis is that (despite the feminine gender) it leaves the "true" sex or the fawn as indetennina te as the sex of Rl1esos' horses seems to be (chap. I, note 18, and supra, note 72). Before examining the column symbolism, a word may be said about the reference to Polydoros as an "anchor" in Hekahe's associations (80), for reliable data sl10w how tremendously this symbol (= metaphor) is overdetermined and hoV>' intricately its various determinants mesh. Hektor's son was generally called Astyanax (King of the City) because his father was Troy's sole guardian (Hom. Ii. 6,403 8'.). Hekabe's associalions call Polydoros the "anchor" (&ywp') of Hekabe's ( "" Priamos') house. We know, however, that HtklM CEKTWP "" the holder = stay, prop) can auo mean "anchor".89 The allusion is, thus, psychologically identical with reincarnation . Th~ authnrilY oflhal passag~ is .aid 10 be >omewhal dubiou •. Sec, bow~v~r, Pi. Rmp. 10.16 p. 6~o ir<:: Atalanl~, Epdos and Od yw:us. More relevant might be th~ unconscious I~nd~ncy to evolve the .ymbolic chain: death = castralion _ f~minizalion, but I hoital~ 10 appeal to it her~.) .. See on IIOme "'pe<:u of Ihi. passage also ( , ~3, 4, pp. 22~ f. ). " Sapph.f,. 157 Bgk _ 160 LP (uncertain ) ; PI. C'QI. 1933; cpo aho Hsch. (with ropect to Zeus) ; L}c. 100 (with respect 10 the ship on .... hich H elene elopm); Luc. /...tit. '5. (I'olydo.oa menliollJ H ektor in vv. 18, al. )
Three Euripitkan Dreams: Variations on a T htmi Iphigeneia.'$ designation of Orestes, the man-child, as a "column " of Agamemnon's house. 90 It is perhaps the presence in her mind of Hektor's name which cawed Hekabe to choose the "anchor", rather than the equivalent "column" symbolism. Also, the old Queen might have thought here in terms of the time-hallowed "ship of state" imagery, since she apparently hopes that Polydoros will rebuild Troy. By contrast I phigeneia, the largely family-minded Princess, would more plausibly think of a column, supporting her father's house.9l VI.' hat is psychologically relevant, is the occurrence of the "stay" or " prop" motif in both Hekabe's and Iphigeneia's associations, albeit in two different forms: anchor vs. column. This element, too, unifies the imagery of the two dreams. Till Column Symbolism is particularly overdetermined . The representation of a human being by a mere object (in dream) occun only in E. IT.92 and it is only in that drama that the dretJfIIff behaves aggressively (sacrificial priestess) towards someone she should actually protect. The symbolization is therefore obscure enough to permit a typically Aristotelian state of&yvola (non-recognition) in dream. Were the disguise less impenetrable, Iphigeneia's aggressive behaviour would be intolerable to her even in her dream. This interpretation i~ psychologically the more convincing as misidentifications of this kind are common not only in Greek myths and dramas- as when Agaue mistakes Pentheus for an animal (j2)-but also in abnormal slates preceding crimes.9l The impenetrability of this disguise, on ant level, is proven by Iphigeneia's "aggressi\'ity" in dream; its transparency on another level is revealed by her shedding tean in dream : yet, her affective recognition fails to cancel her intellectual non-recognition (E. Ba. I J.j.y). In this instance, the mechanism of "isolation" apparently does not extend into the waking sta te, since Iphigeneia does realize in the end tha t the column is Orestes. Isolation reappean, however, in a modified form: she "denies" that she killed Orestes (in dream) and believes instead that he is already dead. 94 .. Agame:nnon as a ship'. cable and as a column: A. Ag. 897 f. " OM Can hardly correlate the two distinct symbolizations with maritime v'. non_ maritime interem, sinee, in the lIiJJd, one hean nothing of Trojan .hip", while Archil. (fr. 333 L.-B) calts the two decca...:! champions of the maritime &tate ofNa"os, Megatimoo and Aristopholl, "the tal! pilla.. ofNaxOl". Cpo also A. Ag.~, Pi. O. ~.~. Agamemnon as "only son". A. At. 8!)8 and Fraenkd, ad loco ., Polydoros i. called an "anchor" only in H ekabe'. associations . .. ~met~r alone, of all the deiti"", failM to recognize Ihat she was eating human fl""h: Pdopo' .ho~lde r . An Ojibwa India". in 'he 'h roco of.he cannibali ••i" ""'indillo " po-ycho.i., which made him wanl to cat hi. children, fint hallucinated them as fat beaven ... an Ojibwa delicacy ( 11,6, p. ~16 ) ; other examples in (137). Two psychotic Acoma Indiam hallucinated their "pcnecutors" as witch fo"es and tTitd to .hoot them; Ihey hallucinated a Slate Poli::eman a5 a deer before shooting him dead (;6, chap. I). Such hatJucinalions decrease guilt-feelings and make the crime possible. Evidence thaI the creative arti.t can "invent" .uch subtle traits i. provided by C. Chaplin'. film "Gold Rush": the star ving bully hallucnal"" Chaplin as a fowllHfo,~ Irying to cannibalize him • .. In E. Ba. Agaue's "isolating" manO:Uvre (Penthel.l! _ animal) is "analysed" and destroYM by Kadmoo, esp. vv. t'l17 fr. (52). The para tldi.m i. quite close abo in other ..... pe<:t.. Penth" ... u, in a way, also oacrificcd '0 '" god; 1::" ~rch ... On a 'ree ( _ column ) before beinr kitlM; at VV. 116g f. his hair is catlM "ivy" (cp. E. Anliope, fr. '.103 N'). Shortly afterwards (vv. 1184 fr.) it is seen as the hair_mop of a young bull.
Three Euripilkan Dreams: VQ,riQ,tions on Q, Thnru In the E. IT. dream Orestes must be sufficiently well disguised not to be recognized intellectually; this aim is achieved by his being represented by an inanimate thing: by a column. But, at the same time, his disguise mwt also be sufficiently defective to permit affective recognition (tean); thill is made possible by the object being vocal and behaving al though it were alive. This is no mean feat of ambiguity. It was noted that Ihe other Euripidean dream victims are neither altogether helpless nor harmless. The hones fight hack savagely. Hekabe had hopes that her fawn-child, grown to man's estate, would fight back and rebuild Troy. In E. IT. the victim's (counter?) aggressivity is even more marked. The column is part of the structure that almost crushed the dreamer. Moreover, the real Orestes plans a criminal sacrilege and, seized by Iykanlhropic madness, slaughten the Taurians' cattle. In his initial interview with Iphigeneia, his sullen hostility postpones the rc<:ognition. Iphigeneia herself is not gentle in her dream (sacrificing priestess), nor does she subsequently claim to be still compassionate (348). There are more than mere hinls of her identification with Orestes.9 ' I will stress below that, in behaving aggressively towards Orestes, Iphigeneia indirectly attacks also her fathcr Agamemnon, who had once attacked (attempted to sacrifice) her. In that frame of reference, the column topped by hair is not only Orestes, but also Agamemnon. and, specifically, Agamemnon's phallus. 96 Lasl, but not least, the building threatening to collapse and to crush Iphigeneia, quite al much as the heaving earth, clearly reprexnt the parents who, during their embrace (primal 5ccne), crush the child between themselves. One other noteworthy point is the curiow "dual unity" of aggressor and victim in all three dreams . .. a unity which psychiatric studies of brain-washing have laught us to understand better (89, 99). The applicability of insights derived from the analysis of brain-washing to Greek data requires no further proof here (65, pp. 77 ff., 110). The tormentor and the tormented form a dual, reciprocal unit, interacting completely and intensely-cach provoking the other, each provoked by the other-in a relationship of mutual induction, until a veritable ritual of oppression comes into being.97 This "modern" understanding of sadomasochism is foreshadowed with almost intolerable revulsion (1JIapoc) .. She calb her hai r "Iighl colourffi." (173) , like ,ha, of O""" a . This . imilarity belween Or.",." and his .islen i.traditional: A. Chol. ,66 if., E. EI. 5~o, 5~9, eiC. Iphigeneia hcr. ,elf wa. almost sacrificffi.. as 0,..",0 is aimoot ",crificffi., elc. Emotionally she is almost as unstablc as O ,.."ta. OrO I." kiHffi. because Apollon lold him 10 kill ; Iphigencia prcpares mcn for the k.illing in obedience 10 th c wisha of Apollon'•• iSlcr, Artemis, CIC. On Ihc aggressivity of mournen (78, gO,39, 49, pp. 43' - 459, etc.) , cpo chap. 3. ,. Son = father, brother = falher arc COmmOn dream symbolization •. For ,he impor. tanl oon - phallos equation , cpo infra , where Greek data bearing on the column _ phallos symbolism arc aloo given. n Cpo (36). For a brilliant literary characterization of the "dosed univene" in which the two move, cpo T . H . White: Tlte 0"£1 l1~d Full8' Ki"l (/ .,2): Ihe ch ildren torture the donktyll and the donktyll torture the children with their provocative stubbornness. They move oomnambulislically in a narro"· world: in a .mall capsule in which the giving and talcing ofpain is equaUyanx;cly......,...ing and pervcndYla ltsfying. (Cpo Hom. II. " .5581f.: children and donkeys.)
. alenal
~
ethos :Ia al.llor
Three Euripidtan Dreams: VariatiollS on a Tlume arousing-intensity in the three Euripidean dreams-all concerning onry sons. (As noted before, Helenos no longer counts. ) Pers/KcIWe- the angle of vision in dream-is discussed here only in relation to the organization of space in dream. Its psychological implications will be considered further on, in connection with the problem of regression and of the latent content. In Euripidean dreams the gaze of the dreamer is never level (horizontal). In E . Rh. the Charioteer not only seems to know, even in dream, that he is lying prone on the ground, but the details he sees suggest that, in dream, he looks diagonall y upward, as he would were he awake. The centre of his field of vision is occupied by the backs of his horses and by the lower halves of the wolves' bodies; neither the horses' legs nor the wolves' heads are mentioned. This suggests an angle of vision about 45" about the horizonta1. 98 H eka be's angle of vision is also about 45"-but below the horizontal: she looks downward, since she see~ only the fawn on her lap and the .....olf's claws. Iphigeneia's angle of vision is variable. At first she looks upward : at the falling cornice and at the hair topping the column. Later bn, she nttessarily lowers her gaze, looking down at the hair she sprinkles. The angle of vision, while she is looking upward, cannot be estimated with any assurance; while looking down at the hair and at her hands, her gaze is probably at least 45° below the horizontal. This consistent deviation of the gaze from the horizontal is striking. The upward-di rected gaze often characterizes dreams in which the dreamer regresses 10 his childhood and looks up to adults (chap. I, note 29) ; the downward-dire<:ted gaze is occasionally maternal: the adult looks down to the child. The change in Iphigeneia's angle of vision in dream may perhaps be correlated with the " Phantasy of the Reversal of Generations" (92) . The young girl of Argos, protected by adul ts, becomes Orestes' prottttor. In my clinical experience a slriki,lg{y non-horizontal gaze tends to occur mainly in anxiety dreams (46, pp. 67 ff.). Space can be experienced in dream only as a Leibnizian "order of bodies" and its symbolic meaning is still not full y understood. Dream-space appears to be an extension or projection of the dreamer's body; in very regressive dreams it may represent also the ma.ternal body (129, 130). I will discuss for the moment only the arrangement of objects in the three dreamed spaces. Their relation to the dreamer's body (perspective) and the symbolic implications of their arrangement will be analysed in due time. Euripidean dream space is consistently made up of four horizontal layen. Interest in die vertiea l may possibl y be a Euripidean09 chara c teristic.
There are not many obvious Aischylean (A. Ag. I IT.) and Sophoklean parallels to Anligone on the terrace, Orestes on the roof, Pentheus in a tree and- if F. R obert's hypothesis ( 127) is accepted- to Orestes' plan to enter Artemis' temple from above. IOIl Euripides' propensity to use the elevated Ihe%geirm may also be relevant . .. The Charioteer sleep! n~ar. though certainly not under, hi. horsa' hooves. A suitable distance would be 5-6 feet . I n Euripides' time, a fine Greek hone stood about [4- 15 hand. (4' 8""- 5') at the ....;\he... ( ~) . Thi.o gives approximately a 45' angle of vwon . .. And Aristophanic : Xuh. (the ..... pended Soha!.,. and the clouds), .A~. , P= and Ril~ .
,.. E. Ph«n . 88 If.; Or. 1561 fr.; Bo. 1063 fr. Cp. al5oHom. 1/. 3.161 fr.
,86
Thrtt Euripidean Dreams: VariationJ on a Thew.
The lowest supporting surface is, with onc exception, (he naked earth j only in the fint part of the E. IT. dream is it necessarily the floor of a room. This is striking since, in most early Greek dreams, the Dream visits the dreamer in his sleeping quarters, which have a floor. This principal surface supports in turn objects arranged in three layers. The bottom layer is an object whose schematic form is the same in all three dreams (Fig. I). It has connections with Hekabe's antecedent and subsequent waking experiences. The antecedent one might have been the old taie-or, if one prefers, the Euripidean invention- that, when Odysseus entered Troy as a spy, he had to crawl, asking for mercy, to H ekabe's feet (E. Hee. 245). The subsequent event is that the "wolf" Po[ymestor, blinded by H ekabc and her fell ow-captives, crawls on all fours like a beast (E. Hu. 1058 ff. ). Cd
f--- ----,
CO,
I :, :, :, :, I
Co)
i
,
,
,
These objects consist of: (a) slender vertical supports, (b) a substantial horizontal element and (c) at one end of the latter, a short, upward projecting element. (a) The horses' Jegs. The (seated) Hekabe's calves (and, if she is imagined as sitting on a chair, also the legs of the chair) and the wolf's hind legs (bknding). The legs of Iphigeneia's bed tmd, later on, the columns of the palace (duplication) . (b) The horses' bodies. Hekabe's thighs (lap). The horizontal part of the bed and the roof of the palace (ditto). (c) The horses' neclc; and tossing heads. The seated Hekabe's torso and head. The head of the bed and the metope of the palace (ditto). One notes the duplication of all three elements in Iphigeneia's dream. Owing to differences in perspective, the position of this last object with respect to the dreamer is variable. In E. Rh. , it towers above him; in E. Hu. it is Hekabe's own {maternal)IOl body; in E. IT. it is at fil"$t underneath the dreamer (bed) j later on it surrounds her (palace). The colour of this object is, either definitely or probably, the lightest or die most brilliant of all objects seen in the dream: Rhesos' famous (301 ff. ) white horses j probably H ekabe's robe j almost certainly the bedding and perhaps the columns.lo~ The topmost object is always darker than the others and is usually hairy or shaggy: in E. Rh. and E. fhc. the wolves, in E. JT. perhaps the roof and possibly the hair. The latter is suggested by E. (Antiope) fr. 203Nl, since ivy is dark. The hair is called ~av66c. variously translated as blond , ,., In drea m,
lh ~
IUpport JNlr U&. llnl<. is lh" .ym bolically represented mat"rnal body
(37) ·
I.'
Too li!ll~ ill known ofGua ho""," painting 10 make anything but tentative statements aboul the colour of th" various parll of th" palace. The columru w~ probabty .,ithu light in colour or else: painted in briIli.ant hues.
• alenal
~
echos :Ia autor
Thttt Euripidean Dreams: Variations on a Thlnlt reddish, light brown. \Vhatever its colour, it is probably less brilliant than the colour of house paint. This colour-name occurs four times in E. IT., alwa}'ll with ominous or funereal connotations: the frightening hair (52), blood (73), Iphigeneia's own hair which is to be shorn in mourning (173), oil for Orestes' funeral pyre (633). Tllis does not suggest that, in drea m, the hair has a cheerful brilliancej103 moreover, I already noted the tradition that Orestes' hair resembled that of his sisters.l()f The roof is, of course, not shaggy, but the hair, which replaces it on top of the column, is. This is a common form of displacement in dream and is, moreover, duplicated by the displacement of sound in time, in a similarly incongruous ( = dreamlike) manner. Allor part of the topmost object is hairy, pendulous and mobile: in E. RIr. the whipping wolftails j in E. Hee. the (presumably) hanging tail of the rampant wolf; in E.IT. the descending hair. This is invariably balanced by some lighter, long hair in one of the three lower layers: the snowy manes; H ekabe's (inferable) white hair; and, perhaps, doubly in E. IT. , for Iphigeneia's hair, though also ~cxv66c, may be imagined as lighter than that of her brotherio, and, if the inference that the already descended hair is that of the infant Orestes is correct, it, too, might be imagined as lighter than that of the adult Orestes, which tops the column representing him. This interpretation is advanced with due caution, precisely because too complete a parallelism would be suspect. The meaning of this contrast will be interpreted further below. Another characteristic of these topmost objects is that all of them are in the "wrong" place.!06 ,"VolvCll ~hould 110t ride honiCli, nor should one almost climb onto H ekabe's lap ; hair on top of a column is out of place. Hy contrast, each lower object is in the "right" (natural) place. This finding can be correlated with the symbolic representation of the (anxiety arousing) topmost objects and the naturalistic representation of the (victimized) lower oncs. The upper objects are, predictably, the aggresson; the lower ones are the victims. Tt may also be noted that none of the three dreatrul mentions supporting, or being supported, as an tJl;perUnet. This may conceivably indicate that these dreams do not represent regression to babyhood, for dreams involving such a regression occasionally include that experience (37). Summing up, in all three dreams space i~ divided into three layers, supported by a fourth. Their arrangclIlt:lIl is mud! tht: samt: in all cases. Even if one grants that the dream space is modelled upon the structure of the body, the mathematical probability of these: extensive structural congruences being due to chance is very small. i07 It. It ;1 the mcat ominous object in the dream and dark objecu in duam are of ill omen, cpo Ps._Hp. 11lS0IM. 91. ,... A. CII«. !66; E. EI. 5~o, 5~9 . '" Cpo women'l hair on a few vase paintings. ,.. No "OUI ofplace" dement can be properly appra;..w. unl.,... one bean in mind thaI ""e custnmary scienti6c definition of "dirt" is "something out of place". But I hasten to add that a far broader definition of"dirt" has n:cently been propost:d by a brilliant ynung Australian anthropologist, in an aU but inaccessible periodical (88). II' In face, my attention was fint attraeted to Ihese dreams by their OIriking sl ructural CUligruc:n",::. witl! respect 10 lpace.
Three Euripidtan Dreams: Variations on a Theme Tilt Parts oj lilt Body and Tlltir· Ule. Though the bodies of the dreamers and of the animals present no panicularities, it is desirable to differentiate between named parts, parts implied by the mention of their functions and parts whose use or non-use is, for one reason or another, anomalous enough to attract one's attention to their existenceYlI:I This is directly related to the problem of the routine use, the anomalous use and the nonuse of certain limbs. A pattern is discernible, even if one treats the column representing OreSles as a person. The dreamers' limbs are named ill only one case: Hekabe mentions her knees ( = la p). Iphigeneia mentions her own hair only in her associations ( 174). The organs implied by a mention of their function are slightl y more numerous. The least important of these are the eyes (seeing), since the Greek "saw" dreams. The Charioteer uses no other part of his body. As regards Hekabe, the sta tement that she holds a fawn on her lap and the mentioning of her knees (= lap) can only mean tha t she is seated; this in turn implies an allusion to both sides of the middle ponion of her 9oc1y. Iphigeneia's crying constitutes a second allusion to her eyes, her runni ng an altusion to her legs, the "watering" of the hair an all usion to her hands. In a sense, her eyes and hands are paired: her eyes metaphoricallylOll sprinkle the hair which her hands sprinkle in fact. Her ears are also alluded to, in that she hears a voice; so are those of the Charioteer, who apparently hears in his sleep the (real) snoning of his horses, which helps elicit his dream. It is noteworthy that, if one disregards references to sight (eyes), neither the head nor the hands- man's most reality-oriented and " rational" organs-arc mentioned in E. Rh. anti in E. flu ., though both are indirectly alluded to in the E. IT. drea m . The mobility of the dreamer's body is nil in E. Rh., at best hypothetical, and even the n limited, in E. He&., but considerable in E. IT. This progression is significant, in that it suggests a decrease in the immobilization of the sleeper-dreamer by anxiety. Few of the aggressors' limbs are mentioned. E. Rh. only mentions their tails; E. Hee. names the wolf's claws; in so far as the shaky column = Orestes ( = Agamemnon in the primal scene) is a potential aggressor, his hair is mentioned. Limbs whosefwutioll at least is named are: in E. Rh. the riding wolves' hind leg:s and crotches; in E. flee. the wolf's hind legs and his body arched over H ekabe's knees. No organ of lhe 3ggn!ssor is visual{y inferable from its fWlction in the E. I T. dream. The conspicuous absence of any referencc--d.irect or indirect- to the wolves' heads in both wolf dreams is especially striking, since the Greeks dreaded the wolf's eyes (132) . The om ission in E. Rh. has already been interpreted; that in E. Hee. is interpretable. Since this wolf is human, any mention of his head (maw) wo uld evoke the spectre of cannibalism. This would raise the level of anxiety to a n intolerable pitch (56, chap. 5) and would weaken the huma n implications of the (man-like) use or the rorepaws and claws ( = hands).L10 In both wolf dreams the functioning of named and inferable ' .. Slrwng onmsions in a dream are al..... ays du o 10 iLs meaning: (46, p. 3(6). Cpochap.
7, note 74· '" "Shed lean o\'«" - "arroser de larmes··- "m it T riinen henetze,,·" E.. H « . ..... olf ..... ith hand and dagger (cp. 56~,",,, _ 5tileuo) . (A 5lippagd ) II. Profcs
. alenal
~
echos :Ia al.ltor
Thru Euripidlan Drearru: Variations on a Thmtt limbs alike is not wolf-like but human: paws seem to climb and claw; hi nd le~ straddle horses or else permit the wolf to stand on them like a man; tails are used all whips. Finally, the aggressors are always silent; manifestly so in E. Rh. and E. Hec. and probably- with some reservations - in E. IT. (infra). Their mobility will be discussed further on. The victim's organs and limbs are more frequently named or at least implied. E . Rh. names the hides and the hair of the horses (though not their proverbial whiteness), their manes, their backs and their nostrils; their heads and necks are implied by the tossing of the manes, their legs by their bucking. They are, moreover, noisy (snorts). In E. Hee. only the SPOlled hide of the fawn is mentioned; tills (perhaps) implies a scotomization of the head of this non-vocal victim, since a fawn 's least conspicuously spotted part is its head. I n E. JT. only the vocal (potentially sacrificial) victim's hair is mentioned and--exce pt symbolically- no other of its limbs is so much as implied by its functioning.1I! The general behaviour of the victims is appropriately horse-like in E. Rh. and probably adequately fawn-like (helpless) in E. Htc. In E. JT. the column "behaves" as columns do in an earthquake; only the hair's behaviour is anomalous. One notes that the long-haired victims are vocal, while the short-haired fawn is not. I n the first approximation, the consistent inappropriateness of the aggTessors' behaviour and the perfect appropriateness of that of the victims suggest, but do not suffice to prove, that the former refie<:l'l the child's diswrted "vision" of the primal scene, in which father, the nocturna! ogre, does "terrible" t.hin~ to mother. Similarly, at this point, the a ppropriate behaviour of the victims may only tentatively be correlated with the relatively undistorted self-rep resentation of the dreamers, which suggests that they identify with the victims. This interpretation will be substantiated in later sections. Three other points must also be noted: ( I) The emphasizing of the forepaws and hands must not be overinterpreted : m an is hand, rather than fOOl, oriented, though perhaps less so in the first weeks of life than later on. This gives a faint clue to the "psychological date" of these dreams. (2) I phigeneia's running outdoors is appropriate emergency behaviour, even for a modest girl. (3) I n the temporal sequence: Rh. H u . and JT , the increasing mobility of the dreamer contrasts with the decreasing mobility of the victim: bucking horses, huddled fawn , inanimate column. Though the many parallelislTl.'l and contraslil just cited are interesti ng, the importanCe of some of them is decreased by the interdependence of thc various parts of the body; for example, a wolf cannot very well claw and bite simulUUie(}usly. These strictures notwithstanding, the similarities and conjugate contrasts in question are probably significant . M Olltmtnl being extremely important in all three dreams, a careful distinction must be made between various types of motility. I. Actiw MO/Jmle1lts: (I) Rhythmic movement is represented in E. Rh.m by the bucking, '" Cp., however, below: column _ phaUOOI _ body Il''' whole. ,,, On E', interest in luch movemenu, cp. Barrdt, ad E. Hipp. '464 (,.,(TUAoc).
Thtee Euripidtan Dreams: VariatjoM
QIl
a T Mme
heaving and mane-tossing of the horses and oy the whipping motions of the wolf tails. Their heaving parallels the heaving of the earth (earthquake) in E. IT. The whipping is so typically dreamlike in its plawsible absurdity, thai it fi rs t suggested to me that this migh t be the poetic ela boration ofa real dream. Yet, paradoxicall y, it is Mil detail that has possible literary antecedents. As a riding whip, a tail is as inappropriate as the bow, used by Odysseus in the Iliad (1O.550).lIJ In E. flee., gross or ample rhythmic movement is lacking in the dream, but is implicit in the associations. Hekabe mentions her "blaek-winged" dream (71, 704). This transposition is psychologicaUy sound; in psycho-analysis, one observes in the course of successive dreams that certain elements pass freely from the manifest content to the associations and back again. I n E. IT., rhythmic activo: movement is faintly represented by I phigeneia's running, but this is rh ythmic movement on a symbolic lcvel onl y.114 Descriptively, it parallels the rhythmic movements in E. Rh. and E. flee. (2) Repetitive, scrabbling movements occur, in a properly dreamlike (absurd ) manner, in all three dreams, and always involve the forelimbs . Since the Greekls had no stirrups, in mounting horses they relied more on their hands than we do. In E. Rh. the wolves probably " clawed" their way up to the horses' backs, in a very human manner. I n E. flee. the wolf claws at- but does not bite-the fawn. I n E. IT. I phigeneia wa te rs (sprinkles) the hair, or the column, or even- as Hadas ambiguously [and wrongly, for she does not equate the pillar wi th a person until vv. 56 fr. (K.J.D.)] translatcs- " him" . The little that can be made of this is briefl y discussed in conne<:tion with the primal scene . .Mwcular effort llOt involving movement is limited to the lower (hind) limbs and is quite peculiar in two of the th ree dreams. In E. Rh. , the wolves obviously straddle thc horses; in E. flee., the wolf stallds on his hind legs; in E. I T. , I phigeneia, quite appropriatel y, stands while washing the hair. T his limited locomotion pattern is compatible with the interpretatio n that these are primal scenc dreams. II. Passive AfolJtmtllts, especially of thc rhyt hmic type, probably antedate (ontogct\clically) even spontaneow foctal movements. Being extremely archaic, this movement pattern often occurs in dream, though usuall y in a hcavily disguised form.11s In infantile autism, pathological self-rocking is apparently first experienced as active movement, though t he expm'tnct rapidly changes into that of being rocked, pas-riwly. This is, psychologically, a regressive experience-for the mother'5 rocking comforts the childwhich is sometimes actually exploited for religious ends, as in the ecstasyinducing behaviour of Mainades,tl6 and also in grief (E. Tr. 1 16 f. ). '" Th is is practically the only "inappropriate" lISC of a " 'capo n in the llUul. '" I n dream, walking and running are exp:riencrd ail " rangly rhythmic and orten represent 5CXual a ctivity (cr. chap. 3, note J0-l). "' An anal ysand often dreamed of being alone in a moving automobile, which s.mlla to mean that he dm"" it. Not until he had a dream in which he experienced movement the way a child carried ;n his mother', arm:; would experience it- though being carried was not part of the manifest oonten t-di d he realize that in hi. au tomobile dreams he did ,../ drive, hut was simply "trar.sported" alone in a moving car, interpretaule as a womb (37)· " . Of, app<:ndix I ; cp . !}, " S, J<;<>n<>graphy; 09. "So\l8ht" fatigue (kadu18 to «otlUy)
~
a
ida por
'9'
Three Euripitkan Dreams: Variations on a Thmu
More important still, for present purposes, is the illusion, usually experienced in states of mild regression, that the body is spontaneously rocking or oscillating. If this happens during a psycho-analytical session, it usually heralds the return of repressed memories (or fantasies) about the primal scene (71, p. '2IS).ll7 This matter is discussed further in the app ropriate section; here I postulate only that dreamed prusive motion of this type is also a manifestation of an onidc primal scene "experience". This movement is most conspicuous in the IT. earthquake which, in terms of Greek belief, can only be caused by Poseidon, the Earth Shaker CEwodyoooc).1l8 It is also quite fitting that the fall of the House of Pelopid Agamemnon should be due to an earthquake caused by Poseidon, who had helped the immigrant Pelops to found a dynasty: the ambivalent notion that the creator is also the destroyer is theologically, mythologically and psychologically a commonplace. To these two determinants a third may now be added. An ancient theory correlates Poseidon the Earth Shaker with Poseidon of the H orses Chnnoc), relating earthquakes to the vibrations set up by stampeding horses; moreover, Poseidon and the Earth goddess Demeter once coupled in the form of a stallion and a mare (infra). These observatiom lead directly to the horses of Rhesos, whose bucking necessarily tosses the wolves about, exactly as the quaking earth tosses about the Palace l19 and, of course, Iphigeneia herself as well. Though the Charioteer, sleeping near by, presumably felt the earth shake under the bucking horses' hooves, he apparently condensed the shaking earth and the maddened horses into one image. H ence, Euripides postponed a direct mention of the earthquake motif until the E. IT. dream. Such postponements are fairly common in serial dreams.l20 In E. H u., passive movement of this type is lacking.l21 Experiences of passive movement often give rise to subjective misinterpretations j for example, an inoo{ulliary shaking of one's body may be experienced as being of external origin.122 may ~ a form of IOxicomania (faligu~ = aUloinloxicalion: 56, chap. I I) . I ~Iievc Ihal Ihe more moderale "'tf_rocking of praying H aMid ic Jew$ induces apparently nOt eat3.$y, bUl nnly a IIO-eallrd "~anic feding" (Freud) (Ol ) ; il is themorc not int~rpretablc as a loxicomania equivalent. Self_rocking in schizophrenic and prcschizophrenic children ;. an alarming symplOm, liuggesting a very poor prognosis. '" The .ame;" Iru~ Qf oscillation IIOmetimes experiencrd in Ihe dark ("5) Qr arter seda· tinn (1'0). 111 Earlhquakes .ymbc>lize physiological changes or upheavals. ps-Hp. i~$""'n. go. m Significantly, there is an c arlhquak ~, which deslroys a palace, also in E. Ba. ( ~If. ) -i.c., in a drama in which nearly everyone is a more or las .ublimatrd voyeur: Teiresias nburves coupling snakes and lQr Athene in Ih e nude, and, thollgh bl ind, i. a ....,.. and "obscr.·es" (how?) th~ flighl of birds (...." how~"~r, S. Alit. 988 fr., [0[2 fr. ) . Cp. notc 158. VoyeUrism is rootrd in Ihe primal $Ccne. 1>0 FQr the primal -scene implicalion. of Iphig~neia's (logically juslifiabl~) flight reaction. cp. infra. II I Hcka~'. rocking of the fawn and her poe$ible warding-off kg tnOvcmenU would ~ purdy logical construcU and Our task here ;" to analyse Ihe luI. H eka~ rocks hendf in E. T •. 116f. III A French maquildrd had to flee acroso the fidd. at nighl, blll his severe heart ailmen[ repeatrdly foKed him 10 lie down and rest. During onc .uch pause, hc '·heard" hoofbeats and "felt" the vibrations .hey..,. up. Only ..... hen th~ hoofbeats did not com~ any cJ...,r did he realize that he had simply heard the beating of his ovcrtaltrd heart and had fdt it
'alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
'9'
Thret EuripiritlJn Dreams: Variations on a Tlumt
SQunds are uncommon, and luard (articulate) speech is altogether exCl:rtional in n:al dreams whkh, fur n :asum
~lill
uut fully ulHlcn,luuJ, arc
primarily experiences (infra). Since articulate speech is very common in
H omeric dreams, while pure sound is seldom mentioned. the total absence of speeches in Euripidean dreams and the superb handling of sound are evidence of his realistic treatment of the dream. As repeatedly noted (chap. 2, etc.), psycho-analytical experience indicates that it is at times almost impossible to determine whether a speech seemingly "heard" in dream actually involves a dreamed auditory txptrnn~ or is simply some-. thing "underltood" as having been "told" in dream. (Plu. de gen. Sot:r. S88D, f.; Chakidius 255, p. 288Wrobel.) In most cases, it is definitely the latter. The reverse is true of j'lGrliculaU sound; whenever it is part of the manifest dream content, it is always something "heard" in dream. This is only to be expected; the dream is affective ralher than conCeptual. In fact, at times external sowub impinging upon the sleeper's sensorium are-a s in E. Rh.- immediately lrans{alt d into visual images. III At other times, a dreamed soumf is simply a transposition into the auditory sphere of more primitive coenesthetic sensations. 1u The one overt reference to sound is in the E. IT. dream: the column's hair has a human voice, though what is "said" is not reported.12! Three alternatives may be considered; a fourth- that I phigeneia forgot what the voice said- must be discarded from the start, since she says nothing to suggest this. Given the Greeks' fondness for dream speeches (chap. 2), had the voice spoken, Iphigeneia would have said so. ( r) The "voice" was gJossolaJic, like the Pythia's.n~ (2) The voice "mumbled"; this would represent an attempt to superimpose a blurring noise on an ego-dystonic utterance. l21 Mumbling only communicates affect, but withholds the conceptual content. (Cp. also 32, pp. 244 fT. ) (3) The voice moaned or groaned inarticulately. This is the most plausible assumption. Since Iphigeneia "wept" in dream, and, perhaps, also on awakening, she must have felt that the voice was mournful. Since she misinterprets the visual and conceptual part of her dream, her appreciation of the affective quality of the voice, too, is probably at lcasl partly erroneous. It seems likely that this mi~interpretation should be ,hak~ hi, frame ('hnllo< = ·Ewod ya,o<). Co nversely, a half_asleep analyund m i.!_ interp>"<':ted a few $light seismic . hoch as illusory oscillations and rea~ ted to them with primal ""~n~ hy?nagogic r,,,·eries . ... I am told thi' also happel1$ when one takes certain drugs • ... A female analyund r<:<;alled at Ii... t only the tremendous U"C'lCendoo and decro:scendoo ofa huge choir heard in dream. Iv, OOOn a. iu analysis showed that th""" chang .. in the volume of aound !.imply echoed Itrong, localized erotic pul""tions, tm: patient recalled that the dreamed auditory experien ce graduaUy
( '9)·
.
" . P ythia non_lflossolalic : (64. p. 74) : contra 62. '" On mumbling and relatro pttuliarili cs of spttch, cpo 56, chap. 4; 4Q; and 32, p . "44 ff. Cpo nole '78, also .he General Intr«luction (not., lIlI) . Barking obHttrat"" human '?e"'ch: Apollod. 3.2.2.
~ atet"~1
Three Euripitiean Drtams.' VariatiollS on a Thmu
'93
linked with the child's tendency to mistake the mother's pleasurable erotic moans for the moans of a person in pain- a hypothesis strengthened by the fact that these arc the sounds small children most frequently hear at night and therefore most commonly associate with darkness. They are therefore also the sounds which are most commonly "heard" in dream . (For a furthe r discussion of this important detail, cpo infra .) The seeming mournfulness of this sound is, in a way, replicated by Iphigeneia's weeping in dream . This does not necessarily mean that she " heard" herself weep in dream- that thai pan of her dream was aIsf) an acoustic one. We may not even assume, a priori, that she actually shed tean; while she slept, though some p!..""Ople do cry in sleep. As regards the former, I have never, either in clinical practice or in my readings, come across a dream in which the dreamer hears himself. I n fact, even in a waki ng stale one actually hears one's own voice "objectively" only in slightly dissociated states, in which one hears oneself talking. Moreover, the text permits perhaps the inference that Iphigcneia cried again on awakening; this seldom happens when one has already cried in sleep. Equally interesting is the absence of sound etperitncts in the first part of the dream, though a real earthquake, causing the masonry to crash, would make an enormous din. This lends added significance to the subsequent (logically inappropriate) vocalncss of the hair. Psycho-analytically, it probably represents a de/uring of the earthquake's sound; its displacement in time. This postponement would affect the meaning of the deferred sound in a highly dreamlike (plausibly absurd) manner. T here may even be another displacement in time: I phigeneia does not seem to cry out while fleeing from the palace, but subsequently cries over the hair, and it so happens that delayed grief is a common manifestation of the displacement of affect in time (cf. chap. 3). In short, just as the noisy earthquake is silent while the silent hair is vocal, so I phigeneia does not cry out when she should, but cries jnappropriately later On.123 The E. Rh. mentions one sound only; the snorting of horses- i.e., a sound the Greeks found impressive.Ll9 I note in passing that this snorting sound, too, resembles bedroom sounds. More interesting still is the already briefly noted tram/ormation of sounds impinging all the sleeping Charioteer's sensorium into visual imagery. His dream is manifestly triggeredll-O by the sound of the struggling and snorting horses, whose crashing hooves shook the earth. From thh sound and vibration an approp riate, and mainly visual, imagery is constructed; in the dream itself the only sound is the snorting. The (suppresttd) thunder of hooves re_ appears only in the E. I T. d ream's earthquake (Poseidon of the Horses = The Earth Shaker). I n shari, though, like the crashing pa lace, the hooves of R hesos' horses, too, make much noise, this is not perceived as sound in the dream; only their loud snorting appears to he "heard" in sleep. The no Delay...! mourning of a primili"e (hild (Assam) ( 17); (p. chap. 3, nOle '42. m Thrtt times m~ntioned by AischylOl: &pl. 391 r., 461 r.; Jr. ,81 Sm. (3 26N' ) (L.C.L. ii , p. 487). The Gred<s Icnded 10 muzzle ho.....,., for fear of being biuen ( X. Eq. :;.3) <>nd the muzzle I1mpliliood the oound. Cpo 'he """unl neighing of n .... Illon, Hd,. 3.85-86. (o,ap. I, note 40.) u. Iphigcncia'. dream tlltiJ with an appan:ntly intrap5yehically originated fOund.
,,).
Three Eu.ripidean Dreams: VtJriatiollJ on
/I
TMrM
Charioteer clearly views his dream as a primarily visual experience, though he does so partly because (despite dream-speeches) in Greek one alwa ys "sees" a dream. This notwithstanding, the transmuting of sou nd into an appropriate imagery is a superb touch. In both these dreams, the sounds lack a conceptual content and convey onl y arrec!. In both, moreover, the aggressors are silent and the vic tims vocal, though real crashing masonry and live attacking wolves do make loud noises. By contrast, human thieves are silent. A significant COntrast may now be noted. The paradoxical VOla/ness of the hair reveals that it
represents a man, while it is the paradoxical JiluJce of the wolves that proves them to be human. This means that in these cases important revelations are made by diametrically opposite acoustic means. In fact, the Chario teer "constructed" the dream-wolves oul of the noise made by the struggling horses, for only wolves would alarm Rhesos' Thracian horses. H ekabe's dream contains no sound: nothing pennits us to infer that the fawn whimpers or that Hekabe cries out. There is, none the less, a special kind of sound in Ihe associations, implicit in the mentioning of the "blackwinged dream" ( 71, 704). This image, lacking even a H omeric "winged dream" precedent, suggests another type of sound . The beating of wings sets the air in motion, as does an earthquake and falling masonry. In E. Rh., too, there is a sound produced by masses of violently d isplaced air : the horses only snort, or blow; they do not whinny. A further peculiarity of these dreams is the recurrent nexus between sound and some kind of moisture: hair---crying-sprinkling; snortingblowing-(inevitably) foamiug and sweating (aud (possibly) a 3light bleeding). In H ekabe's dream itself there is no sound, nor can moisture other than blood-be plausibly inferred. This matter would hardly deserve mention were it not for a Euripidean peculiarity: a check of every relevant passage in his complete surviving dramas shows that whenever sleep o r dream are mentioned,lll there is, every single time, also mention of some kind of fluid- be it water or something else--either just before or just after that word- never more than about 30 lines away. This nexus between sleep (dream) and moisture is at least puzzling. What is to be retained, is Euripides' psychologically realistic and superbly plausible handling of sound in dream, though in this respect literary dreams, both before and after him, a re singularly unrealistic and deficient. Equally important are the extensive manifest and iatent, parallel or symmetrical, congruences between the handling of sound in these dreams. lll Time: Regressian and Wish. The handling of lime in dream must reroncik 1>, As tisted in J. T . Allen and G. halie, A Cw",IitJ_ 10 E~ripidlS, '954 (.1). PO!oSible nexus suggested by J.W.D.: bedw~tting and/or nocturnal pnllution. I '''''pend judgment on thu hypothesis. ," I wnuld tike to ad"ance her~ a new explanation of the visual nature of most drearru. In .lttp, .ight is the flnry :w:nsory IpheN: which '«nnw be fully Itimulatm wilhout awaken_ ing the dreamer. By cnntrast, the .Ieeper continues 10 have Buditory, tactile, kinesthetic and ooenesthelk experiences of moderate intensity (75) . It is thero:f~ possible thaI, in order not to be awakened by them, Ihe d ream~r t T«nJmulrJ them in dr<:am into imaginary visual apcrknees, since that .Knsory .ph~re ;. not "occupied" by ' ,/ll (external ) stimul i in dream. This;1 pr<:<:isdy what the Charint~er doo. Also, .ince the only .timuli which the
• alenal
~
echos :Ia al.llor
Three Euripidean. Drtams: Variations on a Theme
295
two sets of paradoxes. The Ego is time-conscious; the Td and at least some segments of the Unconsdous are timeless. The dream is inherently regressive; the wish it expresses is technically progressive. The resolving of these two pairs of conflicting orientations in drcanl occasionally leads to a circularity of oniric time. The manifest content is experienced in the present tense, though it may imply the future in the form ofa dread or wish. The Charioteer appa rently plans already in dream to save his horses; H ekabe's narrative at least hints at a frustrated wish to save the fawn; Iphigeneia flees from the Palace so as to save herself. This is little enough, bUI it is precisely the cursoriness of these allusions that is dreamlike. The past is hardl y ever " remembered" in the manifest content. Though always implicit in it, it is experienced-so to speak- in the present tense. In dream, Iphigeneia docs not remembe r her girlhood; she is a young girl. Hekabe does not "reminisce" about her babies; she ac!Ually dandles one on her knees. Only the Charioteer's narrative alludes directly to the pas t (" the horses that I tended")- but that, as Professor Dover points out to me, is nat ural, for by the time the dream is told, the horses hout been stolen. It is, thus, the narrative (III ), rather than the dream itself, that contains an (explicative) reference to the past. Psycho-analytically, the past tense is here part of tbe secondary elaboration which results from the Ie{{ing of the dream to Heklor. The dominance of the present is strikingl y highlighted by the fact that, e.g., Iphigeneia is in an unusual place in dream, but does not know (or say) how she got there; the "because ... therefore" sequence is little stressed in real dreams.ln The manifest representation of regression gives a clue to its depth. ( I) It is almost negligible- a matter of weeks or months- in the Charioteer'sdream, asshown by his (now inappropriate) fearof (Thracian ?) wolves. This detail probably implies a tbought-habit lag, rather than a genuine regression. (2) In H ekabe's dream, the regression is represented by the maternal stance. Its depth cannot be calculated witb any precision, since the fawn may be either Polydoros or Polyxene-or both. The latter is of ma rriage~ able age. ru to Polydoros' age, the data (\TV. 4 fr. ) are ambiguous. They seem to imply that he was sent abroad when the tide began to turn against the Trojans, but they might just as well mean: when Troy began to be besieged ( = in danger, KtvOVvoe). Hekabe's advanced age supports the latter alternative. Polydoros therefore cannot possibly be an infant.IH roetUl dOH ",,/ ~p"rienc<: are vi.ual on.,., . I""p and f",,'a1 ~xi .. c:n~c no'orio" . 1y have: ",u~h in COmmOn. It ;" especially inleresti ng that man'. """t rea/ity.orirtltrd OCrlSe (25) : light, should QUO be Ihe sphere of h is "",..;"",Ily unrealistic dream-cxp<:rien.;.... '" It is, moroo"er, $0 unusual in I\I0ha"e Indian mytha, that its OC.;urrenCe in one place is specifically poillled oul by Kroeber ( 101, p . 65, nOle 137). ". We,.., he alive, we might, considering Euripides' habit of giving speaking rolrs to children (7, pp • If.; 15, p. '90; 8~, p. t03), extrapolate from A. M. Dale'. atlracti"e luggcstion (in her edition ofE. Ale. ) that, since Eumdo- is gi.·en a . peaking role, he musl be about 6 yean old. [Dale could ha"e added that, On vases, many children are rep,..,..,n. ted as boo.ing about 8 yean old; bUI this may only boo. a bad art;"t;.; repr"""ntat;on of head! body proportions (K .J.D.).] The difficulty here i. lhat Ih e speaker is Polydoros' phan tom I do not think Euripid ... made careful calculations, though much is grasped intuiti"dy by a great poet. On children in ;wdent literature see now Kauel (96).
.s
MaterKiI
:Ie autor
TirTee Euripitkan Dreams: Variations on a T1teme (3) Iphigeneia's degree of regression can be determined with precision. She was already of marriageable age at Aulis (E. IT25, IA 9B fT. , etc.); to this, one must add the duration of the ten-year Trojan war, of Agamemnon's return voyage, the growing up and matricide of Orestes and perhaps an additional year, needed to bring him to the land of the Taurians. Hence, in E. IT., Iphigeneia cannot be a very young adult; her captivity was clearly a long one. We also have a second clue. InitiaUy, the hair topping th