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And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again? Archilochus

Monday, March 27, 2017

Hermes Argeiphontes and Telesilla of Argos

In epic poetry, the epithet argeiphontes is sometimes substituted unambiguously for the name of Hermes. Traditionally, "argeiphontes" is said to mean "Argus-slayer" and in the accompanying picture, you can see why, assuming you recognize the guy with the sword as Hermes.

Argus, child perhaps of Zeus and Niobe, is the eponymous creature of Argos (Oxford Classical Dictionary). You may be familiar with him as Argus Panoptes, the many-eyed monster whose eyes came to grace the tail of Hera's peacock after Hermes killed him.
Source

On Argos
Located by the Gulf of Argolis, Argos is an important polis of Greece in the southern section, the Peloponnese, specifically, in the area called the Argolid. It has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The inhabitants were known as Ἀργεῖοι (Argives), a term that is sometimes used for all the Greeks. Argos competed with Sparta for prominence in the Peloponnese but lost.

Argos was named for an eponymous hero.

The more familiar Greek heroes Perseus and Bellerophon are also connected with the city. In the Dorian invasion, when the descendants of Heracles, known as the Heraclidae, invaded the Peloponnese, Temenus received Argos for his lot. Temenos is one of the ancestors of the Macedonian royal house from which came Alexander the Great.

Argives worshiped the goddess Hera in particular. They honored her with an Heraion and annual festival. There were also sanctuaries of Apollo Pythaeus, Athena Oxyderces, Athena Polias, and Zeus Larissaeus (located on the Argive acropolis known as Larissa). The Nemean Games were held in Argos from the end of the fifth century to the late fourth because the sanctuary of Zeus at Nemea had been destroyed; then, in 271, Argos became their permanent home.

Telesilla of Argos was a female Greek poet who wrote around the turn of the fifth century B.C. [See 5th Century Timeline and Archaic Age.] She is best known for rallying the women of Argos against the attacking Spartans under Cleomenes I, in about 494.

Alternate Spellings: Ἄργος
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When male by female is put to flight
And Argos' name with honor is bright
Many an Argive wife will show
Both cheeks marred with scars of woe.
-Pausanias, "Periegesis Hellados"
To restore the balance of the sexes in the city, they did not (despite Herodotus’ claim) marry the women to slaves, but to the best men in the surrounding towns, whom they made citizens of Argos. The women appeared not to show respect for their husbands and despised them when they slept with them as if they were inferior, so they made a law that says that women who have beards must spend the night with their husbands.
- Plutarch (source)

8 comments:

Jersey McJones said...

What brings this to mind?

JMJ

Thersites said...

It's a bit of a continuation of the previous post... on the "Criterion" for Argos, aka the "criterion" upon which all of western civ is based. Exogamy and female "choice".

Time to go rape us some Sabine women... ;)

Thersites said...

When young "bachelor" lions get expelled from the pride, they often find other "outcasts" to pair up with, return, and kill the males that remain. They then kill all young cubs.

In Southern Sudan, moslem Janjaweed militia men would often attack a Christian village, kill all the males and children, and take the surviving women as "wives". Notice any parallels w/the Sabines?

Islam is basically endogamous, but in war times, makes exceptions and take "war brides". This approach does, however, harbor "issues". Ever read Euripides "Andromache"?

Thersites said...

...it's essentially the "epilogue" to Aeschylus' "Suppliant Maidens".

Thersites said...

...and the West's rejection of the endogamy practiced by most Middle Eastern religions.

Thersites said...

We must have spotted some ousia aphanēs in the female form not obvious to "others". ;)

Gert said...

The Classics just go on and on and on and on. Omnomnomnomnom...

FreeThinke said...

__ Why the West is Dying __

Two! Four! Six! Eight!

We must all degenerate.

Eight!

Six! EIght! Two! Four!

Critics now must play the whore.



Why - Should - This - Be?

Because we must bow to P-C.



What - Made - This - True
We must thank The Jutabu.



Truth, when it's suppressed

Makes society distressed.



A Reign of Dishonesty

Means that no one can be free.



Democracy will cease to be

When we bow to Hypocrisy.




~ Anne Animus