Sunday, October 30, 2005
Oresteia and Halloween
I would love to post about the great literary masterwork that is the Oresteia, about its pinnicle of "classical" humor, and about its cultural importance today. I just might do those things, but not in this post right here. No, because I have recently become hooked on vampire novels. The wonderful thing about reading books from 2nd hand stores and garage sales is there's never a shortage of potential fiction. I picked up this book, loved it, and now I'm reading the whole series.
Throughout history the vampire appears in association with the femanine in almost all cases up until Brahme Stoker gave 'Dracula' a weewee. Only recently have they been associated with the masculine with the femanine as a secondary association. This has made reading the Oresteia very interesting for me. I'm not looking for direct vampiric reference, oh no. Direct and indirect reference to the ideas concerning the historical nature of vampirism are what catch my eye.
One of the earliest writen representations of a vampire in modern popular culture is in the biblical tradition. Lilth is associated with the fall of the femanine and, more so, the fall of ones own humanity. Connected with the dark and with death, there is also the repulsion to and sepperation from light, from heaven, from love. This concept of vampirism is not of a garlic hating flying bat transformed from human shape but a human empty of all peace, love, reason, and hope. Immortal life without those good beautiful aspects of human existance would be one where the person, or vampire, must aquire those missing things at the expense of the innocent. This is the idea of vampirism in its infancy, the parasitic cycle of a deamon subsisting upon a vast sea of ignorant humanity which is incapable of contestation. Published very roughly around the the time of the stories involving lilth, the Oresteia incorporates the same archetypal characteristics of 'The Fallen Woman'.
and now quotes!
(so if I wasn't clear, these quotes simply caught my eye as a potential reference to the pre-vampiric attitudes of ye olde times)
Agamemnon
1. p109 line 177
Throughout history the vampire appears in association with the femanine in almost all cases up until Brahme Stoker gave 'Dracula' a weewee. Only recently have they been associated with the masculine with the femanine as a secondary association. This has made reading the Oresteia very interesting for me. I'm not looking for direct vampiric reference, oh no. Direct and indirect reference to the ideas concerning the historical nature of vampirism are what catch my eye.
One of the earliest writen representations of a vampire in modern popular culture is in the biblical tradition. Lilth is associated with the fall of the femanine and, more so, the fall of ones own humanity. Connected with the dark and with death, there is also the repulsion to and sepperation from light, from heaven, from love. This concept of vampirism is not of a garlic hating flying bat transformed from human shape but a human empty of all peace, love, reason, and hope. Immortal life without those good beautiful aspects of human existance would be one where the person, or vampire, must aquire those missing things at the expense of the innocent. This is the idea of vampirism in its infancy, the parasitic cycle of a deamon subsisting upon a vast sea of ignorant humanity which is incapable of contestation. Published very roughly around the the time of the stories involving lilth, the Oresteia incorporates the same archetypal characteristics of 'The Fallen Woman'.
and now quotes!
(so if I wasn't clear, these quotes simply caught my eye as a potential reference to the pre-vampiric attitudes of ye olde times)
Agamemnon
1. p109 line 177
Zeus has led us on to know,
the Helmsman lays it down as law
that we must suffer, suffer into truth.
We cannot sleep, and drop by drop at the heart
the pain of pain remembered comes again,
and we resist, but ripeness comes as well.
From the gods enthroned o nthe awesome rowing-bench
there comes a violent love.
2. p117 line 374
the Helmsman lays it down as law
that we must suffer, suffer into truth.
We cannot sleep, and drop by drop at the heart
the pain of pain remembered comes again,
and we resist, but ripeness comes as well.
From the gods enthroned o nthe awesome rowing-bench
there comes a violent love.
2. p117 line 374
And still some say
that heaven would never stoop to punish men
who trample the lovely grace of things
untouchable. How wrong they are!
3. p125 line 596
that heaven would never stoop to punish men
who trample the lovely grace of things
untouchable. How wrong they are!
3. p125 line 596
What dawn can feast a woman's eyes like this?
I can see the light, the husband plucked from war
by the Saving God and open wide the gates.
4. p130 line 717
I can see the light, the husband plucked from war
by the Saving God and open wide the gates.
4. p130 line 717
A captivating pet for the young,
and the old men adored it, pampered it
in their arms, day in, day out,
like an infant just born.
Its eyes on fire, little beggar,
fawning for its belly, slave to food.
5. p131 line 131
and the old men adored it, pampered it
in their arms, day in, day out,
like an infant just born.
Its eyes on fire, little beggar,
fawning for its belly, slave to food.
5. p131 line 131
But Justice shines in sooty hovels,
loves the decent life.
From proud halls crusted with gilt by filthy hands
she turns her eyes to find the pure in spirit -
spurning the wealth stamped counterfeit with praise,
she steers all things towards their destined end.
6. p141 line 1017
loves the decent life.
From proud halls crusted with gilt by filthy hands
she turns her eyes to find the pure in spirit -
spurning the wealth stamped counterfeit with praise,
she steers all things towards their destined end.
6. p141 line 1017
But a man's life-blood
is dark and mortal.
Once it wets the earth
what song can sing it back?
Not even the master-healer
who brought the dead to life -
Zeus stopped the man before he did more harm.
7. p144 line 1063
is dark and mortal.
Once it wets the earth
what song can sing it back?
Not even the master-healer
who brought the dead to life -
Zeus stopped the man before he did more harm.
7. p144 line 1063
She's mad,
her evil genius murmuring in her ears.
She comes from a city fresh caught.
She must learn to take the cutting bridle
before she foams her spirit off in blood -
8. p145 line 1088
her evil genius murmuring in her ears.
She comes from a city fresh caught.
She must learn to take the cutting bridle
before she foams her spirit off in blood -
8. p145 line 1088
No... the house that hates god,
an echoing womb of guilt, kinsmen
torturing kinsmen, severed heads,
slaughterhouse of heroes, soil streaming blood -
9. p147 line 1115
an echoing womb of guilt, kinsmen
torturing kinsmen, severed heads,
slaughterhouse of heroes, soil streaming blood -
9. p147 line 1115
No no, look there! -
what's that? some net flung out of hell -
No, she is the snare,
the bedmate, deathmate, murder's strong right arm!
10. p149 line 1164
what's that? some net flung out of hell -
No, she is the snare,
the bedmate, deathmate, murder's strong right arm!
10. p149 line 1164
What are you saying? Wait, it's clear,
a child could see the truth, it wounds within,
like a bloody fang it tears -
I hear your destiny - breakign sobs,
cries that stab the ears.
11. p152 line 1230
a child could see the truth, it wounds within,
like a bloody fang it tears -
I hear your destiny - breakign sobs,
cries that stab the ears.
11. p152 line 1230
For so much suffereing,
I tell you, someone plots revenge.
A lion who lacks a lion's heart,
he sprawled at home in the royal lair
and set a trap for the lord on his return.
...
he is so blind, so lost to that detestable hellhound
who pricks her earst and fawns and her tongue draws out
her glittering words of welcome -
12. p165 line 1519
What can i say with all my warmth and love?
Here in the black widow's web you lie,
gasping out your life
in a sacrilegious death, dear god,
reduced to a slave's bed
my king of men, yoked by stealth and Fate,
by the wife's hand that thrust the two-edged sword.
The Libation Bearers
13. p201 line 517
And food, what did the little monster want?
She gave it her breast to suck - she was dreaming.
And didn't it tear her nipple, the brute inhuman -
Blood curdled the milk with each sharp tug...
14. p205 line 615
People shudder and moan, and can't forget -
each new horror that comes
we call the hells of Lemnos.
Loathed by the gods for guilt,
cast off by men, disgraced, their line dies out.
Whoe could respect what god detests?
15. p216 line 879 - The entire scene with Orestes and Clytaemnestra
About half of the quotes above I had marked in my book. The rest I found while looking for the marked passages. They show with a good amount of accuracy the dark pattern of the 'proto-vampire' in literature. I suspect Clytaemnestra was, to some degree, based off of folk tales of the time, urban myths, and scary stories. We have the boogy man today and if you're renting scary halloween movies you'll probably see him. I know I won't. I hate scary movies.
I have not yet read The Eumenides. As I read it, I will be looking for the themes of weakness, darkness, blood, captivation, possesion, the fall, shadow, pale reflection, etc...
I tell you, someone plots revenge.
A lion who lacks a lion's heart,
he sprawled at home in the royal lair
and set a trap for the lord on his return.
...
he is so blind, so lost to that detestable hellhound
who pricks her earst and fawns and her tongue draws out
her glittering words of welcome -
12. p165 line 1519
Here in the black widow's web you lie,
gasping out your life
in a sacrilegious death, dear god,
reduced to a slave's bed
my king of men, yoked by stealth and Fate,
by the wife's hand that thrust the two-edged sword.
The Libation Bearers
13. p201 line 517
She gave it her breast to suck - she was dreaming.
And didn't it tear her nipple, the brute inhuman -
Blood curdled the milk with each sharp tug...
14. p205 line 615
each new horror that comes
we call the hells of Lemnos.
Loathed by the gods for guilt,
cast off by men, disgraced, their line dies out.
Whoe could respect what god detests?
15. p216 line 879 - The entire scene with Orestes and Clytaemnestra
About half of the quotes above I had marked in my book. The rest I found while looking for the marked passages. They show with a good amount of accuracy the dark pattern of the 'proto-vampire' in literature. I suspect Clytaemnestra was, to some degree, based off of folk tales of the time, urban myths, and scary stories. We have the boogy man today and if you're renting scary halloween movies you'll probably see him. I know I won't. I hate scary movies.
I have not yet read The Eumenides. As I read it, I will be looking for the themes of weakness, darkness, blood, captivation, possesion, the fall, shadow, pale reflection, etc...
# posted by Mick @ 8:52 PM 
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