Atë

In Greek mythology, Ate () is the personification of moral blindness and error. She could blind the mind of both gods and men leading them astray. Ate was banished from Olympus by Zeus for blinding him to Hera's trickery denying Heracles his birthright. Homer calls Ate the daughter of Zeus, while Hesiod has Ate as the daughter of Eris (Strife).

Personification

Like all the children of Eris (Strife), Ate is a personified abstraction, allegorizing the meaning of her name, and represents one of the many harms which might be thought to result from discord and strife. The meaning of her name, the Greek word ''atē'' (''ἄτη''), is difficult to define. ''Atē'' is a verbal noun of the verb ''aáō'' (''ἀάω''). According to '' The Cambridge Greek Lexicon'', ''aáō '' means to "lead astray", "befuddle", "blind", or "delude", while ''ἄτη'' can mean: (1) the state of "delusion, infatuation (inflicted on a person's mind by a god, esp Zeus)", (2) "reckless behavior ... recklessness, folly", and (3) "ruin, calamity, harm". As informed by the meanings and usage of the unpersonified ''atē'', personified Ate can apparently represent any part (or all?) of the causal sequence: (1) a blinding or clouding of the mind—causing (2) ill-considered and reckless actions—causing (3) the ruin such actions entail. She is thought of as being the instigator of delusion and its resulting destruction.

Mythology

Beyond being a mere personification, Ate has little actual identity. In the ''Iliad'', Agamemnon, the leader of Greek expedition against Troy, tells the story of Ate's deception of Zeus, and her subsequent banishment from Olympus, an etiological myth supposedly explaining how Ate entered the world of men. As told by Agamemnon, Hera tricked Zeus into swearing an oath that resulted in Zeus' son Heracles losing the birthright Zeus had intended for him. Zeus blamed Ate for clouding his mind causing him not to see Hera's deception. In great anger Zeus grabbed Ate by the hair and flung her from Mount Olympus, and thereby Ate came to inhabit the "fields of men". According to the mythographer Apollodorus, when Ate was thrown down by Zeus, Ate landed in Phrygia at a place called "the hill of the Phrygian Ate", where the city of Troy was founded. The Hellenistic poet Lycophron, in his ''Alexandra'', also mentions the place calling it "the high Hill of Doom te.

Family

Homer's ''Iliad'' calls Ate the eldest daughter of Zeus, with no mother mentioned. However, Hesiod's ''Theogony'' has Ate as one of the several children of Eris (Strife), with no father mentioned. Her siblings include (among several others) her brothers Horkos (Oath), and the Machai (Wars), and sisters Limos (Famine), and Dysnomia (Lawlessness). Aeschylus, in his tragedy ''Agamemnon'', has the Chorus call Peitho "the unendurable child of scheming Ruin te.

Zeus

Ate is closely associated with Zeus. In the ''Iliad'', Ate is called the "eldest" daughter of Zeus, an apparent indication of her power and her importance to Zeus. Ate (or the impersonal ''atē'') is often referred to as the agent (or instrument) of Zeus' divine retribution. In the ''Iliad'', Zeus is begged to send Ate so that the denier of "Prayers ... may fall and pay full recompense." Although Agamemnon blames Ate for blinding him (which led to his dishonoring Achilles), he also says that it was Zeus (via Ate?) who robbed him of his senses. According to Hesiod, Zeus never sends war, nor famine, nor "calamity 'atē'' to those who honor Justice, while Solon says that "Zeus sends 'atē''to punish" men.

Ate also appears as an agent of Zeus' justice in Aeschylus's tragic trilogy the '' Oresteia''. In ''Agamemnon'', the first play of the trilogy, Ate is linked with Helen of Troy, and Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra, both of whom act as agents of Zeus' retribution. Helen, who plays an instrumental role in Zeus' punishment of Troy, is likened to a "priest" of Ate, while Clytemnestra, who, by killing Agamemnon, is the direct instrument of Zeus' punishment, says that she did so with the aid of "Ruin te. In the ''Libation Bearers'', the second play of the ''Oresteia'', Aeschylus describes Zeus as one who sends Ate to avenge "reckless human violence!"

Ancient Greek sources

Personified Ate occurs several times in Greek literature, from the Archaic through the Classical periods.

Homer

In Homer, ''atē'' is something inflicted by the gods; it causes delusion, then folly, then disaster. Ate, as the personification of atē, receives its fullest development in Homer's'' Iliad'', his epic poem about the Trojan War. However, to what extent Homer may have considered Ate to be an actual divinity as opposed to a mere allegory is unclear. The references to the goddess in the ''Iliad'' revolve around Agamemnon's folly in having robbed Achilles, the Greeks greatest warrior, of his war prize, the slave Briseis, and Achilles' subsequent refusal to fight, which brought the Greeks to the brink of defeat. While the concept of ''atē'' is a central theme in the ''Iliad'', occurring many times, Ate, as the personification of ''atē'', is explicitly found in just two speeches, one in Book 9, and the other in Book 19.

Allegory of the Prayers

During the embassy to Achilles in Book 9, Achilles' old tutor Phoenix, trying to persuade Achilles to accept Agamemnon's offer of reparations, and return to battle, tells the following parable in which the "fleet of foot" Ate ("Blindness") outruns "halting" Prayers:

In this allegory, Ate appears twice. First Ate causes damage to human beings. Then Prayers follow after Ate to repair her damage. But if the repair offered by Prayers is rejected (in this case if Achilles rejects Agamemnon's appeal) then Ate appears again as the punishment for such rejections. Ate both runs in front of Prayers, and when Prayers are refused, Ate also follows close behind. These two appearances can also be seen as examples of the Homeric Ate's dual role, as both cause and effect. Here Ate is both the cause of the original offense (Agamemnon's insult to Achilles), and the disastrous consequences which would (and will) follow from Achilles' refusal of Agamemnon's attempt to make amends.

Agamemnon's apology

In Book 19, Agamemnon attempts to excuse himself for having taken Briseis from Achilles, by blaming the "accursed" Ate (among others) for blinding his mind:

Phoenix's speech in Book 9 and Agamemnon's in Book 19 reveal different aspects of Ate's nature. The first emphasizes Ate's strength and speed, and her use by Zeus to punish (in this case, those who disregard Prayers). The second describes Ate's soft feet, walking not on the ground, but above the "heads of men", where, apparently unnoticed, she brings "men to harm".

To further excuse his conduct, Agamemnon tells the story—as an illustration of Ate's great power—of how:

According to Agamemnon, when Alcmene was about to give birth to Zeus's son Heracles, Zeus, in his great pride, boasted that on that day would be born a man, of Zeus's blood, who would be king of the Argives. But Hera tricked Zeus into swearing an unbreakable oath such that whatever man, of Zeus's blood, born that day would be king. Then Hera delayed the birth of Heracles, and caused Eurystheus, the great-grandson of Zeus, to be born prematurely, and thus Heracles lost the birthright Zeus had intended for him. Zeus (like Agamemnon) blamed Ate for blinding him to Hera's trickery. As punishment, an enraged Zeus:

Hesiod

Hesiod presented Ate as one of the several offspring of Eris, all of whom were personifications representing some of the many harms which can arise out of discord and strife. Hesiod particular associates Ate with her sister Dysnomia (Lawlessness). While listing the children of Eris, he lists both on the same line (230) of his ''Theogony'' and says they are "much like one another".

In a passage in his ''Works and Days'' (213–285), Hesiod describes various relationships between several personifications, including Ate. The passage, which discusses the superiority of Dike (Justice) over Hybris, also mentions Eirene (Peace), who attends those who "heed" Dike (228), and Ate's brother Horkos (Oath), who "runs along side crooked judgements" (219). In particular Hesiod associates Ate with "war", which might refer to Ate's brothers, the Machai (Wars), and her sister Limos (Famine) as all being punishments for those who "foster" Hybris:

Aeschylus

Among the tragic poets, the use of ''atē'' and (thus) Ate is somewhat different than it is in the ''Iliad''. In both Homer and tragedy, ''atē'' can be used to mean the original delusion as well as the resulting destruction. However, while Homer was more focused on the former, tragedy became more focused on the latter. In tragedy, ''atē'' came to be less associated with internal damage: a damaged mind, and more with external damage: ruin, disaster, destruction. Here, Ate can be seen as an avenger of evil actions and a just punisher of evil actors, similar to Nemesis and the Erinyes (Furies).

Ate was particularly prominent in the plays of Aeschylus, and less so in the later tragedians such as Euripides, where the idea of Dike (Justice) becomes more fully developed. Personified Ate appears several times in Aeschylus' tragedy ''Agamemnon'', where she is called "scheming", and made the mother of an "unendurable child", the "miserable" Peitho (Temptation). Aeschylus also associates Ate with divine retribution: Zeus' punishment inflicted on Troy for Paris's abduction of Helen. In a long speech about Helen, the Chorus likens her to a lion cub raised as a loved and loving pet which ends up savagely killing those who raised it, the cub (and by extension Helen) being reared, by divine intent, as a "priest" of Ate. The Chorus goes on to describe Ate as:

In the final scene of the play, Clytemnestra, with bloody sword and clothes, emerges from the palace to reveal that she has killed her husband Agamemnon, in retribution for his having killed their daughter Iphigenia. She describes her act as the "Justice" ikedue for the killing of Iphigenia, and that she was aided by "Ruin" teand "Fury" ryns

In Aeschylus's ''Libation Bearers'', Ate is explicitly said to be the agent of Zeus' justice:

Ate also occurs twice in Aeschylus' ''Persians''. At the beginning of the play, the Chorus of Persian elders voice their foreboding on their war with Greece:

Ate here represents both cause and effect. She begins by deceiving and misleading mortals, and ends by the mortals being caught in ''her'' inescapable net. While, at the end of the play, Aeschylus returns to his typical focus of Ate as disastrous consequence, having the Chorus lament their devastating defeat: "What an evil eye Ruin tehas cast upon us!"

At the end of the battle in Aeschylus's ''Seven Against Thebes'', Ate's "trophy" stands at the gate of Thebes where both of Orestes' sons have died killing each other in battle, representing the final victory of the "powers of destruction" over the cursed House of Laius.

Other

There are several other references to Ate in ancient Greek sources. A fragment attributed to one of the two lyric poets of early sixth-century Lesbos:
Sappho or Alcaeus, refers to Ate as "insatiable". A fragment of the fifth-century BC philosopher Empedocles refers to the "meadow of Ate", which probably signifies the mortal world. The fifth-century BC Greek epic poet Panyassis associated Ate (along with Hybris, the personification of insolence) with excessive drinking. According to Panyassis, the first round of wine, is for the Graces (the goddesses of beauty), Horae (the goddesses of good order), and Dionysus (the god of wine), while the second round, is for Aphrodite (goddess of love), and Dionysus again. But the third round is when " Hybris and Ate take their unlovely turn", bringing "good hospitality to a bad end".

In his third-century BC epic poem the ''Argonautica'', about the adventures of Jason and the Argonauts, Apollonius of Rhodes has Hera say that "even the gods are sometimes visited by Ate". In Nonnus's fifth-century AD epic poem ''Dionysiaca'', in order to gratify Hera, Ate persuades the boy Ampelus whom Dionysus passionately loves, to impress Dionysus by riding on a bull from which Ampelus subsequently falls and breaks his neck. In Quintus Smyrnaeus's in his third-century AD '' Posthomerica'', associates Ate with the punishment of insolence:

Shakespeare

In the play ''Julius Caesar'', Shakespeare introduces the goddess Ate as an invocation of vengeance and menace. Mark Antony, lamenting Caesar's murder, envisions:

Shakespeare also mentions her in the play ''Much Ado About Nothing'', when Benedick says, referring to Beatrice,

So too, in '' King John'', Shakespeare refers to Queen Eleanor as "An Ate stirring him to blood and strife", and, in ''Love's Labour's Lost'', Birone jeers "Pompey is moved. More Ates, more Ates! stir them on, stir them on!".

See also

* Folly (allegory)
* 111 Ate, a main-belt asteroid

Notes

References

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Online version at Harvard University Press

* Aeschylus, '' Libation Bearers'' in ''Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. in two volumes'', Vol 2, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1926
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library

* Aeschylus, ''Persians'' in ''Aeschylus: Persians. Seven against Thebes. Suppliants. Prometheus Bound'', edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. Loeb Classical Library No. 145, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009.
Online version at Harvard University Press

* Apollodorus, ''Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library

* Apollonius of Rhodes, ''Argonautica'', edited and translated by William H. Race, Loeb Classical Library No. 1, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009.
Online version at Harvard University Press

* Apollonius of Rhodes, ''The Voyage of Argo: The Argonautica'', translated with an introduction by E. V. Rieu, Penguin Books, 1969.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ate
Greek trickster deities
Trickster goddesses
Greek goddesses
Personifications in Greek mythology
Deities in the Iliad
Children of Zeus
Children of Eris (mythology)
Deeds of Zeus