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Seeing Weasels: The Superstitious Background of the Empusa Scene in the Frogs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

E. K. Borthwick
E. K. Borthwick
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
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Extract

Every Greek scholar knows the celebrated lapsus linguae committed by the tragic actor Hegelochus at the Great Dionysia of 408 B.C., when he faltered in his enunciation of line 279 of Euripides' Orestes and gave the impression to the mirthful audience of having said I am surprised, however, that the commentators on this line (and on Ar. Ran. 303, the most notable of the references in the comic poets to Hegelochus' lapse) have only partially explained the reason for its having seemed exceptonally funny.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , December 1968 , pp. 200 - 206
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1968

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References

page 200 note 1 I have not seen this point made in any commentary on the Frogs. Only Halliday, W. R. (Greek Divination, p. 167, n. IGoogle Scholar, cf. Folklore xli [1930], 132) seems to have noticed it, although he does not actually refer to the Frogs at all.Google Scholar

page 200 note 2 Another reference to the weasel in Ar. in connection with a meeting of the assembly is not clear (Ec. 128 The traditional explanation is that, Praxagora substitutes for the expected out of delicacy (but Ar's. women are not so modest as that—cf. ibid. 724)—but, in any case, why weasel? It is worth noting that in the medical tradition the weasel is commonly claimed to be a remedy against epilepsy, which became known as the morbus comitialis because the occurrence of an epileptic seizure in a public assembly was both horrifying in itself and considered ill-omened. (Erasmus, Adag. s.v. despuere malum: cut non hinc tantum est nomen inditum quod in hominum frequentia saepius aboriatur, verum etiam quod prohibeat comitia fieri. Cf. Festus s.v. prohibere comitia). The medical refs. are Diosc. ii. 25 (i. 130. 11–15) stomach and blood of weasel Aret, ., p. 154. 2Google ScholarAlex, . Trail. 1. 563Google Scholar. I Plin, . N.H. 30. 34Google Scholar, ibid. 90; Q. Ser. Samm. Ixvi. 1018Google Scholar; Cael, . Aur. M. Chr. 1. 4. 118Google Scholar. A similar belief recorded of the liver of the mustela marina (Plin, . N.H. 32. 112Google Scholar) doubtless arose from this association. See Temkin, O., The Falling Sickness, p. 7.Google Scholar

page 200 note 3 For the reading cf. Eranos lxiv (1966), 108–9.Google Scholar

page 200 note 4 For fear of weasels see also Arist, . Eth. Nic. 1149aGoogle Scholar, Plut, . Frr. 215 k, 217 g Sandbach.Google Scholar

page 200 note 5 It may also signify which recalls the lines of Semonides 7. 50–6. For the association of the weasel with Empusa, Hecate, see below.

page 201 note 1 In Artem, . loc. cit. (p. 180H)Google Scholar it is said of the weasel Cerdo is of course a name given to the fox; hilaria is thought to be an interpolation, and a pet name for a weasel (L.S.J.). If it is so, I suggest there is an allusion to the same word play on as perpetrated inadvertently by Hegelochus, since Hsch. glosses

page 201 note 2 Cf. Suid. s.v.

page 201 note 3 For apotropaic actions against weasels, see below, p. 204.

page 201 note 4 Cf. Pind, . Isth. 7. 38Google Scholar

page 201 note 5 Cf. Theoph, . Char. 25. 2Google Scholar the anon, comic fr. 61. 15 (Page, , Select Literary PapyriGoogle Scholar), D.S., 4. 43. 1Google Scholar, Schol, . Ap. Rh. 1. 916.Google Scholar

page 201 note 6 See Dodds, on Bacch. 902–5Google Scholar, referring to Apul, . Met. 11. 15Google Scholar and other passages cited by Bonner, , Haw. Theol. Rev. xxiv (1941), 56 ff.Google Scholar

page 201 note 7 See Zielinski, , Philol. Ix (1901), 5. Comparable too is the famous of the Anthesteria.Google Scholar

page 201 note 8 Quoted by Maternus, Firmicus, De errore prof, relig. 22. 1Google Scholar. (But see Tierney, , J.H.S. lxxvii [1937], 11 ff., who stresses that passages such as this have a vaguely mystic colouring without necessarily referring to Eleusinian, or any other specific, ritual.)Google Scholar

page 202 note 1 Quoted, below, p. 205. The solemn here may have ritualistic, as well as paratragic, overtones; I think of in the serio-comic epigram addressed to by one in Callim. Ep. 47.Google Scholar

page 202 note 2 Note the frequency in the Peace (293, 303, 352, 421, 920) of expressions of thetype, which have a close connection with the ritual of the mysteries (see Thomson, G., ‘Mystical Allusions in the Oresteia’, J.H.S. lv [1935], 20 ff.)Google Scholar, a fact witnessed especially in the oath in Alciphr, . 4. 17Google Scholar

page 202 note 3 Cf. the prominence of in the Phaedo (63c, 88b, 114d, 115e).

page 202 note 4 Empusa (Hsch., Schol. Ran. 293Google Scholar); identified with Hecate by Aristophanes himself (fr. 500–1), cf. Schol, . Ap. Rh. 3. 861.Google Scholar

page 203 note 1 As, for example, the appearance of a weasel catching a mouse is interpreted as a good omen in Plaut, . Stick. 459–61.Google Scholar (Superstitions about the cat may be similarly contradictory—see Hastings, , E.R.E. i. 506Google Scholar). The modern Greek tradition about the metamorphosis of a bride into a weasel—hence its name (cf. It. donnola)—is an interesting variation of the Galinthias legend. Rodd (Customs and Lore of Modern Greece, p. 163Google Scholar: cf. Lawson, , op. cit., p. 328Google Scholar) reports that the creature is envious of brides and liable to create havoc if seen on a weddingday, hence the collection of sweetmeats and singing of songs to appease it. The basis of this metamorphosis legend is the Aesop fable 50 (Hausrath), Babrius 32, and the proverbial explained by Zenob, . 2. 93Google Scholar ( = Strattis fr. 71) as follows: Cf. Apost, . 11. 89Google Scholara on the proverb See Crusius, , Rh. M. xlii (1887), 417Google Scholar, Rohde, ibid. xliii (1888), 303.

page 203 note 2 For weasels plucking the eyes from corpses, see Ael, . N.A. 15. 11Google Scholar, and the body in Luc, . Tim. 21Google Scholar

page 204 note 1 See Riess, , A.J.P. xviii (1897), 194Google Scholar, Radermacher, , Rh. M. lx (1905), 586Google Scholar, and for the name-taboo in a wider anthropological context, Frazer, , Golden Bough, iii. 318 ff.Google Scholar

page 204 note 2 Cf. Halliday, W. R., Folk-Lore xli (1930), 133Google Scholar, who distinguishes this ritual from such stories as the stoning of crows in Chr, Dio. 34. 5, where the object is to transfer the bad luck to the object aimed at.Google Scholar

page 204 note 3 Edmonds, J. M., Fragments of Attic Comedy, iii A, p. 47, who, more sua, supplements liberally.Google Scholar

page 204 note 4 For swearing and stone-casting in a more solemn context, see also Plb. 3. 25. 6, if not is read—on which subject (with many other refs.) see E. Harrison, and Iovem Lapidem–8.

page 205 note 1 e.g. Eur, . Hel. 569–70.Google Scholar

page 205 note 2 Although I am sure this is the correct explanation (cf. also the juxtaposition of in 65–8 in a like moment of comic terror after a plea for salvation to Stanford in his note on 307 is incorrect to assert that a blush cannot be but is always At least in Heliod, . Aeth. 3 5Google Scholar = blush, and is actually contrasted with

There is a suggestion of word-play in the special use of in 1060 in contrast to 1062 (and see above, pp. 201–2).

page 206 note 1 Hipp, . Insomn. 89Google Scholar lists divinities to whom one should pray according to the nature of the dream. The passage of Morb. Sacr. 4Google Scholar cited above refers blame for different manifestations of the disease to different gods, and it is interesting that if the patient the Mother of the Gods is to blame; but Hecate and the heroes cause all Ar. attributes paralysis of to a nocturnal encounter with a ‘hero’ (Av. 1490–3); cf. Men, . Dysc. 311.Google Scholar

page 206 note 2 The chorus in Soph, . Aj. 173 ff. is equally uncertain about the divine responsibility for Ajax's insanity.Google Scholar

page 206 note 3 Blaydes' (in his ed. of Soph, . EL., p. 296Google Scholar) must be right. Cf. Xen, . An. 3. 1. 6Google Scholar

page 206 note 4 For a of Empusa successfully frustrated by abuse, see Philostr, . V.A. 2. 4Google Scholar. Another possible antidote according to a widespread superstition is urination, and if this explanation of Alcaeus Com. fr. 4 by Riess, E. (A.J.P. xviii [1897], 192–3)Google Scholar is correct, we already meet an example both of this belief, and of the malevolent powers attributed commonly to Nereids in modern Greek folk-lore. The similarities of the modern Nereid to the ancient Empusa or Lamia are very close—see Lawson, , op. cit.Google Scholar—she has an ass's leg (P. 133), changes shape (137), is sexually wanton (139), can cause epilepsy, mutilation, etc. (ibid.), is particularly dangerous to brides, or mothers-to-be (14). To ward her off, garlic (140) or honey-cakes (145)—both familiar classical apotropaic offerings-may be employed. Note incidentally that even the temporary appearance of Xanthias' ‘Empusa’ as is relevant to the tradition, as well as being introduced for the joke (291). For attractive and seductive Lamias or Empusas, see especially Philostr, . V.A. 4. 25Google ScholarLuc, . V.H. 2. 46Google Scholar