Birds in Aeschylus

J. R. T. Pollard

doi:10.1017/S0017383500010123

Birds in Aeschylus

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009

J. R. T. Pollard

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§ I. Augury

The legend that Aeschylus met his death when a bird of prey, possibly a lammergeyer, dropped a tortoise upon his bald head is apocryphal, but is at least as old as Sotades. It suggests that he was assoiciated with augry in popular belief. This view is supported by another statement in the Aìσχλoν βìоς, as well as by references in the extant plays and fragments.

According to the former the poet, while in Sicily, produced a play entitled αì Aìτναi or αi to mark the occasion of the foundation of Aìτνη by Hiero—oiωνi∊óμ∊νoς βìoν ἐγαθòν τoiς σu;νoiκí∊oνσi τὴν Πóλiν. It is very probable that oiωνi∊óμ∊νoς is employed here in a loose, non-technical sense, but it is also possible that the play included a description of the omens which were observed at the spot where the city was founded.

Type: Research Article
Information: Greece & Rome , Volume 17 , Issue 51 , October 1948 , pp. 116 - 127

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017383500010123 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Classical Association 1948

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^{Page 116 note 1} Aíσχύλoν βíoς, 10. Cf. Keller, O., Die Antike Tierwelt, ii, pp. 28Google Scholar ff.

^{Page 116 note 2} Aíσχύλω γραφoντi (τi) έΠiΠέτωκ∊ χ∊λώνη. Coll. Alex., ed. J. U. Powell, 15. 13, p. 238.

^{Page 116 note 3} 10.

^{Page 116 note 4} Cf. Callim. Ox. Pap. xvii. 2080, 60 f.; Pausanias 4. 34. 8; Warde-Fowler, , Religious Experience of the Roman People, pp. 300Google Scholar ff.

^{Page 116 note 5} 49 ff. (Murray's Oxford text).

^{Page 116 note 6} Od. xvi. 216 ff.

^{Page 116 note 7} Cf. The Agamemnon of Aeschylus, ad 1. 50.

^{Page 117 note 1} Cf. Headlam, , C.R. xvi, 1902, p. 436Google Scholar; Pollard, , Greece & Rome, Jan. 1947, p. 27.Google Scholar

^{Page 117 note 2} H.A. ix. 34. 619 B.

^{Page 117 note 3} x. 3. 13.

^{Page 117 note 4} The Agamemnon, App. i. B, pp. 195 ff. It is true, as Verrall says, that there are no examples of Παíων being used in reference to animals in extant Greek literature, but the other interpretation is very forced.

^{Page 117 note 5} Ag. 108 ff.

^{Page 117 note 6} Cf. 125 ff.

^{Page 117 note 7} H.A. ix. 32. 618B.

^{Page 117 note 8} The Agamemnon, p. 183.

^{Page 117 note 9} Cf. Verrall, , The Agamemnon, App. i. c, pp. 198Google Scholar ff.

^{Page 118 note 1} Cf. Xenophon, , Anabasis, 6. 1. 23.Google Scholar

^{Page 118 note 2} 145.

^{Page 118 note 3} Cf. Headlam, , The Agamemnon, ad 1. 49, pp. 178Google Scholar ff.

^{Page 118 note 4} Od. xix. 538 ff.

^{Page 118 note 5} Persae, 205 ff.

^{Page 118 note 6} 246 ff.

^{Page 118 note 7} 500 ff.

^{Page 118 note 8} Les Images dans la poésie d'Eschyle, p. 135.

^{Page 118 note 9} 212.

^{Page 119 note 1} v. 25. 5

^{Page 119 note 2} The Supplices, ad 1. 186, pp. 48 ff.

^{Page 119 note 3} Aeschylus in his Style, p. 101.

^{Page 119 note 4} 213.

^{Page 119 note 5} Zeus, ii, p. 341. There is, however, no evidence that the sun was ever directly connected with the eagle in Egypt.

^{Page 119 note 6} Cf. Hubaux et Leroy, , Le Mythe du Phénix.Google Scholar

^{Page 119 note 7} Aeschyli Tragoediae, Critical Note to Supplices, 1. 213, p. 343.

^{Page 119 note 8} 24 ff.

^{Page 119 note 9} Cf. Bouché-Leclercq, , Histoire de la Divination, ii, p. 15.Google Scholar

^{Page 119 note 10} Apollodorus i. 9. II.

^{Page 120 note 1} Cf. Altheim, F., A History of Roman Religion, p. 50.Google Scholar

^{Page 120 note 2} Cf. Birds 975 ff.

^{Page 120 note 3} 484 ff.

^{Page 120 note 4} Anab. 6. 1. 23. Cf. e.g. Il. x. 274 ff. xii. 200 if.

^{Page 120 note 5} Cf. esp. Il. xii. 237 ff. and the Ephesus fgm. S.I.G. 1167 with Herbillon, J. commentary in Le Musée Belge, xxviii, 1924Google Scholar, ‘Une leçon de discipline augurale’.

^{Page 120 note 6} C.R. xli, p. 9.

^{Page 120 note 7} H.A. ix. 27 608B.

^{Page 120 note 8} Cf. Stanford, , Aeschylus in his Style, p. 96.Google Scholar

^{Page 120 note 9} 223 ff.

^{Page 121 note 1} Cf. Tucker, , The Supplices, ad 1. 197 f., pp. 51 ff.Google Scholar

^{Page 121 note 2} 58 f.

^{Page 121 note 3} Fgm. 95 (Sidgwick).

^{Page 121 note 4} Birds 719.

^{Page 121 note 5} Fgm. 275.

^{Page 121 note 6} C.R. xvi. 1902, p. 436 f.

^{Page 121 note 7} 62.

^{Page 121 note 8} 328–9.

^{Page 121 note 9} Il. ii. 308 f.

^{Page 121 note 10} 292 ff.

^{Page 121 note 11} 501 ff.

^{Page 122 note 1} 393 ff.

^{Page 122 note 2} 1050.

^{Page 122 note 3} 1316 f.

^{Page 122 note 4} 1444 ff.

^{Page 122 note 5} 1468 ff.

^{Page 122 note 6} 1660.

^{Page 122 note 7} 750 ff.

^{Page 122 note 8} 1671.

^{Page 123 note 1} 124 ff.

^{Page 123 note 2} 278 ff.

^{Page 123 note 3} 792 ff.

^{Page 123 note 4} 856 ff.

^{Page 123 note 5} Frogs 928 ff. Dionysus could have seen a cock-horse on the Acropolis before 480 b.c., though the monster is by no means common in art: Acr. 597, Payne, and Young, , Archaic Marble Sculpture, Pl. 136, 2–3.Google Scholar

^{Page 123 note 6} P.V. 286.

^{Page 124 note 1} 395 f.

^{Page 124 note 2} Cf. G. Weiker apud Roscher s.v. Seirenen p. 618 f. Wilamowitz GH. I p. 144. E. Kunze. Sirenen. Athen.Mitt. LVII. 1932. pp. 130 ff. E. Buschor. Die Musen des Jenseits pp. 13 ff.

^{Page 124 note 3} 793 ff Cf. the woman-headed bird on a Corinthian black-figured amphora No. B. 16 now in the British Museum (Cat. of the Gk. and Etrusc. Vases in the B.M. ii, p. 54), which Panofka regarded, probably rightly, as a Graea (Perseus und die Graea, Phil. und hist. Abhand. der König. Akad. der Wissen. Berlin, 1846, pp. 211 ff., Pl I. pp. 35–6, No. 425).

^{Page 124 note 4} 798.

^{Page 124 note 5} Fgm. 139.

^{Page 124 note 6} Fgm. 282.

^{Page 124 note 7} 136.

^{Page 124 note 8} 803.

^{Page 124 note 9} Fgm. 210. The emendation Π∊Πληγμένην is less forceful.

^{Page 124 note 10} Aeschylus in his Style, p. 90.

^{Page 124 note 11} 309.

^{Page 124 note 12} 563.

^{Page 125 note 1} Theogony, 521 ff.

^{Page 125 note 2} P.V. 1022 f.

^{Page 125 note 3} Fgm. 193, apud Cic. Tusc. 2. 10. 23–5.

^{Page 125 note 4} H.A. ix. 32. 618 B.

^{Page 125 note 5} x. 3.7.

^{Page 126 note 1} Cultes, Mythes et Religions, iii, pp. 84 ff.

^{Page 126 note 2} Zeus, ii, pp. 777 ff.

^{Page 126 note 3} Fgm. 160.

^{Page 126 note 4} Cultes, Mythes et Religions, iii, p. 88.

^{Page 126 note 5} Ibid., p. 84.

^{Page 126 note 6} Ibid., p. 88.

^{Page 126 note 7} Histoire de la Divination, i, p. 130.

^{Page 126 note 8} The liver portion of the myth, as in that of Tityos, probably derives from a traditional form of crucifixion. Cf., however, Waser in Roscher, s.v. ‘Tityos’, v, p. 1054.

^{Page 126 note 9} Transactions of the Third International Congress for the History of Religions, ii, p. 159.

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