Erinnyes

“ When the avenging Erinnyes of the slain Clytaemnestra threaten to hurl the shafts of their wrath upon the Attic land because it has harboured Orestes, whom they regard as the murderer of his kin, Athene, who has caused a murder-court to declare him free from guilt, apparently on a plea of justifiable homicide, commands the Erinnyes to be appeased, and says: ‘Hurl you not the weight of your wrath upon Attica; be not indignant, nor cause barrenness by sending down the blighting drops that come from Spirits, the cruel bitter destroyers of our seed. ”

“ The exile or death of a murderer or the payment of wergeld appeased, of itself, the Erinnys of the slain: to refuse to accept wergeld was impossible, in the organisation of the tribe.
(2) The Achaean Erinnys was an eclectic product. It was not Homer who personified [131] the Erinnys because it was already personified, though in that vague collective nameless manner in which alone a cultus-epithet can be deified. The Achaeans conceived the Erinnyes as gods. For them there are only gods and men: there are no ghosts or abstractions in the galaxy of supernatural beings. ”

“ According to the Homeric notion, the Erinnyes, whom the poet conceives as distinct beings, are reckoned among those who inhabit Erebos, where they rest until some curse pronounced upon a criminal calls them to life and activity. ”

“ It would, however, be a serious error to suppose that the Pelasgian Erinnyes were as formidable and as implacable as the Erinnyes of post-Homeric times. Moreover, it is gratuitous to assume that ghosts were primarily and necessarily angry because they had been murdered. There is no evidence that homicide in Pelasgian times generated implacable Erinnyes. We admit, with Miss Harrison, [114] that primitive man credits his dead kinsman with passions like his own. ”

“ Taking the reading which I have adopted, they seem to mean that while men in general had means of propitiating the Erinnyes and other Powers for the guilt of unavenged bloodshed, Orestes and Electra had no such way of escape open to them. If they, the next of kin, failed to do their work, they would be exposed to the full storm of wrath. ”

“ In our view there are just two reasons for this refusal: one is the fact that the purgation-rites for homicide were a symbol of reconciliation, not with ghosts, but with gods: the other is the fact that the Erinnyes of Attic tragedy are a complex product, reflecting the attitude of the relatives of the slain at different periods, and from different points of view, in the post-Homeric era. ”

“ Orestes and the Erinnyes are seen in the
inner sanctuary
Dread things to tell, and dread for eyes to see,
Have sent me back again from Loxias' shrine,
*So that strength fails, nor can I nimbly move,
But run with help of hands, not speed of foot;
A woman old and terrified is nought,
A very child. Lo! ”

“ There is a subtle suggestion of the clash of clan-feuds which characterised the transition period of the Dark Ages in the Aeschylean description of the conflict of viewpoints between the Erinnyes of Agamemnon and the Erinnyes of Clytaemnestra—a conflict which it is improbable that Aeschylus invented. The avenging goddesses are conceived as real beings: they are not mere delusions or ‘extrajections’ of a distracted mind. ”

“ The fact that they can drive him out of Athens is due to their divine power. In law, ordinary human relatives could not have done so. But it is clear that, in the absence of unanimity in regard to the attitude of the Erinnyes to the Areopagus, the Attic legend-makers who emphasised the connexion of Orestes with the Areopagus must have assumed that Orestes intended to reside, at least for a time, as a homicide-exile at Athens. ”

“ We shall argue, later, that the regular duration of exile for manslaughter was one year, and that this custom implies the influence of local control, on the part of judges or magistrates, directed against the right to refuse ‘appeasement’ on the part of a slain man’s relatives. Such a control would naturally have produced irritation and dissatisfaction which, again, might have been reflected in men’s conception of the Erinnyes. ”

“ It does not matter in this connexion whether the plea of Orestes was justifiable matricide or extenuated matricide. As he had been proclaimed as an unjust slayer by the avengers, who in this case were the Erinnyes, he was ‘polluted’ until he had either established his innocence or indicated the completion of his atonement to a court of reconciliation. Now ‘pollution’ was regarded by the ancients as a disease of a quasi-physical nature. Murder courts had to be held, even by night, in the open air. The ‘polluted’ man could not enter the temples or the market-place. ”

“ Apart from the irrelevance of this quotation, as an argument for the legality of ‘private settlement,’ we may point out that we have no reason for believing, as Glotz believes, that Aristophanes regarded Orestes as a wilful murderer. Aeschylus in the Eumenides makes the Erinnyes say so, [301] but their viewpoint is shown to be mistaken by an Athenian Court. ”

“ From murdering madness healed.
Enter Ægisthus.
Ægisthus.
O blessed light! O happy day proclaiming
The justice of the gods! Now may I say
The Olympians look from heaven sublime, to note
Our woes, and right our wrongs, seeing as I see
In the close meshes of the Erinnyes tangled
This man—sweet sight to see!—prostrate before me,
Having paid the forfeit of his father’s crime.
For Atreus, ruler of this Argive land,
This dead man’s father—to be plain—contending
About the mastery, banished from the city
Thyestes, his own brother and my father. ”

“ Eulaeus, who fears and hates Publius, and it seems to me that you have hatched some conspiracy against him; but if you dare to cast a single stone in his path, to touch a single hair of his head, I will show you that even a weak woman can be terrible. Nemesis and the Erinnyes from Alecto to Megaera, the most terrible of all the gods, are women!"
Cleopatra had hissed rather than spoken these words, with her teeth set with rage, and had raised her small fist to threaten her brother; but Euergetes preserved a perfect composure till she had ceased speaking. ”

“ While the docile Pelasgian ghosts of primeval days have many affinities with the Semnai Theai in whose forms Pausanias [89] could discern nothing terrible or dreadful, the ‘tragic’ Erinnyes, which are a product of post-Homeric times, [90] appear in the rôle of avengers so savage and so implacable that they cannot be recognised by either ghosts or gods. Thus Apollo says to Orestes [91] :
Even now thou see’st those Furies overtaken,
Their madness lost in sleep: maidens abhorred,
Aged, but ever crude, whom none that lives,
Man, god or beast e’er met in fellowship. ”

“ Chor. How say'st thou? Did a storm come on our fleet,
And do its work through anger of the Gods?
Her. It is not meet a day of tidings good
To mar with evil news. Apart for each
620
Is special worship. But when courier brings
With louring face the ills men pray against,
And tells a city that its host has fallen,
That for the State there is a general wound,
That many a man from many a home is driven,
As banned by double scourge that Ares loves,
Woe doubly-barbed, Death's two-horsed chariot this....
When with such griefs as freight a herald comes,
'Tis meet to chant the Erinnyes' dolorous song ”

“ After Hazard comes Ernestine. She is twelve, and is frequently called Ernie,—which name suits her just as well as Haze’s names do him; for she is really more of a boy than a girl, we think, despite her charming blue eyes and rose-leaf complexion. Ernie is very, very pretty, has sweet ways and a really lovely disposition; but, for all this, she is rather a trying child, for she is continually getting into scrapes, tearing her frocks, breaking the furniture, etc.,—and she always means so well that it is hard to scold her. ”

“ The tutor, truth to tell, felt undeniably depressed. Hopeful by nature, optimistic, too, as men of action usually are, he cast about him, even at the last hour, for something that might stir the boy to life, wake him up, put zest and energy into him. But there was only Paris now between them and the end; and Paris certainly could not be relied upon for help. Bindy’s desire for Paris even was not strong enough to count. No desire in him was ever strong. There lay the crux of the problem in a word⁠—Lord Ernie was without desire which is life. ”

“ He would never make a politician, much less a statesman. The family title would be borne by a nincompoop. Yet all the machinery was there, one felt⁠—if only it could be driven, made to go. It was sad. Lord Ernie was heir to great estates, with a name and position that might influence thousands.
And Hendricks had been a good selection, with his virility and gentle, understanding firmness. He understood the problem. “You’ll do what no one else could,” the anxious father told him, “for he worships you, and you can sting without hurting him. ”

“ He knew in himself the omnipotence of the lesser elemental deities. Yet, as sympathetic observer, he can but have felt a tithe of what Lord Ernie felt.
“We are the whirlwind and we are the fire!” he cried aloud with the rushing worshippers. “We are unconquerable and immense! We destroy the lukewarm and absorb the weak! For we can make evil into good by bending it all one way!⁠ ⁠...”
The roar swept thunderingly past him, catching at his voice and body. He felt himself snatched forward by the wind. ”

“ The speed increased; the faces flashed and vanished, then flashed and passed again; each woman between two men, each man between two women, and Lord Ernie, radiantly alive, between two girls of rich, o’erflowing beauty. Their movements were undulating, like the undulations of fire, yet with sudden, unexpected upward leaps as when fire is partnered abruptly by a cantering wind. For the women were fire, and the men were wind. The imitative dance was in full swing. The marvellous wind and fire ritual unrolled its old-world magic. ”

“ The figure swept through the dust and wind like an animal⁠—and was gone. It was, indeed, only the contrast of Lord Ernie’s whitened skin, of his graceful, half-elegant outline, that enabled him to recall the details that he did. The weather-beaten visage seemed to storm away. Bindy’s delicate aristocratic face shone so pale and eager. But that a real man had passed was indubitable, for the boy made a flurried movement as though to follow. Hendricks caught his arm with a determined grip and pulled him back. ”

“ The oil lamp, suspended from the ceiling, trembled; the Pasteur looked apprehensively at the shuttered windows; and Lord Ernie, with startling abruptness, stood up. His eyes were shining. His voice was brisk, alert, and deep.
“The wind, the wind!” he cried. “Think what it’ll be up there! We shall feel it on our bodies!” His enthusiasm was like a rush of air across the table. “And the fire!” he went on. “The flames will lick all over, and tear about the sky. I feel wild and full of them already! ”

“ They met together on the rounded top, stumbled, clutched one another frantically, then slid with waving arms and flying cloaks down the slippery surface of damp moss⁠—laughing wildly.
“Fool!” cried Hendricks, saving himself. “What in the world⁠—?”
“You called,” laughed Bindy, picking himself up and dropping back to his place in the rear again. “It’s the wind, not me; it’s in our feet. Half the time you’re shouting and jumping yourself!”
And it was a few minutes after this that Lord Ernie suddenly forged ahead. ”

“ There was a sense of vitality in the room⁠—as though a rush of active movement had just passed through it. Both windows stood wide open, and the roar of voices was clearly audible. Lord Ernie turned his head to listen.
“That’s only the village people drinking and shouting,” said Hendricks, closely watching each movement that he made. “It’s perfectly natural, Bindy, that you feel too excited to sleep. We’re in the mountains. The air stimulates tremendously⁠—it makes the heart beat faster.” He decided not to press the lad with questions. ”

“ They both are in me now forever and ever! Oh, praise the Lord of Fire and the Lord of Wind⁠ ⁠... !”
And this voice, now near, now distant, sounding through the dripping forest on their homeward journey, was an experience weird and unforgettable for those other two. Leysin, it seemed, had one sentence only which he kept repeating to himself⁠—“Heaven grant he may direct it all for good. For they have filled him to the brim, and he is become an instrument of power.”
But Hendricks, though he understood the risk, felt only confidence. Lord Ernie’s regeneration had begun. ”

“ With a great effort the older man kept the balance true.
“Not tonight, not now,” he said firmly. “It’s too late. Tomorrow, if you like⁠—with pleasure.”
“But tomorrow night,” cried the boy with a rush, “when the fires are blazing and the wind is loose. Not in the stupid daylight.”
“All right. Tomorrow night. And my old friend, Monsieur Leysin, shall be our guide. He knows the way, and he knows the people too.”
Lord Ernie seized his hands with enthusiasm. His vigour was so disconcerting that it seemed to affect his physical appearance. The body grew almost visibly ”

“ Lord Ernie had been quiet and preoccupied, silent rather, but never listless. He was peaceful, perhaps subdued a little, yet with a suppressed energy in his bearing that Hendricks watched with secret satisfaction. The tutor, closely observant, detected nothing out of gear; life stirred strongly in him; there was purpose, interest, will; there was desire; but there was nothing to cause alarm.
Availing himself then of the lad’s absorption in his own affairs, he wandered forth alone upon his [52] sentimental tour of inspection. No ghost of emotion rose to stalk beside him. ”