The Premature Journey of Jason, Son of Aeson

The following may be misanalysis according to those wiser than myself, but ask yourself this: how much misanalysis or reanalysis has been the source of new creativity? The story and backstory of Jason would not have reached such complexity if variatio were not a tool of the storyteller and the storytold

My obsession with Jason has resurfaced (appropriately for the topic of this post), something which either started with Euripides' Medea, or Pythian 4 - Pindar is one hell of a pharmaka! The trajectory of Jason has the trappings of  formal hero's journey yet he fails in critical ways. Although the etymological data is fascinating, I believe I have identified a larger potential problem with Jason's hero's journey - namely, that he underwent catabasis, the transformative experience of descending to the underworld and returning transformed, prematurely. According to Pythian 4, Aeson of Iolcus, whose name means 'rightly ruling', was overthrown by his half brother Pelias for reasons that we need not explore further here. The upshot of this usurpation was Jason's secret birth. It's important to realize that he was not named Jason at birth; Chiron, the immortal Centaur, divine physician, and trainer to heroes, bestowed that name. Before Chiron received him, however, the household of the deposed king feigned funeral customs over the live baby so that Pelias or his spies would believe that there had been a stillbirth. The baby then passed into the hands of Chiron, who named him Jason. In Greek, 'Jason' means 'the one who will heal' or perhaps 'the one who comes to heal' because the future participle in Greek indicates not just futurity but intention. In this situation, one might think that Jason is primed to become the young hero, the true heir to the kingdom, and that there are, at least not yet, no dark aspects to the legend. There is an aspect that I had not yet considered, and perhaps this applies to all lost princes and true heirs. The catabasis is transformative for the hero not only because he survives it but because he can process it. This processing is not available to a babe. By undergoing the catabasis at that stage of life, there is no possibility of consciously remembering the trauma, but only unconscious warping. The other effect of this journey, on a dramatic level, is that the hero has achieved the hero's journey, however faulty. Once the epic hero has completed his journey to the heights of glory, there is a possibility of falling from those heights. This opens new narrative paths for the storyteller; some heroes rise above yet another challenge, but Jason does not. Jason retrieves the Golden Fleece and returns to Iolcus, but he neither retrieves his kingdom nor kills the usurper Pelias himself. He fails in the intention of his very name! This failure could be the result of an incomplete completion of the hero's journey.

Supplemental

 I must thank my dear friend Manto for this further detail about Pan and Hermes' mothers. Hermes' mother is Maia, the name for a nurse. This is the way in which Penelope addresses her nurse Eurycleia in the Odyssey. The Hymn to Pan avoids naming his mother other than the daughter of Dryops, whence one possible name Dryope. An alternative name, however, is Penelopeia; if one knew this, then the use of the word nurse in the panicking of Pan's mother would refer to Penelopeia as well as Pan's grandmother Maia, in addition to the Odyssey. Thus it is a multilayered joke requiring more knowledge and application of wit than many possess, a true Hellenistic play on words.

Dulce Et Decorum Est: the Homeric Hymn to Ares

 In the Homeric Hymns the Hymn to Ares is a rebuttal to the notion in popular media that Ares is incompetent, amoral, or evil. This Hymn, on the other hand, is a warrior's prayer for courage and discipline in battle and preferably no need to go to war in the first place. The initial lines of the Hymn are a list of complimentary epithets. Such a list is a common feature of the beginning of Homeric Hymns and often a primary component of abbreviated Hymns. I wonder, therefore, if such introductions were not pedagogical tool for memorizing the appropriate epithets. In contemporary times, the line "immortal, invisible, god only wise" is virtually unforgettable. These epithets could further provide an inspiration for the poet to fill the space between the invocation and the missa est, either with a known tale or a tale of his own invention appropriate to the god and rendered unverifiable by attribution to a distant region. A contemporary example of the former could be the responses before and after the Gospel, which in liturgical traditions is determined by a lectionary; an example of the latter could be the Prayers of the People, which contains sufficient flexibility to include quotidian concerns.

Et In Arcadia Nos: The Hymn to Hermes and the Hymn to Pan

        The overall structure of the Hymns to Pan and Hermes are parallel; the comparisons serve as a scaffold to highlight the contrasts, Both exist within the framework of a Homeric hymn and therefore introduce a god from his birth and highlight at least one story associated with him. The structure of these two Hymns, however, is carefully parallel in cast and plot: the cast consists of a father, a mother, a divine baby, a god who takes the baby to Olympus, and Zeus, either alone or in council. The plot is as follows: the father 'mingles in love' with the mother; the mother gives birth to the baby; the baby displays divine characteristics; a god transports the baby to Olympus; the baby is accepted by the gods and gains a "Big Brother" among the Olympians.

        The similarities should be addressed first, so that the contrasts may be better understood. The conception and parturition of each god is couched in similar verbs of birthing and accomplishment of goals. Each god immediately displays characteristic powers: the art and invention of Hermes and the startling power of Pan. The action around the babies is characterized by swiftness: Hermes' motions and sojourns are described with many phrases denoting fleetness; the Hymn to Pan, because it is much shorter, incorporates more fleetness into the syntax and prosody than the extant vocabulary. Apollo brings baby Hermes to the throne of Zeus, while Hermes brings baby Pan to the council of immortals of which Zeus is the head. Both babies are ultimately accepted as gods (although Pan is not an Olympian) and both acquire a Big Brother among older immortals - Apollo in the case of Hermes and Dionysus in the case of Pan.

        The contrasts between the Hymns are many. The preconception, conception, and birth of Hermes use an extensive vocabulary of secrecy. Maia is a loner whom Zeus meets at night specifically when Hera is asleep. The grown Hermes, in contrast, has a wedding, a public event, to the daughter of Dryops. The here unnamed daughter of Dryops, perhaps Penelope (but not that Penelope), bears Pan in a palace, rather than the cave in which Maia gave birth - even if that cave was akin to a Gilded Age cottage! The onomastic patterns of the mother and the father also contrast: Maia in the Hymn to Hermes is a daughter of the otherwise unknown Megameidas and frequently appears by name in two declensions, while the mother of Pan remains unnamed save for her patronymic. Hermes, once he is born, is a classically beautiful god, whom Maia places in vain in his cradle; Pan frightens his mother so much that she immediately flees after she has borne him because she is afraid of his unlovely face and prematurely bearded appearance. The daughter of Dryops' increased vulnerability to the power of a god may be due to her potential mortal status: nymphe may refer to an immortal young woman or an ordinary mortal bride. Hermes, although he is a god, consorts with mortal shepherds such as Dryops, son of Apollo, Hermes' BFF. Perhaps, though, giving birth to the Arcadian Jersey Devil would throw off anyone, mortal and immortal alike. The way in which baby Hermes and Pan display their precocious adulthood also differs: Hermes remains a baby in size but indulges in adult activities such reiving, so much so that Apollo deems him competent for trial, whereas Pan displays adult features but has the characteristic lack of agency of a day old baby. This may be why the introductory segment of the Hymn to Pan where he is an adult is about the same length as the story of baby Pan panicking his mothers - the adult behavior necessary to characterize Pan is displaced to a portion where such behavior can be covered. 

        Baby Hermes' first trip to Olympus is as a prisoner for crimes which he has indeed committed, but Pan's first visit is a formal presentation. The gods who choose to act as Big Brothers to each baby also contrast. Apollo, as a god who values order, is a brake to Hermes' relatively chaotic nature, while Dionysus is an enabler to Pan's rustic partying. The humor in each Hymn is appropriate to the god: Hermes' humor may be occasionally crude but is always clever, while that of Pan is the world's worst game of peek-a-boo. The role of mortals in the Hymn to Hermes is extensive if secondary to that of the gods - the Old Man of Onchestus receives two divine visitations - but the roe of mortals in the Hymn to Pan, although mandatory due to Hermes' affiliation with mortals and immortals alike per his own Hymn, is reduced and backgrounded.

        The points covered above are by no means the entirety of the comparisons and contrasts between the Hymn to Hermes and the Hymn to Pan, but they are sufficient to demonstrate the interrelationship between the texts. This is particularly relevant if the Hymn to Pan is a later response to the older (but not much older) Hymn to Hermes. The study of these two Hymns would benefit from further examination of their shared vocabulary and even etymology.

Primary Sources (Greek first, English second)

Hymn to Hermes

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0137%3Ahymn%3D4

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138%3Ahymn%3D4

Hymn to Pan

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0137%3Ahymn%3D19

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138%3Ahymn%3D19

A Hydrography of Words (Muta cum Liquida secundum linguam Graecam)

 When I was a lad, I learned a rule about length in metrical poetry called muta cum liquida, wherein the first category of consonants followed by the second could be considered long or short, depending on the needs of the poet. These terms are are no longer as useful as they once were, even to literates - the former is obsolete, while the latter appropriately has changed its shoreline. The modern meaning of 'liquid' is restricted to lambda and rho, but the older meaning encompassed nasals, mu and nu. A more nuanced understanding is not that the vowel before these consonants may be long and short, but that the short vowels may be lengthened. This revelation enables further nuance: the voiceless consonants of Greek display the fluidity of this rule, but the voiced consonants delta and gamma do not admit it. Beta is omitted, perhaps because it is more likely to assimilate to the following nasals. A potential reason for delta and gamma to deny this variability is that vowels, even short ones, are ever so slightly lengthened before a voiced consonant; this lengthening is enough (in Greek) to create an impediment. Such incomplete transitions are common among languages and go a long way to creating their individual flavors.