The Horses of Achilles Thermopylae Priest at the Serapeion “The Rest I Will Tell to Those Down in Hades” Athena’s Vote
The Horses of Achilles
When they saw Patroklos dead
—so brave and strong, so young—
the horses of Achilles began to weep;
their immortal nature was upset deeply
by this work of death they had to look at.
They reared their heads, tossed their long manes,
beat the ground with their hooves, and mourned
Patroklos, seeing him lifeless, destroyed,
now mere flesh only, his spirit gone,
defenseless, without breath,
turned back from life to the great Nothingness.
Zeus saw the tears of those immortal horses and felt sorry.
“At the wedding of Peleus,” he said,
“I should not have acted so thoughtlessly.
Better if we hadn’t given you as a gift,
my unhappy horses. What business did you have down there,
among pathetic human beings, the toys of fate.
You are free of death, you will not get old,
yet ephemeral disasters torment you.
Men have caught you up in their misery.”
But it was for the eternal disaster of death
that those two gallant horses shed their tears.
C. P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Transl. by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1992.
Achilles’ horses, named Balius and Xanthus, were immortal horses given to Achilles by his father Peleus, who received them from Poseidon. As a charioteer, Patroclus knew how best to handle these horses, and they were harnessed to the chariot he rode into battle to save the Greeks when Achilles did not want to fight because of his conflict with the commander-in-chief, King Agamemnon (Homer, Iliad, 16.149-154). When Patroclus was killed by the Trojan prince Hector, Balius and Xantus were beside themselves with grief (Homer, Iliad, 17.426-447).
Thermopylae
Honor to those who in the life they lead
define and guard a Thermopylae.
Never betraying what is right,
consistent and just in all they do
but showing pity also, and compassion;
generous when they are rich, and when they are poor,
still generous in small ways,
still helping as much as they can;
always speaking the truth,
yet without hating those who lie.
And even more honor is due to them
when they foresee (as many do foresee)
that in the end Ephialtis will make his appearance,
that the Medes will break through after all.
C. P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Transl. by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1992.
Ephialtis was a Greek traitor who in 480 BC guided part of the Persian army (the Medes) across the mountain trail, enabling them to invade the rear of the Greeks defending the Thermopylae Pass. (Herodotus, Histories, 7.213)
Priest at the Serapeion
My kind old father
whose love for me has always stayed the same—
I mourn my kind old father
who died two days ago, just before dawn.
Christ Jesus, I try each day
in my every thought, word, and deed
to keep the commandments
of your most holy Church; and I abhor
all who deny you. But now I mourn:
I grieve, O Christ, for my father
even though he was—terrible as it is to say it—
priest at that cursed Serapeion.
C. P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Transl. by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1992.
The Serapeion was the sanctuary founded by Ptolemy I around 300 BC and dedicated to Serapis (a syncretic combination of Egyptian and Greek gods). The temple was closed in 325 AD and destroyed in 391 AD as a result of a campaign against the pagans.
“The Rest I Will Tell to Those Down in Hades”
“Indeed,” said the proconsul, closing the book,
“this line is beautiful and very true.
Sophocles wrote it in a deeply philosophic mood.
How much we’ll tell down there, how much,
and how very different we’ll appear.
What we protect here like sleepless guards,
wounds and secrets locked inside us,
protect with such great anxiety day after day,
we’ll disclose freely and clearly down there.”
“You might add,” said the sophist, half smiling,
“if they talk about things like that down there,
if they bother about them any more.”
C. P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Transl. by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1992.
The title quotes Ajax’s last words before his suicide in Sophocles’ tragedy Ajax (line 865). The scene and the anonymous protagonists are imaginary.
Athena’s Vote
Whenever justice is bereft of solution,
whenever the judgment of men is in doubt
and needs superior help and enlightenment,
the judges become sickly silent, small,
and the compassion of the gods decides.
Pallas said to the people of Athens,
“I founded your court. Neither Greece
nor any other state will ever acquire
a more glorious one. Honorable judges,
prove deserving of it. Renounce
improper passions. Let mercy
accompany justice. If your judgment
be stern then let it also be pure—
as pure as an unblemished diamond.
Let your work be a guide and a rule for prudence,
for benevolent and magnanimous deeds,
never foolish vengeance.”
The citizens replied with feeling,
“Oh Goddess, our minds cannot find
adequate tribute of gratitude
for your splendid benefaction.”
The gray-eyed
goddess replied, “Mortals,
divinity requests no wages of you.
Be virtuous and unbiased.
This suffices me. Besides, honorable judges,
I have guarded my own right of a single vote.”
The judges said, “You who reside
in the starry firmament, Goddess,
how is it you vote here, with us?”
“Let not this
curiosity grieve you. I am restrained
in the use of my vote. But should the moment
occur when you are divided into two factions,
one for, the other against, you yourselves
will make use of my vote, without my leaving
the rooms of heaven. Citizens, I desire
that clemency should always be shown
to the accused. In the soul
of your Athena dwells great
limitless, ancestral forgiveness,
an instinct from Metis, the crown
of supremest wisdom in the heavens.”
C. P. Cavafy, The Complete Poems of Cavafy. Transl. by Rae Dalven, with an introduction by W. H. Auden. The Hogarth Press, London, 1961.
The poem is inspired by the trial of Orestes before the Areopagus in Aeschylus’ tragedy The Eumenides. In this trial the votes of the judges were equally divided, and Athena gave her casting vote for acquittal.
Metis: the first wife and advisor of Zeus and mother of Athena, was the personification of prudence, wisdom and skill.
4 June 2021 – 8 May 2024