Metaphors Handed Down To Us From Ancient Greece

and depicted in historic paintings and sculpture

Just a lil’ bite out of the author’s personal library…

It occurred to me this week that we often use phrases which explain a complex situation in a nutshell. These phrases, in addition to being useful, show that the user is an educated person. Just today, in Bret Primack’s Substack, he used the phrase “Sword of Damocles.” Can we infer the meaning of this phrase from the context of the post without necessarily knowing its origin? Sure. But it’s much more fun to know the whole story!

Many friends of mine did not go to college, but they educated themselves by reading. In case you're wondering, yes, you can educate yourself on the Internet. But only if you're already educated.

What do I mean by this? Only that the Internet is full of a lot of crap. It's like shopping at Daffy's, where all the clothes are dumped in a huge bin and you have to sift through it to find the treasures. It can be done, but only if you know what to look for.

It's always good to revisit our roots. Hopefully even my most erudite readers will enjoy this little foray into some of today's oft-used metaphors handed down to us from the chroniclers of ancient Greece: Homer, Hesiod, Ovid, Virgil, Plutarch, Cicero et. al .

The “Wellington Monument” statue of Achilles, in London, by sculptor Richard Westmacott

Achilles Heel

Just as Superman had to guard himself from the negative effects of Kryptonite, everyone has an Achilles Heel that is our special weak point. This weak point can be physical, mental or emotional. Even the strongest hero has a weakness, and one's enemies specialize in discovering and exploiting it to their advantage.

When Achilles was a baby, his mother Thetis dipped him in the River Styx in order to make him impervious to injury. But she was holding him by his heel, which remained untouched by the waters and was therefore his only weak spot.

Achilles was a hero of the Trojan War and is known as one of the greatest heroes of ancient Greece. Because he knew he was practically immortal, he developed what we would now call "an attitude." He slew the Trojan prince, Hector, and dragged Hector's dead body behind his chariot as he paraded through the fallen city of Troy (located within the present country of Turkey) to return to his ship. This was a particularly cruel act, since it would have been appropriate for Hector's body to be returned to his people.

The Trojan War had been sparked by the elopement of Hector's younger brother Paris with the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Troy . How was Achilles finally killed? You guessed it: when Paris shot an arrow through his heel.

The Achilles Tendon in the foot is also named for this legendary hero.

Usage: Young Joe could go far in life; but his hatred of women is his Achilles heel.

The Procession of the Trojan Horse Into Troy, 17th century, by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

Trojan Horse

This legend comes to us from Virgil's Aeneid. During the Trojan War, the Greeks built a giant carved wooden horse and left it on the shores of Troy while they pretended to retreat in the dead of night. They left a single soldier with the horse, who told the Trojan soldiers the Greeks had sailed away without him. He said they had built the horse to appease the goddess Athena, whose temple in Troy they had burned, and they had left it as an offering. But when the horse was gleefully brought inside the city gates, a horde of Greek soldiers emerged from the horse's belly, where they had been hiding.

So a Trojan Horse is a trap disguised as a gift. We have some other expressions that arose from this tale, like "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" and "beware of Greeks bearing gifts." A Trojan Horse is also a type of computer virus that is unleashed when the user willingly clicks on the bait.

Usage: He seemed like a nice guy when I met him at a party. He had lots of liver spots; he said his nickname was “Appaloosa.” But when I invited him to my place, he brought 5 other guys and they tied me up and cleaned out my apartment. A Trojan Horse for sure!

Prometheus statue in Rockefeller Center, NYC, 1934, by Paul Manship

Prometheus

He was a Titan, one of the pre-Olympian gods. (Later on there’s a battle of supremacy between the Titans and the gods of Mt. Olympus.) He created the first human man. Because he loved his human creations, he stole fire from the gods of Olympus, and gave it to Man. As punishment, Zeus chained Prometheus to a rock, where an eagle would eat his liver each day. The organ grew back overnight, and the ritual was repeated ad infinitum. Prometheus was finally freed by Heracles (Hercules, in Roman nomenclature).

Although a god, Prometheus is also a symbol for the primordial human. In some versions of the myth, he fashions humans out of clay. Because of Prometheus we have knowledge, technology, arts and sciences, civilization....as well as a means of survival with the gift of fire.

Usage: Mary Shelley's subtitle for the 1818 Gothic novel Frankenstein is 'The Modern Prometheus.'

Painting from 1881 by Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Pandora's Box

We know of this myth from the poem Works and Days by Hesiod. Pandora was an "Eve equivalent" being that she was the first human woman, created by master craftsman Hephaestus on the command of Zeus. As the first woman, Pandora received gifts from all the gods on Mt. Olympus.

For his own gift, Zeus gave Pandora a large jar or urn, placing inside it all the scourges of the earth: pestilence, diseases, and all manner of misery. (To restore a bit of balance, he also put Hope in the jar.) Zeus did this because he wanted to punish humans for using fire, just as he had punished Prometheus for stealing fire and giving it to the humans.

Pandora was told never to open the sealed jar, but curiosity got the better of her. All the bad things escaped before she could get the lid back on. The only thing that stayed in the jar was Hope. Thus ended what had previously been a Golden Age of humanity.

The change from 'jar' to 'box' occurred when Erasmus of Rotterdam translated the legend into Latin.

When someone opens a Pandora's Box, a previously amicable situation becomes suddenly horrendous.

Usage: We were having such a good time at Christmas…but when my uncle gave little Sally a chocolate bar and a Coke, it was a Pandora's Box. Her stomach ache had us up all night long.

When we look at legends like Pandora's Box, and the apple of Eve in the Bible, we can see the possible reason for the misogynistic attitudes that still permeate human culture today. Cherchez la femme?

The Fall of Icarus (1636) by Peter Paul Rubens

The Fall of Icarus

Both Homer and Ovid wrote about the following myth. We know about the famous labyrinth of Crete through the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. The creator of the labyrinth was the inventor and architect Daedalus, and Icarus was his son.

King Minos had commanded Daedalus to build the giant maze as a sort of cage for his Minotaur, a creature who was half man/half bull. Minos would demand a yearly sacrifice of Athenian youths, seven boys and seven girls, who would be placed inside the labyrinth as prey for the Minotaur.

One year Theseus, a prince of Athens, was selected as one of the boys to be sacrificed. He decided to try to escape but the maze was just too confusing. Luckily for Theseus, Minos' daughter Ariadne had fallen in love with the lad. She begged Daedalus to help him escape. With the help of the builder of the maze, Ariadne was able to lay a path of string to lead Theseus out of the labyrinth.

Upon discovering this, Minos was so enraged that he imprisoned Daedalus and Icarus inside the labyrinth, to be food for the Minotaur. Daedalus knew the way out, but all the exits were being guarded. The only way out was up. He fashioned two sets of wings out of beeswax, string (presumably left over from Theseus' escape) and bird feathers. Before the father and son took flight, Daedalus told Icarus not to fly too near the sea because the water would make the wings come apart. He also said not to fly too close to the sun because its heat would melt the wax.

Icarus, however, was having such a good time flying around in the sky that he wanted to go as high as possible. Sure enough, when he got too close to the sun, the wax in the wings melted and he fell to his death.

We use the myth of Icarus to indicate the dangers of being too ambitious.

Usage: Like Icarus, many of our most talented young musicians flew too close to the sun and perished.

Caravaggio, Medusa, 1595-1596

The Head of the Medusa

Medusa was one of the three Gorgon sisters, and she was the only one who was mortal. Her hair was composed of living snakes, and any human who looked at her would immediately be turned to stone. She was beheaded by Perseus, who had to look in a mirror while he was doing it so he wouldn't spend his retirement as a rock. When he killed her, Medusa was pregnant by the god Poseidon. Upon her death the two creatures she carried emerged from her womb. One was the winged horse Pegasus, and the other was Chrysaor, a giant with a golden sword.

Usage: "In Western culture, strong women have historically been imagined as threats requiring male conquest and control, and Medusa herself has long been the go-to figure for those seeking to demonize female authority." –Elizabeth Johnston, "The Original 'Nasty Woman'", the Atlantic, Nov. 2016

Atlas holding up the heavens. Daniël Stalpaert. Royal Palace, Amsterdam

Atlas

As a Titan, Atlas fought in the war against the Olympian gods, but his side lost. As one of the main instigators, Atlas was sentenced by Zeus to stand at the edge of the earth and hold up the sky on his shoulders for all eternity.

Enter Heracles. As one of his 12 Labors he had to gather some golden apples from Hera's (Zeus' wife's) garden. Because the garden was tended by some of Atlas' daughters known as the Hesperides, Heracles asked Atlas to go get the apples, and offered to hold up the sky for him while he did so.

When Atlas returned, he had the idea to trick Heracles into taking over the burden permanently, so he offered to deliver the apples personally. Heracles didn't buy it. He pretended to agree, but asked Atlas if he wouldn't mind holding up the sky again for just a moment while Heracles adjusted his cloak around his shoulders for better padding.

Atlas couldn't very well refuse this request. He agreed, and when he put down the apples to hold up the sky for 'just a moment,' Heracles grabbed them and made a run for it.

Ayn Rand wrote a novel called Atlas Shrugged, referring to the idea that he carried not the heavens, but the earth on his shoulders. This variation is also depicted in a great many artworks. This interpretation may have originated with the 16th century mapmaker Gerardus Mercator (for whom the 'Mercator Projection' is named) and his map collection is called Atlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati, in honor of the Titan hero.

Usage: We now call a collection of maps an 'atlas.' We also have the expression "he carries the whole world on his shoulders."

A Phyrric Victory: The Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull, 1786

Phyrric Victory

Pandora and her consort Epimetheus had a daughter named Phyrra, but she is not the origin of this phrase. Rather, it refers to Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose victory over the Romans in 279 BCE destroyed most of his army. We can read about this in Plutarch's Lives.

Thus a Phyrric victory is one in which the victory causes such hardship that it is actually a defeat.

Usage: Some say the United States won the Vietnam War; but if so, it was a Phyrric Victory. 58,220 U.S. servicemen died, and thousands more were permanently injured.

Painting by Felix Auvray, 1831

Sword of Damocles

This tale appears in Cicero’s series on Greek philosophy titled Tusculanae Disputationes. It features King Dionysius of Syracuse, who was not the nicest king ever, but in typical kingly fashion he was surrounded with luxurious comforts, imported delicacies, and beautiful women. His servant Damocles was sycophantically kissing Dionysius’ ass one day, prompting the king to offer to trade places with him for 24 hours.

As you can imagine, Damocles jumped at the chance to experience the privileged and pampered life of a king. But when he assumed his temporary throne, he saw that a sword hung above his head, held up by only one hair of a horse’s tail.

The king did this to demonstrate to Damocles that even though surrounded with pleasures a king’s life was always in jeopardy, whether through betrayal, hidden enemies, foreign attacks, or jealousy of underlings.

According to legend, Damocles didn’t even make it to cocktail hour before he was begging the king to go back to his servant’s duties.

Traditionally the Sword of Damocles is used to indicate the always-precarious position of someone in power. Over the years its meaning has been extended to include all of us.

Usage: “Now, instead of empowering individuals, technology serves the interests of a few billionaires who wield it like a modern-day Sword of Damocles, dangling it over the rest of us.” –Bret Primack, Syncopated Justice

Ever onward into explorations and investigations of the ideas that have driven us to create art since Day One…