Polemos

Daemon in Greek mythology, a divine personification or embodiment of war
Greek deities
series
  • Primordial deities
  • Titans and Olympians
  • Water deities
  • Chthonic deities
Personifications
List
  • v
  • t
  • e

In Greek mythology, Polemos /ˈpɒlɪˌmɒs/ or Polemus /ˈpɒlɪməs/ (Greek: Πόλεμος Pólemos; "war") was a daemon; a divine personification or embodiment of war.[1] No cult practices or myths are known for him, and as an abstract representation he figures mainly in allegory and philosophical discourse.[2] The Roman counterpart of this figure was Bellum.

Literature

Pindar says that Polemos is the father of Alala, goddess of the war-cry.[3] According to Quintus Smyrnaeus, Polemos was the brother of the war goddess Enyo.[4] Other Greek personifications of war and the battlefield include Ares, Eris, the Makhai, the Hysminai, the Androktasiai, the Phonoi and the Keres. In Aesop's fable of "War and his Bride", told by Babrius and numbered 367 in the Perry Index,[5] it is related how Polemos drew Hubris (insolent arrogance) as his wife in a marriage lottery. So fond has he become of her that the two are now inseparable. Therefore, Babrius warns, "Let not Insolence ever come among the nations or cities of men, finding favour with the crowd; for after her straightway War will be at hand".[6]

In Aristophanes' Acharnians, it is reported that Polemos is banned from parties for burning vineyards, emptying the wine and disrupting the singing. He is set in opposition to Dicaeopolis, who profitably champions peace and longs for marriage with Diallage, "Reconciliation". Dionysos, god of the life force, uses a vine stake as a weapon to wound the soldier Lamachus for neglecting him in favor of Polemos, but overall Aristophanes seem to be advocating a balance between Dionysos and Polemos, since the interests of the polis are served at times by peace and other times by war.[7]

Polemos even makes a brief speaking appearance at the end of the prologue to Aristophanes' Peace. With Tumult (Kudoimos) as his henchman, he has buried Peace under stones in a cave. Now he makes a speech in which he announces that he is going to grind all the cities of Greece in a mortar, having plagued them for ten years. However, a series of puns on the names of the cities undermines his fearsome threat, making it appear as if he is preparing a relish for a feast.[8] Sending Tumult to obtain a pestle sufficient for the task, he withdraws to the "house of Zeus" and does not reappear, though his potential return is a threat throughout the play. The scenario seems to be an original invention of Aristophanes.[9]

Philosophy

The pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus described Polemos as "both the king and father of all", with the capacity to bring all into existence and to annihilate.[10] For Heraclitus, Polemos "reveals the gods on the one hand and humans on the other, makes slaves on the one hand, the free on the other".[11] The fragment leaves it unclear as to whether Heraclitus thought of Polemos as an abstraction, a god, or a generalization of war, and this ambiguity is perhaps intentional.[12] Heidegger interpreted the polemos of Heraclitus as the principle of differentiation or "setting apart" (German Auseinandersetzung).[13]

References

  1. ^ Niall W. Slater, Spectator Politics: Metatheatre and Performance in Aristophanes (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), p. 119.
  2. ^ William Kendrick Pritchett, The Greek State at War (University of California Press, 1979), vol. 3, p. 161.
  3. ^ Pindar, Dithyrambs fragment 78.
  4. ^ Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 8. 424 ff
  5. ^ "WAR AND HIS BRIDE". mythfolklore.net.
  6. ^ Loeb Classics Library, Babrius I.70
  7. ^ Richard F. Moorton, Jr., "Dionysus or Polemos? The Double Message of Aristophanes' Acharnians," in The Eye Expanded: Life and the Arts in Greco-Roman Antiquity (University of California Press, 1999), pp. 24, 39, 42, 45.
  8. ^ Carroll Moulton, Aristophanic poetry, Göttingen 1981, pp.87
  9. ^ Carlo Ferdinando Russo, Aristophanes: An Author for the Stage (Routledge, 1962, 1994), pp. 135, 139, 143, 145; Slater, Spectator Politics, pp. 120, 280.
  10. ^ Daniel Chapelle, Nietzsche and Psychoanalysis (State University of New York Press, 1993), p. 53, citing NER 19, frg. 53.
  11. ^ Gregory Fried, Heidegger's Polemos: From Being to Politics (Yale University Press, 2000), p. 21.
  12. ^ Fried, Heidegger's Polemos, p. 23.
  13. ^ Fried, Heidegger's Polemos, p. 17.

External links

  • The dictionary definition of polemos at Wiktionary
  • Theoi Project, literary passages mentioning Polemos
  • v
  • t
  • e
Religion and religious practice
Main beliefs
Texts / odes /
epic poems
Epic Cycle
Theban Cycle
Others
Religions
Antecedents
Expressions
Hellenistic religions
Mystery religions
and sacred mysteries
New religious movements
Religious practice
Worship
/ rituals
Religious
offices
Religious
objects
Magic
Events
Festivals
/ feasts
Games
Panhellenic Games
Sacred places
Temples /
sanctuaries
Oracles
Mountains
Caves
Islands
Springs
Others
Myths and mythology
Deities
(Family tree)
Primordial deities
Titans
First generation
Second generation
Third generation
Twelve Olympians
Water deities
Love deities
Erotes
War deities
Chthonic deities
Psychopomps
Health deities
Sleep deities
Messenger deities
Trickster deities
Magic deities
Other major deities
Heroes /
heroines
Individuals
Groups
Oracles
/ seers
Other
mortals
Underworld
Entrances to
the underworld
Rivers
Lakes/swamps
Caves
Charoniums
Ploutonion
Necromanteion (necromancy temple)
Places
Judges
Guards
Residents
Visitors
Symbols/objects
Animals, daemons,
and spirits
Mythical
Beings
Lists
Minor spirits
Beasts /
creatures
Captured
/ slain by
heroes
Tribes
Places
/ Realms
Events
Wars
Objects
Symbols
Modern
treatments
  • v
  • t
  • e
Ancient Greek deities
Primordial
deities
Titans
Titans (male)
Titanides (female)
Children of Hyperion
Children of Coeus
Children of Crius
Children of Iapetus
Olympian
deities
Twelve Olympians
Olympian Gods
Muses
Charites (Graces)
Horae (Hours)
Children of Styx
Water
deities
Sea deities
Oceanids
  • Acaste
  • Admete
  • Amalthea
  • Asia
  • Callirhoe
  • Ceto
  • Clymene (consort of Helios)
  • Clymene (wife of Iapetus)
  • Clytie
  • Dione
  • Dodone
  • Doris
  • Electra
  • Eurynome
  • Idyia
  • Melia (consort of Apollo)
  • Melia (consort of Inachus)
  • Metis
  • Perse
  • Philyra
  • Pleione
  • Plouto
  • Styx
  • Telesto
  • Theia
  • Zeuxo
Nereids
Potamoi
Naiads
Chthonic
deities
Theoi Chthonioi
Erinyes (Furies)
Earthborn
Apotheothenai
Personifications
Children of Eris
Children of Nyx
Children of Phorcys
Children of Thaumas
Children of
other gods
Others
Other deities
Sky
Agriculture
Health
Rustic
deities
Others