Corona Mythology

I was going to do a birthday-themed blog post, but the anniversary of my birth and its fun coincidence with the Ides of March really isn't as important as an international pandemic, is it?

Before I begin telling you all about mythological plagues, I want to start with a disclaimer. In no way do I think that Classical mythology can offer us any originality, advice, or solace in the face of CORVID19. I just think that this could be a fun little distraction for everyone scrolling through social media under the guise of working at home due to self-isolation.

So here we go, a couple of Corona-esque myths in a vain attempt to keep this blog vaguely topical.

The Plague of Thebes

Once upon a time, there was a man called Oedipus. He heard a prophesy that he was doomed to kill his father and marry his mother so, in an attempt to circumvent this, he left town. He killed a man at the place where three roads meet and then proceeded on to Thebes, where he bested a Sphinx and is allowed to marry the recently widowed (nothing suspicious to see here) queen, Jocasta, in gratitude.

Oedipus & the Sphinx

Years pass, Oedipus and Jocasta have four children, and they rule the land peacefully.


Suddenly, a plague descends upon Thebes. Priests, young men, old men, and women all get sick. The herds get sick. The plague causes infertility and stillbirths across species. While CORVID19 definitely isn't making cattle barren, it is spreading misery, grief, and panic through the land, just like Thebes' pestilence.


Oedipus sends his brother-in-law Creon to the oracle at Delphi for some advice. Well, it worked out so well the first time, what with the killing-father and marrying-mother prophecy being averted, right?

The advice comes back: find the killer of the previous king to stop the plague. An investigation ensues and witnesses are called, namely a farmer and the seer Tiresias. Without rehashing a story that I'm sure you've heard before and that I'm planning on telling again soon, it transpires that Oedipus is Jocasta's long-lost son and her late husband Laius was killed at the place where three roads meet.

In a perfectly reasonable turn of events, Jocasta kills herself & Oedipus blinds himself with Jocasta's brooch and goes into exile.

So, no matter how annoying your family are being during the Corona quarantine, just know that your family dysfunction hasn't caused the pandemic and no one needs to end up as a blind beggar at Colonus.
(The point of that glib comment is that, though we can talk about the plagues of antiquity right now, they do not hold any special messages to get us through this very real pandemic) 

The Plague of Troy

Agamemnon & Chryses fighting over Chryseis

Now this is more like it. Y'all know that I love me some Trojan War. Briseis is my absolute number #1 babe, as you might recall from my post Could Briseis Consent?, which is still my favourite piece of research to-date. But this is about her pal, the Warmonger-in-Chief Agamemnon's prize (sex slave): Chryseis.

In the same way that Achilles won (kidnapped and raped) Briseis, Agamemnon won Chryseis. She was the beautiful daughter of Chryses, a Trojan-allied priest to Apollo. After the Greeks had sacked Thebe,* Agamemnon took Chryseis as his concubine (victim in residence, if you will).

*not to be confused with Oedipus' Thebes, which are similar in both name and public health, but not at all in geography

Agamemnon is so enamoured with Chryseis that he even says he prefers her to his own wife, Clytemnestra. But, not to worry, she gets her revenge once he returns home and takes a bath.

One day, a strange visitor arrives in the Greek camps, wearing the red robes of Apollonian priests. Chryses asks for an audience with Agamemnon, and begs for the return of his daughter. Agamemnon is - and I cannot stress this enough - a dick. He refuses and humiliates the priest who, in turn, appeals to his patron god for help. Apollo is the god of so many things, including both medicine and plague. He sent the plague to punish the incestuous Oedipus in Thebes, and he's about to do the same thing in Troy to honour his loyal priest from Thebe.

I promise to stop making Thebes/Thebe comments now.

Then again, maybe Apollo shouldn't be blamed for this particular plague. In The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker's Briseis comments on all of the undisposed rubbish, flowing sewage, unwashed men, and feasting rats before the illness descends, making you wonder if it really was the 'Lord of mice [...] Lord of plague' (Barker 2018: 63) that is to blame, or just the filth of war encampments.

Whatever is to blame, a sickness washes over the encampment, first killing the rats, then the dogs, and then the men. Probably the women too, but who cares about them when there are soldiers dying -  just a few feet away from the battlefield, where they were supposed to be dying.

This is where the Iliad opens, with Achilles demanding that Agamemnon return Chryseis to her father,. Agamemnon eventually has to relent, because of the ever increasing pressure coming from the soldiers, a demigod, and an Olympian. But not without him being - I've said it before and I'll say it again - a dick. He says now everyone has a prize except him, the King of the Argives, and that is unacceptable. So he takes Achilles' prize, the symbol of his honour, our Briseis. Achilles - supposedly dying of heartbreak which is actually more like a bruised ego - refuses to fight in the war anymore...

...But the plague is over so the story must end here for now.

***

So there we have it. Two mythical pestilences from ancient history to hopefully distract us all a little bit from the literal pandemic happening right now. I do hope you enjoyed this little break from all the horrible reality.

I suppose I should end this post with some advice:

Should any politicians be reading this - suspend rent payments & give everyone in need a bursary.

Should any mainstream journalists be reading this - now would be a great time to try out ethical media practices. 

And, for everyone else - sacrifice something to Apollo & stop panic buying toilet roll. 

I tried. 

Cover picture: Chryses attempting to ransom his daughter, currently in the Louvre.