[lit-ideas] Re: Sexual Dimorphism -- and Greek Myth

Thanks to R. Paul for corrections and refs.  to Hesiod and Pindar. 
 
"Order, order! Athena sprang from the brow  of _Zeus_, fully formed and 
armed, after one of his fellow gods had struck  him on the forehead to relieve 
him 
of a fierce headache that  came upon him after he had swallowed Metis, with 
whom he'd been fooling  around. Zeus feared, I'm not sure why, that one of 
Metis' children  would turn out to be more powerful than he, hence the 
precautionary  ingestion; however, Metis was alredy pregnant with Athena." 
 
Mm. Nicely convoluted -- to my taste.
 
I read from Hesiod:

"[Metis] straightway conceived
Pallas Athene; and [Zeus] gave
her birth by way of his head"
 

"he d'autika Pallad' Athenen 
kusato,  ten men etikte [Zeus]
        par koruthen  ep'okhthesin"
 
-- where the word in the Loeb translation is 'head', which  the Liddell/Scott 
has as 'head'
 
_http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%
3Aentry%3D%2359239_ 
(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=#59239)
 
 
From 'korus': 'head, top, hence crown, top of the head,  also peak of a 
mountain, summit, extremity, tip. 
 
But I take R. Paul's word that that means 'brow' (as in  'highbrow'?)
 
It was nice to learn that Temis was already 'with  child' when Zeus 'sallowed 
her down suddenly' as Hesiod rather directly puts it. 
 
Note that Hesiod has Metis "conceiving" Athena  ("kusato"). While Zeus "gave 
[Athena's] birth by way of his  head".
 
Quite a miracle, or as Romans would say, 'legend'.  Will consult Pindar -- I 
only have (so far) the Loeb second volume -- first on  the way. 
 
Metis seems to have been one of those boring deities named after an  abstract 
idea -- in this case, "Thought" -- cfr. Sir Edmund Spenser's "The  Faerie 
Queene" where "Speranza" is the name of one of those boring  deities.

Cheers,
 
JL
 

 
 




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