DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT AN ANCIENT GREEK SCHOLAR. FOR THE FULL DISCLAIMER, READ HERE
Buy my new book 1001 Nights of the Soul: My Journey Through the Odyssey. Kindle and paperback versions are available!
Look to him who looks down from above, to him, the guardian of mortals sore-distressed, who appeal to their neighbors, yet do not obtain the justice that is their right. The wrath of Zeus, the suppliant’s god, remains, and will not be softened by a sufferer’s complaints.
Aeschylus, The Suppliants, lines 381-86; Herbert Weir Smyth translation
Introduction
The Suppliants, or The Suppliant Maidens, is the first play in another trilogy by Aeschylus. The other two plays, and it’s accompanying satyr play, have not survived fully intact. In fact, there are even a few lines missing from The Suppliants itself.
The story of the The Suppliants is loosely tied to the story in Prometheus Bound. Danaus, and his fifty daughters (the Chorus in the play), are descendants of Io, the woman who stumbled upon Prometheus while he was chained to the rock. Prometheus told Io what she would face in the future, culminating in bearing a child from Zeus. According to The Suppliants, Io gave birth to Zeus’ son Epaphus. From Ephasus, this is the lineage to Danaus: Epaphus → Libya → Agenor → Belus →Danaus and Aegyptus. Aegyptus wanted his fifty sons to marry Danaus’ fifty daughters and tried to force the marriages to happen. Danaus and his daughters flee Egypt and return to Io’s native land of Argos. There, they successfully seek protection from the Argives.
That’s what we learn in The Suppliants. According to the stories outside the play, the sons of Aegyptus go to war with Argos. Here, the stories conflict. In some accounts, the sons of Aegyptus are victorious and force the daughters of Danaus to marry them. In other accounts, Danaus agrees to give his daughters up to the sons of Aegyptus to spare Argos from war. All the accounts, however, say that Danaus instructs his daughters to murder their husbands on their wedding night. All the daughters except one carry out the deed. The daughter who refused to murder her husband did so because she fell in love with him. This couple would start a royal line in Argos and their most famous descendant would be the hero Perseus.
All quotes from The Suppliants are from the Herbert Weir Smyth translation which is in the public domain. This translation appeared in the Loeb Classical Library. I had to rely on the Seth Bernardete translation for the line numbers, so they may not be 100% accurate.
As always, I encourage you to read The Suppliants for yourself. You can do it! Read the publicly available Smyth translation, which is somewhat easy to read (especially if you could follow along with the Butler translations of the Iliad and Odyssey)! You might have to look up a word here and there, but it’s not too bad. If you prefer a modern translation, Richmond Lattimore and David Grene also translated and/or edited the plays of Aeschylus and compiled them into two volumes (The Suppliants is found in Aeschylus I). Lastly, I just recently discovered a modern translation that the translator Ian Johnston offers for free! He’s also translated other ancient Greek works like the Iliad and the Odyssey. You can find them here.
Summary
Danaus and his daughters, descendants of Io, have fled Egypt and have made their way back to where Io came from: Argos. They are being pursued by the sons of Aegyptus, Danaus’ brother, who want to force the maidens to marry them.
Upon arriving at Argos, Danaus sees an army approaching. He tells his daughters to sit down on a mound sacred to the gods and display their wool-covered branches, indicators to the Greeks that they are suppliants seeking refuge. Danaus then instructs them on how to properly act and speak as a suppliant toward the Greeks.
The King of Argos, accompanied by armed troops, approaches the group and introduces himself before asking who they are. The maidens explain to the King their lineage and he at first doesn’t believe them. However, when both parties confirm the story of Io and her travels, the King is convinced they are actually Argives by descent.
The King then questions the maidens why they came back to Argos and the maidens explain the situation regarding the sons of Aegyptus. When the King asks the maidens what they want him to do, they invoke their rights as suppliants and ask for protection against Aegyptus’ sons. The King is troubled by this request, because it would mean bringing a war onto his people, but the maidens insist on his protection and remind him that Zeus brings his wrath on those who refuse to help suppliants. When the King insists on taking this issue to his people to discuss it with them first, the maidens threaten to commit suicide on the sacred mound, using the images of the gods to hang themselves with ropes, if the King doesn’t assure them right then and there he will help them. Without any other options left, the King agrees to protect the maidens from the sons of Aegyptus.
Danaus goes inside the city to present himself as a suppliant before the altars of Argos’ patron gods, while the maidens are escorted off the mound with an assurance they will be protected. The King then leaves to tell his people what’s going on and convince them to help the maidens.
Some time later, Danaus comes back with the good news that the people of Argos are willing to support the maidens. However, he also has bad news: the sons of Aegyptus, along with their army, have arrived on the shores of Argos. After calming down his daughters, Danaus goes back into the city to get aid.
While the maidens lament their situation, a Herald accompanied by armed men approach them and demand the maidens come with him back to the ships. When the maidens refuse, the Herald threatens to drag them all away by their hair. The maidens call out for help and the King of Argos arrives with his army. He tells the Herald and his men they have no right to take the maidens away and threatens them with violence if they try. The Herald threatens the King with a war before leaving empty-handed.
The King tells the maidens that preparations are complete for them to enter inside the city. The maidens ask for their father and the King leaves. Danaus returns to the maidens and tells them to be thankful for Argos’ protection and to behave accordingly. The maidens agree and the play closes with them hoping that they won’t ultimately be forced into marriage with Aegyptus’ sons.
The Road to Hell…
There is something that has come up multiple times throughout all the works I’ve read for this blog so far. I’m not quite sure what to call it. The tyranny of tradition? The tyranny of social norms? Basically, the reason certain events happen, or the reason people get caught up in certain circumstances, is because of some tradition or societal norm.
Think about the Trojan War. If Helen was simply allowed to leave Menelaus for Paris, there would have been no war. She could have simply divorced Menelaus and went back to Troy with Paris. This still wouldn’t excuse their behavior. Paris and Helen would still be terrible people, and I would have a lot of sympathy for the heartbroken Menelaus (as we learned in Agamemnon, he took Helen’s running away with Paris very hard), but it would have been better than a war where thousands died. Thousands who had nothing to do with the whole affair.
You can go back even further though. The practice of arranged marriage could also be blamed for what happened. If Helen had been allowed to choose her own husband, rather than having her father choose, then maybe she would have chosen a pretty boy like Paris to begin with, and then they could have lived narcissistically ever after. Again, there would be no war where thousands died.
In the Odyssey, Penelope could have told the suitors, and her father and brothers for that matter, to kick rocks. She’s waiting for Odysseus to come home even if she has to wait her entire life.
In the Oresteia, Orestes would not have been obligated to take revenge for his father’s murder. He could have concluded that Agamemnon was not only a philanderer, but he sacrificed his daughter, Orestes’ sister, for a stupid war to get a stupid woman back, and therefore got what he deserved. Clytemnestra may not have had to do all the subterfuge she engaged in—having a secret affair with Aegisthus, exiling Orestes under the pretense of protecting him from potential civil unrest, locking up Electra—and could have instead openly condemned Agamemnon for his barbaric act and called for justice for Iphigenia. Heck, perhaps Agamemnon would not have felt obligated toward his army to sacrifice Iphigenia in the first place.
The Suppliants is not much different. None of the events of The Suppliants would have happened had not the sons of Aegyptus tried to force the daughters of Danaus to marry them. And the sons of Aegyptus wouldn’t have been able to force the daughters of Danaus to marry them had it not been for the social norms of the time. This is highlighted in the exchange between the Chorus (Danaus’ daughters) and the King of Argos:
[King]: Why have you come as suppliants of these gods congregated here, holding in your hands those white-wreathed, fresh-plucked bough?
[Chorus]: So as not to be made slave to Aegyptus’ race.
[King]: By reason of hatred? Or do you speak of unlawfulness?
[Chorus]: Who would purchase their lords from among their kin?
[King]: In this way families have enhanced their power.
Aeschylus, The Suppliants, lines 332-38; Herbert Weir Smyth translation
The King is not very sympathetic with the maidens’ reason for running away and seeking refuge in Argos. Arranged marriages, even to cousins, was not uncommon. However, the maidens don’t want this. In fact, whether due to their circumstances or whether it was choice they would have made regardless, the maidens don’t want to be married at all. They chant multiple times in the beginning of the play:
That the mighty race of our honorable mother escape the embrace of man (ah me), unwedded, unvanquished.
Aeschylus, The Suppliants, lines 141-43, 150-52; Herbert Weir Smyth translation
However, at the end of the play, when the maidens repeat this resolve, they are checked by the handmaids sent to tend to them:
Marriage has been the destiny of many women before our time.
Aeschylus, The Suppliants, lines 1051-52; Herbert Weir Smyth translation
The Chorus then change their resolution:
[Chorus]: May mighty Zeus defend me from marriage with Aegyptus’ race!
[Handmaiden]: That would indeed be best.
Aeschylus, The Suppliants, lines 1053-54; Herbert Weir Smyth translation
None of the events of this play would have happened had the maidens been allowed to choose who they wanted to marry—or even choose to not marry at all. However, because the sons of Aegyptus were within their rights to force the daughters of Danaus to marry them, and Danaus and his daughters were strong willed enough to resist this to the point of fleeing, Argos ends up getting dragged into an international incident.
It’s at this point where my sympathy for the daughters of Danaus not only dries up, but goes the opposite direction.
… Is Paved With Good Intentions
We are all aware of how rules, customs, laws, and the like, can be used in ways that were not originally meant to be used. Sometimes, these creative uses or interpretations are to try and promote good. For example, in some Christian circles, alcohol and tobacco use are condemned because: 1) You can become addicted to alcohol and tobacco; 2) An addiction is something you put higher than God; 3) Anything you put higher than God is an idol; 4) The Bible condemns idolatry; 5) Addictions are idols and should be condemned; 6) Alcohol and tobacco can lead to you idolatry, so their use should be condemned.1 It’s a creative use of applying the laws of God to activities that, in many cases, have led to devastating health issues, broken relationships, and/or financial destitution.
However, these creative uses or interpretations can be used wrongfully, even destructively. To use the above example: 1) Anything you put higher than God is an idol, therefore; 2) You should only devote yourself to reading the Bible, church life, prayer, charity, and the like, because any activities not from God are idols. This is one way highly authoritarian organizations and groups come into being and control their members (what are colloquially called “cults”).2
I could have given more secular and concrete examples, like the myriad of government welfare programs. For example, food stamps are meant to help struggling families. We envision a poor family, deciding between paying their electric bill or their water bill, who can at least get food for their hungry children thanks to this benevolent government program. In reality, this is not always the case. We’ve all heard the stories of people exploiting the food stamps program. I’ve heard of clever individuals who spend their food stamps on bottled water, pour out the water, get the deposit back on the bottles (some states in America put a 5 or 10 cent “tax” on plastic and glass bottles that you can get back if you recycle those bottles at specific locations), and use the money for items they would rather have that they couldn’t get with food stamps.
I could go on and on about how these programs, laws, and teachings, were implemented with one good intention in mind and get used for other, worse intentions instead. In The Suppliants, we see this play out concerning the custom regarding supplication.
As I understand it, in ancient Greece, suppliants were considered under the protection of Zeus. If someone came to you as a suppliant, in other words they humbled themselves before you and displayed their powerlessness and petitioned you for help, you had to be careful on whether you should accept or reject them. Rejecting them could lead to social or political disaster, or worse, divine wrath. The custom was meant to protect those experiencing hardship beyond their control, persecution, fleeing after they caused an accidental death, or if they killed in self-defense or revenge, etc. It was meant to protect the vulnerable and the unfortunate.3
As we see in The Suppliants though, it could also be exploited.
The daughters of Danaus, after they establish with the King of Argos that they are descendants of a Greek (Io), then petition his help in protecting them from the sons of Aegyptus. Reasonably, the King is apprehensive to accept them as suppliants:
A serious request – to take upon myself a dangerous war.
Aeschylus, The Suppliants, line 342; Herbert Weir Smyth translation
If the King took in these women, it could lead to war. Not only is this not a decision to be taken lightly, the King feels he shouldn’t make this decision alone:
I have declared already that, though I am ruler, I will not do this thing without the consent of my people, lest hereafter, if any evil befall, the people should say, “You honored aliens and brought ruin upon your own land.”
Aeschylus, The Suppliants, lines 398-401; Herbert Weir Smyth translation
The daughters of Danaus refuse to take the King’s position into consideration. They remind him that he could bring down upon himself Zeus’ wrath if he turns them away and helpfully remind him that he’s the king and can decide whatever he wants. The maidens simply refuse to appreciate the situation they’ve put the King in:
Take Justice as your ally, and render judgment for the cause deemed righteous by the gods.
Aeschylus, The Suppliants, line 396; Herbert Weir Smyth translation
It’s a no brainer, King of Argos! Just do the right thing! What’s your problem?
Over and over again, the maidens invoke justice, and over and over the King tries to tell them the situation is more complicated. The maidens have a simple, binary view: they’re in the right, the sons of Aegyptus are in the wrong, and the King should help them no matter what. End of story. The King, on the other hand, has to think about everyone he rules over—men, women, and children. His decision could lead to a war that would get people killed. His people killed. All to protect these women who were complete strangers five minutes ago. These women who are threatening to invoke Zeus and bring wrath upon him if he doesn’t help them.
Finally, the King tells them flatly that they’ve put him in a difficult situation, he needs to consult his people first, and that’s final. Before this point, I had been losing sympathy for the maidens because their responses up to this point had been basically “Do the right thing!” and “You’ll incur Zeus’ wrath if you don’t help us!” while failing to appreciate the difficult situation they’ve put the King in. However, this next scene is where my sympathy turned to antipathy:
[Chorus]: Hear now the end of my appeals for compassion.
[King]: I hear; say on. It shall not escape me.
[Chorus]: I have breast-bands and girdles to gather up my robes.
[King]: Such things are proper, no doubt, for women.
[Chorus]: In these then, be sure, I have a beautiful instrument—
[King]: Tell me what speech you plan to utter.
[Chorus]: If you will not give some pledge to this group—
[King]: What will the contrivance of the sashes do for you?
[Chorus]: To adorn these images with tablets of strange sort.
[King]: You words are riddling; come, explain in simple speech.
[Chorus]: To hang ourselves from the statues of these gods.
[King]: I detect a threat that is a lash upon my heart.
[Chorus]: You have grasped my intention, for I have cleared your vision.
Aeschylus, The Suppliants, lines 455-67; Herbert Weir Smyth translation
The maidens threaten the king that they will hang themselves in the sacred space, upon the statues of the gods, thereby defiling them, if the King doesn’t right then and there give them assurances that he will help them out. The King is rightfully distraught about this and perfectly describes the rock and the hard place the daughters of Danaus have put him in:
And on many sides there are difficulties hard to wrestle with; for, like a flood, a multitude of ills bursts on me. It is a sea of ruin, fathomless and impassable, which I am launched upon, and nowhere is there a haven from distress. For should I not pay the debt due to you, the pollution you name is beyond all range of speech; yet if I take my stand before the walls and try the issue of battle with the sons of Aegyptus, your kinsmen, how will the cost not mount to a cruel price – men’s blood to stain the ground for women’s sake?
Aeschylus, The Suppliants, lines 468-77; Herbert Weir Smyth translation
The King, at that point, has no choice but to agree to help the maidens and to try and convince his people that it is the right decision to make. The cost of refusing to help them has far exceeded the cost of helping them.
The daughters of Danaus took a custom that was meant to help the vulnerable and encourage those more fortunate to help their fellow men who experience misfortune, and essentially exploited a loophole. The loophole is that, technically, the daughters of Danaus are descendants of an Argive (someone from Argos) and therefore are Greeks. As a result, they are entitled to the protections afforded under the law of supplication. Never mind the fact that they were born and raised in a foreign land. Never mind the fact that they wouldn’t have left that foreign land if not for their situation. Never mind the fact that they are running away from customs in their own land they don’t like and coming to a land they’ve never known before and invoking that land’s customs that they can conveniently use to get out of their situation. Oh, and if the King refuses to meet their demands right then and there, without having time to think about it or bring it up to his people, they’ll commit suicide in one of Argos’ holy spaces using the images of their gods to do the deed.
Absolutely reprehensible. What the daughters of Danaus did is up there with Achilles’ petition to Zeus to have the Achaeans lose battles and Odysseus’ decision to not inform his crew about Scylla and Charybdis in terms of its moral repugnance. In each of those situations, you can put yourself in their shoes and understand why they did what they did, but they still did something very wrong.
This is what I was referring to with the tyranny of tradition or social norms. On the one hand, traditions, social norms, customs, etc. are usually put in place for a good reason. Getting rid of them should be done with the utmost caution. It could be that other ways were tried in the past and what was eventually established worked out the best. They aren’t perfect, no custom or tradition could ever be, but they could very will be better than the alternatives. On the other hand, there’s this reality: the more choices that are taken away, the more exploitation that can occur. On top of the King’s morality, the one thing that kept him from telling the daughters of Danaus to take a hike was the fear of invoking Zeus’ wrath. The fear of Zeus’ wrath closed off a lot of choices for the King and discouraged any nuance that could be given to the situation. This made it easier for the maidens to exploit the law of supplication. They could get away with threatening to hang themselves if the King didn’t give in to their demands. If it weren’t for the fear of Zeus’ wrath, the King could have had more options: he could have detained the maidens and given them back to the sons of Aegyptus; he could have driven the maidens out of the sacred space and told them to kill themselves somewhere else; he could have told them to leave from the very beginning, etc.
On the flip side, it was the customs that restricted the daughters of Danaus to the point that they felt running off to another land and threatening suicide was their only option to get out of their situation. If they had been allowed to choose who they wanted to marry, or choose not to marry, they wouldn’t have felt the need to run away and burden the Argives with their problems.
It was basically a perfect storm of traditions, which were put in place to do more good than harm, baring all of their weaknesses at the same time. In my opinion though, it still doesn’t excuse what the daughters of Danaus did.
That's all for The Suppliants.
May your days be filled with grace.
-Andronikos
Buy my other book Revenge and its Discontents: My Journey Through the Iliad. Kindle and paperback versions available.
Find me on social media!
1For some reason, this logic never seemed to be extended to caffeine or a myriad other substances and activities (save for pornography use). The LDS (Latter Day Saints; Mormons) were an exception to this (as I understood it). Even in my evangelical Christian days when I was suppose to see the LDS as either ideological opponents or “cult” members, I admired their consistency on that issue.
2I knew some people years ago who used to be in just such a group. One day a few of them were bored and one suggested they work on a jigsaw puzzle. They spent the entire time enraptured while putting that puzzle together. Afterward, they felt extremely guilty, like they sinned against God. If they had time to put together a puzzle, they should have spent it praying or reading the Bible instead. That moment with the puzzle was one of many moments that led to their eventual disillusionment with the “cult.”
3We saw examples of supplication in the Iliad (Thetis to Zeus in Book 1; Priam to Achilles in Book 24) and the Odyssey (Odysseus to Nausicaa in Book 6; Odysseus to Arete and Alcinous in Book 7).