Ate (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Ate (Ancient Greek: Ἄτη, romanized: Átē, lit. 'Recklessness, Delusion, Folly, Ruin')^[1] is the personification of moral blindness and error, and the goddess of mischief and rash actions. She could blind the mind of both gods and men leading them astray. Ate was banished from Olympus by Zeus for blinding him to Hera's trickery denying Heracles his birthright. Homer calls Ate the daughter of Zeus, while Hesiod has Ate as the daughter of Eris (Strife).^[2]

Ate is a personified abstraction, allegorizing the meaning of her name.^[3] The Greek word ἄτη (ate) is a verbal noun of the verb ἀάω (aáō),^[4] meaning to lead astray, befuddle, blind, or delude,^[5] with ἄτη meaning the state of infatuation, recklessness, folly, or ruin, resulting from being mislead.^[6] Thus Ate represents the blinding or clouding of the mind which leads to ill-considered and reckless actions, as well as the ruin such actions may entail.^[7] She is thought of as being both the instigator of delusion and its resulting destruction.^[8]

Beyond being a mere personification, Ate had little identity.^[9] Her only significant story involves the loss of Heracles' birthright, and her resulting banishment from Olympus to the "fields of men".^[10] As told in the Iliad, Hera tricked Zeus into swearing an oath that resulted in Zeus' son Heracles losing the birthright Zeus had intended for him. Zeus blamed Ate for clouding his mind causing him not to see Hera's deception. In great anger Zeus grabbed Ate by the hair and flung her from Mount Olympus,^[11] and thereby bringing harm to men.^[12] According to the mythographer Apollodorus, when Ate was thrown down by Zeus, Ate landed in Phrygia at a place called "the hill of the Phrygian Ate", where the city of Troy was founded.^[13] The Hellenistic poet Lycophron, in his Alexandra, also mentions the place calling it "the high Hill of Doom [Ate]".^[14]

Homer's Iliad calls Ate the eldest daughter of Zeus, with no mother mentioned.^[15] However, Hesiod's Theogony has Ate as one of the several children of Eris (Strife) with no father mentioned.^[16] Hesiod particularly associates Ate with her sister Dysnomia [Lawlessness]. He names both as children of Eris, on the same line (230) of his Theogony, and says that the two (and all of the children of Eris?) are "much like one another".^[17] Aeschylus, in his tragedy Agamemnon, has the Chorus call Peitho "the unendurable child of scheming Ruin [Ἄτας]".^[18]

Ate's most extensive treatment occurs in Homer'sIliad about the Trojan War. The references to the goddess in the Iliad revolve around Agamemnon's folly in having robbed Achilles, the Greeks greatest warrior, of his war prize, the slave Briseis, and Achilles' subsequent refusal to fight, which brought the Greeks to the brink of defeat. Ate is also indirectly referred to in the repeated mentions of Paris's "folly" in having stolen Helen of Troy, which incited the war.^[19]

During the embassy to Achilles in Book 9, Achilles' old tutor Phoenix, trying to persuade Achilles to return to battle, tells the following parable in which the "fleet of foot" Ate (Blindness) outruns the "halting" Litae (Prayers):^[20]

For Prayers there are as well, the daughters of great Zeus, halting and wrinkled and of eyes askance, and they are ever mindful to follow in the steps of Blindness. But Blindness is strong and fleet of foot, so she far outruns them all, and goes before them over all the earth making men to fall, and Prayers follow after, seeking to heal the hurt. Now him who will respect the daughters of Zeus, when they draw near, him they greatly benefit, and hear him when he prays; but if a man denies them and stubbornly refuses, then they go and beg Zeus, son of Cronos, that Blindness may follow that man so that he may fall and pay full recompense.

— Homer, Iliad 9.502–512;translation by A.T. Murray, revised by William F. Wyatt

In Book 19, Agamemnon attempts to excuse himself for having taken Briseis from Achilles, by blaming the "accursed" Ate (among others) for blinding his mind:^[21]

It is not I who am at fault, but Zeus and Fate and Erinys, that walks in darkness, since in the place of assembly they cast on my mind fierce blindness on that day when on my own authority I took from Achilles his prize. But what could I do? It is a god that brings all things to their end. Eldest daughter of Zeus is Ate who blinds all— accursed one; delicate are her feet, for it is not the ground that she touches, but she walks over the heads of men, bringing men to harm, and this one or that she ensnares.

— Homer, Iliad 19.91–94; translation by A.T. Murray, revised by William F. Wyatt

As an illustration of Ate's power, Agamemnon goes on to tell how she "once even blinded Zeus". According to Agamemnon, when Alcmene was about to give birth to Zeus's son Heracles, Zeus, in his great pride, boasted that on that day would be born a man, of Zeus's blood, who would be king of Argos. But Hera tricked Zeus into swearing an unbreakable oath such that whatever man, of Zeus's blood, born that day would be king. Then Hera delayed the birth of Heracles, and caused Eurystheus, the great grandson of Zeus, to be born prematurely, and thus Heracles lost the birthright Zeus had intended for him. Zeus (like Agamemnon) blamed Ate for blinding him to Hera's trickery.^[22] As punishment, an enraged Zeus:

seized Ate by her bright-tressed head, angered in his mind, and swore a mighty oath that never again to Olympus and the starry heaven should Ate come, who blinds all. So said he, and whirling her in his hand flung her from the starry heaven, and quickly she came to the tilled fields of men. At thought of her would he ever groan when he saw his dear son in disgraceful toil at Eurystheus’ tasks.

— Homer, Iliad 19.126–133; translation by A.T. Murray, revised by William F. Wyatt

Among the tragic poets, the use of Ate is somewhat different than it is in the Iliad. Here Ate can be an avenger of evil actions and a just punisher of evil actors, similar to Nemesis and the Erinyes (Furies). Ate was particularly prominent in the plays of Aeschylus, and less so in the later tragedians such as Euripides, where the idea of Dike (justice) becomes more fully developed.^[23]

Ate appears several times in Aeschylus' tragedy Agamennon, where she is called "scheming", and made the mother of an "unendurable child", the "miserable" Peitho (Temptation).^[24] But perhaps in a more positive light, Aeschylus also associates Ate with divine retribution: Zeus' punishment inflicted on Troy for Paris's abduction of Helen. In a long speech about Helen,^[25] the Chorus likens her to a lion cub raised as a loved and loving pet which ends up savagely killing those who raised it, the cub (and by extension Helen) being reared, by divine intent, as a "priest" of Ate.^[26] The Chorus goes on to describe Ate as:

the deity with whom none can war or fight,
the unholy arrogance
of Ruin [Ate], black for the house

— Aeschylus, Agamennon; translation by Alan H. Sommerstein

In the final scene of the play, Clytemnestra, with bloody sword and clothes, emerges from the palace to reveal that she has killed her husband Agamemnon, in retribution for his having killed their daughter Iphigenia.^[27] She describes the murder as:

the fulfilled Justice [Dike] that was due for my child, by Ruin [Ate] and by the Fury [Eryns], through whose aid I slew this man,

In Aeschylus's Libation Bearers, Ate is explicitly said to be the agent of Zeus' justice:

Zeus, Zeus,^[28] who sends up from below
avenging ruin [Ate] soon or late,
against audacious, reckless
human violence!

— Aeschylus, Libation Bearers, 382–385; translation by Alan H. Sommerstein

At the end of the battle in Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes Ate's "trophy" stands at the gate of Thebes where both of Orestes' sons have died killing each other in battle, representing the final victory of the "powers of destruction" over the cursed House of Laius.^[29]

There are a few other mentions of Ate in ancient sources. A fragment attributed to one of the two lyric poets of early sixth-century Lesbos: Sappho or Alcaeus, refers to Ate as "insatiable".^[30] A fragment of the fifth-century BC philosopher Empedocles refers to the "meadow of Ate", which probably signifies the mortal world.^[31] The fifth-century BC Greek epic poet Panyassis associated Hybris (the personification of insolence) and Ate with excessive drinking. According to Panyassis, the first round of wine, is for the Graces (the goddesses of beauty), Horae (the goddesses of good order), and Dionysus (the god of wine), while the second round, is for Aphrodite (goddess of love), and Dionysus again. But the third round is when "Hybris and Ate take their unlovely turn", bringing "good hospitality to a bad end".^[32]

In his third-century BC epic poem the Argonautica, about the adventures of Jason and the Argonauts, Apollonius of Rhodes has Hera say that "even the gods are sometimes visited by Ate".^[33] In Nonnus's fifth-century AD epic poem Dionysiaca, in order to gratify Hera, Ate persuades the boy Ampelus whom Dionysus passionately loves, to impress Dionysus by riding on a bull from which Ampelus subsequently falls and breaks his neck.^[34] In Quintus Smyrnaeus's in his third-century AD Posthomerica, associates Ate with the punishment of insolence:

Lesser men should beware of insulting their kings either face-to-face or behind their backs: the result is terrible wrath. Justice does exist: Ruin [Ate], who brings mortals misery upon misery, punishes an insolent tongue.

— Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica 1.751–754; translation by Neil Hopkinson

In the play Julius Caesar, Shakespeare introduces the goddess Ate as an invocation of vengeance and menace. Mark Antony, lamenting Caesar's murder, envisions:

And Caesar's spirit, raging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war,^[35]

Shakespeare also mentions her in the play Much Ado About Nothing, when Benedick says, referring to Beatrice,

Come, talk not of her. You shall find her the
infernal Ate in good apparel.^[36]

So too, in King John, Shakespeare refers to Queen Eleanor as "An Ate stirring him [John] to blood and strife",^[37] and, in Love's Labour's Lost, Birone jeers "Pompey is moved. More Ates, more Ates! stir them on, stir them on!"^[38]

• Folly (allegory)
• 111 Ate, a main-belt asteroid

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