05 - Empty Nesting: Mother-Bird Similes in Homer, Aeschylus, and Sophocles

Many ancient poems contain bird similes, but very few include a mother-bird losing her chicks. Homer's Odyssey 16.216-9, Aeschylus' Agamemnon 48-59, and Sophocles' Antigone 423-5 all have this rare simile. Each simile features characters who are not mothers lamenting their lost chicks. Concerning the Homeric example, scholars such as Merry (1907), Stanford (1948), and Heubeck and Hoekstra (1989) have failed to examine adequately the meaning of the simile. There is a similarly lackluster response in tragic scholarship. Although Denniston and Page (1957) and Fraenkel (1973) as well as Jebb (1900) and Griffith (1999) note parallels, they fail to explain the simile in the Agamemnon and the Antigone respectively.

I argue by reading these three passages in conversation and by referring to Rood's 2006 article on the simile in the Odyssey, these similes show that the character compared to the mother-bird will avenge a family member in accordance with divine will.

Odysseus' and Telemachus' reunion, in which they lament like birds when men have stolen their chicks, is the prototype for this simile (Od. 16.216-19). As Rood demonstrates, this simile portends their roles as avengers and specifies that the gods approve of this revenge. I will use this model as lens through which to examine tragedy: when a character's family is harmed, they take revenge on those who wronged them.

Beginning with Aeschylus, the simile depicts the Greeks arriving at Troy (Ag. 48-59). . This simile emphasizes the idea of divine involvement, as it states that the Greeks lamented like birds who failed to protect their nest and Apollo, Pan, or Zeus, avenges them. The added meaning of the simile shows that Agamemnon and Menelaus needed to act on Helen's abduction. In Sophocles' Antigone (423-5), when the guard catches Antigone burying her brother Polynices, she is compared to a mother bird lamenting when she finds her nest empty and her chicks gone. This entire play shows Antigone trying to resolve the issue of Polynices' burial and associating herself closely with the gods in the process. Therefore, this simile casts Antigone as a protector of her family member early in the play and shows that she will do whatever she must to protect Polynices in death, even if it means acting against Creon's laws.

Thus, by reading these similes in connection with each other, we gain a deeper understanding of these characters' motivations, as protector or as avenger. In each of these cases, the characters, Odysseus and Telemachus, the Atrides, and Antigone take revenge on their enemies for a family member, Penelope, Helen, and Polynices. The simile of the mother-bird symbolizes a desire to take revenge on enemies and defend one's family. Accordingly, distinguishing this simile from the more common lamenting bird is crucial to understanding the nature of their actions.

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Presenters

Allison Jodoin, Boston University

  SCS-38