Hesiod's Theogony contains three similes, each of which elaborates a climactic moment in Zeus' securing of power: an image of bees (594–602) describes the nature of women in the Pandora episode, the aftermath of Zeus' triumph over Prometheus; battle resounds with a crash as if earth and heaven are coming together (699–705) in the climax of the Titanomachy, wherein Zeus and the Olympians overcome the Titans; and Zeus is likened to a craftsman melting ore (861–7) during his conquest of his final challenger, Typhoeus. In each episode complemented by a simile, Zeus' power attains greater stability; in the aftermath of the last of these episodes, the Typhonomachy, his power achieves permanent ascendancy (881–5). Despite the prominent occasions of these similes, they stand largely unexplored. This paper considers the simile of metallurgy in the Typhonomachy, the simile that reconfigures Zeus' final acquisition of power. Positioned at such a critical moment, attention to this simile promises to reveal elements fundamental to an understanding of Zeus' ultimate power.
Speakers in Sophocles' Trachiniae call attention to the silences of four characters: Iole, Deianeira, Aphrodite, and Heracles. The silences of the mortal actors differently reflect and respond to the silence of Aphrodite: Heracles approaches the divine through euphêmia ; Deianeira in her manipulation of silence emulates but fails to achieve the agency of the goddess; and Iole in her unbroken silence indicates the possibility for a kind of mortal freedom. In this play that constrains the experience of men to the world of men, it is significantly through silence that men in part express their imperfect connection to the divine.
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