De poina à Potnia

Abstract This paper proposes that in composing the Eumenides , Aeschylus was heavily influenced by theogonic poetry and made a particularly copious use of the literary model provided by the Homeric Hymns . The discussion centers on four elements, the treatment of which is shown to be similar in Aeschylus’ play and in the Hymns: epiphany, human characters, divine conflict, and allocation of divine privileges. The main lines of argument are the following. 1. The staging of the play evokes the progressive actualization of a divine epiphany, that of the Erinyes. 2. The discretion of its human characters is typical of the largely instrumental role that they play in the Hymns. 3. The agonistic encounters of the Erinyes resemble the power struggles at the heart of the Hymns. 4. These conflicts revolve around the problem of divine timai and the rivalries that emerge thereof.