Ate (mythology)

Personification

Like all the children of Eris (Strife), Ate is a personified abstraction, allegorizing the meaning of her name, and represents one of the many harms which might be thought to result from discord and strife. The meaning of her name, the Greek word atē (ἄτη), is difficult to define. Atē is a verbal noun of the verb aáō (ἀάω). According to The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, *aáō * means to "lead astray", "befuddle", "blind", or "delude", while ἄτη can mean: (1) the state of "delusion, infatuation (inflicted on a person's mind by a god, esp Zeus)", (2) "reckless behavior ... recklessness, folly", and (3) "ruin, calamity, harm". As informed by the meanings and usage of the unpersonified atē, personified Ate can apparently represent any part (or all?) of the causal sequence: (1) a blinding or clouding of the mind—causing (2) ill-considered and reckless actions—causing (3) the ruin such actions entail. She is thought of as being the instigator of delusion and its resulting destruction.

Mythology

Beyond being a mere personification, Ate has little actual identity. In the Iliad, Agamemnon, the leader of Greek expedition against Troy, tells the story of Ate's deception of Zeus, and her subsequent banishment from Olympus, an etiological myth supposedly explaining how Ate entered the world of men. As told by Agamemnon, 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, and thereby Ate came to inhabit the "fields of men". 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. The Hellenistic poet Lycophron, in his Alexandra, also mentions the place calling it "the high Hill of Doom [Ate]".

Family

Homer's Iliad calls Ate the eldest daughter of Zeus, with no mother mentioned. However, Hesiod's Theogony has Ate as one of the several children of Eris (Strife), with no father mentioned. Her siblings include (among several others) her brothers Horkos (Oath), and the Machai (Wars), and sisters Limos (Famine), and Dysnomia (Lawlessness). Aeschylus, in his tragedy Agamemnon, has the Chorus call Peitho "the unendurable child of scheming Ruin [Ate]".

Zeus

Ate is closely associated with Zeus. In the Iliad, Ate is called the "eldest" daughter of Zeus, an apparent indication of her power and her importance to Zeus. Ate (or the impersonal atē) is often referred to as the agent (or instrument) of Zeus' divine retribution. In the Iliad, Zeus is begged to send Ate so that the denier of "Prayers ... may fall and pay full recompense." Although Agamemnon blames Ate for blinding him (which led to his dishonoring Achilles), he also says that it was Zeus (via Ate?) who robbed him of his senses. According to Hesiod, Zeus never sends war, nor famine, nor "calamity [atē]" to those who honor Justice, while Solon says that "Zeus sends [atē] to punish" men.

Ate also appears as an agent of Zeus' justice in Aeschylus's tragic trilogy the Oresteia. In Agamemnon, the first play of the trilogy, Ate is linked with Helen of Troy, and Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra, both of whom act as agents of Zeus' retribution. Helen, who plays an instrumental role in Zeus' punishment of Troy, is likened to a "priest" of Ate, while Clytemnestra, who, by killing Agamemnon, is the direct instrument of Zeus' punishment, says that she did so with the aid of "Ruin [Ate]". In the Libation Bearers, the second play of the Oresteia, Aeschylus describes Zeus as one who sends Ate to avenge "reckless human violence!"

Ancient Greek sources

Personified Ate occurs several times in Greek literature, from the Archaic through the Classical periods.

Homer

In Homer, atē is something inflicted by the gods; it causes delusion, then folly, then disaster. Ate, as the personification of atē, receives its fullest development in Homer's* Iliad*, his epic poem about the Trojan War. However, to what extent Homer may have considered Ate to be an actual divinity as opposed to a mere allegory is unclear. 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. While the concept of atē is a central theme in the Iliad, occurring many times, Ate, as the personification of atē, is explicitly found in just two speeches, one in Book 9, and the other in Book 19.

Allegory of the Prayers

During the embassy to Achilles in Book 9, Achilles' old tutor Phoenix, trying to persuade Achilles to accept Agamemnon's offer of reparations, and return to battle, tells the following parable in which the "fleet of foot" Ate ("Blindness") outruns "halting" Prayers:

In this allegory, Ate appears twice. First Ate causes damage to human beings. Then Prayers follow after Ate to repair her damage. But if the repair offered by Prayers is rejected (in this case if Achilles rejects Agamemnon's appeal) then Ate appears again as the punishment for such rejections. Ate both runs in front of Prayers, and when Prayers are refused, Ate also follows close behind. These two appearances can also be seen as examples of the Homeric Ate's dual role, as both cause and effect. Here Ate is both the cause of the original offense (Agamemnon's insult to Achilles), and the disastrous consequences which would (and will) follow from Achilles' refusal of Agamemnon's attempt to make amends.

Agamemnon's apology

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:

Phoenix's speech in Book 9 and Agamemnon's in Book 19 reveal different aspects of Ate's nature. The first emphasizes Ate's strength and speed, and her use by Zeus to punish (in this case, those who disregard Prayers). The second describes Ate's soft feet, walking not on the ground, but above the "heads of men", where, apparently unnoticed, she brings "men to harm".

To further excuse his conduct, Agamemnon tells the story—as an illustration of Ate's great power—of how:

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 the Argives. 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. As punishment, an enraged Zeus:

Hesiod

Hesiod presented Ate as one of the several offspring of Eris, all of whom were personifications representing some of the many harms which can arise out of discord and strife. Hesiod particular associates Ate with her sister Dysnomia (Lawlessness). While listing the children of Eris, he lists both on the same line (230) of his Theogony and says they are "much like one another".

In a passage in his Works and Days (213–285), Hesiod describes various relationships between several personifications, including Ate. The passage, which discusses the superiority of Dike (Justice) over Hybris, also mentions Eirene (Peace), who attends those who "heed" Dike (228), and Ate's brother Horkos (Oath), who "runs along side crooked judgements" (219). In particular Hesiod associates Ate with "war", which might refer to Ate's brothers, the Machai (Wars), and her sister Limos (Famine) as all being punishments for those who "foster" Hybris:

Aeschylus

Among the tragic poets, the use of atē and (thus) Ate is somewhat different than it is in the Iliad. In both Homer and tragedy, atē can be used to mean the original delusion as well as the resulting destruction. However, while Homer was more focused on the former, tragedy became more focused on the latter. In tragedy, atē came to be less associated with internal damage: a damaged mind, and more with external damage: ruin, disaster, destruction. Here, Ate can be seen as 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. Personified Ate appears several times in Aeschylus' tragedy Agamemnon, where she is called "scheming", and made the mother of an "unendurable child", the "miserable" Peitho (Temptation). Aeschylus also associates Ate with divine retribution: Zeus' punishment inflicted on Troy for Paris's abduction of Helen. In a long speech about Helen, 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. The Chorus goes on to describe Ate as: the unholy arrogance of Ruin [Ate], black for the house|Aeschylus, Agamemnon 769–771; 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. She describes her act as the "Justice" [Dike] due for the killing of Iphigenia, and that she was aided by "Ruin" [Ate] and "Fury" [Eryns].

In Aeschylus's Libation Bearers, Ate is explicitly said to be the agent of Zeus' justice: avenging ruin [Ate] soon or late, against audacious, reckless human violence!|Aeschylus, Libation Bearers, 382–385; translation by Alan H. Sommerstein}}

Ate also occurs twice in Aeschylus' Persians. At the beginning of the play, the Chorus of Persian elders voice their foreboding on their war with Greece: the guileful deception of a god? ... For Ruin [Ate] begins by fawning on a man in a friendly way and leads him astray into her net, from which it is impossible for a mortal to escape and flee.|Aeschylus, Persians 93–101; translation by Alan H. Sommerstein}}

Ate here represents both cause and effect. She begins by deceiving and misleading mortals, and ends by the mortals being caught in her inescapable net. While, at the end of the play, Aeschylus returns to his typical focus of Ate as disastrous consequence, having the Chorus lament their devastating defeat: "What an evil eye Ruin [Ate] has cast upon us!"

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.

Other

There are several other references to Ate in ancient Greek sources. A fragment attributed to one of the two lyric poets of early sixth-century Lesbos: Sappho or Alcaeus, refers to Ate as "insatiable".Sappho or Alcaeus, fr. 25B. A fragment of the fifth-century BC philosopher Empedocles refers to the "meadow of Ate", which probably signifies the mortal world. The fifth-century BC Greek epic poet Panyassis associated Ate (along with Hybris, the personification of insolence) 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".

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". 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. In Quintus Smyrnaeus's in his third-century AD Posthomerica, associates Ate with the punishment of insolence:

Shakespeare

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

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

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

Notes

References

• Aeschylus, Agamemnon, in Aeschylus: Oresteia: Agamemnon, Libation-Bearers, Eumenides, edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein, Loeb Classical Library No. 146. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Aeschylus, Libation Bearers in Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. in two volumes, Vol 2, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1926, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Aeschylus, Persians in Aeschylus: Persians. Seven against Thebes. Suppliants. Prometheus Bound, edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. Loeb Classical Library No. 145, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, edited and translated by William H. Race, Loeb Classical Library No. 1, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Apollonius of Rhodes, The Voyage of Argo: The Argonautica, translated with an introduction by E. V. Rieu, Penguin Books, 1969.
• Cairns, Douglas, Cairns, F. (ed.), "Atê in the Homeric poems", The University of Edinburgh Research Explorer. Original print publication: Papers of the Langford Latin Seminar, vol. 15, pp. 1–52, Oxbow Books, 2012. .
• Caldwell, Richard, Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). . Internet Archive.
• Campbell, David A., Greek Lyric, Volume I: Sappho and Alcaeus, Loeb Classical Library No. 142, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1990. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, edited by J. Diggle et al, Cambridge University Press, 2021 .
• Coray, Marina, Homer's Iliad: The Basel Commentary. Book XIX, edited by Anton Bierl, Joachim Latacz, S. Douglas Olson, translated by Benjamin W. Millis, Sara Strack, De Guyter, 2016. .
• Davies, Malcom, "Agamemnon's Apology and the Unity of the Iliad", The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 45, No. 1 (1995), pp. 1–8. .
• Demosthenes, Orations, Volume II: Orations 18-19: De Corona, De Falsa Legatione. translated by C. A. Vince, J. H. Vince, Loeb Classical Library No. 155, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1926. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Dodds, E. R., The Greeks and the Irrational, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1951. Internet Archive: 1957 paperback edition, Beacon Press, Boston.
• Doyle, Richard E., Atē, Its Use and Meaning : A Study in the Greek Poetic Tradition from Homer to Euripides, New York, Fordham University Press, 1984. . Internet Archive.
• Dräger, Paul, s.v. Ate, in Brill’s New Pauly Online, Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and, Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry, published online: 2006.
• Empedocles, in *Early Greek Philosophy, Volume V: Western Greek Thinkers, Part 2. *, edited and translated by André Laks, Glenn W. Most, Loeb Classical Library No. 528, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2016. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2).
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. . Internet Archive.
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• Held, George F., "Phoinix, Agamemnon And Achilleus: Parables and Paradeigmata" in The Classical Quarterly 1987, 37 (2): 245–261. doi:10.1017/S0009838800030470.
• Homer, Iliad, Volume I: Books 1-12, translated by A. T. Murray, revised by William F. Wyatt, Loeb Classical Library No. 170, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1999. Online version at Harvard University Press. .
• Homer, Iliad, Volume II: Books 13-24, translated by A. T. Murray, revised by William F. Wyatt, Loeb Classical Library No. 171, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1999. Online version at Harvard University Press. .
• Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Lattimore, Richard, The Iliad of Homer, translated with an introduction by Richard Lattimore, University of Chicago Press, 1951.
• Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1940. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Lloyd-Jones, Hugh. "The Guilt of Agamemnon." The Classical Quarterly, Nov., 1962, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Nov., 1962), pp. 187–199. .
• Lycophron, Alexandra (or Cassandra) in Callimachus and Lycophron with an English translation by A. W. Mair; Aratus, with an English translation by G. R. Mair, London: W. Heinemann, New York: G. P. Putnam 1921. Internet Archive.
• Most, G.W., Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia, Edited and translated by Glenn W. Most, Loeb Classical Library No. 57, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Nonnus, Dionysiaca, Volume I: Books 1–15, translated by W. H. D. Rouse, Loeb Classical Library No. 344, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1940 (revised 1984). . Online version at Harvard University Press. Internet Archive (1940).
• Otis, Brooks, Cosmos & Tragedy : An Essay on the Meaning of Aeschylus, edited by Christian Kopff, the University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1981. . Internet Archive.
• Padel, Ruth, Whom Gods Destroy, Elements of Greek and Tragic Madness, Princeton University Press, 1995. . Internet Archive.
• Panyassis, in Greek Epic Fragments: From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries BC, edited and translated by Martin L. West, Loeb Classical Library No. 497, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2003. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica, edited and translated by Neil Hopkinson, Loeb Classical Library No. 19, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Rose, Herbert Jennings, and B. C. Dietrich, s.v. Ate, published online 22 December 2015, in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, edited by Tim Whitmarsh, digital ed, New York, Oxford University Press. .
• Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Scott, William, C., Musical Design In Aeschylean Theater, University Press of New England, 1984. .
• Sommerstein, Alan H. (2009), Aeschylus: Persians. Seven against Thebes. Suppliants. Prometheus Bound, edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. Loeb Classical Library No. 145, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Sommerstein, Alan H. (2013), "Ate in Aeschylus" in Tragedy and Archaic Greek Thought, D.L. Cairns ed., Swansea, Classical Press of Wales, 2013. . pp. 1–15.
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References

1. The personification of ''atē'' is variously translated. Common translations include: 'Delusion' (Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA31 p. 31]; Lattimore, p. 394 ln. 91; compare ''[[The Cambridge Greek Lexicon]]'', s.v. ἄτη 1.), 'Recklessness' (Most, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.21.xml p. 21]; compare ''[[The Cambridge Greek Lexicon]]'', s.v. ἄτη 2.), 'Folly' (Gantz, p. 10; compare ''[[The Cambridge Greek Lexicon]]'', s.v. ἄτη 2.), or 'Ruin' (Caldwell, [https://archive.org/details/hesiodstheogony00hesi/page/42/mode/2up?view=theater p. 42 on 212–232]; Lattimore, p. 211 ln. 505; compare ''[[The Cambridge Greek Lexicon]]'', s.v. ἄτη 3.); compare ''[[LSJ]]'', [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Da)%2Fth s.v. ἄτη]. Other translations include 'Blindness' (''Iliad'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/homer-iliad/1924/pb_LCL170.431.xml 9.505 Wyatt]), 'Error' (Grimal, s.v. Ate).
2. Rose and Dietrich, [https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.897 s.v. Ate]; Dräger, [https://referenceworks-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/display/entries/NPOE/e205210.xml s.v. Ate]; Grimal, s.v. Ate; Tripp, s.v. Ate; Parada, s.v. Ate; Smith, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DA%3Aentry+group%3D51%3Aentry%3Date-bio-1 s.v. Ate]; ''[[LSJ]]'', [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Da)%2Fth s.v. ἄτη].
3. Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA31 p. 31]; Gantz, p. 10.
4. Sommerstein 2013, p. 1: "The overwhelming impression one gets after exposure to the recent literature on ''atē'' is that, firstly, it is an extremely hard concept for the modern mind to understand and, secondly, no two scholars agree on what it meant".
5. Dräger, ''[[Brill's New Pauly]]'' [https://referenceworks-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/display/entries/NPOE/e205210.xml s.v. Ate].
6. ''[[The Cambridge Greek Lexicon]]'', s.v. ἀάω; compare ''[[LSJ]]'', [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Da)a%2Fw s.v. ἀάω].
7. ''[[The Cambridge Greek Lexicon]]'', s.v. ἄτη; compare with ''[[LSJ]]'', [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Da)%2Fth s.v. ἄτη].
8. Yamagata, p. 21; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA31 p. 31]; Rose and Dietrich, [https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.897 s.v. Ate]; Dräger, [https://referenceworks-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/display/entries/NPOE/e205210.xml s.v. Ate]. Padel, in discussing Homer's use of ''atē'' ([https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/174/mode/2up p. 174]), calls this sequence the "''atē''-sequence" and "Homer's damage-chain": "In most but not all Homeric contexts, atē and aaō seem to mark inner, prior 'damage' done to the mind, which then causes a terrible outward act. Call it the X-act. it is a mistake, a crime, with consequences: further outward 'damage.' Damage in the world. Atē belongs in a causal chain. Damage, X-act, damage. This chain is the word's main point"; and when discussing Ate as personified by Homer, Padel notes ([https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/181/mode/2up p. 181]) that Ate can represent either the first place or last place in this sequence (or both at once, as she does in the ''Iliad's'' "allegory of the Prayers", see below). Sommerstein 2013, p. 3 has a somewhat more expanded view, seeing this ''atē''-sequence as a "process ... starting with a divine initiative and finishing with a human catastrophe, whose beginning, middle and end can all be called ''atē''", and that this "whole process" can be thought of "as a single instance of ''atē''".
9. ''[[The Cambridge Greek Lexicon]]'', s.v. ἄτη -Ἄτη.
10. Gantz, p. 10.
11. Coray, pp. 50–51 on 86b–138, 57 on 94, 72 on 128–130; Padel, [https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/182/mode/2up p. 182]; Davies, p. 2.
12. Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA31 p. 31]; [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D19%3Acard%3D74 19.95–133]. It is unknown to what extent this story was part of the existing mythology of Heracles, or was an ''ad hoc'' Homeric invention, see Coray, p. 59 on 95–133.
13. Grimal, s.v. Ate; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus). Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.12.3 3.12.3]. Compare [[John Tzetzes
14. [[Lycophron]], ''Alexandra'' [https://archive.org/details/callimachuslycop00calluoft/page/496/mode/2up?view=theater 29].
15. Gantz, p. 10; [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:19.74-19.113 19.91].
16. Gantz, p. 10; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.21.xml 226–232].
17. [[Aeschylus]], [[Oresteia. ''Agamemnon'']] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-oresteia_agamemnon/2009/pb_LCL146.47.xml 385–386].
18. Coray, p. 56 on 91 πρέσβα; Padel, [https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/182/mode/2up p. 182]; [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:19.74-19.113 19.90]. Murray and Padel translate Homer's ''πρέσβα'' here as 'eldest'. According to Coray, the word ''πρέσβα'' "means 'venerable', perhaps in rank and dignity in the case of goddesses", while noting that "the meaning 'eldest' ... may be heard here as well".
19. Lloyd-Jones, p. 192.
20. [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' 19.510–512.
21. Coray, p. 75 on 136, 137; [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/homer-iliad/1924/pb_LCL171.345.xml 19.136–137].
22. [[Hesiod]], ''[[Works and Days]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-works_days/2018/pb_LCL057.107.xml 225–231]
23. [[Solon]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/solon-fragments/1999/pb_LCL258.129.xml fr 13 Gerber] [= fr. 13 West = Strobaeus, ''Anthology'' 3.9.23] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/solon-fragments/1999/pb_LCL258.133.xml 75–76].
24. [[Aeschylus]], [[Oresteia. ''Libation Bearers'']] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-oresteia_libation_bearers/2009/pb_LCL146.261.xml 382–385].
25. Whether to capitalize ''atē'' or its translation, to indicate personification or not, is an editorial choice made "according to the degree of prsonification suggested by the phrase." (West 1978, p. 210 on 213 Δικης). So "occurs" here means the capitalization of the word by the editor/translator being cited, while at the same time understanding that, according to Padel, [https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/181/mode/2up p. 181]: "orthography makes no difference to how she [Ate] operates". For discussions of the use of both Ate, and the much more frequently occurring ''atē'' (particularly as used in Homer and Greek tragedy), see: Dodds, pp. 2–8, 37–41; Doyle 1984; Padel, [https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/167/mode/2up pp. 167–196] (Chapters 16, 17, 18), [https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/249/mode/2up pp. 249–259] (Appendix); Sommerstein 2013.
26. Sommerstein, p. 3; Padel, p. [https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/9/mode/2up 9].
27. Cairns, p. 24; Padel [https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/182/mode/2up p. 182].
28. Dodds, [https://archive.org/details/greeksirrational0000dodd_n4g5/page/5/mode/2up?view=theater p. 5], describes the instances of the personification of ''atē'' in the ''Iliad'' as "transparent pieces of allegory". Cairns, pp. 24–25, calls Ate an ''ad hoc'' Homeric invention, and says that it is only for the purposes of the argument Homer is presenting that "Atē is actually a goddess". Coray, p. 59 on 95–133, says that it is an open question "whether Ate is a Homeric creation". Padel, [https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/169/mode/2up p. 169], notes that such modern distinctions between, for example "concrete and metaphorical", may have little meaning for Homer, and, [https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/181/mode/2up p. 181], that "Homer personifies ''atē'' twice. Here, according to conventions of scholarship and poetry which imitates Greek, we start calling her Ate. But orthography makes no difference to how she operates".
29. Cairns, p. 45.
30. For discussions of Ate (and ''atē'') in Homer see: Padel, [https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/174/mode/2up pp. 167–187] (Chapters 16, 17); Cairns 2012.
31. Padel, [https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/180/mode/2up p. 181]; Rose and Dietrich, [https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.897 s.v. Ate]; Dräger, [https://referenceworks-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/display/entries/NPOE/e205210.xml s.v. Ate]. For a discussion of the so-called "Parable of the Prayers", see: Held 1987, Yamagata 2005.
32. Padel, pp. [https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/174/mode/2up 174], [https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/181/mode/2up 181], which sees Ate here as part what Padel calls "Homers damage-chain": mental damage, causing a bad act, causing damage in the world, with Ate occupying both the front and back of this causal chain.
33. Cairns, pp. 14–15; 25–27; 46–56.
34. Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA31 p. 31]; Dodds, [https://archive.org/details/greeksirrational0000dodd_n4g5/page/2/mode/2up?view=theater pp. 2–3]. For a detailed commentary on Book 19 see Coray 2016.
35. Coray, p. 55 on 91–94.
36. Coray, pp. 50–51 on 86b–138.
37. Held, p. 253.
38. Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA31 p. 31]; Gantz, p. 10; [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D19%3Acard%3D74 19.95–124]. For a description of the parallel structure between the preceding section of the ''Iliad'' and this section, showing the links Agamemnon is trying to make between himself and Zeus, see Coray, p. 51 on 86b–138.
39. According to Coray, p. 72 on 126–127 'shining hair', such language implying "carefully coiffed hair, gleaming with the oil used to care for it, is a mark of a refined appearance ... and is part of Ate’s alluring look".
40. Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA31 p. 31].
41. West 1966, p. 232 on 230 Δυσνομίην τ’ Ἄτην τε; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.21.xml 230]. The phrase "much like one another" might apply to ''all'' the previously listed children of Eris, however according to Doyle, [https://archive.org/details/atitsusemeanings00doyl/page/24/mode/2up p. 25], the usual interpretation is that the phrase applies just to Dysnomia and Ate.
42. West 1978, p. 209 on 213–85 The superiority of Dike over Hybris; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Works and Days]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-works_days/2018/pb_LCL057.105.xml 213–231].
43. Rose and Dietrich, [https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.897 s.v. Ate]; compare [[Solon]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/solon-fragments/1999/pb_LCL258.113.xml fr. 4 Gerber] [= fr. 4 West = fr. 3 GP], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/solon-fragments/1999/pb_LCL258.115.xml 30–35] [= [[Demosthenes]], ''On the Embassy'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/demosthenes-orations_xix_de_falsa_legatione/1926/pb_LCL155.413.xml 19.255.33–38], where "Lawfulness [[[Eunomia]]], weakens insolence [hybris], and dries up the blooming flowers of ruin [''atē'']".
44. Although Most's Greek text chooses not to capitalize ''limos'' or ''atē'' here, West 1978, p. 106 ls. 230–231, does.
45. For discussion of tragic usage see Doyle 1984; Padel, pp. [https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/188/mode/2up 188–196] (Chapter 18), [https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/249/mode/2up 249–259] (Appendix); Sommerstein 2013.
46. Sommerstein 2013, p. 4, which notes that, although Homer is ''more'' focused on the beginning of the ''atē''-process, "the end is always kept in mind: a mental aberration which does not have catastrophic consequences is not called ''atē''".
47. Sommerstein 2013, pp. 5, 9; Doyle, [https://archive.org/details/atitsusemeanings00doyl/page/n13/mode/2up p. 1].
48. Smith, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DA%3Aentry+group%3D51%3Aentry%3Date-bio-1 s.v. Ate].
49. Sommerstein, p. 5; Doyle, [https://archive.org/details/atitsusemeanings00doyl/page/90/mode/2up p. 90 n. 1].
50. Smith, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DA%3Aentry+group%3D51%3Aentry%3Date-bio-1 s.v. Ate].
51. Sommerstein, p. 7; [[Aeschylus]], [[Oresteia. ''Agamemnon'']] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-oresteia_agamemnon/2009/pb_LCL146.47.xml 385–386].
52. [[Aeschylus]], [[Oresteia
53. ''Agamemnon'']] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-oresteia_agamemnon/2009/pb_LCL146.87.xml 736].
54. [[Aeschylus]], [[Oresteia. ''Agamemnon'']] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-oresteia_agamemnon/2009/pb_LCL146.167.xml 1372].
55. [[Aeschylus]], [[Oresteia. ''Agamemnon'']] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-oresteia_agamemnon/2009/pb_LCL146.175.xml 1432–1433].
56. Probably referring to Hades, see Sommerstein 2009, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-oresteia_libation_bearers/2009/pb_LCL146.261.xml p. 261 n. 85].
57. Sommerstein, p. 7.
58. [[Aeschylus]], ''[[The Persians. Persians]]'', [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-persians/2009/pb_LCL145.125.xml 1007].
59. Sommerstein 2009, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-oresteia_libation_bearers/2009/pb_LCL146.255.xml p. 255 n. 143]; [[Aeschylus]], [[Seven Against Thebes (play). Seven Against Thebes]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-seven_thebes/2009/pb_LCL145.255.xml 954–960].
60. Dodds, [https://archive.org/details/greeksirrational0000dodd_n4g5/page/174/mode/2up?view=theater p. 174]; [[Empedocles]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/empedocles-doctrine/2016/pb_LCL528.375.xml fr. D24 Laks-Most] [= B121 Diels-Krantz].
61. [[Panyassis]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/panyassis-heraclea/2003/pb_LCL497.207.xml fr. 20 West]; compare with [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/panyassis-heraclea/2003/pb_LCL497.211.xml fr 22 West].
62. [[Apollonius of Rhodes]], ''[[Argonautica]]'' 4.817; English translation: Rieu, [https://archive.org/details/voyageofargoargo00apol/page/168/mode/2up p. 169].
63. [[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/nonnos-dionysiaca/1940/pb_LCL344.367.xml 11.113 ff.]
64. {{Folger inline. Julius Caesar. 3. 1. 296–299.
65. {{Folger inline. Much Ado About Nothing. 2. 1. 251–252.
66. {{Folger inline. King John. 2. 1. 63.
67. {{Folger inline. Love's Labor's Lost. 5. 2. 761–762.