Lecture 17: Erictho Flashcards
who created erictho
lucan
how is erictho portrayed
very ugly, messy, unkept hair, animalistic, not like a typical woman from society
what is silver latin
it is the second best type of lit. so they must go above and beyond to make their writing amazing, no limits
erictho is silver latin through the nucleus of horaces witches
who is lucan
creator of erictho, writin under the emporer nero and how he came to power
explain the story of erictho with lucan and his civil war
julius caeser is attacking the republic and wins the war against pompey the great who is defending the republic
sextus pompei is the unworthy son of the great, he needs to get info so he ignores all the religious means and possibilities and instead relies on magic and goes to erictho
erictho then takes the soldiers corpse and she beats it with a snake until his soul cannot handle it anymore and comes up and begs her to stop
she stays that if he gives her the info, shell kill him in a way where no one is gonna be able to do this to him again
how does lucan describe sextus pompei
lucan does not like him, he is worthless, complete idiot, ignored all practical routes and went to magic
what types of powers/magic does erictho have
she can do herbal magic, erpotic magic, has control over the natural world
has hers that bring death, can bend the gods to her will, can make men want sex
COMPLETE CONTROL
where is erictho from
thessaly (home of witchcraft)
how is erictho seen in the thessalian community
she hates the community and not part of society, she rejects humans and lives with the dead in graveyards
compare the necromancy in the oddessy and aneied to ericthos
they are both polite, respectful, whereas erictho is violent
compare homers iliad (achilles treatment of hector)
hector ends up dead by achilles during war and usually you are supposed to leave the bodies but achilles takes hectors body and drags it around troy
this is unacceptable because it is mutliation of a corpse
hectors dad then asks for body back and achilles says yes
compare tisiphone and the fury in seneca thyestes to erictho
tisiphone is one of the furies w snakes for hair
atrius is mad at his bro theystes and wants revenge so he kills him and feeds him to his kids
the fury wants to punish the house and wants tantalus to touch the house so it becomes polluted like him but he says no so she gives him so much pain until he eventually does it
