Hyperion & Lazarus: Kings, Rich Men, & Pitiless Gods - Hamlet & The Odyssey part 6
“So excellent a king, that was to this
Hyperion to a satyr”
(1.2.143-4). [1]
He compares his father to Hyperion and three other pagan gods (Jove, Mars, Mercury) with his mother in the closet scene. (3.4.66-8)
What are the implications of comparing his father, the dead king, to Hyperion? Are some of the implications affirmed by another allusion, to the skin-sores of the beggar Lazarus?
In The Odyssey, against his advice, Odysseus' men kill and eat the cattle of Hyperion/Helios. [2] The fact that they’re hungry sailors on a long journey home doesn’t matter so much to Hyperion as their disrespect.
Are they not like bread-stealing Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, starving, to be pitied? [3]
Hyperion seems ungenerous, greedy, unmerciful toward the hungry sailors. As punishment, they never make it home.
Consider: Hyperion and the sailors resemble the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31 [4]:
The ghost is being “purged” of “foul crimes” or sins he committed in life: When his brother poisoned him, it made his skin become “Lazar-like.” The king may have lived too much like the Rich Man in the gospel tale, so his punishment was to change places with Lazarus, who had sores licked by dogs.
Later in the play, when the players arrive, Hamlet and the First Player recite part of a story involving the revenge killing of Priam at the hands of Pyrrhus. The narration describes how the gods, watching, mind find their tears turned to milk. Yet they don’t help Hecuba.
The more I thought about this, the more I realized:
Hyperion (sun god) and all the gods (including the Judaeo-Christian God) may sometimes seem to ignore the prayers of human beings -
like the Rich Man, who ignores the beggar Lazarus!
A God seemingly without compassion who does not answer prayers!
We could split hairs: The story never claims Lazarus stole from the Rich Man, and perhaps if Ulysses’ men had been more respectful and pious, they may have humbly asked for food instead of stealing Hyperion’s cattle, killing them, eating them. A fair point. (Perhaps Homer's age was more concerned with ritual reverence toward gods, while later Judeo-Christian tradition became increasingly concerned with injustices toward the poor as manifestations of such irreverence?)
One might also observe: When Hamlet speaks of pagan gods, it’s often associated with idolatry, whereas when he quotes the most scripture late in the play, it’s more clearly the Christian God. [5] Fair enough.
And yet the idea of an ungenerous and unsympathetic God - who might not be listening to prayers - is a theme in the play, at least as raised by the First Player in his Hecuba tale, and echoed in the Hyperion-Ulysses tale.
This parallel between an ungenerous, unsympathetic Hyperion (as a pagan stand-in for the Christian God) and the Rich Man of Luke 16 is significant, in part because it may reflect Hamlet’s sense, not only of self-doubt, but also of religious doubt, and perhaps also religious doubt of the age.
This scene with Hecuba echoes historical incidents of Catholics executed on trumped-up charges of treason while family members watched, and while the gods - or the Christian God - looked on but did nothing.
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NOTES:
[1] All references to Hamlet are to the Folger Edition:
https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/entire-play/
[2] In some translations of the Odyssey, the sun-god who owns the cattle is named as Hyperion, in others as Helios, in others as Hyperion Helios. In some accounts, Hyperion is the father of Helios (the sun) and also of the moon and dawn.
[3] This is, of course, anachronistic, to suggest that the actions of a character or god in an ancient Greek myth should be judged by standards developed in a Victor Hugo novel; and yet the comparison may shed some light. // On the other hand: besides showing something about the gods, it also shows something about a culture that valued due respect to authority - of the gods, and perhaps human authorities as well? / It seems a bit conflicted: Hospitality to strangers was greatly valued in Homer, but in the incident of the hungry sailors on their long voyage home, Hyperion/Helios did not feel or exemplify similar hospitality toward the visiting sailors. / And I suppose it carries through with a theme: The sailors were rude guests in relation to Hyperion/Helios and his cattle,
as the suitors were rude guests in relation to the estate of Odysseus, Penelope, and their son...
[4] This is again anachronistic, to compare an ancient Greek myth to a later-developed Christian gospel tale. Yet again, the comparison may shed some light. See my previous series of posts about the "Lazar-like" skin of the ghost after poison, and the allusion to the Rich Man and Lazarus. A list with links to the other posts in the series can be found at the end of the first post:
Lazarus & Dives (the Rich Man) in Hamlet: First post in Lazarus series - 16 February, 2021
[5] This is startling, because in the gospels, the rich man in the beggar Lazarus tale is a mortal who is later punished. When reading the gospel story, one usually does not consider that the Christians' God, who may at times seem ungenerous for not answering prayer, resembles the unsympathetic rich man in the tale. But the allusion to Hyperion introduces this possibility by way of the story of the hungry sailors who steal the cattle and are punished.
[6] One might also observe that at the start of the play, Hamlet and his friends speak of Fortuna and the seemingly random bestowing of suffering or good fortune, and after his mistake of stabbing Polonius, Hamlet speaks of heaven using his mistake to punish Polonius, and of using the death of Polonius to punish Hamlet. This seems an inscrutable and punishing God, a God who is to be feared. But during and after the sea voyage, Hamlet begins to believe that Providence is merciful and showing him favor, so for him, God can be trusted, rather than feared.
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IMAGES:
TOP:
Left: Hans Adam Weissenkircher (1646–1695)
“Helios on His Chariot” (1685)
Universalmuseum Joanneum, Schloss Eggenberg (Planetary Room), Graz, Austria.
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hans_Adam_Weissenkircher_-_Helios_on_His_Chariot_(Detail).jpg
Middle: Relief showing Helios, sun god in the Greco-Roman mythology. From the North-West pediment of the temple of Athena in Ilion (Troy). Between the first quarter of the 3rd century BC and 390 BC.
Photograph by Gryffindor. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ilion---metopa.jpg
Right: Anton Raphael Mengs (1728–1779)
“Helios as Personification of Midday,” circa 1765.
Palace of Moncloa. Photo by Steffi Roettgen, scan by James Steakley.
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mengs,_Helios_als_Personifikation_des_Mittages.jpg
BOTTOM: Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527–1596)
“The companions of Odysseus rob the cattle of Helios,” 1554-1556.
Fresco, Palazzo Poggi, Bologna. Photo: The Yorck Project (2002).
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pellegrino_Tibaldi_001.jpg
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POSTS IN THIS SERIES:
INDEX: Holding up The Odyssey as mirror in Hamlet
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/08/index-holding-up-odyssey-as-mirror-in.html
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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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As always - very insightful.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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