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Ancient

Hesiod

Theogony 226–232

αὐτὰρ Ἔρις στυγερὴ τέκε μὲν Πόνον ἀλγινόεντα

Λήθην τε Λιμόν τε καὶ Ἄλγεα δακρυόεντα

Ὑσμίνας τε Μάχας τε Φόνους τ’ Ἀνδροκτασίας τε

Νείκεά τε Ψεύδεά τε Λόγους τ’ Ἀμφιλλογίας τε

Δυσνομίην τ’ Ἄτην τε, συνήθεας ἀλλήλῃσιν,

Ὅρκόν θ’, ὃς δὴ πλεῖστον ἐπιχθονίους ἀνθρώπους

πημαίνει, ὅτε κέν τις ἑκὼν ἐπίορκον ὀμόσσῃ·

And loathsome Strife bore painful Toil and Forgetfulness and Hunger and tearful Pains, and Combats and Battles and Murders and Slaughters, and Strifes and Lies and Tales and Disputes, and Lawlessness [Dysnomia] and Recklessness, much like one another, and Oath, who indeed brings most woe upon human beings on the earth, whenever someone willfully swears a false oath.

Solon

fr. 4.30–33 Gerber

ταῦτα διδάξαι θυμὸς Ἀθηναίους με κελεύει,

ὡς κακὰ πλεῖστα πόλει Δυσνομίη παρέχει,

Εὐνομίη δ᾿ εὔκοσμα καὶ ἄρτια πάντ᾿ ἀποφαίνει,

καὶ θαμὰ τοῖς ἀδίκοις ἀμφιτίθησι πέδας·

This is what my heart bids me teach the Athenians, that Lawlessness [Δυσνομίη] brings the city countless ills, but Lawfulness [Εὐνομίη]³ reveals all that is orderly and fitting, and often places fetters round the unjust.

³ On these two personifications see M. Ostwald, Nomos and the Beginnings of Athenian Democracy (Oxford 1969) 64–69: “They are ‘poetic persons’ which symbolize, respectively, the orderly and disorderly state of affairs in the city” (p. 66).

Modern

Caldwell

p. 40

212-232 The remaining children of Night are personifications ... The children of Eris are Hardship [Ponos], Forgetfulness (Lethe), Starvation [Limos], Pains [Algea], Battles [Hysminai], Wars [Machai], Murders [Phonoi], Manslaughters [Androktasiai], Quarrels [Neikea] Lies [Pseudea], Stories [Logoi], Disputes [Amphillogiai], Anarchy [Dysnomia], Ruin [Ate], Oath [Horkos].

Gantz

p. 9

in art we find Eris ... Hesiod's [cont.]

p. 10

account goes on to list Eris' own children, born with no father mentioned and virtually all allegorizings: Ponos (Labor), Lethe (Forgetfulness), Limos (Famine), Algea (Pains), Hysminae (Combats), Machai (Battles), Phonoi (Slaughterings), Androktasiai (Slayings of Men), Neikea (Quarrels), Pseudea (Falsehoods), Logoi (Words), Amphillogiai (Unclear Words), Dysnomia (Bad Government), Horkos (Oath), and Ate (Folly) (226–32) Of this list only the last has any identity, [although as a daughter of Zeus with no mother mentioned]

Hard

p. 31

The children of Eris represent the many harmful and destructive things that arise from discord and strife, namely Toil (Ponos), Oblivion (Lethe), Famine, Sorrows, Fights, Battles, Murders, Manslayings, Quarrels, Lies, Disputes, Lawlessness, Delusion (Ate) and Oath (Horkos).⁵⁹ This is allegory of the most obvious kind for the most part; the last two alone require further comment.

LSJ

[URL s.v. πόνος]

Rose and Dietrich

Oxford Classical Dictionary

s.v. Ate

Herbert Jennings Rose and B. C. Dietrich

Published online: 22 December 2015

Mental aberration, infatuation causing irrational behaviour which leads to disaster; sometimes the disaster itself. A hero's atē is brought about through psychic intervention by a divine agency, usually Zeus, but can also be physically inflicted (Il.16. 805). Agamemnon blames Zeus, Fate, and the Erinyes for his delusion that made him take Briseis and lead the Achaeans to the brink of defeat (Il.19. 87 f., cf. 2. 111, 8. 237, 11. 340; Od. 12. 371 f., etc. ). Ate is personified as the daughter of Zeus whom he expelled from Olympus to bring harm to men (Il. 19. 90–4, 126–31). A similarly pessimistic notion of divine punishment for guilt underlies Homer's Parable of the Prayers. In this early allegory swift-footed Atē outruns the slow Prayers and forces men into error and punishment (Il. 9. 502–12). In another moralizing personification Ate becomes the daughter of Eris (Strife) and sister of Dysnomia (Lawlessness) (Theog. 230; cf. Solon 3. 30–5); but Hesiod also used atē impersonally in the sense of punishment for hubris (Hes. Op. 214 ff.). Aeschylus draws a powerful picture of atē both as a daemonic force (see daimon) and instrument of ruin (Ag. 1124, 1433; Cho. 383, 956 ff.).

Siewert

Brill's New Pauly

s.v.

...

C. Political

As Greek statehood evolved the original social concept of nómos and its composita acquired new meanings for the political community. Hesiod (Fr. 322 M.-W.) was the first to connect nómos with the concept of pólis : ‘In whichever way the pólis sacrifices, the old nómos (‘rite of sacrifice’) is best’, but nómos is still used here the traditional sense. Solon (fr. 4 IEG) presented eunomía as an ideal for the Athenian community of citizens disrupted by dysnomía, i.e. by injustice, greed, hybris, strife, violence and civil war; thus the opposition between the ‘good’ and ‘bad order’ of the polis community appears. Heraclitus (22 B 44; 114 DK) and Pindar (Pae. 2,86) seem to use nómos (sg.) no longer for a particular conduct, but rather for the comprehensive order or constitution of a polis. According to Herodotus (7,104,4) the nómos of the Lacedaemonians (approximately: their value system) compelled them to win or fall but never to recede.

...

Siewert, Peter (Vienna)