283 blood on the wedding bed 284

Blood on the Wedding Bed: The Capture of Troy, Agamemnon’s Murder, and the Arabic Story of al-ZĪr as Variants of the “Avenging Bride” Tale Type1)

Johan Weststeijn

Abstract A number of modern Arab thinkers have compared the Story of al-Zīr, a little-known Arabic folk epic, with accounts of the Trojan War and the . After dealing with the pitfalls of comparing stories from different cultures, I argue for criteria to distinguish between weak and strong parallels, and then analyse the similarities between the story of Jalīla, that constitutes the first part of the Story of al-Zīr, and the Graeco-Roman stories of Helen’s abduction and Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon. Such a comparative approach, based on the method of folktale studies, sheds new light on a number of much-discussed elements from the story of Clytemnestra, such as “blameless Aegisthus” (Odyssey 1.29), Agamemnon’s minstrel, and the purple fabric and “bathtub” that figure as stage props in the Oresteia.

In ’ Oresteia, Clytemnestra and her lover Aegis- thus murder her husband king Agamemnon and present his corpse to the public in a vessel, covered by a blood-spattered purple cloth. In ’s Aeneid, Helen and her Greek husband Mene- laus murder her Trojan husband prince Deiphobus when he lies drunk in his wedding bed. Helen takes Deiphobus’ sword from under his pillow. After the murder, she lights a torch from Troy’s battlements as a sign for the Greek troops to storm the city. In the anonymous Arabic Story of al-Zīr, Jalīla and her lover Kulayb murder her bridegroom king Tubba῾ when he lies drunk in his wedding bed. Kulayb takes Tubba῾’s sword that hangs above the head of his bed. After the murder, Kulayb drinks the king’s blood, and then dips a piece of cloth in it to dye the fabric red. He hangs this purple flag from the battlements of Tubba῾’s stronghold as a sign for his troops to storm the castle. In this study, I will compare an Arabic folktale, about the abduction of the beautiful Jalīla, with two Graeco-Roman stories, about the abduction of Helen, and about Clytem­ nestra’s murder of Agamemnon. Jalīla’s story is narrated in the first part of the Story of al-Zīr, an oral folk epic set in the 5th century AD, which has been written down in various recensions since the 18th century. As an oral tale told by members of the common people, the Story of al-Zīr has received little scholarly attention, but a number of modern Arab thinkers have compared it to accounts of the Trojan War and to the Oresteia. With his Stealing Helen: The Myth of the Abducted Wife in Comparative Perspective (2016), Lowell Edmunds has shown that the combination of Folklore Studies and Classics can provide fruitful results. He argues that the story of

1) i thank Jan Zacharias van Rookhuijzen for his help in the writing of this article. 285 bibliotheca orientalis lxxIV n° 3-4, mei-augustus 2017 286

Helen’s abduction and recovery, the basic plot of the Trojan classics that have been preserved, but also in the form of a War, is a variant of an international tale type, “The Abduc- large number of works from the second category, oral tales tion of the Beautiful Wife.” Recently, I have argued that the told by members of the common people, as can be argued for Arabic story of Jalīla is a variant of a tale type that could be example from the evidence of vase paintings.4) Elite authors called “The Bride who Takes Revenge on her Groom.” such as Homer, Aeschylus, and Virgil used one or more of Other Near Eastern variants of this Avenging Bride tale type these anonymous versions from popular tradition to create include the Arabic Zenobia Legend, the story of Cyrus and their literary works of art, which in their turn influenced the Tomyris, and the Book of Judith.2) folk versions: the (preserved) versions of the written master- Here, using criteria to establish the strength of parallels,3) pieces and the (lost) versions of the popular oral tales consti- I will demonstrate the many similarities between the stories tute one single tradition. of Helen and Jalīla, and conclude that the story of Jalīla is an Not only are the motifs of the Trojan Cycle not exclu- Arabic variant of the “Abduction of the Beautiful Wife” tale sively a high literature subject; they are also not exclusively type. The story of Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon is Greek or Roman. It has been shown that the written chefs- not an abduction story, yet it shares, as will be shown, many d’oeuvre of Classical literature contain many motifs and parallels with both the story of Helen and the story of Jalīla, even plotlines that are also found in international folktales.5) as well as with the Avenging Bride tales of Zenobia, Tomyris, The comparison of a Graeco-Roman classic with variants of and Judith. Apparently, the story of Clytemnestra is another the same tale type from other cultures can help us to recon- variant of the “Avenging Bride” type, while the stories of struct some of the lost oral or written versions of this story Helen and Jalīla belong to both the “Avenging Bride” and that could have existed in Antiquity. It is only in the last the “Abduction of the Beautiful Wife” type; the two tale decades, however, that a majority of Classicists have come types partly overlap. to truly appreciate the value of comparative research.6) In I will show that this kind of comparative approach, based contrast to this reluctance of Classicists to compare their on the method of folktale comparison, provides new insights field with other literatures, various Arab intellectuals, who into some much-discussed elements from the story of Agam- measured their own literary heritage to the standards set by emnon’s murder, such as “blameless Aegisthus” (Odyssey European critics, have been eager to draw parallels between 1.29), the minstrel who guards Clytemnestra in the Odyssey, Graeco-Roman and Arabic literature.7) and the purple fabric and “bathtub” that figure as stage props in the Oresteia. Arab intellectuals on the Graeco-Roman Classics and the As modern readers we know the stories of Helen and folk epic of al-Zīr Clytemnestra through the lens of Greek and Latin master- pieces that have come down to us in the form of written texts At the end of the 19th century, Sulaymān al-Bustānī, a created by famous authors. Homer’s Odyssey, Aeschylus’ high-ranking official from the Ottoman province of Lebanon, Oresteia, and Virgil’s Aeneid are considered true classics, of translated the into Arabic. In the foreword to his trans- such aesthetic quality that they set the standards for not only lation he compares the Trojan War with the War of Basūs, a Greek and Roman but also European or even Western litera- long feud between two Arab tribes in the 5th century AD. ture. The lives of Helen and Clytemnestra are seen as typical Scraps of information about this feud are found scattered high literature subject matter. over a large number of works written in Classical Arabic.8) A comparison between the Graeco-Roman stories of Helen and Clytemnestra and an Arabic folktale therefore appears at first glance to be not only a comparison between works from 4) mark I. Davies, “Thoughts on the Oresteia before Aischylos,” Bul- letin de Correspondance Hellénique 93 (1969) 214–260; Uvo Hölscher, two different cultures but also between two completely dif- Die Odyssee: Epos zwischen Märchen und Roman (Beck: München, ferent genres; on the one hand high literature: complex and 1989); Susan Woodford, The Trojan War in Ancient Art (London: Duck- original written texts of great artistic value created by elite worth, 1993) 7; Marco Fantuzzi & Christos Tsagalis (ed.), The Greek Epic authors, and on the other hand low, folk, or popular litera- Cycle and its Ancient Reception: A Companion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), especially John M. Foley & Justin Arft, “The Epic ture: simple, traditional, oral tales of little artistic value pro- Cycle and Oral Tradition,” 78–95; Ursula Gärtner, “Virgil and the duced by anonymous members of the common people. Epic Cycle,” 543–564; Lowell Edmunds, Stealing Helen: The Myth of On closer look, however, this dichotomy turns out to be the Abducted Wife in Comparative Perspective (Princeton: Princeton Uni- not that strict. In ancient Greece and Rome, the stories of versity Press, 2016) 40. 5) Hölscher, Odyssee; Graham Anderson, Fairytale in the Ancient Helen and Clytemnestra, as well as other stories of the Tro- World (London: Routledge, 2000); William Hansen, Ariadne’s Thread: jan Cycle (about the prelude to the war, the war itself, and A Guide to International Tales Found in Classical Literature (Ithaca: Cor- what happened to its heroes when they returned home after nell University Press, 2002); Lowell Edmunds, “Epic and Myth,” in: ed. the siege) were not only known in the form of the written John Miles Foley, A Companion to Ancient Epic (Maiden: Blackwell, 2005) 31–44. 6) Hyun Jin Kim, “Ancient History and the Classics from a Compara- 2) Johan Weststeijn, “Zenobia of Palmyra and the Book of Judith: tive Perspective: China and the Graeco-Roman World,” Ancient West & Common Motifs in Greek, Jewish, and Arabic Historiography,” Journal East 14 (2015) 253–274. for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 22 (2013) 295–320 & “Wine, Women, 7) Wajih Fanus, “Sulaymān al-Bustānī and Comparative Literary and Revenge in Near Eastern Historiography: The Tales of Tomyris, Studies in Arabic,” Journal of Arabic Literature 17 (1986) 105–119; Judith, Zenobia, and Jalila,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 75 (2016) Michael Kreutz, “Sulaymān al-Bustānīs Arabische Ilias: Ein Beispiel für 91–107. On the parallels of these Avenging Bride stories with the stories arabischen Philhellenismus im ausgehenden Osmanischen Reich,” Die Welt of Helen and Clytemnestra see pp. 93–94. des Islams 44 (2004) 155–194; Peter E. Pormann, “Classics and Islam: 3) for such criteria see for example Wouter F.M. Henkelman, “The Birth From Homer to al-Qā῾ida,” International Journal of the Classical Tradition of Gilgameš (AEL. NA XII.21): A Case-Study in Literary Receptivity,” in: 16 (2009) 197–233. ed. Robert Rollinger & Brigitte Truschnegg, Altertum und Mittelmeerraum: 8) sulaymān al-Bustānī, Ilyādhat Hūmīrūs mu῾arraba naẓman (Miṣr: Die antike Welt diesseits und jenseits der Levante. Festschrift für Peter al-Hilāl, 1904) 170–171; Fanus, “Sulaymān al-Bustānī,” 116–117; Kreutz, W. Haider zum 60. Geburtstag (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2006) 807–856. “Sulaymān al-Bustānīs Arabische Ilias,” 163. 287 blood on the wedding bed 288

Bustānī leaves unmentioned that there exists one Arabic text Arabic audience. A Marxist from a rural middle class back- which deals exclusively with and recounts a full story of the ground, ῾Awaḍ had studied comparative literature in Cam- Basūs War: the Story of al-Zīr.9) This works belongs to a bridge and Princeton, and had translated Aeschylus’ Oresteia genre of oral tales called sīra sha῾biyya or “folk epic.” As from English into Arabic.13) ῾Awaḍ combined his interest in oral stories go, the origins of these tales are lost in time. the Greek and Latin classics with an interest in the spoken Various recensions of these folk epics were written down and Arabic dialect of and in Arabic folk literature. In The have appeared in print since the 19th century. The sīra Orestes Myth and the Arabian Epics (1968) ῾Awaḍ compares sha῾biyya genre was looked down upon or ignored by most accounts of the Trojan War with accounts of the Basūs War, Arab critics well into the 20th century, among other reasons but contrary to Bustānī, he bases his comparison on the Story because these tales were not told in the literary language of of al-Zīr. ῾Awaḍ compares the castle of Tubba῾ with Troy, Classical Arabic, but in Middle Arabic, a variant which is Kulayb’s retrieval of his stolen fiancée Jalīla with ’ closer to the spoken Arabic dialects. retrieval of Helen, and the ruse of the soldiers hidden in The first part of the Story of al-Zīr is known as the “Story chests with the ruse of the Wooden Horse.14) As is clear from of Tubba῾,”10) and runs as follows: The Yemeni tyrant the title of his work, ῾Awaḍ in particular sees a number of Ḥassān al-Tubba῾ kills the father of the hero Kulayb and parallels between the folk epic of al-Zīr and the story of claims his fiancée Jalīla, the most beautiful woman in the Orestes: he compares Kulayb who takes revenge on Tubba῾ world, as his bride. Kulayb thinks up a ruse. He provides for murdering his father and stealing his beloved Jalīla with Jalīla with a caravan of camels carrying numerous chests of Orestes who takes revenge on the adulterer Aegisthus, who dowry. The wooden chests have a hidden compartment in had murdered Orestes’ father Agamemnon and was sleeping which soldiers are concealed. Disguised as her minstrel and with his mother Clytemnestra.15) riding a stick horse, Kulayb chaperons Jalīla and her dowry ῾Awaḍ explains the parallels between Kulayb’s ruse and into Tubba῾’s castle. In the wedding night, Jalīla demands the by arguing that some Arabic narrators must from Tubba῾ that her minstrel entertain them in the nuptial have known the works of Homer, from which they borrowed bedroom: Kulayb is allowed in, takes the king’s sword and this motif and added it to the core plot of the Story of al-Zīr. slays Tubba῾ in revenge for the murder of his father. Kulayb He argues, however, that this core plot itself is older than the drinks Tubba῾’s blood and soaks a piece of cloth in it to dye Oresteia or even the Homeric epics. ῾Awaḍ explains the par- the fabric red. Jalīla and Kulayb release the soldiers from the allels between Aeschylus’ play and the folk epic of al-Zīr by chests and signal with the blood-red cloth to their fellow suggesting that the stories of Orestes and al-Zīr belong to the tribesmen waiting outside the castle to attack as well. same international tale type, that of “the son who avenges Tubba῾’s palace is taken and destroyed.11) his father.” According to ῾Awaḍ, all variants of this tale type Because pre-modern Arab critics had excluded the folk derive from a single, Egyptian ancestor: the pharaonic myth epics from the canon of Arabic letters, European scholars, of Horus who avenges his father Osiris.16) when they started studying Arabic literature from the late ῾Awaḍ’s fascination with Arabic folk epics such as the 18th century onwards, followed suit and largely ignored these Story of al-Zīr can be related to a familiar mixture of Roman- folk epics as well. As a result, the Story of al-Zīr has still tic, Socialist, and Nationalist ideas about folklore. Oral tales received little attention in either Arabic or European told by the common people should not be looked down upon: scholarship.12) they have a literary value that is at least equal to that of texts In the 1960’s, the Egyptian intellectual Louis ῾Awaḍ set written in Classical Arabic. Moreover, these folktales pro- out to kindle interest in the folk epics among a broader vide a more authentic expression of national Arab or Egyp- tian identity than texts written by individual members of the 9) Jaroslav Oliverius, “Aufzeichnungen über den Basūs-Krieg in der educated elite, because the anonymous oral tales are seen as Kunstliteratur und deren Weiterentwicklung im arabischen Volksbuch über the product of the people as a whole. To ῾Awaḍ, the exist- Zīr Sālim,” Archiv Orientální 33 (1965) 44–64; Shady H. Nasser, “Al- ence of parallels between an Arabic work such as the Story Muhalhil in the Historical Akhbār and Folkloric Sīrah,” Journal of Arabic of al-Zīr and Graeco-Roman masterpieces such as the Orest- Literature 40 (2009) 241–272. 10) Shawqī ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm, Mawsū῾at al-fulklūr wa-l-asāṭīr al-῾arabiyya eia and the Iliad means that Arabic and European literatures (al-Qāhira: Madbūlī, 1995) 232–237; and Turāth sha῾bī (al-Qāhira: can be mentioned in the same breath, which implies that Ara- al-Hay᾿a al-Miṣriyya al-῾Āmma li-l-Kitāb, 1995) II, 261; 273–75; Margue- bic literature is on a par with European literature. This in turn rite Gavillet Matar, La Geste du Zīr Sālim d’après un manuscrit syrien: suggests that there is no fundamental difference between the Présentation, édition et traduction annotées (Damas: Institut Français du Proche-Orient, 2005) I, 25–37. Arab world and the West. 11) gavillet Matar, Geste, We 822, ff. 1a–27b; Qiṣat al-Zir Salim Abu That such parallels are found in a folktale told by the com- Layla (sic) al-Muhalhil al-kabir wa-qatl Kulayb wa-ma jara lahu ma῾a mon people rather than in a work written in the Classical Jassas b. Murra min al-hurub wa-l-ahwal (Tunis: Matba῾at al-Manar Arabic of the elite, means that the Egyptian people has more [20th c.]) 1–12. An English summary is provided by Malcolm C. Lyons, The Arabian Epic: Heroic and Oral Story-telling (Cambridge: Cambridge in common with European civilization than might be sug- University Press, 1995) III, 651–653; and see also his The Man of Wiles in gested by the works produced by their Islamic elites. More­ Popular Arabic Literature: A Study of a Medieval Arab Hero (Edinburgh: over, ῾Awaḍ’s theory that a pharaonic myth provides the Edinburgh University Press, 2012) 29–33. common ancestor to both an Arabic folktale and Graeco- 12) in addition to the studies mentioned by Gavillet Matar, Geste, I, 140–150: Harry T. Norris, “Western Travellers and Arab Story-Tellers of Roman masterpieces suggests that, ultimately, his home the Nineteenth Century: The Adventures of Abū Zayd al-Hilālī and al-Zīr Sālim as Told by Shaykh Abū Wundī of the ῾Awāzim of Jordan,” Quaderni di Studi Arabi 9 (1991) 183–192; Nasser, “Al-Muhalhil,” 241–272; 13) pormann, “Classics and Islam,” 219. ­Stephan Procházka, “The Story of Sālim az-Zīr Abū Laylā al-Muhalhil in 14) Louis ῾Awaḍ, Usṭūrat Ūrīst wa-l-malāḥim al-῾arabiyya (al-Qāhira: Cilician Arabic (Southern Turkey),” in: ed. Zuzana Gažáková & Jaroslav s.n., 1968) 32–35; 40–44; 62. Drobný, Arabic and Islamic Studies in Honour of Ján Pauliny (Bratislava: 15) ῾Awaḍ, Usṭūrat Ūrīst, 39. Comenius University, 2016) 149–177. 16) ῾Awaḍ, Usṭūrat Ūrīst, 3; 9–10; 203. 289 bibliotheca orientalis lxxIV n° 3-4, mei-augustus 2017 290 country Egypt is the cradle of both Arabic and European can be allowed to intrude,” but does not provide an answer literatures. ῾Awaḍ concludes his monograph by expressing to this question.24) the hope that the comparison of the Greek classics with the The Classicist and Arabist Peter Pormann studies the Story of al-Zīr will shed light on lost versions of the Greek reception of Graeco-Roman Antiquity in the modern Arab myths.17) world. Although highly sympathetic to ῾Awaḍ’s desire to In 1995, the Egyptian playwright Shawqī ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm find common ground between Greek and Arabic literature, published an Encyclopedia of Arabic Myths and Folklore, Pormann deems the parallels which ῾Awaḍ sees between the which deals with stories set in Pre-Islamic times. ῾Abd Trojan Cycle and the Story of al-Zīr farfetched and al-Ḥakīm builds on the work of ῾Awaḍ and also notes the unconvincing: parallels between the Story of al-Zīr and episodes from the … The similarities between the two epics, the Greek and the Trojan Cycle. In contrast to ῾Awaḍ, ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm compares Arabic, appear to be rather superficial. Louis ῾Awaḍ often has the murder of Tubba῾ in his marriage bed not with Orestes to stretch the evidence, pointing out generic links where some killing Aegisthus but with an earlier murder from the Orestes thematic correspondences at best exist. […] Even at the most myth: the famous scene in which Clytemnestra kills Agam- general level, the parallels […] are quite weak. To be sure, emnon when he returns home from Troy.18) great subjects such as conflict caused by a woman, or aveng- Like ῾Awaḍ, ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm does not clearly separate his ing a father’s or brother’s murder, are treated in both epic traditions. Beyond that, however, ‘Awaḍ produces only what comparisons of ancient texts from his political sentiments. 25 Because of the modern personification of Palestine as the can best be called thin evidence. ) stolen bride of the Arabs, the motif of a stolen bride who takes revenge holds special significance for ῾Abd al-­ The comparison between tales from different cultures Ḥakīm.19) To him, it is no coincidence that the name “Jalīla” Why are Lyons and Pormann so critical of the similarities sounds like the biblical “Delilah,” for he believes these between the Story of al-Zīr and accounts of the Trojan War women were both Palestinian Arabs, and he suggests that the presented by ῾Awaḍ and ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm? Are the parallels birthplace of the Story of al-Zīr and the tales that resemble it the latter claim to have discovered indeed farfetched, or are lies not in Egypt, but in Palestine.20) there other factors at play? Awareness of a number of obsta- ῾Awaḍ’s theories that Arabo-Islamic and Graeco-Roman cles in the field of comparison between stories from different literature are fundamentally alike were not welcomed by cultures (and especially the comparison with stories from some of his Islamist compatriots, who believed in an inde- Classical Antiquity) may shed light on this question. pendent, authentic Islam which has no cultural ties to the 1. a first obstacle is that in this field there are still no West.21) At the same time, the thesis of ῾Awaḍ and ῾Abd universally applied scholarly criteria to establish the quality al-Ḥakīm that the parallels between the stories of al-Zīr and of parallels, i.e. to distinguish between weak and strong simi- the Trojan Cycle are more than coincidences, has hitherto not larities.26) Some scholars have tried to meet this demand and been accepted by European Arabists or Classicists. In 1995 have proposed four internal criteria to assess the strength of Malcolm Lyons published his magisterial The Arabian Epic, parallels between tales: in which he compares the motifs found in the Arabic folk — Rather than isolated motifs, the tales share a series of epics with those found in other texts from world literature. motifs. In this standard work on the sīra sha῾biyya genre, he indeed — these motifs are found in both tales in roughly the same considers the men in chests from the epic of al-Zīr and the order. Trojan Horse as variants of the same motif.22) However, in — There are similar relationships between the actors that The Man of Wiles (2012), where Lyons compares Kulayb to play the main role in these motifs. guileful city-sackers such as , he is dismissive of — The tales contain one or more : a motif that other parallels with the Trojan Cycle as proposed by ῾Awaḍ blind motifs is puzzling or without function in one of the tales, but and ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm: which is relevant in the other.27) [῾Abd al-Hakim] is not content to stop there. […] Jalila not only plays Clytemnestra to the Yemeni king Hassan’s Agam- emnon, but is linked through supposed etymology to Delila. 24) Lyons, Man of Wiles, 29. On ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm see also Norris, […] None of this carries more conviction than Louis ῾Awad’s “Western Travellers,” 189–190. comparison of the War of Basus with the Trojan War.23) 25) pormann, “Classics and Islam,” 222–223. 26) alberto Bernabé, “Influences orientales dans la littérature grecque: As regards the role of Kulayb in the Story of al-Zīr, Lyons Quelques réflexions de méthode,” Kernos 8 (1995) 9; Jeffrey H. Tigay, continues that “it must be asked how in view of what is at “On Evaluating Claims of Literary Borrowing,” in: ed. Mark E. Cohen, Daniel C. Snell & David B. Weisberg, The Tablet and the Scroll: Near least a semi-historical desert background the Man of Wiles Eastern Studies in Honor of William W. Hallo (Bethesda: CDL, 1993) 250–255; Robert Rollinger, “Altorientalische Motivik in der frühgriechi- schen Literatur am Beispiel der homerischen Epen: Elemente des Kampfes in der Ilias und in der altorientalischen Literatur (nebst Überlegungen zur Präsenz altorientalischer Wanderpriester im früharchaischen Griechen- land),” in: ed. Christoph Ulf, Wege zur Genese griechischer Identität: Die 17) ῾Awaḍ, Usṭūrat Ūrīst, 207. Bedeutung der früharchaischen Zeit (Berlin: Akademie, 1996) 157–158; 18) ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm, Mawsū῾at al-fulklūr, 235–237; idem, Turāth sha῾bī, Wouter F.M. Henkelman, “The Birth of Gilgameš,” 808–816 & “Beware II, 273–274. of Dim Cooks and Cunning Snakes: Gilgameš, Alexander, and the Loss of 19) on this topos see also: Fuad I. Khuri, The Body in Islamic Culture Immortality,” in: ed. Robert Rollinger, Birgit Gufler, Martin Lang & Irene (London: Saqi, 2001) 22. Madreiter, Interkulturalität in der Alten Welt: Vorderasien, Hellas, Ägyp- 20) ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm, Turāth sha῾bī, II, 273–275. ten und die vielfältigen Ebenen des Kontakts (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 21) pormann, “Classics and Islam,” 226–228. 2010) 324. 22) Lyons, Arabian Epic II, 479. 27) Bernabé, “Influences orientales,” 17–18; Tigay, “On Evaluating 23) Lyons, Man of Wiles, 29. Claims,” 250–255; Rollinger, “Altorientalische Motivik,” 158; 291 blood on the wedding bed 292

If the first three criteria are met, it is unlikely that parallels Because it is so complicated to establish the exact genea- between tales are merely coincidence, and the fourth crite- logical relationship between tales, it is often more fruitful to rion, the presence of blind motifs, makes it unlikely that simply consider parallel stories as variants of an international those parallels are merely the result of the universals of the tale type.33) The term “international tale type” is a concept human condition. In the words of the comparatist Stephanie to describe the phenomenon that a particular combination of Jamison: narrative motifs is found in a number of different places and … Comparison seeks to eliminate from its purview similarities different eras. Even though this phenomenon has been noted due to (a) universal tendencies and (b) chance. […] In order again and again by students of folktales, it has still not been to eliminate universals [… comparatists] look for salient and satisfactorily explained: how can such a combination of particular details, often details that do not make sense in the motifs cross language and culture boundaries, and yet remain synchronic system in which they are currently found. […] In stable over long periods of time?34) Although we do not order to eliminate chance, we look for structured, systematic 28 completely understand this phenomenon, we know it occurs sets of similarities, rather than isolated facts. ) widely. This means that if we find two texts which contain When criteria such as the ones listed above are not used the same combination of motifs this does not have to mean to defend or criticize claims of parallelism, the debate cannot that the author of one of the texts directly copied this com- rise above the level of a yes or no argument. Another prob- bination from the other: the two similar texts could be two of the – probably numerous – variants of the same interna- lem is that without such criteria to hold them in check, com- 35 paratists may get carried away by “parallelomania,” the ten- tional tale type. ) dency to see parallels everywhere, without distinguishing Note further that variants of a tale type are like members between weak and strong similarities, a phenomenon which of the same family: no single member shows all the traits. makes their colleagues wary of new claims.29) The fact that The problem is that in the field of folktale comparison, neither ῾Awaḍ nor ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm use such criteria makes it criticism of the explanation given for parallels is not always understandable that Lyons and Pormann take them as paral- clearly distinguished from criticism of the strength of the lelomaniacs. However, when Lyons and Pormann state that parallels themselves. An unlikely explanation as to how the parallels presented by their colleagues are “unconvinc- the parallels came about can easily lead the critic to ing” or “rather superficial” and “quite weak”, they them- dismiss the parallels themselves as weak and unconvincing. selves also fail to use such criteria to buttress their critique. 3. a third obstacle is that the whole enterprise of compar- 2. a second obstacle is that, even if agreement has been ing tales from different cultures has gone out of fashion since the demise of the Pan-Babylonians, a group of German reached that there are strong similarities between tales, it th remains difficult to explain these parallels.30) One of the scholars who at the start of the 20 century noticed a large tales could have derived from the other, or they could both number of similarities between stories from Classical Antiq- derive from a common ancestor, an Urtext. However, to uity, the Bible, and Mesopotamia. One of them, the Assyri- define the exact relationship between similar tales is in most ologist Peter Jensen, composed a work of almost two-­ cases virtually impossible, as the tales that have been pre- thousand pages of such parallels, and tried to explain the similarities he found by arguing that these stories must derive served are probably just the tip of an iceberg of written and 36 oral versions that once existed but are now lost, and that from a common ancestor: the Epic of Gilgamesh. ) Jensen’s might have provided intermediate stages in the connection explanation that this particular Urtext was the source of all between one tale and the other.31) As explained by Wouter these stories was generally deemed unconvincing, and as a Henkelman, who compares works from Ancient Greece with result the parallels he had presented in his work were dis- various Near Eastern sources: carded as well. To make things worse, the conclusions of Jensen and his fellow Pan-Babylonians were tainted by their … Texts is all we have. Yet, these texts and the parallels they political ideas. By arguing that the stories of the Bible were may display are, in most cases, just a surface phenomenon. […] It is essential to realise that the actual intercultural con- based on Mesopotamian models, some of the Pan-Babyloni- nection is in most cases that between an oral tradition in the ans tried to discredit the Jewish and Christian scriptures as Near East and an oral tradition in Greece. […] It is not the works of unoriginal plagiarists. This was not only a case between the texts themselves, but between the oral traditions, of anti-clericalism, but also carried anti-Semite undertones. from which just the tip of the iceberg is revealed, that a direct Such a political agenda provided another reason to discard relation may be assumed. In fact, one needs to take one further the parallels presented by the Pan-Babylonians, and as a con- step, for the plural “oral traditions” is not entirely correct. sequence the endeavour of looking for parallels between When we assume that stories spread, like an oil-stain on the tales from different cultures became somewhat suspect. The ocean surface, slowly from village to village and between peo- Assyriologist Simo Parpola regrets this state of affairs: ple that were in close and daily contact, it would be better to speak of a single, encompassing “stream of oral tradition.”32) Not only has the work of the pan-Babylonians not been con- tinued; it has also been largely forgotten; and if not forgotten, then tainted with a stamp of questionability that has made many serious scholars shun away from it as something “suspi- cious.” […] Presenting such views in print is nowadays widely Henkelman, “Birth of Gilgameš,” 815 & “Beware of Dim Cooks,” 324; felt as dangerous in scholarly circles, as it automatically leads 342–343. 28) stephanie W. Jamison, “Penelope and the Pigs: Indic Perspectives on the Odyssey,” Classical Antiquity 18 (1999) 228. 33) Hansen, Ariadne’s Thread, 488. 29) tigay, “On Evaluating Claims,” 250. 34) Cristine Goldberg, The Tale of The Three Oranges (Helsinki: 30) compare Gregory Nagy, “The Epic Hero,” in: Foley, Companion Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1997) 238. to Ancient Epic, 71–74; Hansen, Ariadne’s Thread, 15–16. 35) Hansen, Ariadne’s Thread, 8. 31) Bernabé, “Influences orientales,” 11–19. 36) p. Jensen, Das Gilgamesch-Epos in der Weltliteratur (Strassburg: 32) Henkelman, “Birth of Gilgameš,” 810. Trübner, 1906–1928). 293 bibliotheca orientalis lxxIV n° 3-4, mei-augustus 2017 294

to association with the ideas of the pan-Babylonians, and thus of Jalīla. I will compare Jalīla’s story with the story of Helen to being stigmatized as a scholar of dubious judgement and 37 and with one episode from the Orestes myth: the story of outdated views. ) Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon. I will review the The critical stance taken by Lyons and Pormann towards similarities between these tales not to establish the exact the theories of ῾Awaḍ and ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm might have to do genealogical relationship between them, but for the aesthet- ics of the comparison itself, and to shed light on the indi- with the fact that the latter in some aspects resemble the 44 theories of the Pan-Babylonians. Like Jensen, ῾Awaḍ and vidual variants. ) ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm try to explain the parallels they note between To begin, I will compare Jalīla’s story with that of Helen, tales from different cultures by pointing to a single Near in particular as it is found in Virgil’s Aeneid, Tryphiodorus’ Eastern Urtext. Taking of Ilion, and Quintus Smyrnaeus’ Fall of Troy. Recently, however, intercultural comparison is coming Although these Graeco-Roman works were written down by back into fashion,38) and comparatists argue that in the different authors in different eras, and each give slightly dif- assessment of the Pan-Babylonians one should distinguish ferent versions of the story of Troy’s capture, I approach between on the one hand the parallels they noted, and on the them as a single tradition, a tradition that consists of the inextricable web of oral and written versions of this tale that other their political agenda and the theories they proposed to 45 explain these parallels.39) must have circulated in Antiquity. ) 4. a particular barrier has for some time obstructed the Then, I will compare the story of Jalīla with various ver- comparison between stories from Classical Antiquity and sions of the story of Clytemnestra. First I will compare those from other literatures. Classicists have been reluctant Jalīla’s story with the versions of Agamemnon’s murder to compare Greek and Roman with other cultures, as found in the Odyssey and as a vase painting on the “Oresteia explained by the comparatist Hyun Jin Kim: krater.” Finally, I will compare Jalīla’s story with the version of Agamemnon’s murder as found in Aeschylus’ Oresteia, When it came to comparative analyses, Classical scholarship as well as with other Near Eastern variants of the same tale of the early and mid-20th century was highly conservative, even resistant. A strong, and almost religious, belief in the type. Such a comparison will allow us to better appreciate uniqueness of the Graeco-Roman world is evident in both some elements of Aeschylus’ trilogy. In the words of the scholarly and popular works well into the mid-20th century. folklorist Christine Goldberg: The very suggestion that a comparative perspective is needed When a researcher is interested in a particular text of a tradi- would have seemed preposterous to many Classicists of a tra- tional tale, an organized presentation of other versions pro- ditional bent.40) vides a background for judging that particular variant. […] In addition to the question of possible sources used by a famous Until recently, Classicists were also reluctant to apply the 41 author or in a famous work, a comparative analysis also sug- methods developed by folklorists to their own field. ) The gests alternative artistic possibilities. It shows what other nar- combination of classics and folklore “is relatively rare in the rative strategies are possible for that story, so we can see history of scholarship partly because the field of classics examples of what the famous author might have done with the tends to be associated with ‘high art,’ which invites contrast tale, but didn’t.46) with ‘low art’ as studied in the newer field of folkloristics.”42) In the remainder of this article I will review the thesis of Jalīla and Helen ῾Awaḍ and ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm that there are similarities between the Arabic Story of al-Zīr and the Graeco-Roman stories When we compare the stories of Jalīla and Helen, we find about the Trojan War and Orestes.43) I will focus on three that their tales not only share the motifs of the stolen bride47) examples. I restrict my analysis to the first part of the Story and the stratagem of the hidden soldiers which is used to get of al-Zīr, the “Story of Tubba῾,” about the theft and retrieval her back.48) They also share the motif of the cunning hero

44) Hansen, Ariadne’s Thread, 25; Goldberg, The Tale of the Three 37) simo Parpola, “Back to Delitzsch and Jeremias: The Relevance of Oranges, 238; Nagy, “Epic Hero,” 72. the Pan-Babylonian School to the Melammu Project,” in: ed. A. Panaino 45) gärtner, “Virgil and the Epic Cycle,” 543–564. & A. Piras, Schools of Oriental Studies and the Development of Modern 46) christine Goldberg, “Strength in Numbers: The Uses of Compara- Historiography: Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Symposium of the tive Folktale Research,” Western Folklore 69 (2010) 27. See also Jamison, Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project (Milano: Università “Penelope and the Pigs,” 229. di Bologna, 2004) 240–241. 47) cyrus H. Gordon, “Homer and Bible: The Origin and Character of 38) for example Stephanie Dalley, Esther’s Revenge at Susa: From East Mediterranean Literature,” Hebrew Union College Annual 26 (1955) Sennacherib to Ahasuerus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007); 54[12]; 81[39]; Stepan Ahyan, “The Hero, the Woman and the Impregna- Nikolaos Lazaridis, “Different Parallels, Different Interpretations: Reading ble Stronghold: A Model,” The Journal of Indo-European Studies 32 Parallels between Ancient Egyptian and Greek Works of Literature,” in: (2004) 79–99; Edmunds, Stealing Helen. ed. Ian Rutherford, Greco-Egyptian Interactions: Literature, Translation, 48) on the relation between the Wooden Horse and men in chests or and Culture, 500 BCE-300 CE (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016) bags carried by animals see: Julian Ward Jones Jr., “The Trojan Horse: 187–207. Timeo Danaos et Dona Ferentis,” The Classical Journal 65 (1970) 39) Henkelman, “Birth of Gilgameš,” 808, n. 2; Parpola, “Back to 241–247. Delitzsch,” 242-244. Already in 1944, the Assyriologist Samuel Kramer Further: “K753.2§ Capture by smuggling soldiers into city in two-com- remarked about Jensen’s Das Gilgamesch-Epos in der Weltliteratur that partmented chest”; “K754.1 Trojan wooden horse—[smuggling soldiers “these volumes may prove to be more significant than is generally into city]”; “K2357.16§ Strategy to get into enemy city: fighters smuggled assumed.” Kramer, Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary past defenses (gate),” in Hasan M. El-Shamy, Folk Traditions of the Arab Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. (Philadelphia: American Philo- World: A Guide to Motif Classification (Bloomington, Indiana University sophical Society, 1944) 8, n. 1. Press, 1995) I, 239; idem, Types of the Folktale in the Arab World: A 40) Kim, “Ancient History and the Classics,” 256. Demographically Oriented Tale-Type Index (Bloomington, Indiana Univer- 41) Edmunds, Stealing Helen, 1-7. sity Press, 2004) 661; 1114; 1128; “T27 Trojan horse motif – men in 42) gregory Nagy, “Foreword” to Hansen, Ariadne’s Thread, ix. chests etc.,” in Lyons, Arabian Epic, II, 479; “Golden Ram – Trojan 43) compare Weststeijn, “Wine, Women, and Revenge,” 93, n. 15. Horse,” in Hansen, Ariadne’s Thread, 169–176; idem, “Trojanisches 295 blood on the wedding bed 296 who disguises himself to spy among the enemy and subse- versions of the story it was Odysseus “the city-sacker” who quently accompany the hidden soldiers into the stronghold played ’s role.57) and release them from their hiding place.49) Odysseus whips Jalīla and her caravan of chests are accompanied by a his own back and dresses in torn rags to disguise himself as bridal procession of singing and dancing girls with tambou- a beggar or a runaway slave who asks for asylum in Troy.50) rines.58) When the Horse is hauled into Troy, it is accompa- This way he can enter Troy unrecognized, or claim he has nied by unmarried girls and boys who dance and sing.59) It defected from the Greeks. Odysseus secretly meets with has been proposed that the Wooden Horse filled with soldiers Helen who discloses the Trojan war plans to him.51) “Jointly, should be related to the ritual use of hobby horses as a rite they plan the capture of the city.”52) of passage for young men. Interestingly, in the Story of In one recension of the Story of al-Zīr, Kulayb visits al-Zīr, Kulayb, when he accompanies the caravan of chests Tubba῾’s castle two times in disguise. The first time he into Tubba῾’s stronghold, is riding a stick horse.60) dresses as a minstrel carrying a tambourine, which allows The two stories also share the motif of a female soothsayer him to enter Tubba῾’s castle incognito and gain the king’s who warns her people that the enemy has hidden soldiers trust.53) He returns to his tribe and later disguises himself as among his gifts, but who is not believed and who in the end a jester and dresses in torn rags to accompany Jalīla’s cara- joins the opposing side. The seer warns the Tro- van into Tubba῾’s castle and eventually release the hidden jans that enemy soldiers are hidden in the Horse, but her men from the chests.54) warning is not heeded. After the sack of Troy, she is taken Odysseus conceives the ruse of the Wooden Horse,55) but by the Greeks to their homeland to live among them.61) In now it is his cousin Sinon who whips his own back in order the Story of al-Zīr, a female geomancer warns her lord to present himself as an outcast. This disguise enables Sinon Tubba῾ that soldiers are hidden in the chests, but he does not to gain the confidence of the Trojans and to convince them believe her so she defects to the side of Jalīla and Kulayb.62) to bring the Horse within their walls: Sinon asks asylum in Most importantly, both series of motifs conclude with the Troy and, once inside the city, releases the Greeks from their motif cluster of the bride who murders her husband in the hiding place.56) Note that it has been argued that in earlier marriage bed.63) ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm had compared Jalīla who kills her husband Tubba῾ in his bed after a wedding banquet with Clytemnestra who kills her husband Agamemnon after Pferd,” in Enzyklopädie des Märchens (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010) XIII, a home-coming banquet. There is, however, another murder 954–957; “1109 Kriegslist erfolgreich angewandt: Die Soldaten werden in from the Trojan Cycle which is less well known in European angeblichen Schatzkisten versteckt in die feindliche Stadt einge- schmuggelt,” in Ulrich Marzolph, Arabia ridens: Die humoristische Kurz­ reception history but which provides an even closer parallel. prosa der frühen adab-Literatur im internationalen Traditionsgeflecht When one compares Tubba῾’s castle with Troy, Jalīla with (Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 1992) II, 242; Edmunds, Stealing Helen, and Tubba῾ with Paris, the clearest parallel to Jalīla’s Helen, 144–145. For examples of this motif see also: Marcel Meulder, “Le murder of Tubba῾ is provided by Helen’s murder of Deipho- ‘cheval de Troie’ sous une autre forme: Le guerrier déguisé en marchand: bus, who after the death of his brother Paris had taken his Exemples antiques et médiévaux,” Nouvelle Mythologie Comparée 1 (17 64 September 2013) 1–42. place as her Trojan husband. ) In contrast to the murder of 49) “K2040.1.1§ Partisan (patriot, spy, soldier, etc.) leads enemy to believe that he is switching sides: enemy betrayed and defeated”; “K2042 Crow gets to owls pretending that crows have cast him out,” in El-Shamy, 57) Compare Odyssey 8.494 where it is Odysseus who leads the horse Folk Traditions, I, 258; idem, Types of the Folktale, 661; 1124. For a into Troy. See further: J.W. Jones Jr., “Trojan Legend: Who is Sinon?,” number of examples of this motif see also: Franz-Christoph Muth, “Zopy- The Classical Journal 61 (1965) 122–128; J. ter Vrugt-Lentz, “Sinon und ros bei den Arabern: Streiflichter auf ein Motiv Herodots in der arabischen Zopyros,” Mnemosyne 4.20.2 (1967) 168–171; Bernd Manuwald, “Impro- Literatur,” Oriens 33 (1992) 231–237; 247–257; Aboubakr Chraïbi, visi aderunt: Zur Sinon-Szene in Vergils Aeneis (2, 57–198),” Hermes 113 “Genre et narration: La difficile épopée d’al-Ḫansā᾿,” Oriente Moderno 22 (1985) 187, n. 16; Hölscher, Odyssee, 56–75; Christopher A. Faraone, (2003) 541–542. Talismans and Trojan Horses: Guardian Statues in Myth 50) “K2357.9 Disguise as beggar (pauper) to enter enemy’s camp (cas- and Ritual (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992) 97–98; Katharina tle) or to spy,” in: Stith Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (Bloom- Wesselmann, Mythische Erzählstrukturen in Herodots “Historien” (Ber- ington, Indiana University Press, 1975) IV, 495. See also Hölscher, Odys- lin: De Gruyter, 2011) 162–165. see, 61. 58) Geste, We 822, f. 9a. 51) robert Graves, The Greek Myths (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1960) 59) Virgil, Aeneid, 2.238–239; Tryphiodorus, Taking of Ilion, 309-357; 166.k; M.L. West, The Epic Cycle: A Commentary on the Lost Troy Epics Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 12.434–443; West, Epic Cycle, 206. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013) 195–199; Edmunds, Stealing 60) Geste, We 822, f. 9a; Jan Bremmer, “Heroes, Rituals and the Tro- Helen, 142–143; Homer, Odyssey, 4.242–264; , Hecuba, 239– jan War,” Studi Storico Religiosi 2 (1978) 32–33; Faraone, Talismans and 250. Note that just as Kulayb is the lover of Jalīla, Odysseus was one of Trojan Horses, 94. See also Walter Burkert, Structure and History in Greek the original suitors of Helen. On the erotic aspects of Odysseus’ meeting Mythology and Ritual (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979) 62. with Helen in Troy see Norman Austin, and Her Shameless 61) Graves, Greek Myths, 167.e; West, Epic Cycle, 205; Virgil, Aeneid, Phantom (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994) 71–81; Ruby Blondell, 2.246–247; Tryphiodorus, Taking of Ilion, 358–443; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation (Oxford: Oxford University Fall of Troy, 12.525–585; Apollodorus, Epitome, E.5.23; Dictys Cretensis, Press, 2013) 82. Journal of the Trojan War, 5.13 52) Proclus, Summary of the Little Iliad, 21. 62) Geste, We 822, ff. 11a–12a. 53) Qiṣṣat al-Zīr Sālim (Tūnis ed.) 6–7; Lyons, Arabian Epic, III, 652. 63) “K872 Judith and Holofernes: girl from enemy camp chosen to 54) Geste, We 822, ff. 8a–19b; 26b–27b; “K2357.1/K2357.13 Disguise sleep with intoxicated general kills him in bed”; “K873.1 King given as musician/juggler to enter enemy’s camp” in Thompson, Motif-Index, IV, sleeping potion and then beheaded in his bed by his wife”; “K1510.1 494–495. Adulteress kills home-coming husband”; “Q411.2.1 Undesired suitor 55) Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 12.23–53; Apollodorus, Epitome, killed asleep in his tent”; “T173 Murderous bride,” in Thompson, Motif- E.5.14. Index, IV, 348; 398; V, 362; “B 22 Bridegroom killed,” in Lyons, Arabian 56) Graves, Greek Myths, 167.f.; West, Epic Cycle, 204–208; 233; Epic, III, 360; Joseph Fontenrose, Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Virgil, Aeneid, 2.57–198; 254–259; Tryphiodorus, Taking of Ilion, 219– its Origins (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959) 488–490. 305; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 12.238–257; 360–422; Hyginus, 64) Graves, Greek Myths, 168.b; West, Epic Cycle, 219; 234–235. Fables, 108; K.W. Gransden, “The Fall of Troy,” Greece & Rome 32 Homer, Odyssey, 8.517–520; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 10.345– (1985) 60–72; Giampiero Scafoglio, “Sinon in Roman Drama,” The Clas- 355; Apollodorus, Epitome, E.5.9; Dictys Cretensis, Journal of the Trojan sical Journal 104 (2008) 11–18. War, 4.22. Deiphobus had “abducted” Helen and kept her “by force” after 297 bibliotheca orientalis lxxIV n° 3-4, mei-augustus 2017 298

Agamemnon, which does not take place in Troy but in Kulayb (whose name means “Small Dog,” i.e. “Whelp,” Greece after the besiegers have returned home from the war, in Arabic) kills Tubba῾ the night of his wedding banquet the murder of Deiphobus – just like Tubba῾’s murder – takes when the king is drunk on wine, and drinks his blood straight place in his bedroom inside the beleaguered city, in the very from the wound.70) Menelaus and Odysseus kill Deiphobus night that it is taken and destroyed. after his feast when he is drunk on wine and mutilate their victim: they cut off his arms, nose and ears, and hack his Table 1. Parallels in plot structure between the stories of Jalīla corpse to pieces.71) In The Taking of Ilion, Tryphiodorus and Helen compares Menelaus and Odysseus to wolves that lust for Story of Jalīla Story of Helen blood.72) Aeschylus uses the following metaphor to describe the sack of Troy: “A lion, eater of raw flesh, leaped over the Jalīla is taken from Kulayb by Helen is taken from Menelaus 73 Tubba῾ and brought to his by Paris and brought to Troy. walls and licked its fill of royal blood.” ) When the other castle. drunken Trojans are killed,74) blood falls into the mixing- bowls.75) Dogs drink the blood and feast on the corpses of Kulayb spies in Tubba῾’s castle Odysseus spies in Troy 76 disguised as a minstrel. disguised as an outcast. their own masters. ) In The Fall of Troy Quintus Smyrnaeus compares the Trojans to swine that are slaughtered to be Kulayb, disguised as minstrel, Sinon, disguised as outcast, eaten at a king’s banquet.77) accompanies Jalīla and a accompanies the Wooden ῾ caravan with chests into Horse into Troy. Jalīla and Kulayb soak a piece of white cloth in Tubba ’s Tubba῾’s castle. blood and hang it as a purple flag from the battlements. They have just released the hidden soldiers from the chests and Female soothsayer’s warning Cassandra’s warning that men this flag is a signal to other tribesmen waiting outside the that men are hidden in the are hidden in the Horse goes castle that they should join them in the assault on Tubba῾’s chests goes unheeded. unheeded. stronghold.78) Helen, or in other versions Sinon, lights a Jalīla and Kulayb kill Tubba῾ Helen, Menelaus, and torch on the battlements of Deiphobus’ city.79) Sinon has after a banquet in his wedding Odysseus kill Paris’ brother just released the soldiers from the Horse and the lighted torch bed. Deiphobus after a banquet in is a signal to the rest of the Greeks waiting outside the city his wedding bed. that they should join them in the assault on Troy. Tubba῾’s castle is taken and Troy is taken and destroyed. destroyed. Table 2. Parallels between the murders of Tubba῾ and Deiphobus The scenes of the murders of Tubba῾ and Deiphobus agree Jalīla murders Tubba῾ Helen murders Deiphobus in a number of details. After he has welcomed the caravan ῾ After the caravan with chests After the Horse has been with chests of dowry into his castle, Tubba gets drunk on has entered his castle, Tubba῾ hauled into Troy, Deiphobus wine at his wedding banquet, while Jalīla recites a poem celebrates and gets drunk on celebrates and gets drunk on about drunkenness, and her female servants dance and wine at his wedding banquet. wine. sing.65) After they have brought the Wooden Horse inside Jalīla recites Bacchic poetry Helen leads the Trojan their walls, Deiphobus and the Trojans celebrate and get while her slave girls dance and women in an orgiastic dance. drunk on wine, while Helen leads in an sing. orgiastic dance.66) Once inside Tubba῾’s nuptial bedroom, Kulayb takes Tubba῾’s sword that hangs above the head of his bed.67) When her husband Deiphobus lies asleep drunk in his bed in “woman-mad”: compare Tubba῾ who sleeps every night with a different virgin: Geste, We 822, f. 5b. their bridal chamber, Helen takes his sword from under his 70 68 ) Geste, We 822, f. 19b; “G 90§ Ghoulish revenge: vendettist eats pillow. ) flesh (drinks blood) of slain enemy,” El-Shamy, Folk Traditions, I, 145. Just as Jalīla lets her fiancé, the wily Kulayb, into her 71) Virgil, Aeneid, 6.494–497; Dictys Cretensis, Journal of the Trojan abductor’s bedroom to help her kill him, Helen lets her law- War, 5.12. 72) Tryphiodorus, Taking of Ilion, 613–617. Compare Quintus Smyr- ful husband Menelaus and the wily Ulysses into the bedroom naeus, Fall of Troy, 13.46–49; 72–75; 133–140: “And as by wolves or of the Trojan prince she had been forced to marry, to help jackals sheep are torn. […] The fierce brutes leap on them […] and then her kill him.69) lap the dark blood, and linger still to slay all in mere lust of slaughter, and provide an evil banquet for that shepherd-lord.” Translation by Arthur S. Way [, 19] (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962). the death of Paris: Euripides, Trojan Women, 959–960; 963. Tryphiodorus 73) Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 827–828, trans. Alan H. Sommerstein. mentions “the bride-stealing lust of Deiphobus”, “who a second time stole 74) Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 13.42–164; Tryphiodorus, Taking away [Menelaus’] bride,” Taking of Ilion, 45; 164. See also Burkert, Struc- of Ilion, 559–586. ture and History, 74–75; Giampiero Scafoglio, “L’episodio di Deifobo 75) Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 13.129–130. nell’Ade Virgiliano,” Hermes 132 (2004) 167–185; Edmunds, Stealing 76) Tryphiodorus, Taking of Ilion, 607–612: “And birds and dogs […] Helen, 143–147. feasted in company and drank the black blood and made a savage meal. 65) Geste, We 822, f. 5b; ff. 12b–15b. […] The barking dogs bayed wildly over torn corpses of men, pitiless and 66) West, Epic Cycle, 198; 208; Virgil, Aeneid, 6.517–518. Drunken heeding not that they were rending their own masters.” Translation by Trojans: Aeneid 2.265; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 13.1–28; Tryphi- A.W. Mair [Loeb Classical Library, 219] (London: Heinemann, 1957). odorus, Taking of Ilion, 439–449; 500–502; 582–586. Drunken Deiphobus: 77) Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 13.127–129: “And even as swine Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 13.355. be slaughtered in the court of a rich king who makes his folk a feast, so 67) Geste, We 822, f. 16a. without number were they slain.” 68) Virgil, Aeneid, 6.520–524. Menelaus kills drunken Deiphobus in 78) Geste, We 822, f. 19b; f. 27b. Helen’s nuptial bedroom: Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 13.354–384. 79) Graves, Greek Myths, 167.l; West, Epic Cycle, 198–199; 208; 69) Virgil, Aeneid, 6.525–528, where Deiphobus describes Menelaus as Edmunds, Stealing Helen, 146; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 13.21– “that lover of hers.” Tryphiodorus (Taking of Ilion, 613) calls Deiphobus 30; Tryphiodorus, Taking of Ilion, 495–525. 299 blood on the wedding bed 300

Tubba῾ retires drunk to his Deiphobus falls asleep drunk “Abduction of the Beautiful Wife” tale type is made up of nuptial bedroom. in his wedding bed. eight elements, of which the first two, “birth” and “child- 81 Kulayb takes Tubba῾’s sword Helen takes Deiphobus’ hood,” are often absent. ) The story of Jalīla contains all that hangs over the head of his sword from under his pillow. the six remaining elements, including the woman’s perilous bed. beauty which attracts the attention of a foreign king, the motif of the stratagem employed to retrieve her, and the Jalīla lets Kulayb into Tubba῾’s Helen lets Menelaus and nuptial bedroom where they Odysseus into Deiphobus’ motif that the stolen woman assists in her own recovery. kill him. nuptial bedroom where they The story of Jalīla is an Arabic variant of the tale type kill him. “Abduction of the Beautiful Wife.” At the same time, the stories of Jalīla and Helen also con- Kulayb drinks Tubba῾’s blood. Menelaus dismembers Deiphobus. tain parallels with tales that are not about abduction. A close parallel to both stories is provided by the Arabic Zenobia Jalīla and Kulayb release the Sinon releases the soldiers Legend, which deals with the taking of the city of Palmyra. soldiers from the chests. from the Horse. Just like the stories of Jalīla and Helen, it contains the fol- Jalīla and Kulayb signal to Helen or Sinon signal to lowing motifs: hero whips his own back to disguise himself soldiers waiting outside the soldiers waiting outside the as outcast and spy on enemy; to take a city by surprise, sol- castle to attack. city to attack. diers are hidden in camel bags; warning goes unheeded; heroine bride kills her suitor when he is drunk and drinks his As we can see, the stories of Jalīla and Helen share more blood.82) Elsewhere, I have argued that the story of Jalīla than just the Trojan Horse motif (Lyons) or the general and the Arabic Zenobia Legend belong to a tale type that also theme of conflict caused by a woman (Pormann). Rather, we includes the Book of Judith and the Graeco-Roman accounts notice Jamison’s “structured, systematic set of similarities.” of the confrontation between Cyrus and Tomyris, queen of The motifs listed above can be found in a wide variety of the Massagetae, with as most conspicuous parallel the motif works from world literature. What is striking is that the sto- cluster of the heroine who kills her drunken suitor and treats ries of Jalīla and Helen share the same combination of motifs. his corpse as if it were food.83) These tales centre on the Such “combinations of motifs are far more distinctive than theme of the “bride who takes revenge on her groom” (See their constituent motifs.”80) The parallels between the stories Table 3). In the Zenobia Legend, the Iraqi king Jadhīma is of Jalīla and Helen meet three of the four criteria four strong warned by his advisor Qaṣīr about his enemy queen Zenobia, parallels listed above. The two tales share a series of motifs, yet he accepts her marriage proposal. Zenobia, in what and these motifs are found in both tales in—largely—the should have been their wedding night, cuts the veins of the same order. The actions connected to these motifs are acted king when he is drunk and collects his blood in the golden out by a group of protagonists who have similar relationships cup from which he had been drinking wine. In the Book of (see Tables 1, 2 & 3). Judith, Holofernes is warned by his advisor Achior about his In fact, the stories of Jalīla and Helen are so similar that Jewish enemies, yet he invites the beautiful Judith to a ban- the same plot synopsis applies to both tales: A foreign king quet in his tent. When Holofernes lies drunk in his bed, abducts the most beautiful woman on earth to his stronghold. Judith takes the sword that hangs above his pillow, decapi- Her original husband or suitor tries to win her back: he (or tates him, and then puts his head in her food bag so she can his helper) puts on a disguise to spy in the stronghold and show it to the Elders of her City.84) Cyrus is warned by his then uses one or more animals to smuggle soldiers inside. advisor Croesus about his enemies the Massagetae. Yet, The animals with their hidden cargo are considered a gift and when their queen Tomyris declines his marriage proposal, their entrance into the stronghold is accompanied by dancing Cyrus attacks them: he dies in battle. Tomyris takes the and singing. The king’s female soothsayer warns the inhabit- king’s head and puts it into a wineskin filled with human ants of the stronghold about their enemy, but her advice is blood. She orders her suitor to drink his fill from this wine- not heeded. The inhabitants celebrate with a banquet at skin in retribution for his bloodthirst.85) which they get drunk on wine and the beautiful woman gives a performance. She lets her original suitor (and his helper) into the nuptial bedroom of her abductor (or his brother who has replaced him). They take the king’s sword that is kept at 81 the head of his bed and murder him while he is asleep or ) Edmunds, Stealing Helen, 49–57. 82) Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-rusul wa-l-mulūk, ed. Muḥammad Abū al-Faḍl drunk. A reference is made to the drinking of human blood. Ibrāhīm (al-Qāhira: Dār al-Ma῾ārif, 1960–69) I, 756–771, translated by The beautiful woman and her original lover release the hid- Moshe Perlmann as: The Ancient Kingdoms, The History of al-Tabari: An Annotated Translation, IV (Albany: SUNY, 1987) 138–150. den soldiers and signal from the battlements to fighters wait- 83 ing outside the stronghold to attack as well. The stronghold ) Weststeijn, “Zenobia of Palmyra and the Book of Judith,” 295–320 & “Wine, Women, and Revenge,” 91–107. is taken and destroyed. 84) on the parallels between Judith and Helen see also Burkert, Struc- The strong parallels between the stories of Jalīla and Helen ture and History, 74–75. demonstrate that they are variants of the same tale type. 85) Herodotus, Histories, 1.204–14; Polyaenus, Stratagems, 8.28; Deb- Indeed, Lowell Edmunds argues that Helen’s story is a vari- orah Levine Gera, Judith (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014) 62–69. In the light of these parallels between the story of Jalīla and other Near Eastern tales, ant of an international tale type, of which he lists forty vari- ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm’s thesis that Jalīla is etymologically related to the biblical ants from sub-Saharan Africa, the Caucasus, India, China, heroine Delilah should be given more credit than granted by Lyons, as Europe, and North America. Edmunds argues that this Delilah’s story is also about a bride who deceives and overpowers her groom. Compare Betsy Meredith, “Desire and Danger: The Drama of Betrayal in Judges and Judith,” in: ed. Mieke Bal, Anti-Covenant: Coun- ter-Reading Women’s Lives in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield: Almond, 1989) 80) Anderson, Fairytale, 12. 63–78. 301 bibliotheca orientalis lxxIV n° 3-4, mei-augustus 2017 302

Table 3. Overlap between the “Avenging Bride” and “Abduction of the Beautiful Wife” tale types (All variants belong to the Avenging Bride type; the grey variants also belong to the Abducted Wife type) tragic warner king beautiful woman the woman’s other lover Arabic Zenobia Legend Qaṣīr Jadhīma Zenobia – Book of Judith Achior Holofernes Judith – Story of Tomyris Croesus Cyrus Tomyris – Oresteia Cassandra Agamemnon Clytemnestra Aegisthus Trojan War story Cassandra Paris/Deiphobus Helen Menelaus Story of Jalīla Tubba῾’s geomancer Tubba῾ Jalīla Kulayb

Jalīla, Helen, Clytemnestra killed Aegisthus’ brothers, cut off their hands and feet, cooked their corpses in a cauldron and fed them to their Besides the “Avenging Bride” stories of Zenobia, Judith, father Thyestes. After this meal Atreus had chased Thyestes and Tomyris, there is another tale which is not about abduc- from his throne.90) When Aegisthus kills Agamemnon, he tion but which strongly resembles the stories of Jalīla and avenges the crime committed against his father and reclaims Helen: the story of Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon. his kingdom. Likewise, Kulayb avenges the murder of his Clytemnestra—or, as she is also known, Klyte-mestra, 86 father and reclaims his fiancée; Menelaus reclaims his wife. “Famous for Wiles” )—is in fact Helen’s double: they are All three lovers desecrate the corpses of their victims. twin sisters who are married to a pair of brothers, Menelaus Kulayb drinks Tubba῾’s blood because when the latter killed and Agamemnon (who according to some accounts are also 87 his father, Kulayb had become ritually tainted by his father’s twins who live together in the same house). ) As the sisters unavenged blood,91) a pollution that can only be cured by are each other’s doubles, their lives contain parallel epi- the blood of the murderer.92) To end the circle of revenge, sodes: Clytemnestra’s murder of her husband Agamemnon Kulayb drinks his victim’s blood straight from the wound is in fact an echo of Helen’s murder of her husband Deipho- 88 and makes sure that not a single drop is spilled on the ground, bus. ) Seneca compares the banquet at which Agamemnon so the earth will not cry out for further vengeance.93) In a is killed to the banquet of the Trojans the night their city is similar fashion, Aegisthus cuts off the hands, feet, nose, and taken (and Deiphobus is killed) and he compares the murder- 89 ears of his victim—like Menelaus did with Deiphobus—so ous behaviour of Clytemnestra to that of her sister Helen. ) their ghosts will not be able to call for revenge.94) In both episodes, Cassandra acts as the diviner who vainly When we compare the stories of Helen and Clytemnestra warns the victims about the murderous intent of their ene- with not only the story of Jalīla but also with the Avenging mies. In both murder scenes the couples Helen-Menelaus and Bride tales of Zenobia, Judith, and Tomyris, we notice that Clytemnestra-Agamemnon play a role. The scene in which there are similar relationships between the protagonists, Helen, with the help of her first husband Menelaus, kills her which leads to the conclusion that the stories of Helen and third husband Deiphobus after a victory banquet, is doubled Clytemnestra are Avenging Bride tales as well. There are by the scene in which Clytemnestra, with the help of her three or four main roles in these stories: a tragic warner, a lover Aegisthus, kills her first husband Agamemnon after a king, a beautiful woman, and—in some variants—the king’s home-coming banquet. Both scenes can be compared with rival for the woman’s love (See Table 3). the scene in which Jalīla, with the help of her lover Kulayb, ῾ In their most concise form, the relationships between these kills her husband Tubba after a wedding banquet. These four characters can be summed up as follows: three murders are variations of the same motif: the bride who kills her drunken husband with the help of her true love. The three lovers who assist their woman in the murder take revenge on a man who has wronged them, and reclaim 90) Graves, Greek Myths, 111.g. what is lawfully theirs. Agamemnon’s father Atreus had 91) Compare Orestes who is ritually impure as long as he has not avenged his father: Aeschylus, Libation-Bearers, 269–296; 650–651. 92) Weststeijn, “Wine, Women, and Revenge,” 101–102; Khuri, Body in Islamic Culture, 64. 86) Aeschylus, Oresteia: Agamemnon, Libation-Bearers, Eumenides, 93) When blood falls on the ground it is drunk by the earth which then ed. and trans. Alan H. Sommerstein [Loeb Classical Library, 146] (Cam- calls for vengeance, see M.L. West, The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic bridge: Harvard University Press, 2008), p. x, n. 4. Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997) 236–237; 87) Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 40–46; 1454–1471; H.C. Baldry, “The 575; 578. Compare Aeschylus, Libation-Bearers, 48; 66–67; 400–402. House of the Atridae,” The Classical Review 5 (1955) 16–17; ῾Awaḍ, When Medea and her lover Jason murdered her brother Apsyrtus, Jason not Usṭūrat Ūrīst, 82; Austin, Helen of Troy, 40; 105; Blondell, Helen of Troy, only cut up the body but also “licked up some of his blood three times and 127–128. three times spat out the pollution through his teeth, which is the proper way 88) Under the heading “Women Who Murdered Their Husbands,” for killers to expiate treacherous murders.” Apollonius Rhodius, Argonau- Hyginus lists as the first two women Clytemnestra who killed Agamemnon tica, 4.478–479, trans. William H. Race (Cambridge: Harvard University and Helen who killed Deiphobus. Hyginus, Fabels, 240. See further Georg Press, 2009). Nicolaus Knauer, Die Aeneis und Homer: Studien zur poetischen Technik 94) Aeschylus, Libation-Bearers, 439; Sophocles, Electra, 445; ­Seneca, Vergils mit Listen der Homerzitate in der Aeneis (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck, Agamemnon, 904–905; Sommerstein, Oresteia, p. 267, n. 99. See 1979) 114–117; Carlo Brillante, “Elena nella notte della presa di Troia: also West, Epic Cycle, 270. Scafoglio, “Episodio di Deifobo,” 178–180 Dall’Illupersis all’Eneide,” Aevum Antiquum 9 (2009) 135. and Brillante, “Elena nella notte,” 134, n. 67 compare the mutilations of 89) Seneca, Agamemnon, 875–909. ­Deiphobus and Agamemnon. 303 blood on the wedding bed 304

In all stories, the king lusts after the beautiful woman. An immaculate,” usually translated as “blameless.”99) Because advisor warns him about the woman or her people but this in the confrontation between Aegisthus and Agamemnon, the warning goes unheeded. The beautiful woman takes revenge former is generally considered the adulterous villain, the epi- on her suitor the king and murders him in their wedding bed thet “blameless” as attached to Aegisthus is “a centuries-old or after a banquet when he is drunk on wine. The king’s crux” that has become known as “perhaps the most notori- blood is drunk or put in a food or drinking vessel. ously inappropriate Homeric adjective.”100) The majority of In some variants (the stories of Clytemnestra, Helen, and commentators consider this a poetic slip,101) but some have Jalīla), the beautiful woman is assisted in the murder of the argued that this is not a slip but a measured assessment: king by a male helper, the king’s rival for her love. This rival when Aegisthus kills Agamemnon to take revenge for the uses one or more ruses against the king. Within this group of horrible crime committed by his father Atreus, Homer actu- stories where the beautiful woman has a male helper, there ally considers Aegisthus blameless.102) is a subset of stories where the king has abducted the beauti- Another puzzling element in the Odyssey is that Agamem- ful woman, and her male helper is her original lover or hus- non decrees that during his absence in Troy, Clytemnestra band who has come to retrieve her. Together they murder the has to be guarded by a minstrel.103) This detail, labelled as abductor (stories of Helen and Jalīla). The stories of this “the most unlikely assignment of duty to be found in Greek subset belong to both the “Avenging Bride” and the “Abduc- Epic,” has perplexed both ancient and modern commentators tion of the Beautiful Wife” types; the two tale types partly because its function in the story is unclear and because it is overlap.95) not found in other texts about the Trojan War.104) Some Clas- Note that in the course of the story of the Trojan War, sicists have argued that in an earlier version of the story the Deiphobus replaces his brother Paris in the role of the king minstrel played a more important role and that in the Odys- who abducts the beautiful woman and is then murdered in sey he had become a blind motif.105) Others have argued that his wedding bed after a banquet.96) Menelaus, the other lover in such a version of the story, Aegisthus himself might have of the beautiful woman Helen, is assisted by a second male been the minstrel who guarded Clytemnestra.106) helper, Odysseus (who was also one of Helen’s original When we compare the Odyssey’s version of Agamem- suitors).97) non’s murder with the story of Jalīla, we notice that the motif of a minstrel who chaperons the heroine and the motif of the “Blameless” Aegisthus, Clytemnestra’s minstrel, and the immaculate avenger also occur in the latter. But whereas Oresteia krater these motifs do not make sense in the Odyssey, they do make sense in the story of Jalīla: in the Odyssey they are blind As is clear from the texts, fragments, and images that have motifs. Indeed, in the story of Jalīla, Aegisthus’ alter ego come down to us, the story of Clytemnestra’s murder of Kulayb is the avenger who cleanses himself by shedding the Agamemnon was known to the Greeks and Romans in a blood of a murderer and thereby becomes ritually unblem- number of versions, not all of them preserved in their entire- ished, and the one who, in the guise of a minstrel, accompa- ty.98) Some of these versions contain complicated or outright nies Clytemnestra’s alter ego Jalīla. In the plot of the story puzzling elements. Comparison with Jalīla’s story shows that of Jalīla the minstrel has an important function as the one some of these puzzling elements are blind versions of motifs who chaperons the bride and entertains the couple but even- that are functional in the plot of Jalīla’s story. tually turns against the groom. Kulayb disguises himself to When two tales share a motif that is functional in tale A hide his true identity as Jalīla’s lover and avenger. By choos- but without function (‘blind’) in tale B, this is not only an ing the disguise of a wedding entertainer, Kulayb is able to argument for the thesis that there are strong parallels between attend his enemy’s wedding,107) gain his trust, and even join tales A and B, but also an argument for the thesis that there once existed a version of tale B in which that motif had the same function it has in tale A. Comparison with the story of Jalīla and other variants of the Avenging Bride tale type will 99) Homer, Odyssey, 1.29. On a-mumon as “ritually unblemished” see allow us to reconstruct lost or incompletely preserved ver- Gordon, “Homer and Bible,” 61[19]. sions of Clytemnestra’s story and thereby to better under- 100) frederick M. Combellack, “Two Blameless Homeric Characters,” stand the fragments and versions that have come down to us. The American Journal of Philology 103 (1982) 361. The account of Agamemnon’s murder as told by Homer 101) anne Amory Parry, Blameless Aegisthus: A Study of ’Αμύμων and Other Homeric Epithets (Leiden: Brill, 1973). contains two elements that have puzzled both ancient and 102) Combellack, “Two Blameless Homeric Characters,” 361–372; modern commentators. In the opening of the Odyssey, Zeus, Helene P. Foley, Female Acts in Greek Tragedy (Princeton: Princeton Uni- when discussing the topic of vengeance and Aegisthus’ mur- versity Press, 2001) 206. der of Agamemnon, calls Aegisthus amumon, “spotless, 103) Homer, Odyssey, 3.262–272; Graves, Greek Myths, 112.g. 104) Denys Page, “The Mystery of the Minstrel at the Court of Agam- emnon,” in: ed. Salvatore Constanza, Studi classici in onore di Quintino 95) of the forty variants of the “Abduction of the Beautiful Wife” tale Cataudella (Catania: Università di Catania, 1972) I, 127. type listed by Edwards in the Appendix to Stealing Helen, there are six in 105) Page, “Mystery of the Minstrel,” 127–131; Øivind Andersen, which the abductor is murdered at his wedding banquet or while he is “Agamemnon’s Singer (Od. 3.262–272),” Symbolae Osloenses 67 (1992) asleep: T17 (woman kills her abductor when they are drinking wine); T20 22. (woman decapitates abductor); T30 (rival’s helpers murder abductor in his 106) Davies, “Thoughts on the Oresteia,” 240–260; Stephen P. Scully, sleep); T33 (rival, disguised as wedding entertainer, murders abductor at “The Bard as the Custodian of Homeric Society: ‘Odyssey’ 3, 263–272,” his wedding banquet); T36 (rival murders abductor in his wedding bed); Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 8 (1981) 69–70, n. 4; Dmitri and T37 (rival murders abductor in his nuptial bedroom). Panchenko, “’Aοιδòς ’ανήρ, Aegisthus and Clytemnestra (the Odyssey 96) see also Edmunds, Stealing Helen, 147. 3.263–272),” Hyperboreus 2 (1996) 181–182. 97) compare Hölscher, Odyssee, 59–60; Edmunds, Stealing Helen, 56. 107) compare the minstrel and tumblers who perform at the wedding 98) Graves, Greek Myths, 112.k–112.l; Davies, “Thoughts on the banquet of Menelaus’ children—while he remembers that his brother Oresteia,” 214–260. Agamemnon was murdered by Aegisthus (Odyssey, 4.1–92). 305 bibliotheca orientalis lxxIV n° 3-4, mei-augustus 2017 306 the couple in the nuptial bedroom where he can exact his the ground to welcome her husband; then later throws it over vengeance.108) his body before she kills him; and finally presents his corpse Another version of Agamemnon’s murder is found on vase (according to the stage directions) inside a vessel and cov- paintings, such as the famous “Oresteia krater,” where ered by this now bloodstained purple fabric, to the Elders of Aegisthus is depicted holding a stringed instrument, i.e. as a her City as proof that she has exacted her revenge.114) Orestes minstrel.109) This has puzzled modern viewers, because in later shows the bloodstained fabric a second time as evidence Homer’s epic it is the minstrel who has to guard Clytemnestra of Clytemnestra’s act of vengeance, and says that it has been against Aegisthus. Some Classicists have argued that the “dyed by Aegisthus’ sword.”115) Is this piece of fabric a car- painter used a version of the story of Agamemnon’s murder pet, a net, or a garment? It has been argued that the colour in which Aegisthus himself was the minstrel.110) Again, the red is here a symbol of marriage,116) and that this particular comparison with the story of Jalīla provides additional argu- piece of fabric is a ritual cloth used in Greek wedding cere- mentation that there once existed a version of the story of monies, where it functioned both as a cloak with which bride Agamemnon’s death in which Aegisthus acted as a minstrel, and groom cover themselves and as a coverlet for their nup- in all probability as a disguise that allowed him to wreak his tial bed. Such a wedding cloth was a symbol of sexual union revenge. and of the wedding chamber.117) Other variants of the “Avenging Bride” tale type, such as Clytemnestra’s purple fabric the story of Jalīla, also contain the motif of a red fabric (See Table 4). The Book of Judith tells that in Holofernes’ tent, To modern readers, the most famous account of the bed of the Assyrian general is placed under a sumptuous Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon is the one found in purple canopy, a chuppah, which in Jewish wedding ceremo- Aeschylus’ Oresteia. The playwright’s stage directions to his nies symbolizes sexual union and the wedding chamber.118) trilogy have not been preserved; what stage directions his After Judith has decapitated Holofernes, she takes down the work contains were added later by editors and translators. canopy and brings it together with the head back to her city. This has given rise to a debate about the nature and symbol- There she takes the head from her food bag and shows it, ism of the props to be used in the production of his plays. together with the canopy—which is probably now stained Aeschylus must have based his trilogy on an already existent with blood—to the Elders of her City as proof that she has version of the story of Agamemnon’s death.111) Building on exacted her revenge. Judith orders that the head be hung the thesis that the story of Agamemnon’s murder is a variant from the battlements as a signal for her people to attack their of the “Avenging Bride” tale type, we can use the compari- enemy. In the end, she dedicates the purple canopy at the son with other variants of the tale type to reconstruct that Temple in Jerusalem.119) version.112) Knowledge of the version of the story of Agam- In the story of Jalīla, Kulayb dips a piece of white cloth in emnon’s death on which Aeschylus based his play, that was the groom’s blood to make it into a flag “red like Venus.”120) known by his audience, and that might have been used by his This red piece of cloth is also a wedding symbol: a perverted editors to interpret his work, will help us to evaluate their version of the virginity cloth, the bloodstained piece of fabric stage directions to Aeschylus’ text. that is shown to the wedding guests as proof that the bride Much has been said about the nature and symbolism of the was a virgin and that the wedding has been consummated.121) piece of red fabric that is such an important prop in In the story of Jalīla, the bloody cloth is used to show that the Oresteia.113) Clytemnestra spreads this purple fabric on not the bride, but the groom has lost his blood in the wedding night, and that Jalīla and Kulayb have exacted their revenge. They hang the blood-red cloth from the battlements of 108) Compare the 14th-century Icelandic saga of Herraud and Bosi: ῾ When the heroine is kidnapped by an evil king and forced to marry him, Tubba ’s castle as a signal for their fellow tribesmen to one of the heroes is able to enter the villain’s castle and attend the wedding attack the enemy. ceremony disguised as a musician. He gets all the wedding guests drunk Not only in the Oresteia, but also in the story of Jalīla and and escapes with the heroine. Quoted by Stepan Ahyan, “The Hero, the in the Book of Judith a red fabric is shown to the public as Woman and the Impregnable Stronghold,” 95. See also the motifs: “K873.2 Groom murdered; while watchmen and bride are brought to sleep proof that revenge has been taken. In both the Oresteia and by music” & “K1816.0.3.1 Hero in menial disguise at heroine’s wedding,” Thompson, Motif-Index, IV, 348; 433; Edmunds, Stealing Helen, 58–59; 284; 290–294. 114) Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 908–972; 1382–1383; Libation-Bearers, 109) John G. Griffith, “Aegisthus Citharista,” American Journal of 492–494; Eumenides, 634–635. Sommerstein, Oresteia, p. 167: “Agam- Archaeology 71 (1967) 176–177; Jane McIntosh Snyder, “Aegisthos and emnon is slumped in a silver bathtub, and is enveloped from head to foot the Barbitos,” American Journal of Archaeology 80 (1976) 189–190. in a richly embroidered (but now also blood-stained) robe.” 110) Davies, “Thoughts on the Oresteia,” 240–260; Scully, “The Bard 115) Aeschylus, Libation-Bearers, 980–1017; Eumenides, 458–461. as the Custodian,” 69–70, n. 4; Panchenko, “’Aοιδòς ’ανήρ,” 181–182. 116) Kenneth Scott Morrell, “The Fabric of Persuasion: Clytaemnestra, 111) Davies, “Thoughts on the Oresteia,” 214–260; Alan H. Sommer- Agamemnon, and the Sea of Garments,” The Classical Journal 92 (1996– stein, “Tragedy and the Epic Cycle,” in: Fantuzzi & Tsagalis, Greek Epic 1997) 141–165. Cycle, 461–486. 117) Lynda McNeil, “Bridal Cloths, Cover-Ups and Kharis: The ‘Carpet 112) to my knowledge, the story of Clytemnestra has not often been Scene’ in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon,” Greece & Rome 52 (2005) 1–17. compared to these related stories. An exception is Deborah Gera’s compari- 118) erwin R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period son of Clytemnestra’s two-faced statements towards Agamemnon with (New York: Pantheon, 1956) VI, 146–162. Judith’s deception of Holofernes, see her Judith, 58. 119) Judith 10:21; 13:9; 13:15; 16:19. 113) robert F. Goheen, “Aspects of Dramatic Symbolism: Three Studies 120) Geste, We 822, f. 19b. When Medea and her lover Jason murdered in the Oresteia,” American Journal of Philology 76 (1955) 113–125; Oliver her brother Apsyrtus, the latter while dying “caught up in his hands black Taplin, The Stagecraft of Aeschylus: The Dramatic Use of Exits and blood from the wound, and dyed with crimson his sister’s silvery veil and Entrances in Greek Tragedy (Oxford: Clarendon, 1977) 310–316; Gloria robe.” Apollonius, Argonautica, 4.472–474, trans. Edward P. Coleridge Ferrari, “Figures in the Text: Metaphors and Riddles in the Agamemnon,” (London: Bell, 1889). Classical Philology 92 (1997) 1–45; Andrea Blasina, Eschilo in scena: 121) Khury, Body in Islamic Culture, 64; Weststeijn, “Wine, Women, Dramma e spettacolo nell’Orestea (Stuttgart: Metzer, 2003) 115–149. and Revenge,” 105–106. 307 blood on the wedding bed 308

Table 4. Avenging Brides: Parallels between the murders of Cyrus, Agamemnon, Holofernes, and Tubba῾ Tomyris murders Cyrus Clytemnestra murders Judith murders Holofernes Jalīla murders Tubba῾ Agamemnon – – suitor decapitated with his own groom killed with his own sword sword that hangs above the head that hangs above the head of his of his bed bed suitor’s head put in wineskin husband’s corpse in vessel; suitor’s head put in food bag groom’s blood drunk filled with blood which he has to husband has to drink up a wine drink up in retribution for his krater in retribution for his crimes crimes – purple fabric stained by purple canopy taken down after cloth dyed red in groom’s blood husband’s blood murder – husband’s corpse in vessel and suitor’s head from food bag and blood-red cloth shown as proof bloodstained purple fabric both purple canopy both shown to of vengeance shown to elders as proof of elders as proof of vengeance vengeance – – head hung from battlements as blood-red cloth hung from sign to attack enemy battlements as sign to attack enemy the story of Jalīla this fabric is stained with blood. In both will fall into a vessel filled with water (enhudron teuchos), the Oresteia and the Book of Judith this fabric is purple (even which she compares to a lebes, a vessel which is used to before it became bloodstained), and in both these texts the receive the blood of a sacrificial victim.127) Apparently murderess shows this purple fabric to her Elders together Agamemnon is standing over this receptacle when he is with (parts of) her victim’s dead body. In both the Book of killed; one can imagine that the blood from his first wounds Judith and the story of Jalīla this red fabric is a ceremonial streams into this vessel before he himself falls into it as well. wedding cloth. These correspondences support the conclu- The chorus later say they have seen Agamemnon’s dead sion that Aeschylus, his public, and his editors knew of a body lying in a silver-sided droite.128) After Agamemnon is version in which Clytemnestra also uses a ceremonial wed- murdered his hands and feet are cut off.129) ding garment in the scenes where she murders Agamemnon When the deed is done, Clytemnestra presents Agamem- and presents his corpse to her Elders. When the characters of non’s corpse to the Elders of her City. According to the stage Aeschylus’ trilogy describe the purple fabric as a “net,” this directions it is here that the “tub” appears on stage. Accord- is a metaphor: with the cloak with which bride and groom ing to the editors, Agamemnon is presented to the audience cover either themselves or their nuptial bed to symbolize in a vessel, which is covered by the bloodstained purple fab- their marital union, Clytemnestra entraps her husband when, ric. In Aeschylus’ text, Clytemnestra compares the third after ten years of absence, he hopes to resume their blow she dealt Agamemnon to the third libation of wine at a marriage.122) banquet.130) She declares that now that he is dead the only fitting funerary libation over his corpse would be not a liba- Agamemnon’s “tub” tion of wine but a libation of his blood, because with his crimes Agamemnon has filled a large mixing-bowl that he Another much-discussed stage prop in the Oresteia is now drinks up. 123 Agamemnon’s “tub.” ) The passage in the trilogy that When he had fallen I added a third stroke, in thanksgiving to probably once narrated in the greatest detail what happened the Zeus of the underworld, the savior of the dead, for the during Agamemnon’s murder is now corrupted, but one can fulfilment of my prayers. […] If it were possible to make a read the words loutra, “bath, bathwater” and droite, a rare really appropriate libation over the corpse, this is what it term that only occurs in Greek tragedy and that is translated should rightly—no, more than rightly be; so many are this as “cauldron” or “tub.”124) When he looks back, Orestes man’s accursed crimes, with which he has filled a great mix- ing-bowl in this house, which now, on returning here, he him- remembers that his mother murdered his father “in the bath” 131 (loutron),125) and the chorus refers to Agamemnon as loutro- self has had to drink up. ) daiktos, “slain in the bath.”126) Cassandra foresees in a pro- Many translators specify in their stage directions that the phetic vision that when Clytemnestra stabs Agamemnon he vessel which contains Agamemnon’s body when these words

122) compare Richard Seaford, “The Last Bath of Agamemnon,” The Classical Quarterly 34 (1984) 251. 127) Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 1128–1129. On lebes as a vessel to receive 123) seaford, “Last Bath,” 247–254. the blood of the sacrificed animal see Walter Burkert, “Greek Tragedy and 124) Aeschylus, Eumenides, 633. On the meaning of droite see Sacrificial Ritual,” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 7 (1966) 120. T.T. Duke, “Murder in the Bath: Reflections on the Death of Agamem- 128) Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 1539–1540. non,” The Classical Journal 49 (1954) 326. On the Greek terms used see 129) Aeschylus, Libation-Bearers, 439. also David Evans, “Agamemnon and the Indo-European Threefold Death 130) froma I. Zeitlin, “The Motif of the Corrupted Sacrifice in Aeschy- Pattern,” History of Religions 19 (1979) 161–162. lus’ Oresteia,” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological 125) Aeschylus, Libation-Bearers, 491; Eumenides, 461. Association 96 (1965) 473. 126) Aeschylus, Libation-Bearers, 1071. 131) Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 1385–1398. 309 bibliotheca orientalis lxxIV n° 3-4, mei-augustus 2017 310 are spoken is a bathtub.132) Others have argued that the ves- might at a marriage feast, or a joint meal, or a rich sel is not a bathtub but a container intended for catching the drinking-bout.”142) blood of a sacrificial victim so it does not spill on the ground. Indeed, that Agamemnon’s corpse is put in a food con- “The bathtub […] is no ordinary one but is much more like tainer and treated as food constitutes a case of poetic justice a sacrificial vessel, being described as silver sided.”133) “It for the crime committed by his father Atreus. In revenge for is apparent, then, that the silver droite was not properly a the fact that Atreus had murdered his brother’s children, cut bath at all, but rather a sphageion or amnion, a bowl for off their hands and feet, cooked their bodies in a cauldron catching the blood of the victim.”134) Note, however, that and served them as food, Atreus’ son is now murdered, cut when Clytemnestra presents Agamemnon’s corpse she does to pieces and presented in a food vessel as well. not mention a bathtub or a sacrificial vessel, only a “great When we compare Agamemnon’s murder in the Oresteia mixing-bowl.” with other Near Eastern variants of the tale type of the I would argue that Aeschylus’ public knew of a version of “Avenging Bride,” we find there that the heroines also put Agamemnon’s murder in which his dead body and/or his the head or blood of their murdered suitors in food or wine blood ends up in a food or wine vessel, and that Aeschylus containers (See Table 4). Only Tubba῾’s blood is not put into refers to this version in his play.135) a vessel but drunk straight from the wound. When Zenobia When we compare the Oresteia with other known versions cuts the veins of her drunken suitor at their wedding banquet, of Agamemnon’s story, we find that they do not mention the she collects his blood in the golden cup from which he has motif of a bath or bathing. These versions state that the king been drinking wine, so not a single drop spills on the ground. and his men are murdered during a banquet; that food, wine After the banquet in his tent, at which Holofernes had “drunk cups, and a mixing bowl are present at the scene of the mur- more wine than at any day since he was born,” Judith puts der; and that in the course of the slaughter blood or even his decapitated head in her food bag so she can show it, body parts fall in the smaller wine containers or in the mix- together with his purple canopy, to the Elders of her City. ing-bowl.136) According to the Odyssey Agamemnon is killed Tomyris puts the head of her dead suitor Cyrus in a wineskin during a home-coming banquet at the house of his murderer filled with blood instead of wine, so he can finally quench Aegisthus: Agamemnon and his men lie dead in puddles of his thirst for human blood. blood among a mixing-bowl and tables laden with food.137) Note that just like Agamemnon ending up in a food con- Seneca describes that Agamemnon is murdered when he is tainer closes a cycle that had begun when Atreus cooked drinking wine from a golden cup during a banquet at his own children and served them to their father in a cauldron, Cyrus house: the host is killed by his guests and his blood falls into ending up in a food container closes a cycle that had begun the wine cup: “The feast’s last course will see the master’s when his grandfather Astyages killed children, cut off their blood—yes, blood will drop into the wine.”138) In the picture hands, feet and head, cooked the rest of their bodies and Philostratus paints of the scene, Agamemnon and his men are served them to their father in a cauldron.143) killed when they are drunk; blood falls into the drinking cups In both the Book of Judith and the Oresteia the heroine full of wine and one of the victims has been decapitated shows (parts of) her suitor’s dead body to the Elders of her while standing over a crater: apparently his head has fallen City as proof of her revenge, together with the purple wed- into the wine-filled mixing-bowl.139) ding cloth (See Table 4). As Judith shows her suitor’s dead Homer and Seneca compare Agamemnon to an animal body in a food bag, it is likely that there existed a version of that is ritually slaughtered to be served as food. According the tale of Agamemnon’s murder in which Clytemnestra also to Seneca, Clytemnestra takes aim to decapitate Agamem- presented her enemy’s dead body in a food container. non “just as an attendant at the altar marks out the bulls’ In both the story of Tomyris and the Oresteia the heroine necks by eye before striking with the steel.”140) The Odyssey declares when her suitor is dead that as punishment for his compares Agamemnon who is killed during a banquet to an transgressions he has to drink up a wine container. Tomyris ox who is slaughtered while standing at his food trough: an says that Cyrus, in retribution for his bloodlust, has to drink image which suggests that the animal’s blood falls in its up a wineskin filled with human blood. Clytemnestra says manger. While the animal itself is eating, it is slaughtered to that Agamemnon has to drink up a mixing-bowl filled with be eaten by its butchers.141) Homer also compares Agamem- his crimes. In the same speech, she compares human blood non and his men to animals which are killed to be served as to wine, so this mixing-bowl filled with his crimes is prob- food at a wedding banquet: “Like white-tusked swine, ably a crater filled with his blood instead of wine. Like which are slaughtered in the house of a rich man of great Cyrus, Agamemnon has to drink up a wine vessel full of

132) Taplin, Stagecraft, 325–326; Blasina, Eschilo in scena, 15. 142) Homer, Odyssey, 11.413–415, translation by A.T. Murray [Loeb 133) evans, “Threefold Death Pattern,” 162. Classical Library, 104] (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1919). 134) Duke, “Murder in the Bath,” 327. See also Burkert, “Greek Trag- Quintus Smyrnaeus uses the same simile when he describes the slaughter edy,” 120. of the Trojans the night Deiphobus is killed and their city is taken. Fall of 135) compare Davies, “Thoughts on the Oresteia,” 234. Troy, 13.127–129: “And even as swine be slaughtered in the court of a rich 136) on a Hellenistic bowl (Staatliche Museen Berlin 4996) Agamem- king who makes his folk a feast, so without number were they slain.” non lies on a couch and holds a cup when his murderers attack him. See 143) Herodotus, Histories, 1.119. Böhme has argued that Atreus’ ban- Ulrich Sinn, Die Homerischen Becher: Hellenistische Reliefkeramik aus quet was modelled after that of Astyages as described by Herodotus, but Makedonien (Berlin, Mann: 1979) 99–101. Luraghi argues that it is the other way round and that Herodotus modelled 137) Homer, Odyssey, 11.419–420. Astyages’ banquet after that of Atreus. Robert Böhme, Pelopiden und 138) Seneca, Agamemnon, 885–886, translation by John G. Fitch [Loeb Poeten: Zur Interdependenz von Mythos, Dichtung, Historie, Tragödie im Classical Library, 78] (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004). klassischen Athen (Bern: Francke, 1972); Nino Luraghi, “The Stories 139) Philostratus, Imagines, 2.10. before the Histories: Folktale and Traditional Narrative in Herodotus,” in 140) Seneca, Agamemnon, 898–899. ed. Rosaria Vignolo Munson, Herodotus, I: Herodotus and the Narrative 141) Homer, Odyssey, 4.535; 11.411. of the Past (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013) 105–112. 311 blood on the wedding bed 312 human blood.144) As Cyrus’ head is put into the very same finding oneself in a wine vessel full of blood means drinking wine vessel he has to drink up, it is probable that there once that vessel to the dregs. existed a version in which Agamemnon’s corpse was also presented in the wine vessel he has to drink to the dregs. Conclusion Agamemnon is not only put in a food container as poetic justice for the crime committed by his father Atreus; that he Like the Egyptian intellectuals ῾Awaḍ and ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm, is served as food implies that he has been slaughtered like an I have compared the Arabic Story of al-Zīr with the Graeco- animal, which implies that his killing was not murder but a Roman stories of Helen’s abduction and Clytemnestra’s mur- sacrifice.145) In the stories of Judith, Jalīla and Zenobia, the der of Agamemnon. In contrast to ῾Awaḍ and ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm, fact that brides kill their grooms and then put them in food I restrict my analysis to the first part of the Story of al-Zīr, or drink containers makes for a perverted wedding, where the the story of Jalīla, and I include the murder of Helen’s Trojan grooms are sacrificed to feed the bride at their wedding ban- husband Deiphobus in my comparison. Moreover, I use cri- quet.146) The host is murdered and his flesh and blood are teria to assess the strength of the parallels. eaten and drunk by his dinner guests. In this light, Seneca’s The similarities between the stories of Jalīla and Helen “the feast’s last course shall see the master’s blood,” and meet three internal criteria for strong parallels: a shared Homer’s comparison of Agamemnon and his men with ani- series of interlocking motifs, found in roughly the same mals butchered to be eaten “at a rich man’s wedding ban- order, with similar relationships between the protagonists quet” becomes particularly apt.147) (See Tables 1, 2 & 3). Such parallels between the story of From the previous points I conclude that there existed a Helen and a folktale from another culture should not surprise version of the story of Agamemnon’s death in which his us, since Edmunds has shown that Helen’s story is a variant blood or (parts of) his dead body ended up in a food or wine of a tale type that is found in many parts of the world. As the container. Several elements of the text of the Oresteia allow story of Jalīla contains six of the eight elements that consti- us to conclude that Aeschylus used this version as a basis for tute this “Abduction of the Beautiful Wife” tale type as his trilogy: 1) the many references, throughout the Oresteia, defined by Edmunds, it follows that the story of Jalīla is an to Thyestes’ banquet where children were served in a food Arabic variant of this type. vessel;148) 2) the many instances throughout the Oresteia The story of Clytemnestra is not about abduction, yet it where the act of taking vengeance is compared to the drink- also shares strong similarities with the story of Jalīla. A num- ing of human blood;149) 3) Clytemnestra’s comparison of ber of motifs from the story of Jalīla recur in various versions blood with wine when she presents Agamemnon’s corpse; of Clytemnestra’s story (See Table 5). and 4) the fact that Clytemnestra when she presents Agam- emnon’s corpse does not mention a bath but does mention “a Table 5. Shared motifs in the story of Jalīla and three versions great mixing-bowl.” of the story of Clytemnestra When Clytemnestra presents Agamemnon’s body and Story of Clytemnestra speaks of “this man’s accursed crimes, with which he has Story of Oresteia filled a great mixing-bowl in this house, which now, on Jalīla Odyssey Oresteia returning here, he himself has had to drink up,” it is possible krater that she points to an actual wine vessel on stage, in which minstrel chaperons heroine × blind – – the audience is to imagine Agamemnon’s blood and cut-up heroine’s lover as minstrel × – × – body parts.150) Another possibility is that she points to the female diviner (who warns vessel which Agamemnon has used to bathe himself, in the king about his female × × × × which he has fallen when she killed him, and in which his enemy) body still lies. In this case she compares this vessel in which the bathwater has become mixed with blood to a crater in motif cluster of the heroine who murders her husband which water has been mixed with wine. As when Tomyris × × × × the king with the help of her puts Cyrus’ head in a wineskin, the image is apparently that true love heroine’s lover as × blind – – 144) A teuchos filled with blood that represents the destruction of Troy immaculate avenger is mentioned in Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 815. On the metaphorical relations between wine and Agamemnon’s death see Verena Vogel-Ehrensperger, Die übelste aller Frauen? Klytaimestra in Texten von Homer bis Aischylos Like the similarities between the stories of Jalīla and und Pindar (Basel: Schwabe, 2012) 153–154; 204–205. Helen, the similarities between the stories of Jalīla 145) Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 1118; 1504; Zeitlin, “Corrupted Sacri- and Clytemnestra also meet three of the four criteria for fice,” 463–508; Albert Henrichs, “Drama and Dromena: Bloodshed, Vio- strong parallels: series of motifs, in the same order, similar lence, and Sacrificial Metaphor in Euripides,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 100 (2000) 173–188. relationship between the protagonists (See Tables 3, 4 & 5). 146) Weststeijn, “Wine, Women, and Revenge,” 105–107. Clytemnestra’s story shares a shorter series of motifs with 147) Foley, Female Acts, 211, calls Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamem- Jalīla’s story than Helen’s story. However, two of the motifs non both a “perverted banquet” and a “perverted fertility ritual-birth-sex- from this series (the minstrel who chaperons the heroine, and ual climax.” Compare also Seaford, “Last Bath,” 251. 148) Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 1090–1097; 1217–1224; 1242; 1497– her lover as an immaculate avenger) are blind in 1512; 1577–1612; Libation-Bearers, 1068–1072. Clytemnestra’s story but functional in Jalīla’s story: an addi- 149) Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 827–828; 1188–1189; 1476–1479; tional criterion for strong parallels. Libation-­Bearers, 66–67; 533; 577–578; Eumenides, 183–193; 264–267. These strong parallels between the stories of Jalīla, Helen, 150) compare the depictions of Agamemnon’s murder where a large vase is present on the scene: Davies, “Thoughts on the Oresteia,” and Clytemnestra show that Lyons and Pormann were too 224–236. quick in their dismissal of the theories of ῾Awaḍ and ῾Abd 313 bibliotheca orientalis lxxIV n° 3-4, mei-augustus 2017 314 al-Ḥakīm that there are similarities between the Story of common people was used by poets and playwrights to create al-Zīr, accounts of the Trojan War, and the Oresteia. The works of high literature. While the oral tales were lost, the parallels between these stories demonstrate that—just as the written works of these authors were preserved and later stories of Judith, Zenobia, and Tomyris—they are variants of became cherished by European elites as foundational texts of the “Avenging Bride” tale type. In the case of the stories Western civilization. Those modern Arab intellectuals who of Helen and Jalīla, about stolen women who murder their measured their literary heritage to the standard set by Euro- abductor in his wedding bed, the “Avenging Bride” type pean critics, tried to find common ground between Arabic overlaps with the “Abduction of the Beautiful Wife” type. literature and Graeco-Roman epic and tragedy about the Tro- As Edmunds has shown that the “Abduction of the Beauti- jan War. It is no coincidence that they found such parallels ful Wife” is a truly international tale type with near global not so much in works written in Classical Arabic but rather distribution, there are no reasons to assume that the origin of in a genre they had up to that moment largely ignored: the these stories must lie in Egypt (῾Awaḍ) or Palestine (῾Abd folktales told in spoken Arabic by the common people. That al-Ḥakīm). ῾Awaḍ was right, however, that comparisons with parallels were discovered in this popular oral genre is not an Arabic folktale can shed new light on the Greek and Latin surprising as the written plays and poems about the Trojan classics. The comparison with the story of Jalīla and other War eventually derive from oral folktales as well: popular Avenging Bride tales can help us to reconstruct earlier ver- Graeco-Roman and Arab storytellers drew from a shared res- sions of the story of Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon. ervoir of motifs and tale types. The desire of intellectuals like In the story of Jalīla, the hero’s disguise as a minstrel who Bustānī, ῾Awaḍ and ῾Abd al-Ḥakīm for a shared foundation escorts the heroine has an important function in the plot: it between Arabic and European literature is not unfounded: allows the hero to be permitted into Jalīla’s wedding bed- both literatures contain works that are based on a common room and exact his revenge on her husband the king. Com- Near Eastern pool of stories. It follows that the study of these parison of the story of Jalīla with the Odyssey where anonymous Arabic folktales can shed a revealing light on the Clytemnestra is guarded by a minstrel, and vase paintings timeless classics by Homer, Virgil and Aeschylus. where Aegisthus can be recognized by the attribute of a lyre, provides argumentation for the hypothesis that there once University of Amsterdam April 2017 existed a version of the story of Agamemnon’s murder in which Aegisthus also disguised himself as a minstrel. In the story of Jalīla, the hero cleanses himself from the pollution caused when the king murdered his father, by tak- ing revenge and drinking the king’s blood as a purifier. In the Odyssey, Zeus, when discussing vengeance and Aegis- thus’ murder of Agamemnon, calls Aegisthus “spotless.” Apparently, there once existed a version of the story of Agamemnon’s murder in which Aegisthus cleansed himself from the pollution caused by Atreus’ murder of his brothers by taking his vengeance on Atreus’ son Agamemnon. In the story of Jalīla, the piece of fabric that Jalīla and her lover dip in the king’s blood is an inverted virginity cloth, which proves that not the bride but the groom has shed his blood. In the Book of Judith, the purple canopy that hangs above Holofernes’ bed and which the heroine shows to the Elders of her City with her suitor’s decapitated head is a chuppah, that symbolizes marital union. Comparison with Aeschylus’ Oresteia provides argumentation for the thesis that the purple fabric which Clytemnestra spreads on the ground to welcome her husband, throws over him when she kills him, and drapes over his dead body when she presents his corpse to the Elders of her City, must also be a sacramen- tal wedding cloth. Because Judith puts Holofernes’ head in the food bag in which she had brought her kosher wine, Tomyris pushes Cyrus’ head in a wineskin filled with blood, and Zenobia collects her bridegroom’s blood in a wine cup, it is highly likely that there existed a version of the story of Agamem- non’s murder in which Clytemnestra puts her husband’s blood or body in a wine container. When Clytemnestra shows the public her dead husband in a vessel, it is likely that this vessel is either a wine container, or the vessel Agamem- non has used to wash himself and in which the mixture of water and blood evokes the mixture of water and wine in a krater. In Graeco-Roman Antiquity, the subject matter of oral tales about the Trojan War that were popular among the