Politics

/

ArcaMax

‘Each bears his own ghosts’: How the classics speak to these days of fear, anger and presidential candidates stalking the land

Rachel Hadas, Rutgers University - Newark, The Conversation on

Published in Political News

“Fear stalks the land, including the Upper West Side,” I wrote to a friend the other day. A week before the election, everyone seems to be afraid.

Not that we’re afraid of the same things. Newspaper owners and corporate leaders fear Donald Trump’s retribution if they endorse Kamala Harris. Election workers fear the mob. Democrats fear losing votes because of the carnage in the Gaza Strip. Trump’s followers fear immigrants.

Walled up in our silos, we fear what the people in the other silo might inflict on us. The frightening visions have different names and faces, but everyone seems to fear the future.

Halloween’s ghoulish displays seem to have generated more sales than ever this year, inflation be damned. What with school shootings, random violence and a general atmosphere of threats, one would think we didn’t need to scare ourselves more.

But as psychologist Sarah Kollat has recently written, Halloween thrills and chills can feel warming and reassuring. People who have survived a frightening shared ordeal, be it a hurricane or flood or fire or war or even, apparently, a haunted house, feel significantly connected to those who have experienced the same fearful event alongside them.

Our fear can bring us together. It can also tear us apart.

Halloween provides the language to talk about threats, real or imagined. “The zombies have arrived, and we have to figure out how to navigate around them,” a citizen of a Vermont town was recently quoted as saying. She was talking about homeless people.

It’s both easy and helpful to personify fear as something outside of us – to give it, in Shakespeare’s phrase, “a local habitation and a name.”

Fear looms and fades; visits at night; thrives in certain conditions. In his epic “The Aeneid,” the Roman poet Virgil describes the war god, Mars, as accompanied by his posse: “the god’s retainers – Treachery, Rage, and black Fear – pound beside him.”

This nightmare troika has a contemporary ring. If by treachery we understand traps, tricks, ambushes, we can plug in political debate, rife with accusations of mendacity; tricks and rage also characterize a good deal of public discourse. And isn’t anger the opposite side of the coin of fear?

Virgil, a great psychologist of many kinds of unease, also depicts a less aggressive manifestation of fear: “Up on the wall stood frightened mothers, gazing/After the dust cloud and the bronze-bright squadrons.” Uneasy spectators, helpless to protect their loved ones, they watch their sons marching to war. In a similar passage, “mothers, the unarmed commons,/And weak old men came pouring out to fill/Towers and roofs.”

Those of us not on a battlefield are in a position of tense watching and waiting.

 

We feel powerless to affect the outcome; the stakes are high; we fear the worst.

Fear is linked to love. In Homer’s “Iliad,” Achilles is reluctant to fight for the Greek side not because he’s afraid of death, even though he knows his life may be short. Rather, he’s too angry to sacrifice his life for a cause and commanders he no longer believes in – until his beloved Patroklos is killed by Hector. Only then do Achilles’ mood and motivation change; he eagerly rejoins the fight.

Characters in Greek tragedies can make terrible decisions, be subject to madness, destroy themselves and others – but they are rarely afraid. The fear and pity Aristotle ascribes to tragedy are the emotions of the spectator.

In connection with fear, one of the only characters in Greek tragedy who readily comes to mind is Admetus, the husband of Alcestis in Euripides’ play of that name. Informed that he is fated to die, Admetus scrambles frantically for a substitute to die in his place. His own father huffily refuses, but his wife Alcestis volunteers.

When at the end of the play a veiled, silent figure we presume to be Alcestis reappears, there’s relief, as well as some nervous laughter. This play, with its – sort of – happy ending, turns out not to be a tragedy after all. It’s closer to dark comedy.

In our own time, rather than fear of death, fear of loss looms large – fear of isolation, humiliation, status; fear of poverty; fear of change. Elsewhere in “the Aeneid,” a character in the underworld makes a resonant remark about the afterlife: “Each bears his own ghosts.”

Maybe each of us has our own flavor of fear. There’s not much love or heroism in evidence these Halloween and preelection days. Anger and treachery, fear’s companions, are on daily display.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Rachel Hadas, Rutgers University - Newark

Read more:
‘The immortal Gods alone have neither age nor death’: Wisdom from Greek tragedies for Joe Biden

Cassidy Hutchinson and Greek tragedy show that courage is rare and cowardice more common

What the Greek classics tell us about grief and the importance of mourning the dead

Rachel Hadas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.


 

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

 

Related Channels

ACLU

ACLU

By The ACLU
Amy Goodman

Amy Goodman

By Amy Goodman
Armstrong Williams

Armstrong Williams

By Armstrong Williams
Austin Bay

Austin Bay

By Austin Bay
Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro

By Ben Shapiro
Betsy McCaughey

Betsy McCaughey

By Betsy McCaughey
Bill Press

Bill Press

By Bill Press
Bonnie Jean Feldkamp

Bonnie Jean Feldkamp

By Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
Cal Thomas

Cal Thomas

By Cal Thomas
Christine Flowers

Christine Flowers

By Christine Flowers
Clarence Page

Clarence Page

By Clarence Page
Danny Tyree

Danny Tyree

By Danny Tyree
David Harsanyi

David Harsanyi

By David Harsanyi
Debra Saunders

Debra Saunders

By Debra Saunders
Dennis Prager

Dennis Prager

By Dennis Prager
Dick Polman

Dick Polman

By Dick Polman
Erick Erickson

Erick Erickson

By Erick Erickson
Froma Harrop

Froma Harrop

By Froma Harrop
Jacob Sullum

Jacob Sullum

By Jacob Sullum
Jamie Stiehm

Jamie Stiehm

By Jamie Stiehm
Jeff Robbins

Jeff Robbins

By Jeff Robbins
Jessica Johnson

Jessica Johnson

By Jessica Johnson
Jim Hightower

Jim Hightower

By Jim Hightower
Joe Conason

Joe Conason

By Joe Conason
Joe Guzzardi

Joe Guzzardi

By Joe Guzzardi
John Micek

John Micek

By John Micek
John Stossel

John Stossel

By John Stossel
Josh Hammer

Josh Hammer

By Josh Hammer
Judge Andrew Napolitano

Judge Andrew Napolitano

By Judge Andrew P. Napolitano
Laura Hollis

Laura Hollis

By Laura Hollis
Marc Munroe Dion

Marc Munroe Dion

By Marc Munroe Dion
Michael Barone

Michael Barone

By Michael Barone
Michael Reagan

Michael Reagan

By Michael Reagan
Mona Charen

Mona Charen

By Mona Charen
Oliver North and David L. Goetsch

Oliver North and David L. Goetsch

By Oliver North and David L. Goetsch
R. Emmett Tyrrell

R. Emmett Tyrrell

By R. Emmett Tyrrell
Rachel Marsden

Rachel Marsden

By Rachel Marsden
Rich Lowry

Rich Lowry

By Rich Lowry
Robert B. Reich

Robert B. Reich

By Robert B. Reich
Ruben Navarrett Jr

Ruben Navarrett Jr

By Ruben Navarrett Jr.
Ruth Marcus

Ruth Marcus

By Ruth Marcus
S.E. Cupp

S.E. Cupp

By S.E. Cupp
Salena Zito

Salena Zito

By Salena Zito
Star Parker

Star Parker

By Star Parker
Stephen Moore

Stephen Moore

By Stephen Moore
Susan Estrich

Susan Estrich

By Susan Estrich
Ted Rall

Ted Rall

By Ted Rall
Terence P. Jeffrey

Terence P. Jeffrey

By Terence P. Jeffrey
Tim Graham

Tim Graham

By Tim Graham
Tom Purcell

Tom Purcell

By Tom Purcell
Veronique de Rugy

Veronique de Rugy

By Veronique de Rugy
Victor Joecks

Victor Joecks

By Victor Joecks
Wayne Allyn Root

Wayne Allyn Root

By Wayne Allyn Root

Comics

Bob Englehart Pat Bagley John Deering Tom Stiglich Eric Allie Randy Enos