Note Zeus, whate’er He be — THE AGAMEMNON

[P. 7, l. 160, Zeus, whate’er He be.]—This conception of Zeus is expressed also in Aeschylus’ Suppliant Women, and was probably developed in the Prometheus Trilogy. See my Rise of the Greek Epic, p. 291 (Ed. 2). It is connected with the common Greek conception of the Tritos Sôtêr— the Saviour Third. First, He who sins; next, He who avenges; third, He who saves. In vegetation worship it is the Old Year who has committed Hubris, the sin of pride, in summer; the Winter who slays him; the New Year which shall save. In mythology the three successive Rulers of Heaven are given by Hesiod as Ouranos, Kronos, Zeus (cf. Prometheus, 965 ff.), but we cannot tell if Aeschylus accepted the Hesiodic story. Cf. note on l. 246, and Clytemnestra’s blasphemy at l. 1387, p. 63.