The divine oath (1)

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The genealogical section of Hesiod’s Theogony lists among the children of Eris ‘Oath, who does the most harm to men on earth, when anyone deliberately swears false’ (231-232). Hesiod mentions this deified Oath again in the Works and Days as being born on the fifth of the month with the Erinyes in attendance (803-804). The oath can be treated as a divine power because it is a sort of curse which a man lays upon himself and which will punish him inexorably in the event of perjury. The concept is also present in the Ancient Near East. The most graphic description of this demonized Oath occurs in the Underworld Vision of an Assyrian Prince, where, as in Hesiod, it is associated with infernal powers. The narrator sees it among other hellish figures, and the word for oath is preceded by the divine determinative: “(god) Oath - head of a goat, hands (and) feet human.”

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Hesiod, Theogony 231-232
Hesiod, Theogony 803-804
Underworld Vision of an Assyrian Prince

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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