Classical & Biblical Quotations

[Caius Marcius]

No: HPFGUIDX 172651

The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus ("the father of tragic drama – and
tragedy in Greek means "goat song," because in the earliest dramas,
the chorus often dressed like satyrs) was the second play in a
trilogy about the fall of the House of Atreus. The trilogy was first
performed in 458 BC. In the first play, Agamemnon, is an account of
the title character, the king of Mycenae, as he returns home from the
Trojan War. His wife Clytemnestra harbors anger against her husband
due to his sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia as he embarked to
Troy, in order to appease the gods. Clytemnestra and her lover
Aegisthus murder Agamemnon, along with his concubine Cassandra (the
prophetess), unwilling captive of war. Cassandra of course predicts
the disaster to come (including her own murder), but is of course
ignored. After the bloodbath, Agamemnon's son Orestes is taken away
from Mycenae by a loyal nurse.

The second play begins with the return of Orestes (accompanied by his
friend Pylades) to Mycenae, to avenge his father's death (under
orders by Apollo given at the oracle at Delphi). . He observes his
sister Electra (who has been reduced to servant status by her mother)
and a female chorus pouring libations on Agamemnon's tomb. They have
been ordered to do so by Clytemnestra, who has had a nightmare in
which she gives birth to a snake. Realizing the significance of this
omen, she tries to appease the fates. The long-separated brother and
sister rejoice in their reunion and plot their mother's demise.

Orestes gains access to Clytemnestra by pretending to be a messenger
with news of Orestes 'death. In the ensuing celebration, Orestes
kills her and her husband Aegisthus. The second play ends with
Orestes pursued by the Furies), for his act of matricide.

(In the third play, The Eumenides, resolution is achieved via the
intervention of Athena, who organizes a formal trial in which Orestes
is acquitted, and the Furies - renamed The Kindly Ones (The
Eumenides) agree to become the guardians of Athens.

The parallels with the HP saga are obvious, especially the prophecy, 
a trio of protaganists (one female, two male) and the general 
atmosphere of violence which the hero must expunge. That final 
line, "Bless the children, give them triumph now" was a minor spoiler 
for me. I figured that JKR would not kill Harry after that 
quotation.Does anyone know which translation she used?

There are two Biblical quotes in chapter 16, the Godrics Hollow
graveyard. The first Harry sees on the tomb of Dumbledore's mother 
and sister:

"Harry stooped down and saw, upon the frozen, lichen-spotted granite,
the words Kendra Dumbledore and, a short way down her dates of birth
and death, and Her Daughter Ariana. There was also a quotation:

Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.



..Hermione was looking at Harry, and he was glad that his face was
hidden in shadow. He read the words on the tombstone again. Where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also. He did not
understand what these words meant. Surely Dumbledore had chosen
them, as the eldest member of the family once his mother had died."

The quote in found in both Matthew and Luke

Matthew 6: 19:21

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and
rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys,
and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure
is, there your heart will be also."

And again Luke 12:33-34

"Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money
belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where
no thief comes near nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.

On the surface, the statement is simply a truism: we love the things
that we value most highly. So therefore, we must be sure that the
things we love are the things that are of eternal and imperishable
benefit. Harry says that he does not understand the words, but
ironically, he fulfills them. As Dumbledore says in HBP, "You are
protected, in short, by your ability to love!" said Dumbledore
loudly. "The only protection that can possibly work against the lure
of power like Voldemort's! In spite of all the temptation you have
endured, all the suffering, you remain pure of heart, just as pure as
you were at the age of eleven, when you stared into a mirror that
reflected your heart's desire, and it showed you only the way to
thwart Lord Voldemort, and not immortality or riches. Harry, have you
any idea how few wizards could have seen what you saw in that mirror?
Voldemort should have known then what he was dealing with, but he did
not!"

What Harry values most are his friends, and he is willing to
sacrifice himself to save them. Although he briefly succumbs to the
lure of power that the Deathly Hallows promises, he in the end is
content to let the Resurrection Stone remain lost in the Forbidden
Forest and to renounce the elder wand, just as he earlier renounced
the thousand galleon prize at the end of GoF. (Harry notices Ron and
Hermione gazing at the wand "with a reverence
.he did not to see" –
showing just how potent its lure is.)

The second is the inscription of the tomb of James and Lily Potter.

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

Harry read the words slowly, as though he would have only one chance
to take in their meaning, and he read the last of them aloud. "'The
last enemy that shall be defeated is death' . . ." A horrible thought
came to him, and with a kind of panic. "Isn't that a Death Eater
idea? Why is that there?"

"It doesn't mean defeating death in the way the Death Eaters mean it,
Harry," said Hermione, her voice gentle. "It means . . . you
know . . . living beyond death. Living after death."

The quote comes from Paul's First letter to the Corinthians, 15:26.
In this passage, which climaxes in the famous line, "Death, where is
thy sting?" Paul writes that in the resurrection of Christ is the
promise that we will also have rebirth. This passage is 1 Corinthians 
15:20-26

"But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of
those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also
came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in
Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the
first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming, then
comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father,
when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He
must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last
enemy that will be abolished is death."

Harry's initial reaction to Hermione's exegesis is despair: "But they
were not living, thought Harry. They were gone. The empty words could
not disguise the fact that his parents' moldering remains lay beneath
snow and stone, indifferent, unknowing
..He let [his tears] fall, his
lips pressed hard together, looking down at the thick snow hiding
from his eyes the place where the last of Lily and James lay, bones
now, surely, or dust, not knowing or caring that their living son
stood so near, his heart still beating, alive because of their
sacrifice and close to wishing, at this moment, that he was sleeping
under the snow with them."

A theme that is developed in DH is that the enemy Death can be
destroyed when Death becomes a friend. This is the ending of the
Tale of the Three Brothers, where the third brother with the
Invisibility Cloak "greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him
gladly, and as equals, they departed this life."

Harry later learns that, via the Resurrection Stone, he was not
fetching the dead, "they were fetching him.". As Sirius tells
him, "Dying? [Doesn't hurt] at all. Quicker and easier than falling
asleep." Lupin's declaration that his son "will know why I died
I was
trying to make a world in which he could live a happier life." The
quartet with Harry are at peace with their death, knowing that they
did not live their lives in vain, in contrast to Voldemort, who
thinks nothing is worse than his own personal death, and is willingly
to slaughter others to achieve that purpose.

Harry retains ownership of the Invisibility Cloak at the end of DH,
suggesting, that when it is time, he too will greet Death like an old
friend.

    - CMC