The Athenian Plague
Thucydides describes the Athenian plague as a common flu-like virus with “heats in the head, inflammation and a hard cough” but its “mortality was nowhere remembered” (Finley 274). Thucydides then relates that the plague originally began in a strange and far land of Ethiopia (Finley 274). Thucydides begins by explaining that the disease spreads most effectively when an individual caught the disease and another would come to aid the sick, and in turn they too would contract the disease. This transfer of the virus “caused the greatest mortality” (Finley 276). With this fear in mind “they were afraid to visit each other” (Finley 276). Countrymen who moved into the city had no houses to house them in so “they had to be lodged in stifling cabins where the mortality raged without restraint with the bodies of dying men laying one upon another” (Finley 277). With such a horrible sight and so many dying, all Greek burial rights were “entirely upset with the most shameless sepultures...tossing a corpse which they were carrying on top of another that was burning and off they went” (Finley 277). The Athenian plague had an enormous impact on Athenian society as men became afraid to visit one another, started living in solitude in fear of contracting the disease and proper funeral rights were completely disregarded as dead bodies were thrown inside a burning hole. In comparison to the Athenian plague the current Coronavirus has similarly impacted American society. As the Athenians blamed the disease for starting in Ethiopia, a faraway land, Americans also blame that the Coronavirus began in China, a faraway land. At the beginning of April many states began shutting down essential businesses and started to call for “social distancing” where an individual would maintain six feet apart from another person in order to curb the disease’s spread, just like the Athenians abstained from visiting and socializing with one another. Also in comparison with Athenian burial rites being entirely halted; likewise, in New York FEMA Agency deployed 85 refrigerated trucks to serve as temporary morgues, where hospitals placed the overflow of dead Coronavirus patient’s bodies one on top of the other (Rambaran). Just as the Athenians gave up their funeral rituals we too have taken extreme measures of getting rid of the dead, socially distanced ourselves, and blamed a faraway land for infecting the world.
Oedipus Rex Plague
When most early Greek tragedies were written they came with certain requirements to move the audience emotionally but most importantly the play contained a moral theme that one should abide by in order to please the gods or to be a morally upstanding citizen. In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex a tyrant by the name of Oedipus is born with a prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus runs away from his homeland in order not to fulfill this prophecy and later becomes a city’s tyrant ruler. Soon after a sickness takes over the whole town and Oedipus sends his brother-in-law to Apollo’s shrine to see what he should do to save his city. A famous seer, Tiresias, tells Oedipus that the plague is in the city because a man has killed the last king and lives in the same town that the old king ruled in. Tiresias states “even though you see clearly you do not see the scope of your evil, though you see well enough now, then you will be blind” (Sophocles 25). Later, though many signs have been given, Oedipus finds out that he is the murderer that he has been seeking, and gouges out his eyes (Sophocles 57). Throughout the play Oedipus was metaphorically blinded to the truth that he was the one bringing about the city’s disease but couldn't take the many hints that Tiresias and others presented him, that he was the murderer. Just as Oedipus’ blindness led his whole city to suffer, the acting authorities of the United States also led the US to suffer by their blindness. On January 30th the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak as a Public Health Emergency. A couple weeks later, according to the New York Times, Senator Murphy of Connecticut wrote on social media after a meeting with the CDC “just left the Administration briefing on Coronavirus, bottom line: they aren’t taking this seriously enough” (Lipton). Two months later Bill Gates stated “the U.S. is past this opportunity to control COVID-19 without shutdown; we did not act fast enough to have an ability to avoid the shutdown. It’s January when everybody should’ve been on notice” (Bursztynsky). Even after the WHO warned that a virus was coming the Federal Government, just like Oedipus, was not taking the warnings too seriously. After five months and 99,000 deaths, US officials made the same mistake that Oedipus made, blindingly ignoring the signs that were given to them that a pandemic was coming (Cases). Just as Oedipus was the ruler and brought about the city’s suffering, the US’s acting authorities have brought about an immense amount of suffering to their American citizens, both blindly ignoring the given signs. As an anonymous quote once said “it ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
The Iliad Plague
As Homer wrote the Iliad one can assume he was a very religious man since the Iliad contains numerous accounts of the gods meddling in human affairs and wars. In one instance Apollo sends a plague to the Greeks as Agamemnon displeased Apollo; likewise, many Americans think it is the justice of God that has sent this virus to punish the US. As the Iliad states “Agamemnon had dishonored Chryses, Apollo’s priest, by taking his daughter, so the god struck the Greek camp with a plague, and the soldiers were dying of it” (Homer 1). After many deaths Agamenom decided to return the priest’s daughter as the priest prayed to Apollo to lift the plague (Homer 10). This plague affected the Greek’s morale for when the priest walked into the camp “murmur went up their ranks” for they feared the priest and knew that they had done wrong and hoped for a good omen to win the war not a plague (Homer 2). Likewise Americans are more than ever looking for good omens from God to end this epidemic. Ross Douthat, a journalist for the New York Times, has said regarding the current epidemic that “people should be looking for glimpses of a pattern, for signs [from God] of what this particular trial might mean” (Douthat). Just as the Greeks when struck by the plague looked to receive guidance from a priest, Americans are also now looking towards pastors and God to know why such a disease has struck the world. A Jesuit, Father James Martin, has recently spoken about the plague stating “what does it mean that God has permitted (or willed) temporary conditions in which we live in? We might think none of this tells us anything about ourselves, or about God’s compassion and justice, and bringing meaning out of suffering is the saving work of God” (Douthat). As Father Martin stated, Americans are questioning why they are suffering. Just as the Greeks hoped for good omens, the Coronavirus might, in fact, be God’s omen for Americans to re-think their ways they live and change their course. Just as the Greeks repented and gave Chryses’ daughter back Americans will also have to give themselves back to God.
Conclusion
Throughout the plagues of the Iliad, Athens, and Oedipus Rex many signs were given why the plagues were occurring causing the people to turn to the gods to seek answers but most of all people drastically changed their daily lives. The Coronavirus has had the same effect upon everyday Americans, changed our social gatherings, jobs, and even how we dress. The question we must now ask is if we also need to look to the God(s) for an answer to this plague.
Works cited
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