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Daemons of battle and combat in Greek mythology From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Greek mythology, the Machai or Machae (Ancient Greek: Μάχαi, lit. 'Battles, Wars', from the plural of μάχη)[1] are collectively the personification of battle and war. In Hesiod's Theogony, the Machai are listed among the children of Eris (Strife).[2] Like all of the children of Eris given by Hesiod, the Machai are a personified abstraction, allegorizing the meaning of their name, and representing one of the many harmful things which might be thought to result from discord and strife, with no other identity.[3]
Hesiod's Theogony, line 228, lists four personified plural abstractions, the Hysminai (Combats), the Machai (Battles), the Phonoi (Murders), and the Androktasiai (Slaughters), as being among the offspring of Eris (Strife):
These four abstractions were associated in other ancient poetry. The nearly identical line, listing the same four (without capitalizations, and with different case endings), in the same order, occurs in Homer's Odyssey, where Odysseus describes the decorations on Heracles' golden belt:
The abstraction μάχαι (battles) was also associated with ὑσμῖναί (combats) in the Homeric Hymn 5 To Aphrodite, and with ἀνδροκτασίαι (Slaughters) in Homer's, Iliad.[6]
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