These are the words with which the chorus of Sophocles’ Antigone begin their song about all-subduing Eros after the heated discussion between Creon and Haemon in the third episode. Although the general sense of these lines is clear, the exact meaning of the first relative clause has long troubled scholars: the word κτήμασι has seemed too flat—at least, in its usual meaning of ‘possessions’ (LSJ s.v. 2)—to be given such prominence in the celebration of Eros’ power, a difficulty exacerbated by the absence of a qualifying adjective or of a possessive genitive to clarify the referent of the term. Even though many conjectures have been proposed over the years,Footnote ² the current scholarly consensus is that the transmitted text should not be emended. Intense debate persists, however, over the best way to interpret κτήμασι—and, as we will see, none of the explanations put forward so far is entirely persuasive.

According to the most widely accepted interpretation, κτήμασι refers to flocks and herds. On this view, all three spheres of Eros’ domination—animal, human and divine—would be mentioned within the first strophe of the stasimon in clear parallel to other tragic passages in which Eros’ boundless power is proven by the fact that not only men and gods fall prey to his lures but also animals on earth, in the sea and in the sky.Footnote ³ In order to support such a restricted sense of κτῆμα, first proposed by Brunck,Footnote ⁴ Chantraine brought attention to three Platonic passages—two in the Laws (735b1–c3 and 777b7) and one in the Phaedo (62b3–8)—in which this word seems to refer to cattle.Footnote ⁵ Not all of them, however, are persuasive. Laws 777b7 is part of a section in which the Athenian Stranger ponders which possessions a person should have: whereas most chattels are easy to acquire, slaves, he argues, present all kinds of difficulties. The reason for this resides in the peculiarity of human nature: since humans are intractable creatures (δῆλον ὡς ἐπειδὴ δύσκολόν ἐστι τὸ θρέμμα ἄνθρωπος, 777b4), and all the more so when the distinction between slave and master comes into play, it comes as no surprise that ‘the slave is no easy chattel’ (χαλεπὸν δὴ τὸ κτῆμα, 777b7).Footnote ⁶ Chantraine argued that, since κτῆμα seems to recall and explain the preceding θρέμμα, the best way to capture its nuances is by translating it as ‘cheptel’ (that is, ‘cattle’).Footnote ⁷ Yet, if one keeps in mind that κτῆμα occurs in a thorough examination of possessions and chattels of any kind, it appears unnecessary to give it the restricted meaning of cattle. Similar reservations can be voiced also about the passage in the Phaedo. In it Socrates criticizes the idea that we as human beings find ourselves in a φρουρά from which we should not escape, but he concedes that the gods are our guardians and that we are one of their chattels (τὸ θεοὺς εἶναι ἡμῶν τοὺς ἐπιμελουμένους καὶ ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἓν τῶν κτημάτων τοῖς θεοῖς εἶναι, 62b7–8). For Chantraine, the φρουρά mentioned by Socrates evokes the image of ‘un parc à bétail, le bétail étant composé d'esclaves’.Footnote ⁸ However, as Rowe has persuasively argued, it is more reasonable to think that the image conjured up by these lines is that of a prison and that human beings, by being described as κτήματα of the gods, are equated simply with slaves, with no additional reference to cattle.Footnote ⁹ Much more straightforward is the first passage from the Laws indicated by Chantraine. In it the Athenian Stranger argues that shepherds, cowherds and keepers of horses, before beginning to take care of a new flock, separate the healthy animals from the unhealthy ones; otherwise, their efforts would run the risk of being wasted ‘whatever the class of beast’ (ἐν ἑκάστοις τῶν κτημάτων, 735c2–3).Footnote ¹⁰ As the context makes clear beyond doubt, the κτήματα referred to are indeed the animals that make up flocks and herds. Yet, since the speech of the Athenian Stranger is explicitly focussed on herdsmen, it is hardly surprising that the animals on which these people spend their time and resources are presented as ‘possessions’. The same cannot be said about the line in Antigone: no element there guides the audience in their interpretation of the rather vague term κτήμασι.Footnote ¹¹

Yet, even if one adopts the interpretation of κτήμασι as cattle (or, for that matter, the alteration of κτήμασι into κτήνεσι),Footnote ¹² the idea that lines 781–90 neatly delineate all the spheres of Eros’ domination is not beyond doubt. If, as some have argued, the mention of the god's travel over land and sea in lines 785–6 is tantamount to a celebration of his power over fish and land-beasts,Footnote ¹³ then the chorus’ shift from animals to human beings and then back to animals would be surprising in light of other passages in which the different kinds of beasts controlled by Eros and Aphrodite are listed one after the other (cf. Hymn. Hom. Ven. 2–5; Soph. frr. 684 and 941.7–12 Radt; and Eur. Hipp. 1274–80). If, instead, these lines do not focus specifically on Eros’ subjects but simply highlight his ubiquity,Footnote ¹⁴ then the chorus’ choice of domesticated animals as their only zoological exemplum would appear rather flat. In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, for instance, the goddess proves her power by instilling desire into the hearts of wolves, lions, bears, leopards and roe deer (Hymn. Hom. Ven. 69–74).

The difficulties connected with identifying references to the animal world in these lines are avoided in the other two most common interpretations of κτήμασι. The first, proposed by Donaldson, sees in this term a reference to human beings who are attacked by Eros and become, as a result, his possessions, ‘the herd which he guides and governs’.Footnote ¹⁵ In this reading, κτήμασι would be used proleptically to indicate the outcome of the god's assault. No persuasive parallel has been offered, though, for such proleptic use of the word, and the paraphrase given by Donaldson—‘Amor qui, incidendo jacentibus, debellatos tibi quasi jure mancipi vindicas’—clearly shows how much has to be supplied by the audience to make the line fully intelligible.Footnote ¹⁶ The second interpretation, championed by Jebb, gives κτήμασι its usual meaning of possessions and wealth. The sense of the line would be that Eros ‘can bring ruin on great houses and proud cities’, as shown most notably by the fall of Troy.Footnote ¹⁷ Jebb cites in support of his reading a passage of the Women of Trachis in which Eros is presented as responsible for the fall of Oechalia (Trach. 431–3) and one from Euripides’ Hippolytus that depicts the god as a slayer who brings destruction to humankind (Hipp. 538–42). A reference to κτήματα would be entirely appropriate in these passages; it is open to debate, however, whether the use of the word κτήματα would, by itself, be sufficient to evoke the situations depicted in them. As Griffith notes, ‘even though Eros may drive men to ravage cities … or squander their own fortunes, “possessions” hardly merit such emphasis’.Footnote ¹⁸

Why κτήματα are given such emphasis becomes clear, I contend, if one focusses not just on archaic and classical celebrations of the power of Eros but also on the context that surrounds the stasimon. For the ‘Hymn to Eros’ is embedded within a sustained examination of what is truly valuable for human beings, an examination which ‘draws on a long tradition of archaic moralizing on good and bad ways to acquire material wealth and on material versus non-material forms of prosperity’.Footnote ¹⁹ Thus, not only do we see Creon, Antigone and Tiresias articulate starkly distinct views as to what constitutes ‘profit’ (κέρδος);Footnote ²⁰ both before and after the chorus’ celebration of Eros, we are also presented with reflections on what represents a true ‘possession’ (κτῆμα). In the agôn that precedes the stasimon Haemon uses this term twice. Its first occurrence is at the beginning of his speech, as he justifies his advice to his father (683–6):

Here it is intelligence that is presented as the highest κτῆμα of human beings. A few lines later Haemon uses the word again in a slightly different context (701–4):

Highlighting the ‘mutuality of being’ that in his view underlies the relationship between a father and his children, Haemon presents the good fortune of Creon as his most precious possession.Footnote ²¹ In both cases, then, he uses the term κτῆμα with reference to non-material goods, namely mental faculties and the pride and joy deriving from affective ties. The same happens in the fourth and last occurrence of the word in the play: trying to persuade Creon to spare Antigone and bury Polynices, Tiresias asks him by how much he considers soundness of judgement the best of all possessions—ὅσῳ κράτιστον κτημάτων εὐβουλία; (1050). Here, too, it is a mental quality that is described as a precious κτῆμα.

If one attends to this context and considers that in Antigone and Oedipus Tyrannus Sophocles frequently employs allusive links between dialogues and odes,Footnote ²² the chorus’ mention of κτήματα immediately after the agôn in which Haemon made his remarks appears hardly fortuitous. The only scholar to suggest a connection between the use of the word by the chorus and its employment by Haemon is Benardete. In his reading, the entire ode is composed of two sets of five balanced statements separated by the claim in line 790 that whoever is possessed by Eros is mad; thus, ‘the pendant […] to Eros’ swooping attack on what is one's own (κτήμασι, cf. 684, 702, 1050; fr. 210, 36P) is the pointing to the turbulent strife of kindred blood (ξύναιμον) that he has caused’ in lines 793–4.Footnote ²³ Benardete refers to both instances of κτῆμα in Haemon's speech, but, in suggesting that the word κτήμασι alludes merely to affective ties, he does not seem to realize the close connection between the stasimon and the preceding episode that his very interpretation of the word invites us to draw. Haemon, as we have seen, uses κτῆμα once in reference to the φρένες and once in reference to the mutuality of being between a father and a son. Now, since in the first two sentences of the antistrophe the chorus focus precisely on Eros’ disruption of these two elements, we are encouraged to assume that, when the Theban Elders assert that Eros attacks κτήματα, the word resonates with and evokes both of its occurrences in the previous episode. At the beginning of their song on Eros’ limitless power, in the section that more closely resembles a cletic hymn, the chorus would then state only in general terms the effect exerted by the god in human life—prompting the audience to think more attentively about what can be counted as a precious possession. In the antistrophe, however, as the universal outlook of the preceding section gives way to a narrower perspective, the chorus would present a more explicit link between Eros’ power and the result of the discussion between Creon and Haemon and, thus, make clear what the κτήματα they mentioned really are.

If interpreted as referring not to specific material possessions but to non-material goods, κτήμασι offers then a strong link between the stasimon and the agôn. According to Benardete, by using this word the chorus display an ‘economic understanding of what is one's own’ that ‘is indicative of how close [they] are to Creon’.Footnote ²⁴ However, if we link their use of the term with its two occurrences in the episode, the chorus appear to share, at least in part, Haemon's world-view and his assessment of what is a true possession. To be sure, this does not mean that their position is perfectly aligned with Haemon's: his rage at Creon's refusal to spare Antigone and the sinister threat he uttered before storming off the stage encourage the chorus to impute his behaviour to an element he left unspoken, namely his love for Antigone.Footnote ²⁵ None the less, the distance between their position and that of Creon is clear: whereas the ruler encouraged his son not to lose his φρένες because of the pleasure a woman could give him (648–9), thereby implying that the choice was entirely in his hands, the Theban Elders suggest that, if possessed by Eros, Haemon cannot exercise full agency.

Yet, if it is clear that the chorus have Haemon in mind during their song about Eros, ‘we cannot fail to suspect that it is Creon who has set himself in hopeless opposition to this god’.Footnote ²⁶ This suspicion is corroborated, I think, by the interpretation of κτήμασι proposed above. For the second κτῆμα to which Haemon refers—and to which the Chorus allude in the antistrophe by means of the phrase νεῖκος ξύναιμον—is rooted in the very bond that ties a father and a son; therefore, even if the primary victim of Eros’ action is, in the chorus’ view, Haemon, Creon will inevitably be affected by his subjugation to the god. Yet another echo between the episode and the ode suggests the same conclusion: the chorus’ use of the adjective ξύναιμον recalls Creon's impious and sarcastic words in lines 658–9 (ἐφυμνείτω Δία | ξύναιμον), a verbal link that casts him, because of his very disregard for the sanctity of blood ties, as the likeliest candidate for divine punishment in his own family relations. It seems hardly a coincidence, then, that some of the characters who witness Creon's fall highlight the superiority of non-material possessions over material ones. Thus, the Messenger who brings the news of Antigone's and Haemon's suicides claims that great wealth has no value if it is not accompanied by pleasure and that Creon, once enviable for his power and his children, has lost all of life's ἡδοναί and become similar to a living corpse.Footnote ²⁷ As the imagery of weighing objects on a scale in lines 1158–9 suggests, ‘human happiness does not in fact reside in things that one can weigh or count’.Footnote ²⁸ And a similar, if less direct, hint as to Creon's failure to recognize what is truly valuable in life can be heard when the Messenger addresses Creon, who has just arrived on stage carrying Haemon's corpse and does not know yet of Eurydice's suicide, as a man who indeed has a wealth ready at hand and in store (ὡς ἔχων τε καὶ κεκτημένος, 1278)—a wealth not of riches, however, but of sorrows.Footnote ²⁹

As is clear, then, by recognizing in κτήμασι a reference not to cattle, to the mortals enslaved by Eros or to wealth but instead to our non-material possessions—as is the case in the other three occurrences of the term κτῆμα in the play—we can more fully appreciate the ‘Hymn to Eros’ in its context. For not only does this choral song, as some scholars have shown, present a reflection on the limits of human power that perfectly places it into the thematic trajectory inaugurated by the ‘Ode to Man’ and continued by the second stasimon;Footnote ³⁰ it also develops the examination of what is truly valuable in life that has come to the fore in the words of Haemon and that will continue during the interaction between Creon and Tiresias. Undoubtedly, the Theban Elders do not present a systematic summary and evaluation of the arguments put forward by Haemon and Creon: their invocation of Eros sounds like a refusal to engage in any detail with the discussion they have just witnessed. Yet, as the linguistic texture of the ode makes clear, they do incorporate into their address to the god some of the themes that characterized the agôn between father and son and that remain relevant until the denouement of the play. That such a link connecting the third stasimon with the episode that precedes it and with the action that follows it is fully brought out by one word—κτήμασι—should not surprise us: as Goldhill has neatly put it, ‘there are no wasted words in Sophocles’.Footnote ³¹