Machai

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):

Ὑσμίνας τε Μάχας τε Φόνους τ’ Ἀνδροκτασίας τε^[4]

These four abstractions were associated in other ancient poetry. The same four, in the same order, occur in a line from Homer's Odyssey, where Odysseus describes the decorations on Heracles' golden belt:

ὑσμῖναί τε μάχαι τε φόνοι τ᾿ ἀνδροκτασίαι τε.^[5]

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]

That the Machai, the personification of battle and wars, would be considered to be the sons of Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, is fitting.^[7] War is associated with Eris, for example, in Hesiod's works and Days, which says that Eris "fosters evil war and conflict", and in Homer's Iliad, where Eris is called a "sister and comrade" of Ares, and holds in her hands "a portent of war".^[8]

• Polemus

• Caldwell, Richard, Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). ISBN 978-0-941051-00-2. Internet Archive.

• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).

• Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 9780415186360. Google Books.

• Homer, Iliad, Volume I: Books 1-12, translated by A. T. Murray, revised by William F. Wyatt, Loeb Classical Library No. 170, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1999. Online version at Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-99579-6.
• Homer, Iliad, Volume II: Books 13-24, translated by A. T. Murray, revised by William F. Wyatt, Loeb Classical Library No. 171, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1999. Online version at Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-99580-2.
• Homer, Odyssey, Volume I: Books 1-12, translated by A. T. Murray, revised by George E. Dimock, Loeb Classical Library No. 104, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1998 (first published 1919). ISBN 978-0-674-99561-1. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Homeric Hymn 5 To Aphrodite, in Homeric Hymns. Homeric Apocrypha. Lives of Homer, edited and translated by Martin L. West, Loeb Classical Library No. 496, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-674-99606-9. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1940. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Most, G.W., Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia, Edited and translated by Glenn W. Most, Loeb Classical Library No. 57, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018. ISBN 978-0-674-99720-2. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Nünlist, Rene, s.v. Eris, in Brill’s New Pauly Online, Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and, Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry, published online: 2006.
• West, M. L. (1966), Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-814169-6.