Editing Ate (mythology) (section)

==Personification==
Like all the children of [[Eris (mythology)|Eris]] (Strife), Ate is a personified abstraction, allegorizing the meaning of her name, and represents one of the many harms which might be thought to result from discord and strife.<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA31 p. 31]; Gantz, p. 10.</ref> The meaning of her name, the Greek word ''atē'' (''ἄτη''), is difficult to define.<ref>Sommerstein 2013, p. 1: "The overwhelming impression one gets after exposure to the recent literature on ''atē'' is that, firstly, it is an extremely hard concept for the modern mind to understand and, secondly, no two scholars agree on what it meant.".</ref> ''Atē'' is a [[verbal noun]] of the verb ''aáō'' (''ἀάω'').<ref>Dräger, ''[[Brill's New Pauly]]'' [https://referenceworks-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/display/entries/NPOE/e205210.xml s.v. Ate].</ref> According to ''[[The Cambridge Greek Lexicon]]'',  ''aáō '' means to "lead astray", "befuddle", "blind", or "delude",<ref>''[[The Cambridge Greek Lexicon]]'', s.v. ἀάω; compare ''[[LSJ]]'', [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Da)a%2Fw s.v. ἀάω].</ref> while ''ἄτη'' can mean: (1) the state of "delusion, infatuation (inflicted on a person's mind by a god, esp Zeus)", (2) "reckless behavior ... recklessness, folly", and (3) "ruin, calamity, harm".<ref>''[[The Cambridge Greek Lexicon]]'', s.v. ἄτη; compare with ''[[LSJ]]'', [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Da)%2Fth s.v. ἄτη].</ref> As informed by the meanings and usage of the unpersonified ''atē'', personified Ate can apparently represent any part (or all?) of the causal sequence: (1) a blinding or clouding of the mind&mdash;causing (2) ill-considered and reckless actions&mdash;causing (3) the ruin such actions entail.<ref>Yamagata, p. 21; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA31 p. 31]; Rose and Dietrich, [https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.897 s.v. Ate];  Dräger, [https://referenceworks-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/display/entries/NPOE/e205210.xml s.v. Ate]. Padel, in discussing Homer's use of ''atē'' ([https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/174/mode/2up p. 174]), calls this sequence the "''atē''-sequence" and "Homer's damage-chain": "In most but not all Homeric contexts, atē and aaō seem to mark inner, prior 'damage' done to the mind, which then causes a terrible outward act. Call it the X-act. it is a mistake, a crime, with consequences: further outward 'damage.' Damage in the world. Atē belongs in a causal chain. Damage, X-act, damage. This chain is the word's main point"; and when discussing Ate as personified by Homer, Padel notes ([https://archive.org/details/whomgodsdestroye0000ruth/page/181/mode/2up p. 181]) that Ate can represent either the first place or last place in this sequence (or both at once, as she does in the ''Iliad's'' "allegory of the Prayers", see below). Sommerstein 2013, p. 3 has a somewhat more expanded view, seeing this ''atē''-sequence as a "process ... starting with a divine initiative and finishing with a human catastrophe, whose beginning, middle and end can all be called ''atē''", and that this "whole process" can be thought of "as a single instance of ''atē''".</ref> She is thought of as being the instigator of delusion and its resulting destruction.<ref>''[[The Cambridge Greek Lexicon]]'', s.v. ἄτη -Ἄτη.</ref>