Echthroi
Encyclopedia
Echthroi is a Greek word meaning "The Enemy" (literally "enemies"). The singular form of the word, Echthros (Ἐχθρός), is used in many versions and translations of the Bible
for enemy. Where the word echthroi (enemies) is used in Romans
5:10 it is passive and means the object of God's enmity.
Historically used primarily in connection with biblical and classical subjects, the term has more recently been used to refer to a mythical and biblical group of creatures who want nothing more than to destroy all of creation, most notably in Madeleine L'Engle
's "Time Quartet
". A personification of the forces of impersonalization and nihilism
, they are a form of evil that exists in both the macrocosmic and microcosm
ic level, in a universe where everything is interdependent. L'Engle counters this evil primarily with what she calls "Naming", the process of lovingly helping individuals to know and become their true, particular selves. These concepts appear in one form or another in a number of L'Engle's books, as part of her recurring themes of good versus evil, interdependency, and the role of the individual in the cosmic scheme of things.
(1973, ISBN 0-374-38443-6), as the supernatural antagonists behind a number of strange and terrible events in the lives of Meg Murry
and her family. Meg first becomes aware of their existence in Chapter Two of the book, when a doppelganger
of Mr. Jenkins suddenly flies "screaming across the sky," becoming "a slash of nothingness". The "singular cherub
im" Proginoskes later identifies what Meg encountered as one of the Echthroi, and takes her to "yesterday" to see the Echthroi tear a rip in the galaxy, annihilating stars in the process. Meg's father, an astrophysicist, has already been called away to investigate such seemingly impossible phenomena. Meg's mother, a microbiologist
, is simultaneously investigating an illness in her brother Charles Wallace Murry
's mitochondria. The two problems, despite the huge disparity in size, are both caused by the Echthroi. Later the Echthroi again impersonate Mr. Jenkins, and convince the microscopic "farandolae" to behave destructively toward their host mitochondrion
, nearly killing Charles Wallace. Meg learns that the only way to fight the Echthroi in their attempts to "extinguish" creation is to "Name" whatever is being attacked, filling the void with love and an understanding of the particular entity in its uniqueness.
Charles Wallace again runs afoul of the Echthroi in A Swiftly Tilting Planet
(1978, ISBN 0-374-37362-0). In that book, the Echthroi try to "blow" Charles Wallace off course as he travels in time on the back of a unicorn named Gaudior, landing him in a "projection" of a time in which the Echthroi have won. Again an Echthros impersonates another character, this time Gaudior.
Although the malevolent force in A Wrinkle in Time
is referred to as the Black Thing rather than the Echthroi, it is an earlier form of the same basic concept. In that book, which immediately precedes A Wind in the Door in the Time Quartet series, Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin O'Keefe
are shown a star giving up its own existence as a star to combat a patch of cosmic darkness, essentially the reverse of what Meg sees with Proginoskes. Evil in that book, directed by the giant brain known as IT, takes the form of anonymity and conformity, similar to the concept of "Un-Naming."
s" and "a kind of personified nihilism, an active evil that is attacking the universe by convincing creatures to deny their importance in a symbiotic creation." Calvin Miller refers to the Echthroi as "demonic spirits" that "are always stalking good, making the whole sick, the entire partial, the holy eroded by the contaminated."
As Liam Duncan describes them: "Echthroi desire nothing. They desire Nothing. That is to say, if they got their way, everything would be broken apart, and the pieces be broken apart, and corrupted, and reduced to nothing, until nothing exists. Nothing. Nothing at all. Not even a vacuum, because even a vacuum is Something, if you use your imagination. Nothing at all. Every victory we win, no matter how insignificant it seems, puts them farther from that goal. And every victory they gain, no matter how tiny, brings them closer."
of classical literature, specifically Greek tragedy. Aristotle
and others classified people encountered by characters in tragedy
into philoi (friends and loved ones), echthroi (enemies) and medetoeroi (neithers), with the characters and their audience seeking a positive outcome for the first group and the downfall of the second.
The term also appears in Canto XII of the little-known epic The Purple Island by seventeenth century poet and rector
Phineas Fletcher, apparently in the general meaning of enemies.
Most recently, it is the name of the main villain in James A. Owen
's 5th addition to the Imaginarium Geographica series.
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
for enemy. Where the word echthroi (enemies) is used in Romans
Epistle to the Romans
The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, often shortened to Romans, is the sixth book in the New Testament. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by the Apostle Paul to explain that Salvation is offered through the Gospel of Jesus Christ...
5:10 it is passive and means the object of God's enmity.
Historically used primarily in connection with biblical and classical subjects, the term has more recently been used to refer to a mythical and biblical group of creatures who want nothing more than to destroy all of creation, most notably in Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer best known for her young-adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time...
's "Time Quartet
Time Quartet
The Time Quartet/Quintet is a fantasy/science fiction series of five young adult novels written by Madeleine L'Engle.Those novels are:*A Wrinkle in Time , , ISBN 0-374-38613-7*A Wind in the Door , ISBN 0-374-38443-6...
". A personification of the forces of impersonalization and nihilism
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
, they are a form of evil that exists in both the macrocosmic and microcosm
Macrocosm and microcosm
Macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek Neo-Platonic schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale all the way down to the smallest scale...
ic level, in a universe where everything is interdependent. L'Engle counters this evil primarily with what she calls "Naming", the process of lovingly helping individuals to know and become their true, particular selves. These concepts appear in one form or another in a number of L'Engle's books, as part of her recurring themes of good versus evil, interdependency, and the role of the individual in the cosmic scheme of things.
Appearances
L'Engle's Echthroi first appear in A Wind in the DoorA Wind in the Door
A Wind in the Door is a young adult science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It is a companion book to A Wrinkle in Time, and part of the Time Quartet .-Plot summary:...
(1973, ISBN 0-374-38443-6), as the supernatural antagonists behind a number of strange and terrible events in the lives of Meg Murry
Meg Murry
Margaret "Meg" Murry O'Keefe is the main character and main protagonist in Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet of Science fantasy novels, the daughter of two scientists, the sister of twins Sandy and Dennys Murry and telepath Charles Wallace Murry, and the mother of Polly O'Keefe and others in the...
and her family. Meg first becomes aware of their existence in Chapter Two of the book, when a doppelganger
Doppelgänger
In fiction and folklore, a doppelgänger is a paranormal double of a living person, typically representing evil or misfortune...
of Mr. Jenkins suddenly flies "screaming across the sky," becoming "a slash of nothingness". The "singular cherub
Cherub
A cherub is a type of spiritual being mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and cited later on in the Christian biblical canons, usually associated with the presence of God...
im" Proginoskes later identifies what Meg encountered as one of the Echthroi, and takes her to "yesterday" to see the Echthroi tear a rip in the galaxy, annihilating stars in the process. Meg's father, an astrophysicist, has already been called away to investigate such seemingly impossible phenomena. Meg's mother, a microbiologist
Microbiologist
A microbiologist is a scientist who works in the field of microbiology. Microbiologists study organisms called microbes. Microbes can take the form of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protists...
, is simultaneously investigating an illness in her brother Charles Wallace Murry
Charles Wallace Murry
Charles Wallace Murry is a major character in Madeleine L'Engle's young adult science fiction novels A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet, sometimes referred to as the Time Trilogy...
's mitochondria. The two problems, despite the huge disparity in size, are both caused by the Echthroi. Later the Echthroi again impersonate Mr. Jenkins, and convince the microscopic "farandolae" to behave destructively toward their host mitochondrion
Mitochondrion
In cell biology, a mitochondrion is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in most eukaryotic cells. These organelles range from 0.5 to 1.0 micrometers in diameter...
, nearly killing Charles Wallace. Meg learns that the only way to fight the Echthroi in their attempts to "extinguish" creation is to "Name" whatever is being attacked, filling the void with love and an understanding of the particular entity in its uniqueness.
Charles Wallace again runs afoul of the Echthroi in A Swiftly Tilting Planet
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
A Swiftly Tilting Planet is a 1978 science fiction novel by Madeleine L'Engle, part of the Time Quartet. In it, Charles Wallace Murry, an advanced and perceptive child in A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door, has grown into adolescence...
(1978, ISBN 0-374-37362-0). In that book, the Echthroi try to "blow" Charles Wallace off course as he travels in time on the back of a unicorn named Gaudior, landing him in a "projection" of a time in which the Echthroi have won. Again an Echthros impersonates another character, this time Gaudior.
Although the malevolent force in A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time is a science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1962. The story revolves around a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and...
is referred to as the Black Thing rather than the Echthroi, it is an earlier form of the same basic concept. In that book, which immediately precedes A Wind in the Door in the Time Quartet series, Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin O'Keefe
Calvin O'Keefe
Calvin O'Keefe is a major character in Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet series of books, and, as "Dr. Calvin O'Keefe", an important character in her O'Keefe series of young adult novels. In an interview released on the DVD of the TV adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, L'Engle describes Calvin as "the...
are shown a star giving up its own existence as a star to combat a patch of cosmic darkness, essentially the reverse of what Meg sees with Proginoskes. Evil in that book, directed by the giant brain known as IT, takes the form of anonymity and conformity, similar to the concept of "Un-Naming."
Characteristics
In the L'Engle books, Echthroi are depicted as the forces of "Un-Naming", bent on annihilating not just matter, but knowledge and understanding of the individual, "making people not know who they are". Impersonal and unnamed themselves, they try to convince Sporos and others that nothing and no one matters but the pleasure of the moment. As Donald R. Hettinga explains, the Echthroi are "fallen angelFallen angel
Fallen angel is a concept developed in Jewish mythology from interpretation of the Book of Enoch. The actual term fallen angel is not found in either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament. Christians adopted the concept of fallen angels mainly based on their interpretations of the Book of...
s" and "a kind of personified nihilism, an active evil that is attacking the universe by convincing creatures to deny their importance in a symbiotic creation." Calvin Miller refers to the Echthroi as "demonic spirits" that "are always stalking good, making the whole sick, the entire partial, the holy eroded by the contaminated."
As Liam Duncan describes them: "Echthroi desire nothing. They desire Nothing. That is to say, if they got their way, everything would be broken apart, and the pieces be broken apart, and corrupted, and reduced to nothing, until nothing exists. Nothing. Nothing at all. Not even a vacuum, because even a vacuum is Something, if you use your imagination. Nothing at all. Every victory we win, no matter how insignificant it seems, puts them farther from that goal. And every victory they gain, no matter how tiny, brings them closer."
Other uses
Outside the L'Engle corpus, the words Echthros and Echthroi occur mainly in connection with biblical studies and in literary criticismLiterary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
of classical literature, specifically Greek tragedy. Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
and others classified people encountered by characters in tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
into philoi (friends and loved ones), echthroi (enemies) and medetoeroi (neithers), with the characters and their audience seeking a positive outcome for the first group and the downfall of the second.
The term also appears in Canto XII of the little-known epic The Purple Island by seventeenth century poet and rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
Phineas Fletcher, apparently in the general meaning of enemies.
Most recently, it is the name of the main villain in James A. Owen
James A. Owen
James A. Owen is an American comic book creator, publisher and writer. He is best known for his creator-owned comic book series Starchild and as the author of The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica novel series, that began with Here, There Be Dragons in 2006.-Life and career:Owen...
's 5th addition to the Imaginarium Geographica series.
See also
- A Wind in the DoorA Wind in the DoorA Wind in the Door is a young adult science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It is a companion book to A Wrinkle in Time, and part of the Time Quartet .-Plot summary:...
- A Swiftly Tilting PlanetA Swiftly Tilting PlanetA Swiftly Tilting Planet is a 1978 science fiction novel by Madeleine L'Engle, part of the Time Quartet. In it, Charles Wallace Murry, an advanced and perceptive child in A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door, has grown into adolescence...