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Gazis, G. (2012) ‘Odyssey 11 the po
- 1. Gazis, G. (2012) ‘Odyssey 11: the power of sight in the invisible realm’. Rosetta 12: 49-59. http://www.rosetta.bham.ac.uk/Issue_12/gazis.pdf http://www.rosetta.bham.ac.uk/Issue_12/gazis.pdf Rosetta 12. http://www.rosetta.bham.ac.uk/issue_12/gazis.pdf 49
- 2. Odyssey 11: the power of sight in the invisible realm George Gazis Durham University By common consent, Odyssey 11 is one of the most fascinating books of the Homeric epics, yet it has puzzled scholars since antiquity. It has long been noted for instance that it is not perfectly clear why Odysseus has to visit Hades; and that we cannot be sure about what he actually does there. Does he stand next to the pit throughout his visit, as he claims he does, 1 or does he venture deep into the Underworld as his viewing of Minos, Orion, Tityus, Tantalus, Sisyphus and Heracles suggests? 2 Other issues too have seemed problematic: for example, we are told by Teiresias at lines 146-9 that the dead are powerless shades in need of blood in order
- 3. to recover their wits, but in some instances Odysseus describes them as fully functioning: thus, Orion pursues his hunting habit even after death (572-75), while Minos settles the disputes of the dead (568-71). Does it matter that we find these seemingly incompatible views of the afterlife in one single episode of the Odyssey? Many scholars thought it did matter, and sought to clarify the text. Already Aristarchus athetised part of the book as later interpolation, arguing that it was impossible for Odysseus to see the interior of Hades from where he was standing and that the description of the dead, whom the poet himself describes as ἀμενηνὰ κάρηνα (Od.11.49), 3 having their disputes settled by Minos was irrational. 4 In modern scholarship, Odyssey 11 often provided ammunition for analysts such as
- 4. Wilamowitz, Kirchhoff, Page and others, in their bid to prove multiple authorship of the epics. 5 It was the breakthrough research of scholars like Reinhardt, Segal and 1 Od. 11.628-9: αὐτὰρ ἐγὼν αὐτοῦ μένον ἔμπεδον, εἴ τις ἔτ᾽ ἔλθοι ἀνδρῶν ἡρώων, οἳ δὴ τὸ πρόσθεν ὄλοντο. 2 In lines 568-71, 572-5, 576-81, 582-92, 593-600, 601-626 respectively. Note that the above statement of Odysseus that he stayed fixed in one place follows after he has narrated all of the above meetings. 3 Citations of Greek are taken from Allen, 1920. 4 Cf. Dindorf 1885: vol.II, 520f. On Aristarchus’ athetesis see Tsagarakis 2000: 11 who cites Gardback 1978: 1ff. and others. 5 Wilamowitz 1927: 79. See also Kirchhoff 1879, Wilamowitz 1884 and later Page 1955: 40. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=a%29menhna%5C &la=greek&can=a%29menhna%5C0&prior=neku/wn http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=ka%2Frhna&la=g
- 6. 50 recently De Jong that helped reclaim the Nekyia as an integral part of the Odyssey. 6 Still, the problems associated with the book remained: Sourvinou-Inwood, Crane, Clarke, Tsagarakis and many others have struggled to come to grips with Homeric beliefs about the afterlife. 7 By contrast, surprisingly little work has been done on the poetic implications of the Nekyia. In this paper I argue that Odyssey 11 can be read in a very different way, one that illuminates the bard’s power over the tradition which he helps preserve with his song. Before going into detail, let me first of all clarify what I mea n when referring to the ‘power of the (Homeric) bard’. In book 8 of the Odyssey the blind bard Demodocus is introduced in what many have seen as an allusion to Homer
- 7. himself. Demodocus, we are told, was blind but had been granted by the Muses the gift of sweet song (ἡδεῖαν ἀοιδήν). 8 What exactly that means becomes clearer once the bard starts to sing for his Phaeacean audience. Suddenly, the blind old man who needs help even to find his own seat takes us to the bed chamber of Aphrodite, and is able to display in front of our eyes the most carefully hidden secrets of the gods. 9 Demodocus is able to see every detail of what happens or has happened on Olympus, because of the gift he has received from the Muses: we might say - and Homer almost says - that the goddesses removed the bard’s mortal vision and replaced it with another, more powerful one. 10 And just as Demodocus can see the gods, so Homer himself, who, we recall, was thought to have been blind from early on,
- 8. 11 is able to present to us with every detail what happens on Mount Olympus among the gods. 12 There are many examples of this; we may only recall the passage in Iliad 1 (493-611) where Zeus makes his secret pact with Thetis. The poet easily transfers us from the 6 Reinhardt 1948 was the first to defend the integrity of the apologue as we have it. See also Segal 1962: 17-64 and De Jong 2001: 271-3. Stanford too thought that the book was authentic but had his doubts for vs. 565-627, Stanford 1948: 380-2. See also Heubeck-Hoekstra 1990: 75-7 and Northurp 1980: 150-9 for a response to Page 1955. Finally Doherty defended the Intermezzo and demonstrated its organic function in the book, Doherty 1991, 1992. 7 Sourvinou-Inwood 1986, 1995: 10-106 and 108-279, Crane 1988, Clarke 1999: 129-225, Tsagarakis 2000. For the motif of blood drinking in the book
- 9. see Heath 2005. 8 Od.8.64. 9 Od.8.266-365. 10 Od.8.62-64: κῆρυξ δ᾽ ἐγγύθεν ἦλθεν ἄγων ἐρίηρον ἀοιδόν, τὸν πέρι μοῦσ᾽ ἐφίλησε, δίδου δ᾽ ἀγαθόν τε κακόν τε∙ ὀφθαλμῶν μὲν ἄμερσε, δίδου δ᾽ ἡδεῖαν ἀοιδήν. 11 Cf. the τυφλός ἀνῆρ reference in Homeric Hymn to Apollo vs.165-178. See Graziosi 2002: 126- 32 and also Graziosi and Haubold 2005: 21-7. 12 Graziosi and Haubold 2005: 81-3. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=h%28dei%3Dan& la=greek&can=h%28dei%3Dan0&prior=d' http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=a%29oidh%2Fn& la=greek&can=a%29oidh%2Fn0&prior=h(dei=an http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=kh%3Druc&la=gr eek&can=kh%3Druc1&prior=e)rateinh/n http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=d%27&la=greek& can=d%279&prior=kh=ruc http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=e%29ggu%2Fqen &la=greek&can=e%29ggu%2Fqen0&prior=d' http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=h%29%3Dlqen&l a=greek&can=h%29%3Dlqen0&prior=e)ggu/qen http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=a%29%2Fgwn&la =greek&can=a%29%2Fgwn0&prior=h)=lqen
- 11. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=a%29oidh%2Fn& la=greek&can=a%29oidh%2Fn0&prior=h(dei=an Rosetta 12. http://www.rosetta.bham.ac.uk/issue_12/gazis.pdf 51 Achaean camp to Olympus and displays in front of our eyes what his poetic vision allows him to see: a secret meeting of the two gods taking place at the highest peak of Olympus; surely no other mortal would possess the ability to see such a scene. Homer’s special power of vision is prominent throughout the Iliad and the Odyssey. The bard takes us with ease from the battlefield of Troy to the most remote parts of the world, and from the depths of the sea to the assembly of the gods on Mount Olympus. But there seems to be a place which even the almighty gods cannot penetrate with their immortal sight, a place that poses the greatest challenge of all to the bard’s poetic gaze. That place of course is none other than
- 12. Hades, the remote land of the dead which is shrouded in absolute darkness. The name Hades is etymologically unclear, but in the popular imagination it was always associated with vision. This is certainly how Homer himself, and his ancient audiences, understood it: they heard in it the verb ἰδεῖν, 13 thus interpreting the Underworld as being literally the invisible realm: A-ides. Throughout the Iliad, the poet alludes to Hades’ role as a place where there can be no vision. For example, he lets Hector wish that he might see, ἰδεῖν, Paris go down to Hades, the a-ides: the pun makes Hector’s impossible wish seem all the more ironic (Paris of course will see him die first). 14 Homer also hints at the obliterating force of Hades when he describes how Athena tricks Ares by putting on the cap of Hades, Ἄϊδος κυνέην, at Iliad 5.844-5. A normal disguise would
- 13. not have worked here since gods can recognize other gods even when they are camouflaged. But the cap of Hades provides a cover that even the immortal sight cannot penetrate. Now, although Homer exploits the theme of the Underworld’s invisibility in the Iliad, he only uses its full potential in the 11 th book of the Odyssey, as I now want to show. 13 Cf. Graziosi and Haubold 2010: 157 on the noun Ais. For the origin and etymology of the name see Thieme (1968, 137-8) and Beekes (1998).For the etymology of Hades in classical times see LFgrE on Ἄϊδος, Plato’s interpretation in Grg.493a – Phd.80d and Burkert (1985, 196). 14 Il.6.284. On the pun see Graziosi and Haubold 2010: 157-8. Similar wordplay elsewhere in the Iliad suggests that Homer and his audience are aware of such an
- 14. etymology, see for instance Il.24.244-6. For Hades as a place of concealment see Il.22.482-3; Eustathius (III, 661, 10-1) comments on these lines regarding Hades invisibility that: διὸ καὶ Ἀΐδης λέγεται, ἤγουν ἀὴρ ἀφανής, ὃν οὐκ ἔστιν ἰδεῖν. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=i%29dei%3Dn&la =greek&prior=e)sa/nta http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=i%29dei%3Dn&la =greek&prior=e)sa/nta http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=*%29%2Fai%2Bd os&la=greek&can=*%29%2Fai%2Bdos0&prior=du=n' http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=kune%2Fhn&la=g reek&can=kune%2Fhn0&prior=*)/ai+dos Rosetta 12. http://www.rosetta.bham.ac.uk/issue_12/gazis.pdf 52 In book 10, Circe informs Odysseus that before setting course for Ithaca he needs to travel to Hades to consult the soul of the seer Teiresias, who will give him instructions about his journey home. 15 Odysseus obeys and after receiving advice from the dreadful goddess, sets sail for the land of the dead. On
- 15. approaching Hades, Odysseus informs us that darkness surrounds him and his companions: the light of the sun never visits the Cimmerians who live in immediate proximity to the realm of the dead. 16 After Odysseus and his men have landed and completed the appropriate sacrifices, the dead begin to appear from Erebus. The first close encounter that Odysseus has is with the soul of Elpenor, the young companion who lies as yet unburied back on Circe’s island. After a short exchange with Elpenor, Odysseus spots his dead mother but has to keep her away from the pool with the sacrificial blood as he must wait for Teiresias to drink first. This is the first time that Odysseus uses the verb ἰδεῖν in this episode (lines 55 and 87), but from here on it becomes increasingly prominent. 17 Thus, when Teiresias’
- 16. soul approaches Odysseus, the very first thing he asks is why he left the light of the sun in order to see the dead and their joyless land. 18 The verb that the seer uses is once more ἰδεῖν, which creates a striking contrast with the phrase λιπὼν φάος ἠελίοιο of the previous line. A few lines later, while delivering his prophesy, Teiresias refers to Helios as the one who sees and hears everything, ὃς πάντ᾽ ἐφορᾷ καὶ πάντ᾽ ἐπακούει. 19 We have seen already that the sun cannot reach the land of the dead, not even the shores around it. The land of the Cimmerians is shrouded in darkness because the sun never looks at them οὐδέ ποτ᾽ αὐτοὺς/ἠέλιος φαέθων καταδέρκεται ἀκτίνεσσιν; 20 and Odysseus had to leave the domain of the sun in order to be able to see the dead and their land. The
- 17. logical conclusion is that the Sun sees and hears everything that happens on earth and in the sky, the residence of the gods included, but has no power when it comes to the domain of the invisible Hades. And yet, Odysseus (and with him the poet) has been able so far to see, and will retain this ability for the whole of his visit. 15 Od.10.488-95. 16 Od.11.14-19. 17 A full list of the occurrences of the verb is contained in the table at the end of the paper. 18 Od.11.92-4. 19 Od.11.109. 20 Od.11.15-6. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=i%29dei%3Dn&la =greek&prior=e)sa/nta
- 19. Rosetta 12. http://www.rosetta.bham.ac.uk/issue_12/gazis.p df 53 After conversing with the soul of Teiresias, Odysseus is at last given the chance to talk to his deceased mother. Again he introduces her with the same verb ὁρόω ψυχὴν 21 reminding us that his vision has not been affected at all by the fact that he is standing in the gloomy darkness (ὑπὸ ζόφον ἠερόεντα). 22 Interestingly enough, Antikleia addresses him in a manner very similar to Teiresias: ‘My son how did you come in the gloomy darkness while being alive? It is very difficult for the living to see those things.’ 23 Again, the theme of total darkness is contrasted with the ability of Odysseus to see, despite the fact that the living do not
- 20. normally manage to set eyes on the underworld and the dead. Before she disappears, Antikleia reminds her son that he should desire to return to the light as soon as possible since this is where he belongs. 24 So far in these three encounters we have seen that the poet utilizes the contrast between light and darkness to distinguis h the realms of the living and the dead, while at the same time making it clear, through frequent use of the verb ἰδεῖν and by emphasising that mortals are not usually able to see the dead, that Odysseus’ viewing of Hades is exceptional. The so-called catalogue of Heroines further strengthens that impression since the verb ἰδεῖν or εἰσιδεῖν is used a total of 10 times by Odysseus in order to introduce every single heroine. What the catalogue seems designed to showcase, above all, is Odysseus’ power of visual perception.
- 21. Indeed, the poet continues in the same fashion until the end of the book. Odysseus ‘sees’ his former companions Agamemnon, Achilles and Aias and has long conversations with the first two. 25 Odysseus is convinced that he could have made even Aias talk but decides to let him go because he wants to see more souls τῶν ἄλλων ψυχὰς ἰδέειν (567), including those of Minos (ἴδον, 568), Tityus (εἶδον, 576), Tantalus (εἰσεῖδον, 582), Sisyphus (εἰσεῖδον, 593) and finally Heracles. Although in the case of Heracles the verb ἰδεῖν is not used, Odysseus describes in great detail the belt that Heracles is wearing (610-14), a task of course that would require him to 21 Od.11.141. 22 Od.11.155. 23
- 23. &la=greek&prior=*si/sufon http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=ei%29sei%3Ddon &la=greek&prior=*si/sufon http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=i%29dei%3Dn&la =greek&prior=e)sa/nta Rosetta 12. http://www.rosetta.bham.ac.uk/issue_12/gazis.pdf 54 be able to see clearly. After this tour-de-force of ekphrasis in the underworld gloom Odysseus fears that Persephone will send Gorgo’s head against him: here, finally, is a sight that even he cannot abide. He must leave but not without informing us that if he had stayed he would have seen even older heroes than the ones he saw: προτέρους ἴδον ἀνέρας (630). It should be clear by now that the constant use of the verb ἰδεῖν in the eleventh book of the Odyssey is not due to coincidence or even metrical convenience. But what should we make of the poet’s insistence on this verb and what exactly is the point of
- 24. Odysseus seeing the invisible Hades? In order to answer those questions we should cast a quick look at a group of singers who have often been compared with the epic Muses. In Odyssey book 12, the Sirens possess the same knowledge as the Muses since they know everything that has happened in Troy and indeed upon the earth ἐπὶ χθονὶ πουλυβοτείρῃ. 26 Now, what I would like to stress here is the fact that the Sirens’ knowledge is limited specifically to what happens on the earth, which of course rules out the domain of Hades. The underworld remains hidden from them and presumably from the Muses too, since even the gods cannot see through the gloom of Hades, as I have shown. If this is true then how can the ability of Odysseus to see the underworld be explained? The answer, I would argue, lies in the bard’s special power over his tradition, a power which in the Odyssey goes beyond the
- 25. Muses as a direct source of knowledge about all things on earth. Here, in the underworld scenes of Odyssey 11, the bard seems to be drawing his information from elsewhere. But from where? Well, we might say that the divine knowledge of the Muses is mediated by the human gaze of the traveller Odysseus. And that gaze brings with it a shift in poetic emphasis: through Odysseus’ journey to Hades Homer is able to bring his audience, and of course his hero, face to face with the epic tradition qua tradition, that is to say, as an archive of quotable text; for what Odysseus does, in Odyssey 11, is to quote with his eyes, as it were: ‘and then I saw Tyro …’, ‘and then I saw Agamemnon’. We contemplate the Hesiodic tradition of women’s catalogues in what reads like an extended quote from this type of poetry. 27 We also see the Homeric tradition of the Trojan War, traditions about Sisyphus,
- 26. 26 Od.12.191. 27 See Rutherford 2005: 99-117 and 2011: 152-167 for a discussion of the development of catalogue poetry; also West 1985 and Hirschberger 2004 on Hesiod’s Catalogue of Women more generally. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=prote%2Frous&la =greek&can=prote%2Frous0&prior=e)/ti http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=i%29%2Fdon&la =greek&can=i%29%2Fdon0&prior=prote/rous http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=a%29ne%2Fras&l a=greek&can=a%29ne%2Fras0&prior=i)/don http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=i%29dei%3Dn&la =greek&prior=e)sa/nta http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=e%29pi%5C&la= greek&can=e%29pi%5C0&prior=ge/nhtai http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=xqoni%5C&la=gr eek&can=xqoni%5C0&prior=e)pi/ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=poulubotei%2Frh %7C&la=greek&can=poulubotei%2Frh%7C0&prior=xqoni/ Rosetta 12. http://www.rosetta.bham.ac.uk/issue_12/gazis.pdf 55 Heracles, etc. Rather than singing about the deeds of men ‘upon the earth’, the stuff of the Muses’ (and Sirens’) song, the bard by taking us to the
- 27. land of the dead allows us to encounter face to face, as it were, the poetic traditions about those deeds, enabling us to reflect on their relationship to one another, and to the Odyssey. My suggestion, then, would be that the bard’s special power of sight, the gift of the Muses which gives him access to the past, is re-interpreted in Odyssey 11 as the even more remarkable power of contemplating the murky realm of tradition itself. Hades forms the poetic counterpart to Olympus as the seat of the Muses, and the ultimate source of the bard’s special vision: whereas the Muses are immortal and forever ‘present’ (Il. 2.484-6), Hades as a storehouse of the epic tradition suggests the remoteness of the past before it is illuminated by epic song. Homer demonstrates the power that his poetic gaze holds even in this domain of invisibility, and in so doing invites us to reflect on what epic tradition is, and how it presents itself to us.
- 28. The underworld thus becomes a treasure trove of tradition, a huge archive or database, as it were. To linger here is tempting: Odysseus, for one, cannot get enough of seeing as many souls of heroes as possible. And yet, there is a price to be paid if he is not careful. The living are not supposed to linger among the dead, and if Odysseus prolongs his visit he might never leave and complete his nostos (the image which Homer uses to describe this eventuality is that of the Gorgon turning Odysseus into stone). And so, Homer withdraws his hero from Hades. What counts, ultimately, is not the poetic archive but the living song: Odysseus must return home to Ithaca, and Homer, even though he is able to look into Hades, must resume his song. TABLE Line Quote Speaker
- 29. 55. τὸν μὲν ἐγὼ δάκρυσα ἰδὼν ἐλέησά τε θυμῷ (Odysseus of Elpenor) 87. τὴν μὲν ἐγὼ δάκρυσα ἰδὼν ἐλέησά τε θυμῷ (Odysseus of Antikleia) http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=i%29dei%3Dn&la =greek&prior=e)sa/nta http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=to%5Cn&la=gree k&prior=e)/peige http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=me%5Cn&la=gre ek&prior=to/n http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=e%29gw%5C&la =greek&prior=me/n http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ hopper/morph?l=da%2Fkrusa&la= greek&prior=e)gw/ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=i%29dw%5Cn&la =greek&prior=da/krusa http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=e%29le%2Fhsa% 2F&la=greek&prior=i)dw/n http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=te&la=greek&pri or=e)le/hsa/ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=qumw%3D%7C& la=greek&prior=te http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=th%5Cn&la=gree k&prior=i(rh/n http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=me%5Cn&la=gre ek&prior=th/n http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=e%29gw%5C&la =greek&prior=me/n http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=da%2Fkrusa&la= greek&prior=e)gw/ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=i%29dw%5Cn&la =greek&prior=da/krusa http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=e%29le%2Fhsa%
- 30. 2F&la=greek&prior=i)dw/n http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=te&la=greek&pri or=e)le/hsa/ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=qumw%3D%7C& la=greek&prior=te Rosetta 12. http://www.rosetta.bham.ac.uk/issue_12/gazis.pdf 56 93-4. τίπτ᾽ αὖτ᾽, ὦ δύστηνε, λιπὼν φάος ἠελίοιο (Teiresias to Odysseus) ἤλυθες, ὄφρα ἴδῃ νέκυας καὶ ἀτερπέα χῶρον; 109. Ἠελίου, ὃς πάντ᾽ ἐφορᾷ καὶ πάντ᾽ ἐπακούει (Teiresias of the Sun) 141-4. μητρὸς τήνδ᾽ ὁρόω ψυχὴν κατατεθνηυίης∙ (Odysseus of Antikleia) ἡ δ᾽ ἀκέουσ᾽ ἧσται σχεδὸν αἵματος, οὐδ᾽ ἑὸν υἱὸν ἔτλη ἐσάντα ἰδεῖν οὐδὲ προτιμυθήσασθαι 155-6. τέκνον ἐμόν, πῶς ἦλθες ὑπὸ ζόφον ἠερόεντα (Antikleia to Odysseus) ζωὸς ἐών; χαλεπὸν δὲ τάδε ζωοῖσιν ὁρᾶσθαι Catalogue of Heroines Line Quote Speaker
- 31. 235. ἔνθ᾽ ἦ τοι πρώτην Τυρὼ ἴδον εὐπατέρειαν (Odysseus) 260. τὴν δὲ μετ᾽ Ἀντιόπην ἴδον, Ἀσωποῖο θύγατρα 266. τὴν δὲ μετ᾽ Ἀλκμήνην ἴδον, Ἀμφιτρύωνος ἄκοιτιν 271. μητέρα τ᾽ Οἰδιπόδαο ἴδον, καλὴν Ἐπικάστην 281. καὶ Χλῶριν εἶδον περικαλλέα 298. καὶ Λήδην εἶδον, τὴν Τυνδαρέου παράκοιτιν 305-6. τὴν δὲ μετ᾽ Ἰφιμέδειαν, Ἀλωῆος παράκοιτιν εἴσιδον, ἣ δὴ φάσκε Ποσειδάωνι μιγῆναι 321. Φαίδρην τε Πρόκριν τε ἴδον καλήν τ᾽ Ἀριάδνην 326. Μαῖράν τε Κλυμένην τε ἴδον στυγερήν τ᾽ Ἐριφύλην 328-9. πάσας δ᾽ οὐκ ἂν ἐγὼ μυθήσομαι οὐδ᾽ ὀνομήνω, ὅσσας ἡρώων ἀλόχους ἴδον ἠδὲ θύγατρας End of the Catalogue Line Quote Speaker 363-6. ὦ Ὀδυσεῦ, τὸ μὲν οὔ τί σ᾽ ἐίσκομεν εἰσορόωντες (Alkinoos to Odysseus) ἠπεροπῆά τ᾽ ἔμεν καὶ ἐπίκλοπον, οἷά τε πολλοὺς βόσκει γαῖα μέλαινα πολυσπερέας ἀνθρώπους,
- 32. ψεύδεά τ᾽ ἀρτύνοντας ὅθεν κέ τις οὐδὲ ἴδοιτο http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=ti%2Fpt%27&la= greek&prior=*)odusseu= http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=au%29%3Dt%27 &la=greek&prior=ti/pt' http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=w%29%3D&la=gr eek&prior=au)=t' http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=du%2Fsthne&la= greek&prior=w)= http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=lipw%5Cn&la=gr eek&prior=du/sthne http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=fa%2Fos&la=gree k&prior=lipw/n http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=h%29eli%2Foio& la=greek&prior=fa/os http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=h%29%2Fluqes&l a=greek&prior=h)eli/oio http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=o%29%2Ffra&la= greek&prior=h)/luqes http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=i%29%2Fdh%7C &la=greek&prior=o)/fra http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=ne%2Fkuas&la=g reek&prior=i)/dh| http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=kai%5C&la=gree k&prior=ne/kuas http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=a%29terpe%2Fa& la=greek&prior=kai/ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=xw%3Dron&la=g reek&prior=a)terpe/a http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=*%29heli%2Fou &la=greek&prior=mh=la http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=o%28%5Cs&la=g reek&prior=*)heli/ou http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=pa%2Fnt%27&la =greek&prior=o(/s
- 41. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=ou%29de%5C&la =greek&prior=tis Rosetta 12. http://www.rosetta.bham.ac.uk/issue_12/gazis.pdf 57 371. εἴ τινας ἀντιθέων ἑτάρων ἴδες (Alkinoos to Odysseus) 395. τὸν μὲν ἐγὼ δάκρυσα ἰδὼν ἐλέησά τε θυμῷ (Odysseus of Agamemnon) 522. κεῖνον δὴ κάλλιστον ἴδον μετὰ Μέμνονα δῖον (Odysseus of Eurypylus) 528. κεῖνον δ᾽ οὔ ποτε πάμπαν ἐγὼν ἴδον ὀφθαλμοῖσιν (Odysseus of Neoptolemus) 567. τῶν ἄλλων ψυχὰς ἰδέειν κατατεθνηώτων (Odysseus of the souls of the heroes) 568. ἔνθ᾽ ἦ τοι Μίνωα ἴδον, Διὸς ἀγλαὸν υἱόν (Odysseus of Minos) 576. καὶ Τιτυὸν εἶδον, Γαίης ἐρικυδέος υἱόν (Odysseus of Tityus)
- 42. 582. καὶ μὴν Τάνταλον εἰσεῖδον κρατέρ᾽ ἄλγε᾽ ἔχοντα (Odysseus of Tantalus) 593. καὶ μὴν Σίσυφον εἰσεῖδον κρατέρ᾽ ἄλγε᾽ ἔχοντα (Odysseus of Sisyphus) 615. ἔγνω δ᾽ αὖτ᾽ ἔμ᾽ ἐκεῖνος, ἐπεὶ ἴδεν ὀφθαλμοῖσιν (Odysseus of Heracles) 630. καί νύ κ᾽ ἔτι προτέρους ἴδον ἀνέρας, οὓς ἔθελόν περ (Odysseus) Bibliography ke M. J. 1999 – Death and Spirit in the Songs of Homer. Oxford University Pr. - Calypso: Backgrounds and conventions of the Odyssey. Frankfurt. - A narratological commentary on the «Odyssey». Cambridge University Press. - The internal and implied audiences of Odyssey 11. Arethusa XXIV: 145-176.
- 43. - Gender and Internal Audiences in the Odyssey. AJP, Vol. 113, No. 2 (Summer, 1992), pp. 161-177. . 1978 – The scholia on Odyssey λ 566-640, Eranos 76, 1ff. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=ei%29%2F&la=gr eek&prior=kata/lecon http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=tinas&la=greek& prior=ei)/ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=a% 29ntiqe%2Fwn &la=greek&prior=tinas http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=e%28ta%2Frwn& la=greek&prior=a)ntiqe/wn http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=i%29%2Fdes&la= greek&prior=e(ta/rwn http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=to%5Cn&la=gree k&prior=me/lessi http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=me%5Cn&la=gre ek&prior=to/n http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=e%29gw%5C&la =greek&prior=me/n http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=da%2Fkrusa&la= greek&prior=e)gw/ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=i%29dw%5Cn&la =greek&prior=da/krusa http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=e%29le%2Fhsa% 2F&la=greek&prior=i)dw/n http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=te&la=greek&pri or=e)le/hsa/ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l =qumw%3D%7C& la=greek&prior=te http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=kei%3Dnon&la=g reek&prior=dw/rwn
- 48. – Haubold J. 2005 – Homer: The Resonance of Epic. Duckworth. – Haubold J. 2010 – Homer: Iliad Book VI. Cambridge University Press. - Blood for the Dead, Homeric Ghosts Speak Up. Hermes, Vol. 133, No. 4, pp. 389-400. – Hoekstra A. 1990 – A Commentary on Homer’s Odyssey, vol.II, Oxford. – Gynaikon katalogos und Megalai ehoiai : ein Kommentar zu den Fragmenten zweier hesiodeischer Epen, Munich. – ‘Die Homerische Odyssee: die Wiedererkennungsszene im 23 Buch’, in Homer, 317-339. Berlin. - Homer's catalogue of women. Ramus IX: 150-159. – The Homeric Odyssey, (Greenwood Press). – ‘The Adventures in the Odyssey’, in Schein S. (ed.)
- 49. Reading the Odyssey, 1996, Princeton University Press, transl. by Schein S., 63-132. – ‘Mestra at Athens: Hesiod fr. 43 and the poetics of panhellenism’, in Hunter R. (ed.), The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, 99-117. Cambridge University Press. – ‘The Catalogue of Women within the Greek Epic Tradition: allusion, intertextuality and traditional referentiality’, in Andersen Ø. and Haug D. (eds.), Relative Chronology in Early Greek Epic Poetry, 152-168. Cambridge University Press. – The Phaeacians and the Symbolism of Odysseus Return. Arion I No 4, 17-64. -Inwood C. 1986 - Crime and punishment. Tityos, Tantalos and Sisyphos in Odyssey 11. BICS XXXIII: 37-58. -Inwood C. 1995 – Reading Greek Death.
- 50. Clarendon Press, Oxford. http://www.annee- philologique.com.ezphost.dur.ac.uk/aph/index.php?do=notice&n um=1 http://www.annee- philologique.com.ezphost.dur.ac.uk/aph/index.php?do=notice&n um=42 Rosetta 12. http://www.rosetta.bham.ac.uk/issue_12/gazis.pdf 59 – The Odyssey of Homer, vol.1, London. – Studies in Odyssey 11, Hermes 82. – The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women: its Nature, Structure and Origin. Clarendon Press, Oxford. -Moellendorff U. 1884 - Homerische Unterschungen. Berlin. -Moellendorff U. 1927 - Die Heimkehr des Odysseus. Neue homerische Unterschungen. Berlin.
- 51. Ancient Bibliography -V. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Oxford. ex Codicibus Aucta et Emendata. Oxford. Homeri Iliadem pertinentes. Leiden, Brill. Divine Justice in the Odyssey: Poseidon, Cyclops, and Helios Author(s): Charles Segal Source: The American Journal of Philology , Winter, 1992, Vol. 113, No. 4 (Winter, 1992), pp. 489-518
- 52. Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/295536 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected] Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The American Journal of Philology This content downloaded from �������������71.198.219.99 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:53:20 UTC������������� All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms https://www.jstor.org/stable/295536 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY DIVINE JUSTICE IN THE ODYSSEY: POSEIDON, CYCLOPS, AND HELIOS
- 53. I. DIVINE JUSTICE AND HUMAN UNDERSTANDING The discrepancy between the "higher" morality of Zeus articu- lated in the proem and the vindictiveness of Poseidon and Helios has long been regarded as one of the major obstacles to a coherent theology in the Odyssey and one of the most serious compositional problems of the poem.' These two episodes, I argue, far from being anomalies or merely the residues of an Ur-Odyssee, are pivotal points in clarifying the poem's more or less unified moral concerns. There is little doubt that the Odyssey incorporates older strata of beliefs about the gods, just as it incorporates older strata of folklore in the creation of its hero.2 But the evolution of an increasingly moral For recent discussion and bibliography (which must be exemplary rather than exhaustive) see B. Fenik, Studies in the Odyssey, Hermes Einzelschriften 30 (Wiesbaden 1974) 208, n. 18, and 223ff.; R. Friedrich, "Thrinakia and Zeus' Ways to Men in the Odyssey," GRBS 28 (1987) 384f. For a typical analytic view see J. Irmscher, Gotterzorn bei Homer (Leipzig 1950) 56-64. In the milder variant of this approach advocated by W. Schadewaldt, "Der Prolog der Odyssee," HSCP 63 (1958) 15- 32, esp. 16, a later poet ("Bearbeiter," "B") has grafted an ethical interpretation upon an earlier, ethically more
- 54. primitive work, traces of which remain, however, in the figures of Poseidon and Helios. For a critique of the analytic approach see U. Holscher, Untersuchungen zur Form der Odyssee, Hermes Einzelschriften 6 (Berlin 1939) 81f., and G. Bona, Studi sull'Odissea (Torino 1966) 23ff., 36ff. For the underlying unity of the conception of the gods in the poem see K. Reinhardt, "Die Abenteuer der Odyssee," in Von Werken und Formen (Godesberg 1948) 86ff. 2Whether the more self-consciously moralized theology of the Odyssey is the result of historical development or of different poets or of changing concerns, themes, or styles in a single poet remains a matter of heated controversy: see, e.g., L. A. Post, "The Moral Pattern in Homer," TAPA 70 (1939) 158-90, esp. 159ff., 188; E. R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, Sather Classical Lectures 25 (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1956) American Journal of Philology 113 (1992) 489-518 ? 1992 by The Johns Hopkins University Press This content downloaded from �������������71.198.219.99 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:53:20 UTC������������� All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms CHARLES SEGAL
- 55. conception of the gods over many centuries need not exclude a coher- ent theology in the "monumental composition" of the poem's final phase. Viewed diachronically, nature divinities like Helios, Proteus, or Circe may well represent a type of divinity older than Zeus or Athena. Synchronically, however, these differences among types of divinity form part of the poem's total vision of what gods might and should be.3 In other words, Homer has brought together into an artistic and con- ceptual whole both older and more evolved notions of divinity and in this way grounds his epic in a self-consciously moral theology.4 We are especially concerned with two devices by which Homer achieves his moral effect: juxtaposing gods of different levels of moral sensitivity (like Zeus and Poseidon) and bracketing the less moral, more "primitive" divine behavior in a well-demarcated section of the poem, the fabulous realm between Troy and Ithaca in books 5- 13. In- deed, this bracketing process begins in the very opening lines of the poem, where Poseidon's wrath is firmly set apart from the pity of "all" the other gods (1.19-21): 32f.; A. Lesky, "Homeros," RE, Supplbd. 11, Sonderausdruck (Stuttgart 1967) 42f.; H.
- 56. Lloyd-Jones, The Justice of Zeus, Sather Classical Lectures 41 (Berkeley and Los An- geles 1971) 28-32, 37; J. S. Clay, The Wrath of Athena (Princeton 1983) 215ff., with useful bibliography. For the folklore elements in the poem see, e.g., R. Carpenter, Folk Tale, Fiction, and Saga in the Homeric Epics, Sather Classical Lectures 20 (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1946) chap. 1; D. L. Page Folktales in Homer's Odyssey (Cambridge, Mass., 1973) passim; U. Holscher, "The Transformation from Folk-Tale to Epic," in Homer: Tradition and Invention, ed. B. Fenik (Leiden 1978) 52ff., and now his Die Odyssee: Epos zwischen Mirchen und Roman (Munich 1988) passim; Clay (supra) 68ff.; C. Calame, Le recit en Grece ancienne (Paris 1986) 122ff. 3For a good statement of how diachronic and synchronic perspectives can be balanced and viewed as complementary see G. Nagy, Pindar's Homer (Baltimore 1990) 4f. 4The poem's explicit concern with justice belongs to its "ethical" or "normative" quality, in contrast to the tragic tone of the Iliad: see Aristot. Poet. 24.1459b12ff. Not every divine action, of course, fits into a neat moral scheme, and even generalizations about moral behavior and divine justice have to be understood in context, as part of the flow of action and the interplay of character. A typical example is Od. 17.485-87, where a suitor's comment on the gods' moral watchfulness follows upon Odysseus' invocation of "the gods and Erinyes of beggars" when Antinoos throws a
- 57. footstool at him. There is a further irony in putting such a moral in the mouth of one of "the overweening young men" who share in Antino6s' hubris and thus in his doom. Cf. also the sequence of prayers and omens in 15.523-48, especially after Athena's appearance to Telemachus in 15.9ff., which is parallel to her appearance to Nausicaa in 6.21ff.: see Holscher (note 1 above) 85. 490 This content downloaded from �������������71.198.219.99 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:53:20 UTC������������� All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms DIVINE JUSTICE IN THE ODYSSEY OEOt 6' /eXealQov aJrcavTeg v6o()L IlooEL6&0Ovog- 6 ' aoIXEQXEg E[tEVEavev avTl0eiO 'OvoGJ'/i JtCdosg fv yalav IxeOaOm. Isolated from the other gods, Poseidon is cast at once into the role of the "other," the blocking force or obstacle to Odysseus' return and to Zeus's will.5 As the Odyssey is a poem about change, the theology too is inti- mately bound up with the shifting experience and widening understand-
- 58. ing of the hero. Odysseus has "seen and come to know the mind of many men" (1.4), but he has also seen and come to know many forms of the mind of gods. Even though our extended view of him over many years is condensed into the relatively brief span of days in the fore- ground, we follow an entire lifetime, from birth to death, as it is stamped with the presence or absence of divine justice. We also see the lingering traces of the amoral, unscrupulous trickster.6 On the human level the superimposition of Odysseus' past on the present shows us how a moral consciousness is shaped over the course of a lifetime of suffering and witnessing divinity's workings among mor- tals. Analogously, on the divine level, Zeus's program for retributive justice at the beginning is not an accomplished fact of the world order but appears as work-in-progress. Hence he states his theodicy in the form of a complaint, uses present and future tenses (1.32-41), and brings us into the present with the phrase "as even now" (og xcai viv) in 1.35. Before the end of the first book, in fact, we see a mortal making just the accusation that Zeus has tried to refute, namely that the god is responsible for the ills of mankind (1.347f.; cf. 11.558-60).7 Later, we
- 59. hear of Zeus's justice at work, through the agency of Athena, in the shipwreck of some of the Trojan heroes because "not all were percep- tive orjust" (3.133f.). Locrian Ajax's excessive and foolish boast that he could escape the sea even against the gods' will (4.503-5) fatally incurs Poseidon's wrath (4.499-511). These instances of divine justice, though 5This is the only time in the poem that nosphi occurs first in the line and with a proper name, a stylistic detail that adds to the isolation of Poseidon. 6See R. B. Rutherford, "The Philosophy of the Odyssey," JHS 106 (1986) 160f. 7In the Iliad the attribution of "responsibility" to the gods or to Zeus is fairly common: see 3.164f., 19.86-89, 260-74, 409f. One may even wonder whether the Odyssey proem has in mind that of the Iliad, where the poet asks "Which of the gods" threw Agamemnon and Achilles together in strife (1.8). 491 This content downloaded from �������������71.198.219.99 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:53:20 UTC������������� All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
- 60. CHARLES SEGAL glimpsed only fleetingly, prefigure the realization of Zeus's justice in the main line of the action as we follow the principal hero in the great crisis of his life.8 Although the Odyssey seems more advanced morally than the Il- iad, it nevertheless resembles it in making the omniscient narrator's increasing clarification of Zeus's will accompany the hero's gradual understanding of that will. Achilles, overreaching, transgressive hero that he often is, initially identifies his goals with the will of Zeus and only too late recognizes the suffering implied in that identification.9 Odysseus, whose life is defined by restraint, moderation, and continu- ity, can use his moral understanding as a way of achieving his goals. The Odysseus who arrives on Ithaca in book 13 has performed the narrative act of recollecting his many years of travel."' In addition to this integrative work of bringing past experience into his present time of life, he has the benefit of planning his future moves with Athena in book 13. She puts him once again in contact with the basic traits of his charac-
- 61. ter by reaffirming them to his face (13.291-99, 330-38). At the same time she permits him a privileged (if abbreviated) account of divine arrange- ments beyond his mortal knowledge. "I knew in my heart," she says, "that you would return after the loss of all your companions, but I did not want to fight with Poseidon, brother of my father, who put anger in his heart in wrath because you blinded his own son" (13.340- 43). This recognition of Athena's concern also changes Odysseus' understanding of the gods' ways. The Odysseus of the second half of the poem, de- fending his house on Ithaca, is surer of divine help and more prudent and self-controlled than the Odysseus who defended his own and his men's lives against the Cyclops. His first instructions to his son consist in sharing his special knowledge of the gods' help for righteous vengeance. When Telema- chus first appeared in the poem, he complained to Athena, disguised as Mentes, about the gods' "evil devising" of his father's woes (1.234-45; cf. also 1.348). But, many books later, Odysseus uses his own example 8See Clay (note 2 above) 47ff. 9Cf. esp. Iliad 18.74-93, where Achilles acknowledges the disastrous results of his
- 62. request of Zeus, and 24.525-51, where he expounds human suffering in the parable of Zeus's two jars. On Achilles' tragic recognition at the end of the Iliad see C. H. Whitman, Homer and the Heroic Tradition (Cambridge, Mass., 1958) 202ff. and most recently M. Mueller, The Iliad (London 1984) 56-59. '?See C. Segal, "The Phaeacians and the Symbolism of Odysseus' Return," Arion 1 (1962) 21ff. 492 This content downloaded from �������������71.198.219.99 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:53:20 UTC������������� All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms DIVINE JUSTICE IN THE ODYSSEY to correct Telemachus and teach him about Athena's power and con- cern (16.207-12). His hymnic phrasing here resembles Hesiod's praise of the power of Zeus in the proem of the Works and Days (5-7; cf. Theog. 447). Shortly afterwards Odysseus counters Telemachus' dis- may at the odds against them by assuring him of the help of "Athena along with Father Zeus" (16.260). In the removal of the arms from the
- 63. great hall the miraculous glow from Athena's golden lamp gives him another opportunity to instruct his son in "the ways of the gods" (dike theon, 19.43). They can work a "wonder" or "marvel" for a mortal whom they wish to aid, as Telemachus says here (mega thauma, 19.36); and we are reminded of Odysseus' first words to his son in book 16, as he begins his paternal task of initiating him into the gods' ways and tells him not to "wonder" (thaumazein) too much (16.201-12, esp. 203). In his other relations on Ithaca too Odysseus displays a moral awareness deeper than most of those around him. In a famous reflection on the feebleness of man and the ephemerality and uncertainty of human life, he warns Amphinomus of the doom awaiting those who "devise deeds of overweening violence" (atasthala mechanoontas, 18.143)." In his first address to Penelope in his disguise as a beggar, he gives a definition of kingship that stresses piety, fair judgment, and concern for the people (19.108-14; cf. Hes. WD 225-37). His disguise also provides several occasions for revealing mistaken assumptions about the gods. Both Eurycleia and the cowherd Philoitius blame Zeus for their master's failed return when Odysseus in fact is standing before
- 64. them (19.363-69, 20.201-10).12 His advantage over the suitors lies in his "See G. Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans (Baltimore 1979) 163, who notes that atasthaliai "are conventionally associated in Homeric diction with acts denoted by the word hubris and its derivatives." Human suffering because of men's own atasthaliai is a recurrent theme, although it is not unique to the Odyssey: cf. II. 4.409 and 22.104; see Post (note 2 above) 164; also Schadewaldt (note 1 above) 31 with n. 13; 0. Andersen, "Der Untergang der Gefahrten in der Odyssee," SO 49 (1973) 12-14; Clay (note 2 above) 34-38. It is interesting for Odysseus' identification with the moral aims of Zeus that his general- ization on the feebleness of human life in Od. 18.130f. closely resembles Zeus's remark in II. 17.446f. With Odysseus' warning to Amphinomus we may also compare his monitory tale to Antinoos about how hubris results in disaster (17.431- 44). '2G. E. Dimock, The Unity of the Odyssey (Amherst 1989) 330, suggests that this despair about Zeus's justice is answered by Laertes in 24.351ff. This is perhaps too programmatic, but this darkness about justice doubtless serves as the foil to the light that comes at the end. Fenik (note 1 above) 223f. seems to me to exaggerate the contradiction between Athena's urging on the suitors (18.346ff. and 20.284) and Zeus's dissuading evil- doers in the proem; the two actions belong to different stages of human crime; and the
- 65. 493 This content downloaded from �������������71.198.219.99 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:53:20 UTC������������� All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms CHARLES SEGAL moral superiority as much as in his cunning (metis).'3 The pattern is already established, embryonically, in his first major victory by cunning that we meet in the poem, his encounter with the Cyclops, Polyphemus. Near the end of this episode Odysseus reads the Cyclops a moral lesson: the evil deeds were bound to recoil back upon him because he did not revere the laws of guest-friendship. Zeus and the other gods, therefore, have punished him (9.477-79): xal XtlV OCi y' EEitXE xL?aE L xcRaxa Ieya, oXYETXL', EJei EL vov; 0VX o Ci EO o) EVl O'XC eoOt(0evca- TO OGE ZUc; TELoatTO xal OEOi lt kot. This reflection on retribution from Zeus, which the god himself had introduced in the proem (tisis, 1.40), offers a moral interpretation of
- 66. Odysseus' own action: he succeeds because he identifies his purposes with the gods' ways of justice and vengeance. He comes to grief be- cause he cannot resist the temptation to gloat over his victory and make sure that his enemy knows the identity of his vanquisher (9.491-505). The Cyclops episode, however, raises serious problems for divine justice. On the one hand, the Cyclopes "trust to the immortal gods," who seem in fact to look after them, for their untilled and unplowed land bears grain and grapes (9.109-11), and "Zeus's rain makes increase for them" (111). On the other hand, they are overweening and without laws (9.106-11). If the gods are the guardians of righteous behavior, why do they shower such abundance on these "arrogantly behaving Cyclopes," &avb6cv OrzjEQlvoOEO6vTWv, as the poet calls them at the beginning of the Phaeacian episode (6.5)?'4 The narrative of Polyphemus explores this contradiction and at least partially resolves it by showing that the Cy- clopes' trust in the gods is misplaced, at least in the case of the signal example of Cyclopean hybris, Polyphemus. contrast, in fact, strengthens the divine justice. The gods' justice receives independent confirmation from an area removed from the main events of the
- 67. poem: Zeus and Artemis work together in punishing the maidservant who kidnapped Eumaeus as a child (15.475- 81, esp. 477f.). '30n the poem's concern with the moral basis of Odysseus' victory over the suit- ors see the careful study of S. Said, "Les crimes des pretendants, la maison d'Ulysse et les festins de l'Odyssee," Cahiers de I'Ecole Normale Superieure (1977) 9-49, esp. 28, with the further literature there cited. '4The oxymoron of the phrase perhaps suggests the outlandishness of regarding the Cyclopes as "men." 494 This content downloaded from �������������71.198.219.99 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:53:20 UTC������������� All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms DIVINE JUSTICE IN THE ODYSSEY II. PHAEACIANS AND CYCLOPES, ZEUS AND POSEIDON As Kirk and Vidal-Naquet have pointed out, the Cyclopes make their appearance in an unstable conjunction of opposites. They occupy both a Golden Age paradise where, "trusting to the gods," they receive
- 68. the earth's fruits without toil, and a subhuman condition of dwelling in mountain caves with only a rudimentary social organization and iso- lated nuclear families (9.106-15).15 Odysseus' arrival brings out the neg- ative side of their primitive society, for just this "lack of concern for one another" (ou66' akXXkfXv aXkeyovoL, 9.115) prevents them from coming to Polyphemus' aid (cf. 9.399-412). Eager to get back to sleep in their individual caves (9.401-4), they readily accept his statement about "No- body" as an excuse to dismiss his complaint. Polyphemus, in other words, crystallizes the savage side of the Cyclopes' precivilized world; and with this savagery he brings into the narrative a more primitive, less morally evolved notion of divinity. Through his encounter with Odysseus he moves, unwittingly, toward a world where higher moral norms come into play. Whether he acknowl- edges Zeus or not (9.275-78), he eventually gets judged and punished according to a world order defined by the justice of Zeus rather than the wrath of Poseidon.16 Odysseus' Phaeacian hosts are almost the exact opposite of the Cyclopes, from whose proximity they once fled (6.4-8). Taken together, the Phaeacians and the Cyclopes embody the two poles of a privileged
- 69. 15 See G. S. Kirk, Myth: Its Meaning and Function in Ancient and Other Cultures, Sather Classical Lectures 40 (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1970) 162-71; P. Vidal-Naquet, "Land and Sacrifice in the Odyssey: A Study of Religious and Mythical Meanings," in The Black Hunter, trans. A. Szegedy-Maszak (Baltimore 1986) 21f. Recently J. N. O'Sul- livan, "Nature and Culture in the Odyssey," SO 55 (1990) 16f., has rightly criticized Kirk's view of the Cyclopes' "super-culture," but he goes too far in the opposite direction, paying too little attention to their ambiguous place between savagery and the Golden Age. R. Mondi, "The Homeric Cyclops: Folktale, Tradition and Theme," TAPA 113 (1983) 22ff., argues that the contradiction in the Cyclopes reflects Homer's conflation of two traditions, a folk-tale tradition of a man-eating ogre and an old Greek myth, reflected in Hes. Theog. 139-46, of smith gods who forge Zeus's thunderbolt and are rewarded for their aid against the Titans with the Elysium-like paradise reflected in Od. 107-15. This explanation is attractive for the origins of the Homeric Cyclopes but still does not account for the use to which Homer puts his composite version (if such it is) in the poem. '6Polyphemus' description of his fellow Cyclopes as "not being concerned" with Zeus (ou . . . alegousi, 9.275) is perhaps an ironic echo of their lack of "concern for one another" (ou . . . alegousi, 115).
- 70. 495 This content downloaded from �������������71.198.219.99 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:53:20 UTC������������� All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms CHARLES SEGAL closeness to the gods. The Phaeacians are above, the Cyclopes below the norm of such relations with the divine among mankind. The differ- ence is analogous to that between the Golden Age and Silver Age in Hesiod (WD 115ff., 133ff.), except that the Phaeacians also have traits of a fully human, Iron Age world of cities, sea travel, and complex social organization. Despite this contrast, however, the Phaeacians and Cy- clopes share a certain unpredictability in their responses to guest-host situations, one of the poem's most important codes of behavior for defining "normally" civilized humans, i.e., Greeks.'7 Supercivilized though they in some ways are, the Phaeacians shift mysteriously from the lack of response to Odysseus' request for hospitality in Alcinous' long, embarrassing silence (7.153-66) to the extravagant generosity of
- 71. transporting him home and giving him lavish gifts. In his formal welcome of Odysseus, Alcinous can point to a time not long in the past when the gods used to appear to them and dine among them at their sacrifices, "since we are near to them, as are also the Cyclopes and the savage races of Giants" (7.199-206; cf. 5.35, 19.279). The three races-Phaeacians, Cyclopes, and Giants- enjoy this privilege because of common descent from or close connection with Poseidon (cf. 7.56ff., 13.130); but that genealogical relationship, as we shall see, points to other affinities. Each of the three belongs to a stage of moral behavior prior to that of the ordinary mortal world; each is a remnant of a more archaic past. Even the Phaeacians, as we have observed, have something of the Cyclopes' isolation and hostility to strangers. Several additional features of the narrative contribute to the asso- ciation of the Cyclopes with an older world. In their combination of agricultural abundance and asocial violence they resemble the two ear- liest of Hesiod's five ages, the Golden and Silver Races. Like the Phaea- cians (7.114-21), they resemble the Golden Race in the
- 72. spontaneous agricultural richness of their land (9.107-11; cf. 9.123f.; WD 117f.).'8 Un- like the Phaeacians, they are close to the Silver Race in their rudimen- 17See G. P. Rose, "The Unfriendly Phaeacians," TAPA 100 (1969) 389-93. '1It is an important difference between the Cyclopes and Phaeacians, however, that the abundant produce of Alcinous' orchard belongs to a landscape that has been bounded, contained, and ordered by walls, rows, drying places, etc. (7.112f., 123f., 127), and adjoins an elaborate architectural complex that in turn reflects a high degree of social and political organization (7.130ff.). 496 This content downloaded from �������������71.198.219.99 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:53:20 UTC������������� All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms DIVINE JUSTICE IN THE ODYSSEY tary social organization, their aggressive violence, and their lack of respect for the gods (9.106, 112; WD 134-37).19 By associating the Cyclopes and the Phaeacians with the Giants
- 73. (7.59 and 206), Homer makes the two former peoples seem part of a more distant time, for the Giants generally belong to an older order. 20 In Hesiod's Theogony, for example, the Giants are born from Gaia and the severed genitals of Ouranos and are coeval with the Erinyes and the Meliai (185-87). Hesiod's Cyclopes are the children of Gaia and Oura- nos (Theogony 139).21 Through his siring of Polyphemus and his association with the Giants (7.56-59), then, Poseidon is also displaced into an older world order. By making him the father of Polyphemus (though not necessarily of the whole race of Cyclopes), Homer virtually makes Poseidon one of the deities of primordial creation. His union with a daughter of the ancient sea divinity Phorkys to sire Polyphemus (1.72) reinforces this regressive pattern, for this otherwise unknown Thoosa would be of the same generation as the Graiai, the Gorgons, Echidna, and Typhon (cf. Hes. Theog. 270-336). In his role as the father of Otus and Ephialtes too Poseidon acquires the same aura of pre-Olympian antiquity (11.305- 20). These precocious and aggressive adolescents closely resemble Hesiod's Silver Race (cf. 9.317f. and WD 132-36); but they also resem- ble the Theogony's Titans or monsters like Typhoe us in their
- 74. attack on Olympus and also in their close connection with the earth (11.309). '9See also L. Slatkin, "Genre and Generation in the Odyssey," Metis 1 (1986) 264- 66. It is interesting that the Odyssey never describes Polyphemus' behavior explicitly in terms of hubris or atasthalia, perhaps because his world is still ignorant of a standard of action that opposes dike and hubris. 20On the problem of the chronological placement of Homer's Giants see A. Heu- beck, S. West, and J. B. Hainsworth, eds., A Commentary on Homer's Odyssey, vol. 1 (Oxford 1988) ad 7.59. Odysseus refers to the Giants as a "savage race" (agria phula, 7.206) and later likens the Laestrygonians to them (10.120). Indeed these last are like slightly evolved Cyclopes: they are huge, violent, and anthropophagous, but they have an agora (10.114) and an astu (10.118). Their capacity for cooperation in fact makes them far more dangerous than the Cyclopes. While Polyphemus kills only six men, the Laestrygo- nians destroy all of Odysseus' ships but one (10.121-32). 21For the differences between the Homeric and Hesiodic Cyclopes see Mondi (note 15 above) 18ff., 22ff. Like Homer, however, Hesiod introduces his Cyclopes with an epithet denoting their overweening violence (huperbion etor ekhontas, Theog. 139; cf. Od. 6.5, 9.106), and this may indicate that the two versions are not quite so separate as
- 75. Mondi suggests. 497 This content downloaded from �������������71.198.219.99 on Mon, 25ff on Thu, 01 Jan 1976 12:34:56 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms CHARLES SEGAL Just as the Odyssey tries to bring the polycentric, polytheistic world order under the unified morality of Zeus, so it tends to suppress or displace the cosmogonic strife in the background of the Iliad.22 The Odyssean Poseidon seems to move back into a pre-Olympian time of monsters, Titans, and Giants; but the poem subsumes this chronologi- cal or historical dimension of the world order into the here and now of Zeus's reign. By thus absorbing the struggles for cosmic sovereignty from the remote past into the present (or, in other terms, projecting the diachronic on the synchronic axis of the narrative), the Odyssey estab- lishes its Olympian, Zeus-governed present as the only perspective from which an older order can be viewed. And in that perspective Po-
- 76. seidon appears as an archaic feature of the world, the representative of an obsolescent world order. To put it differently, what is a diachronic process in Hesiod's Theogony and in the glimpses of cosmogonic narra- tion in the Iliad has here become part of a contrast, in the present, between Zeus and Poseidon, in which the latter is on the way out, as it were, and in fact disappears when the scene shifts fully to the narrative present on Ithaca. In his contact with both Phaeacians and Cyclopes, Odysseus is the catalyst for pushing the residual old order into the new Zeus-gov- erned world. Rejecting Calypso's offer of immortality (cf. 5.215-24), he refuses the possibility of a world, like that of the Phaeacians of long ago, where the barriers between god and mortal could be fluid (7.199- 210). By injecting the sharp separation between mortality and divinity that he carries with him from the Calypso episode, he radically alters the Phaeacians' relation to their most important god, Poseidon. Just as the Phaeacian island is the point of Odysseus' own return from the moribund ease of Calypso's island to the "real" world of work, suffer- ing, and justice on Ithaca, so the Phaeacians' contact with him intro- duces them to the harsher side of their divine ancestor (13.128-
- 77. 87). Earlier in the Phaeacian episode, Demodocus' song of Ares and Aphrodite presents Poseidon as a dignified, effective peacemaker who conciliates conflicting positions through negotiation and the quasi-legal procedures of pledges and guarantees (8.343-58). But this image of a pacific Poseidon is bracketed by the frame of the song and thus sepa- rated from the Poseidon that Odysseus knows and will cause the Phaea- 22E.g., II. 1.401-6, 8.13-27, 8.477-83, 15.18-24. See C. H. Whitman, "Hera's An- vils," HSCP 74 (1970) 37-42, and L. Slatkin, "The Wrath of Thetis," TAPA 116 (1986) 10-14. 498 This content downloaded from �������������71.198.219.99 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:53:20 UTC������������� All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms DIVINE JUSTICE IN THE ODYSSEY cians to know (13.149-87). Demodocus' conciliatory Poseidon, spokes- man of flexibility and forgiveness, is appropriate to his song's light,
- 78. happy, sensual world of wit and laughter-the kind of world that the Phaeacians think of themselves as inhabiting (8.334-43; cf. 246-49).23 Odysseus' anger at Euryalus' challenge has already revealed the differ- ences between his world and the Phaeacians' (8.158-234); his relation to Poseidon will soon take those differences to a more serious level. The imagined Poseidon of Demodocus differs from the Poseidon experi- enced by Odysseus as Demodocus' tale of Hephaestus' ultimately in- consequential punishment of Ares differs from Odysseus' ruthless ven- geance on his wife's suitors on Ithaca. In contrast to the wronged husband's acceptance of compensation from Poseidon in Demodocus' song, Odysseus categorically refuses any such offer of compensation from the suitors (22.55-64).24 These differences are analogous to the contrast between Zeus's rosy view of helpful Phaeacians who will honor Odysseus "like a god" and send him home without harm and with rich gifts (5.36-40) and the dangerous Phaeacians about whom Athena gives Odysseus an early warning (7.32-36). Here too the Phaeacians' suspicion of strangers stands in suggestive proximity to their special favor from Poseidon
- 79. (7.35). These two views of the Phaeacians are an index of a "Jovian" and a "Neptunian" world order respectively. Zeus, looking ahead to the fulfillment of the action in the broad perspective appropriate to his role in the poem (and his function as Zeus Teleios), defines the Phaeacians solely as the instruments of the return that he prophesies. But Athena, who executes those orders in the details of a mortal's experience, must acquaint her charge with the other, Neptunian side. At the end of the episode, in book 13, the ominous side of the Phaeacians, again ex- pressed through their relation with Poseidon, is turned against them- selves (13.128ff.); but here too, beyond their ken, Zeus is exercising 23 This is virtually the only episode in the poem that depicts the frivolous side of the gods that we see in the Iliad, but the Odyssey will give Zeus no part of the frivolity; he is very much in the background (cf. 8.306): see W. Burkert, "Das Lied von Ares und Aphro- dite," RhM 103 (1960) 143. The ancient commentators noted the absence of Zeus: see schol. ad 8.344. Poseidon's attempt to end a quarrel here is very different from his eager- ness to pick a fight with Apollo in the Theomachy of the Iliad (21.435ff.). 24The parallelism between Hephaestus' situation in the song and Odysseus' on
- 80. Ithaca was familiar to ancient readers: see Athenaeus 5.192d-e and Burkert (note 23 above) 140. 499 This content downloaded from �������������71.198.219.99 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:53:20 UTC������������� All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms CHARLES SEGAL some control over Poseidon (13.139-58), as he has done from the very beginning (1.68-79).25 Both the Phaeacians and the Cyclopes are hosts who underesti - mate the consequences of entertaining their guest and, as a result, are themselves changed forever by a limitation or maiming of power. In both cases the loss is accompanied by the recognition of an ancient oracle (palaiphata thesphata, 9.507 = 13.172). The Phaeacians are supe- rior to the Cyclops in remembering their oracle before its fulfillment (8.555-69). Yet the knowledge does them no good (cf. 8.562f.); and, like the Cyclopes, they trust too much in being "dear to the gods" (6.203; cf. 9.107). Thus King Alcinous dismisses the prophecy with an
- 81. insouciance characteristic of Phaeacian complacency: "The god would accomplish these things, or they would be unfulfilled, as seemed dear to his heart" (8.570f.). In contrast to Aeolus (10.73-75), who has a god's clear- sighted, distanced perspective on mortal life, the Phaeacians' fore- knowledge of the disaster connected with transporting a mortal like Odysseus does not dissuade them from their promised escort. Polyphemus not only rejects Odysseus' claim to the rights of guests and strangers protected by Zeus (9.266-71); he also regards the Cyclopes as exempt from the rule of the gods. The Cyclopes, he ex- plains, "pay no heed to Zeus who bears the aegis nor to the blessed gods, since we are much stronger" (polu pherteroi, 9.275f.). But Poly- phemus is both impious and wrong.26 The death of Locrian Ajax earlier (4.503-11) provided a warning about claiming independence of the di- vine will. The Poseidon of the Cyclopeia is not yet so morally devel- oped. As the wine that makes Odysseus' revenge possible comes, ulti - mately, from "Zeus's increase" (9.111), the Cyclopes' absolute "trust in the gods" for their sustenance points to a less beneficent side of the divine gift. The verse on the growth that "Zeus's rain" brings
- 82. (111) recurs, for the only other time in the poem, in Polyphemus' mouth as he praises Odysseus' vintage and compares it to nectar and ambrosia (9.357-59): 25Poseidon's punishment of Locrian Ajax in 4.503-11, however, suggests a morally concerned Poseidon who, like Zeus, reacts against boasting and the ate of defying the gods. 26Contrast H. Dem. 148, where one of the well-behaved and reverent princesses of Eleusis insists on how mortals must endure the gifts of the gods, "for they are much stronger" (polu pherteroi). 500 This content downloaded from �������������71.198.219.99 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:53:20 UTC������������� All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms DIVINE JUSTICE IN THE ODYSSEY xai y&a KvxXoETrool (tQEL i Le6cOQOg @aQovQa olvov EQLoToC4VUXov, XaCi Oq(>v ALO6g 6O0PQOg &dEl- a&Xk T66' &dpQooiTlg xai vEXTa6O EoTLV
- 83. [email protected] The rain from Zeus that gives the Cyclopes their easy life provides Odysseus with the means of vengeance. Polyphemus' comparison of the wine to nectar and ambrosia (359) also points up the extreme distance between this cave-dwelling herds- man-cannibal and the gods on Olympus. Polyphemus calls the wine "ambrosial" and "nectareous" (9.359) when its purpose is to avenge his raw-eating cannibalism (9.344, 347). Moreover, the vin ordinaire that the Cyclopes know is a gift of Zeus that grows without sowing or plowing (9.109). It thus stands in the ambiguous relation of the rest of Cyclopean life to civilization and "culture" in general. The grand cru that Odys- seus enlists against Polyphemus, on the other hand, is hypercivilized: it is a gift of the priest of Apollo, bestowed because Odysseus and his men protected the priest and his family (9.196-201).27 It is right, morally and artistically, then, for this wine to stand at the furthest possible distance from Polyphemus' life and behavior. Maron gave it to Odysseus, along with other "radiant gifts" (9.201), as a reward for revering the gods (&a6ocvoi, 200) and for preventing possible violence. Its presence among Odysseus' stores is itself the
- 84. result of a civilized exchange between men: respect for the gods, the inhibition of violence, and the giving of guest-gifts. In every way Maron's life is the antithesis of the Cyclops'. While Polyphemus inhabits a cave on the mountain with his sheep (and with- out gods), Maron, a priest of Apollo, lives in a grove of the god (9.200f.) with his small but complete human household, including wife, child, and servants (9.206f.).28 The gifts that accompany his wine include gold and silver vessels and also other civilized foodstuffs, the "provisions" (ac) that Odysseus loads on his ship.29 His wine is a "divine drink," of sweet and godlike bouquet, to be mixed in the proportion twenty to one 27See N. Austin, "Odysseus and the Cyclops: Who is Who?" in Approaches to Homer, ed. C. A. Rubino and C. W. Shelmerdine (Austin 1983) 20f. 28The fact that Maron keeps the knowledge of this wine from all the servants except the housekeeper (9.205f.) of course shows its preciousness, but it may also prefig- ure the guile with which Odysseus uses it against Polyphemus. 29In 2.289f. such "provisions" are described as including "wine and grain, marrow of men," and so imply the food of a fully civilized diet, not the
- 85. Cyclops' milk and raw (human) meat. 501 This content downloaded from �������������71.198.219.99 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:53:20 UTC������������� All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms CHARLES SEGAL (9.205-11). But the Cyclops, though he calls it a draught of nectar and ambrosia, drinks it unmixed and then belches it out along with gobbets of raw human flesh (9.372-74), merely substituting it for the milk that he drank "unmixed" with his grisly meal earlier (9.297). This "unmixed milk" (9.295) thus prepares for the disparity later between the wine and its drinker and is not, as Denys Page claimed, "a very small but very characteristic oversight."30 The wine, so perverted from its original use, proves to be the appropriate exchange with the Cyclops after all. Odysseus gives it to him in place of the guest-rights that Polyphemus refused to honor, and it completes the negative reciprocity of Cyclopean hospitality. All the
- 86. guest-gifts are harmful, and the wine enables Odysseus to rob Poly- phemus of his sight as the pendant to the Cyclops' gift of eating Odys- seus last. The Cyclopes are taken in by Odysseus' trick of "No Man," Outis / metis, because, as they tell Polyphemus, "If no man is doing you violence, alone as you are, there is no way to avoid sickness from great Zeus, but do you pray to your father Lord Poseidon" (9.410- 12). Poly- phemus, then, was even duller than his fellow Cyclopes, for in respect to both life (111) and possible death (411) the Cyclopes are in fact depen- dent on and weaker than the gods.31 Later, Polyphemus will take their advice and pray to Poseidon, but only when it is too late (9.526ff.). In one further respect the Cyclops has little justification for boast- ing of superiority to the gods, for his own life is hedged about by a prophecy of disaster (9.507-14). He lacks the wit to see that such ora- cles, though communicated by a mantis aner (508), nevertheless derive from Zeus and the will of Zeus. Although he knows that there is a moira for the life of Odysseus (532) over which he has no control, he can- not perceive any moral pattern or larger purpose behind these future
- 87. events. Odysseus, by contrast, in his first address to Polyphemus, had attributed his landing on the Cyclopes' island to the counsel or metis of Zeus (9.262).32 30D. L. Page, The Homeric Odyssey (Oxford 1955) 7. 31The ancient commentators noted the contradiction between Polyphemus' claim in 9.275 and this statement in 9.411, and attributed it to his bad character and his isolation from the other Cyclopes: see schol. ad 9.411. 32Zeus's "unerring plan" (earlier in the work but later in the chronology of Odys- seus' return) had already set forth another part of the hero's moira, namely that he will "see his dear ones and come to his high-roofed house and his own native land" (5.41f.). 502 This content downloaded from �������������71.198.219.99 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:53:20 UTC������������� All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms DIVINE JUSTICE IN THE ODYSSEY When Polyphemus answers Odysseus' boast with his own claim to be the son of Poseidon, he raises the possibility that his divine father