Studies in the Odyssey

257 Pages·1974·7.834 MB·English

by  Bernard Fenik

HERMES
ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR KLASSISCHE PHILOLOGIE
EINZELSCHRIFTEN
HERAUSGEGEBEN VON
KARL BÜCHNER · HERMANN GUNDERT
HERBERT NESSELHAUF
HEFT 30
STUDIES IN THE ODYSSEY
BY
BERNARD FENIK
FRANZ STEINER VERLAG GMBH · WIESBADEN
STUDIES
IN THE ODYSSEY
BY
BERNARD FENIK
FRANZ STEINER VERLAG GMFtTT. W TrcnAnp«

PREFACE
Quotations from the Iliad and Odyssey are from the Oxford text of
D. B. Monro and T. W. Allen. Several important works appeared after the
manuscript was already at press (especially H. Erbse’s Beiträge zum Verständnis
der Odyssee, Berlin, 1972), but nothing that came into my hands after the
spring of 1972 could be taken into account. I wish to express my gratitude to
the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung of Bad-Godesberg, West Germany, for a
generous grant that enabled me to work at the University of Heidelberg in the
spring of 1971, and again for a large subvention toward printing costs. The
assistance and cooperation of this foundation, and the guest-friendship of the
Classical Seminar at the University of Heidelberg, were invaluable in the
research and preparation of this book.
Published with the aid of financial grants from the
Alexander von Humbold-Stiftung.
Oittwr5',v*'
Blkllv'' ·'■
Λ
Alle Rechte Vorbehalten
Ohne ausdrückliche Genehmigung des Verlages ist auch nichtgestattet, das
Werk oder einzelne Teile daraus nachzudrucken oder auf phot/nnecB*nischem
Wege (Photokopie, Mikrokopie usw.) zu vervielfältigen, Ö *974 Oy Franz
Steiner Verlag GmbH, Wiesbaden. Satz u. Druck: Werk- una-Eeieoruckerei
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface...................................................................................................................VII
Abbreviations of Frequently cited W orks...................................................VIII
Journals................................................................................................................... IX
Introduction.......................................................................................................... i
PART I: ODYSSEUS AND QUEEN ARETE
The nameless Stranger......................................................................................... 5
Interruptions........................................................................................................... 61
Discrepancies: The Problem of Queen Arete’s Importance.....................105
PART II: DOUBLETS
Introduction...........................................................................................................133
Scenes with repeated Elements; Symmetrical ordering..............................143
Themes and typical Situations........................................................................153
Character Doublets..............................................................................................172
Helios and Poseidon..............................................................................................208
Conclusion...............................................................................................................231
EXCURSUS: THEOKLYMENOS................................................................233
INDEX OF PASSAGES.................................................................................245
ABBREVIATIONS OF FREQUENTLY CITED WORKS
Besslich: S. Besslich, Schweigen — Verschweigen — Übergehen. Die Dar­
stellung des Unausgesprochenen in der Odyssee (Heidelberg, 1966)
Bethe: E. Bethe, Homer II (Leipzig 1922)
Finsler: G. Finsler, Homer II (Berlin 1918)
Focke : F. Focke, Die Odyssee (Stuttgart, 1943)
Heubeck: Λ. Heubeck, Der Odyssee-Dichter und die Ilias (Erlangen, 1954)
Hölscher: U. Hölscher, Untersuchungen zur Form der Odyssee (Berlin, 1939)
Kirch hoff: A. Kirchhoff, Die homerische Odyssee (Berlin, 1879)
Kirk: G. Kirk, The Songs of Homer (Cambridge, 1962)
Lord: A. B. Lord, The Singer of Tales (Cambridge, i960)
Mattes: W. Mattes, Odysseus bei den Phlaken (Würzburg. 1958)
M erkelbach : R. Merkelbach, Untersuchungen zur Odyssee (Mönchen, 1951)
Page: D. Page, The Homeric Odyssey (Oxford, 1955)
Reinhardt* : K. Reinhardt, Die Abenteuer der Odyssee (Tradition und Geist,
Göttingen, i960, 47—124)
Reinhardt*: K. Reinhardt, Tradition und Geist im homerischen Epos (Tradi­
tion und Geist, Göttingen, i960, 5—15)
Rothe : K. Rothe, Die Odyssee als Dichtung (Paderborn, 1914)
Schwartz: E. Schwartz, Die Odyssee (München, 1924)
Stanford: W. B. Stanford, The Odyssey of Homer, 2 vols. (Vol. I, Oxford.
1950; Vol. II, Oxford, 1954)
Von der Mühll: P. Von der Mühll, Odyssee (Pauly-Wissowa-Kroll, Realenzyklopädie
für die klass. Altertumswissenschaft, Supplementband VII, 6968.
Leipzig. 1940)
Wilamowitz* : U. von Wilamowitz-Mobllendorf, Homerische Untersuchungen
(Berlin, 1884)
Wilamowitz*: U. von Wilamowitz-Mobllendorf, Die Heimkehr des Odysseus
(Berlin, 1927)
Woodhouse : W. J. Woodhouse, The Composition of Homer’s Odyssey (Oxford,
1930)
JOURNALS
AJA American Journal of Archaeology
AJPh American Journal of Philology
CJ Classical Journal
CPh Classical Philology
CQ Classical Quarterly
CR Classical Review
Comp. Lit. Comparative Literature
HSCPh Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies
ΤΑΡΑ Transactions of the American Philological Association
UCPCPh University of California Publications in Classical Philology
WS Wiener Studien
YCS Yale Classical Studies

INTRODUCTION
This book consists of a series of separate, independent studies of various
scenes and larger problems of interpretation in the Odyssey. The unity that it
lacks in topic and subject matter is, hopefully, compensated for by consistency
in method and general approach. My aim is, basically, to isolate and identify
certain dominant stylistic characteristics of the Odyssey, and to interpret on
that basis both individual incidents and longer stretches of the narrative, and
also to explain the origin and genesis of these techniques as a factor influencing
the way they are used. The three studies in Part I all center around the scene in
Book η where Odysseus enters the palace of Alkinoos and begs queen Arete to
send him home. The starting point for each essay is a different problem that
critics (mostly analyst critics) have discovered there. These problems are, in my
opinion, genuin? a®d unportantjandrequire more comprehensive and thorough­
going analysis than they have yet received. What I have tried to show is that
the peculiar details in question are rooted infetvlistic featuralthat are character­
istic of the Odyssey generally, and that they should be interpreted on that basis.
The purpose here is to establish tet^jjstjs^äiaaal— *· e· the poet’s predilection
for certain ^Tandard sceae-tmea./^· — as a foundation for further inter­
pretation. Since extensive repetition generally seems to be a characteristic of all
oral poetry, or poetry derived from an oral tradition, it will come as no surprise
that my analysis is grounded in the meth^SLiß^JäööMÜi ot/cantemoorarv
oral poetry studies!) My standpoint is lha<;i^llp nnitAr^ari and my proce­
dure is to combine the older traditional methods of criticism with the
concepts and techniques that have been worked out by Parry and his suc­
cessors.
It is, I think, important tp achieve some such combination of methnooda
and outlook for two reasons. ^First^f all, becaus^the~use of formulaic mater±iT i
tiuini tmhee liEuaacuT aannaJ TvTjJayysssseeyy ggooeess \wJJeeuIl bpeeyyoofnida" rreeppeeaatteedd dcuicctuioonnaali floonrmnuuilaaee; it}
iextends to repeated themes and jjBpiiiQfiawliere whole action sequences are
tfie' Biflc Dtuiding Wocks in larger narrative structures, analogous to dictional
formulae that work as basic «nits in the creation of single verses^ It is |
kn unportantand as yet far from completed task to define the extent to which
teuch larger compositional entities underlie the narrative of the Homeric enica.
5_2 5ΕΣ_Ώ \an attempt is long overdue to turn oral poetry studies to the specific
mterOTetatiOTofffi^ej^juüfl,dfiHiiajatäiftthfii£4jaÖiiäLiäS^i2j£2iSie£iJ