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A Homeric Goat Island (OD. 9.116–41)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Jan N. Bremmer
Jan N. Bremmer
Affiliation:
Instituut voor Geschiedenis, Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht
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Extract

Recently, Jenny Strauss Clay has put forward the suggestion that the ‘goat island’ on which Odysseus lands before crossing over to the Cyclopes is ‘none other than Hyperia, the former home of the Phaeacians from which they emigrated to Scheria under the leadership of Nausithoos on account of the depredations of the Cyclopes.’ She arrives at this suggestion by combining the former proximity of the Phaeacians and Cyclopes (6.4–6) with the fact that the island ⋯νδρ⋯ν χηρεύει (9.124), ‘is bereft of men’ (i.e. in her opinion the Phaeacians).

The argument seems debatable. First, the word χηρεύει is a hapax, which Homer may or may not have used in a metaphorical way; our words ‘desert’ and ‘deserted’ are also used of places which have not been inhabited before. Second, nothing in the description of the island suggests previous habitation. Third, the Phaeacians are said to have left Hyperia to escape the plundering of the Cyclopes (6.4–6), but the Cyclopes are also explicitly described as lacking ships and shipbuilders (9.125f.). Consequently, Hyperia will hardly have been an island, nor the ‘goat island’ Hyperia.

Modern studies of Odysseus' visit to the Cyclopes often focus on the nature/culture aspects of the episode. The wild goats of ‘goat island’ in line 124 — βóσκει δέ τε μηκ⋯δας αἶγας — have regularly been included in these analyses. For example, C. Calame has well pointed out that ‘ce dernier trait distingue le complexe sémantique que définit l'Île Petite de celui que représente Polyphème et son monde: alors que Polyphème avait avec le monde des hommes le trait commun de l'élevage du petit bétail, la figure sémantique de l'Île Petite inverse exactement les traits caractérisant le monde des hommes.’

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , May 1986 , pp. 256 - 257
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1986

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References

1 Clay, J. Strauss, ‘Goat Island: Od. 9.116–141’, CQ 30 (1980), 261–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Heubeck, A., Omero Odissea III (1983)Google Scholar simply notes: ‘è senza uomini’. I am grateful to Professor C. J. Ruijgh for a discussion of this problem.

3 See most recently Vidal-Naquet, P., Le Chasseur noir, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1983), 39–68Google Scholar; Clay, J. Strauss, The Wrath of Athena (Princeton, 1984), 112–32Google Scholar.

4 Calame, C., ‘Mythe grec et structures narratives: le mythe des Cyclopes dans l'Odyssée’, in Gentili, B. (ed.), Il mito greco (Rome, 1977), 371–91, esp. 372Google Scholar.

5 Bowra, C. M., Heroic Poetry (London, 1952), 132–78, esp. 133Google Scholar.

6 Robert, L., Hellenica 7 (1949), 161–70Google Scholar. Psichari, J., ‘La chèvre chez Homère, chez les Attiques et chez les Grecs modernes’, in Bibl. de l'École des Hautes Études, Sciences hist. et phil. 230 (1921), 303–46, esp. 333Google Scholar, had already noted the existence of goat islands. On wild goats in Greece see now also the interesting study by Georgacas, D. J., ‘The αἴγαγρος: A study in Greek etymology’, in Rigsby, K. J. (ed.), Studies presented to Sterling Dow = Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Monograph 10 (Durham, 1984), 101–20Google Scholar.

7 For all references see ThLL Onomasticon II s.v. Capraria.

8 Ruijgh, C. J., Autour de ‘τε epique’ (Amsterdam, 1971), 688Google Scholar.