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Poseidon, walls, and narrative complexity in the Homeric Iliad

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Judith Maitland
Judith Maitland
Affiliation:
University of Western Australia, [email protected]
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Extract

The sea god Poseidon is taken for granted as such in Classical Greek literature and iconography. Yet one does not have to look far in the literary or iconographical sources to find material that conveys a somewhat different impression. This has been noticed, and in the past there have been some interesting attempts to surmise Poseidon's origins and significance from the evidence at hand. This paper is not an attempt to reconstruct a putative Mycenaean deity, but will examine certain episodes of the Homeric Iliad to suggest possible reasons for the inconsistencies and anomalies that appear.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , May 1999 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1999

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References

1 Best known is still Schachermeyr, F., Poseidon und die Entstehung des griechischen Götterglauben (Wien, 1950).Google Scholar Schachermeyr stands by his thesis in Die Levante im Zeitalter der Wanderungen vom 13. bis zum 11. Jahrhundert v. Chr. (Wien, 1982), pp. 98–9.

2 E. Wüst's discussion and comments, RE 453–4, set out the evidence and the problems.

3 The choice of title and epithet is linked to case and colometry, but all convey the same emphasis. κρείων or єύρυκρєίων is frequently added to Έυοσίχθωυ when this term is used instead of Poseidon's name (8.208, 11.750, 13.10, 14.150, etc.). In the same way κλυτός or γαιήοχος is frequently added to Έυυοοίγαιος (9.362, 13.43, 14.135, 14.355,15.221,23.584, etc.). The vocative Έυυοσίγαι΄ єύρυσθєυές is found only twice in theIliad, in 7.455, 8.201.

4 όρέγνυμι54 is used of the stride of horses and of Poseidon, but is a common verb otherwise, used for stretching out hands, thrusting weapons, extending glory.

5 The question of Poseidon's equine attributes is too large for discussion in this paper. Cf., however, II. 23.307, in which Poseidon and Zeus preside over the management of horses, and 582–5, in which Antilochus must touch his horses and swear by the Earthshaker.

6 See below, p. 9.

7 It is not until Hesiod'sTheogony that we learn how Athena came to be Zeus’ daughter.

8 See, for discussion, Gomme, A. W., A Historical Commentary on Thucydides, vol. 1 (Oxford, 1945), pp. 114–16Google Scholar, on Thuc. Hist. 1.11.1; Page, D. L., History and the Homeric Iliad (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1959), pp. 315–24, 335–8;Google Scholar Kirk, G. S., in Kirk, G. S. (ed.), The Iliad: A Commentary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 276–80, 285–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Hainsworth, B., in Kirk, G. S. (ed.), The Iliad: A Commentary, vol. 3 (Cambridge, 1993), p. 320CrossRefGoogle Scholar, notes the contrast between this sole mention and the commonplace of the trident in archaic and subsequent iconography.

10 Scodel, R., ‘The Achaean wall and the myth of destruction’, HSCP 86 (1982), 33–50Google Scholar, sees here a theme of the destruction of heroes (pp. 36–90), and the Trojan War as a myth of destruction in parallel to Babylonian myths (p. 41), maintaining a connection of destruction by water. Scodel suggests a connection with the Tower of Babel myth, concerning the effrontery of raising lasting monuments (p. 46).

11 Leaf, W., The Iliad, ed. with commentary (2nd edn London, 1900), ad loc. wanted to delete 11–16Google Scholar, the lines that depict Poseidon's progress over land; Janko, R., in Kirk, G. S., (ed.), The Iliad: A Commentary, vol. 4 (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 43–6 on 13.10–38Google Scholar, points out that these lines effectively express Poseidon's three main attributes: earthshaker, sea-god, and hippios.

12 These two days include the curiously extended evening which encompasses the embassy to Achilles, the lay of Dolon, and Odysseus' two suppers.

13 The timing here is vague and nebulous; see Kirk's discussion, above n. 8, pp. 286–8.

14 Kirk's comments on 338, 435–40 (above n. 8, pp. 2797–80, 288) that 430–441 was written before 331–40, are appropriate but offer no reason for this order of composition.

15 An example is 1.11–15,20–34, 54–71.

16 I do not think that ΰπερ should be taken as the equivalent of ετλαρ here, although Ebeling, Lexicon Homericum, does so in order to find a translation for ΰπερ.

17 See Page's discussion, above n. 8, pp. 315–24.

18 Janko (n. 11), p. 267, note to II. 362–7.

19 There is a reference in 20.144–52 to the wall built for Heracles by the Trojans and Athena. This seems to belong to the cycle of tales referring to Heracles and Troy, and has nothing to do with Poseidon, but it becomes his business in so far as the poet attributes to him the idea that the gods should use it as a grandstand.

20 It is curious that this is the only assault narrative in the Iliad itself, and there is no corresponding attack on the Trojan wall, as the attempt described in 16.698–711 is abortive. The only surviving narrative in Homer of a successful attack on the Trojan wall is, of course, that in the Odyssey, which refers to a subterfuge.

21 See Hainsworth's discussion ad loc. (n. 9), pp. 313ff.

22 I find that avre is used in an adversative sense; it may be a weak conjunction simply meaning but (1.237, 404, etc.), or occur more strongly in contexts of exchanging conversation (1.206, 237, etc.), acting in turn (2.105, 107, etc.), repeated action, particularly with such expressions as εΐποτε or ΰστερου (1.579, 7.291, 377, 396, etc.), or with verbs of motion to convey the notion of return. Here it seems to convey the notion that the Achaeans in their turn are building a wall.

23 This kind of grudging resentment is attributed to Zeus only in the Prometheus cycle, so vividly exploited by Aeschylus in his portrait of Zeus as brutal tyrant in PV.

24 L. M. Slatkin, The Power of Thetis (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1991), basing her study on the understanding that the Iliad and Odyssey interpret material available to the poets, mentions Munro's law on p. 15: Munro, D. B. (ed.), Homer's Odyssey, vol. 2, Books 13–24 (Oxford, 1901), p. 325Google Scholar; Page, D. L., The Homeric Odyssey (Oxford, 1955), p. 158Google Scholar thought this meant the poet had never heard of the Iliad; Slatkin with G. Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans (Baltimore, 1979), pp. 20ff., sees this as deliberate editorial exclusion.

25 There is, however, a difference in emphasis. The episodes of the wall, in all their complexity, are still merely episodes in the Iliad, whereas the episode of Poseidon and the Phaeacians is the story of Poseidon's attitude to Odysseus writ small. The latter would be the whole topic of the poem were it not for the figure of Athena.

26 There is a discrepancy between 7.445–6 and 21.446–9; in the former Poseidon says that he and Apollo built the walls; in the latter that he himself built them and Apollo tended the flocks.

27 For discussion see Slatkin (n. 24), passim.

28 See N. Loraux, The Children of Athena: Athenian Ideas about Citizenship and the Division Between the Sexes (Princeton, 1993), and The Invention of Athens: The Funeral Oration in the Classical City, trans. Alan Sheridan (Cambridge, MA, 1986); also Maitland, J., ‘Dynasty and family in the Athenian city state: a view from Attic tragedy’, CQ 42 (1992), 26–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 See, for instance, Pausanias 2.16.5, 2.25.8, etc.

30 This impression is confirmed by C. Doumas, ‘The elements at Akrotiri’, Them and the Aegean World III: Papers to be Presented at the Third International Congress, Santorini, Greece, 3rd-9th September, 1989, 28; Doumas notes that Seneca (Nat. Quaest. III. 14) records this as the opinion of Thales. The scholium ad loc. (Maass-Dindorf), on έυυοσίγαι΄ εύρυσθενές II. 7.455 notes that Thales said that the land was borne by the water.

31 This giant is otherwise known as Polybotes. There is confusion in the tradition; for instance Pausanias, 1.2.4, notes that going up from Piraeus there is a temple of Demeter and near it [a statue of] Poseidon on horseback, throwing a spear at the giant Polybotes. Pausanias says the inscription in his time refers not to Poseidon but to someone else.

32 Pausanias shows the extent of ancient opinion on this topic when in 7.24.7–11, in the context of destruction by Poseidon, he describes warning signs and types of earthquake. He notes particularly in 7.24.12–13 how Helice was destroyed by earthquake and tidal wave.