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Traces of the Rhapsode: An Essay on the Use of Recurrent Similes in the Iliad

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

J. T. Sheppard
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Extract

We know roughly, says Prof. Murray, how a rhapsode set to work. He would be tempted to introduce bright patches. … He would abhor the subordination of parts to the whole.

This tendency, he suggests, explains the occurrence both in Θ (555 ff.) and in II (297 ff.) of the well-known description of a cloudless sky: ‘Such lovely lines, once heard, were a temptation to any rhapsode, and likely to recur whereever a good chance offered. The same explanation applies to the multiplied similes of B 455 ff. They are not meant to be taken all together; they are alternatives for the reciter to choose from.’

I quote this pronouncement, not because I want to quarrel with the most generous of scholars, but because it hits on particularly instructive passages. The constellation of similes at B 455 ff. marks, I suggest, a provisional climax in the movement of the poem, and the images here chosen are poetically relevant, not only to the immediate context but to the whole design. Similarly, the image of Θ 555 ff. is not isolated, but provides a climax and a consummation to the whole series of images which decorates the movement Γ–Θ. The kindred, though more impressive, image of Π 297 ff, marks the beginning of yet another series.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , 1922 , pp. 220 - 237
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1922

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References

1 History of Greek Literature, 20–21.

2 A 47, 104, 359, B 87, 142, 206, 394, 455 ff., 780 ff., Γ 1 ff. I am indebted to H. Fränkel, Homerische Gleichnisse, for a few references which I had overlooked. To Professor Bury, who was good enough to read this article in proof and to suggest an important modification, I am very much indebted.

3 Hdt. I. 116. Drerup, ingenious explanation (Fünfte Buch 47Google Scholar, Homerische Poetik I. 438) is unnecessary.

4 I have discussed this matter in J.H.S. 1920, 49 ff., and in my book, The Pattern of the Iliad, 34 ff.

5 Wilamowitz, (Homer und die Ilias, 35)Google Scholar condemns the separation of Θ 524 ff. from I 53 ff., but himself puts asunder what the Muse has joined together, by making a sharp division at the end of E (ib. 297).

6 Γ 2, 10, 23, 30, 60 (151, 196, 222), 449. For Hector's heart of iron cf. X 357, Ω 521.

7 Δ 75, 130, 141, 243, 253, 275.

8 Δ 422, 433, 442, 452.

9 Γ 60, Δ 482.

10 Ε 5, 87, 136, 161, 305, 436, 476, 499, 522, 554, 560, 597.

11 Ε 627–698.

12 Ε 768 ff. (cf. Γ 1 ff.), 778, Η 59, Θ 247.

13 Ε 864, Θ 169.

14 Δ 141, Ζ 289.

15 Ε 782, Ζ 256, Θ 357.

16 Δ 130, Θ271.

17 Ζ 295, 401.

18 Ζ 146 ff., Θ 306.

19 Γ 10, Δ 274, 452, Ε 522, Θ 555. The only similes in I are the two at the beginning (4, 14) and the comparison of Achilles to a bird foraging for its young (323 ff.).

20 Κ is an Interlude, linked by its similes with the main structure (5, 154, 183, 297, 360, 485, 547).

21 12 ff. Here I disagree with Prof.Bury, (J.H.S. 1922, p. 1)Google Scholar, but with his general view and his criticism of Mr. Drerup, I am in agreement.

22 Λ 67 ff., 84 ff.

23 Λ 113, 129, 155, 172, 239, 269; 292, 297, 305, 324, 383, 391; 414, 474, 492; 547, 558.

24 Μ 18 ff., 35, 40; 132, 146, 156, 168; 278 ff.; 293, 299, 375, 385; 421, 435.

25 Ν 62 (cf. 829). At 39 the Trojans fight like a flame or wind (cf. 53, 334, 795, Ξ 16). The simile of 102 ff. is isolated and unimportant.

26 Ν 136–205.

27 Ν 334. Between 205 and this climax, I notice only (242) Idomeneus ‘like lightning,’ Meriones (296 ff.) like Ares, going out with his son Phobos to war.

28 Ν 389, 437, 471, 493, 531, 571, 588 (cf. the puffing away of Pandarus' arrow).

29 Ν 703, 795, 819, Ξ 16. Poseidon shouts at Ξ 148.

30 Ξ 386, 394, 413, 499.

31 Ο 80, 170 are the only similes in the Olympian scene. At Ο 237 Apollo sent by Zeus to Hector, darts like a hawk.

32 Π 156, Ο 381, 623, Ρ 737.

33 Ο 263 ff. (of. Ζ 506, Λ 48 ff.).

34 Ο 323, 362, 381.

35 Ο 410.

36 Ο 690 ff. (cf. Β 459).

37 Π 259 ff. (cf. Μ 167).

38 Π 296 ff., cf. 364, 386.

39 Π 482 ff.

40 Π 633 ff.

41 Ρ 4, 53, 61, 109, 133.

42 Ρ 281, 366, 389.

43 Ρ 436, 480, 520, 542.

44 Ρ 570 (cf. Β 469, Γ 189, Π 641).

45 Ρ 647.

46 Ρ 725, 737, 742 ff.

47 Σ 207 ff.

48 I have discussed this point in a paper read to the Cambridge Philological Society, and summarised in the Cambridge University Reporter, May 23, 1922.