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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 March 2013
In the remaining pages I offer some more detailed comments on a number of passages from both epics. Besides allowing slightly more attention to stylistic matters than was possible in the earlier chapters, this procedure also gives an opportunity to comment on some specific problems, and on a number of other approaches which have not been discussed so far.
1 Translation from Hammond 1987.
2 Cf. Hdt. 2.113–20, esp. 120.1–2, for scepticism; for disapproval, see Alcaeus 42, 283 Lobel and Page; Aesch. Agam. 62, 225, 448, 681–716; Eur. Andr. 590–69; IT 356, 438–55; Cyc. 179–87(!), etc.
3 On Helen, see also Reckford 1964; J. T. Kakridis 1971: 25–53; Reichel 1994: 264–71 (with bibliography). On this episode, see Lendle 1968.
4 See e.g. the notes in Hooker's (1980) and Willcock's (1978) commentaries on the scene; also the older edition, Leaf 1900–2. Kirk 1985: 327 sits on the fence.
5 A point stressed by Kirk 1985 ad loc. Almost identical lines are found at 4.208; 11.803; 13. 468. Compare also 2.142; 3.395; 14.459; 17.123.
6 Kullmann 1960: 250–1, who regards the scene as indebted to the Cyclic poem the Cypria; cf. e.g. M. W. Edwards 1987a: 196.
7 In 445 it is unclear whether Kranae is a proper name (as we might speak of the island of Rockall) or an adjective. Even if the former is right, the name suggests the discomfort of the lovers.
8 Cf. Macleod 1983: 10.
9 See especially J. T. Kakridis 1971: 68–75; also Griffin 1980: 6–8.
10 Translation from Fagles 1990.
11 On Phoenix's speech, see further Lohmann 1970: 245–76; Rosner 1976; Scodel 1982; Brenk 1986. On the Meleager paradigm, see above pp. 8–9.
12 Macleod 1982: 34.
13 For obvious reasons, translations often gloss over this, translating the duals as plurals: e.g. Hammond 1987. Fitzgerald 1974 even inserts at 182 ‘Following Phoenix, Aias and Odysseus walked together…’! Exceptions include Lattimore 1951 and Fagles 1990.
14 For a fuller account of the difficulties, see Hainsworth 1993: 57, 85–7; Griffin 1995: 51–3. In English the major analytic discussion is Page 1959: 297–315 (older treatments are listed by Motzkus 1964: 97). For subsequent argument see e.g. Segal 1968 (unpersuasive); Wyatt 1985; M. W. Edwards 1987a: 218–19, 228–30.
15 Reinhardt 1961: 212–42, endorsed by Hainsworth 1993: 57.
16 A phrase used by Willcock 1976: 99 and by Hainsworth 1993: 57; see also M. L. West 2011c: 13.
17 E.g. M. W. Edwards 1987a: 228, on whose discussion I am building here.
18 See now S. West 2001, whose solution is similar to mine, but supported with new arguments involving the original form of Phoenix's autobiographical tale. For a different approach, see Scodel 2002: 160–71.
19 Translation from Lattimore 1951.
20 See further Fenik 1968: 216; Willcock 1976: 126, 189; Taplin 1992: 156.
21 See Griffin 1980: ch. 3.
22 For the scholia, see N. J. Richardson 1980: 272. For modern discussion see e.g. A. Parry 1972: 8–22; Janko 1992 on 13.602–3.
23 In the Odyssey the situation is less clear: there the device is exclusively reserved for the swineherd Eumaeus.
24 For scepticism about the significance of this kind of placing of words, see Bassett 1926; M. W. Edwards 1966: 139–40; contrast Tsagarakis 1982: 10–31. There is a thorough investigation of this question in Higbie 1990.
25 Janko 1992: 408–10 explains this in neo-analytical terms, according to which the episode is modelled on the death of Achilles.
26 P. J. Kakridis 1961. The situation in the Iliad is complicated by the fact that Achilles at different stages has two separate sets of divine armour, the first being seized by Hector. See further Janko 1992 on 16.130–54.
27 Compare the comment by J. Griffin, in his contribution to the joint article by Griffin and Hammond 1982, at 142 n. 17: ‘“Half-lines in Homer” is a less obvious title than “Half-lines in Virgil”, but it might make an interesting study.’
28 Translation from Lattimore 1951.
29 Translation from ibid., modified. Also relevant are 16.638–40; 17.51–2, 439–40. See also Fenik 1968: 163; Segal 1971b: 41–2; Griffin 1980: 134–8.
30 My translation.
31 For more detailed discussion of this scene, see Schein 2002.
32 In Book 23 Poseidon is said to have been the one who gave the horses (276–8); he is of course traditionally associated with horses.
33 E.g. the Sophilos dinos and the François vase (T. H. Carpenter 1991: plates 38 and 1), c.580 and 570 respectively.
34 M. L. West 2011c: 413, on 24.60–3.
35 See above p. 44, n. 3.
36 [Hes.] Cat. fr. 211; Pind. Pyth. 3.92–103; Eur. IA 1036–79; and of course the much-discussed ambiguities of Catullus 64.
37 Cf. Gantz 1993: 230–1, citing schol. A Il.16.22, 18.57, 60; Ap. Rhod. Argon. 4.869–79.
38 There are analogies here with the succession to Cronos, where another female (Rhea) gives birth to the usurper. Compare the danger from Metis in Hes. Theog. 886–900, with West's note (M. L. West 1966).
39 Pind. Isthm. 8.26–47 (cf. and contrast Nem. 5.34–7); later see esp. PV 755–68.
40 [Hes.] Cat. F 1 and 204.95–104 (many uncertainties of text); M. L. West 1997a: 480–2. Clay's work has been influential here (e.g. 1983, 1989, and 2011); see also Graziosi and Haubold 2005: 35–45 on ‘cosmic history’.
41 Slatkin 1991 (discussed by D. Cairns in his introduction to Cairns 2001: 45–8). An interesting development of this approach for Hera and Athena can be found in Kelly 2007b: 422–5.
42 Translation from Hammond 1987.
43 Cf. esp. Achilles himself in Aeschylus' Myrmidons, as shown by Ar. Ran. 832–4, 912 and scholia, with Taplin 1972. For other cases see N. J. Richardson 1974 on Hymn to Demeter 197–201; cf. N. J. Richardson 1980: 281; de Jong 1987b.
44 Fundamental treatment by J. T. Kakridis 1949, esp. 65–95; the authoritative collection of material is Kullmann 1960. More recent discussions include Kullmann 1981 and 1984 (both reprinted in Kullmann 1992); M. W. Edwards 1991: 15–19; Dowden 1996. M. E. Clark 1986 provides a bibliographical survey; for an excellent synthesis see Willcock 1997. For an attempt at a rapprochement between neo-analysis and oral theory see Burgess 2006.
45 See 18.316 = 23.17 (Achilles over Patroclus); 24.723, 747, 761 (the women at Hector's funeral).
46 J. T. Kakridis 1949: 65–6; illustration in Vermeule 1979: 15.
47 For more extended discussion, see Currie 2012 and Kelly 2012b, the former arguing for allusive intertextuality, the latter strongly opposed to such an approach in dealing with oral poetic tradition. To my mind Currie makes a convincing case that such allusion can indeed exist even between oral poems. Of course, those who accept that the poets were literate do not face the same objections.
48 Similar argument in Seaford 1994: 154–9, with criticism of the sceptics.
49 Auerbach's essay ‘Odysseus’ scar', the first chapter in Auerbach 1953, has often been reprinted. For criticism see Köhnken 1976; de Jong 1987a: 22–3; Lynn-George 1988: 2–27.
50 See further Willcock 1973 and 1983a. M. L. West 2003c argues against this, because he takes a different view of the content of the source poem.
51 Macleod 1982: 28–32, esp. 30.
52 See further Kullmann 1960: 37–8, 311; Seaford 1994: 154–6.
53 Translation from Shewring 1980, with slight modifications.
54 Cf. 470, 550–1, Alcaeus 387, Soph. Ajax 1340–1, PMG 898. Similarly in the games of Iliad 23, Ajax enters three contests and comes first in none of them.
55 See e.g. Page 1955: 26–7.
56 So esp. Eisenberger 1973: 184 (independently e.g. A. Parry 1981: 29), endorsed by de Jong 1992: 5 and Sourvinou-Inwood 1995: 85.
57 De Jong 1992 (cf. already Suerbaum 1968). See also R. B. Rutherford 1986: 150 n. 33.
58 Translation from Shewring 1980.
59 For fuller discussion of Homer's similes, see Fränkel 1921; Scott 1974 (including full lists), 2009; Moulton 1977; Macleod 1982: 48–50; M. W. Edwards 1987a: ch. 12 and 1991: 24–41; R. B. Rutherford 1992: 73–7; Buxton 2004.
60 Cf. and contrast Kirk 1970: 162–71, who interprets the Cyclops myth along structuralist lines as a nature vs. culture story: primitive man-eating monster vs. shrewd intelligent human armed with a quick wit, wine, and fire. Note also the similes at 9.384–8, 391–4, both applied to Odysseus as he proceeds with the perilous act of blinding the Cyclops. Both describe his action in terms of human craftsmanship: ship-building and the work of a bronze-smith, techniques of a civilized society.
61 See Macleod 1982: 49.
62 See Griffin 1980: 19 on heroic diet: add Pl. Resp 3. 404b and context; N. J. Richardson 1975: 73 n. 6.
63 Translation from Shewring 1980.
64 For other reversals, see R. B. Rutherford 1992 on 20.356–7, and 1986: 152 n. 40.
65 See further Moulton 1977: ch. 1 and 133–9 (sometimes over-subtle).
66 Moulton 1977: 128–9.
67 Shipp 1972: 208–22, argues on linguistic grounds that the elaborated similes are late in date, and this has been generally accepted (see e.g. Janko 1992: 12, though contrast his p. 9). It is striking, in poems so rich in formulaic material, that similes are so rarely repeated, even when the same subject matter is involved. Is this a sign of Homer's relative independence of the tradition?
68 Translation from Shewring 1980.
69 For bibliography on the lies see above p. 79, n. 9.
70 There has been a great deal written about the Phoenicians in the archaic period: see e.g. Aubet 1993; López-Ruiz 2011.
71 For a different view, see Stewart 1976: 90–1.
72 The first approach is pursued with perverse determination by Woodhouse 1930, esp. chs. 17–18; for emphatic rejection see Fenik 1974: 171 n. 69. The second, which concentrates especially on Odysseus' account of his experiences in Thesprotia, is expounded by S. West 1981 (cf. e.g. Danek 1998: 214–20; Malkin 1998: 126–34).
73 Here the work of Fenik 1974: 167–71 is virtually definitive.
74 See Purcell 1990, who touches on Homeric matters only in passing, but presents a stimulating picture of the Mediterranean background. See also Strasburger 1953; Lane Fox 2008 (whose travels take him a long way from Homer: chs. 19–21 are the most relevant).
75 See Boardman 1999: 114.
76 ML no. 7; Boardman 1999: 115–16, with illustrations. See also M. L. West 1997a: 617.
77 Schaefer 1960, Graham 1964, 1982; Boardman 1999 (much-expanded revision of a 1964 book). For a briefer treatment see Jeffery 1976: 50–7.
78 Interpretations of this reference vary: Garvie 1994 ad loc. suggests that ‘to an Ionian poet Euboea itself seemed to be on the western edge of the known world, so that Scheria must be an unimaginable distance beyond it’. M. L. West 1988: 172 argues that the Odyssey may itself have been composed in Euboea; so also Powell 1997.
79 Malkin 1998; Dougherty 2001. Lane Fox 2008: 382 offers an extended tour d'horizon of the Mediterranean world in or around the time of Homer, but strangely insists that the Odyssey pre-dates the colonizing movement (suggesting a date of 760–740).
80 See Vidal-Naquet 1981: 84, 85–7.
81 Extended argument and bibliography on this debate in Raaflaub 1993. Seaford 1994: chs. 1–2 argues that the polis is emergent in Homer, but still weaker and less important than the oikos. The subject is also treated by Scully 1990 (somewhat diffuse).
82 See further Raaflaub 1993: 54–9. On the use of the term demos in archaic Greece, see e.g. Donlan 1970, 1973. We note incidentally that here, as in the Iliad, there is no trace of the more romantic notion that the Greek leaders, who had all been suitors of Helen, were now bound by an oath to aid her wronged husband. See Taplin 1990: 68–9, who argues that the three possible hints of this oath in the Iliad are not significant.
83 For a short but lively account of Archilochus' career and poetry, see Jeffery 1976: 181–3; more detail on history in Graham 1978; on poetry in Burnett 1983: part 1.
84 Fr. 5 West; cf. fr. 114 on the right sort of general.
85 See e.g. in this speech 14.198, 213–15, 235–6, 243, 274–5, 310, 338. Elsewhere see esp. 18.130–50 (Odysseus to Amphinomus); 19.363–9; 20.194–6.