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Unpacking Homer’s Odyssey

Unpacking Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus and Sirens, 500-480 BCE, British Museum. Homer Odyssey 11.210-214, from Egypt Duke Papyrus Archive. Odysseus and Cyclops, 650 BCE Eleusis Museum. CC200 Classical World January 25, 2012

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Unpacking Homer’s Odyssey

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  1. Unpacking Homer’s Odyssey Odysseus and Sirens, 500-480 BCE, British Museum Homer Odyssey 11.210-214, from EgyptDuke Papyrus Archive Odysseus and Cyclops, 650 BCEEleusis Museum CC200 Classical World January 25, 2012 Prof. Michael ArnushProf. Dan CurleyProf. Leslie MechemProf. David PorterProf. Jessica Westerhold

  2. IT’S GREEK TO ME—OR IS IT?alpha α abeta β bgamma γ gdelta δ depsilon ε e ANDRAMOIENNEPEMOUSAPOLUTROPON HOS MALA POLLA Man to me speak, tell of Muse of many turnings who very much PLANCHTHE, EPEITROIESHIERONPTOLIETHRONEPERSE. wandered when of Troy [the] holy city he had sacked. POLLOND’ANTHROPONIDENASTEA KAI NO-ON EGNO, Of many “men,” humans he saw cities and [their] mind learned POLLAD’HOG’ENPONTOIPATHENALGEA HON KATA THUMON many he in [the] sea suffered pains his in heart ARNUMENOSHEN TEPSUCHEN KAI NOSTONHETAIRON. trying to win, save his soul, life and homecoming for his companions.

  3. Homer Odyssey 1.1-18 (tr. Fagles): Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy. Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds, many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea, fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home. But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove — the recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all, the blind fools, they devoured the cattle of the Sun and the Sungod blotted out the day of their return. Launch out on his story, Muse, daughter of Zeus, start from where you will — sing for our time too. By now all the survivors, all who avoided headlong death were safe at home, escaped the wars and waves. But one man alone . . . his heart set on his wife and his return — Calypso. the bewitching nymph, the lustrous goddess, held him back, deep in her arching caverns, craving him for a husband. Aristotle Poetics 17.1455b (tr. Halliwell): For the main story of the Odyssey is short: a man is abroad for many years, is persecuted by Poseidon, and is left desolate; further, circumstances at home mean that his property is consumed by suitors, and his son is a target for conspiracy; but the man survives shipwreck to reach home again, reveals his identity to certain people, and launches an attack – his own safety is restored, and he destroys his enemies. This much is essential; the rest consists of episodes.

  4. / Geometric skyphos, Ischia, 750-725 BCEDiscovered by Giorgio Buchner, 1954, ina boy’s tomb in the necropolis of Ischia

  5. Text Νέστορος [εἰμὶ] εὔποτ[ον] ποτέριο[ν]·ὃς δ’ ἂντοδεπίεσιποτερί[ο] αὐτίκα κενονἵμερος αἱρέσει καλλιστ[εφάν]ο Ἀφροδίτες. Nestoros [eimi] eupot[on] poterio[n] hos d’ an todepiesipoteri[o] autikakenon himeroshaireseikallist[ephan]o Aphrodites. Translation Of Nestor I am the pleasant-to-drink-from cup Whoever drinks from this cup, immediately him A desire will seize for fair-crowned Aphrodite. Cup of Nestor, Ischia, 750-725 BCE Phoenician & early Greek alphabets,ca. 750 BCE Homer Od. 3.71-72 (Fagles tr. ): “[Athena] offered [Nestor’s] rich two-handled cup to Telemachus, Odysseus’ son” Iliad 11.746-750 (Fagles tr.): “… the grand, glowing cup [Nestor] brought from home, studded with golden nails, fitted with handles, four all told and two doves perched on each, heads bending to drink and made of solid gold and twin supports ran down to form the base.” Homer Iliad 6.198-200 (Fagles tr.): “He quickly sent Bellerophon off to Lycia, gave him tokens, murderous signs, scratched in a folded tablet, and many of them too, enough to kill a man.” Herodotus Histories 5.58: “The Phoenicians … brought with them to Hellas … the alphabet, which had been unknown to the Greeks before.”

  6. Gold cup, Mycenae, ca. 1500 BCEDiscovered by Heinrich Schliemann, 1876, inGrave Circle A, Shaft Grave IV • Homeric references • Odyssey 3.71-72 (Fagles tr.): “[Athena] offered [Nestor’s] rich two-handled cup to Telemachus, Odysseus’ son ....” • Iliad 11.746-750 (Fagles tr.): “… the grand, glowing cup [Nestor] brought from home, studded with golden nails, fitted with handles, four all told and two doves perched on each, heads bending to drink and made of solid gold and twin supports ran down to form the base.”

  7. πέμπε δέ μιν Λυκίην δέ, πόρεν δ᾽ ὅ γε σήματα λυγρὰγράψας ἐν πίνακι πτυκτῷ θυμοφθόρα πολλά,δεῖξαι δ᾽ ἠνώγειν ᾧ πενθερῷ ὄφρ᾽ ἀπόλοιτο(Homer Iliad 6.168-170) “He quickly sent him [Bellerophon] off to Lycia, gave him tokens, murderous signs, scratched in a folded tablet, and many of them too, enough to kill a man” (Homer Iliad 6.198-200, Fagles tr.).

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