Leonard Muellner
Last updated at
Feb. 16, 2023, 9:40 p.m.
{"blocks":[{"key":"f8fse","text":"Odysseus is about to make a speech that is introduced by the narrator with the same words as the last speech he had made, the one at the end of Rhapsody 14: both are described as subōteō peirētizōn “testing the swineherd” (14.459=15.304). The “testing” seems to mean forcing Eumaios to choose between two alternatives: in Rhapsody 15, the narrator says that the goal of Odysseus’ speech is either that Eumaios sustain his ‘continuous affection’ (15.305, endukeōs phileoi)[1] for Odysseus and ask him to remain on the pig farm, or instead that he urge Odysseus to take off for the city (15.305-306). In Rhapsody 14, on a dark, rainy, and windy night, Odysseus wants to force Eumaios, again as a sign of his affection for him (14.461), to slip off his own cloak and give it to him, so that he can sleep warm and tight, or to urge one of his men to do so. For a beggar clothed in rags to wangle a cloak and a tunic from someone higher up on the social scale is really asking a lot. The usual request of a beggar is for a cup of wine and a piece of bread,[2] so rather than, “Buddy, can you spare a dime?” it’s more like, “Buddy, can you spare a fur coat?” In fact, Eumaios had predicted (14.131-132) that the disguised Odysseus would gin up any tale he could to get such clothing, so Odysseus’ attempt to do so has an elaborate prologue that suggests self-assertion (and almost self-identification), along with apologizing, for the brazen story he is about to tell, but he goes ahead with it anyway.[3]","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":179,"length":18,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":454,"length":16,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":471,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"},{"offset":1051,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"},{"offset":1496,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"1ph5i","text":"Here in Rhapsody 15, Odysseus makes no apology for what he is about to say, but perhaps he should have. To force Eumaios to invite him to stay longer, he reports the contrary, a decision to leave the pig farm in the morning and go into the city, to beg some food and drink, to give Penelope a message, and to interact with the suitors. The next eight lines (15.317-324) conclude his speech, as follows:","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"cp1d4","text":"I would immediately work [root dra- ‘do, work’] well among them, whatever they want.","type":"blockquote","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":20,"length":4,"style":"BOLD"},{"offset":31,"length":3,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"7nprs","text":"I will speak out to you, so understand and listen:","type":"blockquote","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"b5gh2","text":"Because of Hermes diaktoros[4], who awards favor","type":"blockquote","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":18,"length":9,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":27,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"dca7q","text":"And superior renown to the deeds of all human beings,","type":"blockquote","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"bbsb1","text":"When it comes to ‘working-ness’ [abstract noun derived from root dra-] no other mortal could compete with me","type":"blockquote","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":18,"length":12,"style":"BOLD"},{"offset":65,"length":3,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":71,"length":37,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"1irlt","text":"In heaping up fire the good way and splitting dry logs,","type":"blockquote","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"f97vi","text":"In divvying up the meat and roasting it and pouring wine,","type":"blockquote","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"2jv8i","text":"The kinds of things that lesser men work at alongside [compound verb from root dra-] the nobles.","type":"blockquote","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":36,"length":17,"style":"BOLD"},{"offset":79,"length":3,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"5atvg","text":"So the beggar is touting exceptional skills bestowed upon him by the god Hermes. But why the ones listed, and why with three forms of the verb dra- ‘do’? The words that I have highlighted in bold are all derivatives of the verbal root dra- that means ‘do’, a common verb in Classical (post-Homeric) Greek meaning ‘do/act’ as well as ‘perform a ritual act,’ but a decidedly rare word in Homer. In fact, each of the forms of it in Odysseus' speech occurs only here in all of Homeric epic. The ancient commentators on Homeric poetry say that all three forms in Odysseus’ speech refer to slave/servant behavior, translating the verb ‘serve,’ which would make its meaning in Homer unique, since the verb never occurs in later sources with that sense. The only frequent form of this root in Homeric Greek, the agent noun drēst-ēr/-eira, ‘one who does/works’ or ‘one who performs ritual acts,’ actually occurs five times in the Odyssey, always in the plural, apparently to designate women or men who are in fact servants or slaves. An examination of its usage, however, reveals that it always designates persons, slaves or not, who are performing ritual activities associated with the treatment of guests. It is also used once of males attached to the household of Odysseus who carry out the splitting of word (mentioned by Odysseus above, see also below) alongside the women preparing for the ritual treatment of guests (20.160).","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":143,"length":3,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":235,"length":4,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":453,"length":9,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":815,"length":14,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":921,"length":8,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"4ec9s","text":"When it comes to the actions that Odysseus in his testing speech describes himself as the unrivaled master of, thanks to the patronage of Hermes, they are, like the guest rituals, also ritual acts, and he specifies that they are things done by ‘lesser’ men ‘alongside’ the nobility — how much ‘lesser’ is not clear, especially given the word ‘alongside.’ All are activities related to the ritual sacrifice and cooking of pastoral animals: the preparation of a fire, the cooking of meat, its division into fair shares, and the pouring of wine over the roasting meat or to consume along with it. The brief mention of splitting wood for the male drēstēres in Odysseus’ palace at 20.160 must be preparatory to lighting a fire and cooking meat. In the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, all the activities that the disguised Odysseus describes himself as expert in, with the exception of pouring wine, are actually ascribed to Hermes himself. [1]","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":343,"length":9,"style":"BOLD"},{"offset":643,"length":9,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":747,"length":22,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":927,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"bt7ja","text":"As the Hellenistic Homeric scholar Aristarchus understood,[2] the traditional function of the person called a kērux ‘herald, attendant’ helps to clarify Odysseus’ speech. Hermes is the god of heralds, who carry an emblem of his. In the Iliad, heralds are high-status, sacrosanct persons who convey messages and persons across social and, in the god’s case, cosmic boundaries. In the Odyssey that status also includes the ritual activities around the preparation of the sacrificial meal, an activity that happens to cross cosmic boundaries. Penelope describes such kērukes ‘heralds’ in 19.135 not as slaves but as dēmioergoi ‘men who work in the district’, skilled, itinerant workers of various kinds, like healers and singers (interestingly, kārú-, the exact cognate in Sanskrit of Greek kērux, means 'singer, poet'). The upshot is that the beggar Odysseus is describing himself as having just such skills, and to an unrivalled degree, so there is no need to translate the forms of the verb dra- in his speech as anything other than ‘do/work a ritual activity,’ not ‘do a servant’s work.’","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":58,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"},{"offset":110,"length":5,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":236,"length":5,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":383,"length":7,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":564,"length":7,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":613,"length":10,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":742,"length":6,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":788,"length":5,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":991,"length":3,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"8t741","text":"Eumaios, however is horrified by Odysseus’ speech touting the unrivalled ritual skills he could perform for the suitors. He asks Odysseus (15.327-334) if he just wants to die, since the violence and the hubris of the suitors is infamous. “They don’t have sub-workers (root dra- again) like you,” he says, “they have young people wearing tunics and cloaks, with glistening heads and beautiful faces, who work under (root dra-) them, their tables brimming with bread, meat, and wine.” So don’t go into the town, stay with me, he says, and when Telemakhos comes, “he will give you a cloak and a tunic and send you off wherever you wish to go.” In this response, Eumaios twice uses a new dra- compound, hupo-dra- ‘do/work under (the suitors)’ to describe the position that Odysseus is aiming to have, whereas Odysseus had used the form para-dra- ‘do/work alongside,’ portraying himself and the work as higher-ranking than Eumaios does. The difference between ‘under’ and ‘alongside’ may be small, but the repeated, exceptional use of dra- and its derivatives in Odysseus’ speech hints at a coded message, in which the difference in wording bespeaks the actual status of Odysseus, who is in truth more than a peer to the suitors.[3] That is the kind of detail that, like an Easter-egg in computer-code, the Odyssey can playfully insert in its narrative for the delight of a tuned-in external audience. Such tricks are also typical of Odysseus’ lies, in that they tell a deeper truth, but only to those in the know, like the name he gives himself in the Cyclops episode (both ‘no one’ and ‘cunning’), or the story in the speech parallel to this one in Rhapsody 14 about the night raid he went on with Odysseus, when he forgot to wear a cloak.[4]","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":203,"length":6,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":273,"length":3,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":420,"length":3,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":684,"length":3,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":699,"length":9,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":718,"length":5,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":832,"length":9,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":851,"length":9,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":1030,"length":3,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":1149,"length":6,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":1302,"length":7,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":255,"length":3,"style":"BOLD"},{"offset":408,"length":5,"style":"BOLD"},{"offset":1224,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"},{"offset":1736,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"66cl2","text":"Footnotes","type":"header-two","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"2orcu","text":"[1] See also Homeric Hymn to Hermes 108-133, where Hermes himself performs just such a sacrifice of his brother Apollo’s cattle.","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"},{"offset":13,"length":22,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"4a1b2","text":"[2] Dindorf 1885: II 614 on 15.319: the comment is on the words ‘because of Hermes’, and it says ‘because [he is a] herald (kērux).’ For the ascription of such a comment to Aristarchus, see E. Dickey 2007: p. 122, §4.1.44.","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"},{"offset":124,"length":5,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"drpu","text":"[3] On the concept of ainos ‘coded message,’ see Verdenius 1962: 389 and Nagy 1999: 237-242, 12§17-12§21, citing Jakobson 1960.","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"},{"offset":22,"length":6,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"3td7k","text":"[4] That story is in fact qualified as an ainos; for more, see Muellner 1976 p. 97 n.43, https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_MuellnerL.The_Meaning_of_Homeric_eukhomai.1976 and Dué and Ebbott 2010: commentary on Iliad 10.149, https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Due_Ebbott.Iliad_10_and_the_Poetics_of_Ambush.2010; see also H. Roisman 1990, who argues that Eumaios and Odysseus recognize each other but without admitting it overtly to each other until the right time.","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"},{"offset":179,"length":5,"style":"UNDERLINE"},{"offset":42,"length":5,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":179,"length":1,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[{"offset":89,"length":90,"key":0},{"offset":233,"length":94,"key":1}],"data":{}},{"key":"730ov","text":"[1] For the meaning of endukeōs, see the comment on 7.256, G. Nagy, A Sampling of Comments on Odyssey Rhapsody 7, https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/a-sampling-of-comments-on-odyssey-rhapsody-7/ This formula is used to express strong affection between hosts and guests, including that between Odysseus and the goddess Kalypso, 7.256, which is erotic as well as emotional; it also implies correct ritual sequencing.","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"},{"offset":23,"length":8,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":68,"length":26,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":101,"length":11,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[{"offset":114,"length":89,"key":2}],"data":{}},{"key":"a7v0h","text":"[2] For purnon kai kotulēn ‘bread and a cupful’ see 15.312, 17.12 and compare Iliad 22.494-495, where Hector’s orphaned son is imagined by his mother begging for a drink (again, kotulēn) that will not even moisten the roof of his mouth.","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"},{"offset":8,"length":18,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":78,"length":5,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":178,"length":7,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"12vir","text":"[3] On the nuances of the prologue and the whole speech, Muellner 1976: 96-97 = http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_MuellnerL.The_Meaning_of_Homeric_eukhomai.1976.","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"}],"entityRanges":[{"offset":81,"length":89,"key":3}],"data":{}},{"key":"3kpgr","text":"[4] This epithet of Hermes, conventionally translated either ‘attendant’ or ‘messenger’, is the subject of a forthcoming article by Laura Massetti, who has published a new interpretation of another epithet of Hermes often associated with it, Argeiphontēs, in Massettti 2022. Her forthcoming work on diaktoros interprets it as meaning ‘whose brightness shines through the night,’ with parallels in Sanskrit to epithets of the fire god, Agni, for both names. The importance of the mastery of fire seems as relevant to this context as that of ‘attendant, ritual attendant’, which may be the surface meaning. ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":3,"style":"UNDERLINE"},{"offset":242,"length":12,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":299,"length":9,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"b41l9","text":"Bibliography","type":"header-two","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"68rul","text":"G. Dindorf, ed., Scholia Graeca in Homeri Odysseam, Oxford, 1855","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"s16b","text":"E. Dickey, Ancient Greek Scholarship, New York, 2007","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":11,"length":25,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"9rgp3","text":"L. Massetti, L., “Hermes Ἀργεϊφόντης and Agni bhā́r̥jīka‑.” Indogermanische Forschungen 127/1, 2022, 131–50.","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":46,"length":11,"style":"ITALIC"},{"offset":60,"length":28,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"a6rkq","text":"L. Muellner, The Meaning of Homeric ΕΥΧΟΜΑΙ Through its Formulas, Innsbruck, 1976 = https://chs.harvard.edu/book/muellner-leonard-the-meaning-of-homeric-eyxomai-through-its-formulas/","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[{"offset":84,"length":98,"key":4}],"data":{}},{"key":"f8l3g","text":"Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry, 2nd edition, Baltimore, 1999 = http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_NagyG.The_Best_of_the_Achaeans.1999","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":6,"length":70,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[{"offset":109,"length":78,"key":5}],"data":{}},{"key":"8dhap","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}}],"entityMap":{"0":{"type":"LINK","mutability":"MUTABLE","data":{"href":"https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_MuellnerL.The_Meaning_of_Homeric_eukhomai.1976","url":"https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_MuellnerL.The_Meaning_of_Homeric_eukhomai.1976"}},"1":{"type":"LINK","mutability":"MUTABLE","data":{"href":"https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Due_Ebbott.Iliad_10_and_the_Poetics_of_Ambush.2010","url":"https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Due_Ebbott.Iliad_10_and_the_Poetics_of_Ambush.2010"}},"2":{"type":"LINK","mutability":"MUTABLE","data":{"href":"https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/a-sampling-of-comments-on-odyssey-rhapsody-7/","url":"https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/a-sampling-of-comments-on-odyssey-rhapsody-7/"}},"3":{"type":"LINK","mutability":"MUTABLE","data":{"href":"http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_MuellnerL.The_Meaning_of_Homeric_eukhomai.1976","url":"http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_MuellnerL.The_Meaning_of_Homeric_eukhomai.1976"}},"4":{"type":"LINK","mutability":"MUTABLE","data":{"href":"https://chs.harvard.edu/book/muellner-leonard-the-meaning-of-homeric-eyxomai-through-its-formulas/","url":"https://chs.harvard.edu/book/muellner-leonard-the-meaning-of-homeric-eyxomai-through-its-formulas/"}},"5":{"type":"LINK","mutability":"MUTABLE","data":{"href":"http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_NagyG.The_Best_of_the_Achaeans.1999","url":"http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_NagyG.The_Best_of_the_Achaeans.1999"}}}}