The First Song of Demodocus Author(s): M. Finkelberg Source: Mnemosyne, Fourth Series, Vol. 40, Fasc.

1/2 (1987), pp. 128-132 Published by: BRILL Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4431601 . Accessed: 21/01/2014 05:43
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13) It is to be noted that the theory of these remarks is not put into practice in the II. : it is taken for granted that Trojans and Greeks communicate with each other without the help of interpreters. The author of the HomericHymn to Aphrodite, indeed, goes one step further, since he makes Aphrodite (who pretends to be a Phrygian princess) say to the Trojan Anchises: (113-6) ???ssa? d' ??et???? ?a? ??et???? s?fa ??d?t ???a? ?a? ?e???? ?e t??f?? t??fe?, ? d? d?a p?? s?????? pa?d' ?t?ta??e f???? pa?? ??t??? ????sa* ?? d? t?? ???ss?? ?e ?a? ??et???? e? ??da. On this subject see further: J. Werner, NichtgriechischeSprachenim Bewusstsein der antiken Griechen,in: P. H?ndel, W. Meid (ed.), Festschrift f?r RobertMuth (Innsbruck 1983), 583-95.

THE

FIRST

SONG

OF DEMODOCUS

The quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles, about which the Phaeacian of a feast being held in singer Demodocus sings at the beginning honour, is neither attested to by any reliable tradition nor Odysseus' easily explicable from the internal standpoint of the epics1). It is thus not surprising that alongside attempts to discover the tradition to which it should be attributed, it has been argued that the subject of Demodocus' first song was simply invented by Homer. In his article on the Odyssey in RE, P. Von der M?hll assumed that the quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles was an autoschediasma created with the intention of supplying Demodocus with material for his performance2). this theory in favour of the Though Von der M?hll later abandoned hypothesis that the episode could be traced back to the Cyprian), the view that Demodocus' first song is an "Augenblickserfindung" was revived by W. Marg. According to Marg's theory, the quarrel between Odysseus and Achilles was invented in order to generate an allusion to the proem of the Iliad, to which it bears a striking resemblance4). B. K. Recently, Braswell argued that the subject of the song was invented by Homer in order to prepare the forthcoming quarrel between Odysseus and Euryalus the Phaeacian {loc. cit.). Yet the plausibility of such arguments for Homer's invention of the subject is undermined by the fact that none of them can justify the invention. observed by Marg between the song of Thus, though the resemblance Demodocus and the proem of the Iliad is incontestable, it cannot be taken as conclusive proof of the invention both because it does not exclude the possibility that the poet had in mind some actually existing epic tradition5) and because resemblances of this kind, which are common enough in epic poetry, usually indicate that what is being dealt with are typical epic subjects based on a common pattern6). Von der M?hll's original argument is untenable in view of the fact that if the poet's intention was simply to have Demodocus instead of resorting to sing a song about Odysseus, Mnemosyne, Vol. XL, Fase. 1-2 (1987)

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he could have used one of the episodes featuring Odysseus invention, referred to elsewhere in the poem (v. infra). The same is true of Braswell's first song was intended to anticipate the quarsuggestion: if Demodocus' rel of Odysseus and Euryalus, Odysseus' quarrel with Ajax (referred to in the first Nekyia, Od. 11, 543-7) would have done just as well. The explanation for Homer's invention of a given detail or theme is generally to be found in the demands of the immediate context7). Now the only context of the quarrel between Odysseus and Achilles known to us is the context of Demodocus' performance, namely, Odysseus' feasting The function of this episode in the poem as a whole with the Phaeacians. is Odysseus' recognition by the Phaeacians (cf. R?ter, 235-8). The vehicle for the recognition is the song of the Wooden Horse, Odysseus' major to the Trojan war (Od. 8, 500-20). Consequently, the funccontribution first performance, tion of Demodocus' which, like the one ending in causes to Odysseus weep and his host Alcinous to Odysseus' recognition, notice this, must be to prepare the climax at the end of the episode8). Assuming that the poet chose to anticipate the recognition by doubling the motif, he would have been faced with the problem of making Demodocus sing a song about Odysseus the Trojan hero which was not, restricted the however, the song of the Wooden Horse. This undoubtedly subjects at his disposal, leaving him the ptoliporthos hero of the Trojan saga but excluding Odysseus of the Odyssey, the man 'of many wiles'9). In addition to the Wooden Horse, the episode most frequently referred to in the Odyssey (4, 271-89; 8, 500-20; 11, 523-32), the poem also touches upon such episodes as Odysseus' entering Troy in disguise, his participation in the battle over Achilles' corpse, and his rivalry with Ajax (4, 240-58; 5, 309-10; 11, 543-7). These are all well-known Trojan subjects, attested in the Epic Cycle10). Thus one can argue for Homer's invention of the quarrel between Odysseus and Achilles only if one can provide a satisfactory answer to the following question: what made Homer invent a new subject instead of using one of the well-known Trojan episodes featuring Odysseus referred to ehewhere in the poem? in the poem have one feature in Note that the subjects mentioned are all concerned with the final stages of the Trojan war. common?they This is also true of the song of the Wooden Horse sung by Demodocus at Odysseus' invitation. the point at which the song Characteristically, stops is the arrival of Odysseus and Menelaus at the house of De?phobus, the place where Helen was found11). The song of the Wooden Horse as sung by Demodocus, implying as it does Helen's return to the Greeks, is thus a song about the end of the Trojan war. When asking for this song, Odysseus says to the singer: ???' a?e d? ?et????? ?a? ?pp?? ??s??? ?e?s?? d???at??? (8, 492-3). His previous praise of the veracity of Demodocus' account of Trojan events (vv. 489-90) makes it clear that the request to 'switch' (?et?????) refers to Demodocus' preceding song on the Trojan of the quarrel that between and Achilles12). theme, Odysseus Homer's description of this song ends with the following Significantly,

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words: Tor in those days the first wave of woe was rolling on Trojans and Danaans through the counsel of great Zeus' (vv. 81-2). The relation between the two songs, emphasized by Odysseus' ?et?????13), is thus the relation between the beginning and the end of the Trojan war. It was assumed above that the function of Demodocus' first performance in the structure of the episode is to anticipate Odysseus' recognition by doubling the motif. Since, for obvious reasons, the poet could not sing the same song twice (as he repeated the simply have Demodocus weeping/noticing sequence), doubling by contrast was another traditional device answering his needs. That is, if the song by means of which Odysseus ought to be recognized dealt with the end of the Trojan war, the of this recognition was a song most suitable vehicle for the anticipation dealing with the war's beginning1*). This is the context in which the quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles makes its appearance. While accounting for Homer's preferring this subject to better known episodes of the Trojan war, the need for a subject featuring Odysseus at the beginning of the war does not necessarily entail invention on the part of the poet. The question is, of course, whether he had sufficient material at his disposal to fulfil the demands of his compositional technique. Howof the epic subjects featuring ever, even the most cursory examination Odysseus at the beginning of the Trojan war reveals that this was not the case. The Cypria mention only two episodes involving Odysseus?his pretending to be mad, not wishing to join the Trojan expedition, and the killing of Palamedes15). Clearly, neither of these subjects is appropriate to the ptoliporthos hero which the poet intended to portray in Demodocus' songs. Hence, we can infer that it was the requirements of Homer's compositional technique and the lack of traditional material fit to meet these of the subject of Homer's invention that necessitated requirements first song16). Demodocus' It is, of course, true that any argument in favour of an invention is basically an argument ex silentio (see Maehler, loc. cit.), and we can never be certain that the quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles is not an echo of an that Odysseus' tradition. obscure Note, however, quarrel with the his heroic characteristics heroes emphasises greatest of the Achaean was one of the poet's desiderata in the context which, on our hypothesis, of this episode17), while its association with the beginning of the Trojan war, creating a contrast to Demodocus' concluding song about the fall of seems It fulfils his other unlikely to me that the way requirement. Troy, in which the subject of the song fits the context of Odyssey 8 is incidental. The same can be said of the indefinite terms in which the content of the Its setting, song is rendered. The cause of the quarrel is not mentioned. a 'rich festival of the gods', is about as vague as a designation of location can be. The time of its occurrence ('once') is explicitly indefinite. "Es ist dass es nicht epischer Stil, in einem Referat so sprunghaft auszuw?hlen, in sich nicht recht verst?ndlich scheint" (Marg. 21). Considering that the was already regarded as a zetema by the Alexanfirst song of Demodocus

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drians, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles was invented by Homer especially for Demodocus' performance before Odysseus in Phaeacia. 96633 Jerusalem, Hebrony 118/52 M. Finkelberg

1) Od. 8, 73-82. For a detailed survey and critical analysis of the testimonia see W. Marg, Das ersteLied des Demodokos, in: Nav?cula Chiloniensis. Studia philologa Felici Jacoby ... oblata (Leiden 1956), 16-29. Since Marg's important paper, Demodocus' first song has been dealt with in H. Maehler, Die Auffassung des Dichterberufsim bis zur Zeit Pindars (G?ttingen 1963), 27, n. 1; J. A. Notopoulos, fr?hen Griechentum Studies in Early Greek Oral Poetry, HSCPh 68 (1964), 32-4; ?. R?ter, Odysseeinterpretationen(G?ttingen 1969), 247-54; G. Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans (Baltimore 1979), 15-65, and passim; B. K. Braswell, The Song of Ares and Aphrodite: Themeand Relevanceto Odyssey8, Hermes 110 (1982), 130, n. 5; J. Strauss Clay, The wrath of Athena (Princeton 1983), 96-112, 241-6. Henceforth, these works will be cited by the author's name alone. 2) RE, Suppl., VII (1940), 718, 45-8. 3) Zur Frage, wie sich die Kyprienzur Odysseeverhalten,in: West?stliche Abhandlungen. FestschriftRudolf Tschudi (Wiesbaden 1954), 1-5. Cf. also W. Kullmann, Die Quellen der Ilias (Wiesbaden 1960), 100, 272. 4) To support his interpretation, Marg adopted Calhoun's hypothesis of the 'misunderstood oracle': the oracle because of which the quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles caused Agamemnon to rejoice in fact referred to the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon himself, which served as the subject of the Iliad: see G. M. Calhoun Homer's Gods: Myth and M?rchen, AJPh 60 (1939), 11, n. 25, and Marg, 24-5. That the first song of Demodocus makes an allusion to the Iliad was accepted by R?ter and, in a modified form, Nagy; both, however, reject the hypothesis that it was invented by Homer, see R?ter, 249 ff., Nagy, 59 ff. Braswell, loc. cit., and Strauss Clay, 105-6, 241-3, though accepting the hypothesis as a whole, do not agree with Marg's motivation for the invention. Marg's hypothesis is totally rejected by Maehler, see loc. cit. 5) Thus R?ter, 249-54, follows Marg in holding that the poet intended an allusion to the Iliad and also suggests a tradition from which the quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles could derive. 6) As was shown in Notopoulos, 33. Cf. also Maehler, loc. cit., Strauss Clay, 242-3. 7) See M. M. Willcock, Mythological Paradeigmain the Iliad, CQ 58 (1964), 14153 and Ad hoc innovationin theIliad, HSCPh 81 (1977), 41-53; J. H. Gaisser, Adaptation of Traditional Material in the Glaucus-DiomedesEpisode, TAPhA 100 (1969), 16576; B. K. Braswell, Mythological Innovation in the Iliad, CQ 65 (1971), 16-26. 8) Cf. ?. Fenik, Studies in the Odyssey (Wiesbaden 1974), 102-4. According to Fenik, "the controversial double weeping of Odysseus in ? seems to be a hybrid between the interruption structure and the anticipatory doublet" (102). 9) On the distinction between the two see U. Hoelscher, The Transformation from Folk-tale to Epic, in: B. Fenik (ed.), Homer. Tradition and Invention (Leiden 1978), 52-4. 10) Cf. Aethiopis (Homeri opera, ?d. T. W. Allen, V, 106, 9-11, 15-7) and Ilias parva (ibid., 106, 20-3; 107, 4-7). 11) Od. 8, 517-20, cf. Iliupersis (Homeri opera, V, 108, 1-2).

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12) And not the song of Ares and Aphrodite sung by Demodocus in between. On the function of Demodocus' second song in Odyssey8 see W. Burkert, Das Lied von Ares und Aphrodite, RhM 103 (1960), 130-44, and Braswell, 129-37. 13) Cf. P. Von der M?hll, RE, Suppl., VII, 718, 37-44. 14) That this sort of ordering of the material is deeply rooted in the poet's technique of composition has been demonstrated by B. Fenik. See for example his comment on the conversation between the ghosts in the second Nekyia: "Alternating repetition of the sort performs an elementary but useful function in supporting the desired emphases and contrasts, and probably also as a kind of compass for the poet to keep himself oriented in his narrative and to insure both order and pleasing variation. It is just this sort of repetition and basic symmetrical ordering that would be useful to an oral poet as he put his scene together" (op. cit., 149). 15) Homeri opera, V. 103, 25-7; 105, 15-6; 124, fr. xxi. 16) The question whether it was the model of the Iliad that prompted the poet to introduce the quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles exceeds the limits of the present discussion. In principle, there is nothing intrinsically improbable about this, but I agree with Braswell, loc. cit., that it is unlikely that the poet of the Odyssey deliberately intended "eine Huldigung an die Ilias" (Marg, 27). 17) For the same reason, the subject of the Wooden Horse is modified in the third song of Demodocus so as to make Odysseus participate in the return of Helen?in the Iliu persis, it is Menelaus alone who goes to the house of De?phobus to take back his wife (Od. 8, 517-20; Homeri opera, V, 108, 1-2). Cf. analogous modifications of the same subject in Od. 4, 271-89; 11, 523-32.

ANACREON,

AND THE HOMER FROM LESBOS

YOUNG

WOMAN

sfa??? d??t? ?e p??f??? ?????? ???s?????? '???? ???? p??????sa????? s??pa??e?? p???a?e?ta?? d\ est?? ?a? ?p' e??t?t?? ??s???, t?? ?e? ???? ?????, ?e??? yap, ?ata???feta?, p??? d* a???? t??? ??s?e?. Fr. 13 Page) (Anacreon, The problems posed by this fascinating little lyric are well-known1). are the significance of a???? -uva, the point Crucial to its understanding of the reference to Lesbos and, to a lesser extent, the meaning of ??s?e?. the situation is that the poet2) wants a young woman from Basically, Lesbos who, however, gives him the cold shoulder. The questions are, why isn't she interested in the poet, and who does interest her and why? The two main schools of thought today are firstly that the woman fancies a young rather than an old man (sc. ????? with a????) or secondly Mnemosyne, Vol. XL, Fase. 1-2 (1987)

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