This book is much longer than the ones before (847 lines compared to between 434-497), so I'm going to break it down into smaller bits. Telemachos and Peisistratos arrive in Lakedaimon, and knock on Menelaos' door. There is a double wedding being celebrated in the palace between illustrious and royal partners. The palace itself is truly magnificent, glittering with bronze, amber, gold, silver and ivory (the spoils from Troy plus generous gifts from kind friends, as we learn later) but there is a subtle hint at all not being well. The henchman of Menelaos, Eteoneus (I like the way the Odyssey gives names even to minor characters and servants) catches sight of the strangers at the door, but instead of welcoming them, thinks it wise to check with his boss first. His wariness of strangers goes against the Homeric ethic, and Menelaos is quick to retort. His reply reflects the old values and the principle of reciprocity (cf. in Book 1, Athene-Mentes promises Telemachos to give him a gift in exchange for the one she has been given by him when he returns the visit). Next, when Telemachos and Peisistratos are eventually invited to join the celebration, Homer indulges in yet another description of a royal feast. There is (obviously) an 'inspired singer' (l. 17) and some acrobats to entertain the guests. All this sounds great, but it feels a bit different after the scene with Eteoneus whispering to Menelaos. Why was Eteoneus so distrustful of strangers? What has happened here? From the outside, everything is as it should be: a king giving a feast in his big palace, which is full of treasure, and everybody's having a good time. Is this an allusion to social problems in the wake of the Trojan War? Even in the Iliad we could see the old warrior ethic disintegrating (the Greeks fight in a very ungentlemanlike manner, the notable example being Diomedes, who attacks and "wounds" Aphrodite herself, and who, upon learning that a Trojan warrior is actually a guest-friend, stops fighting him but offers him a gift of markedly less value in exchange for a generous one from him). But now these guys are back home, and life is not so simple as in the battlefield. Menelaos is a generous host, however, and offers his choice portion to the young men (l. 66). He overhears them admiring his palace, saying that "the court of Zeus on Olympos must be like this on the inside" (l. 74), and Menelaos hastens to take the edge off the statement by correcting them that "no mortal could [...] rival Zeus". (At least there are some lessons learned here.) Retelling his adventures after the Trojan War, Menelaos describes various wonderful countries, where people have everything in abundance, especially sheep. During his travels, as we learn later from Helen, he managed to amass a nice collection of valuables (funnily enough, mostly everyday domestic objects, but made of gold or silver). Despite all this, Menelaos is not a happy chap. He came home only to discover that his brother had been treacherously murdered. "You will have heard all this from your fathers", he adds (l. 94). He laments the fate of the men killed in Troy ("war not good" theme continues), especially Odysseus, whose fate, incidentally, is unknown. Helen enters with servant girls and her distaff (golden). She is likened to "Artemis of the golden distaff" (l. 122), which is a somewhat strange thought (how is Artemis, the huntress goddess associated with a distaff, even a golden one? how is Helen associated with Artemis?). It has "dark-coloured wool" (no, Homer does not commit himself to any particular colour...). Helen asks the question who these men are (Menelaos hesitated too long about the right timing). She immediately recognises Telemachos as the son of Odysseus, and an interesting story-telling session follows about mutual friends (just like in Pylos), and the things they have gone through together. Helen is profuse in her praise of Odysseus, while calling herself 'dog-faced' ("shameless" in Lattimore, l. 145) for causing the war. "I also see it thus", says Menelaos, and at first one doesn't know which part he is agreeing with: that she is dog-faced? that the Trojan War was "reckless"? No, he agrees that Telemachos is so much like Odysseus. The question of purple. Lattimore has 'purple' in ll. 115 and 154, describing a robe, and later in l. 297, describing the bedclothes). According to the dictionaries on Perseus (namely, the "Middle Liddell"), the word porphyreos in Homeric usage comes from porphyrō ('boil'), and not porphyra ('purple-fish', Lat. murex, also meaning 'purple dye' [probably from the murex shell?], 'Homer seems not to have known the porphyra, so that the word does not imply any definite colour'). So there is no knowing whether these things were purple, as the word in Homer means 'dark' (I'm getting used to this), or 'gleaming' or 'glittering'. It can mean 'russet' though. But the "dark cloud of death" in l. 180 is thanatoio melan nephos (black). I really like the sound and the rhythm of this phrase in Greek, it's both spine-chilling and tragic. The Iliad was so much about death, about the mortality of "quickly-dying" Achilles - glory is not mentioned here, however. Peisistratos speaks about the dead, not death itself, and how we can't do anything for them any more: "And this is the only consolation we wretched mortals / can give, to cut our hair and let tears roll down our faces" (ll. 197-98). And all this after he said "There will always / be a new dawn tomorrow" (ll. 194-95).
2 Comments
Alan
10/6/2010 01:18:05 pm
Hello again Olga,
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Olga
10/7/2010 05:22:54 am
That's an interesting thought, Alan. It didn't occur to me, but certainly possible. What did Homer's audience find funny? What were jokes like? I've no idea, but probably Menelaos being a rather stupid husband was a stock joke.
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AuthorHave studied A219 Exploring the Classical World and A275 Reading Classical Greek at the Open University. Currently studying for a Psychology degree. ImagesPlease click on any image to be taken to its source.
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