Year: 1984
Type: article
Abstract: The Rebirth of Odysseus Rick M Newton O F THE MANY supplication scenes in Greek literature which have received close examination, the Odysseus-Arete episode in Odyssey 7.133-206 has attracted considerable attention.Two reasons may be suggested.First, Homer himself lavishes a large share of attention on the scene, presenting a highly detailed account of the ritual of hiketeia: Odysseus crouches before the queen and grasps her knees, then sits at the hearth, and is finally raised by Alcinous, who escorts him to a seaU Other supplication scenes contain some of these steps, but few other accounts-and no other Homeric account-include them all.When Thetis supplicates Zeus in Iliad 1.493-530, for example, she clings to the god's knees, but Zeus does not lift her by the hand.In Iliad 24.468-517, to cite another example, Priam kneels before Achilles, kissing the hands of the man who has murdered so many of his sons.Achilles responds by lifting the aged king from his knees.But there is no mention of Priam's occupying Achilles' hearth.The closest parallel to Odysseus' supplication is found in Thucydides 1.136: Themistocles places himself at the feet of the Molossian queen and takes his place at the hearth, holding the king's infant son. 2 When King Admetus returns from abroad and finds Themistocles, he raises the suppliant by the hand.3 Homer's account in Odyssey 7 is noteworthy, then, for the fullness of its description.The second reason for the fame of the scene is that Odysseus' supplication lies at the crux of an apparent inconsistency in the poem.Odysseus ap-
Author: Rick M. Newton
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Classics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W1584369088