NEW! Extra video
lectures for those whose equipment can handle longer
videos.
The following lectures were taped during Greg Nagy's
"The Concept of the Hero in Greek Civilization" course in
Fall 1998. They touch on similar points as the video clips
provided for this series, but also make use of parallels in
modern media, such as film clips that have been incorporated
into the lectures. Each lecture is about an hour
long.
Bonus
Video 1
Bonus
Video 2
Bonus
Video 3
Bonus
Video 4
Bonus
Video 5
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Unit
4: Odysseyscrolls xx-xiv
In Unit 4 we come full
circle to the telos of our discussion series as we
reexamine the image of the hero in the garden. In Unit 3 we
analyzed the series of reconnections that Odysseus makes
with his philoi in Ithaka as an ascending scale of
affection, and noted that with each reconnection the tests
of identity become more complicated. In Odyssey
xx-xxiv Odysseus
negotiates his most complicated reconnections - those with
his wife and father. In these final four scrolls there are a
number of points of closure, but the ending is in many ways
not an ending. When everything comes together justice
becomes a key issue for the narrative. As you read consider
the Odysseus' revenge against the suitors, the subsequent
battle with the kinsmen of the suitors, and the resolution
by Athena in light of our discussion in previous units of
heroes as agents of social justice.
1. Read Odyssey
scrolls xx-xxiv .
2. View the video
lectures in the Lecture
Hall. Lectures VI
of the series examines heroes as champions of
dikê - agents of social justice in the
community. Notes on these lectures are also provided in the
Lecture
Hall. Also in the
lecture hall is a short segment from a section discussion
about Odysseus' reconnection with his dog Argos in scroll
xvii.
3. The discussion boards
for this unit are no longer active, but you may scroll down
for the discussion questions.
Copyright 1999,
President and Fellows of Harvard College
For viewing the video clips, you
need the free software available from RealVideo. It's
available as a download for PC,
and Macintosh.
Real Videos for Unit 4: In
this unit we come full circle back to the images of Penelope
as a just king and Laertes in the garden. It will be helpful
to review minutes 18-23 of the first lecture of the series
(Lecture
I is here).
Lecture
VI is an excerpt from Bonus
Video 5. You need only watch the first 17 and a half
minutes. The rest of the lecture deals with so-called Wisdom
Poetry of Hesiod and Theognis (which we do not read in this
series).
These lectures are exerpts from
lectures in the Harvard Core course "The Concept of the Hero
in Greek Civilization," and the many references to the
"course" in them are to that course and not this on-line
series.
Lecture
VI: Champions of
dikê
(justice)
Optional additional video
(recommended especially for first-time
readers):
The Hero in the
Garden: This segment was
recorded during one of Casey's sections of the undergraduate
course entitled "The Concept of the Hero in Greek
Civilization" (Harvard University, Fall, 1999). In it the
class discusses the passage where Odysseus 'reconnects' with
his father in his orchard (xxiv 205-382)
The
Hero in the Garden
In this discussion, the
group examines the importance of father-son
relationships in the Odyssey and makes
several connections back to the Iliad.
When Odysseus goes to find
his father he meets him tending a plant in his
orchard. They proceed to test each other's
identities and affection. The semata which
Odysseus gives as proof of his identity all revolve
around the trees in the orchard.
In connection with the
image of the orchard the group discusses the
meaning of the word olbios. It means happy
or wealthy for the unitiated but blessed (with
religious connotations) for the initiated. It is
also the word used of a flourishing and well
cultivated garden. The community that properly
cultivates the hero is by metonomy
olbios.
The section then proceeds
to consider the series of reconnections that
Odysseus makes as an ascending scale of affection.
We examine why Laertes might be at the top of
Odysseus' ascending scale by discussing the
importance of father-son relationships in the
Odyssey. Several passages are brought up
including the Telemakhy (Odyssey i-iv),
Athena's remark that sons are seldom as good as
their fathers (ii 262 ff.), and Odysseus' and
Agamemnon's remarks about their sons in the
underworld (xi). Two key passages from the
Iliad are also mentioned: the story of
Meleager in Iliad IX and the ransom of Hektor in
Iliad XXIV in which Achilles and Priam
lament together in connection with fathers and
sons. The important connection between lament and
kleos is important here.
Finally, a student notes
that in the Iliad the heroes Meleager (in a
story within a story) and Achilles return to battle
after withdrawing because of the person at the top
of their ascending scale of affection. For Meleager
this person is his wife Cleopatra. For Achilles it
is Patroklos. Though in neither case is the father
at the top of the hero's priorities in the surface
narrative, the names of the key figures have a
hidden agenda.
Patroklos =
Patrokleês = he who has the kleos of
the fathers/ancestors
Cleopatra's name is built
from these same two elements:
Cleopatra =
Kleopatra
For more on the Meleager
story and the significance of Cleopatra and
Patroklos see dialogue
3 of last year's
Berkman series "Homer's
Poetic Justice."
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Lecture VI
Champions of
dikê (justice)
Key Passages for
Lecture VI:
A) Odyssey xix:
"Lady;" answered Odysseus, "who on the face of the
whole earth can dare to chide with you? Your fame
[kleos] reaches the firmament of
heaven itself; you are like some blameless king,
who upholds righteousness [= good
dikê], as the monarch over a great
and valiant nation: the earth yields its wheat and
barley, the trees are loaded with fruit, the ewes
bring forth lambs, and the sea abounds with fish by
reason of his virtues, and his people do good deeds
under him.
B) Odyssey xxiv: As
he went down into the great orchard, ... he found
his father alone, hoeing a vine. He had on a dirty
old shirt, patched and very shabby; his legs were
bound round with thongs of oxhide to save him from
the brambles, and he also wore sleeves of leather;
he had a goat skin cap on his head, and was looking
full of grief [penthos]. When
Odysseus saw him so worn, so old and full of sorrow
[penthos], he stood still under a
tall pear tree and began to weep. He doubted
whether to embrace him, kiss him, and tell him all
about his having come home, or whether he should
first question him and see what he would say. In
the end he deemed it best to be crafty with him, so
in this mind he went up to his father, who was
bending down and digging about a plant. "I see,
sir," said Odysseus, "that you are an excellent
gardener - what pains you take with it, to be sure.
There is not a single plant, not a fig tree, vine,
olive, pear, nor flower bed, but bears the trace of
your attention."
1. dikê
'justice' (long-range), 'judgment'
(short-range)
2. vs. hubris
'outrage' - The three categories of hubris: 1)
human, e.g. Antinoos, 2) animal, 3) plant
(undergrowth or overgrowth = excessive wood / leaf
production)
3. dikê as
straight line = blooming
garden/orchard/grove; hubris is opposite,
crooked line = desert or overgrown
jungle.
4. So: blooming garden (or
field) is the opposite of desert or excessive
wood/leaf production
5. In English, if you are
not crooked in speech, you are
direct.
6. This word "direct" is
key, because dikê means
direction, directness.
7. Generally, Homeric
poetry does not address the problems of justice,
that is, right vs. wrong, which is also, truth vs.
lies
8. Shield of Achilles at
Iliad XVIII 508: picture of a contest over
straightest dikê in context of a
neikos 'quarrel' 497. It is "outsiders" who
make up their mind about justice in the
Iliad.
9. Odyssey xix
106-114, king in a blooming garden or field
[note the semantics of this English word: like
agros, both nature and culture]: the
kleos of Penelope, says Odysseus in
disguise, will reach the heavens like that of a
king who upholds good dikê
(eudikiâs acc. pl.) 111, and the earth
flourishes and the people
prosper.
10. Review from last
lecture: In the ainos of Teiresias,
Odyssey xi 136-137, compare the symbol
(sêma) of the dead sailor to the
symbol of the dead hero in a blooming garden or
field (culture, agriculture): the people around you
will be olbioi; for Odysseus, to repeat, the
symbol that means "the sailor is dead" is
the symbol that means "the harvest is complete";
for others, the symbol means just one or the other
thing, unless they, too, have traveled. If
the cult hero is olbios, then the people who
worship him can also be olbioi - by
metonymy.
11. Heroes in cult
are key to seasonality of
agriculture
12. Cult heroes are the
phulakes 'guardians' of dikê,
Compare Hesiod Works and Days 122-126,
172-173
&emdash;they are
daimones, according to the plans of great
Zeus;
they are noble
[esthloi], earth-bound
[epi-khthonioi], guardians
[phulakes] of mortal
humans,
who stand guard,
supervising dikai and wretched
deeds;
They are invisible,
roaming everywhere over the land,
givers of
wealth; and all this they have as befits the
honor of kings.
13. One of the most
explicit references to
dikê:
Odyssey
iii 132-135: Zeus plots a baneful nostos,
(132), because Argives had no
noos and no
dikê (133)
and they were slated for doom because of
the mênis of Athena (135)
14. Odysseus as
intrinsically noble, extrinsically base; suitors as
the opposite, especially Anti-noos:
extrinsically noble, intrinsically base.
15. Remember, it takes
noos to bring together the 1) intellectual,
2) moral, 3) emotional
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Discussion
Questions for Unit 4
1. The suitors who have acted with
hubris are killed by Odysseus, Telemakhos, Eumaios,
and Philoitios, as are the female slaves who collaborated
with them. How does the poetry itself talk about the justice
in these killings? What can we make of the planned revenge
for the suitors' death, and how this confrontation is
described? Consider the arguments that the relatives of the
suitors make in scroll xxiv, and how the confrontation and
the epic as we have it ends, especially the imagery in this
final passage (xxiv 516ff., below). Why does Athena
encourage the first throw? Can we connect the thunderbolt
and eagle imagery with those we have seen elsewhere in the
poem?
[516] On this
Athena came close up to him and said, "Son of Arceisius -
best friend I have in the world - pray to the gray-eyed
damsel, and to Zeus her father; then poise your spear and
hurl it."
[520] As she spoke she
infused fresh vigor into him, and when he had prayed to
her he poised his spear and hurled it. He hit Eupeithes'
helmet, and the spear went right through it, for the
helmet stayed it not, and his armor rang rattling round
him as he fell heavily to the ground. Meantime Odysseus
and his son fell the front line of the foe and smote them
with their swords and spears; indeed, they would have
killed every one of them, and prevented them from ever
getting home again, only Athena raised her voice aloud,
and made every one pause. "Men of Ithaca," she cried,
"cease this dreadful war, and settle the matter at once
without further bloodshed."
[533] On this pale fear
seized every one; they were so frightened that their arms
dropped from their hands and fell upon the ground at the
sound of the goddess' voice, and they fled back to the
city for their lives. But Odysseus gave a great cry, and
gathering himself together swooped down like a soaring
eagle. Then the son of Kronos sent a thunderbolt of fire
that fell just in front of Athena, so she said to
Odysseus, "Odysseus, noble son of Laertes, stop this
warful strife, or Zeus will be angry with
you."
[545] Thus spoke Athena,
and Odysseus obeyed her gladly. Then Athena assumed the
form and voice of Mentor, and presently made a covenant
of peace between the two contending parties.
[548]
Discussion
forum for question 1
2. In scroll xxiv, Odysseus makes
his last 'reconnection' with his father Laertes. What is
significant about the garden imagery (one of our central
passages) and the story Odysseus tells before revealing
himself? Consider also the intergenerational relationships
between fathers and sons in the following passage (xxiv
502ff):
[502] Then Zeus'
daughter Athena came up to them, having assumed the form
and voice of Mentor. Odysseus was glad when he saw her,
and said to his son Telemakhos, "Telemakhos, now that you
are about to fight in an engagement, which will show
every man's mettle, be sure not to disgrace your
ancestors, who were eminent for their strength and
courage all the world over."
[510] "You say truly, my
dear father," answered Telemakhos, "and you shall see, if
you will, that I am in no mind to disgrace your
family."
[513] Laertes was
delighted when he heard this. "Good heavens, he
exclaimed, "what a day I am enjoying: I do indeed rejoice
at it. My son and grandson are vying with one another in
the matter of valor [aretê]."
Discussion
forum for question 2
3. Speaking of endings, the
Alexandrian scholars Aristarchus and Aristophanes ('of
Byzantium') thought that the "end" of the Odyssey was
line 296 of scroll xxiii, after Odysseus and Penelope go
"joyfully to the rites of their own old bed." How would
ending here change our understanding of the major issues we
have been discussing? Where would you end the Odyssey
if you were composing it in performance?
Discussion
forum for question 3
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