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Hades, Homer and the Hittites the Cultic-​Cultural Context of Odysseus’ ‘Round Trip’ to the Underworld

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Hades, Homer and the Hittites the Cultic-​Cultural Context of Odysseus’ ‘Round Trip’ to the Underworld Chapter 3 Hades, Homer and the Hittites The Cultic- Cultural Context of Odysseus’ ‘Round Trip’ to the Underworld Gunnel Ekroth One* of the most well- known round trips to Hades in antiquity is found in Book 11 of Homer’s Odyssey.1 The section, often labelled the Nekyia, tells of how Odysseus travels to the land of the Kimmerians at the outskirts of the world, which lies in eternal darkness, in order to consult the dead seer Teiresias to learn how he is to find his way back to Ithaka. Odysseus arrives at a lonely and deserted place where the rivers of the Underworld flow into Okeanos. Here he digs a hole in the riverbank, performs libations and sacrifices two black sheep, letting their blood flow into a pit so that Teiresias and other souls of the departed can drink and answer questions. The first dead person he encounters is his comrade Elpenor, followed by his mother Antikleia. Eventually Teiresias shows up, drinks of the blood and gives the required information as well as explains how Odysseus is to pro- pitiate Poseidon who is preventing his return. Teiresias also reveals that any soul that is allowed to drink of the blood will reveal the truth to Odysseus. Next follows a visit from 14 famous heroines who tell their stories and the encounter with three illustrious heroes of the Trojan War: Agamemnon, Achilles and Ajax. Then Hades opens up, and Odysseus is offered a glimpse of the topography of the realm of the dead, including Minos on his throne and Tityos, Tantalos and Sisyphos being punished. The eidōlon of Herakles makes an appearance and finally, when the souls of the dead press on, Odysseus fears that Persephone will even send upon him the head of the Gorgon, so he decides to leave. Although usually referred to as a katabasis, a descent into the Underworld, Odysseus’ journey does not really constitute a visit to Hades as he does not go down and come back up again.2 In this sense, Odysseus’ round trip differs from that of other Greek mythical heroes who actually had to enter Hades, since * I would like to thank Susanne Berndt and Scott Scullion for valuable comments on an earlier draft of this paper. 1 Homer, Odyssey 11.1– 640. 2 Although Pausanias, in his description of Polygnotos’ Nekyia painting in the leschē of the Knidians at Delphi, states that Odysseus has descended (καταβεβηκώς) into Hades (10.28.1). © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | DOI:10.1163/ 9789004375963_ 004 38 Ekroth their tasks required something present down there: Herakles to fetch Kerberos, Theseus and Peirithous to abduct Persephone and Orpheus to reclaim his dead wife. The patterns of movement in the Nekyia are not entirely clear, but all through the episode Odysseus and his men seem to remain on the same level as the world of the living, though very far away from civilization.3 While some of the dead come up from below, others are described as walking back into the House of Hades once the exchange is over. The contact with the Underworld is achieved with the help of the pit, but the dead do not seem to ascend through the hole, which is for holding the blood, but from somewhere else nearby, just as Odysseus’ sudden bird’s eye view of Hades happens as if the ground becomes transparent. When Odysseus finishes the interaction, he walks back to his ship, which presumably is moored along the edge of Okeanos, on the same level as the pit dug in the riverbank. On the whole, the Nekyia rather describes an anabasis, where the beings of the Underworld ascend, than a katabasis, where the living go down into Hades.4 Due to the different elements making up the Nekyia, including its impre- cise spatiality, Book 11 has often been conceived of as disorganized and inconsistent.5 Scholars have long held that the episode came into being over a substantial period of time, combining materials of different date, origin and character.6 Later interpolations and the oral origin of the later text have also been seen as contributing factors. On the other hand, studies of the narrative structure of Book 11 have underlined its clear internal unity, taken as an indi- cation of the Nekyia being the work of a poet with an obvious intent who suc- cessfully combines various motifs to fit the overall concept of the poem.7 Any certainty in this question is impossible, but the fact remains that Odysseus’ visit to the Underworld, even if it is not a round trip in the strict sense, remains iconic within renderings of katabaseis and undoubtedly describes the living Odysseus interacting with the dead from Hades. 3 See Steiner 1971, 269. For Odysseus’ travel to the west and the end of the world as corre- sponding to a vertical katabasis, see Burgess 1999, who characterizes the sea journey as a horizontal katabasis. 4 See Nesselrath’s discussion in this volume of the anabasis of Charon in Lucian’s dialogue of the same name. 5 The discussion, especially of Homer, Odyssey 11.565– 627, began already in antiquity, see Petzl 1969, 6– 43. 6 For overviews of the discussion, see Page 1955, 21– 51; Steiner 1971, 265– 66; Crane 1988, 87– 125; Heubeck and Hoekstra 1989, 75– 77; Sourvinou- Inwood 1995, 73– 89. 7 See Heubeck and Hoekstra 1989, 76– 77; for a consistent narrative structure, see also de Jong 2001, 272..
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