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Homer's Savage Hera Author(S): Joan O'brien Source: the Classical Journal, Vol Homer's Savage Hera Author(s): Joan O'Brien Source: The Classical Journal, Vol. 86, No. 2 (Dec., 1990 - Jan., 1991), pp. 105-125 Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc. (CAMWS) Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3297720 Accessed: 23-05-2020 06:16 UTC REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3297720?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc. (CAMWS) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Classical Journal This content downloaded from 73.97.157.116 on Sat, 23 May 2020 06:16:18 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms HOMER'S SAVAGE HERA Despite Hera's importance in storied Argos and, as I will show, her signifi- cance as a motivating force in the Iliad, scholars often dismiss her as a minor figure, her mood swings explained away as characteristic of the radical inconsis- tencies to be found in most Homeric deities. But Hera's role is far more complex and essential to the epic than such a view suggests. Her sexual manipulation of Zeus in the Atig 'A7td'uz, while providing comic relief, is also an integral part of the early battle books as Erbse has shown.' Moreover, I shall argue that her 1H. Erbse, "Zeus und dem Idagebirge," Antike und Abendland 16 (1970) 93-112. Studies particularly helpful for this article include: on Hera's savagery Malcolm Davies, "The Judgement of Paris and Iliad Book XXIV," JHS 101 (1981) 56-62 Jasper Griffin, Homer on Life and Death (Oxford 1980) Karl Reinhardt, Das Parisurteil (Frankfurt 1938) William G. Thalmann, Conventions of Form and Thought in Early Greek Epic Poetry (Baltimore 1984) on omophagia J. N. Redfield, Nature and Culture in the Iliad: The Tragedy of Hector (Chicago 1975), especially 192 ff. J.-P. Vernant, "Sacrificial and Alimentary Codes in Hesiod," 57-79 and Marcel Deti- enne, "Between Beasts and Gods," 215-28 in Myth, Religion and Society, ed., R. L. Gordon (New York 1981) Detienne, The Gardens of Adonis, trans. Janet Lloyd (Sussex 1977) 72-79 on Homeric words for "anger" A. W. K. Adkins, "Threatening, Abusing and Feeling Angry in Homeric Poems," JHS 89 (1960) 7-21 P. Considine, "Some Homeric Terms for Anger," Acta Classica 9 (1966) 15-25 Anne Giacomelli, "Aphrodite and After," Phoenix 34 (1980) 1-19 Gregory Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans (Baltimore 1979) Laura M. Slatkin, "The Wrath of Thetis," TAPA 116 (1986) 1-24 Calvert Watkins, "On gltvtq," Indo-European Studies 3 (1977) on Argive and Samian archaeology and cult J. N. Coldstream, Geometric Greece (London 1977) Helmut Kyrieleis, Fiihrer durch das Heraion von Samos, Deutsches Archdiologisches Institut Athen (Berlin 1981) Specialized studies in Athenische Mitteilungen, e.g., K. Vierneisel 76 (1961) 25-59 and Kyrieleis 95 (1980) 87-147 W. Pitscher, RhM 104 (1961) 302-55 and 108 (1965) 317-20 and his recent monograph, Hera (Darmstadt 1987) Erika Simon, Die Gotter der Griechen (Munich 1980) R. A. Tomlinson, Argos and the Argolid (Ithaca 1972) James Wright, "The Old Temple in the Argolid," JHS 102 (1982) 186-201. Other works I have used include: Richard E. Doyle, S.J., Ate, Its Use and Meaning (New York 1984) Mark W. Edwards, Homer, Poet of the Iliad (Baltimore 1987) G. S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary (Cambridge 1984) Walter Leaf, ed., The Iliad, vol. 2 (Amsterdam 1971 [19022]) C. W. Macleod, ed., Homer, Iliad Book XXIV (Cambridge 1982) D. B. Munro, ed., Homer, Iliad, Books XIII-XXIV (Oxford 19034) M. N. Nagler, Spontaneity and Tradition (Berkeley 1974) continued on next page This content downloaded from 73.97.157.116 on Sat, 23 May 2020 06:16:18 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 106 JOAN O'BRIEN unremitting lust for vengeance provides the divine model for the inhuman excesses of the final battle books. On the basis of diction associated with her in the epic, I will show a hitherto little-recognized thematic association between Hera's relentless rage and demonic degeneracy. In the first and last theodicies (4.1-67 and 24.22-119), and in the final books (20-24) of the epic, Hera is prominent as a savage goddess who, in Zeus' words (4.34 ff.), lusts to "raw- eat" the flesh of Priam and of all Troy. This Hera is, finally, to triumph over the divine pity which Zeus comes to represent. The lust for raw-eating or omophagia, applied to her in Book 4, is the epic's primary image of moral degeneration, just as a meal roasted and shared with others is the primary metaphor for the best of human behavior. The theme of eating raw flesh occurs principally in two types of Iliadic settings: in similes involving carnivores and in scenes containing prayers and/ or prophecies.2 These similes occur in battle scenes and compare heroes to lions, dogs, and other wild beasts. In one of these (5.782-94), Hera functions as warrior-god arousing (6-cpuvv 5.792) her Achaians to furious warfare with "the voice of fifty men." In another, "Ares-like Achilles" plays a similar role with his Myrmidons (6tp6vwov, 16.166-67). In both cases, the exhortor is another Ares: Hera-Stentor's cry of fifty men is a prelude to Ares' bellow with a voice of nine or ten thousand (5.860); and Achilles is, uniquely for him, ipEtog. Both inspire followers to unleash their own bestiality (Redfield 196 ff.). It is the prayers and/or prophecies, however, which provide the primary evidence of Hera's omophagia. In these, the twin themes of raw-eating and endless vengeance, used first of Hera in the early theodicy (4.34 ff.), appear in recognizable patterns. The pattern of raw-eating is recognizable by its recur- rence in prophecies or wishes or both: Priam, Achilles, and Hekabe all lust to eat someone raw, using either btfrloTiqg, "raw-eating," or dL6qg, "raw," + an optative form of &6C[ivuat, "to eat." Achilles' lust to eat the raw flesh of Carl A. Rubino and Cynthia W. Shelmerdine, Approaches to Homer (Austin 1983) Charles P. Segal, The Theme qf the Mutilation of the Corpse in the Iliad, Mnemosyne suppl. 17 (Leiden 1971). This article is part of a larger study of Hera in early ritual and myth. There I argue that Hera was not in origin the wife of Zeus despite an allusion to Zeus, Hera, and Drimios, son of Zeus, on a Linear B tablet; that she was a fertility goddess at early Heraia (both at Samos and at Argos, even though these cults must have been different in origin); that she became the sister-wife in the epic tradition; and that there are vestiges of her fertility in the Iliad. I am grateful to Professors Robert Griffin, Carolyn Higbie, and CJ's two anonymous readers for detailed, insightful criticism. 2The uses of raw-eating modifying carnivores include: five similes in battle scenes comparing heroes to various birds, wolves, lions, boars, jackals; one battle scene (not a simile, 11.453-54) in which Odysseus exults over a hero whom "raw-eating" (dlarttui) birds shall rend; and one unrelated, literal use of ravenous fish (24.82). Of the similes, two are brief: 7.256 Hektor and Ajax fighting like ravenous lions or boars; and 15.592 the Trojans rushing upon the ships like ravenous lions; and three are extended: 5.782-94 the Achaians around Diomedes like ravenous lions or wild boars, being urged on by Hera with the voice of Stentor; 11.473-84 the Trojans besetting Odysseus like ravenous jackals around a stag whom a lion scatters; and 16.155-67 the Myrmidons rushing forth like ravenous wolves that have slain a stag, their jaws red with gore, being urged on by Achilles. The examples of raw-eating in the prophecy-prayer group include: the Hera pattern 4.34 ff.; Priam's prayer 22.42-65 and his prophecy 22.66 f;. Achilles' prayer 22.347; his promise made to Patroklos' ghost that dogs will raw-eat Hektor's corpse 23.21; Hekabe's charge that Achilles is her son's raw-eater" (6lUltilic, 24.207); and her prayer 24.212-14. This content downloaded from 73.97.157.116 on Sat, 23 May 2020 06:16:18 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms HOMER'S SAVAGE HERA 107 Hektor (22.346 ff.) is ironically foreshadowed in the lamentations of Priam and Hekabe over their fates (22.42, 67, and 82-89) and is crudely aped by Hekabe's lust to raw-eat her son's raw-eater (cbrotycijg 24.207 and 213-14). The theme of vengeance is more difficult to chart since it involves a com- plex distinction between Hera-like y6%og and [gvog ("lust for vengeance" and "rage"), on the one hand, and Zeus-inspired glivtg "wrath," on the other. The sacral wrath of Achilles (1.1), identified with the plan of Zeus (1.5), is suspended in Book 19 (19.35, 75, Nagy 92); subsequently, the hero's fury resembles the 6Xog and gtivog of Hera.
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