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The Best of the Olympians: the Character of Apollo in the Homeric

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The Best of the Olympians: the Character of Apollo in the Homeric The Best of the Olympians: The Character of Apollo in the Homeric Epics and Hymns Edward M. Bertany A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2018 Reading Committee: Olga Levaniouk, Chair Stephen E. Hinds James J. Clauss Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Classics ©Copyright 2018 Edward M. Bertany University of Washington Abstract The Best of the Olympians: The Character of Apollo in the Homeric Epics and Hymns Edward M. Bertany Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Olga Levaniouk Classics This dissertation is primarily a character study of the god Apollo in Homeric poetry. A close analysis of Apollo’s characterization over the course of the Iliad and the Odyssey reveals that this god, who has been the topic of few dedicated Homeric studies, serves a synthesizing function in the overarching narrative of the Homeric Epics. By foregrounding Apollo and enlisting poems where the god is the main focus, such as the Homeric Hymns, I argue that, over the course of the Homeric Epics, Apollo undergoes a type of coming-of-age story that is highly correlated with the depiction of “the Best of the Achaeans,” an epithet that is associated with Achilles in the Iliad and Odysseus in the Odyssey. Whereas the Iliadic relationship between Apollo and Achilles is characterized by antagonism, misrecognition, and fragmentation, the opposite is true in the Odyssey, during which a symbiosis develops between the same god and Odysseus. This complex progression of Apollo’s story, with its ultimate emphasis on unification, tracks closely with the panhellenic dynamics that were dominant in a crucial period in the evolution of Homeric poetry itself. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1. APOLLO AT OLYMPUS: A BACKGROUND FOR THE GOD'S ANGER IN THE ILIAD ...... 9 Heroic Diction and the Early Career of Apollo in the Iliad ..................................................................................... 11 The Anger of … Apollo ........................................................................................................................................................ 28 CHAPTER 2. APOLLO AT TROY ................................................................................................ 48 The Iliadic Bow ..................................................................................................................................................................... 49 The Iliadic Lyre ..................................................................................................................................................................... 67 Apollo and the Metapoetics of Prophecy ..................................................................................................................... 77 CHAPTER 3. A CHANGE IN FOCUS: FROM ANTAGONISM TO SYMBIOSIS ................................. 99 Celestial Dynamics and the Education of Odysseus ................................................................................................. 99 A Prelude to the Homecoming ...................................................................................................................................... 111 The Homeric Hymn to Hermes ....................................................................................................................................... 125 CHAPTER 4. THE BOW AND THE LYRE .................................................................................. 139 The Homeric Hymn to [Pythian] Apollo and the Conclusions of the Iliad and the Odyssey ....................... 142 Hitting the MarK: Successful Prayers and The Festival of Apollo ..................................................................... 157 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION: THE PAEANIC ORDER OF THE HOMERIC EPICS ............................ 180 “It is not holy to boast over slain men”: Mercy, Restraint, and Paeanic Order ............................................ 181 Pindar’s Paean 6 ................................................................................................................................................................ 188 WORKS CITED ...................................................................................................................... 215 1 Introduction I believe that it is not an exaggeration to say that, as the god of music and poetry, Apollo would have a special role within the Homeric Epics.1 Although recent monographs have been dedicated to this god, there have been no modern attempts to study his characterization in Homeric poetry exclusively, and his role therefore comes to the fore by dint of comparison with other gods or with individual heroes.2 It may have been noted that the title of this study is, at least in part, a playful nod to Nagy’s groundbreaking study of Homeric poetics, The Best of the Achaeans, which, in advancing theories of the Homeric Epics evolution in the oral tradition, added specificity to the definition of the Greek hero. Although the hero, and Achilles in particular, is the primary focus of his book, Nagy is able to explicate the nature of other characters and gods by virtue of their relationship to the main hero, the “best of the Achaeans,” an epithet that, though it is attached to a number of characters that feature in limited micro-narratives, Nagy concludes, “Achilles deserves in the Iliad while Odysseus comes to hold it in the Odyssey” (1999b, 35). As the title of my dissertation suggests, however, I will shift the focus from hero to god, and this change in perspective leads my study in an independent direction, as it seeks to explain a major, but often overlooked, aspect of Apollo’s characterization in the Homeric Epics. Namely, the god who is the steadfast opponent to the Achaean’s enterprise at Troy, and to Achilles in particular in the Iliad, also becomes a patron to the success of Odysseus’ homecoming at Ithaca in the Odyssey. Apollo, therefore, stands next to “the best of the 1 We find this jurisdiction of the god highlighted at the end of Book 1 in the Iliad, when Apollo plays the lyre and leads the Muses in song (1.601-604). In the balance of this study, I will use the term “Homeric Epics” to refer to the Iliad and Odyssey collectively. 2 For a recent monograph on Apollo generally, both his role in cult and in myth, see Graf (2009). Apollo is the point of focus in Miller’s study of Roman literature (2009). 2 Achaeans” in both poems, and, in terms of the relationship between main hero and god, a narrative trajectory can be detected that evolves from antagonism to symbiosis. My choice of title was also prompted by the fact that, in an integral scene within the Iliad that alludes to the god’s role in the death of Achilles, Apollo is actually referred to as the best of the gods (θεῶν ὤριστος, 19.413), a fact that is greeted with defiance from the poem’s main hero. This honorific comes from the mouth of one Achilles’ prophetic horses, themselves divine gifts from Poseidon, and is a curious appellation for the god to achieve in the Iliad, a poem that mostly depicts Apollo, even though he demonstrates his destructive potential at the outset of the epic, as participating in an antagonistic relationship with the “best of the Achaeans” that is never fully resolved, and as the recipient of slights, to which he largely demurs, from his fellow Olympians. The Iliad, therefore, depicts an Apollo who has yet to achieve his full status not only among the Achaeans but also his peer group, but this status can be contrasted with the Odyssey’s characterization of the same god, the one to whom Odysseus prays at a crucial moment during his homecoming. This is the moment when the hero achieves victory in a bow contest—a jurisdiction that itself falls under the purview of Apollo—and his triumph happens to coincide with a festival of Apollo that is being celebrated on Ithaca. The few existing studies that center on a Homeric Apollo tend to view the god monolithically, with little attempt to explain the variances in the god’s characterization found in the Iliad and Odyssey. Indeed, there are enough significant differences that one could enlist them in a separatist argument, but, on the contrary, I maintain that there are thematic motivations for these variations and that they are a key unifying force between the two poems.3 Specifically, the 3 Although an acknowledgement by most of the oral nature of the Homeric epics has led to scholarly debate about the unity of their genesis, the Iliad and the Odyssey seem to respond to one another at a high level in a number of thematic categories. As Burgess suggests, "perhaps the Iliad and the Odyssey 3 trajectory of the super-narrative4 of the Homeric Epics, I contend, depicts a coming-of-age story for Apollo, a story that parallels the evolution of the “best of the Achaeans,” where the unsuccessful maturation of the Iliadic Achilles, who is prophecized to be cut down in his prime by the arrows of Apollo, can be contrasted with the fulfillment of Odysseus’ potential, which reaches its apotheosis under the aegis of Apollo. The reading that I will put forth, therefore, posits that Apollo plays a cohesive role in the Homeric Epics, where the “best of Achaeans” can be contrasted not only through their primary characteristics, but in their contrasting attitudes toward Apollo, in which the aggression and even hostility of the former hero gives
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