128 13) It Is to Be Noted That the Theory of These Remarks Is Not Put

128 13) It is to be noted that the theory of these remarks is not put into practice in the Il.: it is taken for granted that Trojans and Greeks communicate with each other without the help of interpreters. The author of the HomericHymn to Aphrodite, indeed, goes one step further, since he makes Aphrodite (who pretends to be a Phrygian princess) say to the Trojan Anchises: (113-6) On this subject see further: J. Werner, NichtgriechischeSprachen imBewusstsein der antikenGriechen, in: P. Händel, W. Meid (ed.), Festschrift für Robert Muth(Innsbruck 1983), 583-95. THE FIRST SONG OF DEMODOCUS The quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles, about which the Phaeacian singer Demodocus sings at the beginning of a feast being held in Odysseus' honour, is neither attested to by any reliable tradition nor easily explicable from the internal standpoint of the epics'). It is thus not surprising that alongside attempts to discover the tradition to which it should be attributed, it has been argued that the subject of Demodocus' first song was simply invented by Homer. In his article on the Odysseyin RE, P. Von der Mfhll assumed that the quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles was an autoschediasma created with the intention of supplying Demodocus with material for his performance2). Though Von der Mfhll later abandoned this theory in favour of the hypothesis that the episode could be traced back to the Cypria3), the view that Demodocus' first song is an "Augenblickserfindung" was revived by W. Marg. According to Marg's theory, the quarrel between Odysseus and Achilles was invented in order to generate an allusion to the proem of the Iliad, to which it bears a striking resemblance4). Recently, B. K. Braswell argued that the subject of the song was invented by Homer in order to prepare the forthcoming quarrel between Odysseus and Euryalus the Phaeacian (loc. cit. ). Yet the plausibility of such arguments for Homer's invention of the subject is undermined by the fact that none of them can justify the invention. Thus, though the resemblance observed by Marg between the song of Demodocus and the proem of the Iliad is incontestable, it cannot be taken as conclusive proof of the invention both because it does not exclude the possibility that the poet had in mind some actually existing epic tradition5) and because resemblances of this kind, which are common enough in epic poetry, usually indicate that what is being dealt with are typical epic subjects based on a common pattern6). Von der Muhll's original argument is untenable in view of the fact that if the poet's intention was simply to have Demodocus sing a song about Odysseus, instead of resorting to 129 invention, he could have used one of the episodes featuring Odysseus referred to elsewhere in the poem (v. infra). The same is true of Braswell's suggestion: if Demodocus' first song was intended to anticipate the quarrel of Odysseus and Euryalus, Odysseus' quarrel with Ajax (referred to in the first Nekyia, Od. 11, 543-7) would have done just as well. The explanation for Homer's invention of a given detail or theme is generally to be found in the demands of the immediate context1). Now the only context of the quarrel between Odysseus and Achilles known to us is the context of Demodocus' performance, namely, Odysseus' feasting with the Phaeacians. The function of this episode in the poem as a whole is Odysseus' recognition by the Phaeacians (cf. Ruter, 235-8). The vehicle for the recognition is the song of the Wooden Horse, Odysseus' major contribution to the Trojan war (Od. 8, 500-20). Consequently, the function of Demodocus' first performance, which, like the one ending in Odysseus' recognition, causes Odysseus to weep and his host Alcinous to notice this, must be to prepare the climax at the end of the episode 8). Assuming that the poet chose to anticipate the recognition by doubling the motif, he would have been faced with the problem of making Demodocus sing a song about Odysseus the Trojan hero which was not, however, the song of the Wooden Horse. This undoubtedly restricted the subjects at his disposal, leaving him the ptoliporthos hero of the Trojan saga but excluding Odysseus of the Odyssey, the man 'of many wiles' 9). In addi- tion to the Wooden Horse, the episode most frequently referred to in the Odyssey (4, 271-89; 8, 500-20; 11, 523-32), the poem also touches upon such episodes as Odysseus' entering Troy in disguise, his participation in the battle over Achilles' corpse, and his rivalry with Ajax (4, 240-58; 5, 309-10; 11, 543-7). These are all well-known Trojan subjects, attested in the Epic Cyclel°). Thus one can argue for Homer's invention of the quarrel between Odysseus and Achilles only if one can provide a satisfac- tory answer to the following question: what made Homer invent a new subject instead of using one of the well-known Trojan episodesfeaturing Odysseus referred to elsewhere in the poem? Note that the subjects mentioned in the poem have one feature in common-they are all concerned with the final stages of the Trojan war. This is also true of the song of the Wooden Horse sung by Demodocus at Odysseus' invitation. Characteristically, the point at which the song stops is the arrival of Odysseus and Menelaus at the house of Deiphobus, the place where Helen was found"). The song of the Wooden Horse as sung by Demodocus, implying as it does Helen's return to the Greeks, is thus a song about the end of the Trojan war. When asking for this song, Odysseus says to the singer: aYe 87} xon L1t1tOUxoa?,ov <XELaov 6oupoc,cioo(8, 492-3). His previous praise of the veracity of Demodocus' account of Trojan events (vv. 489-90) makes it clear that the request to 'switch' refers to Demodocus' preceding song on the Trojan theme, that of the quarrel between Odysseus and Achilles'2). Significantly, Homer's description of this song ends with the following .

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