American Philological Association

Hesiod, Odysseus, and the Instruction of Princes Author(s): Richard P. Martin Source: Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-), Vol. 114 (1984), pp. 29-48 Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/284137 Accessed: 23-02-2016 02:32 UTC

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HESIOD, ODYSSEUS, AND THE INSTRUCTION OF PRINCES

RICHARD P. MARTIN PrincetonUniversity

It shouldno longerbe necessaryto pointout thefutility of any attempt to determine,from the texts alone, which passage was composed first: the lines of the Theogony proem which concernthe Muse's giftsto kings (Th. 79-93) or Odysseus' replyto the inhospitabletaunt of the Phaeacian youth Euryalos (Od. 8.166-77). Priority-hunting,based on subjective notionsof what is artfulin archaic Greek poetry,has failed to answer the dilemma. New methodsof approach are needed.' The two passages in question are the following:

fftv, ov KaAov t7revaaTaoaAq tvoplCoLKas. C, 1 I OVTCOS!OV 7TaVTeO(ftI601 yapltVTa btbovoflv avopao&v, OV"TEe6v7v OV"T'ap 4pe'vas! OV"T'ayop)TrvV. aAAos0/LEV yap E&oosOaKtVoTrepos 7re'A6 avvwp, 'aAA'a@oso ,Aopqlv C`7reata-r'I, oE01 b T E aVTOV TEplTO/,repopvo VOL AEvovvowXe',0v0t 0o'0 aOIaAEz)swa, ayopevEa ve a16oZ MEACXXtn,MlATa be 7rpeirEaypolAvotLtv, EPX ,evov oava aYTrv BeoP CUWeLopowoLv. aAAoso' av ELIos . 'EVaA&yKLos aBvaaroUtatv, aA ov o0 4apts a/.L4L7reputrTeraLre`e4 v, ws Kal (OfL 'ELOS! /Lv ap&rpe7re'`, OVo' KEV aAAcOs OV OEOSld TVfete, vOov ' a'7ro A10 aoo&. (Od. 8.166-77) ' KaAAX0r 6 7o6e rpo40EpEOTa'T7 r'07tv a&7ra c`v. y Kal Pao&XdAvtva,u' a'tiot'otutv 07rrqbet. OVTIva TIA.LJOV0fI At0S KOvpal MEVaAOYO yElVO .AVOV TE &(tL bl0TpC4Pf)WV SaolA7)cA)V, TC) /.L 671yAMfOp yAVKEp7V XELOVOLV EEpV, TOV O 7rf 6K 0YTO/aTOT p61 peLAtya- ol Of vv Aao% 7raTCVs ev avTov opwVYL oLaKp&'VOVTa E'ULO-Tas t10lo&t'i& oV o' aar aAxe'wcayopevwv

I For the mostcomplete bibliography on the problem,see H. Neitzel,"Zum zeitlichen Verhaltnisvon Theogonie (80-93) und Odyssee (8, 166-77),"Philologus 121 (1977) 24-44, to whichadd B. K. Braswell,"Odyssey 8.166-77 and Theogony79-93," CQ 31 (1981)237-39. On theproblems of "borrowing"and "imitation"in an oraltradition, see R. Janko,Homer, Hesiod,and theHymns (Cambridge 1982) 225.

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aTLia TL Ka% uLEya VELKOS C'7rLOTa/.EV(o KaTEl7avuT TOvVEKa yap &aLA7)Esf ixekpOVCw, OVvEKa Xaolv

/3Xa7rTo/uEvoLs ayop pOL UETaTpo7ra Epya TEAXVcL p7rLBLos, /ua;aKo^LcL 7rapaLa4 EVoL f7rEfafLV ' EpXeov o av a'y&)va Oeov )s LAaLTKOVTaL a&bo& MELALXL7) METa of 7rpE7rEL aypouEvo0L(L. TOL7)Movo-aacv LiEPn b0oa av6pc'row&v. (Th. 79-93) The passages share two and one-halfverses. If we rule out the chance occurrenceof such similardiction and the notionof borrowing,one possi- bilityremains: parallel inheritancefrom a singlecommon source. There is a way to agree withthe Analyststhat the resemblanceshere are notcoinci- dental, while avoiding the critical traps of "imitation,""adaptation," or "borrowing."As G. P. Edwards concludes,"We can neverrule out the exis- tenceof an older place X, whichprovided a commonsource for both A and B at the linesin question,so makingtheir chronological relationship impos- sible to determine."2I cannot claim to have discovered a poem which servesas the commonsource for the Theogonyand Odysseypassages, but I can go beyond Edwards's essentiallynegative conclusion: the two passages underconsideration can be said to sharea commongenre, which generates the similarphrases in each place. By analyzingGreek and Old Irishtexts, I proposeto pinpointthe genrefrom which both Homer and Hesiod draw. The genericelements to whichI referare bestunderstood as belonging to "genresof discourse,"to use the phraseof the criticTzvetan Todorov.3 He insists,first, that a genreis an institutionof society,and so shouldinter- esthistorians and anthropologistsas well as literarycritics; the linkbetween genre and social life will be importantfor the problemat hand.4Second, Todorov pointsout thatgenre is simplythe "historicallyattested codifica- tion of discursiveproperties" such as setting,addressee, speaker, diction, rhythm,and theme, the variables of any speech-act;in literature,these

2 G. P. Edwards, The Language of Hesiod in its Traditional Context (Oxford 1971) 189. Several scholarsare careful to point out the possibilityof common borrowingfrom traditionas regards these two passages: cf. J. Duban, "Poets and Kings in the Theogony Invocation,"QUCC n.s. 4 (1980) 12, note 11; P. Walcot, "Hesiod and the Law," SO 38 (1963) Ilf. and Hesiod and the Near East (Cardiff 1966) 124f.; M. L. West, Hesiod: Theogony (Oxford 1966) 183; the traditioninvolved is not specifiedby them. Concerning the Theogony passage, Edwards, while not denying the possibilityof common inheritance, accepts earlier argumentsfor Homeric priority:see p. 168f. 3 T. Todorov applies the notionto a range of modern worksin Les Genres du discours (Paris 1978): see p. 51 for his definitionof the term; and, for furthercomparison of rules of discourse with those of genre, see Todorov, "La Notion de litterature,"in Langue, discours, societe, ed. J. Kristeva (Paris 1975) 362f. Other useful work might be done, using Todorov's notion,to recoverthe themesand diction appropriateto an archaic Greek systemof genres. For a workingmodel in one genre, see C. 0. Pavese, La Lirica corale greca (Rome 1979). 4 Todorov (above, note 3) 49. On genre as conventionand institution,see the analysisof W. Raible, "Was sind Gattungen?,"Poetica 12 (1980) 326.

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 23 Feb 2016 02:32:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hesiod, Odysseus,and the Instructionof Princes 31 variableshappen to be more rigidlydefined and selected than theyare in ordinarydiscourse. It is usefulto thinkof genre,then, as a typeof selective coding.5I will returnto thisnotion later in thispaper. Sufficeit to say for now thatgenre, because it is relatedto discourse,is implicitin any literary production:behind the wordsof a poem lie unspokenassumptions regarding the contextand mannerof communicationproper to a given location, occasion,and interlocutors. At times,this generic affiliationmight be marked out by diction or syntax;the use of vocatives,for instance, is a traditionalelement in Greek poetic paraenesisfrom Homer on. At othertimes, the dramaticcontext by itselfcan mark a discourseas properlybelonging to a certaingenre, since the presenceof speakerswith a particularstatus naturally arouses generic expectations.The markingof a discourseas appropriatefor a particular genrecan occur even thoughthe discourseis embedded withina composition of an entirelydifferent genre. Thus, in the medium of Homeric poetry,where changes of speakeroccur frequently,it is theoreticallypossi- ble that each speaker's discourseshow signs of belongingto a particular genre. Nestorand Phoenix,for instance, are notjust advisors: they become conduits for the genre of paraenetic poetry;Andromache, Hecuba, and Helen are notjust lamenting women, but speakersof lamentpoetry within epic-poetry which has a long and old traditionoutside epic as well, a traditionmost likelyas old as epic, with its own conventionsand styliza- tionsof language,as Alexiouhas shown.6Although it may seem mechanical to describeepic charactersin termsof theirpoetic affiliationsin thisway, such a view mighthelp us to understandhow such massivecompositions as the Iliad and Odysseyattained their bulk: by the introductionof pre- existingor contemporarynon-epic genres. This mode of compositionis exactlywhat gives both Homeric poems theirconvincingly realistic tone, producingin the audience the sense that actual wordsare being reported by the Muse (as the poet's ideologywould declare). Stylizeddiscourse, be it lament, advice, praise or blame, is incorporatedand preserved in the mediumof Homerichexamyeter verse.7

5 Raible (above, note 4) 325, 335-43 notes that genres,like textsand words themselves, are characterized by selection and abbreviation of elements in a system.From the per- spective of a semiotician,Raible definesgenre as a set of distinctivemarks drawn fromas many as six dimensions,including communication-situation. 6 M. Alexiou, The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition (Cambridge 1974) 4-13, 161-84. F. Mawet, "E~pigrammes,threnes et dithyrambes:les lamentationsfunebres de l'epopee," in Le Monde grec: Hommages a Claire Preaux, ed. J.Bingen et al. (Brussels 1975) 42ff., also traces elementsof distinctgenres within epic laments,raising the possibilitythat epic evolved fromlaments. 7 On the versatilityof Homeric poetryin integratingvarious traditions, see G. Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry (Baltimore 1979) 6 (hereafter BA). D. Sinos, Achilles, Patroklos, and the Meaning of Philos (Innsbruck 1980) 75 and note 5, illustratessome ways in which the Iliad subsumes other traditional

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One more thingneeds to be emphasized before I returnto pinpoint the genre of Od. 8.166ff.and Th. 79-93. It is a workingprinciple of oral poetics that theme creates diction and similar themes create similar diction.8By attributingcertain themesto genres of discourse,I am add- ing another level to the hierarchyof traditionalmodes of expressionin archaic Greek poetry.The lowest level of this hierarchy-the word or phrase-is often labeled formula, but one might call any one of these levels of expression"formulaic." With referenceto the problem with which we began, then,I would claim that similar themes produce the resemblances.The themes are generatedby a common source,an ancient genre of discourse,which has a basis in social fact of considerableantiquity, the discoursebetween a king (or advisor) and a prince. This genre has long been called "Instructionof Princes" (or specu- lum principum);its wide attestationis surveyedby West in his editionof the Worksand Days, the best survivingreflection of the genre in Greek. We know that similar compositionsin Greek once existed, especially fromthe fragmentsof a poem called the Instructionsof Cheiron attrib- uted to Hesiod (fr. 283-85 MW). The high status of the Kheironos Hupothekai as a source forinstruction-poetry is evident in Pindar's "cita- tion"of the poem at Pyth.6.19-26:

0TVTOL afXEBWV VLV E7TL bEfLa XELpo, op6av ayeLs Eflr/.Loovvav, Ta 7TOT eV OVpeOL oaVTl jhEyaAoa0EvE 41LXAvpasv%Ov opfav&(oue`vW [llAdba 7rapaLvelv aLaALorTapev Kpovbav, ,3apvo7ra -repolravKEpav2vwvJ T7 TpVTaVLV, 0BEw^v oe'EJEOaL. Both the extant Works and Days and the fragmentaryInstructions of Cheiron accord with other examples of this genre, in many literatures, in their concern with transmittingthe rules for proper legal, religious,

genres. Further on problems of genre-interactionin early Greek poetry: J. Latacz, Kampfparanese, Kampfdarstellungund Kampfwirklichkeitin der Ilias, bei Kallinos und Tyrtaios (Munich 1977) 1-20; H. Diller, Die dichterischeForm von Hesiods Erga (Mainz 1962) 44-46, 58; M. Puelma, "Sanger und Kbnig," MH 29 (1972) 86f. (on genre ainos); Nagy, BA 235-41. 8 See A. Lord, The Singer of Tales (Cambridge, Mass. 1960) 49: "Formulas are, after all, the means of expressingthe themes of the poetry."Nagy, BA 1-6, is a concise state- ment of the interworkingof theme and diction in archaic Greek material.I have sketched the relationshipof theme to motifand phrase,within several European traditions,in "The Oral Tradition" (forthcomingin Critical Survey of Poetry, ed. F. Magill). The shared versesof the passages at hand are not "formulaic"in termsof phrase repetition(except for Od. 8.173 = Th. 91, a fairly frequent phrase: cf. F. Krafft,Vergleichende Unter- suchungen zu Homer und Hesiod [Gottingen1963] 69, note 1).

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 23 Feb 2016 02:32:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hesiod, Odysseus,and the Instructionof Princes 33 political, and social behavior.9While the Worksand Days, along with similarpoetry such as the elegiacs of Theognis,has long been recognized as hupothekai,commentators on the Theogonyhave treatedthe poem as a compendiumof lore about mythand cosmology,rightly noting its links with other theogonic texts but neglecting the frame-narrative,which includes the proem.10To my knowledge,the possibilityof an embedded genre of instruction-poetrywithin the Theogonyor the Odysseyhas not been addressed. To turnto the passages: what specificallymarks these portionsof the Odysseyand the Theogonyas appropriate to a shared Instructionof Princesgenre? Three elementsoccur in both which are closelysimilar in phrasingor situation.The firsttwo are thematicand generatethe shared diction; they comprisethe theme of faultlessspeaking ability (asphaleos agoreuei:Od. 8.171 and Th. 86) and thatof "honey-sweetrespect" (aidoi meilikhiei:Od. 8.172 an(d Th. 92). The third element is dramatic context,which generatesthe "lookingon" motif(Od. 8.173 and Th. 85, 91). I shall discuss this later. The firsttwo elements can be traced within poetryexplicitly designated as "instructions"-thespeaking-theme in the cognate Indo-European tradition of Old Irish poetry, and the aidos- theme withinGreek tradition. First, the speech theme. The Old Irish literarygenre called tecosc ("instruction")comprises five principal compositions, the earliestof which, AudachtMorainn, dates fromA.D. 700 and is thereforethe earliestWest- ern European specimen of the speculumgenre. The AudachtMorainn ("Testamentof Morann") purportsto be the death-bed instructionsof the mythicalfirst Irish lawmaker,Morann, to Neire, his foster-son,for trans- missionto the young king Feradach Find Fechtnach. Irishtradition itself casts this poetry as an inheritance from deep antiquity; in fact, the Audachtcontains nothing but pre-Christianmaterial, and, in the wordsof

9 See M. West, Hesiod: Works and Days (Oxford 1978) 7, 14-18. In termsof Raible's definitionof genre (above, note 4), one could describe prince-instructionas set in a particular communication-situation(older man advising younger,usually at a point of crisis or initiation),with an open-ended structure(e.g. stringsof injunctions),presented as either direct conversationor as a testament,governed by hierarchicalorder (injunctionsin order of importance),with a "real" purpose (i.e. the genre presentsitself as factual and neces- sary for world order). On the contents of the Kheironos HupothAkai,see J. Schwartz, Pseudo-Hesiodea (Leiden 1960) 241 and G. Nagy, "Hesiod," in Ancient Writers,ed. T. J. Luce, vol. 1 (New York 1982) 61f. 10 P. Friedlander,"HYI`O0HKAI," Hermes 48 (1913) 558-616, outlinesthe similarities. On the inadequacy of the commonplace descriptionof the WD as merely"instructions" or "wisdom literature,"see R. Hunt, "Hesiod as Satirist,"Helios n.s. 8 (1981) 29-40, esp. 38f. An exception to the usual treatmentof the Theogony is M. Detienne's analysis of the work as a praise-poem directed to Zeus as king: Les Maitres de verite dans la Grece archawque(Paris 1967) 17f.

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Calvert Watkins,is a "window on a genre of Indo-Europeanliterature."" The core of the Audacht Morainn deals with the notion of the Ruler's Truth, a force broughtinto life by the king's verbal behavior, which ensuresthe prosperityand abundance of a society.This notionhas exact cognates,both in semanticsand syntacticalexpression, in Indo-Iranianand in Greekpoetry, as Watkinsshows, citing for the latterliterature the Works and Days, whereinthe fableof the hawk and the nightingale(WD 203-12) is explicitlydirected to the kingsand has as its main concernthe contrast between "straight"and "crooked" dike.12 Straightdike leads to an ideal stateof plenty:

be ovV OL bLKas- eLVOLOL KaL Evr71OLL LEtas' KaL /u7JTL 7rapEK,3aLVVOTL 8LKaLov, TOUTL TEO7JXAE WOWS, XaoL 8 aVOEvoLV ev avT7J EGp?7)V78 a'Va' yV KOVpOTpO4OS, OV8E 7TOT' aViTOS' apyaXEov 7TroXE/oV TEK/.aLEpETaL Evpvo7ra Zevasl OV c OT LOVbLK7L /LAT av pao ALos or7EL ov8 a/T?).oamfl s- 8E MA.LeA7oraE pya veMTovTr. TOUTL 4p(EL AEV yazLa7oV &3ov,oVpEL be bprS aKp7) /AEVTIE oEpElt 8aXAavovs?/.E'O-T7 8e pEAL'O'Tas- ELP07TOKOL 8 oLEs- MEaAAos KaTa,8,3E3pLOaT-L TLKTOVOLV 8f yvvaiKIES' fOLKOTa TEKva yovEvTL. (WD 225-35) This oppositionof good and bad justice is mirroredin Old Irish instruction poetry,where one is told the many resultsof firbrethaas opposed to gobretha (true and false judgments).The resultsof the latterare often painfullyelaborated; the truejudgments lead to increasedyields of milk, fish,corn, and fairchildren.13 Watkins also mentionsthe other strikingappearance of the Ruler's Truthnotion in archaic Greek poetry:the wordsof Odysseusto Penelope in which he details the resultsof an ideal king'sgood rule:14

11 C. Watkins,"Is trefir flathemon: Marginalia to Audacht Morainn," Eriu 30 (1979) 182. Furtheron the antiquityof this text: F. Kelly, ed., AudachtMorainn (Dublin 1976) xv (hereafterAM) and P. Henry, "The Cruces of AudachtMorainn," ZCP 39 (1982) 35 (on the relationof Morann to the Vedic figureof Varuna). On the relationbetween early Irish kingsand judges, includingMorann, see H. Wagner, "Studies in the Originsof Early Celtic Civilisation,"ZCP 31 (1970) 1-45 and D. A. Binchy,Celtic and Anglo-SaxonKing- ship (Oxford 1970) 4-16. Note that the Irish instructionis specificallyto a foster-son,in the AM and elsewhere, a detail identical with the tradition that Cheiron instructed Achilles,Jason, et al. in a type of fosterage.The motifof Achilles' fosterageis an Indo- European relic, according to E. Campanile, Studi di culturaceltica e indoeuropea(Pisa 1981) 32-34. 12 Watkins(above, note 11) 183, 192f. 13 See sections 12-21 AM, apparently the oldest section in the text,according to Kelly (above, note 11) 6f. 14 Watkins(above, note 11) 192; cf. Kelly (above, note 11) xvii. For evidence concerning the high antiquityof Greek kingshiptraditions as reflectedin the Odyssey19 passage, see R. Mondi, "Skeptoukhoi Basileis: An Argumentfor Divine Kingship in Early Greece,"

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T'v 8' a7raAELP,0o/EVoS'Wpo0f047 7roXvM71TLS''OvT-EV's W yvvaL, OvK av TLS' 0e 3pOTWV E7r a7reLpovaya&av VELKEOL' 7 yap OEV KX'EOSovpavov EVpVv LKaVEL, (S, TE TEV 7) $a&OXtAos'a&v'Aovos-, os- Te 0EOV8?JS. aVbpao-TLV 7VOXXOiTL KEaLL0ZOLMALTLV a'vaowv Ev L&Kas avE f0L, cEp7l' e yaLa MAzaLva 7TVOvS KaL KpLOas, 3LPO70TLbe bE'vbpEa Kap7rW, TLKTn 8' EL7reba /hAJXa,dXaoTTa 8b ap% j s 4g ev,7JyEoL7Js, apeTOC.0L8f% XaoL V7r avTov. (Od. 19.106-114) This passage, apparentlya digressionin the interviewbetween husband and wife on Ithaca, will turnout to be a key element in Odysseus' revelation. We have seen, then, that Old Irish and Greek instructional poetry-the Audacht Morainn and the Works and Days-both contain one inheritedtheme concerningthe abundance resultingfrom the power of a good king,and thatthe same themeappears in the Odyssey.The point which I wish to make involves the same spread of attestation,with the substitutionof the Theogonyproem for the Worksand Days passage. In Audacht Morainn, it is implicitthat the fir flathemonis verbally expressedby the king. There is evidence, in fact, fromthe twelfthcen- turythat a king actually recitedor assentedto the proverbialstatements and injunctionsof a tecosc during his inaugurationceremony. It may help us to appreciate the social parallels in the Greek and Irish situations for instruction-poetryif we note that such Irish inaugurationsinvolved the passingof a rod, symbolof sovereignty,from a poet to the new king: the rod thusresembles the skeptron,not only in its close connectionwith kingship,but also in its relationto authoritativepoetic speech. The Irish king is certifiedby the poet; reciprocally,the poet is maintainedby the king and tribe. A similar relationshiplies behind the proem to the Theogony,a poem resemblingan inaugurationode for Zeus and detail- ing (as did Irish odes) the king's genealogy and battle prowess.Hesiod's gift of a skeptronfrom the Muses (Th. 30) is a gift fromtheir father, Zeus, and gets as its recompensethe giftof the Theogony itself,which authorizesthe divine king.15 Explicitlyas well, the Audacht presentsinstructions on the role of speaking in kingship.After discoursing of the prosperitythat the Ruler's Truthaccomplishes, Morann gives Feradach a stringof admonitions:

Arethusa 13 (1980) 203-16; on kingship as a relic institutionat the composition of Homeric epic, see R. Drews, Basileus: The Evidence for Kingship in Geometric Greece (New Haven and London 1983) 105f., 144; on heritage of Greek kingship,see Detienne (above, note 10) 42-50. 15 On the Irish inaugurationceremonies and otherking-rituals, see Kelly (above, note 11) 14; M. Dillon, "The Consecrationof IrishKings," Celtica 10 (1973) 1-8; and F. Byrne,Irish Kings and High Kings (London 1973) 7-27, esp. 15ff.On the meaningof Hesiod's skeptron, see Duban (above, note 2) 7 and Puelma (above, note 7) 94, both of whom also notice the parallel actionof poetsand kingsin the descriptionof the Muse's gifts(Th. 79-103).

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Apairfris, (a) ba tr6car,(b) bad firi6n,(c) bad chosmuil,(d) bad chuibsech,(e) bad fosath,(f) bad eslabar,(g) bad garte,(h) bad fialainech,(i) bad sessach,(j) bad lessach,(k) bad eitir,(1) bad inric, (m)bad suthnge,(n) badforuste, (o) badfirbrethach. Tell him,let him be (a) merciful,(b) just,(c) impartial,(d) conscien- tious,(e) firm,(f) generous,(g) hospitable,(h) honourable,(i) stable, (j) beneficent,(k) capable,(1) honest, (m) well-spoken,(n) steady,(o) true-judging.(AM sect. 55,ed. Kelly) The final three are of particularinterest here: "let him be well-spoken, steady,true-judging." For, semantically,we have here the exact pairing of the Greek phrase asphale6s agoreuei.16The notionof true judgment, central to the Hesiodic descriptionof ideal kingshipin the Theogony passage (cf. especially Th. 85-90), in the AM immediatelyfollows the phrasesconcerning speech-as is proper for the ideology of a culturein which tribalking and judge are closelyallied.'7 Examples can be multipliedto show thatspeaking well and truthfully is traditionallyimportant advice in Irish Instructionof Princes.The Sen- briathraFithail ("proverbs"of the pagan judge Fithal),another tecosc text, has among its formulasthe following:adcota miltenga brithemnacht("A sweet tongue begets judgment"). We can note in this formulathe association, as in the Theogony proem, of the king's speech with judgment. Furthermore,the word miltenga-literally "honey-tongue"-appears to

16 The adverb asphaleos is especially importantbecause, in the dictionof the Theogony, only Gaia and Ouranos bear the adjective formas epithet:as Duban notes (above, note 2, p. 19), this implies that "the king's 'unerring'pronouncements are the moral safeguardto the universe's physical stability";he parallels the king's effectivenessin Od. 19.109ff.,a passage which we have already seen is derived fromarchaic prince-instructionmaterial. Old Irish foruste, the word translatedhere as "steady," might be furtherglossed "un- moved because rooted in tradition,"as the noun forus, from which the adjective is derived, has particularreference to abstruseknowledge, especially of legal precedentsand lore: cf. Dictionary of the Irish Language (Dublin 1913-76) "F," col. 373 s.v., sectionsb anidc. On the importanceof such "steadiness"in the contextof kingship,cf. the evidence of a third cognate tradition (ancient India) as seen in, e.g., RV 10.173.4, noted by B. Schlerath,Das Konigtum im Rig- und Atharvaveda (Wiesbaden 1960) 118. The lack of cognate linguisticexpressions for these identical themes in the three traditionscited (Irish, Greek, Indic) should not be taken as proof that the complex of ideas regarding kings developed late and independentlyin each dialect of Indo-European, as semantic structuresare often retained despite surface lexical renewal: cf. C. Watkins,"Aspects of Indo-European Poetics,"in Indo-European Studies IV, ed. C. Watkins(Cambridge, Mass. 1981) 764-99, esp. 780, 794. 17 The Audacht presentsthe ruler not only as possessingthe mysticalfir flathemon, upon which justice is based, but also as settinglegal precedents in the matter of fees, obligations,honor-price, and so forth(cf. sections47-52 AM). At the same time, the exis- tence of independent judges appears to be acknowledged (cf. section 23, "Let him not exalt any judge unless he knowsthe true legal precedents,"Kelly [above, note 11] 8-9).

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 23 Feb 2016 02:32:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hesiod, Odysseus,and the Instructionof Princes 37 containthe exact notionfound in meilikhios,a key adjective in the Greek passagesin question.'8 The "Battle of Airtech" (Cath Airtig) contains the tecosc given by Conall Cernach to Cuscraid Mend Macha as the latterassumes the kingship. Afterthe instructionsconcerning proper gift-bestowal and assembly- holding,the new kingis enjoinedas follows:'9 Bateolai in gechberlae ar narbatainfis i nnach din conruidfea fritacra friut. Batfiren firbrethach cen forbrisiu n-indsciu etir tethraitren (ocus) trug. Be skilledin everytongue, so thoube notignorant in anyart that onewill speak in argumentwith thee. Be justand righteousin judgment,not supressing speech between the tethraof the strong and the weak. As in Audacht Morainn, instructionon speech is immediatelyfollowed by advice concerningjudgment (with the same word used: ffrbrethach= "true-judging").It should be pointed out that in both the Audacht and the Battle of Airtech,the instructionsto the king are embedded in a narrative,as I believe is also the case in the Odyssey. In my final Irish example, the embedded tecosc is less well integratedwith its narrative,a sign that the story-telleris indeed borrowingfrom another genre to fill out his tale. In a section of the Wasting Sickness of Cut Chulainn (Serglige Con Culainn), the hero instructshis foster-sonLugaid, who has been chosen as next king of Tara by an unusual bull-feastdivination ceremony:20

18 On this formula see R. Smith, "The Senbriathra Fithail and Related Texts," Revue Celtique 45 (1928) 14. Althoughmeilikhios is probably not related to the Greek word for "honey' (meli), as Chantraineshowed ("Grec meilikhios,"in Mel. Boisacq I [Brussels1937] 169-74), there is no doubt that an associationbetween the two word-groupshas developed by the time of the compositionof the Theogony proem (cf. lines 83-84: the Muses pour dew on the king's tongue and his words pour forth'meilikha'). Compare also the Homeric descriptionof Nestor's voice at II. 1.249, a poetic detail which may be of Indo-European date,on whichsee R. Schmitt,Dichtung und Dichtersprachein Indo-germanischerZeit (Wiesbaden 1967) 256. Finally, on the associationof honey and true speech, see S. Schein- berg, "The Bee Maidens of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes," HSCP 83 (1979) 16-23; and on the symbolic value of honey in the Theogony in relation to speech, see P. Pucci, Hesiod and the Language of Poetry (Baltimoreand London 1977) 19-21. 19 "The Battle of Airtech,"ed. and transl.R. Best, Eriu 8 (1916) 173. The obscure word tethrai may mean "paragons": cf. Dictionary of the Irish Language (above, note 16) s.v. "2 tethra." Compare the similar injunction,also in context of judging, contained in Tecosca Cormaic (Instructionsof Cormac): eolas cech berla, -knowledge of each language," is one of the essentialsfor the tribe'swelfare. (Text in Book of Leinster, vol. 6, ed. A. Sullivan [Dublin 1983] 343c13.) 20 Serglige Con Culainn, ed. M. Dillon (Dublin 1975) 9; the translationis by M. Dillon, "Wasting Sicknessof Cu Chulainn," Scottish Gaelic Studies 7 (1951) 57, who notes uncer- taintiesad loc. Once again, the addressee is a foster-son:cf. above, note 11.

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26. Ni fresneseaco labur. Ni aisneiseaco gl6rach. Ni fuirse. Ni chuitbe. Ni faithchithersenori. Be nothaughty in contradiction. Be notloud in telling. Do notplay the buffoon. Do notmock. Do notthreaten old men.... (SCC 278ff.) This portionof CGuChulainn's instructionscenters, once more, on the proper verbal behavior for kings. Althoughthe contextsdiffer in the Wasting Sickness and the Odyssey passages, both Cu Chulainn and Odysseus instructtheir young prince interlocutorsto speak in a respectful, restrainedmanner. In Greek terms,this means having aidos; this brings us to the second theme shared by the Odyssey and Theogony passages withwhich we began. Aidos is an importanttopic of Prince Instruction,as can be seen more clearly when we turnfrom the shame cultureof ancient Ireland to that of archaic Greece. Hesiod's Worksand Days, as we have seen, is an explicitlyinstructional composition. It is significant,given this context, that the poem dramatizes the negative exemplum of the Fifth Age in termsof aidos: the era is to be marked by a complete failureof reciprocal relationships(WD 182-91) usually observed between family mem- bers,xeinoi, and partiesto oaths: ' tK7) EOV XEPaL KaL azozs OVK fETTat, f3Aa'IEL o' 0 KaKoS TOV apELova 4XCOTa vOOLcOL TKOALOLs EVE7rWV, E7TL o OpKOV 03/.LTaL. (WD 192-94) Aidos is clearly a matterof proper verbal behavior here; the man who lacks this quality speaks "crooked words" in harming his betters.The descriptionof the Fifth Age closes with anotherreference to aidos, this time in the symbolicdeparture from earth of the goddess,accompanied by Nemesis (WD 199-200). Finally, before proceeding to the specific instructionsof the poem's latterpart, Hesiod directsto his brotherPerses a shortexhortation concerning aidos:

ai's8 o' OVK ayao7)KEXPf)/.LoVO a'vopa KOLL, ij r' a'vopas ME'ya OLVETacL 7ro OVL'V)OcTLV- ' LOts rz 'voXs/3t8', &ipo-oso rpo o'0A,3. (WD 317-19) In contrastto the preceding portionsof the poem, in which aidos is a virtue,these lines presentthe other side of the notion,by a particularly Hesiodic splittingof the abstractqualities into "good" and "bad" (cf. the sectionon Eris, WD 11-26; also, Nemesis,at Th. 223 is a pain for mor- tals, whereas at WD 200 it is implicitlygood). But this contrastis not a

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 23 Feb 2016 02:32:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hesiod, Odysseus,and the Instructionof Princes 39 contradiction:the problem arises when some people have aidos while otherslack it; the veryexistence of the notionmeans thatit can be used for good or ill (justas an oath "does harm"to humansin generalwhen someone swears falsely: Th. 231f.). Hesiod is not urging Perses to dispense with aidos; to the contrary,his discussionends witha referenceto the disastrous consequences of "shamelessness"(anaideie) overpoweringaidos (WD 324ff.):the gods diminishthe life and wealth of that man who gets olbos withviolence. In the lightof thisconclusion, WD 319, alb1coTOL 71pOS avJoxp,Ly,ipo-os be 7rpps"o, should be read as a bitterlyironic piece of advice: "aidos for poverty,boldness for wealth." Hesiod is on the side of aidos; boldness (tharsos) is synonymousin thiscontext with "takingolbos by force"in line 321, the short-termworldly success with long-termdis- advantages. This portionof the Works and Days, then, is just as much prince-instructionon aidos as is the precedingdescription of the FifthAge. The poetic genre which I have posited as the source of the similar passages fromthe Theogony proem and fromOdyssey Book 8 is contin- ued after Hesiod's timnein the instructionalpoetry of Theognis of Megara.21It should not be surprising,then, to find that the theme of properaidos bulks large in the later tradition.Even thoughTheognidean poetry is addressed to the polis of Megara, through the foil-figure Kyrnos,the connection with the old traditionof prince-instructionis maintained throughsuch formal characteristicsof Theognidean poetry as the exhortationsto remember (e.g. Theognis 27-30), the aphoristic style (e.g. 143-54), ancl, over all, the communicationsituation (an old man advises a youngone) which framesthe poetry. Justas in the Worksand Days, aidos in Theognis' verse is conspicu- ous by being absent. Compare with WD 192ff.this descriptionof the presentday in Theognis:22

Nvuv s ra' r&v aya&Wv KaKa- y/VErat EO-OXA'KaKOiaTLV ' avpv- ?yfovTaL EKrpa7rfEAoXL- VO',jOLs atwsOjuv yap oXAAEv,avaL&ELt7 be Kat V'/3pts VLK77aaaa 8LK7)V y7jv Kara 7aa-av i'x. (289-92) More importantfor the presentquestion, in Theognisas well aidos is regularlyassociated with proper speech. The famouslines promising immortal- ityto Kyrnosconclude witha complaintin which the boy's lack of aidos is equated preciselywith the wrongverbal behavior, deceptive speech:

21 See Friedlander (above, note 10) 573ff. My view of the poetic relationshipamong Kyrnos,Theognis, and Megara owes much to the work of Nagy, "Theognis of Megara: The Poet as Seer, Pilot,and Revenant,"Arethusa 15 (1982) 109-28. 22 The oppositionaidos vs. hubris is traditionalin Homeric diction: cf. A. Cheyns, "Sens et valeursdu mot aidos dans les contexteshom6riques," in Recherchesde philologie et de linguistique,ed. M. Hofinger (Louvain 1967) esp. 9f. Cheyns furthercompares Euryalos with Thersites,another reviler of kings:both can be said to embody hubris.

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avrap Eywvoxty7)s 7rapa o-v ov r 4vyxavwaw avo, aA ' 7rep /UKpOv 7rdataAoyots IA' araras. (253f.) In exchange for immortality,Theognis' poetry elicits the properly matureuse of respectfulspeech, bestowinga giftof words on the listener in two ways: externally(through kleos, 245f.) and internallythrough an instructionin properspeech. The connectionbetween speech and aidos is made even more clearly in lines 83ff.:23

Tov'rovsoiv' X' eVpOlt&(4iEVOs oVO' rl 7avras av6pz7rovs,ovs vaVss,u pula7ravrav ayoL, OLcTLV -Tl a-?fI re KaL 0OLXMoZLv E7TEOTLV a , ovo ah)rxpbvxpxh-" E7TL KEpOO ayEL. Finally, the similarityof diction between the lines just quoted and the following piece of Theognidean instructionjustifies us in treating as nearlysynonymous aidos and to meilikhon:

be TO,ELALyOV aLEv Itxe VO0, yAa rI E7TEITW 8GELAWVTOl rEAfOEL KapbtLt7 oeVrEp7q. (365f.) Thus, Theognis is operatingwith the same conceptsand poetic dictionas Homer and Hesiod: recall the recurringphrase aidoi meilikhiei,which joins the two concepts that are complementaryin Theognis, each con- cept having a special associationwith speech.24 We have seen so far that aidos is a proper topic for instructional poetry,as both the Worksand Days and Theognisshow; thataidos has a special association with speech; and that there is an establishedtradi- tional diction surroundinginstruction on aidos. The relevance of these pointsto the discussionof Od. 8.166ff.and Th. 79ff.should be clear: in both of the passages aidos arises preciselyin the contextof a speech-act, one which involves,explicitly, an audience and a speaker. Now the dative of manner,aidoi meilikhiei,has long been seen to functiondifferently in each passage: in Od. 8.172 it certainlydescribes the speaker's behavior,whereas in Th. 92 it describesaudience reaction. To my mind, this is simply a powerfulconfirmation of the essentially reciprocalquality of aidos,not a mistakeon the part of an adapting poet

23 Lines 85-86 exhibit the traditional association of aidos and sight, on which see J. Gould, "Hiketeia,"JHS 93 (1973) 88, note 74. Compare also the role of sight in both Th. 85 and Od. 8.173, in which the respectful"looking-on" is generatedby aidos. 24 The phrase aidoi meilikhieithus resemblesformulaic phrases of the type aithomenon pur, in which the adjective expresses the essential quality of the noun. In light of the semantics of aidos (quintessentiallyreciprocal) I suggest that meilikhios(etymology unknown:cf. above, note 18) is related to the IE root *mei-(cf. Lat. munus,Skt. Mitra), the semantics of which are analysed by E. Benveniste,"Don et &change dans le vocab- ulaire indo-europeen,"in Problemesde linguistiquegenerale, vol. 1 (Paris 1966) 315-26, esp. 322f.

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 23 Feb 2016 02:32:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hesiod, Odysseus,and the Instructionof Princes 41 as criticshunting the "original" passage would have it.25As J. P. Gould has noted,aidos is one of many Greek words "where reciprocityof usage implies reciprocityof behavior and attitudein the situationof which the word is used: the feeling of aidos, we may say, is common to both partiesin the encounter,or . . . characteristicof the encounteritself."26 It is easy to see how a speaker uses aidos-in knowing when and how to speak. At Od. 8.166ff.,Odysseus upbraids Euryalos precisely because the youngerman has spoken withoutaidos. Odysseus then goes on to exhibitthe quality himselfin deftlyturning a personal attack into a general commentthat yet has a pointed,hidden message forthe young prince. This same episode on Phaeacia can help us to understandhow the audience in the speech-act, the laoi, show aid's (as the Hesiodic descriptionsays they do). At Od. 7.69-72 is a descriptionof the queen, Arete:

WVKEtv7 7Ept K71pt rerT.trat rE Kat EITrtV EK TE 'AXwv7Ta bwv (K r' aViroi 'AAKtvooto Ka' Aaov, O0 gwv pa OEOIV S. ELopow7VES t Vw/ /A C t 1) 1) k / obEiEyxarattvrooLoLv, oTreO-reLxyfl ava a-rv. It obviouslyshares the Hiomericand Hesiodic motifof "lookingon one as a god." The referenceto greetingwith words (deidekhataimuthoisin) contains the same idea as Th. 91 hilaskontaiaidoi meilikhiei:the laoi, inspired by aidos, know how and when to make their requests. Once again, speech and aidos are closely related; the phrase aidoi meilikhiei refersto both the formand the contentof speech, and is an ellipsis for "aidos which expressesitself in epea meilikhia."27 A consistentassociation in Greek poetrybetween aidos and kings is furtherevidence that instructionconcerning aidos belongs in discourse between princes and acivisors.Witness the regular collocationof aidoios with basileus (e.g. Th. 80 above).28 Moreover, the link between aidos and kingshipis explicit in the Hymn to Demeter,as shown in Meta- neira's wordsto the disguisedgoddess:

25 Cf. C. von Erffa, AIDOS und verwandteBegriffe in ihrerEntwicklung von Homer bis Demokrit, Philologus Suppl. 30.2 (1937) 46: he claims Homer is the original because Th. 92 is unusual in its use of the dative. Interpretationvaries according to how critics assign aidos at Th. 92: to the king or to the audience; Neitzel (above, note 1) 39 summa- rizes earlier views. 26 J. Gould (above, note 23) 87; furtheron the reciprocal quality of aidos: J. Turpin, "L'Expression aidos kai nemesis et les 'actes de langage,"' REG 93 (1980) 352-67. 27 Meilikhios most commonly modifies epea: R. Cunliffe,A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect (London 1924; repr. Norman, Okla. 1963) 260. Cf. the scholiast'scomment at Th. 92, that the adjective is an epithet of aude: Scholia Vetera in Hesiodi Theogoniam, ed. L. DiGregorio (Milan 1975) ad loc. 28 Xenoi and parthenoi are the only other social groups regularlyassociated with the adjective: see Gould (above, note 23) 87f.

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XaipE, yvvat, E7reLoTI E KaKWV ar 'oAraco OK?WV Ej.qupevat,aAA aya6wv E7riTO' TpEoTE ojlAacrtvazous Kat yapet, S EL 7TEP rEfOL0r-o7ToAwv /aa-tXAwv. (h. Dem. 213-15) A good example of the reciprocal nature of this aidos occurs at II. 10.237ff. "Pick the best companion," says Agamemnon to Diomedes, "and do not yield to aidos and pick the worse, even though he be kinglier":

y TOV V (TbVav aLbo Evvos (T(rt (fpE(T EVapE KaAiXEL`7TLV,av 0f XELov'oV7raaaTcea alboi ELKWV, eS yEVE7)V OpOWV, 7EL 3acTLAEVTEpos EcTTLV. The king is implicitlydeserving of aidos and possessorof it. In thisway, we can align the complementaryroles of aidos as follows:29 aidos-of the sender aidos-of the receiver Od. 8.172 (speaker) Th. 92 (laoi vs. king) H. Dem. 214f. (kings) II. 10.237ff.(prince vs. king) Agamemnon'swords to Diomedes, by their tone and in their dramatic context,make clear that aidos is not just associated with kingsbut also a fitsubject on which to instructyoung kings,such as Diomedes. Homeric epic offersother episodes in which there is similar mentionof aidos but no explicitreference to the statusof the respectivespeakers and listeners; on close examination,these episodes, too, share the characteristicsitua- tion of prince-instruction(old adviser to young prince). The Embassy of Iliad 9, for instance,can be viewed as an extended dramatizationof prince-instruction,with Phoenix holdingthe central role. The old man's instructionsconcerning the Litai conclude with the advice to practice aid&'s:

osA /LEV r aL EO-TaL KoVpas ZALo% aaTaTOv Lov-as',

Tro 8& /.Ey wjv77)crav KaL T EKAVOV EVXOILE'VOLO. (II. 9.508f.) (Note that Ajax's speech concludes on the same notion,with a call for aidos directed towards the hetairoithis time: I/. 9.640.) Some episodes reverse the direction of communicationbut neverthelessfocus on the theme of aidos. One particularlyinteresting example is at Od. 3.96f., where the young prince Telemachus addresses Nestor, urging him to dispense with respectfulreticence and to tell him straightout about Odysseus.Telemachus' words contain a verbal transformationof the key noun phrasediscussed above, aidos meilikhie:

29 For this model of the speech-eventsee R. Jakobson,"Linguistics and Poetics,"in T. A. Sebeok, Style in Language (Cambridge, Mass. 1960) 353. For the followinganalysis of Od. 8 and Od. 19 I rely on Jakobson'sdistinction of code and message as constituent factorsin any speech-event.

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' A8f TL aLaoMEvos AELALTTEo / 78' EAEaLpWV, a,, V /AOLKaTa'Aeov 0`7rTs tnTo-as-0W7rIT. Nestor,as a king, possessesaidos, which he exercisesin his manner of speaking.We recall, also, that Nestoris more than just a carefulspeaker concerned with the contentof his talk; in Homeric epic he qualifies as the ideal speaker,whose words "flowforth sweeter than honey":

TOV KaL alTo yAWO0cTa77/AE'ALTOs yXVKL'WV pEEV aV877. (II. 1.249) Compare Th. 84 on king'sspeech:

TOV) {K pEL CXIE cTTO/aTOv AELi\LXa. In addition,Nestor as an ideally long-livedking, who survivesthree generations,is constantlyseen as instructingthe rest of the Achaeans, fromAgamemnon to Patroclus.We may thereforecharacterize the ideal Homeric king as both practitionerof the genre of prince-instructionand exemplarof its precepts.Finally, Nestor'sdramatic role in the Iliad is to reconcile Agamemnonand Achilles: in other words,to solve a neikos in the agora.30 It is this which underlies his actions from the mediating speech in Book 1 (254-84) to his interviewwith Patroclusin Book 11. It appears, then,that we can findin Homeric epic not only references to a king'sproper behavior and perquisites,but also dramatizationof what, in the Theogonydescription of ideal kings,is merelyabstract description. In the latter,kings are said to promptaidos, speak well and withpowerful effect,and solve neikea; in the former,they actually do so. In fact,the Iliad in particularcan be seen as a poem almostwholly about kingshipand its abuse.3' But, as I shall show now, the Odysseyas well has much to do with the themeof kingship,more than is generallyacknowledged by criticswho dwell on the adventuresequence to the neglectof thelarger "frame" narra- tiveof Books 1-8 and 13-24. We mustbear in mindOdysseus' kingly status in order to appreciate the full resonancesof the portionsof the poem in which he plays beggar. In the same way, in Book 8, it is crucial that the audience recall Odysseus' status.Only then does one perceive that Odys- seus is signalling his kingship to the audience within the poem, the

30 On Nestor as ideal king: M. Detienne (above, note 10) 73, note 133; on the Iliad theme of neikos in the agora: E. Havelock, "ThoughtfulHesiod," YCS 20 (1966) 70 and Nagy, BA 311-13. 31 The abuse of kingship in the Iliad is specificallyrelated to Agamemnon's lack of aid&s: cf. II. 1.22-24 (his failure to honor Chryses) and II. 1.149 (Achilles' charge of anaideia). On the wider connectionsof this Iliad theme (the inferiorking vs. superior warrior) see 0. M. Davidson, "Indo-European Dimensions of Herakles in Iliad 19.95- 133," Arethusa 13 (1980) 197-202. Irish traditionalso includes a number of tales in which the generatingcircumstance is a king's faultybehavior or failureto observe taboos (geasa) attached to kingship:see M. Draak, "Some Aspectsof Kingshipin Pagan Ireland," in The Sacral Kingship (Leiden 1959) 653.

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Phaeacians. He does so by means of prince-instructionto Euryalos. Pre- sumably, an audience familiarwith archaic Greek compositionsin the genre-such as the Kheironoshupothekai-would delightin Homer's cre- ation of dramaticironies throughout this scene. For Odysseusthe stranger yetspeaks like a king,to thosewho know. We have seen that Odysseus' words to Euryalos contain two themes prominentin prince-instructionselsewhere, which account for the presence of similarphraseology. But the dramaticcontext itself in Odyssey 8 marks Odysseus' discoursefor what it is. Stanford,noting the apparent digressionin the speech to Euryalos, compares it to a "shortsermon on the diversityof gifts"(adducing 1 Corinth. 12.4ff.),and his emphasis on the authoritativetone of the speech is correct:Odysseus is deliveringthe archaic Greek equivalent of quoting St. Paul, using the topic and tone of traditionalinstructional poetry.32 What is explicit in Th. 86ff.-that it is the king who speaks fault- lessly,winning aidos and solvinga neikos in the agora thereby-is acted out in the Odyssey. Odysseus makes a general statementto his opponent (176f.) whom the poet has already characterizedas being the best looking of the nobles (8.116). Althoughthe contrastingcharacter in Odys- seus' shortspeech, the anonymousman to whom the gods have given the gift of speech, appears to be simply a foil, we must see that it is none otherthan Odysseus himself.This is disguisedself-reference.33 Odysseus does not have to say that he (unlike Euryalos) can speak well and with aidos: he demonstratesthis in his reply. If Odysseus conceals the reference to the identityof the good speaker, we recall that at this point in Scheria he still masks his own identity.The two hidden factsare signifi- cantly intertwined.Odysseus the faultlessspeaker is Odysseus son of Laertes,king of Ithaca.

32 W. B. Stanford,The Odyssey of Homer (Edinburgh 19592) vol. 1, ad loc. In fact, Odysseus in the Iliad is a regular sermonizerabout kingshipin particular:of the four examples of gnomic verses which mention the role of basileus in the Iliad, Odysseus speaks three (II. 2.196; 2.204ff.;19.182f.; the fourthis by Calchas, II. 1.80); for the collec- tion, see E. Ahrens,Gnomen in griechischerDichtung (Halle 1937) 12ff.Only in the Odyssey are Odysseus' pronouncementsdisguised. 33 Cf. T. Berres, "Das zeitliche Verhaltnisvon Theogonie und Odyssee," Hermes 103 (1975) 134, who views Odysseus' self-referenceas evidence for an adapting Odyssey- poet's desire for self-portraiture.Since Odysseus, the king, refersto himself,the argu- mentsof West and Wilamowitz (that the Odyssey descriptiondoes not fita king, there- fore Hesiod is prior) are not valid: cf. West (above, note 2) 183; U. von Wilamowitz- Moellendorff,Die Ilias und Homer (Berlin 1916) 478f. Also insupportableis F. Solmsen's contentionthat the Odyssey passage leaves out all referenceto kings (a point used to argue Homeric priority):cf. "The 'Gift' of Speech in Homer and Hesiod," TAPA 85 (1954) 10. Ancient critics,conscious of social roles, noted Odysseus' kingly status: the scholiastto Th. 86 (above, note 27) selectsOdysseus as the prime example of a king (citing Od. 4.693) to elucidate the Hesiod passage on ideal kingship.

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In otherdetails as well the Odysseypassage offersa dramaticversion of the abstractking-ideal of the Theogony.(Again, thisis not to say that Homer "dramatizes" a pre-existingtext of Hesiod, but that both use common themes in differentmodes.) For the contestbetween Odysseus and Euryalos is actually described by Alcinoos as a neikosduring an agon (8.238f.); the poet calls it a neikosas well (8.158 neikese).By winning,Odysseus acts to solve the neikos.34Note that agon is a formulaic variant for agora in epic diction,and that the scene of the contest has in fact been described twice already in Book 8 as the agora (8.109, 156). Not only are all the termsof the Theogonydescription thus acted out (speaking;aidos; solvingneikos in the agora). The poet of the Odys- sey has prepared his audience to view the contestwith Euryalos as being related to kingship.What I have called the "looking on" motif,promi- nent in the two passages under discussion(Th. 85, Od. 8.173) is also used to introduceTelemachus' arrivalat the Ithacan agoraand Odysseus' own arrivalat the Phaeacians' agora:35 p b EXE sXo, IjLEV etI ayop7v, 7raXaA7 XaAXKEOV OVK O0So, &/A.a7C-0 YE KVVETS7To0cas capyot E2Tovro. B(ToITe(L7)V 8 apa rTC ye yaptv KarexEvEv 'A0'4Vzr. roV 8' apa 7aTvres AaoL CrepXPoMEVOV 0 EVVTO. .. . (Od. 2.10ff.)

Kap7raXiLAcDsb' 4v7,urA?1vrof3porcv a-yopaL rE KaL ____ aypojAEVWZv7TrOAAOL 6' apa Onni-avro bOvrEsC v0%v AaE'prao baL'ppova. r4 8'ap' 'AOivtj BfETEO&'71v KaTExEvE xapLv KEf4aAfl r- Kal w,UOLS.. .. (Od. 8.16ff.)

34 See R. Martin,Healing, Sacrifice and Battle:Amehania and RelatedConcepts in Early Greek Poetry (Innsbruck1983) 65-76 on the Greek notionof contestas solutionto difficulties. `5 The primary and most extended expressionof this "looking-on"motif comes at II. 12.312 (the people look on Glaukos and Sarpedon as gods). It is part of a larger theme, that of the "honor of gods": one is honored (Il. 9.155), repaid (Il. 9.302f.), welcomed (Il. 22.435) like "a god." Other instancesof the theme: at Il. 22.394 Hector is prayed to "like a god"; at Od. 7.11-a scene preparatoryto the passage under discussion-Alkinoos, clearly a king, is said to be heard "like a god" by the demos. Note that, in the two passages cited in the text,the pouring of kharis by Athena is closely associated with the audience's favorable reaction to the figuresof Telemachus and Odysseus. This accords preciselywith the association of kharis and aidos in H. Dem. 214-15, quoted above: the possessorof kharis transmitsaidos (and thereforereceives it also). Finally, let me cite Pindar 01. 1.30f.,Xapts 8' l7rep &7rav'rarevXeL -ra pe'AtXa Ova'rolr,in order to indicate the traditionalnature of the dictionalequivalences among termswhich describe reciprocalbehavior: aidos + kharis(H. Dem. 214f.) kharis+ ta meilikha(01. 1.30f.) to meilikhon+ aidos (Theognis85f.; 365) aidoi meilikhiei(Th. 92, Od. 8.172).

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In the firstpassage, the contextis concerned with the uncertaintyas to whetherthe young prince will be king of Ithaca and gain a permanent place on the throne of his father,which he now temporarilyoccupies (2.14). Interestingly,his speakingability is singledout formention as the characteristicthat most marks him for the position of king. Antinoos says:

Tq,X4uax',7) /.LAab7i ?E &La'TKVoLvLEoL aVro v4Iacyop7v /rLAevaLT Kal 0apoaA's! ayopEcVELv .L7) TE V) EP ay4fLaAp 'IOaKfl 13a-wLA7aKpovw 7W0L7E1LEV,o7OL yevej LVrarpc'ov(or&V. (Od. 1.384-87) So too in Scheria there is the possibilitythat the new arrival will knock the islandersout of contentionand become Nausicaa's husband. The poet plays with the resonancesof a folkloremotif, the royal marriage test.36Royal marriage seems far from connected to the topic of prince-instruction,but as it turnsout, in the Odyssey marriageand kingship have everythingto do with one another.Penelope and the rule of Ithaca are indissociable.I pointed out earlier that Odyssey 19 contains an extended fragmentof the Ruler's Truth ideology,in formresembling somethingdirectly taken fromprince-instruction poetry. Who gives this apparent digressionwithin the poem? None other than the disguised kingagain, Odysseus. Both in his talk with Penelope and in his replyto Euryalos,Odysseus allows his interlocutorto know that he is the king-provided the inter- locutorrecognizes the genre in which Odysseusis speaking.37In Book 8, he seals his coded signal with a clear sign consistingof a spectacular discus-throw.As if to contrastwith the final revelation of his status, Odysseus begins the throwwhile stillwrapped in his pharos (8.186); the throwliterally lowers the statusof the Phaeacians as it reveals Odysseus' own: they cower to the ground beneath the flungdiscus (190), which

36 Such resonances were certainlypossible for an ancient audience: witnessthe multi- form,attested in cult, in which Odysseus competes in a foot-raceto win Penelope and makes dedications to Athena for his victory:Pausanias 3.12.4, discussed in M. Detienne, "The Sea-Crow," in Myth, Religion and Society, ed. R. Gordon (Cambridge and Paris 1981) 24f. (= a translationof the chapter in Les Ruses de l'intelligence:la metis des grecs [Paris 1974] 202-43.) Furtheron such folktaleelements in the competitionfor Penelope: U. Hoelscher, "The Transformationfrom Folktale to Epic," in Homer: Tradition and Invention,ed. B. Fenik (Leiden 1978). 37 Odysseus' parallel role as poet, manipulatinggenres of discourse,once more makes it easy to lose sightof the artfulcomposer Homer, who puts the genre of instruction-poetry into Odysseus' mouth for purposes of the wider composition.The layering evident in Odysseus' speech at Od. 8.167ff.is thus anotherpiece of evidence (like Odysseus' lies and his adventure-telling)for the theory that the Odyssey's overridingconcern is with the practice of narrativeper se: see T. Todorov, "PrimitiveNarrative," in Poetics of Prose, transl.R. Howard (Ithaca, N.Y. 1977) 53-65 (a translationof Poetique de la prose [Paris 1971]).

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 23 Feb 2016 02:32:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hesiod, Odysseus,and the Instructionof Princes 47 flies"past all the se'mata." While the discus surpassesthese "distinguish- ing marks,"the resultof the throw is itselfa sema, one which Athena validates in personwith a proclamationcontaining a double meaning:

Ka&'K &Aaosorot, fe$vE, blaKpLvElE rTo Grpua a)ua4fowv eSreov, ns j.Lq.ulypvovfoYtIV 0q.dAc, aAAla 7rTOAvoTpTOV 7Tv be OapTEIA TOv7E y' aEBAOV ov' TLvs 1?aL)KDwV To6b y' 'erTaL ovb' V7rep7)f. (Od. 8.195-98) The key to the riddle is contained in an unusual catachresis,for only here (196) in Homeric poetry is homilosused to refer to inanimate objects rather than to a throng of persons, usually warriors.The sig- nificanceof the fact becomes more clear when we note that homiloscan be used to describe the spectatorsat a contest(as at II. 23.804, 813) and actually is used of the Phaeacian onlookersin this very contestat Od. 8.109. Athena's brief epinikioncommemorating Odysseus' throw can be decoded to mean that Odysseus stands out fromthe "crowd" just as his discus is "not mixed in with the homilos."The message of Athena is exactlythat which Odysseustransmits concerning himself (the "speaker") in his words to Euryalos:cf. 8.172, Era be%7pE7rEL aypo/LEVOL4TLV."Even a blind man" can distinguishOdysseus' sign, says Athena; the statementis ironically half-fulfilledsoon after the contest when Demodocus, the blind bard, tells the storyof Odysseus in the Trojan Horse but does not recognize the person who requested the tale, Odysseus (8.487ff.).This "sign" that has "surpassedall others,"then, is iconic for Odysseus' status as surpassingspeaker, athlete, and king. In Book 19, a sema again follows Odysseus' coded use of prince- instructionin the conversationwith Penelope. This time the sign that alertsthe audience to the presence of othercoded messagesis the brooch that Penelope recognizesfrom Odysseus' description.38Following Nagy's recent demonstrationthat poetry itself can be a sema in epic, I now suggestthat in both the Odyssey8 and 19 episodes, Odysseus is deliver- ing two semata:those designated as such (the discus-throw,the brooch) and the undesignated use of a genre of discourse as a code to his listener.39 In Scheria, only keen-mindedAlcinoos succeeds in interpretingthe sign, though the audience of the poem appreciates its meaning: it requiresa king to know one. In Book 19, suspensearises fromthe use of the hidden sema:will Penelope accomplishthe task of reading Odysseus'

38 On the ironiesof this entire scene see B. Fenik, Studies in the Odyssey (Wiesbaden 1974) 20-25; on Odysseus' clothes as a coded message, see G. Nagy, "Sema and Noesis: Some Illustrations,"Arethusa 16 (1983) 36f. 39 On poetryas sema: Nagy (above, note 38) 51. The general symmetrybetween the Phaeacian and Ithacan recognitionscenes is outlined by Fenik (above, note 38) 53-55.

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 23 Feb 2016 02:32:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 48 Richard P. Martin genre? But the queen, clever woman, king's proper wife (herselflike a good king: Od. 19.108f.), must no doubt have already understoodthe speakerfor what he is-not beggar but king,instructor of princes.40

40 A shorterversion of thispaper was delivered at the APA conventionin Philadelphia in December 1982. For useful suggestions,I wish to thank the anonymous TAPA referees and GregoryNagy.

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