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Home , Outis, Xenia (Greek)

Trojan War and Nostos: The Quest of Annabel Orchard

Odysseus, on a raft made of wine-jars, is blown by Borias, the North Wind. Boiotian, 4th C BCE. http://www.theoi.com/image/T28.5Boreas.jpg

Citations and quotations from the are from , Annabel Orchard Odyssey (Fitzgerald, tr., NY, 1998) Homer, Odyssey

• nostos ( pl. nostoi ) - a ‘Return’, or homecoming tale

Annabel Orchard Homer, Odyssey

Odyssey 4: • Nostoi of Menelaos, Ajax the Lesser

Odyssey 11, 24: • Nostos of ; • cf. No nostos for Achilleus, Ajax the Greater/ Telamonian Aias

Annabel Orchard Homer, Odyssey

3 main phases:

• Books 1-4: Problems in Ithaka; journey of • Books 5-12: wanderings of Odysseus • Books 13-24: Odysseus returns, has revenge, restores order

Annabel Orchard Xenia: guest-friendship

In 6: • Explicit: Glaukos and • Implicit: , Helen, Menelaos

In Odyssey 9: • Sacred institution • ‘Xenios’ ( 9.288-92)

Annabel Orchard Xenia: guest-friendship

• visitor supplicates • Host invites visitor in, feeds him • Host asks identity of visitor, visitor reveals identity • Visitor bathes, sleeps • Host offers gift to visitor • Departure, expectation of reciprocity

Annabel Orchard Odyssey : background

• 10 years since Trojan war

• Suitors in Ithaka abusing , pressuring Penelope

Annabel Orchard Odyssey : background

• Odysseus leaves Kalypso’s island

• washes up on , home of the Phaiakians: • , Alcinoos, Arete

Annabel Orchard Odysseus’ tale

Odysseus seeks: • xenia – ‘Guest friendship’ • Conveyance to Ithaka

• Odysseus’ audience: Phaiakians • Wanderings: 1st person narrative by ‘crafty Odysseus’

Annabel Orchard The Phaiakians

• Former neighbours of • Idealised palace culture • temples, harbours, houses, agriculture • Close to the gods • Good with ships • Value guest-friendship highly • Likes: 8.257-63

Annabel Orchard Odyssey 9

• Importance of xenia • Civilization vs. savagery? • Culture vs. nature?

Annabel Orchard Odyssey 9

• Odysseus reveals identity, begins tale: • Sack of the Kikonians, battle • Lotus-Eaters • Arrive on Goat Island, “we made our feast on meat galore, and wine” (9.173) Annabel Orchard

Odyssey 9 Sg. Cyclops/ pl. Cyclopes

Odysseus takes men to Island of Cyclopes: why?

• Curiousity (9.184ff) • Theft (9.242ff) • Guest presents (9.248-9, 288-92) Annabel Orchard The Cyclopes

• Odyssey 9.113-124 • No community, no assembly • No building, craft: caves • No agriculture, viticulture • No shipbuilding (9.135-140 ff) • Eat raw flesh, drink unmixed milk (9.312-22ff) • No respect for Zeus’ laws of xenia (9.294-300)

Annabel Orchard Odysseus in the cave

Odysseus’ weapons of culture:

• Wine: viticulture • Olive wood: agriculture • Fire: industry (9.406-28) • : the trick of his name

Annabel Orchard The Blinding of Polyphemos

Archaic Proto-Attic Black Figure Amphora, ca 650 BCE: http://www.theoi.com/ Gallery/L8.7.html

Annabel Orchard Polyphemos the shepherd

• Is he so uncivilized? • Can we apply post- colonial values to an ancient text?

Landscape with and Galatea: Roman wall painting , Imperial Villa at Boscotrecase, late 1st C BCE.: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ images/h2/h2_20.192.17.jpg

Annabel Orchard The ‘Nobody’ trick: a pun

Odysseus calls himself “ Outis (Nobody)”

Polyphemus: “ Outis (Nobody) is killing me ” Cyclopes: “ If metis (nobody) is killing you…”

• Metis = nobody • Metis = cunning intelligence Annabel Orchard Escape from the cave

Odysseus bound and clinging to the underside of the ram. Bronze relief cut-out ornament from Sanctuary of at Delphi, c. 540-530 BCE: http://www.utexas.edu/courses/larrymyth/images/odyssey/u-Cyclops- Ram-Bronze.jpg Annabel Orchard The name of Odysseus

• A proud, vain act? • An attempt to gain kleos? • Questions of identity

Annabel Orchard