Trinity University Digital Commons @ Trinity Classical Studies Honors Theses Classical Studies Department 5-2017 The aC nnibal’s Cantations: Polyphemus in Pastoral and Epic Poetry Grace Anthony Trinity University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/class_honors Recommended Citation Anthony, Grace, "The aC nnibal’s Cantations: Polyphemus in Pastoral and Epic Poetry" (2017). Classical Studies Honors Theses. 6. http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/class_honors/6 This Thesis open access is brought to you for free and open access by the Classical Studies Department at Digital Commons @ Trinity. It has been accepted for inclusion in Classical Studies Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Trinity. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Cannibal’s Cantations: Polyphemus in Pastoral and Epic Poetry Grace Anthony A DEPARTMENT HONORS THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICAL STUDIES AT TRINITY UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR GRADUATION WITH DEPARTMENTAL HONORS April 17, 2016 Dr. Corinne Pache, Thesis Advisor Dr. Larry Kim, Department Chair Dr. Tim O’ Sullivan, VPAA Student Agreement I grant Trinity University (“Institution”), my academic department (“Department”), and the Texas Digital Library (“TDL”) the non-exclusive rights to copy, display, perform, distribute and publish the content I submit to this repository (hereafter called “work”) and to make the Work available in any format in perpetuity as part of a TDL, Institution or Department repository communication or distribution effort. I understand that once the Work is submitted, a bibliographic citation to the Work can remain visible in perpetuity, even if the Work is updated or removed. 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I agree to hold TDL, Institution, Department, and their agents harmless for any liability arising form any breach of the above warranties or any claim of intellectual property infringement arising from the exercise of these non-exclusive granted rights. I choose the following option for sharing my thesis (required): [ ] Open Access (full-text discoverable via search engines) [ ] Restricted to campus viewing only (allow access only on the Trinity University campus via digitalcommons.trinity.edu Table of Contents Introduction: Homer’s Cyclops 1 1. Theocritus’ Pastoral Polyphemus: Lover of Dreams 14 2. Vergil’s Polyphemus: A Common Enemy 39 3. Ovid’s Polyphemus: Horror Hyperbolized 53 a. The Love for Lady Milk Turns Sour 53 b. Achaemenides: The Raconteur of Violence 76 Conclusion 86 Bibliography 89 Anthony 1 Introduction: Homer’s Cyclops The story of Odysseus’ encounter with an inhospitable Cyclops comes from a far- reaching folktale tradition, still extant in more than two hundred versions from various regions of the world.1 There are two versions of the story, one in which the hero blinds the cannibalistic ogre and is almost recaptured because of a magic ring or an ax, and the other in which the hero injures the monster and says his name is ‘myself’, which the Homeric tradition changes to ‘no one’.2 The folktale was overall altered and molded as to fit naturally into Odysseus’ adventures on his nostos, and these changes would prove to make the Cyclops story one of the most well known in the Odyssey. There are numerous themes in this story that have been researched and analyzed (such as the guest-host relationship), but I will primarily focus on how intellectual insight (or a lack thereof) can adjust one’s one perception of beauty and brutality. As I focus on these themes of intelligence, aesthetics, and violence, I will also argue that they are truly emphasized by their opposites being highlighted in juxtaposition to them. In the course of the development of the tale in its Odyssean form, various choices of suppression or elaboration were made by a succession of singers; and that some of these choices were partly determined by some underlying interest in the problem of relating culture to nature, more concretely, in the validity of human customs and the distinction between wildness and innocence.3 Polyphemus as a character proves to be an exemplary juxtaposition that encapsulates both the ferocity and softness of nature and humanity as well. As I analyze his appearance in stories by three different authors after Homer, Polyphemus will prove to be dynamic in other ways as well. In the Odyssey he is characterized as a savage cannibal who casually eats six companions of Odysseus without any remorse or displayed conception that he has committed a crime. On the 1 Reece 1993, 126. 2 Reece 1993, 127. 3 Kirk 1970, 168. Anthony 2 other hand, he is also an isolated shepherd that does not seem to enact violence upon his sheep. Homer disperses “lighter” moments throughout the story that prevent Polyphmus’ cave from only being a house of horror: the fluffy flocks, Odysseus’ verbal trick, and especially the conversation Polyphemus has with his ram.4 As Odysseus hangs suspended below Polyphemus’ favorite pet, the monster chats with it like an old friend, and just for a moment the Cyclops seems lucid instead of maddened. The story of Polyphemus and Odysseus suggests scenarios that provoke the reader (and the characters themselves) to take a step back and view their situation from an alternative point of view. The motif of sight in this story, since Polyphemus eventually loses his sight, also evokes a theme of intellectual perception. Ironically the monster who is unable to “see” things from Odysseus’ enlightened perspective (basic rules of culture, custom, and even word play) receives the punishment of eternal blindness. In this thesis I will focus on the parts of the Cyclopeia that later authors (Theocritus, Vergil, Ovid) adapt, transform, and change for their own purposes. For the Homer section, I will focus more on scenes that occur prevalently in the texts I have chosen (Idylls 6 & 11, Aeneid 3, Metamorphoses 13 & 14), and less on scenes that do not. For example, Vergil omits many scenes with Odysseus and as well the “lighter” touches in his shortened account of the Cyclopeia.5 I will also briefly discuss the Cyclopes as a whole, and how they reside as citizens of a sort of “golden age.” For even though it seems that the Cyclopes as a race are generally peaceful, Polyphemus is a “black sheep” among his own kind,6 and displays negative repercussions of what happens to an antisocial and immature creature with immense physical might living in a paradisiacal land.7 Even though the cannibalistic nature of Polyphemus is repressed in the pastoral representations 4 Glenn 1972, 58. 5 Glenn 1972, 58. 6 Kirk 1975, 85-6. 7 Kirk 1975, 85-6. Anthony 3 (Idylls 6 & 11, Metamorphoses 13), his social and cultural ignorance is highlighted. In tandem with this, Theocritus features a conversation of aesthetics in its constitution of ugliness and beauty. I will discuss briefly moments in the Odyssey that subtly remark on this aesthetic, as it becomes a prominent theme in the Idylls and both books of the Metamorphoses. Odysseus’ identity is of course a major theme in Odyssey 9; considering the concept of identity as a whole will prove important for different characters in Aeneid 3 and Metamorphoses 14, as Odysseus recedes into the background and makes room for new heroes. My analysis of Odyssey 9, in short, is my point of departure. It is not my focal point, but immensely important to analyze in order to fully comprehend and appreciate succeeding epic and pastoral literature that adopts Polyphemus as one of their own. The Cyclopes live where they need no agriculture, laws, or trade. They do not work, but live in their own separate dwellings with their families, and do not bother to assemble or participate in any type of communal activities. This island of one-eyed hermits need not any communication or connection with the surrounding world, it is completely independent and self- sufficient. “The vice of the Cyclopes is that they need nothing.”8 This sort of lifestyle mirrors the golden age that Hesiod described in his Works and Days.9 The main reason why I bring up the association between the race of Cyclops and the golden age is because of some “negative” implications that arise for people who live without toil, such as cannibalism, “...Hesiod’s age of gold, the age of Cronos, the ‘vegetarian’ age before cooking and before sacrifice, which is described for us in so many texts, is also the period of cannibalism and human sacrifice in at least part of the tradition.”10 In the Odyssey, Polyphemus is both a vegetarian and a cannibal, 8 Norman 1983, 29. 9 Kirk 1970, 164. 10Vidal-Naquet 1996, 36. Anthony 4 thus exhibiting the eating characteristics of a golden age denizen. Polyphemus gathers wood to make a fire, but does not use it to cook, but presumably just to keep warm; he does not even cook the men, the only meat he has seemed to ever taste.11 So, Odysseus is essentially going back in time to a culture (or a place with a lack thereof) that he knows nothing about.