UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Homer and rhetoric in Byzantium: Eustathios of Thessalonike on the composition of the Iliad van den Berg, B. Publication date 2016 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): van den Berg, B. (2016). Homer and rhetoric in Byzantium: Eustathios of Thessalonike on the composition of the Iliad. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. 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UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:30 Sep 2021 261 Appendix I: The Proem of the Parekbolai on the Iliad (in Il. 1.1-5.3 = 1.1.1-1.8.6)1 Perhaps it would be good if someone kept clear of Homer’s Sirens altogether, by blocking his ears with wax or by steering another course, in order to escape the spell.2 But suppose he did not keep away, but made his way through that song, he would not, I think, easily disregard it, even though many chains bound him,3 nor would he, when he has disregarded it, be graceful.4 For if someone were to count certain sounds worthy of attention too, just as certain sights, such as the seven well-known ones found in literature, Homeric poetry would be foremost amongst them;5 thereof, I think, no one of the wise men of old did not taste, and especially of all who drew from pagan wisdom.6 For from Ocean flow all rivers, all springs, all wells, according to the old saying.7 And from Homer, if not the whole, at least much of the stream of learning flowed to the wise men. At any rate, not one of those who investigated the things above, nor of those who investigated nature, or 1 A partial translation of the proem can be found in C.J. Herington. 1969. Homer: A Byzantine Perspective. Arion 8(3): 432-4. 2 The reference is to the Sirens episode in Odyssey 12 (vv. 158-200). On the image of Homeric poetry as the song of Sirens, see Section 1.1.1 and Van den Berg, forthcoming (2016). 3 Cf. Od. 1.204: οὐδ’ εἴ πέρ τε σιδήρεα δέσματ’ ἔχῃσι, ‘not though bonds of iron hold him’. 4 For the interpretation of this gracefulness as rhetorical gracefulness, i.e. the ability to use Homer in an elegant and eloquent way in one’s own writings, see Section 1.1.1. 5 On the image of the seven World Wonders, see Section 1.1.1. Greek and Latin texts discussing the World Wonders are collected in Brodersen 1992. 6 I have translated ἡ ἔξω σοφία as ‘pagan wisdom’. Expressions denoting ‘outside’ are commonly used by patristic and Byzantine authors to refer to literature, wisdom, people, etc. ‘outside’ Christianity and the Christian community and, hence, for ‘Hellenic’, pagan literature, authors, etc. See e.g. 1 Ep. Cor. 5.12-3, where Paul distinguishes between those outside the Christian congregation (τοὺς ἔξω) and those within (τοὺς ἔσω ὑμεῖς). In Ep. Col. 4.5, 1 Ep. Thess. 4.12, and Ev. Marc. 4.11 the expression is used in the same sense. See Malingrey 1961: 212-3 for the use of similar expressions by Gregory of Nazianzos, Basil the Great, and Gregory of Nyssa. For examples from twelfth-century authors, see Basilikopoulou-Ioannidou 1971-1972: 55. 7 Il. 21.195-7: […] Ὠκεανοῖο, / ἐξ οὗ περ πάντες ποταμοὶ καὶ πᾶσα θάλασσα / καὶ πᾶσαι κρῆναι καὶ φρείατα μακρὰ νάουσιν· ‘Ocean, from whom all rivers flow and the entire sea, and all the springs and deep wells.’ On the image of Homer as Ocean, see Section 1.1.2 and Van den Berg, forthcoming (2016). 262 Appendix I: The Proem of the Parekbolai on the Iliad ethics, or pagan literature in general,8 whatever kind one would mention, passed by the Homeric tent9 without being entertained as a guest,10 but they all lodged with him, some to stay with him until the very end and live off his banquets, others to fulfil a certain need and to gain something useful from him for their own work.11 Among them also was the Pythia, who polished many of her oracles according to the Homeric mode.12 Philosophers are concerned with Homer, even though Hipparchus envies him, as will be examined a little later.13 Rhetoricians are concerned with him; grammarians reach their goal in no other way but through him. Of all the poets after him, there is no one who artfully composes something without his methods, imitating, adapting, doing everything in their power to Homerise. Geographers, too, treat him with great zeal and admiration. Even he who is concerned with the occupation of the sons of Asclepius and with wounds borrows good things from there [sc. Homeric poetry]. The thing attracts even kings, as is attested by Alexander the Great, who carried the Homeric book along with him as a treasure or as provisions even in battles and who, when it was time to sleep, rested his head on it, so that, perhaps, even while asleep he would not be separated from him, but seeing him in his imagination he would have auspicious dreams.14 Homer’s poetry, and the Iliad in particular, truly is a royal 8 For ἐξωτερικός as ‘pagan’, cf. n. 6 above. Eustathios uses the term ἐξωτερικός in the same sense in e.g. in Can. Jo. Dam. acrost. 57 and Emend. vit. mon. 143.1. 9 Van der Valk ad loc. (followed by Cesaretti 1991: 212) signals an ambiguity in the term σκηνή: it can refer to the tent where Homer receives his guests and/or to the poetic stage on which the Trojan War evolves. Cesaretti, moreover, sees a possible parallel in Tzetzes’ ποιητικὴ σκηνή referring to the ‘poetical trick’ or ‘poetical characteristic’ (ποιητικὸν χαρακτήρισμα) of opening works of poetry with a Muse-invocation (Ex. 75.11-2). 10 ἀξεναγώγητος (‘without being entertained as a guest’) is an Eustathian hapax. 11 On the image of Homer as a host and his poetry as a lodging, see Section 1.1.2. 12 Delphic oracles were commonly expressed in hexameters. See Parke & Wormell 1956, vol. 1: 33- 4. 13 In in Il. 35.37-45 = 1.58.14-22 (on Il. 1.39), Eustathios, following Strabo (1.2.3), explains that in antiquity Homeric poetry was considered to be a first form of philosophy and a source of every branch of learning, an idea rejected by the geographer Hipparchus. 14 On Alexander as a fervent admirer of Homer, see e.g. Plu. Alex. 8.2. Michael Choniates, too, uses the example of Alexander when advocating the relevance of the study of Homer (see Ep. 111.260- 5). Eustathios refers to Alexander’s (or, in fact, Aristotle’s) edition of the Iliad, ‘The Iliad of the Casket’, named after the richly wrought casket in which Alexander kept the book, in in Il. 6.42 = Homer and Rhetoric in Byzantium 263 thing. A certain proverb speaks of ‘an Iliad of evils’,15 but this poem is an Iliad of every good. It is constructed in a kind of dramatic way, because the narrative on the one hand is uniform, but on the other hand has many characters;16 and it is full of innumerable things that one could call good: philosophy, rhetoric, the fine art of military strategy, teaching on moral virtues, and, in short, every kind of art and branch of knowledge.17 One can also learn praiseworthy deceptions from there and compositions of crafty falsehoods and acerbic elements of ridicule and methods for encomia.18 It is impossible to say how much prudence it brings to anyone who wants to pay heed to it. And as regards all the solemn things that are observed in historiography, no one would deprive Homer’s art of such qualities: wide experience,19 the capability of pleasing ears, of educating souls, of spurring toward virtue, and the other qualities for which the historian is highly esteemed. 1.11.4-5 (on Il. 1). Cf. Str. 13.1.27 and Plu. Alex. 8.2 (for further references, see J.R. Hamilton. 1969. Plutarch: Alexander. A Commentary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 20-1). 15 The expression ‘an Iliad of evils’ is used by Demosthenes (19.148) and later became proverbial (see e.g. Zen. 4.43, Diogenian. 2.93 ed. Von Leutsch and 5.26 eds. Von Leutsch & Schneidewin). Further occurrences are listed in Karathanasis 1936: 35. 16 Cf. Pl. R. 393d-394d: epic poetry is of a mixed type of narrative, sharing with drama that it is mimetic in some parts, i.e. with various speaking characters; on the other hand, it shares with dithyrambs that it is plain and ‘single-voiced’ in other parts, when the narrator is speaking. Similar remarks occur throughout the Parekbolai.