Steuermann of Dionysus The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Nagy, Gregory. 2007. "Steuermann of Dionysus." Classical Inquiries. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.eresource:Classical_Inquiries. 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Citing Articles from Classical Inquiries To cite an article from Classical Inquiries, use the author’s name, the date, the title of the article, and the following persistent identifer: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.eresource:Classical_Inquiries. For example: Nagy, G. 2019.01.31. “Homo Ludens at Play with the Songs of Sappho: Experiments in Comparative Reception Teory, Part Four.” Classical Inquiries. http://nrs.harvard.edu/ urn-3:hul.eresource:Classical_Inquiries. Classical Inquiries Studies on the Ancient World from CHS Home About People Home » By Gregory Nagy » Steuermann of Dionysus Steuermann of Dionysus Share This April 26, 2017 By Gregory Nagy listed under By Gregory Nagy 3 Comments Edit This 2017.04.26 | By Gregory Nagy My colleague and friend Albert Henrichs died on Easter Sunday, 16 April 2017. He was at home, attended by his dear wife Sarah Nolan. Thanks to Sarah, my wife Holly (Olga Davidson) and I were fortunate enough to visit him just the day before. To ease my sadness, I share here a short essay that I had written for a collection of essays written by many other colleagues and expertly edited by another dear colleague and friend of Albert’s, Kathleen Coleman. Our plan had been to surprise Albert with a formal presentation of this collection on Wednesday, 26 April. When it became apparent, however, that Albert could not hold on to life for that long, Kathy worked out an alternative plan. Together with our colleagues Mark Schiefsky and Ivy Livingston, she presented Albert with a spiral­bound proof copy on Thursday, 13 April 2017. With Kathy’s kind permission, I present here an online version of what I contributed to that collection. [Essay continues here…] Classical Inquiries (CI) is an online, rapid-publication project of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies, devoted to sharing some of the latest thinking on the ancient world with researchers and the general public. Editor Dionysus and the steersman. Image courtesy of Glynnis Fawkes. Keith Stone [email protected] Steuermann! Lass die Wacht! Steuermann! Her zu uns! Ho! He! Je! Ha! Search for: Hisst die Segel auf! Anker fest! Search Steuermann, her! Fürchten weder Wind noch bösen Strand, Subscribe Now! wollen heute mal recht lustig sein! Jeder hat sein Mädel auf dem Land, herrlichen Tabak und guten Branntwein. Richard Wagner, Der Fliegende Holländer, dritter Aufzug, erste Szene Subscribe to this site to receive email updates about the latest research—just The song sung by the chorus of Norwegian sailors in Wagner’s Flying Dutchman will always remind me of one or two notices per week. you, dear Albert.[*] With you in mind, I attempt a translation, into americanized English, of the first few lines of the song, taking a few liberties with Wagner’s irreplaceable German wording: EU/EEA Privacy Disclosures Hey, steersman! Take some time out, leave behind your vigil for a while. Email Address Hey, steersman! Over here! Come join us! Subscribe Yo! Hey! Yay! Ha! Furl that sail! Drop anchor! Hey, steersman! Over here! Come join us! Fearing neither gale nor dangerous reef, Now Online we’ll be merry today and do it right! Everyone will have his own girl on shore, and great tobacco, with fine mulled wine. I translated Steuermann here as “steersman,” not as “helmsman,” because the second English word makes me think of a steering wheel—and that would not fit the mental connection I want to make now with steersmen of the ancient Greek world, who steered their ships so deftly with one single steering oar. I have one particular Steuermann in mind, and that is the κυβερνήτης in the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus. He is the true steersman of the god Dionysus, and he is the truest of models for you, dear friend. You once told me you liked my translation of the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus, as I previewed it in my 2013 book The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours (hereafter H24H).[1] So, what you said then encourages me now to quote for you here my rendering of the verses so relevant to you. I’m thinking of the verses at the end, where the god Dionysus gives the gift of salvation to the κυβερνήτης “steersman”: . καί μιν ἔθηκε πανόλβιον εἶπέ τε μῦθον· Θάρσει δῖ’ ἑκάτωρ τῷ ἐμῷ κεχαρισμένε θυμῷ· εἰμὶ δ’ ἐγὼ Διόνυσος ἐρίβρομος ὃν τέκε μήτηρ Καδμηῒς Σεμέλη Διὸς ἐν φιλότητι μιγεῖσα. Χαῖρε τέκος Σεμέλης εὐώπιδος· οὐδέ πῃ ἔστι σεῖό γε ληθόμενον γλυκερὴν κοσμῆσαι ἀοιδήν. Homeric Hymn (7) to Dionysus 54–59 . He [= Dionysus] caused it to happen that he [= the steersman] became the most blessed of all men, and he [= Dionysus] spoke for the record this set of words: “Have courage, you radiant man, reached by a force that works from far away. You have achieved beauty and pleasure for my heart. I am Dionysus, the one with the great thundering sound. The mother who bore me was Semele, daughter of Cadmus, and Zeus made love to her.” Hail and take pleasure, child of Semele with the beautiful looks. There is no way I could have my mind disconnect from you as I put together the beautiful cosmic order of my song. When I first presented this translation (H24H 24§13), I said about the verses or “lines” in the original Greek text: Following the narration up through line 58, we come to a point where the narrator appears to break off: he now turns to the god Dionysus and addresses him directly, asking the god Top Posts & Pages to stay mentally connected with the performance. In addressing the god, the performer is calling out to him with the salutation khaire (again, line 58), which is the imperative of the verb khairein, meaning ‘to take pleasure’. So, I translate the salutation khaire as ‘hail and take pleasure!’ (again, line 58), adding the word ‘hail!’ because the imperative khaire The Last Words of Socrates at (plural khairete) is used in contexts of marking the beginning or ending of a personal encounter. In the Homeric Hymns, this salutation khaire (plural khairete) marks a the Place Where He Died transition from focusing on a god or on an aspect of a god to focusing on the rest of the Musings about a scene pictured song. This verb khairein, ‘to take pleasure’, is related to the noun kharis, which is by the Achilles Painter analogous to the Latin noun gratia in combining the ideas of pleasure (‘gratification’) and beauty (‘gracefulness’) by way of reciprocity (‘graciousness’). [I]n the case of khaire at Homo ludens at play with the line 58 of this Homeric Hymn to Dionysus, we can interpret this salutation even more songs of Sappho: Experiments in precisely as ‘hail and take pleasure in the beauty’. comparative reception theory, By way of his salutation, the speaker asks to be connected to the god. That way, the god will be actively Part Five connected to the speaker. Such a salutation, as I went on to say (H24H 24§14), implies salvation: At lines 55–57 of the Hymn, we can read how the steersman who is saved at sea is addressed by the god who granted him his salvation. But then, as we have already seen at Most Common Tags line 58, the narrator who performs the narration turns right around and addresses this saving god, Dionysus, asking him to stay mentally connected with the performance. It is as if the saving words of the saving god can now extend their saving grace or kharis to the performer as well, who prays for the god’s grace or kharis by calling out: ‘Hail and take Achilles Aphrodite apobatēs Ariadne pleasure in the beauty’. And such pleasure is already being experienced by Dionysus in the Aristotle Artemis Athena words that he addresses at lines 55–57 to the steersman whom he has just saved: as the Athens god says to the steersman at line 55, ‘You have achieved beauty and pleasure Catullus Chalcis chariot fighting [kharizesthai] for my heart [thūmos]’.