Thinking of Nature, the Gods, and Ancient Greek Belief

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ancient greek, athena, gods, Homer, nature, Odysseus, Odyssey, philosophy

Ancient Greek! I feel as if it has been an age since I last took a look at a Greek sentence. I blame Latin, it has taken quite a bit of my time lately, especially since I have to use it in many of my classes. At any rate, here it is:

δείδω, μὴ θήρεσσιν ἕλωρ καὶ κύρμα γένωμαι.
I fear lest I find myself made even as spoils to beasts.
Temo por encontrarme hecho presa para bestias.

Odysseus is worried, of course. The hero has just washed up on the coast of Phaeacia, a cold and dreary place. Homer speaks of his body being swollen when it was carried there by the waves, a sign that the had been swimming towards the coast for quite some time. Did he have some kind of flotation device? Doubtful, he was conscious after all, although it would be fun to think he may have kicked while holding on to a log. However time passed for quite a while and as his body took on more salt, it would have sought to get rid of the excess accumulating within by letting water (and its salty content) escape away from the body. After a while, Odysseus became extremely dehydrated, causing all sort of problems, including, well, bloating. As Odysseus begun to die, his body would have attempted to bring more water in so as to compensate for the loss of fluids. The problem? It’s salty fluids. At some point, the hero would have passed out and as his body decomposed he would have looked more like Michelin Man than, well, a man.

As Homer describes it, Odysseus was at the very edge of unconscioiusness. ἁλὶ γὰρ δέδμητο φίλον κῆρ (for the sea -angry Poseidon- had overpowered his friendly heart), he was more corpse than body. One thing is clear, he should not have survived. Obviously, the gods played a role here, allowing the adventurer and hero of Troy survive. It is even implied that he was, in fact dead, for his spirit (θυμός) was returned to him. These events speak to me of some company. As if Odysseus had been found on the beach and was aided. Of course, Homer would never use another human being as the savior of the hero, rather, it was assumed that a god had helped. Athena, anti-Poseidon in the Odyssey, helped the hero swim. A river god, as he neared the coast, guided him towards the shore. I am always in awe of how pervading the existence of the gods was in Ancient Greece. Quite literally, everything people saw was a god or goddess. If people slept, Hypnos was nearby, if people died, it was Thanatos. Rivers were gods, their names their indivual calling cards. Genius was Athena, the Sea was Poseidon, Heaven Ouranos, Thunder and Lightening Zeus, Hell was Hades, Craftsmanship Hephaestus, sudden death Artemis, beauty Aphrodite, there was no end to the gods and their influence in human affairs.

I love calling ‘Θ’ the ‘god letter,’ because it looks like an eye and you see it whenever someone is being seen (usually by the gods – which was everything), spoke to the gods, sacrificed for the gods… In this light, the Ancient Greeks thought everything was a god or a goddess, all was provided by them, and nothing escaped their notice. So, whoever may have aided Odysseus was there when he spoke the words I highlight here. He spoke them, out loud, I have no doubt of that. The passive subjunctive meaning of γένωμαι expresses possibility, why would you express that to yourself? To whom are you indicating the chance of death? To the gods, of course. Odysseus is at the end of physical capability, his fear is expressed to informed a third person, physical or spiritual. In effect, it is a prayer, a call on a god or goddess (such as Athena or the nearby river) to protect him. It is likely that Father River was moved by Odysseus’s prayer and saved him by pouring out his waters unto the sea, reducing salinity levels as the hero approached the coast. It is a possibility that thirsty Odysseus was allowed to drink from the mouth of the river as his body craved potable water to reduce salt levels and cut off the loss of fluids by an otherwise dangerous and unpredictable river god. It is plausible that once the river god had given Odysseus so much, the hero found he needed another favor (χαρις) and begged, as a suppliant, for a solution to his problem with the animals sure to hang around such a source of water.

It never stops fascinating me. The gods were real, as real as the very forces they saw in nature, to the Greeks; they had saved Odysseus many times, and they would save him again, for he was worthy of their friendship and their blessing. He prayed, the Man of Many Turns, to a river. And he fully expected and answer. Odysseus received it, he was made safe (all passive verbs in Greek have ‘Θ’) and survived under two bushes to live and fight another day. The gods were everything, the existed in all things, there was no way to get away from them, no reason that they did not hear every single dropping word from the mouth of humans. The gods were everything, and Odysseus, in Homer, prayed to them.

Χαιρετε!

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Thinking of Homer, Twisted Words, and Twisted Minds

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Ancient Greece, ancient greek, Aristotle, Erechtheus, heroes, Homer, Husband, Iliad, Ion, John Milton, meaning, Men, Odysseus, Odyssey, religion, Theseus, Toni Morrison, twisted, Twisting

ἅνδρα μοι ἕννεπε, μοῡσα, πολύτροπον…
Of the man/husband/hero tell me, ō muse, the one of many turns…
Dime, musa, del hombre/esposo/héroe de muchas vueltas…

There is an inherent beauty in the first words of every Ancient Greek play. The reason is as simple now as it was innovative then: the first word of the play or poem dictated the theme for the work, especially amongst near-eastern writers born in Ionian lands beyond Attica, such as Homer. This archaic style would have been ancient even to the ancients, easily predating the classic writers of the 4th and 3rd centuries by at least 300 years. It is inevitable to compare Homer and our very own Victorian-era poets and their obsession for Latin, conservative views on life, and understanding of history. Homer, in much the same way, was obsessed with Linear B (which he spoke by tradition, not because he understood it), thought the previous culture quite conservative, and attempted to understand the history he was trying to portray.

A bit of a digression is in order. It is quite obvious that while making the attempt Homer fails to really portray the culture of the 12th century. At best, the ancient poet is speaking of the culture of the 11th to 10th centuries. We should think of the Iliad as a frame. Homer knew the borders were set, with some names, a battle, and perhaps the knowledge of a couple of events, but no more. What is within the frame can be defined as a painting, completely made up by the author based on his understanding of history centuries after the war in Troy, his assumptions, and his imagination. Those facts did not stop even the great Aristotle from using the Odyssey to make assumptions about the Athenian constitution. The philosopher had no qualms about ascribing post-12th century political advances, such as the creation of the village, to pre-12th century individuals such as kings Ion, Theseus, and Erechtheus. We suffered from the same ailment, for early historians such as Bede ascribed historical facts to mythological characters such as king Arthur. The historian knew some battles against the Saxons had taken place in 4th and 5th century England, and that someone amongst the Anglos had taken the lead to defeat them. More than likely, this man was multiple men, although Bede combined the battles he thought took place and ascribed the success of the Anglo push against the Saxons to King Arthur (Ambrosius) as early as the 8th century. Mark Twain said that history does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Writers suffer from the same problem. They do not repeat each other, but they rhyme nicely.

Let us return to the issue at hand, then. The Odyssey begins with five words out of which the first is one of the most diverse and twisted concepts in all of Homeric Greek. A twist, as Homer understood it, was a witty turn of fate made by humans against the will of the gods. A twisted man was one able to wiggle his way out of any problem or thorny situation. Not every man could be twisty; only the most cunning and self-driven of men received such a title. Further, men themselves were divided into many categories, from φώς (not to be confused with φῶς – light) to ἅνήρ; it is the latter, out of all his choices, which Homer uses to open his rhapsody. The word can be translated as man/husband/hero, and it dictates, as stated, how the Odyssey will be themed. After all, who is Odysseus and what are his chiefly concerns if not the ones represented by this very word? The Odyssey is reminiscent of a time in which the gods, demigods, and heroes are extinct. It is a man, son of humans, that becomes the most important figure in the epic poem. This man, who is a hero by virtue of his many twists is also a husband to a traditional and loyal wife. Ἅνδρα, thus, describes the Odyssey perfectly. Further, Homer summons the muses to his aid. The idea there is that man no longer knows his history, it can only be revealed to him. Compare his calling to the summoning of the muses by John Milton in “Paradise Lost,” the epic poem about Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (if you haven’t read it, you are missing out). Both Homer and Milton admit, by their summoning of the muses, that the period they are about to describe cannot be ascertained by research, only by revelation. It is ironic that one of the muses, Clio, is in charge of history. Although, irony is made practicality when we consider Clio represents oral history. Also, it is interesting that Homer uses an Imperative form of the verb ‘to tell’ in order to summon the muses. This indicates active research by the writer, since inspiration can only come when one has done the legwork to learn what could have taken place. In essence, research is the rite that summons the inspiration of the muses.

I described the word ἀνήρ as twisted, and gave you an idea of what the adjective meant in Homer’s time. The reason for it was that I consider the statement by Homer highlighted in this post, like his first word, twisted beyond twisting; in the good sense, of course. Πολύτροπον, thus, was an appellative of Odysseus because he was ‘twisty;’ able to wiggle out of any situation by sheer smarts. In many ways, there are many twisty writers today, able to wiggle out of grammatical problems and story dead-ends with amazing understanding of language and plot twists that engage the reader and baffle even the most skeptic of critics. This is why I love Homer, he is as twisty as Odysseus; his plot twists are unexpected and diverse. There is never a dull moment in the Odyssey, just as Odysseus’ life is never dull.
Thus, here we are. We have untwisted Homer’s first phrase in the Odyssey. Perhaps it is the role given to the reader to untangle the tangled words of the artist. If such is true, then we are failing at doing our jobs. However, the problem is only exacerbated by the fact that few writers twist their words anymore. We think of twisting as a bad thing, not to mention the twisted as bad people. Toni Morrison comes to mind, for she is an extremely twisted writer. It takes time to understand her work, which is also dreary and dark, filled with African-American issues, Womanism, and family problems, making her a very complex writer. I think we can say, with some certainty, that twisting and untwisting are essential to create meaning. We cannot long survive without the complexity needed to write good, twisted works. Writing well, then, is not only about proper grammar and syntax, it is about proper twisting as well.

Thus, reader, be twisted in writing and speaking. Give us, those who still care of the untangling, a chance to enjoy the process of making meaning.

Valete.

Thinking on Penelope, Women, and Archaic Greece.

Tags

Ancient Greece, Ithaca, marriage, Odysseus, Odyssey, Penelope

Penelope, cousin of Clytemnestra and Helen by virtue of her father, Icarious of Sparta. She was queen in Ithaca after Odysseus had won the right to marry her by virtue of a foot race. Understanding of the age tells us that she was no more than 14 or 15 years old when she was married which, considering she had only one son by Odysseus (Telemachus), makes her no more than 36 when the Odyssey is taking place.

Penelope is usually placed in high regard as, having been placed in virtually the same position as Clytemnestra, she remains faithful to her husband. She was described as extremely beautiful, smart, capable of great political skill, and the only individual in the Odyssey to match Odysseus in cunning.

Check out this brief article from the University of Waterloo and learn more about the “ever-faithful” Penelope of Ithaca.