In this article I offer a new interpretation of the puzzling phrase ἀµύµονος Αἰγίσθοιο at Od. 1.29 by focusing on the context of Od. 1.29-31. A closer analysis of the passage within the narrative logic of the proem strongly suggests that Zeus, after the departure of Poseidon, should think of Odysseus. While Zeus’ opening speech is to be understood as a covert signal to Athena, Homer’s audience is invited to recognize the speech’s direct relevance to Odysseus: the narrator deliberately utilizes the apparent incongruity of the phrase ‘blameless Aegisthus’ to alert the audience to its significance. Not only is the epithet ἀµύµων most frequently attributed to Odysseus in the Odyssean tradition, but also the formulaic combination between Zeus (ἴστω νῦν Ζεύς) and ‘blameless Odysseus’ (Ὀδυσῆος ἀµύµονος) helps the audience to reflect upon the epic hero’s fate and deeds.
This article argues that the episode in Il. 24.552–658 involving Achilles and Priam brings out the hero’s ability to control his emotions – even if he did lose them momentarily – by means of his calculation of what will come next. This interpretation fits the compositional structure of the epic, whose closure is highlighted by the hero’s dramatized emotions in his encounter with the Trojan king.
This paper offers a new interpretation of three descriptions of Ithaca’s landscape inOd. 13 (96-112; 237-249; 344-351) by linking them with other passages through careful verbal comparisons. The article begins with an analysis of the harbor of Phorkys, suggesting a parallel with the harbor of the Laestrygonians, which is similarly deceptive; Odysseus will have many more trials to face. The second part of the paper interprets Athena’s first description as reminiscent of Odysseus’s own at the beginning of hisApologoi, while the third part elaborates on the role of Athena’s second description, comparing it with the narrator’s version by drawing on Bühler’s term ofdeixisand Bakhtin’s notion of thechronotopos. The parallel between Odysseus’s recognition of Ithaca and Penelope’s recognition of Odysseus demonstrates the extent to which the description of Ithaca shapes the narrative dynamics of theOdyssey.
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