Monthly Archives: November 2011
The Attributes of Jason, ἥρως ἀμήχανος
| November 16, 2011 | Posted by ahowie under Student Chronicle |
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In the Homeric poems, epithets provide an index to the personality of a hero. When the poet invokes a particular epithet, a particular attribute or set of attributes is summoned to the performance. According to Theodore Klein, critics of Apollonius single out the pallid and ineffectual personality of Jason as the primary reason for the “aesthetic failure” of the Argonautica. He obtains the object of his quest, the golden fleece, in the end, but only via the help of a witch. He does finally return home to Greece, but only after having dishonorably slain Apsyrtus. Jason’s weakness is epitomized by the epithet amechanos, which may be translated “embarrass” or “incertitude.” The table below presents a few epithets of Homeric heroes:
Achilles
- “Son of Peleus”
- “Swift-footed”
- “Breaking through men”
- “Lion-hearted”
- “Like to the gods”
Aeneas
- “Son of Anchises”
- “Counselor of the Trojans”
- “Lord of the Trojans”
- “Father”
- “Loyal/Pious”
Agamemnon
- “Son of Atreus”
- “Wide-ruling”
- “The Lord Marshal”
- “Powerful”
- “Shepherd of the People”
- “Brilliant”
The unprepossessing figure of Jason is further sunk in relief against the more dominating personalities of the heroes in his crew. The timorous captain often finds himself deferring to the decisions of Heracles and other great heroes of classical lore. Whither Jason?
Some have argued that the kind of heroism which the Argonautica highlights is collective heroism; that a more democratic conception lends to a group-centered rather than individual notion of arete, or virtue. During last Thursday’s lecture for the Sunoikisis Greek Literature course, Norman Sandridge led a lively discussion on the topic of Jason’s leadership. Many in our class were attracted to the implications of the “collective heroism” thesis. Does Jason sacrifice his own honor for the good of the group? Jason’s speech upon finally grasping the fleece reveals his solidarity with the Argonauts as a group:
“”No longer now, my friends, forbear to return to your fatherland. For now the task for which we dared this grievous voyage, toiling with bitter sorrow of heart, has been lightly fulfilled by the maiden’s counsels. Her–for such is her will–I will bring home to be my wedded wife; do ye preserve her, the glorious saviour of all Achaea and of yourselves. For of a surety, I ween, will Aeetes come with his host to bar our passage from the river into the sea. But do some of you toil at the oars in turn, sitting man by man; and half of you raise your shields of oxhide, a ready defence against the darts of the enemy, and guard our return. And now in our hands we hold the fate of our children and dear country and of our aged parents; and on our venture all Hellas depends, to reap either the shame of failure or great renown.”
Notice the preponderance of plural first-person pronouns: “we dared” and “our venture.” The “shame of failure” or “great renown” belongs to the group, not to any particular individual in the group. No other epic from antiquity presents traditional heroes quite like the Argonautica does. We assume Jason to be the protagonist of the Argonautica perhaps because of our familiarity with the modern formulation of the myth’s title, “Jason and the Argonauts,” or because other versions of the tail, such as Euripides’ Medea, focus upon his romance rather than heroic exploits. Reading the epic on its own terms does not, however, necessitate this interpretation. The Argonauts, as a unit, are the protagonist of the Argonautica. This reading demands that Jason is less of a hero in the traditional sense and more of a device or conduit for the construction of the group’s identity. Every group has a leader, and when so many overweening personalities are pitted in competition with one another, as they are in Argonautica, a leader need not exemplify many traits other than simple commitment to the group’s unity.
The Epic Similes of Apollonius
| November 16, 2011 | Posted by ahowie under Student Chronicle |
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Having drunk deep from the wells of epigrammatic Hellenistic poetry from the tradition of Callimachus, our Hellenistic Literature class was glad to satisfy our thirst for a much more familiar spring, heroic epic. Apollonius’ Argonautica, which tells the story of Jason’s quest to retrieve the golden fleece, happens to be the only surviving epic from this period. Sylistically, the poem has much in common with its Homeric predecessors. Although heavily indebted to the conventions of past masters, Apollonius always leaves room for his own unique perspective. One of the most recognizable conventions of Homeric epic is the use of similes. Ranging from just a few lines to as many as twenty, these digressions enhance descriptions of characters or situations, often by making reference to some divinity, natural phenomenon, or pastoral scene.
In Argonautica, Apollonius too uses similes extensively. Quite unlike Homer, Apollonius frequently uses scenes of everyday life as comparands for scenes very typical of the epic genre. Observe, for example, the following quotation from book 1, lines 261-277 of Argonautica (Seaton translation):
“And now many thralls, men and women, were gathered together, and his mother,
smitten with grief for Jason. And a bitter pang seized every woman’s heart; and
with them groaned the father in baleful old age, lying on his bed, closely
wrapped round. But the hero straightway soothed their pain, encouraging them,
and bade the thralls take up his weapons for war; and they in silence with
downcast looks took them up. And even as the mother had thrown her arms about
her son, so she clung, weeping without stint, as a maiden all alone weeps,
falling fondly on the neck of her hoary nurse, a maid who has now no others to
care for her, but she drags on a weary life under a stepmother, who maltreats
her continually with ever fresh insults, and as she weeps, her heart within her
is bound fast with misery, nor can she sob forth all the groans that struggle
for utterance; so without stint wept Alcimede straining her son in her arms, and
in her yearning grief spake as follows…”
We are presented with the familiar scene of a mother mourning her son who is about to go on a dangerous adventure. She is compared to “a maiden all alone”–with her husband Aeson locked in jail and her only son about to embark on the ancient idiomatic equivalent of “a wild goose chase”, with the added element of mortal danger, odds are in favor of her being bereaved of both husband and son in the very near future. The ”stepmother, who maltreats her continually with ever fresh insults” is a metaphor for Fate; first her husband’s loss of his birthright, now her son’s banishment from the land, and thus the elimination of the only force (as per the oracle) that could have toppled Pelias’ reign and restored the kingdom to its rightful king.
In addition to presenting a very un-Homeric “slice of life,” this passage reveals an emotional depth that is never touched upon in the Archaic epics. As the maiden weeps, “her heart within her is bound fast with misery, nor can she sob forth all the groans that struggle for utterance.” Experience of inner emotional states, feelings so strong that the tongue is paralyzed and cannot give shape to them, is unknown in Homer. This is but one of the many ways in which Argonautica probes more deeply into the feelings of its characters than prior epic poems.
How Independent are the Women in Theocritus’ Idyll 15?
| November 16, 2011 | Posted by ahowie under Student Chronicle |
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Idyll 15 is classified as one of the “urban mimes,” signifying important aspects of both its style and setting, and distinguishing it from the other poems in Theocritus’ collection of Idylls. Indeed, the term “idyll” itself is here a misnomer–nothing stands in starker contrast to the bucolic idylls–such as Idylls 1 and 3–which are serious in tone and focus on country life, than this poem, which is lighthearted in tone and urban in setting.
Not only does this poem present an unusual theme and setting, but the dramatis personae are all female. Whereas Bucolics usually focus on the love of a man for a woman, this poem focuses on the inner lives of women and their dissatisfaction with the men in their lives.
The dialogue of the poem is colloquial but fast-paced, salty, and terse. The personalities of Gorgo and Praxinoa really achieve a kind of presence that resists formalization and challenges conventions about what kinds of personalities can be represented in poetry.
Witness, for example, how quickly Praxinoa jumps from one idea to the next without even stopping to mark the change of subject:
ταῦθ᾽ ὁ πάραρος τῆνος ἐπ᾽ ἔσχατα γᾶς ἔλαβ᾽ ἐνθὼν (9)
“that’s the lunatic: came and took [me] to the end of the world,”
ἰλεόν, οὐκ οἴκησιν, ὅπως μὴ γείτονες ὦμες (10)
“an animal’s den rather than a home, so that we would not be neighbors”
ἀλλάλαις, ποτ᾽ ἔριν, φθονερὸν κακόν, αἰὲν ὁμοῖος. (11)
“to one another, out of spite and blasted envy–he’s always the same.”
The first and second lines contain two apt metaphors–the “end of the world” and “an animal’s den”–that express the length to which Praxinoa’s husband has gone to prevent her from seeing Gorgo. This reflects an anxiety on the part of Greek men that their women will gather in groups and somehow pose a threat to the patriarchal order. Praxinoa’s liaison with her friend is also an expression of her independence and her subjectivity. And Praxinoa’s husband’s actions are made ironic by the fact that Praxinoa travels unattended (except by her handmaid) to visit her friend.
Another view, however, would confine these seemingly unique elements to an actual “women’s festival” genre. In Idyll 15, Theocritus borrows heavily from a fifth-century Syracusan writer named Sophron, whose work is only available in a fragmentary state. Idyll 15 of Theocritus is thought to be an adaptation of that author’s Isthmiazousai. In a discussion with Professor Joe Jansen, I learned that Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae, Lysistrata and Ecclesiazusae also depict female characters having the same kind of latitude to criticize their husbands and freedom of movement about town.
Whether or not Idyll 15 introduces anything novel to Greek poetry, the crucial question remains “what exactly do these characters represent?” Did real women in Alexandria behave anything like the way Praxinoa and Gorgo behave? Would a Greek woman of any class have been able to travel across town by herself safely and without a male escort? Classicists must exercise utmost caution in assigning historical significance to literary works. It is difficult enough to tell what an ancient work means as a literary work. Guessing about whether or not it points outside itself–and if so, what it says, and whether or not that statement corresponds with historical reality–has led many Homeric archaeologists astray yet. Yet in a field where the best surviving primary evidence comes in the form of literary documents, one should not let over-caution reject sound hypotheses based on them.
