craft similes and the construction of heroes in the iliad
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Department of the Classics, Harvard University
CRAFT SIMILES AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF HEROES IN THE ILIADAuthor(s): Naomi RoodReviewed work(s):Source: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 104 (2008), pp. 19-43Published by: Department of the Classics, Harvard UniversityStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27809332 .
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CRAFT SIMILES AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF HEROES IN THE ILIAD
Naomi Rood
Three
conclusions have emerged in recent years about the subject matter of Iliadic similes. First, their content falls into three groups:
(a) weather and other natural phenomena; (b) hunting and herding; and (c) human technology.1 Second, contrary to the old idea that
similes provide relief from the relentless violence of war, the similes of
type (a) and (b) also depict violence, the kind inherent in nature and
animals.2 These similes bring only a change of scene, not of tone. Third, the similes of type (c), human technology, work through contrast with
the surrounding scene: "a peaceful act is unexpectedly compared to the
violence of war."3 These similes of human technology therefore remain
the sole representatives of the old idea that Iliadic similes offer the
audience a peaceful respite from the battlefield. While it is true that
Iliadic similes need not be confined to a single function, why would
the function of technological similes differ so sharply from that of the
others, which make up the vast majority of the poem's similes?4 This
paper considers the technological similes of the Iliad in order to show
that they do not contrast with the context of the poem but, on the
1 I cite this list from Edwards 1991:35. His list, as Richard Garner has pointed out to
me, is not exhaustive as it leaves out some similes, primarily those about children (e.g. 15.361-366,16.7-11), which do not fit into any of these three groups.
2 Redfield 1975:188-190. Edwards 1991:35-36 follows this view. The "old idea" that
similes afforded some respite from the battlefield is expressed in, for example, Bassett
1921:136-138; Owen 1946:186-189; Schadewaldt 1965; Taplin 1980:14-15; Cook 1984:41. 3 Redfield 1975:190. This view is shared by Edwards 1991:35-36; Porter 1972; Mueller
1984; Janko 1992:273. 4 See Fr?nkel 1921:98 for an early proponent of the idea that the Homeric simile has
not one but many functions. Edwards 1991:35 notes that the technological similes mostly
appear only once in contrast to the frequency of nature and hunting/herding similes.
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20 Naomi Rood
contrary, enhance the cultural aspect of the war and the poem's func
tion of creating undying glory, kleos aphthiton. The argument of this paper depends on two fundamental concep
tions of the poem: first, that a beautiful death in battle is an ultimate
good for the young warrior; second, that the poem realizes this good
by memorializing the hero in a song that removes him from the cycle of nature and situates him within the permanence of culture. To
elaborate, a beautiful death, kalos thanatos, consists of a warrior dying
gloriously in battle at the peak of his youth and beauty and becoming a spectacle of admiration for others. When the Homeric hero dies in
"the flower of youth," he permanently attains all the "qualities that
make life worthwhile: vigor, beauty, grace and agility."5 Just as a flower
blossoms and quickly fades, these qualities do not stay fixed but soon
wither and vanish. A beautiful death saves the warrior from the horror
of inevitable decay, aging, and death. Since a beautiful death occurs in
battle, warfare provides the context for this ultimate good and so is
itself essentially positive.
Epic poetry memorializes the hero's beautiful death. Through the
cultural institution of epic song, a man may transcend the cycle of
nature wherein, like a plant, he briefly flourishes and then withers and
dies. The poem thus equates mortality with nature and, by contrast,
immortality with culture. Nagy has shown how epic opposes culture
and the natural cycle of plant life. He contrasts the diction character
istic of plant life, 'to wither' (phthi-), with that for objects of culture,
'unwithering' (aphthiton). A good example of this contrast occurs in
the difference between the tree in nature and in culture, the former
expressive of mortality, the latter of its transformation into immor
tality. Specifically, Apollo likens mortals to the leaves of a tree, which at one time come to fullness, bursting in radiance, and then wither
(cpOivuOouoiv II. 21.463-466). In contrast, Achilles swears his oath at the
beginning of the poem by the scepter, which consists of a tree shaped
by the divine craftsman, Hephaestus: the tree has been cut down, never to bloom again, transformed into a cultural object (1.233-237). As a result, this tree becomes 'always unwithering' (cccpGirov aid 2.46,
5 Vernant 1991:59.
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Craft Similes and the Construction of Heroes 21
186), the opposite of what it once was. The adjective aphthiton implies "the cultural negation of a natural process" and characterizes both
the works of Hephaestus (14.238-239, 18.369-371), and the function
of epic poetry: "as compensation for the death that he cannot escape ... Achilles gets a kleos that is aphthiton (9.413)."6 This paradigm of the
craftsman/poet who creates immortality by transforming a thing of nature?trees in particular?into one of culture will inform our reading of the craft similes in the Iliad. At the same time, I hope that my discus
sion of the technological similes will further strengthen these funda
mental conceptions of heroic epic. Human technology can include a wide range of skills from farming
to fishing, hunting to herding.7 For the purposes of this paper, I define
human technology as activities that require the skills of a special ized craftsman: similes of the building of ships, chariots, and houses; the making of pottery, the dyeing of ivory, and the tanning of hides. I
include, as the exception to this rule, the skills of spinning and weaving. For although most women from slaves to noblewomen practiced these
domestic crafts, they are such well recognized images of the female
counterpart to male technology (e.g. Od. 7.108-111), and metaphors of cunning intelligence as well as poetry itself, that it seems negligent to omit them.81 do, however, exclude the other domestic technolo
gies that fall outside the realm of the craftsman: farming, winnowing,
threshing, fishing, cheese making, herding, and hunting.9 According to
these criteria, the Iliad contains thirteen similes of human technology:
shipbuilding (3.60-63,13.389-393 = 16.482-486,15.410-413,17.744-746);
dyeing ivory (4.141-147); chariot making (4.482-489); spinning and
6 Nagy 1979:183-184. The key to Achilles' immortality is the permanence of the
cultural institution, epic, into which he is incorporated; see further Nagy 1979:177-184. 7 Edwards 1991:35 includes "carpentry, weaving, threshing grain, irrigating a garden,
and similar activities, showing mankind working productively with nature." Sophocles' list of human technai (Ant 365) in his "Ode to Man" is more inclusive: sailing, farming,
hunting, fishing, animal domestication, speech, thought, law, and building (Ant 332-375). 8 On the implications of spinning and weaving, see, for example, Schmitt 1967:298
300; Snyder 1981; Nagy 1996:62-74; Scheid and Svenbro 1996. 9 This is not to deny these technologies their impressive use of techn?. Edwards
1991:35, as seen above, allots a separate category of similes to those of hunting and
herding apart from those of human technology.
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22 Naomi Rood
weaving (12.432-438, 23.760-764); house building (16.212-217, 23.712
713); tanning (17.389-395); and pottery making (18.599-601).
Shipbuilding provides the most frequent and, as it turns out, the most coherent set of technological images. In fact, as Janko has
observed, the Iliad's five shipbuilding similes depict ship timbers at all
stages of production: (l) being felled; (2) being hauled down the moun
tain; (3) being worked by a shipwright.10 Specifically, in these stages we find: (l) the heart of Hector compared to an axe wielded by a ship
wright cutting down timber for ships (3.60-63); the Trojan heroes, Asius and Sarpedon, falling in battle compared to a tree felled by a
shipwright for ship timber (13.389-393 = 16.482-486); (2) Menelaus and
Meriones carrying the body of Patroclus out from battle compared to
mules dragging ship timber down a mountain slope (17.744-746); and
(3) the deadlock of battle as the Achaean ships are threatened with fire
compared to a shipwright's line drawn tight across ship timber (15.410
413). The coherence of these technological images makes them unique in the poem. Unlike the other craft similes, the imagery of shipbuilding forms a narrative of sorts. Of all the crafts, why does the poem choose to display in full the technology of shipbuilding? What is the poem's
implicit interest in this narrative of making a ship from tree to shaped timber?
Since shipbuilding similes form the greatest and most coherent set
of technological images in the poem, this paper will center its discus sion on them.111 will argue that for Homer, as for other poets, ships and seafaring have a metaphorical relationship to song. The work of
the shipbuilder parallels that of the epic poet. Both transform things of nature into culture: the shipbuilder turns a tree into a ship; the epic
poet turns a mortal man into an immortal hero. I will discuss this trans
formative process according to the three stages of shipbuilding that the
poem presents. The first stage of warriors falling like trees felled by a shipwright
shows both the sadness of young life cut down and the promise
10 Janko 1992:97, 273.
11 As a result, I will not discuss two similes of craft: the dyeing of ivory (4.141-147) and
the making of pottery (18.599-601). These similes could however easily be read in the
spirit of the present paper's argument.
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Craft Similes and the Construction of Heroes 23
inherent in such a death, provided it occurs under the aegis of a
craftsman: just as the similes intimate that the shipwright cuts down
trees for the cultural end of building a ship, so the warriors fall with a
sense of constructive purpose. These similes acknowledge and provide a response to the fragility of mortal life. In the face of the awfulness
of death, the craftsman's work of transforming a natural death into
something beautiful and cultural assumes all the more importance. All
of these similes of men falling like trees call attention to the warrior's
beautiful death and praise the fallen hero. This epic praise preserves a
man's beauty and lifts him up out of the herd toward a transcendence
of mortality.12 The second stage, of ship timber hauled down from a mountain,
corresponds to the transitional period between a mortal's dying and
his becoming acculturated into the world of the immortalized dead.
This transition constitutes the essential function of epic song. Thus
much of Books 17-23 presents the rituals devoted to translating the
dead?Patroclus in particular?into an immortalized hero: the burning of his body, lament, and funeral games.13 Appropriately, one of the
similes involved in this transitional process of bringing Patroclus into
the realm of culture likens his dead body to ship timber being carried
down a mountain.
The third stage, of a shipwright constructing a ship, occurs in
a simile of battle drawn tight like a shipwright's rule stretched to
straighten timber. One of several technological similes for the deadlock
of battle, it shows the fundamental relationship between warfare and
craftsmanship. These similes make clear that warfare is akin to craft
and so constitutes another kind of constructive activity. Thus, even with
all the acknowledged pain and grief of battle, warfare must ultimately be read as constructive, just as is the work of the shipbuilder or mason
or weaver. More importantly, the simile of the shipwright truing timber
brings to light the critical parallel between poet and shipwright.
12 I use the term 'praise' following Nagy's discussion of praise versus blame as a
primary epic function (Nagy 1979:211-276). 13 On the different rituals owed to the dead, see Garland 1982.
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24 Naomi Rood
STAGE 1: THE FELLING OF TREES
Heroes fall like trees seven times in the poem. All these similes perform the primary epic function of praising the fallen hero. Three of them
specify the constructive aim of this woodcutting: shipbuilding (13.389 393 = 16.482-486) and chariot building (4.482-489). Two more of these
similes, I will suggest, imply the cutting of wood for making spears (13.178) and oars (5.560). While they clearly form a related group, these similes have not been deeply considered together as a type.14 Their relationship to craft has thus been overlooked. Instead they have
been read as adding pathos to a hero's death.15 Yet their connection to
craft, whether explicit or implicit, transcends that pathos by offering an alternative to the terrible sadness of death. By associating the fallen
hero with a tree felled to make a cultural object, these similes indicate a parallel process for the fallen man. The hero's death is not the abso
lute end of his story, but the end of his story as a natural being subject to time and death. Just as the felling of trees forms the beginning of
creating a ship or chariot, the similes reveal the hero's end in death as
truly the beginning of his transformation into a thing of culture. These
similes thus not only praise the hero superficially by calling attention
to his youth and beauty, but also more profoundly by removing him
from the realm of mortality and placing him in the realm of immor
tality. Similes of falling like trees praise three important Trojan heroes?
Euphorbus, Imbrius, and Hector?which indicates the great solemnity inherent in tree imagery. Not applied to the ordinary, but reserved for those somehow extraordinary, to be compared to a fallen tree
imparts particular honor and recognition to one's death. Specifically, Euphorbus, as he himself reminds us (17.14-15), is important since it was he who first wounded Patroclus (16.806-816). In his defense of
14 See Muellner 1990 for a strong argument in favor of the thematic method of inter
preting similes, which groups similes by content as an expression of a larger theme. For
brief consideration of the tree similes as a group, see Krischer 1971:72-75; Scott 1974:70
71. 15
See, for example, Edwards 1991:68; Coffey 1957:117.1 do not disagree with this senti
mental reading, but see it as incomplete.
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Craft Similes and the Construction of Heroes 25
Patroclus' body, Menelaus kills Euphorbus, who, in dying, is compared to a beautiful, blooming olive sapling nurtured by a man in a well
watered pasture. When the breezes stir it up, it teems with white blos soms. But then a sudden tempest uproots it and lays it low on the earth
(17.53-58).16 The simile praises Euphorbus as the young tree reflects
two of the most important qualities of the hero: flourishing youth and
beauty.17
The death of Imbrius, a Trojan ally married to Priam's daughter
by a concubine, also merits a simile of a felled tree. Imbrius is preemi nent among the Trojans and lives in the house of Priam, who honors
him like his own son (13.175-176). The tree simile that describes his
fall acknowledges his prominence: he falls like an ash tree which is
cut down on the peak of a mountain seen from afar on all sides and
whose tender leaves fall to the ground (13.178-180). The detail of the
tree felled on a conspicuous mountain peak matches Imbrius' conspic uous high honor at Troy.18 The tenderness of the tree's leaves moreover
suggests both the fragility of young, mortal life and the beauty of a
death that compensates for that lost life.
A tree simile for a temporary fall of Hector also honors the great hero of Troy. When Ajax lays him low with a rock, he spins like a top and then falls like an oak tree uprooted by a blow from Zeus, which
takes away the courage from a nearby onlooker (14.413-417). The simile
16 The poem strikes a fine balance in its presentation of Euphorbus: he is at once
cowardly, striking Patroclus from behind, and boastful, but also dignified enough to
merit Patroclus and Menelaus as opponents. (Janko 1992:414 calls Euphorbus cowardly; on Euphorbus' boastfulness, Edwards 1991:67 observes that the "boastful Euphorbus is
fittingly wounded through the throat.") In light of the poignant death of Patroclus and
Menelaus' protection of his body, it seems unlikely that any audience would greatly regret the death of Euphorbus, who challenges but does not quite rise to both great heroes.
The tree simile that adorns his death thus upholds the dignity of this hero who first
hit Patroclus and whom Menelaus now vanquishes. Indeed, we see an implicit compli ment to Menelaus in the content of the simile. It seems likely that the first breezes that
strengthen the tree refer to the twenty men Euphorbus has killed since coming to Troy (16.810); while the tempest that destroys the young tree denotes Menelaus, a stronger
wind irresistible to the young Euphorbus. 17 See Vernant 1991 on the importance of youth and beauty for a beautiful death. The
simile furthermore makes use of the motif familiar from lament of the rearing of young life compared to the nurturing of a sapling in a garden (cf. 18.56
= 18.437, Od. 14.175). 18
Janko 1992:69.
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26 Naomi Rood
suggests the difference between uprooting a sapling, as in the case of
Euphorbus, and an oak tree, as in this simile for Hector.19 A strong wind
suffices to fell the sapling whereas Zeus' thunderbolt blasts the oak.
The oak well represents Hector, mature and sturdy, reminiscent of the
oak tree that stands at the Scaean Gate of Troy.20 The simile leads one
to believe that Hector has died like the other heroes whose deaths are
accompanied by similes of fallen trees. In a sense, it anticipates the final
fall of Hector. Only Zeus can uproot his sacred oak tree; similarly Zeus
must ultimately allow Hector, whom he loves, to be killed (22.166-185). While the immediate effect of the simile may contain some irony since
it names Zeus as the agent of the tree's fall while he is at the moment
removed from the action, the greater force of the simile implies the
divine presence in the fate of Hector.21 Its acknowledgement of Hector's
status marks even his temporary fall with great praise. The tree similes we have seen so far?for the falls of Euphorbus,
Imbrius, and Hector?all clearly function as praise for the fallen hero.
The simile for Euphorbus highlights his youth and beauty. The one for
Imbrius brings out his high honor in society; and the one for Hector
shows his importance as a sturdy oak that only Zeus himself could
displace. The tree similes that culminate in shipbuilding likewise praise the fallen hero they describe. These similes function through their
promised result of shipbuilding, which suggests a parallel permanence in culture for the hero whom the poet will immortalize in his song.
19 Janko 1992:214 following Krischer 1971 notes that an oak tree is "the toughest to
fell" 20 An oak tree is mentioned in conjunction with the Scaean Gate six times in the poem
(6.237,7.22, 7.60, 9.354,11.170, 21.549). As sacred to Zeus, it takes on a sense of protecting the city at its vulnerable opening. It is interesting to notice how trees in the Iliad are
often associated with works of culture: not only is the oak juxtaposed with the Scaean
Gate, but trees are also several times coupled with, or function as, a funeral stele (11.166 167; 13.437-438; 23.331-332). See also 21.362-365 where Hera views the trees around the
river Scamander as firewood. Thus Nagy's example of the scepter as a tree removed from nature and transformed into an object of culture (1979:183-184) accords with the poem's
general sensibility of trees as close to culture. Cf. Forster 1936:102-103: "Again, trees and
plants are usually mentioned not for their own sake but in connexion with their useful ness to man, whether as food for himself or his animals, or for building his houses or for
making his weapons, ships and vehicles." 21
Janko 1992:215 interprets the presence of Zeus in the simile as ironic.
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Craft Similes and the Construction of Heroes 27
The two similes of men falling like trees for ship timber are actu
ally a single simile repeated for two warriors, first for the Trojan leader, Asius (13.389-393) and then for the great Trojan ally, Sarpedon (16.482
486).22 The simile differs from the other tree similes we have seen only in its elaboration:
fjpiTce 5' cb? ore ti? 5p?? rjputev r\ ?xepooi?, r|? tiituc; ??ca?pr], xr\v x oupeai x?Krove? ?vSpe?
???tapov 7i???K8aai verjKEOi vrj?ov e?var
toc; ? ?ipoa?' vjtjig?v xai ?icppou ke?to ravuaGei?,
?e?puxax;, kovio? SeSpayp?voc; aipaTo?aori?.
He fell just as when an oak fell or a white poplar, or a high-growing pine, which in the mountains
craftsmen
cut down with newly whetted axes to be ship timber; so he lay stretched out before his horses and chariot,
bellowing, grasping handfuls of the bloody dust.
Asius is a Trojan leader of some importance. During the attempt upon the Achaean ships, he leads a contingent of men inside the Achaean wall
(12.88-175).23 As a figure of significance, Asius dies with a tree simile more elaborate than the one used some two hundred lines earlier for
the less known Imbrius.24 The details of shipbuilding add importance to
the image of a fallen tree. In the related tree similes we have seen previ
ously?for Euphorbus, Hector, and Imbrius?the image ends with the fall
of the tree. This is partly due to the agency of the fall, for Euphorbus' tree is blown down by the wind and Hector's is felled by a thunder
bolt. In these instances, there is no clear intention behind the felling of the tree. Imbrius, more along the lines of Asius, is 'cut down with
bronze' (xa^xco xapvop?vn, 13.180), indicating a human hand intent on
22 The Iliad repeats seven major similes; see Janko 1992:256.
23 There he encounters two Lapith spearmen standing firm like oak trees in the moun
tains (12.131-134). Here the tree simile praises their fixity in battle. See Scott 1974:71.
Generally, trees in the poem have positive connotations. 24 Moulton 1977:23 considers this simile greater than that for Imbrius, although he
does not elaborate.
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28 Naomi Rood
felling the tree. Since the dying Imbrius is compared to a falling ash
tree (us?irj 13.178), the wood most commonly used for spears and so
a common name for them, one may suppose that this tree is cut with
bronze for the purpose of making spears.25 Another brief tree simile we
have not yet mentioned works in a similar way: the Danaan brothers
Crethon and Orsilochus fall at the hands of Aeneas like lofty fir trees'
(5.560). Here, too, the comparison to fir trees (eAdrrjaiv), whose wood
is used to make oars and often metaphorically refers to oars, suggests the constructive use for these fallen trees.26 The simile for Asius, which
tells in full the agent and purpose of the felling, gives reason to see in
those related, briefer similes a constructive end. Thus we may identify the elaborate simile for Asius as the complete, paradigmatic version of a
simile of a tree felled by a human hand, to which these related, shorter
similes may well allude.
The simile for Asius, of a tree cut down by a shipbuilder for timber,
suggests that the greatest praise a fallen hero might be given associ
ates his fall with the beginning of the process of constructing some
cultural good out of natural material. We must keep in mind that nature is not a benign force in the poem.27 Like war, it is violent and
destructive, a harsh realm subject to death and decay. The poet values nature transformed into culture. As one scholar has aptly put it, Homer
is not a naturalist but a gardener.28 Nature is good when it has been
organized, cultivated, and domesticated by man. Accordingly, tech
nology is an unambiguously positive achievement. A tree earmarked
for ship timber conforms to the Homeric sensibility of technology as
an admirable good. The death of Asius, a considerable hero, does not
end with his lying prostrate before his horses and chariot. Instead, the
simile indicates in its implicit endpoint of creating a ship that his fall is likewise the beginning of his transformation into something perma nent and cultural?ultimately, as we shall see, the memory the poet bestows upon his beautiful death. Asius dies for a purpose and with
25 SeeJanko 1992:69.
26 On fir as the tree used for oars, see Meiggs 1982:111. 27 Edwards 1991:35; Rauber 1969:101. 28 Forster 1936:103.
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Craft Similes and the Construction of Heroes 29
the promise of becoming greater and more lasting than he was in his
natural life. So it is plausible to see in the fallen ash for Imbrius and the
fir for Crethon and Orsilochus a subtle suggestion of the cultural use of
these woods: these heroes thereby receive greater praise and promise in their deaths.
The praise implicit in this ship timber simile for Asius becomes
more apparent when the simile is applied to the fall of Zeus' beloved
son, Sarpedon (16.482-486). The magnitude of Sarpedon's dreaded end
(16.431-438), honored by Zeus with a shower of bloody rain (16.459
460), demands a simile of great weight and power for the moment of
death. The poem's choice of a tree felled by a shipbuilder for ship timber
indicates the magnitude of honor inherent in this simile. Sarpedon gets his mound and stele in Lycia (16.457, 675); moreover, like a tree taken
from nature for the ends of culture, the poem gives him immortal glory in its account of his beautiful death.29
One final tree simile for a fallen warrior forms a parallel to the
shipbuilding similes for Asius and Sarpedon. Here a tree is again felled
for the purpose of cultural transformation when Ajax kills Simoeisius, one of the first warriors to fall in the poem. Due to his early death, he merits a tree simile: he falls like a poplar, which a chariot maker
(?ppaTOTtriYo? ?viqp) cuts down with iron in order to bend a felloe for
a beautiful chariot (4.482-489).30 This simile supports the idea that a
"full" tree simile for a fallen warrior includes a craftsman cutting down
the tree for the purpose of making some cultural object. The simile
for Simoeisius, like those for Asius and Sarpedon, promises a cultural
transformation of a tree into part of a beautiful chariot (TiepiKaAA??
5icppa) 486). While acknowledging the poignancy of the death of the
blooming (Oa?epov 474) and short-lived (pivuv0?5io? 478) Simoeisius, the craftsman responds to the impermanence of nature by fashioning out of it a beautiful object of culture.
Significantly, all of these "full" similes of men falling like trees
felled for the purpose of building oars, spears, chariot wheels, or ships
go beyond a simple relationship of likeness. The parallel between tree
29 See Nagy 1979:183-186 on the difference between immortalization in cult and epic. 30 For the importance of Simoeisius' death, see Mueller 1984:109.
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30 Naomi Rood
and man spirals into a sequential narrative that brings out the parallel between craftsman and poet as men who shape natural material into
something beautiful and cultural. The craftsman cuts down a tree and
makes it into a cultural instrument?oar, spear, chariot wheel, or ship that helps men fight the wars in which, in turn, they are cut down and
made by the poet into cultural heroes. The following diagram displays this sequence:
This group of technological similes is thus unique in the close and
sequential relationships it presents among trees, craftsmen, and war
instruments, on the one hand, and men, poet, and heroes, on the other.31 This uniqueness indicates that these similes convey a cycle of
particular significance, expressive, I suggest, of the poem's essential
function.
The poem further displays the privileged position of the craftsman
cutting down timber in a curious simile that Paris addresses to Hector.
After Hector reproaches Paris for his cowardice in battle, Paris accepts that blame:
tree
craftsman
31 I thank Richard Garner for sharing this observation with me.
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Craft Similes and the Construction of Heroes 31
aid roi KpaSfrj n?XsKvq qj? ?axiv ?teipri?, o? x e?aiv 5i? 5oup?? xm ?v?po?, ?? pd te r?xvr) vn?ov ?Ktduvnaiv, ?cp?A?ei 5' ?v5p?? ?pconv co? aoi ?vi axrj?saaiv dTdp?rjTOC, voo? sarr
3.60-63
Always your heart is just as an untiring axe, which is driven through timber by a man, who with
skill cuts down / hews out ship timber, and it strengthens
the motion of the man; So the purpose in your breast is undaunted.
Just as it is not unusual to find tree similes for fallen heroes, it is not
unheard of to find men's hearts compared to some hard material (e.g. Priam 24.521, Penelope Od. 23.103), but the elaboration of this simile
into an image of shipbuilding is striking. First of all, what does it mean
to have a heart like an axe? The simile suggests the material virtues
of an axe: it is hard, unyielding, untiring. Unlike a man, an axe has no
susceptibility to fatigue or, as the end of the simile suggests, fear. A
man possesses skill, but a tool possesses the durability to achieve the
goal aimed at with that skill.32 A man driven by a heart like an axe may become invulnerable to human frailty. Paris thus contrasts Hector with
himself, vulnerable to fear and inconstancy.33 But why does he specify that the woodcutter is a shipwright? One final image of woodcutting in the poem offers an answer to this question; let us turn to this last
image and then come back to the question of why Paris likens Hector to
a shipbuilder. In the funeral games for Patroclus, Nestor advises his son Antilochus
on how to win the chariot race by relying on cunning intelligence rather than the strength of his horses. Antilochus' competitors may
possess faster horses, but they do not rival him in cunning. Nestor then
elaborates on the value of such intelligence:
32 According to Kirk 1985:273, the man "has his own skill, but the axe's potent inde
structibility enables him to finish the task." 33
According to Coffey 1957:131, this simile characterizes Hector as a "steadfast,
persistent, and tireless warrior," to which he compares 6.444.
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32 Naomi Rood
urjn toi 5puT6uo? \i?y ?usivcov rj? ?ir](pr
urju 5' auT? Ku?epvrjTriq ?vi o?votii tiovto)
vr\a Qor\v iGuvei ?pex?ou?vnv ?v?poior
urjti 5T rjvioxoc; nepiyiyvezai rjvioxoio. 23.315-318
With cunning a woodcutter is far better than with
physical force; with cunning in turn a helmsman on the wine-dark sea
steers straight his swift ship dashed about by the winds; And by cunning charioteer prevails over charioteer.
Nestor integrates the woodcutter into a surprising trio: woodcutter,
helmsman, and charioteer. The woodcutter assumes a status and a
significance that goes beyond that of a simple workman. Like Paris, Nestor turns to ships directly after his consideration of the woodcutter. In the spectrum of shipbuilding, the helmsman stands at the farthest
pole from the shipbuilder cutting down wood: the former occupies the
endpoint of the process, the latter the beginning. But Nestor's image of the helmsman straightly steering his ship through a storm eluci
dates the commonality between the two, which then culminates in
the elaboration on the victorious charioteer: the woodcutter, like the
helmsman and charioteer, must guide his axe aright. All three occu
pations demand straight steering: one must stay in complete control of his instrument?whether that be axe, ship, or horses?not wasting
strength in any unnecessary movement, but staying always focused on
the goal (23.319-325). In his juxtaposition of images, Nestor suggests a
fluidity throughout the entire process of shipbuilding to sailing. From
beginning to end?from woodcutting to navigation?intelligence prom ises success.
Returning to Paris' simile for Hector's heart, we recall that in his
image the shipbuilder possesses skill (r?xvrj 3.61), a quality related to
intelligence.34 Hector, like Nestor's successful woodcutter, guides his axe
with skill. Paris specifies that the woodcutter in his simile for Hector is
34 On the overlap of techne and metis, see D?tienne and Vernant 1978:272-273;
Holmberg 1997:10-12.
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Craft Similes and the Construction of Heroes 33
a shipbuilder since shipbuilding?from beginning to end?epitomizes an art requiring skill and intelligence. In his words accepting Hector's
reproach, Paris acknowledges the authority of Hector to make that
reproach. Indeed, Paris praises his brother through the image of a ship builder, portraying him as a model of focus, skill, and accomplishment, free from the foibles of human frailty. The language of shipbuilding evokes a network of associations, which Paris exploits to subtly and
eloquently accept blame and award praise, thereby diffusing a moment
of tension. Clever and straight steering, the shipbuilder in the poem
emerges as a paradigm of intelligence and artistry, a compliment to
Hector and, more generally, a fine image for the epic poet himself.
STAGE 2: HAULING DOWN TIMBER FROM A MOUNTAIN
The poem's tree imagery suggests that most forest trees grew and were
cut down in the mountains.35 For example, Imbrius falls like an ash tree
cut down on the peak of a mountain (ueAir) u5?, / rj z ?peo? Kopu?fj 13.178-179); Asius and Sarpedon also fall like a tree which shipbuilders cut down in the mountains (trjv z oupeoi tiKtovec, av5pe? / ec^tauov 13.390-391 = 16.483-484).36 After felling a tree, the second stage of
using a tree for a cultural purpose then is to transport the hewn tree
down from a wooded mountain slope to the inhabited land below. This
very journey down from the mountain into civilization expresses the
transformation a shipbuilder imposes upon wood as he changes it from a part of nature to one of culture. For in terms of nature and culture, mountains stand outside the city as a wild, undomesticated area. If the
felling of a tree in the mountain constitutes the beginning of trans
forming nature into culture, the transporting of that tree down from
the mountain constitutes the transitional period as the tree moves
toward the realm of culture.
35 Meiggs 1982:40-41 explains in more scientific terms the mountains as the forest
areas of ancient Greece. 36 Note also that mountain nymphs plant elm trees for E?tion (v?ucpai ?pearidSe?
6.420); and the Lapith warriors stand like oak trees in the mountains (5pue? oupeoiv
12.132). See also 14.285. Not all the trees in the poem, of course, grow in the mountains
(e.g. 4.483-484; 17.54).
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34 Naomi Rood
The transitional phase of hauling down felled timber corresponds to imagery in the poem of fallen men like logs. When Patroclus is still a
corpse?a man cut down but not yet translated into the cultural world
of the memorialized dead?the poem portrays him as a log or ship timber being hauled down from a mountain.37 Menelaus and Meriones
carry Patroclus' body out from the battle where he has fallen:
oi 5' ?j? 6' rjpiovoi Kparepov p?vo? apcpi?aAovreq ?'?Kcoa ?c; ?peo? Kara TtauiaAosoaav ?rapTi?v
rj 5ok?v rj? ?opu \i?ya vr\iov ?v 5? te Guu?? rdp?0' ?uo? Kapdra) zs Kai i5p? onev^ovxeooxv'
to? o? y' ?pp?paa)t? v?Kuv (p?pov. 17.742-746
Just as mules putting their strong force on both sides
drag from a mountain along a steep path either a wooden beam or a great ship timber; their
spirit within is worn away both with weariness and with sweat as
they hurry on; So they pressing eagerly on carried the corpse.
The transitional journey of the ship timber down from a mountain
perfectly represents Patroclus' state. Like the wood, he lies at the tran
sitional point in the process of moving from the world of the living to
the world of the dead, neither alive nor fully dead.38 His body is carried
from battle like a beam or a ship timber in particular. At this moment of some resolution to the great confusion that arose over the fallen hero
(17.233-425, 543-650), the poet signals through this simile a sense of a
return to order and meaning in the horrible loss of Patroclus.39
37 Cf. 23.69-74; on the process of changing a corpse into a hero, see Vernant 1991:68
69. 38 On the process of becoming dead, see Vermeule 1979:12-13. 39
Furthermore, as Janko 1992:380 has observed, Patroclus earlier kills Sarpedon who falls like a tree felled by a shipwright for ship timber (16.482-486); now, soon after, it is Patroclus' turn to become like a log for shipbuilding. Between them, Sarpedon and
Patroclus fulfill the first two stages of a tree moving from nature to culture under the
hands of the shipbuilding craftsman.
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Craft Similes and the Construction of Heroes 35
The poem depicts many of the rituals for the dead only in the case of
Patroclus: he illustrates the mourning, cremation, games, and memori
alization only touched on for the other heroes.40 He is the poem's figure for its work of carrying the hero across the transition of natural dying into cultural death and heroization. Thus Patroclus is the one carried out of battle like a huge ship timber down from a mountain: his death is not yet complete and not in vain but moving toward a great cultural consummation.
Much of the imagery we have been considering involving the felling and transporting of trees becomes actual in a long passage that initi
ates the funeral of Patroclus. Achilles, while he sleeps, encounters the
soul of Patroclus, who asks him to complete his transition into the
world of death (23.62-107). Achilles responds with wonder and lament, but Agamemnon turns to the practical needs for the dead: the cutting and transporting of wood for his funeral pyre. The poem elaborately describes men and mules going up into the mountains with axes and
ropes and then felling trees and splitting the trunks. The men bind this
wood behind the mules that strain toward the plain under their burdens
(23.120-122). The similarities are striking between this passage and the
simile that compares Menelaus and Meriones to hard laboring mules
carrying Patroclus' body from battle like a log or a ship timber down a
mountain path. Although not exactly parallel, the two passages reso
nate in imagery and idea: the pyre, which the men are constructing for
Patroclus, provides the means of his transition from one world to the
next, from the status of a changeable mortal to one immortally fixed
and remembered; the ship timber likewise promises his transformation into a permanent, cultural object.41 When woodcutting and hauling occur at the start of Patroclus' funerary rites?outside of similes in the
poem?they also represent the means of transforming a mortal man
from nature to culture. The representation of ritual reflects and rein
forces the poetic function implied in the shipbuilding similes.42
40 Garland 1982:70-72 observes that the rituals for the dead vary and are only accorded to "entitled" dead, not all fallen heroes.
41 Vernant 1991:68-70. 42 The poem depicts nameless fallen heroes (and horses) as dry oak or pine trees swept
down a mountain into the sea by a river torrent (l 1.492-497). This simile suggests the
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36 Naomi Rood
STAGE 3: TIMBER WORKED BY A SHIPWRIGHT
The poem provides a glimpse of the shipbuilder at work after a tree has
been felled and hauled down a mountain. After the Trojans, with the
help of Apollo, have driven the Achaeans to the point of fighting from
their ships, Zeus then intervenes and the battle reaches a stalemate. The
poem describes this evenness of the battle with a simile of shipbuilding:
?XX o3? te ordOpiq 56pu v?^?ov e^iQvvei T8KTovo<; ?v TiaA?pnai ?ar?povo?, ?? pd te n?or\q ev eiSfi ao(pin.? UTtoGripoouvnaiv 'AOr?vr??,
?? u?v rcov 87ii ?aa udxn. r?taro Tito?euo? te
15.410-413
But just as a carpenter's line makes straight a ship timber
in the hands of an experienced craftsman, who knows
well
all skill by the advice of Athena, so their battle and war was equally strained.
This simile makes use of the traditional image of the stalemate of battle as a tightly stretched cord (e.g., 11.336, 13.358-359, 14.389, 16.662,
17.401, 17.543, 17.736). It constitutes one of five related similes for
the deadlock or closeness of contest (12.432-438; 16.212-215; 17.389
395; 23.711-713; 23.759-764). Strikingly, all of these similes take their
imagery from crafts. Among them, the image most similar to the one of
the shipwright truing timber describes battle stretched tight in dead
lock like a woman carefully weighing wool in a scale to earn a meager
living for her children (12.432-438).43 As in the shipbuilding simile, we
find a related tool used (orocGuov 12.434; cf. ordOpri 15.410). In the simile
of weighing out wool, the imagery of tautness proceeds even from the
straitened economy of the woman and her family. Just as there is no
slack for the woman in her measuring and in her living, there is none in
fate of men whom epic does not memorialize by name: they remain part of mortal nature
and never become part of culture. 43
Coffey 1957:127 also joins these two similes.
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Craft Similes and the Construction of Heroes 37
the tightness of the battle. Let us look briefly at the other craft similes
that characterize the evenness of battle before we return to the one of
the shipwright straightening timber.
With the death of Patroclus, the idea of battle stretched tight becomes prevalent (17.400-401,17.543-544, 17.736-737). In a curious
correspondence, the tightness of battle characterizes its object: the
two sides strain over the body of Patroclus like men stretching (ravueiv 17.390; tavuouai 17.391; rdvuxai 17.393) the hide of a bull.44 Here the
craft of the tanner supplies the imagery for the contest over the body of Patroclus.
Not just warfare evokes imagery of craft and tightness but also the
battle of athletic contest. When Odysseus and Ajax meet in a wrestling match in the funeral games for Patroclus, they take hold of each other in a close grip like the gable rafters of a high house, which a famous
craftsman joined to defeat the might of the winds (23.711-713). As in
the deadlock of battle, neither side can definitively conquer the other; Achilles declares their contest a draw and awards them equal prizes (23.735-737). Another related simile repeats the image of a tall house
well built to avoid the might of the winds (23.713 = 16.213). This latter
image varies the theme of contest and tightness. It compares the closely packed ranks of the Myrmidon warriors to a wall a man fits together with closely packed stones (16.212-215). The similarity between the
description of the Myrmidons and the imagery for the wrestling contest
conveys the tightness of contest. Yet the transfer of that idea to just one side in the battle to come suggests that these warriors possess the
power of that taut warfare. That is, in their tight marshalling they will
break through any opposition and avoid a battle stretched tight. A final image of craft conveys the closeness of the footrace between
Odysseus and Oilean Ajax. Odysseus runs just behind Ajax as close as
the weaving rod is to the breast of a woman when she draws it in her
hands, pulling the spool past the warp and holding the rod close to her
breast (23.759-764). Again, a moment of deadlock takes its imagery from
44 Moulton 1979:290-292 associates all the imagery of tautness in this episode. He also
brings in the simile that likens Athena's descent to stir up Menelaus to Zeus stretching a
rainbow (17.547-552), and he understands this simile as an omen of evil.
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38 Naomi Rood
craft, just as we have seen in the images of shipbuilding, wool weighing,
tanning, carpentry, and masonry. One must consider the implications of this consistent correlation.
As is evident in the climactic battle over the body of Patroclus, dead
lock constitutes warfare at a peak: the men strain in an equal balance, the gods are keenly involved, the outcome is most consequential.45 It is
neither glorious like an aristeia nor heroic like a tremendous defense. It is battle in its most concentrated form. The correlation between
this depiction of warfare and craft suggests that battle in its essence is
akin to the work of a craftsman. Warfare, this imagery communicates, constitutes a constructive, skillful activity. Thus these images support the reading of craft similes in the poem not as a divergence from the context of war but as a parallel to it in accord with the poem's overall
activity of constructing heroes from nature to culture. Now returning to the simile of the shipwright truing timber?in
the final stage of building a ship?we can understand the role of a ship builder in craft akin to battle. This shipbuilding simile refers to an early
phase in the construction of a ship: after felling the necessary trees
and splitting the timber with an axe, the next stage in Homeric ship construction is shaping the timber. This could be done with an adze or
a line (or?Gpn.). This line "consists of only a string coated with chalk, which is pulled tight over the surface to be marked and then plucked,
causing it to strike the surface, leaving a straight chalk line."46 The poem focuses on this stage of shaping the ship timbers primarily because it
suits the image of battle stretched tight. But the simile elaborates on
the skill needed to use the carpenter's line and thereby complicates the image. Beyond a straightforward parallel to the cords of war, the
simile evokes the care the craftsman put into the building of the ship now threatened with destruction. Readers have understood this as a
poignant contrast between the values of peacetime and wartime.47 But
the details of the simile suggest a more comprehensive and unified
understanding of shipbuilding, song, and war.
45 Janko 1992:92 observes that the rope metaphor signals divine involvement.
46 Mark 2005:82-83. 47
Janko 1992:273. Cf. above, n3.
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Craft Similes and the Construction of Heroes 39
The most interesting word in the passage is sophia, skill (oocpui? 412), since it and all the words based on its root do not occur else
where in Homer. Leaf attributes this uniqueness to the lateness of the
passage.48 But a form of the word occurs in Hesiod (WD 649), whose
work constitutes a roughly contemporaneous comparandum to Homer.
Thus it seems hasty to dismiss the word as late and worthwhile instead to consider the significance of its uniqueness. The related word in
Hesiod also occurs in the context of ships: ll will show you the measures
of the loud roaring sea, although I am skilled neither in sailing nor in
ships' (5ei?o) ?n, toi u?tpa TtoAucpAoia?oio GaAdaarjc;, / ou?e xi vauriAirjc, q?ao(piqu?VO? outx n vn,cov WD 648-649). Dougherty has shown that
this skill concerns both ships and poetry since the meaning of the terms
metra and sophia includes the expertise needed to master both sea and
song. "The broad semantic scope of these terms emphasizes profes sional training and skill?whether in shipbuilding or song-making? and Hesiod's careful word choice emphasizes potential similarities
between the two professions and suggests a figurative alliance between
them."49 In some respects, Homer greatly differs from Hesiod in regard to ships and sailing: unlike Hesiod, who associates ships with the end of
the Golden Age, Homer does not attach these negative connotations to
them.50 Additionally, in contrast to Hesiod's brief sea journey to Euboea
(WD 651), indicative of Hesiod's brief epic, Homer presents the great
Catalogue of Ships (2.494-877), representative of his great epic.51 Hesiod
alludes to Homer through sailing imagery when he describes Aulis, the
origin of his sea journey, as the assembly place of the Achaeans gath ered to set sail to Troy (WD 652-653). Homer also associates ships with
song, most conspicuously in the correlation between shipbuilder and
48 Leaf 1960:131. 49
Dougherty 2001:21. See also Rosen 1990. 50
Although see 5.63 for an interesting passage on Paris' ships as the origin of evil for
the Trojans. This passage, as Richard Garner has pointed out to me, seems to be connected
to a tradition of ships that enable romantic self-indulgence: cf. Eur. Medea 1-11; Catullus 64. For the poem's marked diction for the ships, see Ellsworth 1974. For the polyvalence of the sea itself in the Iliad, see Lynn-George 1988:262-265. On shipbuilding as a sign of
the end of the Golden Age for Hesiod, see Reckford 1958. 51 On the contrast between the ships and song of Hesiod and Homer, see Dougherty
2001:20-27.
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40 Naomi Rood
poet embodied by Odysseus in the Odyssey, who builds a raft (5.233-261) and performs the song of his travels (Books 9-12). Moreover, in the very
passage we are considering, of the experienced craftsman who knows
all skill from Athena, there is also subtle indication that the work of
this craftsman relates to the work of the poet. The passage depicts a
skilled shipbuilder at the moment he straightens timber by tightly
stretching a string along the surface of the wood and then plucking it. This image subtly evokes the related activity of the singer accom
panying himself on the lyre, which Homer uses metaphorically in the
Odyssey to describe another moment of tightness?not the tautness of
battle but of the string Odysseus stretches on his bow:
cb? ?r ?vrip (popuiyyoc; ?Tiiat?pevo? xori ?oi?rj?
pn??foo? ?r?vuGGE veco Ttepi ko??otti xop5r?v,
aipa? ducpor?pcoOev e?orpscp?? ?vrepov oio?, co? dp' drep GTiou?fj? r?vuGev p?ya ro?ov 'OSuggeu?
?e^irepfj 5' dpa x&pi Aa?cav TreiprjGaro veupiq?* rj 5' uTi? KaA?v aeioe, x??i56vi eiK?Xr] av5r\v.
Od. 21.406-411
Just as a man knowing of the lyre and song
easily stretches the string about a new peg,
fastening on both ends the well-twisted sheep gut, so Odysseus without trouble strung the great bow.
Grasping it in his right hand he tried the string, which sang beautifully beneath his hand, like a
swallow in tone.
This passage from the Odyssey, with its similar diction of a string stretched tight, makes explicit what is implicit in the passage from
the Iliad of the shipbuilder plucking his line: the skill of stretching and plucking the bow or carpenter's string relates to the poet's skill of
plucking the lyre's string. The third stage of shipbuilding imagery in
the Iliad thus manifestly evokes the presence of the poet, standing in
parallel to the work of the shipbuilder.52
52 For more on the traditional associations between singer and shipbuilder, see
Dougherty 2001:29-37.
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Craft Similes and the Construction of Heroes 41
The simile of the shipbuilder shaping timber in the context of the
Achaean ships threatened with destruction contrasts their potential end with their beginning. The ship's beginning in the simile is specifi
cally the early stage of straightening the ship timber, ?^iQvvex (15.410), a word that recalls the shared cleverness of the woodcutter, helmsman, and charioteer (iOuvei 23.317). The poet thus finds his place among the
intelligent craftsmen and navigators. Like them, the poet will guide the
"wood" straight, in control of the finished product of his craft. More
than a simple contrast between the work of peace and war, the simile
of the shipbuilder evokes the power of the poet to shape nature into
culture, to shape men from mortals into objects of song. The poem's other images of the early stages of shipbuilding?men falling like trees
and carried out of battle like timber?share this sensibility of the poet's sure hand guiding the fallen men to permanence in song. The poem's simile for the third stage of shipbuilding, wherein the shipwright
shapes timber into a ship confirms the metaphorical reading of all the
poem's coherent shipbuilding imagery as an analogy to the construc
tive work of the poet as he shapes nature into culture, mortality into
immortality.53
Colgate University
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