Poetic Language and Religion in Greece and Rome

Poetic Language and Religion in Greece and Rome

Edited by

J. Virgilio García and Angel Ruiz

Poetic Language and Religion in Greece and Rome Edited by J. Virgilio García and Angel Ruiz

This book first published 2013

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2013 by J. Virgilio García, Angel Ruiz and contributors

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or

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ISBN (10): 1-4438-5248-1, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-5248-7

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface ..................................................................................................... viii José Virgilio García Trabazo and Angel Ruiz

Indo-European Poetic Language

Gods And Vowels ....................................................................................... 2 Joshua T. Katz

Some Linguistic Devices of the Greek Poetical Tradition ........................ 29 Jordi Redondo

In Tenga Bithnua y la Lengua Angélica: Sus Fuentes y su Función ........ 39 Henar Velasco López

Rumpelstilzchen: The Name of the Supernatural Helper and the Language of the Gods ............................................................................................... 51 Óscar M. Bernao Fariñas

Religious Onomastics in Ancient Greece and Italy: Lexique, Phraseology and Indo-european Poetic Language ........................................................ 60 José L. García Ramón

Two Epithets of Zeus in Laconia in the Light of Homeric Phraseology ......................................................................... 108 Ana Vegas Sansalvador

Τάρταρος ................................................................................................ 118 Daniel Kölligan

Religious Etymology and Poetic Syncretism at Rome ........................... 127 Colin Shelton

Ancient Linguistic, Literary and Religious Elements in Kallimachos and Chrysorrhoe ..................................................................................... 136 Edwin D. Floyd

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vi

Religious Language in Greek and Latin Literature

Poesía y Ritual en la Grecia Antigua: Observaciones Sobre los Peanes Délficos ................................................................................. 146 Emilio Suárez de la Torre

Consulting the Gods in the Odyssey ....................................................... 183 Claudia Zatta

‘Religious Register’ and Comedy: The Case of Cratinus ....................... 190 Francesco Paolo Bianchi

Oracles and Riddles Ambo Fratres: Cultural (and Family) Relations Between Oracula and Aenigmata ....... 199 Simone Beta

Late Antique Oracles: Samples of Ασάφεια or Σαφήνεια?..................... 207 Lucia Maddalena Tissi

En Torno al Vocabulario Religioso Helenístico: Temis y dike en Euforión y su Hipotexto Hesiódico .............................. 222 Josep A. Clúa Serena

Intertextuality and the Cultic Dimension in Lycophron’s Rewriting of Myth: Iphigenia and Childbirth .......................................................... 230 Giulia Biffis

The Achilles’ Oath in Hom. Il. 1.236-244: Intertextuality and Survival .................................................................... 243 Manuel Pérez López

Plegaria e Himno Literario: Los Dioscuros en las Inscripciones de Prote, Alceo y dos Himnos Homéricos ............................................................. 250 José B. Torres Guerra

The Magicians who Sang to the Gods .................................................... 258 Miriam Blanco

Thesea Devovi: Magic, Ritual and Heroes in Ovid’s Heroides .............. 266 Nathalie Sado Nisinson

El Himno de Adrasto a Apolo en la Tebaida de Estacio ........................ 275 José Manuel Vélez Latorre

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Poetic and Religious Traditionalism in Avienus: The Prooemium of the Aratea ................................................................ 282 Amedeo Alessandro Raschieri

Venus, Ceres and Ovid: Divinity, Knowledge and the Generation of Poetry in Book IV of Ovid’s Fasti ..................................................... 293 Charles Bartlett

Magic as a Poetic Process: Vergil and the Carmina ............................... 301 Mathieu Minet

Poetic and Religious Language in Roman Tragic Fragments Concerning Medea .................................................................................. 310 Maria Jennifer Falcone

Index ....................................................................................................... 321

CONSULTING THE GODS IN THE ODYSSEY

CLAUDIA ZATTA NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Oracles and oracular sites are not foreign to the Odyssey. In Book 8 we hear that Agamemnon had consulted the oracle of Delphi and that, during the war at Troy, he rejoiced seeing Odysseus and Achilles fighting because, according to the oracle he had received from Apollo, this was a sign that the war would finally turn to the favour of the Achaeans (75-82). And again in Book 16, Amphinomos, a suitor who distinguished himself for good thoughts (agathoi frenes) and whose speeches were in fact pleasing to Penelope, suggests to the other suitors that before undertaking any action against Telemachus, they should hear the will of the gods, and act upon Zeus’ responses (themistes, 400-405). In this case we do not know what oracular site or procedure Amphinomos had in mind, but he is clearly referring to an oracular consultation. More interesting, however, for the purpose of this paper, is Odysseus’ mention of the oracle of Zeus at Dodona to Eumaeus in Book 14. Unwilling to reveal his identity, Odysseus pretends to be a Cretan beggar and, in the subsequent account of his wanderings he reveals that, when visiting Thesprotia in Northern Greece, he heard from the king of the land that Odysseus was indeed still alive and that he had consulted the oracle of Zeus at Dodona to inquire about his return (327-330).

That this fictitious version of Odysseus’ homecoming contains an oracular consultation provides us with an interesting parallel for understanding the episode of Proteus earlier in the Odyssey. Stranded on the island of Pharos and at a loss as to what to do, advised by the god’s daughter Eidothea, Menelaus meets Proteus, the old man of the sea, from whom he obtains precious revelations about his own return as well as that of the other heroes (4, 391-641). Scholarship has often considered this episode in terms of story-pattern, and as such, in light of the paradigmatic

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encounter of Odysseus with Teiresias in the Nekyia (Od. 11, 100-172).1 The stress has typically been on differences between the two ‘consultations’ and the ironic and folktale elements of Menelaus’ version2. So, for instance, for Rheinardt Proteus, unlike Teiresias, does not give oracles; he is “simply a teller of fortune” whose words are unambiguous. In them there is no “mystery”, gryphos.3 In this paper, however, rather than associating the episode of Proteus to the Nekya, I will consider it in light of a broader model of oracular consultation, drawn from literary evidence, and discuss the Homeric episode in all its different aspects—from Menelaus’ preparation to encounter the god and the spatial and temporal variables that frame that encounter, to the seals as the privileged animals associated to Proteus. I will then consider the actual chain of answers and responses into which the verbal exchange between Proteus and Menelaus develops. All these aspects, I argue, either evoke actual oracular consultation practices or, as in the verbal exchange between the god and the hero, preserve the prescribed ritual distance between the oracle and the postulant that informed actual consultations.

The encounter of Menelaus with Proteus does not happen by chance as did that with Eidothea who suddenly appeared to the hero walking on the seashore of the island of Pharos. Menelaus knows precisely when and where he will meet the god and what he will have to do in order to hear his revelations from him. The daughter of the old god, as mentioned before, informs the hero of the existence of Proteus, his oracular knowledge, every day habits and vulnerabilities. In fact, by giving Menelaus a plan that will enable him to make Proteus speak, Eidothea, at the same time, also instructs him on the precise ceremonial and ritual actions that he must follow in order to approach the god and experience a successful consultation. It is only at noon that the old god leaves the abysses of the sea to find some solace from the heat of the day in a cave on the seashore of the island. By that time, Menelaus and his companions had been waiting quite a few hours lying in the dark recesses of the cave under newly flayed skins of seals. The long wake, the cave as a location for the encounter with the god and the delivery of the oracle, and the very moment of noon, too, all contribute to design an oracular landscape (4.447-456, 484-508). Literary evidence on oracular consultations in Ancient Greece, although not so abundant, indicates that generally both                                                      1 Further analogy between the two episodes lies in the presence of an intermediary character who enables the heroes to consult the diviners. Circe (Od. 10, 537-95) plays for Odysseus a role analogous to that of Eidothea in the story of Menelaus. 2 See Plass 1969; on the folk tradition in Proteus’ legend O’Nolan 1960. 3 1996, 113.

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inquirer and the oracle priest and priestess were expected to follow a prescribed regimen of ritual requirements before a question could be presented to the oracle.4 For Delphi we know the elaborate protocol of the Pythia, but less is known about those of the inquirer. A comparison with the ritual procedure followed by the inquirer at the oracle of Trophonius, as recounted by Pausanias, although late, still illuminates those hours spent in the cave by Menelaus and his men. Before being allowed to descend into the underground chamber of Trophonius, the postulant had to undergo a series of ritual requirements, from the confinement for a few days in a certain building in the sanctuary and abstention from hot baths to numerous sacrifices and fresh bathing in the river with subsequent anointment of the body (Paus. 9.39.3-11). Meeting a god to receive his revelations was not an ordinary act: it needed preparation and waiting, a progression of ritual actions that would clearly demarcate the ingression into an exclusive sphere of interaction with the divine. This happens for Menelaus too. Two important actions that he undertakes or undergoes in order to meet Proteus are the concealment under the skin of a freshly flayed seal and the anointment of ambrosia that Eidothea performs on his nostrils (4, 488-501). On a first interpretative level, both actions are instrumental in making Menelaus’ ambush successful: hidden under the seal-skin Proteus will take him as a member of his herd while the ambrosia will protect him from the stench of the animal. But, on closer inspection, these actions are also rituals that symbolically prepare Menelaus to encounter the god making him step outside of the human sphere and become “other”. In wearing the seal’s skin, the hero becomes one of the god’s animals thereby connecting his identity to that of his divine opponent.5 As for the ambrosia, we know that it had a transformative and strengthening effect on humans. For instance, Demeter anointed Demophoon, the child of the King of Eleusis, before casting him through the fire, a combination of actions intended to make him immortal (HHDem. 235-9). On the other hand, Athena and Apollo rub the bodies of Patroclus and Hector respectively, to preserve the first from the corrupting effect of death and the second from the disfiguring provoked by Achilles’ mistreatment (Il. 19.26-28; 24.18-20). But ambrosia preserves also from the damage of old age and so Thetis intends to make Achilles forever young by rubbing his chest with the divine substance (Il. 19, 347).

So it is after having completed this series of ritual actions that Menelaus meets Proteus. The old god’s routine has him exit the abysses of

                                                     4 Aune 1983, 29-30. 5 Zatta 1997, 75-85.

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the sea at noon and enter a cave. Again, the time and space of Proteus’ appearance in the world of men is evocative at once of his divine nature and oracular knowledge. While noon was an ominous moment in the arch of a day when gods could appear to mortals, it is also the only time during the day in which everything lies completely illuminated under the sun and shadows are minimal. The landscape at noon, therefore, pre-figures in spatial terms the omniscience of the god while the cave in which Proteus rests recalls a common setting for oracles.6 For caverns or grottos were associated with the oracles of Apollo at Delphi (Strabo 9.3.5), Trophonius at Lebadeia (Paus. 9.39.5-14), and Apollo at Claros (Tac. An. 2.54, V. Fl. 299).

Following the temporal and spatial variables that frame the encounter between Proteus and Menelaus let us consider briefly the herds of seals that accompany him in his movements from the sea to the earth and vice versa. Described as an amphibious animal that lives in both habitats, seals are the ideal companions for Proteus in that they can share his life-style. Yet, beyond this first interpretive level, there is another link between the god and the animals. The scholiast tells us that Proteus lives with the seals because they are the most apt in the mantic art of all the other sea animals (Schol. Od. 4.403), adding that the god practices the oracular art by means of his animals in the same way as others do from dreams or sacrificial victims (Schol. Od. 4.344). We do not know in what way the seals could help Proteus practice his oracular knowledge, but perhaps this capacity had to do with a bundle of features that the animals shared with the old god: from their amphibious nature and connection to obscurity to their propensity to fall into the soundest sleep. Still in Pliny’s time people were aware of a practice that would relieve insomnia: putting the right flipper of a seal under the head (Plin. H. N. 15.42)7.

And it is now time to come to the verbal exchange between Proteus and Menelaus. Eidothea instructed the hero to wait until the god fell asleep and then to hold him tied; Proteus would eventually enact a series of transformations into animals and natural elements- water and fire, to finally resume his old and true shape, that of an old god. She also added, though, that Menelaus could inquire about his return after Proteus had spoken and questioned him. And so it happened in the real encounter as Menelaus tells Telemachus: “But when at last the old man, skilled in wizard arts, grew weary, then he questioned me, and spoke, and said «who

                                                     6 For the temporal and spatial variables see Zatta 1997, 29-40. 7 On the seals and their connection to oracular knowledge see also Trinquier, 2010, 63-78.

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of the gods, son of Atreus, took counsel with you that you might lie in wait for me, and take me against my will? Of what have you need?»” (4.460-463; transl. by A. T. Murray). This detail is in fact of the greatest importance to understand the modality of interaction between the god and the hero, and the subsequent progression of the oracular consultation. Menelaus must approach the god in silence and it is the god who allows the hero to enter into dialogical contact with him by means of two questions. In this way, despite the ambush and the physical strength exercised by Menelaus, the god retains his autonomy and reasserts his leadership. And in fact, extending the analysis to other encounters with gods such as the one of Menelaus with Eidothea (4.415-6) and that of Odysseus with Hermes on the island of Circe (10.310-1), we can identify the same structure: it is the gods who initiate the dialogue, and they do so with a question. Thus, when Menelaus speaks to Proteus he is in fact answering him. The first utterance of Proteus is indicative of the nature of his oracular knowledge; like the Muses, he can say many things either truthful or similar to the truth and therefore, deceitful. For he, the god who knows all the abysses of sea, breaks into the terrible silence with a question that is in fact misleading, and almost rhetorical, and asks Menelaus who among the gods helped him in the successful plot and what he wants. To Proteus’ utterances Menelaus replies first with a statement and then with a question, both directed at uncovering the possible treachery of Proteus’ words; and so the hero replies that the god knows it well, and asks why he uses such tricks. It is only after this display of awareness that Proteus may be, and is in fact, deceitful that Menelaus inquires about his return.

With this mismatch of utterances, the outset of the oracular consultation is not only emblematic of how the dialogue between the hero and the god will unfold, but, more importantly, it also displays a strategy of the poetic medium in representing an elusive religious affair. In other words, real oracular consultations, as far as we know, did not foresee a prolonged verbal exchange between the inquirer, on the one side, and the god and his intermediaries, on the other. If we consider the oracle of Delphi, for instance, the inquirer was supposed to ask one question, and if the god’s answer was not pleasing, as in the case of the Athenians who came to consult it at the time of Xerxes’ invasion, then he had to go back and inquire again, starting afresh another consultation (Hdt. 7.140-141). And at any rate the contact with the god was brief and mediated by intermediary figures, such as Pythia and priests. By contrast, in unfolding the consultation of Proteus into a fully-fledged episode that stages a god and a mortal interacting for a longtime, the poet of the Odyssey fashions

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an unlikely situation. And it is precisely the delivery of Proteus’ knowledge, in an indirect and roundabout way -a sense of which we get already from the first steps of the exchange with Menelaus- that helps maintain the distance between the hero and the god, while at the same time preserving the ambiguous and elusive quality of the oracular word.

Like that of the Muses or Apollo, Proteus’ knowledge extends over the past, present and future.8 Eidothea, his daughter, had hinted at these multiple domains when she informed Menelaus that Proteus would have been able to tell him the path and the length of the journey, and the return, and, along with this, also what good or evil had happened at home while he was away (4.434-440). And yet, Proteus’ revelations when he actually encounters Menelaus do not merely cover the expected subjects as presented by the goddess. The god does not only address Menelaus’ return, but, asked by the hero about the homecoming of the other warriors at Troy, he speaks first of the misfortunes of Ajax and Agamemnon (4.560-664). His discussion of Agamemnon’s destiny deserves some attention in that once again it shows the tricky and ambiguous nature of the oracular knowledge. Proteus reveals that Agamemnon has been able to return home, but Aegisthus killed him during the welcoming banquet-another unfortunate return. But once Proteus sees Menelaus crying he adds that he could arrive at Argos either before Orestes had killed Aegisthus or during Aegisthus’ funeral, thereby suggesting the possibility that Menelaus himself could take an active role in avenging the death of his brother (4.610-6). At this point, Menelaus unleashes his third question. After his own return and that of the other heroes, he asks about the homecoming of the “third man”, o tritos aner, using an expression that has in itself the force of an enigma and one that challenges Proteus’ oracular skills (4.620-1). The god realizes right away that the third man is in fact Odysseus and he reveals that he saw him crying on the island of Calypsos (4.624-8). This second to last revelation in the series of oracles delivered by Proteus is in fact the link that ties together the journey of Telemachus with that of Odysseus, represented by the rest of the Odyssey, thereby making the episode of Proteus a central one in the unfolding of the poem. And yet there is one more oracle that Proteus delivers to Menelaus, one for which the hero did not ask for, but that Proteus reveals nonetheless, testifying once more to his divine independence. According to his words, Menelaus will not die, but will be transported onto the islands of the

                                                     8 Hes. Th. 38; Said 2011, 147-8 remarks that the god “like Calchas and the Muses has a knowledge that transcends the boundaries of space and time: he can see” (idon, 4.556).

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Blessed, and this will happen by virtue of his connection with Zeus brought to him by the marriage with Helen (4.631-41). And after this eschatological revelation, swiftly as he had appeared, Proteus vanishes, plunging into the abysses of the sea.

To conclude, often marginalized in the studies on the Odyssey, almost suffering the same marginal condition of its protagonist, an old god that lives in the abyss of the sea, far from Olympians and mortals alike, the episode of Proteus manifests in fact a structural and thematic complexity. In all its different aspects the entire episode adumbrates practices of oracular consultations. And, in the prolonged verbal exchange between the hero and the god, it retains the god’s leadership and the ambiguity of his oracular word by means of a strategic chain of mismatched questions and answers and also by means of the prediction of alternative outcomes. This scenario resonates in other encounters between gods and heroes in the Odyssey, not fully addressed in this paper. For what ultimately I intended to address was the metamorphic capacity of poetry to design an oracular landscape that evokes and, at the same time, transcends those of history.

Works Cited

Aune, D.E., 1983. Prophecy in Early Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World. Grand Rapids: Eermans.

O’Nolan, K. 1960. “The Proteus Legend.” Hermes 88: 128-139. Plass, P. 1969. “Menelaus and Proteus.” CJ 65: 104-8. Rheinardt, K. 1996. “The Adventures in the Odyssey.” In Reading the

Odyssey: selective interpretive essays, ed. S. Schein, 63-132. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Said, S. 2011. Homer and the Odyssey. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Trinquier, J. 2010. “Protée en sa grotte ou le parti pris du phoque.”

In Protée en trompe-l'œil: génèse et survivances d'un mythe, d'Homère à Bouchardon. Interférences, ed. A. Rolet, 63-103. Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes.

Zatta, C. 1997. Incontri con Proteo. Venezia: Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti.