herakles, odysseus, and the bow: "odyssey" 21.11-41

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Herakles, Odysseus, and the Bow: "Odyssey" 21.11-41Author(s): Katherine CrissySource: The Classical Journal, Vol. 93, No. 1 (Oct. - Nov., 1997), pp. 41-53Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and SouthStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3298379.

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HERAKLES,ODYSSEUS,AND THE BOW:ODYSSEY21.11-410

o o k 21 of the Odysseymightbe termed"TheBook on theBow." It begins with the story of how Odysseus receives thebow, follows through with an account of the contest, andends in the revelation of his attack by its means. Appropriately,therefore, another mythological character famous for the bow,Herakles, appears in the very same episode in which Odysseusacquires his weapon of revenge. Theinclusion of this most notableexample among mythicalheroes is not some minordetail,but one ofstriking effect. I will argue thatnot only does the anachronisticele-mentin his appearancehighlightOdysseus' placein anage of heroes,but, in fact, a comparison is implied between the two which is bothconsistent with Herakles' other appearances in the poem and sig-nificantforconveying the starkeraspectsof Odysseus' final revenge.The story of the bow's acquisition is told at 21.11-41. We learnthat Odysseus, as a young man acting on behalf of his father andcommunity, visits the house of Ortilochos on an embassy to re-trieve stolen animals.Therehe meets Iphitos, and the two exchangeweapons as the beginning of a guest-friendship. To Odysseus goesthe bow, to Iphitosa sword and a spear.Thenewly-founded allianceis cut short,however, when Iphitos, continuing on his own missionin searchof missing horses, is killed by Herakles(21.22-30):"Iqtoro;0a0' 'nroug 8t~ljgvog,at oi0ovro86EKTa TXuetat,nO 8' itLiovot ,aCxEpyo7aX 6irloi Ki rtEEtoap6vog Koi Jto poX EvovTo,Eet~6i 0t ; Uvy(P iKEToKupTEp601tgOV,p&0' HpKXi^O(Rx,EyidXOv~irntt'op(X EpyoV,i; Iv Eivov 6vrXKtXTEKTaVEV oiVL K1,axXhxo;, i6~0O8Eivrtv ai6~ax'r0i tpdtnerav,'rtV IjV Oi aPxEOTJKEvIMTE6tv lTE(PVEXvi a?iTO6v,Yirrou;6' ctat ;EXEi(Xipwepdv-)Xa; Ev pEyUpoicn.

* I would like to thank ProfessorJohnMiller and the anonymous referee forall their helpful comments on this paper. My thanksalso go to TamaraGreen,andto JacobStern, Joel Lidov, Dee Clayman and JorgenMeier for making the paperpossible in the first place.The Classical Journal93.1 (1997) 41-53

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42 KATHERINE RISSYIphitos [came]there seeking horses which he had lost,Twelve females, and hard-workingmules nursing under them.These indeed afterwardbecame his doom and destruction,At that time when he came to the strong-heartedson of Zeus,The man Herakles,experienced in great deeds,Who killed him although he was a guest in his own house-Wretch -and revered neither the face of the gods nor the tableWhich he set before him: even then he killed him,And was holding the strong-hooved horses in the halls himself.As some have noted, Herakles' appearance in this story would

seem to be an anachronism.1 He is a part of the pre-Trojan War era,having even previously sacked Troy when Laomedon was king(II. 5.638-42). Elsewhere in the Odyssey, he appears as a well-knownfigure of past myth in Hades (11.601-14), and is referred to in aspeech as one of the great heroes of an earlier era with whom Od-ysseus would not dare to compare himself, although he can defeat"men of today" (8.221-24). With a stretch of the imagination, thetime factor could be overlooked to some extent, as in other cases ofthe Odyssey and mythical tales in general: Odysseus is a young manin the story and could therefore at least be of a later generationthan Herakles. Nevertheless, the contemporaneous appearance ofthe two is striking. The main character is juxtaposed in time withone of the most famous figures of old, when heroes were supposedto be greater and stronger.2 The juxtaposition links Odysseus withthese figures and recalls the decline from the age of heroes as anelement in the Odyssey, for the Trojan War is now becoming a partof the legendary past. Odysseus' appearance in the time of Heraklesjust before his confrontation with the suitors in the bow-competitionemphasizes his own status: He is on the borderline between theolder age of heroes of which he is a part, and the younger, post-Trojan War generation who are much weaker, yet dare to challengehim.But at the same time, to quote Galinsky, it seems that "This isone of the most devastating indictments of Herakles in literature....Whereas earlier in the Odyssey Homer had relegated Herakles to

1See, e.g., F. Prinz, "Herakles," in RE Suppl. 14 (1974) 190; G. K. Galinsky, TheHerakles Theme:The Adaptation of the Hero in Literaturefrom Homer to the TwentiethCentury (Oxford 1972) 12; J.S. Clay, The Wrathof Athena: Godsand Men in the Odyssey(Princeton 1983) 91.

2 See, e.g., Od.8.221-25, referred to above; 11.1.259-72; and for an extensivediscussion of this point, C. E. Alexander, "Appeals to Tradition in the Iliad, withParticular Reference to Achilles," (diss. Columbia 1991) chap. 1.



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44 KATHERINE RISSY

despite their behavior. In combination with this most obvious factor,a number of other details can be found to strengthen the impres-sion of the comparison.For example, it should be noted that while Odysseus will killthe suitors in his house at dinner, Herakles' crime is described in acryptic fashion that distinctly emphasizes the setting at dinner (28-29):

ayX~to;,r6~ 0E&v5ntv ai&Uaw'o & ?paieav,TTvTijv01rcpnEOTKEVE ltEUX6c8E(PVEKCCtWTv....The poet feels no need to explain the motive for the murder, how itwas committed, what Herakles' relation to Iphitos was, or how andwhy he took the horses. We are not even told whether he himselfhad them at the time when Iphitos visited him, or Iphitos had pre-viously regained them. The poet does, however, make a point oftelling us that Herakles has provided Iphitos with the meal due toa guest.Thirdly, it should be remembered that Odysseus will kill thesuitors with the bow, which is the central concern of this passage.Herakles, too, is famous for the bow. The poem itself makes thispoint very clear. He is lauded for his great prowess at archery inBook Eight along with Eurytos, the former owner of Odysseus'weapon (8.219-25), and he wields the bow upon making hisclimactic appearance in Hades (11.601-8).Finally, Herakles kills Iphitos in what must be an unexpectedattack, since Iphitos is his guest. Surprise is also the primary featureof Odysseus' attack on his guests, the finishing touch in fact of thisvery book. It is, moreover, a tactic particularly suited to Odysseus,the man of trickery. Even the name of Ortilochos, at whose placehe receives the bow just before Iphitos' death, can mean "the onewho stirs the ambush"7; and, as Edwards has shown, the hero's

7See P. Chantraine, Dictionnaire Etymologiquede la Langue Grecque:Histoire desMots (Paris 1968-80), s. v. 6pvynrat (also Hans von Kamptz, Homerische Personenna-men: Sprachwissenschaftliche und Historische Klassifikation [G6ttingen 1982] 66, 74).On the apparently significant use of the name "Orsilochos" in the ambush story at13.258-70, see W. B. Stanford, TheOdyssey of Homer (New York 2nd ed. 1958) 2.209;A. T. Edwards, Achilles in the Odyssey (K6nigstein 1985) 32-33; and A. J. Mariani,"The Forged Feature: Created Identity in Homer's Odyssey" (diss. Yale 1967) 287.(On the confusion of the names "Ortilochos" and "Orsilochos," see Fernandez-Galiano in Joseph Russo, Manuel Fernandez-Galiano, and Alfred Heubeck, A Com-mentary on Homer's Odyssey [Oxford 1992] 3.150.) This is not to say that the name atOd.21.16 is simply invented for the context. Ortilochos, the father of Diokles, is alsomentioned at 11.5.541-49. In the Odyssey, Telemachos visits Ortilochos' son, Diokles,



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HERAKLES, DYSSEUS,AND THEBOW 45ruse is an ambush of sorts.8 Has Ortilochos been chosen in order toemphasize this point? Certainly much attention is devoted to theunexpected nature of the attack, while it is also apparently anelement in Herakles' reception, then murder, of Iphitos.9A recollection in this passage of the suitors' violation ofhospitality does not hinder the similarity between Herakles andOdysseus. Such cross comparisons, made through skewed orreverse associations and avoiding exact parallels, are often foundin Homer. In particular, many of the similes "evoke ... an inver-sion of social role or a social theme with an equivalent differenceof focus or point of view."'10Men are compared to women, fathersto children, Penelope to someone who would obviously be inOdysseus' place (e.g. 19.108-14; 5.394-98; 23.233-40). In thethird example just cited, when Odysseus is finally recognized byPenelope, the sight of her husband appears as welcome to her as"land appears welcome to men who are swimming, whose well-built ship Poseidon has shattered on the sea" (233-35). Among thePhaiakians, when Odysseus hears the bard sing of his Trojanexploits, the famous city-sacker weeps like one of his formervictims, a captive woman before the walls of a fallen city beingdriven away from her husband's dead body and led off intoslavery (8.523-31)." In the story of Herakles, the suggestion of thesuitors' violation of hospitality laws, shifting over into a distinctrecollection of Odysseus' act through specific details, evokes themutual savagery of both parties in the revenge story. Various com-mentators have remarked on the harsh nature of the suitors' death,and the portrayal of Herakles helps to bring this out.Neither would Homer balk at such realism, nor does myth ingeneral shrink from including negative elements in the depictionof its heroes.12 Other passages in the Odyssey itself confirm thisapproach. Friedrich demonstrates how the lion simile at 22.401-406,used to describe Odysseus after rather than during the battle, "con-

on a journey that is in many other ways parallel to that of Odysseus (3.487-90;15.185-88).s Edwards 35-38.9On the trick, see n. 19 below.10H. P. Foley, "'Reverse Similes' and Sex Roles in the Odyssey," Arethusa 11(1978) 7; see also 22 n. 1; and A. J.Podlecki, "Some Odyssean Similes," G&R 18 (1971)82, 88-90.11Foley 7.12See esp. Robin Hankey, "'Evil' in the Odyssey," in 'Owls to Athens': Essays onClassical SubjectsPresented to Sir KennethDover (Oxford 1990) ed. E. M. Craik, 92-95;

Hankey mentions Odysseus' likeness to Herakles as he appears in Od.11.605-26.



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46 KATHERINE RISSYcentrates exclusively on the abhorrent view of a blood-spatteredlion after his terrible meal," rather than on the heroic splendor ofthe animal so often projected in the Iliad.13Upon seeing the deadsuitors, the nurse begins to raise the cry of victory but Odysseusstops her with the words (22.411-13):

Ev0ig4&,pqii, XpCIF(XI'oXEoR718X6Xi'Xo)UXOGirlKtXI~EVOllV' Cv8pwvdE1XEcZtd(waOC.toiuO&8 IjEgoi1PI'l 6CIoCREGc V KCXioxtXlQhXEPYQC

Rejoicein your heart,old woman, and restrainyour cry:It is not pious to boast over the slain.Destiny from the gods and theirown savage deeds overcamethese men.

Odysseus describes his act as the gods' fulfillment of justice ratherthan his own heroic achievement, eschewing the vaunt over thedefeated enemy often made in the Iliad. His reaction "points to theproblematical nature of his &ptreFa.It is, after all, not taking placein a war between enemies, but is rather the expression of the innerstrife of a community in which the king is pitted against the hybristicnobility of his own country in mortal combat. It ends in the whole-sale slaughter of the &(pt"rotKolpov--a result not to be glorified as aya pyov....14 As the more problematic aspects of Odysseus' deedare suggested here by the poet, so his association with Herakles inBook 21 contributes to the same effect.15

One final point should tentatively be considered regarding thispassage, a possible allusion to a motive on Herakles' part similarto that of Odysseus, namely, revenge over a bride. No clear reasonis given for Iphitos' murder, only sparse details of missing animals.The scholia give conflicting accounts on the matter. According toone note, Odysseus' grandfather Autolykos stole the horses and soldthem to Herakles.16 Another refers to a far more substantial and

13Rainer Friedrich, "On the Compositional Use of Similes in the Odyssey,"AJP 102 (1981) 125; see also W. T. Magrath, "Progression of the Lion Simile in theOdyssey," CJ77 (1982) 209-12.'4 Friedrich 130-31.'5 One might recall Herakles' slaughter of his children in his own halls. Whilethis is not a heroic endeaver but a pathos sent by Hera, the idea remains of thedestruction of what is closest to oneself through violence originally aimed at

dangers in the outside world. (Observations made by the anonymous referee andTamara Green respectively.)16Schol. ad 21.22, B.Q.



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HERAKLES, DYSSEUS,AND THEBOW 47well-known reason for the murder, telling how it happened andpossibily recollecting a link between Herakles and Iphitos' fatheras outstanding archers, as they have in fact already been linkedat 8.223-28 in this respect. Herakles was angry with Iphitos and hisfather Eurytos "because after he had achieved the prize, they didnot give Iole [Eurytos' daughter] to him to marry, but, having dis-honored him, sent him away."17 Apollodoros tells us that Eurytos,king of Oichalia, had promised to give his daughter in marriage tothe winner of a bow contest with himself and his sons. Herakleswon, but did not receive the bride. Consequently he was later sus-pected of stealing some animals from the household.18 The scholiastand other sources tell us that Iphitos went to see him looking forthe lost animals, was lured to the top of a wall through trickery,and then pushed off by Herakles.19Fragmentary details on Iole can be found elsewhere. Evidenceexists for a poem called the Sackof Oichalia,attributed to Creophylos(an alleged contemporary of Homer), in which Herakles attacksEurytos' city in order to take her.20 An early painting of Iole can befound on a Corinthian krater dated around 600 B.C. She is turningaway from Herakles as he takes notice of her at a banquet with herfather and brothers.21 Later vase paintings depict the bow contestand Herakles slaying Eurytos and his sons with the bow.22 Accord-ing to Sophocles' Trachiniai,the tragedy in which Herakles destroysOichalia for the sake of Iole, Eurytos shouts angrily that Heraklesis inferior to his sons at archery as he insults the hero, who is hisguest, and throws him out of the banquet in disgrace. (Heraklesthen murders Iphitos in the manner described by the scholiast above;

17 6uit EXkuFiTa7TCVtu6p u1v &Okov u1iv 'I6XA11vxcgiv o00K cCxv,I X'dr~lgTaTv?E;R Enc~v. (Schol. ad 21.22, V., which cites Pherekydes.)18Apollod.2.6.1-2; cf. D.S.4.31.1-3.19Schol. ad 21.22, V.; Apollod.2.6.1-2; D.S.4.31.1-3; S.Tr.260-73. According toDiodoros, the trick was that Herakles took Iphitos to the top of a tower in order tohave him look around and see if the animals happened to be grazing anywhere inthe vicinity.20See, e.g., Strabo 438, 638, Eust. ad 11.2.730 et al. in T. W. Allen, ed., HomeriOpera, Vol. 5 (Oxford 1912) 144-47; Schol. ad Eur. Hipp.545-46; and Walter Burkert,"Die Leistung eines Kreophylos: Kreophyleer, Homeriden und die Archaische Her-akles-epik," MH 29 (1972) 74-85. Panyassis is also supposed to have composed anepic on the subject; see Victor J. Matthews, Panyassis of Halikarnassos: Text andCommentary (Leiden 1974) 48-49, 77, 88, 98, 129-30.21 K. Schefold, Myth and Legend in Early GreekArt (New York 1966) 39, 70-71and pl. 60.22LIMC s.v. "Iole," "Eurytos," "Iphitos."



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48 KATHERINE RISSY260-73) No mention is made of a contest for the king's daughter, butthis may be expected since the herald Lichas is addressing thesewords to Deianira and clearly wishes to withhold information fromher, including the identification of the captive Iole (307-28; 419-89).Accounts vary as to the death of Eurytos and his sons.23 In theOdyssey, Homer is consistent in saying that Eurytos is dead beforethe episode of Book 21 (8.223-28; 21.32-33). In fact, only in thisway can Odysseus receive the bow. Prinz comments that the motivefor the story of Book 21 is clear, i.e. to bestow the lustre of fame onthe bow. He goes on to say that the anachronism of Herakles' ap-pearance is evidence of an intentional "blurring" of the tradition,even invention on the poet's part, for this very purpose.24 Did thepoet then invent, or at least select, a version in which Eurytos diesearly? The decidedly vague wording at 21.24-29, with its emphasison the host's table just before the killing, when compared with themurder at dinner of both the suitors and Agamemnon (11.409-20),should likewise plant the suspicion in our minds that the poet wasshaping details to suit the Odyssey. At the same time, since lateraccounts insist that Iphitos was pushed off of a wall despite Homer'spresentation suggesting a link between the murder and the guesttable, they would seem to imply that some version of the storyexisted independently and was alluded to by Homer, whateveradjustments were made.If the audience is meant to recall Herakles' anger over Iole whenthey hear of Iphitos, the Odyssey furnishes a particularly suitableparallel. The primary concern of Book 21 is, of course, another bowcontest for a bride, Penelope.25 Herakles' act may thus furtherimply a cross connection of characters and themes. The suitors aregiven promises, but do not get the bride, and so appropriate theanimals of the household. More importantly, Odysseus, who isscorned, mocked as a contestant for Penelope, and almost thrownout of the feast even though he is the real winner of the contest,

23 Roscher's Lexikon s.v. "Eurytos"; Timothy Ganz, Early Greek Myth (Balti-more 1993) 435-36.24Prinz 190.25 Note that also no bride or wedding is mentioned in Antinoos' accountof the Kentaur's misbehavior at 21.288-304, though the marriage of Peirithoos andHippodameia may well have been the setting, and unlawful seizure of the bridethe cause (see, e.g., II.2.740-46; Apollod. Epit.2.21; Paus. 5.10.8; Schol. ad Od. 21.298,Q.). T. Krischer maintains that the bow contest for Iole is the model on which thecontest in the Odyssey is based, and that this is why Odysseus receives the bow ofEurytos (Hermes120 [1992] 19-25).



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HERAKLES, DYSSEUS,AND THEBOW 49claims a bride that is his by rights with violence and a surpriseattack, unforgiving in his anger.

Although we have no major epic left about Herakles, neverthe-less the impression remains that he is the crowning example ofGreek heroes. Both Achilles and Odysseus are glorified throughcomparison with him.26 In particular, he shares a number of traitswith Odysseus, including the quality of being a loner, the ability toendure and survive, the presence of the patron goddess Athenaalong with a deity who persecutes, a trip to Hades, and the bow.27In the Odyssey itself, Herakles' name appears in two other passages.They, too, imply a likeness between the two characters which showsno concern for shedding a complimentary light on Herakles, butreminds us that he is one of the most powerful and violent heroesof the past.In Book 8, Herakles has already been linked with Eurytos asone of the outstanding archers of previous times with whom Od-ysseus says he would not dare to compare himself, although he is"not bad at contests among men" (214):

E pNv ,6 ov ol a(Xoov &wpxacOurnPolo; 86 REDtXoKio'rtr"EKaivu'ro '6?P8igp vt Tp'yov, 6re rotaxoitLE 'AXatoi.trvOv' 11XXyovL~t noi)( xpo0epoaiepov etvat,6aooot iv 3poToioiatvTin Oovi irov i68ovES.a&v6pdaotiLpo0r'pototyv ptEvolic EXlh0 a,oiO' 'Hpaki'it oiSr'Eplr(phOiXaXt5'i,of'PaaXdcoav&rottyov pit~rcov nEPIT6oWv.r ta Ti aCx'"OavevLyaq;E9Gpyro,)6' ~i ypaq'KETvi LEpotot XoXooaadgEvo;ap 'Ar6XkXowlcrnavEv,o )VEa tyVpoiakXiEo0o~dI(o0at.

I know well how to handle the well-polished bow:Philoktetes alone surpassed me at archeryIn the land of the Trojans,when we Achaians would aimour arrows.But I say I am far better than the others,However many bread-eatingmortalsare on the earth today.Yet I will not wish to rival the men of previous times,Neither Herakles nor Eurytos of Oichalia,

26ForAchilles, see 11.18.117-19.27Galinsky 12-14; Clay 92-96.



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50 KATHERINE RISSYThose who used to vie with even the immortalsin the artof the bow.Indeed, for this great Eurytosdied early, and did notReachold age in his halls; for in anger ApolloKilled him, because he challenged the god at archery.(8.215-28)

These words are addressed to the Phaiakian Euryalos, who rudelypresumes to challenge his guest Odysseus at the games. The youngman meets with a sharp rebuke, then a demonstration of the stranger'sprowess at throwing the discus. The rebuke is reinforced by thestory of Eurytos' presumptuous challenge to Apollo, and by Odys-seus' own deferential refusal to measure himself against hisbetters, the heroes of old.In this refusal there is both foreshadowing28 and paradox; forOdysseus will soon accomplish a feat suggesting a likeness betweenhimself and these heroes after all. He will kill the suitors in achallenge using the very bow belonging to Eurytos. The foreshad-owing seems reasonably clear, given Odysseus' choice of weaponsin the paradigm and the prominence of the bow in the climax ofthe poem, not to mention the fact that the destruction of the suitorsis on the mind of all from the beginning of the Odyssey(e.g. 1.252-69;2.161-76).

Clay traces two rival genealogies, so to speak, of the bowspassed on from Herakles to Philoktetes (mentioned at line 219) andfrom Eurytos to Odysseus, in order to draw the contrast describedabove between the "humane" Odysseus and the "brutal" Herakles.29I would again suggest that a likeness is implied between these twocharacters, not a contrast. In fact, Eurytos, the one specifically por-trayed as the transgressor who challenges Apollo, is the formerowner of Odysseus' bow. Likewise Herakles, in line 225 (indicatedby ot ), in the Iliad and elsewhere, is famous for challenging thegods-moreover, for getting away with it.30 The bow serves tolink these two older heroes to one another and to Odysseus. Whilethe latter uses this example to reprimand Euryalos at the games,he, rather than challenge Apollo with the same bow, will claimthe god as his ally when he begins his attack (22.7). A certain suc-cessful hybris which is like that of Herakles and in rivalry with

28Schol. ad 8.215, Q.T.29Clay 91-96.30 E. g. 11.5.392-404; Pi. 0. 9.29-35; Eur. Alc.1139-42; Athenaeus 11.470cd, whoquotes Pherekydes (cf. Apollod. 2.5.10).



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HERAKLES, DYSSEUS, ND THEBOW 51

Eurytos' failed attempt seems to be implied here. The man ofshrewd counsel will combine boldness with caution to accomplishhis Heraklean feat.The comparison between Odysseus and Herakles is openlyexpressed when the two encounter one another in Hades. Odysseus,even as he describes the awful ferociousness of the latter's appear-ance, says that Herakles draws that comparison himself. In fact,Odysseus' later appearance when he faces the suitors in Book 22seems to match the fierceness of Herakles in this scene as he peersabout, his bow held ready in hand(11.605-14):31

SVci v K ayyvei6mcv v oiOVdv(0,ndvtoo' talogiv0,v' 6 ' PEqyvjvt iK otuK;,y7uvvbvT6(ov EX(0vKail~dtvE)pi(Ptv 6oi(T6v,6uEtvbvou'Lativov, xclE1PliOXovttt1K(;.acEpSaxkfo;

' Eoi appinepiripJeoEatv &'opthpXpl)(EEOvreaRGVElv', 'vaO0oCxa EpyatIrwcto,ipirot r'dyp6Tepo{ E Eg XapolnoiUE ovreS,b~giva~'Eadxat TE(6vo0tr'av6poKraiotE.PThEXVo(d~aEvo p18'61oa 'tT'eXviotojto,BgE(ivov EXahxLevalyicraOEro TXVl.And around him was the cry of the dead, as of birds,fleeing in all directions:and he looking like the darknight,Holding the bow uncovered and the arrow on the string,Peering awfully, like one always about to shoot.And a terriblesword-belt was around his chest,A golden baldric, where wondrous works had been wrought,Bears and savage boars and bright-eyed lions,Battlesand struggles and murdersand slaughters.

May he who wrought them never, may he never make another,He who devised that baldric in his art.At once the terrible phantom recognizes Odysseus and speaks(11.617-19):

AtoyEv AaEpztdwi, oX i'Xaov' 6OuooaaE,&68{i', 'tvr Kd o Kaobvi 66pov ihylnketq,v1nepEy7v6deoov Un'a y&6 lXioto.Zeus-born son of Laertes, Odysseus of many wiles,Ah, luckless man, surely you, too, are living out some wretcheddestiny,Such as I was enduring under the rays of the sun.

31Galinsky 14.



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52 KATHERINE RISSYOn the question of the authenticity of the passage in which theselines occur, Heubeck brings to bear the evidence of their place inan artful symmetry:

The overall structure of the book guarantees the place of these disputedlines. The two main sections, divided by the 'intermezzo', correspond toeachother; he first threemeetingswith heroines arefollowedby acatalogueof heroines (eachsection being introducedby i'tov,235,etc.);similarly theencounterswith the three heroes of the TrojanWararefollowed by a cata-logue of six heroes,whom Odysseus sees without any words being spokenexcept in the last case ('68ov568), cf. 572, 576, 582, 592, 601). The first,second, and sixth figures are 'positive'; the third, fourth, and fifth charac-ters 'negative'.32Elsewhere Heubeck shows that within the larger structure, the cat-alogue of heroines itself follows a discernible order.33More can besaid of the catalogue of heroes with regard to its own symmetricalpattern. The first figure, Minos, has a singular role as lawmaker.He therefore appropriately precedes a group which includes thethree "criminals," Tityos, Tantalos, and Sisyphos, all undergoingtheir famous punishments. Framing these three are Orion beforeand Herakles after, neither of whom is being chastised. On the con-trary, both are armed. Both appear in the powerful, ferocious rolesthey played in life. Both have a reputation for ridding the land ofwild beasts elsewhere in myth, here evident in Orion's role as thehunter (572-75) and the sword-belt of Herakles which horrifiesOdysseus, 'ivx OaKEa EpyaTrwto, / apictot t' &yp6Tzpoi E aEXaponxol Movre; 610-11).Thesymmetrynoted is not only aes-theticallypleasingand an excellentmemoryaid for an oralpoethandlinga lengthycatalogue;t alsoplacesemphasisonOrionandHeraklesasmodel heroesfromanearlieragewho haveKkioin apositive sense, as opposed to Tityos, Sisyphos, and Tantalos. Armedhunters of beasts, unpunished in theirferocity,both charactersmaybe said to illuminate the concept of hero which fits Odysseus asslaughterer of the suitors.

32Heubeck in Alfred Heubeck and Arie Hoekstra, A Commentaryon Homer'sOdyssey (Oxford 1989) 2.111.33A. Heubeck, Der Odyssee-Dichterund die Ilias (Erlangen 1954) 33-35. Symmetri-cal structure is, of course, related to ring composition and chiastic form, all of thesebeing frequently used by oral poets. See, for example, A. B. Lord, The Singer ofTales (Cambridge, MA 1960) 119 and William Thalmann, Conventions of Form andThought in Early GreekEpic Poetry (Baltimore 1984) chap. 1.



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HERAKLES, DYSSEUS,AND THEBOW 53As the paramount hero from an earlier era, Herakles is the most

important mythological figure with whom Odysseus can be com-pared. The passages in Books 8 and 11 have been seen to introduceand reinforce the notion of a comparison which is later impliedin Book 21, when Herakles steps out of the past and becomes con-temporary with Odysseus. His anachronistic presence helps toemphasize the fact that Odysseus is part of an older age that isfading and already becoming legend. Odysseus, too, steps out ofthe past, as it were, to confront the suitors as his undisguised self.But details in the representation of Herakles do still more. The killingof the visitor in one's house, the emphasis on the guest table, theelement of surprise, the prominence of the bow, possibly even themotive of revenge over a bride, distinctly suggest the suitors' demise.Thus the story of the bow links Herakles and Odysseus in sucha way as to serve as a reminder of the negative side of Odysseus'triumph. Through retrospect it projects the tone and natureof the oncoming attack. Past and future stories of the two heroesare joined in this formidable likeness to help impart a resonance tothe instrument of Odysseus' victory.

KATHERINECRISSYHunterCollege

herakles, odysseus, and the bow: "odyssey" 21.11-41

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