Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:19:18.345Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Homer and Thucydides: Corcyra and Sicily

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

C. J. Mackie
C. J. Mackie
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This article is concerned with reminiscences of Homer in Thucydides' History. The principal aim is to raise questions as to what extent Thucydides' account of the Sicilian venture is a conscious response to some Homeric journey narratives. Such questions are worth asking because Thucydides refers to the (mythical/Odyssean) Cyclopes and Laestrygonians at the beginning of his story (6.2). It will be argued that this reference is intended not solely for the sake of mythical history, but to broaden the context in which Athenian actions can be seen. As well as this direct mythical allusion there are other Homeric reminiscences, including topographical features, that help to convey the notion that the expedition to Sicily is a kind of heroic quest into the unknown that goes disastrously wrong. It is a venture of epic proportions with heroic aspirations, but one whose consequences have a grim and immediate reality. In the light of these Homeric associations, it is argued that the expedition to Sicily is to be seen both in its recent historical context (the Persians) and in its mythological (Homeric) context. The Athenians not only fail to learn the lessons of their most glorious military moments, but they also make the mistake of treading on the same disastrous path as Homer's Odysseus.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , May 1996 , pp. 103 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 On references to the Persians in the context of the Sicilian campaign, cf. 6.33.5–6; 6.76.3–4; 6.82–3(cf. 1.72ff.); 7.21.3. Connor, W. R, Thucydides (Princeton, 1984), pp. 158–68, refers to the ‘mythic pattern’ of the expedition, especially the notion of the nostos that goes disastrously wrong. The Melian dialogue is an important part of this pattern.Google Scholar

2 Indeed the Corcyra episode ( 1.24–55) has a ‘Homeric’ opening ( 1.24.1): for a discussion of the relevance of such an opening, see Hornblower, S, A Commentary on Thucydides Volume 1, Books I–III (Oxford, 1991), ad 1.24.1 (with further references). Hornblower's point that ‘Thucydides’ own personal education… surely included a grounding in the great epic poems' is a fundamental one that finds considerable support in this article.Google Scholar

3 The poetic clearly reinforces the Homeric connection. On the equation Corcyra/Scheria see Howie, J. G, ‘The Phaeacians in the Odyssey: Fable and Territorial Claim’, Shadow 6 (1989), 25ffGoogle Scholar

4 See Hainsworth's, J. B introduction to Odyssey 6 in Heubeck, West, Hainsworth, , A Commentary on Homer's Odyssey Volume I, Books I-VIII (Oxford, 1988), pp. 289–9Google Scholar

5 See Westlake, H. D, ‘Thucydides on Pausanias and Themistocles-A Written Source?’, CQ 27(1977), 95–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 Cf. Hornblower (above, n. 2) on 90.3 (): ‘what follows is a thoroughly Herodotean story, although the type of the “trickster” hero goes back further still, to the Homeric Odysseus’. In the Odyssean context it is worth noting that he plays his trick on the Spartans when he is in their territory, rather like Odysseus in Polyphemus' cave. Another latter-day Odysseus figure in the History is Alcibiades (on whom see below).

7 See Hornblower's note (above, n. 2) to 3.82–3.

8 ForPhaeacian piety, see 6.291 (Athena); 7.35 etc. (Poseidon); 7.136–8 (Hermes); 7.186–206 (their relationship with the gods).

9 A point not lost on Ullrich and Gomme; see Gomme, A. W, A Historical Commentary on Thucydides Vol. II, Books II-III (Oxford, 1979), ad 3.82Google Scholar

10 One that has not been entirely well received. Finley, M. I, in Thucydides. History of The Peloponnesian War, trans. Warner, R (Harmondsworth, 1986), calls it an ‘odd digression’, that Thucydides could not ‘resist the opportunity to parade a bit of learning about the distant past’ (pp. 18–19);Google Scholar cf. , Dover, in , Gomme, , Andrewes, , Dover, A Historical Commentary on Thucydides Vol. IV (Oxford, 1978), ‘it is to be presumed that he is either giving the result of personal research in Sicily or reproducing material from a little known written source’? (p. 198). The digression, apart from anything else, takes us back through the ages to a (mythical) time when similar things happened in a similar way. In this sense it does not function entirely as a digression.Google Scholar

11 Cf. Hornblower (above n. 2). Homer is not the only poet to deal with this theme (even if he is the pre-eminent one), and it is not my intention to deny the importance of the general cultural tradition. Euripides, for instance, sets the Cyclops, the date of which is uncertain, near Mount Etna. It is clear that by the fifth century B.C. Sicily was perceived to be the home for Homer's cannibals, including Scylla and Charybdis (cf. Hecataeus 1 F82 [Jacoby] and Thuc. 4.24); see Dover's note on Trinakria (ad 6.2.2). Therefore this aspect, as in the case of Corcyra/Scheria, is not a Thucydidean innovation.

12 Münch, H, Studien zu den Excursen des Thukydides (Heidelberg, 1935), pp. 42ff.; 49ff.Google Scholar

13 For Priam's palace on the heights of Troy, see 6.317 and 6.512; for Achilles' camp at one end of the army, see 8.222–6 (═ 11.5–9). The point about all of this is that Achilles and Priam are as distant from one another, physically speaking, as it is possible to be in the context of the siege of Troy. Suffering and grief in common, however, help to draw the two together.

14 The portal often symbolizes a taboo against entering a foreign environment. To cross over the threshold is to unite oneself with a new and possibly very dangerous world (see Van Gennep, A, The Rites of Passage [London, 1977; orig. publ. 1909], pp. 19–20;Google ScholarTurner, V.W, ‘Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage’, in The Forest of Symbols [Cornell, 1967], pp. 93–111). Hades of course is often characterized by its powerful gates (cf. Il. 5.397; 8.367; 9.312; 13.415; 23.71ff.). For full details of ancient sources, seeGoogle ScholarUsener, H, Kleine Schriften (Osnabruck, 1965), Vol. iv, pp. 226–8.Google Scholar

15 They must of course go out of their own gates too, although this is not described. On the subject of huge gates and doors it is worthwhile to draw attention to the eagle that comes as a positive omen for Priam (24.315ff.). This eagle is not only ‘dark’ (, 316, appropriately for a journey through darkness), but is also noticeably large. Its wing span on either side is as huge as a rich man's door with strongly fitted door-bars (24.317–19). This goes some way to conveying the greatness of the bird as the messenger of Zeus, and also the emphatic nature of the omen. That it should be likened to a door of a high-roofed chamber with huge bars has particular resonances with the later part of the book, where Achilles' door is given similar features. On this topic, see most recently Anhalt, E. Katz, CQ 45 (1995), 280–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 Some refer to Priam's journey as a symbolic ‘catabasis’, although my own view is that it simply shares certain motifs with the ‘catabatic’ journey. Both journeys essentially deal with the confrontation with death. See Robert, F, Homere (Paris, 1950), pp. 200–204;Google ScholarWhitman, C. H, Homer and the Heroic Tradition (Cambridge, MA, 1958), pp. 217ff.;CrossRefGoogle ScholarNagler, M. N, Spontaneity and Tradition (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1974), pp. 184ff.;Google ScholarClark, Raymond J, Catabasis. Vergil and the Wisdom Tradition (Amsterdam, 1979), p. 136, n. 45;Google ScholarWillcock, M. M, A Companion to the Iliad (Chicago and London, 1976), pp. 269–70;Google ScholarMueller, M, Thelliad (London, 1984), p. 74;Google ScholarWathelet, P, ‘Priam aux Enfers ou le retour du corps d'Hector’, LEC 56 (1988), 321–35.Google Scholar

17 Cf. Od. 9.312–14, 336–43, 417–19.

18 Polyphemus could presumably have eaten Odysseus whenever he wanted (9.369ff.). One aspect of Odysseus' metis is not to kill Polyphemus, because this would mean that they would all perish in the cave (9.299ff.).

19 As it is with many dangerous ‘labyrinthine’ journeys: ‘facilis descensus Auerno…/sed reuocare gradum superasque euadere ad auras,/hoc opus, hie labor est’ (Aen. 6.126–9).

20 See Frame, D, The Myth of Return in Early Greek Epic (New Haven and London, 1978), pp. 57ff.Google Scholar

21 On Homeric harbours, see Nestle, W, ‘Odysseelandschaften’ in Griechische Studien (Stuttgart, 1948), pp. 38–9.Google Scholar

22 It is worth bearing in mind how many of the dangers that Odysseus and his men face involve eating or being eaten. Apart from the Cyclopes and Laestrygonians, one thinks of the Lotus-eaters (9.82ff.), Scylla and Charybdis (12.222ff.), and the Cattle of the Sun (12.260ff.). Likewise, the vast stretch of sea which Odysseus crosses (, gulf, abyss) is itself a kind of chasm (cf. , throat) which may consume him at any time. In Odysseus' absence, of course, the suitors eat up the livelihood of his house, which has its own fatal consequences.

23 Dover (above, n. 10), ad 6.1.2, points out that Ephorus' estimate for the circumnavigation of Sicily was five days not the eight days of Thucydides. The variation in the two figures may be the result of different methods of calculation, but there is no doubt that Thucydides seeks initially to stress the extent of (or even exaggerate?) the task that Athens embarks upon.

24 On 2.65.11 and the narrative of Book 6, see Connor (above, n. 1), p. 158, n. 2.

25 On the Athenian desire for money and acquisitions, see especially 6.1; 6.6; 6.8; 6.15; 6.24; 6.31; 6.46; 6.90. Odysseus' desire to acquire gifts (Od. 9.224ff., 267ff.) is a principal reason for the trouble that they find themselves in with Polyphemus, and it would also seem to be a cause of friction between Odysseus and his companions.

26 One speculative aspect worth considering is the element of descent that is indicated in the two accounts (cf. Priam and Idaeus, , 24.327; , 24.329; the Athenians, , 6.30).

27 Cf. Alcestis, who describes herself , Alcestis 191. The only other heroes in the Iliad who go are Patroclus (16.693) and Hector (22.297), both of whom, unlike Priam, are actually killed in the course of the poem.

28 Cf. Il. 10.37ff. where Menelaus comes upon Agamemnon, and states that anyone who went through immortal night (, 41; cf. 24.363) into the enemy zone would be very bold-hearted. The venture of Diomedes and Odysseus through the night into the enemy camp (the ‘Doloneia’) is an Iliadic precedent for the journey on which Priam embarks.

29 On rites of separation, including Spartan sacrifice, see Van Gennep (above n. 14), esp. pp. 19–20. The Athenians sing hymns and pour libations prior to their departure (6.32) which are referred to again at 7.75.7. Nicias, of course, is prone to vacillation out of an interest in omens; see the eclipse at 7.50.4; cf. the thunder at 7.79. On this and related subjects, see Powell, A, ‘Religion and the Sicilian expedition’, Historia 28 (1979), 15–31;Google ScholarJordan, Borimir, ‘Religion in Thucydides’, TAPhA 116 (1986), 119–47, esp. 144–6.Google Scholar

30 See Osborne, R, ‘The erection and mutilation of the Hermai’, PCPhSM 31 (1985), 41–73. The herm features as a boundary marker to the Underworld in Apulian iconography, and Dr Olga Palagia (University of Athens) has argued to me that it has a similar function in Hellenistic funerary iconography.Google Scholar

31 The race to Aegina seems to function as a rather playful and pleasant start to a journey which turns into a military disaster. Connor (above n. 1), p. 175, n. 43, compares the race with that in Herodotus 7.44, in which Xerxes watches a rowing contest at Abydus on the Hellespont (and hence near to Troy). The reference reminds us that Herodotus' treatment of the Persian invasion of Greece with its own Homeric reminiscences is never very far from Thucydides' Sicilian account.

32 Another aspect of this is that the Athenians sail to a place which was synonymous with death and slavery in Homer's Odyssey. This is the likely implication of the suitors' threat to put the strangers (Theoclymenus/Odysseus) in a boat and send them where they would fetch a good price (Od. 20.383). In this Odyssean sense Sicily is not the place one wants to be sent. This is true too for the Athenians and their allies in the History, whose eventual fate is either to be killed or sold into slavery (7.87).

33 Thucydides also pays attention to the two armies who watch the conflict in the harbour (7.71). Of particular concern in this description is the response of the Athenian spectators, and most especially the terrible fear and panic that the defeat creates. In the context of the war at Troy it is worth bearing in mind the fear and suffering endured by the Trojan spectators (esp. in response to Hector's death, Il. 22.405ff.). Priam and Hecuba are so near to Hector that they can call out and talk to him (22.33ff., 79ff.). Likewise the Athenians are very near to their comrades (, 7.71.3), but at the same time are utterly unable to alter the result of the sea-battle. In this sense Nicias' earlier words to the Athenians ring true, that the besiegers have become the besieged (7.11.4).

34 Cf. the attack on Demosthenes and his men at 7.81, who come under a volley of missiles from the Syracusans; see too 7.83.

35 In the final chapters of his account, see 7.60; 7.75; 7.77–8; 7.83–7.

36 It is worth noting that the theme of the sole survivor of a military rout is found in the Persian campaigns too. In Herodotus' account of the battle of Thermopylae (7.229–32) only one man of the three hundred Spartans, Aristodemus, survives their defeat by the Persians.

37 On Thucydides and the poets, including Homer, see Macleod, C, ‘Thucydides and Tragedy’, in Collected Essays, O., Taplin (ed.) (Oxford, 1983), pp. 140–58, esp. 157–8;Google Scholar and more recently Hornblower, S, A Commentary on Thucydides Vol. 1 (Oxford, 1991), passim;Google Scholar and S., Hornblower (ed.), Greek Historiography (Oxford, 1994), especially pp. 9–10 and 64–9.Google Scholar

38 ‘(There is) proof of a pretty thorough knowledge of Homer; but it is still not strict proof of Homeric influence on the wartime narrative, or speeches. Such strict proof is perhaps not to be had’, Greek Historiography (Oxford, 1994), p. 65.Google Scholar

39 CQ's anonymous referee points out to me, inter alia, that the new Simonides (P. Oxy. 3965) seems to be a n epic treatment of recent historical events in which a n explicit comparison is made between the Persian and Trojan wars (see Handley, , Ioannidou, Parsons, Whitehorne, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri Volume LIX [London, 1992], pp. 4–50). Simonides seems to see his task as to confer immortality on the Persian war, as Homer did with Troy. In the light of this it is conceivable that both Simonides and Herodotus have their parts to play in influencing Thucydides' response to Homer.Google Scholar

40 Strasburger, H, ‘Thukydides und die politische Selbstdarstellung der Athener’, Hermes 86 (1958), 17–40, at 39 n. 3; Dover (above, n. 10), ad 7.87.6;Google ScholarMarinatos Kopff, N and Rawlings, H. R, ‘Panolethria and divine punishment. Thuc. 7.87.6. and Hdt. 2.120.5’, La Parola delPassalo 33 (1978), 331–7; Connor (above, n. 1), p. 208, n. 57;Google ScholarHornblower, S, Thucydides (London, 1987), p. 148, n. 48.Google Scholar

41 This does not mean of course that verbal echoes of Homer are not to be found. Hornblower (Greek Historiography, pp. 67–8) discusses some cases where Homeric language (or thought) enhances a rhetorical setting: Nicias encouraging his men at 7.69 (esp. ), cf. Agamemnon at Il. 10.68; Nicias again at 7.77.7, cf. Ajax at Il. 15.733–41; the difficulties of knowing the facts in a battle fought at night, 7.44, cf. Il. 12.176; Hermocrates' description of Sicily as (4.64.3), which recalls Odysseus' description of Crete (Od. 19.173). No doubt there are others, but it is clear that the prominence of Homeric thought in the Sicilian books is not reflected in the language.

42 I am grateful to CQ's anonymous referees for helpful comments and criticisms; and to K. E. Block and P. D. Salmond for their critical advice.