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Homeric Gods and the Values of Homeric Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

A. W. H. Adkins
Affiliation:
University of Reading

Extract

A recent article has observed, with particular reference to the Homeric poems, that ‘divine intervention <cannot> be simply removed from the poems to leave a kernel of sociological truths’. I agree; though I should interpret the words in a manner different from their author. I shall endeavour to show in this article that not merely divine intervention, but divine behaviour as a whole in the Homeric poems, is governed by the same values as human behaviour in the poems; so that the ‘sociological truths’—or whatever they should be termed—can encompass divine as well as human behaviour in Homer. Nor, it seems to me, is this even prima facie surprising. True, the conversations on Olympus recorded in Homer are in one sense entirely free composition, since no bard in the tradition had ever met an Olympian or attended an assembly of the gods. But the bards lived in a society which—like later Greek societies that we are better able to observe—believed itself able to discern the hand of gods in the events which befell it or its several members; which, not surprisingly, attributed pleasant events to the favour of its gods, unpleasant events to the anger of its gods; enquired why the god or gods concerned was pleased or angry; and ascribed reasons for divine pleasure or anger analogous to those for which a powerful human being in the society might have been expected to become pleased or angry.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1972

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References

1 Long, A. A., ‘Morals and Values in Homer’ in JHS xc (1970) 122Google Scholar.

2 The problematical substance ἰχώρ, which is only mentioned twice in Homer, (Iliad v 339 and 416)Google Scholar, may well be an ad hoc explanation, devised for Book v, in which the gods not only come down and fight on the field of battle like humans, but are—in some cases—fighters very much inferior to Diomedes, to account for the fact that though Diomedes can wound Aphrodite he cannot kill her, for gods and goddesses are different in some way. At all events, ἰχώρ does not affect divine values in Homer.

3 (Clarendon, 1960) chapter ii 17 ff.

4 But see below, 15 f.

5 Similarly, Odyssey vi 329 f., Athena did not appear visibly to Odysseus, as a human niece might have done, and Apollo shows αἰδώς which prevents him opposing Poseidon, his πατροκασίγνητον, Iliad xxi 469.

6 See also below, 15 f. For discussion of the behaviour of the ἀγαθός when the demands of ἀρετή conflict with what is κατὰ μοῑραν, see Merit and Responsibility, chapters ii and iii, and my ‘Homeric Values and Homeric Society’ in JHS xci (1971) 13 f.

7 ‘“Honour” and “Punishment” in the Homeric Poems’ in BICS vii (1960) 23 ff.

8 Op. cit. 29.

10 Cf. especially Iliad ix 601 ff., discussed op. cit. 29.

11 Op. cit. passim, especially 31.

12 Op. cit. 31.

13 Iliad xvi 90. I discuss the passage, op. cit. 31.

14 τιμή and τίνειν are derived from different roots, but Homeric usage closely associates them; and it is usage, not etymology, that ‘gives a word its meaning’.

15 Op. cit. 30.

16 They speak of giving him a temple and many offerings on their return to Ithaca, Odyssey xii 345 ff.; but the Sun's speech makes it clear that the cattle had such value in his eyes that only the death of Odysseus' crew will suffice to compensate him for his loss.

17 Telemachus, , Odyssey ii 76Google Scholar ff., says that if all the suitors were inhabitants of Ithaca he might obtain τίσις by simply asking for restitution: τίσις occurs when there is restitution, whatever means are used.

18 Leocritus, , Odyssey ii 246Google Scholar ff., makes it clear that Odysseus could only have recovered his possessions by fighting for them.

19 It is doubtless for this reason that Poseidon, sea- and earthquake-god, is portrayed as being most ‘touchy’ about his τιμή: his anger is frequently observable in very serious human catastrophes.

20 See my ‘Εὔχομαι, εὖχος and εὐχωλή in Homer’ in CQ n.s. xix (1970) 20 ff.

21 For the implications of ἐπιτιμήτωρ, and for the other points raised here, see ‘“Honour” and “Punishment”’, 23 ff.

22 See below.

23 See my ‘“Friendship” and “Self-sufficiency” in Homer and Aristotle’ in CQ n.s. xii (1963) 30 ff.

24 Not all inducements need invoke the superhuman. Odysseus offers an argument from enlightened self-interest to the Cyclops, , Odyssey ix 351Google Scholar f.: if the Cyclops treats his guests badly, he will be left in isolation. The Cyclops is unmoved; but others might feel the force of Odysseus' words.

25 See Merit and Responsibility chapter iii 40 ff., and ‘Homeric Values and Homeric Society’ 7 ff.

26 Cf. ‘“Honour” and “Punishment” in the Homeric Poems’, passim.

27 ‘“Friendship” and “Self-Sufficiency” in Homer and Aristotle’ in CQ n.s. xii (1963) 33.

29 Cf. ‘“Honour” and “Punishment”’, 25.

30 ‘“Friendship” and “Self-sufficiency” in Homer and Aristotle’, 35. For τιμή, cf. ‘“Honour” and “Punishment”’, passim.

31 ‘“Friendship”, etc.’, 36.

32 Ctesippus' whole speech, 292 ff., is ironical in tone. (That it is Zeus who guarantees help to the κακός traveller is shown by Odyssey xiv 56 ff., which I discuss in ‘“Honour” and “Punishment”’, 25.)

33 See ‘“Honour” and “Punishment”’, 32.

34 Above, 2 ff., and Merit and Responsibility, 17 ff.

35 E.g. from a very much later period, Plato, Republic 362 C; and the ‘purification of poetry’ (prominently including the Homeric poems) of Republic ii and iii is inexplicable unless—as is abundantly clear from extant Greek literature as a whole— the beliefs that Plato reprehends were still widely held in his day.

36 The belief in inherited guilt appears in Delphi's excuse in Herodotus, it is true; but none the less Delphi maintains that the gods do show gratitude for favours rendered to them by mankind, so far as they are able to do so.