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BOOK XXIV
THE GHOSTS OF THE SUITORS IN HADES—ULYSSES AND HIS MEN GO TO THE HOUSE
OF LAERTES—THE PEOPLE OF ITHACA COME OUT TO ATTACK ULYSSES, BUT MINERVA
CONCLUDES A PEACE.
Then Mercury of Cyllene summoned the ghosts of the suitors, and in his
hand he held the fair golden wand with which he seals men’s eyes in
sleep or wakes them just as he pleases; with this he roused the ghosts
and led them, while they followed whining and gibbering behind him. As
bats fly squealing in the hollow of some great cave, when one of them
has fallen out of the cluster in which they hang, even so did the
ghosts whine and squeal as Mercury the healer of sorrow led them down
into the dark abode of death. When they had passed the waters of
Oceanus and the rock Leucas, they came to the gates of the sun and the
land of dreams, whereon they reached the meadow of asphodel where dwell
the souls and shadows of them that can labour no more.
Here they found the ghost of Achilles son of Peleus, with those of
Patroclus, Antilochus, and Ajax, who was the finest and handsomest man
of all the Danaans after the son of Peleus himself.
They gathered round the ghost of the son of Peleus, and the ghost of
Agamemnon joined them, sorrowing bitterly. Round him were gathered also
the ghosts of those who had perished with him in the house of
Aegisthus; and the ghost of Achilles spoke first.
“Son of Atreus,” it said, “we used to say that Jove had loved you
better from first to last than any other hero, for you were captain
over many and brave men, when we were all fighting together before
Troy; yet the hand of death, which no mortal can escape, was laid upon
you all too early. Better for you had you fallen at Troy in the hey-day
of your renown, for the Achaeans would have built a mound over your
ashes, and your son would have been heir to your good name, whereas it
has now been your lot to come to a most miserable end.”
“Happy son of Peleus,” answered the ghost of Agamemnon, “for having
died at Troy far from Argos, while the bravest of the Trojans and the
Achaeans fell round you fighting for your body. There you lay in the
whirling clouds of dust, all huge and hugely, heedless now of your
chivalry. We fought the whole of the livelong day, nor should we ever
have left off if Jove had not sent a hurricane to stay us. Then, when
we had borne you to the ships out of the fray, we laid you on your bed
and cleansed your fair skin with warm water and with ointments. The
Danaans tore their hair and wept bitterly round about you. Your mother,
when she heard, came with her immortal nymphs from out of the sea, and
the sound of a great wailing went forth over the waters so that the
Achaeans quaked for fear. They would have fled panic-stricken to their
ships had not wise old Nestor whose counsel was ever truest checked
them saying, ‘Hold, Argives, fly not sons of the Achaeans, this is his
mother coming from the sea with her immortal nymphs to view the body of
her son.’
“Thus he spoke, and the Achaeans feared no more. The daughters of the
old man of the sea stood round you weeping bitterly, and clothed you in
immortal raiment. The nine muses also came and lifted up their sweet
voices in lament—calling and answering one another; there was not an
Argive but wept for pity of the dirge they chaunted. Days and nights
seven and ten we mourned you, mortals and immortals, but on the
eighteenth day we gave you to the flames, and many a fat sheep with
many an ox did we slay in sacrifice around you. You were burnt in
raiment of the gods, with rich resins and with honey, while heroes,
horse and foot, clashed their armour round the pile as you were
burning, with the tramp as of a great multitude. But when the flames of
heaven had done their work, we gathered your white bones at daybreak
and laid them in ointments and in pure wine. Your mother brought us a
golden vase to hold them—gift of Bacchus, and work of Vulcan himself;
in this we mingled your bleached bones with those of Patroclus who had
gone before you, and separate we enclosed also those of Antilochus, who
had been closer to you than any other of your comrades now that
Patroclus was no more.
“Over these the host of the Argives built a noble tomb, on a point
jutting out over the open Hellespont, that it might be seen from far
out upon the sea by those now living and by them that shall be born
hereafter. Your mother begged prizes from the gods, and offered them to
be contended for by the noblest of the Achaeans. You must have been
present at the funeral of many a hero, when the young men gird
themselves and make ready to contend for prizes on the death of some
great chieftain, but you never saw such prizes as silver-footed Thetis
offered in your honour; for the gods loved you well. Thus even in death
your fame, Achilles, has not been lost, and your name lives evermore
among all mankind. But as for me, what solace had I when the days of my
fighting were done? For Jove willed my destruction on my return, by the
hands of Aegisthus and those of my wicked wife.”
Thus did they converse, and presently Mercury came up to them with the
ghosts of the suitors who had been killed by Ulysses. The ghosts of
Agamemnon and Achilles were astonished at seeing them, and went up to
them at once. The ghost of Agamemnon recognised Amphimedon son of
Melaneus, who lived in Ithaca and had been his host, so it began to
talk to him.
“Amphimedon,” it said, “what has happened to all you fine young men—all
of an age too—that you are come down here under the ground? One could
pick no finer body of men from any city. Did Neptune raise his winds
and waves against you when you were at sea, or did your enemies make an
end of you on the mainland when you were cattle-lifting or
sheep-stealing, or while fighting in defence of their wives and city?
Answer my question, for I have been your guest. Do you not remember how
I came to your house with Menelaus, to persuade Ulysses to join us with
his ships against Troy? It was a whole month ere we could resume our
voyage, for we had hard work to persuade Ulysses to come with us.”
And the ghost of Amphimedon answered, “Agamemnon, son of Atreus, king
of men, I remember everything that you have said, and will tell you
fully and accurately about the way in which our end was brought about.
Ulysses had been long gone, and we were courting his wife, who did not
say point blank that she would not marry, nor yet bring matters to an
end, for she meant to compass our destruction: this, then, was the
trick she played us. She set up a great tambour frame in her room and
began to work on an enormous piece of fine needlework. ‘Sweethearts,’
said she, ‘Ulysses is indeed dead, still, do not press me to marry
again immediately; wait—for I would not have my skill in needlework
perish unrecorded—till I have completed a pall for the hero Laertes,
against the time when death shall take him. He is very rich, and the
women of the place will talk if he is laid out without a pall.’ This is
what she said, and we assented; whereupon we could see her working upon
her great web all day long, but at night she would unpick the stitches
again by torchlight. She fooled us in this way for three years without
our finding it out, but as time wore on and she was now in her fourth
year, in the waning of moons and many days had been accomplished, one
of her maids who knew what she was doing told us, and we caught her in
the act of undoing her work, so she had to finish it whether she would
or no; and when she showed us the robe she had made, after she had had
it washed,186 its splendour was as that of the sun or moon.
“Then some malicious god conveyed Ulysses to the upland farm where his
swineherd lives. Thither presently came also his son, returning from a
voyage to Pylos, and the two came to the town when they had hatched
their plot for our destruction. Telemachus came first, and then after
him, accompanied by the swineherd, came Ulysses, clad in rags and
leaning on a staff as though he were some miserable old beggar. He came
so unexpectedly that none of us knew him, not even the older ones among
us, and we reviled him and threw things at him. He endured both being
struck and insulted without a word, though he was in his own house; but
when the will of Aegis-bearing Jove inspired him, he and Telemachus
took the armour and hid it in an inner chamber, bolting the doors
behind them. Then he cunningly made his wife offer his bow and a
quantity of iron to be contended for by us ill-fated suitors; and this
was the beginning of our end, for not one of us could string the
bow—nor nearly do so. When it was about to reach the hands of Ulysses,
we all of us shouted out that it should not be given him, no matter
what he might say, but Telemachus insisted on his having it. When he
had got it in his hands he strung it with ease and sent his arrow
through the iron. Then he stood on the floor of the cloister and poured
his arrows on the ground, glaring fiercely about him. First he killed
Antinous, and then, aiming straight before him, he let fly his deadly
darts and they fell thick on one another. It was plain that some one of
the gods was helping them, for they fell upon us with might and main
throughout the cloisters, and there was a hideous sound of groaning as
our brains were being battered in, and the ground seethed with our
blood. This, Agamemnon, is how we came by our end, and our bodies are
lying still uncared for in the house of Ulysses, for our friends at
home do not yet know what has happened, so that they cannot lay us out
and wash the black blood from our wounds, making moan over us according
to the offices due to the departed.”
“Happy Ulysses, son of Laertes,” replied the ghost of Agamemnon, “you
are indeed blessed in the possession of a wife endowed with such rare
excellence of understanding, and so faithful to her wedded lord as
Penelope the daughter of Icarius. The fame, therefore, of her virtue
shall never die, and the immortals shall compose a song that shall be
welcome to all mankind in honour of the constancy of Penelope. How far
otherwise was the wickedness of the daughter of Tyndareus who killed
her lawful husband; her song shall be hateful among men, for she has
brought disgrace on all womankind even on the good ones.”
Thus did they converse in the house of Hades deep down within the
bowels of the earth. Meanwhile Ulysses and the others passed out of the
town and soon reached the fair and well-tilled farm of Laertes, which
he had reclaimed with infinite labour. Here was his house, with a
lean-to running all round it, where the slaves who worked for him slept
and sat and ate, while inside the house there was an old Sicel woman,
who looked after him in this his country-farm. When Ulysses got there,
he said to his son and to the other two:
“Go to the house, and kill the best pig that you can find for dinner.
Meanwhile I want to see whether my father will know me, or fail to
recognise me after so long an absence.”
He then took off his armour and gave it to Eumaeus and Philoetius, who
went straight on to the house, while he turned off into the vineyard to
make trial of his father. As he went down into the great orchard, he
did not see Dolius, nor any of his sons nor of the other bondsmen, for
they were all gathering thorns to make a fence for the vineyard, at the
place where the old man had told them; he therefore found his father
alone, hoeing a vine. He had on a dirty old shirt, patched and very
shabby; his legs were bound round with thongs of oxhide to save him
from the brambles, and he also wore sleeves of leather; he had a goat
skin cap on his head, and was looking very woe-begone. When Ulysses saw
him so worn, so old and full of sorrow, he stood still under a tall
pear tree and began to weep. He doubted whether to embrace him, kiss
him, and tell him all about his having come home, or whether he should
first question him and see what he would say. In the end he deemed it
best to be crafty with him, so in this mind he went up to his father,
who was bending down and digging about a plant.
“I see, sir,” said Ulysses, “that you are an excellent gardener—what
pains you take with it, to be sure. There is not a single plant, not a
fig tree, vine, olive, pear, nor flower bed, but bears the trace of
your attention. I trust, however, that you will not be offended if I
say that you take better care of your garden than of yourself. You are
old, unsavoury, and very meanly clad. It cannot be because you are idle
that your master takes such poor care of you, indeed your face and
figure have nothing of the slave about them, and proclaim you of noble
birth. I should have said that you were one of those who should wash
well, eat well, and lie soft at night as old men have a right to do;
but tell me, and tell me true, whose bondman are you, and in whose
garden are you working? Tell me also about another matter. Is this
place that I have come to really Ithaca? I met a man just now who said
so, but he was a dull fellow, and had not the patience to hear my story
out when I was asking him about an old friend of mine, whether he was
still living, or was already dead and in the house of Hades. Believe me
when I tell you that this man came to my house once when I was in my
own country and never yet did any stranger come to me whom I liked
better. He said that his family came from Ithaca and that his father
was Laertes, son of Arceisius. I received him hospitably, making him
welcome to all the abundance of my house, and when he went away I gave
him all customary presents. I gave him seven talents of fine gold, and
a cup of solid silver with flowers chased upon it. I gave him twelve
light cloaks, and as many pieces of tapestry; I also gave him twelve
cloaks of single fold, twelve rugs, twelve fair mantles, and an equal
number of shirts. To all this I added four good looking women skilled
in all useful arts, and I let him take his choice.”
His father shed tears and answered, “Sir, you have indeed come to the
country that you have named, but it is fallen into the hands of wicked
people. All this wealth of presents has been given to no purpose. If
you could have found your friend here alive in Ithaca, he would have
entertained you hospitably and would have requited your presents amply
when you left him—as would have been only right considering what you
had already given him. But tell me, and tell me true, how many years is
it since you entertained this guest—my unhappy son, as ever was? Alas!
He has perished far from his own country; the fishes of the sea have
eaten him, or he has fallen a prey to the birds and wild beasts of some
continent. Neither his mother, nor I his father, who were his parents,
could throw our arms about him and wrap him in his shroud, nor could
his excellent and richly dowered wife Penelope bewail her husband as
was natural upon his death bed, and close his eyes according to the
offices due to the departed. But now, tell me truly for I want to know.
Who and whence are you—tell me of your town and parents? Where is the
ship lying that has brought you and your men to Ithaca? Or were you a
passenger on some other man’s ship, and those who brought you here have
gone on their way and left you?”
“I will tell you everything,” answered Ulysses, “quite truly. I come
from Alybas, where I have a fine house. I am son of king Apheidas, who
is the son of Polypemon. My own name is Eperitus; heaven drove me off
my course as I was leaving Sicania, and I have been carried here
against my will. As for my ship it is lying over yonder, off the open
country outside the town, and this is the fifth year since Ulysses left
my country. Poor fellow, yet the omens were good for him when he left
me. The birds all flew on our right hands, and both he and I rejoiced
to see them as we parted, for we had every hope that we should have
another friendly meeting and exchange presents.”
A dark cloud of sorrow fell upon Laertes as he listened. He filled both
hands with the dust from off the ground and poured it over his grey
head, groaning heavily as he did so. The heart of Ulysses was touched,
and his nostrils quivered as he looked upon his father; then he sprang
towards him, flung his arms about him and kissed him, saying, “I am he,
father, about whom you are asking—I have returned after having been
away for twenty years. But cease your sighing and lamentation—we have
no time to lose, for I should tell you that I have been killing the
suitors in my house, to punish them for their insolence and crimes.”
“If you really are my son Ulysses,” replied Laertes, “and have come
back again, you must give me such manifest proof of your identity as
shall convince me.”
“First observe this scar,” answered Ulysses, “which I got from a boar’s
tusk when I was hunting on Mt. Parnassus. You and my mother had sent me
to Autolycus, my mother’s father, to receive the presents which when he
was over here he had promised to give me. Furthermore I will point out
to you the trees in the vineyard which you gave me, and I asked you all
about them as I followed you round the garden. We went over them all,
and you told me their names and what they all were. You gave me
thirteen pear trees, ten apple trees, and forty fig trees; you also
said you would give me fifty rows of vines; there was corn planted
between each row, and they yield grapes of every kind when the heat of
heaven has been laid heavy upon them.”
Laertes’ strength failed him when he heard the convincing proofs which
his son had given him. He threw his arms about him, and Ulysses had to
support him, or he would have gone off into a swoon; but as soon as he
came to, and was beginning to recover his senses, he said, “O father
Jove, then you gods are still in Olympus after all, if the suitors have
really been punished for their insolence and folly. Nevertheless, I am
much afraid that I shall have all the townspeople of Ithaca up here
directly, and they will be sending messengers everywhere throughout the
cities of the Cephallenians.”
Ulysses answered, “Take heart and do not trouble yourself about that,
but let us go into the house hard by your garden. I have already told
Telemachus, Philoetius, and Eumaeus to go on there and get dinner ready
as soon as possible.”
Thus conversing the two made their way towards the house. When they got
there they found Telemachus with the stockman and the swineherd cutting
up meat and mixing wine with water. Then the old Sicel woman took
Laertes inside and washed him and anointed him with oil. She put him on
a good cloak, and Minerva came up to him and gave him a more imposing
presence, making him taller and stouter than before. When he came back
his son was surprised to see him looking so like an immortal, and said
to him, “My dear father, some one of the gods has been making you much
taller and better-looking.”
Laertes answered, “Would, by Father Jove, Minerva, and Apollo, that I
were the man I was when I ruled among the Cephallenians, and took
Nericum, that strong fortress on the foreland. If I were still what I
then was and had been in our house yesterday with my armour on, I
should have been able to stand by you and help you against the suitors.
I should have killed a great many of them, and you would have rejoiced
to see it.”
Thus did they converse; but the others, when they had finished their
work and the feast was ready, left off working, and took each his
proper place on the benches and seats. Then they began eating; by and
by old Dolius and his sons left their work and came up, for their
mother, the Sicel woman who looked after Laertes now that he was
growing old, had been to fetch them. When they saw Ulysses and were
certain it was he, they stood there lost in astonishment; but Ulysses
scolded them good naturedly and said, “Sit down to your dinner, old
man, and never mind about your surprise; we have been wanting to begin
for some time and have been waiting for you.”
Then Dolius put out both his hands and went up to Ulysses. “Sir,” said
he, seizing his master’s hand and kissing it at the wrist, “we have
long been wishing you home: and now heaven has restored you to us after
we had given up hoping. All hail, therefore, and may the gods prosper
you.187 But tell me, does Penelope already know of your return, or
shall we send some one to tell her?”
“Old man,” answered Ulysses, “she knows already, so you need not
trouble about that.” On this he took his seat, and the sons of Dolius
gathered round Ulysses to give him greeting and embrace him one after
the other; then they took their seats in due order near Dolius their
father.
While they were thus busy getting their dinner ready, Rumour went round
the town, and noised abroad the terrible fate that had befallen the
suitors; as soon, therefore, as the people heard of it they gathered
from every quarter, groaning and hooting before the house of Ulysses.
They took the dead away, buried every man his own, and put the bodies
of those who came from elsewhere on board the fishing vessels, for the
fishermen to take each of them to his own place. They then met angrily
in the place of assembly, and when they were got together Eupeithes
rose to speak. He was overwhelmed with grief for the death of his son
Antinous, who had been the first man killed by Ulysses, so he said,
weeping bitterly, “My friends, this man has done the Achaeans great
wrong. He took many of our best men away with him in his fleet, and he
has lost both ships and men; now, moreover, on his return he has been
killing all the foremost men among the Cephallenians. Let us be up and
doing before he can get away to Pylos or to Elis where the Epeans rule,
or we shall be ashamed of ourselves for ever afterwards. It will be an
everlasting disgrace to us if we do not avenge the murder of our sons
and brothers. For my own part I should have no more pleasure in life,
but had rather die at once. Let us be up, then, and after them, before
they can cross over to the main land.”
He wept as he spoke and every one pitied him. But Medon and the bard
Phemius had now woke up, and came to them from the house of Ulysses.
Every one was astonished at seeing them, but they stood in the middle
of the assembly, and Medon said, “Hear me, men of Ithaca. Ulysses did
not do these things against the will of heaven. I myself saw an
immortal god take the form of Mentor and stand beside him. This god
appeared, now in front of him encouraging him, and now going furiously
about the court and attacking the suitors whereon they fell thick on
one another.”
On this pale fear laid hold of them, and old Halitherses, son of
Mastor, rose to speak, for he was the only man among them who knew both
past and future; so he spoke to them plainly and in all honesty,
saying,
“Men of Ithaca, it is all your own fault that things have turned out as
they have; you would not listen to me, nor yet to Mentor, when we bade
you check the folly of your sons who were doing much wrong in the
wantonness of their hearts—wasting the substance and dishonouring the
wife of a chieftain who they thought would not return. Now, however,
let it be as I say, and do as I tell you. Do not go out against
Ulysses, or you may find that you have been drawing down evil on your
own heads.”
This was what he said, and more than half raised a loud shout, and at
once left the assembly. But the rest stayed where they were, for the
speech of Halitherses displeased them, and they sided with Eupeithes;
they therefore hurried off for their armour, and when they had armed
themselves, they met together in front of the city, and Eupeithes led
them on in their folly. He thought he was going to avenge the murder of
his son, whereas in truth he was never to return, but was himself to
perish in his attempt.
Then Minerva said to Jove, “Father, son of Saturn, king of kings,
answer me this question—What do you propose to do? Will you set them
fighting still further, or will you make peace between them?”
And Jove answered, “My child, why should you ask me? Was it not by your
own arrangement that Ulysses came home and took his revenge upon the
suitors? Do whatever you like, but I will tell you what I think will be
most reasonable arrangement. Now that Ulysses is revenged, let them
swear to a solemn covenant, in virtue of which he shall continue to
rule, while we cause the others to forgive and forget the massacre of
their sons and brothers. Let them then all become friends as
heretofore, and let peace and plenty reign.”
This was what Minerva was already eager to bring about, so down she
darted from off the topmost summits of Olympus.
Now when Laertes and the others had done dinner, Ulysses began by
saying, “Some of you go out and see if they are not getting close up to
us.” So one of Dolius’s sons went as he was bid. Standing on the
threshold he could see them all quite near, and said to Ulysses, “Here
they are, let us put on our armour at once.”
They put on their armour as fast as they could—that is to say Ulysses,
his three men, and the six sons of Dolius. Laertes also and Dolius did
the same—warriors by necessity in spite of their grey hair. When they
had all put on their armour, they opened the gate and sallied forth,
Ulysses leading the way.
Then Jove’s daughter Minerva came up to them, having assumed the form
and voice of Mentor. Ulysses was glad when he saw her, and said to his
son Telemachus, “Telemachus, now that you are about to fight in an
engagement, which will show every man’s mettle, be sure not to disgrace
your ancestors, who were eminent for their strength and courage all the
world over.”
“You say truly, my dear father,” answered Telemachus, “and you shall
see, if you will, that I am in no mind to disgrace your family.”
Laertes was delighted when he heard this. “Good heavens,” he exclaimed,
“what a day I am enjoying: I do indeed rejoice at it. My son and
grandson are vying with one another in the matter of valour.”
On this Minerva came close up to him and said, “Son of Arceisius—-best
friend I have in the world—pray to the blue-eyed damsel, and to Jove
her father; then poise your spear and hurl it.”
As she spoke she infused fresh vigour into him, and when he had prayed
to her he poised his spear and hurled it. He hit Eupeithes’ helmet, and
the spear went right through it, for the helmet stayed it not, and his
armour rang rattling round him as he fell heavily to the ground.
Meantime Ulysses and his son fell upon the front line of the foe and
smote them with their swords and spears; indeed, they would have killed
every one of them, and prevented them from ever getting home again,
only Minerva raised her voice aloud, and made every one pause. “Men of
Ithaca,” she cried, “cease this dreadful war, and settle the matter at
once without further bloodshed.”
On this pale fear seized every one; they were so frightened that their
arms dropped from their hands and fell upon the ground at the sound of
the goddess’ voice, and they fled back to the city for their lives. But
Ulysses gave a great cry, and gathering himself together swooped down
like a soaring eagle. Then the son of Saturn sent a thunderbolt of fire
that fell just in front of Minerva, so she said to Ulysses, “Ulysses,
noble son of Laertes, stop this warful strife, or Jove will be angry
with you.”
Thus spoke Minerva, and Ulysses obeyed her gladly. Then Minerva assumed
the form and voice of Mentor, and presently made a covenant of peace
between the two contending parties.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] [ Black races are evidently known to the writer as stretching all
across Africa, one half looking West on to the Atlantic, and the other
East on to the Indian Ocean.]
[2] [ The original use of the footstool was probably less to rest the
feet than to keep them (especially when bare) from a floor which was
often wet and dirty.]
[3] [ The θρόνος or seat, is occasionally called “high,” as being
higher than the θρῆνυς or low footstool. It was probably no higher than
an ordinary chair is now, and seems to have had no back.]
[4] [ Temesa was on the West Coast of the toe of Italy, in what is now
the gulf of Sta Eufemia. It was famous in remote times for its copper
mines, which, however, were worked out when Strabo wrote.]
[5] [ i.e. “with a current in it”—see illustrations and map near the
end of bks. v. and vi. respectively.]
[6] [ Reading Νηρίτῳ for Νηίῳ, cf. “Od.” iii. 81 where the same mistake
is made, and xiii. 351 where the mountain is called Neritum, the same
place being intended both here and in book xiii.]
[7] [ It is never plausibly explained why Penelope cannot do this, and
from bk. ii. it is clear that she kept on deliberately encouraging the
suitors, though we are asked to believe that she was only fooling
them.]
[8] [ See note on “Od.” i. 365.]
[9] [ Middle Argos means the Peleponnese which, however, is never so
called in the “Iliad”. I presume “middle” means “middle between the two
Greek-speaking countries of Asia Minor and Sicily, with South Italy”;
for that parts of Sicily and also large parts, though not the whole of
South Italy, were inhabited by Greek-speaking races centuries before
the Dorian colonisations can hardly be doubted. The Sicians, and also
the Sicels, both of them probably spoke Greek.]
[10] [ cf. “Il.” vi. 490-495. In the “Iliad” it is “war,” not “speech,”
that is a man’s matter. It argues a certain hardness, or at any rate
dislike of the “Iliad” on the part of the writer of the “Odyssey,” that
she should have adopted Hector’s farewell to Andromache here, as
elsewhere in the poem, for a scene of such inferior pathos.]
[11] [ μέγαρα σκιοέντα The whole open court with the covered cloister
running round it was called μέγαρον, or μέγαρα, but the covered part
was distinguished by being called “shady” or “shadow-giving”. It was in
this part that the tables for the suitors were laid. The Fountain Court
at Hampton Court may serve as an illustration (save as regards the use
of arches instead of wooden supports and rafters) and the arrangement
is still common in Sicily. The usual translation “shadowy” or “dusky”
halls, gives a false idea of the scene.]
[12] [ The reader will note the extreme care which the writer takes to
make it clear that none of the suitors were allowed to sleep in
Ulysses’ house.]
[13] [ See Appendix; g, in plan of Ulysses’ house.]
[14] [ I imagine this passage to be a rejoinder to “Il.” xxiii. 702-705
in which a tripod is valued at twelve oxen, and a good useful maid of
all work at only four. The scrupulous regard of Laertes for his wife’s
feelings is of a piece with the extreme jealousy for the honour of
woman, which is manifest throughout the “Odyssey”.]
[15] [ χιτῶνα “The χιτών, or _tunica_, was a shirt or shift, and served
as the chief under garment of the Greeks and Romans, whether men or
women.” Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, under
“Tunica”.]
[16] [ Doors fastened to all intents and purposes as here described may
be seen in the older houses at Trapani. There is a slot on the outer
side of the door by means of which a person who has left the room can
shoot the bolt. My bedroom at the Albergo Centrale was fastened in this
way.]
[17] [ πύματον δ’ ὡπλίσσατο δόρπον. So we vulgarly say “had cooked his
goose,” or “had settled his hash.” Ægyptius cannot of course know of
the fate Antiphus had met with, for there had as yet been no news of or
from Ulysses.]
[18] [ “Il.” xxii. 416. σχέσθε φίλοι, καὶ μ’ οἷον ἐάσατε...... The
authoress has bungled by borrowing these words verbatim from the
“Iliad”, without prefixing the necessary “do not,” which I have
supplied.]
[19] [ i.e. you have money, and could pay when I got judgment, whereas
the suitors are men of straw.]
[20] [ cf. “Il.” ii. 76. ἦ τοι ὄ γ’ ὦς εὶπὼν κατ’ ἄρ’ ἔζετο τοῖσι δ’
ἀνέστη
Νέστωρ, ὄς ῥα.......................................
ὄ σφιν ἐὺ φρονέων ἀγορήσατο καὶ μετέειπεν.
The Odyssean passage runs—
“ἦ τοι ὄ γ’ ὦς εὶπὼν κατ’ ἄρ’ ἔζετο τοῖσι δ’ ἀνέστη
Μεντορ ὄς ῥ’.......................................
ὄ σφιν ἐὺ φρονέων ἀγορήσατο καὶ μετέειπεν.
Is it possible not to suspect that the name Mentor was coined upon that
of Nestor?]
[21] [ i.e. in the outer court, and in the uncovered part of the inner
house.]
[22] [ This would be fair from Sicily, which was doing duty for Ithaca
in the mind of the writer, but a North wind would have been preferable
for a voyage from the real Ithaca to Pylos.]
[23] [ κελάδοντ’ ἐπὶ οὶνοπα πόντον The wind does not whistle over
waves. It only whistles through rigging or some other obstacle that
cuts it.]
[24] [ cf. “Il.” v.20. Ἰδαῖος δ’ ἀπόρουσε λιπὼν περικαλλέα δίφρον, the
Odyssean line is ἠέλιος δ’ ἀνόρουσε λιπὼν περικαλλέα λίμνην. There can
be no doubt that the Odyssean line was suggested by the Iliadic, but
nothing can explain why Idæus jumping from his chariot should suggest
to the writer of the “Odyssey” the sun jumping from the sea. The
probability is that she never gave the matter a thought, but took the
line in question as an effect of saturation with the “Iliad,” and of
unconscious cerebration. The “Odyssey” contains many such examples.]
[25] [ The heart, liver, lights, kidneys, etc. were taken out from the
inside and eaten first as being more readily cooked; the {Greek}, or
bone meat, was cooking while the {Greek} or inward parts were being
eaten. I imagine that the thigh bones made a kind of gridiron, while at
the same time the marrow inside them got cooked.]
[26] [ i.e. skewers, either single, double, or even five pronged. The
meat would be pierced with the skewer, and laid over the ashes to
grill—the two ends of the skewer being supported in whatever way
convenient. Meat so cooking may be seen in any eating house in Smyrna,
or any Eastern town. When I rode across the Troad from the Dardanelles
to Hissarlik and Mount Ida, I noticed that my dragoman and his men did
all our outdoor cooking exactly in the Odyssean and Iliadic fashion.]
[27] [ cf. “Il.” xvii. 567. {Greek} The Odyssean lines are—{Greek}]
[28] [ Reading {Greek} for {Greek}, cf. “Od.” i. 186.]
29[] [ The geography of the Ægean as above described is correct, but is
probably taken from the lost poem, the Nosti, the existence of which is
referred to “Od.” i. 326, 327 and 350, &c. A glance at the map will
show that heaven advised its supplicants quite correctly.]
[30] [ The writer—ever jealous for the honour of women—extenuates
Clytemnestra’s guilt as far as possible, and explains it as due to her
having been left unprotected, and fallen into the hands of a wicked
man.]
[31] [ The Greek is {Greek} cf. “Iliad” ii. 408 {Greek} Surely the
{Greek} of the Odyssean passage was due to the {Greek} of the “Iliad.”
No other reason suggests itself for the making Menelaus return on the
very day of the feast given by Orestes. The fact that in the “Iliad”
Menelaus came to a banquet without waiting for an invitation,
determines the writer of the “Odyssey” to make him come to a banquet,
also uninvited, but as circumstances did not permit of his having been
invited, his coming uninvited is shown to have been due to chance. I do
not think the authoress thought all this out, but attribute the
strangeness of the coincidence to unconscious cerebration and
saturation.]
[32] [ cf. “Il.” I. 458, II. 421. The writer here interrupts an Iliadic
passage (to which she returns immediately) for the double purpose of
dwelling upon the slaughter of the heifer, and of letting Nestor’s wife
and daughter enjoy it also. A male writer, if he was borrowing from the
“Iliad,” would have stuck to his borrowing.]
[33] [ cf. “Il.” xxiv. 587, 588 where the lines refer to the washing
the dead body of Hector.]
[34] [ See illustration on opposite page. The yard is typical of many
that may be seen in Sicily. The existing ground-plan is probably
unmodified from Odyssean, and indeed long pre-Odyssean times, but the
earlier buildings would have no arches, and would, one would suppose,
be mainly timber. The Odyssean {Greek} were the sheds that ran round
the yard as the arches do now. The {Greek} was the one through which
the main entrance passed, and which was hence “noisy,” or
reverberating. It had an upper story in which visitors were often
lodged.]
[35] [ This journey is an impossible one. Telemachus and Pisistratus
would have been obliged to drive over the Taygetus range, over which
there has never yet been a road for wheeled vehicles. It is plain
therefore that the audience for whom the “Odyssey” was written was one
that would be unlikely to know anything about the topography of the
Peloponnese, so that the writer might take what liberties she chose.]
[36] [ The lines which I have enclosed in brackets are evidently an
afterthought—added probably by the writer herself—for they evince the
same instinctively greater interest in anything that may concern a
woman, which is so noticeable throughout the poem. There is no further
sign of any special festivities nor of any other guests than Telemachus
and Pisistratus, until lines 621-624 (ordinarily enclosed in brackets)
are abruptly introduced, probably with a view of trying to carry off
the introduction of the lines now in question.
The addition was, I imagine, suggested by a desire to excuse and
explain the non-appearance of Hermione in bk. xv., as also of both
Hermione and Megapenthes in the rest of bk. iv. Megapenthes in bk. xv.
seems to be still a bachelor: the presumption therefore is that bk. xv.
was written before the story of his marriage here given. I take it he
is only married here because his sister is being married. She having
been properly attended to, Megapenthes might as well be married at the
same time. Hermione could not now be less than thirty.
I have dealt with this passage somewhat more fully in my “Authoress of
the Odyssey”, p. 136-138. See also p. 256 of the same book.]
[37] [ Sparta and Lacedaemon are here treated as two different places,
though in other parts of the poem it is clear that the writer
understands them as one. The catalogue in the “Iliad,” which the writer
is here presumably following, makes the same mistake (“Il.” ii. 581,
582)]
[38] [ These last three lines are identical with “Il.” vxiii. 604-606.]
[39] [ From the Greek {Greek} it is plain that Menelaus took up the
piece of meat with his fingers.]
[40] [ Amber is never mentioned in the “Iliad.” Sicily, where I suppose
the “Odyssey” to have been written, has always been, and still is, one
of the principal amber producing countries. It was probably the only
one known in the Odyssean age. See “The Authoress of the Odyssey,”
Longmans 1898, p. 186.]
[41] [ This no doubt refers to the story told in the last poem of the
Cypria about Paris and Helen robbing Menelaus of the greater part of
his treasures, when they sailed together for Troy.]
[42] [ It is inconceivable that Helen should enter thus, in the middle
of supper, intending to work with her distaff, if great festivities
were going on. Telemachus and Pisistratus are evidently dining en
famille.]
[43] [ In the Italian insurrection of 1848, eight young men who were
being hotly pursued by the Austrian police hid themselves inside
Donatello’s colossal wooden horse in the Salone at Padua, and remained
there for a week being fed by their confederates. In 1898 the last
survivor was carried round Padua in triumph.]
[44] [ The Greek is {Greek}. Is it unfair to argue that the writer is a
person of somewhat delicate sensibility, to whom a strong smell of fish
is distasteful?]
[45] [ The Greek is {Greek}. I believe this to be a hit at the writer’s
own countrymen who were of Phocaean descent, and the next following
line to be a rejoinder to complaints made against her in bk. vi.
273-288, to the effect that she gave herself airs and would marry none
of her own people. For that the writer of the “Odyssey” was the person
who has been introduced into the poem under the name of Nausicaa, I
cannot bring myself to question. I may remind English readers that
{Greek} (i.e. phoca) means “seal.” Seals almost always appear on
Phocaean coins.]
[46] [ Surely here again we are in the hands of a writer of delicate
sensibility. It is not as though the seals were stale; they had only
just been killed. The writer, however is obviously laughing at her own
countrymen, and insulting them as openly as she dares.]
[47] [ We were told above (lines 356, 357) that it was only one day’s
sail.]
[48] [ I give the usual translation, but I do not believe the Greek
will warrant it. The Greek reads {Greek}.
This is usually held to mean that Ithaca is an island fit for breeding
goats, and on that account more delectable to the speaker than it would
have been if it were fit for breeding horses. I find little authority
for such a translation; the most equitable translation of the text as
it stands is, “Ithaca is an island fit for breeding goats, and
delectable rather than fit for breeding horses; for not one of the
islands is good driving ground, nor well meadowed.” Surely the writer
does not mean that a pleasant or delectable island would not be fit for
breeding horses? The most equitable translation, therefore, of the
present text being thus halt and impotent, we may suspect corruption,
and I hazard the following emendation, though I have not adopted it in
my translation, as fearing that it would be deemed too fanciful. I
would read:—{Greek}.
As far as scanning goes the {Greek} is not necessary; {Greek} iv. 72,
(Footnote Greek) iv. 233, to go no further afield than earlier lines of
the same book, give sufficient authority for {Greek}, but the {Greek}
would not be redundant; it would emphasise the surprise of the
contrast, and I should prefer to have it, though it is not very
important either way. This reading of course should be translated
“Ithaca is an island fit for breeding goats, and (by your leave) itself
a horseman rather than fit for breeding horses—for not one of the
islands is good and well meadowed ground.”
This would be sure to baffle the Alexandrian editors. “How,” they would
ask themselves, “could an island be a horseman?” and they would cast
about for an emendation. A visit to the top of Mt. Eryx might perhaps
make the meaning intelligible, and suggest my proposed restoration of
the text to the reader as readily as it did to myself.
I have elsewhere stated my conviction that the writer of the “Odyssey”
was familiar with the old Sican city at the top of Mt. Eryx, and that
the Aegadean islands which are so striking when seen thence did duty
with her for the Ionian islands—Marettimo, the highest and most
westerly of the group, standing for Ithaca. When seen from the top of
Mt. Eryx Marettimo shows as it should do according to “Od.” ix. 25, 26,
“on the horizon, all highest up in the sea towards the West,” while the
other islands lie “some way off it to the East.” As we descend to
Trapani, Marettimo appears to sink on to the top of the island of
Levanzo, behind which it disappears. My friend, the late Signor E.
Biaggini, pointed to it once as it was just standing on the top of
Levanzo, and said to me “Come cavalca bene” (“How well it rides”), and
this immediately suggested my emendation to me. Later on I found in the
hymn to the Pythian Apollo (which abounds with tags taken from the
“Odyssey”) a line ending {Greek} which strengthened my suspicion that
this was the original ending of the second of the two lines above under
consideration.]
[49] [ See note on line 3 of this book. The reader will observe that
the writer has been unable to keep the women out of an interpolation
consisting only of four lines.]
[50] [ Scheria means a piece of land jutting out into the sea. In my
“Authoress of the Odyssey” I thought “Jutland” would be a suitable
translation, but it has been pointed out to me that “Jutland” only
means the land of the Jutes.]
[51] [ Irrigation as here described is common in gardens near Trapani.
The water that supplies the ducts is drawn from wells by a mule who
turns a wheel with buckets on it.]
[52] [ There is not a word here about the cattle of the sun-god.]
[53] [ The writer evidently thought that green, growing wood might also
be well seasoned.]
[54] [ The reader will note that the river was flowing with salt water
i.e. that it was tidal.]
[55] [ Then the Ogygian island was not so far off, but that Nausicaa
might be assumed to know where it was.]
[56] [ Greek {Greek}]
[57] [ I suspect a family joke, or sly allusion to some thing of which
we know nothing, in this story of Eurymedusa’s having been brought from
Apeira. The Greek word “apeiros” means “inexperienced,” “ignorant.” Is
it possible that Eurymedusa was notoriously incompetent?]
[58] [ Polyphemus was also son to Neptune, see “Od.” ix. 412, 529. he
was therefore half brother to Nausithous, half uncle to King Alcinous,
and half great uncle to Nausicaa.]
[59] [ It would seem as though the writer thought that Marathon was
close to Athens.]
[60] [ Here the writer, knowing that she is drawing (with
embellishments) from things actually existing, becomes impatient of
past tenses and slides into the present.]
[61] [ This is hidden malice, implying that the Phaeacian magnates were
no better than they should be. The final drink-offering should have
been made to Jove or Neptune, not to the god of thievishness and
rascality of all kinds. In line 164 we do indeed find Echeneus
proposing that a drink-offering should be made to Jove, but Mercury is
evidently, according to our authoress, the god who was most likely to
be of use to them.]
[62] [ The fact of Alcinous knowing anything about the Cyclopes
suggests that in the writer’s mind Scheria and the country of the
Cyclopes were not very far from one another. I take the Cyclopes and
the giants to be one and the same people.]
[63] [ “My property, etc.” The authoress is here adopting an Iliadic
line (xix. 333), and this must account for the absence of all reference
to Penelope. If she had happened to remember “Il.” v. 213, she would
doubtless have appropriated it by preference, for that line reads “my
country, _my wife_, and all the greatness of my house.”]
[64] [ The at first inexplicable sleep of Ulysses (bk. xiii. 79, etc.)
is here, as also in viii. 445, being obviously prepared. The writer
evidently attached the utmost importance to it. Those who know that the
harbour which did duty with the writer of the “Odyssey” for the one in
which Ulysses landed in Ithaca, was only about 2 miles from the place
in which Ulysses is now talking with Alcinous, will understand why the
sleep was so necessary.]
[65] [ There were two classes—the lower who were found in provisions
which they had to cook for themselves in the yards and outer precincts,
where they would also eat—and the upper who would eat in the cloisters
of the inner court, and have their cooking done for them.]
[66] [ Translation very dubious. I suppose the {Greek} here to be the
covered sheds that ran round the outer courtyard. See illustrations at
the end of bk. iii.]
[67] [ The writer apparently deems that the words “as compared with
what oxen can plough in the same time” go without saying. Not so the
writer of the “Iliad” from which the Odyssean passage is probably
taken. He explains that mules can plough quicker than oxen (“Il.” x.
351-353)]
[68] [ It was very fortunate that such a disc happened to be there,
seeing that none like it were in common use.]
[69] [ “Il.” xiii. 37. Here, as so often elsewhere in the “Odyssey,”
the appropriation of an Iliadic line which is not quite appropriate
puzzles the reader. The “they” is not the chains, nor yet Mars and
Venus. It is an overflow from the Iliadic passage in which Neptune
hobbles his horses in bonds “which none could either unloose or break
so that they might stay there in that place.” If the line would have
scanned without the addition of the words “so that they might stay
there in that place,” they would have been omitted in the “Odyssey.”]
[70] [ The reader will note that Alcinous never goes beyond saying that
he is going to give the goblet; he never gives it. Elsewhere in both
“Iliad” and “Odyssey” the offer of a present is immediately followed by
the statement that it was given and received gladly—Alcinous actually
does give a chest and a cloak and shirt—probably also some of the corn
and wine for the long two-mile voyage was provided by him—but it is
quite plain that he gave no talent and no cup.]
[71] [ “Il.” xviii. 344-349. These lines in the “Iliad” tell of the
preparation for washing the body of Patroclus, and I am not pleased
that the writer of the “Odyssey” should have adopted them here.]
[72] [ see note [64] : ]
[73] [ see note [43] : ]
[74] [ The reader will find this threat fulfilled in bk. xiii]
[75] [ If the other islands lay some distance away from Ithaca (which
the word {Greek} suggests), what becomes of the πόρθμος or gut between
Ithaca and Samos which we hear of in Bks. iv. and xv.? I suspect that
the authoress in her mind makes Telemachus come back from Pylos to the
Lilybaean promontory and thence to Trapani through the strait between
the _Isola Grande_ and the mainland—the island of Asteria being the one
on which Motya afterwards stood.]
[76] [ “Il.” xviii. 533-534. The sudden lapse into the third person
here for a couple of lines is due to the fact that the two Iliadic
lines taken are in the third person.]
[77] [ cf. “Il.” ii. 776. The words in both “Iliad” and “Odyssey” are
[Footnote Greek]. In the “Iliad” they are used of the horses of
Achilles’ followers as they stood idle, “champing lotus.”]
[78] [ I take all this passage about the Cyclopes having no ships to be
sarcastic—meaning, “You people of Drepanum have no excuse for not
colonising the island of Favognana, which you could easily do, for you
have plenty of ships, and the island is a very good one.” For that the
island so fully described here is the Aegadean or “goat” island of
Favognana, and that the Cyclopes are the old Sican inhabitants of Mt.
Eryx should not be doubted.]
[79] [ For the reasons why it was necessary that the night should be so
exceptionally dark see “The Authoress of the Odyssey” pp. 188-189.]
[80] [ None but such lambs as would suck if they were with their
mothers would be left in the yard. The older lambs should have been out
feeding. The authoress has got it all wrong, but it does not matter.
See “The Authoress of the Odyssey” p. 148.]
[81] [ This line is enclosed in brackets in the received text, and is
omitted (with note) by Messrs. Butcher & Lang. But lines enclosed in
brackets are almost always genuine; all that brackets mean is that the
bracketed passage puzzled some early editor, who nevertheless found it
too well established in the text to venture on omitting it. In the
present case the line bracketed is the very last which a full-grown
male editor would be likely to interpolate. It is safer to infer that
the writer, a young woman, not knowing or caring at which end of the
ship the rudder should be, determined to make sure by placing it at
both ends, which we shall find she presently does by repeating it (line
340) at the stern of the ship. As for the two rocks thrown, the first I
take to be the Asinelli, see map facing p. 80. The second I see as the
two contiguous islands of the Formiche, which are treated as one, see
map facing p. 108. The Asinelli is an island shaped like a boat, and
pointing to the island of Favognana. I think the authoress’s
compatriots, who probably did not like her much better that she did
them, jeered at the absurdity of Ulysses’ conduct, and saw the Asinelli
or “donkeys,” not as the rock thrown by Polyphemus, but as the boat
itself containing Ulysses and his men.]
[82] [ This line exists in the text here but not in the corresponding
passage xii. 141. I am inclined to think it is interpolated (probably
by the poetess herself) from the first of lines xi. 115-137, which I
can hardly doubt were added by the writer when the scheme of the work
was enlarged and altered. See “The Authoress of the Odyssey” pp.
254-255.]
[83] [ “Floating” (πλωτῇ) is not to be taken literally. The island
itself, as apart from its inhabitants, was quite normal. There is no
indication of its moving during the month that Ulysses stayed with
Aeolus, and on his return from his unfortunate voyage, he seems to have
found it in the same place. The πλωτῇ in fact should no more be pressed
than θοῇσι as applied to islands, “Odyssey” xv. 299—where they are
called “flying” because the ship would fly past them. So also the
“Wanderers,” as explained by Buttmann; see note on “Odyssey” xii. 57.]
[84] [ Literally “for the ways of the night and of the day are near.” I
have seen what Mr. Andrew Lang says (“Homer and the Epic,” p. 236, and
“Longman’s Magazine” for January, 1898, p. 277) about the “amber route”
and the “Sacred Way” in this connection; but until he gives his grounds
for holding that the Mediterranean peoples in the Odyssean age used to
go far North for their amber instead of getting it in Sicily, where it
is still found in considerable quantities, I do not know what weight I
ought to attach to his opinion. I have been unable to find grounds for
asserting that B.C. 1000 there was any commerce between the
Mediterranean and the “Far North,” but I shall be very ready to learn
if Mr. Lang will enlighten me. See “The Authoress of the Odyssey” pp.
185-186.]
[85] [ One would have thought that when the sun was driving the stag
down to the water, Ulysses might have observed its whereabouts.]
[86] [ See Hobbes of Malmesbury’s translation.]
[87] [ “Il.” vxiii. 349. Again the writer draws from the washing the
body of Patroclus—which offends.]
[88] [ This visit is wholly without topographical significance.]
[89] [ Brides presented themselves instinctively to the imagination of
the writer, as the phase of humanity which she found most interesting.]
[90] [ Ulysses was, in fact, to become a missionary and preach Neptune
to people who knew not his name. I was fortunate enough to meet in
Sicily a woman carrying one of these winnowing shovels; it was not much
shorter than an oar, and I was able at once to see what the writer of
the “Odyssey” intended.]
[91] [ I suppose the lines I have enclosed in brackets to have been
added by the author when she enlarged her original scheme by the
addition of books i.-iv. and xiii. (from line 187)-xxiv. The reader
will observe that in the corresponding passage (xii. 137-141) the
prophecy ends with “after losing all your comrades,” and that there is
no allusion to the suitors. For fuller explanation see “The Authoress
of the Odyssey” pp. 254-255.]
[92] [ The reader will remember that we are in the first year of
Ulysses’ wanderings, Telemachus therefore was only eleven years old.
The same anachronism is made later on in this book. See “The Authoress
of the Odyssey” pp. 132-133.]
[93] [ Tradition says that she had hanged herself. Cf. “Odyssey” xv.
355, etc.]
[94] [ Not to be confounded with Aeolus king of the winds.]
[95] [ Melampus, vide book xv. 223, etc.]
[96] [ I have already said in a note on bk. xi. 186 that at this point
of Ulysses’ voyage Telemachus could only be between eleven and twelve
years old.]
[97] [ Is the writer a man or a woman?]
[98] [ Cf. “Il.” iv. 521, {Greek}. The Odyssean line reads, {Greek}.
The famous dactylism, therefore, of the Odyssean line was probably
suggested by that of the Ileadic rather than by a desire to accommodate
sound to sense. At any rate the double coincidence of a dactylic line,
and an ending {Greek}, seems conclusive as to the familiarity of the
writer of the “Odyssey” with the Iliadic line.]
[99] [ Off the coast of Sicily and South Italy, in the month of May, I
have seen men fastened half way up a boat’s mast with their feet
resting on a crosspiece, just large enough to support them. From this
point of vantage they spear sword-fish. When I saw men thus employed I
could hardly doubt that the writer of the “Odyssey” had seen others
like them, and had them in her mind when describing the binding of
Ulysses. I have therefore with some diffidence ventured to depart from
the received translation of ἰστοπέδη (cf. Alcaeus frag. 18, where,
however, it is very hard to say what ἰστοπέδαν means). In Sophocles’
Lexicon I find a reference to Chrysostom (l, 242, A. Ed. Benedictine
Paris 1834-1839) for the word ἰστοπόδη, which is probably the same as
ἰστοπέδη, but I have looked for the passage in vain.]
[100] [ The writer is at fault here and tries to put it off on Circe.
When Ulysses comes to take the route prescribed by Circe, he ought to
pass either the Wanderers or some other difficulty of which we are not
told, but he does not do so. The Planctae, or Wanderers, merge into
Scylla and Charybdis, and the alternative between them and something
untold merges into the alternative whether Ulysses had better choose
Scylla or Charybdis. Yet from line 260, it seems we are to consider the
Wanderers as having been passed by Ulysses; this appears even more
plainly from xxiii. 327, in which Ulysses expressly mentions the
Wandering rocks as having been between the Sirens and Scylla and
Charybdis. The writer, however, is evidently unaware that she does not
quite understand her own story; her difficulty was perhaps due to the
fact that though Trapanese sailors had given her a fair idea as to
where all her other localities really were, no one in those days more
than in our own could localise the Planctae, which in fact, as Buttmann
has argued, were derived not from any particular spot, but from
sailors’ tales about the difficulties of navigating the group of the
Aeolian islands as a whole (see note on “Od.” x. 3). Still the matter
of the poor doves caught her fancy, so she would not forgo them. The
whirlwinds of fire and the smoke that hangs on Scylla suggests allusion
to Stromboli and perhaps even Etna. Scylla is on the Italian side, and
therefore may be said to look West. It is about 8 miles thence to the
Sicilian coast, so Ulysses may be perfectly well told that after
passing Scylla he will come to the Thrinacian island or Sicily.
Charybdis is transposed to a site some few miles to the north of its
actual position.]
[101] [ I suppose this line to have been intercalated by the author
when lines 426-446 were added.]
[102] [ For the reasons which enable us to identify the island of the
two Sirens with the Lipari island now Salinas—the ancient Didyme, or
“twin” island—see The Authoress of the Odyssey, pp. 195, 196. The two
Sirens doubtless were, as their name suggests, the whistling gusts, or
avalanches of air that at times descend without a moment’s warning from
the two lofty mountains of Salinas—as also from all high points in the
neighbourhood.]
[103] [ See Admiral Smyth on the currents in the Straits of Messina,
quoted in “The Authoress of the Odyssey,” p. 197.]
[104] [ In the islands of Favognana and Marettimo off Trapani I have
seen men fish exactly as here described. They chew bread into a paste
and throw it into the sea to attract the fish, which they then spear.
No line is used.]
[105] [ The writer evidently regards Ulysses as on a coast that looked
East at no great distance south of the Straits of Messina somewhere,
say, near Tauromenium, now Taormina.]
[106] [ Surely there must be a line missing here to tell us that the
keel and mast were carried down into Charybdis. Besides, the aorist
{Greek} in its present surrounding is perplexing. I have translated it
as though it were an imperfect; I see Messrs. Butcher and Lang
translate it as a pluperfect, but surely Charybdis was in the act of
sucking down the water when Ulysses arrived.]
[107] [ I suppose the passage within brackets to have been an
afterthought but to have been written by the same hand as the rest of
the poem. I suppose xii. 103 to have been also added by the writer when
she decided on sending Ulysses back to Charybdis. The simile suggests
the hand of the wife or daughter of a magistrate who had often seen her
father come in cross and tired.]
[108] [ Gr. πολυδαίδαλος. This puts coined money out of the question,
but nevertheless implies that the gold had been worked into ornaments
of some kind.]
[109] [ I suppose Teiresias’ prophecy of bk. xi. 114-120 had made no
impression on Ulysses. More probably the prophecy was an afterthought,
intercalated, as I have already said, by the authoress when she changed
her scheme.]
[110] [ A male writer would have made Ulysses say, not “may you give
satisfaction to your wives,” but “may your wives give satisfaction to
you.”]
[111] [ See note [64].]
[112] [ The land was in reality the shallow inlet, now the salt works
of S. Cusumano—the neighbourhood of Trapani and Mt. Eryx being made to
do double duty, both as Scheria and Ithaca. Hence the necessity for
making Ulysses set out after dark, fall instantly into a profound
sleep, and wake up on a morning so foggy that he could not see anything
till the interviews between Neptune and Jove and between Ulysses and
Minerva should have given the audience time to accept the situation.
See illustrations and map near the end of bks. v. and vi.
respectively.]
[113] [ This cave, which is identifiable with singular completeness, is
now called the “grotta del toro,” probably a corruption of “tesoro,”
for it is held to contain a treasure. See The Authoress of the Odyssey,
pp. 167-170.]
[114] [ Probably they would.]
[115] [ Then it had a shallow shelving bottom.]
[116] [ Doubtless the road would pass the harbour in Odyssean times as
it passes the salt works now; indeed, if there is to be a road at all
there is no other level ground which it could take. See map above
referred to.]
[117] [ The rock at the end of the Northern harbour of Trapani, to
which I suppose the writer of the “Odyssey” to be here referring, still
bears the name Malconsiglio—“the rock of evil counsel.” There is a
legend that it was a ship of Turkish pirates who were intending to
attack Trapani, but the “Madonna di Trapani” crushed them under this
rock just as they were coming into port. My friend Cavaliere
Giannitrapani of Trapani told me that his father used to tell him when
he was a boy that if he would drop exactly three drops of oil on to the
water near the rock, he would see the ship still at the bottom. The
legend is evidently a Christianised version of the Odyssean story,
while the name supplies the additional detail that the disaster
happened in consequence of an evil counsel.]
[118] [ It would seem then that the ship had got all the way back from
Ithaca in about a quarter of an hour.]
[119] [ And may we not add “and also to prevent his recognising that he
was only in the place where he had met Nausicaa two days earlier.”]
[120] [ All this is to excuse the entire absence of Minerva from books
ix.-xii., which I suppose had been written already, before the
authoress had determined on making Minerva so prominent a character.]
[121] [ We have met with this somewhat lame attempt to cover the
writer’s change of scheme at the end of bk. vi.]
[122] [ I take the following from The Authoress of the Odyssey, p. 167.
“It is clear from the text that there were two [caves] not one, but
some one has enclosed in brackets the two lines in which the second
cave is mentioned, I presume because he found himself puzzled by having
a second cave sprung upon him when up to this point he had only been
told of one.
“I venture to think that if he had known the ground he would not have
been puzzled, for there are two caves, distant about 80 or 100 yards
from one another.” The cave in which Ulysses hid his treasure is, as I
have already said, identifiable with singular completeness. The other
cave presents no special features, neither in the poem nor in nature.]
[123] [ There is no attempt to disguise the fact that Penelope had long
given encouragement to the suitors. The only defence set up is that she
did not really mean to encourage them. Would it not have been wiser to
have tried a little discouragement?]
[124] [ See map near the end of bk. vi. _Ruccazzù dei corvi_ of course
means “the rock of the ravens.” Both name and ravens still exist.]
[125] [ See The Authoress of the Odyssey, pp. 140, 141. The real reason
for sending Telemachus to Pylos and Lacedaemon was that the authoress
might get Helen of Troy into her poem. He was sent at the only point in
the story at which he could be sent, so he must have gone then or not
at all.]
[126] [ The site I assign to Eumaeus’s hut, close to the _Ruccazzù dei
corvi_, is about 2,000 feet above the sea, and commands an extensive
view.]
[127] [ Sandals such as Eumaeus was making are still worn in the
Abruzzi and elsewhere. An oblong piece of leather forms the sole: holes
are cut at the four corners, and through these holes leathern straps
are passed, which are bound round the foot and cross-gartered up the
calf.]
[128] [ See note [75] : ]
[129] [ Telemachus like many another good young man seems to expect
every one to fetch and carry for him.]
[130] [ “Il.” vi. 288. The store room was fragrant because it was made
of cedar wood. See “Il.” xxiv. 192.]
[131] [ cf. “Il.” vi. 289 and 293-296. The dress was kept at the bottom
of the chest as one that would only be wanted on the greatest
occasions; but surely the marriage of Hermione and of Megapenthes (bk,
iv. _ad init_.) might have induced Helen to wear it on the preceding
evening, in which case it could hardly have got back. We find no hint
here of Megapenthes’ recent marriage.]
[132] [ See note [83].]
[133] [ cf. “Od.” xi. 196, etc.]
[134] [ The names Syra and Ortygia, on which island a great part of the
Doric Syracuse was originally built, suggest that even in Odyssean
times there was a prehistoric Syracuse, the existence of which was
known to the writer of the poem.]
[135] [ Literally “where are the turnings of the sun.” Assuming, as we
may safely do, that the Syra and Ortygia of the “Odyssey” refer to
Syracuse, it is the fact that not far to the South of these places the
land turns sharply round, so that mariners following the coast would
find the sun upon the other side of their ship to that on which they’d
had it hitherto.
Mr. A. S. Griffith has kindly called my attention to Herod iv. 42,
where, speaking of the circumnavigation of Africa by Phoenician
mariners under Necos, he writes:
“On their return they declared—I for my part do not believe them, but
perhaps others may—that in sailing round Libya [i.e. Africa] they had
the sun upon their right hand. In this way was the extent of Libya
first discovered.
“I take it that Eumaeus was made to have come from Syracuse because the
writer thought she rather ought to have made something happen at
Syracuse during her account of the voyages of Ulysses. She could not,
however, break his long drift from Charybdis to the island of
Pantellaria; she therefore resolved to make it up to Syracuse in
another way.”
Modern excavations establish the existence of two and only two
pre-Dorian communities at Syracuse; they were, so Dr. Orsi informed me,
at Plemmirio and Cozzo Pantano. See The Authoress of the Odyssey, pp.
211-213.]
[136] [ This harbour is again evidently the harbour in which Ulysses
had landed, i.e. the harbour that is now the salt works of S.
Cusumano.]
[137] [ This never can have been anything but very niggardly pay for
some eight or nine days’ service. I suppose the crew were to consider
the pleasure of having had a trip to Pylos as a set off. There is no
trace of the dinner as having been actually given, either on the
following or any other morning.]
[138] [ No hawk can tear its prey while it is on the wing.]
[139] [ The text is here apparently corrupt, and will not make sense as
it stands. I follow Messrs. Butcher & Lang in omitting line 101.]
[140] [ i.e. to be milked, as in South Italian and Sicilian towns at
the present day.]
[141] [ The butchering and making ready the carcases took place partly
in the outer yard and partly in the open part of the inner court.]
[142] [ These words cannot mean that it would be afternoon soon after
they were spoken. Ulysses and Eumaeus reached the town which was “some
way off” (xvii. 25) in time for the suitor’s early meal (xvii. 170 and
176) say at ten or eleven o’ clock. The context of the rest of the book
shows this. Eumaeus and Ulysses, therefore, cannot have started later
than eight or nine, and Eumaeus’s words must be taken as an
exaggeration for the purpose of making Ulysses bestir himself.]
[143] [ I imagine the fountain to have been somewhere about where the
church of the _Madonna di Trapani_ now stands, and to have been fed
with water from what is now called the Fontana Diffali on Mt. Eryx.]
[144] [ From this and other passages in the “Odyssey” it appears that
we are in an age anterior to the use of coined money—an age when
cauldrons, tripods, swords, cattle, chattels of all kinds, measures of
corn, wine, or oil, etc. etc., not to say pieces of gold, silver,
bronze, or even iron, wrought more or less, but unstamped, were the
nearest approach to a currency that had as yet been reached.]
[145] [ Gr. ἐς μέσσον.]
[146] [ I correct these proofs abroad and am not within reach of
Hesiod, but surely this passage suggests acquaintance with the Works
and Ways, though it by no means compels it.]
[147] [ It would seem as though Eurynome and Euryclea were the same
person. See note 156]
[148] [ It is plain, therefore, that Iris was commonly accepted as the
messenger of the gods, though our authoress will never permit her to
fetch or carry for any one.]
[149] [ i.e. the doorway leading from the inner to the outer court.]
[150] [See note 156]
[151] [ These, I imagine, must have been in the open part of the inner
courtyard, where the maids also stood, and threw the light of their
torches into the covered cloister that ran all round it. The smoke
would otherwise have been intolerable.]
[152] [ Translation very uncertain; vide Liddell and Scott, under
{Greek}]
[153] [ See photo on opposite page.]
[154] [ cf. “Il.” ii. 184, and 217, 218. An additional and well-marked
feature being wanted to convince Penelope, the writer has taken the
hunched shoulders of Thersites (who is mentioned immediately after
Eurybates in the “Iliad”) and put them on to Eurybates’ back.]
[155] [ This is how geese are now fed in Sicily, at any rate in summer,
when the grass is all burnt up. I have never seen them grazing.]
[156] [ Lower down (line 143) Euryclea says it was herself that had
thrown the cloak over Ulysses—for the plural should not be taken as
implying more than one person. The writer is evidently still
fluctuating between Euryclea and Eurynome as the name for the old
nurse. She probably originally meant to call her Euryclea, but finding
it not immediately easy to make Euryclea scan in xvii. 495, she hastily
called her Eurynome, intending either to alter this name later or to
change the earlier Euryclea’s into Eurynome. She then drifted in to
Eurynome as convenience further directed, still nevertheless hankering
after Euryclea, till at last she found that the path of least
resistance would lie in the direction of making Eurynome and Euryclea
two persons. Therefore in xxiii. 289-292 both Eurynome and “the nurse”
(who can be none other than Euryclea) come on together. I do not say
that this is feminine, but it is not unfeminine.]
[157] [ See note [156]]
[158] [ This, I take it, was immediately in front of the main entrance
of the inner courtyard into the body of the house.]
[159] [ This is the only allusion to Sardinia in either “Iliad” or
“Odyssey.”]
[160] [ The normal translation of the Greek word would be “holding
back,” “curbing,” “restraining,” but I cannot think that the writer
meant this—she must have been using the word in its other sense of
“having,” “holding,” “keeping,” “maintaining.”]
[161] [ I have vainly tried to realise the construction of the
fastening here described.]
[162] [ See plan of Ulysses’ house in the appendix. It is evident that
the open part of the court had no flooring but the natural soil.]
[163] [ See plan of Ulysses’ house, and note [175].]
[164] [ i.e. the door that led into the body of the house.]
[165] [ This was, no doubt, the little table that was set for Ulysses,
“Od.” xx. 259.
Surely the difficulty of this passage has been overrated. I suppose the
iron part of the axe to have been wedged into the handle, or bound
securely to it—the handle being half buried in the ground. The axe
would be placed edgeways towards the archer, and he would have to shoot
his arrow through the hole into which the handle was fitted when the
axe was in use. Twelve axes were placed in a row all at the same
height, all exactly in front of one another, all edgeways to Ulysses
whose arrow passed through all the holes from the first onward. I
cannot see how the Greek can bear any other interpretation, the words
being, {Greek}
“He did not miss a single hole from the first onwards.” {Greek}
according to Liddell and Scott being “the hole for the handle of an
axe, etc.,” while {Greek} (“Od.” v. 236) is, according to the same
authorities, the handle itself. The feat is absurdly impossible, but
our authoress sometimes has a soul above impossibilities.]
[166] [ The reader will note how the spoiling of good food distresses
the writer even in such a supreme moment as this.]
[167] [ Here we have it again. Waste of substance comes first.]
[168] [ cf. “Il.” iii. 337 and three other places. It is strange that
the author of the “Iliad” should find a little horse-hair so alarming.
Possibly enough she was merely borrowing a common form line from some
earlier poet—or poetess—for this is a woman’s line rather than a
man’s.]
[169] [ Or perhaps simply “window.” See plan in the appendix.]
[170] [ i.e. the pavement on which Ulysses was standing.]
[171] [ The interpretation of lines 126-143 is most dubious, and at
best we are in a region of melodrama: cf., however, i. 425, etc. from
which it appears that there was a tower in the outer court, and that
Telemachus used to sleep in it. The ὀρσοθύρα I take to be a door, or
trap door, leading on to the roof above Telemachus’s bed room, which we
are told was in a place that could be seen from all round—or it might
be simply a window in Telemachus’s room looking out into the street.
From the top of the tower the outer world was to be told what was going
on, but people could not get in by the ὀρσοθύρα: they would have to
come in by the main entrance, and Melanthius explains that the mouth of
the narrow passage (which was in the lands of Ulysses and his friends)
commanded the only entrance by which help could come, so that there
would be nothing gained by raising an alarm.
As for the ῥῶγες of line 143, no commentator ancient or modern has
been able to say what was intended—but whatever they were,
Melanthius could never carry twelve shields, twelve helmets, and
twelve spears. Moreover, where he could go the others could go
also. If a dozen suitors had followed Melanthius into the house
they could have attacked Ulysses in the rear, in which case, unless
Minerva had intervened promptly, the “Odyssey” would have had a
different ending. But throughout the scene we are in a region of
extravagance rather than of true fiction—it cannot be taken
seriously by any but the very serious, until we come to the episode
of Phemius and Medon, where the writer begins to be at home again.]
[172] [ I presume it was intended that there should be a hook driven
into the bearing-post.]
[173] [ What for?]
[174] [ Gr: {Greek}. This is not {Greek}.]
[175] [ From lines 333 and 341 of this book, and lines 145 and 146 of
bk. xxi we can locate the approach to the {Greek} with some certainty.]
[176] [ But in xix. 500-502 Ulysses scolded Euryclea for offering
information on this very point, and declared himself quite able to
settle it for himself.]
[177] [ There were a hundred and eight Suitors.]
[178] [ Lord Grimthorpe, whose understanding does not lend itself to
easy imposition, has been good enough to write to me about my
conviction that the “Odyssey” was written by a woman, and to send me
remarks upon the gross absurdity of the incident here recorded. It is
plain that all the authoress cared about was that the women should be
hanged: as for attempting to realise, or to make her readers realise,
how the hanging was done, this was of no consequence. The reader must
take her word for it and ask no questions. Lord Grimthorpe wrote:
“I had better send you my ideas about Nausicaa’s hanging of the maids
(not ‘maidens,’ of whom Froude wrote so well in his ‘Science of
History’) before I forget it all. Luckily for me Liddell & Scott have
specially translated most of the doubtful words, referring to this very
place.
“A ship’s cable. I don’t know how big a ship she meant, but it must
have been a very small one indeed if its ‘cable’ could be used to tie
tightly round a woman’s neck, and still more round a dozen of them ‘in
a row,’ besides being strong enough to hold them and pull them all up.
“A dozen average women would need the weight and strength of more than
a dozen strong heavy men even over the best pulley hung to the roof
over them; and the idea of pulling them up by a rope hung anyhow round
a pillar {Greek} is absurdly impossible; and how a dozen of them could
be hung dangling round one post is a problem which a senior wrangler
would be puzzled to answer... She had better have let Telemachus use
his sword as he had intended till she changed his mind for him.”]
[179] [ Then they had all been in Ulysses’ service over twenty years;
perhaps the twelve guilty ones had been engaged more recently.]
[180] [ Translation very doubtful—cf. “It.” xxiv. 598.]
[181] [ But why could she not at once ask to see the scar, of which
Euryclea had told her, or why could not Ulysses have shown it to her?]
[182] [ The people of Ithaca seem to have been as fond of carping as
the Phaeacians were in vi. 273, etc.]
[183] [ See note [156]. Ulysses’s bed room does not appear to have been
upstairs, nor yet quite within the house. Is it possible that it was
“the domed room” round the outside of which the erring maids were, for
aught we have heard to the contrary, still hanging?]
[184] [ Ulysses bedroom in the mind of the writer is here too
apparently down stairs.]
[185] [ Penelope having been now sufficiently whitewashed, disappears
from the poem.]
[186] [ So practised a washerwoman as our authoress doubtless knew that
by this time the web must have become such a wreck that it would have
gone to pieces in the wash.]
A lady points out to me, just as these sheets are leaving my hands,
that no really good needlewoman—no one, indeed, whose work or character
was worth consideration—could have endured, no matter for what reason,
the unpicking of her day’s work, day after day for between three and
four years.]
[187] [ We must suppose Dolius not yet to know that his son Melanthius
had been tortured, mutilated, and left to die by Ulysses’ orders on the
preceding day, and that his daughter Melantho had been hanged. Dolius
was probably exceptionally simple-minded, and his name was ironical. So
on Mt. Eryx I was shown a man who was always called Sonza Malizia or
“Guileless”—he being held exceptionally cunning.]No children (leaf entity)