Female lyric voices in the Odyssey (2023)

PHI LO LOG IA A N TI QVA Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. editors Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. 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Gallé Cejudo (Universidad de Cádiz, España) Alessandro Garcea (Sorbonne Université, Paris, France) Thomas Gärtner (Köln Universität, Deutschland) Charles Guérin (Université Paris Est Créteil, France) Charles Guittard (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France) Leofranc Holford-Strevens (Oxford, United Kingdom) Martin Korenjak (Universität Innsbruck, Österreich) Enrico V. Maltese (Università di Torino, Italia) Gesine Manuwald (University College London, United Kingdom) Antonino M. Milazzo (Università di Catania, Italia) Giusto Traina (Université Paris Sorbonne, France) Étienne Wolff (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France) Vincent Zarini (Sorbonne Université, Paris, France) * Autorizzazione del Tribunale di Pisa n. 17 del 14 giugno 2007 Direttore responsabile : Fabrizio Serra * « Philologia Antiqua » is an International Double-Blind Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Journal. It is Indexed in Index Copernicus International, erih plus (European Science Foundation) and Scopus. 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Fabrizio Serra editore incorporates the Imprints Accademia editoriale, Edizioni dell’Ateneo, Fabrizio Serra editore, Giardini editori e stampatori in Pisa, Gruppo editoriale internazionale and Istituti editoriali e poligrafici internazionali. * Stampato in Italia · Printed in Italy issn print 1971-9078 e-issn 2035-3561 homer as a cultural horizon Edited by Nicolas Bertrand, Gregory Nagy, Giampiero Scafoglio, Arnaud Zucker Nicolas Bertrand, Gregory Nagy, Giampiero Scafoglio, Arnaud Zucker, Homer as a cultural horizon. A short foreword Gregory Nagy, Olga M. Davidson, On the problem of envisioning Homeric composition: some comparative observations Françoise Létoublon, The Iliad, a large-scale composition Casey Dué, “New” Philology and the Homer multitext Ariane Jambé, Sarpedon resurrected? About an exegetical interaction in the Geneva Manuscript of the Iliad Cecilia Nobili, Female lyric voices in the Odyssey Richard P. Martin, Friends, death, and kinship: Homeric diction and the semantics of “care” Rutger J. Allan, Cola and caesurae in the Homeric hexameter: A functional-cognitive approach to colometry Valentin Decloquement, Mental paratext? Homeric criticism in the Progymnasmata 11 15 27 43 55 65 83 101 119 varia Eugenio Amato, Le dialexeis di Coricio di Gaza: Edizione critica, traduzione e commento (parte i. Dial. 1-11) 135 Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. SOMM A R IO Cecilia Nobili Abstract · Homeric women are good singers : Circe and Calypso sing while weaving and Nausicaa sings while playing the ball with her comrades. However, the words of their songs are not reported : the poet seems to refrain from entering the world of female song. Nonetheless, their discourses and conversations are embedded with motifs comparable to female poetry, primarily Sappho’s songs. My paper thus aims at investigating the point of contacts between female narrative and discourse in the Homeric poems and the tradition of female lyric poetry, as exemplified by Sappho. Keywords · Homer, Odyssey, Greek Lyric Poetry, Sappho, Female Poetry. A s a solid scholarly tradition has clarified by now, epic and lyric ought not be regarded as opposite genres and, from a diachronic perspective, lyric can no longer be interpreted as an evolution of epic, since the differences between the two genres mainly concern the occasion for the performance, rather than its content. 1 For this reason, a synchronic reading of the two poetic forms can shed new light on some epic passages that seem to be rather close to the lyrical approach and language. Indeed, the encyclopaedic character of the Homeric poems and their long process of composition 2 allowed them to incorporate other poetic forms. 3 This attests to the existence of several kinds of lyric odes in the age of Homer, as one would expect given the long process of composition of the poems. 4 So, for example, in Iliad 9 Achilles is represented as singing klea andron, heroic deeds, to the sound of a lyre, while attending a solitary symposium in his tent with his friend Patroclus. 5 When the Achaean ambassadors enter, Achilles expresses his sorrow and frustration, and the conversation appears to be strewn with un-Homeric themes and expressions which reflect – and appear to be informed by – the sort of “lyrical” ethos often found in monodic poetry, particularly elegy. 6 An explanation for such an adherence to the lyric mood may lie in the sympotic context of the scene : since, as Nagy puts it, “the occasion is the genre”, 7 epic can adopt lyric themes when the context requires it. cecilia.nobili@unibg.it, Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Italia. 1 The field of “performance” studies was inaugurated by Gentili 1984, followed by a long series of works such as Calame 1974 and 1998, Martin 1989, and Nagy 1990, 1996. See Foster, Kurke, Weiss 2019 for an overview of this scholarly trend ; see Budelmann, Phillips 2018 for possible criticisms. 2 See the evolutionary model proposed by Nagy 1992, pp. 29-112 ; 1996, chap. 5-7 ; 2003, pp. 1-19. 3 E.g. Il. 1.472-474, 22.391-392 for the paean ; Il. 18.50-51, 314-316, 24.720-722 for the threnos. The contents of the lyric songs are not quoted : on possible reasons for these omissions, see Palmisciano 2007 and 2009. See Martin 1997 for his analysis of similes in epic as belonging to the genre of lyric poetry. 4 See Diehl 1940, whose title Fuerunt ante Homerum poetae derives from Cic. Brut. 71 ; Dalby 1998. 5 Il. 9.185-195. As Nagy 2013, pp. 87-88 notes, the klea andron is a subject that could fit both epic and lyric poems. Patroclus is waiting for Achilles to finish, in order to take up the lyre and perform his own song in relay, as is typical of sympotic practice (this is the meaning implied in this context by δέγμενος (see L.S.J. s.v. δέχομαι ii 3). The act recalls the typical “sympotic chain” (see Vetta 1984). Nonetheless, this practice is also typical of rhapsodic recitations : at Panhellenic festivals rhapsodes used to sing in sequence, taking turns (see Nagy 1996, pp. 71-73 for a direct parallel with Il. 9, and Sbardella 2012, pp. 5-51). 6 Il. 9.308-429. On the anomaly of Achilles’ language and his clear rejection of the heroic code, see Reeve 1973, pp. 193-195 ; Martin 1989, pp. 160-171. For a complete survey of the elegiac themes embedded in Achilles’ discourse, see 7 Nagy 1990, p. 362. Zanetto 2004, pp. 42-43 ; Nobili 2009, pp. 236-241 ; Capra et al. 2020, pp. 66-71. http://doi.org/10.19272/202304601006 · «philologia antiqua», 16, 2023 http://philologiaantiqua.libraweb.net submitted: 16.9.2022 · reviewed: 12.1.2023 · accepted: 30.1.2023 Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. FEM A LE LYR IC VOICES IN THE ODYSSEY Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. 66 cecilia nobili A similar context is found in Odyssey 14 (268-280), where Odysseus, pretending to be a Cretan merchant, recounts his adventures. Among these is his ominous flight before the Egyptian army, which bears similar overtones to the reflection on the meaning of flight that we find in Archilochus’ Telephus elegy. 1 In brief, it may be argued that at times the Homeric hero becomes a poetic counterpart to the epic performer himself, the aoidos or rhapsode : he may become a singer of klea andron, like Achilles in Iliad 9 ; but he may also become a lyric performer, if the occasion requires it. Among his many skills, the Homeric hero has the ability to shift from one genre to the other, adapting his performance to suit the occasion and the audience’s expectations. But what about Homeric women ? They are good singers : Circe and Calypso sing while weaving 2 (the association between weaving and song has long been noted), 3 whereas Nausicaa sings while washing clothes and playing ball with her companions. 4 Nonetheless, the words of their songs are not reported, and the poet seems to refrain from entering the world of female song. 5 One exception is represented by the laments (gooi) that the Trojan women sing over Hector’s body in Iliad 24 and which bear strong similarities to the threnoi and the lyrical tradition of female funerary lamentation. 6 Nonetheless, the world of female lyric poetry is well known to the Homeric poet and, as I will try to show, the speeches made by some female characters, especially in the Odyssey, seem to be informed by a tradition of female lyric poetry that we find expressed by poets such as Sappho, Corinna and others. 7 A correspondence between female speeches and lyric odes has been envisaged by Lardinois, who connects Sappho’s poetry with some female speech genres like prayers, laments and praises of brides. 8 As I will argue, the reverse is also possible and the speeches made by female characters in epic (especially in the Odyssey) may have been influenced by – or at any rate may be related to – female lyric genres. Female speakers and female contexts, then, may have influenced the language and mood of specific passages, which I will now turn to examine. The first character that needs to be considered is Helen, the female Homeric performer par excellence, whose narrative and poetic skills have been noted since Antiquity. 9 In both the Iliad and the Odyssey, Helen is represented as an expert weaver and, as is the case with all Homeric princesses, weaving is her favourite activity : Il. 3.125-128 shows Helen in the act of weaving a big canvas representing the ἄεϑλοι of Greeks and Trojans in the Trojan war, and this anticipates Helen’s ability in recounting the deeds of heroes. 10 As 1 See Barker, Christensen 2006 ; Nobili 2009 ; Swift 2012 ; Lulli 2016, pp. 196-199. 2 On Circe’s and Calypso’s muted performances see Karanika 2014, pp. 45-51. 3 See Durante 1976, pp. 176-179 ; Snyder 1981 ; Bergren 1983 and 2008 ; Karanika 2014, pp. 21-51. 4 On Nausicaa’s maidens’ choral song see Karanika 2014, pp. 52-77. 5 Bergren 1983, pp. 71-72 says : « Greek women do not speak, they weave », so the woman’s web becomes « a metaphorical speech, a silent substitute for (her lack of) verbal art ». Indeed, Homeric women speak, but weaving seems to be a substitute for song, or mythos, as Martin 1989, pp. 37-42 defines performative speech or poetry (see p. 42 : « the term muthos is the name that the poet gives to actual genres of discourse which are also poetic genres, and which we find embedded in the speeches of the Iliad »). 6 On the feminine character of the lament, see Alexiou 1974 ; Martin 1989, p. 87 ; McClure 1999, pp. 40-47 ; Blok 2001, pp. 104-109 ; Palmisciano 2017, pp. 57-58 ; 139-141. 7 For an extended treatment of this topic see Nobili 2023. 8 Lardinois 2001. 9 See Bergren 1980 and 1983, pp. 79-86 ; Worman 2001. 10 See Kennedy 1986 ; De Martino 2006, pp. 109-112 ; Karanika 2014, pp. 25-26 ; De Sanctis 2018, pp. 23-34 ; 5769. The analogy had been noted by the ancient scholiasts, too (see schol. b and T Il. 3.126-127) and Isocrates (Hel. 65) believed that Helen had commissioned the Iliad. 67 has already been noted, 1 weaving is a metaphor for song and, in the case of women, it is a kind of substitute for it, when the words of the songs are not reported. Helen’s case, however, is partially different, because she is not said to be singing while she weaves ; nonetheless, her long speeches, both in the Iliad and in the Odyssey, may be regarded as songs about klea andron : she sings the deeds of heroes before an audience of male characters, just as professional bards like Phemius and Demodocus might. In particular, in Il. 3 she describes the members of the Achaean army to Priam and the other senior Trojan aristocrats, providing a catalogue of heroes which appears to be clearly informed by the epic catalogic tradition. In the Odyssey, along with her husband Menelaus, she is the protagonist of book 4, where Telemachus visits their palace in search of information about his father. 2 The context is convivial : Menelaus is offering a banquet to celebrate the weddings of his son Megapenthes and his daughter Hermione, and when Telemachus and Peisistratus enter the hall, they are invited to join the banquet. The conversation among the guests is appropriate to the context, so several themes usually expressed in sympotic poetry are presented, such as the grief and lamentation for the loss of dear friends, 3 and a reflection on the uncertainty of destiny, a prominent topic in sympotic elegy. 4 Helen is introduced in association with the objects typical of weaving 5 and entertains her guests by displaying her narrative skills : she begins her speech with a gnome concerning the overwhelming power of Zeus and the instability of human fate, which finds several formal parallels in sympotic poetry (4.235-237). 6 Ἀτρεΐδη Μενέλαε διοτρεφὲς ἠδὲ καὶ οἵδε ἀνδρῶν ἐσϑλῶν παῖδες, ἀτὰρ ϑεὸς ἄλλοτε ἄλλῳ Ζεὺς ἀγαϑόν τε κακόν τε διδοῖ· δύναται γὰρ ἅπαντα· Menealos, son of Atreus, nourished of Zeus, and you who are here, children of noble men, now the god Zeus gives good and now evil, for he can do all things. (Transl. Powell) So, Helen immediately appears as an expert singer, well aware of the themes and expressions typical of lyric poetry, but also able to move across different poetic genres. In fact, she immediately moves on to the klea andron and recounts an episode from the Trojan war, involving Odysseus and herself (ll. 238-264) : 7 in the final phase of the war Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, managed to enter in the city walls and none recognized him apart from Helen, who washed him and gave him new clothes, promising not to betray him by revealing his identity. In this way Odysseus managed to kill some soldiers and to convey some valuable strategic information to the Achaean camp. Helen thus presents herself as an ally of the Greeks and a friend of Odysseus’ even when she was living in Troy, but she is soon contradicted by her husband, who recounts that she tried to betray the Greek soldiers hidden in the horse by imitating their wives’ voices. 8 Once again, the impasse 1 See above, p. 66, n. 3. 2 For a detailed analysis of the figure of Helen and her speech in this passage, see De Sanctis 2018, pp. 179-238. 3 See also Marino 1999 ; Palmisciano 2017, pp. 28-31. 4 On this topic see my previous contributions in Nobili 2006a and Capra et al. 2020, pp. 69-70, where the possible existence of some forms of threnodic elegy is discussed. 5 See Karanika 2014, pp. 30-32. 6 See e.g. Arch fr. 13.7 W2, Theogn. 155-158, 558-560, 991-992 ; Sol. fr. 13.74-76 W2. 7 On Helen’s speech as an act of self-presentation, see Martin 1989, p. 88, and Karanika 2014, pp. 34-37. 8 On Menelaus contradicting his wife’s words, see Doherty 1995, pp. 86-87 ; Doyle 2010 ; Scafoglio 2015. De Sanctis 2018, pp. 226-230, however, notes that Menelaus’ story has the function of underlining Helen’s ability as singer and narrator. Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. female lyric voices in the odyssey Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. 68 cecilia nobili was saved by Odysseus, who managed to check the soldiers’ reaction, imposing silence inside the horse. In both the Iliad and the Odyssey, Helen is presented as a skillful narrator and as a counterpart to the epic poet. This identification, however, is not unproblematic since in the archaic age the rhapsodic profession would appear to have been exclusively reserved to men and the epic voice is a male voice directed to a male audience. 1 The only feminine contribution is represented by the Muses (Ann Bergren defines it as a process where “a male author ascribes a kind of speech to a female and then makes it his own”). 2 For this reason, until the Hellenistic age we do not have any proof of the existence of epic female poets (the first attested poetess who composed hexametric verses is Erinna in the fourth century bc, who composed an epyllion entitled The Distaff). 3 As Stehle has noted, the world of female poetry is restricted to lyric poetry, and epic seems to be off limits to women. 4 Nonetheless, in Od. 4.239 Helen begins her speech by declaring that in her mythos she will recount “suitable things” (μύϑοις τέρπεσϑε· ἐοικότα γὰρ καταλέξω), and when she finishes (l. 266) Menelaus reiterates that she spoke κατὰ μοίραν, appropriately. 5 So, nothing in her speeches comes across as abnormal and we may wonder whether any parallels may thus be found with the female lyric tradition : are there any signals that mark Helen’s speeches as characterized by female overtones typical of female poetry ? Of course it is far from easy to answer such a question, and this for two reasons : the first is our limited knowledge of female poetry, since the works of female poets, apart from a few exceptions, are irremediably lost and female poetry was subjected to censorship and obliteration by later male authors ; so while we know that several female poets existed, in most cases they represent little more than names for us. 6 The second reason directly derives from the first : it is not easy to detect common features among female authors that can clearly be identified as typical of female poetry. However, the first thing to note is that mythological and catalogic poetry was not unknown to female poets, as is confirmed by Corinna, who composed some choral odes, focusing on mythical and catalogic themes, such as a genealogy of the river Asopus and the contest between Citheron and Aelicon (PMG 654). So, the kind of poetry that Helen performs is in line with a tradition of female choral poetry, which had much in common with its male counterpart, as represented by Stesichorus, Pindar and Bacchylides. 7 Nevertheless, the closing lines (ll. 259-264) of her speech are marked by some words of regret for her action and by an implicit note of self-blame, which bear strong similarities to Sappho’s poetry. ἔνϑ’ ἄλλαι Τρῳαὶ λίγ’ ἐκώκυον· αὐτὰρ ἐμὸν κῆρ χαῖρ’, ἐπεὶ ἤδη μοι κραδίη τέτραπτο νεέσϑαι ἂψ οἶκόνδ’, ἄτην δὲ μετέστενον, ἣν Ἀφροδίτη δῶχ’, ὅτε μ’ ἤγαγε κεῖσε φίλης ἀπὸ πατρίδος αἴης, παῖδά τ’ ἐμὴν νοσφισσαμένην ϑάλαμόν τε πόσιν τε οὔ τευ δευόμενον, οὔτ’ ἂρ φρένας οὔτε τι εἶδος. 1 Martin 1989, p. 87 notes that the word mythos has « a male, heroic-in group orientation ». See also Stehle 1997, pp. 170-212. 2 Bergren 1983, p. 69. 3 Other epic female poets, such as Aristodame, Aristomache and Mero, are attested in the 3rd century bc. See West 1996, pp. 41-48 and De Martino 2006, pp. 93-200. 4 Stehle 1997, pp. 71-118. 5 For Martin 1989, pp. 87-88 Helen’s performance of mythoi is appropriate to lament as a typically feminine kind of speech. 6 See West 1996 ; De Martino 2006. 7 Some female peculiarities are nonetheless detectable, such as the use of the Boeotian dialect and a general local “flavour” in the choice of themes, which characterizes female poets by contrast to their male contemporaries. See Larson 2002 for Corinna. 69 Then the other Trojan women shrilly wailed, but my spirit rejoiced. Already my heart was turned to go back home ! I groaned for the blindness that Aphrodite gave me when she led me there, far from the beloved land of my fathers, abandoning my child and my wedding chamber and my husband, a man who lacked nothing either in wisdom or looks. (Transl. Powell) Helen here accuses Aphrodite of having clouded her mind (ἄτη), 1 forcing her to abandon her hometown, her daughter and her husband, described as the best man on earth – someone no reasonable woman would ever leave. As is well known, the attribution of responsibility to Aphrodite will become a common motif in the later development of Helen’s figure, but in this case it is associated with a sense of guilt that Helen feels for her actions, as expressed a few lines before by Helen herself (ll. 143-146). Self-blame is a recurrent theme in Homer’s depiction of Helen, 2 and in some cases it is expressed through the aggressive tone of the iambus, as in Iliad 3.180, where she calls herself κυνώπις, in Od. 4.145, and Il. 6.344-348, where she calls herself κυνός κακομηχάνος ὀκρυοέσσης. 3 Insults of this kind are attested elsewhere in the Homeric poems, as in the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, or that between Odysseus and Iros. They appear as iambic traits, which bear close similarities to sympotic blame poetry. 4 This type of poetry is not inappropriate for women, too : a iambic poetess, Moschine, is attested at the end of the fourth century BC, but Sappho herself composed some odes of reproach and accusation which have been defined as “iambic” by Martin and Aloni and testify that some aggressive traits were also found in female poetry, as Helen herself demonstrates. 5 This is the case, for example, with fr. 55 V., where Sappho calls for the death and obliteration of one of her enemies (possibly Andromeda), and 57 V., where she criticizes Andromeda’s vulgar clothing, in addition to the solid tradition of invectives against Doricha (15 V.). In some cases, like Il. 6.344-348, the iambic insult is associated with a wish for death, thus assuming certain traits typical of the lament, which is another recurring topos in Helen’s speeches, best expressed by Helen’s goos over Hector’s body, but also recurring elsewhere. 6 δᾶερ ἐμεῖο κυνὸς κακομηχάνου ὀκρυοέσσης, ὥς μ’ ὄφελ’ ἤματι τῷ ὅτε με πρῶτον τέκε μήτηρ οἴχεσϑαι προφέρουσα κακὴ ἀνέμοιο ϑύελλα εἰς ὄρος ἢ εἰς κῦμα πολυφλοίσβοιο ϑαλάσσης, ἔνϑά με κῦμ’ ἀπόερσε πάρος τάδε ἔργα γενέσϑαι. My brother – brother to a scheming, icy bitch ! – I wish that on the day my mother first bore an evil wind had come along and carried me away to the mountains, or beneath the wave of the loud-resounding sea, where the wave could snatch me away before any of these things happened. (Transl. Powell) 1 Helen addresses Aphrodite with words of blame also in Il. 3.399-412. 2 See Worman 2001 and 2002, pp. 47-55. 3 On the use of these epithets as applied to Helen, see Edmunds 2019, pp. 33-36. 4 See Nagy 1979, pp. 259-264 and Barker 2009, pp. 53-61. 5 Aloni 1997, pp. lxvi-lxxv and Martin 2016. See also blame poetry in Sparta, often performed by women (Nobili 2013). 6 See Martin 1989, pp. 87-88 ; Worman 2001 ; Lardinois 2001, pp. 80-88 ; Karanika 2014, pp. 27-29. Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. female lyric voices in the odyssey 70 cecilia nobili Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. The same kind of regret is expressed by Helen in Il. 3.172-175, before she presents her catalogue of heroes to Priam. ὡς ὄφελεν ϑάνατός μοι ἁδεῖν κακὸς ὁππότε δεῦρο υἱέϊ σῷ ἑπόμην ϑάλαμον γνωτούς τε λιποῦσα παῖδά τε τηλυγέτην καὶ ὁμηλικίην ἐρατεινήν. Would that I had chosen foul death instead of following your son, abandoning my bridal chamber and my family, and my late-born daughter, and my lovely companions of girlhood. (Transl. Powell) Such wishes for death that Helen so frequently voices appear as a trait typical of women’s laments. We also find them in Sappho’s fr. 94 V., where the poetess wishes she were dead and recalls the good moments she spent with a beloved girl, or fr. 95 V., where she expresses the same wish to reach Acheron’s shores. τεϑνάκην δ’ ἀδόλως ϑέλω· And honestly I wish I were dead. (Sapph. fr. 94.1 V., transl. Campbell) ο]ὐδὲν ἄδομ’ ἔπαρϑ’ ἀγα[ κατϑάνην δ’ ἴμερός τις [ἔχει με καὶ λωτίνοις δροσόεντας [ὄχ̣[ϑ]οις ἴδην Ἀχερ[ I get no pleasure from being above the earth, and a longing grips me to die and see the dewy, lotus-covered banks of Acheron. (Sapph. fr. 95.10-13 V., transl. Campbell) The regret that Helen expresses in Il. 3 for having abandoned her husband, friends and daughter is further developed in the last lines of her speech in Od. 4, where she praises Menelaus and describes him as superior to all other men in looks and wit. Such praise may be compared to the typical praise of the husband that we find in wedding poetry, particularly some of Sappho’s epithalamia, 1 which constitute a poetic genre closely connected with the feminine sphere, as they were usually sung by choruses of girls on the wedding day. 2 The context is also appropriate, since we must not forget that the whole banquet in Menelaus’ palace has been organized to celebrate the weddings of his song Megapenthe and his daughter Hermione. The parallels between Helen’s final remarks and sapphic poetry are actually twofold, because the poetess overtly evokes Helen’s words in fr. 16.5-11 V., where she famously defends Helen’s choice to abandon her daughter and husband, in order to follow her love. πά]γχυ δ’ εὔμαρες σύνετον πόησαι π]άντι τ[ο]ῦτ’, ἀ γὰρ πόλυ περσκέϑοισα κάλλος [ἀνϑ]ρώπων Ἐλένα [τὸ]ν ἄνδρα τ̣ὸν̣ [ ]ι̣στον κ̣αλλ[ίποι]σ̣’ ἔβα ‘ς Τροΐαν πλέοι̣[σα κωὐδ[ὲ πα]ῖδος οὐδὲ φίλων το[κ]ήων π̣ά[μπαν] ἐμνάσϑη, ἀλλὰ παράγ̣αγ̣’ α̣ὔταν. 1 See e.g. Sapph. frr. 110-112 V. 2 On epithalamia and wedding poetry see Muth 1954 ; Hague 1983 ; Contiades-Tsitsoni 1990 ; Lyghounis 1991. female lyric voices in the odyssey 71 As in the passage from Odyssey 4, both Menelaus, here praised as ἄριστον ἄνδρα, 1 and his daughter are mentioned, although Sappho consciously overturns Helen’s point of view : in the epic poem the heroine regrets the madness that Aphrodite visited upon her, whereas in this case Sappho defends Helen’s choice. 2 So we can conclude that Sappho’s relation with Helen and epic is twofold : on the one hand, the poetess evokes the Homeric character and seems to quote specific passages from the epic poems ; 3 on the other, Homer’s Helen speaks like Sappho. Helen’s speech shares several themes with female poetry : both the mythic, choral tradition attested by Corinna and the nuptial or erotic one attested by Sappho. Helen’s case is not unique. The lonely and melancholic nymph Calypso exhibits the same attitude and her language is filled with motifs typical of female poetry that we also find in Sappho’s odes. Calypso is, once again, a good weaver and singer. When Hermes descends from Olympus in order to bring her the message from Zeus, he finds her weaving in her house (Od. 5.61-62). ἡ δ’ ἔνδον ἀοιδιάουσ’ ὀπὶ καλῇ ἱστὸν ἐποιχομένη χρυσείῃ κερκίδ’ ὕφαινεν. Within she was singing in her beautiful voice, going back and forth before her loom with a golden shuttle. (Transl. Powell) When Hermes reveals that she must allow Odysseus to depart, Calypso mournfully replies with an indignant accusation against male gods, which clearly expresses her feminine point of view (Od. 5.118-129). σχέτλιοί ἐστε, ϑεοί, ζηλήμονες ἔξοχον ἄλλων, οἵ τε ϑεαῖσ’ ἀγάασϑε παρ’ ἀνδράσιν εὐνάζεσϑαι ἀμφαδίην, ἤν τίς τε φίλον ποιήσετ’ ἀκοίτην. ὣς μὲν ὅτ’ Ὠρίων’ ἕλετο ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς, τόφρα οἱ ἠγάασϑε ϑεοὶ ῥεῖα ζώοντες, ἕως μιν ἐν Ὀρτυγίῃ χρυσόϑρονος Ἄρτεμις ἁγνὴ οἷσ’ ἀγανοῖσι βέλεσσιν ἐποιχομένη κατέπεφνεν. ὣς δ’ ὁπότ’ Ἰασίωνι ἐϋπλόκαμος Δημήτηρ, ᾧ ϑυμῷ εἴξασα, μίγη φιλότητι καὶ εὐνῇ νειῷ ἔνι τριπόλῳ· οὐδὲ δὴν ἦεν ἄπυστος Ζεύς, ὅς μιν κατέπεφνε βαλὼν ἀργῆτι κεραυνῷ. ὣς δ’ αὖ νῦν μοι ἄγασϑε, ϑεοί, βροτὸν ἄνδρα παρεῖναι. You are cruel, you gods, envious above all others ! You have it in for any goddess who sleeps openly with a mortal man, if any should take one as her dear bed-fellow. Just so when Dawn with her fingers of rose took Orion as a lover, you gods who live at ease 1 This is Voigt’s reconstruction, whereas Lobel and Page reconstruct the word as [πανάρι]στον. 2 On Helen’s portrayal in Sappho see Dubois 1996 ; Fredricksmeyer 2001 ; Blondell 2010, pp. 373-387 ; Sironi 2018, pp. 64-65. On the connection between Sapph. fr. 16 V. and Od. 4.259-264 see Cavallini 1978-1979, pp. 100-102. 3 On Sappho’s reuse of epic see Rissman 1983 ; Sironi 2018 ; Kelly 2021 ; Scodel 2021. Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. It is perfectly easy to make this understood by everyone : for she who far surpassed mankind in beauty, Helen, left her most noble husband and went sailing off to Troy with no thought at all for her child or dear parents, but love led her astray (transl. Campbell). Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. 72 cecilia nobili envied her until chaste Artemis of the golden throne killed him in Ortygia, attacking him with her gentle arrows. Or when Demeter of the plaited hair, giving into passion, mixed in love with Iasion in the thrice-plowed fallow field, Zeus was not long ignorant of it : he killed Iasion, striking him with his flashing thunderbolt. Even so are now envious, you gods, that a mortal man should be with me. (Transl. Powell) Calypso begins with an attack on the male gods, who are accused of being envious of the goddesses and of preventing them from fulfilling their love for mortal men, in overt contrast to the gods’ own behaviour, who seduce mortal women whenever they want. Calypso here denounces an asymmetry between men and women as regards sexual mores, which contradicts the perspective expressed elsewhere in the Odyssey, where a repression of female sexuality prevails. 1 In the poem Calypso’s rebel voice is justified by the nymph’s isolation and the remoteness of her island, which make her independent from current social norms ; however, Calypso here exemplifies a sort of “proto-feminist” point of view that is put into the mouth of women elsewhere. In a male-oriented society, women perceive the different treatment reserved to them and sometimes express their rage and dissatisfaction, as Medea famously does in her monologue against the dominance of men over women. Regarding sexual habits, men were free to choose their partners and look for leisure outside home (and outside marriage), whereas adulterous women were condemned by the society and divorce was not easy task for women. 2 πάντων δ’ ὅσ’ ἔστ’ ἔμψυχα καὶ γνώμην ἔχει γυναῖκές ἐσμεν ἀϑλιώτατον φυτόν· ἃς πρῶτα μὲν δεῖ χρημάτων ὑπερβολῆι πόσιν πρίασϑαι δεσπότην τε σώματος λαβεῖν· κακοῦ γὰρ τοῦτ’ ἔτ’ ἄλγιον κακόν. κἀν τῶιδ’ ἀγὼν μέγιστος, ἢ κακὸν λαβεῖν ἢ χρηστόν· οὐ γὰρ εὐκλεεῖς ἀπαλλαγαὶ γυναιξὶν οὐδ’ οἷόν τ’ ἀνήνασϑαι πόσιν. ἐς καινὰ δ’ ἤϑη καὶ νόμους ἀφιγμένην δεῖ μάντιν εἶναι, μὴ μαϑοῦσαν οἴκοϑεν, οἵωι μάλιστα χρήσεται ξυνευνέτηι. κἂν μὲν τάδ’ ἡμῖν ἐκπονουμέναισιν εὖ πόσις ξυνοικῆι μὴ βίαι φέρων ζυγόν, ζηλωτὸς αἰών· εἰ δὲ μή, ϑανεῖν χρεών. ἀνὴρ δ’, ὅταν τοῖς ἔνδον ἄχϑηται ξυνών, ἔξω μολὼν ἔπαυσε καρδίαν ἄσης [ἢ πρὸς φίλον τιν’ ἢ πρὸς ἥλικα τραπείς]· ἡμῖν δ’ ἀνάγκη πρὸς μίαν ψυχὴν βλέπειν. Of everything that lives, all creatures sentient, we women are most abject of them all. We must first with an exchange of money buy a husband, pass control of our own bodies to his hands. And 1 See e.g. the accusations against Clytaemnestra in Od. 11.405-439 ; the danger represented by Circe’s independence from males ; the punishment of Odysseus’ handmaids due to their fornication with the suitors. See Peradotto 1993. This passage also seems to imply a rejection of a kind of female catalogic poetry which allowed the unions between goddesses and mortals. See Skempis 2017. 2 Eur. Med. 230-247. On difficult divorce practices on women’s side see Damet 2019. At l. 245 ἔξω μολών, implies that men go outside their homes to look for leisure with a lover or a prostitute (l. 246 must be expunged). Cfr. Reckford 1968, pp. 338-339 ; Mastronarde 2002, pp. 212-213. 73 yet there is an ordeal still more bitter yet to come. For in this getting of a husband is the greatest lottery of all – will he be cruel or good ? There are no ways a woman can divorce and keep her honour, and she can’t deny her husband. So she comes to a strange house, a whole new set of rules and expectations – and she needs to be clairvoyant, for she’s not learned this at home : how best she should break in her husband. And if in this great undertaking we succeed, so that our husband lives contentedly and does not fight against the reins, our life is to be envied. But if we fail, we’re better dead. A man can leave the house and find some new distraction when he’s had enough, whenever he grows bored or irritated with the company at home. But for us, necessity demands that we have eyes for just one man, our husband (transl. Stuttard). The same unequal treatment between men and women is condemned by Clytaemnestra in Euripides’ Electra, as she bemoans that Agamemnon is free to choose his lovers and brought Cassandra into his own house and bed, whereas women are subject to general disapproval if they replace their husband with another lover, as she did with Aigistos. 1 μῶρον μὲν οὖν γυναῖκες, οὐκ ἄλλως λέγω· ὅταν δ’, ὑπόντος τοῦδ’, ἁμαρτάνηι πόσις τἄνδον παρώσας λέκτρα, μιμεῖσϑαι ϑέλει γυνὴ τὸν ἄνδρα χἄτερον κτᾶσϑαι φίλον. κἄπειτ’ ἐν ἡμῖν ὁ ψόγος λαμπρύνεται, οἱ δ’ αἴτιοι τῶνδ’ οὐ κλύουσ’ ἄνδρες κακῶς. Now women, I agree, are a foolish lot ; but when on top of that a husband errs, rejecting his wife at home, the woman is apt to follow his pattern and acquire another partner. And then the censure of it reflects on us, while the men who have brought it about get no bad name (transl. Cropp). In order to corroborate her argument, Calypso recalls two mythical examples : the love between Eos and Orion and that between Demeter and Iasion. 2 In both myths a goddess falls in love with a mortal man, arousing the jealousy of another deity (Artemis in the former case, Zeus in the latter), who punishes her by killing her beloved one. 3 The use of mythical exempla in support of a general reflection or a personal situation is typical of lyric poets and Sappho’s Tithonus poem (58c V.) offers a good point of comparison for the unfortunate love affairs of the goddess Eos. While Calypso mentions the goddess as a victim of the god’s envy, in Sappho she is the victim of fate and passing time, which inflicts the ravages of old age on her beloved. This is not the only point of comparison between Calypso and Sappho : at ll. 154-155 the poet says that Odysseus was forced to sleep with the nymph in her cave, whereas she was willing to : ἀλλ’ ἦ τοι νύκτας μὲν ἰαύεσκεν καὶ ἀνάγκῃ ἐν σπέεσι γλαφυροῖσι παρ’ οὐκ ἐϑέλων ἐϑελούσῃ. At night he slept beside her in the hollow cave, under duress, unwilling beside the willful nymph. (Transl. Powell) 1 Eur. El. 1035-1040. See also Soph. fr. 583 Radt (Procne’s lament over women’s fate). See Finglass 2016. 2 On this sort of “Catalogue of women” see Skempis 2017. This version of Orion’s myth seems to be invented by the poet in this passage and is not attested elsewhere. On invented mythic exempla in the Homeric poems see Scodel 2002, pp. 145-146. 3 In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite when Aphrodite seduces mortal Anchises, she is also worried about other gods’ blame and begs Anchises not to reveal their relationship in order to avoid Zeus’ punishment. This seems to be a motif common in near-eastern sagas (see Giacomelli 1980, pp. 16-19), but seldom applied to Greek myths. Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. female lyric voices in the odyssey Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. 74 cecilia nobili The sentence οὐκ ἐϑέλων ἐϑελούσῃ typically expresses the idea of unrequited love, which is an obsessively recurrent one in Sappho and finds its most complete expression in the ode to Aphrodite (Fr. 1.21-24 V.). Here the poetess laments her unrequited love for a girl, and the goddess reassures her that the latter will soon return her love, if only reluctantly. 1 καÕὶ γõὰρ αἰ φεύγει, ταχέως διώξει, αἰ δὲ δῶρα μὴ δέκετ’, ἀλλὰ δώσει, αἰ δὲ μὴ φίλει, ταχέως φιλήσει κωὐκ ἐϑέλοισα. If she runs away, soon she shall purse ; if she does not love, soon she shall love even against her will (transl. Campbell). Finally, at ll. 206-213 Calypso begs Odysseus once more to remain in Ogygia and to accept her offer of immortality. Nonetheless, she knows that he desires to return home and that his love and thoughts are always directed at her rival, Penelope. For these reasons, although she is a goddess, she envies the mortal woman and competes with her in beauty and youth. 2 εἴ γε μὲν εἰδείης σῇσι φρεσίν, ὅσσα τοι αἶσα κήδε’ ἀναπλῆσαι, πρὶν πατρίδα γαῖαν ἱκέσϑαι, ἐνϑάδε κ’ αὖϑι μένων σὺν ἐμοὶ τόδε δῶμα φυλάσσοις ἀϑάνατός τ’ εἴης, ἱμειρόμενός περ ἰδέσϑαι σὴν ἄλοχον, τῆς τ’ αἰὲν ἐέλδεαι ἤματα πάντα. οὐ μέν ϑην κείνης γε χερείων εὔχομαι εἶναι, οὐ δέμας οὐδὲ φυήν, ἐπεὶ οὔ πως οὐδὲ ἔοικε ϑνητὰς ἀϑανάτῃσι δέμας καὶ εἶδος ἐρίζειν. If you only knew how many more sorrows that fate requires you to endure before you come to your homeland – you would stay here with me in this house and be immortal, although you desire to see your wife, whom you long for all your days. I don’t think that I am worse than she in looks or beauty ! Well, it really is not fitting that mortals compete with the immortals with respect to comeliness (transl. Powell). The jealousy the goddess feels towards her rival and the competition she establishes with her once again recall several verses of Sapphos’, such as fr. 31 V., the famous “jealousy ode”, or fr. 71 V., which adumbrates the competition between women for the love of a girl, or again fr. 131 V., where the poetess bemoans the fact that Atthis has left her for her rival Andromeda. Sappho is proud of her beauty, as she says in fr. 58d, where she praises her own looks and sophistication ; but she is also well aware of the fact that women cannot compete with goddess, who are superior in all respects, as she declares in fr. 96.21-22 and as Calypso also recalls. ε]ὔ̣μαρ[ες μ]ὲ̣ν οὐκ̣ α.μι ϑέαισι μόρφαν ἐπή[ρατ]ον ἐξίσωσϑαι… It is not easy for us to rival goddesses in loveliness of figure… (Transl. Campbell) In ancient Greece a typically feminine poetic genre was the wedding song, which is also clearly exemplified by Sappho’s poetry. 3 Choruses of girls used to sing epithalamia and 1 See Nannini 1980. 2 On rhetorical strategies employed by Calypso in her discourse, including the comparison with Penelope, see Pontani 2017. 3 See Lardinois 2001, pp. 89-91. 75 hymenaioi to celebrate couples on the day of their marriage and Sappho composed several odes, collected in a book of Epithalamia, to celebrate the weddings of local families. 1 Wedding songs are attested in the Homeric poems, as the description of the wedding scene on Achilles’ shield testifies. 2 Nonetheless, the passage that best reflects the epic poet’s familiarity with wedding poetry is the encounter between Odysseus and Nausicaa in Odyssey 6. 3 As several scholars have argued, the whole book is strewn with nuptial references, since the possibility of a wedding between the Odysseus and Nausicaa is subtly hinted at on several occasions, and the poet plays with the suspense he creates around the union between the fascinating stranger and the beautiful girl. 4 Furthermore, the erotic overtones of the episode are evident, 5 since the image of happy girls playing in a meadow implicitly recalls similar episodes of the abduction of girls, such as that of Persephone. 6 Odysseus talks to Nausicaa in order to earn her benevolence and ensure he will enjoy safe hospitality on the island. However, the speech he makes is filled with themes typical of wedding poetry, which are in line with the overall atmosphere of the book. Odysseus’ speech is made up of three sections : the praise of the girl represented by a makarismos, designed to gain her sympathy (ll. 149-169), the recounting of his misfortunes and a request for help (ll. 170-179) and, finally, a wish for a happy marriage and a praise of her future bridegroom (ll. 180-185). γουνοῦμαί σε, ἄνασσα· ϑεός νύ τις ἦ βροτός ἐσσι; εἰ μέν τις ϑεός ἐσσι, τοὶ οὐρανὸν εὐρὺν ἔχουσιν, Ἀρτέμιδί σε ἐγώ γε, Διὸς κούρῃ μεγάλοιο, εἶδός τε μέγεϑός τε φυήν τ’ ἄγχιστα ἐΐσκω· εἰ δέ τίς ἐσσι βροτῶν, οἳ ἐπὶ χϑονὶ ναιετάουσι, τρὶς μάκαρες μὲν σοί γε πατὴρ καὶ πότνια μήτηρ, τρὶς μάκαρες δὲ κασίγνητοι· μάλα πού σφισι ϑυμὸς αἰὲν ἐϋφροσύνῃσιν ἰαίνεται εἵνεκα σεῖο, λευσσόντων τοιόνδε ϑάλος χορὸν εἰσοιχνεῦσαν. κεῖνος δ’ αὖ περὶ κῆρι μακάρτατος ἔξοχον ἄλλων, ὅς κέ σ’ ἐέδνοισι βρίσας οἶκόνδ’ ἀγάγηται. οὐ γάρ πω τοιοῦτον ἴδον βροτὸν ὀφϑαλμοῖσιν, οὔτ’ ἄνδρ’ οὔτε γυναῖκα· σέβας μ’ ἔχει εἰσορόωντα. Δήλῳ δή ποτε τοῖον Ἀπόλλωνος παρὰ βωμῷ φοίνικος νέον ἔρνος ἀνερχόμενον ἐνόησα· ἦλϑον γὰρ καὶ κεῖσε, πολὺς δέ μοι ἕσπετο λαός, τὴν ὁδόν, ᾗ δὴ μέλλεν ἐμοὶ κακὰ κήδε’ ἔσεσϑαι· ὣς δ’ αὔτως καὶ κεῖνο ἰδὼν ἐτεϑήπεα ϑυμῷ, δήν, ἐπεὶ οὔ πω τοῖον ἀνήλυϑεν ἐκ δόρυ γαίης, ὡς σέ, γύναι, ἄγαμαί τε τέϑηπά τε, δείδια δ’ αἰνῶς γούνων ἅψασϑαι· χαλεπὸν δέ με πένϑος ἱκάνει. I entreat you, O queen – are you a goddess, or a mortal ? If you are a goddess, one of those who inhabit the broad heaver I would compare you beauty and stature and form to Artemis, the great daughter of Zeus. If you are a mortal, 1 2 3 4 5 6 On wedding poetry see above p. 70, n. 2. Il. 18.490-496 ; see also Il. 24.62-63 ; Od. 4.15-19, Od. 23.133-151 ; [Hes.] Scut. 270-277. See an extended treatment of this passage in Nobili 2006b. See also Hague 1983. See Woodhouse 1930, pp. 54-65, 102-105 ; Germain 1954, pp. 314-315 ; Lattimore 1969 ; Crane 1988, pp. 136-143. See Rissman 1983, pp. 66-70 ; Cairns 1990 ; Mastromarco 2003. See Sourvinou-Inwood 1991, pp. 99-143 ; Shapiro 1995 ; Karakantza 2003. Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. female lyric voices in the odyssey Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. 76 cecilia nobili one those who live upon the earth, then your father and revered mother are three-times blessed, and three-times blessed are your brothers. Their hearts must always be warmed with joy on account of you, when they see you entering the dance – a plant so fair. But that man is blessed in his heart above all others who prevails with his bridal gifts and leads you to his house. For I have never yet beheld with my eyes such a mortal as you, neither man nor woman. I am amazed, looking at you ! In Delos once I saw such a sight, the young shoot of a palm springing up beside the altar of Apollo. There I went, and many people followed me on that journey when evil pains were my lot. Just so, when I saw that palm, I marveled long in my heart, for never yet did such a shaft emerge from the earth. In like manner, O lady, I do wonder at you and am amazed, and I fear awfully to touch your knees. But painful anguish has come upon me. (Transl. Powell) Odysseus begins by comparing Nausicaa to Artemis, thus confirming the comparison that the poet drew between the girl and the goddess a few lines before (ll. 99-109), where she was said to excel among her companions as Artemis does among the nymphs. The praise of the bride’s beauty and her comparison to a goddess is a theme typical of wedding poetry, 1 as revealed by some of Sappho’s wedding songs (e.g. 23 V. where the bride is compared to Helen and Hermione, 111 V., where the bridegroom is compared to Ares, and 108 V., 112 V., which offers some general praises of beauty), or by Theocritus’ Epithalamium for Helen (Id. 18), the literary elaboration of the song sung by Spartan girls for the wedding between Helen and Menelaus. ἀὼς ἀντέλλοισα καλὸν διέφανε πρόσωπον, πότνια νύξ, ἅτε λευκὸν ἔαρ χειμῶνος ἀνέντος· ὧδε καὶ ἁ χρυσέα ῾Ελένα διεφαίνετ᾿ ἐν ἁμῖν. πιείρᾳ μέγα λᾷον ἀνέδραμε κόσμος ἀρούρᾳ ἢ κάπῳ κυπάρισσος ἢ ἅρματι Θεσσαλὸς ἵππος, 30 ὧδε καὶ ἁ ῥοδόχρως ῾Ελένα Λακεδαίμονι κόσμος· οὔτε τις ἐκ ταλάρω πανίσδεται ἔργα τοιαῦτα, οὔτ᾿ ἐπὶ δαιδαλέῳ πυκινώτερον ἄτριον ἱστῷ κερκίδι συμπλέξαισα μακρῶν ἔταμ᾿ ἐκ κελεόντων. οὐ μὰν οὐδὲ λύραν τις ἐπίσταται ὧδε κροτῆσαι 35 ῎Αρτεμιν ἀείδοισα καὶ εὐρύστερνον ᾿Αϑάναν ὡς ῾Ελένα, τᾶς πάντες ἐπ᾿ ὄμμασιν ἵμεροι ἐντί. ὦ καλά, ὦ χαρίεσσα κόρα, τὺ μὲν οἰκέτις ἤδη. 2 Fair, Lady Night, is the face that rising Dawn discloses, or radiant spring when winter ends ; and so amongst us did golden Helen shine. As some tall cypress adorns the fertile field or garden wherein it springs, or Thessalian steed the chariot it draws, so rosy Helen adorns Lacedaemon. None from her basket winds off such yarn as she, nor at her patterned loom weaves with her 1 See Hague 1983 ; Lyghounis 1991. The comparison between a bride and a goddess is common elsewhere (not only in wedding songs) : see Hom. Il. 8.305, 9.389, Od. 4.14, Hes. frr. 180,14, 200 e 252 M.-W. 2 L. 38 is introduced by the formula that we also find in Sapph. fr. 108 V. and which was probably recurrent in wedding songs. The short hymenaios included in Lucian’s Symposium (41) also includes a praise of the beauty of the bride, who is described as superior to Helen and Aphrodite. female lyric voices in the odyssey 77 In Odysseus’ discourse the praise of the girl is followed by the makarismos of her parents and brother, and especially of her future bridegroom, for the good luck which the gods have granted him by choosing such a special bride for him. The praise is enacted through the climax from τρὶς μάκαρες (parents and brothers) to μακάρτατος (the bridegroom), 1 and seems to be modelled on expressions typical of wedding songs, where the bridegroom is normally defined as μάκαρ, τρισμάκαρ or ὄλβιος, as in Sappho’s fr. 112 or in the popular hymenaios preserved in the last lines of Aristophanes’ Peace. 2 ὄλβιε γάμβρε, σοὶ μὲν δὴ γάμος ὠς ἄραο ἐκτετέλεστ᾿, ἔχηις δὲ πάρϑενον ἂν ἄραο . . . σοὶ χάριεν μὲν εἶδος, ὄππατα δ᾿ . . . μέλλιχ᾿, ἔρος δ᾿ ἐπ᾿ ἰμέρτῳ κέχυται προσώπῳ . . . τετίμακ᾿ ἔξοχά σ᾿ ᾿Αφροδίτα. Happy bridegroom, your marriage has been fulfilled as you prayed, you have the girl for whom you prayed, you have the girl for whom you prayed… Your form is graceful, your eyes… gentle, and love streams over your beautiful face… Aphrodite has honoured you outstandingly. (Sapph. fr. 112 V., transl. Campbell) ῏Ω τρισμάκαρ, ὡς δικαίως τἀγαϑὰ νῦν ἔχεις. Υμήν, ῾Υμέναι᾿ ὤ. Υμήν, ῾Υμέναι᾿, ὤ. Oh three times blesses, now you rightly have all the good things. O hymen, hymenaios, hymen, hymenaios ! (Ar. Pax 1333-1336) Odysseus’ praise of Nausicaa ends with a comparison between the girl and the palm of Delos, which elicited his admiration during one of his journeys. Once again, the plant simile – the comparison of a couple of newlyweds (either the boy or the girl) to a slender and tall plant – is recurrent in nuptial poetry : it is found in some of Sappho’s fragments, such as 105a V., where the bride is compared to an apple on the tallest branch, 105c V., where she is compared to a hyacinth, and 115 V., where the bridegroom is compared to a slender sapling ; but it also appears in Theocritus’ Epithalamium (l. 30), where Helen is compared to a cypress. 3 The reference to the palm, nonetheless, is particularly appropriate because, as Christiane Sourvinou Inwood has demonstrated, palms often appear in the iconographical contexts of weddings and are connected with Artemis, the goddess who presides over the initiatory transition that girls make through their wedding from the state of parthenoi to that of gynaikes. Several Attic vases from the fifth century bc show a girl preparing for marriage by an altar (arguably, an altar of Artemis), with a palm in the background. 4 1 Mάκαρ in Homer is normally applied to gods : see De Heer 1969, p. 5. The emphatic τρισμάκαρες only appears here and in Od. 5.306-307. 2 Other examples are represented by Hes. fr. 211 M.W. (the so-called Epithalamium of Peleus and Thetis) ; Eur. Phaet. 240, Tr. 311-312, Aristoph. Aves 1723, 1725 ; Theocr. Id. xviii 16. A nuptial connotation of ὄλβιος may also be detected in Od. 24.192-193 : ὄλβιε Λαέρταο πάϊ, πολυμήχαν᾿ ᾿Οδυσσεῦ, ἦ ἄρα σὺν μαγάλῃ ἀρετῇ ἐκτήσω ἄκοιτιν. 3 See also Alcm. fr. 26.68, where Astimelousa is defined as a χρύσιον ἔρνος, like the palm of Delos at l. 163. 4 Sourvinou-Inwood 1991, pp. 99-143. Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. shuttle and cuts from the tall loom-beams a closer weft. Nor yet is any so skilled as Helen to strike the lyre and hymn Artemis and broad-bosomed Athene as Helen, in whose eyes is all desire (transl. Gow). Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. 78 cecilia nobili In sum, Odysseus’ praise of Nausicaa is filled with motifs typical of female wedding poetry, as the last lines of his speech also confirm : at ll. 180-184 he ends his captatio benevolentiae by wishing Nausicaa a happy marriage and praising the concord (ὁμοφροσύνη) that reigns in a house when the bride and bridegroom are sympathetic to each other, as Theocritus’ Epithalamium also underlines. The Spartan girls’ wish for Helen will never be fulfilled, and ὁμοφροσύνη will never characterize the relationship between her and Menelaus, as Odyssey book 4 also confirms ; likewise, Odysseus’ wish for Nausicaa will remain unfulfilled, due to the tragic end that the Phaeacians will encounter after Odysseus’ departure. Nonetheless, the atmosphere of serene nuptial peace that permeates the whole of book 6 is evident and stimulates the imagination of the audience, who are led to dream about a wedding between Nausicaa and Odysseus. For this reason, the conversation between the two is once again influenced by the context and dominated by themes normally appropriate to the songs sung by girls on wedding occasions. The passages briefly examined so far show that female lyric poetry occupies an important role in the dynamics of Greek society and that the poet of the Homeric poems cannot refrain from employing it, when the context requires it. 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Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. female lyric voices in the odyssey * Luglio 2023 (cz 2 · fg 3) Per uso strettamente personale dell’autore. È proibita la riproduzione e la pubblicazione in open access. For author’s personal use only. Any copy or publication in open access is forbidden. comp osto in car attere s e r r a dan t e dal la fabrizio serr a editore, p i s a · rom a . stampato e r ilegato n e l la t ip o g r afia di agnan o, agna n o p i s a n o ( p i s a ) .