Homer Odyssey 13.287

A. T. Murray (Translator)

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Odyssey. Homer. A. T. Murray (Translator). London. 1919.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Odyssey (English) (Homer. The Odyssey, Volume 1-2. Murray, A. T. (Augustus Taber), translator. London: William Heinmann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1919.)

Editions (1)
Ὀδύσσεια Perseus (Homer. The Odyssey, Volume 1-2. Murray, A. T. (Augustus Taber), editor. London: William Heinmann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1919.) — 13.287 focus
Translations (8)
Odyssey Perseus (Homer. The Odyssey: rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original. Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902, translator. Revised by Timothy Power and Gregory Nagy. London: A.C. Fifield, 1900.) — 13.256 focus
English (Butler, rev. Nagy et al., 2020) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Butler, rev. Nagy et al., 2020)) — 13.287 focus
Such was his story, but owl-vision Athena smiled and caressed him with her hand. Then she took the form of a woman, fair, stately, and high- spirited. [290] “He must be indeed a shifty lying character,” said she, “who could surpass you in all manner of craft [ kerdos] even though you had a god for your antagonist. Daring that you are, full of guile, unwearying in deceit [ atē], [295] can you not drop your tricks and your instinctive falsehood, even now that you are in your own country again? We will say no more, however, about this, for we both of us know craftiness [ kerdos] upon occasion—you are the best counselor and orator among all humankind, while I for diplomacy and crafty ways [ kerdea] have fame [ kleos] among the gods. [300] Did you not know Zeus’ daughter Athena—me, who have been ever with you, who kept watch over you in all your ordeals [ ponos], and who made the Phaeacians take so great a liking to you? And now, again, I am come here to talk things over with you, and help you to hide the treasure I made the haughty Phaeacians [305] give you; I want to tell you about the troubles that await you in your own house; you have got to face them, but tell no one, neither man nor woman, that you have come home again. Bear everything, and put up with [310] every man’s violent insolence [ biē], without a word.”
English (William Cullen Bryant, 1873) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (William Cullen Bryant, 1873)) — 13.287 focus
English (Alexander Pope, 1726, ed. Watson, 1858) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Alexander Pope, 1726, ed. Watson, 1858)) — 13.287 focus
English (Thomas Hobbes, 1667, ed. Molesworth 1843) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Hobbes, 1667, ed. Molesworth 1843)) — 13.287 focus
At this the goddess smil'd, and strok'd his head,
265
And in a woman's shape before him stood,
Of stature tall and like to one well bred.
The craft that catches you had need be good.
You cannot, though at home, your wiles forego,
And your feign'd stories, though there be no need,
270
So close they stick to you from top to toe.
But now no more of that; for 'tis agreed,
'Mongst mortals you, amongst immortals I,
For counsel and invention excel.
Did you not know me, that perpetually
275
Have at your need assisted you so well ?
And now am come to help you to secure
The rich Phaeacian presents you have here,
And tell you what at home you must endure?
Affronts and scorns, you shall find many there.
280
Then said Ulysses, Difficult it is
For any mortal man, though very wise,
To know a God, that can their form dismiss,
And, when they will, put on a new disguise.
When th' Argive army was besieging Troy,
285
Goddess, I know how gracious you were then;
But after (the town sack'd) we came away,
And scatter'd had the Gods our ships and men,
And I was wand'ring on the ocean wide,
I never saw you, never had your aid,
290
Save at Phaeacia you were pleased to guide
Me to the town, and hasten me dismayed.
But I beseech you (for still do I doubt
This is not Ithaca that I am at,
But some place else, and that you go about
295
With comforts feign'd my sorrows to abate)
Tell me if this my country be indeed ?
English (George Chapman, 1667, ed. Hooper 1857) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (George Chapman, 1667, ed. Hooper 1857)) — 13.287 focus
English (William Cowper, 1791, ed. Southey) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (William Cowper, 1791, ed. Southey)) — 13.287 focus
English (H. B. Cotterill, 1911) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (H. B. Cotterill, 1911)) — 13 focus

New Alexandria Commentaries

Gregory Nagy

The storytelling of Odysseus has come to an end, and he will now be sent home to Ithaca by his hosts, Alkinoos and the Phaeacians. Sailing through the night in a ship provided by king Alkinoos, Odysseus is in a deep sleep, which is compared to death itself. At the precise moment when the ship reaches the shores of his homeland, Ithaca, Odysseus will ‘come to’, experiencing a mystical return to light and life.

draft js image error“Ulysses Asleep Laid on his Own Coast by the Phaeacian Sailors” (1805). John Flaxman (English, 1755–1826). Purchased as part of the Oppé Collection with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund 1996. Image via the Tate.

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The goddess here formally declares to Odysseus her support for the hero, which leads ultimately to his success in his final confrontation with the suitors. But there is an undercurrent of antagonism between the goddess and the hero, insofar as they are both exponents of mētis ‘mind, intelligence’. Here it is Athena who boasts of her own poetic glory for possessing qualities of mētis ‘mind, intelligence’, O.13.299.

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Leonard Muellner

When Odysseus arrives back in Ithaka in Odyssey 13, he encounters Athene in the shape of young shepherd. After Odysseus lies to her about his identity, Athene reacts with a smile and another transformation:\r\n\r\nὣς φάτο, μείδησεν δὲ θεὰ γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη,\r\n\r\nχειρί τέ μιν κατέρεξε· δέμας δ' ἤϊκτο γυναικὶ\r\n\r\nκαλῇ τε μεγάλῃ τε καὶ ἀγλαὰ ἔργα ἰδυίῃ·\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nSo he spoke, and the goddess gray-eyed Athene smiled,\r\n\r\nand she stroke him with her hand. And she took on the shape of a woman\r\n\r\nbeautiful and tall and skilled in beautiful handiworks,\r\n\r\nand speaking to him she addressed him in winged words.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nSome scholars have interpreted this transformation as the goddess revealing herself to the hero in her true form (e.g., Stanford 1948, ad 13.289; Heubeck 1988-1992, ad 13.288), but as Pucci argues, it is unlikely that Odysseus sees the goddess as she really is (Pucci 1986:7-28). The diction of the passage makes clear that Athene’s appearance “in the shape of a beautiful woman” is as much a disguise as the others she adopts elsewhere: as the poet tells us, “she took on (ἤϊκτο) the shape of a woman.”\r\n\r\nThe formulaic language to describe the goddess’ reaction and transformation has both erotic and maternal connotations. The formula “and she/he stroked him/her with her/his hand” appears seven times in Homeric epic, always to describe intimate moments between mother and child or between lovers. In the Iliad, the phrase is mostly used to described mother and child (1.361, 5.372, 23.127) and once of husband and wife (6.484-5). In the Odyssey the phrase occurs two other times: Menelaos smiles and strokes Telemachos in a fatherly manner (4.610), and there is perhaps a maternal aspect to Athene’s concern for Odysseus, but the encounter is not without sexual undercurrents, which are also present in the only other Odyssean instance of the phrase, which involves Kalypso smiling and stroking Odysseus (5.180-1).\r\n\r\nWhen Athene strokes Odysseus, the erotic tenor of her gesture is made evident in both her physical transformation and the conversation that follows, which centers on the like-mindedness of the goddess and the hero, a quality Odysseus praises as the basis of a good marriage (Odyssey 6.183). Athene chooses an appearance that is particularly appropriate to this moment of intimacy between goddess and her mortal protégé: the shape of a seductive woman, beautiful and skilled at handiworks, or in short and as the Greek gunê also denotes, a perfect wife endowed with the most desirable qualities. The encounter between goddess and hero in Odyssey 8 is thus replete with motifs—an encounter with a beautiful female divinity in the countryside, a shrine of the nymphs—usually associated with stories of love between goddesses and men, and Odysseus in this scene is depicted as the notional lover of the goddess, or as a nympholept (numpholeptos).\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nReferences\r\n\r\nHeubeck, A. et al. 1998-1992. A Commentary on Homer’s Odyssey. Volume 2. Books 9-16. Oxford.\r\n\r\nPache, C. 2011. ‘A Moment’s Ornament’: The Poetics of Nympholepsy in Ancient Greece. Oxford.\r\n\r\nPucci, P. 1986. “Les figures de la Mêtis dans l’Odyssée.” Mètis 1:7-28.\r\n\r\nStanford, W.B. 1948. Homer. Odyssey XIII-XXIV. Edited with Introduction and Commentary. London.

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analysis of Athena’s reminding of Hermes in O.13.221ff.

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