Appendix 2
Circe Allusion (Id. 15.79)

This appendix explores implications of Theocritus's use of Homeric allusion in Gorgo's description of the tapestries as :

              (78-79)

Praxinoa, come over here. Gaze first at the broidered tapestries,
how light and graceful they are; you'll say they are gowns worthy of the gods.

Scholars routinely acknowledge that the phrase (79) is reminiscent of Homer and usually cite one or more of the four Homeric passages in which the two adjectives and occur together: Od . 5.231, 10.223, 10.544, and Il . 22.511. Some scholars claim, in addition, that the phrase alludes to a specific passage in the Odyssey . Thus Gow declares without argument and unequivocally (Theocritus 2.287): "Theocritus is thinking of Od . 10.222 [to 223]." Early editions of Theocritus also mention this specific allusion (e.g., Wordsworth, Theocritus [1877], Fritzsche, Theokrits Gedichte [1881], and Cholmeley, Idylls of Theocritus [1906]).^[1] The questions that arise in a consideration of a possible allusion are, of course, difficult ones. First, is the audience just meant to perceive a general evocation of high poetic style, or, in addition, a specific allusion to Homer? Second, if the allusion is specific, what effect does such an allusion have in this context? Third, is the allusion meant to be perceived as intended by the character in the poem or only by the poet creating the characters

Both linguistic content and the specific occasion in which the phrase occurs in Idyll 15 (79) make it probable that Theocritus, qua poet, has the memorable Homeric passage in mind:

        (Od . 10.220-23 O.C.T .)

They stood in the doorway of the fair-haired goddess,
and within they heard Circe singing with her beautiful voice,
as she went back and forth before a great immortal web,  such as are
the light and graceful, and glorious works of goddesses.

At both Od . 10.223 and Id . 15.79, the adjectives and are plural in number, stand first in their lines, refer to woven materials, and are qualified by a genitive plural of in dose proximity. Further, in Idyll 15's passage, the qualifying clause (Id . 15.79) directly follows the adjectives, and in Odyssey 10's passage the words directly precede the adjectives.

Similarities of circumstance reinforce the linkage between Od . 10.223 and Id . 15.79 in several ways. First, when Odysseus's men enter the doorway of Circe's house, they see Circe and the woven materials she is working on her loom. So too when the Syracusan women enter through doors to the palace grounds, they see woven materials hanging before them (78). Second, brutish crowds jostle both Odysseus's men and the Syracusan women on their way to these respective realms. Around Circe's house, Odysseus's men encounter animals under Circe's spell (Od . 10.212-19). As the Syracusan women approach the palace grounds, they encounter a crowd Praxinoa describes as shoving like swine: (Id . 15.73-74). Odysseu's men are subsequently transformed into swine (Od . 10.239-40). Circe changes men into animals literally; Praxinoa, metaphorically. Third, Odysseus's men and the Syracusan women are both entering realms different from their normal worlds, realms that are magical and seductive in their allure.

By alluding to the Circe passage at this point in Idyll 15, the poet can evoke the hesitancy, fearfulness, and awe that characterize Odysseus's men as they approach Circe, as they cross that elusive boundary between reality and fantasy (one of them not to return). The Syracusan women are also crossing a boundary between the everyday world and the fantasy represented by the Adonia, and they will hear a hymn about Adonis for

whom the seductive fantasy has become reality. Further, by heightening through the Circe allusion the fluidity of boundaries between mythic and everyday life, between Adonis's, Arsinoe's, and the Syracusan women's intersecting worlds, Theocritus also raises the problematic issue of how readers experience fictive worlds and subjects.^[2]

Thus, the specific allusion to Od . 10.223 invites the reader to recall the whole approach to Circe's house and all the parallels in atmosphere and expectations with Idyll 15. In representing the liminal moment of viewing ceremonial tapestries, Theocritus also, by evoking Circe, conjures up an atmosphere of change, transformation, and magic.^[3]

Details of subject, occasion, theme, and circumstance lend authority to Gow's bold assertion (Theocritus 2.287) that Theocritus specifically has Od . 10.223 in mind when he uses the phrase . Gow, however, is the last of generations of critics to recognize the allusion as a specific one. Some contemporary scholars dismiss the fashion for citation of parallels that was a hallmark of edition-making in the nineteenth century, and with it they dismiss some important observations. This is particularly unfortunate in the case of the Hellenistic poets, since they are perhaps best characterized by their scholarly capacity for edition-making and their familiarity with parallels and precedents.^[4] But if contemporary scholars raise the question of the significance of the Homeric phrase at all, they typically raise the question only to dismiss it, claiming that the phrase does not affect characterization in any noteworthy way, e.g., Horstmann: "Die homerische Formel (79) verleiht ihrer Bewunderung zwar den erhabenen Klang epischer Sprache, trägt aber im Grunde nicht viel zur Charakterisierung des Gesehenen bei."^[5] I submit that, on the contrary, the phrase is used at Id . 15.79 in precisely those interests of characterization and of thematic design that contribute to the significance intended in the poem.