The Feast Theme
Feasts in the Odyssey can take a number of forms, depending, as we shall see, on the narrative circumstances. For the purposes of the present analysis we shall be concerned not with all scenes of feasting (or of simply eating) in the poem, but with a recurrent theme or type-scene of Feasting that has both a definite (though flexible) narrative structure and an associated phraseological dimension that recurs along with that idea-pattern. In the course of discussing this theme, there will be reason to make reference to non-thematic portrayals of feasting and eating in the Odyssey , but these moments are not our primary focus.
Given what we have discovered in the first two sections about the Bath and Greeting themes, we shall be asking three interrelated questions or sets of questions about Feasting. First, what is the narrative structure of this traditional unit? How definite are the actions and how regularly do they occur? Second, to what extent does the thematic pattern marshal or determine phraseology? Is the phraseology bound to this particular theme or is it more generally traditional? Third, how does Feasting compare to Bath and Greeting as a traditional multiform?
To begin, let us specify the occurrences of Feasting in the Odyssey . The passage below (1.125-57) represents the first such scene in the poem, and will serve as the point of reference or comparison for the other five instances. As the diagram to the right of the passage indicates, each of the other occurrences shares a certain amount of exactly correspondent phraseology with the Feast in Book 1.
IV | VII | X | XV | XVII | |
| 52 | 172 | 368 | 135 | 91 |
| 53 | 173 | 369 | 136 | 92 |
| 54 | 174 | 370 | 137 | 93 |
| 55 | 175 | 371 | 138 | 94 |
| 56 | 176 | 372 | 139 | 95 |
| 57 | ||||
| 58 | ||||
,
.
,
IV | VII | X | XV | XVII | |
| 67 | 142 | 98 | ||
| 68 | 143 | 99 | ||
So speaking he led the way, and Pallas Athene followed him. 125
Now, when the two of then were inside the lofty dwelling,
he took the spear he carried and set it against a roll column
in a rack for spears, of polished wood, where indeed there were other
spears of patient-hearted Odysseus standing in number,
and he led her and seated her in a chair, with a cloth to sir on, 130
the chair splendid and elaborate. For her feet there was a footstool.
For himself, he drew a painted bench next m her, apart from the others,
the suitor, for fear the guest, made uneasy by the uproar,
might lose his appetite there among overbearing people,
and so he might also ask him about his absent father. 135
A maidservant brought water for them and poured it from a splendid
and golden pitcher, holding it above a silver basin
for them to wash, and she pulled a polished table before them.
A grave housekeeper brought in the bread and served it to them,
adding many good things to it, generous with her provisions, 140
while a carver lifted platters of all kinds of meat and set them
in front of them, and placed beside them the golden goblets,
and a herald, going back and forth, poured the wine for them.
Then the haughty suitors came in, and all of them Straightway
took their places in order on chairs and along the benches, 145
and their heralds poured water over their bands for them to wash with,
and the serving maids brought them bread heaped up in the baskets,
and the young men filled the mixing bowls with wine for their drinking.
They put their hands to the good things that lay ready before them.
But when they had put away their desire for eating and drinking, 150
the suitors found their attention turned to other matters,
the song and the dance; for these things come at the end of the fearing.
A herald put the beautifully wrought lyre in the hands
of Phemios, who sang for the suitors, because they made him.
He played his lyre and struck up a fine song. Meanwhile 155
Telemachos talked to Athene of the gray eyes, leaning
his head dose to hers, so that none of the others might hear him:
The idea-pattern for this theme, as opposed to the structure of other expressions of feasting, may be described as a series of discrete actions that collectively embody a sumptuous Homeric feast.[51] After the "seating" (line 131) of the protagonist(s), which as we have seen usually intervenes between the Bath and the Feast, the actions are:
1. A maidservant brings water for washing (136-37)
2. A table is placed before guest(s) and host (138)
3. A housekeeper provides bread and other foodstuffs (139-40)
4. A carver passes out meat and golden cups (141-42)
5. The diners eat (149)
6. The diners are satisfied (150)
An "optional" line (1.145; cf. 15.134) detailing the seating of guest(s) and host on benches and chairs also seems to be associated with the theme, although not as regularly or institutionally as are some other lines. This action may occur either at the beginning of or during the Feast theme, and thus lacks the participation in a definite sequence shown by the other recurrent actions.
Of course, as Lord has shown in respect to the unit of theme in Serbo-Croatian epic, all actions need not occur in every manifestation of this multiform, and the diagram opposite the above passage illustrates the variance among instances. As with the Bath theme, the central actions are mostly repeated verbatim in phraseology associated exclusively with Feasting, but even some of these lines have wider application within the poetic tradition, as we shall see below. And as noted above, there are indeed other ways to express the idea of dining or feasting in Homer. What is more, this traditional and generic cluster of ideas and lines is susceptible to a more particular focus through context-dependent description added to the scene, so that instances of the same theme may look (and actually be) very different.
As an example of this flexibility in the narrative idiom, we may compare the feast in Book 1 with that in Book 4. The earlier scene, quoted above, is filled with the tension created by the suitors' arrogant presumptions. With Odysseus absent and Telemachos only on the verge of manhood, the unwelcome guests abuse the rituals of hospitality with impunity and Penelope and Telemachos are virtually held hostage to their unreasonable demands. The feast at Menelaos's home, however, presents us with the icon of civility and serenity, in stark
contrast to the tensions underlying the Ithakan scene. After the Bath and seating of the guest, Telemachos, the Feast appears as follows (4.52-70):
A maidservant brought water for them and poured it from a splendid
and golden pitcher, holding it above a silver basin
for them to wash, and she pulled a polished table before them .
A grave housekeeper brought in the bread and served it to them , 55
adding many good things to it, generous with her provisions ,
while a carver lifted platters of all kinds of meat and set them
in front of them, and placed beside them the golden goblets .
Then in greeting fair-haired Menelaos said to them:
"Help yourselves to the food and welcome, and then afterward, 60
when you have tasted dinner, we shall ask you who among
men you are, for the stock of your parents can be no lost one,
but you are of the race of men who are kings, whom Zeus sustains,
who bear scepters; no mean men could have sons such as you are."
So he spoke, and taking in his hands the fat beef loin 65
which had been given as his choice portion, he set it before them.
They put their hands to the good things that lay ready before them .
But when they had put away their desire for eating and drinking ,
then Telemachos talked to the son of Nestor, leaning
his head dose to his, so that none of the others might hear him: 70
The underscored lines are those conventionally a part of the Feasting theme, and may be compared with corresponding verses in Book 1 or any of the other instances of Feasting in the poem. But apart from these core actions that identify the pattern as a compositional unit and carry with them larger traditional connotations, numerous context-specific details help to focus this scene and distinguish its singularity against the backdrop of the generic unit. In Book 4 the guests are not merely welcomed but honored, both with Menelaos's cordial greeting fulfilling the ritual of Homeric hospitality and with his gesture of placing the loin section in front of Telemachos and Peisistratos. Even the whispered speech that follows this scene contrasts directly with Telemachos's earlier conversation with Mentor.[52] In Book 1 the talk was of the presumptuousness of the suitors and general disarray of the Ithakan household, while in Book 4 the same Telemachos can only wonder at the magnificence of the household in which he is such an honored guest.
These two instances of the theme serve as an example of the plasticity of a pattern that, although it consists of several discrete actions and not a few precisely repeated lines, can still be shaped not just to fit but to aesthetically embody quite disparate narrative situations. And, as noted above in respect
to the Bath and Greeting, the scenes draw their power as much from the genetic traditional matrix of ideas and phraseology as from the unassociated actions and lines that individualize them. It is the combination of the genetic and particular, the traditional and the context-specific,[53] that underlies the Homeric aesthetic.
Thus the narrative pattern of Feasting proves to consist of a set of discrete, self-contained actions that cohere in a definite series and sequence. Each of these actions is appropriate to a quite elegant feast, and the description as a whole takes on a traditional resonance that can be heard in each occurrence. Nonetheless, each instance also includes a number of actions and lines that, although they are in themselves traditional, are also not conventionally associated with this narrative pattern. As in the examples from Books 1 and 4 discussed above, the combination of the generic mold and the particularizing actions produces an individual, context-sensitive scene that resonates against the timeless pattern of Feasting. The outrages of the suitors are ever more apparent against this traditional background, and the order and hospitality of Menelaos's splendid feast are likewise foregrounded. This is the kind of compositional flexibility and traditional connotation available in the narrative structure of Feasting.
From the idea-pattern we turn now to our second question` that concerning the nature of the phraseology used to express those ideas. For the purposes of this analysis, I have chosen the occurrence of the theme from Book 1. In what follows I shall examine selected lines from the passage quoted above, with special attention to their conventional use and deployment in the Odyssey .[54] Thus we shall be looking both at some verses conventionally associated with Feasting and at others that are not so bound, the object being to assess the role of verbal correspondence in the dynamics of this Homeric theme.
Line 125 is a situation-specific rather than a generic line; that is, it serves a narrative purpose unassociated with Feasting. Nonetheless, like others in its category, it reveals a traditional heritage in the highly recurrent phrases hôs eipôn (thirty-five instances in the Odyssey , all at this position) and Pallas Athênê (eighteen instances, all at this position). The clue to line 127 lies in the fact
that all five occurrences of kiona are as part of the phrase, or composite "word," pros kiona makrên/-on . In the former configuration, the phrase ends with a longum and occurs only at 12 (2 × ), while in the latter it terminates in a breve and occurs only at 91/2 (3 ×). As would be expected from our findings in chapter 4, the second of these possibilities, which features a blocked C caesura,[55] participates in the more stable second-hemistich configuration (pros kiona makron ereisas , 3 ×). One of these three formulaic occurrences, 17.29, helps to describe Telemachos's standing of his spear by the pillar on his arrival home and might thus be suspected of being associated with the idea of feasting as in Book 1. But, on the evidence of other instances of the thematic pattern and of the detachability of this action from those that follow it, I would argue that the idea and phraseology of 1.127 are not thematically associated with Feasting.[56]
At line 129 we encounter an example of a formulaic phrase with applicability to a variety of narrative situations. The epithet talasiphronos is restricted to Odysseus and to position 8 in the hexameter, where the noun-epithet combination occurs a total of eleven times in the Odyssey . This placement blocks the A caesura and creates a following adonean, with the result that a large variety of two-syllable increments precede the formula and a similarly large variety of clausulae follow it. And although there is evidence of one whole-line phrase (1.87 = 5.31), we find no trace of other more extensive phraseological relatives. Line 131 , in contrast, can boast an interesting range of formulaic kin in the poem. The entire line is repeated verbatim twice in Book 10 (lines 315 and 367), with the only change being one of inflection (gen. s. kalou daidaleou ). Likewise, the second hemistich recurs in other combinations (4.136; cf. 19.57). But what is most telling about this line is the fact that both 10.315 and 10.367 are preceded by lines that also describe the seating of the protagonist, which, as we have seen, is an action intermediary between Bath and Feast, or at least associated with the one if the other is not part of the story at that point.[57] This correspondence thus serves as an example of optional ways to express a given traditional idea, that is, of partial flexibility of actual diction. While 1.131 cannot be shown to be an integral part of the Feasting pattern, its action, though separate, is traditionally associated with the onset of the theme.[58]
Line 135 is unrelated to the action of the Feasting theme, so its recurrence at 3.77 must be ascribed to the shared feature of Telemachos's asking about his lost father, an inquiry perfectly appropriate to the exchange of information that customarily takes place during such an event (but that is not part of the thematic pattern). Other clues that this near-whole-line formula does not participate in the particular narrative structure under consideration include the fact that in Book 3 it actually follows rather than precedes the main action of the feast. The role of sequence, as illustrated above, is important in Homeric patterns. Additionally, in Book 3 this line is necessarily enjambed with what precedes and unnecessarily enjambed with what follows, while in Book 1 the verse is unnecessarily enjambed with what precedes and not enjambed at all with what follows.
No such variance marks the next five lines, 136-40 , which make up the heart of the feasting theme. As documented above, these lines express discrete actions: a maidservant brings water for washing (136-37), a table is placed before guest(s) and host (138), and a housekeeper provides bread and other foodstuffs (139-40). Each of these actions occurs in all six manifestations of Feasting in the Odyssey , in the same order and precisely the same diction. No lines are added to or interspersed in this series, and the group of lines may accurately be termed a unit in itself. Lines 141-42 , repeated verbatim and in the same position in Book 4, may also be considered a part of the same core. They express an associated action—a carver passes out meat and golden cups[59] —and, in the two cases in which they appear, contribute to the formarion of a seven-line version of the core unit in this theme.
The fact that this ordered sequence of discrete but (both socioculturally and traditionally) related actions can take two forms, one of five and the other of seven lines, may at first seem curious. The conventional explanation, of course, would posit a synchronic flexibility in the unit, with a basic kernel and some optional additions. But this kind of explanation misrepresents the traditional character of this multiform. Like the collection of lines whose formulaic "core" cannot be unearthed, this kind of thematic variance cannot be rationalized by a simplex/variation model. All six forms of this inner sequence—whether with five lines or seven—are equally legitimate manifestations of the traditional idea-pattern. Just as formulaic phraseology cannot be reduced to schemata but must be understood in terms of traditional rules that underlie formulaic structure, so the recurrence of these lines must be seen as an aggregation of ideas whose bound, invariant phraseology happens to reflect that aggregation monolithically. If the carver is not a part of any given Feast, the scene
is no less a Feast for his absence. And there is no reason to view the five-line sequence as "lesser" or "apocopated," any more than we would characterize a hemistich (rather than a whole-line) formula as "lesser." No matter which form it takes, this group of ideas remains the kernel of the Feasting theme and thus offers to the poet both its compositional utility and an opportunity for particularized elaboration on a generic and highly resonant multiform.
Line 145 presents an example of an idea that can logically attach itself to scenes of feasting, but that does not seem to be regularly associated with this particular theme.[60] Exact repetitions occur at 3.389, a version of greeting or wine drinking different from that examined above, and at 24.385, an abbreviated feast at Laertes' home. Five additional instances of the second hemistich, kata klismous te thronous te , combine with different partners, and their distribution and placement are interesting. Three of these occurrences (17.86, 17.179, and 20.249) take the whole-line form 
("they laid down their mantles along the chairs and benches") and introduce the action of laying down robes before the bath. In 10.233 the hemistich appears just before the fateful, enchanting feast served by Kirke, and at 15.134 it is part of Menelaos's festive meal for Telemachos and Peisistratos. Only in the last of these instances is the hemistich associated with the theme under examination.
Although we may be tempted to include line 145, or at least its second part, in Feasting on the premise that, like 141-42, it plays a role in the traditional group of ideas associated with the event, I would contend that the verse and its parts are more generally (and thus non-thematically) associated with feasts and baths. Their occurrence at 1.145 and 15.134, in other words, may be more accurately traced to the ubiquitousness—and compositional utility—of the "seating" idea that we first encountered during our study of the Bath theme. At this point the major and characteristic actions of the Feast have been carried out for Mentor's benefit, and with this second "seating" line (cf. 1.131) the arrogant suitors enter and begin a second and quite uncharacteristic dinner of their own, the untraditional nature of which stands in marked contrast to the ritual of hospitality and guestship embodied in the Feasting theme.
Other traditional diction not conventionally associated with this theme but with attached structures of its own includes lines 146 and 148 . In Book 1 only these two lines occur, but in Books 3 (preparatory to a libation being poured
before going to bed) and 21 (preparatory to the disguised Odysseus asking for the bow, lines 270-73) a four-line sequence repeats nearly verbatim:[61]
The heralds poured water over their hands to wash with,
and the young men filled the mixing bowls with wine for their drinking,
and passed to all, after they had offered a drink in the goblet.
............................................
But when they had poured, and drunk, each as much as he wanted,
Once again we have a typical mix of phraseology, with considerable flexibility in the make-up of the multi-line unit. And although this group of lines is not thematically linked to the Fearing theme, its general applicability to various kinds of ritual events makes it a frequent enough companion of ideas and phraseology that are traditionally bound to Feasting.[62]
The theme comes to a formal close with lines 149-50 , which appear in four of six instances. First the guest(s) and host lay their hands on the food brought before them; the second line, always a dependent clause that leads into a new section of the narrative, indicates that the diners have "thrown off the eros" of eating and drinking. Quite clearly, because of both the recurrence and the nature of these complementary actions, we must interpret them as part of the Footing theme. But, as with colonic or hemistich phrases that recur both in their simplex forms and as part of larger combinations, these same lines have an identity outside of Feasting. In addition to the thematic instances, the first line, for example, appears seven times in the Odyssey , always verbatim. Six of these are associated with feasting or at least eating of some kind, and range from the meal of the gods offered to Odysseus by Kalypso (5.200) to the much humbler repast in Eumaios's hut (16.54); the seventh (4.218) is preparatory to the washing of hands and pouring of a libation at Menelaos's home.[63] The important point here is that, whether or not the context is that of the theme
we have been examining, this line and the action it expresses are associated with feasting scenes of some sort.[64]
Closure of feasting scenes may involve both lines 149 and 150, as in five cases in addition to the thematic occurrences, or it may be accomplished simply by the latter member of the pair, as in six other instances.[65] No matter what the configuration, however, it is important to note that closure of a feast is virtually the sole function of both of these lines and, further, that the Feasting theme proper uses them both in four of six occurrences. This distribution then begs the question of how the thematic occurrences in Books 7 and 10 reach closure, since neither typical line is observed at their terminations. In the former case, Feasting is augmented with Alkinoos's instructions to mix a wine bowl, which in turn leads to the king's speech about helping his guest, Odysseus's reply, and the narrative equivalent of the more familiar closure (7.228). Likewise, in Book 10 the Feast is interrupted, as discussed above, and formulaically unrelated but narratively equivalent lines again end the action (10.469-70).
Lint 152 presents another possibility for formulaic irony. Its second hemistich, ta gar t' anathêmata daitos , seems quite appropriate to its position in Book 1, although it would be difficult to argue on available evidence that the idea encoded in this hemistich ("these things [singing and dancing] are the glories of the feast") is thematically associated with Feasting. In its only other occurrence (21.430), this same hemistich appears in a related verse with slightly different syntax: 
. This latter line and the two that precede it refer, of course, to the "feast" of blood and revenge that Odysseus has planned for his "guests" the suitors. But we need not posit a non-traditional kind of irony in this passage, for once the poetic association of this final feast of the suitors with the traditional idea of the Feast has been made, the association through actual phraseology is natural and institutionalized. The convergence of slaughter and dining, in other words, takes place by means of the poetic melding of ideas that, being associated within the tradition with certain phraseology, then find expression in a particularly poignant and ironic way.
That this association of ideas is more than a momentary turn of phrase is evident from the terrible, and prefigurative, feast of Book 20. In this last sharing of food and drink before the wrath of Odysseus takes over in the next book, the portrait of the arrogant, presumptuous suitors modulates horribly:
In the suitors Pallas Athene 345
stirred up uncontrollable laughter, and addled their thinking.
Now they laughed with jaws that were no longer their own.
The meat they ate was a mess of blood, their eyes were bursting
full of tears, and their laughter sounded like lamentation.
The prophet Theoklymenos explicitly makes the traditional connection that Odysseus repeats in capsule form at lines 21.428-30, reading the prefiguration of inescapable carnage and death in the aberrant scene before him. Whatever the source of the linkage, and it may well predate even the Odyssey story, it joins a traditional association to the revenge that the story-pattern would lead one to expect, and does so in a memorable and moving fashion.
In summary, our example analyses of Bath, Greeting, and Feasting have illustrated that thematic structure in the Odyssey cannot be forced into a single narrow definition or a restrictive category. Traditional narrative pattern manifests itself in different ways—sometimes in an ordered and tightly knit series of discrete actions (as in parts of the Bath and Feasting multiforms) and sometimes in a looser aggregation of general outlines that leave more room for individualized variation (as in the Greeting). Even when the actions are discrete and ordered, however, there is always the opportunity for shaping the generic commonplace to its context, as the comparison of feasts in Books 1 and 4 has shown. From the point of view of idea-pattern, then, our conclusion about the Homeric theme must be that the consistency with which the narrative superstructure is observed from instance to instance varies with the individual theme. Some units are simply more focused than others, no doubt for compositional reasons. But whether a given theme or type-scene tends more toward the "fixed" or the "flexible" end of the spectrum, it carries with it both compositional utility and aesthetic referentiality.
The other chief aspect of thematic structure, verbal correspondence among instances of a given multiform, also varies from one theme to the next. We have seen that Greeting has no particular phraseological component, the only conventionally associated diction being at the level of two single words.[66] However, the core actions of the Bath are expressed in formulaic language, as are the major ideas of Feasting; of course, in both these latter cases we find many additional, interspersed lines that do not repeat from instance to
instance, since the ideas they express are not traditionally associated with Bath and Feasting. In addition, our analyses have also revealed that the "particularizing" verses, those that suit the generic mold to its narrative position, arc themselves quite as traditional as any other lines in Homer. In concert with the findings in chapter 4, we discovered that these lines cannot always be shown to be formulaic in the classic sense, but that they arc consistently structured in accordance with traditional rules. Indeed, this last point also means that there exists both bound and unbound phraseology in the Odyssey , that is, that some diction is exclusively tied to one thematic structure, some is tied to one or more narrative events but not necessarily to a particular theme, and some is largely free of thematic association.
Thus it appears that the best explanation of Homeric thematic structure, and therefore the truest basis for aesthetic inquiry, is the positing not of a single model but of a spectrum of traditional narrative patterning. Themes in the Odyssey vary in the consistency of both narrative structure and verbal correspondence; by conceiving of this dimension of traditional structure as a spectrum, it becomes possible to sense the compositional utility and aesthetic power of themes or type-scenes without having either to eliminate certain examples or to erect over-elaborate taxonomies that separate patterns which should be considered together. In the end, such a spectrum will also furnish the key to aesthetic interpretation, because it will rationalize the differences among narrative multiforms in Homeric tradition and refocus our attention on the continuity of traditional narrative structure.