The Greeting Theme

For a second example of thematic structure in the Odyssey I turn to what Edwards has called the "greeting type-scene," the action of which he defines thus (1975, 55): "usually a person hands a cup of wine to another, and with words of welcome, farewell, or honor (often deidisketo or some other form of the verb, and chaire ) makes a prayer or wish for him; sometimes he invites the other to make a libation and pray." Edwards locates five full realizations of this pattern in the Odyssey , in Books 3 (lines 41-50), 4 (59-64), 13 (56-62), 15 (150-59), and 18 (119-23, 151-52).^[35]

These instances of "Greeting" occur in various narrative contexts. In Book 3 it constitutes Peisistratos's welcoming of "Mentor" (Athena) and asking her to offer a prayer to Poseidon, during whose festival he (she) has arrived. The

[33] In neither of these situations do we need to posit a literary sensibility, since both amount to variations on a traditional pattern that is used a number of times in the Odyssey . Nonetheless, we can appreciate the artistry of Homer, as is evident in the poignant adaptations of a powerfully connotative convention.

[34] Reminiscent in its way of the raft-building episode in Book 5, this may well be a set-piece effectively "memorized" by Homer and, like the similes, summoned to narrative present as a composite "word" in itself. Analogs to such units exist in Serbo-Croatian epic, as in the case of the ban's threat to the shouting prisoner (see chapter 8).

[35] He also finds "short forms" at 14.112-13 and 447-48 and "greeting without the offer of wine" at 20.197-99.

second instance, in the fourth book, is Menelaos's invitation to Telemachos and Peisistratos to eat; it occurs between Bath and Feast. The next, near the opening of Book 13, is Odysseus's parting salute to Queen Arete as he prepares to leave Phaeaecia. In Book 15 the Feast theme (which we shall examine in the next section) precedes the Greeting theme, which involves Menelaos's libation for the return journey about to be undertaken by Telemachos and Peisistratos; Telemachos's thanks, wish for the homecoming of his father, and an omen indicating the vengeful nature of that homecoming follow. The last of the five full occurrences of the type-scene involves Amphinomos's greeting to the disguised Odysseus, about which variation we shall have more to say later on.

Even from this brief description, it should be clear that, unlike the Bath theme, Greeting has no particular association with other themes in the tradition. Not only is the material preceding it quite different from instance to instance, but it seems to lead not to one but to a wide variety of consequent actions. To be sure, it is associated with the general situations of coming and going, that is, of arriving and taking leave, but there is no traditional link to another theme that would create an expectation of what should precede or follow. Such ubiquitous character is quite at odds with the Bath-Feast linkage, and this difference begs the question of whether we are dealing with the same sort of unit and, further, whether the themes will reveal other divergences as well.

To answer these questions, let us consider the two axes of correspondence among occurrences of Greeting: narrative pattern and verbal correspondence. First, the general nature of Edwards' description of the actions entailed in this theme or type-scene argues a somewhat less specific idea-structure than underlay the Bath. The Greeting scene may involve welcome, farewell, or honor, or a combination of either of the first two with the last; it may comprise a prayer or wish for someone; it may include one person's speech or that speech plus the other's reply.^[36] In short, as the two following examples testify, this particular theme is simply not as tightly organized around discrete actions as is the Bath.

[36] The instances also differ considerably in length, but as we have seen earlier, this is a common enough variation among thematic occurrences. And the fact that the theme is split in Book 18 is likewise not unusual.

But great Odysseus stood up
and put the handled goblet into the hand of Arete,
and spoke to her aloud and addressed her in winged words, saying:
"Farewell to you, O queen, and for all time, until old age
comes to you, and death, which befall all human creatures.              60
Now I am on my way; but have joy here in your household,
in your children and your people, and in your king, Alkinoos."

Amphinomos, taking
two loaves of bread out of the basket, set them before him,              120
and drank his health in a golden cup and poke to him, saying:
"Your health, father and stranger; may prosperous days befall you
hereafter; but now you are held in the grip of many fortune."
............................................
So he spoke, and poured, and drank the honey-sweet wine, then
put the cup back into the hands of the lord of the people;

It would be difficult to imagine two more divergent uses of the same type-scene. In Book 13, Odysseus's farewell to Arete is full of respect, admiration, and thanks; she and her husband, Alkinoos, have served an essential function in helping the hero toward his homeland of Ithaka. There is no explicit reply, as occurs in many of the Greeting, although king and queen send escorts and gifts for Odysseus as he strides down to the shore and enters the fleet Phaeaecian craft. The Book 18 exemplar, while following the general pattern of salute, salutation, and wine drinking, reverberates with foreboding. Although Amphinomos is the favored suitor, and perhaps the only honorable one in the lot, his apparently sincere toast of the disguised Odysseus is qualified by his last few words; indeed, more than he knows, the man he salutes is "held in the grip of many fortune."

Specifically, then, we can agree with Edwards's definition of the Greeting theme: it does involve "words of welcome, farewell, or honor," it does include the speaker "mak[ing] a prayer or wish," and it does (optionally) involve a reply in the form of a libation or prayer. All of the instances cited also feature one person handing a cup of wine to another, or some cline variation of that action. But there the definition of this type-scene must end, for we find no series of actions both as differentiated and as integrated into a logical, recurrent series as is the group of "washing, anointing, and donning new clothes" that

makes up the body of the Bath theme. Once again, then, is this difference enough to demand separate taxonomies for scenes like Bath on the one hand and Greeting on the other?

Consider first that both patterns serve at least two functions: they are compositionally useful and connotatively dynamic, in that some degree of expectation is created by their appearance in a narrative. While the Bath is more prescriptively conventional and specifically echoic because its structure is fighter and more integrated, in its own way each theme assists the poet and provides him with an instrument that carries with it institutionalized associations. We may add to this comparison the fact that the greater structural flexibility of the Greeting, as well as its lack of definite attachments to other themes or narrative situations, confers on it a kind of utility that is lacking in the Bath theme. In short, on the basis of narrative pattern alone, Bath and Greeting seem both to reveal thematic structure, even if the dimensions and implications of that structure vary somewhat.

This last point may be most clearly made through reference to an example. The instance of Greeting in Book 18, as quoted above, consists of Amphinomos's actions and speech and, after an ellipsis not designated as part of the type-scene by Edwards,^[37] the closure in Odysseus's drinking of the wine and passing of the cup back to the suitor. So far the generic form of the pattern is observed. But in between these two sections (lines 124-50) lies what in other occurrences of the same type-scene proves to be the gracious response of the person saluted.^[38] Here, however, the disguised stranger offers no simple thanks to his host or server, but rather a praise of the man himself coupled with a warning of what may befall him as part of the troop of suitors:

"Amphinomos, you seem to me very prudent, being              125
the son of such a father, whose excellent fame I have heard of,
Nisos, that is, of Doulichion, both strong and prosperous;
they say you are his son, and you seem like a man well spoken.
So I will tell you, and you in turn understand and listen.
Of all creatures that breathe and walk upon the earth there is nothing              130
more helpless than a man is, of all that the earth fosters;
for he thinks that he will never suffer misfortune in future
days, while the gods grant him courage, and his knees have spring
in them. But when the blessed gods bring sad days upon him,
against his will he must suffer it with enduring spirit.              135

[37] With this judgment I must agree, at least on formal grounds; but see below for the modification that lines 124-50 represent.

[38] As noted above, not all occurrences have a response; but where some reciprocation does manifest itself in the form of a speech, it is always—that is, traditionally—a gracious and thankful response to the ritual gesture of Greeting. See 15.155-59 for an example.

For the mind in men upon earth goes according to the fortunes
the Father of Gods and Men, day by day, bestows upon them.
For I myself once promised to be a man of prosperity,
but, giving way to force and violence, did many reckless
things, because I relied on my father and brothers. Therefore              140
let no man be altogether without the sense of righteousness,
but take in silence the gifts of the gods, whatever they give him.
Even so, now, I see the suitors, their reckless devisings,
how they show no respect to the wife, and despoil the possessions
of a man who, I think, will not for long be far from              145
his country and friends. He is very close by. But I hope your destiny
takes you home, out of his way. I hope you will never face him,
at the time he comes back to the beloved land of his fathers.
For I believe that, once he enters his halls, there will be
a reckoning, not without blood, between that man and the suitors."              150

We recall the instance of the Bath theme in Book 10, at Kirke's home, in which the conclusion of the pattern was suspended in favor of the inserted episode of Odysseus's freeing of his men from the witch's magic spell. Once they were freed and suitably washed and anointed, the expected feast could—narratively and traditionally—take place. The situation involving Amphinomos and Odysseus in disguise is not dissimilar in structure and effect, for once again the expected closure is suspended while a unique, non-traditional insert is related. That is, Homer interrupts the pattern and rhythm of the theme, thus creating the same kind of tension described in relation to the Bath on Aiaia, and into this environment places a speech that bears only a formal resemblance to what traditional structure leads us to expect. The praise of Amphinomos seems genuine, but is overshadowed by an excursus on the gods and fate followed by a less than thinly veiled prediction of the slaughter that Odysseus—not yet a real presence—will perpetrate on those whose company the otherwise admirable Amphinomos has been keeping. As in the Kirkean Bath scene, the force of the whole is to foreground that which is unexpected—thematically untraditional, here—so that the philosophizing and dire prediction grate more harshly against the narrative situation than they would if they were spoken outside of the traditional theme of Greeting. Even if Greeting has proved less structurally bound than Bath, it still has thematic pattern, which is useful compositionally, and thematic connotation, which is crucial to the aesthetics of traditional poetry.

As for the phraseological component of these five instances of the Greeting type-scene, they share virtually nothing outside of the chaire and deidisketo forms cited by Edwards in his definition. That is to say, there seems to be no core of verbal correspondence traditionally associated with the ideas in this pattern, no two- or three-line segment or collection of related phraseology

that conventionally expresses Greeting. In those four of five occurrences in which some form of chaire or its functional equivalent^[39] appears, a vocative phrase follows; but none of these phrases are formulaically related. The remainder of the examples vary widely from one to another, the consistency of the scene being measured almost entirely according to its idea-pattern rather than its phraseology.

Nonetheless, although Greeting does not closely marshal an assigned core of diction, it is composed, as is all of Homeric epic, of traditional phraseology. The difference is that that phraseology is not further focused—in this particular case—by the theme. To illustrate this difference, let us analyze the occurrence of Greeting in Book 15 (lines 150-59).^[40]

He stood before the chariot and pledged them:              150
"Farewell, young men; give my greeting to the shepherd of the people,
Nestor, for always he was kind to me like a father,
when we sons of the Achaeans were fighting in Troy land."
        Then the thoughtful Telemachos said to him in answer:
"Surely, illustrious sir, when we arrive we shall tell him              155
All that you say, and I wish that even so I too, arriving
in Ithaka, could find Odysseus there in our palace,
and tell him I was resuming from you, having had all loving
treatment, and bringing many excellent treasures given me."

Although we find no formulaic relatives for line 150, proparoithe consistently seeks position at , thus filling the colon bounded by the A2 and B2 caesuras (in eleven of twelve occurrences in the Odyssey ), and prosêuda is found in its regular position at line-end.^[41] Traditional rules are observed, in other words, and the participle dediskomenos , one of the few verbal signals consistently associated with Greeting, appears. As noted previously, there are no formulaic relatives demonstrable for the various forms of chaire , as in line 151 (chaireton ), and we may add that the vocative phrase ôkourô is similarly without an

[39] At 3.43 the place of chaire is taken by eucheo nun .

[40] Here I follow Edwards in distinguishing this type-scene from the one that precedes (in miniature) at 15.147-49.

[41] See chapter 4, in the section on "winged words."

obvious family of diction. Nevertheless, all instances of chair- occur in initial position and are followed by a vocative, and all resultant first hemistichs are governed by traditional rules.^[42] The second hemistich is classically formulaic, the adonean formula poimeni laôn occurring a total of nine times in the poem.^[43] The rule of right justification, which on one level means that the second half of the line is more usually formulaic than the first, also manifests itself in line 152 . For although there is nothing in the Odyssey that seems to be phraseologically associated with the opening hemistich, the latter one is repeated three times verbatim: thus "he was always kind to me like a father" appears in Telemachos's speech to the suitors, in reference to his father (2.47); in "Mentor's" speech about Odysseus (2.234); and in Athena's speech to Zeus and the other gods, again about Odysseus (5.12). We cannot link this hemistich formula to Greeting, to be sure, but there is no denying its traditional structure and deployment.^[44]

Right justification is also evident in line 153 , which belongs to a collection of phrases that include an exact whole-line repetition (13.315),^[45] a second-hemistich repetition (14.240), and five additional occurrences of huies Achaiôn . The most stable part of the line, in other words, is the ending clausula, with more flexibility as one moves toward the beginning of the hexameter. Line 154 is a much-repeated line of introduction (forty-three occurrences in the

[42] We may compare the flexibility of these initial hemistichs to those involving asaminth- phrases in the Bath phraseology. Quite dearly, whereas the former are the result of traditional rules governing phraseology which apparently has not (for whatever reason) coalesced into formulaic diction, the latter is specific enough in its meaning and yet generic enough in its applicability that the fossilization into a hemistich system with a blocked caesura is no compositional handicap.

[43] Of these, one is metrically identical to 15.151 (Mentori poimeni laôn , 24.456) and two others fill the entire second hemistich (Agamemnoni, poimeni laôn , 3. 156 and 14.497). Compare also 17.109: Nestora, poimena laôn , the accusative form.

Odyssey ; see chapter 4) with no special attachment to any narrative situation. The most consistent clement in line 155 is of course the adonean, hôs agoreueis , with six additional instances, but we also find evidence of a second-hemistich structure (24.122)^[46] and of patterning in the opening part of the line.^[47]

Line 156, like many of the hexameters analyzed in chapter 4, has no formulaic relatives whatever; all of the individual constituents up to the bucolic diaeresis are, however, located in favored word-type positions.^[48] The closing phrase of line 157, eni oikôi , recurs thirty-three additional times, always in the same position, but, given the variety of syntax and vocabulary associated with it, we would no doubt do better to consider it a composite "word" that follows traditional rules rather than the core of an extremely plastic formulaic system.^[49] All other elements also occupy the favored positions for their word-types, with the quite explicable exception of the elided form Odusê '.^[50] The rather loose aggregation that makes up line 158 likewise has no formulaic relatives, but once again its individual constituents do follow traditional rules. Finally, line 159 presents a typical collection of phrases that demonstrate some genetic relationship, but it is not possible to show any one of them to be primary; there are five total instances of polla kai esthla , involving the clausula as well as an exactly repeated second hemistich (19.272) that could also be interpreted as part of a whole-line system.

In short, what our analysis of the Greeting type-scene reveals is a generic mold or matrix of actions that individually and collectively are less distinct than the discrete actions that compose the Bath theme. Nonetheless, as has

[46] Although whether this other line is truly an example of a hemistich formula may be in question, since diotrephes itself is localized in all of its seventeen occurrences in this same position (8, the favored position for this word-type, 95.6 percent).

[47] The sequence kai liên kein- occurs four more times in the Odyssey . This is the kind of phrase to which some scholars would assign formulaic status, while others would demur because of the relative unimportance of the words (preferring to think of the sequence as a nonce formation). In the end it may be more significant to observe that, as usual under traditional rules, such relatively insignificant words are consigned to the opening of the line by the rule of right justification.

[48] The sentence ends at position 8, so that the adonean is a loosely structured colon more typical of the beginning of a sentence (which normally occurs at the beginning of a line) than at the end of a hexameter.

[50] Of the seven total occurrences of the shortened form in the Odyssey , none occupies the most favored position (at 7, normally 39.8 percent); four appear at 3 (normally 12.5 percent), two at 5 (normally 34.0 percent), and one (15.157) at 9 (normally 10.7 percent). While at least two lines from this apparently divergent group can be explained by the formation of a formulaic system (18.326 and 19.65), the overall picture is of Odusê ' not conforming to expectations based on its word-type localization. I would suggest that such elided forms, which show more synchronic activity or pliability than unelided forms, are at least theoretically more susceptible to such variance.

been discussed, Greeting creates some degree of expectation within its own boundaries (although not as unambiguously as does the Bath, which leads to the feast); and the instance in Book 18 illustrates the power of that expectation and the effect of its frustration. In addition to the narrative structure of the Greeting pattern, we have seen that this theme exerts no special pressure on its expression in the phraseology (other than the inclusion of chaire and deidisketo or some other form of the same verb), so that the bound diction associated with the Bath, for example, has no counterpart in this other theme. As we would expect, the actual phraseology used shows the usual mix of classically formulaic diction with lines that are simply composed according to traditional rules but that have not, on available evidence, evolved true formulaic structure.

These two themes were not chosen at random but were selected to exemplify the range of brief, compact narrative structure in the Odyssey . There exist both more and less obviously stable patterns, as well as the great number that fall somewhere in between these two examples, but our two illustrations make the point that thematic structure is not all of a piece. Like traditional phraseology, traditional thematics cannot be captured or accounted for by one exclusive definition; to prescribe or proscribe too absolutely is to lose the ability to sense the different kinds of multiformity that make up the traditional foundation of the Odyssey , and in the end to lose as well the basis for faithful aesthetic inquiry. As we move on to a third example of the Homeric theme, we would do well to keep in mind the range and power of thematics, both as a traditional compositional technique and as a vital force in the art of the Odyssey .