TFBT: Homer is Thessalian

 by William Moulton and Maya M.

“From Colophon some deem thee sprung,
From Smyrna some, and some from Chios;
These noble Salamis have sung,
While those proclaim thee born in Ios;
And others cry up Thessaly
The mother of the Lapithæ."

                             "On Homer’s Birthplace” Antipater of Sidon

                                      Translated by J. H. Merivale

 

“Homer is Thessalian”.  I realize that is a ludicrous unfounded sounding statement, but follow along and see what you think. If you read the Iliad closely you will see something odd about the Nereid Thetis.  Several authors have.   Slatkins most famously in The Power of Thetis.   For an obscure goddess of minor rank; Thetis is exceptionally powerful and influential among the Olympians.  She rescues Zeus and none of the gathered rebels attempt to stop her (Iliad 1. 393).  None of the sharp wagging tongues of the immortals criticize her thwarting the will of Zeus.  (Put all the fancy words on it you want, bottom-line Thetis alters the will of Zeus at Iliad 1. 495.)   She rescues the Olympian Hephaestus. (Iliad 18. 369)  She rescues the Olympian Dionysus. (Iliad 6. 135)  The gods have to beg her to rescue the body of Hector. ( Iliad 24. 77)

 

I have always assumed that the Olympic deference to Thetis was Homer’s nod to other theogonies.  A famous such nod is to Oceanus and Tethys; when Hera referes to “Oceanus, whence the gods have risen, and Tethys our mother” (Iliad 14. 200)   Homer might be us a sign about other such theogonies in the relationship of the Nereid Thetis and Oceanid Eurynome.  Gods don’t have friends.  Almost all divine relationships are with a family member.   (See “Friendship Amongst the Gods.”) And yet here are two unrelated goddess dwelling on the shores of the great River Ocean. Thetis is a primordial goddess in the Spartan theogony of Alcman who “presented Thetis as the primal divine creative force, the generative principle of the universe”. (Power of Thetis, p82) Eurynome is a primordial goddess in other theogonies;  “in the beginning, Ophion and Eurynome, daughter of Oceanus, governed the world from snow-clad Olympus; (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 503)  So I always assumed that Homer’s references to Oceanus, Thetis and Eurynome were just a tip of the hat. 

 

But recently with Sarah at Hour 25 and Maya M on my blog I discussed Thetis and Emily Schurr’s opinion came up.  Schurr suggests that Homer is not invoking the Muse at the start of the Iliad.  The text in the original Greek does not say Μοῦσα  (Muse) it says Qea (Goddess) .   Schurr suggests the goddess in line 1 of the Iliad is Thetis.  Now that’s a horse of a different color!  It is almost as if the Iliad is actually the “Homeric Hymn to Thetis”. What came to my mind at this point in our conversation is the relationship of Hesiod and Hecate; the so-called "Hymn to Hecate".  In the Theogony Hesiod goes way out of his way to grant the goddess unheard of honors and influence, what  Clay refers to as “Hecate's special status.”   In “Hesiod’s Cosmos” Clay dismisses the belief that “Hesiod's family had a special attachment to the Hecate cult,” or  “Hecate cult was already well-established in Boeotia in Hesiod's time… Accordingly, we ought not to be surprised to find Hesiod giving a privileged position and rendering  homage to the chief local goddess” . 

 

How about we test the same logic on Homer’s adoration of Thetis?  Aaron Atsma (www.theoi.com) lists three cult sites for Thetis; two are Peloponnesian and one in Thessaly where the Aeolic dialect is used.  If Homer was Dorian we’d expect the Iliad’s theogony to be based on Alcman and vocabulary on the Doric dialect.  Instead with find a poet with an Aeolic name settling his goddess in southern Thessaly with a mortal husband and son.  So it would make more sense to associate Homer with the goddess cult site on the headland of Sepia in Euboea

 

There is a problem with the suggestion that Homer is Thessalian. He never mentions Thessaly in the Iliad and all the peoples the Achaeans conquer while waiting for Troy to fall are Aeolic  I only see one way out of the dilemma.  That is the application of the lesson from Matt 13:57, Luke 4:24 and Mark 6:4, that no man is a prophet in his home town.  I am suggesting an Aeolic speaking Homer rejected by Thessaly, who traveled to Ionia where he found great success in their dialect.  He wrought his revenge on those back home by deleting them from history and enslaving all the Aeolians. As Maya M asks, “Homer vents his menis by writing about the menis of Achilles?”

 

What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

P.S.       This paper was generated by a long rambling conversation between Bill Moulton and Maya M.  Those interested may attempt to follow the conversation at; http://shortstories-bill.blogspot.com/2014/10/tftfbt-bella-rophan-at-palmer-house.html#comment-form

 

TFTFBT: Bella Rophan at the Palmer House

I recently had the pleasure of staying in Chicago’s Palmer House hotel.  To quote the plaque on the statue named  Bella Rophan; “The focal point of our lobby elevator foyer is the dramatic bronze sculpture created in France in the mid 19^th century.”  The artist was Emile Herbert 1828-1893.  “The piece depicts a mythical Greek Warrior on a bridle-free stallion. The fact that the horse is not tethered has been interrupted that the creature is the spirit of the wind and that the warrior  simply along for the ride having no control over the winged steed.“ Which is odd because in Pindar, Olympian Ode 13 the poet states that “Till Pallas [Athena], goddess maid, brought him (Bellerophon) the bridle and golden headband.”  I was reminded of the Helmet of Invisibility lent to Perseus, another flying hero.

The plaque continues with “ A curiosity of the work is the python around the warrior’s head, arms and hand. The inclusion of the serpent is puzzling and no explanation has been determined.” 

 Looking at the statue from the back side I noticed that the body of the “python” as it trailed down the warrior’s back, grew stouter, wider and shaggier.  I think most classicists would recognize this as the “Chimera, who snorted raging fire, a beast great and terrible, and strong and swift-footed. Her heads were three: one was that of a glare-eyed lion, one of a goat, and the third of a snake,” (Hesiod, Theogony 319)  Apparently Bellerophon didn’t want to take the whole beast back as proof of the kill and chose to return to King Iobates of Lycia with the smallest of the three heads. 

I thought the sculpture’s choice of weapons was interesting .  Legend holds that the Chimera was slain with a lead-tipped lance shoved into the fire-breathing head or shot to death from above by Bellerophon astride the flying Pegasus with his bow and arrows.   Instead the artist placed into the warriors hand and object to heavy and un-winged to be an arrow.  Maybe the business end of a broken ashen shafted, bronze tipped spear.  At first glance I was reminded of the double lotus blossom shape of Zeus’ lightning bolt, but that doesn’t really work either.