Intertextual Effects in Odyssey 12

As Odysseus’ ship enters the narrow straits located between Scylla and Charybdis, the hero encourages his terrified crew by referring to their successful escape from the Cyclops (Od. 12.208-12). The most detailed comparison between the Scylla and Cyclops episodes was offered in 1943 by Friedrich Focke, who contrasted the “Orientalizing pathos” of the one and the “Greek restraint” of the other in support of a larger argument about the multiple authorship of the Odyssey. While Focke’s analytic conclusions have been radically challenged by the work of Milman Parry and Albert Lord on the oral genesis of the Homeric poems, the internal parallel he noted is still significant. Since the mid-1960s, the concepts of inter- and intra-textuality have offered theoretically informed (although not unchallenged) strategies to discuss parallels within and across texts (Fowler 1997). Working with the assumption that the significance of an episode partly depends on its relation to other related episodes, I argue that the Cyclops parallel constructs the Scylla adventure as a failed heroic trial. With a few and important exceptions (Pucci 1987; Danek 1998; Rengakos 2002; Tsagalis 2008), few contemporary readings of the Odyssey have explicitly drawn on intertextual strategies because the concept has been deemed irrelevant to oral-derived poems. Yet it is now clear that intertextuality (understood in terms of differential meaning rather than authorial allusion) is perfectly compatible with “traditional referentiality” (Foley 1991) and orality (Danek 2002; Burgess 2006). This paper further illustrates the relevance of an intertextual approach to the Odyssey by showing that its results square with pragmatic approaches emphasizing the rhetorical nature of the Odysseus’ narrative to the Phaeacians (Most 1989; Doherty 1995). The paper falls into three parts. I first compare the Cyclops and Scylla episodes and argue that they are respectively constructed as a victory and a defeat of Odysseus’ metis (9.408-12 and 12.258-9). I then identify additional intertextual parallels which further highlight Odysseus’ failure to fight Scylla off, including Iliadic vocabulary (12.83; 12.116; 12.121; cf. Lossau 1993), a reference to the Argonauts (12.59-72; cf. Meuli 1921), and Hesiodic echoes (12.74-6, 12.85-92: cf. Heubeck and Hoekstra 1989). Thirdly, I discuss semantic effects arising from Odysseus’ failed trial. Odysseus’ combination of success and failure serves his rhetorical purpose by showing that he both deserves and desperately needs to be convoyed home; it also builds some narrative tension as to whether Odysseus will successfully deal with the voracious suitors once he reaches Ithaka; and it fosters a dialogical worldview stressing man’s successes and limitations in the face of nature. The rich intertext of Odyssey 12 makes for powerful semantic effects. References: Burgess, J. (2006). "Neoanalysis, Orality, and Intertextuality: An Examination of Homeric Motif Transference." Oral Tradition 21 (1): 148-89. Danek, G. (1998). Epos und Zitat: Studien zu den Quellen der Odyssee. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. (2002). "Traditional referentiality and Homeric intertextuality," in F. Montanari ed., Omero tremila anni dopo. Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 3-19. Doherty, L. E. (1995). Siren Songs: Gender, Audience and Narrators in the Odyssey. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. Focke, F. (1943). Die Odyssee. Stuttgart and Berlin: W. Kohlhammer. Foley, J. (1991). Immanent Art: From Structure to Meaning in Traditional Oral Epic. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Fowler, D. (1997). "On the Shoulders of Giants: Intertextuality and Classical Studies." Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 39: 13-34. Heubeck, A. and A. Hoekstra (1989). A Commentary on Homer's Odyssey. Volume II: Books IX-XVI. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Lord, A. B. (2000) [1960]. The Singer of Tales. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Lossau, M. (1993). "Parodie de l'Iliade dans l'Odyssée." REG 106: 168-73. Meuli, K. (1921). Odyssee und Argonautika: Untersuchungen zur griechischen Sagengeschichte und zum Epos. Berlin: Weidmann. Most, G. W. (1989). "The Structure and Function of Odysseus' apologoi." TAPA 119: 15-30.3 Parry, A., ed. (1971). The Making of Homeric Verse: The Collected Papers of Milman Parry. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Pucci, P. (1987). Odysseus Polutropos: Intertextual Readings in the Odyssey and the Iliad. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. Rengakos, A. (2002). "Narrativität, Intertextualität, Selbstreferentialität. Die neue Deutung der Odyssee," in M. Reichel and A. Rengakos eds., Epea Pteroenta: Beiträge zur Homerforschung. Festschrift für Wolfgang Kullmann zum 75. Geburstag. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 173-91. Tsagalis, C. (2008). The Oral Palimpsest: Exploring Intertextuality in the Homeric Epics. Cambridge and London: Center for Hellenic Studies.