The Authoress of the Odyssey

Perhaps the prettiest example of unconscious cerebration in the Odyssey is to be found in the opening line of Od. iii, which runs ἠέλιος δ' ἀνόρουσε λιπὼν περικαλλέα λίμνην, which is taken from Il. v. 20, Ιδαῖος δ' ἀνόρουσε λιπὼν περικαλλέα δίφρον· One is at a loss to conceive how a writer so apparently facile should drift thus on to an Iliadic line of such different signification except as the result of saturation. It is inconceivable that she should have cast about for a line to say that the sun was rising, and thought that Idæus jumping off his chariot would do. She again has this line in her mind when in Book xxii. 95 she writes Τηλέμαχος δ' ἀπόρουσε λιπὼν δολιχόσκιον ἔγχος.

The same kind of unconscious celebration evidenced by the lines last referred to leads her sometimes to repeat lines of her own in a strange way, without probably being at all aware of it. As for example: —

βασιλῆες…εἰσὶ καὶ ἄλλοι
πολλοὶ ἐν ἀμφιάλῳ Ἰθάκῃ νέοι ἠδὲ παλαιοί,

    (i. 394, 395).
This passage in the following Book becomes: —

εἰσὶ δὲ νῆες πολλαὶ ἐν ἀμφιάλῳ Ἰθάκῃ νέαι ἠδὲ παλαιαί·

(ii. 292, 293).

Another similar case is that of the famous line about Sisyphus' stone bounding down hill in a string of dactyls, Od. xi. 598, it runs: —

αὖτις ἔπειτα πέδονδε κυλίνδετο λᾶας ἀναιδής.

"The cruel stone came bounding down again on to the plain." I believe this to be nothing but an unconscious adaptation from the one dactylic line that I can remember in the Iliad, I mean: —

ἀμφοτέρω δὲ τένοντε καὶ ἴστέα λᾶας ἀναιδὴς
ἄχρις ἀπηλοίησεν.

    Il. IV 521, 522.
"The cruel stone shattered the bones of the neck, tendons and all." Granted (which is very doubtful) that there may be an accommodation of sound to sense in the Odyssean line, I contend that the suggestion came from the Iliadic line.

I would gladly go through the whole Iliad calling attention to the use the writer of the Odyssey has made of it, but to do this would require hardly less than a book to itself. I will therefore ask the reader to accept my statement that no one Book in the Iliad shows any marked difference from the others as regards the use that has been made of it, and will limit myself to those Books that have been most generally declared to be later additions – I mean Book X. and Book XVIII. – for I consider that I have already sufficiently shown the writer of the Odyssey to have known Books I., XXIV., and the Catalogues in Book II. It may be well, however, to include Book XI. in my examination, for this is one of the most undoubted, and it will be interesting to note that the writer of the Odyssey has both the most doubted and undoubted Books equally at her fingers' ends. I shall only call attention to passages that do not occur more than once in the Iliad, and will omit the very numerous ones that may be considered as common form.

In Il. X. 141, 142 we find: —

τίφθ' οὔτω;…
Νύκτα δι' ἀμβροσίην, and in Od. ix. 403, 404.
τίπτε τόσον…
Νύκτα δι' ἀμβροσίην.

In Il. X. 142, ὅτι δὴ χρείω τόσον ἴκει; Il. Od. ii. 28, τίνα χρειὼ τόσον ἵκει.

Il. X. 158 begins with the words λὰξ ποδὶ κίνησας. So also does Od. XV. 45.

Il. X. 214 has, ὅσσοι γὰρ νήεσσιν ἐπικρατέουσιν ἄριστοι, this line is found Od. i. 245, xvi. 122, xix. 130, but with νήσοισιν instead of νήεσσιν.

Il. X. 220 ends with ὀτρύνει κραδίη καὶ θυμὸς ἀγήνωρ, so also does Od. xviii. 61.

Il. X. 221 has ἀνδρῶν δυσμενέων δῦναι στράτον ἐγγὺς ἐόντων; cf Od. iv. 246, ἀνδρῶν δυσμενέων κατέδυ πόλιν εὐρυάγυιαν·

Il. X. 243, 244 have, πῶς ἂν ἔπειτ' Ὀδυσῆος ἐγὼ θείοιο λαθοίμην, οὗ περὶ μὲν…

In Od. i. 65, 66 we find the same words only with ὅς instead of οὗ. This is a very convincing case, for the ἔπειτα, which is quite natural in the Iliadic line, is felt to be rather out of place in the Odyssean one, and makes it plain that the Odyssean passage was taken from the Iliadic, not vice versâ.

Il. X. 255 ends with μενοπτόλεμος Θρασυμήδης, so also does Od. iii. 442.

Il. X. 278, 279…ἥ τέ μοι αἰεὶ ἐν πάντεσσι πόνοισι παρίστασαι…

cf. Od. xiii. 300, 301…ἥ τέ τοι αἰεὶ ἐν πάντεσσι πόνοισι παρίσταμαι…

Il. X 292-295, σοὶ δ᾿ αὖ ἐγὼ ῥέξω βοȗν ἦνιν εὐρυμέτωπον

ἀδμήτην, ἣν οὐ πω ὑπὸ ζυγὸν ἤγαγεν ἀνήρ.

τήν τοι ἐγὼ ῥέξω χρυσὸν κέρασιν περιχεύας.

ὧς ἔφαν εὐχόμενοι, τῶν δ᾿ ἔκλυε Παλλὰς Ἀθήνη.

The first three of these four lines is repeated verbatim in Od. iii. 382-384. In Od. 385 the fourth line becomes ὧς ἔφατ᾿ εὐχόμενος τοȗ δ' ἔκλυε Παλλὰς Ἀθήνη.

Il. X. 351…ὅσσον τ' ἐπὶ οὖρα πέλονται ἡμιόνων, cf. Od. viii. 124 ἕσσον τ' ἐν νείῳ οὖρον πέλει ἡμιόνοιιν.

Il. X. 400, τὸν δ' ἐπιμειδήσας προσέφη πολύμητις Ὀδύσσευς, this line occurs Od. xxii. 371.

Il. X. 429 ends with δῖοί τε Πελασγοί, so also does Od. xix. 177.

Il. X. 457, φθεγγομένου δ' ἄρα τοῦ γε κάρη κονίῃσιν ἐμίχθη, this line is found Od. xxii. 329.

Il. X. 534, ψεύσομαι ἦ ἒτυμον ἐρέω κέλεται δέ με θυμός. In Od. iv. 140 this line is found.

Il. X. 556, ῥεῖα θεός γ' ἐθέλων καί κ.τ.λ. Cf. Od. iii. 231.

Il. X. 576 ἔς ῥ ἀσαμίνθους βάντες εὐξέστας λούσαντο. See Od. iv. 48, xvii. 87.

Here, then, are seventeen apparent quotations from Book X., omitting any claim on lines which, though they are found in the Odyssey, are also found in other Books of the Iliad, from which, and not from Book X., it may be alleged that the writer of the Odyssey took them. This makes the writer of the Odyssey to have taken about one line in every 33 of the 579 lines of which Book X. consists. Disciples of Wolf – no two of whom, however, are of the same opinion, so it is hard to say who they are – must either meet my theory that the Odyssey is all written at one place, by one hand, and in the eleventh century B.C., with stronger weapons than during the last six years they have shown any signs of possessing, or they must fall back on some Laputan-manner-of-making-books theory, which they will be able to devise better than I can.

I do not forget that the opponents of the genuineness of Il. X. may contend that the passages above given were taken from the Odyssey, but this contention should not be urged in respect of Book X. more than in respect of the other Books, which are all of them equally replete with passages that are found in the Odyssey, and in the case given above of Il. X. 243, 244 and Od. i. 65, 66, it is not easy to doubt that the Iliadic passage is the original, and the Odyssean the copy.

I will now deal with the undoubted Book XI., omitting as in the case of Book X. all lines that occur in other Books, unless I call special attention to them.

The first two lines of Book XI. are identical with the first two of Book V. of the Odyssey, but Il. XI. 2 occurs also in Il. XIX. 2.

Il. XI. 42, 43, ἵππουριν· δεινὸν δὲ λόφος καθύπερθεν ἔνευεν, εἵλετο δ' ἄλκιμα δοῦρε δύω, κεκορυθμένα χαλκῷ.

These two lines are found Od. xxii. 124, 125, but the first of them occurs three or four times elsewhere in the Iliad.

Il. XI. 181, ἀλλ' ὅτε δὴ τάχ' ἔμελλεν ὑπὸ πτόλιν αἰπύ τε

τεῖχος

ἵξεσθαι τότε δὴ…

cf. Od. iv. 514, 515, ἀλλ' ὅτε δὴ τάχ' ἔμελλεν Μαλείαων ὄρος αἰπύ