On Allegory in Homer

Author(s): Stuart G. P. Small

Source: The Classical Journal , Apr., 1949, Vol. 44, No. 7 (Apr., 1949), pp. 423-430
Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc. (CAMWS)

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Like the simile,
allegory is an incidental device

On Allegory in Homer
Stuart G. P. Small

THE GREEKS BEGAN interpreting their na-literal, a meaning which, we need hardly add,
tional epics allegorically at an early date.'was surely not present to the poet's mind
In the face of the intellectual assault upon when he wrote his epics. They have, in fact,
Homer and the other poets which was "imposed" allegory upon Homer, just as cer-
launched by Xenophanes, Pythagoras, Hera-tain mediaeval theologians-e.g. Bernard of
clitus of Ephesus, and their compeers during Clairvaux-, out of their affection for the
the sixth century, certain Greeks, regarding Scriptures, imposed allegory upon the Song of
the Iliad and Odyssey as almost sacred booksSolomon. But how did the notion of allegorical
and desiring to vindicate their author from interpretation occur to Theagenes and his suc-
the charges of immorality which were being cessors? Very likely it was suggested to them
lodged against him by the philosophers, hadby the fact that the Iliad and the Odyssey, like
Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days,4 un-
recourse to various types of allegorical inter-
pretation of his works. Theagenes of Rhe- doubtedly contain not a few genuine allego-
gium, for example, attempted to explain the ries, not imposed, not merely excogitated by
battle of the gods in Iliad 20 as a veiled presen-the poet's over-zealous defenders, but in-
tended by him and actually implicit in his
tation of certain physical and ethical truths;
Anaxagoras regarded the poems of Homer asown words. It is with the interpretation and
handbooks of morality; and Metrodorus ofevaluation of some of these genuine allegories
Lampsacus, his pupil, interpreted them as that the present paper is concerned.
texts in physiology and natural philosophy. In the first place, several of Homer's allu-
According to Metrodorus, Demeter personi- sions to certain minor divinities may well be
fied the liver, Apollo the gall, Dionysus theconsidered as quasi-allegorical, as for instance
spleen; Helen was the air, Agamemnon the the personifications of Terror (Deimos) and
earth, Hector the moon, and Achilles the sun.Rout (Phobos):
Other philosophers, such as Diogenes of Apol- So Ares spoke; and he called upon Deimos and
lonia and Democritus,2 attempted to justify Phobos to yoke his chariot; and he himself donned
Homer's ancient reputation for sophia by sun-his all-shining arms... (Iliad 15.I19 f.; cf. 4.
dry other systems of symbolic interpretation.3 440, 13.299),
Now all these early allegorists have this, at
or again the concrete images of abstract Dis
least, in common: to a man, they view the Il-
cord (Eris), Uproar (Kydoimos), and Destruc-
iad and Odyssey as works which convey a
tion (Ker):
meaning other than and in addition to the
Among them met Eris and Kydoimos; and among
them the baneful Ker, holding one man alive and
((Stuart G. P. Small is Instructor in Classics at Yale lately wounded and another not wounded, haled
University. A native of New York City, he received his a third by the feet through the din of war, dead;
and she wore a cloak about her shoulders that was
A.B. degree from Bowdoin College. After graduate
all scarlet with the blood of men ... (Iliad I8.
study at the University of Cincinnati (Ph.D. 1942), he
535 ff.; cf. 5.593, II.53),
served in the Air Corps for three and a half years, in
Africa and Europe. During the academic year 1946-47
he taught at Marietta College (Ohio). where the spirits of battle range the field and
set their hands upon the combatants; or finally

423

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424 STUART G. P. SMALL

the well-known passage (Iliad i6.682) insimpler personifications of Deimos,

like the
Phobos, and Kydoimos which we have al-
which Sleep (Hypnos) and Death (Thanatos)
readypas-
are referred to as twin brothers. These discussed; although the story of the
sages and passages like them are bestencounter
called is carried out in considerable de-
quasi-allegorical because they fall shorttail, still in such verses as Iliad 21.331 if.,
of ful,
filling the necessary qualifications of where
true Hera
al- encourages her son to do battle
with the
legory in two respects: first, the symbolism in,enraged river god-
volved is not sufficiently extended or complex;
Up, Crookfoot my child! For I conjectured that
second, the intention of the poet in these
eddying Xanthus opposed you in the fight; but
verses is not so much to convey a truth bya great mass of fire and repel him with
pour forth
all speed
means of personifications and significant ac-...
tion as, given personification as a poetic orna-
the poet is not really attempting to inform us
ment, to depict these various daimones--
Deimos, Phobos, Kydoimos, Eris, Ker, in veiled
Hyp-language that fire and water are anti-
thetical;
nos, and the like-as acting or associating ap-but, presupposing a warrior having
the nature of water, what could be more nat-
propriately to their own natures, and by so
ural or appropriate than to select as his an-
depicting them, to heighten the aesthetic
tagonist
pleasure of readers of the poem. In each of the a warrior having the nature of fire?
Homer's
above descriptions, however, a certain clear choice of Hephaestus as the agent to
and simple hyponoia or "underthought," quell the
asobstreperous river was poetically
inevitable.
the Greeks called allegory,5 remains: "terror
and rout are the inevitable concomitants The fable
of of the jars, put in the mouth of
Achilles
war," "warriors are beset by discord, confu- in Iliad 24, is, however, allegorical
beyond
sion, and destruction," "sleep is a temporary cavil. Struck by the spectacle of Pri-
death."6 am's misery and his own, and remembering all
A somewhat more complicated yet remark- the sorrow and misfortune he has seen during
ably effective allegory is contained in the de- the preceding nine years, the hero cries,
scription of Eris in Iliad 4.439 ff., a passage On the threshold of Zeus there be two jars of evil
singled out for especial praise by "Longinus":7 gifts that he gives and one of blessings.l2 That man
to whom Zeus who delights in the thunder gives
The one host Ares8 cheered onward, the other
mixed gifts receives now fortune, now misfor-
gray-eyed Athene, together with Deimos and
tune; but if Zeus gives him only baneful gifts he
Phobos and Eris that presses forward insatiably,
makes of him a pitiable wretch; an evil gadfly
sister and comrade of Ares the manslayer; at first
drives him over the divine earth, and he goes
she raises her crest but a little, and then she sets
about honored neither of gods nor of men ... (Il-
her head high in the heaven, but she walks on the
iad 24.527 f.).
ground; moving amid the din of battle and multi-
plying the cries of the men she cast in their midst
Or, to expand the meaning of these lines, Zeus
then also a common dissension.
reserves twice as many misfortunes for man-
Here again all is clear; Discord is sister and kind as blessings; in Pindar's phrase,
companion to the Lord of War; like him she is For one good gift the immortal gods apportion
accompanied by Terror and Rout; springing two calamities to mortal men ... (Pyth. 3.82-83);
from small causes, she suddenly expands and
grows until she seems to fill the entire uni, therefore, man can expect at best only a mix-
verse.9 Her feet are on the ground, but sub- ture of happiness and pain in life, and in fact
limi ferit sidera vertice.10 In this passage the may receive very little happiness at all. In this
poet's intent is to convey a truth concerning passage, accordingly, every requisite of alle-
discord by means of significant action.l gory is present. In the first five verses quoted
The case of the matching of the river Sca' we have, in addition to the literal meaning, a
mander against Hephaestus the fire god is meaning metaphorically implied in an ex-
somewhat different from the above and more tended figurative narration; furthermore, it is

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 ON ALLEGORY IN HOMER 425

them, they withdraw and pray Zeus the son

the true or essential meaning that is left for
inference.l3 The narrative is, however, not Kronos to bring Ate down on that man, that
entirely symbolic, but partly literal, and itmay
is be distracted of mind and thus pay the p
alty ... (Iliad 9.o02 ff.).
the presence of the precise, clear-cut terms
kakon and eaon, rather than some emblem of
Here the hidden meaning is pErhaps at fi
weal and woe, that lends the passage its per-
sight somewhat more difficult to extract th
spicuity and prevents its degenerating into a
is some other passages;19 however, the gene
Spenserian "darke conceit." sense seems to demand that the Litai be co
An even plainer case of hyponoia occurs at
strued as the prayers of a man who, having
Iliad I9.9I if., where the operation of Ate,
fended another, repents and approaches
Blind Folly, upon men is described as follows:
victim to crave his pardon and offer ato
Ate is the honored daughter of Zeus, who blinds ment. According to the scholiasts, who he
all men, accursed as she is; tender are her feet, for
probably reproduce the tradition of Alex
she walks not upon the ground, but upon the andrian criticism, the Litai are lame beca
heads of men, distracting them; and ere now she
as a rule one prays hesitantly and comes slo
has ensnared others besides ourselves.
and reluctantly to ask a favor; they
The fact that Ate'4 is "the honored daughter wrinkled because the penitent's face is d
of Zeus" is expressive of her power;"5 her torted by sorrow and marked by the custo
feet are tender because she habitually sweeps ary squalor of suppliants;2 they are shif
through the air,16 visiting men with destruc- eyed because owing to shame and mental s
tion from above by causing them to "go fering the penitent is unable to look into
astray"-to commit the inevitable act of face of the man he has injured or offended
other words, the poet has transferred the e
blind folly; her swiftness symbolizes the reck-
less and impulsive conduct of her victim;7tions and the appearance of the man who pr
and her walking on the heads of men is em- to the Prayers themselves.21 The parentag
blematic not only of her superhuman strength the Prayers-Dios kourai megaloio-sugge
not only their power but also the sympathy
but also of her power to blast the intelligence.
Every aspect of the nature of infatuation the is gods in general, and of Zeus in particu
toward suppliants. Ate, on the other han
thus illustrated by this vividly pictorial per-
sonification, which is dextrously developed who
in again appears in this passage and aga
such a way as to reinforce and quicken thetypifies Blind Folly, is nimble-footed
speaker's thought at every point.l8 mighty and always precedes the Litai; tha
Perhaps the most memorable allegory in all to say, the madness and the resulting act
Homer, however, is contained in the well-overweening pride are logically prior to
known speech of Phoenix in Iliad 9, where, pentance. If repentance is accepted and f
pleading with Achilles to renounce his anger, giveness is granted, the Prayers confer gr
the hero's guardian points out that even the benefits on the forgiver; but if he remains
almighty gods are moved by the Litai or Pray- moved and obstinate in his angcr, they br
ers, who are the children of the son of Kro- madness down upon him in turn, through t
nos: agency of their divine father. It therefore
hooves
For Prayers there are, the daughters of great Zeus,
Achilles to accept the peace-offeri
of
halt and wrinkled and casting their eyes to one Agamemnon and forgive him for the er
side, who follow after Ate, troubled of in
his ways, thereby showing honor to t
spirit.
daughters
But Ate is strong and swift of foot, vwherefore sheof Zeus. As Phoenix says,
far outstrips them all and darts out toBut
every land,
O Achilles do you, you also, grant that
distracting mankind; and the Prayers daughters
seek to heal
of Zeus may receive the reverence t
them later. Whoever has regard for the daughters
bends the will of other noble-minded person
of Zeus when they draw nigh, him they benefit
(Iliad 9.5I3 f.).
greatly, and they hearken to his petitions; but if
It may be
anyone denies the Prayers and obstinately mentioned in passing that, so far as
refuses

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426 STUART G. P. SMALL

have,
we know, the Litai are not characters of however, in Penelope's discourse on
Greek
mythology but creations of the poet dreams
Homer; (Od. 9.562 if.) a quasi-allegorical pas-
they have no life or character of their ownresembles in structure the fable of
sage which
apart from Phoenix' attempt to placate theAchil-
jars in the Iliad:
les. Their sole raison d'etre is to make vivid
Two gates there be of frail dreams, one made of
the fundamental moral predicamenthorn of and
theone of ivory; the dreams that pass
throughand
Iliad, involving on the one hand the pride the carven ivory are deceptive, bearing
tidings
wrath of Achilles, at first justified, but, that are not fulfilled; but those that pass
after
forth through
the failure of the Embassy, reprehensible; and polished horn are truly fulfilled,
whenever any mortal beholds them.
on the other hand, the capricious, stupid tyr-
anny of Agamemnon, which issues in In such
these verses Penelope makes use of elab-
tragic consequences not only for theorate Greek rhetoric in order to drive home her
host in general but also for Achilles person- point, that although "dreams too are sent by
ally. Zeus" (Iliad 1.63) still rot all dreams are to be
The tale of Meleager, which follows the trusted. Penelope personifies dreams as insub-
description of the Litai (9.529 f.), is a second stantial wraiths similar to the shades of the
device used by Phoenix in order to strengthen dead. False dreams issue forth, she says,
his appeal to Achilles. The burden of the through ivory gates, and true ones through
story is that Meleager, like Achilles, was a gates of horn; thus it is not the action of the
victim of wrath; Meleager failed to heed the dreams themselves which is significant here,
prayers of suppliants, as Achilles is in danger but rather the portals through which they
of doing; but in the end, Meleager had to an- pass. The symbolism involved is immediately
swer the prayers and forfeit the gifts he would made clear by two etymologies. The noun
have received had he overmastered his anger elephas, "ivory," is explained to the reader by
sooner. Achilles would therefore be well ad, the verb elephairesthai, "to cheat," which
vised to accept Agamemnon's gifts and come occurs in verse 565, while krainein, "to ac-
to the aid of the hard-pressed Greeks. This complish" (verse 567), is a gloss, as it were, on
narrative is rather difficult to classify; tech- the noun keras, "horn."30 At the same time,
nically it is not parable, for a parable is essen- it may be that ivory was felt to be a fitting
tially an edifying analogy drawn either from a symbol of unreliability because during the
familiar occurrence in nature22 or a typical but heroic age this material was relatively rare,
fictitious event in life;23 Phoenix, however, re- exotic, and costly; whereas the more ordinary
lates the Meleager episode as an historical horn was perhaps thought appropriate to rep-
reality, an event of his youth which he per- resent the ugly but reassuring realities of the
sonally remembers.24 Actually this tale, or workaday world.31
paradeigma,25 as the scholiasts call it,26 is simi- It is probable that the story of the Sirens is
lar to the exempla of the Roman historians, also symbolic, at least in part. Cicero, who in
which are closely related to allegory in that this matter as in many others probably re-
they have a moral meaning superadded to flected the common educated opinion of his
their factual significance.27 Quintilian, as a times, saw in this well-known episode ele-
matter of fact, points out that exempla are at ments of a deliberate allegory, and his inter-
least quasi-allegorical.28 The distinction ap pretation of the passage is, in all likelihood,
pears to be that in true allegory both the essentially sound as far as it goes. His com-
characters involved (personifications) and ment on the verses from the Siren's song (Od.
their actions have a moral or spiritual mean- I2. 86 if.),
ing, whereas in the exemplum it is only the For never yet has any man sailed past here in his
action which is significant.29 black ship before he heard the honey-sweet voice
The Odyssey, which differs from the Iliad of our mouths-to return rejoicing in a wider
in so many other respects, also seems to con- knowledge; for we know all the toils that the Ar-
tain fewer allegories than the earlier epic. We gives and Trojans suffered before broad Troy by

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 ON ALLEGORY IN HOMER 427

nel tree to devour, such things as swine do eat,

the will of the gods, and we know everything that
comes to pass upon the all-nourishing earth, that make their beds upon the ground... (Od.
10.239 ff.).
is as follows: Qui ingenuis studiis atque arti-
bus delectantur, nonne videmus eos nec vale- It is, however, inadvisable to take the view
that Homer's chief aim in composing this pas-
tudinis nec rei familiaris habere rationem om-
niaque perpeti ipsa cognitione et scientia sage was allegorical or didactic; it is similarly
captos.... ? Mihi quidem Homerus huius- inadvisable to attempt to extract symbolic
meaning from Odysseus' encounter with
modi quiddam vidisse videtur in iis quae de
Hermes
Sirenum cantibus finxerit... Scientiam pol- before he meets Circe, or from Her-
mes' advice to the hero,33 or from the descrip-
licentur, quam non erat mirum sapientiae
cupido patria esse cariorem (de Fin. 5.18.48tion of the famous drug moly. After all, in the
tale of Circe as in most of the rest of the
f.). In other words, these fatal songstresses
who tempt men on to shipwreck symbolize Alkinou apologoi the poet's intention is not
the attractive power of the promise of uni, primarily to instruct but to entertain, and to
entertain by telling marvellous tales of roman-
versal knowledge.32 Had it suited Cicero's
tic adventure "in faery lands forlorn."34
purpose to do so, he might have gone on to
mention the heap of moldering bones and rot- However, it seems entirely within the
ting skins which lie on the Sirens' strand, bounds of possibility that there may exist
certain elements of allegory in the account of
Round about is a great pile of bones of decaying
Odysseus' conflict with and eventual victory
corpses, and the skin thereon is wasting away ...
(Od. I2.45 f.), over the Cyclops Polyphemus. Granted that
in this episode even more than in the tale of
which suggest the folly and hopelessness Circe
of much greater interest attaches to the
narrative qua narrative than to any hidden
the quest for complete and absolute truth and
seem to constitute a sharp warning against meaning which may be inwoven in the fan-
intellectual hybris. tasy of the plot; still, it is not altogether un-
The Sirens immediately suggest to one's reasonable to suppose that Homer intended-
mind that other temptress, Circe. The Circesecondarily, it is true-to symbolize in his
hero's triumph over the Cyclops the superio-
episode may be regarded as allegorical or not,
rity of Hellenic civilization to barbarian brute
according to the temperament of the individ-
ual reader. Horace, who thought Homerforce. "a Numerous fifth-century plastic paral-
clearer and more eloquent teacher of moralslels to this allegory suggest themselves, of
than Chrysippus and Crantor" (Epist. I.2.3-which the best known is probably the west-
4), apparently interpreted the goddess as ern
a pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olym-
symbol of coarse, stupid sensuality: pia, representing the struggle of the Centaurs
and Lapithae. Polyphemus' characteristics, it
... Circae pocula nosti;
must be confessed, are strikingly un-Greek; he
quae si cum sociis stultus cupidusque bibisset,
sub domina meretrice fuisset turpis et excors:
is solitary, lawless-
vixisset canis immundus, vel amica luto sus ...There slept a giant who pastured his flocks aloof
(Epist. 1.2.23 ff.). and alone, nor did he associate with others, but
dwelt apart and harbored lawless thoughts...
The meretrix Circe offers men not knowledge,
(Od. 9.187 ff.),
but the pleasures which degrade and brutalize
godless and willful, like the rest of his kind-
the human body without diminishing the
mind's capacity for grief and remorse: For the Cyclopes care not for aegis-bearing Zeus,
nor for the blessed gods, for we are far better than
Like swine they grunted, and they had the
they. And I would not, for fear of the anger of
bristles, the heads, and the bodies of swine; but
Zeus, spare either you or your companions, unless
their reason was unimpaired, as before. So they
wept and were penned up, and before them Circe
my desire bade me do so ... (Od. 9.275 if.),
cannibalistic-
cast acorns and chestnuts and the fruit of the cor-

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428 STUART G. P. SMALL

When all is said, however, it is quite wrong

But springing up he laid hands upon my compan-
ions, and seizing two together he dashed to
them to that Homer is an allegorical poet in
suppose
the ground like puppies; and their brainsthe
trickled
same sense as Spenser or Dante, or even in
out upon the earth and moistened the ground.
the sense that Virgil is in certain passages in
And rending them limb from limb he made his
the Eclogues. Complex imagery is obviously an
meal ready; like a mountain-bred lion he ate en-
artistic impossibility in a long poem intended
trails, flesh, and marrowy bones, leaving noth-
ing ... (Od. 9.288 ff.), to be recited publicly rather than read pri,
vately.41 Homer, therefore, employs allegory
and, despite a certain low cunning, really
sparingly and in an unsustained, unsystematic
stupid. Odysseus, on the other hand,fashion;
is the his intention is seldom purely sym-
very reverse of the monster; in his cleverness,
bolical, and in almost all cases the hard, pre-
humor, practical sagacity, bravery, andcise,
rever-
literal meaning of his words is vividly
ence for the gods, he of all the Homeric heroes
present to his mind. His allegory is in reality
is the best representative of the virtues which
a mere figura: like the Homeric simile, it is an
we have come to regard as typically Greek.
adornment occasionally employed for rhetori-
Although not every allegorical passage in it need hardly be said that it is by
cal effect;
the Iliad and Odyssey has been considered
no means ina thoroughgoing literary method.
the foregoing pages,35 still perhaps enough has
The simplicity, clarity, and directness which
been said to indicate that, despite the are supe-
apparent on every page of the Odyssey and
rior contempt with which Theagenes Iliad are,of
after all, incompatible with and in
Rhegium and his successors have beendirect
treated
contrast to elaborate allegorical pres-
by the majority of modern critics, there wasand Homer, in his avoidance of
entation;
after all some warrant in fact for their attempt
vagueness and shadowy obscurantism as in
to perceive veiled meanings in the Homeric
numerous other respects, exemplifies the best
poems. Homer actually is occasionallyin thealle-
Hellenic spirit.
gorical; what is more, he herein resembles a
number of other authors of the classical and NOTES

pre-classical periods.36 In Hesiod, for instance,

1 On the subject of allegory in general see G. Saints,
the story of the two Strifes, the mythbury,
of Pan-
A History of Criticism (New York, I900), I, IO-
12, 67-70,
dora, and the marriage of Zeus and Justice are300-OI, 392 if.; J. Geffcken s. v. "Allegory" in
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (New
obviously symbolical.37 Some two hundred
York, 9go8); W. J. Courthope, A History of English
years later Alcaeus 3oD offers the first exam-
Poetry (London, 1926), I, chapter IX; and C. S. Lewis,
ple of the allegory of the ship of state
Thein Eu-of Love (London, 1936), passim.
Allegory
ropean literature. In the fifth century we2 Concerning
find the ancient allegorists mentioned in this
"more is meant than meets the ear" in paragraph
several cf. E. Zeller, History of Greek Philosophy,
trans. S. F. Alleyne (London, 188I), II, 372-73; E. Hatch,
oracles recorded by Herodotus,38 and in the
The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages Upon the Christ-
activities of Kratos and Bia in the Prometheus
ian Church (London, I891), 5o-65; Th. Gomperz, Greek
Vinctus of Aeschylus. Pindar likewise, it will
Thinkers, trans. Laurie Magnus (London, I91I), I, 375,
378 if., 573
be recalled, frequently says more than he f.; and R. K. Hack, God in Greek Philosophy
(Princeton, I93I), 67 f.
seems to say:
3 Wolf (Proleg. ad Horn. 136) thus describes the
Within the quiver under my arm I have many
method of the allegorical interpreters: Interpretatione
swift shafts that to the wise have speechsua
. .corrigere
. (01. fabulas atque ad physicam et moralem doc-
2.83-85). trinam suae aetatis accommodare, denique historias et
reliqua fere omnia ad involucra exquisitae sapientiae tra-
Plato's myths are among the world's best- here coeperunt. Cf. R. C. Jebb, Introduction to Homer
known allegories; Xenophon's narrative of the (Boston, 1887), 89. Heraclitus, the author of the Puaes-
choice of Heracles (Mem. 2.1.21) is also figu- tiones Homericae (S. I A.D.?), states the allegorists' position
quite explicitly in the second sentence of his little work:
rative; and in post-classical times39 literary
7ravrY yadp 7aeiola-ev (i.e. "OteLpos), et drl8v /XX7'Y-y
symbolism became progressively more wide- pr7aev. Gomperz (op. cit., 1, 379) cites E. Renan, Histoire
spread, more sophisticated, and more com- du Peuple d'Israel, v. 349: "Before one determines to re-
plex.40 ject the teachings of a cherished faith, one has recourse

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 ON ALLEGORY IN HOMER 429

to every kind of identification, even to the most untena,17 Ate's swiftness, implicit in the words Kae' ap6pc3v
ble." Kptaara 3calve (v. 93 above), is explicitly mentioned in
4 For allegory in Hesiod cf. R. K. Hack, op. cit., 28-29. Iliad 9.505. Heraclitus' comment upon this hemistich is
The word aXX,yopia, as Rhys Roberts points out interesting: aXo-yilrov yap 6dppis viro6rXwcs 6po,ias cs e irl
(Demetrius on Style (Cambridge, I902), 264), does not 7raoaLv a6bKitav ieTra (uuaest. Homeric. 37).
occur before Philodemus and Cicero, unless the instances 18 Observe that the allegory of Ate is followed by the
in Demetrius (?99, Ioo, I02, KrX.) are earlier; for t7rovoLa story of Hera's tricking of Zeus (5.95 if.), a specific ex-
see Xen. Symp. 3. 6, Plato, Rep. 2. 378D; cf. Plutarch de ample of the "power" of folly, just as the allegory of the
Aud. Poet. 2. i9E. Litai (Iliad 9.502) is followed by the edifying tale of
6 Paul Valery in his poem La Fausse Morte speaks of Meleager (9.527 ff.), an instance of the inadvisability of
sleep as being a death which is "plus precieuse que la disregarding prayers.
vie." Cf. John Milton, First Prolusion, sub fin.: Et certe 19 It is possible that Homer intended the obscurity of
quid aliud est somnus quam mortis imago et simulach, the description to add to the impressiveness of Phoenix'
rum? Hinc Homero Mors et Somnus gemelli sunt, uno words. Cf. Demetrius de Elocutione Ioo-ioi.
generati conceptu, uno partu editi. Similar simple alle- 20 Demetrius, however, offers (de Elocutione 7) an-
gories of relationship are common in Greek literature; cf. other explanation.
Hesiod Theog. 901; Pindar 01. I3.Io; Aeschylus Ag. 766 21 Heraclitus Suaest. Homeric. 37.
if.; Solon fr. 8; Theognis i53; Herodotus 6.86.2, 8.77; 22 E. g. the New Testament story of the sowing of the
Epicharmus fr. I50. seed, Luke 8.5.
7 de Sub. 9. 23 E. g. the story of the unforgiving servant, Matthew
8 "Ap7)s: ') 7rpoOvuila. roV TroXjuov u i) 6 uOxaroet6)s Oe6O i8.23.
is the allegorizing gloss of one of the scholiasts ad loc. 24 Cf. Iliad. 9.527 f.
9 The passage is perfectly well understood by Hera, 25 See Aristotle's interesting discussion of the use of
clitus (9uaest. Hom. 29). It is instructive to compare 7rapa6eLy/aa as a literary device in Rhet. 2.20.
Eris with Virgil's Fama (Aen. 4. 173 if.), a similar 26 I observe that Professor Werner Jaeger also makes
monster, but vastly less effective, with her wings and use of the term paradeigma in his discussion of Homeric
innumerable mouths, tongues, ears, and sleepless eyes. arete; cf. Paideia2, trans. Gilbert Highet (New York,
(The poet excuses himself with a mirabile dictu.) Homer 1945), I, 27-34.
knows just how far personification may be carried be- 27 Livy points out the moral significance of history in
fore it becomes comic.
a well-known passage in his preface: Hoc illud est praeci-
10 Eris is also depicted allegorically in Iliad 5.5I8, pue in cognitione rerum salubre ac frugiferum, omnis te
5.740, II.3, and 20.48, besides passages cited above. In exempli documenta in inlustri posita monumento intueri,
II.3 she is sent as a herald to stir up the fight. Compare inde tibi tuaeque rei publicae quod imitere capias, inde
her role here with that of Mars in Statius' Thebaid as foedum inceptu, foedum exitu quod vites (Praef. Io).
described by C. S. Lewis, op. cit., p. 5o f. 28 Inst. Orat. 8.6.52.
"' Some modern critics (e. g. Th. Gomperz, op. cit., I, 29 Homer introduces several other exempla of this sort
36 f.) have preferred to consider these personifications into the Iliad; cf. for example the tale of Lycurgus, which
not as poetic creations but as part of the "primitive" is put into the mouth of Diomede (6.130 if.), and Achil-
Homeric or pre,Homeric religion. The evidence is in- les' narrative concerning Niobe (24.602 ff.).
conclusive, despite numerous attempts to set aside the 30 In Hesiod, by a similar etymological process, the
famous statement of Herodotus 2.53 [Hesiod and Homer] names of various deities suggest certain myths concern,
"These are they who taught the Greeks of the descent ing them; Aphrodite is explained as the goddess born
of the gods and gave to the gods their names and rank from the foam (&apos, Theog. 191) and the Titans as those
and arts, and indicated their outward form." At all who "strained (,TaLvovTas,S Theog. 209) and in their pre-
events, whether Homer got the personifications out of sumption did a fearful deed." Homer reverses the proc-
contemporary theology or out of his own head, they are ess in the case of the goddess Calypso, who received her
partly allegorical. name either from the fact that she concealed Odysseus
12 Or one of each; verse 528 is equivocal. Cf. the inter, in Ogygia for seven years, or, more probably, because
pretation of this passage in Plato, Rep. 2. 379D. she dwells "afar off" (anrorpoOev, Od. 7.244) and "neither
13 This characteristic of allegory is mentioned by De- gods nor mortal men associate with her" (Od. 7.247).
metrius, de Elocutione 243. 31 As "Longinus" remarks (de Sub. 31), r6o e rvvOe^s
14 Not "Sin," the translation of Walter Leaf (Compan, 6I rao,r6Trepov. To put the idea more simply, ivory is
ion to the Iliad (London, 1892), 322). The term sin im- deceptively beautiful (cf. Moby Dick, the white whale)
plies a more rigid and systematized theology than ex- whereas horn is deceptively ugly.
isted among the Homeric Greeks. An odd explanation of the symbolism of the present
16 As R. K. Hack points out at some length (op. cit., Ii passage occurs in Tertullian de An. 46 and is echoed by
ff.), the essence of godhead is power. Cf. Od. 10.305-6. Eustathius and the Homeric scholiasts ad loc.: Perspicere
16 Plato (Sympos. I95D) makes Agathon explain the est enim, inquiunt, per cornu, ebur autem caecum est.
aTrX6r7s of AtA's feet as being due to her habitof walking Ivory, however, although caecum or opaque, is scarcely
on the heads of men; he admits, however, that some the type of opacity, nor is horn particularly transparent.
human skulls are hard enough. 32 One of the Ambrosian scholiasts (ad. xii. 39) in-

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430 STUART G. P. SMALL

terprets them differently. i 'yvvatKes OEXKTLKalHomer KaEuses allegory especially to inculcate ethical
LTraTrr7TKal, i abvr X) KoXaKela. truths, whereas Hesiod is more interested in explaining
33 Although Socrates, in Xenophon Mem. 1.3.7, origins (cf., however, the ethical tales of the dragging
main,
tains that Hermes is the symbol of reason and away of Justice, W. D. 220 ff., the complaint of Dike to
education,
as Circe is the symbol of seductive pleasure. Zeus, W. D. 256 ff., and the steep path to virtue, W. D.
34 Circe is the model for several allegorical enchant-
287 ff.). Being a didactic poet, Hesiod for the most part
utters his allegories in propria persona, while in Homer
resses who appear in the court epics of the Renaissance,
e. g. the Armida of Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, and put in the mouths of one of the heroes
they are usually
or heroines.
Alcina, who appears in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso and
also in Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato. Cf. Spenser's
38 8.77 ("Bacis") and 6.86.2 (Delphi). The tone of the
witch Acrasia (F. S. uI. 12.85): 'These seeming
latterbeasts
is Hesiodic (cf. How and Wells ad loc.), and Jebb
are men indeed / Whom this Enchauntresse hath(The Growth
trans-and Influence of Classical Greek Poetry
formed thus / Whylome here lovers, which her (Boston,
lusts I897),
did 89-90) has accordingly suggested that
Hesiod's theology
feed, / Now turned into figures hideous, / According to may have been of Delphic inspiration;
their minds like monstruous./ Sad end (quoth he) of
but surely a simpler and more probable explanation of
this and
life intemperate, / And mournefull meed of ioyes similar verbal correspondences is that the poets
delici-
ous." Milton's Comus, son of Circe, "Excels his Mother
of the oracle wrote in the stylistic tradition of the school
of Hesiod. /
at her mighty Art / Off'ring to every weary Traveller
His orient liquor ... / (For most do taste through 39 Forfond
interesting examples of sustained allegory in
intemperate thirst) / Soon as the Potion works, their
Lucian see Somnium 5 ff., Menippus I6 f., Timon 13 ff.,
human count'nance,/ Th'express resemblance ofI3the
Piscator ff., Charon 15 ff. There is a good account of
gods, is chang'd / Into some brutish form of Wolf interpretation
allegorical or in Philo and the early Christian
Bear / [and they] all their friends and native home exegetesfor-in Hatch, op. cit. 65 ff. On Stoic allegory see
get / To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty," Comus Geffcken,63- loc. cit., 328B f. Perhaps reference should be
77. An allegorical interpretation of the Circe episode made here is to the curious work of the Neoplatonist Por-
implicit in James Joyce's Ulysses; cf. Edmund Wilson,
phyry, de Antro Nympharvm, in which the author ex-
Axel's Castle (N. Y., I931), I96. plains the grotto of the Naiads of Ithaca (Od. I3.I02
35 Perhaps there are other allegories in the ff.) as an allegory of the world. The Naiads represent the
'AXKivov
a7r6Xoyoi. Cf. Heraclitus 2uaestiones Homericae souls of men, 70.waiting in their cave until it is time for
Hatch (op. cit., 64) mentions an anonymous themtreatise
to be joined to the bodies they are fated to dwell
Fabulae aliquot Homericae de Ulixis erroribus ethice
in during their sojourn on earth.
explicatae, ed. J. Columbus, Leiden, i745. 40 Allegory is perhaps even commoner in Latin litera-
36 Ut pictura poesis: a vein of formal symbolism ture than in inGreek, owing to the Romans' fondness for
Greek art parallels that of allegory in Greek literature. personifying abstractions. Some of the more interesting
Perhaps the most conspicuous example of suchLatin allegories are: the prologue of Plautus' Trinum-
symbol-
ism is the celebrated representation of the Apotheosis mus; Cicero's ofSomnium Scipionis; Livy's fable of the
Homer now in the British Museum, where the bellypoet
and the ismembers (2.32); the description of Fama
surrounded by figures representing the Iliad, in Aeneid
the Odys-4, and Virgil's First Eclogue; Horace's cele-
sey, Myth, History, Poetry, Tragedy, Comedy, brated O Navis referent (C. I.I4; cf. on this ode Quin-
Virtue,
Nature, Faith, Memory, Time, Wisdom, and the tilian Inst. 8.6.44); numerous passages in Ovid's Meta-
World.
Cephisodotus' statue of Eirene nursing Plutus and morphoses
Apel- (e. g. II.592 ff.); Apuleius' Cupid and Psyche;
les' picture of Calumny attended by Ignorance, Martianus
Suspi- Capella's Marriage of Mercury and Philol-
cion and others, are simpler examples of the same ogy; sort
the two ofcities in Augustine's de Civitate Dei; and
thing. the personification of Philosophy in Boethius' Conso-
37 Two Strifes, W. D. II-26; Pandora, W. D. 54-Io4, latio. For an interesting discussion of several allegorical
especially 94-I04 (the de-cription of Hope and the jar passages in Statius, Seneca, and some others see C.S.
of evils); Zeus and Justice, Theog. 90o-o6. The offspring Lewis, op. cit., chapter ii, sections 2 and 3, especially pp.
of this marriage areGood Order, Law, the Seasons, Peace, 49-56 and 63-64.
and the Fates. Hesiod extends and develops the alle- 41 Cf. S. E. Bassett, The Poetry of Homer (Berkeley,
gorical method already existing in Homer, as a compari- I938), p. 74.
son of W. D. II-26 with Iliad 4.439 ff. will show; but

In May
"CICERO: ORACLE OF NATURAL LAW"
Robert N. Wilkin

"TOWARD A NEW RENAISSANCE"

Ernest Hunter Wright

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