Odysseus the Lion-Hearted             Classics 0.1, Spring 2002 Professor D. Wilson

Key Terms and Concepts

Argument

In this talk, I will take the similes in which Odysseus is compared to a predatory lion as an entry point for exploring the thematics of the lion in relation to the two Homeric heroes, each in his own epic poem. I aim to show that the lion simile sequences for Achilleus in the Iliad and for Odysseus in the Odyssey share significant diction, thematics, and narrative placement in the withdrawal, devastation, and return story pattern that organizes both Homeric epics; they thus form a significant locus of reciprocal intertextual polemic relating to a concept of the hero as a "lion-hearted" leader.

I. The epithet "lionhearted"

• restricted in the Iliad to Herakles and Achilleus
• restricted in the Odyssey to Herakles and Odysseus
• Herakles and the culture hero type

II. The lion simile system: images of ambiguous bîe

III. Odysseus the lion-hearted

• Od. 4.335-40 = 17.126-31
• Od. 6.130-34
• [Od. 9.288-93]
• Od. 22.401-406 and 23.48

IV. Achilleus the lion-hearted

• Il. 18.316-22

Peleus' son led the thronging chant of their lamentation,

and laid his manslaughtering hands over the chest of his dear friend

with outbursts of incessant grief. As some great bearded lion

when some man, a deerhunter, has stolen his cubs away from him

out of a close wood; the lion comes back too late, and it is anguished

and turns into many valleys quartering after the man's trail

on the chance of finding him, and taken with bitter anger.

• Il. 20.164-74

From the other side the son of Peleus rose like a lion against him,

the baleful beast, when men have been straining to kill him, the county

all in the hunt, and he at the first pays them no attention,

but goes his way, only when some one of the impetuous young men

has hit him with the spear he whirls, jaws open, over his teeth foam

breaks out, and in the depth of his chest the powerful heart groans;

he lashes his own ribs with his tail and the flanks on both sides

as he rouses himself to fury for the fight, eyes glaring

and hurls himself straight onward on the chance of killing some one

of the men, or else being killed himself in the first onrush.

So the proud heart and fighting fury stirred on Achilleus.

• Il. 22.260-67

Then looking darkly at him swift-footed Achilleus answered,

'Hektor, it is not to be forgotten, argue me no agreements.

As there are no trustworthy oaths between men and lions,

nor wolves and lambs have spirit that can be brought to agreement

but forever these hold feelings of hate for each other,

so there can be no friendship between you and me, nor shall there be

oaths between us, but one or the other must fall before then

to glut with his blood Ares the god who fights under the shield's guard.

• Il. 24.41-43

He [Achilleus] knows wild things, like a lion

who when he has given way to his own great biê and his haughty

spirit, goes among the flocks of men, to make his meal of them.

• Il. 24.572-79

The son of Peleus bounded to the door of the house like a lion

nor went alone, but the two henchmen followed attending,

the hero Automedon and Alkimos, those whom Achilleus

honoured beyond all companions after Patroklos dead. These two

now set free from under the yoke the mules and the horses,

and led inside the herald, the old king's crier, and gave him

a chair to sit in, then from the well-wheeled mule wagon

lifted out the unlimited ransom for the head of Hektor.

V. Placement of the final lion similes in the withdrawal, devastation, return patterns.

VI. Conclusion: making culture heroes ideal leaders of idealized societies