How Does Hermes Help Odysseus

Hermes and Kalypso

When she [= Kalypsō] had thus spoken she led the way rapidly before him, and Odysseus followed in her steps; and so the pair, goddess and man, went on and on till they came to Kalypsō's cavern, [195] where Odysseus took the seat that Hermes had only left. [καί ῥ᾽ὁ μὲν ἔνθα καθέζετ᾽ ἐπὶ θρόνου ἔνθεν ἀνέστη Ἑρμείας] Kalypsō set meat and drink before him all kinds of food to eat and drink, of the kind that mortals swallow. But she herself saturday opposite divine Odysseus, and before her the handmaids prepare ambrosia and nectar.
Odyssey 5.192–199, adapted from Sourcebook[1]

Each time I close read the Odyssey, new questions and thoughts arise, such as this one from the above quote: "where Odysseus took the seat that Hermes had merely left." What is the significance of this line? Later all, to sit in Hermes' seat implies, to me, that Odysseus is taking Hermes' identify within the story narrative, at least metaphorically. Does this sentence portend Odysseus' immortality every bit a cult hero? Information technology does not seem to be a hero/antagonist state of affairs. In the Odyssey information technology is Poseidon who is the antagonist to the hero, "however all the gods had at present begun to pity him [20] except Poseidon, who withal persecuted godlike Odysseus without ceasing and would non let him become home." (Odyssey 1.xix–21, adjusted from Sourcebook)

The above bolded phrase at 5.195: ὁ μὲν ἔνθα καθέζετ᾽ ἐπὶ θρόνου[2], is used just two times in all of the Iliad and Odyssey: in Odyssey 5, in a higher place, and in Iliad one.536[3]—when Zeus sits [dorsum] down there on his throne/chair—it occurs just after Zeus and Thetis conferred about the tῑmē of Achilles. The overlapping phrase, ἐπὶ θρόνου ἔνθεν ἀνέστη, meaning basically sat down on the seat from which he had risen, occurs only four times—all in the Odyssey, all involving mortals: #one, Odyssey eighteen.155, when suitor Amphinomus' fate is sealed; #two, Odyssey 21.139, when Telemachus chooses not to draw the bow a fourth fourth dimension; #3 Odyssey 21.167 when suitor Leiodes fails at the bow; and #4 —we volition get to that later, simply it seems that all of these instances are pivotal moments and thereby Odysseus taking Hermes' seat would be 1 also.

Although Odysseus' seat-taking doesn't occur until Curl five, Gyre v is the beginning of Odysseus' narrative in existent time, thus I observe it significant as to which Olympian god is present at the beginning of his narrative—Hermes. Is information technology because they are so akin and is that why there is such an implicit presence of Hermes throughout this epic? Alkinoos, the Phaeacian ruler, in his own polite mode alludes to this.

"Odysseus," replied Alkinoos, "non one of united states who sees y'all has any idea that you lot are a charlatan or a swindler. I know there are many people [365] going nearly who tell such plausible stories that it is very hard to come across through them, but there is a fashion most your language which assures me of your good disposition. Moreover you accept told the story of your ain misfortunes, and those of the Argives, every bit though you were a good bard…"
Odyssey 11.362–369, Sourcebook

Hermes, likewise being a trickster, the inventor of the lyre and the flute (Homeric Hymn (4) to Hermes. 39–55, 511[4]), was also a skillful bard, and song, of grade, was the ultimate reciprocal medium.

Hermes

Born in a cave, the son of Zeus and the nymph Maia, Hermes was "a son, of many shifts, blandly cunning, a robber, a cattle driver, a bringer of dreams, [fifteen] a watcher by night, a thief at the gates, i who was before long to testify along wonderful deeds among the deathless gods" (Homeric Hymn (4) to Hermes, Evelyn-White translation.)

In the Homeric Hymn (4) to Hermes when "luck-bringing" (verse 29) Hermes is accepted as an immortal god by Zeus, Apollo so bestows unto Hermes these attributes: "for you take an office from Zeus, to establish deeds of barter amongst men throughout the fruitful globe"(verse .516). Zeus in plow gives confirmation of Apollo's words and also commands that "Hermes should be lord over all birds of omen and grim-eyed lions, and boars with gleaming tusks, [570] and over dogs and all flocks that the broad earth nourishes, and over all sheep; as well that he only should be the appointed messenger to Hades…" (568b–572).

A lot of attributes! Leonard Muellner in i of his Greek Office Hours sessions mentioned Hermes as a divinity who communicates between opposite poles, a messenger between gods and mortals, one who wakes and puts to sleep, the god of thieves and merchants, a communicator, and the god of reciprocity, physical back and forth, and exchange. And all are attributes very much in keeping with Odysseus and the Odyssey.

A Persistent Presence

Afterwards thinking near all this data, most of which came upward during the Kosmos Lodge shut reading sessions of Scrolls five and eleven ("Pylians" Odyssey written report group), a lingering question I had about the Odyssey now seem clearer. Information technology always puzzled me that right at the beginning of Ringlet 1, Zeus is focused on the expiry of Aegisthus. I figured it had something to practise with mēnis, and also the violation of xenia which is Zeus' sphere of influence. Well, yes—and that also involves Hermes, because Hermes is the god of exchange (a subsequent characteristic of invitee/host relationships)—which makes him the perfect god option to warn this mortal of the intended folly. Zeus says:

"…[35] Look at Aegisthus; he must needs brand love to Agamemnon's married woman unrighteously and so kill Agamemnon, though he knew information technology would exist the death of him; for I sent Hermes, the mighty watcher, to warn him non to do either of these things, [40] inasmuch as Orestes would be sure to have his revenge when he grew up and wanted to return home. Hermes told him this in all practiced will but he would not listen, and now he has paid for everything in total."
Odyssey 1.35–43, Sourcebook

And so the infrastructure of the Odyssey is now in place and it has very much to do with Hermes. Odysseus, like Orestes, is an agent of dikē, "revered king(s)…by way of straight judgments [dikai] (Hesiod, Theogony eighty[5]), then Odysseus must make his way dorsum to Ithaca via a long journey of lies, thievery, and timely assist from the gods—all matters for Hermes—in social club to punish the suitors who are in flagrant violation of xenia and the reciprocal commutation betwixt those who had a guest/host human relationship.

Hermes is known as the "luck-bringing [ἐριούνης ] god" (Homeric Hymn (4) to Hermes 551), simply the give-and-take ἐριούνης has two meanings according to Autenrieth[6]: "luck bringer", and "the ready helper" . Now this is all connecting for me, considering Hermes, from Odyssey Scroll 5 on, is subtly present to watch over, and assistance Odysseus with his nostos—which is the journey of return, not solely the endpoint.

Here are some examples: in Odyssey Scroll 7. 85–135, Odysseus, before inbound the house of Alkinoos sees within: immature men property flaring torches (Hermes, co-ordinate to Homeric Hymn (4) to Hermes 111, invented fire and burn down-sticks) so every bit to shed light on the feasters within (Hermes, as helper), and dogs (Hermes) made of gold and silvery on either side of the threshold pillars to keep watch (Hermes once again). And equally shortly equally he crosses the bronze threshold, Odysseus sees the well-nigh prominent Phaeacians making drink offerings to Hermes, which is done each night earlier "going away for the dark".

More than examples: in Odyssey x.275–305, Hermes in the disguise of a young man, helps [in his office as ἐριούνης] Odysseus to counter Circe's potions by giving him the establish moly and advice about how to gratuitous his comrades. And of course there is Scroll eleven, Odysseus' trip to Hādēs, where he meets his shipmate Elpenor. Hermes is non mentioned in the text, but since he is the usher of psūkhai to Hādēs, he would escort Elpenor there, thus his presence is implied. The ancient Greek images and vessels attesting to this understanding may bear witness all three together such as the one below. Prototype: Lykaon Painter: Jar with Odysseus and Elpenor in the underworld. Hermes is shown standing on the right.

Odysseus with Elpenor and Hermes

There are more than examples in subsequent scrolls, such in Curlicue xiii: "When they [= the Phaeacian seafarers] began rowing out to sea, ₇₉ he [= Odysseus] felt a sweetness sleep falling upon his eyelids. [lxxx] It was a deep sleep, the sweetest, and almost similar to decease." (Odyssey 13.78–fourscore, Sourcebook). However, I will forgo any additional examples every bit we need to continue on with this blog journeying.

Between Opposite Poles

Hermes is a divinity who transitions between opposite poles; between living and the dead, between wake and sleep, between vast distances—to and from the gods in Olympus and the mortal world. The vocal of Odysseus is filled with these polar opposites, geographic, emotional, physical, and metaphysical. Odysseus goes from being the wealthy king of Ithaca to a man adrift upon the wine-dark body of water astride but one timber:

Poseidon Earthshaker angry a great great upon him,
deinos and hard, overarching, and it struck him.
And just as the potent-blowing current of air shakes a heap of husks [ēia]
(that are) dry: and disperses them this style and that:
just and so the long timbers dispersed.
…
the great swelling moving ridge dashed-with-a-roaring-audio on dry state
bellowing awfully [deinos], and had enveloped everything with foam [akhnē] of the salt-ocean

Odyssey 5. 366–370, 402–403 [this translation is from our Pylians report grouping].

Even inside that quote, there are opposites—in the midst of surging waves note the references to dry out husks or chaff [ēia], and akhnē tin can mean cream or chaff (Autenrieth): —a portent to Odysseus' future every bit foretold by Teiresias in Scroll 11.

Odysseus also transitions from "revered male monarch" to a thief and outlaw, and then when he journeys to the primordial land of Polyphemus, he becomes a homo with no identity at all— "my name is Noman [ou tis]"(Odyssey 9.366). He makes the sacralized journeying from Ogygia, the uttermost indicate from habitation, the point of no-render, "that lonely sea-girt island, far away,…in the very eye of the sea" (Odyssey 1.l), where he is in the everyman depths of despair, to Scheria the state of the Phaeacians with their ideal lodge, whom Zeus describes as "who are near of kin to the gods [ankhitheos], (Odyssey v.thirty–37). This is where nameless Odysseus will ensure his nostos by singing his own songs, gaining an escort back to Ithaca. He also reveals his name and full lineage for the kickoff time in the narrative, "I am Odysseus son of Laertes, renowned amidst humankind [20] for all manner of subtlety, so that my kleos ascends to the sky." (Odyssey ix.xix–20). It is interesting that line 20 echoes and contrasts with that of Hermes in line 16 of his Homeric Hymn (four): "1 who was soon to show forth wonderful deeds among the deathless gods ".

While descending towards Hādēs, Odysseus meets a mortal polar opposite, the psūkhē of Elpenor,"We had with united states a certain youth named Elpenor, not very remarkable for sense or courage" (Odyssey 10.554). Brilliant Odysseus, the seasoned warrior and accomplished sailor, shows compassion for this unseasoned, none too vivid, impuissant inept youth. He promises to coffin Elpenor'south torso and place an oar on his tomb. Odysseus' pity may stem from the brotherhood of beingness shipmates, just more probable it is because Elpenor's tomb volition be the model for Odysseus own southward ē ma, shortly to be described to him by Teiresias.

Now Odysseus is at the very boundary between the living and the expressionless. Odysseus cannot go into Hādēs, rather, he goes to the everyman level of the undead where the expressionless in Hādēs are just below. "And the psūkhē came upward of (my) mother, (she) having died", (Odyssey 11.85). Odysseus is at Erebeis the place of eternal darkness, the transitional expanse betwixt states of existence: alive, dead, and those who died but were not buried properly (Elpenor). Because Odysseus is alive, he cannot become whatever farther, and somewhen he has to get back—but non before, in this identify closest to the dead, he learns of his future from Teiresias the Seer:

|₁₁₉ Merely after you kill the suitors in your own business firm, |₁₂₀ killing them either by trickery or openly, by way of precipitous statuary, |₁₂₁ you must proceed a journey and so, taking with yous a well-made oar, |₁₂₂ until yous come to a identify where men practise not know what the ocean is |₁₂₃ and do not even eat any nutrient that is mixed with bounding main salt, |₁₂₄ nor do they know anything about ships, which are painted purple on each side, |₁₂₅ and well-fabricated oars that are like wings for ships. |₁₂₆ And I will tell you a sign [sēma], a very articulate 1, which will not get lost in your thinking. |₁₂₇ Whenever someone on the road encounters you |₁₂₈ and says that it must be a winnowing shovel that y'all have on your radiant shoulder, |₁₂₉ at that point you must stick into the basis the well-fabricated oar |₁₃₀ and sacrifice cute sacrifices to lord Poseidon: |₁₃₁ a ram, a bull, and a boar that mounts sows. |₁₃₂ And then go habitation and offering sacred hecatombs |₁₃₃ to the immortal gods who possess the vast expanses of the skies. |₁₃₄ Sacrifice to them in proper society, i after the other. As for yourself, death shall come to you from the sea, |₁₃₅ a gentle death, that is how information technology will come, and this expiry will kill yous |₁₃₆ every bit you lose your strength in a prosperous old age. And the people all effectually [your corpse] |₁₃₇ will be blessed [olbioi]. All the things I say are unmistakably true."

Odyssey 11.118–137, Sourcebook

Then in the deepest darkest place, Odysseus learns that he will travel to the loftier mountains carrying an oar. When he starting time meets up with someone who does non recognize an oar every bit an oar, he knows he has gone as far from the sea as he perhaps can—this then is some other boundary.

Upon reaching this purlieus, Odysseus is to sacrifice first to Poseidon, so to all the other gods. Merely why Poseidon get-go? This spot is the very border of his sea domain and Poseidon, as was stated in Odyssey 1, was antagonistic towards Odysseus. "All the gods pitied him except for Poseidon.". Does this mean Odysseus finally resolves their conflict? Or does this sacrifice balance the fact that he is as far from the concept of sea that he can get—delineating the ultimate expanse of Poseidon's sea domain, and thereby establishing "Starting from any single point," Odyssey ane.10, another point of deviation.

According to Teiresias, Odysseus is at present to return homeward. His journeys are ongoing but as 24-hour interval follows night. Always circles inside circles, which leads me back to the chair!…the fourth example of "upon the seat whence he had arisen". It occurs at Odyssey 23:

The upper servant, Eurynome, done and anointed groovy-hearted Odysseus in his own house [155] and gave him a khiton and cloak, while Athena made him look taller and stronger than earlier; she as well fabricated the hair grow thick on the top of his caput, and menses down in curls like hyacinth blossoms; she shed kharis almost his head and shoulders…163 He emerged from the bathtub [asaminthos], looking like [homoios] the immortals in size, and sat down [165] opposite his married woman on the seat he had left.

Odyssey 23.154–158, 162–165, Sourcebook

So Odysseus comes to the opposing state of fortune from whence he saturday in Hermes' chair across from Kalypsō in Scroll v. He at present, looking similar a god, sits on his own throne/chair, beyond from his wife Penelope. He has his kingdom, his wife and his son dorsum. So this circle is completed, but soon there volition be many more than and he will depart once again per Teiresias' prophecy.

Odysseus and Penelope

I exercise non actually understand at which point Odysseus' mortal body dies, but I guess that is the true essence of the Odyssey. Teiresias says Odysseus is to return home [οἴκαδε, homeward, dwelling house] and his expiry, at former age, will come up from the sea. Simply co-ordinate to Gregory Nagy in his Classical Inquires "A Sampling of Comments on Odyssey Rhapsody 11"[7], Odysseus' tomb, housing his torso, is at this coincidence of opposites. "It is a bespeak where the sea and the negation of the body of water coincide"—the point where the oar, metamorphosed into the winnowing shovel, is planted and where Odysseus honors Poseidon.

But the finish of Odysseus' mortality echoes his beginning. When Odysseus is born, it is his maternal grandad, Autolykos, the son of Hermes, who names Odysseus (Odyssey 19.405). The name Odysseus relates to the Greek verb odussomai, which can mean "to exist angry at," or "to be grieved." The implied reciprocity of this verb makes Odysseus, "the giver and receiver of pain". It is this reciprocity that is a major attribute of Hermes, the god of transitions, advice, to and from, and substitution. Odysseus' kleos volition be immortal, but at the finish of his mortal life, information technology will be his divine Doppelgänger, Hermes, who will be there to escort him to Hādēs.

I shared some examples of places where Hermes appears or is referred to in theOdyssey. Have you found others? Join the chat in the forum, here.

Notes

[1] Sourcebook: The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours Sourcebook of Original Greek Texts Translated into English, Gregory Nagy, Full general Editor. 2018.12.12. Available online at the Center for Hellenic Studies.
English text: Sourcebook Homeric Odyssey Translated by Samuel Butler. Revised past Soo-Young Kim, Kelly McCray, Gregory Nagy, and Timothy Power

[2] Odyssey Greek text: Homer. The Odyssey with an English language Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.
Online at Perseus

[3] Iliad Greek text Homer. Homeri Opera in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. Online at Perseus.
English text:
SourcebookHomeric Iliad Translated by Samuel Butler. Revised past Soo-Immature Kim, Kelly McCray, Gregory Nagy, and Timothy Power

[4] Homeric Hymn (four) to Hermes
The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation past Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.
Greek text online at Perseus.
English text online at Peresus.

[v] SourcebookHesiodic Theogony,translated past Gregory Nagy.

[6] Autenrieth: Georg Autenrieth. A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1891. Online at Perseus.

[7] Classical Inquiries,Online at CHS:
https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/a-sampling-of-comments-on-odyssey-rhapsody-11/

Prototype credits

Lykaon Painter: Jar (pelike) with Odysseus and Elpenor in the Underworld. c 440 BCE.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. public domain.

Head of Odysseus, from a marble grouping, probably 1st century CE. Photo by Jastrow, from theIliade exhibition at the Colosseum, September 2006–February 2007. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Resting Hermes, From the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum. Photo past Marie-Lan Nguyen (2011),
Creative Commons CC BY two.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Flaxman, John: The Coming together of Ulysses and Penelope, 1805.
Photo © Tate. Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported)

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Jacqui Rossi Donlon is a fellow member of the Kosmos Society, in which she has been involved in community evolution, and is now an active fellow member of the "Pylians"Odyssey translation/discussion group. A retired design director, she loves reading and thinking about early Greek poetry.