Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3 of 3: I. Agorè: Polities of the Homeric Age. II. Ilios: Trojans and Greeks Compared. III. Thalassa: The Outer Geography. IV. Aoidos: Some Points of the Poetry of Homer.Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
Philosophy
Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3 of 3: I. Agorè: Polities of the Homeric Age. II. Ilios: Trojans and Greeks Compared. III. Thalassa: The Outer Geography. IV. Aoidos: Some Points of the Poetry of Homer.
Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
Civilization, Homeric; Epic poetry, Greek -- History and criticism; Homer
[30] Ibid. 386.
μὴ σέ γ’ ἐν ἀμφιάλῳ Ἰθάκῃ βασιλῆα Κρονίων
ποιήσειεν, ὅ τοι γενεῇ πατρώϊόν ἐστιν.
It is, I think, clear, that in this place Antinous does not mean
merely, ‘I hope you will not become one of us,’ which might be said in
reference merely to the contingency of his assuming the controul of his
paternal estates, but that he refers to the sovereignty properly so
called: for Telemachus, after having said there are many βασιλῆες in
Ithaca, proceeds to say, ‘Let one of them be chosen’, or ‘one of these
may be chosen, to succeed Ulysses;’
τῶν κέν τις τόδ’ ἔχῃσιν, ἐπεὶ θάνε δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς.
‘but let me,’ he continues, ‘be master of my own house and property.’
Thus we have βασιλεὺς bearing two senses in the very same passage.
First, it means the noble, of whom there are many in the country, and
it is here evidently used in an improper sense; secondly, it means
the person who rules the whole of them, and it is here as evidently
employed in its original and proper signification. It seems very
doubtful, however, whether, even in the Odyssey, the relaxed sense
ever appears as a simple title in the singular number. The only signs
of it are these; Antinous is told that he is _like_ a king[31] in
appearance; and he is also expressly called βασιλεὺς in the strongly
and generally suspected νεκυΐα of the Twenty-fourth Book[32]. So
again, the kingly epithet Διοτρεφὴς is not used in the singular for
any one below the rank of a βασιλεὺς of the Iliad, except once, where,
in addressing Agelaus the Suitor, it is employed by Melanthius, the
goatherd, one of the subordinate adherents and parasites of that
party[33].
[31] Od. xvii. 416.
[32] Od. xxiv. 179.
[33] Od. xxii. 136.
This relaxation in the sense of βασιλεὺς, definite and limited as is
its application in the Iliad, is no inconsiderable note of change.
~_New name of Queen._~
Equally, or more remarkable, is the introduction in the Odyssey of the
words δέσποινα and βασίλεια, and the altered use of ἄνασσα.
1. δέσποινα is applied, Od. iii. 403, to the wife of Pisistratus, son
of Nestor; to Arete, queen of the Phæacians, Od. vii. 53, 347; to
Penelope, Od. xiv. 9, 127, 451; xv. 374, 7; xvii. 83; xxiii. 2.
2. ἄνασσα is applied in the Iliad, xiv. 326, to Ceres only; but in the
Odyssey, besides Minerva, in Od. iii. 380, Ulysses applies it twice
to Nausicaa, in Od. vi. 149, 175; apparently in some doubt whether
she is a divinity or a mortal. I would not however dwell strongly on
this distinction between the poems; for we seem to find substantially
the human use of the word ἄνασσα in the name of Agamemnon’s daughter,
Ἰφιάνασσα, which is used in Il. ix. 145.
3. Βασίλεια is used many times in the Odyssey; and is applied to
_a._ Nausicaa, Od. vi. 115.
_b._ Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus, Od. xi. 258; but only in the phrase
βασίλεια γυναικῶν, which seems to resemble δῖα γυναικῶν.
_c._ Arete, queen of the Phæacians, Od. xiii. 59.
_d._ Penelope, Od. xvi. 332, 7: and elsewhere.
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