Department of Ancient Classics | Conference programme
The aim of this paper is to examine the possibility that Eugammon of Cyrene's Telegonia, a poem in two books which describes the wanderings of Odysseus after the slaying of the suitors, because it comes from the same oral tradition as Homer, may in fact be one of the possible endings which were available to Homer when he composed the Odyssey. If this is so then it will be an alternative to the much disputed ending known as the "continuation" from l.296 of Book 23 and the whole of Book 24. The Telegonia is cited as the last poem in the Epic Cycle which has only served to confuse the issue by disregarding its individuality and ignoring the wider oral epic tradition from which both Homer and Eugammon drew their inspiration.
Background of Eugammon
Eusebius (A.D. 260-340) gave the
floruit of Eugammon as the 53rd Olympiad or 566 B.C., approx. two hundred years
later than the poet we know as Homer. which was during the reign of Arcesilaus
II of the Battiad royal line of Cyrene (present day Libya). From what we know
of the story line of the Telegonia it appears likely that Eugammon
was Arcesilaus's court poet, as he gave one of the sons of Penelope in the poem
the name of Arcesilaus presumably in his honour. Herodotus, in his Histories,
describes one of the myths of the foundation of the colony of Cyrene from its
mother city of Thera and therefore ultimately from Sparta. Other versions of its
foundation emphasised either the pre-eminent role of the Battiads or the
special position of Sparta depending on the need of the precise political
circumstances. This colony prospered from the start and the Dorian Greeks from
Thera intermarried with the local population and intermingled their traditions
with their own. The worship of Zeus Ammon – the local Deity was included
by Eugammon in the Telegonia.
Texts – Evidence
Our knowledge of Eugammon's epic poem
the Telegonia comes from a summary in the Chrestomathy of Proclus
(A.D. 412-485) : "Then there is the Odyssey of Homer, wrote Proclus; next
two books of the Telegony of Eugammon, a Cyrenean, comprising the following:
John Philoponos (A.D. 490-570), head of the Alexandrian school and the cause of
it becoming Christian, writing a little later than Proclus, noted that the
Cyclic poems could no longer be found. Therefore either the manuscript of the
Telegonia vanished within a very short period after Proclus wrote
or Proclus was citing the text from secondary sources.
Eustathius (12th century A.D.) called Telegonus or Teledamus a son of Calypso rather than Circe when he was commenting on the Odyssey but this is believed to be an error as Teledamus does not scan in the hexameter. Therefore the more reliable source appears to be Proclus [Huxley]. The name of Odysseus' second son was Telegonus. Part of the Telegonia is set in Thesprotia, leading Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 150) to believe that Eugammon had stolen the complete work of the poet Musaeus on the Thesprotians, and inserted it into his poem. As there was no sense of copyright amongst rhapsodes this was unprovable but it left Eugammon with the perhaps unfair reputation of plagiarist which we have inherited to this day. Eugammon, before composing the Telegonia, appears to have had available to him a text of the Odyssey which may not have contained the "continuation", as he begins his poem after the death of the suitors but before their burial. It is a possibility that he also had available to him, from Cyrene's Spartan heritage, myths relating to Penelope's behaviour during her husband's absence. Penelope's birthplace and ancestral home before her marriage was generally accepted as being Mantinea, in Arcadia. With Homer we are on firmer ground, but there are still unanswered queries as to the source and authenticity of our "standard text" (in inverted commas) and whilst these remain disputed we are at liberty to explore alternative theories in regard to the anomalies contained within it.
Book 11 of the Odyssey, or the Nekyomanteia as it is known, contains the germ of an alternative ending or sequel to the Odyssey. It describes Odysseus' journey to the Underworld, his meeting with Teiresias and the prophecies given to him by the seer in regard to his later wanderings and his ultimate death. Teiresias prophesies that Odysseus, after the slaying of the suitors, must leave Ithaca again and travel to a land where the people know nothing of the sea and do not use salt in their food, and there he will meet a traveller who will mistake the oar which he carries over his shoulder for a winnowing fan. When this occurs he is instructed to make sacrifice to Poseidon to placate him for the blinding of his son Polyphemus. On completion of the sacrifice Odysseus is told that he will return home and that death will come to him from the sea in an un-warlike way in his old age [Lattimore].
Books 23 and 24 of the poem as we have it consist of four episodes dealing with the situation of Odysseus after his destruction of the suitors.
From l.296 in Book 23 to the end of Book 24, i.e. the " continuation", the prophecies of Tireisias in regard to the future wanderings of Odysseus and his death remain generally unfulfilled, and this passage has always been disputed by generations of Homeric scholars as being, amongst other things, stylistically and linguistically incorrect.
The "continuation" of the Odyssey presented problems of authorship even to the ancient scholars. Aristophanes of Byzantium (257-180 B.C.) head of the Alexandrian Library and renowned scholar, was the first to place the ending of the Odyssey at Book 23 l.296. Aristarchus of Samothrace (217-145 B.C.) also maintained that the Odyssey concluded here, basing his critical evaluation on careful study of the Homeric language and metre in conjunction with the requirements of consistency and the ethos of the poet's work.
Linguistic evidence of abnormalities appears in all four episodes of Books 23 and 24 with late forms of language, certainly not earlier than 6th century B.C., being present which were unknown in Homer's time, and difficulties of scansion suggesting a poet with an imperfect knowledge of epic language which charge could not be applied to Homer.
Apollodorus, believed to be writing in the first or second century A.D., describing the wanderings of Odysseus relates that after killing the suitors and making himself known to his wife and father he then continues on his travels, as we also know was described in the Telegonia. After relating this tale Apollodorus then inserts the words–some say–and tells the stories known to him of Penelope and then continues with–and there are some who say–relating another myth about Odysseus submitting to the judgement of Neoptolemus, king of the islands off Epirus, who had his eye on the land of Cephallenia near Ithaca.
The insertion of the various stories relating to the ending of the Odyssey by Apollodorus after he gives the Telegonia storyline, without comment, suggests that he believed this to be part of Homer's work. He does not cite the "continuation" at all in his summary of Odysseus' wanderings. This I believe has been overlooked by the modern scholars.
Apollodorus must have had a different version from ours therefore. How can we explain this? We are left to conclude that differing versions of the Odyssey were in circulation. Research has shown that the Alexandrians believed that different cities had different versions of the Odyssey.This would reinforce my belief that the Telegonia was an alternative ending to the Odyssey.
Oral Tradition – Evidence
Having reviewed the evidence
of the texts, I should now like to discuss the oral tradition from which both
the Odyssey and the Telegonia sprang. It may shine
some light on the sources available to both poets. The oral tradition from which
both Homer and Eugammon took their inspiration, even with a two hundred year
gap, came to them both from many different sources. The diversity and richness
of the Sumerian, Hittite, Semitic, Egyptian and North African heritage, as well
as their native Greek historical and mythological inheritance, is apparent in
their diverse works. In the Odyssey the magical doublet tales of both Circe and
Calypso find parallels in the near eastern epic of Gilgamesh,
which dates, at least, from approximately 1300 B.C., with the divine alewife
Siduri, Book 11, the book of the dead reflects the visit to the underworld by
Gilgamesh and his conversation with Enkidu's raised ghost. Related also are the
Sumerian stories of the unburied man and the man who fell from the roof, which
are combined in the Odyssey in the person of Elpenor, and which serve also to
denote the position of the unburied in Hades. Even the description of the
ghosts of the underworld in both epics as "flickering" reflect this
common heritage. This Book 11 bears striking similarities to that of Gilgamesh,
Enkidu, and the Nether World (of Sumerian origin) in its descriptive passages.
With regard to Homer as an Aoidos or as a composer of poems, we are presented with the problem as to whether he composed the Odyssey extemporaneously whilst performing, or composed it beforehand and therefore could polish and adapt it to suit his audience. Either way could lead to different versions being available to the rhapsode or performer when subsequent recitations were required. As stated before, when Eugammon composed the Telegonia he appears to have had an abridged version of the Odyssey before him, and felt free to add his ending from another myth contained within the oral tradition, which he adapted and used in his poem to suit his audience, altering Egyptian names to Greek ones, as in the Trophonius legend, without changing the essence of the story.
From other sources various myths surrounding both the return of Odysseus and Penelope appeared to have been in existence in antiquity.
The richness and variety of myths and legends contained within the oral epic tradition leads one inescapably to the conclusion that a single version of an oral poem is just not possible. If Homer left the ending of the Odyssey at Book 23 l.296, then perhaps he was deliberately leaving open the possibility of further works. In this way the future wanderings of Odysseus would form the basis of other poems.
New Fragment
Until recently it
was believed that no fragment existed of the work of Eugammon. "The poet
without a voice" appeared to have been silenced forever. This position
changed with the research of Professor Enrico Livrea of the University of
Florence. He published a paper in the 1998 edition of ZPE
(Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik) describing a
fragment of hexameter verse cited anonymously within a letter from Synesius of
Cyrene to his disciple Olympius. This letter, sent in A.D. 402/403, apologises
to his friend that he had been late in paying his tax because of the lack of
sea connections between Cirenaica and Syria and that he, himself, has no
relationship with the sea. Following that, Synesius cites the oracle of
Tiresias from the Nekyia in regard to Odysseus' further wanderings after the
death of the suitors–he reaches a place inhabited by "Men that do not know
the sea and do not eat food flavoured with salt" and adds another
anonymous hexameter "because at night they do not wake up for the sound of
the sea."
The content of the hexameter leads him to believe that it could be from Eugammon's work as it describes a population far from the sea and having no knowledge of it (thereby re-iterating the prophecy of Teiresias.)
The fact that Synesius does not mention the author or land by name could presuppose, according to Livrea, that he was so well known in Cyrene that it would not be considered necessary – as would be the case if he were Eugammon. As I said before Eugammon was probably the court poet of Arcesilaus, from whom Sinesius claimed ancestry. Proclus' summary of the Telegonia, if you remember back to the reference to Polyxenus king of Elis, lets us identify the people mentioned in the letter as possibly being from Arcadia, the place where Odysseus went to fulfil the prophecy by sacrificing to Poseidon. This theory is lent weight by two coins (now in the British Museum) from the Mantinean mint in Arcadia – one between the dates 431-370 B.C. and one after 370 B.C. depicting Odysseus carrying an oar on his shoulder. Mantinea was also the place that sent Demonax – their best man – to assist in the formation of Cyrenes' legal system. The possibility also exists, in Livrea's opinion, that a Laconian vase showing the myth of the Trophonians similar to that found in Samos, could have been known in Cyrene in the 6th century B.C. This could explain Eugammon's knowledge of this story as this myth is the one mentioned before the Thesprotian legend in the Telegonia which as stated earlier led to the allegation of plagiarism against Eugammon If this location of Arcadia is correct then it could lead to the possibility of attesting other previously unknown fragments to Eugammon.
Conclusions
As was said at the beginning of this paper its aim
was to explore the possibility that the Telegonia of Eugammon of
Cyrene could be one of the endings, alternative to the "
continuation", of the Odyssey available to Homer at the time
of its composition. The main points to support this hypothesis are five in
number.
I hope this paper has helped us to find, at least, the echoes of the voice of Eugammon – a poet who deserves further study if only for his reconciliation of two cultures – that of Greece and Cyrene.
Department of Ancient Classics | Conference programme