"Kleine Leute" und grosse Helden in Homers Odyssee und Kallimachos' Hekale (review)

Skempis reads the Hecale through the Odyssey in order to explore the characterization of both Hecale and Theseus and to consider what happens when the two meet. His main contribution is to show that Callimachus made use of a range of literary precedents in fashioning his heroine, but especially the Odyssey's Eumaeus and Euryclea. Hecale emerges as an "amalgam" of different models, both male and female, both high and low. Students of Callimachus and his brand of intertextuality will benefit from this book.

A slightly revised version of a 2008 Göttingen dissertation, the book consists of an introduction, five chapters, and a brief conclusion. Chapter 1 concentrates on Hecale's "stylization." First, Skempis explores the significance of Hecale's two major character traits: she is a hospitable native of Attica and she is old. Second, Skempis demonstrates that, as one who laments the loss of her husband and children, Hecale parallels, respectively, Penelope and the mothers of the Iliad, Thetis, Hecabe, and Andromache. Chapter 2 delves into the characterization of Eumaeus and the ways in which he functions as a model for Hecale. Both humble characters can be seen to form quasi-familial connections to the epics' elite characters. A reappraisal of Eumaeus' epithets, "divine swineherd" and "leader of men," aids in the study of Hecale's designation as "gentle among women" (πρηεῖα γυναικῶν [fr. 80 Hollis]). The Homeric narrator's apostrophes to Eumaeus inform the Callimachean narrator's apostrophe to Hecale (fr. 65). Chapter 3 dissects the portion of the poem in which Hecale receives and feeds Theseus. Focusing on various source texts (primarily Homeric), Skempis ponders the depiction of Hecale's hut as a female space, the arrival of the cloaked Theseus, the seat Hecale offers him, the lighting of a fire, and the presentation of various vegetable dishes. The chapter concludes with a treatment of Hecale's connections to Demeter. Chapter 4 turns to Theseus. Theseus is to be understood as a famished suppliant when he arrives at Hecale's: the Odysseus of both the Iliad and the Odyssey emerges as the primary model here. Theseus, however, does not just enjoy Hecale's hospitality but also helps her prepare the meal. Using the Odyssey, Ion of Chios' Omphale, and comedies about Theseus, Skempis teases out the implications of Theseus' performance of menial tasks when he is about to acquire his heroic identity by capturing the Marathonian bull. Chapter 5 alerts us to the importance of the several points of overlap between Euryclea and Hecale. Both, for instance, receive timê. Both attempt to deflect an ersatz son from embarking on a dangerous quest. Most significantly, both wash the feet of a noble guest.

An attention to detail renders compelling the observations and arguments that make up these analyses. For instance, the interrogative adverb ὁππόθεν appears in Homeric epic when one character questions another about his lineage. Theseus, however, uses the word when asking Hecale "from where" he can obtain either a pot or some bathwater (fr. 60). Callimachus thus underlines "the striking incompatibility between Theseus' domestic service and his noble lineage" (340). With such a keen eye, Skempis is able to teach us much about Callimachus' intertextual project. The poet deploys the para-formulaic: an expression "that brings to mind a formula from the traditional language of Homeric epic, but that is no longer a formula" (136). He "draws lexical rarities out of the Homeric text, frequently decontextualizes them and fits them into a new textual environment" (209). Conversely, in fashioning his "own epic meta-language" (324), he aims not only to reference particular Homeric words but also to bring to mind the Homeric characters connected with those words. He operates at the level of the interfigural: when Hecale entertains a guest or laments, she is to be compared with Homeric characters who perform these acts. Finally, it should be noted that throughout his...