Download A Most Dangerous Sea and the Beauteous Scarf

A Most Dangerous Sea and the Beauteous
Scarf
~ A guest post by Bill Moulton ~
Below is one of the pivotal scenes in Odysseus’ long journey home. He is naked and drowning on a
storm-tossed sea.
[It was as though the South, North, East, and West winds were all playing battledore and
shuttlecock with it at once.] When he was in this plight, sweet-stepping Ino daughter of
Kadmos, also called Leukothea, saw him. She had formerly been a mere mortal, [335]
but had been since raised to the rank of a marine goddess. Seeing in what great distress
Odysseus now was, she had compassion upon him, and, rising like a seagull from the
waves, took her seat upon the raft. “My poor good man,” said she, “why is Poseidon the
shaker of the earth so furiously [340] angry with you? He is giving you a great deal of
trouble, but for all his bluster he will not kill you. You seem to be a sensible person, do
then as I bid you; strip, leave your raft to drive before the wind, and swim [345] to the
Phaeacian coast where better luck awaits you. And here, take my veil and put it round
your chest; it is enchanted, and you can come to no harm so long as you wear it. As soon
as you touch land take it off, throw it back as far.”
Odyssey 5.330–349 [1]
Leukothea’s brief cameo leaves quite a few questions for the reader. Who is she? What’s with the
veil? Why isn’t she afraid of Poseidon’s wrath? Why did she save Odysseus?
Leukothea was once the princess Ino of seven-gated Thebes in Ancient Greece. Running from the
wrath of her husband, she with her child Melicertes leapt into the sea, where her new sisters the
Nereids graciously received them and Zeus deified them as Leukothea and Palaemon.
(Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 224) Keep in mind that even as Ino, she was no mere mortal. Ino was the
aunt and foster mother of the Olympian deity Dionysus. Her mother was born to two other
Olympians. One sister was a goddess and a nephew also a god. (Hesiod, Theogony 975)
Odysseus is, of course, the long-suffering hero of the Odyssey. He spent ten years at the siege of
Troy and was in his tenth year trying to get home to his wife Penelope. Just prior to this scene
Odysseus was released from the care of the lovely Calypso. The goddess Calypso loved the hero,
going so far as to say:
make your home with me, and be immortal, no matter how much you long to see that
wife you yearn for day after day…Then resourceful Odysseus replied to her: ‘Great
goddess, do not be angry at what I say. I know myself that wise Penelope is less than you,
it’s true, in looks and stature, being a mortal, while you are immortal and ever young.
Even so I yearn day after day, longing to reach home, and see the hour of my return.
Odyssey 5.198–202 [1]
Calypso, with a little nudge from the gods of Olympus, helped the hero on his way:
…[Calypso] bathed him and dressed him in scented clothes, and watched him set out (on
a raft). The goddess had placed a skin filled with dark wine on board, and a larger one of
water, and a bag of provisions, full of many good things to content his heart, and she
sent a fine breeze, warm and gentle.
Odyssey 5.264–269 [1]
As to the veil, goddesses and women used them in many ways. Medea used her silver veil to avoid
seeing Jason murder her brother. It also protected her from the blood splatter to follow. [2] When
summoned to Olympus amidst the tragedy in her son’s life, Thetis made sure to cover her head with
“a dark-hued veil, than which was no raiment more black.” [3] In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, we
see Demeter remove her veil as signal of her terrible grief when her daughter was kidnapped “sharp
grief seized the mother’s heart; she tore the head-dress upon her ambrosial hair, and threw her dark
veil down…”. [4] Apollonius Rhodius records that, in an attempted rape, the Giant Tityos boldly
dragged off the Titaness Leto by her veil. [5] Helen, sister to Castor and Polydeuces, recalling all she
left behind one day “veiled herself in white linen and, weeping large tears, she left her room.” [6]
As Aphrodite famously lent her girdle (cestus) to Hera for magical purposes (Iliad 14.166), so
Leukothea chooses to lend the drowning hero something he can tie about his waist. A.B. Cook has
noted that the imperishable veils of the goddesses come in shades of saffron, night, shining, celestial
blue and star-spangled. [7] Walter Burkett suggests that Leukothea’s veil was purple due to her
association with the mysteries of Samothrace. [8] “Those being initiated are said to be girded with
purple fillets during the ceremony, and the initiates are said to be saved from dangers at sea. So
Odysseus, being an initiate, is said to have been saved from the storm at sea by using the veil [of
Leucothea] in place of a fillet and placing the veil below his abdomen.” [9]
Poseidon is the god of the sea, reputed to be as powerful as his brother Zeus, king of the gods. (Iliad
15.184) And his heart was full of anger against the storm tossed hero, because of Odysseus’ blinding
of his son, the one-eyed giant Polyphemus. [10] Admittedly, Polyphemus ate several of Odysseus’s
crew-mates and it was all a matter of self-defense, but the gods aren’t overly understanding—as
witnessed by the debate over the patronage of Argos by Hera and Poseidon. When the River Inachus
and two neighboring rivers judged against Poseidon, the sea god drained the water from their beds.
[11]
Leukothea’s area of responsibility, her sphere of influence was rescuing mortals adrift on the briny
deep with “her son Palaemon they help sailors beset by storms.” [12] Rescue seemed to be the
specialty of mortals directly descended from gods. Witness Glaucus of Anthedon in Boeotia, a
fisherman, who had the good luck to eat a part of the divine herb, which Cronus sowed, and which
made Glaucus an immortal marine deity. [13] Another example is the brothers of Helen of Troy,
Castor and Polydeuces, called the Dioscuri “The Dioscuri are deliverers of men on earth and of
swift-going ships when stormy gales rage over the ruthless sea.” [14]
Additionally in answer to the question of who Leukothea is, Mills sees her as an agent of liminality.
She aids Odysseus in his transition from the goddesses Circe and Calypso (via herself a the daughter
of a god) to the mortal women Princess Nausicaa and Queen Penelope. From the sea to the shore.
From life through the gray waters of death to life again. From eternal life as a god to inevitable
death as a man. So, now Odysseus’ rescue continues:
His knees gave way, and his arms fell slack, his strength exhausted by the sea. All his
flesh was swollen, and streams of brine oozed from his mouth and nostrils. So he lay
there, breathless, speechless, with barely energy enough to stir. But as he revived his
spirits rose, and he unwound the goddess’s veil and dropped it into the ocean-bound flow:
the current sweeping it downstream, so it was soon in Ino’s hands. Odysseus turned
from the river, sank into the reeds and kissed the earth, giver of crops: and deeply
shaken he communed with his valiant spirit
Odyssey 5.452–456
Our naked hero is soon rescued and dressed by Princess Nausicaa of Phaeacia. Why was the goddess
Leukothea insistent on getting her scarf back? Because, according to Donald H. Mills it was magical.
“The focus of this gift centers on the immortal and life-giving veil she offers the hero…it has the
implicit power to confer immortality (hence) she says to Odysseus, ‘there is no need for you to suffer,
nor to perish.’” [16] It was magic, just like the herb Glaucus consumed that made him invulnerable
to death, like the ambrosia and nectar Calypso offered Odysseus at their final meal. Keeping
Leukothea’s veil would have had the same effect as staying with Calypso and wearing her scented,
immortalizing garments. Odysseus would have lost himself, his glorious destiny, his famous return
and the loving arms of his wife Penelope.
References
[1] Homer, Odyssey, Translated by Samuel Butler, Revised by Soo-Young Kim, Kelly McCray,
Gregory Nagy, and Timothy Power, http://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/5287
[2] Apollonious Rhodius Argonautica 4.468–474, translated by R.C.Seaton, Loeb Classical Library
Volume 1 London, William heinemann Ltd. 1912, accessed May 20, 2015 www.theoi.com
/Text/ApolloniusRhodius1.html
[3] Iliad, Homer 24.93 translated by Murray, A.T., Loeb Classical Library, Wol 1 Cambridge, Mass,
Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd. 1924, London
www.theoi.com/Text/HomerIliad1.html
[4] David G Rice and John E. Stambaugh, Source for the Study of Greek Religion: Corrected Edition,
(2009), 130
[5] Argonautica, ibid 1.758
[6] Homer, Iliad 3.143, translated by A.T.Murray,
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D3%3
Acard%3D1
[7] Respectively Orphic Hymns; I to Hecate, VI to the Stars, XLII to the Seasons, to Museaus; and
Zeus: A study in Ancient Religion: Vol 3, Part 2, A.B. Cook in discussion of figure 836
[8] Walter Burkett, Greek Religion; Archaic and Classical, translated by John Raffan, page 267
[9] N. Lewis, “Scholiast Parisina to Apollonius Rhodius 1.917” in Samothrace 1: Ancient Literary
Sources, (New York) accessed May 20, 2015
http://scholarblogs.emory.edu/samothraciannetworks/the-ritual-promise/literary-texts/#ApolloniusSc
holia2
[10] Homer, Odyssey 13.341 translated by A.T.Murray (1919) Loeb
[11] Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.15.4 translated by W.H.S Jones (1918 Loeb)
[12] Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.28, translated by Sir J.G.Frazer (1921 Loeb)
[13] William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. London. John
Murray: printed by Spottiswoode and Co., (1873)
[14] Homeric Hymn 27 to the Dioscuri, translated by H.G.Evelyn-White (1914 Loeb)
[15] Donald H. Mills, The Hero and the Sea: Patterns of Chaos in Ancient Myth, Bolchazy-Charduccit
Publishers Inc, 124
[16] Ibid. 176
Bill Moulton is a life-long independent researcher in Greek Mythology, starting in fourth grade when
his fondness for the topic threw off the grading curve. Bill is a graduate of HeroesX and active with
Hour 25. He blogs on Classical Studies at http://shortstories-bill.blogspot.com and tweets on the
topic as WilliamMoulton2.
Image: John Flaxman: Neptune excite une tempête, qui brise le bâtiment d’Ulysee ; Leucothée
donne son voile à ce prince pour le sauver du naufrage. (from Illustrations of Odyssey)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AOdysseyLeukothea.png