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ABSTRACT
This article examines the role of sport as mediator between social class and personal merit through the figure of Epeios in Homer’s Iliad. Dated around 800 BCE, the poem provides us with the first complete account of an athletic event in Western literature, the Funeral Games for Patroklos (henceforth: the Games). Among the noble warlords competing at the Games is a soldier of obscure background called Epeios who wins in boxing but loses in weight-throwing. His performance initiates a novel discourse on the philosophy of sport, as his athletic prowess is not concomitant with martial distinction. Introduced into the Iliad through sport and not war, Epeios later achieves renown as the carpenter who built the Trojan Horse. Through close readings of all relevant texts, this paper argues that Epeios’ mini-epic articulates the Problematik of sport as a criterion for meritocracy by reevaluating the social gap between him and his aristocratic fellow-contestants. At the same time, this analysis explicates how the figure of Epeios foreshadows the change in strategy that will bring forth the fall of Troy.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. An event historically placed around 1180 BCE.
2. All line references are to Iliad 23, unless otherwise indicated.
3. Golden (Citation1998, 9–94), Kitchell (Citation1998, 160–62), Nagy (Citation1990, 116–35).
4. Dova (Citation2020) 109 with bibliography.
5. Clay Strauss (Citation2007, 69).
6. Kitchell (Citation1998, 160–62).
7. The Iliad and the Odyssey are quoted from Van Thiel (Citation1996) and (Citation1991) respectively. All translations are my own.
8. On the mule as a parallel to Epeios’ hybrid social background see Scanlon (Citation2018, 7); on Epeios’ connection to horses see Zachos (Citation2013, 6–9, 14).
9. On the relative merit of the prizes for boxing, see Richardson (Citation1993) ad 653–99.
10. Or a group of warriors in the battlefield; cf. LSJ s.v., Cunliffe (Citation2012) s.v.
11. On Apollo’s connection to boxing see Richardson (Citation1993) ad 660–61.
12. Miller (Citation2004, 51–57), Richardson (Citation1993) ad 661.
13. 2.652, 3.167, 3.226, 5.627, 6.7, 11.220, 20.456.
14. On the analogies between Thersites and Epeios, see Scanlon (Citation2018, 10).
15. On Agamemnon’s greed in the Iliad in the context of social class, see Rose (Citation2012, 130–33).
16. Cf. Il.1.118–19, 1.174–75, 1.185–87, 9.160.
17. In the Iliad, Diomedes employs it to ward Aphrodite off the battlefield by reminding her that she causes enough trouble through her manipulation of women’s emotions (5.348) and Zeus to reassure the horses of Achilles that he will not allow them to fall, like Patroklos’ weapons, into Hektor’s hands –a disgraceful enough outcome (17.450). In the Odyssey, Telemachos refuses to eat and drink with the suitors, pointing out to Antinoos that their past squandering of Odysseus’ wealth was enough (2.312). In turn, Antinoos uses the phrase to protest the arrival of a new beggar, no other than Odysseus in disguise (17.376).
18. Richardson (Citation1993) ad 666–75.
19. Gantz (Citation1993, 220–23).
20. Hes.Th.1003–05.
21. Apollod.Bibl.3.158.6–8.
22. Apollod.Bibl.3.160.1.
23. Il.2.516–524; cf. Zachos (Citation2013, 13–14).
24. Modifying Achilles (58 times), Hektor (42), Odysseus (23) in the nominative, usually occupying the fourth and fifth foot.
25. Odysseus also wins the footrace in the Games.
26. Finglass (Citation2013, 10–17) and (2013, 10-17 and passim).
27. Finglass (Citation2013, 13).
28. Simonides fr.173 and the Scholia to Il.23.665a confirm Athenaeus’ account.
29. On Epeios as the quintessential low-ranking soldier and his connections to folk-tale, see Davies (Citation2014, 92–98) and (2014, 92-98 and passim).
30. McNelis and Sens (Citation2016, 11–12) refer to the author of Alexandra as Lycophron, but date the poem later than Lycophron of Chalcis, the early third century B.C.E. Alexandrian scholar and playwright.
31. ‘And they say that Epeios was born a coward because of his father’s moral failure’, ‘καὶ τὸν Ἐπειὸν διὰ τὸ ἁμάρτημα τοῦ πατρός φησι δειλὸν γενέσθαι’.
32. As Finglass (Citation2013,10 n.82) puts it, ‘thus making Epeios the child of perjury’.
33. Finglass (Citation2013, 9–10).
34. ‘Epeios, following Athena’s plan, fells timber from Ida and builds the wooden horse’, 4.
35. Dova (Citation2020, 110–111).
36. Attributed to Arctinus of Miletos (ca. 776 B.C.E.), the summary of the lost epic Aethiopis reports that the Achaeans raised a grave mound for Achilles and organized athletic contests; Apollodorus (Bibl.5.5b.11) mentions that Eumelos won the chariot race.
37. Epeios’ boastful entrance at the Games concludes with a formulaic line that is used to mark momentous speeches in Homer, including the end of Achilles’ response to the Embassy (So he spoke, and they all fell silent, ὣς ἔφαθ’· οἳ δ’ ἄρα πάντες ἀκὴν ἐγένοντο σιωπῇ, 676). With the exception of a herald reporting Priam’s message (Il.7.398), this line is employed in Homer to mark the reaction to a speech delivered by a major character, god or hero such as Hektor (Il.3.95, 7.92, 10.313), Zeus (Il.8.28), Agamemnon (Il.9.29), Achilles (Il.9.430), Nestor (Il.10.218), Odysseus (Il.9.693 [reporting Achilles’ response], Od.7.154, 8.234, 11.333, 13.1), Antinoos (Od.16.393), and Telemachos (Od.20.320).
38. The striking contrast between the two opponents recalls the modern parallel of the legendary boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier on 2 July 1921. See also Roberts (Citation2003, 100–129 and especially 110–13). I am grateful to Daniel T. Durbin for this observation.
39. In the Iliad, only Euryalos (2.565, 23.677), Menelaos (4.212, 23.563), and Patroklos (9.211,11.644) have the phrase applied to them twice. It is used once of Ereuthalion (7.136), Sokos (11.428), Aias, son of Telamon (11.472), Melanippos (15.559), and Meriones (16.632).
40. Such as Priam (Il.3.310) and Telemachos (Od.1.324, 20.124).
41. In Il.6.20–28 he kills four Trojans in battle and removes their armor.
42. Gantz (Citation1993, 522–25).
43. Quint. Smyrn. 4.472–94, 12.316, 324, 329.
44. Nicholson and Selden Citation2019, 178–207), Lehmann (Citation2009, 187–204), Richardson (Citation1993) ad 677–82.
45. The only other occurrence of this phrase in Homer is in Il.17.332, where Apollo, in the guise of the herald Periphas, tells Aeneias that Zeus would much prefer that the Trojans win.
46. Kyle (Citation2015, 60); cf. also Scanlon (Citation2018, 7).
47. Dova (Citation2020, 126–37), Scanlon (Citation2018, 14–18).
48. The only other attestation of this verb in Homer is in Od.10.374, where it means ‘to think of other things’ and denotes Odysseus’ emotional withdrawal at Circe’s banquet over the plight of his comrades. Cf. Richardson (Citation1993) ad loc.
49. Nicholson (Citation2015), online reference.
50. See also p.8.
51. On Epeios as a successful nostos hero, like Odysseus, see Zachos (Citation2013, 17–22).
52. See also Dova (Citation2020, 113–19).
53. Howland Citation1954 16.
54. Kleos aphthiton is the end goal of martial excellence and the prize desired by all hero-warriors in Homer. Cf. Nagy (Citation1999, 102, 177–85).
55. As he is mentioned by Odysseus to the shade of Achilles in Od.11.523.
56. I am grateful to Daniel T. Durbin, who invited me to present at the conference The Rhetoric of Sports: New Studies of Ancient Sport, and to Heather L. Reid, who read an early draft of this article and offered insightful feedback.