Use the following persistent identifier: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_EdmundsS.Homeric_Nepios.1990.
2. ΗΠΙΟΣ
σκηπτοῦχος βασιλεύς
to be gentle and ēpios
Thus ēpios has no immediately apparent semantic lineage from a root meaning “to take,” “to reach,” or “to join.” Nor is nēpios, whether its primary meaning is “child” or “without foresight,” an obvious negative of ēpios. However, a thematic opposition between the two words can be found in the Homeric poems: someone who is nēpios is pais hōs “like a child” (iv 32), whereas someone who is ēpios is patēr hōs “like a father” (ii 47, ii 234, v 12, xv 152).
ᾧ ῥά τε νήπι᾽ ἄγοντι συναντήσωνται ἐν ὕλῃ
ἄνδρες ἐπακτῆρες
[Now Aias covering the son of Menoitios under his broad shield]
stood fast, like a lion over his young, when men who are hunting
come upon him leading his nēpios ones along in the forest …
The word ēpios does not occur regularly as an epithet of fathers, nor can ēpios alone ever be used to mean “father.”
my noble father Odysseus
The sense of “father” as one who fosters or protects is preserved, especially, in references to Zeus, e.g.:
Son of Kronos, our father, O lordliest of the mighty
the father of gods and men
In addition, it seems to be reflected in xeine patēr (“my friend and father,” vii 48, etc.), the polite form of address on meeting a stranger. As in the phrase “father of his country,” either metaphor or throwback may be at work. The two senses of father seem to coincide in the figure of Zeus, who is certainly the physical parent of more gods and men than anyone else as well as their anciently recognized preserver.
τηλίκου ὥς περ ἐγών, ὀλοῷ ἐπὶ γήραος οὐδῷ
Achilles like the gods, remember your father, one who
is of years like mine, and on the door-sill of sorrowful old age.
Achilles, moved to weep for his own father, receives Priam and thus a connection is established not only between enemies but between the most alienated of heroes and another human being.
δαέρων ἢ γαλόων ἢ εἰνατέρων εὐπέπλων,
ἢ ἐκυρή—ἑκυρὸς δὲ πατὴρ ὣς ἤπιος αἰεί—
ἀλλὰ σὺ τὸν ἐπέεσσι παραιφάμενος κατέρυκες,
σῇ τ᾽ ἀγανοφροσύνῃ καὶ σοῖς ἀγανοῖς ἐπέεσσι.
τῶ σέ θ᾽ ἅμα κλαίω καὶ ἔμ᾽ ἄμμορον ἀχνυμένη κῆρ·
οὐ γάρ τίς μοι ἔτ᾽ ἄλλος ἐνὶ Τροίῃ εὐρείῃ
ἤπιος οὐδὲ φίλος, πάντες δέ με πεφρίκασιν.
No, but when another, one of my lord’s brothers or sisters, a fair-robed
wife of some brother, would say a harsh word to me in the palace,
or my lords mother—but his father was ēpios always,
indeed—then you would speak and put them off and restrain them
by your own gentleness of heart and your gentle words. Therefore
I mourn for you in sorrow of heart and mourn for myself also
and my ill luck. There was no other in all the wide Troad
who was ēpios to me, and my friend; all others shrank when they {12|13}
saw me.
The function of the ēpios behavior of Priam and Hektor is not merely to provide Helen with at least two friends at Troy, it integrates her into the social structure. Hektor does not allow quarrels, which divide people, to rend the social fabric of Troy.
Indeed he [Nestor] was always ēpios to me like a father.
Nestor’s characteristic function is advice-giving, both to the Greek army and to his own son (XXIII 304–348). His advice is respected; he is:
Nestor, whose advice had shown best before this.
Advice-giving was a fatherly task. As Telemachos says to Athene:
ὥς τε πατὴρ ᾧ παιδί
My guest, your words to me are very kind and considerate,
what any father would say to his son
Hesiod juxtaposes wisdom in council with the epithet ēpios in the following passage:
πρεσβύτατον παίδων. αὐτὰρ καλέουσι γέροντα
οὕνεκα νημερτής τε καὶ ἤπιος, οὐδὲ θεμίστων
λήθεται, ἀλλὰ δίκαια καὶ ἤπια δήνεα οἶδεν.
Pontos bore Nereus, not lying and truthful
the oldest of his children. They call him old man
because he is unerring and ēpios and of correctness {13|14}
not forgetful, but he knows just and ēpios councils.
Proteus, in the Odyssey, as sea god, soothsayer, and old man (ho gerōn, iv 450, etc.), is a multiform of Nereus. [2] He gives Menelaos advice that enables him to escape from the never-never land on which he is marooned, where Proteus’ daughter has asked him:
Are you nēpios then, O stranger, and flimsy-minded …?
That is, advice given by someone with all the qualities associated with the epithet ēpios reconnects Menelaos, who has been nēpios, with his home and former life.
σκηπτοῦχος βασιλεύς, μηδὲ φρεσὶν αἴσιμα εἰδώς.
ἀλλ᾽ αἰεὶ χαλεπός τ᾽ εἴη καὶ αἴσυλα ῥέζοι,
ὡς οὔ τις μέμνηται Ὀδυσσῆος θείοιο
λαῶν οἷσιν ἄνασσε, πατὴρ δ᾽ ὣς ἤπιος ἦεν.
No longer now let one who is a sceptred king be eager
to be ēpios and kind, be one whose thought is schooled in justice,
but let him always rather be harsh, and act severely,
seeing the way no one of the people he was lord over
remembers godlike Odysseus, and he was ēpios like a father.
These lines are repeated at v 8–12, where Athene complains to Zeus of the mistreatment Odysseus has received at the hands of the gods. The good king is explicitly compared to a father. The word ēpios should not be seen as denoting simply mildness or good temper. The good king knows what is aisima (“destined,” “allotted,” or “appointed by the will of the gods.”) In knowing what each person’s allotment is, the good king ensures community among his subjects. {14|15}
So much stronger am I than the gods, and stronger than mortals.
He is asserting not a fatherly superiority but the power of a tyrant. Athene tactfully replies that while none of the other gods would think of disobeying him, they are disturbed by the slaughter of the Achaians. Zeus, doubly Athene’s father, since she was born, motherless, from his body, is softened by this appeal:
πρόφρονι μυθέομαι, ἐθέλω δέ τοι ἤπιος εἶναι.
Tritogeneia, dear daughter, do not lose heart; for I say this
not in outright anger, but I mean to be ēpios toward you.
When Zeus repeats his intention to be ēpios toward Athene and the other gods for whom she speaks at XXII 183, he is retracting his suggestion that Hektor can be saved despite his fate. Hektor, as Athene has just said, is
… a man who is mortal, one long since doomed by his aisā (destiny) …
The good king is ēpios in acting according to what is allotted. Since his wise subjects know, as Athene does, what is allotted, the ēpios king satisfies their sense of what is right. A consensus is reached and there is social harmony.
ἤπια δήνεα οἶδε· τὰ γὰρ φρονέεις ἅ τ᾽ ἐγώ περ. {15|16}
… I know how the spirit in your secret heart knows
ēpios ideas only; for what you think is what I think.
Agamemnon’s mode of conciliating Odysseus is to assert that they both think the same thing. He has no need of Odysseus’s kindness. [3] What he needs is his agreement, his willingness to join with him in a common project. Agamemnon articulates his recognition that such like-mindedness leads to success also at II 379–380, where he says that if he and Achilles ever could agree (ei de pot’ es ge mian bouleusomen), then they would take Troy.
βουλῇ καὶ μύθοισι· σὺ δὲ φρεσὶ πάντ᾽ εὖ οἶδας.
… I wish to be ēpios toward you
in council and speech. And you well know everything in your mind.
He goes on to list Apollo’s honors. He does not mean so much that he wants to be kind to Apollo, as that he wants to be reconciled with him. He affirms their like-mindedness.
ἤπιον ἐν στήθεσσι μένος καὶ θυμὸν ἔχουσα.
Go, Persephone, to your dark-robed mother
having in your breast an ēpios strength and spirit …
He goes on to describe the honors she will have as his wife. Again, he is not asking her to be gentle or kind but to be reconciled, to be connected with him in spirit as she is by marriage. {16|17}
ἠδὲ κασίγνητος, σὺ δέ μοι θαλερὸς παρακοίτης.
you are my brother, and it is you who are my young husband.
εὐνῆς ἡμετέρης ἐπιβήομεν, ὄφρα μιγέντε
εὐνῇ καὶ φίλότητι πεποίθομεν ἀλλήλοισιν.
Come then, put away your sword in its sheath, and let us
two go up into my bed so that, lying together
in the bed of love, we may then have faith and trust in each other.
Odysseus answers:
Circe, how can you ask me to be ēpios toward you?
Not only is she still his enemy until she has released his men and sworn to use no more magic against him, but she is more powerful than he. He cannot assume towards her the role of the head of the family since he cannot count on her like-mindedness with himself.
ὅς τοι ὑῶν ἐπίουρος, ὁμῶς δέ τοι ἤπια οἶδε,
παῖδά τε σὸν φιλέει καὶ ἐχέφρονα Πηνελόπειαν, {18|19}
First of all, you are to make your way to the swineherd
who is in charge of your pigs, but always his thoughts are ēpios
and he is a friend to your son and circumspect Penelope.
Athene repeats this advice to Telemachos (xv 38–39), and he too goes first to the swineherd. The fifteenth book of the Odyssey ends with Telemachos’s arrival:
ἐσθλὸς ἐὼν ἐνίαυεν, ἀνάκτεσιν ἤπια εἰδώς.
… where there were countless pigs, and near them always
slept the noble swineherd, with ēpios thoughts for his masters.
Not only is Eumaios himself called ēpios, but he was the beneficiary of ēpios treatment by Laertes. Odysseus says after hearing his story:
ταῦτα ἕκαστα λέγων, ὅσα δὴ πάθες ἄλγεα θυμῷ.
ἀλλ᾽ ἦ τοι σοὶ μὲν παρὰ καὶ κακῷ ἐσθλὸν ἔθηκε
Ζεύς, ἐπεὶ ἀνδρὸς δώματ᾽ ἀφίκεο πολλὰ μογήσας
ἠπίου, ὃς δή τοι παρέχει βρῶσίν τε πόσιν τε
ἐνδυκέως, ζώεις δ᾽ ἀγαθὸν βίον…
Eumaios, you have deeply stirred the spirit within me
by telling me all these things, the sorrow which your heart has suffered,
But beside the sorrow Zeus has placed some good for you, seeing
that after much suffering you came to the house of an ēpios
man who, as he ought to do, provides you with victuals
and drink, and the life you lead is a good one.
Since the word ēpios is associated with the heads of households, it is hardly surprising that a master’s behavior toward his servant should be described as ēpios. Indeed, Eumaios compares his master Odysseus to his own parents:
ἤπιον ὧδε ἄνακτα κιχήσομαι, ὁππόσ᾽ ἐπέλθω,
οὐδ᾽ εἴ κεν πατρὸς καὶ μητέρος αὖτις ἵκωμαι
οἶκον, ὅθι πρῶτον γενόμην καί μ᾽ ἔτρεφον αὐτοί.
… for never again now
will I find again a lord as ēpios as he, wherever
I go; even if I could come back to my father and mother’s {19|20}
house where I was born, and they raised me when I was little.
What is perhaps surprising is that a servant should be called ēpios toward his master. But Eumaios is not distinguished by this epithet alone. He is called dion uphorbon (“noble swineherd.” xiv 3, etc.), orchamos andrōn (“leader of men,” xiv 22, xx 185, etc.; also of Philoitios, another faithful retainer), and he receives attributes that are ordinarily reserved for kings, for example:
… for he knew just [or fated] things in his mind …
Compare, in the description of the just king:
… nor [let him] know just [or fated] things in his mind …
… but before you were orderly [or just] in respect to your mind
Like Eumaios, Eurykleia is more trusted and easier of approach for Odysseus and Telemachos than Penelope. It is to her that Telemachos tells of his intended journey to Pylos and Sparta, and it is her aid that he enlists. Odysseus reveals himself to her before he makes himself known to Penelope. Eurykleia had been bought by Laertes, who honored her as his wife but did not have intercourse with her (i 430–433). Thus she was disconnected from her parents and, presumably a virgin, also disconnected from husband or child of her own. She is a barren mother-figure in the household. [6]
ἠπίου, ὃς δή τοι παρέχει βρῶσίν τε πόσιν τε
ἐνδυκέως … {21|22}
… [since] you came to the house of an ēpios
man who, as he ought to do, provides you with victuals
and drink …
Laertes had graciously received Eumaios, who becomes a father-like figure for Odysseus, just as Peleus had graciously received Phoinix and loved him, as Phoinix says:
… even as a father loves his own son …
We have, then, in the figures of Eumaios and Phoinix, someone who is an intermediary between a hero and his father, or in the case of Eurykleia, an intermediary between the hero and his mother or wife. Eumaios is like a father, but he is not a father. He is, also, especially ēpios. [8] His function, in terms of the plot, is to reconnect Odysseus and Telemachos to their home—by providing food and shelter, by keeping their interests at heart, and by knowing what is aisima, properly allotted.
ἠπίου, ὅς σφωϊν μάλα πολλάκις ὑγρὸν ἔλαιον
χαιτάων κατέχευε, λοέσσας ὕδατι λευκῷ.
such is the high glory of the charioteer they have lost,
the ēpios one, who so many times anointed their manes with
soft olive oil, after he had washed them in shining water.
Patroklos is the one who takes care of the horses. He is not just kind to them; he is the link between them and their martial function. The phrase ēpia pharmaka (“ēpios medicines” or “drugs”) appears three times in the Iliad: [9]
αἷμ᾽ ἐκμυζήσας ἐπ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἤπια φάρμακα εἰδὼς {22|23}
πάσσε, τά οἵ ποτε πατρὶ φίλα φρονέων πόρε Χείρων
But when he [Machaon] saw the wound where the bitter arrow was driven,
he sucked the blood and in skill laid ēpios medicines on it
that Cheiron in friendship long ago had given his father.
ἰούς τ᾽ ἐκτάμνειν ἐπί τ᾽ ἤπια φάρμακα πάσσειν
A healer is a man worth many men in his knowledge
of cutting out arrows and putting ēpios medicines on wounds.
νίζ᾽ ὕδατι λιαρῷ, ἐπὶ δ᾽ ἤπια φάρμακα πάσσεν,
ἐσθλά, τά σε πρατί φασιν Ἀχιλλῆος δεδιδάχθαι,
ὃν Χείρων ἐδίδαξε, δικαιότατος Κενταύρων.
… cut the arrow out of my thigh, wash the dark blood running
out of it with warm water, and put ēpios medicines upon it,
good ones, which they say you have been told of by Achilles,
since Cheiron, most righteous of the Centaurs, told him about them.
It is clear, from the first and third passages, that the procedure was to wash with water and then to apply drugs. The horses grieve for Patroklos who washed them and anointed them with oil. They are not grieving because they miss their water and oil, however, but because they miss Patroklos. Similarly, when Eurypylos detains Patroklos to tend his wound (XI 823–836) it is not that he wants water and drugs, applied by whoever is handy, but he needs Patroklos who has a special knowledge of their use. The epithet ēpios has been transferred from the physician to the drugs themselves. Compare pharmaka mētioenta (“wise drugs,” iv 227). Patroklos has received his knowledge of ēpia pharmaka from Achilles, who received it from Cheiron, “most righteous of the Centaurs.” In the context of Cheiron, as with Nereus, the just king, and the foster-parent figures Eurykleia and Eumaeos, the qualities of being ēpios and of being just come together. Furthermore, Cheiron’s mythological function was, among other things, to be a tutor—that is, a substitute father—for various heroes, among them Jason, Herakles, Asklepios, and Achilles. [10] The ēpios drugs, in addition, are {23|24} restorative; they heal the wounded and reconnect them with life. The horses of Achilles, who have lost their ēpios horseman, have become disconnected from their former function. They take no part in the games, but stand aside and mourn.
Sometimes a day is a stepmother, sometimes a mother.
Here the sense of having one’s interests at heart, of like-mindedness, seems predominant.
I have tried to show, in this chapter, that the word ēpios can be interpreted as meaning something like “connecting.” To be ēpios is to be “like a father,” and a typically ēpios figure in the Homeric poems is the foster-father, such as Phoinix or Eumaios. Kings are like fathers and share with them certain qualities—namely wisdom, justice, the ability to give good advice, the desire to promote cohesion among their dependents, and, often, old age. If ēpios can mean, in some sense, “connecting,” then there is semantic support for its derivation from the root *āp- found in Latin apīscor (cf. apō “fasten, attach, join, bind”) and Sanskrit āpnóti. The semantic development—from expression of a relationship between people to expression of the manner of a person—is paralleled in the semantic development of the English words gentle and kind. Both are from the Indo-European *gene-: gentle comes into English, via Old French, from Latin gentilis (“of the same clan,” “of noble birth”); and kind is from Old English cynd, gecynd(e) (“birth,” “nature,” “race”; cf. kin). [11]
Footnotes