Page 54 - Jordaens

Basic Instincts or A short note (Theogonía), Hesiod concurred with Homer regarding Hermes’ and Ulysses’ parentage, while also introducing
on Hesiod versus Homer : the story of
CALYPSO AND ULYSSES IN THE ODYSSEY
omeric tradition has portrayed Odysseus/Ulysses as a victim of fate. Buffeted by Poseidon’s
wrath, he ran aground upon foreign shores and was held captive by Calypso against his will. An
avid reader of epic poetry would empathize with the hero who longed to return to his home,
his wife and his child. In the first book of the Odyssey, a council of the gods takes place on
H Mount Olympus and Zeus sends his daughter Athena, Ulysses’ usual protector, to Ithaca to
strengthen the resolve of the young Telemachus by assuring him that his father will return. Hermes is also sent to
Calypso’s realm, the Island of Ogygia (now commonly acknowledged to be the modern island of Gozo), in order
to negotiate Ulysses’ release. The choice of Hermes as an emissary was logical. He was the god of eloquence and
patron to lawyers, but he also held a direct interest in the Odyssian hero, being his great-grand-father. Indeed
his son by the nymph Chione was the thief Autolycus, Ulysses’ maternal great-grandfather and hence probably
the origin of his wit and cunning.
Rdouble-entendres, so much time spent on a work of art, so many details for the spectator’s entertainment.
Yet Homer and epic poetry do not have a monopoly of this narrative tale. These well-known myths were also
handed down to posterity by Hesiod. In the 2nd century AD, the Contest of Homer and Hesiod (Certamen Homeri
et Hesiodi) recounts an imagined poetical agon between Homer and Hesiod, in which Hesiod carries away the
1
prize. Though often forgotten nowadays, Hesiod was as much of a paragon of classical culture as Homer. The
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Hesiodic narrative reveals some interesting insights connected to our subject.
In the Catalogue of Women (Ehoiai), traditionally attributed to Hesiod throughout antiquity (but this attribution
has been disputed in modern times), the poet tells of a mysterious and passionate affair between Hermes
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3
and Calypso. The resulting issue was said to have founded the entire Cephalonian race. In his Theogony
1. It is generally accepted this dates from the 2nd century AD and may derive from the sophist Alcidamas’ Mouseion.
2. Hesiod is generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.
3. This is a fragmentary epic poem. The ‘women’ were in fact heroines most of whom had sexual relations with other gods thus
bearing heroes.
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two additional new characters, Nausinoos and Nausithoos, the sons our hero begat with the goddess who had
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held him in her thrall. This is where the genealogy becomes somewhat complex. Whereas Hermes and Calypso
sired the Cephalonians, the people inhabiting Ithaca, he also had a son by Chione, one Autolycus, whose daughter
then later married another Cephalonian. This resulted in the birth of Ulysses. Ulysses later also had two sons
by Calypso. So in our painting Hermes appears whilst on a mission to his ex-lover so that he might negotiate the
release of his great-grandson, Ulysses, with whom Calypso had recently had two children! Thus Ulysses may
well have been one of Calypso’s original descendants too.
a
eturning to the artist’s intent, one can but wonder about graphic narrative and all its means of expression.
There are so many things to relate in the restricted confines of the canvas, so many references, inferences,
That is the core magic of art itself; you may question an artist’s intentions for an eternity. But there are still some
further clues for us to investigate.
In 1973, Mona Adler published an article in the Metropolitan Museum Journal, highlighting the symbolism of the
parrot in painting in the 16th-17th centuries: ‘As for the specific relationship between women and parrots,
examples in literature and art can be traced back for centuries. The relationship between the two is intimate and
borders on the erotic. In the 16th century the parrot was associated with courtly love. Many prominent members
of the French nobility, including Marguerite de Valois, Marguerite d’Autriche, and Jeanne d’Albret had pet
4. According to Cicero writing much later, Homer himself claimed to be a Cephalonian from Ithaca. Cicero stated ‘the
inhabitants of Salamis and Chios claim this great poet: those of Smyrna claim that he belongs to them: the Cephalonians
claim that he belongs to them’. Cited in Jean Baptiste Le Chevalier, Ulysses Homer; or, A discovery of the true author of the Iliad
and Odyssey. London, J. Murray, 1829.
5. Hesiod’s Theogony relates the genealogy or birth of the gods.
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