A Homer for the Twenty-first Century

Abstract

A Homer for theTwenty-firstCentury STEPHEN SCULLY T Xhis book"" lives up to its title,discussing major trends of Homeric scholarship and approaches toHomer in the twentieth century.More often than not, however, its in? sightful and engaging essays treatHomer as artifact, too fre? quently forgetting to bring us back to the poetry itself. For that reason, in section one I offer an alternative model to ap? proaching Homer, looking at divergent responses to the Iliad and Odyssey as literature from theEnglish Renaissance to the present. The call at the end of this essay for a twenty-first-cen? tury conference on Homer also has thismodel inmind. "the classics can console. But not enough." So ends the title poem of Sea Grapes (1976), Derek Wal cott's fifthvolume of poetry. The poem supposes that a far off sail in the Caribbean "could be Odysseus, /home-bound on theAegean," thoughWalcott's seafarer, under gnarled sour grapes, is like the adulterer hearing Nausicaa's name in every gull's outcry.1 ForWalcott, it ispatronizing for later cultures to think of art chronologically; eitherworks of art live in the present or not at all. In this view,Walcott is certainly not alone.2 As in "Sea Grapes," there is almost no lag or gap in time or space be *Barbara Graziosi and Emily Greenwood, eds., Homer in the Twentieth Century: Between World Literature and the Western Canon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 300 pages, $125.00. Cited hereafter as GrGr. ARION 17.1 SPRING/SUMMER 2009 148 A HOMER FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY tween when "Troy lost its old flame" and now, when "the great hexameters come / to finish up as Caribbean surf." Whether then or now, whether "sea-wanderer or the one on shore," we are forever caught in the same time-weary struggle: The ancient war between obsession and responsibility will never finish and has been the same. Homer, simultaneously our contemporary and our memory, can record and console. But of course not enough. Walcott's seasoned vantage point is a far cry from that of George Chapman, the first translator into English of the Il? iad (1611) and the Odyssey (1614-15). In the same year as Chapman's Iliad England saw the firstprinting of the King James Bible. For Chapman, it isHomer who can save Eng? land's maimed soul.Writing to Prince Henry in a verse pref? ace for a preliminary edition of the first twelve books of the Iliad (1608), Chapman professes that an Englished Homer will make England walk tall and enflame the hearts of her people to acts of glory: Nor have we soules to purpose if their loves Of fitting objects be not so inflam'd. How much, then, were this kingdome's maine soule maim'd To want this great inflamer of all powers That move in humane soules? All Realmes but yours Are honor'd with him, and hold blest that State That have his workes to reade and contemplate? Inwhich Humanitie to her height is raisde, Which all theworld (yetnone enough) hath praisde. (32-40) About Homer's Muse, Chapman goes on to say: And see how like the Phoenix she renues Her age and starrie feathers in your sunne? Thousands of yeares attending, everie one Blowing theholy fireand throwing in Stephen Scully 149 Their seasons, kingdomes, nations that have bin Subverted in them; lawes, religions, all Offerd toChange and greedie Funerall, Yet still your Homer lasting, living, raigning, And proves how firme Truth builds inPoet's faining. (53-61)3 There is no collapsing of time, past and present, in Chap? man. And contrary toWalcott, who takes fromHomer the subverting passions of the human heart (even Troy was snuffed out by adultery, ancient wars never die), Chapman at the beginning of themodern era sees inHomer a bulwark against the human seasons "all /Offerd to Change and greedie Funerall," offering firmTruth instead bywhich even a new people under a new sun can build their ship of state and steer a noble course. Other twentieth-century poets draw fromHomer an even bleaker vision of despair than the one inWalcott's "Sea Grapes." A striking example is W. H. Auden's "The...