Abstract
Odysseus’ ethnographic digressions in books 9-12 of the Odyssey—the so-called Apologue—have served as the premier paradigm for mythic and actual ethnography from Herodotus through Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus, and more particularly, for the ‘I-witnessing approach’ of ethnography. Among the peoples and lands and styles of thinking he encountered (Odyssey 1.3), the hero also became acquainted with several islands. As microcosms of larger societies, islands furnish ‘master metaphors’ and models with which to think about culture. In this article I discuss three islands from the Apologue in the chronological order of Odysseus’ travels. They are inseparable from their geography and the personality and ‘life style’ of their inhabitants, as will be seen; these islands adumbrate the moral and gendered mythic cartography of Archaic Greece.
Highlights
Written in New Guinea and the Trobriand Islands in the years 1914-15 and 1917-18, Bronislaw Malinowski’s A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term has been described as an account of ‘the paradigm journey to the paradigm elsewhere’.3 In a slightly more fanciful sense, Odysseus’ long ethnographic excursi in books 9-12 of the Odyssey—the so-called Apologue—served as the premier paradigm for mythic and actual ethnography from Herodotus through Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus, 4 and more for what C
In what follows I discuss three islands from the Apologue in the chronological order of Odysseus’ travels. They are inseparable from their geography and the personality and ‘life style’ of their inhabitants, as will be seen; these islands adumbrate the moral and gendered mythic cartography of Archaic Greece
Kalypso’s and Kirke’s islands invite us to think about immobility, retardation, animal instincts, and regression, while Aiolie prompts thoughts in particular about the paradox of mental insularity and kinesis
Summary
Written in New Guinea and the Trobriand Islands in the years 1914-15 and 1917-18, Bronislaw Malinowski’s A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term has been described as an account of ‘the paradigm journey to the paradigm elsewhere’.3 In a slightly more fanciful sense, Odysseus’ long ethnographic excursi in books 9-12 of the Odyssey—the so-called Apologue—served as the premier paradigm for mythic and actual ethnography from Herodotus through Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus, 4 and more for what C. Νῆσον (‘the island of Aiaie’, 10.135).[21] Aiaie may be related to the word for Dawn (cf 12.1).[22] Kirke had solar associations worthy of a guardian of animals, especially game.[23] She was the daughter of the Sun
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