Homer and the Poetics of Gesture by Alex C. Purves

Abstract

Reviewed by: Homer and the Poetics of Gesture by Alex C. Purves Christos Tsagalis Alex C. Purves. Homer and the Poetics of Gesture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. xiii, 214. $74.00. ISBN 978-0-19-085792-9. Gesture in Homer has been studied before. D. Lateiner's Sardonic Smile: Non-Verbal Behavior in Homeric Epic (Ann Arbor 1995), to state one well-known book, explores the "silent language" of characters, especially in the Odyssey, bringing into the limelight the wealth of body-language and non-verbal forms of communication employed in Homeric epic. Purves' book goes a step further, and indeed an important step it is. By arguing that gestures in Homeric epic "function simultaneously as kinetic reflexes for the hero and aesthetic reflexes for the poet," Purves shows that body-language operates on both the individual and the generic level. The author seeks to identify underlying patterns of kinetic behavior that behave more or less like verbal formulas. They, too, are marked by the tension between what is expected according to an epic "kinetic grammar" and the divergence or aberration from that norm. This interpretive course allows Purves to trace a sort of "kinetic interaction" between the gestures of given characters either within the same Homeric epic or across the Iliad and the Odyssey. Although I would have liked to see this method applied to some important gesture-oriented moments in the Epic Cycle (moments that resonate in Homeric epic as well), I can say up front that Purves has succeeded in opening new perspectives on a "kinetic set of patterns," i.e., a sub-category of a "grammar of space," which is systematically employed throughout the Iliad and the Odyssey. I will now focus on three chief examples of Purves' analysis, which is structured as a horizontal study of five distinct forms of kinetic behavior (corresponding to individual chapters of her book): falling, running, leaping, standing, and reaching. Whereas "falling" for mortals signifies death, a standard motif in a principally martial epic like the Iliad, "falling" for gods pertains to their active involvement in the plot, when they descend from their divine abode and mingle with humans. In this light, "falling" has a stereotypical function within the Iliad. At the same time, "divine falling" acquires a special function, which displays a level of sophistication that marks the Iliad as the celebrated epic it has always been. The gods' knees may collapse (so Hephaestus in Books 1 and 18, Ares in Books 5 and 21, Aphrodite in Book 21),1 but since death is not a narrative option for them, the Iliad exploits the one possibility that keeps alive [End Page 116] their potential to fall. Zeus, the one god who never appears on the battlefield of Troy, threatens to hurl all the gods who disobey him into Tartarus (8.13); he tosses Ate by the hair (19.130-131); he tries to throw out Hypnos (14.258); and he reminds Hera that he had hung her from on high, with anvils on her feet and unbreakable bonds around her hands (15.18-21). Purves has built a strong case for the co-existence within the Iliad of a system used for mortal and divine "falling," as well as a transgression of this system by means of a curtailed falling, i.e., divine suspension. Achilles' stillness for two thirds of the Iliad is counterbalanced by his quickness of movement in the last, climactic third. This is the part of the poem where he becomes "swift-footed Achilles" (πόδας ὠκὺς Ἀχιλλεύς). Purves observes that Achilles' running in this last third takes the form of chasing: first, he chases the panic-stricken Trojans, then Agenor, and finally Hector himself, who is "shackled by fate" (Iliad 22.5). The contrast between running and standing still will soon give way to Achilles' all too real chase of Hector around the walls of Troy. Purves shows that "the kinetic aspects" of this part of the poem, culminating in the dramatic duel between Achilles and Hector, have been prepared by means of a "kinetic recall" of Iliad 6,2 where Hector is again found at the Scaean Gates, his brother Paris joining him as they...