Style and Construction, Sound and Rhythm: Thetis' Supplication to Zeus ( Iliad 1.493-516)

Abstract

The present study aims to explicate the style of a specific passage in Book 1 of the Iliad with the intention of offering a model for a close reading of Homeric poetry that is also suitable for the classroom. I should make it clear from the outset that I am not proposing new ways of reading epic but rather applying some of the rich harvest of recent scholarship to illuminate a specific passage, namely Thetis’ supplication to Zeus in Iliad 1. The importance of this scene for Iliad 1 and, subsequently, for the poem as a whole makes it an ideal place to begin. Although the Iliad moves on various levels and rotates between different poles, 1 one set of boundaries is Thetis’ supplication to Zeus (forming the last part of the scene that begins with the meeting between herself and Achilles in Book 1), and Priam’s supplication to Achilles in Book 24 (which brings the epic to a close). Thetis’ supplication also functions as a nucleus, introducing themes that run through the entire epic. Its importance lies in its hybrid nature since it operates as a miniature model or paradigm, presenting for the first time themes which continue to evolve and create larger units. Some of these themes are Achilles’ short life span, his liminality 1 I am not inclined to see a single thematic thread upon which the Iliad is composed and developed: anger, lament, supplication are among the most important structural threads permeating the entire poem. Recent attempts to highlight one of these themes while underestimating the others are bound to be one-sided once we acknowledge the multifariousness of the epic as well as the presence of many aspects which create an exploding poetic and aesthetic polysemy.