ホメロスにおける xeinos について-その2

Abstract

In the preceding paper (<xeinos> in Homer---(1)) I observed that "xeinos" in the Il. signifies A) "stranger, outlander", B) "guest", C) "one in guestfriendship" and D) "host". which holds true in the Od. as well. Though Homer uses words like "allognotos" "allodapos", "allothroos" and "allotrios", all meaning "outlander", approximately two-thirds of all the examples of "xeinos" in the Od. are used in the sense of A). But why does Homer prefer the word "xeinos"? Because "xeinos" has, at its core, the conceptional meaning of "a person not belonging to the same society as the speaker", which derivatives from "allo-" do not possess. "xeinos" has. by usage. at least three different levels to the meaning of "stranger, outlander". 1) As in 4.26 where only the fact that two outsiders have arrived is reported to Menelaos ; this usage could be called "neutral", where the outlanders are recognized merely as unknown people, without either prejudice or favour (cf. 4.28ff.). 2) In 1.119ff., Telemachos finds a foreigner (Athene-Mentes) standing in front of his door, welcomes and shows him careful consideration (cf. 1.133ff.). This attitude toward the foreigner reveals the norm of ethics generally accepted in Homeric society (cf. 14.402ff.), as seen in the expression "Zeus xeinios". Further examples can be found in the cases of Peisistratos, Eumaios and the Phaeacian nobles, who show their favour to foreigners before they are accepted as guests. "xeinos" in these contexts connotes a "positive" nuance. It should be noted, however, that 1) often developes into 2). as in the cases of Nausicaa in Book 6, of Arete in Book 7, who opens her lips only after a long silence, having judged Odysseus' personality from his speech, and of Penelope who in spite of her previous disappointment at false reports (cf. 19.309ff., 350ff.) dares to test Odysseus the beggar before accepting him as a guest (19.318ff.). 3) A distinctively "negative" attitude toward foreigners is to be discerned in the episodes of Polyphemos in Book 9 and of the Laistrygones in Book 10, both of whom maltreat and devour foreign outlanders : but the former is described as "athemistos" and without either "agora" or "agriculture" or "any means of communication with the outer world", while the latter live, so to speak. at the end of the world. To the audience of the epic the rude behaviour of such monsters must have been, in a sense, acceptable as characteristic of savages who lead lives far from civilized society. As to Penelope's suitors and their hangers-on, no excuse can be found for their attitudes toward Odysseus the beggar. for which they must pay with their lives. In their repeated maltreatment of the beggar (Antinoos' 17.375f., 446ff., 462ff., Eurymachos' 18.351ff., 357ff., 389ff., Melanthios' 17.372ff., 29.178f., Melantho's 18.327, 19.65f.) can be seen the "Steigerung" which intensifies not only the anger of the hero but also the resentment of the audience, leading in the end to the denouement of the hero's revenge upon his enemies in his homeland as well as to "katharsis" for the audience. Note should be taken of the fact that "positive" or "negative" attitudes toward foreign outlanders functioned also as a sign of "good" or "bad" characters to the Homeric audience, who did not read but listened. Though a word of Eumaios (17.382f.) dimly betrays the presence of unwelcoming feelings toward foreigners, the ideal of the belief in "Zeus xeinios" is made a point of elsewhere in the poem. This reminds us of Plato's description of Homer as "the educator of Greece" (Rep. 606E), for education is a belief in the realization of an ideal.