(Re-)describing Odysseus:
Homer and the Human Ecphrasis

Cassandra Borges (University of Michigan)

The study of ecphrasis in Homeric epic has generally focused on the techniques of description as they are applied to material objects within the poems: the shield of Achilles, the bed of Odysseus, and the like.  Though the Iliad and the Odyssey are replete with ecphrases proper—that is, rhetorically polished descriptions of physical objects—we must remember that Homer, like Pindar after him, was no carver of motionless statues (Nemean 5.1).  The Homeric epics contain equally important, rhetorically polished descriptions of characters’ physical appearance—and no character is described more often than Odysseus.  Once in the Iliad and repeatedly in the Odyssey, the hero’s image is presented to us—or more precisely images, for Odysseus has an uncanny tendency to look different as the situation requires, and to be described physically in the terms that suit the moment.  Antenor, Athena, and Odysseus all engage in the process of re-describing Odysseus, whether literally or through well-chosen words; Odysseus proves to be the master of the latter, thus effectively rendering his actual appearance irrelevant.  In short, when Athena is not transforming him, he is quite capable of doing the job himself, both in the Iliad and in the Odyssey.  The way in which the Muse tells of a man is, on the whole, very much analogous to the way in which she tells of any other object that is the focus of a gaze: the poet takes us through a sequence either of crafting the object or viewing the object.  It has been suggested that Homer assigns himself the role of the viewer, but this is not the whole story; indeed, Homer sometimes goes out of his way to provide viewers, either as mirrors for himself or as mediators between the re-described Odysseus and his “real” audience.  In either case, Odysseus becomes, for the brief space of the ecphrasis, an object to be evaluated in physical terms.