Avoiding hybris: Odysseus’ Encounter with Heracles in the Underworld

Andromache Karanika (University of California, Irvine)

In Odyssey 11, Odysseus goes to the Underworld and encounters other heroes, some of whom belong to prior mythic generations. This paper seeks to bring new light to the interpretation of the end of the Nekyia and explore how Odysseus has internalized lessons from the heroes of his past to establish his own position in the heroic world. Close linguistic analysis and an anthropological perspective can be useful when looking at the dynamics that are created in the scene of Odysseus’ encounter with Heracles. While for most of the heroes he uses the verb “eidon,” in the case of Heracles he carefully avoids any eye contact. Instead, Odysseus perceives the presence of a phantom of Heracles, as the real Heracles is on mount Olympus. The narrative constructs a situation in which Odysseus avoids direct eye contact, even though Heracles glares around. In this way, Odysseus aligns himself with what Perseus has done earlier, who in accordance with Athena’s admonition, avoided eye contact with Gorgo. The description of Heracles and the ekphrasis of his belt can be juxtaposed to the ekphrasis of Athena’s peplos, one that she herself made in the Iliad (5.733 ff), and her aegis which portrays Gorgo. There are striking linguistic similarities between Gorgo and Heracles, in an epic diction that conveys fear toward the viewers. Gorgo is even mentioned at the end of the two heroes’ meeting in the Odyssey (11.635); it is the possibility of an encounter with that ‘monster’ that makes Odysseus quickly disappear and abruptly end the narrative of the Underworld.

There is strong linguistic affinity between the effect of Heracles’ and Gorgo’s appearance in Odyssey 11, and the pseudo-hesiodic Shield. By looking at the typology of Gorgo’s description in epic poetry, I shall argue that this particular reference intensifies the narrative at the end of Odyssey 11 in a way that doesn’t just form a minor divergence but connects to other well known myths and cultural experiences of the intended audience. The reference to Gorgo in the end of Odyssey 11 is a moment of motif interference from one story to another. The story of Medusa and Perseus is subtly alluded to in the end of the Nekyia. The epic ideological background is a multi-layered one. The end of the Nekyia constructs careful allusion to other traditional epic narratives while also presenting familiarity with the cultural world of its intended audience. Each oral performance has a wide spectrum of referential capacities. Performers and audience engage in a negotiation process in which the first must adapt to the knowledge, expectation and background of the second. In such a process, there is huge potential for mythological intertextuality and cross-reference with other traditions. Such traditions can also apply to notional motifs and underlying ideologies. As I argue, Odysseus concludes his storytelling about his catabasis with an apotropaic allusion to Perseus and Gorgo’s head. A glorious exit from the Underworld would have been very dangerous for the hero. The fearful exit show an Odysseus who has internalized the most important lesson, if he wants to remain in life, reach an old age, and surpass with his life the death of those heroes he saw in the underworld. By leaving the way he did, he gives his audience a simple anthropological and ontological truth. He seals his performance about the catabasis and ensures the continuation of his identity as a hero by both satisfying the audience’s demand for a fearful moment, winning their sympathy, reaching an agonizing crescendo of the scene, and most important of all: by acknowledging deeply rooted traditions and practices around the power of Gorgo’s gaze he avoids hybris and the evil eye.