2. ΗΠΙΟΣ

The word ēpios appears in another passage in which a man’s trust of a woman is the issue. When Odysseus has his initial interview with Circe she is surprised at his insusceptibility to her drugs, assumes that he must be Odysseus, and invites him to her bed: {17|18} Odysseus answers: Not only is she still his enemy until she has released his men and sworn to use no more magic against him, but she is more powerful than he. He cannot assume towards her the role of the head of the family since he cannot count on her like-mindedness with himself.

We are now in a position to appreciate the irony in the speech of the suitor Agelaos. Telemachos has just demanded that the suitors not mistreat the guest in his house. His position as head of the household is ambiguous, as he makes clear. He is no longer nēpios; he can recognize good and evil, but he does not have the power, being one against many, to prevent the suitors’ eating of his goods (xx 309–313). Agelaos diplomatically advises the suitors not to continue being rude, and then says that he will speak a muthon ēpion (“an ēpios speech,” xx 326–327) to Telemachos and his mother. That is, Agelaos will assume the role of the head of the household and advise them. That is precisely the role he is there to win anyway, and his advice is, of course, that Odysseus will not return home and that Penelope should marry.

The person who is called ēpios more than anyone else in the Iliad or Odyssey is Eumaios, Odysseus’s swineherd. [4] Athene has told Odysseus: Athene repeats this advice to Telemachos (xv 38–39), and he too goes first to the swineherd. The fifteenth book of the Odyssey ends with Telemachos’s arrival: Not only is Eumaios himself called ēpios, but he was the beneficiary of ēpios treatment by Laertes. Odysseus says after hearing his story: Since the word ēpios is associated with the heads of households, it is hardly surprising that a master’s behavior toward his servant should be described as ēpios. Indeed, Eumaios compares his master Odysseus to his own parents: What is perhaps surprising is that a servant should be called ēpios toward his master. But Eumaios is not distinguished by this epithet alone. He is called dion uphorbon (“noble swineherd.” xiv 3, etc.), orchamos andrōn (“leader of men,” xiv 22, xx 185, etc.; also of Philoitios, another faithful retainer), and he receives attributes that are ordinarily reserved for kings, for example: Compare, in the description of the just king:

The importance of faithful, or trustworthy, servants in the plot of the Odyssey is obvious, and the chief such servant is Eumaios. Odysseus goes first to Eumaios. The last thing he does is to reveal himself to his own father Laertes. Telemachos too comes first to the hut of Eumaios and only later to his own home. Eumaios is their ally not because he is kind or gentle but because he has the interests of his masters at heart. He is connected to them in being like-minded with them, and it is through Eumaios that Odysseus and Telemachos become reconnected with home and family.

Eumaios has a female counterpart in the nurse Eurykleia. [5] She too possesses “upper-class” qualities. Penelope accuses her of having lost her wits when she announces the return of Odysseus and says: Like Eumaios, Eurykleia is more trusted and easier of approach for Odysseus and Telemachos than Penelope. It is to her that Telemachos tells of his intended journey to Pylos and Sparta, and it is her aid that he enlists. Odysseus reveals himself to her before he makes himself known to Penelope. Eurykleia had been bought by Laertes, who honored her as his wife but did not have intercourse with her (i 430–433). Thus she was disconnected from her parents and, presumably a virgin, also disconnected from husband or child of her own. She is a barren mother-figure in the household. [6]

Can we see in Eumaios a kind of sterile father-figure? A clearly delineated sterile father-figure does exist in the Iliad in the person of Phoinix. He was disconnected from his own family, both parents and hope of offspring, by his father’s curse (IX 453–457). He nurtured Achilles when he was a baby (IX 485–495), and goes along with him to Troy because Achilles is still nēpios, and has yet to learn to be a speaker of words and a doer of deeds (IX 438–443). Twice in the Iliad Phoinix is addressed as atta, and he is the only person in the Iliad so addressed. Benveniste speaks of a second Indo-European word meaning “father,” namely the word of which the Greek reflex is atta. [7] He argues “atta doit être le ‘père nourricier,’ celui qui élève l’enfant.” Phoinix is, clearly, just such a foster-father.

The only person in the Odyssey to be called atta is Eumaios. Furthermore, he too has been disconnected, by kidnapping when he was a small child, from his parents (xv 403 ff.). He too is without a family of his own, as we know from his remark that if Odysseus had come home he would have given him land and a wife (xiv 62–64). We do not hear of him nurturing baby Odysseus or baby Telemachos, but he nurtures them as adults, on their return to Ithake. What Odysseus says of Eumaios he could say as well of himself: Laertes had graciously received Eumaios, who becomes a father-like figure for Odysseus, just as Peleus had graciously received Phoinix and loved him, as Phoinix says: We have, then, in the figures of Eumaios and Phoinix, someone who is an intermediary between a hero and his father, or in the case of Eurykleia, an intermediary between the hero and his mother or wife. Eumaios is like a father, but he is not a father. He is, also, especially ēpios. [8] His function, in terms of the plot, is to reconnect Odysseus and Telemachos to their home—by providing food and shelter, by keeping their interests at heart, and by knowing what is aisima, properly allotted.

During the funeral games for Patroklos, Achilles and his horses do not compete, but stand apart. Achilles says of the horses: Patroklos is the one who takes care of the horses. He is not just kind to them; he is the link between them and their martial function. The phrase ēpia pharmaka (“ēpios medicines” or “drugs”) appears three times in the Iliad: [9] It is clear, from the first and third passages, that the procedure was to wash with water and then to apply drugs. The horses grieve for Patroklos who washed them and anointed them with oil. They are not grieving because they miss their water and oil, however, but because they miss Patroklos. Similarly, when Eurypylos detains Patroklos to tend his wound (XI 823–836) it is not that he wants water and drugs, applied by whoever is handy, but he needs Patroklos who has a special knowledge of their use. The epithet ēpios has been transferred from the physician to the drugs themselves. Compare pharmaka mētioenta (“wise drugs,” iv 227). Patroklos has received his knowledge of ēpia pharmaka from Achilles, who received it from Cheiron, “most righteous of the Centaurs.” In the context of Cheiron, as with Nereus, the just king, and the foster-parent figures Eurykleia and Eumaeos, the qualities of being ēpios and of being just come together. Furthermore, Cheiron’s mythological function was, among other things, to be a tutor—that is, a substitute father—for various heroes, among them Jason, Herakles, Asklepios, and Achilles. [10] The ēpios drugs, in addition, are {23|24} restorative; they heal the wounded and reconnect them with life. The horses of Achilles, who have lost their ēpios horseman, have become disconnected from their former function. They take no part in the games, but stand aside and mourn.

The word ēpios is especially associated with fathers, or fatherly behavior. In a few instances it is also associated with mothers. For instance, Hekabe is called Hektor’s ēpiodōros mētēr (“mother giving ēpios things,” VI 251). Hesiod uses the phrase ēpion ēmar (“an ēpios day” Works and Days 787), and also characterizes days as mothers: Here the sense of having one’s interests at heart, of like-mindedness, seems predominant.