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Classical Studies Faculty Research Classical Studies Department

1992

The Ferrymen of Elysium: Nostratic Eschatology

and the Homeric Phaeacians
Erwin F. Cook
Trinity University, [email protected]

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Repository Citation
Cook, E. (1992) The Ferrymen of Elysium: Nostratic Eschatology and the Homeric Phaeacians. The Journal of Indo-European Studies,
20(3-4), 239-267.

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 THE FERRYMEN OF ELYSIUM:
NOSTRATIC ESCHATOLOGY AND THE HOMERIC PHAEACIANS1

Belief that the Homeric Phaeacians belong to the afterlife is old; but its supporters
have always found themselves in the minority. Friedrich Welcker, who first argued the
point in 1833, held that the Phaeacians were ferrymen of the dead, and that Scheria was
set in or near Elysium.2 Wilamowitz accepted Welcker's identification of the Phaeacians,
and maintained that Arete and Alcinous were modelled on the underworld rulers
Persephone and Hades.3 Rehearsal of the arguments advanced by these scholars reveals
that the evidence has been incompletely and on occasion incorrectly applied; however, a
modified version of their theory is still viable and can be used to resolve a number of
traditional cruces in the interpretation.
Welcker and his followers have used evidence linking Scheria with either
Elysium or Hades to support their equation of Scheria with Hades. There is no difficulty
with the assumption that a single narrative can exhibit features of both Elysium and
Hades. The Odyssey itself provides at least two other examples in which this occurs:
Ogygia and Aeaea are to be identified as Islands of the Blessed, but the events which
transpire on them are derived from Catabasis myths.4 The chief difficulty with Welcker's
argument lies in his conclusion that Scheria is essentially a Hades-allomorph. In reaching
this conclusion he was guided by a further assumption, namely that otherworldly
Ferrymen can only belong to Hades. This assumption has never been questioned,
although there are valid reasons to do so.
We shall attempt to demonstrate from the internal evidence of the poem that a
more successful reading of the Phaiakis results if we identify Scheria with Elysium, while
granting that the narrative is also colored by Hades typology. We shall also use the Indo-
European (IE) and Near Eastern (NE) comparanda to support our interpretation. One NE
account, the Utnapishtim episode of the Epic of Gilgamesh, may in fact be the ultimate
source for the Phaiakis. Much of this material was of course unavailable to Welcker and
Wilamowitz, and has never been applied to the discussion. Yet it is only through the
comparanda that we can fully appreciate the significance of the ships in this episode: the
Phaeacians are the ferrymen of Elysium, not of Hades. Finally, our review of the
comparative evidence will also cast doubt on the widely held belief that Elysium was
imported from another East-Mediterranean culture.
The issue of textual motivation is never addressed by Welcker or Wilamowitz and
is doubtless in some measure responsible for the skepticism which has generally greeted
their reading of the Phaiakis. A motivation can easily be supplied, however, for

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representing the Phaeacians as ferrymen, be they ferrymen of Hades or, as we have
suggested, of Elysium. It is well recognized that Scheria functions as a border realm
between the enchanted world of the Apologue and the world of Greek experience.5
Homer, by this line of analysis, appropriated the motif of otherworldly ferrymen in order
to escort Odysseus on a journey which involves passage from one realm to another. Put
differently, the fact that Odysseus must rely on a magical escort to reach Ithaca indicates
that the boundaries separating these realms were uncrossable under normal
circumstances. The enchanted world is no less difficult to leave than Scheria itself is to
reach - indeed, in the logic of myth, the two ideas are identical. The mountain with
which Poseidon encloses the city of the Phaeacians represents this same difficulty in
absolute terms.6
We may take this somewhat further. Odysseus' journey to the underworld
provides the structural and thematic climax to the Apologue.7 And more than one scholar
has held that, with the exception of the Ciconians, each of Odysseus' adventures are
multiforms of this single journey.8 Yet as we have already mentioned Odysseus spends
eight of his ten-years of wandering on Islands of the Blessed governed by Circe and
Calypso, so that it would be more accurate to say that the enchanted world belongs to the
Jenseits.9 But whether we associate Scheria with Hades or Elysium, the motif of
otherworldly ferrymen would have lain near to hand when Homer came to effect
Odysseus' escape from the enchanted world.

1) The evidence of the Odyssey

We begin with the internal evidence of the poem for relating Scheria to Elysium.
Like Elysium, Scheria is portrayed as a remote and inaccessible Paradise. Nausicaa and
the poet, speaking voce propria, remark that Scheria is far distant from the human
community, with which the Phaeacians have virtually no contact (6.8, 6.203-5, 6.279,
7.320-4).10 Like the temporally remote Golden-Race and the topographically remote
Ethiopians, the Phaeacians enjoy close communion with the gods (5.35=19.279 ajgcivqeoi,
6.203, 7.199-203; cf. 6.12, 6.241, 6.280-1) and fabulous wealth (5.38f., 6.308-9, 7. 86-92
and 98-102). In order to reach Scheria in safety, Odysseus requires the assistance of
three different deities: Ino-Leucothea, Athena and an unnamed river-god. Gabriel
Germain, although he rejects the identification of Scheria with the Jenseits, puts it best:
"Schérie se montre pour Ulysse, comme pour le commun des mortels, un pays d' accès
difficile, presque interdit."11 Their magnificent, emphasized, and utterly useless walls
merely overdetermine this fact (6.9, 6.262-3, 7.44-5).
Proteus describes Elysium to Menelaus in some detail at the end of their

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consultation (4.563-9); and it is well recognized that his words are echoed in the poet's
own description of Alcinous' garden a mere three books later (7.112-31). Of special
interest is the prominence of the west-wind, Zephyr, in both passages and its unique
characterization as a gentle, pleasant breeze. Elsewhere in Homer, Zephyr "is regarded
as a disagreeable ... storm-wind."12 The poet also remarks that Alcinous' garden is
watered by a double spring (7.129-31), whose possible significance will become apparent
in the discussion of the comparative material. For the present note that while it is hardly
surprising that the Phaeacians founded their city near a supply of fresh-water, the text
emphasizes the spring by giving it special characteristics and devoting a full three verses
to it.13
More important, Proteus tags Elysium with the presence of Rhadamanthys, whom
the Phaeacians once conveyed to 'far distant Euboea' (7.317-28). There is little to be said
for the claim that the Phaeacians provided escort to Rhadamanthys in this life rather than
the next.14 The audience has just heard an ecphrasis on Elysium which corresponds
exactly with Alcinous' garden and has also learnt - or been reminded - that Rhadamanthys
dwells there. As Nilsson remarks: "gerade die kürze des Ausdrucks oJvqi zanqo;"
15
ÔRadamavnqu" (d 564) zeigt, daß es eine typische, wohlbekannte Verbindung war."
When the audience presently learns that Rhadamanthys had asked the Phaeacians for
escort they would naturally assume that Scheria was situated near or within the Elysian
plain.16 These are incidentally the only two references to Rhadamanthys in the Odyssey
and indeed in all of extant archaic literature, and Homer is the only classical author at any
date to mention Rhadamanthys' escort by the Phaeacians.17 Moreover, neither of these
references to Rhadamanthys in the Odyssey serve an obvious plot function, yet together
they indicate in programatic fashion that he lives on Elysium and near Scheria. It seems
inherently plausible that the story of Rhadamanthys' journey was an ad hoc invention
designed to link Scheria to Elysium and that mention of Rhadamanthys' whereabouts in
book four was meant to prepare for that link.18
In later myth at least, Rhadamanthys enjoys an otherworldly function analogous
to that of his brother Minos, judging the dead. Just as Alcinous' reference to
Rhadamanthys places Scheria in the vicinity of Elysium, his further remark that
Rhadamanthys went to Euboea to 'look-in-on' Tityos would seem to allude to this
tradition.19 As Gregor Nitzsch (who was among the first to refute Welcker's theory)
remarks: "Kann bei aller variation im Gebrauch das Wort [i.e. ejpoyovmenon] doch
schwerlich ein blosses Besuchen bezeichnen; verlangt es einen Gegenstand für Augen
und Sinn von irgendwie besonderem Interesse: dann weiss ich nicht anders zu deuten, als
dass Tityos, der Frevler, entweder auf Euböa gestraft lag, oder ein merkwürdiges

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Unwesen trieb."20 Odysseus tells his Phaeacian hosts that he had seen Minos in Hades
passing out judgements among the dead, and Tityos suffering eternal torment for his
attempted rape of Leto. Had Rhadamanthys gone to 'fetch' Tityos for his brother? Be
that as it may, Rhadamanthys' request goes somewhat further than locating the
Phaeacians in the general vicinity of Elysium, and depicts them as providing, indeed as
the ones who provide, conveyance between it and the world of the living. It is worth
remembering that Odysseus, like Rhadamanthys, has been living on an Island of the
Blessed for the past seven years. By navigating his craft according to Calypso's
instructions and propelled by a breeze sent by the goddess herself, Odysseus reaches
Scheria whose inhabitants escort him to his home in the phenomenal world (5.268-81).
Rhadamanthys' whereabouts and activities suggest that we locate Scheria in or
near Elysium, and the fact that Rhadamanthys turned to the Phaeacians for escort to
Euboea further suggests that they serve as ferrymen between realms. The description of
their ships and of the use to which those ships are put lend additional support to our claim
that the Phaeacians are otherworldly ferrymen. The ships are sentient: they require no
pilot since 'they aim themselves with their wits ... and know the cities and fields of all
men' (8.556-61). The crew of the ship which brings Odysseus home even know the
harbor of Phorcys on Ithaca (13.113). The ships of the Phaeacians also travel at
supernatural speed (7.319-26 and 13.86-7). It is this which gives force to the simile
comparing the speed of their ships to that of thought (7.36).21 On the other hand, the
Phaeacians themselves do not engage in commerce, and are clearly not fishermen, yet
they are the quintessential sailors (7.327-8, 8.253), and sailing numbers among their chief
and favorite pastimes (6.270-2). The sole remaining use which the Phaeacians have for
their ships is to provide conveyance: it is, so to speak, their job. Could the poet be more
direct when he has Alcinous say: pompoi; ajphvmonev" eijmen aJpavntwn? (8.566; cf. 7.191-6,
8.31-3 and 13.174).
The Phaeacians are ferrymen who live in the vicinity of Elysium and pilot
supernatural ships. Two further characteristics of the ships suggest that the Phaeacians
use them to cross the waters that separate this life from the next. Together with his first
offer of pompe, Alcinous mentions the mysterious sleep that will overtake Odysseus as he
travels aboard the Phaeacian craft (7.318-9). Arete refers to his sleep for a second time
when she advises Odysseus to secure his belongings lest they be stolen in the course of
the journey (8.445). Note the ritualistic solemnity which attends upon Odysseus'
departure:

ka;d∆ d∆ a[r∆ ∆Odussh''i stovresan rJh'gov" te livnon te

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 nho;" ejp∆ ijkriovfin glafurh'", i{na nhvgreton eu{doi,
prumnh'". a]n de; kai; aujto;" ejbhvseto kai; katevlekto
sigh/': toi; de; kaqi'zon ejpi; klhi'sin e{kastoi
kovsmw/, pei'sma d∆ e[lusan ajpo; trhtoi'o livqoio.
(13.73-6).22

Of particular significance is i{na nhvgreton eu{doi in verse seventy-four. The phrase is

echoed, and hence emphasized, a mere five lines later with nhvgreto" h{disto", qanavtw/
a[gcista ejoikwv" 'a [sleep] most sweet, one that knows no awakening and bears the closest
resemblance to death' (13.79-80). And Homer mentions Odysseus' sleeping three more
times in the verses that follow (13.92 ajtrevma" eu|de, 13.119 dedmhmevnon u{pnw/, 13.134-6.
Odysseus repeats the latter verses when he describes his journey to Telemachus in
Eumaeus' hut: 16.229-31 ~ 13.134-6). From that sleep Odysseus does not awake even as
he is lifted from the ship and placed on the shores of Ithaca.
When, for the second time, Alcinous offers pompe to Odysseus, he declares that
the ships of the Phaeacians travel swiftly across the sea, 'enshrouded by cloud and mist'
hjevri kai; nefevlh/ kekalummevnai (8.562). The phrase occurs once more in the Odyssey,
where it is applied to the city of the Cimmerians which lies on the border of Hades
(11.15).23 Odysseus' journey begins at sunset and ends at dawn, a fact of which he seems
fully aware although it is stated explicitly by no one (13.28ff. and 93-5). And it is clear
that Odysseus' experiences are typical of all those whom the Phaeacians convey. Thus,
whatever the true etymology of 'Phaiax' may be, there can be but little doubt that to
Homer and his audience the word meant 'the Dark One.'24
Mist and darkness is a recurrent image of the Phaiakis. When Odysseus
approaches Scheria, he first catches sight of its 'shadowy mountains, rising from a misty
sea' (5.278-81), a fact which he mentions to Alcinous (7.267-8 = 5.278-9). On five
occasions in book seven, the poet refers to the mist which hides Odysseus as he makes
his way to the home of Alcinous. As Odysseus enters the city of the Phaeacians, Athena
'pours a heavy mist about him,' pollh;n hjevra (7.14-5). Athena greets Odysseus disguised
as a Phaeacian maiden, whereupon she 'pours down upon him a marvellous mist,' ajclu;n |
qespesivhn (7.41-2). When Odysseus enters the palace, the Phaeacians are pouring
libations to Hermes, the god who crosses borders between realms, 'to whom they were
accustomed to make their final libation before retiring to bed' (7.136-8). The poet
carefully reminds us that Odysseus is still covered in the 'heavy mist which Athena had
poured all around him; but when he placed his hands upon the knees of Arete, the divine
mist (qevsfato" ajhvr) parted and everyone gazed at him in silence' (7.140-4). The 'divine

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mist' by which Athena smuggles Odysseus into the palace reinforces a distinguishing
attribute of the Phaeacians by making it a leitmotif of the narrative.
These images of mist and darkness from book seven are embedded in the account
of Odysseus' entry into the house of Alcinous. The nearest analogue in Homer to this
account comes from book twenty-four of the Iliad, where Hermes safely smuggles Priam
into Achilles' tent. It has even been argued that the Odyssey is here modelled upon the
Iliadic episode. Leaving aside the question of priority, there is a growing consensus
among scholars that Priam's journey to bring back the corpse of his son represents a
symbolic Catabasis.25 The mist itself, together with the fact that Odysseus requires
divine assistance in order to reach Alcinous' home in safety, would be entirely
appropriate if we are to see the episode as a multiform of the Catabasis myth. We have
then an explanation for Homer's repeated warning that the Phaeacians are inhospitable to
strangers, a warning which "seems very programmatic, yet it turns out to be without
point" - at least on the surface level of the narrative.26
Odysseus encounters 'gold and silver dogs on either side of the doorway, which
Hephaestus had fashioned to guard the home of Alcinous; immortal dogs they were, and
ageless always' (7.91-4).27 Odysseus also encounters dogs as he approaches the hut of
Eumaeus and his own home on Ithaca, so that one might be inclined to see Alcinous' dogs
as nothing more than a common element of arrival scenes. However, no mention is made
of dogs when Telemachus arrives at Pylus or Sparta, so the motif is not invariable. And
while guard-dogs are to be expected in the case of Eumaeus, who raises pigs in the
country, Alcinous has no more need of such protection than do Nestor or Menelaus. On
the other hand, dogs are regularly said to guard the home of the rulers of the underworld,
nor is the motif entirely lacking from accounts of the blessed afterlife (for which,see
below).
Although the Greeks only spoke of a single hellhound, Cerberus, the comparative
evidence reveals that IE myth originally knew of two.28 Unfortunately, Homer does not
indicate how many dogs stood guard before Alcinous' home. He does, however, arrange
them heraldically about the entrance, and elsewhere in the Odyssey, such flanking figures
regularly come in pairs.29 Homer also says that the dogs were fashioned out of gold and
silver. They would thus seem to be dappled, and according to a widely accepted
etymology, the original IE hellhound was in fact called 'Spot.'30
If Odysseus' entry into the palace is indeed a Catabasis, then we may fairly expect
him to encounter characters resembling Hades and Persephone. To be sure, the unusual
authority exercised by Arete on Scheria, often at the expense of her husband, led
Wilamowitz to conclude that she was an hypostasis of Persephone.31 Although I accept

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Wilamowitz' conclusion, it is to be admitted that other interpretations are possible, and to
some degree unquestionably correct. Most important, the Phaiakis serves to foreshadow
the events which will transpire on Ithaca, so that Arete is influenced by Penelope.32
Penelope's own stature is, of course, readily explained by her situation and requires no
recourse to theories of faded hypostases. On the other hand, this reading still leaves
Arete unexplained within the context of the Phaiakis itself. Arete's unmotivated
prominence constitutes a genuine imperfection in the poem if we are to account for it
solely with the mechanics of structural parallelism. So much then is gained if we
conclude that Homer's Arete owes something to an association of Scheria with the death
realm, although the association itself must be proven on different grounds.
The parallels that link Calypso and Circe ultimately support our reading of the
passage from Odyssey seven as a Catabasis.33 Indeed, the similarity between the two
nymphs is so close that scholars have not hesitated to claim that one was derived from the
other.34 These parallels are reflected in the internal structure of the episodes.35 Homer
does not tell the story of Odysseus' initial encounter with Calypso, but he does provide a
scene in which Odysseus compels her 'to swear a mighty oath' not to resort to trickery in
assisting his escape from Ogygia, just as he had earlier forced Circe to swear not to
unman him when naked.36 The threat, common to either episode, consists of food which
will render Odysseus sub- or super- human. In the Circe-episode, the oath is preceded by
the assistance of Hermes, with which Odysseus is able to resist the goddess' drugs. In the
Calypso-episode, Hermes acts directly in Odysseus' stead, so that a scene is introduced in
which the goddess is overcome before offering assistance. If the poet felt obliged to
include such a scene, then Hermes is an elegant solution to the problem posed by
Odysseus' unsuitability for the role assigned him by the mythic archetype.
Recent scholarship has shown that Circe and Calypso belong to a larger class of
littoral females which includes Eidothea and Siduri, among others (see below). Most
important, Circe and Calypso both act as facilitators sending Odysseus on voyages which
take him to Hades and Scheria respectively. Thus, the parallels observed within the Circe
and Calypso episodes extend beyond them; and we should note in this context that the
organization of the narrative isolates the Calypso-episode from the rest of the Apologue,
so that it introduces the Phaiakis. Circe and Calypso are generic equivalents serving
identical narrative functions; Scheria is related to Hades, at least structurally. But what
exactly does this association prove? Certainly that Scheria is in some sense analogous to
Hades. Yet the analogy holds whether we relate Scheria to Hades or to Elysium, so that
it remains unclear on structural grounds whether Circe and Calypso both send Odysseus
to Hades, or whether the one nymph sends him to Hades, the other to Elysium.

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2) The comparative evidence
a) Welcker's Teutonische Todtenschiffer
Welcker argued that the Phaeacians were modelled on an actual historical people
who lived at the mouth of the Rhine and conveyed the souls of the dead to the world
beyond. He based his claim on the fact that our sources, Procopius and Tzetzes, mention
not only the actual ferrymen but an island of the dead, Brittia, which would correspond to
Elysium or the Islands of the Blessed.37 Our sources mention three other characteristics
which these ferrymen have in common with the Phaeacians: voyage by night, rowing
instead of sailing, and the supernatural speed of their ships.
Both of the key elements of this story, ships and a Land of the Dead, occur
independently in Germanic tradition, but so far as I am aware, these are the only passages
in which they are explicitly connected. Ship-burials, for example, are well attested both
in northern folklore and in the archaeological record.38 The ship, or boat, may serve as a
coffin or funeral pyre, or be launched into the sea. The purpose of the craft is obvious: it
conveys the deceased to the world beyond the grave. On the other hand, the Hervarar
Saga speaks of Fields of the Blessed, one of which is called 'the Field of the Not-Dead';
and in other accounts we also hear of Islands of the Blessed.39 The god Ó∂inn appears as
a ferryman of the dead in 'The Lay of Hárbarth' in which he refuses to provide
conveyance to Thórr, his rival.40 In this account, Thórr is journeying neither to or from
the underworld but is on his way home, to ˆsgard, after doing battle in the land of the
giants. 'The Lay of Hárbarth' thus provides an analogy for the transferred application of
the ferryman motif which is found by our analysis in the Homeric Phaiakis.
Procopius tells us that Brittia is divided by a wall, on whose eastern side the
inhabitants enjoy a temperate climate, bounteous earth, and abundant springs of water
(u{dasin hJ cwvra ejnabrunomevnh diarkw'" faivnetai). Snakes and other wild animals populate
the western side, however, and its atmosphere is so noxious that both man and beast die
instantly. The crass opposition between the climates on either side of the wall, together
with the wall itself, are known from other accounts which can further adumbrate our
picture of the Germanic afterlife. One of the tales of Hadding includes an underworld
journey through mists to a sunny, fertile region in which herbs are able to grow in mid-
winter.41 The place is bordered by a torrential river on the other side of which armies of
dead soldiers wage eternal war. Beyond this second region lies a wall impossible to
cross. In the story of Thórr's battle with the Giant Geirrø∂, the division of the underworld
is represented by two kingdoms, separated once more by a torrential river. On one side
are green meadows, on the other a land full of decay.42 These accounts demonstrate

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Germanic belief in a sharply polarized Jenseits belonging to the phenomenal world. And
the grave offerings provide further evidence that the departed were thought to continue
their physical existence and to have the same needs as the living.43
The strongest single point of contact between the tradition recorded in Tzetzes
and Procopius and the Homeric Phaeacians remains the fact that the Germanic tradition is
virtually alone in speaking of ferrymen of the dead. Of course, this may not be used as
evidence for linking the two, since it presupposes the identification of the Phaeacians that
it is meant to support. To be sure, the concept of a lone ferryman of the dead recurs in
the eschatology of numerous cultures, both IE and non-IE, although the Greek Charon is
first attested in the fifth century B.C.44
Welcker's theory that the Homeric Phaeacians were modeled on the Germanic
ferrymen of the dead met with almost universal rejection even in his own day.45 Yet
granted that his actual conclusion is untenable, it is worth separating the strands of his
original argument: Welcker held that the Phaeacians were ferrymen of the dead, and that
the tradition had Germanic origins. We need not accept the latter claim to entertain the
former. Moreover, even if we reject the theory that northern legend supplied the actual
motif of ferrymen of the dead, the account supplied by Procopius and Tzetzes would still
be a valid comparandum provided we have some grounds for supposing that it belongs to
a larger IE tradition.
Before proceeding then, let us examine some further parallels to the Greek
Elysium. We shall see that the polarized view of the afterlife found in Germanic and
Greek myth does indeed belong to an IE tradition in which Hades or its equivalent fell to
the lot of the common man, while Paradise was originally reserved for royalty. On the
other hand, the afterlife of Egyptian and Sumero-Akkadian literature was closely similar
to the IE. The similarity of conception makes borrowings across cultures possible and in
some cases demonstrable. This is of some importance for our discussion of the Phaiakis,
since as we have mentioned there are reasons to suppose that the Homeric account is
dependent on the Utnapishtim episode of the Epic of Gilgamesh. And Utnapishtim
inhabits an otherworldly Paradise resembling Elysium.

b) Nilsson's Egyptian Elysium

Martin P. Nilsson held that Elysium and Hades represent contradictory beliefs in
the afterlife. From this he inferred that Elysium had been appropriated from another
culture.46 Since he was able to find several points of contact between the blessed afterlife
of the Greeks and the Egyptians, Nilsson concluded that the ultimate source for Elysium
was Egypt by way of Minoan Crete. His argument bears a certain resemblance to

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Welcker's, namely that the blessed afterlife of the Egyptians was set on islands graced
with a plenitude of food and reached on board ships piloted by an otherworldly ferryman.
In addition, the Egyptian afterlife constitutes a denial of physical death. Nilsson observes
that this is precisely the conception which informs the Greek Elysium, and one which is
otherwise quite alien to Greek thought.
The similarities between the Greek and Egyptian Paradise are more extensive than
Nilsson indicates: the word mavkar in nh'soi makavrwn, which in Greek can mean either 'the
blessed dead' or 'the blessed gods,' most likely comes from the Egyptian maakheru,
where it is used of the dead who have been favorably judged in the underworld.47 Osiris,
like Rhadamanthys the son of a sky-god, ruled the underworld and presided over the
judgement of the dead.48 On the other hand, the Greeks like the Egyptians could use the
motif of scales to represent the act of judgement.49 The idea of an ever-blowing Zephyr
on Elysium is paralleled by Egyptian preoccupation with cool air in the afterlife; and both
the Greek and the Egyptian Paradise are graced with abundant fresh water as well as
food.50 We note in passing that the Field of Reeds, the Sekhet Iaru, was said to be the
possession of the sun-god Re and was encircled by a metal wall.51
Arguably the most important point of contact between Egyptian and Greek
eschatology is also the most vexed. In the Old Kingdom (ca. 2780-2250), Egyptian
Paradise was available to the king alone, but was already opened to people of any social
rank by the First Intermediate period that followed.52 Access to Greek Paradise was also
determined originally by privilege rather than merit: Menelaus is destined for Elysium
because he is the son-in-law of Zeus, and the Hesiodic Islands of the Blessed are
populated by the semi-divine race of heroes. Yet 2250 B. C., the date at which access to
Egyptian heaven was extended to the common man, would seem to precede the arrival of
the first Greek-speaking people in Greece by half a century or more.53 It is thus highly
unlikely that Egyptian religion could have exercised influence on Greek thought at so
early a date. But if the parallel is indeed significant, we are obliged to look for an
intermediary. The most obvious candidate remains Minoan Crete, although it is by no
means the only one.
Boats, on the other hand, are an essential feature of Egyptian funerary myth and
ritual at all periods. Memphite theology, which flourished in the twenty-fifth dynasty
(751-656 B.C.), lays particular emphasis on the westward journey of the corpse across the
Nile. The boat in which the dead travel is sentient, being an embodiment of the god Seth,
who was assigned this duty in punishment for his murder of Osiris.54 The ships placed in
the tombs were sometimes supplied with crews, especially in the early Dynasties.55 More
commonly, however, an effigy of the body, protected by spells, was all that was set on

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board. Such ships, which in the Amduat comprise a veritable fleet containing the souls of
all the dead, were thought to follow the path of the sun, pulled along as it were by its
current.56 Occasionally a ferryman named 'Face-Behind' is supplied; or the ship is
propelled to its destination by the four oars of Osiris which the priest had endowed with
the magical powers of the 'wadget eyes,' the perfect eyes of Re.57
The solar boats of Re belong to a tradition essentially independent of that which
centers on Osiris. They seem to be in some measure an astral projection of the boats on
which the dead journeyed to the Land of the Blessed.58 The Amduat texts indicate that
Re has a crew of seven gods and a goddess who perform various tasks during his nightly
journeys through the death-realm, where he merged with Osiris.59 The crew of Re
receives mention in Spell 130 of the Book of the Dead, which also speaks of a lake of
criminals and a judgement of the dead.60 Its recitation allows the deceased to identify
himself with Re, thus securing for himself a blessed afterlife. The deceased was also
identified with Re's underworld equivalent, Osiris, and in this capacity he became a judge
of the dead. Finally, it was thought that the voyage to the Jenseits took place during the
night of the interment and that the deceased did not reach the Land of the Blessed until
dawn. His journey thus followed the nocturnal path of Re in his boat. Indeed, in Spell
109 of the Book of the Dead, he is said to be a member of Re's crew.61
The motif of a nocturnal voyage to the Land of the Blessed is by no means
restricted to Egypt, and the above discussion has led us some ways from the Homeric
Phaeacians; yet it is worth remarking that no other NE religion places such emphasis on
ships of the dead. It follows that the voyage of the soul on board magical ships to a
paradisiacal land where the blessed continue their earthly existence would have been one
of the first things known to the Greeks of Egyptian eschatology.

i) Homeric evidence for Greek belief in an Egyptian Elysium

The Egyptian Jenseits is an idealized portrait of life in the Nile delta.62 This is
where 'Egyptian Proteus' (4.385) sends Menelaus to appease the gods who are preventing
his return to Greece (4.471-80). In the same account Proteus declares that Menelaus will
not die at all but be physically transported to Elysium where he will live for eternity.
Homer locates Menelaus' interview with Proteus on the island Pharos, about a day's
journey from the mouth of the Nile and within Egyptian territory. Their interview is
structurally identical with the Nekuia in book eleven, where Odysseus consults the seer
Tiresias in Hades.63 It thus seems plausible that Odyssey book four reproduces an
association of Elysium with the Egyptian Jenseits which had become embedded in the
tradition. We may support this interpretation with an apparent difficulty in the narrative.

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Menelaus reports that he was 'crushed' to discover that he must sail to the Nile delta.
Why was Menelaus so distressed about this voyage and why does he call it a 'long and
difficult journey' (4.483)? William Hansen has explained Menelaus' reaction with the
parallels that link this episode to the Nekuia; but this is at best a partial explanation for
those disinclined to do away with textual difficulties by treating them as mistakes. On
the other hand, these verses would be quite appropriate if Menelaus felt he were being
asked to journey to the Land of the Dead, Blessed or otherwise.

c) IE heaven
Nilsson was almost certainly right to argue that Egypt exerted a significant
influence on Greek eschatology, an influence which, as his own evidence indicates, is not
restricted to Elysium. This does not, however, oblige us to seek a specifically Egyptian
origin for the blessed afterlife of the Greeks. Valid comparanda with Elysium can be
supplied from several IE cultures, which reveal that it belongs to the IE tradition. Yet
Egyptian Paradise resembles the afterlife available to IE royalty in all its essential
aspects. It is in the context of this similarity that we must consider evidence of possible
Egyptian influence on Greek religious thought, an influence of which there can be little
doubt, but which can seldom be demonstrated. And since the Greeks tended to regard
Egypt as the source of all religion, Homer and his audience may well have believed that
Elysium was of ultimately Egyptian extraction, a fact reflected in the episode from
Odyssey book four.
Jaan Puhvel, like Nilsson, considers Elysium to be a foreign intrusion.64 He
begins by arguing that the meadows and horses of the Homeric Hades are incongruous
with the poet's depiction of it as an otherwise dank and dreary place.65 Meadows and
herds belonging to a happy afterlife are, moreover, attested in the herds of the Avestan
Yima and with the other-worldly cow-pastures of the Indic Yama, the first mortal (R.V.
10.14). In the Vedic Hymn, Yama reaches his pastureland by way of water-courses.
Yama was also known as a judge of the underworld and was the son of the solar deity
Vivasvat, thus reproducing two additional features of Greek and Egyptian belief. These
water-courses and cow-pastures are to be found in the highest reaches of the sky, where
the sun itself was placed, and the entrance to them was guarded by two spotted dogs
belonging to Yama.66 We note in passing that the Indic Pu-s an, a solar deity who acts as
.
psychopomp, is also represented as a ferryman; and that the journey of the deceased to
Paradise begins at sunset and concludes at dawn, thus following the nocturnal path of the
sun as in the Egyptian accounts.67
Puhvel further adduces a Hittite funerary text (KUB XXX 24 II 1-4) that

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apparently refers to a meadow to which rulers were transported at the end of their lives:
"and this meadow, o sun-god, have duly made for him!....There shall graze for him in this
meadow cattle and sheep, horses (and) mules".68 Puhvel connects 'Elysium'
etymologically with the Hittite wellu-, or 'meadow', attested indirectly in this passage by
the Sumerogram ¯.SAL.69 He concludes that "∆Hluvsion pedivon thus means literally
'meadowy field' and is a term of IE ancestry, denoting the pastureland of the departed,
especially of royalty. In the Homeric polarization of Greek afterlife-notions it was
reapplied to the intrusive Mediterranean tradition of live removal by divine favor to a
zephyr-warmed land of bliss (whereas by inconsistency leimwvn stuck with Hades, who
also kept his horses)."70
The afterlife open to Hittite kings, like that of Greek heroes and Egyptian
pharaohs, was an idealized continuation of physical existence on watery meadows -
unlike the dead consigned to Hades, inhabitants of these places continued to have bodily
functions. And Hittite myth, like Egyptian and Greek, could represent the judgement of
the dead with the weighing of their souls in a scale.71 The sun-god also exercises a
prominent though variously expressed influence over the Hittite, Indic, and Egyptian
Paradise. We may suspect, but we have no way of knowing, that access to Hittite heaven
was also determined by privilege rather than merit. At any event, the meadows described
in the Hittite text are said to be created specifically for the king's benefit.

d) The polarized afterlife of Mesopotamia

Even though watery meadows and cattle are motifs of the IE afterlife, their
occurrence in Homer provides little support for the claim that the Greek Hades had ever
been pleasant. In the case of Greek myth at least, it would be better to say that meadows
number among the features of 'the world beyond'. This by definition includes Hades, but
also the opposed realms of Elysium and Tartarus, the gardens of such gods as Apollo and
Hera, and arguably any place which is informed by the 'Paradise Formula.'72 On the other
hand, Homer provides no indication of where the horses of Hades were thought to
graze.73
Sumero-Akkadian literature knows of an underworld similar to the Greek Hades
on a number of relevant points. In one account, Damuzi (or Damu, husband of Inanna)
while pursued by attackers flings off his clothes and jumps into a river which carries him
off forcibly to the death-realm. Damuzi's new otherworldly home is said to possess
water, food and cattle, all of which are, however, eidola.

(Yonder) he shares in food that is no food,

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 shares in water that is no water,
(yonder) are built cattle pens
that are no cattle pens,
(yonder) are wattled over
what are no sheep sheds;
deputies (of the netherworld), not his trusty
spear, are at his side.74

Are the horses of Hades likewise to be thought of as eidola? The animals hunted by
Orion and Heracles in the Nekuia of the Odyssey surely are.
Cattle imply meadows. These receive explicit mention in a fragmentary Sumerian
poem in which Geshtinanna, Damu's sister, searches for her lost brother along the river
banks:

The river of Hades lets no water flow -

water from it slakes no thirst.
The field of Hades grows no grain -
no flour is milled from it.
The sheep of Hades carry no wool -
no cloth is woven from it.75

In still another account, Damu sails to the death-realm on a boat captained by an

underworld demon.76 An actual ferryman of the dead is mentioned in one Sumerian
myth: Enlil, the chief of the Sumerian pantheon, was said to have raped Ninlil, for which
he was banished to the underworld. In the course of his journey, Enlil meets three lesser
divinities: the keeper of the gates of Nippur, 'the man of the nether world river,' and the
ferryman who provides conveyance across a 'man-devouring' river which separates this
world from the next.77 Finally, a boatman of the underworld, named 'Remove Hastily,'
appears in an Akkadian text which purports to relate the dream of an Assyrian prince.78
The enormous distance to be traversed, itself but a topographical representation of the
spiritual gulf to be traversed, conjures up the expedient of supernatural speed.
The Sumerian underworld has meadows, cattle, and waters which can either drag
you there or must be crossed with the help of a ferryman. And it also knows of a
judgement of the dead by the sun-god Utu. Yet "by and large the Sumerians were
convinced that life in the nether world was but a dismal, wretched reflection of life on
earth."79 The Hades of both the Greeks and the Sumerians are rather dreary places full of

{14}
decay and populated by insubstantial shades. Although escape from this fate could be
granted under certain circumstances, the Sumerian view of the afterlife, like the Greek,
remained essentially pessimistic. There is, then, clear NE precedent for meadows and
cattle in a Hades quite as unpleasant as the Homeric.
Still more important for our purposes, Sumero-Akkadian literature also provides
an account of the afterlife which exhibits all of the essential features of the IE Paradise:
the Utnapishtim episode in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Utnapishtim, 'whom they call
Faraway,'80 had once been a priest-king of Shuruppak. A survivor of the flood, he had
been rendered immortal and dwells with his wife for eternity on a paradise "far away at
the mouth of the waters."81 Utnapishtim thus belongs to the Jenseits where he continues
his physical existence in Paradise.82 If Utnapishtim's abode in the Epic of Gilgamesh is
to be identified as Dilmun, then we may add several other motifs from the Paradise
formula: the Dilmun of myth is free of disease or even death, located at the place where
the sun rises, and set in a marshland. And at the request of Enki, the sun-god Utu
supplied Dilmun with abundant fresh water.83 The historical Dilmun comprised an
island, dotted by some hundred thousand burial mounds, and a piece of the adjacent
mainland. It was situated in a fresh-water spur of the Persian Gulf near the mouths of the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers.84 The phrase 'watery-meadows' is certainly applicable to this
region.
Before proceeding to the discussion of the Utnapisthim episode and the Phaiakis,
let us summarize the results of the comparative analysis. The Egyptian, Hittite, Sumero-
Akkadian and Greek evidence reveals that an eschatology remarkably similar in its
essential features was common to peoples throughout the Eastern crescent of the
Mediterranean basin. Two of these mythologies, Greek and Hittite, belong to the IE
language family, and the Germanic and Indic material puts the tradition on a solid IE
footing (Germanic tradition also knows of a crew, rather than the usual ferryman, for
which there is some correlative evidence in the Egyptian material). Yet the Egyptian and
Sumero-Akkadian evidence reveals that in the NE at least this eschatology was not
restricted to members of the IE family. Thus, diffusion of Jenseits motifs or stories
across the various NE cultures would have been relatively simple, seeing that it had to
overcome only the barrier of language, not that of incompatible systems of belief.
Germanic, Greek and Sumero-Akkadian culture produced sharply polarized
visions of the afterlife. And although evidence for this sort of polarization is somewhat
less obvious, it is by no means lacking from Egyptian myth. The comparative evidence
indicates that the contradictory notions of Hades and Elysium can co-exist in one and the
same system of belief: there is no need to explain Elysium as an intrusion. We may infer

{15}
that the Greek Elysium, together with the eschatological system to which it belongs, is
most likely a genetic inheritance from IE culture, although Greek notions of a blessed
afterlife were no doubt also subject to areal influence from their Mediterranean and NE
neighbours.85
It is becoming increasingly well understood that the East-Mediterranean world of
the eighth century was a time of intensive exchange across cultures, Greek culture among
them.86 In such a climate, Greek borrowings from NE myth are not surprising and in fact
should be expected. On a number of occasions the similarity between stories found in
these two literatures is so striking that one suspects either the actual dependence of the
Greek account on its NE analogue or that both have a common source. For example, the
structure of the Nergal and Ereshkigal myth is identical both to the Circe- and Calypso-
episodes of the Odyssey, and to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.87 The Atrahasis Epic
provides an exact parallel for the division of the universe between Zeus, Poseidon and
Hades in the Iliad (Il. 15.185-99), as well as for the motif of the overpopulated earth
which in the Cypria supplies the cause of the Trojan war. Perhaps the closest parallels
come from the Epic of Gilgamesh: Ishtar's complaint to her parents regarding the abuse
heaped on her by Gilgamesh is echoed in Aphrodite's words to Dione and Zeus when she
is wounded by Diomedes (Il. 5.370-430). And the appearance of Enkidu's ghost to
Gilgamesh bears an uncanny resemblance to Achilles' meeting with the ghost of
Patroclus (Il. 23.59-107).88
Despite an occasional narrative anomaly, the Hellenization of these stories is
complete; as in the case of Aphrodite's origins, we would have no compelling reason to
suspect a foreign provenience were it not for the correlative material. There is then no
difficulty with assuming a NE source for the Phaiakis despite the fact that the Phaeacians
have been endowed with the culture and institutions of the Ionic Greeks. Moreover, the
relationship between Scheria and the second Ithacan section of the poem (books 13-24) to
which we earlier called attention provides a clear motivation for portraying the
Phaeacians in this fashion since only in this way can the Phaiakis be used to foreshadow
events on Ithaca. The fact that Odysseus is brought to his home by a crew of sailors
rather than a single ferryman can be seen as a simple by-product of this adaptation.
Although the parallels supplied by Egyptian and Germanic funerary myth and ritual are
welcome, they are not absolutely essential to our thesis.

i) The Utnapishtim episode and the Phaiakis

It is possible that in the Utnapishtim episode of the Gilgamesh Epic we have
Homer's model for the Phaiakis. The divine ale-wife Siduri counsels Gilgamesh to

{16}
undertake the voyage to Utnapishtim. Siduri thus serves the role of facilitator, as do
Circe and Calypso, and like them she only acts under compulsion.89 Odysseus'
destinations were Hades and Scheria, that of Gilgamesh a land belonging to the Jenseits.
Moreover, the Phaiakis and Utnapishtim episodes are similarly structured: the hero
successfully negotiates a journey over dangerous waters to a paradisiacal land. There
dwell a king and queen who offer their guest hospitality, treasure and conveyance back to
their homes. To be sure, this scheme is common to a number of adventure stories.90 Yet
both Alcinous and Utnapishtim also possess magical ships which travel at preternatural
speed; and both correctly predict the sleep which will overtake their guests. Gerald
Gresseth, in the most recent discussion of the Gilgamesh Epic and the Phaiakis, rightly
concludes that these corresponsions "cannot be the result of mere chance."91 We may add
that the distances covered by Gilgamesh and Urshanabi are no less egregious than the
speed at which they travel: "a run of a month and fifteen days they left behind by the
third day. Urshanabi arrived thus at the Waters [of Death]."92 The journey of Odysseus
to Scheria, on the other hand, is "the longest continuous sail in Greek literature until
Lucian (True Hist. I, 6 : seventy-nine days' voyage)."93
Now the Phaeacians are punished for escorting Odysseus to his home. The text
has rationalized their punishment with the theme of Poseidon's wrath. Yet consider what
happens in the Epic of Gilgamesh: the ferryman Urshanabi crosses daily the waters of
death which separate Paradise from the garden of the sun. When Urshanabi ferries
Gilgamesh to Utnapishtim, however, he loses his office in punishment, and so conveys
Gilgamesh back to his home of Uruk, where he too takes up residence.94 Urshanabi has
broken a taboo and, like the Phaeacians, is debarred from providing further conveyance
to mortals.
Sleep and death are intimately associated in both episodes: when Gilgamesh
awakens after sleeping for six days in the court of Utnapishtim, he laments:

[What then] shall I do, Utnapishtim, whither shall I go,

[Now] that the Bereaver has laid hold on my [members]?
In my bedchamber lurks death,
And wherever I se[t my foot], there is death!95

As Odysseus lies down aboard the Phaeacian craft, a sleep comes upon him 'that knows
no awakening ... and bears the closest resemblance to death' (13.79-80; see above). The
motif of gifts offers a further important point of contact: shortly before Gilgamesh
departs from Dilmun, Utnapishtim's wife petitions her husband for a gift on behalf of

{17}
their guest. Utnapishtim grants her request by informing Gilgamesh of the existence (and
apparently the whereabouts) of the plant of youth. Although Gilgamesh successfully
acquires the plant, he loses it to a snake in the course of his return journey while bathing
in a well.96 The theme of lost treasure is present in the Phaiakis, where it is presented as
a latent threat: Alcinous orders the Phaeacian leaders to provide their guest with clothing
and a talent of gold as a xenion (8.387-93). Arete places these guest-gifts in a coffer and
instructs Odysseus to tie it fast, 'lest someone steal his treasure as he sleeps during the
journey home' (8.443-5). Later that evening, Arete requests a second round of gifts from
the Phaeacians on behalf of her guest; and Alcinous makes of her request a formal
declaration (11.335-53).
Because of Arete's warnings in book eight, Odysseus, unlike Gilgamesh, is able to
reach home without suffering loss. Years before, he had not been so lucky. As Odysseus
set out from Aeolia, his host Aeolus presented him with a cow-skin secured by a silver-
cord in which he had placed the winds. When Odysseus fell asleep in the course of the
journey, the crew, expecting to find gold in the bag, untied the knot, released the winds
and thereby lost their homecoming. In this episode, the loss of Aeolus' gift is clearly
associated with mortality: to lose one's homecoming, to be anostos, is synonymous with
death; and in the episode that follows, the majority of Odysseus' men die at the hands of
the Laestrygonians. The theme of mortality is not, however, lacking from the parallel
scene in the Phaiakis, it is simply inverted: Odysseus' guest-gifts, together with the social
obligations they imply, demonstrate his preference of the mortal condition over the
immortality in isolation that had been offered him by Calypso. The immortal clothing
which Calypso had given Odysseus as he set out from Ogygia is here replaced by
clothing suitable for a mortal man returning to the world of men. The frustrated search of
Gilgamesh for immortality is answered by Odysseus' conscious choice of mortality in
order to return home.
The Utnapishtim episode provides the closest parallel to the Phaiakis to be found
in extant Mediterranean literature, including Greek. Whether we assume that both
accounts belong to a common tradition or that the Epic of Gilgamesh had reached Greek
ears before the composition of our Odyssey, the Utnapishtim episode corroborates the
internal evidence of the Odyssey itself for identifying Scheria with Elysium. On analogy
to Urshanabi, the Phaeacian crews convey Odysseus from Paradise to the civilized world.
Moreover, the parallels between these two epics occur in the context of a far broader
unity in the Sumero-Akkadian and Greek conceptions of the afterlife.
To conclude: the internal evidence of the Odyssey suggests that we see Scheria as
an otherworldly Paradise bordering on Elysium which it also resembles. Most important,

{18}
the text locates Rhadamanthys on Elysium in book four, and indicates that he lived in the
general vicinity of Scheria in book seven. On the other hand, the motifs of sleep and
mist, Odysseus' symbolic Catabasis, and the structural parallels between the Circe and
Calypso episodes ultimately associate Scheria with Hades. This association would
explain Arete's prominence and the text's insistence on the hostility of the Phaeacians.
From the comparative evidence we see that the Greek Elysium belongs to a
broadly attested tradition of the blessed afterlife found in both IE and non-IE literature.
Common elements of that tradition include: a Land of the Blessed, set in the phenomenal
world and distinguished by watery meadows, luxurious gardens, herds of cattle, and
gentle breezes. The land is guarded by immortal watch dogs and reached on board ships
which travel at night with miraculous speed under the guidance of a special ferryman or
ferrymen. In short, the blessed afterlife was a continuation of physical existence in
Paradise. Food and water were consequently abundant, the climate pleasant, and one
enjoyed all the emoluments of one's former life. The physical description of the Land of
the Blessed reads like a catalogue of motifs from the Phaiakis (boundless herds of cattle
do not receive explicit mention but are of course implied by the Phaeacians' constant
banqueting).97 It is also important to note that a number of these motifs may be
paralleled in the Greek Hades. Such motifs include: watery meadows, gardens, cattle,
wind, guard dog(s), a ferryman, and a judgement of the dead by Minos. In the case of
Hades, however, the same qualities which marked the Land of the Blessed as a Paradise
are given a negative valuation: the mhvleai ajglaovkarpoi (7.115) of Alcinous' garden
become ijtevai wjlesivkarpoi in the grove of Persephone (10.510); the cooling Zephyr that
wafts across the watery meadows of Elysium has its analogy in the storms that rage over
marshy Tartarus.
The comparative material confirms the internal evidence of the poem for relating
Scheria to Elysium. We have also seen that one NE account, the Utnapishtim Episode of
the Epic of Gilgamesh, even supplies a parallel for the special ferry-service which
Alcinous offers his guests and resembles the Homeric account so closely in other ways
that direct borrowing is possible. Although sleep and mist support a general
identification of Scheria with the death-realm, the role played by sleep in the Phaiakis
and Utnapishtim episode strengthens the parallel between them and hence an
identification of Scheria with the Land of the Blessed. The Phaeacians are the ferrymen
of Elysium - all of these features, so many of them seemingly gratuitous otherwise, are
explained and acquire significance once their traditional function is recognized.

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1
Dedicated to Phillip Damon and Michael Nagler on the occasion of their retirements.
I follow the abbreviations of LSJ for ancient authors. Single quote citations of
Homer are paraphrases intended to highlight the relevant material.
This paper was presented at Harvard University on Jan. 10, 1991; and at
Columbia University on March 28, 1991. Special thanks are owed to Gregory Nagy of
Harvard and to Helene Foley of Columbia for inviting me, and to the audiences who
offered a number of helpful observations. Scholars who have read and commented on the
final drafts of this paper include: Martin Bernal, Gregory Crane, Mark Edwards, Andrew
Garrett, Anne Kilmer, Elizabeth Meyers, Gregory Nagy, and Edgar Polomé.
2
F. Welcker, "Die homerischen Phäaken und die Inseln der Seligen," Rhein. Mus. Series
2, vol. 1 (1833) 219-283 (= Kleine Schriften, Bonn, 1845, 1-60, with rebuttal to various
criticisms of his theory 60-79).
For the purposes of this paper, I accept Welcker's equation of Elysium with the
Islands of the Blessed. Whatever the original provenience of Elysium, a word which
does not recur until A. R., 4.811, it is clear that the two places were functionally
equivalent (cf. Eur. Helen, 1677, and below, note 85).
3
U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Die Ilias und Homer, 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1920) 491-2
and 500; Die Heimkehr des Odysseus (Berlin, 1927) 8 note 1; and Der Glaube der
Hellenen, in 2 vols. (Berlin, 1931-2) 1.314, note 1.
4
G. Crane, Calypso: Backgrounds and Conventions of the Odyssey, Beiträge zur
klassischen Philologie 191 (1988) ch. 1 and 74-5. We may compare in this regard a
fragmentary Threnos of P., Fr. 129; and a passage of Aristoph., Ra. 448-55, which
locates sunny meadows with abundant food and horses in the underworld. Discussion in
F. Graf, Eleusis und die orphische Dichtung Athens in vorhellenistischer Zeit,
Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten (Berlin, 1974) 82-90. Cf. also W.
Burkert, Greek Religion (Cambridge Mass, 1985) 293-5. It is possible that the Nekyia
episode of the Odyssey preserves traces of a conception similar to that which we find in
Pindar. Cp. W. Stanford, The Odyssey of Homer, edited with commentary, in 2 vols.,
2nd. ed. (London, 1974) ad Od. 11.568-627.
5
E.g. by C. Segal, "The Phaeacians and the Symbolism of Odysseus' Return," Arion 1:4
(1962) 17-64.
6
SOd. 13.152; cf. e.g. G. Germain, Genèse de l' Odyssée (Paris, 1954) 298; H. Erbse,
Untersuchungen zur Funktion der Götter im homerischen Epos, Untersuchungen zur
antiken Literatur und Geschichte 24 (1986) 112; and J. Peradotto, Man in the Middle
Voice (Princeton, 1990) 77-82.
7
Structural: C. Whitman, Homer and the Heroic Tradition (Cambridge Mass., 1958)
288-9. Thematic: M. Nagler, "Dread Goddess Endowed with Speech," Arch. News 6:3
(1977) 77-85.
8
E. g. D. Frame, The Myth of Return in Early Greek Epic (New Haven, 1978) and B.
Powell, Composition by Theme in the Odyssey, Beiträge zur klassischen Philologie 81
(1977). Frame and Powell base their arguments on quite different grounds; Powell from
his structural analysis of the individual episodes, which he finds to be organized by a
single narrative pattern; Frame from his investigation into the motif of return in IE myth.
Frame, ibid, 166-9, calls attention to the striking similarities between Calypso and the
Hesiodic Styx (Th. 775-806). Cf. also M. Nagler, "Entretiens avec Tirésias," CW 74:2
(1980) 89-106. For Calypso and Circe, cf. G. Crane (above, note 4) esp. ch. 1 and 2; for
the Sirens, E. Vermeule, Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry (Berkeley,

{20}
1979) 75 and 201-5, and D. Page, Folk Tales in Homer's Odyssey (Cambridge Mass.,
1973) 83-91.
9
I resort to the German Jenseits, since 'world beyond,' and 'otherworld' are in certain
contexts too vague, and 'underworld,' and 'netherworld' are inaccurate as applied to
Elysium.
10
Pace A. Shewan, Homeric Essays (Oxford, 1935) 242-53, 243-4 (= "The Scheria of
the Odyssey. I," CQ 13 (1919) 4-11), in a rebuttal of Welcker's theory. On the affinity
between the temporal (Golden Age), geographical (Ethiopians etc.) and spiritual
(Elysium, where note the conceptual overlap between the geographic and spiritual
categories) Paradise, cf. esp. B. Gatz, Weltalter, goldene Zeit und sinnverwandte
Vorstellungen, Spudasmata 16 (1967).
11
Germain (above, note 6) 286.
12
W. Stanford (above, note 4) ad 7.119. For the motif of Zephyr in Elysium, cf. Tz. ad
Hes. Op., 169. The similarity of the passages in books 4 and 6 is often remarked (cf. e.g.
Stanford, ibid, ad 4.563ff.). Note that 'no snow, little winter and never any rain,'
accurately describes the climate of Egypt.
13
For the association of springs, esp. thermal springs, with entrances to the underworld,
cf. J. Croon, The Herdsman of the Dead (Utrecht, 1952) 75-83. The double springs at
Troy becomes the scene of Hector's death, and we discover that one is hot the other cold
in this very scene (Il. 22.145ff.).
14
Cf. S. Eitrem, RE 19.1518-33, s.v. 'Phaiaken,' 1526, J. Hainsworth, A Commentary on
Homer's Odyssey, in four vols., A. Heubeck et al. edd. (Oxford, 1988-present) intro. to
Od. book vi, 1.289, and G. Dimock, The Unity of the Odyssey (Amherst, 1989) 88.
15
M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion, 2nd ed. (Munich, 1955) 326 (his
accentuation); cf. by the same author, The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and its Survival
in Greek Religion, 2nd ed. (Lund, 1950) 623; and Malten, RE Series 2:1.31-3, s. v.
'ÔRadavmanqu"', 33.
16
Note that the connection was so understood by Paus., 8.53.5, and Eust. 1582, ad Od.
7.324 (remarked by Welcker [above, note 2 (1833)] 226 and 249). Cf. Wilamowitz-
Moellendorff (above, note 3).
17
Excepting Pausanias' reference to the Homeric passage (above, note 16). Sources in
Malten (above, note 15).
18
Homer's fondness for this sort of mythmaking has been treated by M. Willcock,
"Mythological Paradeigma in the Iliad," CQ 58 NS 14:2 (1964) 141-54; idem, "Ad hoc
Invention in the Iliad," HSCP 81 (1977) 41-53; B. Braswell, "Mythological Innovation in
the Iliad," CQ 65 NS 21:1 (1971) 16-26; and M. Edwards, Homer, Poet of the Iliad
(Baltimore, 1987) 67-70 with further bibl.
19
First in P., O. 2.75 (cf. P. 2.73); Welcker (above, note 2 [1833] 248-50, and [1845] 75,
note 8), objected to this interpretation on the grounds that the rape occurred in Panopeus
rather than Euboea.
20
G. Nitzsch, Erklärende Anmerkungen zu Homer's Odyssee, in 3 vols. (Hannover, 1826-
40) ad Od. ll.581.
21
The only other simile in Homer which relates an action to a mental process is to be
found in book fifteen of the Iliad, where Hera's flight is said to be 'as swift as human
thought' (Il. 15.80). For a god, such as Hera, as for the ships of the Phaeacians, ideas and
their execution are the same. An interesting parallel for the Homeric image comes from
Indic myth: Apa- m Napa- t, who is associated with the solar psychopomp Savit˚ (who is in

{21}
turn related to Pu-s. an, for whom see below) has horses which are said to be as 'swift as
thought' (R. V. 1.186.5) Conversely, thoughts may be as swift as Aś vin-s' horse-team
(R.V. 1.181.2 and 6.62.3,4). Discussion in G. Nagy, Greek Mythology and Poetics
(Ithaca, 1990) 100 and 112-3.
22
E. Schwartz, Die Odyssee (Munich, 1924) 226 and 189 argues that Odysseus' sleep
preserves a memory of the original function of the Phaeacians as ferrymen (approved by
R. Merkelbach, Untersuchungen zur Odyssee, Zetemata 2 [1951] 211).
23
For the significance of kekalummevnai, cf. also 'Calypso,' who hides Odysseus in a cave
on a far away island that is in fact an island of the blessed dead. Goddess, cave and
island are overdetermined expressions for the symbolic death which Odysseus
experiences so long as he remains on Ogygia. Discussion in Crane (above, note 4) 15-8.
24
Welcker (above, note 2 [1833]) 231; Folk-etymology accepted by Eitrem (above, note
14) 1518; and by Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (above, n. 3).
25
Dependence of Od. 7 on Il. 24: H. Eisenberger, Studien zur Odyssee, Palingenesia 7
(1973) 112-3; and M. Müller, Athene als göttliche Helferin in der Odyssee (Heidelberg,
1966) 77-9. Il. 24 as Catabasis: Crane (above, note 4) 36-8; cf. M. Nagler, Spontaneity
and Tradition (Berkeley, 1974) ch. 6.
26
Hainsworth (above, note 14) intro. to Od. book vii, 1.316. Evidence collected by G.
Rose, "The Unfriendly Phaeacians," TAPA 100 (1969) 387-406. This is not the entire
explanation, however: just as the portrait of Arete is in some sense influenced by that of
Penelope, the taunts levelled at Odysseus by Euryalus foreshadow his mistreatment at the
hands of Eurymachus and the other suitors (8.158-64).
27
This is not to be taken metaphorically: cf. C. Faraone, "Hephaestus the Magician and
Near Eastern Parallels for Alcinous' Watchdogs," GRBS 28:3 (1987) 257-80.
Archaeologists have long observed the parallel offered by the painted dogs in the
Mycenaean palace at Pylos. Cf. M. Lang, The Palace of Nestor at Pylos, II: The
Frescoes, (Princeton, 1969) 119-22.
28
Cf., however, P., I. 1.13, who refers to the bold dogs of Geryon. For Geryon as an
Hades hypostasis, cf. Croon (above, note 13) e.g. 32 and 67-8. Cerberus' multiple heads,
by they two, three, or even more, may reflect the fact that there was more than one
hellhound in the older traditions.
29
Cf. esp. Od. 6. 18-9; cf. also 1.333-5, 6.305-8, 18.209-11, 21.64-6, and 22.181.
30
J. Pokorny, Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, in 2 vols. (Bern, 1969)
^
1.578, s.v. 'K erbero'. Further bibl. in B. Lincoln, "The Hellhound," JIES 7:3/4 (1979)
273-85, 273 note 1, who offers an alternate etymology. For a discussion of dogs in
Homer, cf. J. Redfield, Nature and Culture in the Iliad: The Tragedy of Hector (Chicago,
1975) 193-9.
31
See above, note 3. Wilamowitz' original argument has been virtually ignored in the
recent literature. So far as I am aware, it has only found an echo in the work of
Merkelbach (above, note 22) 211, and M. Nagler (above, note8) 105. It is worth
observing in this context that Stanford and others have interpreted Arete's name to mean
'she who is invoked by prayer.' J. Peradotto makes the important observation that
"nowhere else is this root used of prayers directed to any but divine beings" (above, note
6) 108. Wilamowitz' identification of Arete as a Persephone-type would, however,
remove this obstacle to the interpretation.

{22}
32
M. Lang, "Homer and Oral Techniques," Hesperia 38:2 (1969) 159-68; and D. Miller,
Improvisation, Typology, Culture, and 'The New Orthodoxy' : How 'Oral' is Homer?
(Washington D. C., 1982) 61-8. I hope to treat the parallels which associate Arete,
Penelope and Helen at greater length elsewhere. For anthropological and historical
parallels to Arete's prominence, cf. Hainsworth (above, note 14) intro. to Od. book vii,
1.317-8. It is worth observing in this context that the Catabasis motif maintains the
Ithacan parallel by representing Odysseus' disguised entry into the palace as difficult,
even dangerous.
33
First collected by U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Homerische Untersuchungen,
Philologische Untersuchungen 7 (1884) 115-139, who does not, however, use them in
support of his identification of Scheria with Hades; recent discussion of the parallels with
concise bibl. in S. Scully, "Doubling in the Tale of Odysseus," CW 80:6 (1987) 401-17,
406-7.
34
The question of the priority of Circe or Calypso becomes irrelevant when one considers
the goddesses in generic terms, since both are derived from a common mythological
archetype rather than one from the other (cf. Nagler, above, note 8). The premise which
has governed modern interpretation, namely that Calypso is the later of the two because
she is a more 'complete' psychological portrait, requires the further assumption that Circe
must exhibit such features if the poet were capable of imparting them.
35
Crane (above, note 4) ch. 1 and 2.
36
Cp. Od. 5.177-9 with 10.342-4. Both oaths are followed by sex.
37
Welcker (above, note 2 [1833]) 238-41, citing Procop., Goth. 4.20 and Tz. ad Hes. Op.
171 and ad Lyc. 1204. Procop. claims to have heard the account on numerous occasions
from the local inhabitants.
38
J. de Vries, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte, in 2 vols. (Berlin, 1956-7) 1.154 and
2.374; E. Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the North (NYC, 1964) 271-3; and H.
Ellis, The Road to Hel (New York, 1968) 16-29 and 39-50. The archaeological record
confirms the antiquity of the belief. General discussion of the Germanic underworld in J.
de Vries, ibid, 2.372-7; and Ellis, ibid, 83-7.
39
De Vries (above, note 38) 2.285; Ellis (above, note 38) 185.
40
The Poetic Edda, 2nd ed., trans. L. Hollander (Austin, 1962) 74-82. Related to the IE
ferryman by B. Lincoln, "The Ferryman of the Dead," JIES 8:1/2 (1980) 41-59, 46-7,
who also mentions the ferryman in the story of Sinfjo tli's death, 44-5.
‘
41
Turville-Petre (above, note 38) 214-5.
42
Turville-Petre (above, note 38) 76-80; de Vries (above, note 38) 2.140-1; Ellis (above,
note 38) 185-91.
43
De Vries (above, note 38) 1.192-3. Note that in Procop., the ships of the dead are felt
to be lighter once the crews deposit the deceased on the island.
44
See below; for the IE ferryman, cf. Lincoln (above, note 40), and for Charon, cf. also
Vermeule (above, note 8) 211-2, note 7. Note that the famous thirteenth century Minoan
larnax from Episkopi, discussed by Vermeule ibid, 67-8, would seem to represent a
voyage to the beyond on board a chariot-like ship with more than one occupant, be they
passengers, crew or both.
45
For earlier refutations, cf. Shewan (above, note 10). Cf. Eitrem (above, note 14) 1526;
Germain (above, note 6) 298-9 and 306; Hainsworth (above, note 14) intro. to book vi,
1.289; and Eisenberger (above, note 25) 115, note 17.

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46
Nilsson (above, note 15 [1950]) 623-33; cf. by the same author (above, note 15
[1955]) 324-9, and The Mycenaean Origins of Greek Mythology (Berkeley, 1932) 214.
Nilsson's thesis is approved by Gatz (above, note 10) 179, M. West, Hesiod's Erga
(Oxford, 1978) ad 178, and Vermeule (above, note 8) 69-82. W. Burkert, "Elysion,"
Glotta 39:3/4 (1960-1) 208-13, argues that the word 'Elysium' was Greek; cf. Gatz, ibid,
180, and Nagy (above, note 21) 140 and 190. Alternate etymology proposed by J.
Puhvel, "'Meadow of the Otherworld' in Indo-European tradition," Zeitschrift für
vergleichende Sprachforschung 83:1 (1969) 64-9, for which see below.
47
Vermeule (above, note 8) 72-3. The Egyptian etymology of mavkar is not, however, a
communis opinio. Cf. P. Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, in
4 vols. (Paris, 1968-1980) and H. Frisk, Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, in 3
vols. (Heidelberg, 1960-72) both s.v. 'mavkar.' Vermeule, ibid 75-7, remarks the affinity
between the Ba-bird of Egyptian belief and the Greek soul-bird, Siren, and Harpy, and
the Egyptian precedent for the river Pyriphlegethon which empties into the Acheron. For
the Egyptian Lake of Fire, cf. BOD 63AB and for the motif in the Amduat, cf. E.
Hornung, Ägyptische Unterweltsbücher (Zürich, 1972) 44. For Pyriphlegethon, cf. e.g.
Od. 10. 513. For the judgement of the dead, cf. The Book of the Dead, in 2 vols., R.
Faulkner, trans. (NYC, 1972, hereafter referred to as BOD), Spells 30B and 125, the latter
reproduced in Ancient Near Eastern Texts, J. Pritchard, ed. (Princeton, 1969, hereafter
referred to as ANET) 34-6, 36. The following citations of the Egyptian material are
intended to be representative but not exhaustive.
48
J. Griffiths, The Origins of Osiris and his Cult, Studies in the History of Religions
(Leiden, 1980) 173-84. Cf. also H. Hornung (above, note47) 49.
49
The locus classicus is BOD, Spell 30B. For the motif in Greek art and literature, cf.
Nilsson (above, note 15 [1950]) 34-6, and Vermeule (above, note 8) 76.
50
The idea behind all such Paradise conceptions is that the climate is temperate: thus, in
Northern Europe it was thought of as balmy, in the South as cool.
51
BOD, Spell 109 (= Coffin Text, Spell 159), in ANET, 33; cf. also BOD, Spell 62.
52
S. Morenz, Egyptian Religion (Ithaca, 1973) 203-4. Likewise, the Amduat was used
from the beginning of the Middle Dynasties as the underworld guide of dead kings. At
the end of the New Kingdom it was made available to increasing numbers of people (cf.
Hornung [above, note 47] 19-20). I have been informed by Martin Bernal that he will
propose an upward revision of the date of the First Intermediate period in the next
installment of Black Athena: the Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, in 3 vols.
(London, 1987-present) 2.206-14. Elsewhere in the same volume, 2.115-7, Bernal argues
that the Greek concept of the hero was heavily influenced by the Egyptian pharaohs.
53
J. Mallory, In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth (New
York, 1989) 66-71 with further bibl. at 279; R. Drews, The Coming of the Greeks: Indo-
European Conquests in the Aegean and the Near East (Princeton, 1988). Date approved
by M. West, "The Rise of the Greek Epic," JHS 108 (1988) 151-72, 152-3. Alternative
model by Renfrew, Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins
(New York, 1990).
54
The identification of the deceased with Osiris is, however, already to be found in the
funerary texts of the Old Kingdom, as in the fifth dynasty Pyramid Text of Unis, ANET,
32-3; cf. also Griffiths (above, note 48) 22 and 44-7.
55
Nilsson (above, note 15 [1950]) 625-6.
56
Amduat, Hours 2 and 3; cf. Hornung (above, note 47) 28.

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57
Ferryman: BOD, Spells 58, 106, 125 and esp. 99. Discussion in Hornung (above, note
47) 31-2, and Faulkner (above, note 47) 69. For the oars of Osiris, cf. BOD, Spell 148.
58
For the celestial waters on which the boats travel, cf. BOD, Spells 38AB, 98 and 99.
Hornung (above, note 47) 28, remarks that the journey of the solar boat may be described
in terms appropriate to a Nile voyage. Cf. also Griffiths (above, note 48) 154-5.
59
E. Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many (Ithaca,
1982) 96, citing Amduat II, 193, fourth scene.
60
Identification with Re: BOD, Spell 85. The boat: BOD, Spell 136B and below, note
62.
61
BOD, Spell 109 (= Coffin Text, Spell 159) in ANET, 33. Cf. also BOD, Spell 110, and
for the dead as pilot, ibid, Spells 102 and 131. Note that only once in the XVIIIth
Dynasty is the dead pictured as accompanying Re in his boat. The motif first becomes
common in the Rameside texts (cf. Hornung [above, note 47] 48).
62
Mythological tradition, however, usually located it in the far distant west; cf. e.g. 'The
Good Fortune of the Dead,' ANET 33-4, a text from the tomb of Nefer-hotep at Thebes
dating to ca. 1349-1319 B.C.
63
W. Hansen, The Conference Sequence: Patterned Narration and Narrative
Inconsistency in the Odyssey (Berkeley, 1972) 8-19. Cf. now J. Peradotto (above, note 6)
35-41. Further bibl. in Hainsworth (above, note 14) ad 4.384ff. who makes some
valuable observations on Proteus' Egyptian connections.
64
Puhvel (above, note 46).
65
Puhvel here builds on an argument of P. Thieme, Studien zur indogermanischen
Wortkunde und Religionsgeschichte (Berlin, 1952) 47-50. For the horses of hell, cf. Il.
5.654, 11.445, and 16.625., and for its meadows of Asphodel, cf. Od. 11. 539 and 11.
573. Cp. in addition the grove of Persephone, Od. 10.509-10. Further bibl. on the
meadows of the underworld in Crane (above, note 4) 24-5, note 12, and for Asphodel as a
food during the Golden-Age, cf. M. Detienne, The Gardens of Adonis (Sussex, 1977) 46-
7.
66
Nagy (above, note 21) 96-7.
67
Indic evidence collected by Nagy (above, note 21) 97-101, 117-8, and 255 (where he
draws the parallel between Pu-s an and the Greek Phaon); and for further on Vivisvat,
.
incl. etymology, cf. ibid 103-5. More on the Indic boats which transport one to heaven in
Lincoln (above, note 40) 52-4.
68
Puhvel (above, note 46) 65. Complete text, with translation and commentary by H.
Otten, Hethitische Totenrituale (Berlin, 1958); and for KUB XXX 24a II 1-4, cf. 60-1.
Otten connects the passage with Thieme's theory ibid, 139-40.
69
Puhvel's etymology, which yields the tautological expression 'meadowy fields', seems
unlikely: his preform *wel-nu has –ln in order to explain the length of the vowel h in
hjluvsion; but –ln is an unlikely source for the -ll of the Hittite well-, where the double
consonant is more easily explained with -lh. Thus, *wel-nu- accounts for the Greek
target more plausibly than it does the Hittite. Cf. J. Weitenberg, Die hethitischen U-
Stämme, Amsterdamer Publikationen zur Sprache und Literatur 52 (Amsterdam, 1984)
181-4.
70
Puhvel (above, note 46) 68-9.
71
Vermeule (above, note 8) 76-7, and J. Puhvel, "Homeric Questions and Hittite
Answers," AJP 104:3 (1983) 217-27, 221-3.

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72
For the gardens of the gods, cf. Crane (above, note 4) 144-5, and for the 'Paradise
Formula' cf. Gatz (above, note 10) esp. ch. 2.
73
Apollod. (2.5.10; cf. Hes., Th. 287-94) speaks of a herd of cattle belonging to Hades
which are located on Erytheia, or 'red-island.' The account is, however, clearly a
multiform of Heracles' descent to the underworld (above, note 13).
74
T. Jacobsen, The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion (New
Haven, 1976) 51-2. The significance of Damuzi's ekdusis is revealed by the story of
Inanna's 'Descent into the Underworld' (ANET, 52-7; for the Akkadian version, cf. ibid,
106-9. Discussion in Jacobsen, ibid, 55-63; S. Kramer, The Sumerians, Their History,
Culture and Character (Chicago, 1963) 153-5; and A. Kilmer, "How was Queen
Ereshkigal Tricked? A New Interpretation of the Descent of Ishtar," Ugarit Forschungen
3 (1971) 299-309). The goddess Inanna visits the underworld, apparently to attend the
funeral of Ereshkigal's husband. As she passes each of the seven gates to Ereshkigal's
temple, Inanna loses a part of her clothing, so that by the time she reaches Ereshkigal she
is naked. Peti (new reading for Neti), the gatekeeper of Hades, explains the gradual
disrobing with reference to Sumerian burial customs: "crouched and stripped bare, man
comes to me" (Jacobsen, ibid, 57).
75
Jacobsen (above, note 74) 67.
76
Jacobsen (above, note 74) 67-8.
77
Kramer (above, note 74) 133 and 146-7; Jacobsen (above, note 74) 103-4.
78
ANET, 109-10, 109.
79
Kramer (above, note 74) 135.
80
E.g. The Epic of Gilgamesh (hereafter referred to as GE) Tablet X v 24 (Assyrian
version). References to the epic are from the edition in ANET, 72-99.
81
GE Tablet XI 195.
82
Note that in GE Tablet XI 1-7, Gilgamesh stresses that Utnapishtim is physically no
different than he.
83
Cf. the story of "Enki and Ninhursag," ANET, 37-41.
84
G. Bibby, Looking for Dilmun (NYC, 1969); and E. Speiser, "The Rivers of Paradise,"
Oriental and Biblical Studies: Collected Writings of E. A. Speiser (Philadelphia, 1967)
23-34 = Festschrift Johannes Friedrich (Heidelberg, 1959) R. von Kienle et al. edd. 473-
85, who argues that this was also the location of the Biblical Garden of Eden.
85
Here is also the place to note that Achilles was thought to inhabit an Island of the
Blessed known as 'White Island' and located at the mouth of the Danube. Thus, a similar
tradition is attested for the largest rivers of Europe, Africa and the Persian Gulf region.
For the tradition, cf. the SA.R. 4.814-5 (=Simon., PMG 558; Ibyc., PMG 291); A.R.
4.809ff.; and Lyc. 174 and 798 with Scholia; discussion with further bibl. in G. Nagy,
The Best of the Achaeans (Baltimore, 1979) 167, Crane (above, note 4) 15, and F.
Solmsen, "Achilles on the Islands of the Blessed," AJP 103:1 (1982) 19-24.
86
Esp. W. Burkert, Die orientalisierende Epoche in der griechischen Religion und
Literatur (Heidelberg, 1984); Faraone (above, note 27); West (above, note 53); and P.
Damon, Troy and the Flood (Yale University Press, forthcoming).
87
ANET, 103-4 and 507-12; Homeric parallels treated by Crane (above, note 4) 70-5.
88
Discussion in Burkert (above, note 86): Atrahasis Epic, 85-7 and 95-9; GE, 65 and 92-
5. For the Atrahasis Epic, cf. also A. Kilmer, "The Mesopotamian Concept of
Overpopulation and its Solution as Reflected in the Mythology," Orientalia 41:2 (1972)
160-77, esp. 175.

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89
Parallels between Siduri and Kalupso, and Utnapishtim and Alcinous, already in P.
Jenson, "Das GilgameÍ-Epos und Homer," ZA 16 (1902) 125-34, esp. 128; and A.
Ungnad, Gilgamesch-Epos und Odyssee (Breslau, 1923). Cf. also Germain (above, note
6) esp. 417-29, P. Damon, "Myth, Metaphor and the Epic Tradition," Orbis Litterarum
24:2 (1969) 85-100, and by the same author, "The Cults of the Epic Heroes and the
Evidence of Epic Poetry," The Center for Hermeneutical Studies 9 (1974) 1-9, and G.
Gresseth, "The Gilgamesh Epic and Homer," CJ 70:4 (1975) 1-18. For Siduri and
Calypso as NE facilitator types, cf. Nagler (above, note 7) 77-8. Further bibl. in Burkert
(above, note 86) 85, note 1.
90
Gresseth (above, note 89) 5.
91
Gresseth (above, note 89) 10.
92
GE Tablet X iii 49-50 (Assyrian version).
93
S. Bassett, The Poetry of Homer (Berkeley, 1938) 44. For the time involved, cf. Od.
5.279-80, 5.388ff., and 6.170.
94
GE Tablet XI 234ff.
95
GE Tablet XI 230-3.
96
GE Tablet XI 285-9. Gilgamesh may have lost some other belongings as well. Cf. the
translation of M. Kovacs, The Epic of Gilgamesh (Stanford, 1989) ad loc. I wish to thank
Prof. Kilmer for alerting me to this point.
A similar story was told by the Greeks of the archaic period; whether it was taken
from the Gilgamesh Epic or some other source is impossible to determine. Ael., NA 6.51
(= Ibyc. 342 PMG and S., Fr. 362 [Radt]). Discussion in Burkert (above, note 86) 113-4.
97
Two common motifs of the Land of the Blessed which do not belong the physical
description are lacking from the Phaiakis: the restriction to royalty and the role played by
the sky-god or his descendent. Note, however, that the Phaeacians did assist
Rhadamanthys on a mission in which he apparently served as a judge of the dead, for
which see above.

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