Lion Hearted Heroes: a Study of Animal Imagery and Heroic Identity in Homer

Abstract

AFTER his death, Herakles feasts forever with the gods, yet he leaves an image which commemorates an erstwhile affinity with wild animals. I will use Lattimore's translations throughout this study: R. Lattimore, (1951), The Iliad of Homer Chicago; (1965) The Odyssey of Homer New York; and I will refer to the Oxford texts of the Homeric epics: D.B. Monro and T.W. Allen (eds), (1920), Homeri Opera Vols. I-II; T.W. Allen (ed), (1917), Homeri Opera Vols. III-IV. Oxford. The contrast between Herakles' present conviviality with the immortals and his previous dealings with wild animals reflects a tension within the human condition: people are considered closer to the gods than to the beasts, yet they have much in common with the animal world. On the similarities between gods and men in Homer see Lloyd 1966:195-196. In this study I will examine the hero's affinity with animals, as expressed repeatedly in the similes throughout the Homeric epics. This affinity is both vital to and expands a hero's identity and at the same time threatens to debase him and to cut him off from the gods and men. Throughout the epics a hero's animal affinity continually confuses the boundaries between human and animal and thus both expresses and tests these limits. This study will be primarily concerned with likenesses between heroes and lions, as these appear the most commonly throughout the epics, but, as heroes are also compared to other animals, these will also enter the discussion.