Stamatia Dova (Professor and chair, Hellenic College, Brookline, Classics and Greek Studies)
This paper offers a comparative analysis of the soundscapes of Thamyris challenging the Muses (Il.2.594-600) and Odysseus facing the Sirens (Od.12.158-200) in Homer and in archaic and classical vase-paintings. Modified by the adjective thespesios, "divinely sounding," the two musical images demarcate a poetics of vocalization and instrumental music that encompasses the binary human-divine (Anderson, West). Recent scholarship has revisited ancient perceptions of the emotional power of music as well as its visual and textual rendering (Bundrick, Pelosi, Yatromanolakis). Contributing to this discussion, my analysis contextualizes the role of music in the myths of Thamyris and Odysseus within literary and visual discourses on hybris and terpsis (pleasure).
Denoting melodic greatness that lies beyond human capacity (Ford, Montiglio), the adjective thespesios signals that music has the power to destroy. From the marvelous song of the boastful bard Thamyris (θεσπεσίην ἀοιδήν, Il.2.600), whom the Muses deprive of sight, voice, and musical talent (Il.2.599, Hes.Cat.65), to the utterance of the wondrous Sirens (φθόγγον Σειρήνων θεσπεσιάων, Od.12.158), who try, but fail to exercise their fatal thelxis (enchantment) on Odysseus, thespesios identifies soundscapes that are both enthralling and dangerous. However, while Odysseus circumnavigates the perils of divine song by acknowledging his limitations as a mortal (Doherty, Dova, Peponi), Thamyris, failing to accept his own, disputes the excellence of the Muses with disastrous results. Similarly, the song of the Sirens, analogous, yet antagonistic to the agency of the Muses (Pucci, Segal), proves overwhelming for nostos-seeking veterans (Shay), also marking the boundary between the pursuit and avoidance of pleasure.
Archaic and classical Greek iconography merges the Homeric account of the Sirens with their broader mythical depiction as part-women, part-birds (LIMC Seirenes 71, 82, 87, 117). Appearing in groups of two kitharis (lyre) players and a singer (LIMC Odysseus 151, 159), they hover above Odysseus, who, visibly enchanted (LIMC Odysseus 152, 154), remains safely tied to the mast of his ship. Their domination of the visual space around the fleeing hero renders masterfully the synaesthetic effect of their thelxis, even though their failure to claim Odysseus as their victim causes, in some versions, their suicide (LIMC Odysseus 153, 155).
Equally overpowering is the presence of the Muses in depictions of Thamyris. Represented in propria persona or signified by sacred statues, they surround the blinded bard, who, dressed in Thracian attire, holds his broken kitharis (LIMC Thamyris 1, 3, 4, 13) with his mother mourning by his side (LIMC Argiope 1). Nevertheless, the visual record also features Thamyris and the Muses in an agonistic context (LIMC Musai 87, 92, 95, Nagy), whereas the Iliad employs his paradigm solely as a cautionary tale for hybris (Coo, Devereux, Wilson).
By explicating how Thamyris and Odysseus, archetypal wandering poet and hero-traveler respectively, exemplify the human limits of musical appreciation, this paper sheds new light on the sociocultural significance of music in archaic and classical Greece.