Brett L. Stine (Columbia University)
Bakhtin’s chronotope is “the intrinsic connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships…artistically expressed in literature” (1981, 84). This means that “spatial and temporal indicators are fused into one carefully thought-out, concrete whole. Time, as it were, thickens, takes on flesh, becomes artistically visible; likewise, space becomes charged and responsive to the movements of time, plot and history” (85). However, Riffaterre argued Bakhtin’s definition proves problematic in its legibility; he proposed the chronotope functions as a “sign system” that helps “define the conditions for the relevancy of such units to the narrative” (1996, 245; cf. Cardwell 2003). Further, according to Friedman, Bakhtin’s prioritizing of time unhelpfully overshadows the role of space, creating a “chronotype.” Thus, Friedman argued for the mutual combination of space and time as a “generative force for narrative” enabling “reading strategies focused on the dialogic interplay of space and time as mediating co-constituents of human thought and experience” (2005, 194-5). Through these productive critiques of Bakhtin combined with recent scholarship on the essential nature of space and place in Homeric poetry (Purves 2006 and 2010; de Jong 2007; Lateiner 2007; Tsagalis 2012; Kozak 2017), I will apply the Bakhtinian chronotope in reading the Iliad, as well as attempt to reprioritize the chronotope towards a more mutual reading of time with space.
In this paper I focus on the phrase τηλόθι πάτρης (“far from home”; Il. 1.24-32; 16.460-1; 18.99-100; 24.85-6 and 540-42; Od. 2.361-70) as a window into a significant chronotope of Homeric poetry, death far from home (Griffin 1976; Tsagalis 2004). I argue the formula thematically captures a complex nexus of resonances related to gender, kind (human-divine), and ethnos, and inflects narrative temporalities of the Iliad through the subjective experiences and articulations of distance from multiple characters. I confine my analysis to Zeus (16.460-1) and Thetis (24.85-6), and focus on how the spatial orientation of death “far from home” opens up the spatio-temporal experiences of the divine to mortal space-time. Ultimately this spatial inflection renders vulnerable the immortal bodies of Zeus and Thetis, while also threatening the Iliad’s narrative trajectory.
Space defines the moment of Sarpedon’s death through separation from family and violation of the heroic body (Il. 5.684-8). Zeus fully embodies these spatial anxieties when he contemplates changing Sarpedon’s fate (16.433-8) and exhibits a physical response of bloodied tears (16.458-61) prior to Sarpedon’s actual death. As Sarpedon’s anxieties around “death far from home” reach heaven, they bring the divine into their orbit and threaten to displace the trajectory of the narrative.
Contrasting articulations of space-time (young-famous-away-dead, or old-unknown-home-alive) are the defining tension of Achilles’ character in the Iliad. The space of death accordingly occupies Thetis, whose “highly thematized” space serves as “the locus where narrative shifts really begin” (Tsagalis 2012, 230-1). Thetis’ preemptive mourning of Achilles and preoccupation as mother are articulated through the space between Phthia and Troy (Il. 24.77-92). Her physical participation in mourning, succinctly captured by her body in/through space (mourning-Ocean; veil-Olympus) threatens Olympus as it potentially forestalls the narrative end of the Iliad.