Ian Thomas White (UCLA)
The present paper seeks to thread together in a precise way two well-studied phenomena from the Odyssey: the weaving metaphor and ring structure. Specifically, I claim that a narrative-level ring structure that links Circe and Penelope is used to effectively end Penelope's otherwise never-ending weaving trick.
Nagy (2010ab) and Harlizius-Klück and Fanfani (2016, 2017) have thoroughly investigated the deployment of weaving structures in Greek poetry via the humnos form. The precise structure of the humnos, however, as well that structure's mapping to weaving mechanics, has remained unclear (see Nosch 2014, though). In fact, a problem occurs when trying to import weaving mechanics into poetry: unlike weaving structures, texts built on weaving mechanics have no pre-defined endpoint and are thereby potentially never-ending. Specifically, while the prooimion ('opening thread') of a humnos may correlate to a web's heading band (a pre-woven band that defines the web's dimensions), the former does not entail a poem's dimensions like the heading band does for the web: both a poem and a string of poems could go on forever.
The story of Penelope's weaving, I argue, shows that the Odyssey is aware of the problem that a weaving-based poetic structure poses (Clayton 2004, Bouvier 2014). I show this textually in several ways. First, the description of Penelope's trick neglects the heading band stage; second, there is a conspicuous thread-web metonymy, e.g., λεπτὸν καὶ περίμετρον ('fine and very wide', 2.95, 19.140, 24.130); finally, Penelope's speech detailing when the trick/web will end contains a syntactic ambiguity. Penelope's two temporal clauses (εἰς ὅ κε φᾶρος / ἐκτελέσω ... εἰς ὅτε κέν μιν / μοῖρ᾿ ὀλοὴ καθέλῃσι, 'until whenever I finish the robe ... until whenever destructive fate overpowers him', 2.97-100, 19.142-145, 24.132-135) relate to each other in two ways, and these two readings match perfectly the problem of endlessness in the humnos structure and of strings of humnoi.
Crucially, however, the Odyssey uses another, well-known structure to forestall this potential endlessness: ring structure (West 1990, Bergren 2008). Specifically, a narrative-level ring structure links Odysseus' departure from Circe's island and the end of Penelope's trick. These two events are both at the end of three-year time periods; Odysseus leaving Circe ends the first three-year period; Odysseus arriving, and Penelope's trick thereby ending, ends the last three-year period. Moreover, Odysseus' time with Circe and Penelope's trick ending are textually linked. Both events conclude with a line about 'months waning' and 'seasons turning' (μηνῶν φθινόντων, περὶ δ᾿ ἤματα πόλλ᾿ ἐτελέσθη / περὶ δ᾿ ἤματα μακρὰ τελέσθη, 10.469 for Circe and 19.152-153, 24.142-143 for Penelope), with only minor differences between them. Thus, the end of Penelope's trick is conditioned by the prior ending of Odysseus' time with Circe. Ring structure and weaving mechanics are, in sum, intimately linked in the Odyssey and serve to reinforce each other.