The Powers and Perils of Solitude in Greek Literature

Isolation is central to the drama of Sophocles’ Philoctetes. Although major points of disagreement remain about, e.g., the integrity of the play’s ending (spurious/absurd: Kott, Poe; integral: Vidal-Naquet, Campbell, Easterling, Newman; cf. Schein [2013]) or the status of Neoptolemus as a deceiver, friend, and/or hero (Schmidt, Easterling, Segal; cf. Schein [2006]), the loneliness of the play’s eponymous hero is incontrovertible.

In Pindar’s Thebes, adoption [thesis] and exposure [ekthesis] were framed as opposite aspects of one problem—fertility’s failure to follow supply and demand. Aelian explains that “it was not possible for a Theban to expose [ektheinai] a child and to throw it out into the wilderness [eremian] under pain of death” (Aelian, Varia Historia, 2.7).

Odysseus’ physical and social separation from his home, and even from humanity, triggers his nostalgic longing for home. His emotional response to isolation, arguably, motivates the gods’ intervention and sets in motion the action of the poem (Danek 1998: 42–43, Grethlein 2017: 208–9; pace Clay 1983: 234). Despite its importance for the poem, we still do not fully grasp what is at the root of Odysseus’ persistent loneliness and why he rejects the enticements of Kalypso.

Modern studies in cognitive science and trauma have documented that human beings exhibit chemical and neurological responses to isolation and that prolonged periods of separation from human contact attentuate higher order functions of language and thought (see Gilmore and Willians 2014).

Domestic interiority in Homer is commonly employed as a marker of gendered authority and divided social spheres. While gendered paradigms are often reversed in Homer (Foley, Arthur, Warwick), interior spaces remain a locus of isolation for women.