CLASS TENSIONS IN THE GAMES OF HOMER: EPEIUS, EURYALUS, ODYSSEUS, AND IROS

Abstract

Three contest scenes in Homer reveal a thematic concern with class tension: the two contests with Epeius in Iliad 23, Odysseus's encounter with Euryalus in Odyssey 8, and Odysseus's boxing match with Iros in Odyssey 18. Epeius is a comic scapegoat who succeeds in challenging the elite Euryalus, boasts ineptly, and is later ridiculed. Odysseus in Odyssey 8 is also challenged by a (different) nobleman named Euryalus, whom Odysseus rebukes, saying that a man cannot be skilled in all things and that one ought not judge by appearances. The ‘skilled man’ phrase found both in the Epeius episode and in that with Odysseus (Il. 23.670–71; Od. 8. 59–60), highlights the intertextuality and focuses on the theme of merit over appearances. Finally the Iros–Odysseus boxing match parodies and parallels the above epic-challenge scenes. Each episode fosters consideration of the essential ambiguity of class relations in the period of transition to the polis c. 700 bce.