Kairios and Kairos: Walls and Ways in Homer

Abstract:A study of the four instances of the adjective καίριος in Homer confirms what is traditionally taken to be the term's reference to a vulnerable site or place on the body, "un lieu critique" (Trédé 1992). At the same time, it suggests that even within this limited range of meaning, καίριος also implicitly incorporates connotations that only later emerge in the history of the noun καιρός, which does not appear in Homer. That conclusion is supported by the clear presence of the sense of "opening" or "aperture" in the instances of Homeric καίριος—a sense that John Onians (1988) and Bernard Gallet (1990) argue is fundamental to the meaning of καιρός. The connotations of καίριος include not simply spatial but also temporal, intentional, and situational references that together have bearing on how successful human action is understood.