It is bemusing, to say the least, to notice just how alien the concepts of piety and guest-friendship are in the context of MODERNITY. They are either perverted or ignored altogether.
Appreciated this information and great read. Especially the note regarding how modern Christianity has its roots in guest rite. I'd add, Christianity looks the way it does today because Europeans propagated it. Separate Korean, Nigerian, and Colombian Christians in space and time - and you'll find different expressions of "Christianity."
Thank you for this. In fact Nolan does three things with his "Zeus's Law":
1) He combines Xenia (ritualised guest-friendship between elites) and Hiketeia (the sacred ritual of supplication), both of which were overseen by Zeus. Xenia was a code for aristocrats and was expected to be reciprocated. Hiketeia was not: anyone could apply, but the suppliant placed himself entirely at the mercy of the lord or householder he supplicated.
2) As noted, he adds a form of the universal Golden Rule. Penelope's description is close to the "do unto others" language of Christ, but the Golden Rule emerged independently across several civilisations during the first millennium BC.
3) To support his narrative arc, and to make the trick of the horse the catastrophe at its centre, he turns a battlefield ruse into a civilisation-ending calamity. Odysseus (disguised) confesses to Penelope: "We left them a gift. An offering of peace that they took into their home. We violated all that's ever sacred between people…" Not even Virgil went that far. Aeneas, a Trojan narrator, calls Sinon "perjured", but Virgil never presents the horse as a breach of guest-friendship or of all that is sacred. Nolan had to, to support his arc.
The facts are that Xenia bound individuals, not armies; it never governed the conduct of one warring side towards the other. The Achaeans and Trojans were still at war when the horse and Sinon were left behind. Herman's Ritualised Friendship and the Greek City is a deep dive on the code of Xenia, the later code of Proxenia, and their rituals.
I am fine with Nolan's choices, because in the final scenes of the film he allows Odysseus, supported by Penelope, to return to being the hero we readers of the poem know him to be. He implements the Judgement of Neoptolemus, exiling himself for a time so that the blood feud can end, leaving Ithaca under Telemachus' rule. He goes off into the west, presumably to perform the rites he was charged with in Hades, whether to appease his fallen comrades or Poseidon (as in the poem). There is no "this is forever" in the film, nor in the judgement.
At some point this book club will consider Virgil's Aeneid.
If you do please take very great care to make a precise, legalistic translation of the Latin (don't trust any translator; the most accurate I have found is Shadi Bartsch, 2020/21).
For Sinon's encounter with the Trojans in Book II, you will discover that Sinon swore no oath to the Trojans and made no ritual supplication to them.
He entreated them and called the gods and divine powers to witness.
He claims the right to break the sacred laws of the Greeks (Achaeans), and then demands that Troy keep its promise to him: "Tu modo promissis maneas, servataque serves / Troia fidem" ("Only do you abide by your promises, and, preserved, preserve your faith, Troy", II.160–161). He took a pledge from Troy and gave none.
Priam unchained him and made him "one of us" before asking him a single question about the horse.
Priam's presumption and hubris was the opening that Odysseus and Sinon relied upon.
We know Virgil knew the rituals of supplication, because Achaemenides uses them in Book III: he clasps the Trojans' knees, receives Anchises' right hand and pledge, and is "received as a suppliant" (III.588–667).
Precise translation:
II.141 Wherefore you (sg.), by the gods above and the divine powers conscious of the truth,
II.142 by ⟨whatever⟩, if there is any, that yet remains anywhere among mortals,
II.143 unstained good faith, I entreat: pity sufferings
II.144 so great, pity a soul enduring things not deserved.”
II.145 To these tears we grant life, and we pity ⟨him⟩ besides, unasked.
II.146 Himself first, the man's manacles and tight
II.147 bonds Priam orders to be loosed, and thus speaks with friendly words:
II.148 “Whoever you (sg.) are, from now on forget the lost Greeks;
II.149 you will be ours, and explain these things truly to me ⟨as I⟩ ask:
II.150 to what end did they set up this mass of a monstrous horse? Who ⟨is its⟩ author?
II.151 Or what do they seek? What religious ⟨offering is it⟩, or what engine of war?”
It is bemusing, to say the least, to notice just how alien the concepts of piety and guest-friendship are in the context of MODERNITY. They are either perverted or ignored altogether.
Yes… and these were core concepts within a nascent West. Sad to see them wither away.
Appreciated this information and great read. Especially the note regarding how modern Christianity has its roots in guest rite. I'd add, Christianity looks the way it does today because Europeans propagated it. Separate Korean, Nigerian, and Colombian Christians in space and time - and you'll find different expressions of "Christianity."
Well written and explained, I downloaded it. Xenia. I had forgotten that word. Where was I?
Thank you for this. In fact Nolan does three things with his "Zeus's Law":
1) He combines Xenia (ritualised guest-friendship between elites) and Hiketeia (the sacred ritual of supplication), both of which were overseen by Zeus. Xenia was a code for aristocrats and was expected to be reciprocated. Hiketeia was not: anyone could apply, but the suppliant placed himself entirely at the mercy of the lord or householder he supplicated.
2) As noted, he adds a form of the universal Golden Rule. Penelope's description is close to the "do unto others" language of Christ, but the Golden Rule emerged independently across several civilisations during the first millennium BC.
3) To support his narrative arc, and to make the trick of the horse the catastrophe at its centre, he turns a battlefield ruse into a civilisation-ending calamity. Odysseus (disguised) confesses to Penelope: "We left them a gift. An offering of peace that they took into their home. We violated all that's ever sacred between people…" Not even Virgil went that far. Aeneas, a Trojan narrator, calls Sinon "perjured", but Virgil never presents the horse as a breach of guest-friendship or of all that is sacred. Nolan had to, to support his arc.
The facts are that Xenia bound individuals, not armies; it never governed the conduct of one warring side towards the other. The Achaeans and Trojans were still at war when the horse and Sinon were left behind. Herman's Ritualised Friendship and the Greek City is a deep dive on the code of Xenia, the later code of Proxenia, and their rituals.
I am fine with Nolan's choices, because in the final scenes of the film he allows Odysseus, supported by Penelope, to return to being the hero we readers of the poem know him to be. He implements the Judgement of Neoptolemus, exiling himself for a time so that the blood feud can end, leaving Ithaca under Telemachus' rule. He goes off into the west, presumably to perform the rites he was charged with in Hades, whether to appease his fallen comrades or Poseidon (as in the poem). There is no "this is forever" in the film, nor in the judgement.
At some point this book club will consider Virgil's Aeneid.
If you do please take very great care to make a precise, legalistic translation of the Latin (don't trust any translator; the most accurate I have found is Shadi Bartsch, 2020/21).
For Sinon's encounter with the Trojans in Book II, you will discover that Sinon swore no oath to the Trojans and made no ritual supplication to them.
He entreated them and called the gods and divine powers to witness.
He claims the right to break the sacred laws of the Greeks (Achaeans), and then demands that Troy keep its promise to him: "Tu modo promissis maneas, servataque serves / Troia fidem" ("Only do you abide by your promises, and, preserved, preserve your faith, Troy", II.160–161). He took a pledge from Troy and gave none.
Priam unchained him and made him "one of us" before asking him a single question about the horse.
Priam's presumption and hubris was the opening that Odysseus and Sinon relied upon.
We know Virgil knew the rituals of supplication, because Achaemenides uses them in Book III: he clasps the Trojans' knees, receives Anchises' right hand and pledge, and is "received as a suppliant" (III.588–667).
Precise translation:
II.141 Wherefore you (sg.), by the gods above and the divine powers conscious of the truth,
II.142 by ⟨whatever⟩, if there is any, that yet remains anywhere among mortals,
II.143 unstained good faith, I entreat: pity sufferings
II.144 so great, pity a soul enduring things not deserved.”
II.145 To these tears we grant life, and we pity ⟨him⟩ besides, unasked.
II.146 Himself first, the man's manacles and tight
II.147 bonds Priam orders to be loosed, and thus speaks with friendly words:
II.148 “Whoever you (sg.) are, from now on forget the lost Greeks;
II.149 you will be ours, and explain these things truly to me ⟨as I⟩ ask:
II.150 to what end did they set up this mass of a monstrous horse? Who ⟨is its⟩ author?
II.151 Or what do they seek? What religious ⟨offering is it⟩, or what engine of war?”