Speech, interaction and identity: the construction of Odysseus' ethos in the apólogoi (Hom. Od. IX-XII)
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Abstract
The present study undertakes an analysis of the construction of Odysseus’ discursive ethos in the apólogoi (Homer, Odyssey IX-XII), a speech the hero delivers, according to Most (1984), in order to persuade the Phaeacians to be nice hosts. Indeed, based on some insights from interactional narrativity studies (Carranza, 2020), this paper considers Odysseus’ tale’s interactional aspects: specifically, the distribution of the roles of hosts and guest —established by the codes of xenía—, Odysseus’ political status, the representations of an epic hero and a basiléus, which Odysseus uses to his advantage, and the conversational and interactional history previous to book IX. Thus, Odysseus’ ethos in the apólogoi is as relevant as his prior ethos (Amossy, 2018), that is, the discursive image that Odysseus projects during his first encounters with the Phaeacians (VIII-VIII) and reworks and fosters from book IX onwards. The research’s general aim is to understand Odysseus’ account as an argumentative speech, through which the hero constructs a certain self-presentation, conditioned by the interactional frame in which the storytelling takes place, in order to convince the Phaeacians to obey the hospitality laws. On a deeper level, Odysseus’ self-presentation is strongly tied to the reconstruction of his lost identity and the recovery of his political and social status as Ithaca’s basiléus.
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