Cover not available
Article published In:
Exploring (im)politeness in ancient languages
Edited by Kim Ridealgh
[Journal of Historical Pragmatics 20:2] 2019
► pp. 263–285

Politeness, gender and the social balance of the Homeric household

Helen between Paris and Hector in Iliad 6.321–356

| Freie Universität Berlin
This paper focusses on the role of women within the Homeric household (οἶκος, “oikos”) as related to politeness. The social balance of the household has its fulcrum in the relation between the householder and his wife, and the latter has a crucial role in preserving the face of her husband and hence his authority in the oikos. In practice, to preserve his public image within the oikos, householders delegate a core part of their authority to their wives, and in exchange of this wife-characters such as Penelope or the goddess Hera are keen always to stage the subaltern role, which women have in the Homeric society. The paper compares specific examples of similar politeness strategies to the behaviour of Helen in Book 6 of the Iliad (321–356). Helen enacts a reverse politeness strategy aiming to make her husband Paris’s face collapse in front of Hector. By combining Erving Goffman’s concepts of “face” and “social situation” and the Homeric values of τιμή (“timē”) and αἰδώς (“aidōs”) into a framework for studying politeness in the epics, it becomes possible to shed light on the real power balance that – underneath the veil of politeness – characterises the relationship between the householder and his wife in the Homeric oikos.
Keywords: Ancient Greece, face, feminine (im)politeness, Homeric householders, Paris and Helen, social situation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Goffman in the wake of Elias: Politeness and the Homeric social situation
  • 3.Setting the scene: The thalamos as a room and a social situation
  • 4.The mistress of the House’s authority over the thalamos
  • 5.The exception of Helen
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 10 December 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.00032.mar
References (86)
Abbreviations
LfgrE = Bruno Snell et al. (eds). 1955–2010. Lexicon des frühgriechischen Epos [‘Lexicon of the Early Greek Epic’], Volumes I–IV1. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.Google Scholar
LSJ = Henry J. Liddell, Robert Scott and Henry S. Jones (eds). 1940–1996. A Greek–English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
References
Bardollet, Louis. 1997. Les mythes, les dieux et l’homme: essai sur la poésie homérique [‘Myths, Gods, and Men: An Essay on Homeric Poetry’]. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Benveniste, Émile. 1969. Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes [‘Dictionary of Indo-European Concepts and Society’]. (Volumes 1–21.) Paris: Les éditions de Minuit.Google Scholar
Bourriot, Félix. 1995. Kalos kagathos – kalokagathia: d’un terme de propagande de sophistes à une notion sociale et philosophique. Étude d’histoire athénienne [‘ Kalos kagathos – kalokagathia: From a Word of Sophistic Propaganda to a Social and Philosophical Notion’]. Hildesheim and New York: Georg Olms.Google Scholar
Bouvier, David. 2002. Le sceptre et la lyre. L’Iliade ou les héros de la mémoire [‘The Sceptre and the Lyre: The Iliad or the Heroes of Memory’]. Grenoble: Jérôme Millon.Google Scholar
Brown, Christopher G. 1989. “Ares, Aphrodite, and the Laughter of the Gods”. Phoenix 43 (4): 283–293. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brown, Penelope and Stephen Levinson. 1987 [1978]. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brunius Nilsson, Elisabeth. 1955. ΔΑΙΜΟΝΙΕ: An Inquiry into a Mode of Apostrophe in Old Greek Literature . Uppsala: Almqvist & Wicksells Boktryckeri Ab.Google Scholar
Burkert, Walter. 1960. “Das Lied von Ares und Aphrodite. Zum Verhältnis von Odyssee und Ilias ” [“The song of Ares and Aphrodite: On the Relationship in the Odyssey and the Iliad ”]. Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 1031: 130–144.Google Scholar
Cairns, Douglas L. 1993. AIDŌS. The Psychology and Ethics of Honour and Shame in Ancient Greek Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Cantarella, Eva. 2002. Itaca. Eroi, donne, potere tra vendetta e diritto [‘Ithaca: Heroes, Women, and Power between Power and Revenge’]. Milano: Feltrinelli.Google Scholar
Catambrone, Marco. 2016. “Off-Record Politeness in Sophocles: The Patterned Dialogues of Female Characters”. Journal of Politeness Research 12 (2): 173–195.Google Scholar
Chantraine, Pierre. 1968. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque. Histoire des mots. [‘Etymological Dictionary of the Greek Language: History of Words’]. (Volumes I–II1.) Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Clayton, Barbara. 2004. A Penelopean Poetics: Reweaving the Feminine in Homer’s Odyssey. Lanham (Md.): Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Codino, Franco. 1960. “Presupposti religiosi e tendenza comico realistica nella mitologia omerica” [“Religious Grounds and Comic–Realistic Tendencies in the Homeric Mythology”]. Belfagor 15 (5): 551–566.Google Scholar
Collins, Randall and Stephen Sanderson. 2009. Conflict Sociology: A Sociological Classic Updated. Boulder, Colorado, and London: Paradigm Publishers.Google Scholar
Culpeper, Johnathan (ed.). 2011a. Historical Sociopragmatics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2011b. Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dickey, Eleanor. 1996. Greek Forms of Address: from Herodotus to Lucian. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Donlan, Walter. 1973. “The Origin of καλὸς κἀγαθός”. American Journal of Philology 94 (4): 365–374. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1980. The Aristocratic Ideal in Ancient Greece: Attitudes of Superiority from Homer to the End of the Fifth Century B. C. Lawrence, Kansas: Coronado Press.Google Scholar
Duerr, Hans P. 1988. Nacktheit und Scham: Der Mythos vom Zivilisationsprozeß [‘Nudity and Shame. The Myth of the Civilisation Process’]. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkampf.Google Scholar
Du Sablon, Vincent. 2012. “Sur le sens de la formule κατὰ κοσμόν chez Homère” [“On the Meaning of the Formula κατὰ κοσμόν in Homer”]. Revue des études grecques 1251: 365–396. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2014. Le système conceptuel de l’ordre du monde dans la pensée grecque à l’époque archaïque [‘The Conceptual System of the World-Order in the Archaic Greek Thought’]. Louvain, Namur, Paris and Walpole, Masachusetts: Peeters.Google Scholar
Duplouy, Alain. 2006. Le Prestige des élites: recherches sur les modes de reconnaissance sociale en Grèce entre les Xe et Ve siècles avant J. -C [‘The Prestige of the Elites: Researches on the Modes of Social Recognition in Ancient Greece (10th–5th c. BC)’]. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Eelen, Gino. 2001. A Critique of Politeness Theories. Manchester and Northampton, Massachusetts: St. Jerome Publishing.Google Scholar
Ehlich, Konrad. 2005 [1992]. “On the Historicity of Politeness”. In Richard J. Watts, Sachiko Ide and Konrad Enlich (eds), Politeness in Language: Studies in Its History, Theory, and Practice, 71–108. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Ehnmark, Erland. 1935. The Idea of God in Homer. Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksells Boktryckeri Ab.Google Scholar
Elias, Norbert. 2000 [1939]. The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations. Malden, Massachusetts, Oxford and Victoria: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Franzoni, Carlo. 2006. Tirannia dello sguardo. Corpo, gesto, espressione dell’arte greca [‘Gaze Tyranny: Body, Gesture, Expression in Greek Art’]. Torino: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Gantz, Timothy. 1993. Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. Baltimore, Maryland: The John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life. Garden City: Doubleday.Google Scholar
. 1972 [1955]. Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-To-Face Behaviour. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Graver, Margaret. 1995. “Dog Helen and Homeric Insult”. Classical Antiquity 14 (1): 41–61. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Graziosi, Barbara and Johannes Haubold. 2010. Homer. Iliad. Book VI . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Haugh, Michael. 2007. “The Discursive Challenge to Politeness Research: An Interactional Alternative”. Journal of Politeness Research 3 (2): 295–317. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heitman, Richard. 2005. Taking Her Seriously. Penelope and the Plot of Homer’s Odyssey. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heubeck, Alfred, Stephanie West and John B. Hainsworth. 1988. A Commentary on Homer’s Odyssey, vol. 1: Introduction and Books I–VIII . Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hohendahl Zoetelief, Icky M. 1980. Manners in the Homeric Epic. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hooker, John T. 1979. Homer. Iliad III . Bristol: Bristol Classical Press.Google Scholar
Jaillard, Dominique. 2007. “ Kûdos arésthai (emporter le kûdos). Le kûdos des rois, des guerriers et des athlètes au miroir des dieux” [“ Kydos aresthai: The Kydos of Kings, Warriors, and Athletes as Related to the Gods”]. Gaia 111: 85–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Janko, Richard. 1994. The Iliad: A Commentary . Edited by Geoffrey S. Kirk. (Volume V1.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Joly, Marc. 2012. Devenir Norbert Elias [‘Becoming Norbert Elias’]. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Kádár, Dániel and Michael Haugh. 2013. Understanding Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kirk, Geoffrey S. 1985. The Iliad: A Commentary . Edited by Geoffrey S. Kirk. (Volume I1.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1990. The Iliad: A Commentary . Edited by Geoffrey S. Kirk. (Volume II1.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Krieter-Spiro, Martha, Joachim Latacz and Martin L. West. 2009. Homers Ilias Gesamtkommentar. Auf der Grundlage der Ausgabe von Ameis-Hentze-Cauer (1868–1913) [‘A Holistic Commentary to the Iliad: On the Basis of the Edition by Ameis-Hentze-Cauer’]. (Edited by Anton Bierl and Joachim Latacz.) Band III, Dritter Gesang (1–2). Berlin and New York: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Lakoff, Robin I. 1990. Talking Power: The Politics of Language in Our Lives. Glasgow: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Latacz, Joachim, Martin L. West and Magdalene Stoevesandt. 2008. Homers Ilias Gesamtkommentar. Auf der Grundlage der Ausgabe von Ameis-Hentze-Cauer (1868–1913) [‘A Holistic Commentary to the Iliad: On the Basis of the Edition by Ameis-Hentze-Cauer’]. (Edited by Anton Bierl and Joachim Latacz.) Band IV, Sechster Gesang (1–2). Berlin and New York: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Lateiner, Donald. 1992. “Heroic Proxemics: Social Space and Distance in the Odyssey ”. Transactions of the American Philological Association 1221: 133–163. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2005. “Proxemic and Chronemic in Homeric Epic: Time and Space in Heroic Social Interaction”. Classical World 98 (4): 413–421. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lentini, Giuseppe. 2013. “The Pragmatics of Verbal Abuse in Homer”. In Håkan Tell (ed.), The Rhetoric of Abuse in Greek Literature, Classics@ 111. Accessed 26 October 2017 at: [URL]
Lévy, Edmond. 1995. “ Arétè, timè, aidôs et némésis: le modèle homérique” [‘ Aretē, Timē, Aidōs and Nemesis: The Homeric Model’]. Ktema 201: 177–210.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Michael. 2009. “ The Language of the Gods: Politeness in the Prologue of the Troades”. In J. Robert, C. Cousland and James Hume (eds), Essays in Honour of Martin Cropp, 183–192. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Losfeld, Christophe and Alain Montandon. 2011. Politesse, morale et construction sociale : pour une histoire des traités de comportements, 1670–1788 [‘Politeness, Morality, and Social Construction. Towards a History of Behaviour Manuals, 1670–1788’]. Paris: Champion.Google Scholar
Mari, Francesco. 2016. “The Stranger on the Threshold. Telemachus Welcomes Athena in Odyssey 1.102–143: A Case Study of Polite Interaction in Ancient Greek Culture”. Journal of Politeness Research 12 (2): 221–244. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martin, Richard P. 1989. The Language of Heroes: Speech and Performance in the Iliad. Ithaca, New York and London: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Mills, Sara. 2003. Gender and Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Minchin, Elizabeth. 2007. Homeric Voices: Discourse, Memory Gender. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Montandon, Alain. 1994. Pour une histoire des traités de savoir-vivre en Europe [‘Towards a History of Good Manners Manuals in Europe’]. Clermont Ferrand: Association des publications de la Faculté des lettres et sciences humaines.Google Scholar
Nevala, Minna. 2010. “Politeness”. In Andreas H. Jucker and Irma Taavitsainen (eds), Historical Pragmatics, 419–450. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Newton, Rick M. 1987. “Odysseus and Hephaestus in the Odyssey ”. The Classical Journal 831: 12–20.Google Scholar
O’Driscoll, Jim. 2011. “Some Issues with the Concept of Face: When, What, How and How Much?” In Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini and Dániel Kádár (eds), Politeness Across Cultures, 17–41. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Picard, Dominique. 1995. Les rituels du savoir-vivre [‘The Politeness Ritual’]. Paris: Le Seuil.Google Scholar
Postlethwaite, Norman. 2000. Homer’s Iliad: A Commentary on the Translation of Richmond Lattimore . Exeter: University of Exeter Press.Google Scholar
Reece, Steve. 1993. The Stranger’s Welcome: Oral Theory and the Aesthetics of the Homeric Hospitality Scene. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Riedinger, Jean-Claude. 1976. “Remarques sur la τιμή chez Homère” [“Some notes on the Homeric τιμή”]. Revue des études grecques 891: 244–264. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1980. “Les deux αἰδώς chez Homère” [“The two αἰδώς by Homer”]. Revue de philologie, de littérature et d’histoire anciennes 541: 62–79.Google Scholar
Rinon, Yoav. 2006. “Tragic Hephaestus: The Humanized God in the Iliad and in the Odyssey ”. Phoenix 60 (1–2): 1–20.Google Scholar
Roisman, Hanna M. 2006. “Helen in the Iliad; Causa Belli and Victim of War: from Silent Weaver to Public Speaker”. American Journal of Philology 127 (1): 1–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rougier Blanc, Sylvie. 2005. Les maisons homériques. Vocabulaire architectural et sémantique du bâti [‘Homeric Houses: Architectural and Semantic Lexicon of Buildings’]. Nancy and Paris: ADRA.Google Scholar
Schäfer, Melsene. 1990. Der Götterstreit in der Ilias [‘The Gods’ Fight in the Iliad ’]. Stuttgart: Teubner. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scodel, Ruth. 2008. Epic Facework: Self-Presentation and Social Interaction in Homer. Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sifianou, Maria. 2011. “On the Concept of Face and Politeness”. In Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini and Dániel Kádár (eds), Politeness Across Cultures, 42–58. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Suter, Ann. 1984. Paris/Alexandros: A Study in Homeric Techniques of Characterization. PhD thesis, Princeton University. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilm International.Google Scholar
Taplin, Oliver P. 1992. Homeric Soundings: The Shaping of the Iliad. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Terkourafi, Marina. 2008. “Toward a Unified Theory of Politeness, Impoliteness and Rudeness”. In Derek Bousfield and Miriam A. Locher (eds), Impoliteness in Language: Studies on Its Interplay with Power in Theory and Practice, 45–74. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Vernant, Jean-Pierre (ed.). 1993 [1991]. L’homme grec [‘The Greek Man’]. Paris: Le Seuil.Google Scholar
Vleminck, Serge. 1982. “L’aspect institutionnel de la τιμή à la lumière de l’étymologie” [“The Institutional Aspect of τιμή in the Light of its Etymology.”]. Živa Antika 321: 151–164.Google Scholar
Walsh, Thomas R. 2005. Fighting Words and Feuding Words: Anger and the Homeric Poems. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Watts, Richard J. 2003. Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008. “A Socio-Cognitive Approach to Historical Politeness”. In Marcel Bax and Dániel Z. Kádár (eds), Understanding Historical (Im)politeness: Rational Linguistic Practice over Time and across Cultures, 103–130. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Watts, Richard J., Sachiko Ide and Konrad Enlich (eds). 2005 [1992]. Politeness in Language: Studies in Its History, Theory, and Practice. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Wees, Hans. 1992. Status Warriors: War, Violence and Society in Homer and History. Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben.Google Scholar
Wide, Samuel K. 1933 [1911]. “Griechische und Römische Religion” [“Greek and Roman Religion”]. In Eduard Norden and Andres Gercke (eds), Einleitung in die Altertumswissenschaft [‘Introduction to Classics’], Band II 2, 191–290. Leipzig: Teubner.Google Scholar