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The Myth Of Proteus

MASTERPLOTS AND MASTERBILKERS
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Epic Geography
This chapter is in the book Epic Geography
THE MYTH OF PROTEUS MASTERPLOTS AND MASTERBILKERS AN ORIENTAL TALE OF ORIGINS AND ENDS: PROTEUS, THOTH, HERMES AFTER a brief indication in the beginning that the gods are about to free Odysseus from his space-bound trial on Calypso's western isle, the Homeric Odyssey moves east. The Telemachiad transfers its younger hero to the Peloponnese, first to Pylos and then to Mene-Iaus' Sparta, where Telemachus is told an original tale, one of the oldest Egyptian tales, a tale of the Ancient of the Salt Sea, Proteus. The structure of Menelaus' adventure is a miniature Odyssey. He had wandered for seven years along Levantine coasts and in Levan­tine ports. Odysseus had wandered for ten years mainly in couchant waters. Victor Berard is convinced that both accounts relate to Medi­terranean geographical history, to periploi around the seven larger isles of the eastern seas and the ten isles of the greater western Medi­terranean. That Odysseus takes seventeen days to return from Ca­lypso's island to Scheria, near his home seas, indicates to Berard that the Homeric poet has combined an eastern and a western odys-sey into one major epic. When his adventures come to an end Menelaus is literally bogged down in the Nile, rendered immobile. Odysseus, who began from the same place, Troy, experiences his first adventure at about the same latitude as Menelaus' last: off the Libyan coast but much fur­ther west in the land of the Lotuseaters. Odysseus' last adventure finds him bogged down on Calypso's Ogygia, he, too, rendered im­mobile. We therefore have two Greek heroes awaiting Nostos, one in the Nile Basin near the mythic source, the mythic point of entrance to the Egyptian Mediterranean, and the other at the Straits of Gi­braltar, the mythic point of egress from the Mediterranean. When Proteus, once pinned down in the Nile Basin, relays to Menelaus the western whereabouts of Odysseus, we can see the Odyssey's full geographical range. Eventually, both heroes engage in an ele­mental struggle merely to move toward home. Menelaus encounters the minor sea god, Proteus; Odysseus, as always, encounters the major god, Poseidon, the god of the world's greater oceans.

THE MYTH OF PROTEUS MASTERPLOTS AND MASTERBILKERS AN ORIENTAL TALE OF ORIGINS AND ENDS: PROTEUS, THOTH, HERMES AFTER a brief indication in the beginning that the gods are about to free Odysseus from his space-bound trial on Calypso's western isle, the Homeric Odyssey moves east. The Telemachiad transfers its younger hero to the Peloponnese, first to Pylos and then to Mene-Iaus' Sparta, where Telemachus is told an original tale, one of the oldest Egyptian tales, a tale of the Ancient of the Salt Sea, Proteus. The structure of Menelaus' adventure is a miniature Odyssey. He had wandered for seven years along Levantine coasts and in Levan­tine ports. Odysseus had wandered for ten years mainly in couchant waters. Victor Berard is convinced that both accounts relate to Medi­terranean geographical history, to periploi around the seven larger isles of the eastern seas and the ten isles of the greater western Medi­terranean. That Odysseus takes seventeen days to return from Ca­lypso's island to Scheria, near his home seas, indicates to Berard that the Homeric poet has combined an eastern and a western odys-sey into one major epic. When his adventures come to an end Menelaus is literally bogged down in the Nile, rendered immobile. Odysseus, who began from the same place, Troy, experiences his first adventure at about the same latitude as Menelaus' last: off the Libyan coast but much fur­ther west in the land of the Lotuseaters. Odysseus' last adventure finds him bogged down on Calypso's Ogygia, he, too, rendered im­mobile. We therefore have two Greek heroes awaiting Nostos, one in the Nile Basin near the mythic source, the mythic point of entrance to the Egyptian Mediterranean, and the other at the Straits of Gi­braltar, the mythic point of egress from the Mediterranean. When Proteus, once pinned down in the Nile Basin, relays to Menelaus the western whereabouts of Odysseus, we can see the Odyssey's full geographical range. Eventually, both heroes engage in an ele­mental struggle merely to move toward home. Menelaus encounters the minor sea god, Proteus; Odysseus, as always, encounters the major god, Poseidon, the god of the world's greater oceans.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Preface ix
  3. Acknowledgments xvii
  4. Table Of Contents xix
  5. List Of Maps xxi
  6. List Of Abbreviations xxiii
  7. Part One
  8. Introduction 3
  9. Zophos: Toward The Gloom 16
  10. Geographical Projections 39
  11. Influence Of The Climate 64
  12. The Epic's Novel Geography 84
  13. The Myth Of Proteus 105
  14. Part Two
  15. Preliminary Mappings: Orientations, Wanderings, Nostos 123
  16. Telemachiad 138
  17. The Wanderings Of Odysseus: I 150
  18. The Wanderings Of Odysseus: II 182
  19. Nostos 228
  20. The Motion Is Ended 253
  21. Index 255
  22. Backmatter 266
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400856909.105

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Preface ix
  3. Acknowledgments xvii
  4. Table Of Contents xix
  5. List Of Maps xxi
  6. List Of Abbreviations xxiii
  7. Part One
  8. Introduction 3
  9. Zophos: Toward The Gloom 16
  10. Geographical Projections 39
  11. Influence Of The Climate 64
  12. The Epic's Novel Geography 84
  13. The Myth Of Proteus 105
  14. Part Two
  15. Preliminary Mappings: Orientations, Wanderings, Nostos 123
  16. Telemachiad 138
  17. The Wanderings Of Odysseus: I 150
  18. The Wanderings Of Odysseus: II 182
  19. Nostos 228
  20. The Motion Is Ended 253
  21. Index 255
  22. Backmatter 266
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