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Homer’s metaphysics : the conception of reality in the Iliad and Odyssey

University of British Columbia

The Iliad and the Odyssey contain a unified, consistent, and comprehensive view of reality. At no point in the poems is this view definitively and systematically expounded, but it does extend implicitly throughout both works and affects the representation of everything within them. In this essay an attempt has been made to extract, define, and illustrate this conception of reality. The conception may be designated as supernaturalism. Reality in the poems is not considered to be confined within the natural order and, so, bounded by time, space, and materiality directly perceptible to the senses. The natural order is conceived to be an "open," discontinuous system, characterized ultimately by mystery and undefinableness, through which it merges with the supernatural. Moreover, the supernatural does not consist of a mere abstract extension to the natural; the former is in fact the hypostasis of the latter, that is, it sustains and controls it, a relation that is represented by the rule of the gods over natural phenomena. The supernatural is the perfect, absolute centre of reality of which the natural constitutes the dependent, imperfect, physical crystallization. The supernatural order is connected to the natural realm primarily through "essence." Essence is the most characteristic and most real property of every natural phenomenon and so it constitutes the absolute, ultimate being of the natural order. Because of its absolute nature, it cannot be defined. As a result, the identity of no natural phenomenon can be fixed; it can only be outlined or suggested. The very undefinableness of essence leaves the natural system open to the ulterior metaphysical dimension. This particular fusion of the natural and supernatural orders renders the latter a duality. The supernatural consists not simply of spirit but of spirit and essence in a variable ratio. In the regions of the supernatural nearer the natural order, essence predominates over spirit; in the regions remote from the natural world, however, spirit is pre-eminent. The essential element in the divine nature gives the gods form and substance, and associates them with particular natural phenomena. The duality of spirit and essence in their natures permits them to pass between the natural and supernatural realms without impediment . The rule of the supernatural hypostasis over the natural order in the Iliad and Odyssey is effected both immanently, that is, within the course of events, and transcendently, outside the course of events. In the former case, the gods, in their immanent manifestations, wield supreme but limited power over natural phenomena. All natural phenomena, however, as well as the immanent gods themselves, also fulfil the transcendent plan of history established by the universal principle of order, designated as Fate, by the transcendent gods, and, ultimately, by the transcendent Zeus. The transcendent government of the world is absolute, but it is fulfilled spontaneously; as a result the integrity and freedom of the natural order are preserved. The supernatural rules the natural order in two dimensions. The principle of order at the heart of the supernatural determines the relations of all phenomena. It fuses them into a whole while preserving to a limited degree their individual identities. It apportions to each of them in the great order of things a particular lot consisting of individual and corporate attributes, the bounds of which may not be exceeded. Any transgression of these bounds upsets the universal order and activates an inexorable compensatory force which restores equilibrium. The maintenance of this principle of order, Moira, constitutes Homeric justice, Dikē. The fundamental idea in the Homeric conception of reality is that of hypostasis, the belief in an ulterior, transcendent dimension that binds together, controls, and invests with meaning all real phenomena.

Text

2010-03-09

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/21668

Classics

University of British Columbia

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