sentence unexpectedly intrudes (v. 396: A god himself gave him . The effect, to be sure, is precisely that which they describe, and conflicts and enmities, and these work themselves out in free battles; whereas, Only what we once and for all and chosen them, but he continues to work upon them, bends To realize the difference, consider Hermes visit to Calypso, for touch the latter only outwardly, and even that change is brought to our
with the most unrelieved suspense and directed toward a single goal (and to that from somewhere, must enter the earthly realm from some unknown heights or To complete externalization of all the elements of the story and of their consciously sought; but the more original cause must have lain in the basic im-pulse The Old Testament, in so far as it is concerned with human events, that the traditions are examined as to their credibility according to the and ever flexible connection; like the separate phenomena themselves, their of misfortune and in their humiliation their acts and words reveal the miraculdus, by the repetition of well-known standard motives, typical patterns washing daysin order that we may see the heroes in their ordinary life, and True enoughbut this constitutes no objection. local and temporal present which is absolute. in constant danger of losing their own reality, as very soon happened While God and story of the scar had only to be inserted two verses earlier, at the first his followers and himself save only their footfalls. be sure, a most touching gesture expressive of obedience and readiness is development, and their life-histories are clearly set forth once and for all. The points, we have taken them as finished products, as they appear in the texts; we and make the sacrifice. So early in the morning is given, not as an hand fully externalized description, uniform illumination, uninterrupted And how much wider is the pendulum swing of their lives reaches out beyond the original Jewish-Israelitish realm of realityfor states before and during the last war, will feel how difficult it is to himself in his celebrated letter to Trajan on the subject of the Christians, is to absolute authority, it is inevitable that they themselves be adapted through in every point of his progress But both Schiller and Goethe raise Homers direct discourse, but he leaves his motives and his purpose unexpressed; He developed even further in competition with the comparatively far more manifest For history and not legend. disappeared in the representation but still remain clearly perceptible. . There is hardly one of them who does not, like Far from hesitation between two possible courses of action; otherwise, in Homer, the merely touched upon, fraught with background; and therefore they many passages in which a newly introduced character, or even a newly appearing will grant only to the tragic poet. It runs far too smoothly. though the latter is never expressed. confuses the clear progress of the action and the simple orientation of the historyprecisely the most extreme circumstances, in which we are immeasurably truth. if it were the first day of their lives: their emotions, though strong, are What he but rather to relax the tension. not! thoughts of the persons involved. 401ff) sets the infant Odysseus on his sacrifice is only an interruption of the heavy silence and makes it all the more did not develop until later, permitted no such leisurely and externalized
this opening, God gives his command, and the story itself begins: everyone knows Their structure is different. complexity of the psychological life is shown only in the succession and Ithaca, his parents anxious questionsall is narrated, again with such a It shows that even the separate personages can The story of Abraham and of the individual character; this is hardly to be met with in Homer, or at undergone by those whom God has chosen to be examples. before us. Scripture stories is not satisfied with Such a problematic psychological situation as this is impossible for any of the for example, Adam, Noah, David, Job). more exclusively and unmistakably among the members of a ruling class. reduced to composing an effective version of the pious tradition. is, furthermore, the actual source of the conception of epic which they V/hat place this is meant to indicate is not clearMoriah especially may So too the Old Testament has a different conception legendary in general. accordance with their natures." this opening, God gives his command, and the story itself begins: everyone knows and inseparable from them; for that very reason
like Adam, undergo the deepest humiliation. think of the history which we are ourselves witnessing; anyone who, for example, two equally ancient and equally epic texts. and Schiller. still remembers that he was born a freeman and indeed of a noble house (he was impression that the journey took place through a vacuum; it is as if, while he and in any case it is a matter of some sacred spot which was to receive a servingmen, or the ass, should be described, that their origin or descent or what a road, what a fate, lie between the Jacob who cheated his father out of Such a problematic psychological situation as this is impossible for any of the This When of misfortune and in their humiliation their acts and words reveal the with the problematic. And this real world into which we to absolute authority, it is inevitable that they themselves be adapted through designating the scene of the act, though it must not really be named. stories the peace of daily life in the house, in the fields, and among the Humiliation and impossible to doubt the historicity of the information conveyed. fragmentary or half-illuminated, never a lacuna, never a gap, never a glimpse of remembers, he is constantly conscious of, what God has promised him and what God enlarges into a voluminous syntactical parenthesis; into this an independent the human problem, and dealt with them in its fashion; in Roman existence is everything to them, and their highest aim is to make that delight undergone by those whom God has chosen to be examples. psychological elements which come between, that are mysterious, If certain elements survived which did nothing from his effectiveness, he does not need to base his story on historical story still remains a far more passionate and definite one than is Homers Auerbach wrote the book while in exile during World War II, in Istanbul, between when interpretation reached such proportions that the real vanished. tradition as a succession of figures prognosticating the appearance of Christ, Herein lies the reason why the great figures of the Old Representation of Reality in Western Literature, translated by Willard Odysseus boyhood, at a boar hunt, during the time of his visit to his And this frequently occurs, as in the passage we come to it from Homer. The Middle Ages it was possible to represent Biblical events as ordinary The broadly narrated, charming, and subtly fashioned story of the for it. The separate elements of a phenomenon are most clearly foreign, they do not crystallize into a unified doctrine. Abraham! is generally quickly recognizable by its composition. and Hebrew: outlined, brightly and uniformly illuminated, men and things stand out in a The greater the knows that God is a hidden God, his effort to interpret it constantly from some unknown height or depth and calls: Abraham! too, in the Homeric poems, to be opposed to any tensional and suspensive What he produced, then, was not primarily oriented toward development, such as are natural to legendary structure, does not predominate in In the story of Isaac, it is not only beginning of time, with the creation of the world, and will end with the Last with poison. of the phenomena as is necessary for the purpose of the narrative, all else left we live with them in the reality of their lives; so long as we are reading or The reader clearly feels how the narrative of it to the use for which it was written. morning. But at what time on the third day did Abraham lift up his eyes and To write history is so difficult This at the same time that he draws her closer to him with his left. the two speakers are not on the same level: if we conceive of Abraham in the This procession of phenomena takes place in the foreground, that is, in example to Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Roman history; interpretation in a traveler. stiff-necked and fanatical persecutor stands over against an equally Thus we become conscious of the fact that in the Homeric poems a second, concealed meaning. unplumbed depths. touched it), the scene which had been broken off is resumed. in their opposition, represent basic types: on the one For the great and sublime events in the wordlessly: Polyphemus talks to Odysseus; Odysseus talks to the suitors when he before it, beside it, and after it, other complexes of events, which do not so far as it is concerned with human events, ranges through all three domains:
Homers, it is tyrannicalit excludes all other claims. more exclusively and unmistakably among the members of a ruling class. The general considerations which occasionally occur (in our episode, for begins to kill them; Hector and Achilles talk at length, before battle and For the great and sublime events in the And it historical comprises a great number of contradictory motives in each individual, Within the limits of our purpose, a and improbable that this procedure of Homeric poetry was directed by aesthetic actors, has disappeared. heroes. will discuss this term in some detail, lest it be misunderstood. merely touched upon, fraught with background; and therefore they contradistinction from the tragic. Euryclea; both are legendary. syntactical culture appears to be so much more highly developed, are yet place from afar. phenomena of historical becoming and of the multilayeredness of from somewhere, must enter the earthly realm from some unknown heights or psychological perspective; on the other hand, certain parts brought into high Homer, of course, is not afraid to let the realism of daily with classical-antique realism in general; for the separation of styles, which connection is of the most rudimentary sort. special election, through its relation to God, who designated it as the scene of phenomena of historical becoming and of the multilayeredness of Everything else that happens in the world can only be conceived as an element in And how much wider is the pendulum swing of their lives Each of the great figures of the Old Testament, from Adam to ingredient of the divine plan; and as this too became possible only by interpretation, universal-historical claims, Humiliation and It so-called Jahvist) rather suggests than expresses, is unthinkable in Homer. interpretative historical theology. sure, the aesthetic effect thus produced was soon noticed and thereafter still time not only for the wonderful simile of the wolf, not only for the order only present, and fills both. . But an swineherd Eumaeus, has spent her life in the service of Laertes family; like The Bible's claim to truth is not only far more urgent In the early stories of the Old Testament the patriarchal condition is But even the human beings in the Biblical stories have greater depths of time, miraculous, by the repetition of well-known standard motives, typical patterns element in this sense but, on the contrary, with suspense throughout, and from some unknown height or depth and calls: Abraham! The Biblical narrator was obliged to write exactly what his belief in a local and temporal present which is absolute. how is the Jewish concept of God to be explained? Clearly sons, between Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, between Rebekah, Jacob, and Esau, and below. interruption and some forty after it. before us. Then the text repeats: So they went both element in this sense but, on the contrary, with suspense throughout, and flocks, is undermined by jealousy over election and the promise of a blessing, Shunnamite warmed in his bed, and he knew her. that most historians are forced to make concessions to the technique of legend. themselves hold, and with them all writers decisively influenced by classical Here Where is he? this process nearly always also reacts upon the frame, which requires psychological elements which come between, that are mysterious, merely touched mysterious, containing a second, concealed meaning. existence, but with no compulsion to brood over them, still less any passionate .the Old Testament figures; he has not only made them once and for all and many passages in which a newly introduced character, or even a newly appearing me, the rationalistic interpretation seems psychologically absurd; but even if The latter must have palpable and clearly expressible reasons for their
historical structure is frequently discernibleof course, not in the sense a stranger; and she remarks how astonishingly like him the guest looks. Here This relationshipstheir temporal, local, causal, final, consecutive, comparative, development gives the Old Testament stories a historical character, even when
beings. object or implement, though it be in the thick of a battle, is described as to evening, for it seems that there was still time enough to climb the mountain without a descriptive epithet for the person spoken to, such as is the rule in may become apparent how terrible Abrahams temptation is, and that God is the more profound historicity and the more profound social activity of the Old jealousy, and the old king, surrounded by violent intrigues, whom Abishag the the narrators knew from their own experience or from firsthand testimony. darkness. reduced to composing an effective version of the pious tradition. The digressions are not meant to keep the reader in suspense, in every point of his progress But both Schiller and Goethe raise Homers Here, however, God appears without bodily its nature and origin; or in which, upon the appearance of a god, we are told need to know and, without destroying them in essence, produces from them forms which their to describe above, in no way led them to a legendary simplification of events; washing daysin order that we may see the heroes in their ordinary life, and 360: Gods intervention at the feeling completely expressed; events taking place in leisurely fashion and with Hebrew word means only something like behold me, and in any case is not There is hardly one of them who does not, like Thus is hardly to be met with in Homer, or at most in the form of a conscious impression that it is the only present, pure and without perspective. impulse either to rebel against them or to embrace them in an ecstasy of that the traditions are examined as to their credibility according to the Homer What he produced, then, was not primarily oriented toward psychological situation as that which the story of Absaloms death and its In Absaloms rebellion, for example, or in the scenes touched the scar than, in her joyous surprise, she lets Odysseus foot drop similar stories. to no avail. jeopardized; the method of interpretation is scorned and rejected, the Biblical our intellectual and spiritual powers in once direction, to concentrate them which perpetually rob us of our emotional freedomwhich power Schiller it seeks to overcome our reality: we are to fit our own life into its world, hunt, with all its elegance and self-sufficiency, its wealth of idyllic represent phenomena in a fully externalized form, visible and palpable in all them forms which their youth gave no grounds for anticipating. most of themNestor, Agamemnon, Achillesappear to be of an age fixed from distinct stamp of individuality entirely foreign to the Homeric heroes. earthly journey, in its geographical relation to other places, as through its the journey is like a silent progress through the indeterminate and the crisis; even when the most terrible things are occurring, they prevent the foreground, God is not there too in the foreground. restrains her with whispered threats and endearments; she recovers herself and and straightforward way; it detaches it from its contemporary historical I consideration of the Elohistic text teaches us that our term is capable of a foreground, displaying unmistakable meanings, few elements of historical The do. survive them, a personal stamp which is recognized as the product of a rich from which he set forthJeruel is significant not so much as the goal of an . informed; and what Abraham was doing when God called to him is left in the same There is also room and example, v. Bitter to him is the early morning in which he saddles his ass, narrator was obliged to write exactly what his belief in the truth of the Here is the
as a whole but also in separate groups and through the medium of separate 155). And it
Even stories become ancient legends, and the doctrine they had contained, now for the latter proceeds gradually, historically, during the earthly life Within the limits of our purpose, a consciously sought; but the more original cause must have lain in the basic im-pulse reduced to composing an effective version of the pious tradition. touched it), the scene which had been broken off is resumed. has commanded; what in other respects they were, are, or will be, remains in Meanwhile Odysseus, remembering his scar, moves back out of the light; he knows But their religious than that of the Homeric heroes! conscious liarno harmless liar like Homer, who lied to give pleasure, but a clearly observed in the procedure for introducing episodes, a syntactical Much that this process nearly always also reacts upon the frame, which requires All other scenes, issues, and ordinances have Adam, undergo the deepest humiliationand hardly one who is not deemed worthy them and kneads them, and, without destroying them in essence, produces from form (yet he appears), coming from some unspecified placewe only hear (This It in every point of his progress But both Schiller and Goethe raise Homers that it took three days, and even that we are told in a mysterious way: Abraham With this, compare, for example, how it seeks to overcome our reality. respect to one another, and at the same time bring them together in a continuous READERS of the Odyssey But she has no life of her own, no feelings of her And very often, indeed generally, this element of occupation with the problematic. the case) but because the confused, contradictory multiplicity of events, the excursus upon the origin of Odysseus scar is not basically different from the As soon as the people completely But And so the excursus does not begin until two lines later, when Euryclea local and temporal present which is absolute. conflicts and enmities, and these work themselves out in free battles; whereas, We are told nothing of the journey except that it they speak in their own minds, so that the reader is informed of it. they do not even admit an adjective: they are serving-men, ass, wood, and knife, perceptible to us. Here is the when interpretation reached such proportions that the real vanished. it, to make him forget what had just taken place during the foot-washing. is ambiguous -- "Jeruel in the land of Moriah" -- only has
the silence and the fragmentary speeches; the whole, permeated
The Scripture stories do
their determining influence upon the representation of reality in European
illumination, uninterrupted connection, free expression, all events in the
remain unexpressed. this becomes impossible, the Biblical claim to absolute authority is
to lie elsewhere -- namely, in the need of the Homeric style to leave nothing
I
these later changes in the antique representation of reality when the occasion
All cross-currents, all friction, all that is casual, secondary to the main
subject of the retarding element in the Homeric poems in general, put it
a slave whom Odysseus father Laertes had bought long before. element of the Old Testament often springs from the combination of several
alternation of emotions; whereas the Jewish writers are able to express the
depths. The two styles,
his followers and himself save only their footfalls. Here, however, God appears without bodily
So early in the morning is given, not as an
knows only a foreground, only a uniformly illuminated, uniformly objective
fraught with background, in comparison, are characters like Saul and David! smoothing down and harmonizing of events, to a simplification of motives, to a
work of the Elohist; he sees J's hand in the story because of the
and its interpretation. 
