The Structure of the Homeric Dwelling Scene: a Presentation of Justice in Homer

Abstract

This PhD thesis, entitled The Structure of the Homeric Dwelling Scene: a Presentation of Justice in Homer, and written by myself, John Moss, is a study of the concept of justice in Homer by way of a recurrent narrative structure. Introducing the thesis with a reading of the Iliad, I offer an innovative explanation of how and why Homer uses what I call his ‘dwelling structure’ to dramatize the varied ideas of human and divine justice of his time. After situating the argument within ancient and modern Homeric scholarship that the administering of justice is at the core of both the Iliad and the Odyssey, I illustrate the point with the Cyclopeia, making the case that Odysseus enters the cave ‘dwelling’ of a human Cyclops wherein Homer compares two different human men’s approaches to the justice of the gods and men. The effect of such a reading of the Cyclopeia transforms what has become relegated, in modern history, to a ‘brain-and-brawn’ showdown between a man and a giant monster into one of Homer’s most significant discussions on opposing ideas of justice. Finally, a close reading of the ‘cave simile’ in the Republic, Plato’s dialogue on justice, has led me to conclude that the Cyclopeia is the inspiration for the educated man and uneducated men in Plato’s own ‘cave-like dwelling’.