Sea-storms in ancient epic

This chapter traces the sea-storm from Homer to Quintus of Smyrna. Through the investigation of the formal dimensions of the sea-storm in epic and related genres, especially tragedy, it outlines a core set of structural features. This set allows for a broad understanding of the primary poetic methods of activating and employing the typological conventions of the sea-storm. At the outset of the tradition, scenes of sea-storm depict confrontations between the hero and the overwhelming forces of gods and nature. They illustrate the disparity between divine and human perspectives, moving from the omniscient view of the gods to the confusion of the hero faced with his own mortality. As such, early instances of the sea-storm serve as a proving ground for the hero’s endurance and piety. The sea-storm also provides a space for illustrating the parameters that govern the behaviour of poetic worlds. With Vergil’s construction of Aeneas as the representative Roman hero, this struggle takes on wider implications through political allegory. The opposing forces that meet in the space of the sea-storm figure the obstacles and imperatives that dictate Rome’s historical narrative.

Beginning with Homer, a defining feature of the sea-storm is its extremes, the hyperbolic movement between sea and sky, and the mixing of elements as the two become confused. Through this elemental disruption, the sea-storm illustrates the hierarchies that structure each epic narrative. Foremost among these is the relationship between gods and men. By illustrating the gods’ instigation and reso- lution of the storm, the poet shows the competitive forces at work in his narrative, those that aid or oppose the hero’s journey and, more importantly, dictate the outcome of that journey. The gods’ involvement or absence from the mechanisms of the sea-storm frequently functions to illuminate the divine apparatus of the poem as a whole in relation to its epic models. Furthermore, the heroes’ response to the terrifying melee of the storm – whether despair, Stoic calm, or rage – offers a rubric that measures his heroic qualities against those of earlier epic heroes who had confronted the same circumstances. As such, the sea-storm can serve as a point of differentiation between cultural identities, most notably in the shift from Greece to Rome.