Has everyone already read the Onion's "You Are No Longer Welcome In The Homer Reading Group"?
Here it is if you haven't. Everyone is, of course, welcome in this one!
Not so much a question as a some vaguely connected observations - Odysseus' speech begins with γουνοῦμαί σε, ἄνασσα· θεός νύ τις, ἦ βροτός ἐσσι;
The three other instances of the γουνοῦμαί σε formula in Homer are identical with each other (apart from the name), with the suppliant begging for mercy:
γουνοῦμαι σʼ Ἀχιλεῦ· σὺ δέ μʼ αἴδεο καί μʼ ἐλέησον· Il. 21.74 (Lykaon - Achilles kills him)
γουνοῦμαί σʼ, Ὀδυσεῦ· σὺ δέ μʼ αἴδεο καί μʼ ἐλέησον· Od. 22.312 (Leiodes - head chopped off by Odysseus as a result)
γουνοῦμαί σʼ, Ὀδυσεῦ· σὺ δέ μʼ αἴδεο καί μʼ ἐλέησον· Od. 22.340 (Phemios the bard - spared)
I thought that it was interesting, in the light of Paul's comment in the previous thread about Odysseus promising to pray to Nausicaa as a god, that Phemios says that if Odysseus saves him then he will sing to him like a god (ἔοικα δέ τοι παραείδειν ὥς τε θεῷ·).
Can ὥς θεῷ/θεῷ ὣς mean both "in the same way I would to a god" and "as if you were a god"? I'm aware this is rambling and not really connected to this week's passage so feel free to wrest my hand from the tiller!