seneca2008 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2020 8:42 pm
Given that Odysseus has already eaten food provided by Nausicaa he will not be ravenous from his sea journey. Perhaps he draws attention to his appetite and the demands of his "hateful belly" to underline the fact that he is mortal and "not like the immortals". (See Garvie (1994))
Unfortunately, none of the libraries in the Boston area carry Garvie; however, I completely forgot to include Hainesworth's comments and he's probably the most informative of the lot:
215-21. This amusing passage gave offence to schol., to Athenaeus (x412b),
and to some of the moderns, either as bad manners (cf. ἐχρῆν γάρ, εἰ καὶ ἐλίμωττεν, διακαρτερεῖν ... ταῦτα γὰρ οὐδ'ἐκεῖνος ὁ Σαρδανάπαλλος εἰπεῖν ποτε ἄν ἐτόλμησεν, Athen. loc. cit.), or for incompatibility with epic dignity (cf. 'La fameuse tirade de Rabelais
Tout pour la tripe! interpolée dans une tragedie de Racine ... ne détonnerait pas plus de cette tirade du ventre.' Bérard, L'Odyssée (Paris, 1947), n. ad loc.). Schol. T defends the lines as an attempt to disarm suspicion, as if Odysseus were representing himself as a πτωχός (cf. xvii 228, xviii 53, etc.), but this would clash with the evident intent of 224-225. The critic must not impose the taste of his own age on that of Homer. The imperative of hunger is mentioned in heroic contexts at iv 369 = xii 332, vi133, and xv 344. Odysseus has in fact already eaten (cf. vi 249), though his words here seem to imply that nothing has passed his lips since his shipwreck.
216. κύντερον: a persistent image of shamelessness, cf. M. Faust, 'Die künstliche Verwendung von κύων "Hund" in den homerischen Epos', Glotta xlviii (1970), 8-31.