Nobile nomen Eurydamas: The reception of Homer’s Odyssey in Silius Italicus’ Punica

Abstract

The article analyzes an instance of intertextuality in the second book of Silius Italicus’ Punica. The author focuses on fragment II.177–187 with its mention of Eurydamas, a descendant of one of Penelope’s suitors, among the defenders of besieged Saguntum. The description of this ancestor’s actions, particularly the claim about Odysseus’s death, corresponds in Homer’s Odyssey not to Eurydamas, but to another suitor — Eurymachus. The work examines the hypotheses proposed in historiography to resolve this contradiction. The first suggests that Silius makes the Eurydamas in Punica a descendant of Eurydamas from the Odyssey. The second hypothesis proposes an error by Silius, who confused Eurydamas with another, more prominent suitor of Penelope — Eurymachus — or a similar accidental scribal error. Finally, some scholars suggest an intentional ambiguity concealing a reference to Eurymachus. The author criticizes the first two versions, pointing to the unlikelihood of a random scribal error or a mistake by the highly erudite Silius. The use of a minor Homeric character and Silius’s supplementation of the Homeric tradition also seem improbable. The author supports and elaborates on the third hypothesis proposed in historiography: Silius deliberately uses the name Eurydamas to demonstrate his erudition and create an intertextual reference, while the description unequivocally points the educated reader to Eurymachus. Such ambiguity, according to the author, aligns with the overall poetics of Punica as a work rich in allusions. The proposed interpretation resolves the contradiction without textual emendations and fits Silius’s method of complex literary play with sources.