‘From the earliest age, children beginning their studies are nursed on Homer’s teaching. One might say that while we were still in swathing bands we sucked from his epics as from fresh milk. He assists the beginner and later the adult... In no stage of life, from boyhood to old age, do we ever cease to drink from him.’1
Over the last few months, many of us flocked to see Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of the Odyssey. For a lot viewers here in England, where Homer is not part of the national curriculum, this might have been their first encounter with the poet.
In ancient Greek culture and education, however, Homer was ubiquitous. As the quotation above from a contemporary of the gospel writers indicates, Homer was a sine qua non of Greek schooling. To be taught was to be taught Homer. To learn to read and write was to do so with Homer as a constant companion and guide.
According to Plato and Xenophon, the most exceptional students would memorise the whole of the Iliad and the Odyssey.2 Yet even for those who could not achieve such feats of memory, Homer’s presence was unavoidable. In a catalogue of papyri preserved from Graeco-Roman Egypt, over six hundred of the manuscripts were Homer. The next best-attested authors, Demosthenes and Hesiod, did not even come close (with seventy-seven and seventy-two manuscripts, respectively).3
What though did this ‘Homeric’ education involve? One of the striking differences between modern and ancient schooling lay in the emphasis placed by the latter on imitation – what the Greeks called imitatio and the Romans mimesis. In part, this involved paraphrasing Homer’s words, so much that they would become part of one’s own mental furniture. As the first-century BC rhetorician, Philodemus, asks: ‘Who could claim that the writing of prose is not reliant on the Homeric poems?’4
A brief perusal of Graeco-Roman literature reveals that the answer to Philodemus’ question was very few. Just as our English language bears the mark of Shakespeare and the KJV, so Homeric allusions were abundant in classical literature. While other works consciously worked with the Homeric epics – most famously, Virgil’s Aeneid.
All of this raises an unavoidable question: did Homeric influence extend to the gospels? Did the gospel writers also pepper their works with Homeric allusions?
Though most scholars find only little – if any – influence of Homer upon the gospels, there are a few scholars who have argued that Homer’s presence is felt strongly in the gospels and Acts. Of these, the most ambitious is Dennis R. MacDonald, whose tome, The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark (Yale, 2000), argues that Homer heavily shaped the composition of Mark’s gospel.5
In this piece, I want to explore MacDonald’s theory with a closer look at the Odyssey. Where does he see points of contact with the Odyssey and Mark? Why do many scholars today remain unconvinced that Mark constructs a Homeric mimesis? And what – if anything – can a student of the gospels learn from reading Homer today?
Mark as Homeric Epic
MacDonald sets out a vast number of parallels between Mark’s gospel and Homer’s Odyssey. Here I sketch the bare outline of these comparisons. (For those who haven’t read or seen the Odyssey, this may be where you want to check out!)
Woodworking: In Mark, Jesus is presented as a tektōn, someone who works with hard materials including wood. Similarly, Odysseus is explicitly described as a skilled tektõn, who had built his own palace and designed the Trojan horse.
Hometown reception: Both Jesus and Odysseus receive a negative reception in their hometown. In Mark, the people of Nazareth refuse to believe him or accept him for who he is, while Odysseus is met with opposition by his wife’s suitors.
Supernatural opposition: Both Jesus and Odysseus face opposition from supernatural forces. In Mark, these are demons and the wild demoniac. In the Odyssey, Odysseus is continually frustrated in his plans to return home by his lover Calypso, the witch Circe, the god Poseidon and the cyclops, Polyphemus.
Foolish companions: Jesus journeys to the cross with twelve foolish companions, who repeatedly misunderstand his mission and finally abandon him. Similarly, Odysseus travels with foolish companions who eventually die together. In both cases, the disciples start out promising, only to fail in their mission.
Suffering: Mark’s Jesus is marked by suffering, particularly towards the end of the gospel. In a similar way, the Odyssey emphasises the suffering of Odysseus.
Plot to Kill Jesus: In Mark, there is a plot from the outset of the gospel to kill Jesus, which heightens towards his passion, where Jesus talks of the Jewish authorities as tenants of a vineyard who kill the son of the vineyard owner. In the Odyssey, there is a plot from Penelope’s suitors to kill, Telemachus, Odysseus’ ‘beloved son’. They too have taken over Odysseus’ home while he is away.