The dog who waited for Odysseus: Argos reflects deep human-animal bonds of ancient Greece
GREECE : (Jul 27) Homer’s Odyssey, with its fabulous monsters and intense tale of human endurance, was a natural candidate for Christopher Nolan’s latest Hollywood blockbuster. But amid all the fantasy and heroic human drama, there are two far more homely scenes in the poem which remain among the epic’s most memorable. Both involve animals.
One is the touching, tragically brief reunion of the hero (played in the film by Matt Damon) with his faithful dog Argos. It’s a deceptively low-key episode which reflects powerfully on the epic’s themes of patience, loyalty and loss.
The other is the man-eating cyclops’s sudden display of a softer side. He addresses his favourite ram as Pepon, a term of endearment elsewhere applied to close friends and relatives. The cyclops wonders aloud if the ram is grieving for his master’s lost eye, or sharing his desire for revenge.
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