BERNARD FREYDBERGto the limits of the Stranger’s vision. In light of the Homeric image, one
wonders: What sort of being is the Stranger an appearance of?
In all three cases treated in this section, the inspired Homeric im-
age is used to open up a philosophical vista, a vista that is explored in
questioning lovgo~.
”Ubri~ and Its Aftermath: Giants (and Horses)The exploits of giants who are capable of infl icting grievous pain upon
gods and also, in the case of Ephialtes and Otos, of killing them and
ascending to the throne of Olympos, are sung in both the Iliad and
the Odyssey.^17 These images can be examined for their philosophical
use in the Platonic dialogues, just as the prior cases of a twofold split
in the use of the images could. Treating the Ephialtes and Otos myth
fi rst, we fi nd that it is told somewhat differently across the two epics.
The context of the passage in the Iliad (5.381– 92) is Diomedes’ painful
wounding of Aphrodite with his spear as the latter was carrying out the
wounded body of her beloved son Aineias. As she cried of her wound
to her mother Dione, Dione reminded her that immortals often suffer
pains at the hands of mortals when immortals fi ght one another. In-
deed, Aphrodite’s own brother Ares had been chained by Ephialtes and
Otos who were too strong for the god of war, and Ares would have per-
ished had it not been for the intervention of Hermes (who was tipped off
by their stepmother Eëriboia). The Odyssey presents a version that varies
slightly. Ephialtes and Otos were fathered by Poseidon and Iphimedeia
(wife of Aloeus); they grew at a young age to magnifi cent heights and
were strikingly handsome; they threatened to pile up mountains so as
to reach and challenge the gods on Olympos. On his visit to Hades,
Iphimedeia recounts these details to Odysseus, and concludes the tale
with the following:
They would have carried it out if they had come to their primes,
but the son of Zeus whom Leto with ordered hair had borne him,
Apollo, killed them both, before the down gathered
below their temples, or on their chins the beard had blossomed.
(11.317– 20)In the Symposium, Plato places this mythical account in a Homeric
epic within another mythical speech, Aristophanes’ lovgo~ on the ori-
gin and meaning of e[rw~, but has Aristophanes use it for his own pur-
poses. In Aristophanes’ version, Ephialtes and Otos were struck dead by
lightning—suggesting that Zeus was their slayer, perhaps offering a third