In an octopus’s garden: a story from Lesbos

2015.12.12 | By Gregory Nagy

§1. In Plutarch’s Banquet of the Seven Sages, the author imagines a remote time when conversations took place in the city of Corinth at a dinner party hosted by the tyrant of that city, Periandros, a historical figure whose lifetime can be dated to the late seventh and early sixth century BCE. The dramatic setting for this imagined dinner party coincides with the era of Sappho and Alcaeus, both originating from the city of Mytilene in Lesbos—and both belonging to a canonical set of nine masters of classical “lyric” songmaking (the other seven are Alcman, Stesichorus, Ibycus, Anacreon, Simonides, Pindar, Bacchylides). Among the notable guests attending the dinner party of Periandros were seven sophoi ‘wise’ men known in Greek mythmaking traditions as the Seven Sages of Greece, and at least some of these sages are likewise historical figures whose lifetimes can similarly be dated to the late seventh and early sixth century BCE—such as Pittakos of Mytilene in Lesbos, reputed to be the lawgiver of that city (the other six of the Seven Sages in Plutarch’s narrative are Thales of Miletus, Bias of Priene, Solon of Athens, Chilon of Sparta, Kleoboulos of Rhodes, and Anacharsis the Scythian). Plutarch’s story features Pittakos in the act of telling a most interesting earlier story about Lesbos in Banquet of the Seven Sages 163a–d.

§2. It is a story about a human sacrifice that was performed once upon a time by Greeks who were sailing in the Aegean Sea and heading toward the island of Lesbos on a mission of establishing an apoikia or ‘site to be colonized’ there (Banquet of the Seven Sages 163b). An oracle had ordered these Greeks to offer sacrifice by throwing overboard two victims at a herma or ‘sea-reef’ named Mesogeion, and these victims were (1) a bull to be offered as sacrifice to the sea-god Poseidon and (2) a parthenos or ‘girl’ to be offered as sacrifice to the sea-goddess Amphitrite and to her attending nymphs, described here as Nērēïdes or ‘Nereids’ (again, 163b). Chosen by lot as the girl to be thrown overboard was the daughter of Smintheus, one of the seven kings who were leaders of the mission (again, 163b). When the sea voyage of the seven kings finally reached the sea-reef where the sacrifice was ordained to take place, everything was made ready: before proceeding to throw the girl into the watery depths below, the sacrificers adorned (kosmeîn) her by dressing her in the finest fabrics and bedecking her with golden jewelry (again 163b).

§3. But here a new character intervenes in the story. Sailing together with the kings on this sea voyage was a young man of noble birth named En-halos. This Enhalos, whose name means ‘he who is in the sea’, was passionately in love with the girl who was about to be sacrificed (Banquet of the Seven Sages 163b–c). Just as the girl was about to be thrown overboard, Enhalos rushed to her side and, embracing her, he jumped into the watery depths below, together with the girl (163c).

§4. At this point, after their dual dive into the Aegean Sea, the doomed couple somehow experience a mysteriously happy outcome. The story-teller, in the person of Pittakos, says that the rest of the story is about komidē ‘recovery’ and sōtēria ‘salvation’ (Banquet of the Seven Sages 163c). These two words signal that there is a mystery at work here. I start with sōtēria. As I argue in H24H 24§1, the noun sōtēria ‘recovery, salvation’ and the corresponding verb sōzein ‘recover, save’ can be used in the mystical sense of ‘bringing (someone) back to life’. Similarly, as I argue in H24H 24§40, the noun komidē ‘recovery’ and the corresponding verb komizein ‘recover’ can be used in the mystical sense of ‘bringing (someone) back to light and life’, parallel to the mystical sense of the noun nostos, ‘return to light and life’.

§5. At this point in the storytelling of Plutarch’s Banquet of the Seven Sages (163c), there is a shift in the ownership of the story. Up to now, Pittakos has been the imagined story-teller, but from this point onward the story is attributed by Pittakos himself to hearsay, which in turn is further attributed to what was said by Enhalos himself—that is, by the same character who dove into the Aegean Sea while embracing the girl he loved. Sometime after the dive, according to hearsay, Enhalos appeared in an epiphany (phanênai) to the people of Lesbos, and then Enhalos himself told them what happened, which is, that he and the girl were actually rescued by dolphins that carried both of them to safety on land (again, 163c).

§6. In this version of the story, as retold by the figure of Pittakos, both Enhalos and the girl are carried ashore by dolphins. In another version, however, the girl never comes back ashore, and even Enhalos reappears on land only once, for the sole purpose of announcing to the people of Lesbos that he and the girl have taken up a new habitat, in the depths of the sea. The source for this divergent version of the story is Anticleides of Athens in Book 16 of his Nostoi (FGrH 140 F 4), as reported by Athenaeus 11.466c. The story starts the same way before it diverges from the version I already summarized from my reading of Plutarch’s Banquet of the Seven Sages, though Athenaeus gives a few more details. In this divergent version as reported by Athenaeus, the leader of the mission sent to Lesbos for the purpose of establishing an apoikia or ‘site to be colonized’ there is a man named Grâs, who is accompanied by other basilēs ‘kings’, and here too, as in the other version, the success of the mission depends on a human sacrifice that is ordained by an oracle: a parthenos ‘girl’ must be thrown into the sea. This version, attributed to Anticleides, is said to stem from mythmaking traditions that are native to the city of Methymna in Lesbos. So far, I have reported what we read in Athenaeus 11.466c. Now I proceed to Athenaeus 11.466d, where we read further that one of the leaders of the mission, whose name is Enhalos, is passionately in love with the girl and jumps overboard with her in order to ‘recover’ or ‘save’ her, and the word used here for the project of salvation is ana-sōzein ‘recover, save’ (ἀνασῶσαι). So, both the girl and the boy disappear under a wave. Then, after the city of Methymna is ‘colonized’, oukoumenē, Enhalos appears to the people in an epiphany and describes how the parthenos ‘girl’ is now ‘living’, diatribein, together with the Nērēïdes ‘Nereids’ in the depths of the sea, while Enhalos himself tends the horses of Poseidon in the sea-god’s underwater kingdom. These additional details that I have just recounted come from Athenaeus 11.466d. Now I switch my reading to Athenaeus 11.781b–c, the text of which is merely an epitome. But even here in this abbreviated narrative, we learn an interesting further detail: when Enhalos emerges from the depths of the sea and reveals himself to the people of Lesbos in an epiphany, he is holding a kupellon ‘cup’ of gold.

§7. This detail about Enhalos emerging from the sea and holding in his hand a golden cup reminds me of a detail in another story, as examined in my posting for 2015.08.26, §§49–50. There I considered a story reported by Pausanias, telling how Theseus, after he dived into the depths of the sea to recover a golden ring that Minos had thrown overboard, emerged from the depths holding in his hand both the golden ring and a golden garland given to him down below by the sea-goddess Amphitrite:

Μίνως ἡνίκα Θησέα καὶ τὸν ἄλλον στόλον τῶν παίδων 
ἦγεν ἐς Κρήτην, ἐρασθεὶς Περιβοίας, ὥς οἱ Θησεὺς 
μάλιστα ἠναντιοῦτο, καὶ ἄλλα ὑπὸ ὀργῆς ἀπέρριψεν ἐς 
αὐτὸν καὶ παῖδα οὐκ ἔφη Ποσειδῶνος εἶναι, ἐπεὶ <οὐ> 
δύνασθαι τὴν σφραγῖδα, ἣν αὐτὸς φέρων ἔτυχεν, ἀφέντι 
ἐς θάλασσαν ἀνασῶσαί οἱ. Μίνως μὲν λέγεται ταῦτα 
εἰπὼν ἀφεῖναι τὴν σφραγῖδα· Θησέα δὲ σφραγῖδά τε 
ἐκείνην ἔχοντα καὶ στέφανον χρυσοῦν, Ἀμφιτρίτης δῶρον, ἀνελθεῖν λέγουσιν ἐκ τῆς θαλάσσης.

When Minos was taking Theseus and the rest of the delegation of young men and women to Crete he fell passionately in love with [the girl] Periboia, and when Theseus opposed him by objecting, he [= Minos] insulted him and said that he [= Theseus] was not the son of Poseidon, since he [= Theseus] could not recover [ana-sōzein] for him [= Minos] the signet ring [sphragis] which he [= Minos] happened to be wearing, if he threw it into the sea. With these words Minos is said to have thrown the signet ring [sphragis], but they say that Theseus emerged from the sea holding that ring and also a golden garland [stephanos] that Amphitrite gave him.

Pausanias 1.17.3

§8. In this text, I must emphasize, the word used here for the project of recovering the golden ring that was thrown overboard is ana-sōzein ‘recover, save’ (ἀνασῶσαι). Likewise in the text of Athenaeus 11.466d, the word used there for the project of saving the girl who was thrown overboard was ana-sōzein ‘recover, save’ (ἀνασῶσαι).

§9. In my posting for 2015.09.3, I considered another version of the story about Theseus and his dive in his quest for the golden ring, as narrated in Song 17 of Bacchylides, where we read further details that are in some ways the same and in some ways different: after Theseus dives into the depths of the sea, the sea-goddess Amphitrite welcomes him, enveloping the hero in a purple robe (line 112) and crowning his head of hair with a garland made of roses (line 116: ῥόδοις)—a garland that she herself as a bride of Poseidon the sea-god had received as a wedding present from Aphrodite (lines 113–116). When Theseus finally comes back up for air, emerging from the depths of the sea, he is wearing the purple robe and the garland of roses, ready to confront Minos. From here on, it will be Theseus and not Minos who will have dominion over the Aegean Sea, and this dominion is expressed by the combined symbolism of (1) the golden ring and (2) the purple robe and (3) the garland of roses.

§10. I return now to the story about Enhalos and his dive into the depths of the sea. In one version of this story, as we just saw in the narrative transmitted by Athenaeus 11.466d and 11.781b–c, Enhalos emerges from his dive holding in his hand a golden cup, and this version is attributed to mythological traditions native to the city of Methymna in Lesbos. Now I turn to another version of the story, attributed to mythological traditions native to the city of Mytilene in Lesbos:

Ἔναλον δὲ τὸν Αἰολέα Μυρσίλος ὁ Λέσβιος ἱστορεῖ, τῆς Σμινθέως ἐρῶντα θυγατρὸς ῥιφείσης κατὰ χρησμὸν τῆς Ἀμφιτρίτης ὑπὸ τῶν Πενθιλιδῶν, καὶ αὐτὸν ἐξαλόμενον εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν ὑπὸ δελφῖνος σῶον ἐξενεχθῆναι πρὸς τὴν Λέσβον.

Myrsilos of Lesbos reports in the course of his researches this story: Enhalos fell passionately in love with the daughter of Smintheus and, when she was thrown overboard by the members of the royal lineage of the Penthilidai, in accordance with an oracle originating from Amphitrite [the sea-goddess], he too jumped overboard into the sea. Then he was taken out, saved [sōos] by a dolphin and carried to [the island of] Lesbos

Myrsilos of Lesbos FGrH 477 F 14, by way of Plutarch About the intelligence of animals 984e

§11. As we read in this version, the men who threw the girl overboard belonged to the royal lineage of the Penthilidai, and, we know from independent sources that this lineage, who claimed descent from the hero Orestes, once ruled the city of Mytilene in Lesbos but were eventually overthrown and ultimately replaced by the rule of Pittakos (Aristotle Politics 1311b26-30; Suda s.v. Pittakos; Diogenes Laertius 1.74). It is this same figure, Pittakos of Mytilene, who is represented as telling the story about the dive of Enhalos together with the anonymous girl in Plutarch’s Banquet of the Seven Sages.

§12. I have already summarized Plutarch’s retelling of this version, which as I say can be traced back to the mythological traditions of Mytilene in Lesbos—but my summary has not yet reached the conclusion of the story. So far, I have followed Plutarch’s retelling of the story told by Pittakos in the Banquet of the Seven Sages at 163a–c. But now, as we continue reading at 163c–d, we are about to see a shift in the story, and here is where the mystery deepens further. In the continuation of the story as told by the Pittakos, the mysterious Enhalos has a new adventure. Now he will save the people of Lesbos from being enveloped and destroyed by a gigantic tsunami:

κύματος γὰρ ἠλιβάτου περὶ τὴν νῆσον αἰρομένου καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων δεδιότων, ἀπαντῆσαι μόνον τῇ θαλάττῃ, καὶ ἕπεσθαι πολύποδας αὐτῷ πρὸς τὸ ἱερὸν τοῦ Ποσειδῶνος· ὧν τοῦ μεγίστου λίθον κομίζοντος λαβεῖν τὸν Ἔναλον καὶ ἀναθεῖναι, καὶ τοῦτον Ἔναλον καλοῦμεν.

When a towering wave rose up, surrounding the island, and the people [of Lesbos] were seized with fear, he [= Enhalos] all by himself faced down the sea, and he was attended by octopuses [polupodes] who followed him [= Enhalos] to the sacred precinct of Poseidon. And there, he [= Enhalos] took hold of a rock [lithos] that the hugest one of them [= the octopuses] was bringing [from the sea] and [to Poseidon] he [= Enhalos] dedicated it [= the rock]. Even now we [= the people of Lesbos, including the imagined speaker Pittakos] call this rock Enhalos.

Plutarch’s Banquet of the Seven Sages c–d

§13. In this version of the story, the natural habitat of Enhalos after his dive is evidently the sea. Yes, he makes occasional appearances on land, communicating with humans and, on one occasion, in the part of the story I just quoted, he can even save humans on land from destruction by the sea. Nevertheless, he is at home not on land but in the depths of the sea. That is why, even on those rare occasions when he appears on land, he is attended by a retinue of octopuses. Evidently, he prefers the habitat of the sea, which is where his octopuses live. He likes to be under the sea. And that is where his beloved girl, still unnamed, likes to be. The girl will stay under the sea forever, in the realm of the goddess of the Aegean Sea, Amphitrite. That is the realm of the octopuses. And that is why the boy likes to be under the sea. I am reminded of a song composed and sung primarily by Richard Starkey, that is, by Ringo Starr, in the 1969 album of the Beatles, Abbey Road:

I’d like to be under the sea
In an octopus’s garden in the shade
He’d let us in, knows where we’ve been
In his octopus’s garden in the shade

I’d ask my friends to come and see
An octopus’s garden with me
I’d like to be under the sea
In an octopus’s garden in the shade

We would be warm below the storm
In our little hideaway beneath the waves
Resting our head on the sea bed
In an octopus’s garden near a cave

We would sing and dance around
Because we know we can’t be found
I’d like to be under the sea
In an octopus’s garden in the shade

We would shout and swim about
The coral that lies beneath the waves
(Lies beneath the ocean waves)
Oh what joy for every girl and boy
Knowing they’re happy and they’re safe
(Happy and they’re safe)

We would be so happy you and me
No one there to tell us what to do
I’d like to be under the sea
In an octopus’s garden with you
In an octopus’s garden with you
In an octopus’s garden with you

Image credit: By Wolfgang Sauber (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons