LAËRTÊS GAVE ODYSSEUS FORTY FIG TREES
William H. Outlaw Jr. and William M. Outlaw
13201 North Meridian Road, Tallahassee, FL 32312; email billybob@bio.fsu.edu
An often-recommended fig reference is the 216-page monograph of Condit (1). In his introduction, Condit briefly recounts the history of fig cultivation and states that "Ulysses, the hero of the Odyssey, obtained from his father twenty [boldprint added] fig trees, all with names." We were unable to verify that statement; however, we did find the following translation (2) of Book XXIV, lines 330-344:
And resourceful Odysseus answered him [Laertes] and said: "This scar, first, let your eyes take note of, which a boar gave me with his white tusk on Parnassus when I went there. It was you who sent me, you and my honoured mother, to Autolycus, my mother’s father, that I might get the gifts which, when he came here, he promised and agreed to give me. And come, I will tell you also the trees which you once gave me in our well-ordered garden, and I, who was only a child, was following you through the garden, and asking you for this and that. It was through these very trees that we passed, and you named them and told me of each one. Pear-trees you gave me, thirteen, and ten apple trees, and forty [boldprint added] fig trees. And rows of vines, too, you promised to give me, even as I say, fifty of them, which ripened one by one at separate times—and upon them are clusters of all sorts—whenever the seasons of Zeus weighed them down."
Essentially, this same translation was rendered by others (3,4) and was confirmed from a transcript of the surviving Ancient Greek text by one of the authors (WMO). Thus, Condit’s monograph was in error concerning the number of fig trees given to the boy Odysseus (º Ulysses, the Latinized form) by his father. Failing to find an erratum in the following issues of Hilgardia, we assume that Condit was either unaware of his error or did not consider it important to correct. However, in context (see above), the relative numbers of the various kinds of fruit trees should give insight into the ideal fruit garden of those times. Thus, classics affectionados, history buffs, and especially fig chauvinists may enjoy taking note of this correction. We hasten to add, though, that this correction does not diminish otherwise the utility of Condit’s monograph, which one of us (WHO) studies with great enthusiasm.
References
1. Condit IJ 1955 Fig varieties: a monograph. Hilgardia 23: 323-538.
2. Dimock GE 1995 (A Revision of the Translation of AT Murray) Homer: the Odyssey. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
3. Shewring W 1980 (A translation of) Homer. The Odyssey. Oxford University Press, Oxford (UK).
4. Rouse WHD 1937 (A translation of) Homer. The Odyssey. The Story of Odysseus. New American Library, New York.