Argos (dog)

In Homer's Odyssey, Argos (; Ancient Greek: Ἄργος), sometimes referred to as Argus, is the legendary faithful dog of Odysseus. Bred to be a hunting dog before Odysseus leaves for the Trojan War, Argos is neglected after Odysseus is presumed dead. Twenty years later, Odysseus returns to Ithaca and finds him lying in piles of manure, immobile from old age and neglect, and infested with parasites. When Argos sees Odysseus, he immediately drops his ears, wags his tail and recognizes him. Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus cannot greet his dog without revealing his identity, but secretly weeps. Upon seeing his master return home, Argos dies.

The Argos scene is among the most well-known episodes in the Odyssey and scholars of classical literature have commented on its structure, meaning, and literary value. Argos has been described as a symbol of faithfulness and a metaphor for the decline of Odysseus and his household (oikos) within the larger narrative of the poem. Argos's death is signaled using language typically reserved for the noble deaths of warriors, and a periphrastic construction is used to focalize the narrative as if told from his perspective.

Name

The name "Argos" (Ancient Greek: Ἄργος) is derived from the Ancient Greek adjective ἀργός (argós), meaning literally 'shining white, brilliant', with a secondary metaphorical meaning of 'quick, agile'; this semantic change is found elsewhere in the Indo-European languages. In Homeric Greek, this appellation was commonly applied to quick dogs. The movement of the Ancient Greek accent from the final syllable to the preceding one is typical of proper nouns. Robert S. P. Beekes translates his name literally as 'the nimble one'.

The name is derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *h₂rǵ-ró-s – a zero-grade derivative of *h₂erǵ- ('white, glittering') – with the second *r being dropped through dissimilation. The name is cognate with Latin argentum ('silver') and Hittite 𒄯𒆠𒅖 (ḫar-ki-iš; 'white, bright'), among others. It is etymologically related to the Argo (Ἀργώ), the ship used by Jason and the Argonauts in the story of the Golden Fleece; the ship's name also refers to its swiftness. Argos is also the name of the hundred-eyed watchman in other Greek myths, Argos Panoptes (Ἄργος Πανόπτης; 'Argos the All-Seer'); one mythological tradition purports that Argos Panoptes was himself originally a watchdog.

In the Odyssey

In the Odyssey, Odysseus begins his return to Ithaca after ten years of fighting in the Trojan War. His attempts to reach his home last another ten years, during which his family and friends believe him to be dead and various suitors attempt to marry his wife Penelope. Upon his return, Odysseus is disguised as an elderly beggar by Athena and reveals his true identity to his son, Telemachus. Together, they agree that Penelope's suitors must be killed. Odysseus travels with his swineherd slave Eumaeus, to whom he has not revealed his identity, towards Odysseus's palace. As they are traveling, Argos awakes to the sound of Odysseus's voice. It is revealed that Odysseus had raised him as a hunting dog and, before Odysseus had left for the war, Argos was used to hunt deer, wild goats, and hares by other young men, but had never gotten to hunt with him. After Odysseus left for Troy, Argos was neglected and, as Odysseus walks by, is lying in deep piles of manure and riddled with ticks. Once Argos recognizes Odysseus, he drops his ears and begins to wag his tail, but his condition leaves him unable to get up and greet Odysseus; Odysseus begins to cry, wiping a tear from his eyes. He asks Eumaeus about the dog, commenting on his beautiful form, and wonders if he was once as great as his form suggests he was. Eumaeus replies that Argos belonged to Odysseus and was once a great hunting dog who caught everything he tracked. He recounts that after Odysseus had been presumed dead, no one took care of Argos, and Eumaeus curses the servants for their negligence. As the two men enter the palace, where the suitors are, Argos dies.

Analysis

The reunion scene between Odysseus and Argos is among the most famous episodes in the Odyssey and has been described as one of the most emotional scenes in Western literature. There are three major elements of the scene to which scholarly attention has largely been paid: its placement in relation to other events in the poem, its emotional gravity (pathos), and its employment as a metaphor for Odysseus and the state of his household (oikos).

Narrative function in the Odyssey

Argos's scene is placed in the middle of the seventeenth book of the poem and is a part of its larger visitation narrative, where Odysseus goes to meet his wife's suitors, and both the scene and the larger narrative are an inversion of the expected "hospitality ritual" (xenia). The appearance of Argos begins a series of anagnorises, and is the only anagnorisis in the Odyssey where two characters recognize each other immediately and simultaneously. Argos is the only member of Odysseus's household to recognize him without divine assistance or evidence provided by Odysseus himself. The revelation by the narrator of Argos's death uses the keynote phrase "in the twentieth year" (ἐεικοστῷ ἐνιαυτῷ, eeikostōi eniautōi), which is usually reserved for when Odysseus reveals himself to another character or to signal the consequences of his absence. The narrative language depersonalizes Odysseus as "his master" (anax), using this periphrastic construction in order to present the narrative as if composed from Argos's perspective. Some authors, such as Bernhard Frank and Maurice Bowra, have argued that the scene signals Odysseus's "true moment of homecoming" (nostos), since it displays both how long he has been gone and how loyalty and affection have remained.

An overarching purpose of the scene is to create "tension through retardation"; that is, the context in which the story takes place is given more narrative tension by delaying the moment which would relieve that tension for the audience. In this case, this narrative device stalls Odysseus from confronting his wife's suitors in his own home.

As a symbol of Odysseus and his oikos

Scholars have emphasized the analogous relationship between Argos and Odysseus, as well as between Argos and Odysseus's oikos. Argos is a major aspect of the "watchdog motif" found throughout the Odyssey, where watchdogs are used as symbols for something else; Argos represents the dilapidation of Odysseus's oikos. Elements of Argos's story echo, sometimes word for word, parts of the poem related to Odysseus's son Telemachus. The poem states that Odysseus raised Argos, but "got no joy of him" (οὐδ' ἀπόνητο, oud' apónēto) since he left for Troy shortly thereafter. The exact same phrase is used in the previous book to describe the relationship between Odysseus and Telemachus, leading the audience to examine the relationships in parallel.