In Homer’s Odyssey, Argos, 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.
Appearance List Literature: Homer’s Odyssey (c. 8th century BCE, English 1614), Homer’s Iliad (c. 8th century BC), Virgil’s Aeneid (29 to 19 BC), 5th century plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles (Ajax, Philoctetes), and Euripides (Hecuba, Rhesus, Cyclops), Plato’s Hippias Minor, Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (1602), Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (1308–1320), Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses” (1842), The Story of Greece: Told to Boys and Girls by Mary Macgregor (191-?) [Internet Archive], Frederick Rolfe’s The Weird of the Wanderer (1912), James Joyce’s Ulysses (1918–1920), Nikos Kazantzakis’ The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938), Eyvind Johnson’s Return to Ithaca (1946), The Luck of Troy (1961), et. al. Film: The Mysterious Island (1905), L’Odissea (1911), Ulysses (1954), Ulysses (1955), The Trojan Horse (1961), The Fury of Achilles (1962), Ulysses Against the Son of Hercules (1962), The Lion of Thebes (1964), et. al. Comics: Blue Bolt vol. 2 #1-2, Treasure Chest vol. 14 #5.
Sample Read The Odyssey (Translated by W. C. Bryant, August, 1871) [Standard eBooks]
Description In Homer’s Odyssey, Argos, 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.
