Hermes, rising for action, is twice (Il. 24.340-1 and Od. 5.44-5) described as follows: αὐτίκ’ ἔπειθ’ ὑπὸ ποσσὶν ἐδήσατο καλὰ πέδιλα, | ἀμβρόσια χρύσεια (‘then, at once he bound beneath his feet beautiful sandals, ambrosialFootnote 1 and golden’). In both cases, the verses that follow imply that the sandals enable Hermes to travel over land and sea, as fast as the wind. Athena is described in the same way at Od. 1.96-7: ὣς εἰποῦσ’ ὑπὸ ποσσὶν ἐδήσατο καλὰ πέδιλα, | ἀμβρόσια χρύσεια. And a line including ἐδήσατο καλὰ πέδιλα and preceded by ὑπὸ ποσσὶν or ποσσὶ … ὑπό, but without reference to any divine powers, appears four times in the Iliad, describing the actions of Agamemnon (2.44, 10.22), Nestor (10.132) and Hera (14.186), and five times in the Odyssey, describing the actions of Odysseus (2.4), Menelaus (4.309) and Telemachus (15.550, 17.2, 20.126).
Most of the ancient commentaries on these sandals focus on Hermes and Athena, and offer (usually allegorical) explanations for the sandals' extraordinary nature.Footnote 2 For instance:
τὸ λέγειν τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν καλὰ πέδιλα φορεῖν οὐκ ἄλλο δηλοῖ ἢ ὅτι τῆς φρονήσεως αἱ ἐνεργητικαὶ δυνάμεις στιβαραὶ καὶ ἄλκιμοι λίαν εἰσί. (schol. E Od. 1.96d Pontani)
Saying that Athena wore beautiful sandals means nothing other than that the active powers of her intellect are sturdy and very strong.
ὅρα δὲ ὅτι οὐ φέρεσθαι τὰ πέδιλα λέγει, ἀλλ’ αὐτὰ φέρειν καὶ κουφίζειν τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν ὡς οἷον πτερόεντα. καὶ ἔστι τοῦτο, τερατολογία τις ποιητική. (Eust. Od. 1.96; vol. 1, p. 25 Stallbaum)
Note that [Homer] does not say that the sandals are [simply?] worn,Footnote 3 but that they carry and lighten Athena as if they were winged. Indeed, it is this, some poetic fantasy.
αἰνίττεται δὲ διὰ τούτων ἡ ποίησις τὸ βέβαιον καὶ λαμπρὸν καὶ ταχὺ τοῦ εἰς λόγον ἀλληγορουμένου Ἑρμοῦ· τὸ βέβαιον μὲν καί, ὡς εἰπεῖν, ἔμπεδον διὰ τῶν πεδίλων, τὸ δὲ λαμπρὸν διὰ τοῦ χρυσοῦ, τὸ δὲ ταχὺ διὰ τῆς πτήσεως. (Eust. Il. 24.340; vol. 4, p. 914 van der Valk)
The poem hints through these [verses] at the reliability, brightness and speed of Hermes, who allegorically represents language: reliability and, so to speak, steadfastness [are conveyed] through the sandals, brightness through the gold, and speed through the flight.Footnote 4
There is one piece of evidence that Aristotle took part in this debate, namely a brief T-scholium on Il. 24.340 (Erbse):Footnote 5
«καλὰ πέδιλα»: Ἀριστοτέλης αὐτὰ πτερωτὰ οἴεται, ψευδῶς.
‘beautiful sandals’: Aristotle thinks these are winged, falsely.
Whatever else Aristotle might have said about the sandals of Hermes, according to this text he likely thought that Homer intended to portray Hermes actually (not allegorically) wearing sandals that made him fly, and that they were winged.Footnote 6 The scholiast disagrees with him. Although we can say little else about this brief line, it is additional evidence of a scholarly dispute over whether these sandals should be interpreted allegorically—a dispute that sometimes involved the issue of whether the sandals of Hermes were winged (as they were often portrayed in post-Homeric visual art: see note 14 below).
Further, I think we can say with some confidence that the scholiast's source (directly or indirectly) was a lost poetical work of Aristotle, and that of these lost works the most likely candidate is the Homeric Puzzles (or Homeric Problems)Footnote 7 —inasmuch as Aristotle is in schol. T Il. 24.340 said to be expressing an opinion on an issue that was debated by ancient Homeric scholars. If so, this scholium tends to confirm Aristotle's reluctance to offer allegorical interpretations of Homer (though there are possible exceptions).Footnote 8 For another example of Aristotle accepting poetic fantasy rather than offering allegorical interpretation in what is almost certainly a fragment from his Homeric Puzzles, consider schol. V Od. 9.106 (Dindorf) (= fr. 172 Rose):Footnote 9
ζητεῖ Ἀριστοτέλης πῶς ὁ Κύκλωψ Πολύφημος μήτε πατρὸς ὢν Κύκλωπος, Ποσειδῶνος γὰρ ἦν, μήτε μητρός, Κύκλωψ ἐγένετο. ἑτέρῳ μύθῳ ἐπιλύεται. καὶ γὰρ ἐκ Βορέου ἵπποι γίνονται καὶ ἐκ Ποσειδῶνος καὶ τῆς Μεδούσης ὁ Πήγασος ἵππος.
Aristotle inquires how the Cyclops Polyphemus was born a Cyclops, when he was neither [the son] of a Cyclops father—for he was [a son] of Poseidon—nor [the son] of a [Cyclops] mother. He solved it with another myth. For indeed horses were born of Boreas [that is, he sired them] and the horse Pegasus [was born] of Poseidon and Medusa.
Finally, Aristotle's interpretation of Hermes' sandals (like his interpretation of Polyphemus' parentage) corresponds to one of the strategies he sketches in Poet. 25 for solving Homeric problems. He writes (1460b35-1461a1):
εἰ δὲ μηδετέρως, ὅτι οὕτω φασίν, οἷον τὰ περὶ θεῶν· ἴσως γὰρ οὔτε βέλτιον οὕτω λέγειν οὔτ’ ἀληθῆ, ἀλλ’ ἔτυχεν ὥσπερ Ξενοφάνει, ἀλλ’ οὕτω φασι.
If [the problem is solved] in neither of these ways,Footnote 10 [it might be solved] on the grounds that people say it is so, for instance the things [said] about the gods: for perhaps it is neither better to speak this way nor true; but if it happened to be just as Xenophanes [says], yet [one can reply that] people say it is so.
Xenophanes claimed that the portrayal of the gods in Homer and other poets was inaccurate.Footnote 11 Aristotle is saying that, even if this is true, it is not the basis for an aesthetic criticism of Homer, as long as his presentation of the gods corresponds to popular beliefs about the gods. This in part explains why, for Aristotle, there is no need to offer allegorical interpretations of the portrayal of a god who flies because of divine and winged sandals.
So I think it was a mistake that schol. T Il. 24.340 was excluded from the standard editions of Aristotle's fragments (Rose and Gigon) and from Breitenberger's more recent German translation with commentary of the fragments of this work.Footnote 12 Or to state the matter positively, this scholium ought to be included in any subsequent collection of the fragments of Aristotle in general or of the Homeric Puzzles in particular—as it was included in Heitz's collection long ago.Footnote 13
Finally, putting aside Aristotle's reasons for thinking what he did about these sandals, which we cannot fully recover, was he right? Answering this question—settling this issue—would take me beyond this brief essay. So I shall end by simply mentioning that Bierl and Latacz have their doubts about the wings, whereas Richardson sees no reason to disagree with Aristotle.Footnote 14
