The ritual
Supplication is a formal act with a recognizable script. The suppliant approaches, kneels, and touches the knees or chin of the person addressed, sometimes clasping the hand. He or she appeals for mercy, protection, or the return of a body or a person. The gesture places the suppliant under the protection of Zeus.
The ritual is not a guarantee of success, but it creates a strong obligation. Refusing a suppliant is dangerous, and the Iliad’s first crisis begins with Agamemnon’s refusal of Chryses.
Supplication in the poems
The Iliad’s central example is Priam’s supplication of Achilles in Book XXIV. The king of Troy kneels before the man who killed his son and kisses his hands. Achilles is moved and grants the request. The scene is the poem’s answer to the wrath: the ritual works where force could not.
The Odyssey uses supplication repeatedly. Odysseus supplicates Nausicaa and Arete, and the suitors supplicate Odysseus in the hall, but he refuses them. The difference between the cases is moral: Priam is a rightful suppliant, while the suitors have violated the hospitality that makes supplication meaningful.
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