What counts as PROOF? What SECRETS can prove one’s words? What is the word for a special SIGN?
singular: sēma (σῆμα), plural: sēmata (σήματα), as in the English word semantics, or semaphore, and polysemy.
- Eurycleia to Penelope (Odyssey 23.73ff Lombardo)
And Eurycleia, the faithful nurse: “Child, how can you say this? Your husband is here at his own fireside, and yet you are sure he will never come home! Always on guard! But here’s something, else, clear proof (sēma ariphrades, σῆμα ἀριφραδές): I noticed it when I was washing his feet and wanted to tell you, but he shrewdly clamped his hand on my mouth and wouldn’t let me speak. Just come with me, and I will stake my life on it. If I am lying you can torture me to death.”
2. Penelope to Telemachus. (Odyssey 23. 109ff Lombardo)
And Penelope, cautious as ever: “My child, I am lost in wonder and unable to speak or ask a question or look him in the eyes. If he really is Odysseus come home, the two of us will be sure of each other, very sure. There are secrets (sēmata kekrumena, σήματα κεκρυμμένα) between us no one else knows.” Odysseus, who had borne much, smiled, and his words flew to his son on wings: “Telemachus, let your mother test me in our hall. She will soon see more clearly.”
3. Odysseus to Penelope (Odyssey 23.187ff Lombardo)
She was testing her husband. Odysseus could bear no more, and he cried out to his wife: “By God, woman, now you’ve cut deep. Who moved my bed? It would be hard for anyone, no matter how skilled, to move it. A god could come down and move it easily, but not a man alive, however young and strong, could ever pry it up. There’s something telling (literally, a ‘big sēma’:mega sēma, μέγα σῆμα) about how that bed’s built, and no one else built it but me…. [he explains about his bed] So there’s our secret (sēma, σῆμα).”…
At this, Penelope finally let go. Odysseus had shown he knew their old secret (sēmata anagnousei, σήματ᾽ ἀναγνούσῃ). In tears, she ran straight to him, threw her arms around him, kissed his face and said: “Don’t be angry with me, Odysseus… But now, since you have confirmed the secret of our marriage bed, which no one has ever seen — only you and I and a single servant, Actor’s daughter, whom my father gave me before I ever came here and who kept the doors of our bridal chamber — you have persuaded even my stubborn heart.”
4. Odysseus and Laertes (Odyssey 330ff. Lombardo)
“I’m the one that you miss, Father, right here, back in my homeland after twenty years. But don’t cry now. Hold back your tears. I’m telling you, we really have to hurry. I’ve killed the suitors in our house and avenged all of the wrongs that have grieved your heart.” But Laertes’ voice rang out in answer: “If you are really Odysseus and my son come back, give me a sign, a clear sign (sēma ariphrades, σῆμα ἀριφραδές: the same phrase that Eurycleia used above in passage #1) I can trust.” [Then Odysseus shows his scar and identifies the fruit trees] He spoke, and the old man’s knees went slack as he recognized the signs Odysseus showed him (sēmata empeda, literally ‘solid signs’, σήματ᾽ ἔμπεδα). He threw his arms around his beloved son and gasped for breath.
5. In epic poetry, the word sēma also means tomb/grave marker. See Odyssey 1.309f. Lombardo): Athena to Telemachus: “if you hear he’s dead, among the living no more, then come home yourself to your ancestral land, build him a barrow (sēma, σῆμα) and celebrate the funeral your father deserves. Then marry off your mother.” [See Telemachus use the same word at 2. 243, when he repeats Athena’s words to the suitors about making a cenotaph for his father (leaving out the part about killing them…)]
See also Odyssey 11.72ff (Lombardo), when Elpenor’s ghost asks for burial: “Burn me with my armor, such as I have, heap me a barrow on the grey sea’s shore (sēma, σῆμα), in memory of man whose luck ran out. Do this for me, and fix in the mound the oar I rowed with my shipmates while I was alive.”
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