“Odysseus” as Solar Paronomasia at Odyssey 13.35

The following is the abstract of a paper I have recently written:

At Odyssey 13.35: ὣς Ὀδυσῆ' ἀσπαστὸν ἔδυ φάος ἠελίοιο, the hero's name is sounded against the verb for the sun's setting at a major structural seam of the poem, where the Phaeacian episode closes and the preparation for the return to Ithaca begins. This brief essay argues that the collocation of Ὀδυσῆ' (Odysē', elided dative of the hero's name) and ἔδυ (edu, root aorist of δύω, "to set, sink, go under") is a deliberate solar paronomasia. It is not suggested to be an etymology of the name, but a poetic activation of it. The pun is prepared by a series of forms of the verb δύω (δῦναι in 13.30 and κατέδυ in 13.33), which are framed by the name of Odysseus itself (appearing in 13.28 and 13.35). Additionally, the name is strategically placed in the syntactic slot that was previously occupied by the plowman in the preceding simile. This reading is supported by the poem’s established convention of name-play around the name Ὀδυσσεύς. Such instances include the wrath-forms, the Autolykos naming, the Οὖτις/μῆτις pun, and related verbal echoes. Ancient exegetical traditions likewise show that the name remained available for competing acoustic reinterpretations. The specific solar reading of 13.35, however, appears to be unaddressed in existing scholarship. At this structural threshold, the verse momentarily aligns Odysseus’s name with solar descent, the Nekyia, and the descending-and-returning movement of nostos. The full paper can be viewed at my Academia profile here: https://independent.academia.edu/KonstantinNikolasKokkolis

and at my figshare account here: https://figshare.com/articles/preprint/_Odysseus_as_Solar_Paronomasia_at_i_Odyssey_i_13_35/33019997?file=66749291