Neil Packer
Odysseus Clung to its Fleece
circa 2012
This is a very clever form of space-saving story-telling, its style of ‘registered’ portrayal familiar to many cultures, old and new. Packer reinvents it with a personal flair, found in his characteristic taste for bold colour and in his twisted subjects, their bodies occasionally appearing to be both flat and many-dimensional at the same time. Keeping in mind the popular use of precious stones in works of art like, for example, the Standard of Ur (circa 2500 B.C., the British Museum (London)) whose inlaid décor falls along similar rows of figural registers, it is not surprising that this illustration also incorporates the idea of ‘inlaid’ lapis lazuli. As in the Standard of Ur, the stone not only elevates the work of art in which it is used to an extremely high and respected status within the context for which it was originally made, but it also gives value to the narrative that it illustrates, making it nearly as important as, perhaps, a holy script. It is likely, therefore, that Packer used a vibrant bright blue in the scene of Odysseus and his comrades’ sneaky escape from Polyphemus, a rather dimwitted cyclops, to render its importance as more worthy and notable than those of the lesser scenes within Homer’s Odyssey as a whole. Though who can truly judge one scene as being better or worse than another? There are definitely those who find the act of fleeing from a hungry giant while disguised as the woolly underbellies of sheep memorable, but there might be those who find the mere act of Queen Penelope pouring grains of barley into a basket equally, if not more, memorable.
