In a novel centrally concerned with the capacity for personal transformation the
humble figure of the carter Somax acquires special importance as he becomes in the
course of the novel the King’s herald Idaeus, yet never relinquishes his essential
humanity. Plucked from the Trojan marketplace precisely because of his humble
character and appearance, demanded by Priam after the unsuitable arrangements
originally made by his family, Somax embodies Priam’s vision of unadorned
simplicity and authenticity. Somax is given the qualities of a vernacular character,
chosen for his unremarkable identity; he is an expression of the ‘popular’, of common
or colloquial human nature, especially as these qualities are expressed in his own
language. The appearance of Somax in the narrative is the reassertion of the
popular imagination in an epic chronicle of conflict and struggle. He is, in some ways,
a character who embodies the oral tradition from which Homer’s poem emerged; the
timeless practice of storytelling before an immediate audience, the unmediated
relationship between speaker and listener.
Malouf is interested in Ransom in examining how such a common exterior can
disguise or dissemble the inner complexity of feeling that Somax gives expression to
in his stories of family life, that while in complete contrast to the epic tragedy of
Priam’s own family history, still emit the tragic dimensions of all human loss, pain
and grief. It is telling that Somax reveals this complexity of character through story
and the act of narrative. As the journey unfolds it becomes apparent that Somax is
gradually transformed into the role of the royal herald Idaeus through what he
reveals of his own nobility of spirit. Such inner nobility is predicated on the abundant
qualities that complicate his initial function as simply Priam’s driver. Somax performs
his duties not only as a humble driver and servant of the King, but increasingly as a
man who has suffered experiences not entirely unlike those of his more illustrious
travelling companion, the profound losses of a grieving father. The stories Somax
recounts of the deaths of his two sons are in response to what he recognises is the
severe psychological abjection that Priam suffers. These chronicles of anonymous
pain and grief share nothing of the epic quality of Hector’s death, but they serve to
remind Priam of the universal aspects of the human condition — loss, regret, anger,
grief — and forge a common understanding between the men, who are otherwise
separated by the unbridgeable gulf of social rank.
Somax should not be understood by the reader as some sentimental portrait of
plebeian devotion, the stereotypical figure of the honest labourer. He is variously
described as a drunkard, a liar, a man not to be fully trusted, a man of unusual traits
such as his love of his donkey Beauty. By the end of the novel Somax has been
transformed still further, until he has become the archetypal figure of the storyteller,
100 years old and having acquired a wealth of stories and expert in the art of oral
narration. Somax is the very embodiment of the ancient poet, the precursor to
Homer: a custodian of collective memory and formative experience, recounting
stories that constitute the imagined community of a culture and a people.
humble figure of the carter Somax acquires special importance as he becomes in the
course of the novel the King’s herald Idaeus, yet never relinquishes his essential
humanity. Plucked from the Trojan marketplace precisely because of his humble
character and appearance, demanded by Priam after the unsuitable arrangements
originally made by his family, Somax embodies Priam’s vision of unadorned
simplicity and authenticity. Somax is given the qualities of a vernacular character,
chosen for his unremarkable identity; he is an expression of the ‘popular’, of common
or colloquial human nature, especially as these qualities are expressed in his own
language. The appearance of Somax in the narrative is the reassertion of the
popular imagination in an epic chronicle of conflict and struggle. He is, in some ways,
a character who embodies the oral tradition from which Homer’s poem emerged; the
timeless practice of storytelling before an immediate audience, the unmediated
relationship between speaker and listener.
Malouf is interested in Ransom in examining how such a common exterior can
disguise or dissemble the inner complexity of feeling that Somax gives expression to
in his stories of family life, that while in complete contrast to the epic tragedy of
Priam’s own family history, still emit the tragic dimensions of all human loss, pain
and grief. It is telling that Somax reveals this complexity of character through story
and the act of narrative. As the journey unfolds it becomes apparent that Somax is
gradually transformed into the role of the royal herald Idaeus through what he
reveals of his own nobility of spirit. Such inner nobility is predicated on the abundant
qualities that complicate his initial function as simply Priam’s driver. Somax performs
his duties not only as a humble driver and servant of the King, but increasingly as a
man who has suffered experiences not entirely unlike those of his more illustrious
travelling companion, the profound losses of a grieving father. The stories Somax
recounts of the deaths of his two sons are in response to what he recognises is the
severe psychological abjection that Priam suffers. These chronicles of anonymous
pain and grief share nothing of the epic quality of Hector’s death, but they serve to
remind Priam of the universal aspects of the human condition — loss, regret, anger,
grief — and forge a common understanding between the men, who are otherwise
separated by the unbridgeable gulf of social rank.
Somax should not be understood by the reader as some sentimental portrait of
plebeian devotion, the stereotypical figure of the honest labourer. He is variously
described as a drunkard, a liar, a man not to be fully trusted, a man of unusual traits
such as his love of his donkey Beauty. By the end of the novel Somax has been
transformed still further, until he has become the archetypal figure of the storyteller,
100 years old and having acquired a wealth of stories and expert in the art of oral
narration. Somax is the very embodiment of the ancient poet, the precursor to
Homer: a custodian of collective memory and formative experience, recounting
stories that constitute the imagined community of a culture and a people.
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