Homer's Odyssey

Introduction

Homer's Odyssey is Odysseus' (otherwise known as Ulysses) 10 year journey back to Ithaka after fighting in the Trojan (at Troy) was as depicted in Homer's Iliad

The Journey Home

See main articles The Odyssey and Sequels and The Odyssey and the Argonauts

Ostensibly Odysseus' trip back to Ithaka after the Trojan wars should take four weeks but takes ten. On his first port of call he attempts a bit of plundering at Ismaros but escapes with a bloody nose. A fierce storm then hits and he is blown off course and run aground at the Land of the Lotus Eaters). Many of his men succumb of the lethargy-inducing lotus leaves and Odysseus needs to haul them back on the ship.

Later, in the Land of the Cyclopes he rustles some sheep but is captured by Polyphemos. We see him and at his most arrogant and cunning. He arrogantly thinks he can steal the sheep but cunningly tells Polyphemos his name is "Nobody" (The cyclops later cries "Nobody is hurting me" and able to induce the cyclops into a drunken stupor and then pierces his one eye with the branch of the sharpened olive tree. After his escape his arrogance is seen again as he shouts out to Polyphemos that he has been tricked by Odysseus. Polyphemos is the son of Poseidon and he appeals to Poseidon for revenge. His arrogance is a recurring theme and he is always seeming to be fighting with the sea (Poseidon).

After their escape, they stayed with Aeolos, the master of the winds and he gave Odysseus a leather bag containing all the winds, except the west wind, a gift that should have ensured a safe return home. However, the greedy sailors foolishly opened the bag while Odysseus slept, thinking it contained gold. All of the winds flew out and the resulting storm drove the ships back the way they had come, just as Ithaka came into sight

Later at sea he loses all but one of his boats and then ends up on the Island of Kirke. She kills many of his crew and also turns them into pigs. Kirke lures Odysseus to her bed for a year. Meanwhile is wife, Penelope is ageing and running the household back in Ithaka and being pursued by influential suitors, other suitors sleep with the maids while his son (Telemakos) is growing up and making unsuccessful bids to assert is authority in the household.

Odysseus' next lesson is more profound. Tearing himself and remaining crew from Kirke he sets sail again but wants to know what his omens are. Kirke has given him the same of soothsayer and he ends up in the underworld. Kirke has given him a list of ingredients with his can mix up to create a libation to offer to the soothsayer Tiresias. Out of the swirling mist come the ghosts of the dead, children etc. Tiresias has some good news. he will return to Ithaka and be reunited with his wife. The face of a woman appears out of the mist. It is his mother. He vows revenge on her killer nut she tells him she tired of a broken heart. He then meets Akhilleus. Odysseus is shaken by his talk with Akhilleus. He expects the warrior to be defiant but says he would rather be a wretch on earth that be dead hero in the underworld.

After he returns from the Underworld he revisits Kirke who then describes the route he must taken to get back to Ithaka. The tale takes on a supernatural turn. Kirke has warned him that he will sail past the island of the Sirens who lure sailors to their death with their beautiful singing. He tells his sailors to bung their ears with max and lash him to the past so he can safely hear the singing. Once again we see Odysseus taking risks with himself and the crew. He also almost addicted to risk taking.

Of the 600 crew he had at the start on the journey back he now has about fifty left. With each successive set back his authority over the crew is being to break down and they begin to openly argue with his decisions. Miserable and hungry they become mutinous. One night while Odysseus sleeps they defy his warning about not stealing the sheep form the island of Thrinakia The next day the Gods takes their revenge and smash his boat to pieces. His crew are now all dead and he washes up on Kalypso's island Ogygia.

The arrogant hero of Troy is no more. He is a broken man and weeps for his wife and his imprisonment on the island. The Gods give him one last chance. They send Hermes to persuade Kalypso to release him. She agreed and gives him a boat and he sets sail. Although the Gods have given him one more change but Poseidon is not. Poseidon summons up a storm and shipwrecks him on the island of the Phaiakians (Corfu).

The king of the Phaiakians agrees to help and give him food and shelter he return for his story. This gives Odysseus his opportunity to relive and reflect on his own failings and shortcomings. This is his nadir. But the retelling of his story give him a perspective on this past and finds new strength to finish his journey. The Phoenicians are moved to help him return to Ithaka.

On his final trip to Ithaka they sail overnight so as to not arouse Poseidon. He is now home but decides not to make himself known to his people. He doesn't recognize his own homeland and decides to patiently take his time to acquaint himself to the events that have taken place for ten years in his absence. He discovers that his palace his over run with suitors and gorging themselves on his food wine and his maids. The palace is going to rack and ruin and discipline amongst the staff has broken down.

One day an archery competition is held. Of the suitors, whoever can win the competition will have Penelope's hand. Dressed as a beggar Odysseus enters the palace. The suitors fails to hit the target but Odysseus strikes the target. At this point the palace doors are shut and Odysseus reveals himself and starts killing the suitors. After a short battle the disloyal maids are led out and hanged. He meets with Penelope but argue. She is unmoved and unsure if this is truly the man she wed. She asks the maid to remove the wedding bed but Odysseus is able to describes how his fashioned the wedding bed out of a tree many years ago, symbolizing his love for her. Now she is sure and they are reunited.

What is Odysseus like?

He is a slightly ambivalent figure. He is courageous, smart, resourceful, skillful and (polymetis) cunning but also shows disdain for people. He is also heroic. When he comes back to Ithaka, he is in disguise and tests people around him to see how he is treated and so spy on his household. After he reveals himself, he kills many princes of the realm and the maids who have slept with the suitors.He is very much like Aristotle's Autarchic Man - self sufficient proto-democratic man.

Who wrote the Odyssey?

This a very subtly argued topic. The poem is attributed to Homer and written in about 700BC But these Greek Myths come out of an oral (song-making) tradition of story making. Story tellers would roam around Greece giving recitals of these epic stories; often lasting many weeks. Given that is was not written down it is often likely that the events and actors in the story would change. However, the story is not a patchwork of stories. There seems to be a continuous sensibility on which the story hangs. This would point to a editors or group of editors. This does not mean however that the Odyssey is story written by a committee but more a sense that the story tellers/editors had a sense of how and where to set the story and retell it and embellish within that framework.

Scholars believe that in the second half of the sixth century B.C. the Athenian dictator Peisistratus, who ruled from 560-27 B.C., established a Commission of Editors of Homer to edit the text of the poems and remove any errors and interpolations that had accumulated in the process of transmission—thereby establishing a Canon of Homer.

What is the meaning of the Odyssey?

In many ways it is about man and masculinity and the patriarchal society and about man's journey back to his roots. In Greek times you could not buy or sell property so families were very stationary. It is asserting a man's rights to be in charge but there is also a sense of fidelity insofar as he is wanting to get back to his ageing wife whereas he could stay with Kalypso or Athena and live quite happily.

Even though it is patriarchal, which is obvious given the Greek culture of the time, it is surprising that there are so many strong female characters such as Kalypso who was able to subjugate Odysseus for so long. Equally, Penelope is seen as strong figure holding down and running the household.

Despite this being a story about a journey home, as soon as he is home and restored as head of the household he tells Penelope that his destiny is to travel and probably die in some foreign land.

Odysseus never lost his longing to return (his Nostos but throughout the ten years and travails he has endured he can only achieve then by having the arrogance beaten out of him and identity taken away so that he is stripped physically and figuratively of all his faults an affectations.

Comparative Mythology

See also Comparatist Mythology

There are elements of comparative mythology within the stories. Take for example the story of Polyphemous, a monster with one eye. There was evidence of this tale in the earth itself thought the Greeks. Did Greeks mistake a skull of an elephant as a large one-eyed monster dug up by Greek farmers?

Why does the Odyssey have such popular appeal?

• There is a fixed pattern of meter that helps the retelling of the story but not in the sense that we understand poetry today.
• The story has pace and momentum with the action constantly changing
• Unlike other stories of the time their is no fixed time. The story keeps moving back in to the past and into the future. Sometimes, obviously so, other times more deceitfully
• Although some argue that it has interest only for men of the time there is in fact something in it for everyone - Children (monsters), young and old, women love and (fidelity)as well as men (courage and cunning)

James Joyce and Ulysses

From a very early age Joyce loved reader Homer and of all of Homer's characters he admired the most, it was Odysseus he admired the most. he saw Odysseus as King, as Husband, as father , as a warrior, and as an adventurer. He gives his main character, Bloom, the name of Ulyesses. He is very so lightly a trickster who gets him into scrapes. But the similarities are subtle and it is quite possible to read the story without ever thinking of the Odysseus character.