Kaleidoscope of Western Literature: Homer’s Odyssey

Jacqueline KloosterJ.J.H.Klooster@uva.nl

Homer and the Odyssey

• Iliad and Odyssey ca. 800 b.C.• Iliad written by other poet than Odyssey?• Homer’s identity: blind bard from Chios?

Oral Theory: • Unitarians and Analysts • Wolf (1795): Prolegomena ad Homerum; • M. Parry, A. Lord (1960): The Singer of

Tales• Modern consensus: both the Iliad and the

Odyssey are works of single authorship.

Alma Tadema, 1885: A reading from Homer

The introduction of the Alphabet

• Mycenean Culture: Syllabic script (linear B): ponderous, unfit for anything but archival notes

• Letters: Phoenician invention; 9/8th century BC in Greece: possibility of recording stories, songs etc.

Improvisation and Memorisation: Characteristics

of Oral Poetry• Iliad and Odyssey both ca. 12.000 lines; how

to memorise that?• Hexameter: -^^ -^^ -^^ -^^ -^^ -x(- = long syllable,^ = short, x =either)• Epithets (epitheta ornantia): e.g. ‘of many

wiles’ (polutropos)• Formulas ‘and (s)he spoke the winged words’• Typical scenes: sleep, dinner, putting on arms• Muse as guarantor of truth content of the

story as well as the form.

What do these epics describe? Prehistory of Greece

1600 BC Rise of Mycenean Culture1200 BC End of Mycenean Culture:

traditional date of the war around Troy: 1184 BC

1200-800 BC: Dark Ages: illiteracy, cultural decline

800 BC ca. writing down of the Iliad; 2-3 generations later the Odyssey: beginning of the archaic period.

→ These epics describe a legendary past that was already 400 years ago

Character of Greek Myth

• Myth is, in general ‘(legendary)history’, i.e. not fiction

• No dogmatic truth or holy scripture, as in Bible: variable stories.

• Dominance of heroes/humans (i.e. not gods, or speaking animals etc.)

• Epic stories generally considered to contain an element of historic truth, and examples for valiant/ just / intelligent behaviour.

• None of other epic cycles preserved in the form of the Iliad and the Odyssey. (Thebais, Heracleis, Nostoi, Iliupersis)

The Iliad versus the Odyssey

• Iliad• Epic of war and death• No explicit morality; not

good against bad• Hardly any supernatural

elements• Traditional heroic code:

heroes fight for their country, glory. Straightforwardness, no tricks.

• No interest in lowly characters

• Single plot

• Odyssey• Epic of travel and

adventure• Explicit morality: good

guys versus bad guys• Great amount of

supernatural elements, although in embedded narrative

• New heroic code: duplicity, tricksters, patience

• Prominence servants• Double plot: Telemachus

and Odysseus

Setting of the Odyssey• The Trojan war (which took ten years) has been over

for nearly ten years. All the other heroes are already home; only Odysseus is not home yet, because he is being kept by Calypso. In addition, Poseidon is angry with him, since he has blinded Polyphemus, the latter’s son.

• Meanwhile, on Ithaca, the young noblemen have started wooing Odysseus’ wife, Penelope, and hang about the house spending O.’s livelihood, harassing the servants and Telemachus.

• Clearly, O. has to get back, before things get out of hand. Athena, goddess of intelligence, wants to help him.

Structure of the Odyssey• Books 1-4: Telemacheia: Odysseus’

appearance in story is delayed• Books 5-8: Odysseus leaves Calypso, arrival

at Scheria, Phaeacians, Nausicaa• 9-12: Apologoi: embedded stories of

Odysseus’ travels: Cyclops, Circe, Sirens, Hades, Cows of the Sun, Scylla and Charybdis

• 13-16: Back on Ithaca, in Eumaeus’ cottage• 17-20: Back on Ithaca, at the Palace• 21-24: Murder of the suitors; Odysseus and

Penelope reunited, families of the suitors appeased

Structural elements

• ‘In medias res’-technique• Embedded narrative: Apologoi in 9-12• Leitmotive: e.g. loyalty of spouse: book

1: Aegisthus, Clytaemnestra and Orestes; book 4 : Helen and Menelaus; book 8: Ares, Aphrodite and Hephaestus

• Epic similes; formulaic scenes; epithets etc.

The opening of the Odyssey

Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ  πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσε· πολλῶν δ’ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω, πολλὰ δ’ ὅ γ’ ἐν πόντῳ πάθεν ἄλγεα ὃν κατὰ θυμόν,ἀρνύμενος ἥν τε ψυχὴν καὶ νόστον ἑταίρων. ἀλλ’ οὐδ’ ὧς ἑτάρους ἐρρύσατο, ἱέμενός περ·αὐτῶν γὰρ σφετέρῃσιν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὄλοντο, νήπιοι, οἳ κατὰ βοῦς Ὑπερίονος Ἠελίοιο ἤσθιον· αὐτὰρ ὁ τοῖσιν ἀφείλετο νόστιμον ἦμαρ. τῶν ἁμόθεν γε, θεά, θύγατερ Διός, εἰπὲ καὶ ἡμῖν

Tell me, O Muse, of the man of many devices, who wandered Full many ways after he had sacked the sacred citadel of Troy. Many were the men whose cities he saw and whose mind he

learned, Aye, and many the woes he suffered in his heart upon the sea, Seeking to win his own life and the return of his comrades. Yet even so he saved not his comrades, though he desired it sore, For through their own blind folly they perished—Fools, who devoured the cows of Helios Hyperion; But he took from them the day of their returning.  Of these things, goddess, daughter of Zeus, beginning where you will, tell even unto us.

Now all the rest, as many as had escaped sheer destruction, Were at home, safe from both war and sea,But Odysseus alone, filled with longing for his return and for his wife, Did the queenly nymph Calypso, that bright goddess, keep backIn her hollow caves, yearning that he should be her husband. (Od.1, 1-15)

Three Major Themes of the Odyssey

TravelCivilization

Identity

TRAVEL: POSSIBLE ROUTE OF ODYSSEUS’ JOURNEY

Travel: the boundaries of the Greek world

• The longing for home: nostalgia• Seeing strange societies and

creatures; how to handle them?• Gathering Knowledge, Achieving

Understanding (Cyclopes, Sirens, Phaeacians, Hades)

• Survival & gathering riches• (Super)natural and marvelous

elements (Circe, Hades, Scylla, Charybdis)

CIVILIZATION: THE LAESTRYGONIANS

Civilization: the set of values of the Greeks

• Civilizations: Cyclopes, Laestrygonians, Phaeacians, Ithaca: the misbehaving suitors/the loyal servants

• Morality and Poetic Justice: bad guys versus good guys

• Women & loyalty: Penelope (conrast Clytaemnestra, Helen, Aphrodite); Calypso-Circe-Nausicaa; Athena

• New heroic code: Duplicity/patience: Odysseus is famous for his endurance and for his tricks. (flashbacks to end Trojan war; dramatic irony; Penelope’s web)

• Prominence of servants

Identity: What is it to be a Greek?

• O.’s Confrontation with The Other (man/woman; man/monster/god; civilized man/savage brute)

• Telemachus’ desperate search for an identity lacking a father figure

• False identities (Noman; the beggar) versus the pride of a reputation.

• Storytelling and Poetry

Leitmotif/Theodicy: the unloyal spouse

“Look you now, how ready mortals are to blame the gods. It is from us, they say, that evils come, but they even of themselves, through their own blind folly, have sorrows beyond that which is ordained.  Even as now Aegisthus beyond that which was ordained, took to himself the wedded wife of the son of Atreus, and killed him on his return, though well he knew of sheer destruction, seeing that we spoke to him before, sending Hermes, the keen-sighted Argeiphontes that he should neither slay the man nor woo his wife;  for from Orestes shall come vengeance for the son of Atreus when once he has come to manhood and longs for his own land. So Hermes spoke, but for all his good intent he prevailed not upon the heart of Aegisthus; and now he has paid the full price of all.”

Zeus in the Counsel of Gods on the fate of Aegisthus 1.31-41

ODYSSEUS AND CALYPSO, by JAN BRUEGHEL

Mighty goddess, be not angry with me for this. I know full well of myself that wise Penelope is meaner to look upon than you in comeliness and in stature, for she is a mortal, while you are immortal and ageless. But even so I wish and long day by day  to reach my home, and to see the day of my return. And if again some god shall smite me on the wine-dark sea, I will endure it, having in my breast a heart that endures affliction. For ere this I have suffered much and toiled much amid the waves and in war; let this also be added unto that.” So he spoke, and the sun set and darkness came on. And the two went into the innermost recess of the hollow cave, and took their joy of love, abiding each by the other's side.

Od. 5.215-226: Odysseus tells Calypso he prefers to go home

Odysseus’ longing for home; Odysseus’ awareness of his

humanity

Telemachus’ doubts and despair

Athena (Mentes) and Telemachus, (Od.1.204-222)‘But come, tell me this and declare it truly, whether indeed, tall as you are, you are the son of Odysseus himself. Wondrously like his are your head and beautiful eyes…’Then wise Telemachus answered her: ‘Truly, stranger, I will frankly tell you all. My mother says that I am his child; but I know not, for never yet did any man of himself know his own parentage. Ah, that I had been the son of some blest man, whom old age overtook among his own possessions. But now of him who was the most ill-fated of mortal men they say that I am sprung, since you ask me this.’

TELEMACHUS AND PENELOPE ON ITHACA

STORYTELLING AND IDENTITY: ODYSSEUS RECOGNIZES HIMSELF

Od.8. 520-531: Odysseus’ reaction to Demodocus’ song of the Wooden Horse (epic simile)

But the heart of Odysseus was melted and tears wet his cheeks beneath his eyelids. And as a woman wails and flings herself about her dear husband, who has fallen in front of his city and his people,  seeking to ward off from his city and his children the pitiless day; and as she beholds him dying and gasping for breath, she clings to him and shrieks aloud, while the foe behind her smite her back and shoulders with their spears, and lead her away to captivity to bear toil and woe, while with most pitiful grief her cheeks are wasted: even so did Odysseus let fall pitiful tears from beneath his brows.

CIVILISATION AND IDENTITY: ODYSSEUS AND PHAEACIANS

Tell me the name by which they call you at home, your mother and father And other folk besides, your townsmen and the dwellers round about. For there is no one of all mankind who is nameless, Be he base man or noble, when once he has been born,But parents bestow names on all when they give them birth.And tell me your country, your people, and your city, That our ships may convey you there, discerning the course by their wits. For the Phaeacians have no pilots, nor steering-oars such as other ships have,But their ships of themselves understand the thoughts and minds of men (Alcinous to Odysseus, after having observed Odysseus’ reaction to Demodocus’ song 8.550-560) “I am Odysseus son of Laertes, who am known among men For all manner of wiles, and my fame reaches unto heaven.”(O.’s reply 9.19-20)

 

‘Cyclops, you ask me of my glorious name, and I will tell it To you; and you will give me a stranger's gift, as you promised. Noman is my name, Noman do they call meMy mother and my father, and all my comrades as well.’well.’ (9.366-9)

‘Noman will I eat last among his comrades,  and the others before him; this shall be your gift.’ (9. 370)

Identity and lack of civilisation: Noman

‘Cyclops, if any one of mortal men shall ask you About the shameful blinding of your eye, Say that Odysseus, the sacker of cities, blinded it, Even the son of Laertes whose home is in Ithaca!’(9.502-505)

ODYSSEUS BLINDS THE CYCLOPS, GREEK VASE

Recognized by TelemachusBut Telemachus--for he did not yet believe that it was his father--again answered, and spoke to him, saying: “you are not my father Odysseus, but some god beguiles me, that I may weep and groan yet more. …. Then Odysseus of many wiles answered him, and said: “Telemachus, it is not fitting to wonder so much that your father is in the house, or to be amazed. For you may be sure no other Odysseus will ever come here; but I here, I, such as you see me, after sufferings and many wanderings, am come in the twentieth year to my native land.”…And they wailed aloud more vehemently than birds, sea-eagles, or vultures with crooked talons, whose young the country-folk have taken from their nest before they were fledged; even so piteously did they let tears fall from beneath their brows. (15.186-215)

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Recognized by Penelope

And he wept, holding in his arms his dear and true-hearted wife. And welcome as is the sight of land to men that swim, whose well-built ship Poseidon has smitten on the sea as it was driven on by the wind and the swollen wave, and but few have made their escape from the gray sea to the shore by swimming, and thickly are their bodies crusted with brine, and gladly have they set foot on the land and escaped from their evil case; even so welcome to her was her husband, as she gazed upon him, and from his neck she could in no wise let her white arms go. 23.232-239

ODYSSEUS AND PENELOPE REUNITED

Constantine Cavafy, Ithaca• Pray that the road is long.

That the summer mornings are many, when,with such pleasure, with such joyyou will enter ports seen for the first time;stop at Phoenician markets,and purchase fine merchandise,mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,and sensual perfumes of all kinds,as many sensual perfumes as you can;visit many Egyptian cities,to learn and learn from scholars

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,pray that the road is long,full of adventure, full of knowledge.The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,the angry Poseidon -- do not fear them:You will never find such as these on your path,if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fineemotion touches your spirit and your body.The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,if you do not carry them within your soul,if your soul does not set them up before you

• Always keep Ithaca in your mind.To arrive there is your ultimate goal.But do not hurry the voyage at all.It is better to let it last for many years;and to anchor at the island when you are old,rich with all you have gained on the way,not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.Without her you would have never set out on the road.She has nothing more to give you.

• And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.Wise as you have become, with so much experience,you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1911)