Discussion on Odyssey of Homer
Richmond Lattimore’s translation of the Odyssey of Homer has been the most widely accepted
translated versions of the book. Due to the clarity of Lattimore’s translation, his reader can grasp
what is the True, the Good and Beautiful in accordance with classical Greek culture. In the book,
Homer claimed that these values as seen during the time of Odysseus’ heroic period are
considered food and drink which are tasteful and eatable. Throughout the book, Lattimore shows
his readers these things by presenting several scenes where most of the characters were offered
food and drink considered as good and a blessing from the gods or from their fellow men and
women. For example, when the suitors of Penelope came into Odysseus house to ask her hand in
marriage, they were offered food and drink which was considered good things (31). Also, when
Telemachos was trying to seek the attention of his mother’s suitors to gather for a townhall
meeting over his mother’s situation to choose an Achaian man since they claim Odysseus is
dead, he stated, “You suitors of my mother, overbearing in your rapacity, now let us dine and
take our pleasure…” (36). To add, the author of the book further showed us were the men of
Odysseus were asked by Kalypso, a goddess, to “put their hands to the good things that lay ready
before then. But after they had taken their pleasure in eating and drinking,” they began to talk
with each other in pleasant manner where Kalypso tried to convince Odysseus to stay in her
island instead of thinking about going back to his own country, Ithaca.
However, even though in the book of Odyssey of Homer, eatable and drinkable substances are
portrayed as the True, the Good and Beautiful, the Christian worldview sees these things
differently which entails the fruit of the Spirit where Paul admonishes in His letters to the
Galatians. In his letter, the last Apostle describes the differences between the acts of the flesh and
the acts of the Spirit. In the case of the describing the result of a Christian life, he discloses, “But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness
and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23). And in the book of
Philippian, Paul also tells us that “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is
noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if
anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Phil. 4:8). This means that just
as the classical Greek culture shows that the things of value are physical things, Paul shows us
that the things that are lovely, beautiful, and things that are praiseworthy should be the things we
should concentrate our entire hearts and minds to because these qualifies exemplify the nature of
Christianity. So, as Christians, we are expected to look onto Christ who satisfies us and gives us
a sense of trust that He will never put us to shame; thereby living in accordance to His precepts
since we also believe that when we do and act in accordance to His desires for us, we will attain
the satisfaction such as the characters in the book under discourse are portrayed after a eating a
good meal and drinking wine to satisfaction. Thus in Christ, our satisfaction is Jesus Christ and
His glorious mystery He has come to reveal for the good of mankind.
But looking at the book closely, the worldview that the world is encompassed with many gods in
human forms and that human being should put their trust in these gods is out of line with biblical
perspective. As Christians, we believe in only one God, the triune, and that it is only God who
made the whole universe and made all things to be under Him. In the book of John, it records
that everything was made by God and that there was nothing that was made outside of God’s
creation. So, when the author depicts how the world should view the world, since it is not in line
with Christian believes that we should have more than one god, it is a disagreeable culture to
adopt and follow. Jesus Christ is our King, our Lord and our Savior who has come to give us life
and we must trust in Him. Meanwhile, in the book, Penelope character was shown as a Christian
who trusted in the Lord to wait for His return. Penelope waited for Odysseus even though he
spent over 20 years away from her. Her character teaches us that as Christians, we should trust
that Jesus will return one day to take away His Bride to be reign with Him in Heaven. So, we
should not burn out our candles just as the foolish virgins burned out their oil before the return of
their Bridegroom (Matt. 25:1-13).
Looking at the depiction of what is the Truth, the Beautiful and Good in The Odyssey of Homer,
my main question is that why didn’t the author shows us that their worship to their gods was a
good thing? In fact the main issue Odysseus had on his way back from Troy defeat is that he
refused to give thanks to his gods, especially made the gods to stop him and his men from
returning home. And if the gods in the book were truly gods, why did the writer portrayed them
having human forms? I though if you believe in a god, it must be a divine being so to say. But in
Christianity, we are informed that God is divine and has a totally different nature from humans
due to his divine nature and his being a spirit being our biological nature is incomparable with
God’s. So, the gods in the book are somewhat questionable which does not fit into biblical view
at all.
In conclusion, King Solomon in the Bible defined earthly things as vanity. So, in as much as
there are several different worldviews that hold steadfast to the believe that people should hold
dearly to the things of this life, God wants us to put our gaze upon Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. In this response, I compared the worldview as presented in the Odyssey of Homer
with that of biblical worldview. And my conclusion is that there are some lessons we can derive
from the book but we need to be extra careful not to be intertwined with the entire believes as
presented in the book. So, the Truth, the Beautiful, and the Good are all the precepts God has
given to us in the Scripture to live by in our everyday lives.