HUEN 1010
Dr. Fredricksmeyer
Contextualizing the Odyssey
BACKGROUND
I. Historical background
Heinrich Schliemann (late 19th century)/archaeological evidence (1250 BCE)—Troy;
Mycenae,
Agamemnon
woman/raid
II. Mythological background
Trojan cycle-8 poems from the Cypria-Telegonia, that include the Iliad and the Odyssey
III. Composition
oral tradition
scale: over 12,000 lines
formulae: nouns + epithets; phrases; scenes
dactylic hexameter
Homeric Greek = verbal painting
aoidoi (singers)—interaction with audience
written down ca. 750-650 BCE
IV. Homer?
motif of blindness: Homer, Demodocus and others up to the modern era
“the Homeric question” starting with Friedrich A. Wolf in the 18th century
V. Audience and Venue
audiences at banquets and festivals, including athletic games, e.g. the Olympic games
VI. The Odyssey
general
time span: ca. 40 days
starting point: in medias res + flashbacks
shame culture
Names: Nomen-Omen
Odysseus
Penelope
Calypso
Antinous
Melantheus/Melantho
Telemachus
Man of Hatred
The Weaver
The Concealer
Anti-Mind, Anti-homecoming
(Dark) Sunburnt
Fighter from Afar
Divinity
“double motivation”—human and divine will inextricably combined, g. “the Gods help
great men”, or “the Gods help bad men to destroy themselves”
bicameral mind?
overall structure (and deployed 3 times: Books 1-4, 5-12, 13-24)
Withdrawal, Devastation and Return (WDR)—pervasive story pattern to this day:
1) Loss/Quarrel
2) Withdrawal
3) Disguise during absence or upon return (also deceitful stories)
4) Hospitality shown to wandering hero
5) Recognition
6) Disaster during or occasioned by hero’s absence
7) Reconciliation of hero and return of hero
overarching themes include:
metis
civilization
the group
Odysseus
Penelope
bie
nature
the individual
Poseidon
esp. male inhabitants of enchanted
realm
Crew
Suitors
Melanthius
Irus
Zeus
Athena
BOOKS 1-4
Book 1
WDR-first deployment
Proem-programmatic narrative (restated by Tiresias, Book 11)
Odusseos polutropos vs. his crew
Odusseos polutropos vs. generic heroes: metis over bie
Achilles
Herakles
Poseidon as ritual antagonist
Odysseus = Man of Hatred (with 2-fold meaning)
parallels/contrasts with proem of the Iliad
divine assembly-theodicy (with warning motif)
gods/Aegisthus
Odysseus/crew
Zeus and Telemachus/suitors
Zeus (justice)/Poseidon (family vendetta)
Athena as Mentes with boy-like Telemachus
Telemachus/suitors
Telemachus’ roundabout-Pylos and Sparta
Orestes motif offers parallels and alternative scenarios
Clytemnestra/Penelope
Orestes/Telemachus
Book 2
Telemachus’ coming of age
vs. suitors in assembly:
Antinous (Penelope’s trick, symbolism of shroud, meaning of her name alignment
with other female figures, letters!)
Eurymachus
warning motif
Telemachus
divine omen
internecine warfare
over-consumption
Mentor
Telemachus vs. Penelope
Subterfuge
psychology of separation/withdrawal-alienation
Book 3
Pylos
Peisistratus as role model
proper xenia (vs. crew)
Orestes motif
limits of Nestor’s knowledge
Book 4
Sparta
further knowledge
marriage and funeral banquet/foreshadowing of Odysseus’ nostos
proper xenia
Megapenthes (Mr. Great Pain) = marriage of Menelaus and Helen
Helen usurps identification of Telemachus
foreshadows other key identifications by females
Helen distributes nepenthes (sinister undertones) vs. memories of Troy-all cry
cf. Kirke, Kalypso
Helen’s story vs. Menelaus’
suggest alternate behaviors for Penelope
foreshadows killing of suitors
Menelaus’ account: Eidothea and Proteus
= repeated story pattern foreshadowed
Odysseus and Kalypso
Odysseus and Circe
Odysseus at Ogygia (island of Circe)
Telemachus’ extended stay
Book 14 with Eumaius’ greeting
parallels Odysseus with Calypso and Circe
Ithaka
switch to Ithaka with suitors/banqueters
contrasting images of licit and illicit feasting
Conclusions on the Telemachia (Books 1-4)
rite of passage
truncated heroic quest
situation at home defined-critical moment
note theme of suppression of individual identity in Book 4 (Odysseus at Troy)
BOOKS 5-8
second deployment of WDR pattern (Books 5-12)
Book 5
assembly-ring composition with Book 1
parallels with Telemachia
Hermes/Athena
Calypso/Penelope
Odyssey/Telemachus (see below)
inversion involving Odysseus
Calypso/Penelope
Ogygia = part of another world (Hermes the border crosser)
Calypso “the Concealer”
disruption: Ogygia/Ithaca
first view of Odysseus
he parallels Telemachus
Calypso announces Odysseus’ return
Odysseus as “Trickster Figure,” and circumspect
threat of Calypso
parallels with Circe, Aphrodite, NE love goddess
Homo Faber, foreshadowing Polyphemus episode
long voyage (17 days and nights) with Pleiades and Orion on left
= from the West (Death), and in the Fall/Winter
natural (the season) and supernatural storm (Poseidon)
timeliness of his return
Telemachus’ beard/Penelope’s remarriage
Ino-Leucothea
Her veil vs. clothes of Calypso
cult initiation
Scherie, island of the Phaeacians
rebirth/olive tree
dual nature of Scheria-Poseidon/Athena
Book 6
nubile Nausicaa in liminal zone
Odysseus the lion
Odysseus defuses the threat
Nausicaa’s instructions and the power of Arete/parallel with Sparta
Sybaritic, enchanted realm
Book 7
Athena parallels Odysseus
Alcinous possibly dangerous
Arete/motif of wanderer
Odysseus’ finesse
Alcinous' offer
Book 8
Alcinous offers conveyance
Demodocus (Homer)
Laodamas/Odysseus' pain
Euryalus’ insult vs. landed aristocrat
Euryalus and Laodamas/Antinous and Eurymachus
discus; challenge of boxing and running vs. non-combative sports of Phaeacians
Demodokos and song re. Ares and Aphrodite
parallels second half of The Odyssey; suggests negative scenario
final simile
Odysseus as Andromache
BOOKS 9-12
Books 9-12 The Enchanted Realm (vs. Greek culture)
nature vs. civilization
presence of Poseidon (god of nature)
absence of Athena (goddess of the polis)
far West/symbolic death and rebirth
themes include tension between:
A.
Forgetting/Remembering
Lotus-eaters
Circe
Demodocus
Sirens
Calypso
Odysseus
Odysseus’ crew
B.
Good/Bad Hospitality
Laestrygonians
Penelope
Aeolus
Cyclops
Circe
Calypso
Phaeacians
structure
Cedric Whitman, Homer and the Heroic Tradition (288): The Adventures are [a] particularly
elegant [example of ‘geometric design’], grouped as they are around the supreme adventure, the
Journey to the Dead. This central episode ... is carefully framed, first by the two Elpenor
episodes and then by the two scenes with Circe. For the rest, the poet summarizes two out of
every three adventures rather briefly, and dramatizes one at greater length, so that the pattern of
Odysseus’ narrative is as follows:
Ciconians
Lotophagi
CYCLOPS (hero who inflicts suffering through lack of restraint)
Aeolus
Laestrygonians
CIRCE
Elpenor
NEKYIA
Elpenor
CIRCE
Sirens
Scylla—Charybdis
THRINACIA (hero who attempts to save others through restraint)
Scylla—Charybdis
Calypso
Note that:
1. the preceding sequence (of the Apologoi) is anapestic
2. most acts in Apologoi involve escaping and/or acts of restraint, not confrontation, and
typically heroic acts of confrontation lead to suffering
3. this new heroism underlined especially in the framing episodes of the Cyclopeia and
Thrinacia, both of which contain the motif of entrapment with livestock belonging to
keepers of herds, who both appeal to a god to punish men who failed to exercise selfrestraint
Book 9 (Ciconians/Lotus-eaters/Cyclops)
Odysseus the strategic poet
procurement of gifts
Ciconians
Odysseus starts out leading about 600 men in 12 ships
Iliadic heroism now = reckless acts of folly (cf. proem)
raid, and gorging on food and wine (parallels suitors)-death
Lotus -eaters
Egyptian opium trade
"munching on lotus" like animals
theme of improper cuisine-loss of homecoming (through eating or being eaten)
for eating, see also:
Cyclopeia (his sheep and other food)
Circe (her drugs)
Thrinakia (cattle of Helios)
cf. suitors
for being eaten, see:
Cyclops
Laistrygones
Scylla and Charybdis
see theme of forgetting
Golden Age/Paradise imagery
total indolence vs. heroic Strebung(German)
Cyclops
related to/contrast with Phaeacians-first rung on evolutionary latter
new heroism: Odysseus polutropos/polumetis/polutlas (vs. Iliadic heroism)
frame reinforcing efficacy of new heroism:
Odysseus the Iliadic hero-death (of six men)
the passive hero (metis over bie)-escape and survival
wine
blinding
outis/metis
self-restraint (cf. words of Tiresias, Book 11)
Odysseus the Iliadic hero (boasting)-loss of all but one ship due to enmity of
Poseidon
Golden Age imagery (anti-Olympian); structuralist interpretation
note: Poseidon isolated from Olympians
Book 10 (Aeolus/Laestrygonians/Circe)
Aeolus
lack of self-restraint
Laestrygonians
further up evolutionary ladder from Cyclops, below Phaeacians
improper cuisine-threat to homecoming, eat 500 men!
Circe
story pattern:
littoral goddess arranges interview with mantic figure
cf. Menelaus in Book 4
female entrapment: cf. Kalypso, Penelope, Helen, Sirens, etc.
improper cuisine threat to homecoming-drug
crew become animals (cf. Lotus-eaters)
Odysseus' restraint (with help of molu), but
Odysseus succumbs to temptation of sex (Paradise/indolence/self-indulgence)
Elpenor (ring composition)
Book 11 (The Nekuia, or Underworld)
story pattern: mantic introduced by littoral goddess
Tiresias' programmatic satire (echoes proem)-new heroism vs. Thrinakia
Anticleia: grief and anger vs. suitors
Book 12 (Circe, Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, Thrinakia, Scylla and Charybdis, Calypso,
Scheria and Phaeacians-ring composition)
Circe (and Elpenor)-ring composition
Circe's advice-new heroism vs. Scylla and Charybdis
Sirens
theme of remembering/forgetting
Odysseus' self-restraint
Scylla and Charybdis
six men lost from last ship
uselessness of Iliadic heroism
improper cuisine vs. homecoming
Thrinakia (and the cattle of Helios)
devolution down food chain, culminating in cattle
improper cuisine-no homecoming
crew vs. Odysseus' restraint (though note his narcolepsy, cf. Aeolus)
all men lost
Calypso
Phaeacians and Scheria (back to)-ring composition
Conclusions on the Apologoi (Books 9-12)
metis
civilization
vs.
vs.
bie
nature
categories in column on left associated with subordination of the individual to the group
also with suppression of individual identity; so too in Books 12-24
BOOKS 13-18
general points:
third deployment of WDR pattern
suppression of individual identity
anti-paradise of suitors
Book 13
Odysseus' nostos
eastward voyage
night/sleep/dream
Cretan lie/Athena's affection
disguise
Odysseus' rebuke/Athena's absence from Enchanted Realm
Athena: beware of Penelope
alternate scenarios (cf. Book 4)
Odysseus' twofold text
Book 14
pious Eumaios (vs. suitors)
loyal
sacrifices
xenia
Odysseus and suitors' behavior
audience and suitors' behavior
Cretan tale (cf. Ciconian episode)
Odysseus' nostos imminent-tension!
Book 15
triptych: Telemachus-Odysseus-Telemachus
Telemachus
Athena's warning (negative Penelope scenario)
his nostos
Odysseus' test
Telemachus
arrives
omen-hawk kills dove
dual reference
to Eumaius' hut
Book 16
diptych: Odysseus/Telemachus/Eumaios-the Suitors
Eumaius and Telemachus reunite
Telemachus' question
Telemachus' xenia (vs. suitors' in the past and future)
Penelope's strategy
Penelope periphron
alternate scenarios/traditions re. Penelope
Odysseus and Telemachus reunite
Odysseus' two-fold test
(most) suitors' plot vs. Telamachus
tension-final wooing
Book 17
Telemachus' message to Penelope
Odysseus' nostos imminent-tension!
omen of Book 15 reinterpreted
impious Melanthius
Argus as symbol of loyalty
Odysseus' test: un-Iliadic heroism as beggar
plan of Athena: two-fold test
Antinous and stool
his moral status reaffirmed
Book 18
Irus as double of suitors/foreshadowing
Amphinomous
desirable Penelope as prize
now time for remarriage/Telemachus' beard
periphron Penelope-gifts (Odysseus proud)
threat of Antinous-ultimatum
tension
Melantho (proleptic contrast with Eurycleia)-Melanthius' counterpart
Odysseus' test
Eurymachus and stool
Telemachus' rebuke-adult
Amphinomous-piety
BOOKS 19-24
Book 19
Odysseus/beggar and Penelope meet-pressures on her
shroud done
her parents
Telemachus
Odysseus' story
imminent return-tension!
Eurycleia washes his feet/his threat
allusion to another tradition/alternate scenario
Pens' dream-20 geese killed by an eagle
Odysseus/beggar interprets dream
two gates
contest-tension!
narratology vs. psychological realism
Book 20
Odysseus concerned
how to kill so many
repercussions
Athena's reassurance
Pen's dream and dread of remarriage
omen of Zeus' thunder
Ctessipus and hoof
Tel's manliness-know diff. between good and evil
feast of blood (cf. Thrinakia)
atasthalia
Book 21
Penelope as prize
(re)marriage-tension!
contest/bow-tension!
Telemachus the man (almost, cf. Book 22)-vs. anticlimax
sides drawn-tension!
suitors' failure with bow-foreshadowing
Antinous delays
beggar/Odysseus takes position
Telemachus rebukes Penelope
two-fold significance
doors locked from outside-tension!
Odysseus (with bow)
strings bow-climax!
resumes true identity
his son's name
his Iliadic persona
Book 22
Antinous' throat
Eurymachus next
Melanthius brings weapons
Telemachus' mistake
Athena riles Odysseus
intervenes
requests for mercy
poetic self-reference
revenge mirrors Polyphemus' crime
bodies-fish simile
blood!
fate of 12 unfaithful servant women (e.g. Melantho)/Melanthius
fate of Melanthius
shame culture
cf. vendetta
cf. modern urban culture
Iliadic heroism
but cycle of revenge
Book 23
Eurycleia wakes Penelope as if from dream
cf. Odysseus Book 13
Odysseus and Pen
Penelope periphron and bed
crux re. Helen (suspected)-narratology
to bed/Athena holds back dawn
positive scenario
the end: Hellenistic scholars from Aristarchus, and modern analysts
n.b. division Hellenistic (Zenodotus)
stories including means by which to resolve ritual antagonism
Book 24
diptych (Underworld and Ithaca)
Underworld
Agamemnon
Penelope vs. Clytemnestra
positive scenario reinforced
Ithaca
Odysseus tests Laertes
Athena-deus ex machina
vs. cycle of revenge