Kaleidoscope of Western Literature:
Homer’s Odyssey
Jacqueline Klooster
J.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 Culture
1200 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 back
In her hollow caves, yearning that he should be her husband.
(Od.1, 1-15)
Three Major Themes of the Odyssey
Travel
Civilization
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
Odysseus’ longing for home; Odysseus’
awareness of his humanity
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
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)
Identity and lack of civilisation: Noman
‘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 me
My mother and my father, and all my comrades as well.’
(9.366-9)
‘Noman will I eat last among his comrades, and the others
before him; this shall be your gift.’ (9. 370)
‘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 Telemachus
But 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)
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
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 fine
emotion 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
• Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are
many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you 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
• 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)