The Odyssey

Intro

• A poet, derived from poetes, means “maker”
• “In Greek mythology, Memory (Mnemosyne) is said to be the mother of the Muses, because poetry, music, and storytelling are all imagined as modes by which people remember the times before they were born.”
• Calypso offers Odysseus everything, except a way back to his original human home.
• “If Odysseus had stayed with Calypso, he would have been alive forever, and never grown old; but he would have been forever subservient to a being more powerful than himself.”
• Much of Odysseus’ epithets begin with poly-, meaning many. He is a man of many talents, exceedingly adaptable.
• “ages to gain an upper hand in the relationship, provoking Odysseus into
• “[Penelope] tells the slave to make up the bed for him outside the bedroom, which devastates and enrages [Odysseus]: “Woman!” he asks, “Who moved my bed?” The bed, it turns out, is not supposed to be movable; Odysseus claims to have built it himself, using an olive tree that grew inside the palace as a bedpost. The bed that can be moved only by cutting down the trunk and destroying the structure is a metonymic [change of the name] symbol for the interdependence of the marriage and the house; the destruction of either means ruin for the other.”
  • Symbolic of a marriage with deep roots.
• “…like his most famous invention, the Wooden Horse, the bed is a wood structure that contains humans and a secret, and allows close friends to inhabit a hidden place of safety, even surrounded by enemies. … In leaving Calypso, Odysseus chooses something that he built with his own mind and hands, rather than something given to him. Whereas Calypso longs to hide, clothe, feed, and possess him, Athena enables Odysseus to construct his own schemes out of the materials she provides.”
  • Calypso as the hedonic market. No need to build anything yourself, we’ll take care of you.
• “But the bed is a product of nature, as well as of human labor; it is growing, alive, and divinely blessed. Trees are not, in fact, permanent or immovable objects…”
• “The mortal Penelope may not know all of Odys-seus’ many identities and may not have plumbed his capacity for lies. But she understands his suffering, because she too has lived through twenty years of pain-caused by his own absence, in war and with Calypso.”
• The Odyssey is a nostos = homecoming story. Same word from which we get nostalgia (pain of missing home)

The Odyssey

Book 1: The Boy and the Goddess

• Opening line: “Tell me about a complicated man. / Muse, tell me how he wandered and was lost…”
• As suitors indulge on Odysseus’ property, sitting on hides of cow’s they’d slain and eating their meats, Telemachus’ dreams of his father kicking the suitors out. Telemachus is the first to see Athena, and welcomes her, a stranger, in to the home. The suitors are too self-occupied to notice.
• On the parasitic suitors: “These men are only interested in music, / a life of ease. They make no contribution.”
• First book outlines the predicament back at Odysseus’ home: a barren home infested with indulgent suitors, a young Telemachus unable to seize it back, but urged by Athena to do so, and to go out on a journey to learn about his father.
• I imagine this will mirror Odysseus’ escape from Calypso and her promise of eternal indulgence. The suitors cannot rip themselves away from their own false eternity, false love, and it will end in their demise.

Book 2: A Dangerous Journey

• “The early Dawn was born. Her fingers bloomed.”
• “But in the twentieth year he would come home, / unrecognized. Now it is coming true.”
  • A prophet upon seeing Zeus’ eagles flying overhead. To come back unrecognized…signal of profound change.
  • The suitors quickly tell off the prophet and tell him to get lost.
• “…Meanwhile, we will wait / in daily hope, competing for the prize, / not seeking other women as our wives.”
  • Caught on their own sort of Calypso. Except competing over something that can never be theirs. Hmmm, strong symbol for who..? The eternal bachelor?
  • Says they’re competing, but all they’re doing is wasting away in indulgence.
  • Embodiment of the parasocial relationship. Penelope keeps dropping hints to keep them engaged, but never goes through. Keeps weaving Laertes garment for three years, putting them off until it is done, doing and undoing it every night. Reminds of streamer girls and the simp fan bases.
• Athena convinced Telemachus to set out. He tells Eurycleia, a slave who raised him and whom he trusts, of the news and she bawls and tells him not to go. He stops her and tells her not to tell his mother.
  • Devouring mother. A boy without a father, raised by two women, we get a glimpse as to why he hasn’t yet become a man. Interestingly, a goddess is the one who urges him on his way (perhaps embodying what a mother should do?)

Book 3: An Old King Remembers

• Telemachus sets out to see Nestor. Nestor tells the story of Agamemnon’s murder by a man who stole his wife while he was away. Agamemnons son, after 8 years, kills the man (and his mother?) in vengeance.
• Nestor is super hospitable to young Telemachus. Ends up sending him off via land to talk to Menelaus, escorted by some of his sons.
• More mentions of rosy-fingered Dawn :)

Book 4: What the Sea God Said

• Menelaus to his guard upon seeing two strangers (Telemachus and other guy): “We two were fed by many different hosts / before returning home. As we may hope / for Zeus to keep us safe in future times, / I tack their horses! Lead them in to dine!”

• The emphasis on hospitality, treatment of sojourners, seems to always be crucial for these ancient traditions. Similar to the Jewish stance (because we sojourned in the land of Egypt and they cared for us, we must care for sojourners in our lands)

• “Ajax was drowned; his ships were sunk. Poseidon / first drove him for the rocks of Gyrae, then / rescued him from the sea; he would have lived, / despite Athena’s hatred, but he made / a crazy boast—that he survived the waves / against the wishes of the gods. Poseidon / heard his rash words. At once, he seized his trident / in might hands, and hit the Gyran rock.”

• Ajax then dies. Reminds of Moses and the undue credit he took at the rock of water, which led to his inability to enter the promise land. Very similar.

• More elaboration on Agamemnon’s death, suitors plan to kill Telemachus, intercepting him at sea.

Book 5: From the Goddess to the Storm

• “The god flashed bright in all his power. / … then from the sky / he plunged into the sea and swooped between / the waves, just like a seagull catching fish, / wetting its whirring wings in tireless brine. / So Hermes scudded through the surging swell.”
• “The scent of citrus and of brittle pine / suffused the island. Inside she was singing / and weaving with a shuttle made of gold. / Her voice was beautiful. Around the cave / a luscious forest flourished: alder, poplar, / and scented cypress. It was full of wings. / … Four springs / spurted with sparkling water as they laced / with crisscross currents intertwined together.”
• “[Odysseus] was sitting by the shore as usual, / sobbing in grief and pain; his heart was breaking. / in tears he stared across the fruitless sea.”
• Hermes about calypso’s island: “No human town is near here, where gods get fine sacrifices.”
  • Lack of sacrifice
• “[Zeus] says the most unhappy man alive is living here.”
  • Least happy; most hedonic
• “I cared for him and loved him, and I vowed to set him free from time and death together.”
• Despite Calypso’s beauty, he asks to go back home to his modest wife.
• “When vernal Dawn first touched the sky with flowers…”
• Off he goes in a little raft. 17 days of uneventful travel. Poseidon eventually notices and destroys the raft. Odysseus swims for 3 days before washing upon the shore.
  • Captures the suffering you have to go through after plunging yourself in addiction. Into the unknown you go, these torrential waters, you sail for a bit, things are scary but going alright, but then you get crushed (e.g., by withdrawal) and the real test begins. It’ll seem like you can’t make it (the craggy rocks and cliffs line the shore, waves crashing and belching brine), but you’ll find a way to the calm river outflow and clamour your way up.
• He finds a bush to sleep under for the night. “As when a man who lives out on a lonely farm that has no neighbours buried a glowing torch inside black embers to save the seed of fire and keep a source—so was Odysseus concealed in leaves.” Lovely metaphor.

Book 6: A Princess and Her Laundry

• First line: “Odysseus had suffered.” True
• “For nothing could be better than when two / live in one house, their minds in harmony, / husband and wife. Their enemies are jealous, / their friends delighted, and they have great honor.”
• “All foreigners and beggars come from Zeus, / and any act of kindness is a blessing.”
  • Nausicaa on welcoming Odysseus to her father’s island. Again, emphasis on hospitality to strangers.

Book 7: A Magical Kingdom

• “…others wove cloth and sat there spinning yarn, / with fingers quick as rustling poplar leaves…”
• “…the mighty goddess with smooth braids, the craft / Calypso, friend to neither gods nor mortals.”
  • Right… not even gods want to go there, no sacrifice.
• “Lovingly she cared for me, / vowing to set me free from death and time / forever. But she never swayed my heart.”
  • Entranced by material comforts, we never grow up.

Book 8: The Songs of a Poet

• Story of Aphrodite and Ares having an affair. Lame Hephaestus catches on and lays a trap of fine, indiscernable chain to catch them, and he does.
• Story of the Trojan horse is sung.
• Odysseus prepares for send off from the phaecians

Book 9: A Pirate in a Shepherd’s Cave

• “They came like leaves and blossoms in the spring at dawn.”
• Odysseus and his men enter the cave of Polyphemus. Upon Polyphemus’ return, they reveal themselves. Polyphemus is not hospitable, does not respect the customs of respecting strangers, and begins to eat the men.
• Some days go on like this, the men trapped in his cave by a large boulder, until Odysseus hatches a plan to get Polyphemus drunk, and stab his eye.
• Polyphemus is blinded. The men are still trapped in the cave, and sneak out by clinging to the bellies of his sheep. Once they’re far enough away, Odysseus taunts him, and he launches rocks at them.
• Odysseus, in his final taunt, reveals his name to Polyphemus, who then prays to his father Poseidon for all the future hardships Odysseus will have to endure.
  • It is only when finally blind that Polyphemus prays, shows some humility, respects the gods. Interesting.
  • It is Odysseus’ pride, his yearning to make a name for himself, that subjects him to his ensuing sufferings, and kills all crew.

Book 10: The Winds and the Witch

• Odysseus and his crew end up on another island, after he falls asleep and his crew greedily open a sack gifted to him that holds the winds. The wind blows them on this island, away from home.
• Part of his crew explore the island, drawn toward Circe who happens to be weaving a massive loom and singing beautifully.
• “She led them in, / sat them on chairs, and blended them a potion / of barley, cheese, and golden honey, mixed / with Pramnian wine. She added potent drugs / to make them totally forget their home. / … They were turned to pigs in body / and voice and hair; their minds remained the same.”
  • Their minds remained the same… but they totally forgot their home after drinking this drugged drink. Our body degenerates, but the mind remains in recognition of the degeneration.
• Before this they are greeted by wolves and lions, but affectionate ones, who were probably once human. If so, it’s interesting that they don’t scare them away. Perhaps they want them to degenerate too, so they’re less lonely. Maybe they know the men will be turned into pigs, and they might get to eat them.
• Odysseus goes to rescue them, and runs into Hermes, who gives him a herb that will resist her potion. He does so, resists the potion and threatens Circe. She is impressed, and vows to him she’ll keep him safe. She turns his pig-crewman back to humans.
• Him and his boys stay with Circe for a year, cared for by her, but grow miserable and long for home. Circe allows him and his men to go, on the condition he goes to Hades on the way.
  • “‘But Circe, who can guide us in this journey? / No one before has ever sailed to Hades / by ship.’ And right away the goddess answered, / ‘You are resourceful, King Odysseus. / You need not worry that you have no pilot / to steer your ship…”

Book 11: The Dead

• Odysseus, now in Hades, sees a bunch of spirits: his family, friends, and people of legends.
• One of them is Tantalus, a son of Zeus who gained the favor of the gods, but abused it by stealing their ambrosia (immortal nectar) and sharing their secrets with other mortals. He also tested their omniscience by trying to feed them his own son. They recognize the human flesh, admonish him, and revive his son.
• “For his hubris and crimes, Zeus condemned Tantalus to eternal torment in Tartarus, the deepest part of the underworld. His punishment was tailored to his desires: 
  • He was forced to stand in a pool of water up to his chin. When he tried to drink, the water would recede into the ground, leaving him perpetually thirsty.
• Branches laden with delicious fruit hung just above his head. When he reached for the fruit, the wind would blow the branches and fruit out of his grasp, leaving him eternally hungry. 
  • This perpetual torment of being so close to a desired object but unable to obtain it is the source of the modern word “tantalizing”.”

Book 12: Difficult Choices

• They return to Circe to honour one of their dead. Interestingly, it is Circe who recommends the Siren stunt to Odysseus—to bind himself to the mast and have his sailors plug their ears with wax.
• After the sirens, she tells him he must make a difficult choice. “I will not give you definite instructions / about which route to take when you have sailed / beyond the Sirens. Let your heart decide.”
• The two are 1) the wandering rocks, a narrow passage that no ship has made through except Jason and the argonauts; 2) two rocks, upon one who lives Scylla, a six headed, twelve legged beast with three rows of crowded teeth, when his ship goes past her, six men are guaranteed to die: one for each head.
• Then will come an island that holds Helios’ cattle, who never reproduce or die. “If you can / remember home and leave the cows unharmed, / you will at last arrive in Ithaca. / But if you damage them…”
• They go past the sirens, Odysseus bound up. Crucially, the covenant he makes with himself and his crew allows him to flow past irresistibility, hedonia in one piece, and also hear the truth of pleasures that would otherwise kill.
  • Most people trapped in indulgence perish in a sea of delight, not returning to tell their tale. It is only through both teamwork, foresight, and restraint that one can mingle with pleasure and live to tell the tale.
• Then they go past Scylla and Charybdis. Notably, this must have been the path that his heart chose. They sail between the six headed beast on one side and the wormy whirlpool on the other, threading between. Six of his best men are eaten by Scylla. On they go.
• They land on Helius’ island. Odysseus warns his men not to touch the cattle. But one day he goes alone to pray to the gods, to help him find their way home, and falls asleep (again, this falling asleep is causing problems). The men then eat a cow, frustrated by their squalor.
  • Reminds of the golden calf story in the Old Testament. Very similar theme. Moses goes up to mount Sinai alone to pray, write God’s commandments. Comes back down and people are worshipping a golden calf. All hell breaks loose.
• “Sweet sleep melted from my eyes”

Book 13: Two Tricksters

• Athena helps Odysseus, now on the shores of Ithaca, hatch a plan to reclaim his home.

Book 14: A Loyal Slave

Book 15: The Prince Returns

• “…You need not sleep too early; / it is unhealthy… / …let us, you and I, / sit in my cottage over food and wine, / and take some joy in hearing how much pain / we each have suffered. After many years / of agony and absence from one’s home, / a person can begin enjoying grief.”

Book 16: Father and Son

Book 17: Insults and Abuse

• “There is no way to hide a hungry belly. / It is insistent, and the curse of hunger / is why we sail across relentless seas, / and plunder other people.”

Book 18: Two Beggars

• “Of all the creatures / that live and breathe and creep on earth, we humans / are weakest. When the gods bestow on us / good fortune, and our legs are spry and limber, / we thing that nothing can ever go wrong; / but when the gods bring misery and pain, / we have to bear our suffering with calm.”

Book 19: The Queen and the Beggar

• “Her face was melting, like the snow that Zephyr / scatters across the mountain peaks; then Eurus / thaws it, and as it melts, the rivers swell / and flow again. So were her lovely cheeks / dissolved with tears.”
• Odysseus’ old slave woman is washing his feet. She ends up feeling his scar, and recognizes him.
  • Revelation through shared suffering, through knowledge of trauma

Book 20: The Last Banquet

• “They canceled, and they lost / control of their own faces. Plates of meat / began to drip with blood. Their eyes were full / of tears, and they began to wail in grief.”
  • Reminds of digital degeneracy, the indulgent horde.

Book 21: An Archery Contest

• Penelope starts a contest to choose her next husband: whoever can string and shoot Odysseus’ bow will win her. Telemachus fails, thrice attempting to string the bow. All the suitors fail. Odysseus, still in beggar form, string it effortlessly and lets an arrow fly.

Book 22: Bloodshed

• “Odysseus ripped off his rags. Now naked, / he leapt upon the threshold with his bow / and quiver full of arrows.”

• Finally, he bares himself against the suitors.

• Gruesome slaughter.

Book 23: The Olive Tree Bed

• “He sat beside the pillar, / and kept his eyes down, waiting to find out / whether the woman who once shared his bed / would speak to him. She sat in silence, stunned. / Sometimes when she was glancing at his face / it seemed like him; but then his dirty clothes / were unfamiliar.”
• “…we have our ways to recognize each other, through secret signs known only to us two.”
• Odysseus asks his son his opinion on how to avoid the impending fallout due to the suitors’ dedtruction. Telemachus, not yet ready, defers to his father.
• Athena pours beauty on Odysseus’ head and shoulders.
• “No other wife would so reject a husband / who had been suffering for twenty years / and finally come home.”
• Penelope asks a servant to pull out the bed. This infuriates Odysseus, who built their bed around an olive tree, planted.
• “At that her heart and body suddenly relaxed. She recognized the tokens he had shown her.”
• “You made my stubborn heart believe in you.”

Book 24: Restless Spirits

• “…grapevines which ripen one by one—their clusters change as the weather presses from the sky…”
• “They did great wrong, / through their impulsiveness; they skimmed the wealth / of an important man, and disrespected / his wife, believing he would never come.”
• “Odysseus, you are adaptable; you always find solutions. Stop this war, / or Zeus will be enraged at you.”
• And so it ends, with a solemn oath of peace between the Ithacans.