Herbst Humanities Dr. Fredricksmeyer
Odyssey
The Aretêof Intelligence,
and Civilization’s Conquest of Nature
I.Odyssey Background
general
time span: ca. 40 days
starting point: in medias res + flashbacks
shame culture
Names: Nomen-Omen
OdysseusMan of Hatred
PenelopeThe Weaver
CalypsoThe Concealer
AntinousAnti-Mind, Anti-homecoming
Melantheus/Melantho(Dark) Sunburnt
TelemachusFighter 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”
Character type: the hero
The hero is:
(1)Socially and spatially marginalized
(2)Superior to those around him
Plot type: the Heroic Journey pattern
In the narrative pattern of the Heroic Journey, the (usually male) hero:
(1) loses or has lost someone or something
(2) journeys in search of the person or thing lost
(3) meets two helpers,
(a) the first of whom is usually a female figure, and
directs the hero to
(b) the second helper, who is usually an old, wise male figure who
provides information to the hero that facilitates his journey;
(4) visits many places, sometimes including the Land of the Dead, in
which case the hero follows another narrative pattern framed by the Heroic Journey pattern sometimes called the katabasis (descent), in which the hero
(a) descends
(b) at night
(c) through a cave or grotto
(d) across a boundary
(e) into a dark and dank Underworld
(f) where he encounters monsters (e.g. Cerberus), and
a king of the Underworld;
(5) finds the object of his pursuit, or finds that it is unobtainable;
(6) returns home, but only at the cost of the death of a substitute, who was
either the hero's companion on the journey, or the object of his pursuit;
(7) finds devastation at home engendered by his absence.
II. Odyssey
Book 1
programmatic opening-
Odusseos polutropos vs. his crew
Odusseos polutropos vs. generic heroes: mêtis over biê
Achilles
Herakles
Poseidon as ritual antagonist
Odysseus = Man of Hatred (with 2-fold meaning)
Poseidon represents Nature, Odysseus represents Human Civlization
divine assembly-theodicy (with warning motif vs. recklessness/stupidity)
gods/Aegisthus
Odysseus/crew
Zeus and Telemachus/suitors
the theme of proper xenia
Mentes: emulate Orestes
Orestes/Telemachus
Clytemnestra/Penelope, potentially sinister parallel, but also underscores
Penelope’s power and, ultimately, her aretê
Book 2
Penelope the strategist-periphron(see epithet of Odysseus, polutropos)
funeral shroud (see her nomen)
letters!
Book 3
Menelaus: emulate Orestes
limits of Nestor’s knowledge
Book 4
Sparta
further knowledge
marriage and funeral banquet/foreshadowing of Odysseus’ nostos
proper xenia vs. reckless/stupid humans and figures of Nature
Helen distributes nêpenthês with sinister undertones (as antidote to memories of Troy)
seeother powerful, seductive females encountered by Odysseus--Kirke, Kalypso;
they are proto-types of the femme fatale (see also Pandora and Eve) who represent a threat to patriarchy (see also the myth of the Amazons)
two stories about the mêtis of Odysseus
both demonstrate the mêtisof Achilles
also suggest alternate behaviors for Penelope, and thus her power
foreshadow killing of suitors
Menelaus’ account: Eidothea and Proteus
= repeated story pattern foreshadowed; see later, 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-theme of recklessness
Book 5
assembly-ring composition with Book 1
parallels with Telemachia
Hermes/Athena
Calypso/Penelope
Odyssey/Telemachus (see below)
Ogygia(island of Calypso) = part of another world (hence Hermes the border crosser)
like the Underworld, part of world disconnected from human civilization
Calypso “the Concealer”
first view of Odysseus
he parallels Telemachus
Calypso announces Odysseus’ return
Odysseus’ mêtis: circumspection
threat of Calypso
parallels with other dangerous female figures
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 (symbolizes Athena and human civilization)
dual nature of Scheria-Poseidon/Athena
Book 6
nubile Nausicaa in liminal zone
Separation, Liminality, Reintegration narrative pattern
Odysseus the lion (inappropriate or humorous use of simile)
Odysseus defuses the threat of Nausicaa/women
Book 7
Odysseus becomes guest at court of King Alcinous and his wife Arete
Book 8
Alcinous offers conveyance
Demodocus (Homer) sings
the martial aretêof Odsysseus
discus; challenge of boxing and running vs. non-combative sports of Phaeacians
Demodokos and his song about Ares and Aphrodite
parallels second half of Odyssey; again underscores power of Penelope
final simile
Odysseus as Andromache: the costs of war
BOOKS 9-12: The Adventures of Odysseus in the realm of Nature
Odysseus the strategic poet-mêtis: procurement of gifts
overarching themes-
biêvs. mêtis (binary opposites that parallel the next category)
nature vs. civilizationthat, in some episodes, represents patriarchal culture
presence of Poseidon (god of nature)
absence of Athena (goddess of the polis)
mêtis vs. recklessness (inappropriate uses of biê, improper xenia, food, wine and drugs,
indolence,forgetfulness, greed, sex)
note also that:
mêtisand civilization associated with subordination of the individual to the group
also with suppression of individual identity; so too in Books 12-24
realm of the adventures of Odysseus associated with the far West/Underworld, and the emergence of Odysseus from this realm represents rebirth/resurrection
Book 9 (Ciconians/Lotus-eaters/Cyclops)
Ciconians-inappropriate improper xenia
Odysseus starts out leading about 600 men in 12 ships
Iliadic heroism (biê ) now = reckless
raid, and gorging on food and wine (parallels suitors)-death
Lotus-eaters-drugs, indolence, forgetfulness
Egyptian opium trade
"munching on lotus" like animals
theme of forgetfulness
Golden Age/Paradise imagery
total indolence vs. heroic Strebung(Ger)-the human pursuit of excellence
Cyclops-improper xenia, inappropriate use of biêvs. mêtis
new heroism: Odysseus polutropos/polumêtis/polutlas (vs. Iliadic heroism)
frame reinforcing efficacy of new heroism:
Odysseus the Iliadic hero-death (of six men)
the heroism of restraint-escape and survival
wine
blinding
outis/mêtis
Odysseus the Iliadic hero (boasting)-loss of all but one ship due to enmity of
Poseidon
Golden Age imagery (anti-Olympian)
structuralist and post-structuralist interpretation
Parallels that reinforce theme of opposition between civilization and nature
Polyphemus live in isolation from one another
Poseidon isolated from Olympians
Book 10 (Aeolus/Laestrygonians/Circe)
Aeolus-greed
Laestrygonians-results from Aeolus episode
further up evolutionary ladder from Cyclops, below Phaeacians
improper cuisine-threat to homecoming, eat 500 men!
Circe-food, wine, drugs, sex, indolence, forgetfulness
story pattern:
littoral goddess arranges interview with mantic figure
see Menelaus in Book 4
female entrapment: see Kalypso, Penelope, Helen, Sirens, etc.
crew become animals (see Lotus-eaters)
Odysseus' restraint (with help of molu), but
Odysseus succumbs to temptations of sex, indolence, forgetfulness (Paradise vs.
Strebung)
Elpenor breaks neck (ring composition)
Book 11 (Nekuia, or Underworld)
story pattern: mantic introduced by littoral goddess
Tiresias' programmatic statement (echoes proem)-new heroism vs. recklessness,
Especially; represents the triumph of
Thrinakia/cattle of Helios
Achilles (rejects the heroic code!)
from here out Odysseus will do a better job of avoiding recklessness--the
triumph of mêtis
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' mêtis: gets to have his cake and eat it too
Scylla and Charybdis
six men lost from last ship
uselessness of Iliadic heroism-temporary slip by Odysseus
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
Book 13
Odysseus' nostos (see term nostalgia)
eastward voyage
night/sleep/dream
Cretan lie/Athena's affection
disguise
Odysseus' rebuke/Athena's absence from Enchanted Realm
Athena: beware of Penelope-her power again underscorred
Book 14
Eumaeus the swineherd
loyal to Odysseus
exercises proper xenia (in contrast with the suitors in past and future)
Book 15
Telemachusarrives, evading ambush of suitors
omen-hawk kills dove-first interpretation by Thecolymenus
to Eumaius' hut
Book 16
Eumaius and Telemachus reunite
Telemachus' xenia (vs. suitors' in the past and future)
Telemachus' question re. paternity
Odysseus and Telemachus reunite
Book 17
Telemachus' message to Penelope
Odysseus' nostos imminent-tension!
omen of Book 15 reinterpreted by Theoklymenus-Odysseus will kill the suitors
disloyal Melanthius
Argus as symbol of loyalty
Antinous and stool representative of abuse of Odysseus/beggar by suitors as a whole,
from here out, and of their violation of xenia as guests as well as hosts
Book 18
Irus as double of suitors/foreshadowing
desirable Penelope as prize
now time for remarriage/Telemachus' beard
Penelopeperiphron-gifts (Odysseus proud)
threat of Antinous-ultimatum
tension
Melantho (Melanthius' female counterpart, representative of disloyal female servants)
further abuse of Odysseus/beggar by suitors
Book 19
Penelope receives Odysseus/beggar who claims to have hosted Odysseus
she explains pressures on her to remarry:shroud done, her parents,
Telemachus
she tells him about her dream-20 geese killed by an eagle, and that she wept for
the latter
Odysseus/beggar
interprets dream to her-Odysseus will kill suitors
claims to have heard that Odysseus will return within the month!
YET, Penelope declares intention to hold contest/remarry!
some compelling reasons, as discussed above
power of Penelope to determine her own life
but perhaps narratology vs. psychological realism
Eurycleia washes his feet/his threat
allusion to another tradition/alternate scenario-power of Penelope
Book 20
feast of blood (see Thrinakia-consumption of cattle of Helios)
Book 21
(re)marriage contest: bow, twelve axe handles and target
weapons of suitors have been removed (Book 19), and doors locked from outside-
potential slaughter rather than battle-moral implications vs. dramatic requirements-SHAME CULTURE AND VENDETTA
Book 22
Odysseus shoots Antinousin throat: symmetry of punishment
Odysseus resumes true identity
his son's nomen omen
his Iliadic persona-the resumption of biê made possible by the exercise of mêtis
Eurymachus next
Melanthius brings weapons
Telemachus' mistake
Athena riles Odysseus
intervenes
requests for mercy-Phemius (and one other) spared
poetic self-reference
revenge mirrors Polyphemus' crime
SHAME CULUTRE AND VENDETTA
fate of 12 unfaithful servant women (e.g. Melantho)/Melanthius
fate of Melanthius
Iliadic heroism
but cycle of revenge
Book 23
Eurycleia wakes Penelope as if from dream
cf. Odysseus Book 13
Penelope periphron and bed
reunion
perhaps original ending of the Odyssey
Book 24
Underworld
Agamemnon: Penelope vs. Clytemnestra
Ithaca
Odysseus tests Laertes
Athena-deus ex machinavs. cycle of revenge
Review HEROIC JOURNEY PATTERN