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Troy: The Returns. Odysseus And His Journey Home. Agamamnon was murdered by his wife the day he came home. Menelaus was shipwrecked in Egypt for 7 years before he finally returned.
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Troy: The Returns Odysseus And His Journey Home
Agamamnon was murdered by his wife the day he came home. Menelaus was shipwrecked in Egypt for 7 years before he finally returned. Two other heroes, Diomedes and Idomeneus, found adulterous wives and unwelcoming kingdoms when they returned. Neoptolemus was murdered shortly after his return – in some accounts, by Orestes. Odysseus took ten years to return. The Heroes’ Homecoming Perhaps it was because of the violence of the destruction of Troy (with such acts as the violation of sanctuaries of the gods), or perhaps it was inevitable after such a long mission, but many of the heroes had unfortunate returns. Ajax the Lesser, who had raped Cassandra in Athena’s temple, was shipwrecked in a storm. Clinging to a rock, he boasted that not even the gods’a anger could destroy him. Poseidon smacked him down.
The Odyssey Odysseus took ten years to return home. The story of his return, the Odyssey, is Homer’s other epic, second only to the Iliad in its place in Greek literature. Like the Iliad, the Odyssey covers a very short period of time: about 40 days. But within the story, Odysseus tells of his 10 years of travel. Muse, tell me of the man of many wiles, who wandered many paths of exile after he sacked Troy’s sacred citadel. He saw the cities, mapped the minds, of many . . .
The Odyssey . . . and on the sea, his spirit suffered every adversity, to keep his life intact, and to bring his comrades back. In that last task, his will was firm and fast, and yet he failed: he could not save his comrades. Fools, they foiled themselves: they ate the oxen of the sun, the herd of Helios Hyperion. The lord of light requited their transgression – he took away their day of return.
The Odyssey • Central Themes • Odysseus is intelligent and so are his wife, son and favored servants. Intelligence and cleverness are key themes. • Family is another key issue – and the shared characteristics that make a family loyal and faithful. • Identity is also central – what makes you who you are? Your heroic deeds (as in the Iliad)? Your home and friends? Your innate abilities? What do you lose when you lose these things?
The Odyssey The Odyssey tells of Odysseus’ eventual homecoming to the small island of Ithaca, his humble but beloved kingdom. For the past 20 years – 10 years of war and 10 years of wandering – his wife Penelope has been alone, raising their son Telemachus. Unlike many other wives, she has been faithful – but now she is surrounded by suitors who are pressuring her to marry and give the island a new king. Can she continue to hold them off?
Telemachus Telemachus sails first to visit Nestor at Pylos – one of the few Greeks who returned home without mishap. Then he visits Menelaus and Helen, where the happy couple continue to prosper. But he hears no news of his father. All the same, by his relationship with Athena, and by his intelligent pursuit of information, Telemachus has shown that he is a worthy son of the clever Odysseus. Penelope hangs on the only way she can – by exploiting her feminine “weaknesses” to put off the suitors anddelay until help arrives. Telemachus decides to take matters into his own hands and sail off in search of his father. Athena, disguised as a family advisor, Mentor, comes along on the trip. They barely escape an ambush by the 108 disgruntled suitors, who feel Telemachus is standing in the way of their success with Penelope.
Calypso Odysseus was trapped. For seven years, he had been on the island of Calypso (“Hidden”), a beautiful nymph who loved him. But he was ready to go home – even rejecting immortality at Calypso’s side to go back to his mortal wife and family. At Athena’s instigation, the gods decide to let him go. Calypso reluctantly agrees. Odysseus sets off on a raft – only to be shipwrecked by Poseidon. He is washed ashore, naked and exhausted, on the magical island of Phaeacia.
Nausicaa & Phaeacia Covering himself up with a branch, Odysseus approaches the first person he sees – a young princess named Nausicaa. Cleverly, she arranges some clothing for him and gives him instructions about getting to the palace, since it would look bad for them to come together. Odysseus is kindly received as a “guest-friend” (xenos) at the palace, and while there, he tells the story of his ten years of wandering after he left Troy.
The Odyssey Like many others, Odysseus had bad luck right out of Troy. He stopped at the land of the Lotus-eaters, where his men were sidetracked by the opium-like effects of the lotus. He barely managed to drag them away. Next he sailed to the land of the Cyclopes. With an eye to profit, he went out exploring, to see if he could find a local xenos and get a good guest-gift. Unfortunately, the local he met was Polyphemus, a monstrous Cyclops.
The Cyclops When Polyphemus fell asleep, drunk, Odysseus and his men heated up a stake and drove it through his eye, blinding him. Instead of kindly hosting Odysseus and his men, Polyphemus locked them in his cave and began to eat them, one by one. Odysseus had a plan. He gave Polyphemus some wine, which the ignorant shepherd had never had before. Polyphemus, getting drunk, asked Odysseus his name. Odysseus said “No one” (which, in Greek, is Metis).
The Cyclops Polyphemus wailed and moaned, but when the other Cyclopes came to ask who was hurting him, he shouted, “No one! No one is hurting me!” So the others went away. Odysseus shows his cleverness (metis) in this exchange – along with a great pun! On the other hand, he flirts with loss of identity, the big danger for him on his long journey home.
The Cyclops What is this man doing with this sheep? Escaping from the Cyclops’ cave. Polyphemus had to roll away the huge rock he used for a door, to let his sheep out, so Odysseus tied his remaining men under the sheep and held on to one himself.
The Cyclops Alternative traditions, however (though not from within the Greek world), suggest that the “hiding under a sheep trick” was not Odysseus’ first choice.
The Cyclops The Greeks rushed to their ships and started to sail away, with the Cyclops chasing blindly after them. When they had rowed out a little way, Odysseus shouted out, “I, Odysseus, am the one who blinded you!” His heroic boast & claim of identity almost caused disaster, because the Cyclopes almost sank the boat by throwing stones toward the sound of his voice. But disaster still followed, because Polyphemus was Poseidon’s son. He prayed to his father for revenge, and Posedon’s ill will haunted Odysseus.
Aeolus Soon the Greeks visited Aeolus, king of the winds. He tied all of the winds into a bag except the one that would steer Odysseus home. But when they were in sight of Ithaca, Odysseus’ men, thinking the bag was full of gold, opened it while Odysseus slept. The winds came out and blew them back to Aeolus. He refused to help them again and sent them away as cursed.
The Laestrygonians Poseidon’s ill-will was quickly felt. They stopped briefly among the Laestrygonians, unfriendly giants who killed most of Odysseus’ men and ate them. Of twelve ships, only one escaped.
Circe Next they stopped at another small island, called Aiaia. There Odysseus stayed by the ship while some of his men explored. Later, one of them returned alone. He said they had met a beautiful woman, Circe, who was singing alone in her house in the middle of the woods. She invited them in . . .
Circe She gave them a nice meal and a very special drink, after which the men all turned into pigs – and joined the other animals they had noticed hanging around her yard acting very tame.
Circe Odysseus had to help his men, but how? With the help of Hermes, he found a special plant, moly, that made him immune to spells. They he visited Circe and received her hospitality. When she tried to turn him into a pig, he threatened her with a sword. She instantly recognized him as Odysseus – she had known that he would come.
The Underworld Circe and Odysseus got along very well – too well. A year later his men had to remind him they were on their way home. Circe let him go, helpfully sending him to the Underworld, where he could learn what had happened in the rest of the world in his absence, and get prophecies about the best way to get back home.
The Sirens On their way again, Odysseus and his men had to sail past the Sirens, half-woman, half-bird, whose song lured sailors to their deaths on the rocks that surround their island. Anyone who heard the siren’s song wass irresistably drawn to them.
The Sirens While the Odyssey presents the Sirens solely as yet another threat to Odysseus, other traditions reflect their role as self-guided, motivated professional women.
The Sirens One feature of intelligence is the desire to know more (though this is also a feature of trickster-ish intelligence that can get one in trouble too). Odysseus wants to hear the Sirens’ singing, so he had his men tie him to the mast, instructing them not to let him go under any circumstances. He plugged their ears with wax, and had them row right by.
So Odysseus is the only one to hear the Sirens’ song without dying for it. But now he had to get past the double bind of Scylla and Charybdis. If he sailed too close to Charybdis . . . Scylla and Charybdis . . . the giant whirlpool would suck in the ship and all would die. But opposite Charybis were the cliffs where Scylla, a six-headed monster, lived. Odysseus chose to sail closer to Scylla, sacrifing six of his men.
The Cattle of Helios Odysseus and his men landed on the island of Helios, whose perfect herd of 360 cattle must not be touched, as Circe warned. Odysseus left his men and went hunting, since all of his men were starving by now. But when he returned, he found that they had already butchered one of the forbidden cattle – inciting the sun god’s wrath.
The Cattle of Helios Helios’ anger was quickly fulfilled. No sooner did Odysseus and his men sail away, than a storm destroyed the ship. Odysseus, the only one who did not eat the sun-god’s cattle, was the only one to survive. Tossed back to Scylla and Charybdis, he hung on to a tree on the cliff for three days to keep from being sucked into the whirlpool. Adrift on a fragment of wreckage, he floated to Calypso’s island. There he was trapped for seven years (though conditions were really pretty good . . .)
Homecoming Moved by his story, the Phaeacians gave Odysseus a ship full of guest-gifts and sent him home. He fell asleep as they neared Ithaca, and they left him sleeping on the shore, surrounded by riches. The first person to greet Odysseus was Athena, disguised as a young shepherd boy. Odysseus lied about who he is – before they both put off the pretense. Athena caught him up on the home scene. With her help, Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, made his way toward the palace. He revealed his identity to a loyal swineherd, Eumaeus, and then to Telemachus, who was home by now.
Homecoming The three men plan how Odysseus could get back in power. Odysseus finally made his way to the palace. When he reached it, his dog Argus recognized him and ran to greet him – then died of age and exertion. His wife Penelope had been holding out, but was under increasing pressure to marry. When she heard that a beggar was in the palace, claiming to know something about her husband, she arranged to meet him.
Homecoming Odysseus was sent to be cleaned up before meeting Penelope. When his old nursemaid, Euryclea, washed his feet, she recognized him by a scar on his leg. But he warned her to be quiet lest she put him in danger. Like everyone in his household & family, she showed metis – and kept quiet.
Homecoming Penelope told the “beggar” how she tricked the suitors. She had told them she would marry after she finished weaving a funeral shroud for her father in law. Every day in plain sight she wove – then at night she unwove her work. Her trick worked for three years, until she was betrayed by serving girls. After hearing the beggar’s “news” of Odysseus, she said she had given up on him and was ready to marry again. She consulted him about how to choose her new husband.
Homecoming She proposes that she arrange a contest with the bow: she will marry whichever of the suitors can draw Odysseus’ great bow, and shoot an arrow through twelve axe-heads lined up. Odysseus agrees that this is a good idea. Why does Penelope suggest this now, when she’s just received encouraging news? She has never given any signs of being ready to marry again before. Does she actually recognize Odysseus, consciously or not? Is this a plan between them?
The suitors could not even string the bow, then Telemachus convinced them to let the “old beggar” try. He easily strung it, and shot through the ax heads. Meanwhile Eumaeus and another faithful servant locked the banquet hall’s doors. The Contest of the Bow The wily Odysseus stripped off his rags, and he leaped to the great threshhold holding the bow and the quiver of arrows, and poured the arrows in front of his feet. “Now I shall aim at another target . . .”
Homecoming Odysseus, Telemachus, and the two servants killed all of the suitors, thus reestablishing order in Ithaca. Then Odysseus went to Penelope.
Homecoming Woman, your words have wounded me. Who tore my bedstead from its base? No one but a god could move that bed, for it has a secret in its making. Around the trunk of an olive tree, flourishing in our court, I built that bed . . . Penelope, upstairs the whole time, was called to meet her husband again. But she was not sure he was really Odysseus. “All right then,” she says to her servant, “bring out our marriage bed into the hall.” Odysseus was outraged. But Penelope was only testing him. Reassured, she went with him to bed . . .
Homecoming In tears Odysseus clasped his dear, wise wife. And as the sight of land is welcomed by shipwrecked sailors when Poseidon has destroyed their ship, in flight from the grey sea, they swim toward shore, their bodies caked with brine, and now at last set foot upon the beach, their grief is past: so at the sight of him, there was delight in her, she twined her white arms around his neck. But when Odysseus and Penelope had had their fill of love’s delights, the joys of talk were theirs, telling one another all their trials . . .
Homecoming She told his of her grief as she watched the vicious suitors . . . and he in turn rehearsed the sorrows he’d inflicted and endured . . . That was the end of what he had to tell, and now sleep assaulted him, sweet sleep that can loosen the limbs and soothe the griefs of men.
