Homer, Odyssey -- 8th c. BCE
The returns of the various Greek heroes from the Trojan War were also of great interest to the Greeks. Historically, the Mycenaean Greek world came to an end within a 100 years of the fall of Troy, and the Trojan expedition may have had the effect of weakening the governments back home, so that invasion was possible. Following the fall of the Mycenaean city-states, there was a 300+ year Dark Ages, where the literacy (limited though it was) of the Mycenaean world was completely forgotten. In the Odyssey, Homer also tells us something of the return of Menelaus, of Nestor, and of Agamemnon. These returns were later recorded in a work called the Nostoi (The Returns), which hasn't survived. Below these are summarized.
Agamemnon: Agamemnon makes it home all right, but his wife, Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus, kill him.
Menelaus: Menelaus makes it home, but only after 7 years of wandering. In some accounts, he meets up with the real Helen in Egypt. Homer does not know of this version, though Menelaus does end up in Egypt. Once home, things seem to be o.k., but in Homer's account, Helen seems to be feeding Menelaus some sort of extra-potent joy juice.
Nestor: Safe return journey; everything fine at home.
Diomedes: Returns to Argos where he finds his wife has been unfaithful to him. He leaves Argos and founds a settlement in N. Italy. In some versions, he is made a god on his death, and he was worshipped as a hero in Italy.
Idomeneus: Returns to Crete to find his wife has been unfaithful to him and killed by her lover; forced out of Crete by the new ruler, he settles in S. Italy, where he was worshipped as a hero. Mozart wrote an opera, Idomeneo, about the king's return.
The heroes Achilles and Ajax Telamonius both died at Troy; Achilles was killed by Paris, and Ajax committed suicide. Ajax Oileus was killed by Athena on the return journey in punishment for raping Cassandra in Athena's temple.
The return of Odysseus from Troy is as much folklore (think "Jack and the Beanstalk" and the like) as it is mythology. It served as the inspiration and even model of many later "romance" stories (these involve travel and separation from one's beloved). Such later works would include Apollonius' Argonautica, Apuleius' Metamorphoses (a.k.a. The Golden Ass), Petronius' Satyricon.
The expanding Greek mercantile adventures on the Mediterranean and beyond may have caused Greeks to wonder what wondrous lands lay beyond the world they knew, and such speculation gave rise to stories of Greek sailors travelling to far-off lands in works like this. Once you leave the area you know, you enter a never-never land (consider Alice in Wonderland or Dorothy leaving Kansas in The Wizard of Oz or Wendy in Peter Pan). That journey, of course, is more about personal discovery than anything else. When confronted with something different from the norm, you have to reevaluate the norm.
The Odyssey begins in the last year of Odysseus' 10 year wandering to get home. But Homer quickly leaves his hero on the isle of Calypso, and follows the adventures of Odysseus' son, Telemachus, who goes on a mini-Odyssey to get information on his father. He visits Menelaus and Nestor, who give him information about Odysseus. The 20 year old Telemachus was a baby when his father left for Troy, and he doesn't know him. This mini-Odyssey gives Telemachus a chance to grow up (often in stories, it is when the young man, or woman, leaves home that the true education begins), and it serves as a nice warm-up act to Odysseus -- by the time we really meet Odysseus in Book v, we know a little about him and we are eager to learn more. The "Telemachia" also lets us see the situation in Ithaca. It is imperative that Odysseus get home soon, as Penelope will soon be forced to marry another. That lends some urgency to Odysseus' getting home.
As soon as Odysseus is let go by Calypso (he's been stuck on her island for 7 years; when offered immortality as a bribe to stay, he refuses -- living as a man means more to him than living as a god), he manages to get washed up on the island of the Phaeacians, a rich mercantile people modeled on the island kingdom of Crete. While there, he tells the story of his journey from Troy to that point (so we get a large part of the story told in flashback, and from Odysseus' perspective). Some notable parts of these books:
Odysseus' waking up, naked and waterlogged, on the beach -- Nausicaa, the eldest daughter of Alcinous, the king of the Phaeacians, wakes him up. Quick thinking Odysseus grabs a handy branch before meeting the princess.
Demodocus' story about Hephaestus, Aphrodite and Ares. This is our best description of what a bard's performance would be like; Demodocus sings this story as entertainment at the banquet of Alcinous. The story serves as an interesting counterpoint to Odysseus' reality. He is trying to get home to a faithful wife, Penelope, and her faithfulness is the only guarantee he has of staying king, but in Demodocus' story, Aphrodite is easily faithless to her husband, Hephaestus, and there is no negative consequences for her -- the gods find her cheating a source of great amusement. What's fun for the deathless gods can be disaster for mortals.
Odysseus' encounter with the Cyclops -- Odysseus shows his cleverness in dispatching this monstrous creature, but, in a very Greek gesture, must have credit for his deed. Once the Cyclops, Polyphemus, knows his name, he can tell his dad, Poseidon. Thereafter, Poseidon will not let Odysseus have an easy homecoming.
The encounter with Circe -- Odysseus encounters a witch who can change men into pigs (little jump there, some women I know would say), but Odysseus stops her with a magical herb that Hermes has given him.
Odysseus and the Sirens -- on his way home, Odysseus and his men will meet the Sirens, monsters with beautiful voices which hypnotize mariners and drive them to their death. Odysseus, so that he alone might hear the Sirens' song, has himself strapped to a mast and has his men's ears plugged with wax. There is about Odysseus the Greek sense of exploration -- he just has to do what no one else has done.
The Nekuia -- Odysseus sails to the end of the world and there gets to talk with ghosts of Greek heroes and heroines past. He gets information needed for his return from Tiresias, the Theban prophet; learns about some of his Trojan War buddies from Agamemnon, and finds out the bad home situation from his mom.
Odysseus comes home to a very uncertain situation -- boorish suitors rule the palace and bully his son. Wisely, he comes to the palace in disguise as a beggar to reconnoiter. He suggests to Penelope that there be a contest among the suitors to see who can string Odysseus' bow and shoot an arrow through axe handles. Of course, all the suitors fail, but Odysseus succeeds and, with bow in hand, and help from his son and loyal servants, he manages to dispatch all the suitors and be reunited with his wife. Some notable moments:
When Odysseus arrives back in Ithaca, he is met by Athena, who is in disguise. Odysseus begins to lie to her about his identity, but Athena begins to laugh at how good a liar he is. After she reveals her identity, they sit together underneath a tree and begin to plot. The relationship between Athena and Odysseus is almost that of best friends, something different from the distant majesty of gods in the Iliad.
Odysseus' discovery by his dog, Argus, and by his former nurse, Eurycleia. When Odysseus left for Troy, his dog, Argus, was still a puppy. Now he is an old dog, who can barely move. When Odysseus sees him, the dog is lying on his own dung, but when he sees Odysseus, he wags his tail in joyful recognition before dying. It's one of those Lassie moments. The name, Argus, sounds like Argo, and it may be an attempt to link, in name, Odysseus, a sailor hero, and the great naval expedition of the Argonauts (on which expedition went Laertes, Odysseus' father). The name means "swift."
The battle in the hall. The moment when Odysseus, still disguised as a beggar, goes to string the bow, and then reveals his identity is a great story moment. Homer does a great job of building up to that moment, and then emphasizing the shock of the suitors as they realize what this all means.
Penelope's trick. A great wife for Odysseus, she does not believe him, when, still attired as a beggar, he tells her he is her husband. She tries to trick him by suggesting that their bed be moved (it cannot because it is connected to a tree trunk), which no one else would know. When Odysseus informs her of this peculiar adornment, Penelope knows that this strange man is her husband, finally returned.
The ghosts of the suitors rushing down to the Underworld. This scene served in part for the end of Vergil's Aeneid.
The story of Odysseus inspired Vergil to write the 1st six books of the Aeneid as the wandering of Aeneas to find and found his new Troy in the West. In modern times, Tennyson wrote a poem, "Ulysses" about Odysseus (called Ulysses in Latin) as an old king, eager to return to the sea. And Nikos Kazantzakis wrote The Odyssey: a Modern Sequel. James Joyce's Ulysses, considered by some the greatest novel ever written in English, is a mock Odyssey, with Leopold Bloom, a Jewish ad-man in Dublin, wandering around the city on 16 June 1904. And the British rock group, Cream, did a song called "Tales of Brave Ulysses." You can get the words of that song by clicking here.
For maps and artwork on Odysseus and his travels, check out M & L's site by clicking here and clicking on the link to chapter 20.
You may also want to get the audiobook of the Odyssey in Allen Mandelbaum's translation as read by Derek Jacobi. There is also an audiobook of Robert Fagles translation, read by Ian McKellen. Again, the best way to get a feel for oral literature is to hear it performed. There is also a Hallmark TV presentation of the Odyssey, starring Armand Assante as Odysseus, as well as an Italian film, Ulysses with Kirk Douglas as Ulysses.
For class Powerpoint presentation on this chapter, click here.
For some thoughts on the poem, click here.