February 20th, 2021
I just finished reading The Odyssey by Homer and wanted to share my thoughts. It’s honestly different than how I imagined it to be. The main thing that I know about the Odyssey is the cyclops, the sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, and Circe, however, these episodes constitute only a small portion of The Odyssey. I knew that when Odysseus made it back to Ithaca that he was disguised as a beggar and killed all of his wife’s suitors, but I didn’t know that he arrived in Ithaca halfway through the story. I guess I expected the more memorable sections to be longer. I also didn’t know that those more memorable sections detailing Odysseus encounters with the various creatures, was told using the past tense. We first meet Odysseus on Calypso’s island which is one of the last episodes before Odysseus makes it to Ithaca and it is only when he arrives at the Phaecians that he recounts the events of his journey. I wouldn’t say that I didn’t enjoy The Odyssey, but I don’t think it was what I was expecting. I was sort of expecting a Lord of the Rings type story which has more detail when relaying events involving monstrous creatures. The version of the story I’m most familiar with is the one told in the 1997 movie version of The Odyssey which focuses more on Odysseus’ journey than his time at home. In fact, Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca in the last 30 minutes of the 3-hour movie. It seems that in The Odyssey and The Iliad, a large portion is taken up by character speeches. It would be interesting to learn more about speeches in ancient literature and how story-telling changed to what we see today.
There are a couple of things I wanted to mention that come from the Introduction of the version I have; written by Robert Squillace. The first thing he mentions was that the only other book that has given western literature its stock of heroes, monsters, images, and tales is the Bible which I find to be an accurate statement. I would also say that Western thought owes much to the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions as well which is why I’m interested in seeing how the two come together. I’m always interested whenever the Bible or Christianity is mentioned in the things I read as I feel it provides an interesting perspective and I almost always want to write about it for posterity.
Another thing was mentioned a bit later when Robert Squillace was talking about the historicity of The Odyssey and The Illiad and the fact that it doesn’t precisely reflect the Mycenaean period. He mentions that Homer creates a mythic past that is perceptible as imaginary to us but regarded as the authentic voice of tradition to his original audience, and regarded as the authentic record of the earliest Pan-Hellenic history, the Homeric epics came to be regarded almost as sacred texts partly because they served as a way to rally the Greeks when facing existential threats such as the invasion of the Persians. Herodotus even wrote an anecdote about how Xerxes visited the ruins of Priam’s palace before embarking on his invasion and noted how the Persian soldier’s face suffered tremendously while spending the night in the ruined walls. When I was taking my classical myth course in college and started learning about the various myths of the Greek and the history and context surrounding it, I couldn’t help but think about how this same analysis could be applied to the Bible and similar conclusions reached. Specifically, with regards to Genesis, I think it can be stated that the authors created a mythic past that is perceptible as imaginary (to some) but regarded as the authentic voice of tradition to the original audience. This is one of the reasons that I think I’m moving more towards non-belief. When confronted with arguments that the entirety of the Bible is historically true because of X, Y, and Z I start to think about how applying those arguments to The Odyssey and The Iliad makes the arguments seem nonsensical. For example, I’ve heard it said roughly that the Bible is true because the Bible recounts the Fall of Jericho and archeology has proven that Jericho did in fact fall. That very well may be true, but then one could say that The Iliad is true because it recounts the Trojan War and archeology has proven that Troy was sacked. Another argument that I’ve heard is that The Bible is true because Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. Well, one can say that The Aeneid is true because Augustus Caesar fulfilled the Iliadic prophecy of Aeneas where it is said that he will have great descendants. Another one that I’ve heard isthat the Bible is true because the cities and towns described in the Bible actually existed. Well, since there are cities and towns in The Iliad and The Odyssey that actually existed, they must be true. I am likely missing the mark on these arguments, but that is what my thinking is at the moment. I should like to read more about these points once I get into the New Testament to more precisely understand the specific details of the arguments surrounding these three things.
The last thing I wanted to mention was with regards to Odysseus’s hardships as he travels back to Ithaca. The author of the introduction notes how his zeal to affirm his heroic identity after the episode with the Cyclops serves to prevent him from going home sooner and endangers his crew. This was counter to how he went about saving his crew from the clutches of the Cyclops in its cave by calling himself “Nobody”. Something that I mentioned in my review of the Iliad is that humility is required to be an effective leader, but it was important for the heroes to gain personal glory in these stories, therby making it difficult to be humble leaders that put the needs of others before themselves. The hero’s responsibility to demonstrate his greatness means that he is ill-equipped to assume the role of the leader for which his heroism is supposed to guarantee he is fit.
I conclusion, I’m glad I’ve read both The Iliad and The Odyssey. I didn’t get as much out of them as I was expecting, but that is alright. If I ever write a novel I would like to pull some of the imagery from these stories if only to pay homage to them.