Download Odyssey Background

The Odyssey: Introduction
Origins:
 The Odyssey is the sequel to The Iliad, the legendary story of the Greek expedition to reclaim
Helen from the city of Troy.
 Both epics are attributed to Homer, an author whose identity and existence is debated
 The stories themselves were first told and passed down through oral tradition by bards, who
used highly formalized language to chant the stories in public performances.
 The songs gave audiences a vision of their ancestors, always greater than their contemporaries,
living in a more glorious world, who defined the heroic code for the listeners.
 The stories themselves are set around 1200 BC, when a city known as Troy was the target of a
series of attacks
 They were probably written down between 750 and 650 BC.
 The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus’ 10 years of wanderings after the end of
the Trojan war and finally his homecoming
Structure:
 Homer divided the story into 24 books
 Homer did not need to tell the story in the right chronological order (Odysseus’ adventures on
his travels after the end of the Trojan war are told as stories by him while he is a guest of the
Phaeacians in books 9-12)
 The order of events in the books rather reflects the stages of his homecoming
Book 1: general introduction
Books 2-4: the situation in Odysseus’ kingdom of Ithaca during his absence
Books 5-12: Odysseus wanderings
Books 13-16: Odysseus outside of his palace
Books 17-22: Odysseus inside the palace
Book 24: Odysseus in his own bedchamber
Epic: The Genre
1) The hero is a figure of heroic stature, of national or international importance, and of great
historical or legendary significance
2) The setting is vast in scope, covering great nations, the world, or the universe
3) The action consists of deeds of great valor or requiring superhuman courage
4) supernatural forces-- gods, angels, and demons-- interest themselves in the action and intervene
from time to time
5) a style of sustained elevation and grand simplicity is used
6) the epic poet recounts the deeds of his heroes with objectivity
Conventions:
1. Stating his theme
2. invokes a Muse to inspire and instruct him
3. opens his narrative in media res-- “in the middle of things”
4. Gradual exposition of the narrative
5. catalogs of warriors, ships and armies
6. formal speeches by the main characters
7. Use of epic similes (lengthy comparisons) and epithets (“grey-eyed Athena”)
Background: The Trojan War
The legendary campaign against Troy took ten years. The Iliad, long though it is, narrates a
crucial patch of the tenth year only, when Achilles, the greatest hero of the Greeks, fell out with the
Greek commander in chief, Agamémnon, Menelaus’ brother. By the end of The Iliad, Achilles has lost
his companion, Patroclus, but has killed the great Trojan hero, Hector. Troy was doomed, though its fall
occurred in the cycle of stories, now mere fragments, that follow The Iliad, but not before Achilles
himself met his death.
Odysseus participated in the Trojan War. Odysseus and his men built a giant wooden horse and
left it outside the gates of Troy as a peace offering. The Trojans accepted it and rolled it into the city.
However, the Greeks had hidden inside the horse, and that night, they sneaked out of the horse and
opened the city gates to the entire Greek army. Because of this trick, the Greeks won the Trojan War.
When soldier came to recruit Odysseus to go to war, he tried to escape enlistment by pretending
to be mad. However, they proved his sanity by throwing his infant son, Telemachus, in the way of his
plow. Odysseus swerved to miss the child, thereby proving his mental stability.
Major Places:
a. Ithaca. Small island off the west coast of Greece; home of Odysseus.
b. Ogygia. Island in the Mediterranean; home of Calypso.
c. Scheria. Island in the Mediterranean; home of the Phaeacians
Major Characters:
a. Agamemnon. King of Mycenae and commander of the Greek expedition to Troy, he was murdered
by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, upon his return home, in revenge for Agamemnon’s
killing of her daughter, Iphigeneia. His son Orestes eventually kills his mother and her lover in
retribution of the death of his father. Homer frequently refers to him, comparing Penelope to
Clytemnestra and Telemachus to Orestes. Odysseus sees Agamemnon in the Land of the Dead.
b. Antinous. (Antinoos). Leading suitor of Penelope. The most arrogant.
c. Athena. (Pallas Athena) Sometimes called “Pallas” or “Pallas Athena. She is the goddess of war,
wisdom, and the household arts; the fates of Penelope and Odysseus and Telemachus concern her. She
frequently disguises herself, i.e., Mentes, Mentor.
d. Calypso. (Kalypso) Nymph, daughter of Atlas. She holds Odysseus captive for seven years, sleeping
with him and hoping to bestow immortality upon him, so they could be together always. She releases
him only when ordered by Zeus.
e. Circe. (Kirke) Goddess, daughter of Helios (the sun). She turns some of Odysseus’ men into pigs,
then, convinced by Odysseus, she reverses the spell and is Odysseus’ lover for a year; she gives him
advice upon his departure.
f. Eumaeus. Faithful swineherd of Odysseus. With Philoetius, he assists Odysseus against the suitors.
g. Eurycleia. (Eurykleia). Faithful old nurse of Odysseus and Telemachus. She identifies Odysseus by a
scar on his leg.
h. Eurymachus. (Eurymakhos) Leading suitor of Penelope.
i. Helen, wife of Menelaus, queen of Sparta, former lover of Paris.
j. Laertes. Aged father of Odysseus. He lives humbly and in solitude on a small farm, mourning the
absence of his son; when reunited with Odysseus, he is restored to dignity.
k. Melanthius. Traitorous goatherd of Odysseus. He has a bad end.
l. Melantho. Insolent serving woman to Penelope and Telemachus. She has a grisly end.
m. Menelaus. Brother of Agamemnon, husband of Helen, king of Sparta.
n. Odysseus. Son of Laertes and Anticleia. King of Ithaca.
o. Penelope. Wife of Odysseus and mother of Telemachus. She fends off suitors for many years.
p. Philoetius. Odysseus’ loyal cowherd. With Eumaeus, he assists Odysseus against the suitors.
q. Polyphemus. One eyed, cannibalistic giant, son of Poseidon. He is a Cyclops (Kykolopes).
r. Poseidon - God of the sea. He despises Odysseus for blinding his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus, and
constantly hampers his journey home.
s. Telemachus. (Telemakhos) Young son of Odysseus and Penelope. He struggles for maturity while
dealing with the issues of the suitors and his father’s absence.
t. Zeus. King of the gods, he is unpredictable, but in general supports wayfarers, hospitality, and the
concern of his daughter Athena for Odysseus’ well-being.
u. Argos, a dog trained by Odysseus twenty years before his return. The discarded old dog, lying on a
dung heap, recognizes Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, wags his tail, and dies.
Themes/Motifs:
a. Relations between man and gods
 Gods are described with human characteristics. They quarrel; they are greedy and sometimes
unjust. The only aspect which distinguishes them from humans is that the gods are immortal
and have superhuman powers
 Gods do not only watch humans from far away, but actively engage themselves in human
affairs, in a negative (Poseidon shattering Odysseus raft, book 5, 282-332) as well in a positive
way (Athena advising and protecting Odysseus; even making plans together with him: book 13,
372-440)
 Gods are part of the human life, and are portrayed by humans according to their own image.
b. Power of cunning over strength. In The Iliad strength is the highest mark of a hero. However, in
The Odyssey, the hero must use his intelligence and resourcefulness to journey home and destroy his
enemies.
c. Temptation. The submission to temptation or recklessness either angers the gods or distracts
Odysseus and the members of his crew from their journey. Temptations often appear as seductresses:
Circe, Calypso, and the Sirens.
d. Hospitality or Xenia. Hospitality was extremely important in the Homeric world. In a society where
there was no universal law, no police, no real judicial system, hospitality is what enabled people to
travel safely and to engage in personal alliances and trade. Zeus watches out especially for travelers,
and rewards those who show hospitality to strangers. You see good examples in the way in which
the “good” characters act toward travelers. Think of Nestor, Helen and Menelaus, and the Phaeacians.
When Odysseus is acting within the laws of hospitality, nothing “bad” happens to him. But when he
– or his men – act against the laws of hospitality, there is sorrow. Xenia meant opening your home to
the stranger, feeding and bathing the stranger, and courteously refraining from asking their
name. You would protect them from their enemies as a matter of honor. In turn, when your host was
traveling through your country, you owed him or her xenia; this obligation continued through the
generation, a web of personal alliances that allowed for comparative safety. Thus, the suitors committed
the worst sin except for matricide, and they paid for it, with the blessings of Olympus.
e. Loyalty. Loyalty is extremely important. Like xenia, it is an alliance and an expectation, only here it
is within a household or a village. Loyalty also extends to leaders like Agamemnon, who was known as
the primus inter pares – the first among equals. The “Heroic Code” stated that a person did all he could
for his friend, or his friend’s friend, and did everything he could against his enemy or his friend’s
enemy. Penelope, Eumaeus, Philoetius and Eurycleia are a few examples of loyalty. Malanthius,
Melantho, Antinous, Eurymachus are good examples of disloyalty. Complicating the situation is that
some of those whom Odysseus expects to be loyal to him are also his property – a kind of double
betrayal when they are disloyal, which accounts for their horrible deaths.
f. Perseverance. Penelope and Odysseus each are survivors – they persevere against the odds for 20
years. Athena also perseveres in her attempts to see Odysseus safely home.
g. Vengeance. Poseidon’s persecution of Odysseus and his men is great, and creates many of the crisis
points in the epic. You will remember that Odysseus blinded Polyphemus, the Cyclops, and humiliated
him. This is the motivation behind Poseidon’s wrath. Odysseus also exacts vengeance on the suitors
and his disloyal servants. Telemachus also take revenge upon the unfaithful women servants.
h. Appearance and reality. Athena is the motive force behind appearance and reality in the Odyssey. She
often disguises herself, Odysseus, and even Penelope. The disguises can be complete – such
as Odysseus as the beggar – or an enhancement, such as Odysseus before Penelope, and Penelope when
she announces the contest. Odysseus himself is a master of disguise. He is also a master of lies, as
we see in the Odyssey. He makes up a false account of his life for Eumaeus – or was some of it true?
Does Penelope recognize him before the discussion of the marriage bed, and lead him on, or does
she truly not recognize her husband?Deception, illusion, lying, and trickery are all admired by Athena
and modeled by her. Odysseus, who has and uses all these characteristics, is her favorite mortal.
i. Character growth. Telemachus follows the pattern of growth for the hero, being young and untried in
the beginning, and learning through separation from his mother and fortuitous union with his father. He
learns to be a man, to exhibit “manliness,” and he learns the warrior’s code. At the end, he knows who
he is because he has come to know who his father is, and is a worthy son. Odysseus doesn’t have a
linear growth pattern like Telemachus; he already exhibited his “manliness” and his warrior self during
the Trojan War. His trials have more to do with the gaining of wisdom and judgment beyond the heroic
code, which will make him a better king. He gradually learns prudence and self-restraint. He learns to
act less on impulse and to follow a strategy. By the end of the epic, Odysseus seems to be wiser and
more perceptive than in the beginning of his travels.
Major Symbols:
a. The shroud of Laertes. This is the shroud that Penelope weaves by day and undoes by night. It
symbolizes her cunning and her resourcefulness, for she has declared that she cannot marry a suitor
until it is complete. She is only found out when she is betrayed by a maid servant.
b. Odysseus’ bow. The bow is a symbol for the superiority of the king. Like the sword in the stone of
Arthurian tales, only the king can string it, although his son Telemachus comes close. The suitors all
fail. It is with this bow that Odysseus saves his family and establishes his identity as the true ruler of
Ithaca.
c. The sea. Although the idea of the sea of life may be hackneyed by now, it remains a potent theme in
the Odyssey. The fact that the god of the sea, Poseidon, is against Odysseus, is important in our
understanding of his victories, defeats, and progress.
d. Ithaca. Ithaca symbolizes home, and, since the Odyssey, has come to
mean home in many different literary contexts
e. Food. While it can symbolize hospitality, overeating or succumbing to the temptation of food in The
Odyssey is seen as a negative character trait that represents the human tendancy towards temptation and
often marks those who lack civility or humanity
f. Wedding bed. The faithfulness of Odysseus and Penelope’s love.
Criticism: The Double Standard
You probably have noticed the double standard in the Odyssey. This was not considered a
problem – a man could, like Odysseus, have sexual relations with a woman who was not his wife, with
few, if any, consequences. The fact that Odysseus had sexual relations with two goddesses elevates
him, and underlines his nobility. Penelope’s fidelity, on the other hand, is important and implicit. A
woman who was married could have no other lovers, and mythology is full of tales of women who
were made lovers by gods, and their terrible fates. The women servants whom Telemachus had killed
are another example – they had been sleeping with the suitors – thus betraying their master, Odysseus,
who owned them and their bodies.
Sources:
Allen, Victoria. “The Odyssey Literature Guide.” Eds. Ellis, W. Geiger and Arthea Reed. Pearson
Education, 2000.
Hexter, Ralph. The Odyssey: Teacher's Guide. New York: Macmillan, 2000.
Genz, Hermann. “The Odyssey.” 27 February 2007.
Passman, Kristina. “Reading The Odyssey.” University of Maine, 2005.
Sparknotes-- The Odyssey