Homer's Odyssey

Homer's Odyssey is Odysseus' (otherwise known as Ulysses) 10 year journey back to Ithaka after fighting in the Trojan (at Troy) was as depicted in Homer's Iliad

Ostensibly Odysseus' trip back to Ithaka after the Trojan wars should take four weeks but takes ten. On his first port of call he atempts a bit of plunderting at ?? but escapes with a bloody nose. A ferce storm then hits and he is blown off course and run aground at the land of the Lotus eateers. Many of his men succumb of the ?-inducing lotus leaves and Odysseus needs to haul them back on the ship. On the island of the Cyclops in rustles some sheep but is captured by Polyphemos. We see him and hos kost arrogant and cunning. He arrogantly thinks he can steal the sheep but also cunning. He tells Polyphemos his name is "Nobody" (The cyclops later cries "Nobody is hurting me" and able to induce the cyclops into a drunken stupor and then pierves his one eye with the branch of the sharpened olive tree. After his escape his arrogance is seen again as he shouts out to Polythemos tha he has been tricked by Odysseus. Polyphemos his the son of Poseidon and he appeals to Poseidon for revenge. His arrogance is A recurring theme is that is always seems to be fighting with the sea (Poseidon). Later at sea he loses all but one of his boats and then ends up on the Island of Kirke. She kills many of his crew and also tuens them into pigs. Kirke lures Odysseus to her bed for a year. Meanwhile is wife, Penelope is ageing and running the household back in Ithaka and being pursued by influential suitors, other suitors sleep with the maids while his son (Telemakos) is growing up and making unsuccessful bids to assert is authority in the household.

Odysseus' next lesson is more ?. Tearing himself and remaining crew from Kirke he sets sail again but wants to know what his omen are. Kirke has given him the same of soothsayer and he ends up in the underworld. Kirke has given him a list of ingredients with his can mix up to create a libation to offer to the soothsayer Tyresius. Out of the swirling mist come the ghosts of the dead, children etc. Teresius has some good news. he will retun to Ithaka amnd be reunited with his wife. The face of a woman appears out of the mist. It is his mother. He vows revenge on her killer nut she tells him she tired of a broken heart. He then meets Akhillues. Odysseus is shaken by his talk with Akhilleus. He expoects the warrior to be definat but says he waoulds rather be a wreth on earth that be dead hero in the underworld.

After he eturns from the Underworld he revisits

What is Odysseus like?

He is a slightly ambivalent figure. He is courageous, smart, resourceful, skillful and (polymetis) cunning but also shows disdain for people. He is also heroic. When he comes back to Ithaka, he is in disguise and tests people around him to see how he is treated and so spy on his household. After he reveals himself, he kills many princes of the realm and the maids who have slept with the suitors.He is very much like Aristotle's Autarchic Man - self sufficient proto-democratic man.

Who wrote the Odyssey?

This a very subtly argued topic. The poem is attributed to Homer and written in about 700BC But these Greek Myths come out of an oral (song-making) tradition of story making. Story tellers would roam around Greece giving recitals of these epic stories; ofter lasting many weeks. Given that is was not written down it is often likely that the events and actors in the story would change. However, the story is not a patchwork of stories. There seems to be a continuous sensibility on which the story hangs. This would point to a editiors or group of editors. This doesnt mean however that the Odyssey is story written by a committee but more a sense that the story tellers/editors had a sense of how and where to set the story and retell it and embellish within that framework.

Scholars believe that in the second half of the sixth century B.C. the Athenian dictator Peisistratus, who ruled from 560-27 B.C., established a Commission of Editors of Homer to edit the text of the poems and remove any errors and interpolations that had accumulated in the process of transmission—thereby establishing a Canon of Homer.

What is the meaning of the Odyssey?

In many ways it is abour man and masculinity and the patriarchal society and about man's journey back to his roots. In Greek times you cound not buy or sell property so families were very stationary. It is asserting a man's rights to be in charge but there is also a sense of fidelity insofar as he is wanting to get back to his ageing wife whereas he could stay with Kalypso or Athena and live quite happily.

Even though it is patriarchal, which is obvious given the Greek culture of the time, it is surprising that there are so many strong female characters such as Kalypso who was able to subjugate Odysseus for so long. Equally, Penelope is seen as strong figure holding down and running the household.

Despite this being a story about a journey home, as soon as he is home and restored as head of the household he tells Penelope that his destiny is to travel and probably die in some foreign land

Comparative Mythology

See also Comparative Mythology There are elements of comparative mythology within the stories. Take for example the story of Polyphemous, a monster with one eye. There was evidence of this tale in the earth itself thought the Greeks. Did Greeks mistake a skull of an elephant as a large one-eyed monster dug up by Greek farmers?

Why does the Odyssey have such popular appeal?

• There is a fixed pattern of meter that helps the retelling of the story but not in the sense that we understand poetry today.
• The story has pace and momentum with the action constantly changing
• Unlike other stories of the time their is no fixed time. The story keeps moving back in to the past and into the future. Sometimes, obviously so, othertime more deceitfully
• Although some argue that it has interest only for men of the time there is in fact something in it for everyone - Children (monsters), young and old, women love and (fidelity)as well as men (courage and cunning)

James Joyce and Ulysses

From a very early age Joyce loved reader Homer and of all of Homer's characters he admired the most, it was Odysseus he admired the most. he saw Odysseus as King, as Husband, as father , as a warrior, and as an adventurer. He gives his main character, Bloom, the name of Ulyesses. He is very so lightly a trickster who gets him into scrapes. But the similarities are subtle and it is quite possible to read the story without ever thinking of the Odysseus character.