The Odyssey

Epic Rivalry

Il·i·iad Always followed by the Odyssey

(an entry in Gustave Flaubert's Dictionary of Received Ideas)


For Flaubert, the assertion of the Iliad's priority was one of many cliches to be uttered in bourgeois society by anyone wishing to conform. But given that the Odyssey is in fact assumed to have been composed after the Iliad, to what extent is it an "answer" to, or "argument" with, its predecessor? Compare the relative value of nostos, or homecoming, and kleos, or glory, in the two poems. What sort of heroism is required in a post-war world?


The Proem

Read the first 10 lines of the poem closely. What's important there? How does it relate thematically to the rest of the poem? To the themes of epic poetry generally? Compare and contrast the proem of the Odyssey to the proem of the Iliad?


Hospitality and Xeinia

Consider the importance of hospitality and xeinia, or the guest-host relationship. When a king traveled away from home he had to rely on the hospitality and protection of other kings, to whom he was bound to repay the favor in turn. The parties to these dependent relationships were denoted by the word xeinos or "guest-friend" (recall the heart-warming scene between Diomedes and Glaukos in Iliad 6). These relationships were sacred and reciprocal, signified by an exchange of gifts. How is hospitality emphasized in the Odyssey? Is there a pattern to the scenes of hospitality? When are the conventions of hospitality violated? Can too much hospitality be as dangerous as too little?


The Wanderings of Odysseus

"A whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard" (Herman Melville, Moby Dick)


In many ways, the Odyssey is a model of individual and cultural self-definition. It's a journey of self-discovery (as an adult, as a Greek, as a human). In Books 9-12 Odysseus describes his adventures. Can you identify patterns and recurring themes in the wanderings? Consider the significance of the different dangers Odysseus and his men face. Which traits are most important for Odysseus's survival? Compare Odysseus' heroism in the wanderings to the heroism of the warriors in the Iliad? Could a Diomedes or a Glaukos, as we know their characters from the Iliad, survive the dangers of the wanderings? Why or why not? Why is Odysseus, not Homer, the singer of the tale of his adventures? What's odd about this and what do you think the poem is implying by it?


Consider the female figures in the Odyssey. What values or dangers do they represent? What does Odysseus learn from each? How might Polyphemus fit into your typology?





Click the thumbnail for a gallery of the poem's women.


Culture

For Odysseus, leaving the fantasy world of the wanderings means leaving a world that is not the world of human beings. His homecoming to Ithaka has taken him through a world that is alternately superhuman and subhuman. The Odyssey as a whole is in one sense the story of Odysseus's return to normality, of his deliberate acceptance of the human condition. Homer gives us the intriguing detail that the hypercivilized Phaiakians were once neighbors to the undercultural Cyclopes (6.4-7), and that the two tribes are equally close to the immortals (7.241-242). Compare Homer's description of the landscape, palace, and practices of the Phaiakians with the landscape, cave, and practices of the Cyclopes. What's similar there? With other locales in the wanderings (e.g. Kaylpso's island)? What seperates both the hypercultural and the subcultural from the human "mean" of Ithaka (it may be helpful to look back to Works and Days).


Reverse Similes

Joy, warm as the joy that shipwrecked sailors feel

when they catch sight of land—Poseidon has struck

their well-rigged ship on the open sea with gale winds

and crushing walls of waves, and only a few escape, swimming,

struggling out of the frothing surf to reach the shore,

their bodies crusted with salt but buoyed up with joy

as they plant their feet on solid ground again,

spared a deadly fate. So joyous now to her

the sight of her husband, vivid in her gaze,

that her white arms, embracing his neck

would never for a moment let him go ...

                                        (Odyssey 23.262-272)


You've probably noticed that there's something odd about many of the similes in the Odyssey. What is the effect of reversing point of view or perspective in similes in the Odyssey? How does this technique reflect the broader themes, characterizations, and values of the poem?


Sacrifice

The ancient Greeks communed with their gods through the highly ritualized killing of animal victims, whose meat was consumed at shared meals. The sacrificial meal honors the gods by inviting them to take part in a feast, evoking the memory of a Golden Age when mortals and immortals dined together. But the same meal that brings humans into contact with the divine also underscores the distance between them: the incorruptible bones of the victim are set aside for the gods and sent to heaven in the form of fragrant smoke; humans are given the edible—lifeless—flesh to satisfy for a moment their constant hunger, the mark of our dependent mortal condition. In many ways, all of Greek literature is an elaboration of the saying "You are what you eat." How does what we eat, and when, define us? As humans? As individuals? Think about food as something cultivated, cooked, sacrificed, exchanged, and eaten.


The noblest sacrificial animal is the ox, especially the bull. A hecatomb is a sacrifice of a hundred oxen or cattle. The animal is led to the altar and water is poured from a vessel over the hands of each of the participants. Water is also sprinkled over the animal, causing it to jerk its head, which is interpreted as a nod of assent to the sacrifice. A bull, as seen on the vase at left, is given water to drink, inducing him to bow his head in assent.


The Hero and Time

As long as Odysseus remains outside of time and history on immortal Kalypso's island, time on Ithaka seems to stand still. Consider the ways in which the absence of the father and the husband has stopped the normal flow of time in Ithaka. What images or episodes in Books 1-5 represent a "time out of joint"? What are signs that time starts to flow again upon Odysseus's arrival in Ithaka? How does "time" relate to the poem's model of what's meaningful in human life?


Beating Trojan Horses

Two stories are told and retold, by different people, in the Odyssey: the story of the Trojan Horse and the story of Agamemnon's homecoming. What aspects of the story is the teller stressing? What's her or his purpose in telling it? How does each telling resonate with broader aspects of plot and theme in the Odyssey?


Oars and Oats

In Hades, Odysseus hears from Teiresias the Theban the prophecy of planting the oar (11.136-152). Discuss the relationship between the arts of cultivation and the arts of sailing in the Odyssey. Compare, for instance, the scene of Odysseus making the raft on Kalypso's island with the scene in Polyphemus's cave. What kind of raft does Odysseus make in the cave? Find instances of mast imagery in the poem? How does mastery of the sea relate to mastery of the self? To human-ness? How does Odysseus's relationship to the sea differ from that of the Phaiakians or the Cyclopes? Why must Odysseus bring the oar to "men living who know nothing of the sea"?