Classics 10: Chapter 22 The Return of OdysseusThe Odyssey of HomerSlide 3Slide 4Slide 5Slide 6Slide 7Slide 8Slide 9Odysseus’ Great AdventuresSlide 11Slide 12Odysseus’ Revenge on PolyphemusSlide 14Odysseus Blinding PolyphemusSlide 16Slide 17Slide 18Slide 19Odysseus and the SirensSlide 21Slide 22The Homecoming of OdysseusSlide 24The Interview with PenelopeSlide 26Odysseus and the SuitorsOdysseus Kills the Suitors 2 sides of an Attic cup, ca. 440 BCEThe Final Test: PenelopeSlide 30Odysseus and AchillesPenelope and ClytemnestraClassics 10: Chapter 22The Return of OdysseusI. The Odyssey of HomerII. Meeting Odysseus and TelemachusIII. Odysseus’ Great AdventuresIV. The Homecoming of OdysseusUlysses (Odysseus) and the Sirens, Herbert James Draper, 1909The Odyssey of Homer•More folktale patterns than the I liad•Ends happily, hence it was compared with comedy, not tragedy (The Iliad = tragic)•Generally considered to be the second of Homer’s two poems, both chronologically and thematically (written down ca. 750 BCE)•The Iliad explores the limitations of a mortal as compared to a god•The Odyssey explores what it means to be an individual mortalThe Odyssey of Homer•The Odyssey explores what contributes to a man’s identity: his character, his achievements, his home, his wife and family•Odysseus undergoes a journey filled with great adventures in order to come home•The journey defines him, it symbolizes his search for himself–Sometimes the journey itself is what matters•Yet for Homer Odysseus’ full identity is not realized until he is in his proper place, his own bed in his own house with his own wife–That is what it means for Odysseus to be OdysseusThe Odyssey of Homer•The plot begins after Odysseus has been away from his home on the island of Ithaca for 20 years–10 years to fight the Trojan War–10 more years of trying to get home•No one knows what has happened to him•Over 100 men have moved into Odysseus’ palace (the suitors), all wanting to marry his wife Penelope and become the new king•They are eating his food and sleeping with his slave girls; they have violated xeniaThe Odyssey of Homer•Just like the Iliad, the poem is divided in 24 books for the 24 letters in the Greek alphabet (probably not done by Homer)•Every 4 books forms a unit, and the whole Odyssey is almost 6 connected poems of 4 books each (the Iliad not really structured this way)•12 books of wanderings and 12 on Ithaca, so the homecoming is as important as the journey to get there•Homer does not arrange the first 12 books in chronological order (as Powell does in the textbook, but my lecture follows Homer)The Odyssey of Homer•Books 1-4 tell the story of Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, on Ithaca•The suitors mock him and his mother’s authority, he feels his life is in danger•He journeys to find news of his father, goes to see the Iliadic heroes Nestor and Menelaüs–We learn of Menelaüs’ homecoming, experience the lingering tension in his marriage to Helen •We come to know him as the worthy son of his father, just coming into his own•Yet it is clear he will need his father’s help to restore order to his houseThe Odyssey of Homer•Books 5-8 present Odysseus and the final stage of his journey home•We meet him lonely and upset on the island of the sea nymph and goddess Calypso, where he has been her lover for the last seven years•She has offered him immortality, but he refuses it, saying he would rather grow old and die with his actual wife Penelope•Calypso = “Concealer”, his life of ease with a goddess has caused him to disappear from the world of mortals, his identity is being forgotten–Compare Utnapishtim in the Epic of GilgameshThe Odyssey of Homer•Odysseus longs to go home; his patron deity Athena at last persuades Poseidon to allow it–Wrath of Athena has softened (?)•Hermes comes to tell Calypso to let him go•Odysseus builds a raft and is tossed about by storms (one last blast from Poseidon)•Washes up naked and battered on the island of the Phaeacians•Rescued in a funny scene by Nausicaä, the daughter of the king, who cleans him up and brings him to the palaceThe Odyssey of Homer•He is slow to reveal his identity to the Phaeacians, but he gradually comes to trust them after they promise to take him home•In the court of the Phaeacians is a old blind singer named Demodocus that many see as a double for Homer himself–Tells of Hephaestus catching Ares with Aphrodite–Tells the story of the Trojan Horse, which causes Odysseus to weep for his misfortunes–Odysseus is described as a weeping like a woman being taken captive and pushed away from her home (which is just what he did to Hector’s Andromache!)Odysseus’ Great Adventures•Odysseus finally reveals his name and story to the Phaeacians and Books 9-12 are presented as his own narration of his adventures before he came to Phaeacia•Hence Odysseus takes on the role of Homer and tells the story; he perhaps embellishes to make it more impressive (this seems to be Odysseus’ habit)•He starts with his departure from Troy with his contingent of Ithacans•They soon get lost in a big storm and transported to a dream land of myth …Odysseus’ Great Adventures•They come to the land of the Lotus Eaters•Lotus is some drug that causes you to get so mellow that you never want to leave; you just want to linger and eat more lotus•It is thus a threat to identity and homecoming; it must be overcome for Odysseus to prove who he is; he orders his men back to the ships•Next they sail to the island of the Cyclopes, great one-eyed giants, and they begin to explore–Cyclops = singular; Cyclopes = plural–NOT the Cyclopes who first crafted the thunderbolt of Zeus in his battle with the Titans in HesiodOdysseus’ Great Adventures•Odysseus and 12 of his men find the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus•They linger to learn where they are and to benefit from xenia (greedy? or customary?)•Polyphemus responds by bashing two men’s brains in and eating their bodies raw•Yet a giant boulder, which Odysseus’ men cannot move, seals the cave, so they are trapped–The giant Cyclops has no problem moving it–He eats two more men for breakfast the next dayOdysseus’ Revenge on Polyphemus•In what becomes the defining adventure of the Odyssey, Odysseus forms his plan•Polyphemus leaves the cave to pasture his livestock, giving them the day to prepare•He and his men sharpen a