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The Odyssey for Latin Students.
The Odyssey is the story of a single man, Odysseus, and his journey home after the Trojan
War.
Many modern readers find it jarring to realize that the Iliad does not end with the fall
of Troy.
The Iliad and the Odyssey, as I've said before, were part of a larger tradition called the
Epic Cycle which narrated mythological events that happened both before and after the Trojan
War.
There were in fact several epic poems in between the Iliad and the Odyssey of which we have
only summaries.
Other literary works from Greece and Rome help to fill in some additional blanks of
the mythology.
Scholars continue to debate why only the Iliad and the Odyssey survive of the epic cycle.
Some say that the other epics were composed later, although this is unlikely if we believe
the evidence that supports a more fluid oral tradition of early composition.
Other scholars say the distinction occurs later during the written phase of the epic
tradition.
What eventually became the Iliad and the Odyssey as we know them today were committed to writing
earlier than the other epics.
If the other epics were committed to writing later, it makes sense that they were less
preferred.
It is a common pattern in ancient literature and its modern reception that things written
first were considered the best and later writings were considered inferior.
Think of it like movie remakes or sequels.
Some are just not as good as the original.
As far as we can tell the Iliad and the Odyssey were significantly longer works, another reason
they could have been preferred as originals.
The major theme of the Odyssey is that of nostos or homecoming.
Odysseus was not the only Greek to undergo a famous nostos.
Many of the Greek generals had a homecoming with varying levels of success.
Agamemnon, for instance, was killed by his wife, Clytemnestra shortly after returning.
His death was revenge for the sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia, whom he sacrificed
in order to sail to Troy in the first place.
On the other hand, his brother, Menelaus had a successful nostos.
After Helen persuaded him not to kill her in the Sack of Troy, they returned to Sparta
and wedded bliss.
Odysseus's nostos was more complicated.
Unlike the other Greeks who returned home in a reasonable time frame.
Odysseus wandered for an additional ten years.
The epic begins in the middle of his story, with Odysseus stranded on the island of Ogygia
with the beautiful nymph Calypso.
He has in fact spent seven years with her, and while it was fun at first, Odysseus begins
to his wife Penelope and his home Ithaca.
Luckily for Odysseus, the goddess Athena is looking after him.
She has Zeus send Hermes to Calypso.
Hermes forces Calypso to let Odysseus go and Odysseus sets sail on a raft.
Meanwhile, things are not well back in Ithaca.
Penelope, Odysseus's wife has been left relatively unprotected for the last twenty
years.
While the war at Troy raged on, she was left unbothered because everyone still believed
that Odysseus would return.
However, with the war over and most of the other Greek heroes returned, many begin to
believe that Odysseus has died.
Penelope is therefore in possession of all Odysseus's fortunes and becomes highly sought
after by over 100 young men who desire her money and power.
Penelope and Odysseus have a young son, Telemachus, who was born shortly after Odysseus sailed
for Troy.
He is about 20 years old and quickly becoming a threat to the suitors who wish to marry
Penelope.
The suitors camp out in Odysseus's home, drinking and feasting while they wait for
Penelope to choose one of them.
She has put them off for several years, claiming that she cannot remarry until she has finished
weaving the funeral shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes.
She weaves during the day and at night when everyone is asleep she undoes her weaving,
stretching out the project for years.
Odysseus is not the only one with a goddess looking after him.
Athena also goes to aid Telemachus, his son, who knows that the only thing that can save
his mother and his own inheritance, is the return of his father.
Athena disguises herself a family friend, called Mentor—yes this is where the word
"mentor" comes from—and helps Telemachus go visit some of his father's allies to
find out what happened to him.
First, he visits Nestor, king of Pylos, who was the oldest and wisest of the Greeks at
Troy.
Nestor's son Peisistratus accompanies Telemachus to Sparta where they meet Menelaus and Helen.
The two recount their adventures home, including a run-in with the sea god Proteus.
According to legend if you wrestle Proteus and win, he must answer your questions.
From Proteus, Menelaus learned that Odysseus had been held captive by Calypso.
Back in Ithaca, the suitors have just discovered Telemachus's journey.
Realizing he is a threat, they plot to capture and kill him when he returns.
Back on Odysseus's raft, the god of the sea, Poseidon, discovers his escape from Calypso
and shipwrecks him in an act of revenge.
More on that in a moment.
Odysseus eventually swims to shore and is discovered by Nausicaa, princess of the Phaeacians.
She brings him back to her family's palace where he recounts his journey.
The first of the major episodes is his encounter with the Lotus Eaters.
A tribe located somewhere in North Africa who eat a hallucinogenic fruit that almost
makes Odysseus's men forget about their return home.
From there they sailed to Sicily where the Cyclopes live.
They entered the cave of Polyphemus, who sealed them in with a giant boulder.
Each night he ate another of Odysseus's men as Odysseus's plotted their escape.
He cleverly told Polyphemus that he name was "Nobody."
Then one night, he sharpened a stick in the fire and tricked Polyphemus into leaning close
enough for him to stab him through the eye.
Blinded, Polyphemus stumbled outside of his cave.
The other Cyclopes asked him who did it.
Polyphemus replied "Nobody did it."
The laughed at him and left him to his pain.
Polyphemus returned to the cave but could not find Odysseus.
Odysseus had strapped himself beneath the belly of one of Polyphemus's sheep.
Unable to see him, Polyphemus unwittingly let Odysseus escape when he sent his sheep
out to graze the next morning.
Polyphemus eventually realized he's been tricked and rallied the other Cyclopes to
throw rocks at Odysseus's ships as they sailed away.
Unable to help himself, Odysseus taunted Polyphemus as they escaped revealing his true identity.
Polyphemus, who is a son of Poseidon, used this information to curse Odysseus.
From that moment on Poseidon was out to avenge his blinded son.
Odysseus would wander for ten years, lose all of his men, and return home only with
the help of others.
From Sicily, Odysseus visited Aeolus, the god of winds.
Their stay was pleasant and Aeolus gifted him with the bag of winds.
They made it almost all the way home, but Odysseus's men were curious about the bag.
While he was asleep, they opened the bag thinking it contained gold.
Instead of receiving treasure, they were blown wildly off course all the way back to Aeolus.
Aeolus refused to help them a second time since they were so foolish, so Odysseus set
sail again.
Next they encountered the Laistrygonians, cannibals who destroyed all but one of Odysseus's
ships.
With one ship left, he escaped only to encounter the witch, Circe, who turned all of his men
into pigs.
But Odysseus was protected by Hermes, who gave him a magical plant called moly.
Odysseus forced Circe to return his men to human form.
They stayed with Circe for a year before setting sail again.
They do not make it far before realizing they are haunted by the spirit of one of his crewmen
who was drinking on Circe's roof and fell to his death, unnoticed by the others.
The crewman, Elpenor, makes Odysseus promise to go back, find his body, and bury it.
Odysseus also communicates with several other dead people, including the seer Tiresias,
who told him how to appease Poseidon, his mother, who died of grief during his absence,
Agamemnon, who warned him to be careful returning home after he was killed by his own wife,
and even Achilles.
From Agamemnon, he also learned about the suitors who are plaguing his wife, Penelope.
Odysseus eventually returned to Circe's island to bury Elpenor and she advised him
on the final stages of his journey.
As he set sail again he encountered the Sirens, mythical bird women who sing so sweetly they
lure wayward sailors into their cliffs and to their death.
Odysseus has his men tie him to the mast of his ship while they wore beeswax in their
ears so he can hear their song as they sail past.
They also encounter the sea monsters, Scylla and Charibdys.
Charibdys, the whirlpool, they avoided, forcing them to encounter instead Scylla.
Scylla was a six-headed monster with a serpent's tail and dogs for feet.
She snatched six men off Odysseus's ship as they sailed past.
Finally they land on the island of Thrinacia, where they hunted the sacred cattle of the
sun god Helios because they were short on food.
Enraged, Helios demanded that Zeus punish them for the sacrilege.
Zeus shipwrecked Odysseus.
All of his men drown and Odysseus washes ashore on Calypso's island.
His story told, the Phaeacians help Odysseus return to Ithaca.
Wary of the situation at home due to Agamemnon's warnings, Odysseus has Athena disguise him
as a beggar.
Meanwhile Telemachus has also returned home.
He manages to escape the trap laid by the suitors and discovers his father, who reveals
his identity to him.
They hatch a plot of deal with the suitors.
Telemachus returns home, followed shortly by Odysseus.
Odysseus still in disguise tests his wife to see if she is still loyal.
The next day, Penelope announces that she will finally choose a suitor but only if they
can win an archery competition.
They must use Odysseus' bow, a massive thing that is difficult to string, and shoot an
arrow through the holes of a dozen axe heads.
Odysseus the beggar wins the competition and reveals himself.
With the help of Telemachus and some other allies, they then slaughter all of the suitors.
At last, order is restored and Ithaca is at peace.
The story of nostos is paralleled in the first half of the Aeneid.
Aeneas wanders for many years trying to find a new home, rather than to return to one.
He encounters several of the same monsters as Odysseus and finds himself relating his
trials and travels to an audience of admiring foreigners.
Like Odysseus, Aeneas is also suffering the avenging wrath of a god.
In many ways Odysseus is different from Aeneas.
Odysseus is clever but also prideful.
Many of his failures are of his own making.
Aeneas is not without his flaws, but he is idealized for the Roman audience.
He is better than the Greeks because the Romans believed they were better than the Greeks.
Vergil establishes clear connections with the Odyssey and the epic tradition, but the
Aeneid is more serious than the Odyssey in a way that is uniquely Roman.
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