Introduction to The Odyssey

Homer, the Iliad & our literary focus

Homer

• Homer is credited with authorship the Iliad & Odyssey

• Lived circa. 800 BC

• Blind poet bard

• Composed in oral tradition

4 Functions of MythsAccording to Joseph Campbell

1. to instill a sense of awe toward the mystery of the universe

2. to explain the workings of the natural world

3. to support and validate social customs

4. to guide people through the trials of living

The Gods

• So Myth is an early attempt to explain things– form of History– an early stab in Science

• Gods are reflected in the world– they shape its destiny

• The Gods justify humanity by living it themselves– except that they are immortal– however they aren’t as glorious or noble because

they don’t suffer (not as meaningful).

The Gods

• Zeus: most powerful god

• Hera: Queen; goddess of marriage

• Poseidon: god of the sea

• Hades: god of the underworld

• Apollo: god of poetry, music, prophecy, medicine, archery

• Athena: goddess of wisdom and the art of war & peace

• Aphrodite: goddess of love

• Hermes: messenger god

The Start of the Trojan War

• Agamemnon & Menelaus, sons of Atreus, overthrow Thyestes, their uncle.

• The curse of the House of Tantalus, Pelops, & Arteus

• Agamemnon proves to be a great general and leader.

• He killed his cousin, the second Tantalus, and married his widow, Clytaemnestra.

• Clytaemnestra’s brothers come to rescue her (Agamemnon also killed her child) but Agamemnon appeals to her father and gets his approval for the wedding.

The Start of the Trojan War

• Menelaus wants to marry Helen, sister of Clytaemnestra and daughter of Leda

• Zeus appeared as a swan to Leda

• Helen is sought after and has even been abducted previously by Theseus

• King Tyndareus consults Odysseus on how to give Helen and Sparta to Menelaus without starting a war.

• Odysseus agrees to help for help in marrying Penelope. He proposes that all suitors swear an oath to accept a chosen husband and aid in protecting the marriage.

The Apple of Discord

• Eris, goddess of strife, starts the chain of events that leads to the abduction of Helen by Paris.

• Not invited to wedding of Peleus and sea goddess Thetis, she brings the apple: “For the Fairest.”

• Paris & Queen Hecabe’s dream• Zeus chooses him to act as judge. Was it because Paris

is a simple, carefree youth or because he has decided on the war?

• Paris competes in some games at Troy, winning them all easily and angering Priam’s other sons. But Paris’s identity is announced.

Preparing for the War

• Paris, obsessed with winning Helen, sails to Sparta under a false pretense and is greeted with hospitality appropriate for a prince of Troy.

• Menelaus sails to Crete and Aphrodite removes Helen’s powers of reason and self-restraint.

• Helen & Paris succumb to temptation and go off to Troy.

• Menelaus learns of the abduction and turns to Agamemnon for help.

Preparing for the War

• Agamemnon calls on the suitors of Helen to honor their oaths

• Odysseus pretends to be mad by yoking a donkey and sowing salt instead of seed.

• Achilles would have gladly gone to war and was a great warrior.

• Son of Peleus and Thetis.• Achilles was dressed in girl’s clothes after a warning

from Thetis, but Odysseus discovers his identity through a trick of his own.

Preparing for War

• Helen is “The face that launched 1000 ships”

• The curse of the House of Atreus manifests again with unfavorable winds

• Agamemnon summons his wife and daughter, Iphigenia.

• Clytaemnestra returns home plotting revenge

The War

• The war lasts 10 years

• Iliad = the story of Troy (Ilium)• Many warriors fought heroically

• Important themes or concepts• aristeia = excellence of spirit• timay = material compensation i.e.

wealth, women• kleos = glory

The War

• direct result of squabbling among the gods– Ares, Apollo, and Aphrodite sided with the

Trojans– Athena, Hera, and Poseidon favored the Greeks

• Zeus kept the war going for 10 years that is was destined to occur.

In the 10th Year

• Calchas, a sooth-sayer, requests his daughter Briseis to join him.

• Priam agrees and she finds her way to Achilles’ bed.• Chryses, a priest of Apollo, requests his daughter back

from Agamemnon.• Apollo sends disease until Agamemnon releases his

concubine.• Agamemnon demanded Briseis from Achilles as her

replacement.• Achilles obeyed but refused to keep fighting.

In the 10th year

• Greeks proposed a truce with Menelaus fighting Paris in single combat.

• Aphrodite wraps Paris in mist and returns him to Troy

• Hector challenges Achilles but fights Ajax instead. They fight for hours but stop at dark.

• The truce lasts long enough for the Greeks to bury their dead, but the Trojans attack soon after and all but defeat the Greeks.

• Achilles threatens to take his soldiers home.

In the 10th year

• The oracle’s prophesy of King Rhesus’s horses.• Odysseus kills the ally and steals the horses which

disheartens the Trojans.• Saves the Greeks from certain defeat in another

Trojan attack.• The battle surges back and forth until the Trojans

begin to set fire to the Greek ships.• Achilles relents and sends his friend Patroclus out

to battle in his place.

The Death of Patroclus

• Apollo strikes Patroclus and Hector kills him easily

• Achilles forgot his hurt pride and vows revenge

• Hector takes Achilles armor from Patroclus’s body.

The Death of Hector

• Achilles gets new armor from Thetis (forged by Vulcan) and attacks the Trojans who are driven back and afraid of Achilles wrath. All except Hector.

• Hector fights Achilles wearing the armor taken from Patroclus. Priam watches from the walls of Troy.

• Hector runs but turns to face Achilles who stabs him in the neck.

• Achilles drags Hector’s body around Troy three times.

The Death of Hector

• Achilles drags Hector’s body around Patroclus’s tomb three times a day.

• The gods take pity on Hector and Zeus sends Hermes to help Priam talk to Achilles.

• Achilles gives Priam Hector’s body for its weight in gold.

The Death of Achilles

• It seemed that Achilles would win the war for the Greeks, but he was struck in the ankle by an arrow.

• Paris kills Achilles with a second arrow through the heart, with the assistance of Apollo.

• Thetis & the river Styx.• Thetis comes to mourn; Ajax kills himself after

competing for the armor.

The Fall of Troy

• Three prophesies must be fulfilled– Fetch Achilles’ son, Neoptolemus, to the war

– Philocretes must use his bow in the fighting (kills Paris)

– Palladium must be stolen from Troy (disguised as a beggar)

• Crafty Odysseus makes these conditions happen.• Odysseus then devises the plan of the Wooden

Horse.

The Wooden Horse

• Gift for the theft of the statue of Pallas• Cassandra and Apollo• Laocoon urges the same warning.• “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” or gifts bearing Greeks.• Helen nearly ruins the plan.• They climb out of the horse, slaughter the Trojans in their

sleep, set fire to Troy, and take the women home as slaves.• Agamemnon takes Cassandra as spoils of war, and

Menelaus retakes Helen as his wife.

The Odyssey

• Odysseus begins his long journey home.

• Odyssey is defined as a long journey with many changes of fortune

• The word “Odyssey” has entered our language both in defining the novel & our lives

• The Iliad and Odyssey make up Western literature’s first Action-Adventure story.

• The Odyssey is an epic poem.

Characteristics of an epic

1. a physically impressive hero of national or historical importance

2. a vast setting involving much of the known physical world and sometimes the land of the dead as well

3. action such as a quest or journey taken in search of something of value

4. evidence of supernatural forces at work5. glorification of the hero at the end6. a rootedness in a specific culture and

society

An allegory of all of our lives• a series of tests that he has to pass in order to return

home = crises we encounter over our lives• Odysseus is invited to forget home in each tale… i.e. to

forget living, to die– he learns that life, for all of its crises, is worth living

• Life is filled with lousy choices– Scylla and Charybdis– Survival comes at a price

• Homecoming archetype (eternal theme)– Embracing home… embracing life and death.

Mother earth.• Fate vs. Freewill

– When we finally arrive; we die. But to be able to say, I have lived a life. I had a great journey.

Important Themes

• hubris = arrogance, a fatal flaw– squabbling among the gods

• Athena represents reason & civilization• Poseidon represents emotion and forces

of nature

• Guest/Host relationship & Law of Hospitality

• Xenia = hospitality