Plot
You can read my Book-by-Book summary of the Odyssey using this link.
The Odyssey narrates the perilous return journey of Odysseus, a warrior who we saw briefly throughout the Iliad, after the Fall of Troy. He encounters the wrath and trickery of both mortals and gods on his journey, but his quick wit enables him to get out of every sticky situation somehow. He manages to find his way back to Ithaca eventually─but even there, his troubles are not over yet.
After killing the Suitors (about whom we shall talk later!), we are left with a situation in which the two sides (Odysseus, Penelope, Telemachus etc. and the angered parents of the Suitors) are about to have a civil war. Athene, who, up until this point, had been egging on the various wars and skirmishes throughout, now asks Zeus if he really intends to let this happen (which is in itself contradictory). Zeus agrees that this would not be the ideal ending to Odysseus’ woes, and casts an amnesic condition over everyone, making them forget that there was ever the notion of a civil war at all. This ending has been criticised by many scholars─even Aristotle─as unsatisfactory. It also raises the question of Odysseus’ morality: so intent on revenge, he has mercilessly killed around a hundred young men. Some of these men, scholars understandably argue, had no personal grudge against Odysseus, but were simply there because he had a beautiful wife that they were sure was a widow, and had done for twenty years. Did Odysseus take his thirst for vengeance too far, robbing a hundred men and women of their sons for no truly “good” reason?
Composition
“All men honour and respect bards, for the Muse has taught them songs and she loves the minstrel fraternity.” ─Odyssey, Book 8, 480 (Rieu)
For four Books of the Odyssey, Odysseus acts as the bard himself. In fact, his stories resonate so well with his audiences that he is frequently praised for his story-telling abilities. In Book 11, Alcinous describes Odysseus as having “all the artistry of a bard”. In Book 17, while remembering a song he once heard Odysseus perform, Eumaeus the swineherd claims that “with the tales he can tell, the man would hold you spellbound. It was like fixing one’s eyes on a minstrel who has been taught by the gods to sing words that bring delight to mortals.”
But Odysseus is not the only bard in the epic. Homer himself aside (you can read more about the origins of the epics themselves in my analysis of the Iliad), there are two other minstrels prominent in the Odyssey: Phemius and Demodocus. The songs of both these bards provide the necessary background knowledge to show how the characters got to where they are. In Book 1, Phemius is singing about the return of the Achaeans from Troy. He is not seen again until Book 22, where he pleads for his life while Odysseus is disposing of the Suitors. He claims that he never supported the Suitors and only played for them because they made him; Telemachus verifies this. Odysseus agrees to spare him so long as he will play wedding songs “as loud as his lyre can play” in order to drown out the sounds of the dying Suitors. Demodocus is last seen sitting at the altar of Zeus; after all, as he told Odysseus, he sings “for gods and mortals.”
Demodocus is the second more prominent bard in the epic. He sings three songs throughout the Odyssey, the first and third of which cause Odysseus to cry. Demodocus is blind, and the descriptions of him, together with some statues depicting Homer with this condition, have led many scholars to believe that Homer himself was blind.
Language and Structure
As with the Iliad, the Odyssey’s structure is a highly debatable topic. There have been many different theories over which structure Homer actually had in mind when writing the Odyssey. One, termed the Chronological Sequence structure, tells the story as it would literally have been from beginning to end, starting with the marriage of Odysseus’ parents and ending with peace restored in Ithaca. This would make the epic extremely mis-matched: the story of Laertes’ and Anticleia’s marriage isn’t told until Book 11; Eurycleia is bought as a slave in Book 1; Odysseus is born in Book 19; Odysseus goes on a boar hunt, also in Book 19; he gets a dog in Book 17, before he was born… and so on. Clearly, Homer is not trying to narrate Odysseus’ life in chronological order.
Flashback is a device that Homer uses most obviously in Books 9 through 12 of the Odyssey. This is where Odysseus is recounting his adventures to Alcinous and the rest of the Phaeacians. Homer decided to use flashback now for many reasons: it divides the more fantastical elements of the epic from the real-life parts; it allows Odysseus to present his character, especially his heroism and fighting skills when he overpowers the Cicones and makes off with their possessions; it serves as his payment for the xenia (hospitality) he received from the Phaeacians; and it provides an interesting question for scholars studying the narrative in more depth: can we really believe everything that “quick-witted,” “cunning” and─as an epithet once described him─“lying” Odysseus is telling us?
Epithets, stock scenes and stock phrases
Formulae, or stock scenes/phrases, are particular phrases which Homer repeats throughout the narrative, initially used to help whichever bard who was orally reciting the poem to remember certain scenes. Some more notable stock phrases include “rosy-fingered dawn,” “the wine-dark sea,” and “Athene sealed his eyes in sleep.” Stock scenes could include retiring to bed at night, or bathing and eating at a feast. Some epithets include “wise Penelope,” “quick-witted Odysseus,” “Odysseus, man of many twists and turns,” “earth-shaking Poseidon” and “shining-eyed Athene.”
Speeches and dialogue
Around 8000 of the 12000 lines of the Odyssey are dialogue. Aristotle applauded Homer for this, claiming that it was always better for the character to talk for themselves. But this wouldn’t have been the only thing that Homer had in mind; a character’s speech was an important part of their role in the story. It enabled them to show their skills in storytelling, persuasion and even manipulation, in the cases of many Homeric characters. It can be used to invoke irony, especially when the reader knows that the character in question is lying, but their audience doesn’t. Speech creates atmosphere that can be hard to get across when writing descriptions; the speaker could be shouting, whispering, talking for a long time or in short sentences. It conveys emotion; the character could be speaking worriedly, confidently, or any other number of ways.
For Odysseus especially, these reasons come across well. His speeches show his ability to make up a convincing lie; to convey his firm belief that the laws of Zeus and the other gods must be adhered to; to elucidate his desire for kleos (glory) and timē (honour); and they also allow the reader to appreciate his skills in manipulation and word-twisting.
Similes
Homer uses so many beautiful similes in his works that he is more than deserving of the title given to them specifically: epic, or Homeric, similes. One of his more famous similes in the Odyssey is used when Penelope finally recognises Odysseus: Homer describes that moment as “when blissful land is seen by struggling sailors” after they’ve been shipwrecked. My personal favourite can be found in Book 5: “Pieces of skin stripped from his sturdy hands were left sticking to the crag, like the pebbles that stick to the suckers of a squid when it is torn from its lair.” Another favourite of mine was used in Book 24 when Hermes led the “squeaking” Suitors’ souls to Hades’ Underworld: “They obeyed his summons, squeaking as bats squeak when they flutter around after one of them falls from the cluster in which they hang upside down from the rocky roof in the depth of some mysterious cave. With such squeaking the ghosts journeyed on together…”
Role of the Gods
After the proem, the Odyssey opens with an assembly of the gods. In almost the first sentence of his speech, Zeus passionately cries out against humans blaming the gods for everything, with the words: “What a lamentable thing it is that men should blame the gods and regard us as the source of their troubles.” Athene, who knows perfectly how to manipulate her doting father, manages straight away to convince him to help Odysseus.
It is made perfectly clear throughout the poem that Odysseus’ nostos was only fulfilled because of his unique relationship with the gods. Not all nostoi succeed, and not all lives make good stories; when Odysseus visits the Underworld, we see a vast number of dead fellow soldiers, such as Agamemnon or Achilles, whose nostoi went unfinished. From the beginning, Odysseus had a special connection with the gods, particularly with Athene.
Themes
The Homeric hero
The characteristics of a Homeric hero are still widely debated, but it has been generally agreed upon that such a hero must have the following qualities:
A noble birth
A noble birth is vital for any kind of heroic status in later life. In both Homeric epics, heroes are often referred to by their patronymic: the name of a noble father given with the name of the character, i.e. “Odysseus, son of Laertes” or “Agamemnon, son of Atreus.”
Relationships with immortals
While it may be considered nowadays that having a god help you in battle was a sign of your own weakness, this was not the case in Ancient Greece. Divinities would only help mortals if they saw an adequate amount of positive qualities in them. If you had an immortal on your side, your kleos and timē would automatically increase due to this honour.
Kleos
One thing that defines a Homeric hero is how famous he is, or effectively, how much people talk about him. Heroes in both the Iliad and the Odyssey have been known to choose short lives in fame over long lives in obscurity. Achilles chose the former in the first epic, and Odysseus did the same in the Odyssey when he chose to take the perilous journey home to Ithaca over staying on Ogygia with Calypso, even when she promised him immortality.
Physical attractiveness
Strength and beauty are also two necessary factors in the makeup of a hero. Odysseus is described as having broad shoulders, curly black hair and strong arms and legs. When a “non-hero” looked at someone with such physical appearance would instantly be aware that they were in the presence of a great hero.
Excellence in war
A warrior’s battle feats would build up his kleos, thus resulting in great respect and admiration amongst the other soldiers. Odysseus achieved a great deal of kleos and timē during the Trojan War, achievements which he can use to his advantage in this dangerous journey home.
Skills in rhetoric
As we’ve already seen, Odysseus held great excellence with words, managing to manipulate and persuade people to his advantage through crafty speech.
Resourcefulness
Resourcefulness and quick wit are another feature of the Homeric hero. Indeed, Odysseus’ main epithets are “resourceful Odysseus” and “quick-witted Odysseus.”
Timē
Timē and kleos were both important qualities in a Homeric hero. Paired somewhat with Excellence in War and Kleos, timē ensures fame and respect among other warriors, a necessary quality to be a Homeric hero.
Nostos
Though nostos is not a crucial characteristic of every Homeric hero, it certainly was with Odysseus. In Book 1, Athene famously comments that Odysseus would like nothing better than to see smoke coming from his chimney in Ithaca. His determination to reach home is seen in resilience throughout the perilous journey home he relentlessly undertakes.
Indeed, in the very first and fifth lines of the Odyssey, Homer provides us with the whole subject of his epic: nostos, or homecoming, and andra, or man. As E. Barker and J. Christensen put it in their guide to reading Homer, “in many ways, the Odyssey is everything that the Iliad is not. Where the Iliad is about the war, the Odyssey is about the return home. Where the Iliad resolutely fixes on a handful of days (in a ten-year conflict) and a narrow strip of land … the Odyssey ranges over decades … and over both known and unknown lands.”
When reading the Odyssey, it’s difficult to miss the sense of belatedness in relation to the Trojan War that it provides. There is a lot of “catching up” amongst characters; Telemachus visits Nestor, Helen and Menelaus, and Odysseus’ journey to the Underworld allows him to question the warriors that died as long as fifteen years beforehand. The plot is much less chronologically ordered than the Iliad, as we saw when we tried to put the events of the epic into time perspective. This is because of all the story-telling Odysseus does while narrating the events of his desperate nostos.
Xenia
Who abides by the laws of xenia, or hospitality, and who doesn’t are primarily divided into two categories: aristos (the best man), agathos (a good man) and kakos (a bad man). Xenia was the nationally acknowledged concept that when a stranger or beggar comes to your home, you should feed him, bathe him and clothe him before asking who is and what his business is. Then, ideally, you would prepare him a room and put him up for the night.
Although Odysseus is typically classed as an agathos, if not an aristos, there was one glaring time in his epic when he completely disregarded the rules of xenia. This was when he invited himself and his comrades into Polyphemus’ cave and ate his food without his permission. Although eating some of the men was perhaps a little extreme, scholars have argued that the Cyclops was perfectly within his right to be hostile towards the Achaeans after this disgrace on their part.
Women
There are many different Greek words for “woman”, but all of them correspond to marriage, her husband or lack thereof, or her (im)mortality. The word most closely meaning simply “woman” is gune, but this can also mean “wife” or “mortal woman.” Other translations include kore, meaning “girl” or “bride,” and parthenos, meaning “virgin” or “unmarried woman.”
Some scholars argue that women’s role in the Odyssey was simply to delay the nostos of whichever men were concerned (usually, of course, this would be Odysseus). Professor Barbara Graziosi is an example of one such scholar. She argued that even Penelope served as a hindrance to Odysseus: the ever-nagging question of “Was Penelope faithful?” is always the main concern in the front of both Odysseus’ mind and that of the readers. He actually avoids certain elements of his return journey which may have proven helpful to him in order to reach Penelope sooner. Though Homer seems to make it clear that she has been faithful to Odysseus all those long twenty years, Graziosi has suggested that she received a guilty pleasure in having the Suitors congregate at her house. Graziosi supports her claim by referring to the scene in which Penelope asks her disguised husband to interpret a dream she had: one of her happily feeding many beautiful white sheep, and then having them taken away by a passing bird of a prey, leaving her in tears. To this, Odysseus knowingly replies that her husband is to return soon.
Scholars have generally agreed that women in Homer, though especially in the Odyssey, use clothing as a symbol of their relationship with a man. For example, when Odysseus is dressed as a beggar and is trying to prove to Penelope that he once knew her husband, the first question she asks him is “What did he wear?” Pretending that he can’t quite recall, Odysseus actually gives a very detailed account of the purple cloak he wore, with its elaborate brooch and fabric as shiny and smooth “as an onion skin.” Penelope is now convinced that the beggar in front of her did know Odysseus, for she made him that cloak himself.
Women making men clothes to establish a connection between them is seen in many other cases as well. For instance, Calypso makes Odysseus a set of clothing when he leaves her island, only for him to switch them to the veil Ino provides him with. When he washes up on the island of the Phaeacians, Nausicaa gives him clothes, which her father Alcinous recognises as belonging to his people. Later, Arete, Nausicaa’s mother, bathes him and provides him with even newer clothes.
Disguise and recognition
Disguise is a common feature used throughout both the epics. The most notable example in the Iliad is when Patroclus disguises himself as Achilles, which ultimately results in his death. In the Odyssey, of course, the best example is when Odysseus is disguised as the old beggar after his return to Ithaca.
Usually, leading up to the recognition of a disguised person, there is a series of signs or omens, such as bird sightings. Alternatively, there are scenes of “almost recognition”, such as when Argus the dog seems to recognize Odysseus, or when Penelope comments on the likeness between Odysseus and him in disguise.
Reception
The Iliad and the Odyssey have often been described as the two most influential works in the history of literature. Quotes from people as early as Heraclitus and Xenophanes can help give this impression.
From the very earliest infancy young children are nursed in their learning by Homer, and swaddled in his verses we water our souls with them as though they were nourishing milk. ─Heraclitus
Homer and Hesiod are the sources from which everyone learns from the start. ─Xenophanes
What manner of road is this? Zealous imitation of the great prose writers and poets of the past. […] Was Herodotus alone Homeric in the highest degree? No, there was Stesichorus at a still earlier date and Archilochus too, and above all others Plato, who drew off for his own use ten thousand streams from the great Homeric spring. ─Longinus
Homer has become such a foundation of writing and reading that there have been many other interpretations of his text and “sequels”, usually told from the perspective of a somewhat overlooked character in either of the two epics, written by modern-day authors. Perhaps the most obvious example is Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad, a story documenting the life of Odysseus’ wife Penelope.
Characterisation: Odysseus
In the very first line of the Odyssey we come across the Greek word for “man”: andra. This word can mean either “the man,” “a man” or simply “man” as in “mankind” as a whole. There were alternatives that the poet could have used to specify which translation of the word he meant, but by picking this more ambiguous word to describe Odysseus he has left it to interpretation as to whether he is talking about the sufferings of just one man, or of mankind in its entirety, as though the character of Odysseus is really a representation of the woes of everyone.
Indeed, throughout the whole proem, we aren’t given the name of Odysseus. He is simply referred to as “(a/the) man” throughout. However, we do get one more clue to piece together Odysseus’ identity: he is paired with the adjective “polutropon”, or “of many turns.” Thus the character is described as “man of many turns”─either metaphorical or psychological turns, or the turns of his physical journey after the Trojan War.
Although Odysseus is named only shortly after the proem’s conclusion, Homer often compares him to different people or animals throughout the epic. He is referred to as a lion, an octopus, a bat, a sheep and many more wild animals over the course of the Odyssey: indeed, in some cases he is pretending to actually be these animals or people. Of course the most notable of these instances is when, before blinding Polyphemus the Cyclops, he tells Polyphemus that his name is Nobody. When the Cyclops is blinded, he cries out for help from his friends, who ask who is hurting him. He replies that “Nobody is the source of my pain”, and they return to their caves and inadvertently leave him to die.
Characterisation: Eumaeus
Eumaeus, Odysseus’ swineherd, is the only character that Homer addresses directly (as in “and you, Eumaeus, greeted him…” etc) which perhaps shows that the poet had a special liking for the character. His epithets include “the worthy swineherd” and “the master swineherd.” Before he recognises Odysseus, he praises his former master to the beggar that is Odysseus disguised, and is proud that he is in that man’s employment, something he makes clear throughout. Some scholars say he is a representation, or embodiment, of good and loyalty.
Characterisation: Eurycleia
Eurycleia, Odysseus’ nurse, is the female equivalent of Eumaeus. She raised Odysseus, has hope for his return and is the one who recognises him first without having to be prompted. Her epithets include “faithful,” “good” and “devoted” Eurycleia.
Family
Not only are mortal family relations, such as those between Penelope and Odysseus, important, but those between the immortals are fully explored in the Odyssey too. Perhaps the most notable of these relations belongs to Athene and Zeus, the typical father-daughter pair. Athene knows exactly how to talk to her father in order to get what she wants, and Zeus always complies. Throughout both Homeric epics, Zeus seems to favour Athene out of his many sons and daughters. These relationships always influence the decisions of the gods: had Athene not convinced her father in Book 1 to save Odysseus, Odysseus might never have returned, Penelope might have married a Suitor and Telemachus would never be able to prove his glory and courage in his quest to find his father.
Slaves
If there is one character in the entirety of the Odyssey that displays unconditional respect, sensibility and responsibility throughout, it’s the swineherd Eumaeus. He has an unrelentless and absolute sense of respect for not only his master but for Zeus and the other Olympians, the laws of xenia and justice.
Conclusion
Reading a book this old and yet of such amazing standard is a wonderful experience. The character development─or deliberate lack thereof in the unconditional love of characters such as Eumaeus─is a technique that we tend to think of as more “modern,” but such devices can be seen in the works of authors as ancient as Homer! He uses language like no other writer, flamboyant in places, concise in others, and always finding the perfect balance between the two to produce the desired effect. For someone who found the Iliad a little dull in places, the Odyssey served as a beautiful opposite to that former epic. It’s exciting, it’s beautiful, it’s even funny. I’m really pleased that I pushed past my doubts after reading the Iliad and picked up the Odyssey anyway, because it was certainly worth the read.
