Troy: The Returns
Odysseus And His
Journey Home
The Heroes’ Homecoming
Perhaps it was because of the
violence of the destruction of
Troy (with such acts as the
violation of sanctuaries of the
gods), or perhaps it was
inevitable after such a long
mission, but many of the heroes
had unfortunate returns.
Ajax the Lesser, who had raped
Cassandra in Athena’s temple,
was shipwrecked in a storm.
Clinging to a rock, he boasted
that not even the gods’a anger
could destroy him. Poseidon
smacked him down.
Agamamnon was murdered
by his wife the day he came
home.
Menelaus was shipwrecked in
Egypt for 7 years before he
finally returned.
Two other heroes, Diomedes
and Idomeneus, found
adulterous wives and
unwelcoming kingdoms when
they returned.
Neoptolemus was murdered
shortly after his return – in
some accounts, by Orestes.
Odysseus took ten years to
return.
The Odyssey
Odysseus took ten years to return home. The story of his return,
the Odyssey, is Homer’s other epic, second only to the Iliad in its
place in Greek literature. Like the Iliad, the Odyssey covers a very
short period of time: about 40 days. But within the story,
Odysseus tells of his 10 years of travel.
Muse, tell me of
the man of many
wiles, who
wandered many
paths of exile after
he sacked Troy’s
sacred citadel. He
saw the cities,
mapped the minds,
of many . . .
The Odyssey
. . . and on the sea, his spirit
suffered every adversity, to
keep his life intact, and to
bring his comrades back. In
that last task, his will was firm
and fast, and yet he failed: he
could not save his comrades.
Fools, they foiled themselves:
they ate the oxen of the sun,
the herd of Helios Hyperion.
The lord of light requited
their transgression – he took
away their day of return.
The Odyssey
Central Themes
•Odysseus is intelligent and so
are his wife, son and favored
servants. Intelligence and
cleverness are key themes.
•Family is another key issue –
and the shared characteristics
that make a family loyal and
faithful.
•Identity is also central – what
makes you who you are? Your
heroic deeds (as in the Iliad)?
Your home and friends? Your
innate abilities? What do you
lose when you lose these things?
The Odyssey
The Odyssey tells of Odysseus’
eventual homecoming to the small
island of Ithaca, his humble but
beloved kingdom.
For the past 20 years – 10 years of
war and 10 years of wandering – his
wife Penelope has been alone,
raising their son Telemachus.
Unlike many other wives, she has
been faithful – but now she is
surrounded by suitors who are
pressuring her to marry and give
the island a new king. Can she
continue to hold them off?
Telemachus
Penelope hangs on the only way
she can – by exploiting her
feminine “weaknesses” to put off
the suitors anddelay until help
arrives.
Telemachus decides to take matters
into his own hands and sail off in
search of his father. Athena,
disguised as a family advisor,
Mentor, comes along on the trip.
They barely escape an ambush by
the 108 disgruntled suitors, who
feel Telemachus is standing in the
way of their success with Penelope.
Telemachus sails first to visit
Nestor at Pylos – one of the
few Greeks who returned
home without mishap.
Then he visits Menelaus and
Helen, where the happy
couple continue to prosper.
But he hears no news of his
father.
All the same, by his
relationship with Athena,
and by his intelligent pursuit
of information, Telemachus
has shown that he is a
worthy son of the clever
Odysseus.
Calypso
Odysseus was trapped. For seven
years, he had been on the island
of Calypso (“Hidden”), a
beautiful nymph who loved him.
But he was ready to go home –
even rejecting immortality at
Calypso’s side to go back to his
mortal wife and family.
At Athena’s instigation, the gods
decide to let him go. Calypso
reluctantly agrees. Odysseus sets
off on a raft – only to be
shipwrecked by Poseidon. He is
washed ashore, naked and
exhausted, on the magical island
of Phaeacia.
Nausicaa & Phaeacia
Covering himself up with a
branch, Odysseus approaches
the first person he sees – a
young princess named
Nausicaa. Cleverly, she
arranges some clothing for
him and gives him
instructions about getting to
the palace, since it would look
bad for them to come
together.
Odysseus is kindly received as
a “guest-friend” (xenos) at
the palace, and while there, he
tells the story of his ten years
of wandering after he left
Troy.
The Odyssey
Like many others, Odysseus had bad
luck right out of Troy.
He stopped at the land of the Lotuseaters, where his men were
sidetracked by the opium-like effects
of the lotus. He barely managed to
drag them away.
Next he sailed to the land of the
Cyclopes. With an eye to profit, he
went out exploring, to see if he could
find a local xenos and get a good
guest-gift.
Unfortunately, the local he met was
Polyphemus, a monstrous Cyclops.
The Cyclops
Instead of kindly hosting
Odysseus and his men,
Polyphemus locked them
in his cave and began to
eat them, one by one.
Odysseus had a plan. He
gave Polyphemus some
wine, which the ignorant
shepherd had never had
before. Polyphemus,
getting drunk, asked
Odysseus his name.
Odysseus said “No one”
(which, in Greek, is Metis).
When Polyphemus fell asleep,
drunk, Odysseus and his men
heated up a stake and drove it
through his eye, blinding him.
The Cyclops
Polyphemus wailed and
moaned, but when the other
Cyclopes came to ask who
was hurting him, he shouted,
“No one! No one is hurting
me!” So the others went
away.
Odysseus shows his cleverness
(metis) in this exchange –
along with a great pun! On
the other hand, he flirts with
loss of identity, the big
danger for him on his long
journey home.
The Cyclops
What is this man doing with this sheep?
Escaping from the Cyclops’ cave. Polyphemus had to roll away the
huge rock he used for a door, to let his sheep out, so Odysseus tied
his remaining men under the sheep and held on to one himself.
The Cyclops
Alternative traditions,
however (though not
from within the Greek
world), suggest that the
“hiding under a sheep
trick” was not Odysseus’
first choice.
The Cyclops
The Greeks rushed to their ships and
started to sail away, with the Cyclops
chasing blindly after them. When
they had rowed out a little way,
Odysseus shouted out, “I, Odysseus,
am the one who blinded you!”
His heroic boast & claim of identity
almost caused disaster, because the
Cyclopes almost sank the boat by
throwing stones toward the sound of
his voice.
But disaster still followed, because
Polyphemus was Poseidon’s son. He
prayed to his father for revenge, and
Posedon’s ill will haunted Odysseus.
Aeolus
Soon the Greeks visited
Aeolus, king of the winds.
He tied all of the winds into
a bag except the one that
would steer Odysseus home.
But when they were in sight
of Ithaca, Odysseus’ men,
thinking the bag was full of
gold, opened it while
Odysseus slept. The winds
came out and blew them
back to Aeolus.
He refused to help them
again and sent them away as
cursed.
The Laestrygonians
Poseidon’s ill-will was quickly felt. They stopped briefly among the
Laestrygonians, unfriendly giants who killed most of Odysseus’ men
and ate them. Of twelve ships, only one escaped.
Circe
Next they stopped at another small island, called Aiaia. There
Odysseus stayed by the ship while some of his men explored. Later,
one of them
returned
alone. He said
they had met a
beautiful
woman, Circe,
who was
singing alone
in her house in
the middle of
the woods.
She invited
them in . . .
Circe
She gave them a nice meal and a very special drink, after which the
men all turned into pigs – and joined the other animals they had
noticed hanging around her yard acting very tame.
Circe
Odysseus had to help his men, but how? With the help of Hermes,
he found a special plant, moly, that made him immune to spells.
They he visited Circe and received her hospitality. When she tried to
turn him into a pig, he threatened her with a sword. She instantly
recognized him as Odysseus – she had known that he would come.
The Underworld
Circe and Odysseus got along very well – too well. A year later his
men had to remind him they were on their way home. Circe let
him go, helpfully
sending him to
the Underworld,
where he could
learn what had
happened in the
rest of the world
in his absence,
and get
prophecies about
the best way to
get back home.
The Sirens
On their way again,
Odysseus and his men
had to sail past the
Sirens, half-woman,
half-bird, whose song
lured sailors to their
deaths on the rocks
that surround their
island. Anyone who
heard the siren’s song
wass irresistably drawn
to them.
The Sirens
While the
Odyssey
presents the
Sirens solely as
yet another
threat to
Odysseus, other
traditions
reflect their
role as selfguided,
motivated
professional
women.
The Sirens
One feature of intelligence is the desire to know more (though this is
also a feature of trickster-ish intelligence that can get one in trouble
too). Odysseus
wants to hear the
Sirens’ singing, so
he had his men tie
him to the mast,
instructing them
not to let him go
under any
circumstances.
He plugged their
ears with wax, and
had them row right
by.
Scylla and
Charybdis
. . . the giant
whirlpool would
suck in the ship
and all would die.
But opposite
Charybis were the
cliffs where
Scylla, a sixheaded monster,
lived.
Odysseus chose
to sail closer to
Scylla, sacrifing
six of his men.
So Odysseus is the only one to hear the
Sirens’ song without dying for it. But
now he had to get past the double bind of
Scylla and Charybdis. If he sailed too
close to Charybdis . . .
The Cattle of Helios
Odysseus and his men landed on the island of Helios, whose perfect
herd of 360 cattle must not be touched, as Circe warned. Odysseus
left his men and went hunting, since all of his men were starving by
now. But when he returned, he found that they had already butchered
one of the forbidden cattle – inciting the sun god’s wrath.
The Cattle of Helios
Helios’ anger was quickly fulfilled. No sooner did Odysseus and
his men sail away, than a storm destroyed the ship. Odysseus, the
only one who did not eat the sun-god’s cattle, was the only one
to survive.
Tossed back to Scylla and Charybdis, he hung on to a tree on the
cliff for three days to keep from being sucked into the whirlpool.
Adrift on a fragment of
wreckage, he floated to
Calypso’s island. There
he was trapped for seven
years (though
conditions were really
pretty good . . .)
Homecoming
Moved by his story, the Phaeacians gave
Odysseus a ship full of guest-gifts and sent
him home. He fell asleep as they neared
Ithaca, and they left him sleeping on the
shore, surrounded by riches.
The first person to greet Odysseus was
Athena, disguised as a young shepherd boy.
Odysseus lied about who he is – before they
both put off the pretense.
Athena caught him up on the home scene.
With her help, Odysseus, disguised as a
beggar, made his way toward the palace.
He revealed his identity to a loyal
swineherd, Eumaeus, and then to
Telemachus, who was home by now.
Homecoming
The three men plan how
Odysseus could get back in
power.
Odysseus finally made his way to
the palace. When he reached it,
his dog Argus recognized him
and ran to greet him – then died
of age and exertion.
His wife Penelope had been
holding out, but was under
increasing pressure to marry.
When she heard that a beggar
was in the palace, claiming to
know something about her
husband, she arranged to meet
him.
Homecoming
Odysseus was sent to be cleaned up before meeting Penelope.
When his old nursemaid, Euryclea, washed his feet, she recognized
him by a scar on his leg. But he warned her to be quiet lest she put
him in danger.
Like
everyone
in his
household
& family,
she showed
metis – and
kept quiet.
Homecoming
Penelope told the “beggar” how she tricked the suitors. She had told
them she would marry after she finished weaving a funeral shroud
for her father in law. Every day in plain sight she wove – then at
night she unwove her work. Her trick worked for three years, until
she was betrayed by serving girls. After hearing the beggar’s “news”
of Odysseus,
she said she had
given up on
him and was
ready to marry
again. She
consulted him
about how to
choose her new
husband.
Homecoming
She proposes that she arrange a
contest with the bow: she will
marry whichever of the suitors can
draw Odysseus’ great bow, and
shoot an arrow through twelve
axe-heads lined up. Odysseus
agrees that this is a good idea.
Why does Penelope suggest this
now, when she’s just received
encouraging news? She has never
given any signs of being ready to
marry again before. Does she
actually recognize Odysseus,
consciously or not? Is this a plan
between them?
The Contest of the Bow
The suitors could not even
string the bow, then
Telemachus convinced them to
let the “old beggar” try. He
easily strung it, and shot
through the ax heads.
Meanwhile Eumaeus and
another faithful servant locked
the banquet hall’s doors.
The wily Odysseus stripped
off his rags, and he leaped to
the great threshhold holding
the bow and the quiver of
arrows, and poured the
arrows in front of his feet.
“Now I shall aim at another
target . . .”
Homecoming
Odysseus, Telemachus, and the two servants killed all of the suitors,
thus reestablishing order in Ithaca. Then Odysseus went to Penelope.
Homecoming
Penelope, upstairs the
whole time, was called
to meet her husband
again. But she was not
sure he was really
Odysseus. “All right
then,” she says to her
servant, “bring out our
marriage bed into the
hall.”
Odysseus was outraged.
But Penelope was only
testing him. Reassured,
she went with him to
bed . . .
Woman, your words have wounded me.
Who tore my bedstead from its base?
No one but a god could move that bed,
for it has a secret in its making. Around
the trunk of an olive tree, flourishing in
our court, I built that bed . . .
Homecoming
In tears Odysseus clasped his dear,
wise wife. And as the sight of land
is welcomed by shipwrecked
sailors when Poseidon has
destroyed their ship, in flight from
the grey sea, they swim toward
shore, their bodies caked with
brine, and now at last set foot
upon the beach, their grief is past:
so at the sight of him, there was
delight in her, she twined her
white arms around his neck.
But when Odysseus and Penelope
had had their fill of love’s delights,
the joys of talk were theirs, telling
one another all their trials . . .
Homecoming
She told his of her grief as she
watched the vicious suitors . . .
and he in turn rehearsed the
sorrows he’d inflicted and
endured . . .
That was the end of what he had to
tell, and now sleep assaulted him,
sweet sleep that can loosen the limbs
and soothe the griefs of men.
finis