Passage analyzed: Book 5, Lines 493-502 (p 396 in The Norton Anthology, 3rd ed.)
Stanley Lombardo’s translation of the Odyssey uses italics to set off striking similes like the one in this passage. The visual and sonic arrangement of the lines in the simile—bookended by the short lines “A solitary man” (5.493) and “From who knows where” (5.498)—further emphasizes the image of solitary and uncertain survival. Then this picture melts into our protagonist’s experience with “So Odysseus buried / Himself in the leaves” (5.498-99). The most obvious similarity is the mirrored action: hiding, burying. But where a flame grasps at fuel, a man relaxes in oblivion. Conjunctions begin the three sentences that end Book 5, threading the reader easily through the sentences as Odysseus drifts off the sleep. The last sentence seems to almost drop off the page, pressed to the right and surrounded by white space. Athena closes Odysseus’ eyelids, and the finality of that statement cuts like a curtain falling. With the mention of Athena, what seems to be a strong contrast between the simile and Odysseus blooms: Odysseus is not truly alone in his survival, supported as he is by the gods. However, if we dig a bit further, this is both a superficial company and a superficial comparison. When the simile is related to Odysseus’ journey as a whole, the image becomes arresting in its accuracy. He is the ember harboring the “fire’s seed” (5.497), keeping his will to return home alive through years of tribulations.
Years trapped on Calypso’s island after losing his entire crew, several days struggling against the open sea after losing his raft, and Odysseus is still bright with the determination to live. He does not flop to the earth and give up, asking only to die in peace. He immediately evaluates the situation, the weather, the landscape, calculating his best chance of survival. Odysseus finds the olive trees, burrowing beneath the warm leaves, and only then does Athena grant him the small gift of sleep. Since Odysseus’ appearance in the story, he seems to have received constant godly assistance—Calypso, Hermes, Ino, Athena. This passage reminds us of Odysseus’ personal strength. The gods may nudge and whisper, but Odysseus has survived alone, in the wilderness, far from home, and he has managed to keep his compass set on Ithaca, because he knows if that fire goes out, no nymph, no god, no cyclops nor princess will be kind enough to rekindle it for him.
For starters, I must say, your style of writing is awesome. “Then this picture melts into our protagonist’s experience…” was the best part. The way you compared Odysseus’ will with the fire was ingeniously done. The analysis is insightful and informative. I also like how you described a reader’s experience while reading this part of the text. Plus, I don’t know if others could see it, but you still related this miniature to the whole through it’s difference (“superficial comparison” and inaccurate but it still brings one to the realization of Odysseus’ will-to-reach-home- a will that is human and not divine), reminding us that difference is still a relation in and of itself.
Excellent reading of the simile–and it’s a TOUGH one! Every time I read this, I think, and first, that Homer is comparing Odysseus to the “solitary man” who must keep his fire alive to ward off darkness, uncertainty, danger. But in fact–as you point out–Homer compares Odysseus not to the man, but to the “charred log” still, at its heart, burning. Just as the solitary man buries this log in the fire’s embers (a way of keeping it from going out), Odysseus buries himself in leaves. As you nicely put it, “He is the ember.”