Intro & Outline [Syed]

Introduction: The Odyssey, which stands as one of the pillars of early Greek tradition, speaks to us with a strong emotional appeal and showers us with experiences that are radically different from ours. Through the prism of literary realism, The Odyssey’s relevance wanes to a fraction of what use to be the relationship between Myth and Reality. As a result, there seems to be a missing consilience between this literature and modern life. There also seems to be a discrepancy between being a human and being a hero. Odysseus’ journey is happening outside of him, it is something he perceptually experiences and physically conquers. For the modern human life, our Odyssey occurs in our heads: it is in the mind where we fight our monsters, talk to our gods and are trying to reach some sense of a home. This externalized journey, however, is overturned by the episode of Hades and the Homeric perceptions of life and death. The uncharacteristic linear journey of Hades, the complexity of the missing order of life, the physiological explanation of death, and the revaluation of values all culminates to a rebirth of relevance between The Odyssey and modern life.

1. The uncharacteristic linear journey in Hades (Homer’s perception on Death):

• The episode opens up with a land that comes before Hades where the sun never rises (15-19). This transgression of natural law signifies that Hades is in its own realm that is not extended in time. A place where the sun neither rises nor sets would not have any conception of time. This ceases the sense of motion and change occurring beyond this land. This suggests that Hades is in a place that is separate from the world that the rest of the narrative takes place in.
• This lack of motion and change gives Hades a sense of stillness and eternity.
• Odysseus’ journey here is linear in the sense that each experience is sequentially linked. He sees each spirit one by one. There is no twist or turn and there is no abrupt play of Fate.
• Hades represents Homer’s perception on death which is at odds with his perception on life.

2. The complexity of the missing order of life (Homer’s perception on Life):

• The linear journey of Hades is uncharacteristic of Homer’s literary style that we see throughout the narrative. In the realm of life, nothing is static, the events are not sequentially linked; Homer puts a certain dynamic into every conjuncture the hero acquaints with.
• This signifies Homer’s perception on life. Life is aleatory. The hero is in the middle of the instability of the environment around him. The flux of life ceases to illuminate any order.
• Death for Odysseus takes him out of this aleatorical life, and thus the twists and turns of Fate and Free Will. For Death, represented by Hades, at least has some sense of linear order.

3. The physiological explanation of death:

• Odysseus’ mother (line 218-224) explains the physiology of death to him. That the body is left behind, and the metaphysical goes down to Hades.
• Anything that pertains to the body is left behind, but anything that pertains to the non-physical is carried over to the afterlife. Thus, the spirits retain their abilities to reflect and remember and grieve.
• This distinction between the physical and the non-physical sets up the distinction between external values and internal values.

4. The revaluation of values:

• It is important to note what the spirits are reflecting on: mostly, their families. The undercurrent running through Hades is family life and home. This is what Agamemnon and Achilles are reflecting on and are now valuing.
• The revaluation of values comes from Achilles when he says he rather be living again as a laborer (lines 510-514). Achilles here substantiates the internal/external separation of values Odysseus’ mother had made. Achilles transitions the values from honor and glory to family and home.
• Honor and glory are external values: from physical warfare one attains honor and glory. Family and home are internal values: happiness of the soul is attained by this (happiness of the soul exhibited by Achilles himself when he starts wide-striding after hearing about his son’s honor, lines 565-566).

Conclusion: The aleatoric perception of life is something we could all say we have experienced in times of uncertainty and meaningless coincidences. The mind/body dualism, which proposes that the mind (soul) is separate from the body, a doctrine we still hold to this day, is explained by Odysseus’ mother’s physiological explanation of death. The revaluation of values to family and home is something we could all share in, we do not have to be godlike heroes to attain these virtues. The separation of the world of the afterlife from our ever changing physical world is a belief many of us still hold today, which Homer also assents to as he separates Hades from the world the rest of the narrative takes place in. The postulation of this paper, however, which may come into question, is the implication that death is a form of escape from the unstable flux of life for Odysseus. It is up to the reader to make this relevance. From the support of these points, the episode on Hades retains a consilience between The Odyssey and modern, universal and moral, life.