Rough Draft (Lillian)

Note: I still have to add in the full quotes that I reference in the paper. Also, just a heads up that this is more of a draft than an outline. Thanks for reading!

How Suffering, Memory, and Death Affect the Telos in the Odyssey

Suffering is a major theme in Homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey, and its influence on the epic would be inconsequential without the additional themes of memory, lack of memory, and death. Many characters in the Odyssey seize any opportunity they can to rid themselves of painful memories. Rather than dying of grief, characters choose to wipe their brains of any memories that remain of their suffering. This loss of memory causes the death of the telos, and the telos, or end goal, is essentially a character’s reason to live. In this way, lack of memory is a last resort to escape real life, just like death. Characters including Odysseus, Odysseus’ men, and Telemachus experience great suffering and participate in behavior which leads to memory erasure, whether wittingly or unwittingly. Resources to engage in this behavior are provided by the Sirens, the Lotus Eaters, and Helen of Troy. Each instance of memory erasure is prompted by the dire need to end pain, which parallels death or suicide, and establishes an obstacle in the way of the character achieving his or her telos. Such an obstacle would kill the telos altogether were it not for the eventual regaining of memory.

Odysseus himself, the epic hero of the Odyssey, sets the stage for readers to understand the gravity of the suffering that saturates the Odyssey. After the mishap with the bag of winds, Odysseus says, “When I woke up and saw what had happened/ I thought long and hard about whether I should/ Just go over the side and end it all in the sea/ Or endure in silence and remain among the living./ In the end I decided to bear it and live” (439). Here Odysseus contemplates committing suicide in order to end his suffering. This is a concrete example of how characters in the Odyssey look for drastic means to escape their pain. Death is an ever-present possibility, not only by a force of nature but also potentially by choice. Just about every decision made by a character in the Odyssey is a life-or-death one, whether for oneself or for someone else. The following discussion of memory and loss of memory has much greater implications than just memory itself, as each decision to forget painful memories is an example of a character whose suffering is too much to bear and who would rather forget his or her reason to live than carry on suffering.

Odysseus epitomizes a break-down in the dichotomy between immense suffering and maintaining the will to live in the Odyssey. He is a sort of in-between epic hero, as readers tend to find that he does not fit either side in any notable binary (e.g. he is a godlike man, he is strong when inspired by Athena and weak when he weeps repeatedly, etc.) Often Odyssey toes the line between life and death, due to his particularly brazen character and boldness in the face of danger. Readers see Odysseus all but ignore what seems like common sense when he listens to the enticing song of the Sirens. Listening to the Sirens’ song is a similar distraction to all other instances of memory erasure in the epic, as the song is powerful enough to blow Odysseus completely off course. In the moment he hears it, the song makes Odysseus ignorant to his end goal and desirous only to approach the Sirens. Odysseus is willing to face death for a fleeting moment of pleasure and unburdened thought. If Odysseus had not been tied up, he would have gone to the Sirens, which would have been an irreparable error in his journey home. The Sirens wiped Odysseus’ telos from his mind for a time and would have killed it had it not been for Odysseus’ smart plan to be tied up before listening to the song, which kept him from abandoning his journey altogether and allowed him to regain his memory and return to rational thought.

Another instance of memory erasure occurs in the ninth book of the Odyssey, on the island of the Lotus Eaters. Some of Odysseus’ men wander off on the island of the Lotus Eaters and eat lotus, which is basically a drug that causes loss of memory and lack of motivation. Often the Lotus Eaters are characterized as sloth-like, lazy individuals who would rather selfishly indulge themselves than focus on real life. They are often regarded as irresponsible and childlike. However, the Lotus Eaters’ drug-induced state is basically a functioning form of death. They are inactive, ineffective, and resigned from life. The men who ate lotus “lost the will to report back, preferring instead to stay there, munching lotus, oblivious of home” (428). These men made the choice to eat lotus, probably because they could no longer handle the grueling journey back to Ithaca and wanted to attain some sort of reprieve from their pain and suffering. Though reaching Ithaca was their goal, they decided it was not worth the struggles. The men effectively killed their telos by eating the lotus and hence losing sight of their reason to live and to continue traveling. However, Odysseus saved the men, as he dragged them back to the ship and away from the Lotus Eaters. Here Homer uses descriptive imagery to describe the men’s disposition: Odysseus “hauled [the men] back wailing to the ships” and “bound [them] under the benches.” The men are dragged like dead bodies; they are unthinking cargo which Odysseus throws on his ship. However, the men do scream and cry, which strengthens the notion that these men are desperate and will do anything to avoid further suffering, including the decision to diminish their cognitive function and enter a death-like state of unknowing.

Another erasure of memory occurs early in the epic, in Book 4. Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, takes a short trip to visit people’s homes and find out if they know anything about Odysseus’s well-being and whereabouts. At the home of Menelaus and Helen, Menelaus, Telemachus, and the other men who are present have a discussion about the Trojan War, which was the initial reason that Odysseus left home. As they talk, the men become so overwhelmed with emotion regarding the war and its after-effects that they begin to weep. In response, Menelaus’ wife, “Helen, child of Zeus…/threw a drug into the wine bowl/ they were drinking from, a drug/ that stilled all pain, quieted all anger/ And brought forgetfulness of every ill” (370). The short-term telos of Telemachus’ visit was to discern information about his father, however painful hearing such information may be for Telemachus. When Helen ends the men’s weeping and suffering by drugging them, she causes Telemachus to lose sight of the purpose of his trip. Telemachus was just weeping for his long-lost father, but he is rid suddenly of all sadness. His only connection to his father was his memory, as Odysseus had been gone for twenty years, and Telemachus had not seen Odysseus in just as long. Losing that memory for Telemachus is akin to losing his father entirely. In this way, Telemachus forgetting Odysseus equates to the figurative death of Odysseus. It also equates to the figurative death of Telemachus due to the loss of his telos. Telemachus cannot fulfill his long-term telos of seeing his father again if he does not remember who Odysseus is and why he cares about Odysseus. Without that telos, Telemachus is stripped of his current purpose to live and to crusade for his father. Furthermore, Telemachus cannot even fulfill his short-term telos of getting information about Odysseus from Menelaus if he does not remember why he went to Menelaus’ home in the first place.

Loss of memory and alert consciousness reflects death in the Odyssey. The intentional decision to forget is a form of suicide. This decision temporarily deletes evidence of earlier life in the affected mind in order to serve as an outlet from suffering. Homer includes memory erasure in the Odyssey to tie together larger themes of suffering and imminent death, which creates a murky area within the binary of suffering and maintaining the will to live. Memory erasure also works as a conflict in the epic, as it inhibits Odysseus and others from achieving their telos until they regain memory of said telos and remember why the telos is important.