Theme: Women
About: Specifically, the role of the “maidservant” throughout The Odyssey and how these characters assist, or direct in steering and influencing the plot.
Potential Thesis:
The female servants of The Odyssey may not be considered more than side characters, but it is their very power of invisibility that enables them to indirectly drive the plot.
Focus: It has been said that epics like The Odyssey were the cornerstones of Ancient Greek life, thus creating a consilience between literature and life- actual life. I endeavor to find what sort of message the episode of Hades/Death gives for practical life. In other words, I want to see if this part of the narrative has any sort of applicability for practical life by analyzing this episode. In this process, I hope to insinuate why the Greeks considered these epics a cornerstone for their civilization and lives.
(The passages I will choose are interwoven in the argument below).
The purgatorial setting of Hades reflects the incomprehensible nature of the concept of Death in the Homeric universe. This is represented by how Hades is occupied by both the innocent (the youth lines 35-38) and the punished (Tityos, Tantalus, and Sisyphus lines 604). This convoluted setting of Hades reflects the notion that Death itself is meaningless, empty, unnecessary, and it is a waste to think about a concept as such that has no content whatsoever. All forward-looking teleological life ends with death, but the emptiness of death itself renders one’s life meaningless (if the telos (death) is meaningless then the process (living life) towards that telos becomes meaningless as well), however, the function and role of Hades, and thus the function of the afterlife, is to bring back meaning in one’s life: either good or bad, affirming or disconfirming. In other words, meaning of one’s life belongs in the realm of the afterlife. This is why Agamemnon (line 398) and Achilles (line 510), now a part of the afterlife, are constantly looking back at their lives, thinking, self-judging and grieving, while Odysseus is looking forwards, in anticipation of the life he has yet to live, for he is not a part of Hades yet. The journey in Hades gives off a sad happiness amidst the voices of the former living. The enjoyment, impatience, and thirst for home, life and family comes to light through this journey. The supposition of a suffering past starts to seem greater when the dead speak their grievances. It makes one shout to Odysseus, “Choose life, honorable hero! And do your duty as a father and a husband- your future still holds life, or you too would be grieving like them”… The undercurrent running through Hades is family life. It is as if one’s Fate in the afterlife- for the afterlife has a Fate of its own- is determined by his/her family experiences. We see this with the wives of the dead heroes Odysseus witnesses (lines 240-280), we see the undercurrent reoccurring again through Agamemnon, Achilles and even Heracles (line 630). The argument here will launch the notion that experiencing the afterlife gives one meaning to one’s life, rather than cognitively thinking about the empty concepts of life/death themselves- for this lead us to superfluous convictions. But we do not have this capability as human beings, in this world of ours, we are looking forwards like Odysseus in the anticipation of the life we still have yet to live, thus Homer reminds us to take care of our families, our homes, and our duties, or else we too will be looking back at our lives “grieving like them”. I believe this is the moral message this episode on Hades gave to the Greeks that took Homer seriously- reflection in the end of one’s life gives one’s life meaning, whereas looking forwards and still having some life to live brings one to his duties as a moral agent in the realm of empirical, daily life.
Memory: In The Odyssey, a sort of collective memory exists for all the people of Greece, made possible by the bards who sing of events that have happened in both the historical and recent past. In this aspect, memory is cherished, and it is considered important to tell and retell stories. However, on an individual level, many characters in The Odyssey seize any opportunity they can to rid themselves of painful memories. Suffering is a huge overarching theme in The Odyssey, and its hold on the epic would be inconsequential without the additional themes of memory and lack of memory.
Thesis Statement: In The Odyssey, memory is life, and lack of memory is a kind of death. Rather than dying of grief, characters choose to wipe their brains of any memories they have of their suffering. To forget they suffered erases the suffering itself and the reasons for the suffering. In this way, lack of memory is a last resort to escape real life, just like death.
Passages:
Book 4 (Page 370)
“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.”
In this passage, Telemachus visits Menelaus and his wife Helen to find out if they have any information about his missing father, Odysseus. When they begin to discuss Odysseus and the Trojan War at large, all the men who are present begin to weep, so Helen sneaks them a drug which makes them forget their sorrow. The drug makes people lose what makes them alive and human. While the drug is in effect, they forget everything about themselves. Telemachus, who had just been weeping for his long-lost father, is rid suddenly of all sadness. His only connection to his father was his memory, as Odysseus had been gone for twenty years, and losing that memory for Telemachus is akin to losing his father entirely. Telemachus forgetting Odysseus not only equates to the figurative death of Odysseus, but also to the figurative death of Telemachus. Telemachus cannot fulfill his 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 purpose to live.
Book 9 (Page 428)
“‘They headed out and made contact with the Lotus Eaters,
Who meant no harm but did give my men
Some lotus to eat. Whoever ate that sweet fruit
Lost the will to report back, preferring instead
To stay there, munching lotus, oblivious of home.'”
Here is another example of how the loss of memory is like death. Odysseus says that his men who ate lotus “lost the will to report back.” Like Telemachus, the men who ate lotus lose sight of their telos, which was to return home. If they had not eaten the lotus, the men would have retained their understanding of the reason behind their journey. They would have remained active agents in their own story, rather than unthinking cargo that Odysseus “hauled back wailing to the ships” and “bound…under the benches.” In this passage, imagery of death is apparent and striking. The men who lost their memories are essentially dead bodies, being dragged away from the Lotus Eaters and loaded onto the ship.
Book 1 (Page 337)
“‘My mother says that Odysseus is my father,
I don’t know this myself. No one witnesses
His own begetting. If I had my way, I’d be the son
Of a man fortunate enough to grow old at home.
But it’s the man with the most dismal fate of all.
They say I was born from–since you want to know.'”
This passage is dialogue said by Telemachus. It is another example of someone who desires to erase his memory, or even the past itself, in order to lose the pain and suffering associated with it. Telemachus wishes he could switch lives; he wants to become the son of someone else and have a father who could have been present while he grew up. Telemachus wants to lose his suffering and the reason for it, but in this way, he would also lose what makes him himself: his family and his own particular life. If his halfhearted wish for a new life were granted, Telemachus’ real life would become nonexistent, and the Telemachus we know as readers of The Odyssey would essentially be dead.
The entire odyssey on which Odysseus is journeying is to provide him space to leave behind all the negative memories of past. War, death, separation–all elements that bring grief to Odysseus. The apex of this notion can be found in Odysseus’s decent into the underworld. With the instructions from Circe, Odysseus performs a ritual to attract the souls of the dead. Many souls come and go. Of those many, I would like to focus on that of Elpenor (53-85), Teiresia (97-146), and Odysseus’s mother Antikleia (164-240).
The general theme on which I am focusing is exemplified through the listening of the bard. It is known to the reader that Odysseus is recounting these events in the hall of Alkinoos, where the bard still remains after he told over some stories earlier in the epic. Odysseus is sharing his story so it can become part of the greater history. His status as a hero is being solidified in the annals of time through the memory of the bard. It is by means of this process that he can return home to his family and focus only toward the future. This is confirmed by noting that immediately upon Odysseus’s completion, he sets sail from home and, this time, he successfully lands back in Ithica. All the proceeds from this moment is focused on development and resettling in his home. It is crucial that Odysseus’s mother is not mentioned again, as she was a major tie to the past for out soldier. Odysseus left those thought in Hades. All the lose ends were tied up from the past. He unearthed the cause of his mother’s death and that of Elpenor. And Teiresia now instructed him what he is to do far in the future, after he has recaptured his home from the suitors. It seems very clear that this book (in tandem with XII and XIII) of the epic signifies the middle and separation of beginning and end, past and future.
TOPIC: DEATH [Focus on Agamemnon’s Death]
THESIS
The story of Agamemnon is narrated multiple times in The Odyssey to provide a foil and suspense for the successful return home of Odysseus to his loyal wife through the use of deceptive foreshadowings and deceitful leads.
WHAT I HOPE TO PROVE
MY EVIDENCE
“Mortals! They are always blaming the gods
For their troubles, when their own witlessness
Causes them more than they were destined for!
Take Aegisthus now. He marries Agamemnon’s
Lawful wife and murders the man on his return
Knowing it meant disaster – because we did warn him,
Sent our messenger, quicksilver Hermes,
To tell him not to kill the man and marry his wife,
Or Agamemnon’s son, Orestes, would pay him back
When he came of age and wanted his inheritance.
Hermes told him all that, but his good advice
Meant nothing to Aegisthus. Now he’s paid in full (Book I, Pg 333, Lines 37-48).”
2. Athena (disguised) tells the story to Telemachus
“…You’ve got to stop
Acting like a child. You’ve outgrown that now.
Haven’t you head how Orestes won glory
Throughout the world whenhe killed Aegisthus,
The shrew traitor who murdered his father?
You have to be aggressive, strong – look at how big
And well-built you are – so you will leave a good name (Book I, Pg 339, Lines 313-319).”
3. Agamemnon telling his story to Odysseus in the Underworld
“Aegisthus was the cause of my death.
He killed me with the help of my cursed wife
After inviting me to a feast in his house,
Slaughtered me like a bull at a manger (Book XI, Pg 461, Lines 420-424).”
Potential Thesis:
Throughout the Odyssey, Penelope is ordered around by her son or being smothered with suitors. However, behind her facade of being the helpless woman, we can see that her actions both mirror those of her heroic husband Odysseus. These actions show a clear divide in the characteristics of a woman and a man.
Notes:
– They both show cunning tactics.
– Penelope has to stall when Odysseus has to move forward. Penelope has been alone for 20 years when Odysseus has been sexually active throughout his journey.
– They both cry when the hear the bard sing. Odysseus cries when he hears his own story; Penelope cries at his story.
– Penelope follows the demands of her son; Odysseus tells him what to do.
– The similar qualities and characteristics (cunning, crying, etc) show a divide between masculinity and femininity.
Passage 1 (Book 2 Lines 96-104…)
Laying the blame on us. It’s not the suitors
Who are at fault, but your own mother,
Who knows more tricks than any other woman alive.
It’s been three years now, almost four,
Since she’s been toying with out affections.
She encourages each man, leading us on,
Sending messages. But her mind is set elsewhere.
Here’s just one of the tricks she devised:
She set up a great loom in the main hall
And started weaving a sizeable fabric
With a very fine thread, and she said to us:…
This passage displays the sneaky tactics Penelope uses to stall the suitors. She does not explicitly say that she will decide to choose later but makes an excuse that cannot be easily opposed by the suitors. Also, she purposely leads them on so that they feel somewhat satisfied and hopeful that she will choose one to marry later.
Passage 2 (Book 1 Lines 356-364)
“Phemius, you know many other songs,
To soothe human sorrows, songs of the exploits
Of gods and men. Sing one of those
To enrapture audience as they sit.
Sipping their wine. But stop singing this one,
This painful song that always tears at my heart.
I am already sorrowful, constantly grieving
For my husband, remembering him, a man
Renowned in Argos and throughout all Hellas.”
Crying, often labeled as a feminine quality is displayed her. Even though her husband cries at the same story, it shows his masculine quality because the story is about his fight.
Passage 3 (Book 23 Lines 179-186):
And Penelope, cautious and wary:
“You’re a mysterious man. I am not being proud
Or scornful, nor am I bewildered-not at all.
I know very well what you looked like
When you left Ithaca on your long-oared ship.
Nurses bring the bed out from the master bedroom,
The bedstead he made himself, and spread it for him,
With fleeces and blankets and silky coverlets.
Penelope has seen her husband for 20 years, so she could not accept someone who comes in and announces himself as Odysseus. By expressing her hesitance, she easily sets up the trap to test her tactician husband because she does not want to fall for what may have been a lie.
Topic: Memory
Focus: The binary of memory vs forgetting with the guiding question “what is worth remembering?”
Thesis: In the Odyssey, memories prove to be more curse than treasure; yet the present cannot compete with the augmented past, where certain memories—of home, hospitality, and glory—take on a poetic shine as time rubs them smooth.
Passage 1:
But Helen, child of Zeus, had other ideas.
She 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.
Whoever drank wine laced with this drug
Would not be sad or shed a tear that day.
Not even if his own father and mother
Should lie there dead, or if someone killed
His brother, or son, before his eyes.
(4.231-240)
This drug is desirable to Helen and Menelaus, because they do not deem their memories worth the pain they cause. Telemachus, on the other hand, would not have voluntarily taken the drug, because the memory of his father, despite the pain it causes him, gives him purpose.
Passage 2:
They headed out and made contact with the Lotus-Eaters,
Who meant no harm but did give my men
Some lotus to eat. Whoever ate that sweet fruit
Lost the will to report back, preferring instead
To stay there, munching lotus, oblivious of home.
I hauled them back wailing to the ships,
Bound them under the benches, then ordered
All hands to board their ships on the double
Before anyone else tasted the lotus.
(9.92-100)
The Lotus-Eater’s island is one of many places Odysseus encounters where he could forget the past and find a pleasant future. Had his crew remained there, they would have lived out the rest of their days, oblivious but at peace, instead of clinging to the immaterial memory of home and meeting an early death.
Passage 3:
I died from the same grief. The keen-eyed goddess
Did not shoot me at home with her gentle shafts,
Nor did any long illness waste my body away.
No, it was longing for you, my glorious Odysseus,
For your gentle heart and your gentle ways,
That robbed me of my honey-sweet life.
(11.198-203)
The memory of her lost son killed Odysseus’ mother. Solid proof of the danger memory poses, I’d say.
“‘Don’t be there
When she sucks it down. No one could save you,
Not even Poseidon, who makes the earth tremble.
No, stay close to Scylla’s rock, and push hard.
Better to mourn six than the whole crew at once.’
Thus Circe. And I, in a panic:
‘I beg you, goddess, tell me, is there
Any way I can escape from Charybdis
And still protect my men from the other?’
And the goddess, in a nimbus of light:
“There you go again, always the hero.
Won’t you yield even to the immortals?”
The passage above contains much of the goddess Circe’s warning to Odysseus about impossibility of contending with Scylla, the six headed leviathan who is guaranteed to snatch up six of his men. Understandably, Odysseus asks for a way to avoid both Scylla and Charybdis, and save his crew. Circe then lightly rebukes Odysseus for his boldness in asking for a way to trick the immortals. “There you go again, always the hero. Won’t you yield even to the immortals?” Of course not! How could Circe ever think so? Odysseus’s entire journey is a testament to his sheer willpower, and his unwillingness to ever throw in the towel until he has spent all of his physical and mental capabilities. Furthermore, this conversation takes place after Odysseus returns from Hades, the Land of the Dead, something that no mortal has done beforehand. Herein lies a key binary that is prevalent throughout Homer’s Odyssey; the different statuses of the mortal and immortal, the human and the god, drives this story.
Still, Circe’s prophecy was spot on, and Odysseus was obliged to watch as six good men from his crew were violently gobbled up by Scylla. However, though this is only one of the many times in the narrative where the divine copy the practices of mortals, the extent of the following imitation is noteworthy. In the beginning of the passage, Circe’s words add flavor to the seemingly exacting distinction between man and god: “No one can save you. Not even Poseidon, who makes the earth tremble”. Here is a direct challenge to the hierarchical world of the gods. Poseidon, Lord of the Sea, whose power is second only to his brother Zeus, is unable to contend with a relatively minor goddess in her own domain. The only way Circe’s statement makes sense is if the Greek gods are viewed in anthropomorphic terms. The entire idea of a hierarchy of immortals is reflective of the hierarchical society of mortals, even down to the nitty-gritty details! Consider that historically, kings have granted certain individuals the ability to do as they please within their prescribed spheres of influence. Lords had their own castles, and warriors were allowed more freedoms than the general population. Thus, it was not uncommon for rulers to have a degree, however slight, of checks to their own power. For Poseidon to be unable to control Charybdis was something worth pointing out, just like in ancient Greece, somebody who had sway over the king was important, and worth mentioning.
“I want to find out what those men are like,
Wild savages with no sense of right or wrong
Or hospitable folk who fear the gods.”
The Odyssey, Book IX: Lines 169-171
In Book IX of Homer’s Odyssey, there is emphasis placed on the difference between civilized people and savages. As Odysseus and his crew land upon the island of the Cyclopes, he already has the impression that the Cyclopes are “lawless savages who leave everything up to the gods” (lines 105-106). It is shown to be true that Polyphemus is a savage when he eats several members of his crew after they sneak into his cave. This shows a stark difference in how people have behaved throughout the epic so far, as no one has crossed the line into eating human beings.
However, Polyphemus is not the only savage in this episode. Odysseus and his crew, before landing on the island of the Cyclopes, had just come from pillaging the town of Ismaros. After killing the men, raping the women, and stealing their treasure (or at least allowing his crew to do so), Odysseus cannot exactly be considered perfectly civilized. In this sense Odysseus is both the civilized and the savage, because he exhibits traits of both at different points of the story. Odysseus’ savagery is also shown when he deliberately goes out looking for a Cyclops and also seemingly looking to cause trouble, as Polyphemus points out when questioning Odysseus and his crew as to their business there. He deducts that they are “pirates probably, roaming around causing people trouble” (lines 247-248). This is true in a sense because they have caused trouble in the last two places they’ve been. It also shows that Odysseus is being a bad guest, regardless of if Polyphemus is being a bad host, which is very important in Greek culture and civilization.
It is also worth noting the irony in Odysseus’ statement (mentioned earlier), about savages leaving everything up to the gods. This is ironic because Odysseus’ path and his current predicament is almost entirely based on the gods’ (particularly Poseidon’s) wills. At this point in the story Odysseus has very little control over his own fate, so if he were to leave everything up to the gods, like a “lawless savage”, not much would be different. Therefore, having everything decided by the gods is not necessarily a trait of savages, as an individual’s decisions and wills mean little when the gods will interfere anyway.
“You’re dumb, stranger, or from far away,
If you ask me to fear the gods. Cyclopes
Don’t care about Zeus or his aegis
Or the blessed gods, since we are much stronger.
I wouldn’t spare you or your men
Out of fear of Zeus. I would spare them only
If I myself wanted to. But tell me,
Where did you leave your ship? Far
Down the coast, or close? I’d like to know.”
(Book IX 265-273)
When Odysseus tells Alcinuous the story of his encounter with Polybus, we witness the breakdown of the guest-host relationship that had otherwise been observed several times throughout the story. It was customary in The Odyssey to invite a guest—even a stranger—into one’s home, bathe them and clothe them, then give the guest a large feast to entertain him. After that, the guest is given a place to rest. The next day, the guest discusses his reason for visiting with the host, and the host may even invite the guest to stay longer. When it is time for the guest to leave, the host offers the guest generous gifts to remember the host. A courteous guest will negotiate down the host’s offerings to a more modest gift, and a guest would never ask the host for anything more than what was offered.
Here, Polybus is a shockingly dreadful host, and Odysseus in turn is a disobedient guest. When Odysseus first entered the island with suspicion of the cave-dweller being a savage who does not know right from wrong or fear any gods, we are introduced to the binary of man and savage. Unlike men, savages are not bound to any laws and act however they want without fearing how the gods might react. However, it is debatable whether Odysseus’ suspicion that the Cyclops was a savage justifies him and his men being bad guests before even meeting the host. Unlike any previous instance of the guest-host relationship, Odysseus’ men enter the guest’s domain without his permission, eyeing his possessions and conspiring to steal them. Even though Odysseus disallows that, he and his men still help themselves to some of Polybus’ cheese.
Contrary to the tradition of hosts not inquiring about the reason for the guest’s visit until after making the guest at home, Polybus addresses his guests by inquiring who they are and accusing them of being pirates. Polybus then confirms Odysseus’ suspicion of him not fearing the gods, and he demonstrates that by refusing Odysseus’ appeal for Polybus to be generous to him and his men to appease Zeus. Both the guest and host were very distrustful of each other. When Polybus was fooled into believing that Odysseus did not have a ship for him to steal, he ate two of Odysseus’ best men.
Later, When Odysseus offered his wine as a gift to Polybus, Polybus broke the code of receiving a gift by asking for more. We have not seen a character ask for more of a gift so far. Lastly, Polybus left Odysseus with no other gift than promising to kill him last after all of his men. Ultimately, Odysseus disrespects his savage host by blinding him with a wooden spear. Through Odysseus’ recounting of meeting Polybus, we see the complete breakdown of the guest-host relationship.
