Great Works I: Remixing Memory

I’ll be discussing the interactions between Polyphemus and Odysseus in Book 9.

On page 220, Odysseus lies to Polyphemus about his ships, predicting what the Cyclops would do to his crew, and later on Odysseus fools the Cyclops by telling them his name is Nobody. These interactions show a considerable amount of courage and self-control on Odysseus’s part. This giant monster shows that he does not fear the gods, and while Odysseus is trapped in the cave with the monster, he is still thinking about protecting his crew. Along with the courage he initially shows with his conversation with the Cyclops, he shows that he has a lot of self control by not killing the monster in its sleep. The monster who had slain two of his crew and eaten them would have caused a lot of fear and rage in most people. He is able to ignore those feelings and restrained himself from killing the monster, which would have avenged his fallen crew mates and protected himself from getting eaten. While initially, in Odysseus’s telling of his interactions with the Cyclops, Odysseus shows how well he can control himself, he gives into his emotions near the end of his stay with the Cyclops. He starts taunting Polyphemus and even revealed his real name. This mistake allowed Polyphemus to request revenge from Poseidon. All of the hatred from Poseidon could have been avoided if Odysseus kept quiet and left without provoking Polyphemus. After all of the foresight Odysseus seemed to have in escaping the island, he threw it all away by giving into his feelings towards Polyphemus because he thought he was safe now.

A lesser part of this interaction I want to talk about is on page 226. Odysseus calls Polyphemus a cannibal, but Polyphemus does not seem to be a human. If Odysseus is right in his accusation of Polyphemus, that would mean that Cyclops and humans are closely related. I can’t quite understand why a one-eyed giant and a much smaller two-eyed human could be considered the same.

-Ryan Huang

In lines 110-135 of book eleven, Odysseus recalls what Tiresias tells him during their encounter in The Kingdom of The Dead. Tiresias explains to him that because he blinded Poseidon’s son, Cyclops, the god will not make it easy for Odysseus to get home, although it is possible for him to return to Ithaca. Tiresias then tells Odysseus “if you only have the power to curb their wild desire, and curb your own, what’s more, from the day your good trim vessel first puts in at Thrinacia Island, flees the cruel blue sea. There you will find them grazing, herds and fat flocks, the cattle of Helios, god of the sun who sees all, hears all things. Leave the beasts unharmed, your mind set on home, and you may all reach Ithaca-bent with hardship, true-but harm them in any way, and I can see it now: your ship destroyed, your men destroyed as well.” Since we know that Odysseus lost his ship and his crew and ended up in Calypso’s castle, this leads me to ask, what did he and his crew do to deserve this? Tiresias explains to Odysseus that if they are good and don’t give into their desires, they will make it back to Ithaca.

This makes me believe that when the ship got to Thrinacia Island, the men saw the cattle and took it upon themselves to steal and/or feast, therefore giving into their desires. I believe this because it seems that Odysseus’ crew have always given in to their deepest desires. This is shown when the ship is so close to their homeland of Ithaca, but is blown back off course because of the men’s jealousy of Odysseus. Instead of having self-control, the crew had to open the sack that Odysseus had gotten from Aeolus because they thought it contained some sort of expensive treasures. Instead, it let out all of the winds and sent them the wrong way, away from home. The men had to pay for giving into their desires rather than having self-control. This is why I believe it happened again later on, on their journey. It seems Odysseus and his men have to pay the price whenever they give in to their desires, instead of being good. Tiresias even warned Odysseus of this happening beforehand, and let him know it would delay his trip indefinitely.

I will be analyzing and looking to the passage in Book 9:  “In the One Eyed Giant’s Cave”, on the pages 226-228 from lines 530-590. Throughout this section, Odysseus and his remaining men had successfully made a cunning escape from the grasps of the now blind Polyphemus. By taking advantage of Polyphemus’s lack of sight now, the men were able to cling upon the livestock that belonged to the cyclone and make it safely back onto their ships. Once they were safe aboard, Odysseus decided to call back out to the land they had just escaped from to reveal his true identity. Unable to reach them, Polyphemus prays out and seeks his father’s assistance in seeking his revenge to Odysseus.

Why did Odysseus feel the need to reveal his identity? Did he not know that the cyclone was the son of the almighty Poseidon?

It is not until reading up to this part of the book that one will finally realize why Poseidon has such hatred towards Odysseus. Initially in the beginning of the book, It seemed strange to the reader that every god except Poseidon seemed to pity Odysseus and wanted him to return safely back home to his loved ones. Now it finally makes sense. I feel as though Odysseus brought his misfortune and brutal treatment onto himself by foolishly revealing his identity to the cyclone. Lines 548-549 which states “I began to taunt the Cyclops-men around me trying to check me, calm me, left and right: ‘so headstrong-why? Why rile the beast again?…” shows an important point. Why did Odysseus feel the need to reveal information and further taunt the cyclone when they could simply escape now with no consequences? Even his own crew questioned his intentions and were cautious about the consequences, but this seemed to not affect Odysseus in any way.  I believe that Odysseus had his mind clouded with over-confidence and a lack of thinking when he spoke back to the Cyclone. Driven to self-boost himself as a powerful and “cunning” warrior, Odysseus’s actions would later cost him the lives of all his remaining crew members and a lot of suffering and torture at the hands of Poseidon. I believe that Poseidon is so enraged because an immortal decided to make a mockery out of his own blood line and that is why he is so desperate to seek the most brutal revenge to Odysseus. Odysseus’ own clever scheme of giving his name as “Nobody” is ruined by his tendency to bolster his own self image.

-Maurice Studer

I will be focusing on a passage in book nine, lines 44-60.  Odysseus is telling the story of his sorrows.  Odysseus tried very hard to prove that he was a fair man by saying, “…we shared it round so no one, not on my account, would go deprived of his fair share of spoils,” (49).  Odysseus then continues to say, “Then I urged them to cut and run, set sail, but would they listen? Not those mutinous fools;” (51), and it seems as though he is just trying to make himself look good in this story and make his crew look bad.  Is this truly how this story occurred?

Throughout the story Odysseus is compared to a God and it is said that his people love and respect him.  If this is true, why would his crew have gone against his advice?  Also, if Odysseus split everything evenly like he previously claimed, why would the crew need to stay in the city when they already had everything?  It doesn’t make sense the way Odysseus tells this story.  He puts all the blame on his crew but I do not believe this.  I believe that Odysseus suggested that the crew and he should stay in the city but lied when relaying the story due to the disastrous outcome of this.  It does not make sense for a crew to act mutinous towards Odysseus from the way he is described throughout the entire book.  I think Odysseus was the one that was mystified by all of the wine, sheep, and cattle.

Odysseus wanted to make himself look good while telling the story of his troubles.  The people he was telling this story too does not have too much prior knowledge of who Odysseus is or what he’s been through and could not be able to tell if he is lying or not.  Nobody from Odysseus’ trials were present to correct him so he could twist his story however he wanted to make himself look good.  Odysseus did not want these strangers to know that he got greedy and brought his crew to disaster so he instead made it appear to be his crew’s fault.

1. I will be focusing my post on the first few pages of chapter number ten. Page 230 where Odysseus asked his host Aeolus who he’d been with for a month for a chance to be on his way back. After they had talked about sailing home Aeolus didn’t deny him anything and provided him with a sack of wind.

2. Is is Odysseus’ fault? Are the gods against him and his ways?  Can you relate to this event?

3. Odysseus is given a chance to get back to his own land and decides to take a rest after the long nine days of journey. He was given this sack of winds with responsibility but he took on all the work on his own hands. He had been working on the vessel’s sheet himself without any help and didn’t trust one mate on the ship. In my opinion that was a good idea on his side but didn’t think of the consequences. Maybe if Odysseus had some help he wouldn’t of needed some rest and would’ve  easily gotten home safely or maybe he thought otherwise. It could have been Odysseus’ fault cause he hadn’t told the crew as to exactly what was inside the sack which is why the nosy mates had opened the sack in the first place. On page 232 King Aeolus says “Back again, Odysseus–why? Some blustering god attacked you?” This line may show that the gods are against Odysseus in some way. The god of the winds may have helped him but another god could have easily had different intentions. This event could easily be related to many people. The god of winds had given Odysseus the power to go back home with good intention but maybe other gods had a different intention. This story could be used in real life to show that good intentions don’t always end up in good situations!

1. Homer uses the idea of spiritual growth as one of his underlying themes in the Odyssey. He relates this massage through various situations, characters their adventures or actions. Spiritual development is brought on by rough times, long journeys and restrictions. One of the  examples of the underlining idea about of personal development, pride and spirit, Homer express when Odysseus encounters the Cyclopes.I would like to focus my analysis on book 9, which, as i think , perfectly demonstrate this idea. After out-smarting the Polyphemus , Odysseus shouts out his name . These were his words to Polyphemus “ if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you , shamed you so- say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out your eye.”(B. 9, p227) Instead of being humbled by the experience, Odysseus tries to brag about what he has done, while in reality, it was the gods who blessed him with the ability to escape his situation.
2. Therefore, Homer raises important questions by this passage? Is the Odysseus really a hero, or he is just selfish, arrogant human being with the lack of spiritual sense? What moral lesson teaches us this demonstration of human weaknesses? And what Homer was trying to say by this passage?
3. Homer presented to us two-sided image of Odysseus personality in order to lead us to the road of many personal transformation, spiritual odyssey; and show how Odysseus become the man of words, who is capable, brave, sensible, modest and patient.

Cyclopes is just exaggerated image of human weaknesses. This monster characteristically is depicted as deformed image of humanity, his distorted human features corresponding to a defective inner nature that possesses certain negative human traits while lacking other positive ones, as example, lack of hospitality, religion, abusing of his physical strength lack of intelligence and enormous arrogance. But Odysseus, like Cyclopes, also has paid the price for the folly of arrogantly boasting. After blinding Polyphemos and escaping from his cave, he cannot resist the temptation to assert his own power. Like Cyclopes he cannot control his appetite for recognition, pride and appreciation of his intelligence. By revealing his own name, in a deeper sense, his error lies in forgetting the power of the gods and claiming to be the sole author of his own success. In Book 9 Homer plants numerous clues that the hero’s success has depended on divine assistance. It isn’t only that Odysseus prays to Athena for guidance before he plans his escape. He also acknowledges the stroke of luck that the Cyclops drove all his flocks into the cave that night, speculating, “or god led him on” (9.p.222). When it comes time to undertake the fearsome attack on the sleeping monster, “as some god breathed enormous courage through us all” (9.223), he says. And finally, there is the testimony of the other Cyclopes, who tell Polyphemos that his blinding must be “ a plague sent here by mighty Zeus and there ‘is no escape from that” (9.224). Overcome by pride in the success of his trickery, Odysseus misses the truth, which only repeat his earlier statement that “Respect the gods, my friend . We re suppliants –at your mercy! Zeus of the Strangers guards all guests and suppliants: strangers are sacred- Zeus will avenge their rights” (9.220).
 The power of Odysseus own intelligence makes him arrogantly forget the temporary nature of his own victory. When Odysseus’s clever scheme of giving his name as “Nobody” works and the other Cyclopes are mislead, he is so overjoyed with his own intelligence that he spurts out laughing, but this self-delight paves the way to his arrogant boasting once he thinks he is safely away.

Homer is obviously signifying that the intellectual side of humanity coexists only with tension of moral basis and in equal proportions. In other words, Odysseus not better then Cyclopes, his inner monster, pride and arrogance, hide the truth from him, mislead and curse him. Only when he was able to fight his own inner monster he became a man worth a legend. Later, in his journey he was able to strengthen his spirit. As an example, resistance to siren songs and on the island of Thrinakia where Odysseus demonstrates this self-control, refusing, despite the most extreme pangs of hunger, to eat the cattle of the sun god.

I will be looking to the passage in Book ten ‘The Bewitching Queen of Aeaea’, in the page 231 and around the lines 31 to 60. After they left Aeolian island, Odysseus was given a bag by the god of wind, Aiolos, to help the crew go back to native land. After Odysseus nine whole days of sailed, and be able to see the land he decided to take a nap, and the curious, ambitious and mistrustful crew decide to open the bag full of wind, getting back to the spot they were nine days before.

Who punish them? Why the author always includes gods in all of these journeys? All this lessons could you apply it in real life?

After a hard working journey, were all the crew could saw he horizon of their native land, Ithaka, they did not want to return home with empty hands, thinking that Odysseus was carrying gold and silver in the sack, they took the sack and open it receiving a great punishment. This punishment it is received by the gods, ‘‘it proves the immortals hate you’’, said by Aeolus when Odysseus try to came back for more help. Since Aeolus was the one giving the sack and you could use it to help you or to punish you depend on the actions the human take gods will act in one way or other. As in all the Odyssey, gods appears continuously in different stories to help the human beings along their journeys, and specially Odysseus to help him get back home. As Athena takes different forms to get involved in the stories or as Zeus in page 98 when he sends the signs to Penelope of the eagles coming as a sign to be careful that Odysseus was coming. All this stories you could apply it to human life as lessons that people learn in the day to day life. First of all Odysseus act in a lazy and non-preventive way when he went to sleep and do not take with him the sack. Also it’s a punishment for the crew´s behavior for get what they do not own. Therefore, , the crew and Odysseus, get a punishment for do not behave as you suppose to do. As in real life when we act one way we suffer the consequences.

‘Royal son of Laertes, Odysseus, man of tactics, reckless friend, what next, Quoted from book 11, one of the many complements Odysseus receives on his quest to Ithaca. Many praise the war hero, his men, gods, lovers, etc., I too believed he was a great leader. Reading into books 9-12 my love for the character soured as I realized he is a selfish, wealth hungry and shallow leader. Scratching the surface of Odysseus, accomplishments and conquering skills shower the reader, giving the impression that he is godly. In my previous blog I believed he was a god among the mortal, how times have changed.

I turn my focus to book 12, page 278, second stanza. At this point Odysseus is faced with Scylla and Charybdis, two monsters of the sea. Warned by Circe to sail past them, do not put up a fight, it is better to lose 6 men, than the entire crew. As he encounters the monsters, Odysseus does the exact opposite and donned his heroic armor. Knowing that the monsters are immortal he wants to put up a fight, Odysseus cocky and bold mindset shines through, believing he can sleigh the beast. There are times when you must yield, great leaders know of this. Gambling with your crews lives is a bet never taken by a worthy leader. Odysseus on the other hand begs to differ. Having heard that Argo was the only ship unscathed by the beasts, he wants to recreate the impossible, giving intentions to duel the beast.  As they fight through the onslaught, Odysseus did not warn his crew of what was to come before hand. Expecting the beasts, the crew could’ve taken extra precaution when faced with the beast. This selfish act may have been the only option in order to restrain panic upon the crew members, however doing so gave his men an unequal survival rate.

The previous act is one of many where Odysseus puts himself before his comrades. It may seem he shows sympathy for his mates, however his duel personality is the Achilles heel in the novel. One minute he is a brave soldier, a respected and iron clad man, another he is filled with fury and greed. This leads the character to make foolish mistakes that are costly not only to his crew mates, but for his return home. Countless times in the novel the actions of Odysseus causes at least one death or mishap on his quest home. His weak mind and inability to lead is the main reason why his entire crew is dead. The entire first half of the novel is more than just reaching Ithaca, it describes the man of the hour, the one who caused peril for himself.

Again, with this blog assignment, due Tuesday (2/17), you’ll start with reading the next four books of The Odyssey (9-12). (Don’t worry yet about the Margaret Atwood poem listed on the syllabus; if we have time, I’ll bring that to class so we can discuss it there.)

For your last assignment, you focused on noticing things about the poem and raising questions based on those observations. This time, we’re going to think about how to turn those observations into analysis. Another way to put it might be that, instead of just noticing things in the text, we’re going to start working on interpreting those observations. Interpretation means offering what you think is the most convincing way of answering questions that your observations about the text raise. It may be tempting to think of interpretation as just arbitrary (just one interpretation among many), and it’s true that the texts we’re reading for this class are open to many possible interpretations. However, when you offer your analysis of a particular passage, you’re trying to show, with evidence, that your analysis is not only sound (based on clues that the text itself gives rather than just your own assumptions or preconceived ideas) but also compelling (able to persuade your reader that other possible interpretations aren’t as capable of taking all of that evidence into account).

As with your last assignment, you should start by choosing a passage that is interesting to you, one that raises questions or that you initially find puzzling. This time, your post should (in no more than 500 words) provide an analysis of that passage, one that offers your most compelling interpretation. Your post will have three steps: 1) Make sure to begin by letting your reader know which passage you’ll be analyzing. 2) Then, tell us briefly what important question or questions that passage raises for you. 3) Finally, give us your analysis of the passage: your best answer to that question, backed up with evidence that you’ve observed.

Here’s an example of an analysis of a passage that I find particularly interesting:

I’ll be looking at a very short passage in book 9, around lines 282-288, when the Cyclops Polyphemus first confronts Odysseus and his men. It seems to me like a major question raised by the depiction of Polyphemus throughout this episode is whether we can regard him as evil, a monster. That is, if the Cyclops, as a group, don’t abide by laws (as Odysseus tells us), then can we really think of Polyphemus as breaking any (the “law” or taboo against cannibalism, for example)? This matters, I think, since Odysseus’s poor treatment of Polyphemus leads to Poseidon’s punishment, which is so central to the poem from the very beginning.

I would argue that Polyphemus does have a moral code; he just chooses to disregard it, which is precisely why we can designate him as evil. That is, he commits crimes not out of ignorance but out of malice. Polyphemus first demonstrates that he has a moral code when he accuses Odysseus and his men of violating that code by intruding in Polyphemus’ home. The monster hurls epithets at the crew, calling them “pirates, sea-wolves raiding at will” (Homer, book 9, line 285). Polyphemus’ language is especially revealing here, as he clearly associates the men’s actions with particularly extreme violations of traditional morals. “Pirates” are not just thieves but terrorists, violating the security those on a ship might otherwise feel out in the open sea, with no one around to disturb their tranquility. The compound “sea-wolves” takes this accusation of violation even further, as the combination “sea” and “wolf” suggests an impossible and frightening combination. Polyphemus is, interestingly, calling Odysseus and his men monsters here; their acts of burglary are so severe that the Cyclops finds them freakish. Moreover, both labels (“pirates” and “sea-wolves”) suggest that Polyphemus is particularly disturbed by the fact that the sailors have made their way on land; their evident amphibian natures make them even more threatening. It is as if he understands that there is nowhere he can go to be safe. Overall, it is important to note here that Polyphemus not only feels violated by the intrusion of these men into his home; he also feels the need to tell them that they have done something wrong. That Polyphemus knows that the crew’s acts are wrong, knows that their acts violate an implicit code of order, clearly demonstrates that Polyphemus has a moral code. This should also lead us to question Odysseus’ claim that the Cyclops, as a species, are lawless, a claim that otherwise undermines any attempt to accuse Polyphemus of immorality. If Odysseus is right, and the Cyclops have no laws, then it would be difficult to demonstrate that Polyphemus violates laws. On the other hand if, as I’ve attempted to show, Polyphemus does understand laws, then it is possible to show that he violates them, in his words, “at will.”

(You’ll see that the whole of my analysis here is really of a single line and its context. I try to make a case for why that line is important and why the particular choices made by the poet in that line are worthy of unpacking at length. You are, however, welcome to analyze more details than I have here.)

One last thing: looking ahead, your next assignment, for 2/24, will require you to memorize a short passage of The Odyssey (of no fewer than 8 lines; more than 8 lines is great but not required). I’ll provide more details when the time comes (though I can tell you that you will not be required to recite in front of the class), but it might be a good idea to choose a passage now that you would like to memorize. Your passage can be from any part of the poem (not just the reading for that week), and it may be a passage you’ve already written on for a blog post. You may choose any passage you like as long as it meets the length requirement, but I’ll give you one piece of advice: try to choose a passage that ends with concluding punctuation (usually a period), so that you don’t just stop mid-sentence.

As always, let me know if you have questions, and, remember, you can always stop by office hours!

(No idea how to upload image. Website says I’ve reached the upload limit despite not uploading anything.)

Page 170 shows a personification of Dawn that has appeared repeatedly throughout first few books. Aside from the repeated use of Dawn rising, page 170 brings up a question. Nausicaa is a princess in an island full of people blessed by Zeus, yet she has dirty laundry that she herself is going to wash. I wonder if it was normal for princesses to wash laundry instead of having servants to do it. This bothers me because I’m not sure why laundry was used as a plot device to introduce the princess and Odysseus. Of all the reasons they could have used to get the princess to go to the river, laundry seems like a poor choice. Another question I had is how the King equates washing the family’s clothes to hoping for marriage. In line 75 of page 170, the narrator tells us that Nausicaa was “too shy to touch on her hopes for marriage […] in her father’s presence[,] but he saw through it all”. How did her doing laundry in the river become related to her hopes for marriage? Later on in the book, she is at the river and there is no one in sight aside from her and her maids. She is doing laundry away from any potential suitors aside from Odysseus who she is unaware of when she goes to the river. There is no one in sight to witness Odysseus so I assume Nausicaa and her maids are the only people there. How did she and the king relate going to the river and washing clothes alone with her maids to “hopes for marriage”?

-Ryan Huang