Great Works I: Remixing Memory

Athena, takes the form  of the princess´friend  ( Nausica, daughter of of King Alcinous)  to enter in the dream of Nausica. It is now when¨the goddess drifted through like a breath of fresh air¨ (simile p .169, 20); when Athena enter in her dream as good appearance. Telling her that she should be getting ready to marriage, therefore she should clean the clothes.  First of all one of my favorites characters is Athena because she gets the form of whatever its in the topic and appears in different occasions without one realated to the other. Also the way that the simile is introduce saying that the¨goddess¨ Athena appears as fresh air, it makes really clear that it cames for a new air  in the Nausicaa´s life, the time to marriage. As it is old ages the clothes are washed in the ¨washing pool¨ the river, but it is true that because she was a princess she was driven by the mules in a wagon. Eventhough it is not in page 169 I did like when at the middle of book six ( P.172) Oddysseus  wakes up ¨he crept out of the bushes¨ while the princess and Athena were in the river cleaning the clothes and how ¨he stalked as a mountain lion¨ I believe it wants to say that he appears suddenly and fiercely to finally ask the way to go back home.

Athena gives a speech at Mount Olympus and pleads to the gods including Zeus on the behalf of Odysseus and Telemachus. She explains to them how Odysseus is held at the nymph Calypso’s house by force (153). Zeus sends Hermes, who the messenger of the gods, to the island of Calypso. He tells him “Announce to the nymph with lovely braids our fixed decree: but in the convoy of the gods or mortal men. No, on a lashed, makeshift raft and wrung with pains, on the twentieth day he will make his landfall, fertile Scheria, the land of Phaeacians”, This part really just stood out to me. Did Zeus just basically outline Odysseus future prospects? Once Hermes arrives at Calypso’s estate, he tells her to let go of Odysseus starts complaining about how the male gods get to keep mortal lovers, while the female gods are not. She is in a way forced to release him after Hermes states “Release him at once, just so. Steer clear of the rage of Zeus! Or down the years he’ll fume and make your life a hell” (157). Odysseus was in fact help captive without his will, “unwilling lover alongside lover all too willing…” (157). When Odysseus sits down to feast and converse with the goddess Calypso, he show’s of his loyalty (to his family/homeland) and his bravery, but then as the sun sets he goes back and sleeps with her. “Even as he spoke the sun set and the darkness swept the earth. And now, withdrawing into the cavern’s deep recesses, long in each other’s arms they lost themselves in love” (159). This small section right here completely threw me off, one minute Odysseus is sitting on the rocks and beaches, crying and wrenching his heart with sobs and groans and anguish (157) and next he’s sleeping with her one last time before he ventures off. This is telling me that he does love her, but he wants to return to his homeland more.

(The website is not letting me upload my image)

After sailing seventeen days in the sea, finally on the eighteenth day Odysseus reached the Phaeascians Island. Poor Odysseus did not have any notion about what is going to happen with him. Poseidon , the god of earthquake, he went to his Ethiopian friends for some days. In his absence, “the other gods have changed their minds about Odysseus (161)”. When he came back and saw Odysseus in the Paeacians Island, he realized that the other gods had made a decision about Odysseus without discussing with him. He disrelished it so much, and became furious on poor Odysseus. He intended to give Odysseus trouble. I felt pity for Odysseus, because at that moment Odysseus was so helpless. He did not have the courage to deal with Poseidon’s power. Poseidon’s  anger on Odysseus and giving him trouble was reasonless. He was punishing Odysseus for someone else’s mistake. It was very unfair. Everybody knows about Odysseus sad story that he was far from his native land for a long time, captive in a nymph’s house. He always missed his native land and wanted to go back there desperately. Poseidon, obviously knows everything but though he gives him trouble for a silly reason that the gods made a decision about him in his absence without discussing with him. After knowing everything, why does Poseidon gives Odysseus trouble? When Poseidon was giving him trouble, then Odysseus recall the nymph’s foretell that she said him when he will go to the high seas he will have trouble. Is this is the trouble that the nymph’s was talking about? Is this pain is written in Odysseus fortune? Does the gods have made this trouble for him to teach him any lesson? If this is really Odysseus fortune , then why the gods have made this miserable fortune for him? The gods have the power to change everything , then why they did not change Odysseus fortune?  At that moment Odysseus was so frightened, and it was natural because after being captive for a long time, it is hard for a man to deal with a strong powerful person. Poseidon was misusing his power. he wanted to see Odysseus  in that trouble suffering helplessly. As a god Poseidon is very unkind and whatever he did with Odysseus that was injustice.

Poseidon, on his return back from a trip, discovers the extent what the other gods had done in his absence. He is overwhelmed with fury and decides to stir up an enormous, dangerous storm that nearly swallows Odysseus whole. I am confused as why only Poseidon strives to bring death upon Odysseus while the rest of the Gods pity him and seek his safe return home to Ithaca. Without the help of the Goddess Ino, Odysseus would have most likely perished in the storm waves. Goddness Ino seems to find herself asking the same question, “ahh poory man, why is the god of earthquakes so dead set against you? Strewing your way with such a crop of troubles”(page 163).

 Within this page, Odysseus seems to be plagued with paranoia and doesn’t seem to trust anyone. He states “I fear another immortal weaves a snare to trap me,…” (page 163), and decides to go along with his instincts rather than take the advice of others. Poseidon feeds off of this vulnerability, since Odysseus clings onto his ship still, by sending another round of huge waves in an approaching storm. Does Odysseus know that Poseidon is the one that is causing all these obstacles for him?  If so, does he know why specifically Poseidon is trying so hard to get rid of him through death?

-Maurice Studer

A pattern I noticed is the constant suffering of Odysseus. He first fights in a war that lasts for nearly a decade. After this long war he then sets sail home. His ship is destroyed and his crew lost, but on top of that he is basically kidnapped by the goddess Calypso. He his held on her island for several years against his will as her property. After Zeus learns that she is holding Odysseus there against his will, Zeus commands Calypso to release him. After he is released, he is given a ship, which while sailing, is destroyed again when Poseidon spots him on the open sea. After being helped again he finds his way to a kingdom where the king promises him a ship. But while at his celebration, a man sings of the Trojan War. He sings specifically about an event Odysseus was involved in. This reliving of the battle sends Odysseus into sadness.

I also wondered if Odysseus knew that a god was responsible for the mist that surrounded him on his journey to the palace. He must of known that he was followed by a cloud of fog for the duration of his walk. Was it more like invisibility rather than just a cloud of mist? Also when he kneeled before the king and was suddenly visible why wasn’t he aware that he must have been helped by a God or Goddess. And why did Athena make Odysseus look more attractive to the princess? Was it so she would help him? Is Homer trying to say that she would only help a pretty face and not somebody who is in need of help. Seems like a shallow kind of ideology that homer inserted saying that only pretty people are deserving of help. One more question would be why he was naked when he was first seen. He wasn’t originally bathing, in the river so he should have at least had clothes on when he got there. Was it just Athena trying to make him seem more attractive?

My passage of choice spans lines 410-440 in Book 5. There’s a number of really interesting things going on here. The content of this whole passage is a direct result of Poseidon’s ire at Odysseus. Poseidon’s hell-bent on destroying Odysseus, and he has done so thus far by directing the elements to Odysseus’ disadvantage, Poseidon god of the earthquake, forces brutish winds and giant waves at Odysseus’ humble vessel, doing anything he can as a god to send him to his death. Or so it seems! I find it very strange that Poseidon does not just smite the “man of misery” if Odysseus invokes Poseidon’s wrath so. Even stranger is how Poseidon just lets Odysseus swim to land, and does not pursue him; instead he threatens that the place of the people who love Zeus is the place he will find his punishments heavy. This brings out a different side of Poseidon, one that is not too surprising given the motivations and inclinations of the gods. The gods, it’s no secret, enjoy revenge, and they like to exact it in ways that are seriously wack. It’s like Olympus’ national pastime. I think this would go to explain why Poseidon hasn’t just created the largest wave in existence to drown Odysseus once and for all; he really likes toying with him. That’s how gods pass their time, apparently. Poseidon prioritizes killing Odysseus for blinding the Cyclops (Book 1, lines 81-85) below the entertainment value he will get out of almost killing him several times. Which I guess is a more appropriate punishment to fit the crime of stabbing the Cyclops in the eye? But gods don’t usually take appropriate measures in dealing with their victims, so that doesn’t really apply in this case.

The gods in this story affect Odysseus in similar ways, even though their intents may be vastly different. They all affect Odysseus indirectly. Poseidon manipulates the ocean and the wind, which in turn affect Odysseus; Leucothea gives him her scarf of immortality, which lends him an opportunity to make it out of the deadly sea alive. Athena makes herself look like people who have some influence on other people whose decisions affect Odysseus’ journey. I guess this is more a comment on how we expect stories of mythology to depict otherworldly events that carry a certainty and definiteness to them, whereas The Odyssey has focused a lot on how various factors affect Fate. The gods are very observant of Fate and their role in it is a supporting one, rather than a literal hand of god sort of thing.

Also, I like the line, “warm as the joy that children feel when they see their father’s life dawn again…”, as it’s tying in Telemachus to his father’s part of the story.

Calypso and Hermes seem to know each other very well from their dialogue on page 155 from book five despite Calypso mentioning, “but it’s been so long, your visits much too rare,” (155).  The reason for the lack of visits from Hermes becomes apparent later on.  Hermes gives Calypso a lot of attitude, “Who would willingly roam across a salty waste so vast,” (155). Hermes just insulted Calypso’s choice in a home.

During Calypso’s dialogue when she was asking Hermes how she can help she said “I’m eager to do it, whatever I can do,” (155).  It was very interesting that the word can was italicized.  It seems as if she’s already warning Hermes that there are things she isn’t willing to do to help him.  Does she already know the reason for his visit and doesn’t want to comply?  Maybe she just does not feel like being very helpful.  One of the first sentences on the page states “Immortals are never strangers to each other,” (155), if this is true than how well do they all know one another?  Surely some other immortal has told Calypso what Zeus’ wish was and in that case she is just playing dumb with Hermes.

Throughout the poem Calypso is referred to as the “lustrous goddess”.  Hermes could not track down Odysseus but how hard did he actually look?  Was Hermes the one that cried?  If so, why was he crying?  Was he crying because he could not find Odysseus or because he failed Zeus?  Later on, when Hermes explains his reason for visiting he says, “Zeus claims you keep beside you a most unlucky man,” (155).  Why does he use the word “claims”?  Does Hermes not believe what Zeus told him?

To start off, this passage speaks about how this nymph (what is that, I thought she was a god?) Calypso is holding poor Odysseus hostage “by force.” Many times throughout the book it is mentioned that Calypso is holding him hostage but it never states whether he is in chains or just simply unable to leave the island. She is made out to be this awful monster but then later on in the page it mentions her as “the nymph with lovely braids.” What do her braids have to do with anything and why is she suddenly being described with an alluring depiction? Throughout this page it is also quite obvious that Athena is very personally invested in this situation and seems to have a slightly unhealthy obsession with Odysseus, which in turn makes me wonder if there is some sort of ulterior motive driving Athena to help Odysseus return home to his family. She describes Telemachus as Odysseus’s “dear son” in a very strange emotional speech which Zeus calls nonsense.

When Zeus announces that Odysseus will finally be making his journey home he begins to explain this confusing and convoluted plan of how he will make it to Scheria first and then only after he befriends the natives and gains their affection he will be given ships and gifts to return home. If he is the head god and everyone gathered around him is also a god I don’t understand why it has to be such a difficult plan. Why not just have Hermes, the messenger, take Odysseus with him once he delivers the message he was originally sent to give? These gods have so many powers such as shape shifting and what not but they can’t simply take Odysseus with them?

– Daiana Gorbach

As I read through Book 6: “The Princess and the Stranger,” of The Odyssey, it struck me how much the tale of Nausicaa meeting Odysseus correlated with our discussion in class of the Greek concept, “xenia.” In this case, when Odysseus stumbles upon Nausicaa and her handmaidens, she initially offers the clearly ill-fated Odysseus food, drink, clothing, and the opportunity to bathe out of her clear sense of responsibility being a princess. Beyond generosity, they seem to bestow their offerings in such a way as to look out for possible alliances and good standing amongst other kingdoms, while ensuring that both the recipients and the Gods are aware of their good deeds.

However, the first question I wondered, was why Athena led Odysseus to Nausicaa just as he got away from a situation where he was “trapped” by another powerful woman/goddess, Calypso. But after Nausicaa feels attracted to Odysseus, she offers even more to him, setting him up to meet her mother and father, the queen and king. As in line 270, when she says “Ah, if only a man like that were called my husband, lived right here, pleased to stay forever…” it is clear that she also wants to charm him into falling in love with her, and not just as a means of getting back home. The next passage also raised some questions for me, because it seemed a little sexual with the choice of language; after she offers him food, it says “the great Odysseus, long deprived, so ravenous now–it seemed like years since he has tasted food,” similar to the way that he is cast upon throughout the books, as having little choice in matters with women, being only a “great” man with “needs” that can only be satisfied with women.

When Nausicaa says “Phaecians, you see, care nothing for bow or quiver” but rather for “masts and oars” of their ships, I think she is saying that Odysseus is safe from being harmed by other men, but might not be respected for not sailing in to Phaeacia grandly; by plotting ahead on how he would enter the city, she also did not want to look bad bringing a man unescorted with her.  Basically, it appear that she is trying to set it up where it would look like Odysseus and her “magically” met through an honorable way, so as to make him look better in the eyes of society as a potential husband for her, rather than a shipwrecked beggar. What I also think points to her young and naive age is that she thought of this all based only upon her desire for a husband, and Odysseus’s attractiveness after he bathes; while it is true that he mentions commanding an army prior to meeting his ill-fortune, she really knows nothing about him. Secretly, the Gods arranged for them to meet for a reason, and he is of noble pedigree so he is indeed a good catch, but without her actually knowing this, she is already trying to follow along with her daydreams of the fairy-tale handsome stranger who comes to sweep her off her feet. Additionally, it all connects back with the Greek idea of the Gods and fate having a hand in everything.