The OdysseyAfter a brief overview of the Odyssey,

considering its structure as a traditional nostos, or return story, we turn to the Odyssey itself and the striking absence of the hero for the

first four books. The poet uses those books to establish the reputation of our hero and the critical nature of the situation back at home.

We hear so much about the exploits of Odysseus, and we see his family so endangered by the presence of the suitors, that when we

finally encounter Odysseus in Book 5, stuck on Calypso’s island paradise, we understand his

longing for home. After leaving Calypso’s island, the final stop for Odysseus is among the Phaeacians, where he encounters one more potential obstacle in his quest for Ithaca, the marriage-minded princess

Nausicaa.

Pieter Lastman, Odysseus and Nausicaa, 1619

• The relationship between the Iliad and the Odyssey is complex, the many similarities in form and mythical world serving to highlight the differences of them.

• The most common view in antiquity was that a single poet composed the two epics.

• In his Poetics, Aristotle assumes single authorship while noting the differences in plot and tone between the two.

• Another view was that the Odyssey was a work of Homer’s old age, while the Iliad was the poet’s more youthful product.

• Samuel Butler, a 19th century British novelist, famously argued that the Iliad was composed by a man; the Odyssey, by a woman.

• In light of the oral theory of composition, most people think that the question of single authorship is misguided and that the two poems emerge from a similar oral tradition, that is, the repeated recitation of stories through generations.

• Beyond the details of style and form that link the two epics, there are clear indications that the poet of the Odyssey knows the Iliad and is building upon it.

• They are both long narrative poems in dactylic hexameter, with similar diction, syntax, and poetic devices, and each of them focuses on a single portion of the longer Trojan War story.

• Within the narrative of the Odyssey, there is no overlap with the Iliad, even as the story of the Iliad has become a subject for singers in the Odyssey, hearkening back to the war and its aftermath.

• But many of the central figures from the Iliad are accounted for in the Odyssey.

• Given all of these similarities, the differences between the two epics are all the more striking.

• We move from a poem of war to a poem of peace: Odysseus’s goal is to return to his family and become reintegrated into his prewar life.

• In place of Achilles, a hotheaded young warrior, the hero Odysseus is a careful planner and strategist.

• The concentrated focus of the Iliad becomes more diffuse, both temporally and geographically, as we follow Odysseus around the Mediterranean for 10 years.

• In its overall structure, the Odyssey is a traditional nostos, or return story.

• Hundreds of examples of this type of story have been recorded, found throughout the world all of them following the same basic storyline.

• The essential elements of the nostos begin with the absence of the hero, causing devastation for the hero and/or those left back at home; the hero returns, enacts some form of retribution on those who have been causing trouble, and is then united with the woman left behind.

• Application of this pattern to the Odyssey is clear but is far from mechanistic or limiting.

• The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus’s 10-year journey from Troy to his home on Ithaca and what happens after he arrives home.

• The first four books, the so-called Telemacheia, focus on the problems at home caused by Odysseus’s long absence. Here we meet Odysseus’s son Telemachus; his wife, Penelope; and the suitors in his palace.

• We first meet Odysseus in Book 5 near the end of his travels, longing for home.

• Books 6-8 narrate Odysseus’s final stop among the Phaeacians.

• In Books 9-12, Odysseus tells the Phaeacians about his many adventures since leaving Troy.

• Odysseus arrives on Ithaca in Book 13, and the remainder of the epic recounts his attempts, after 20 years of absence, to return to his former position within his family and society.

• The epic starts on Ithaca, with a view of the problems and possibilities that await Odysseus back home.

• Odysseus’s home is overrun by importunate and impolite suitors for the hand of his wife, Penelope, and even the gods recognize that their behavior is wrong.

• Penelope herself is holding out, showing herself as a faithful and suitable wife for a man such as Odysseus.

• She had promised to choose a husband after weaving a shroud for her father-in-law Laertes.

• At night, she tore out all she had woven each day, deceiving the suitors for almost four years and putting off the need to choose one until one of her serving women gave her away.

• As the epic starts, the shroud is finished, and a crisis is at hand.

John William Waterhouse - 1912 Penelope and the Suitors

• But the primary focus is on Odysseus’s son, Telemachus—hence, the reference to these four books as the Telemacheia—and his process of maturing.

• Athena, disguised as a mortal, visits Telemachus and encourages him to find out about his father form some of his Trojan comrades.

• Telemachus travels a mini-Odyssey of his own, astounding everyone by sailing off to learn of his father.

• He first visits old King Nestor, who fondly recalls the brilliance of Odysseus at Troy.

• Then, he travels to visit Menelaus, who also gives him an aural reenactment of parts of the Trojan War.

Telemachus departing from Nestor - by Henry Howard (1769-1847)

• During these travels, we see some of the nostos structure—a view of what awaits Telemachus at home, for back at Ithaca, the suitors are plotting his death, lying in wait for his ship offshore.

• With Athena’s help, Telemachus easily escapes them, but that sense of danger contributes to making this little voyage more like Odysseus’s.

• In Telemachus’s journey, we see a son worthy of his father, and we hear and learn about Odysseus before we see him

• As well, we see in the households of both Nestor and Menelaus models of proper hospitality—xenia—which is lacking in Odysseus’s palace because of the intolerable suitors.

Athena watches as Telemachus kisses his father: The meeting between Ulysses and Telemachus. Charles Baude, Engraver

• The introduction of Odysseus himself comes only in Book 5, where we see him with the goddess Calypso, longing for home.

• The poet emphasizes the attractions of Calypso’s island.

• The island itself is enough to make the god Hermes marvel.

• Calypso offers Odysseus an immortal life of pleasure and beauty, but even those attractions cannot replace Ithaca and Penelope for Odysseus.

• Odysseus’s desire to give up this life reveals just how determined he is to return home.

• Prompted by Hermes, and much against her will, Calypso sends Odysseus on his way.

• On the open sea, Odysseus is at the mercy of the gods. Buffeted violently by Poseidon, then saved by a sea nymph, he finally drags himself ashore at the island of the Phaeacians.

• The poet marks Odysseus’s arrival at Phaeacia as a new beginning for him, a significant step in his reentry back into a normal world.

• But here, we see one final test for Odysseus among the Phaeacians.

• There are threats to his return in the attractions of Phaeacia and the princess Nausicaa.

• Nausicaa has marriage very much on her mind.

• She is a self-possessed young woman, willing to help even the naked and bedraggled stranger washed up on her shore.

• Both she and her father see Odysseus as a desirable match.

• Phaeacia is not as divinely magical as Calypso’s island but seems a form of perfection within the reach of the real world.

• The Phaeacians are the model of hospitality, welcoming Odysseus, offering him food, drink, and passage home.