The Real History Of The Odyssey: The Greatest Survival Story Of The Bronze Age

[00:00:02][music] [music] >> With most works of literature, it is useful to know something about the author and the times in which he or she lived. This is not really true of the Odyssey.

[00:00:30]Later Greek sources give us a few not very useful scraps of information about the poet Homer, who wrote the Odyssey and the Iliad around 700 BC.

[00:00:40]Seven cities claimed Homer as their citizen, and he's said to have been blind, although the richness of his visual imagery renders this doubtful.

[00:00:51]Homer had the story and many of the lines of the Odyssey handed down to him by generations of oral poets.

[00:00:59]They told of the siege of Troy and the wanderings of heroes like Odysseus in the years between these events occurring around 1200 BC.

[00:01:10]It so happens that we have an example of such an oral poet in book eight of the Odyssey, when a blind singer, Demodocus, [music] tells us various tales.

[00:01:22]>> She robbed him of his eyes, but she gave him the sweet [music] singing art.

[00:01:27]Put a new set of silver-studded chair out for him in the middle of the feasters, propping it against a tall column.

[00:01:34]And the herald hung the clear lyre on a peg placed over his head and showed him how to reach up with his hands and take it down.

[00:01:42]And set beside him a table and a fine basket, and beside him a cup to drink whenever his [music] spirit desired it.

[00:01:49]They put forth their hands to the good things that lay ready before them.

[00:01:54]But when they had put away their desire for eating and drinking, the muse stirred the singer to sing the famous actions of men on that venture, whose fame goes up into the wide heaven.

[00:02:08]>> Oral poets like Demodocus could be found at the beginning of this century in the former Yugoslavia singing without the aid of any written notes poems as long as the Iliad or the Odyssey about events in the 14th century.

[00:02:22]Like the Odyssey, such poems contained repeated lines.

[00:02:26]Then the thoughtful Telemachus said to her in answer.

[00:02:30]And repeated phrases.

[00:02:32]Dawn with her rosy fingers and gray-eyed Athene which the oral poet needs for the creation of his poem recited in long sittings with few pauses or breaks.

[00:02:44]Like the Odyssey, such poems contained digressions and discrepancies [music] inevitable when poems of such length are sung without the opportunity to check for coherence or relevance.

[00:02:56]Around the time of the discovery of writing, Homer welded together some disconnected oral lays into a grand literary design.

[00:03:06]In dealing with such a poem, we should not be concerned with complicated symbolic patterns.

[00:03:12]Nor should we concentrate [music] on particular words or phrases.

[00:03:17]Such sophistication is not helpful in a poem that originated from an oral tradition and is in any case inappropriate for a work studied in [music] translation from its original Greek.

[00:03:29]But we can and do appreciate Homer's artistic design and moral philosophy.

[00:03:37]>> Well, the Odyssey certainly comes from an oral tradition which we can tell um by some of the features of oral composition such as the use of formulae, set phrases which occur whenever that essential idea has to be conveyed. We see this at the very small level of combinations of epithets and nouns, and we see it at the slightly larger level of typical scenes, which are repeated whenever a scene of that type has to be described, and we see it at a wider level in the use of typical themes, the disguised guest, the returning stranger, um scenes of sacrifice, all that sort of thing.

[00:04:19]>> The Odyssey was divided into 24 books corresponding to the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet 400 years after its composition.

[00:04:28]This division is not the work of Homer, but is obviously convenient.

[00:04:32]We can note a more interesting division of the poem into six parts, each lasting four books.

[00:04:39]>> Homer was an entertainer. He had to produce a poem which would be gripping and would be new. The newest song is always best. That's uh what we're told in the Odyssey.

[00:04:49]And what's characteristic of Homer is that he always produces something which is surprising, different, original, even avant-garde. And when you look at the sorts of poems that must have been about in Homer's day, some of them were about the returns of heroes from Troy, the returns of all the heroes from Troy.

[00:05:08]What Homer did was to focus on the return of one particular hero and to build a whole lifestyle, a whole study of Greek culture around that single man.

[00:05:18]It was an inspiration.

[00:05:20]>> The Odyssey is not just a series of oral lays strung together. It is a great epic poem.

[00:05:27]An epic poem is a poem that deals with fundamental problems in human life and tries to find an answer to them.

[00:05:36]And it is a curious feature of almost all epic poems that they involve the journey or the quest.

[00:05:44]Virgil's Aeneid and Paradise Lost both involved journeys.

[00:05:48]And the journey of the quest, a successful journey in the case of the Odyssey, is a very suitable subject for an epic poem.

[00:05:58]>> In the first section, we hear of the adventures of Telemachus, [music] Odysseus' son, unhappy in Ithaca because his father's kingdom and father's wife, Penelope, are at the mercy of a host of suitors.

[00:06:13]He goes in search of news of his father from Nestor and Menelaus, gaining wisdom and discretion as he proceeds.

[00:06:22]It may seem odd to begin in a comparatively minor key with Telemachus, although of course Odysseus is constantly mentioned.

[00:06:30]And the maturing of Telemachus will be paralleled by the growth of Odysseus in wisdom and understanding.

[00:06:39]The gods, particularly Athene, [music] help Telemachus as they later help Odysseus.

[00:06:45]Indeed, the book opens with a council of the gods.

[00:06:50]Poseidon, god of the sea and arch-enemy of Odysseus, is absent.

[00:06:58]>> First among them to speak was the father of gods and mortals, for he was thinking in his heart of stately Aegisthus, whom Orestes, Agamemnon's far-famed son, had murdered.

[00:07:09]Remembering [music] him, he spoke now before the immortals.

[00:07:13]"Oh, for shame!

[00:07:14]>> [music] >> How the mortals put the blame upon us gods, for they say evils come from us.

[00:07:20]>> [music] >> But it is they, rather, who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given.

[00:07:25]>> [music] >> As now lately, beyond what was given, Aegisthus married the wife of Atreus' son and murdered [music] him on his homecoming, though he knew it was sheer destruction. For we ourselves had told him, [music] sending Hermes, the mighty watcher, Argeiphontes, not to kill the man nor court his lady for marriage.

[00:07:45]>> The mention of Aegisthus is significant.

[00:07:47]Again and again, we have references to a story parallel to that of Odysseus, but different.

[00:07:54]Agamemnon, unlike Odysseus, returned home after the Trojan War quickly and rashly.

[00:08:00]His wife, Clytemnestra, was, unlike Penelope, unfaithful.

[00:08:05]And with her suitor, Aegisthus, conspired to murder him.

[00:08:09]>> In book five, we join Odysseus who has been languishing for seven years on Calypso's island.

[00:08:15]Such a life does not seem too frightful.

[00:08:18]But Odysseus, eager to return home and eager for action, is unhappy.

[00:08:24]>> Certainly, Odysseus is mentioned in the very first word of the poem. The first word is man. Tell me of the man is the invocation to the muse. And yet, we don't meet this man until four books later.

[00:08:36]This is the basic effect of of retardation and the basic effect of expansion, which is the aesthetic on which um homeric epic poetry works.

[00:08:47]But also, it allows us to see the gravity of the situation which Odysseus faces on his return. In the first four books, we see the crisis that arises because Telemachus is now becoming a man and now has to do something about the situation of the suitors consuming his inheritance at at Ithaca.

[00:09:07]>> The first four books are all about his >> son.

[00:09:10]And they immediately highlight for us that the poem is about um how a whole family works and that the relationship between Telemachus and Odysseus is absolutely central to the poem. Telemachus must learn how to enter a world of heroic values, must learn what it is to be an adult, must learn to speak in assemblies, must learn to become Odysseus.

[00:09:38]>> So spoke powerful Argeiphontes, and there he left her. While she, the queenly nymph, when she had been given the message from Zeus, set out searching after great-hearted Odysseus, and found him sitting on the seashore. And his eyes were never wiped dry of tears, and the sweet lifetime was draining out of him as he wept for a way home, since the nymph was no longer [music] pleasing to him.

[00:10:04]By night he would lie beside her of necessity in the hollow caverns against [music] his will by one who was willing.

[00:10:12]But all the days he would sit upon the rocks at the seaside, breaking his heart in [music] tears and lamentation and sorrow. As weeping tears he looked out over the barren water.

[00:10:26]>> [music] >> The gods, represented by Hermes, ask Calypso to release Odysseus, and obediently she helps him to build a raft. And Odysseus lands on the island of Phaeacia, where he meets Nausicaa, daughter of King Alcinous. [music] Wisely, Odysseus avoids any romantic entanglement with Nausicaa, although he has not always been so cautious.

[00:10:51]And it is more than once hinted that Nausicaa is ripe for such a romance.

[00:10:57]Wisely, too, he avoids revealing his identity until he learns from Demodocus's songs that he is respected in Phaeacia.

[00:11:07]He only then tells the story of his adventures.

[00:11:12]>> Odysseus's account of his previous adventures in books 9 to 12 forms the best known and most exciting part of the Odyssey.

[00:11:20]Chronologically, they precede books 1 to 8, but had Homer started with them, the rest of the poem might have seemed something of an anticlimax.

[00:11:29]Alternatively, since in these books Odysseus encounters and escapes supernatural forces like Scylla and Charybdis, his adventures would seem incredible without the aid of books 1 to 8, in which we learn that Odysseus is an extraordinary man.

[00:11:47]>> There are about nine or so figures in the four books of Odysseus's main adventures, which he recounts himself.

[00:11:57]And some of these are obviously fantastic creatures such as we do not meet in ordinary life.

[00:12:06]There's an element of fairy story here.

[00:12:09]I'm not sure we should try and read too much symbolism into the creatures like Polyphemus, Scylla, and Charybdis. It's true that in Bunyan's allegorical book, Pilgrim's Progress, he has this character Giant Despair, who must, I suppose, originate from Polyphemus. But we get giants in Jack the Giant Killer and David and Goliath, and I don't think we can see much in Polyphemus except a great, dangerous character, whom somehow Odysseus gets the better of.

[00:12:47]>> It's very interesting thinking about the mythic characters in the Odyssey.

[00:12:52]Um one thing people don't notice is that they only appear in books 9 to 12 of the Odyssey. It's a 24-book work. So, that means they only appear in what, about a sixth of it?

[00:13:04]Um they only appear in the story that Odysseus himself tells, as though it created a different register, a different sense of reality. Um we don't learn about Cyclopses and Scyllas and Charybdises outside that story.

[00:13:20]Um so, they have a very limited distribution against the realism of the rest of the poem.

[00:13:26]Now, if you look at the monsters themselves, they are part of This is Odysseus' account of how he qualified to be the hero that is worth knowing about.

[00:13:36]So, he is the man that survived the dangers which they posed, whereas others didn't. Notably, his comrades didn't.

[00:13:43]We're told on the first page of the poem that he's striving for his own return and the return of his comrades, but those comrades never make it, and it's their fault. Homer has created lots um tantalizing situations, very entertaining, yes, but they give a sense of meaning something. It means something that Odysseus endures and overcomes all temptations, and it means something that he knew how to resist the cattle of the sun, but his comrades did not. That he knew that the bag of the wind should not be opened, and it was only when he fell asleep through a moment's inattention that the whole thing came to bits.

[00:14:22]Although Odysseus recounts his own story, >> [music] >> and we are usually the heroes of stories we tell, he appears in a less admirable light in these books >> [music] >> than in the rest of the poem.

[00:14:34]He gets the better of Polyphemus and Circe through some clever trickery and divine help, but he is foolish to reveal his real name to the Cyclops.

[00:14:45]This provokes the wrath of Poseidon, Polyphemus' father.

[00:14:50]With Circe, >> [music] >> he is more cautious initially, but his stay with her is prolonged beyond the cause of [music] duty.

[00:14:59]He reveals his relationship with his men [music] was an uneasy one, but he does not take them into his confidence.

[00:15:07]Book 11, [music] recounting Odysseus' visit to the underworld, contains portraits of people like Achilles [music] and Agamemnon, who should have been warnings to Odysseus [music] of the dangers of rash and amorous escapades.

[00:15:23]>> There are, in fact, multiple parallels here. There's a parallel between Agamemnon himself and Odysseus.

[00:15:29]Agamemnon comes back quickly from Troy.

[00:15:32]Um he comes back as the successful victor. He comes back fully attended by all his men, and yet he's murdered by deception on his return. Contrast that with Odysseus, who takes 10 years to get home, who comes back alone, who uses deception himself, and emerges as as victor.

[00:15:51]So, Odysseus obviously learns from Agamemnon's mistakes. There's a contrast in style of return, a contrast in their manner and their tactics based on the parallelism of the the two stories.

[00:16:03]>> The second half of the Odyssey includes the famous episode of the bow, where Penelope challenges the suitors to string Odysseus's bow.

[00:16:13]She knows that only Odysseus can do it.

[00:16:18]The moving scenes when Odysseus reveals himself first to his son in book 16, and then to his wife in book 23, are intimate and powerful.

[00:16:29]Both Telemachus and Penelope are cautious, like Odysseus, and though initially skeptical, are eventually convinced.

[00:16:39]Their reunions are touching.

[00:16:44]>> Then in turn, long-suffering great Odysseus answered him, "No, I am not a god. Why liken me to the immortals?

[00:16:52]>> [music] >> But I am your father, for whose sake you are always grieving as you look for violence from others >> [music] >> and endure hardships."

[00:17:02]So he spoke and kissed his son, and the tears running down his cheeks splashed on the ground.

[00:17:09]Until now, he was always unyielding.

[00:17:13]But Telemachus, for he He not yet believe that this was his father, spoke to him once again in answer [music] saying, "No, you are not Odysseus, my father, but some divinity beguiles me, so that I must grieve the more and be sorry."

[00:17:29]>> As well as the relationship between Odysseus and his wife, there's the relationship between Penelope and Telemachus, which is not an easy one at all, and it's not an easy one because of the absence of the father. The authority and status in the relationship between Telemachus and Penelope is not clear, not well defined. This is what the father is required for. When the father returns, we see that he enjoys a relationship with Penelope very different from that between Penelope and Telemachus. They're on the same wavelength, broadly.

[00:18:01]When Odysseus meets Nausicaa in book six, he tells her that the ideal between a man and his wife is like-mindedness.

[00:18:11]And this is very much what Penelope and Odysseus demonstrate.

[00:18:17]>> Penelope is an extraordinary figure. Penelope is held up for comparison against another woman in Greek mythology, Clytemnestra.

[00:18:28]Clytemnestra is celebrated for having slaughtered her husband Agamemnon and having been unfaithful to him.

[00:18:37]Um Odysseus meets Agamemnon in the underworld, and Agamemnon draws the comparison between Clytemnestra and Penelope, saying that all women are a bad thing, but there is Penelope.

[00:18:50]>> [music] >> So he spoke, and her knees and the heart within her went slack as she recognized the clear proofs [music] that Odysseus had given.

[00:18:59]But then she burst into tears and ran straight to him, throwing her arms around the neck of Odysseus and kissed his head saying, "Do not be angry with me, Odysseus, >> [music] >> since beyond other men you have the most understanding.

[00:19:13]The gods granted us misery >> [music] >> in jealousy over the thought that we two, always together, should enjoy our youth and then come to the threshold of old age.

[00:19:24]Then do not now be angry with me, nor blame me, >> [music] >> because I did not greet you as I do now at first when I saw you.

[00:19:33]>> We can still see Homer operating [music] with the original blocks of four books.

[00:19:38]In books 13 to 16, Odysseus returns to his homeland of Ithaca disguised as a beggar.

[00:19:44]>> [music] >> In books 17 to 20, still in the guise of a beggar, he shows great skill and restraint in not identifying himself when insulted by the suitors and when he is recognized by his old acquaintances.

[00:20:01]>> Well, it fools Eumaeus, his old and trusted servant, and he certainly doesn't see through the disguise, and it fools Penelope herself. Although, there is a school of thought that Penelope secretly recognizes Odysseus, and this is also what one of the suitors themselves claims in book 24, but there's no real evidence for a recognition which isn't explicitly signaled in the text.

[00:20:25]But of course, Argos, the dog, sees through the disguise and he's overcome with joy at the return of his master and drops dead on the spot.

[00:20:33]And Eurycleia, the faithful old nurse, sees through the disguise. Okay, Odysseus is naked by this stage and he's being washed, but still, as well as the physical disguise of the the rags, he's been made to look different by Athena as well. So, you would think that uh she shouldn't recognize him, but she does.

[00:20:54]>> In books 21 to 24, we have the contest of the bow, its savage outcome with the murder of the suitors, and the reunion of Penelope and Odysseus are all shocking and tender respectively.

[00:21:09]Homer entices and thrills his audience after this magnificent climax in the shape of the suitors going into the underground.

[00:21:18]Odysseus' reunion with his father and mini battle between his supporters and the friends of the suitors.

[00:21:26]>> The Odyssey is the first and greatest story of a successful quest and should have ended when the hero against all odds had reached his goal.

[00:21:36]Odysseus is admirable if not totally so, brave, resourceful, cunning and determined.

[00:21:42]He makes mistakes [music] but is prepared to learn from them.

[00:21:46]We note for instance his control of his tiny force against the suitors contrasting with his [music] previous treatment of his men.

[00:21:53]Telemachus makes a mistake and leaves a door open which reveals Penelope's deception of the suitors and Odysseus wastes no time in recrimination.

[00:22:02]We note his [music] brilliant mixture of planning and improvisation in turning the contest of the bow to his own advantage.

[00:22:10]He is of course helped by Athene but it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between [music] the goddess of wisdom and Odysseus' own quick wits as the source of his inspiration.

[00:22:21]>> As well as having a protectress in Athena, Odysseus has an enemy, a personal enemy in one of the gods, namely Poseidon and this is for purely personal reasons um because of the fact that Odysseus blinded the son of Poseidon, Polyphemus the Cyclops.

[00:22:38]So he's constantly trying to frustrate Odysseus' return. Athena's constantly trying to promote his return. He has one divine enemy, one divine friend.

[00:22:50]>> The relationship of Athene and Odysseus is very interesting. It's very close.

[00:22:55]Um it's hard for us to define that closeness without importing some sort of I suppose in the modern circumstances you'd import some sort of sexual content to it.

[00:23:07]However, when you look at it, they behave like old pals. And the key moment is that moment in book 13 when Athena is talking to Odysseus and reviling him for just having told her a pack of lies. And he realizes at that moment that it was Athena. And of course protests that she hasn't helped him enough. An astonishing thing thing thing to say to your protecting divinity when finally it makes itself known.

[00:23:35]>> Now, it might seem that the help given by the gods and particularly by Athena rather detracts from the heroism of Odysseus. If he gets so much help, he is less of an independent character.

[00:23:51]But I don't think that's quite so because Athena is after all the goddess of wisdom. And sometimes in talking about inspiration from Athena, we get the impression that really Odysseus' his own quick wits are what inspires him.

[00:24:10]And I think in fact we can read this book without too much worry about these gods coming heavily on and off the stage. We can read it just as a story of human ingenuity.

[00:24:25]>> The monsters Odysseus encounters in books 9 to 12 are on the one hand fantastic creatures [music] out of fairy tales, but they also have a symbolic significance.

[00:24:37]Circe, the Sirens, [music] Scylla and Charybdis are all female and can be seen as temptations that beset Odysseus [music] on his way.

[00:24:48]Scylla and Charybdis have of course become [music] a proverbial expression for two equally difficult choices.

[00:24:57]As already shown, Odysseus is vulnerable to other women.

[00:25:01]Although his infidelity with Circe [music] and Calypso do not seem to be questioned.

[00:25:08]And then there is the power of some of the speeches.

[00:25:13]This extract is taken from the episode of the bow, where Penelope states the challenge.

[00:25:21]>> Hear me now, you haughty suitors, who have been using this house for incessant eating and drinking, though it belongs to a man who has been gone for a long time.

[00:25:30]Never have you been able to bring any other saying before me, but only your desire to make me your wife and marry me.

[00:25:38]But come, you suitors, since here is a prize set out before you.

[00:25:42]For I shall bring you the great bow of the godlike Odysseus.

[00:25:47]And the one who takes the bow in his hands, strings it with greatest ease, and sends an arrow clean through all the 12 axes, shall be the one I go away with, forsaking this house where I was a bride, a lovely place and full of good living.

[00:26:02]>> [music] >> I think that even in my dreams I shall never forget.

[00:26:08]>> But the thought that one day it will be a pleasure to [music] remember even the bad times on a journey is one to comfort travelers at all times.

[00:26:17]And then >> [music] >> there is the sad lament of Achilles to the effect that all of his heroism is pointless now that he is dead.

[00:26:28]>> So I spoke, and he in turn said to me in answer, "O shining Odysseus, never try to console me for dying.

[00:26:37]I would rather follow the plow as thrall to another man, one with no land allotted to him, and not much to live on, than be a king over all the perished dead."

[00:26:47]>> The message of the Odyssey that it is important to stay alive is clearly a valuable one, rather different from the message of the Iliad where heroism is so important.

[00:27:02]But the Odyssey, with its sense of fun and excitement, does show us also that life is worth living.

[00:27:12]>> Experts on the Odyssey often point to the use of continuing themes in the poem. So, for instance, you're always coming across the theme of xenia, of guest friendship. At the first sight, it can be rather puzzling that there should be a theme to write a 24-book epic about about how you treat strangers, how you should ask them questions when they've just had dinner, how it is impolite if you are a one-eyed monster to eat your guests, and even more impolite to eat them raw. And through all this theme and variations, all these different little situations, piece by piece, a whole story is built up of how society really works, how people can live together, what the real values are that bond people together.

[00:28:01]>> I'm not sure whether it wants specifically to give us a message as such, but it is very much an exemplary sort of poem that it uses as an example to the audience and the readership of the poem.

[00:28:14]And he is, so in a way which is rather different from the character of of the Iliad. He's an example of a a type of heroism that relies on perseverance, symbolized by his clinging to this plank after his shipwreck. He holds on for dear life, and he always does throughout the poem.

[00:28:35]And also self-control is his other main characteristic. And the reason that he is persevering and self-controlled is that he wants to get home, and he wants to get home to his house and his wife.

[00:28:47]So, marriage is a very, very important theme in the poem and with marriage belong the other institutions of civilization.

[00:28:56]>> The Odyssey is a shining example of Greek epic, which has had a monumental effect on world literature throughout the ages.

[00:29:04]The central message of the Odyssey is that the trials and triumphs of the journey that test Odysseus' character and courage are defining experiences for him.

[00:29:13]As such, they become much more important than the reason for his trip or even his safe arrival home.

[00:29:21]From Beowulf to El Cid to the modern day road movie, the epic quest or odyssey of our heroes has been a focus for entertainment and [music] self-discovery for every generation.

[00:29:39]>> [music] [music]