So You Want To Read The Odyssey

[00:00:01]Well, hello and an extremely warm welcome to my channel. My name is Louise and I love musing, waffling, chatting about books. Um and I know that a lot of you who view my channel regularly and welcome back if you're one of those people and a really warm welcome to anyone who's watching the channel for the first time. But if you've been watching regularly, you will know that I was fortunate enough to trot off to university in 1985. A bit more about that in a moment. Um to study classics.

[00:00:32]And for quite a long time now, I've been wanting to do something um classical, specifically classical on this channel.

[00:00:40]Um in fact, I've almost thought about setting up a separate channel devoted to classical stuff, but I've been too busy.

[00:00:47]Um but anyway, um on Friday, of course, in the UK, the um the film The Odyssey is is coming out. And there's a lot of excitement around it and what better time for me to um to create a video where I I support readers in um trying to get the most out of reading The Odyssey and possibly out of the film as well.

[00:01:11]Um and I have to be absolutely honest, this all came from my son Simon because he said, "Mom, I'm I'm wondering whether I might read The Odyssey before I see the film."

[00:01:21]And I said to him, "Well, if you do, start with book nine." And he was like, "Book what? Book nine? What book? What?"

[00:01:27]Um and um And so, he sowed the seeds. He said, "Mom, you you really ought to make a video um about The Odyssey." So, that's what I'm doing except I'm not because we're just going to focus on a very short section of it, but I'll come to that a little bit later.

[00:01:43]So, um when I trotted off to university in 1985, it was really something that shouldn't never have happened. Um the fact that I went to do a classics degree was really quite a miracle in many ways.

[00:01:54]Because I grew up um in Derbyshire in the middle of well, in the Midlands, in the middle of the UK. I went to a state school.

[00:02:03]Um I was fortunate enough that Latin was taught at the school, but also in 1980, my dad um uh took us all on a motorhome holiday, me and my siblings and my mom.

[00:02:16]Um and we we drove to Italy in this motorhome and traveled around Italy and it had a profound effect on me, as did um I, Claudius, being on the telly, um as did reading Jude the Obscure and um Jude uh learns ancient Greek and it kind of, you know, transforms his life. So, all of these different sort of circumstances conspired to foster an interest in classics.

[00:02:42]Not only that, um my parents hadn't gone to university and I also had um by the time I was 19 and went to university in 1985, I had a 3-year-old son with me as well.

[00:02:53]So, it was amazing that that um I I I went and did what I did and if you think, you know, a lot of you comment on my passion for books and the way I talk about books, you haven't seen anything yet. It's it's a bit like um when I when I, you know, I was fortunate enough to teach classics for many years, mainly in translation because of the sort of the issue with accessibility and because of my passion for trying to um open up the classical world to as many young people as possible.

[00:03:26]Um and particularly people who might never have had that opportunity. So, um so, the first thing that people ask when they talk about the Odyssey is which translation should I read?

[00:03:38]And that's a really difficult question for me because um this version of the Odyssey and this is probably my second or third version of it because my other versions have literally fallen apart because they were so thumbed. Um this is translated by E.V. Rieu and it's quite an old um translation. However, this is the translation that I personally am most familiar with because it was the one that I studied many years ago and also um it's the one that was cheapest and most accessible for my students when I was teaching in school. So, this is the version that I know the best. But even better than that for me in the um inside this book, the introduction is written by um Dr. Peter Jones. Now, Peter Jones plays a very important part in my little story that I've just told you because when I was applying for university, I didn't have any ancient Greek and if you wanted to um go to university and study classics in those days, you had to be able to um translate ancient Greek.

[00:04:44]So, I wrote to Peter Jones who was at um Newcastle University at the time, um a senior lecturer there and I had met him briefly at two summer schools that I attended cuz I decided that I was going to learn ancient Greek. Why shouldn't I?

[00:04:59]You know, I might not have had access to it at school. So, I started to teach myself and then I found out about these national summer schools which Peter Jones was very much behind and I'm I briefly met him at these summer schools and he was so enthusiastic and so passionate about um ancient Greek being accessible to anybody. Um he uh with another group of people had put together a a course called Reading Greek um which was really designed for um open university students, mature students, but it was one that I I used to learn Greek.

[00:05:33]>> [snorts] >> Um so anyway, so I wrote to him and he said, "If you can get the equivalent of a um a GCSE now in in modern terms here in the UK in ancient Greek, then we will put you on the full classics program.

[00:05:50]Um he also did other things like he put me in touch with the university social worker so that I could have support finding accommodation for me and my son.

[00:05:58]I mean he was it was it was life-changing coming across this guy really when I think about it. So the fact that, you know, he he wrote this introduction um is really quite special to me. So this this translation is very close to my heart and I know it's really accessible for um people who are encountering >> [clears throat] >> um the text of Homer for the very first time. The translation though that I'm actually going to use when I'm talking about it is this one because this is Emily Wil- Wilson's translation.

[00:06:27]And Simon bought me this well when it first came out some years ago now and I um hadn't read any of it until last night.

[00:06:36]Um because I I you know, I sometimes I stash books away for for not a exactly a rainy day but a day when I really need them.

[00:06:44]Um and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to open this and so I have read some of this um last night and this is a fabulous fabulous translation. I think if you're new to um classical text, I think it it really takes away the fear. There's quite a lengthy introduction at the beginning. I suppose part of this video is aimed at um maybe uh helping you to avoid that until you've actually read it cuz I don't think you you need to plow through all of that necessarily but it's it's it's it's brilliant and it's so lucid. But also there are lots of, you know, there are summaries of the books, there are all the names at the back. Um so I I I just think this is fantastic and it's also really good excuse for me to familiarize myself with this with this trans- translation which I know is loved by many. I'm not normally during a video I hold the book up throughout. I'm not going to do that today because I'm going to get a very tired arm if I do.

[00:07:42]So, uh, Emily Wilson's translation. So, um, a few things to say. Um, what I'm what I'm planning to do is to try and take the fear away. I know I know from you know, lots of experience, particularly of talking to parents on parents' evenings when I was teaching, and so often parents would say, "Oh my goodness, I would love to study your subject. I never got the chance at school. I wouldn't know where to start.

[00:08:08]I'd be worried about all the particularly the names." People really, really worry about, um, all the different Greek names. Um, and you know, "I wouldn't remember." And da da da da da. So, there were all these kind of barriers, and I think as well that people, traditionally certainly in the UK, classics has been put on a pedestal.

[00:08:29]And, um, you know, there's this there's this this assumption that if you study classics, you've got to be super bright. Well, I'm not so sure that's right. Um, and, um, I think anybody can get pleasure out of reading Homer, and I really want to encourage as many of you if you if you are somebody who steer clear of, um, reading, um, Homeric epic, then I'm going to try and sort of convert you today, and give you some ammunition to help you, um, tackle it.

[00:08:58]So, um, so the first thing I would say is just don't worry about the names. You know, the names that you need to know will be repeated. You will come across them over and over again, and I will sort of steer you towards the names that you need to pay attention to.

[00:09:11]Um, reading the Odyssey, one of the things that you need to remember is that it it is a poem. So, in this version, it's translated as prose, which is one of the reasons why perhaps it seems more accessible to people.

[00:09:25]Um, Emily Wilson has translated it in poetry, and it was a poem that that followed a very regular rhythm. A bit like, you know, think Shakespeare, I guess. Um, you're not conscious necessarily when you're listening to Shakespeare that you're listening to poetry, but actually it is poetry.

[00:09:41]Um, so it it it And the reason for that, partly, is because nobody actually knows how old the Odyssey is. Anybody who tells you they know is is just, you know, that's nonsense. We don't really know. We we we don't We're not even quite sure when it was first written down, but we do know that there was a sort of standardized version that was written down in the 6th century BC. I mean, you just think about that. That's 2 and 1/2 thousand years ago um, this poem was first written down. And, um, and then it was learnt, you know, like schoolboys would learn it and things like that. But what we have to remember is that that this poem possibly existed before writing did.

[00:10:23]Um, certainly, I mean, in my view, there was no one person called Homer. I hate to sort of ruin your thoughts, but it's mind-blowing, isn't it, to think that this book probably reflects a whole cycle of stories um, that were passed down by word of mouth. And therefore, there's lots of repetition.

[00:10:43]Um, because it's a repetition is a really good way of giving the storyteller a bit of a break, um, and and leaning into the rhythm of the story. Um, it's also full of what we call epithets. So, these are these little sort of nicknames almost for the characters. So, for example, Athena is often described as gray-eyed. Um, and um, Poseidon Poseidon is often described as the Earth-shaker. So, everybody has their little epithet. And again, that's a way of making sure that the rhythm of the poem stays fluid. So, it's got these little idiosyncrasies that again, um, can be off-putting for people if they're not sure why they're there, or, you know, they think, "I've I've just read that surely somewhere else." Well, that's why it's sort of repeated because of the genre that it is.

[00:11:30]Um, and, you know, for me personally, that's that's one of the things that I I really really love about it.

[00:11:37]Um, so yeah, Homer was probably not just one um one single person. So, why start at book nine? You know, Simon said, "Why on earth, Mom, would I want to start reading this?" Because it's it's divided into 24 books.

[00:11:54]And um and book nine is it isn't even in the middle, is it?

[00:11:59]But, what might surprise you about this?

[00:12:01]This is the first or second worst work of um worst work? No, work of Western literature. Um, most people think that the Iliad is old, slightly older. Um, and um so, the Odyssey um uh you might be really surprised to learn, and this is why it's going to really lend itself to becoming a film, um is non-linear. It doesn't follow a straightforward chronology at all. And that's something I know that in the past has really caught my students out. So, when I taught this, we always used to start with book nine.

[00:12:39]Partly because it is the chronological beginning of the story. Okay, that's one reason.

[00:12:46]The second reason is because book nine deals with the Cyclops. Now, who hasn't heard of the Cyclops? Most people think they know this story, and they will have read versions of it as a child. So, there's a bit of familiarity there. If you if you're not, you know, if you're somebody who's new to this, you probably know something about the Cyclops, and you're probably quite curious about it.

[00:13:05]And if you're a a reader, you know, you possibly grew up on on those stories.

[00:13:09]So, I think it's important for that reason.

[00:13:12]But, also, in this book, Odysseus describes himself.

[00:13:18]He describes the place he comes from.

[00:13:20]And we kind of get his sort of world view. So, this is a book where we really really learn about the world of the Odyssey. Um and I'm going to be it absolutely epitomizes the whole of the Odyssey for me is epitomized in this one book.

[00:13:38]Um so, if you're going to see the film on Friday and you've watched this video, I'm really hoping that it will enrich your experience. I mean, I don't know cuz I haven't seen the film either and goodness knows when I'll get to see 2X and I live in the middle of nowhere.

[00:13:52]Um I'm hoping I'll be able to see it on the big screen. I really am. Anyway, so we're going to start with book nine.

[00:13:59]Now, at book nine starts with Odysseus telling his own story.

[00:14:06]So again, for a lot of the um Odyssey, it's a it's a third person narrative.

[00:14:11]It's the poet, the rhapsode. There were these traveling poets, bards, rhapsodes who went round the ancient Greek world telling um telling stories. That was their occupation cuz there was nothing else to do in the evenings, you know, tele- you know, mobile phone, none of that nonsense. So, the storyteller was was really fated and what's really lovely at the beginning of book nine, um Odysseus compliments the storyteller.

[00:14:36]Well, of course, these stories were told by storytellers. So, very often the the rhapsode, the bard is held in very high esteem in these stories and I I I I just love that. So again, we're learning something straight away about the world that Odysseus inhabited. By the way, although we think possibly it was written down for the first time in the 6th century and is possibly older than that, the society that's represented in the book is probably hundreds of years older again than those people who were telling it and writing it down. So, even to the storytellers themselves, Odysseus's world reflects a world that is probably past, you know, it's probably bygone ages, things have moved on a bit. Um I just thought you might like to to to know that.

[00:15:25]So, at the at the time that Odysseus is telling his story, he starts his story pretty much from when he left Troy.

[00:15:33]So, Odysseus was fighting in the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks, the victorious side.

[00:15:40]They were there for 10 years. And his commander was a guy called Agamemnon, more of him probably at some stage. But, um, he he's he's a I'm an I I can't find remotely likable, um, about Agamemnon.

[00:15:54]Um, he went to war with Troy ostensibly to get the return of Helen, who, um, was the wife of his brother. And, you know, if your brother's wife's been nicked, you want to you don't want to to let that lie. You need to go and get her back, don't you? You know, it's like having your Porsche nicked. Um, uh, that's not my value system, that's theirs. Um, so obviously, you know, this is real loss of face, so they have to in in Agamemnon and Menelaus' eyes, they have to take this expedition over to Troy to get Helen back. She is, of course, the most beautiful woman in the world. Um, and, um, and eventually, you know, after 10 years, sorry, big spoiler, they are successful. And, um, and so, you know, we start shortly after the end of the Trojan War, Odysseus has already been away from home for 10 long years.

[00:16:45]And he's embarking on his voyage home.

[00:16:48]And then he has all these adventures.

[00:16:50]So, he's telling the story to us in book nine. He doesn't do that throughout, but in book nine he does.

[00:16:56]He's actually at the palace of a very sort of, uh, fairy tale in a very fairy tale kingdom, the kingdom of the Phaeacians. We won't be saying any more about them today. But he's So, he's he starts off by, um, speaking to King King Alcinous, the king of Phaeacians, and then he embarks on his story.

[00:17:17]Now, he's been staying with the Phaeacians for a while um and uh and he's only just got round to telling them his name because names in the ancient world are massively, massively important. So, he introduces himself to Alcinous. He's already got a good measure of of who Odysseus is, but I think his first words to Alcinous are really, really significant because he compliments the bard first and then he says, "I am Odysseus, Laertes' son."

[00:17:46]Because in the in this world, in the world of the Odyssey, what matters is father and sons. They are That is the most important relationship in the ancient world.

[00:17:57]So, a son has to be proud of his father, but he also has to live up to his father as well. So, that's, you know, a lot of pressure on our hero, I guess. And then he says, "He's known for his tricks and lies." Odysseus is a liar. He's really, really deceitful. And this is a quality which in the ancient world was probably really highly valued. I mean, you know, I taught I brought my kids up teaching them not to lie. You know, it was really important to me that they were honest and trustworthy. But if you think about it, in a primitive society where life is on the edge, maybe being tricksy and lying is actually a better way forward.

[00:18:36]Um he also is very proud of his fame because to an ancient Greek hero, the most important thing is that you are talked about. Not to be talked about is a disaster, okay? Your fame is is crucial because that's how people measure you. So, if people aren't talking about you, that's that's horrific. Um Odysseus would not want that to happen. And then he says, "But I live in Ithaca." Now, we then get an understanding, I think, of Odysseus's just deep deep love of his homeland.

[00:19:16]Odysseus does not come from a big palace, big swanky palace. He comes from a tiny tiny rocky island called Ithaca off the west coast of Greece.

[00:19:26]Um he would have, you know, he it was not he he would not have been a a really wealthy king or anything like that. Um but what he is is a massive chancer and a massive trickster and very creative.

[00:19:40]There's an awful lot not to like about Odysseus. You know, he he is the sort of person that I mean to me he's real. You'll have realized this. You know, I talk about him as if he really existed. But I think he represents a certain type of ancient person.

[00:19:57]Um and uh and so this story, you know, his his love of his country is really really deep. And he makes lots of what we would sort of probably call patriotic statements. And and in actual fact, the Odyssey is what we call a nostos. It's where we get our word nostalgia from um because it is a story about a homecoming. He is he's you know, he's going to be away from home for even longer than 10 years. We'll come on to that shortly. Um but you know, he he he has this deep deep love of his homeland and it is his deep desire to return there.

[00:20:36]So, he starts telling us his story after he left Troy and he tells us about how he went to the Cicones and he tells us how he went with his men to the Lotus-Eaters. And just a side note, if you're going to read this, which I really hope you do, just have a look out for the way that he talks about his men.

[00:20:55]His men, he claims, are not totally reliable. But, you know, we have to also maybe question what how reliable he is as a leader of men. Just saying. But, you know, more of that later. By the way, what I'm going to do now is um I'm going to try not to give too many spoilers, but I am going to to I'm hoping that you've got this far and that you are now going to go away and read book nine of the Odyssey. It doesn't matter which translation it is, but I'm trying to set you up to do that and and get a lot of enjoyment out of it. And and have that lovely feeling of feeling a bit clever when you notice things that I've talked about cuz I think there's a real there's something really lovely about that, isn't there? Um so we're kind of we're read I'm encouraging you to read it, but also mildly study it as well. The reading and studying are two different things, aren't they? Um so I suppose I'm encouraging you to do a bit of studying, too.

[00:21:49]Um so they do they they have these various adventures and then um before too long, after a few pages, um they arrive at an island which is neighboring the island of the Cyclopes. Cyclopes is the plural. One Cyclops, many Cyclopes.

[00:22:07]And Odysseus's view of this island is really fascinating because he describes what the Cyclops are.

[00:22:18]And through describing what the Cyclopes are, he kind of he kind of tells us or or what they're not, actually. He tells us what the Greeks are. So we get a really good feeling for um Greek society. I'm going to try and find the extract now because I think it's really important that um that that we look at this together just so that you can see what I mean. So um uh Odysseus is talking about the Cyclopes here and he says, and this is on page 243 of Emily Wilson's translation if you want to find it.

[00:22:59]With heavy hearts, we sailed along and reached the country of the reckless Cyclopes.

[00:23:03]Lacking in customs, he means Greek customs.

[00:23:08]They put trust in gods and do not plant their food from seed, nor plow, and yet the barley grain and clustering wine grapes all flourish there, increased by rain from Zeus. So, he's looking at the island and he's thinking, "They don't plow, they don't grow wine, they don't There's grapes growing everywhere and they're not cultivating them." Which tells us that in the world that he lives in, that is exactly what he would be doing if he lived there.

[00:23:35]They hold no councils. Ah, so the ancient Greeks must have councils.

[00:23:40]They have no common laws. Ah, so the ancient Greeks He's He's He's sort of He's measuring the Cyclopes against his normal.

[00:23:50]Um they live in caves on lofty lofty mountain tops. Well, I don't think Odysseus lives in a cave.

[00:23:57]Um and each makes laws his own wife and children. So, he's describing somewhere that doesn't really have a society.

[00:24:05]You've just got groups of little individual families who aren't a community in themselves.

[00:24:11]And then he goes on to talk about the countless goats. He sees the potential for a harbor.

[00:24:16]There are no hunters. There's goats everywhere and nobody's hunting them.

[00:24:20]This is outrageous. Um and even worse, they don't have any red-cheeked ships either. So, they don't sail. So, do you see what I mean? He's, you know, he's looking at the Cyclops island and is is seeing all this potential.

[00:24:37]And, you know, in his mind, they're kind of barbaric.

[00:24:42]Um not necessarily in the way that you might think if you know about the Cyclops as this as as a monster.

[00:24:49]So, I love that. And of course, Odysseus being Odysseus, he can't just sit and look at this island from afar. He has to get together one of his crew, they man a boat, and they sail across to the Cyclops island. Now, it isn't just curiosity that motivates him. Odysseus is definitely a very curious hero, but more than anything, he is what we call an acquisitive hero. He likes to acquire things.

[00:25:16]Because in ancient Greek society, there is this thing, it's a custom called xenia, x e n i a, and um it comes from the word stranger, xenos, or or foreigner, as we you know, we get the word xenophobia from it. But I I think, you know, a fair translation is of xenos is is the word um stranger.

[00:25:38]And in ancient Greek culture, if you turned up at somebody's home, the expectation would be and you you might be from a completely different part of the Greek world, and you arrive So, say somebody arrives on my doorstep, I don't know who they are, they've traveled from somewhere else, the expectation is that I open my door to them, I invite them in, I wash their feet because they will have traveled a long way, or if I'm wealthy enough, my servants will wash their feet. Um I offer them food, and I offer them something to drink, usually wine because the ancient Greeks drunk wine watered down.

[00:26:15]Um So, so you know, that was the expectation, and then at the end, and you would swap information. I mean, if you think about it, it makes sense. It means you can keep an eye on who's coming and going, and there's no news service, there's no you know, there's no Wi-Fi, no newspapers. So, it's a really good way of finding out um about different parts of the world, and you would exchange stories as part of that progress. And at the end, um I would be expected to um to give a gift. As host, I would give a gift because I want my visitor to go away and to tell everybody, "Oh, I've been to Lou's house." I mean, it wouldn't it would be a man usually. "I've been to Lou's house and she gave me this."

[00:26:57]Because I want to be talked about. I want fame. I want my name to be known and I want it to be So, I would give them a gift, something that I could afford to give away. It might just be, you know, it might just be the food and drink I gave them, but I would try and give them a gift of some sort.

[00:27:13]Now, this whole um Oh my goodness, there's an alarm going on out there.

[00:27:17]Let's hope it finishes.

[00:27:20]I'm going to stop recording for a moment.

[00:27:22]It's all right. I have I have to have the windows open because it's warm in here today. So, um what was I talking about? So, yeah, so you'd exchange gifts and I you know, you you would walk away with a gift and you would then talk about your host. So, these are the rules of hospitality in ancient Greece. So, the other reason that Odysseus is going over to this island, it's not just curiosity, he's on the lookout for gifts. He wants to pick something up that the Cyclops might give him and he wants to be able to take what take it away um and um he wants to be talked about.

[00:27:56]Um and you know, he will also be expected to give a gift, too. So, the traveler will also give something small usually. Um there we go.

[00:28:06]Now, um when we meet the Cyclops, uh we could be again, if we if we just sort of know the fairy tale version, we know that he's enormous and we know that he's got a single central eye in the middle of his forehead.

[00:28:19]Um he's a giant essentially.

[00:28:22]Um Homer doesn't describe him. Homer just hints at his size. He doesn't you know, so for example, across his cave he's got this stone which it would take I think 24 wagons to shift. Um so, he so he we we get a sense of his size through what he does. When he chucks the the um Oh goodness, sorry, that might keep happening. Apologies [music] if that's annoying.

[00:28:44]Um that alarm in the background. So, um he keeps when he drops the wood on the on the ground, you know, the whole cave shakes.

[00:28:51]So, you get a sense of how much wood he's able to carry.

[00:28:54]So, it's really sophisticated the storytelling, you know, we're we're the the Cyclops is size is intimated to us rather than we're told directly.

[00:29:04]>> [music] >> Um, and I think that's really clever. It makes him all the more monstrous and all the more terrifying because it's his actions that define him rather than some ridiculous description of his face. Um, and the other thing that we might be very surprised about is that the Cyclops is really quite sweet. I think he's really cute. He, um, he has he he he looks after sheep.

[00:29:28]Um, he's a shepherd essentially.

[00:29:31]Um, outside his cave Odysseus and his men observe that everything is really neat and tidy all the cheeses and the milk and everything.

[00:29:40]Um, all his sheep are properly separated. So, they turn up at his his cave and they go in uninvited. Now, that is a shocking thing to do. That is a breach of the rules of xenia. You you can turn up at a stranger's house, but you don't go in uninvited. And they and they helped themselves to some of his cheeses. So, they have already overstepped the mark. The gods, of course, are not going to be happy because Zeus, the king of the gods, is responsible for xenia. So, Odysseus has done something really pretty awful and pretty shocking, um, according to the standards of the ancient world. So, he goes in and helps himself and um, and the Cyclops returns and the Cyclops is understandably not very happy about this.

[00:30:21]So, Odysseus gives him a gift because he wants to observe the rules of xenia. And his gift is some wine. Not just any wine. Earlier on in the story, and again this is very sophisticated, earlier on in book nine, um, Homer, uh, told us that Odysseus had some very very very very very strong wine in his possession. Um and he's So, this is the wine that he's giving to the Cyclops.

[00:30:47]He's also told us that the Cyclops does not cultivate wine. The Cyclops is a milk drinker. He doesn't drink wine. Um and this is another sign that he's not very civilized.

[00:31:00]Um so, when he does drink wine, it has a really powerful effect on him and he keels over um in the cave. Now, the men are trapped in the cave. Several of them have been eaten by the Cyclops. I'm just going to skim over all that because you can read it all for yourselves and and hopefully enjoy it.

[00:31:17]Um but there's something else I need to fill you in on because Odysseus has also played a really crafty trick on the Cyclops because when the Cyclops asked him his name, Odysseus said, "I My name is Noman or Nobody. That is my name."

[00:31:35]Now, in ancient Greek, there are there's a word There are two words, metis, which mean nobody.

[00:31:43]But there is also a word, metis, which means cunning or crafty or trickster or clever. And it just so happens to be one of Odysseus's epithets. So, he hasn't lied. This is an ancient Greek joke.

[00:31:59]It's an ancient Greek pun. He's told the Cyclops that his name is Mr. Trickster.

[00:32:05]Um uh or Noman. And the Cyclops has picked up on the Noman.

[00:32:11]Um so, he's withheld his name. Um and I think maybe he does that as a sort of safety precaution or maybe he's just enjoying getting one up on the Cyclops.

[00:32:20]I'm not sure. But he certainly thinks the Cyclops is a bit of an idiot and he actually calls him that um during the course of the story.

[00:32:28]So, they're trapped in the cave. Odysseus finds a very cunning way of escaping.

[00:32:34]Again, you can read that for yourself.

[00:32:37]But, he the Cyclops by this stage is seriously incapacitated.

[00:32:42]So, Odysseus and his remaining men, because several of them have been gobbled up by the Cyclops by the time they escape, exit the cave and they peg it down to the sea. They leap into the boat and they start rowing for their lives because although the Cyclops can't see them, he can hear them.

[00:33:00]And he starts throwing boulders at them.

[00:33:02]So, they are in a lot of danger as they are rowing back to the island to rejoin their other companions and their other ships.

[00:33:10]And Odysseus cannot resist shouting out to the Cyclops because he doesn't want the Cyclops to think that he is called No Man. He needs the Cyclops to know his name so that he can get full credit, full fame for being the man who blinded the Cyclops. So, he shouts out from the prow of his ship and he shouts out, "My name Cyclops, my name is Odysseus, king of Ithaca, son of Laertes, blah blah blah.

[00:33:38]Um you know, know that it's me who's done this to you."

[00:33:42]Uh so, that's his motive in doing it.

[00:33:44]His men are horrified cuz of course that gives the Cyclops more chance of hitting them because he can hear where the the ship is because Odysseus is yelling.

[00:33:53]And the Cyclops then can call on his father. Now, what I haven't mentioned is that the Cyclops' father is Poseidon, the god of the sea. Hmm, how is Odysseus going to get home? Odysseus is sailing home, you know, through the Mediterranean to get to his island right round the other side of Greece. He's going to need to be on the water for days and days and days.

[00:34:20]And the Cyclops So, the Cyclops calls on his his father Poseidon and he curses Odysseus.

[00:34:28]And um the curse is really powerful. Let me Let me read it to you. Um So, um he says to his father, um he prayed holding his arms towards the starry sky. This is the Cyclops.

[00:34:45]"Listen, earth-shaker, blue-haired lord Poseidon. Acknowledge me, your son, and be my father." Can you see the importance of sons and fathers?

[00:34:55]"Grant that Odysseus, the city sacker, will never go back home. Or, if it is fated that he will see his family," cuz we wouldn't have a story otherwise, "then let him get there late and with no honor, in pain and lacking ships, and having caused the death of all of his men. And let him find more trouble in his own house."

[00:35:20]>> [clears throat] >> So, even though Odysseus then goes and sacrifices to Zeus, cuz he realizes he's messed up, Poseidon is going to honor his son, and he's going to curse Odysseus. So, he was 10 years at Troy, and because of this moment with the Cyclops, it's going to take him another 10 years to get home.

[00:35:44]20 years in total he will have been away when he arrives back home on Ithaca.

[00:35:51]Now, I hope that's wet your appetite.

[00:35:55]I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. It's lovely for me, a real delight to be talking about these wonderful stories again.

[00:36:02]Um my intention now, haha, um because I you know, I'm busy lady, but my intention is to try and make a second uh video looking at books 10, 11, and 12.

[00:36:18]Because you are now armed You are now armed to enjoy book nine, but you're also armed, I think, to go ahead and read books 10, 11, and 12 um because they follow on chronologically from this one.

[00:36:32]Um and that, you know, that's what I would encourage you to do. So, I'm going to love you and leave you now.

[00:36:38]Um maybe the comments could operate a little bit differently this time. Maybe you could put comments down below of anything that you haven't understood or anything that you would like me to talk a bit more about. Um maybe you're going to see the film because this video will land on tomorrow, Wednesday, which will be a couple of days before the film's released. So, maybe you'll be wanting to report back to me on um you know, what you got out of the film. Although, don't don't spoil it for me too much cuz obviously I really want to see it for myself.

[00:37:09]Um but my intention is that that at some point during next week, I will try and land a video that talks about books 10 through to 12.

[00:37:19]Um yeah, let me know. And let me know if you want that. You might not want it. Um we we shall see. Um but take care everybody. Um happy happy reading of Homer. I hope that I've taken some of the uh fear away um from encountering an ancient text like this. And um yeah, just just happy Homeric reading.

[00:37:41]Bye.