Wrap-Up for
The Odyssey
by Glen Draeger

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Books I, IX-XI (pp. 27-38, 137-184)

It seems fitting that the first thing we are exposed to in The Odyssey is a conversation between the gods, Zeus and Athene. One of the central questions of the poem is who is responsible? Are the gods responsible for all that happens or are the mortals fully responsible for their own destiny?

Zeus complains on page 28, book one, lines 32-34 that the mortals are always blaming the gods for what happens to them, however he does end that section with the words, "beyond what is given" which seems to be Zeus taking responsibility for at least a part of the "sorrows" of man.

Throughout the poem good and bad events are attributed to the gods by the mortals. Check out these phrases: "because they [the gods] made him" (pg. 31, bk. 1, ln. 154), "the gods have inflicted other cares on me" (pg. 33, bk. 1, ln. 244), "it must be Zeus is to blame" (pg. 36, bk. 1, ln. 348), "questions that lie on the god's knees" (pg. 37, bk. 1, ln. 401), "Many are the sorrows the gods of the sky have given me" (pg. 137, bk. 9, ln. 15), and "the luck that came our way from Zeus was evil" (pg. 138, bk. 9, ln. 52). This phrases go on and on and on.

But we also see that the gods reward virtue and punish evil. At the end the poem Athene says to Odysseus:

hold hard, stop this quarrel in closing combat, for fear
Zeus of the wide brows, son of Kronos, may be angry with you. (pg. 359, bk 24, ln. 541-44)

The suitors death, which comes later in your reading, is attributed to their "reckless violence." (pg. 354, ln. 351-52) In the opening book notice that the suitors are often called "haughty." Other adjectives attributed to them in book one are "insolently," "disgraceful" and "overbearing." Telemachos is "scandalized" at the treatment of a guest (who ends up being Athene) by the suitors. From the beginning we are "set up" to view the killing of the suitors as a just act by Odysseus.

We learn quite a lot about Odysseus in the first book. He is called a "man of many ways" (pg. 27, bk 1, ln 1.),"beyond all other men in mind" (pg. 29, bk. 1, ln. 66),"of the many designs" (pg. 29, bk. 1, ln. 83) and "man of many resources" (pg. 32, bk. 1, ln. 205). These traits are exhibited in the rest of the poem. Though he does sometimes get himself into trouble, as with the Cyclops, he is able to get himself out of it.

In book 9, the next section of your reading, he is called "crafty." That word has several meanings. It can mean that a person is clever or ingenious, but it also can mean that they are cunning and wily. A third meaning is that of something being made well, as in "good craftsmanship." All of these apply to Odysseus. Remember, Odysseus is the one who designed the Trojan Horse. He is the one, you will find out later, who built the bed that Penelope and he slept in. Often throughout the book there are descriptions of how things were built.

There is a disturbing passage about Odysseus in the beginning of book 9. Beginning at line 40 of the Kikonians Odysseus says:

                            I sacked their city and killed their people,
and out of their city taking their wives and many possessions
we shared them out, so none might go cheated of his proper
portion.

What kind of man is this Odysseus? Is this an indication of the accepted behavior of the ancient Greeks? Polyphemos, the Cyclops, calls Odysseus "the sacker of cities." Odysseus and his men divide up not only possessions but the women too. When the Kikonians regroup and attack Odysseus calls this "the luck that came our way from Zeus was evil." But isn't this something they brought on themselves? Aren't the Kikonians justified in attacking the men who killed their people, sacked their "sacred citadel" (see pg. 141, bk. 9, ln. 165) and stole their women whom they most likely raped?

With the incident of the Cyclops we learn more about Odysseus. Initially Odysseus shows great restraint. He is so practical that it could be seen as uncaring or cold, but he knows that if they kill the Cyclops they will all die. So, even though he most likely knows that more men may die (including himself), he remains calm and persuades his men to do the same. They use their skills to make a spear. Notice they shave it down, make it smooth and then harden it over a fire. These are men who know how to build things. Then notice where Odysseus hides it: under the ordure. Ordure is excrement, feces. What better place to hide it? And then, of course, his craftiness is made apparent when he tells Polyphemos his name is "Nobody."

However, one could still argue that again, this is something that Odysseus brought on himself. He goes to another country, enters another's home, eats food and drinks wine that is not his and then expects the Cyclops to give him gifts. If you were the Cyclops what would you do? Is this the behavior of a moral man? Can we look at this with 21st century sensibilities (and insensibilities) and make an adequate judgment of their actions? Or is this a story, a poem, not meant to be taken literally, but to be seen as symbol or metaphor for one's life—the desire and determination of one one man to make it "home," to discover who he really is and what it is that is important to him? You'll have to decide that for yourself.

So why does the crafty Odysseus not once, but twice taunt the Cyclops after they have blinded him? W. John Campbell suggests that when Odysseus tells Polyphemos his real name he does this because he is seeking his own identity, he does not want to be a "Nobody." This is a symbolic view of the passage. On the other hand it might just be Odysseus' lack of self-control and his pride. Whatever the reason once Polyphemos finds out who he is he asks Poseidon never to allow Odysseus to make it home. That nearly happens.

With the bagged winds again we see the men's actions causing them trouble. Two things have to happen in order for this disaster to take place: Odysseus must fall asleep and his men must desire to see what is in the bag. Here, again, as with the Cyclops, curiosity gets them in trouble. They are within sight of Ithaka. It's right there! They never make it. In contrast to the Sirens, Odysseus takes few if any precautions to avert disaster.

From there it's off to see Circe. If you've ever heard the term "holy moly" this is where it comes from. Hermes, the messenger of the gods, offers the moly to Odysseus so that Circe will not be able to enchant him. The moly can be seen as a gift from the gods, what G. E. Dimock Jr. calls a "divine grace." Dimock goes on to argue that the "gift" is hard won, that is, Odysseus has to work for it. He kills the stag when they first get to Circe's island and then he threatens Circe. It is more along the lines of "God helps them who help themselves" than anything else.

In the Land of the Dead Odysseus meets his mother, Agamemnon, Achilleus (I've more often seen this spelled, Achilles) and Teiresias. In the meeting with Achilleus we come across one of the most famous passages in The Odyssey and often quoted. Achilleus' mother, it should be remembered, prophesied that if Achilleus came home from the Trojan War he would live a long and happy life. If he stayed he would die, but be assured everlasting glory. In the Land of the Dead Odysseus says to him, "Do not grieve, even in death, Achilleus." Achilleus answer is instructive:

O shining Odysseus, never try to console me for dying,
I would rather follow the plow as thrall to another
man, one with no land allotted him and not much to live on,
than be a king over all the perished dead.

He goes on to ask about this son. Hindsight, they say, is "20/20 vision." Apparently, for Achilleus, he realized that the glory he sought was meaningless from the grave.

Sisyphos is a famous mythological figure. He offended Zeus and was the cunning King of Corinth. His punishment in the Land of the Dead was to push a stone up a hill but just before he could get it over the top it rolls back down and he must start all over again. The phrases a “labor of Sisyphus” or a “Sisyphean task” mean that one is attempting something that is futile or extremely difficult.

Books XII, XIII, XVII, XIX (pp. 185-209, 253-269, 282-297)

One of the first things to notice in the beginning of Book 12 is that Odysseus keeps his promise to Elpenor. Elpenor was the one who waking up suddenly (see bk. 10, lns. 550-560, pg. 166) forgot he was on the roof and walked off it to his death. In the Land of the Dead the ghost of Elpenor asks Odysseus not to forget him, but to bury him and weep for him when he returns to the land of the living. Odysseus says he will and he does. It is important for the warriors to know that they will not be forgotten and probably more so for them than on ordinary citizen because they face death consistently. Odysseus, a man of honor, keeps his promise to his friend.

After receiving the advice of Circe Odysseus leaves to first encounter the Sirens. This is one of the most famous sections of The Odyssey though compared to the rest of the poem it relatively very short. The Sirens beckon sailors to their shores with their song and those who heed their call go to their deaths.

In mythology the Sirens had the body of a bird and the head of woman. In some stories they are just beautiful women. Odysseus knows two things: his men will not be able to resist their songs and neither will he. However, he does want to hear their songs, to know what it is that entices men to their deaths. The best thing that can be said about Odysseus here is that he takes the precautions necessary not be seduced by the Sirens' songs: his men put wax in their ears and he has himself tied to the mast.

In Forbidden Knowledge Roger Shattuck writes of the Sirens:

The Sirens' episode draws a boundary between pure and applied knowledge, but only with divine assistance to establish tight interlocking constraints on the operations of inquiry.

What is Shattuck saying? Pure knowledge is something we know, but that we have not yet used in a practical way. For example, you have a match and someone has told you how to light it. You have the knowledge of how to light a match. It does not become applied knowledge until you actually strike the match and get a flame. What if lighting that match would blow up your house? In that case there would have to be constraints: you can look at the match, but you must not light it. Or, maybe, the match is locked up in case with a combination that only a very few people know—people who can be trusted. If someone wants to find what the match does that is fine, but there must also be constraints so they do not use the match irresponsibly.

Many critics apply the Sirens' episode to scientific knowledge. That is, scientific knowledge is very enticing (think of some of the things currently being debated: cloning humans, nuclear power, artificial intelligence) and without some constraint we might find ourselves discovering and unleashing something that would be very detrimental for the human race. Nuclear bombs had and still have that potential. Who controls the scientists who are pursuing this kind of knowledge? Roger Shattuck asks,"Who, if anyone, could or should bind our scientists to a mast?"

Many science fiction novels and movies deal with this idea of scientific knowledge, applied, destroying the world or mankind or at least coming close. The other side of the argument are those who believe that the more knowledge we have the better and that we should pursue it wherever it takes it us. The risks are worth it. Are they? Odysseus teaches us constraint and precaution. In Stanislaw Lem's excellent science fiction novel, Eden, one of the characters says about whether to continue to explore a planet they are orbiting:

It's a question of the price. Just the price. Undoubtedly we could learn much more, but the cost of obtaining that knowledge . . . it might be too great.

In Ursula K. Leguin's A Wizard of Earthsea (from her Earthsea Trilogy) an old master wizard says to his apprentice about a wizard's power:

But you must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act.

A Canticle for Leibowitz is a novel set in a world after civilization has been destroyed by an atomic war. One of the characters, Dom Paulo, says,

But you promise to begin restoring Man's control over Nature. But who will govern the use of the power to control natural forces? Who will use it? To what end? How will you hold him in check?

These are big questions (the questions of how and when to use scientific knowledge, when and when not to pursue knowledge) and are often confronted in great literature. The novels above were written in the last 50 years and The Odyssey, as you know, is over 3,000 years old.

After the Sirens we are confronted with another question concerning the use of knowledge. Odysseus and his men must pass between Skylla and Charybdis. Circe has told Odysseus that he will lose his life and his men's if tries to go by way of Charybdis, but she also tells him that the alternative, which is his only logical choice, will result in the death of six of his men. Odysseus chooses to withhold this knowledge from his men. The reason he gives is this:

                                                                           I had not
spoken yet of Skylla, a plague that could not be dealt with,
for fear my companions might be terrified and give over
their rowing, and take cover inside the ship. (bk. 12, lns. 222-25, pg. 191)

Was he right to withhold this knowledge from them? Are there people who have the right and, possibly, the responsibility to withhold knowledge for the good of others? A very simple example of this is a parent and a child. Parents often withhold knowledge from children to protect them. Most parents would not allow a young child to watch an explicit movie about the Holocaust during World War II. It might be too much for them, give them nightmares, make them afraid.

Should our governments withhold knowledge from us for our own good? Who in the government should be allowed to make that decision? These are difficult questions, but decisions like this are being made all the time. Think of government documents that are not allowed to be released until a certain amount of time has passed. Undoubtedly, there is knowledge being withheld at this very moment from most of the population.

With the island of Helios we, once again, see flawed human nature. Here Odysseus and his men are not supposed to eat the cattle of Helios. They have been warned. They need to restrain themselves and they know the consequences, but only Odysseus is able to resist. Because of this incident the rest of Odysseus' men die. Why is it that even when these men know the consequences of what they are going to do, they do it anyway? Is it just human nature? It's clear that smoking, overeating and lack of exercise are detrimental for health, but many people ignore this or choose not to believe it. "Ah, humanity!"

Remember, the story we are reading here is being recounted by Odysseus to the Phaiakians. He has just made it to their island after spending seven years on the island of Kalypso and he has been telling them of his adventures. Now the Phaiakians offer to take Odysseus back to Ithaka. There he meets Athene. There is an interesting description of Odysseus by Athene in Book 13. She says,

You wretch, so devious, never weary of trick, then you would not
even in your own country give over your ways of deceiving
and your thievish tales. They are near to you in your very nature.

We see this often in Ithaka when Odysseus quickly makes up stories about who he is and where he comes from. He gets significant help from Athene when she changes his appearance, but this is something that Odysseus does, in a manner of speaking, often. He becomes who he needs to become for the situations in which he finds himself through the stories he tells.

One of the things to keep in mind while reading this story is that hospitality plays a big part. In the beginning of The Odyssey Telemachos is upset when Athene arrives in the form of a stranger because she has been left standing at the door. Odysseus even expects to be treated well by the Cyclops. He is treated very well, because he is stranger, when arrives in the land of the Phaiakians. It was a sign of virtue to treat strangers well because one might himself or herself be a stranger someday in a strange land. This is also part of a divine obligation since "all strangers and wanderers/are sacred in the sight of Zeus." (bk. 6, lns. 207-208) Michael Beausang writes, "In the Homeric world, hospitality is a social institution that provides outsiders, who are by nature without status, with that place in society that constitutes an identity."

We see the evil of the suitors in their lack of gratitude at the hospitality being shown them. They've been eating the food provided by the house of Odysseus for nearly 3 years. Melanthios ridicules and insults and finally kicks Odysseus in the form of a beggar (bk. 17, lns. 210-55, pp. 258-259). He will pay dearly for his actions.

In some ways we see just how much the inhospitableness of the suitors has affected the house of Odysseus when Odysseus meets his dog, Argos (bk. 17, lns. 290-325, pp. 260-261). A dog is completely dependent on its owners for food and care. Argos lay in a dung pile, covered with dog ticks. When Odysseus asks about this Eumaios says,

                                 the women are careless, and do not look after him;
and serving men, when their masters are no longer about, to make them
work, are no longer willing to do their rightful duties.

Odysseus (and presumably, the gods) is testing the suitors by appearing before them in the form of a beggar. How will they treat him who is "sacred in the sight of Zeus"? Not well and they also will pay for this evil on their part. By neglecting, and in Antinoos case, striking, the beggar they show their lack of respect of divine law and an inability to realize that they too might be a beggar someday.

In book 17 we find Penelope laughing after Telemachos sneezes (lns. 541-543, pg. 267). The sneeze represents, according to Richard Broxton Onians, an involuntary nod. That is, the individual is indicating that they believe whatever has been said will come to pass. Since it is involuntary, it can also be seen as a sign from the gods that it will come pass. In this instance Penelope has just considered what would happen to the suitors if Odysseus returned home.

Books XXI-XXIII (pp. 309-344)

The first thing we learn in this section is the history of the bow. Iphitos who received it from his father, Eurytos, gave it to Odysseus. Eurytos was a great archer and so we have this connection to Odysseus who, presumably, is a great archer too because he possesses the bow of Eurytos. Eurytos had promised his daughter to whoever could beat his sons in an archery contest. Herakles won, but Eurytos changed his mind and Herakles killed him. Eurytos is said to be like one of the immortal gods—again this connection gives Odysseus the same kind of clout. Iphitos is also killed by Herakles, but it is considered a "monstrous" action. Odysseus keeps the bow in memory of his friend and he does not take it to war. All of this emphasizes the bow's importance and Odysseus' importance by being its owner.

What is significant about the contest? What Penelope is saying to the suitors is that there is no one like Odysseus here and I'll prove it to you because none of you will be able to string his bow. Though Antinoos is still hopeful that he can string the bow he is the first to respond to the proposal of the contest and he does so with these words:

There is no man among the lot of us who is such a one
as Odysseus used to be. I myself have seen him (bk. 21, lns 93-94, pg. 311)

But Penelope, by implication, is also telling the suitors that none of them are worthy of her. The only one who comes close to stringing the bow is Telemachos. Odysseus has to stop him or he would have. As the son of Odysseus and Penelope this emphasizes their greatness.

The first to try is Leodes. Notice it says of him that he "ruined his soft, uncalloused / hands, pulling at the string." It's not as if we needed still to be convinced of the suitors' evil, but here we told that this man hasn't done any work, he has lived off the work of others. He realizes after attempting to string the bow, as he says in speech, that though he was hopeful of marrying Penelope he is not worthy of her.

The men continue to attempt to string the bow. They even heat it up, but none are able. The greatest of the men there, Eurymachos and Antinoos have been watching the whole thing. Finally Eurymachos tries and he can't do it. One of the things we learn from the speech of Eurymachos is that he was not interested in marrying Penelope because he loved her. He wanted the prestige and stature he would gain by marrying the widow of Odysseus (see bk. 21, lns 250-55, pg. 315). He says,

. . . it is not the marriage I grieve for . . .
but it is the thought, if this is true, that we come so far short
of godlike Odysseus in strength . . .

We can see that Antinoos, realizing that he also will not be able to string the bow, begins to plot something else by suggesting they take a break in order to make a sacrifice to Apollo. Odysseus knows what is going on, he is a crafty fellow himself, and suggests that he, the beggar, give it a try. This mortifies the suitors. Why? Eurymachos gives us the answer. They are afraid if this beggar is able to string the bow their reputations will be ruined throughout their land (see bk. 21, lns. 323-29, pg. 317).

Once Odysseus, as the beggar, strings the bow, the suitor are mortified, but not because they think he is Odysseus. What the suitors miss is that only Odysseus could have strung the bow. Even when Odysseus throws off his rags the suitors are still ignorant of what is happening. Antinoos is killed while raising a goblet to his mouth.

Throughout the poem we have been prepared for this moment. The suitors have have been rude, selfish, lazy, gluttonous and ungracious to their host. They have taken what was not rightfully theirs and, apparently, never considered the possibility that Odysseus would come back. The implication is that they do not consider, as Sheila Murnaghan has asserted in her essay "Odysseus and the Suitors" that the gods can do miracles. She writes, "But Penelope's suitors not only are blind to the possibility of miracles but also fail to recognize the ordinary principles of human behavior that the gods routinely uphold." Their behavior throughout the poem shows they have little respect for the gods.

Still there are times when the behavior of Odysseus can be questioned. In particular is the killing of Leodes. He was the first to attempt to string the bow and of him it says, "To him alone their excesses/were hateful, and he disapproved of all of the suitors." Yet when Leodes pleads for his life on his knees before Odysseus, Odysseus kills him. His explanation is that Leodes must have prayed for Odysseus not to come home and that Leodes must have wanted to marry Penelope, but of all the suitors who may have deserved some mercy Leodes was it. Odysseus shows none.

Odysseus says the suitors were destroyed by the gods for their evil deeds. What were these? They "paid no attention" to any men that "came their way" whether they were "base or noble." They disobeyed the divine ideal that "all strangers and wanderers/are sacred in the sight of Zeus." (bk. 6, lns. 207-208).

The brutal death of Melanthios is even harder to be justified. He may have deserved death for his treatment of Odysseus, the beggar, when he first meets him on the island and because he sided with the suitors going so far as to fetch their weapons for them during the battle, but the brutality of his death goes beyond necessity. Why? I'm not sure. It may be that because Melanthios was the family's goatherd that his betrayal was more evil than that of the suitors. His livelihood depended upon Odysseus and Penelope and in the end he forsook the hospitality shown to him for at least 20 years.

Now that the battle is over we begin to get a closer look at Penelope. Odysseus is crafty and careful, but so is Penelope. Like Odysseus when he first comes back to Ithaka, Penelope is not willing to jump to conclusions without carefully considering the events. When she first meets Odysseus she wonders, thinks and looks, but she comes to no decision about him. She devises a plan. She tells Odysseus that she will have their bed removed so that he can sleep in it. Odysseus knows that the bed cannot be moved because one post is made from the trunk of a tree still rooted to the ground. Only Penelope and Odysseus knew this, so Penelope knows that he is Odysseus.

It is significant that the bed post is made from the olive tree. The olive tree was Athene's gift to the Greeks. According to Erwin F. Cook the olive tree was responsible for the flourishing of Greek civilization. The trees lived a long time and olive oil was a staple in the Greek diet. Olive oil also provided fuel for lamps and was used in the making of soap. So just as the olive tree gave life to the Greek people, the marriage bed of Odysseus and Penelope along with giving life to Telemachos, gave life to their marriage. That is, the intimacy of their relationship, the love that they had for one another kept their marriage intact even through the 20 years that they were apart.

In book six Odysseus says,

. . . for nothing is better than this, more steadfast
than when two people, a man and his wife, keep a harmonious
household . . .

Apparently he believed this. Remember, Odysseus spent seven years on the island of Kalypso. She is a goddess and wants to marry him. Odysseus even admits that she is more beautiful than Penelope. Not only does Kalypso offer herself to him, but she also offers him immortality and yet Odysseus still longs for his wife, his family and his country.

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