Myth lecture

1. The Odyssey
After 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

2. • 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.

3. • 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.

4. • 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.

5. • 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.

6. • 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.

7. • 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
John William Waterhouse - 1912 Penelope and the Suitors
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.

8. • 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)

9. • 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

10. • 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.

11. • 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.

12. • 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.