4/28 The Homecoming of Odysseus

Story

what is Odysseus first hunting story?

• Odysseus’ grandfather is the one who took Odysseus out for his first ever hunt

  • mythic variant that Odysseus’ grandfather is the son of Hermes

• there was a giant boar terrorizing a mountain, so they went to try and kill the boar

• despite Odysseus’ great youth, he was the first one to attack the boar when it appeared

  • he ran at the boar with his spear and plunged it in its shoulder, wounding the boar

  • the tusks of the boar attacked Odysseus and gashed his leg deeply, almost to the bone

• Odysseus’ cousins circle the boar and kills it

• they bring him over their shoulder, proud of his courage

• the wound never healed, and he has a scar there for the rest of his life

Odysseus: name and family

what is the Odyssey a type of?

• Homer’s Odysseys is one of a group of literary work that describes nostos myths

• nostos myths

  • means “home-coming”

  • they are stories of warriors coming back home after their service in the Trojan War

  • nostalgia → pain of home-coming because you want to go home

Odysseus: name and family

what are his characteristics?

• polymetis → a lot of metis (wise and strategy)

• he is a very human hero

  • has an appetite for food, sex, and sleep (all the basic human needs)

  • he is also the hero who makes so many mistakes

  • he doesn’t have any fated mission, and is just trying to get back home to his wife and kids

Odysseus: name and family

what does his name mean?

• “man of hatred”

  • can either mean the man who hates other OR the man who others hate

  • middle ground: he is both the man who hates and the man who is hated

Odysseus: name and family

who is Odysseus’ grandfather? what are his characteristics?

• Autolykos

  • “real wolf” / “lone wolf” → the wolf itseld

  • trickster

  • son of Hermes

  • strategy or tricks

    • explains Odysseus’ actions sometimes: he is either a hero powered by Athena or a trickster who is similar to the character of Autolykos/Hermes

      • for example, Odysseus sacked a city and killed all the men to steal

The Lotus-Eater and the Sirens

what is the island like? what do the sailors do and find?

• an unfamiliar island with only one crop everywhere called the lotus flowers

• Odysseus sends the sailors to investigate

  • they find some people living on the island

• the inhabitants really want to share the lotus with them. and the sailors try the lotus from peer pressure

The Lotus-Eater and the Sirens

what are the effects of the lotus?

• the sailors begin to feel very relaxed and forget about sailing back home

• they just want to keep eating lotus

The Lotus-Eater and the Sirens

what are the dangers of lotus? what did Odysseus have to do? what is lotus irl?

• delay (“time-trap”) → the first time-trap because you forget about your life and just want to eat lotus

• forgetfulness → all you want to do is eat lotus and forget about your wife and kids

• Odysseus had to go on the island and physically drag the sailors back onto the ship

• we don’t know what lotus was, but most scholars assume lotus was associated with opium

The Lotus-Eater and the Sirens

what is Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens like?

• Sirens are evil version of the Muses, and they sing you to your death with the promise of knowledge

• Odysseus plugs wax into the sailors’ ears. but since he wants to hear the knowledge, he had the sailors tie him to the ship

Polyphemus, the Cyclops

how do they get to and do in the cave?

• they docked at another island, and when they venture out, they see herds of sheep inside the cave

• they see cheese, milk, and all of the sheep

• the sailors tell Odysseus that they should take some of the cheese, milk and sheep, and dip

• but Odysseus said no because he wants to wait for the person who lives here to gift these goodies to him

• the cyclops returns, and he rolls a giant stone at the front of the cave, blocking the exit

• they are trapped

• Odysseus tells Polyphemus about xenia and Polyphemus starts attacking Odysseus’ men by throwing them to the ground and sucking their brains

Polyphemus, the Cyclops

what is the definition of xenos and xenia?

xenos

• means host, but also means guest, but also means stranger

xenia

• host-guest relationship

• offers meal and accommodation, conversation, and send away with gifts

Polyphemus, the Cyclops

how does Odysseus escape the cave?

• the rock is too heavy for Odysseus and the men to roll by themselves, so they have to find a way Polyphemus to roll the stone out of the way

• the plan is to use Polyphemus’ big walking stick

• they first offer the Cyclops some wine, and since it is a monster, it doesn’t know you are supposed to dilute the wine

• the Cyclops starts to snooze off

• Odysseus and the men puts the stick into the fire to harden it, and as it is still hot, they stick it into his eyeball

• it woke up in pain, and asked who did this

• Odysseus said nobody

• so Polyphemus rolls the stone out of the way and screams nobody blinded him

• but the new problem is that Polyphemus is at the front of the cave

• since Polyphemus really loves sheep, the men go under the sheep so when Polyphemus reaches down to feel what is going in and out of his cave, he feels sheep and lets his sheep out

Polyphemus, the Cyclops

what is Odysseus’ mistake?

• as he is leaving the island, Odysseus says my name is not nobody, it is Odysseus

• Polyphemus said he had a prophecy a long time ago that he will be blinded by a man named Odysseus

• he cries out to his father, Poseidon

• for the rest of Odysseus’ nostos, Poseidon will stir up a lot of storms

Circe and Calypso

what happens when they dock at a new island?

• a beautiful, giant stag (male deer) comes to meet them at the shore

  • they kill the stag and eat it because they are very hungry

• as they wander further, they see a palace with a lot of animals of different kinds

• the woman mixes a drink for Odysseus and his men

• as soon as the men drinks the drink, their noses become flat, they have bristles, and they turn into pigs

• Circe is the mistress of animals and is able to transform humans into animals

Circe and Calypso

how does Odysseus escape the transformation?

• Hermes gives him a special drug named moly

• we don’t know what moly is but it makes him immune to Circe’s magic

• the drink does not turn Odysseus into an animal, and he pulls out a knife to her throat, and threaten her to turn his men back into men

Circe and Calypso

what is this island also?

• it is still a “time-trap” and forgetfulness

• Circe wants them to stay for a bit and have fun

• Odysseus ends up staying there for a year

Circe and Calypso

what did Circe tell Odysseus?

• Circe warned him that he will get home as long as he doesn’t eat the sacred cattle of Helios

Circe and Calypso

what happened with the storm?

• the storm made them crash land into an island of beautiful cattle

  • Helios’ cattle

• they eat only crops, avoiding the cattle

• but the men got so hungry that they killed the cattle and ate it

• Odysseus is the only one who did not eat the cattle, and as they all left on sail, Poseidon stormed up another storm that killed the ship and men

• only Odysseus survived

Circe and Calypso

What is the island of Calypso and what does Odysseus do?

• this island is not on the map, so no one knows where this island is located

• she is the child of Atlas

• she is very welcoming to Odysseus and he stays alone on the island for 7 years

• danger: time-trap and forgetfulness

Circe and Calypso

as Odysseus is at Calypso’s, what is Penelope doing?

• Penelope is back at home

• their only son, Telemakhos, is growing up

• there is danger at the palace

  • gangs of people are trying to tell Penelope that Odysseus is dead and that she needs to remarry someone else

  • but she is trying to delay that in case he comes home