HOMER’S ODYSSEY  Winter 2004

Lecture Three: The Wanderings of Odysseus

 

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I.                    The Odyssey in pictures

II.                 Polyphemos: bad host, bad guests

III.               Sirens: the music is the message

IV.              Ending the adventures: an escape and a simile

 

 

I.                    The Odyssey in pictures

 

About Greek vases

http://mkatz.web.wesleyan.edu/vases/vase_shapes.html

 

Picturing Polyphemos

 

1. The Blinding of Polyphemos (1)

Shape: Amphora [for storage of wine and food stuffs; funereal]

Technique: Black figure

675-650 BCE

 

 

2. Blinding Polyphemos (2)

Technique: Black Figure

Shape: Oinocho [a kind of ladle or small pitcher for pouring wine from the krater into the drinking cup]

c. 510 - 490 BC

 

 

 

 

 

3. POLYPHEMOS releases his sheep (red figure)

 

4. Blinding of Polyphemos, surrounded by satyrs

Technique: Red Figure

Shape: Calyx krater (mixing bowl for mixing wine with water)

c. 410 - 400 BC

 

 

 

 

And, in gallery: statuary group of the blinding of Polyphemos, from summer dining hall (cave) of the Roman emperor Tiberius, in Sperlonga, Italy.

SIRENS

 

1. Sirens, Odysseus, and his Men

Bell krater (mixing bowl for wine and water)

c. 340 BCE

 

2. Siren and Odysseus, face to face:

 

 

 

 

II.            Polyphemos

 

TEST THIS THESIS in your readings of Book X and XII:

 

Each adventure of Odysseus can be interpreted as the breakdown or disruption of a social ritual (e.g., xenia, supplication, sacrifice, gift-giving).

 

·        Find examples

·        Find counter-examples

 

 

POLYPHEMOS AS BAD HOST

ODYSSEUS AND HIS MEN AS BAD GUESTS

He asks their names upon entry.
  • They enter without being invited.
  • Odysseus reveals his identity after their departure.

His “guest-gift” to Odysseus is to eat him last.

Odysseus seeks gifts without plans for reciprocity.

He eats the men raw, without sacrificing them.

They eat food without being offered it.

He drinks raw milk rather than distilled wine.

They make him drunk with unmixed wine.

 

 

Ody-Locks: A Comparative Study

 

 

 

 SOME TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

“Then he cut them up limb by limb and got supper ready,

and like a lion reared in the hills, without leaving anything,

ate them, entrails, flesh, and marrowy bones alike.” (IX.291-93; p. 144))

 

“feeding on human flesh and drinking down milk unmixed with water (IX.297; p. 145)

 

“’Then I will eat Nobody after his friends, and the others

I will eat first, and that shall be my guest present to you.’” (IX.369-70; p. 146)

 

“Lightly we made our way to the cave, but we did not find him

There, he was off herding on the range with his fat flocks.” (IX.216-17; p. 143)

 

“From the start my companions spoke to me and begged me

To take some of the cheese, come back again, and the next time

To drive the lambs and kids from their pens, and get back quickly

To the ship again, and go sailing off across the salt water;

But I would not listen to them, it would have been better their way,

Not until I could see him, see if he would give me presents.

My friends were to find the sight of him in no way lovely.” (IX.224-30)

 

“There we built a fire and made sacrifice, and helping

Ourselves to the cheeses …”  (IX.231-32)

 

THESIS:

Odysseus’ speech presents the savagery of Polyphemos in terms of his systematic abuse of the laws of hospitality. Yet Homer leaves us signs as well that Odysseus and his men may have increased their risks through lesser infractions of hospitality. In the Polyphemos episode, Homer reminds his audience that rituals of reciprocity require all parties to work within the social scripts provided by unwritten law.

 

·        IMPROVISATION with scripts: Nausikaa and Odysseus on the beach

·        ABUSING the scripts: Polyphemos and Odysseus

 

 

II.                 Sirens

 

The Sirens are sexualized in later adaptations:

 

In Homer, the story is much chaster:

The Sirens seduce with songs of Troy.

 

But when we were as far from the land as a voice shouting

Carries, lightly plying, the swift ship as it drew nearer

Was seen by the Sirens, and they directed their sweet song toward us:

“Come this way, honored Odysseus, great glory of the Achaians,

and stay your ship, so that you can listen here to our singing;

for no one has ever sailed past this place in his black ship

until he has listened to the honey-sweet voice that issues

from our lips; then goes on, well-pleased, knowing more than ever

he did; for we know everything that the Argives and Trojans

did and suffered in wide Troy through the gods’ despite.

Over all the generous earth we know everything that happens.”

-- XII.181-191; p. 190

 

Place in hospitality sequence:

 

Greetings

Sacrifice

Feasting

SONG

Questions about identity

Gifts and departure

 

In the song of the Sirens, the poetry of Troy, celebrating Odysseus’s honor and fame [kleos], itself becomes a threat to Odysseus’s successful homecoming and the completion of his epic career.

 

 

 

III.               An escape and a simile

 

 

I came to the sea rock of Skylla, and dreaded Charybdis.

At this time Charybdis sucked down the sea’s salt water,

But I reached high in the air above me, to where the tall fig tree

Grew, and caught hold of it and clung like a bat; there was no

Place where I could firmly brace my feet, or climb up it,

For the roots of it were far from me, and the branches hung out

Far, big and long branches that overshadowed Charybdis.

Inexorably I hung on, waiting for her to vomit

The keel and mast back up again. I longed for them, and they came

Late, at the time when a man leaves the law court, for dinner,

After judging many disputes brought him by litigious young men;

That was the time it took the timbers to appear from Charybis.

            XXII: 431-441; p. 196

 

Epic simile = extended poetic comparison; likely a feature of the written epic (rather than oral tradition).

 

SKYLLA AND CHARYBDIS            ODYSSEUS                PHAIAKIAN AUDIENCE

No ritual; pure nature                            Unwritten law               HOMER’S AUDIENCE

                                                            Hospitality                    more developed institutions

                                                            Supplication

 

nature                                                  culture (early)             political life

 

 

 

SAMPLE PARAGRAPH (INTRODUCTION)


Natural Rhythms, Social Ritual, and Political Routines:
The “Law Courts” Simile, Odyssey Book XII


At the close of Book XII, Odysseus finds himself at the farthest edge of civilization – unprotected by any laws of hospitality, stripped of his crew, and depending for his life on the floating fragments of his ship. He pulls himself away from a powerful whirlpool, the “dreaded Charybdis” (l. 430), by hanging on to the branches of a “tall fig tree” (l. 432). As Odysseus waits for the whirlpool to “vomit up” his mast and keel (ll. 436-8), he compares his mental state to that of a judge after a long day hearing the “many disputes brought him by litigious young men” (440). This epic simile compares Odysseus’s extreme situation in savage nature to the routines and institutions of the polis. In the process, the simile invites us to evaluate different kinds of order, from the destructive rhythms of nature, through Odysseus’s own consciousness of social ritual, to the political forms of the audience’s city-state. Although the world of Odysseus may be more heroic and exciting than the everyday quarrels of the courts, the polis ultimately offers more stable means for resolving social conflict.

· FIND claim
· FIND evidence
· FIND warrants

Do you agree or disagree? Other thoughts? Email me, jrlupton@uci.edu

 

For more thoughts about Skylla and Charybdis