Fictions of the Known World

I found Odysseus’ long-awaited return to Ithaka both surprising and a little awkward when I first read it. For nearly two decades, he’s “longed for wife and home,” and now finally he’s there, but stuck in an old beggar’s body and is allowed to see neither wife nor home. Instead, he sits just beyond his own palace while the suitors continue defiling it. True to the nature of the epic poem, Odysseus has one final challenge before his proper family and house can be restored. At first I was upset that he couldn’t heroically jump off the ship, swim onto Ithaka, run up the mountains sword-in-hand and fight each and every suitor immediately. I suppose that’s the image I had imagined from modern movies that tend to be one ongoing battle scene. As the three chapters unfold in Eumaios’ hut, I began to realize the significance of the fact that his return wasn’t so abrupt.

Continue reading →

Although it may be a seminal epic whose influence has thoroughly permeated almost every part of Western art and culture, The Odyssey remains a work far removed from contemporary understanding. The culture described is one that shares what might be considered the more immutable human values, nonetheless the characters’ actions may appear strange or even unfathomable to modern audiences who cannot hope to fully understand the actions and motivations of characters so completely separated by time. These cultural differences are noticeable on a grander scale: differences in gender roles, the unquestioning hospitality offered even the most mysterious of visitors, attitudes toward glory in life and the afterlife. Additionally, differences are noticeable in smaller instances, one of the most interesting being the treatment of male expressions of emotion and, in particular, crying. Continue reading →

Death is scary. For thousands of years, cultures have created explanations for why humans die, myths of what happens when we cross into the great beyond, and ways of living that will guarantee eternal happiness. The Christians have heaven and hell, and all stereotypes that come with those ideas. Buddhism and Hinduism believe in reincarnation where if you live nobly you will move up the caste system.  The Ancient Greeks had Hades; one place where all souls go to wait out eternity. I have always found “Homer’s” description of the Underworld interesting. I think that we can accept “Homer’s” view as one that stands for the general Greek belief that the Underworld was not a happy place, no matter who you were in life.

Akhilleus (a.k.a Achilles), I think, represents this beautifully. Here is this man, a hero of the Greeks, who had money, a family, a goddess for a mother, and countless other blessings sitting desolate in the dark, creepy Underworld. (I mean, he comes to see Odysseus because he likes the smell of the blood in the pit. Gross.) Even Odysseus tells Akhilleus “here your power is royal among the dead man’s shades. Think, then, Akhilleus: you need not be so pained by death” (Book XI, lines 572-4).  One would think, according to the death mythologies observed in our modern world that Akhilleus would be happy. If he had been Christian, Akhilleus would have made it to Heaven (by Greek standards of good life. I do not think that Akhilleus would have made a very good Christian).  So why do all of the dead Greeks seem so unhappy? Should we be scared of death simply because it is eternal nothingness, as described by “Homer”? Or are we frightened of death because we do not understand it? I personally tend to favor the second option, but the Greeks, I think, feared death because there was no chance at glory.

Continue reading →