Greek Myth - Storytelling in the Odyssey

1 Assignment 3 Storytelling in The Odyssey: Life Lessons Through Entertainment Homer’s The Odyssey recounts the legendary Odysseus’s homecoming to Ithaka, his trials and tribulations and the extreme measures he takes to get home. Throughout the epic, many instances of storytelling occur, instances that critically shape The Odyssey’s overarching messages by acting as reality checks and life lessons. By spinning some of life’s most raw elements and universal situations into entertaining stories, The Odyssey brings the audience in touch with reality in order to expound upon the human experience and offer a model of how to act. The Odyssey on the most fundamental level is a story of perseverance. Like anyone else, the legendary Odysseus struggles with personal issues and defeats. When he hears the singer at Alkinoös’s palace sing of the Trojan War and the fate of his friends, Odysseus cries, his heart broken upon the actualization of his pain (8.83-85, 521-534). Odysseus, a master of words, even blindly believes a little shepherd boy who tells him he has reached Ithaka. For someone who perpetuates untruths whenever possible, Odysseus is more than willing to believe the boy despite knowing he is not in Ithaka (13.200-212). Even more upsetting for Odysseus is when Athena reveals her disguise as the shepherd boy and shows Odysseus that the Mist she cast over Ithaka made it simply appear as if he was not back home, completely undoing Odysseus’s justification of believing in a stranger (13.298-305). Yet, rather than ultimately succumbing to his woes and giving up, Odysseus finds the strength to continue, especially courageous considering how long he has been gone; time after 2 time, Odysseus finds a way to succeed with his courage, wit, and cunning. He ties himself down to his ship so he may survive listening to the Sirens, who he visits for helpful insight (14.178179); tricks Polyphemos by announcing himself as “Nobody,” blinds Polyphemus, and then escapes his pasture by riding out on the underbellies of his sheep (9.364-394, 464-470); and he charms Circe into setting his companions free (10.383-387). These actions are not of someone who has exhausted their will to live; only with his determination and perseverance does Odysseus make it home. Additionally, Odysseus would not have returned home without the Phaiakians’ hospitality, charity, and faith, morals The Odyssey teaches through comparing several of Odysseus’s hosts throughout his journey. Odysseus’s first host Kalypso prevents him from making his way back to Ithaka, detaining him on an island with neither ships nor companions and forcing him to lay beside her (5.13-16, 154-155). When Zeus sends Hermes to Kalypso’s island to tell her to release Odysseus and set him on his way home, she calls the gods “hardhearted,” “jealous beyond all creatures,” and resentful that she got to keep beside her a man she saved (5.117-130). Kalypso was so inhospitable that when she finally allows Odysseus to continue on his journey home, Odysseus does not believe her and questions her motives: “Here is some other thing you devise, O goddess… I will not go aboard any raft without your good will, nor unless, goddess you can bring yourself to swear me a great oath that this is not some painful trial you are planning against me” (5.173-179). This story starkly contrasts that of the Phaiakians, who help Odysseus return home despite their prophecy of Poseidon’s wrath after helping the person who comes to them with stories, a prophecy told long before Odysseus reaches their land (8.564-571). The stakes have been presented and yet the Phaiakians still choose to help Odysseus, a complete stranger, based 3 on a story Odysseus fabricates. The Phaiakians’ blind faith in Odysseus is astounding: they believe him to be truthful and not “a deceptive or thievish man, the sort that the black earth breeds in great numbers, people who wander widely, making up lying stories” – and only with their help does Odysseus return to Ithaka (11.363-365). Echoing the proverb of helping others without expecting a reward in return, this particular story describes and teaches true hospitality, charity, and faith. Some argue that The Odyssey entertains not to teach good morals but to distract from the more dubious morals of its characters. In actuality, Homer does not ignore these questionable morals; rather, he directly draws attention to them: only through the inclusion of both bad and good morals can The Odyssey illustrate the journey of becoming a better person and the potential to outgrow flawed characteristics and traits. Furthermore, Homer points out Odysseus’s imperfections and suspect morals not to prompt questioning of Odysseus and his tale but to humanize Odysseus and warn against those very morals – even a legendary hero is not perfect. Thus, Homer provides the audience a baseline with which they can measure Odysseus’s personal growth by showing him at his weaker moments, such as when he lets his ego get the best of him with Polyphemos. After Odysseus tricks Polyphemos, he feels compelled to reveal his true identity, his way of claiming victory over the Cyclops (9.502-505). However, Odysseus’s show of pride gets him in trouble; Polyphemos then relays to Poseidon, his father, the name of his aggressor so Poseidon can prevent Odysseus from getting home (9.517-521, 528-535). Odysseus’s egoism thus results in one of the main obstacles he faces in his homecoming. However, over the course of his journey, Odysseus learns the humility and wisdom a king needs through such humbling situations. When Odysseus returns to Ithaka, rather than ostentatiously announcing his presence, he remains in the disguise of a beggar, even when he is 4 talking to his own swineherd Eumaios (14.109-120). Cunningly assessing the situation of Penelope and the suitors, instead of wanting everyone to know he has returned and rushing into Ithaka unprepared for everything after twenty years, allows Odysseus to exact revenge on the suitors with the help of his son Telemachos. In doing so, Odysseus shows patience and maintains his composure, something of which he previously was not capable. Furthermore, he uses his wit and cunning for good, the way a king should, whereas before, he told the Phaiakians a fabricated story to ask for help. By telling stories of Odysseus’s questionable morals and traits – such as continuously speaking “many false things that were like true sayings” and indulging himself with Kalypso despite his claims of wanting to go home – and stories of what Odysseus eventually learns, Homer illustrates Odysseus’s journey of personal growth while teaching the important morals of humility and patience (5.216-220; 19.203). Words have the power to create believable realities, a power Homer relies on not to tell a new story but the timeless story of humanity. By transforming universal experiences – battling your ego, resisting or failing to resist temptation, helping others, being stuck in unhealthy relationships, having the odds stacked against you – into entertaining stories – being stuck on an island with an enchanting nymph, escaping a Cyclops, disguising yourself as a beggar – Homer immerses his audience in a story seemingly more entertaining than real life in order to most effectively teach good morals and offer a model of how to live in any day and age.