The Odyssey - 05/27/2007

I just finished reading "The Odyssey" by Homer. DOH! Not that Homer, people. The original Homer, who we think lived around 750-700 B.C. in Ionia, the Greek-Inhabited islands off the coast of western Turkey. No one knows for sure if Homer even existed. It is all word of mouth. The Odyssey in considered the second work of Western Literature (the first being Homer's "Illiad"), even though it was composed orally and recited to audiences. Who knows what's really Homer's work and what is the work of some bard adding to it. We'll never know.

The Odyssey is the return story of Odysseus, one of the heroes of "The Illiad." (Remember that whole Trojan Horse, Helen of Argos thing? Yea, that "Illiad."

I browsed the library section containing various copies of "The Odyssey." There are numerous translations, and if you choose the wrong one, you get bogged down in ancient rhetoric that will leave you confused & frustrated. I chose one of the Penguin Classics version, translated by E. V. Rieu and revised by his son, D. C. H. Rieu. I looked through it, standing at the library, and it seemed straight-forward enough. Just to be safe, I also picked up a comic book version made for the pre-teen set. Hee hee. I read the comic book first so I would have some idea of what the heck was going on. It helped a lot.

So we have Odysseus, who apparently angered the gods (mainly Poseidon, by poking out the eye of his son the Cyclops) and thus spent 10 years trying to get home after the war. Ten years since the war ended! He's stuck at sea & in various ports for 3 years (although one whole year was spent partying it up with Circe. A whole year? ) and then held captive by Calypso for another 7? Talk about bad luck. Although, he did sleep with Calypso during those 7 years. What's a guy to do? Lord forbid Penelope did the same thing.

In the meantime, his poor wife Penelope is sitting at home pining for his return for 20 years (10 years spent at war). Her infant son is now a 20 year old man, Telemachus. They are being eaten out of house & home by Suitors; men who live in town who want to marry Penelope. These men come to their estate at dawn and eat and party all day long. I don't understand the rules of etiquette back then, but apparently, you weren't allowed to kick people out? No clue, but Penelope and Telemachus have to put up with years of their flocks and wine and riches being consumed by the 50-odd suiters and their menservants, etc. etc.

There's a lot of eating and description of wine being made and calves being slaughtered and the thighs being sacrificed to Zeus ad nauseum;by the Suitors, by Odysseus in his 10 years. They liked to get their drink and eat on, and really did not do much of anything else. I found my eyes glazing over at the 20th description of what they were eating.

The men also cried. A lot. Over & over with the tears & the hair pulling grief. Man UP! These men? Also liking the olive oil. It was considered a luxury to have olive oil. If you owned an olive tree, you were prosperous. They took baths (actually, they were bathed by maids) a lot in the book and then were constantly being rubbed down with olive oil. Yuck. The thought of the smell alone makes me queasy.

Apparently, Zeus is the god of travelers, because every time Odysseus got to a port, he was treated kindly and left with TONS of gifts. It was considered an insult to Zeus if you did not load the traveler up with food, gold, tunics, gold cups, swords, etc. I think I'd just spend half the year visiting people, and the other half enjoying these gifts.

He eventually makes it home, but we have to hear about all the things that happened to him in those 10 years first; including his visit to Hades and the people he sees there. It was actually interesting to read about people and the punishments they had to deal with. Things I knew about but had no clue where I heard them from were there, such as Sisyphus forever pushing the boulder up the cliff, or the man who was up to his neck in water, but every time he went for a drink, the water disappeared, so he was forever thirsty.

We see Odesseus kick some Suitor-butt (lots of arrows through necks and decapitations) with the help of the goddess Athene, who was the one who conviced Zeus to let Odysseus finally see home.

I am checking off book # 4 of my 'classics' list and going on to read some books not on the list to give myself a break.