Lecture notes to Homer's "Odyssey." 1. HOMER HIMSELF Homer's identity uncertain. Probable that there was a so-named epic poet who played a major role in shaping the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey". Homer probably lived on the East Aegean island of Chios. His knowledge of Western Greece (including Ithaka) is relatively hazy. Unclear whether Homer was literate and whether writing was used in the original shaping of the epics. Writing was introduced to Homer's region only shortly before his time. Tradition has it that he was blind. 2. HOMER'S EPICS "Iliad" was probably written middle of the 8th Century BCE, "Odyssey" toward the end of that century. The Trojan war described in the "Iliad" probably occured around the 13th century BCE. Synopsis of Trojan War legend: Paris, son of the Trojan King Priam, ran off with Helen, wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta, whose brother Agamemnon then led a Greek expedition against Troy. The ensuing war lasted 10 years, finally ending when the Greeks pretended to withdraw, leaving behind them a large wooden horse with a raiding party concealed inside. When the Trojans brought the horse into their city, the hidden Greeks opened the gates to their comrades, who then sacked Troy, massacred its men, and carried off its women. Homer as innovator: Homer apparently modified an existing minstrel tradition based on short songs of 100 verses or less (like the ones sung by the minstrels in the "Odyssey"). He created works requiring several days for performance and producing much more complex effects. Homer writes in dactylic hexameters, in a highly artifical literary language based on Ionian Greek. Methods of oral poetry: Highly formulaic -- heavy use of stock epithets, repeated verses or groups of verses, and fixed phrases used to convey similar ideas at similar points in a verse. Example: the noun-epithet, such as those posses by the gods and heroes. These came in varying lengths so as to fill verses out as needed. Cumulative structure -- effect based on accumulation of phrases and verses added on one another. Plot consists of progressive accumulation of minor motifs and major themes, stock scenes (like assemblies of men or gods), an standard thematic complexes (such as episodes of recognition or reconciliation). Homer's epics provided the basis for Greek education and culture; they remained the backbone of humane education until Christianity gained dominance. 3. THEMES OF THE ODYSSEY A. Identity (hence all the disguises, "No-Man," the scar, all the recognition scenes) B. Experience (hence all the adventures) Example of the Sirens Episode -- 3 possible responses to the danger of the Sirens: 1. Join the victims. 2. Block out the experience (like Odysseus' crew) 3. Have the experience but survive (Odysseus) Heroic approach is the last one. O. grows through his adventures. But the culminating adventure is reintegration into his community. Hence: C. Community Greek Social Background: Basic social unit the household (oikos) made up of family, retainers, slaves. A good/successful (arete) man was one who could defend his honor (times) and his household (oikos). In pre-state Greece, nobody had rights or protection apart from his oikos. Oikos is civilization, such as it is -- its preservation the highest conceivable end. (Compare Machiavelli: the overriding importance of maintaining social order in the face of continuous outside threats.) Hence the importance of hospitality: the travelor in effect asks to be received into a strange oikos. Highly ritualized exchange of gifts (to be someday reciprocated). Heavy stigma on anybody who refuses hospitality or abuses it (either act is an attack on the oikos itself). Hospitality or its absence a dominant motif in the "Odyssey". Hence Odysseus burning desire to return home: a return to oikos, not just to his son and wife. Hence the necessity and appropriateness of destroying the suitors. They have abused Odysseus' hospitality grievously, and refused to pass it allong to others (including O in disguise as a beggar). All in all, the "Odyssey" is about the restoration of peace and order -- domestic, political, cosmic. Means toward this: intelligence and wisdom (patron Gods are Hermes, god of speech, and Athena, god of intelligence) moderation (sex a pastime or sacrament, not a danger) calculation, subtlety, caution disguise, deception self-abnegation & moral expansiveness (all opposites of the prime considerations in the "Iliad") 4. HOMER'S CONCEPTION OF FATE AND MORALITY Discussion of Hubris. Comparison of Hebrew and Greek "God" Comparison of Greek fate and Hebrew contractuality -- example of Job. 5. Misc. Odysseus' Adventures: 1. Departure from Troy 2. Ismaros (Kikones) -- city pillaged, retaliation 3. Land of the Lotos Eaters 4. Kyklopes 5. Aiolos 6. Almost to Ithaka, then back to Aiolian Isle 7. Lestrygonians 8. Kirke I 9. Hades 10. Kirke II 11. Sirenes 12. Skylla and Kharybdis 13. Cattle of Helios 14. Kalypso Telemachus' Travels: 1. Ithaka to Pylos, by ship, to visit Nestor 2. Pylos to Lakedaimon, overland, to visit Menelaios 3. Back to Pylos, overland 4. Back to Ithaka, by sea, but by a different route in order to avoid the suitors