Odyssey Books 7-9

[cahn]

Book 7: Athena disguises herself as a small kid to tell Odysseus about his hosts, the king and queen Alcinous and Arete, and Odysseus introduces himself to them.

This is another book I don't have a ton to say about, although I liked it -- I really like the translation choices for kid!Athena, who hilariously addresses Odysseus as "Mr. Foreigner" and is described as "great goddess, pigtailed Athena." I also really liked that it could have gone in a bad direction (when Arete noticed that he was wearing her own clothes), but in fact everything ended happily because Odysseus was smart enough to (tactfully) tell the truth, and Alcinous's "heart is not the type to feel anger for no good reason." Yay!

Book 8: In which there are a bunch of athletic games, and we hear the story of how Hephaestus shamed Ares and Aphrodite.

Usually I find these games mind-numbingly boring (hi there, book 5 of the Aeneid) but here it sets off Odysseus' characterization. One of the athletes, Euryalus ("like Ares, cause of ruin"), tells Alcinous' son he should challenge Odysseus, and he does so. Odysseus at first demurs ("My heart is set on sorrow, not on games") but then Euryalus won't stop poking at him, so Odysseus -- responding pridefully to the dig -- shows off his prowess. Joke's on Euryalus! (He does later apologize and gives Odysseus a nice sword.)

Then a bard sings about Ares and Aphrodite getting it on and Hephaestus trapping them. Now that cenozoicsynapsid and selenak have told me that Clytemnestra/Aegisthus is supposed to be a dark mirror of Penelope/suitors, I suppose this is too. But mostly I enjoyed it because of the e.e. cummings poem in heavenly realms of hellas dwelt / two very different sons of zeus which I read in... late adolesence?... and somehow never knew what the source material was?? IDK, now I'm wondering, did I even read the Odyssey all the way through in middle school?? Maybe I just read little bits and pieces? I assumed I'd read it all because I was a completist at that point in my life, but I'd expect to have remembered a little more (see also Book 9)...

(I like the Cummings poem too, though I don't think I entirely agree with it.)

Book 9: In which Odysseus starts telling about his adventures.

Okay, THIS book I feel like I remember. Why I don't remember anything up until now I could not say. Maybe I started here?? Could be.

It starts, "Wily Odysseus, the lord of lies, answered" -- that's an interesting way to put it, when he's talking about his adventures! I guess it's talking about all the "Noman" stuff? I don't have much to say about Odysseus and the Cyclops, though I find it entertaining, except that I guess here we get more evidence that Odysseus is clever and also kind of prideful, which here backfires (did he really need to give his true name at the end?). But here:

Odysseus, talking about their adventures with the Cicones:
A blast of wind pushed me off course towards
the Cicones in Ismarus. I sacked
the town and killed the men. We took their wives
and shared their riches equally among us.
Then I said we must run away. Those fools
refused to listen. They were drinking wine
excessively, and killing sheep and cattle
along the beach. The Cicones called out
to neighbors on the mainland, who were strong
and numerous, and skilled at horseback fighting,
and if need be, on foot. They came like leaves
and blossoms in the spring at dawn. Then Zeus
gave us bad luck. Poor us! The enemy
assembled round the ships and fought with swords
of bronze. And while the holy morning light
was bright and strong, we held them off, though they
outnumbered us. But when the sun turned round
and dipped, the hour when oxen are released,
the Cicones began to overpower
us Greeks. Six well-armed members of my crew
died from each ship.

So, okay, here Odysseus doesn't come out looking great to me, a modern reader -- but I'm also interested in the might-makes-right philosophy of the narrative that I also noticed when reading the Metamorphoses, and how it's different from how I (as a modern reader) think of narrative approval or disapproval of various acts. Odysseus sacks the Cicones as a matter of course, because they're weaker than he is. The Cicones get their neighbors to help and now Odysseus is the weak one. I feel like there's much less thought about what ought to be the "right" thing to do, and more "well, the stronger one now prevails, sucks to be them/us" (depending on who is stronger).

Comments

[watersword]

Odysseus was smart enough to (tactfully) tell the truth

For once in his fucking life.

I think you've got a tag error, btw.

[cahn]

Hahahaha. Hmm, so far at least I feel like he generally tells the truth when he's not, like, in Intentionally Deceive mode, although he definitely has anger/pride management issues. Though that soubriquet "lord of lies" makes me wonder how much of this entire narration we can trust at all! Wouldn't it be hilarious if he'd made up the whole thing? So far everyone else has been like "yeah, no idea what happened to the guy," so it's not like there are a lot of people who would falsify his story if he had made it up.

[cahn]

LOLOLOL okay NOW I see what you mean about Odysseus and his, er, tenuous relationship with the truth! :D

[cenozoicsynapsid]

One thing I think the narrator is thinking about here is that Greek rowing ships have no endurance--- passing a night at sea is dangerous, and a sustained voyage a la Master and Commander is just not possible. So for Homeric heroes, hospitality is not just good manners; it's a necessity of life. Anywhere you stop (and you have to stop every day or two), you're either going to get sacred hospitality with all the trimmings (roast beast, shelter in the local lord's house), you're going to steal the provisions you need for the next leg of your journey, or you're going to be too hungry to row. Even if hospitality is lacking due to a language barrier or some other circumstance beyond their control, the locals' failure to provide it is an offense against the gods that practically *demands* you sack their town.

[cahn]

Ahhhh this makes a lot of sense, I was wondering how this all squared with the multiple times when various characters get pretty extreme hospitality (like the Phaeacians giving Odysseus more treasure than he got from Troy to begin with). Part of the issue here is that if there was a failure to provide hospitality by the Cicones, the narrative elided that and went straight to the "we sacked them" bit -- presumably a contemporary audience would have understood that to have derived from the hospitality lacking, but it came a bit out of nowhere for me :)

[selenak]

I sacked
the town and killed the men. We took their wives
and shared their riches equally among us.

That part made me sit up, too, when I read or rather listened to (as recited by Claire Danes) Emily Wilson's translation. It was of course left out of the retelling for kids I first encountered the story in. You've heard the "it's hospitality or sacking" explanation elsewhere already (keep also in mind this is a society without money - they do trade, but in material goods), but let me add that the Greeks for a decade sacked every place on the larger Trojan area all the time, and then Troy. See your next post for what I think this also expresses. AND last but not least, there's good old bias (racism would be an anachronistic term here) - Odysseus and his men aren't sacking Greek towns, after all. Non-Greeks are barbarians. Whether or not this mattered to the Achaians who lived through the Bronze Age, it certainly did to the later Greeks who made this epic their key literary and cultural identity.

The bard singing: when I heard that in Wilson's translation, the meta aspect sprang out to me. Because of course the original listeners (not yet readers) would hear another bard recite part of this. So all the compliments the narrative and Odysseus give to how well the bard tells his story is basically also Homer and the conglomorate of possible bards he represents patting themselves on their back(s).

Another thing: Odysseus and everyone else among the heroes cries at points of high emotion, the bard's recitation earlier of the Trojan tales being a case in point. Note that this is not depicted as something shameful, but understandable. The whole "men don't cry" idea is something relatively recent in (Western) cultural history.

The story of Aphrodite, Ares and Hephaistos: this time around I noticed Hermes and Apollon asking themselves whwether they'd face public ridicule for sex with Aphrodite and admit they kind of would.

[cahn]

The bard singing: when I heard that in Wilson's translation, the meta aspect sprang out to me. Because of course the original listeners (not yet readers) would hear another bard recite part of this. So all the compliments the narrative and Odysseus give to how well the bard tells his story is basically also Homer and the conglomorate of possible bards he represents patting themselves on their back(s).

Haha, yeah, that's a good point. "Wow, this poem is so great, good job bards!"

Another thing: Odysseus and everyone else among the heroes cries at points of high emotion, the bard's recitation earlier of the Trojan tales being a case in point. Note that this is not depicted as something shameful, but understandable. The whole "men don't cry" idea is something relatively recent in (Western) cultural history.

I did notice this! And thought of the 18th century as well :D

The story of Aphrodite, Ares and Hephaistos: this time around I noticed Hermes and Apollon asking themselves whwether they'd face public ridicule for sex with Aphrodite and admit they kind of would.

Lol, that part was hilarious. Poor Hephaestus.

[selenak]

Haha, yeah, that's a good point. "Wow, this poem is so great, good job bards!"

Also: Here is how to treat your bard, listener! Praise him! Reward him with shiny gifts! Be like Odysseus and the Phaiakes!