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).