Rough Draft of First Paper

Considering the Article The Poet Who Sings Through Us: Homer’s Influence in Contemporary Western Culture
AP English and Composition
Adam Petersen
By: Jessica Bremer


      Scott A. Belsky’s The Poet Who Sings Through Us: Homer’s Influence in Contemporary Western Culture serves to praise the works of Homer and to look at Homer’s influence in the culture of today. Throughout the article, Belsky elaborates on several aspects of Homer such as the lack of respect given to Homer’s works, the importance of the laws of hospitality, and the value of eloquence in speech.
      Belsky first examines the article “Who Killed Homer?” by John Heath and Victor Davis Hanson to tell of Homer’s current place in today’s society. Greek literature once had a very valued place in society. Even though the works of Homer and other Greek poets have survived through the centuries, Greek literature is gradually losing its place in society. We are losing our advocates of ancient literature which, in turn, affects the manner in which teachers and classicists approach the volumes of Greek literature. Contemporary culture no longer appreciates the works of Homer and the works of other Greek poets the way society once did.
      Belsky goes right on to examine the way in which Michael Clark looks at Homer’s effect on today’s society. Clark seeks to prove Homer’s “long stretching shadow” and as a point of argument, Clark elaborates on the definition of the fundamental Odyssean man. Clark defines the fundamental Odyssean man as one “whose realization as subject is inversely related to the diminution of subjects elsewhere and whose mode of subjectivity is a… prototype of bourgeois imperialism” (1989, 110). First of all, “the diminution of subjects elsewhere” implies that a typical Odyssean man would lower other people in order to lift himself up. Clark calls this a “prototype of bourgeois imperialism” which emphasizes the concept of putting down the conventional people by overpowering or towering over them.
      Using Clark’s definition of the Odyssean man, Belsky defines Odysseus as “one begins to see less and less of the noble stalwart of the greater good and more of the capitalist. Odysseus’s shrewd machinations to preserve and promote the self often come at the expense of those around him.” This definition of Odysseus’s character seems to run parallel to his character in the Odyssey.
      One example that Clark uses to emphasize Odysseus’s character is the scene with the Cyclops. When Odysseus enters the cave with his companions he expects that once the dweller of the cave comes, Odysseus and his company will be treated according to Zeus’s laws of hospitality or xenia. Obviously, instead of hospitality, the Cyclop, Polyphemus, comes back to his cave and discovers intruders. At this point, Odysseus realizes that the Cyclops do not abide by the laws of hospitality and instead begins eating Odysseus’s companions. So this example serves to present a situation of how Odysseus entangled himself in a very bad predicament, not only himself but with several of his companions. Getting out of this situation required several of his companions to involuntarily sacrifice their lives. So instead of Odysseus paying for the mess that he had gotten into, his companions paid with their lives.
      Odysseus’s interaction provides yet another example supporting Clark’s definition of the Odyssean man. Instead of sailing away from the Cyclops when he had the chance, Odysseus calls out to taunt the Cyclops as their ship is sailing away. Besides providing Odysseus with personal satisfaction, this outburst triggers the wrath of Poseidon, dooming his crew. Odysseus’s companions had no way out of this predicament that their leader has put them in. As Odysseus’s follower’s, his crew must put up with the impulsions and judgment calls of Odysseus.
      Belsky also elaborates on the nonaristocratic characters in the Odyssey who are given an independent voice. In Book X of the Odyssey Odysseus and his crew are nearing Ithaka and in their ship is a sack holding the wayward winds, a gift from Alcinous. The crew assumes that the bag is full of plunder, “See now, [Odysseus] is loved by everybody and favored by all, whenever he visits anyone’s land and city, and is bringing home with him handsome treasures taken from the plunder of Troy, while we, who have gone through everything he has on the same venture, come home with our hands empty.” (Book X, 38-42) It is easy to see here that crew is overcome with greed and jealousy of their leader and decide that they are not treated justly and therefore defy their leader while he is asleep; they open the sack and are blown far away from their homeland. This demonstrates the consequence that the crew receives for not trusting Odysseus.
      So we see that there are two sides to the equation. When the crew obeys Odysseus, they sometimes suffer the consequences of Odysseus’s foolishness. But when the crew defies Odysseus, they suffer the consequences for their own foolish actions. In the Odyssey there are not any points in which a middle class man overpowers an aristocrat.
      Another example of voice given to a nonaristocratic character is when the serving maid Melantho is inhospitable to Odysseus when he is disguised as a beggar by telling him “Take yourself out the door, you wretch, and be well satisfied with your feast, or you may be forced out, with a torch thrown at you.” (Book XIX, 68-69) Melantho not only defiant in her speech but has the audacity to become the lover of Antinoos which is an ultimate disgrace towards the house of Odysseus. Because of Melantho’s obvious rebellion, as someone who is middle class, her fate is ensured. Whereas if it had been a noble that acting this treacherously, she probably would not have been killed.
      Speech is made a very important thing in the Odyssey and for a nobleman; eloquence in speech is an essential part of their nobility. When a person is encountered for the first time in the Odyssey, their speech is really the essence of what they are defined as throughout the book. Scott Belsky provides an example from the Odyssey that supports this observation: because of a soldier’s vulgar and brazen speech, Homer describes him as “the ugliest man who ever came to Troy” (Book II, 250).
      Through his article, Scott A. Belsky elaborates on several main points from the literature of Homer and also demonstrates the depth of Homer’s writing. Focusing on the Odyssey, Belsky showed the principles and values in Greek culture.







 
Works Cited
The Poet Who Sings Through Us: Homer’s Influence in Contemporary Western Culture, By Scott A. Belsky, source: College Literature, Vol. 34, No. 2, Reading Homer in the 21st Century, pp. 216-228, published by: College Literature
The Odyssey of Homer, translated by Richmond Lattimore, published by HarperCollins Publishers 1967