JessicaMoore's reading diary

JessicaMoore's reading diary.

The gods are some of the main characters in the book The Odyssey, however, how heavy a weight do they bear in situations? They care over all of human kind, but just how much power do they have? Is there power simply revengeful or is it just? At the beginning of the book Zeus says that he is unable to overrule Poseidon’s revenge on Odysseus but if the gods were to work together they could painstakingly bring him home. Zeus is unable to help Odysseus home though he is “the father of gods and mortals.”
   In this same conversation with Zeus, Athene, when discussing with him the unfortunate situation of Odysseus, refers to Zeus as “Son of Kronos, our father.O lordliest of the mighty.” The Odyssey, book I.  Since Zeus overthrew his father to obtain the position of being the father of gods and mortals, then his power should be far more powerful than Poseidon’s revenge against Odysseus, which leaves Odysseus held on Calypso’s island.
  Though the gods are showing compassion on him now, this conversation between Athene and Zeus did not occur until Odysseus had been held captive for seven years. Either the gods didn’t have enough power to help him leave, or they didn’t realize he was even stranded. Is there usually this much inability to help honorable war heroes? Zeus should have overpowered the revenge of Poseidon far sooner and with more ease; the power’ of the gods seem unreliable at best.

Odysseus did not behave as the most honest captain in this particular account: The Odyssey, book XII line 154- 157, “Friends, since it is not right for one or two of us only to know the divinations that Circe, bright among goddesses, gave me, so I will tell you, and knowing all we may either die, or turn aside from death and escape destruction.”
As the captain of a ship, you have the responsibility for the well-being of all those aboard your vessel. Those working onboard are working diligently and trust you to inform them of dangers that could cost them their lives.
In this scene, Odysseus tells the crew of an oncoming danger, but not all of the dangers. Odysseus did not inform the crew for two possible reasons: either he is protecting them in order to keep all of them from perishing, or he is telling the partial story to ensure that request of Circe is accomplished regardless of the lives lost. He should have told the crew of all that Circe had said before they even left her island in order for those who continued with Odysseus to be willing to die versus having no choice but to have a premature death. Odysseus was not fully honest in this particular leg of the journey. Can a captain be dishonest on occasion and still always be trusted with the safety and general well-being of the crew?

I thought the same thing when reading that line! A captain should be captain of all on board, he alone is responsible for all his crew members. Though it could be safe to say that Odysseus was protecting his craw from the dangers that lay ahead by not telling them, but wouldn't it prove even more helpful to tell them? In that case they could prepare, brace themselves for what could very well be their impending doom (we know as readers it isn't, but whatever). I agree with your take, and I loved the passage you chose!

~Matt

JessicaMoore wrote:At the beginning of the book Zeus says that he is unable to overrule Poseidon’s revenge on Odysseus but if the gods were to work together they could painstakingly bring him home. Zeus is unable to help Odysseus home though he is “the father of gods and mortals.”

That is a very good observation, one that I had never noticed before. Goes to show just how unreliable other gods are! Even those who believed in them knew they didn't have as much power as they should.

The Odyssey pg 31, line169: “Tell me this and give me an accurate answer.” Page 31, line 174: “Tell me truly.” Page 53, line 101: “And tell me the whole truth.” Page 119, line 297: “All this is true I have told you.” This list goes for quite some time. These statements all raise the same question: Why in nearly every conversation, when a question is asked, do they have a need to ask for the truth?  According to The Odyssey pg 177, lines 372-376, the Greeks love story telling. Naturally, what comes along with grand tales is the truth being occasionally modified.
    In book Xlll, when Odysseus encounters Athene- she, in this instance, takes the form of a young man- back home in Ithaka, and rather than appearing ignorant of where he has been and why he could not perceive the island he had arrived at, he “did not tell her the truth” and spews out this lavished story. She then reveals her identity and says that she knew he couldn’t “give over your ways of deceiving and your thievish tales. They are near to you in your very nature.”  According to Athene, she understood why he compulsively lied to her and that it was in his very nature either in his personality alone or because all Greeks are notorious for their story telling. It is in the very nature of the Greeks to stretch the truth in order for a good story to be told. Is this an admirable trait or a slippery slope?

“Of all those gifts that lie stored away in my house I will give you the one which is most splendid and esteemed at the highest value. I will give you a fashioned mixing bowl. It is of silver, all but the edges, and these are finished gold. This is the work of Hephaistos. The hero Phaidimos, the Sidonians’ king, gave it to me, when his house took me in and sheltered me there, on my way home. I would give it to you for a present.” The Odyssey, book XV, lines 113-119.
The Greeks were always taught that there was a place for everyone in society, and if you fulfilled that role, then you had arete- excellence in achieving that role. One of those roles consisted of always being courteous to visiting guests in your home no matter the placement that guest was in society.
This idea of xenia, hospitality, was widely known and practiced in the Greek culture. If you fulfilled that role as a host- generally by providing lodging, food, clothing, and when they left, many gifts- then once the guest would return home, “having had all loving treatment, and bringing many excellent treasures given me,” The Odyssey pg 229, line 158-159, they would have proof of your hospitality and that you had fulfilled your role as a host in society. This truly created a sense of accountability and community.

I found so many examples of Xenia as I was reading as well! It's such a common theme throughout the book, and something I never would have picked up on or even known about if it hadn't been for our first class! I love the passage you chose in that it shows what you could have, or come to have if you follow your life path and achieve Arete!

According to book XI, all those who die go to the land of the dead (Hades). The saddening thought behind this is that no matter what you do on this earth, you still all have the same fate: death and then your soul will drift aimlessly in Hades. Thus no matter how good or bad you are, you still all go to the same final resting place. What then gives mortals incentive to being kind to strangers and the like without a rewarding afterlife for good mortals and a not so good one for the bad? Arete, xenia, and community.
Arete is excellence in what you do. The Greeks heavily emphasized qualities such as this and that no matter what you did, whether tending a farm or ruling a nation, do it with arête. Xenia is the hospitality displayed in nearly every scene in the Odyssey ( Skylla and Charybis did not display hospitality). There is arête in fulfilling your duty to be hospitable. Once again, the Greeks stressed these admirable qualities, “for the gods do take on all sorts of transformations, appearing as strangers from elsewhere, and thus they range at large through the cities, watching to see which men keep the laws, and which are violent.” The Odyssey, page 265, lines 484-487.
Not knowing whether you are entertaining a mortal or immortal creates accountability, respectability, and community between hosts and guests. How you behave to your guests and how you fulfill you role in society keeps you in check with your piers, leaving a reputation for you as both a host and as a citizen. If you are good to your guest then a good reputation will proceed you, which in turn will make you in favor with the gods, making the only life you live a pleasurable one.

“But when the young Dawn showed again with her rosy fingers,” The Odyssey XVII, line 1.
This line has perplexed me from every time it is mentioned in the book. Why in every instance does the narrator describe the Dawn with rosy fingers? It isn’t the time of day, Dawn is a goddess; that is why it is capitalized rather than simply being sunrise. Dawn’s brother is the Sun god Helios and her sister is the Moon goddess.
Everyday Dawn opens the gates of heaven for the Sun to shine through. She is described as rosy-fingered and with bright arms, resembling the color of gold. So in every case when The Odyssey says she again showed her rosy fingers, it is talking about the magnificent goddess opening up the gates of heaven to allow the sun to shine before all living creatures.

“As a woman weeps, lying over the body of her dear husband, who fell fighting for her city and people as he tried to beat off the pitiless day from city and children; she sees him dying and gasping for breath, and winding her body about him dying and gasping for breath… Such were the pitiful tears Odysseus shed from under his brows,” The Odyssey, book VIII, lines 523-532.
In this passage a famous singer, in the halls of Alkinoos, sings tales of Troy. What is so interesting about this passage is how incredibly descriptive Homer is in describing how Odysseus cried. Homer does this in several other passages ( see page 199 lines 31-35); he always wishes to describe the feelings of the characters in a very detailed manner.
Comparing Odysseus’ weeping to that of a woman mourning over her husband’s body is a detailed way to describe how he cried. After all, simply saying he wept is sufficient but generic. Homer goes to such lengths and describes it so well for us that we have a perfect image in our mind as to how he wept coupled with a relatable sensation of losing a loved one.

Beginning with the first page of the book, it says that, “From some point here, goddess, daughter of Zeus, speak, and begin our story.” The Odyssey, book I, line 9-10. So from these lines we conclude that the daughter of Zeus narrates the story. The narrator of The Odyssey on very few occasions makes an attempt to persuade the reader into thinking the speaker is anyone but herself, but multiple narration passages can puzzle readers.
When, in book XIII, Odysseus speaks to Eumaios, the narrator changes the way that she introduces someone who is about to speak. For instance, instead of saying, “The long-suffering great Odysseus spoke to him in answer,” implying that the narrator speaks in simple narrative, her means of introduction changes to, “ Then, O swineherd Eumaios, you said to him in answer,” The Odyssey, page 214, line 148, 165. This same presentation of character is seen again on page 221, line 442, page 260, line 272, page 262, line 311, etc.
Why has she suddenly changed her way of speech? Is she addressing Eumaios personally? How she speaks alludes to her looking back on the story and her recounting to the swineherd what he said to Odysseus. Another peculiar thing to mention is that she only addresses Eumaios in this manner in passages. She does not say, “Then Odysseus, you said to him in answer,” no, it is only Eumaios. How significant is this?