The Fantastic Voyage of Odysseus, Part 4: Charmers, Monsters, and a Fatal Decision
Odyssey, Book 12
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“All deaths are bad enough but there is none so bad as famine… I for one would rather drink salt water once for all and have done with it, than be starved to death by inches in such a desert island as this.”
Odyssey, Book 12; Samuel Butler translation
Book 12 Summary
Odysseus and his crew sail back to Circe’s island and hold a funeral for the crew member who fell off the roof and died. Circe meets them and tells them to rest for the day and leave for their voyage tomorrow.
Circe pulls Odysseus aside and explains to him the dangers him and his crew will be facing. First, they’ll come across the Sirens. Anyone who listens to their song will become entranced, leave the boat, and eventually die listening to their song. In order to safely get past them, everyone will have to stop their ears with wax.
Next, Odysseus will have to pick between two routes. One route will take him between a group of rocks called The Wanderers where not a single thing has passed through them without being crushed except the famous ship Argo, and only because Hera guided it safely through. The other route will take him past Scylla and Charybdis. Scylla is a six headed monster that lives in a cave high up and quickly shoots its heads out to devour its prey. Charybdis is a monster under the sea who sucks in and vomits water three times a day creating a deadly whirlpool. If Odysseus tries to avoid Scylla he will get too close to Charybdis, and if he tries to avoid Charybdis he will get too close to Scylla. Circe advises Odysseus to stick closer to Scylla and move past it as fast as possible. She warns him he will certainly lose some of his crew, but it’s better than everyone dying from Charybdis.
After this they will come to the island where the Sun keeps his sheep and cattle. Circe gives Odysseus the same warning Tiresias gave: if they harm any of the sheep or cattle, Odysseus will lose his crew and ship and have a tougher time getting home to Ithaca.
The next morning, Odysseus and his crew leave Circe’s island and their voyage happens just as Circe explained to Odysseus. While Odysseus warns his crew about the Sirens, and he has himself tied to the mast so he can listen to their song, he keeps quiet about Scylla out of fear they would refuse to move forward. Scylla eats some of the crew, but the boat makes it past safely otherwise.
Odysseus and his crew then reach the island where the Sun keeps his sheep and cattle. Odysseus warns the crew that they have to stay away from the island, but his entire crew object because they are tired and hungry. Odysseus reluctantly concedes, but makes them swear an oath to not harm any of the cattle or sheep. Shortly after landing on the island though, a strong wind begins to blow which keeps them on the island for a whole month. They end up running out of food and have to fish and hunt for birds. One day Odysseus goes onto land to find a good spot to pray and ends up falling asleep. His crew decides that they would rather die at sea than of starvation and they feast on some of the cattle. It’s at this moment Odysseus wakes up and sees what his crew has done. The crew spends the next week eating the cattle before the wind finally relents. When Odysseus and his crew sail out, Zeus destroys Odysseus’ boat to appease the Sun. Only Odysseus survives and eventually he ends up on Calypso’s island.
A Little More on the Feminine
Notice how Circe reacts as soon as Odysseus and his crew return to her island:
“Circe, who knew that we had got back from the house of Hades, dressed herself and came to us as fast as she could; and her maid servants came with her bringing us bread, meat, and wine. Then she stood in the midst of us and said, ‘You have done a bold thing in going down alive to the house of Hades, and you will have died twice, to other people’s once; now, then, stay here for the rest of the day, feast your fill, and go on with your voyage at daybreak tomorrow morning.’”
Odyssey, Book 12; Samuel Butler translation
Let’s break it down:
Circe first dresses up and makes herself presentable to the men (or maybe, more specifically, to Odysseus).
She then rushes to meet the men as quickly as possible bringing servants, food, and drink.
Circe praises the men for doing something very courageous and which was fraught with danger.
The feminine sent them to the land of the dead to seek knowledge they couldn’t find elsewhere.
The feminine, in a metaphorical way, sent them to die and they came back to life.
I think there is something to all of this, but I don’t know what.
Circe provides everyone with hospitality and rest for the remainder of the day.
What man wouldn’t want to come back from dangerous or stressful work and be greeted by a woman who makes herself look nice for him, gives him a meal, praises him, and takes care of him for the rest of the day? Especially if that work was tasked by her for him to accomplish?
It just further reinforces my theory that Circe represents the pure feminine, or at the very least, a very powerfully feminine presence.
Forbidden Knowledge?
Circe gives Odysseus instructions about how to listen to the Sirens’ song without dying in the process. You don’t learn why Odysseus would want to do this until the Cephallenians encounter the Sirens and they sing:
“He who listens will go on his way not only charmed, but wiser, for we know all the ills that the gods laid upon the Argives and Trojans before Troy, and can tell you everything that is going to happen over the whole world.”
Odyssey, Book 12; Samuel Butler translation
So many things come to my mind with this.
First, Circe only gives Odysseus instructions on how to listen to the Sirens. She doesn’t tell him, “Your men can listen to them too if they take the same precautions.” Perhaps it’s because Odysseus is the leader and the rest of the crew need to navigate the boat? It could also be because Odysseus is the recipient of divine protection and guidance which turned him into the Masculine that “tamed” Circe, the pure or undomesticated Feminine.
Second, this is the second time Circe gives Odysseus directions on how to receive special knowledge. She first gave him directions on how to receive instruction from the land of the dead. Now, she is giving him directions on how to receive knowledge from the Sirens.
Third, the two domains that Circe sends Odysseus to receive that special knowledge are both domains under feminine care. Remember that the land of the dead was found in the domain of Persephone, the queen of the dead.
Fourth, the knowledge which the Sirens give is knowledge only the gods know about. In other words, it’s divine knowledge. The knowledge of “all the ills that the gods laid upon the Argives and Trojans before Troy” could mean knowing about what the gods did behind the scenes during the Trojan War that caused suffering and hardship. If you read the Iliad, you know that the gods did a lot of that. The knowledge of everything going on around the world is also divine knowledge because only the gods are capable of knowing this.
Fifth, this reminds me of the story of Adam and Eve in the Old Testament book of Genesis. Eve is convinced to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, something which God had forbidden, and she gives some of the fruit to Adam which he eats. The feminine gives the masculine forbidden knowledge. With Circe, she gives Odysseus instructions on how to listen to the divine knowledge of the Sirens—knowledge which is, perhaps, forbidden for mortals to know. It’s also knowledge so potent that mortal men want to sit and listen to the Sirens until they die. The same thing happened to Adam. He couldn’t resist the knowledge Eve was offering him and he “died.”
In all of these cases, you see the Feminine being that which contains knowledge which can’t be gotten elsewhere, gives instruction on how to get knowledge which can’t be gotten elsewhere, and/or dispenses knowledge so potent you would even forsake your life to hear it. This knowledge is also probably not meant for mortals to know.
I don’t know what to make of this except that there is knowledge a man can only get from the feminine and nowhere else. His understanding of life, the world, the divine, would be incomplete without the help of the feminine. In fact, trying to complete his understanding without the feminine could make his life journey incomplete or dangerous or worse.
An Immoral Choice?
The episode with Scylla and Charybdis is arguably the lowest point in Odysseus’ journey. It’s also the episode where it can be argued that Odysseus gets the biggest black mark on his character.
After the Sirens, the crew are left with two options for going forward: 1) Go through the Wandering Rocks, which no boat has successfully navigated through except by divine intervention; or 2) go through the domain of Scylla and Charybdis, where getting close to one could possibly kill everyone while getting close to the other will definitely kill some of them.
Odysseus chooses for them to go through the domain of Scylla and Charybdis and stay closer to Scylla. Only one issue: Odysseus doesn’t tell his crew that some of them are guaranteed to die from Scylla. Why? He knows if he did his crew would hide away or refuse to go any further instead.
Then Scylla appears, snatches up six of Odysseus’ crew, and this happens:
“Even so did Scylla land these panting creatures on her rock and munch them up at the mouth of her den, while they screamed and stretched out their hands to me in their mortal agony. This was the most sickening sight that I saw throughout all my voyages.”
Odyssey, Book 12; Samuel Butler translation
It was worse than losing some of his crew to Polyphemus. Polyphemus killed the men first before eating them. Scylla ate them alive.
I can rationalize Odysseus’ decision to not say anything to his crew about Scylla. If he had, they would have been stuck in their voyage because his crew would refuse to go any further. Or worse, they may have all been killed by the Wandering Rocks or by Charybdis. Odysseus chose the lesser of two evils. He refused to let his crew be the deterrent to getting home to his family.
However, I still think Odysseus’ decision was immoral precisely because he withheld information from his crew. If he had said, “Listen, passing close to Scylla is the safest path through, but some of us are going to be killed. I’ll do my best to keep that from happening, but I can’t guarantee saving your life,” and his crew agreed to continue, that would have been one thing. However, to make the choice for them and withhold information that may have caused them to refuse Odysseus’ plan was immoral. This is the dark side of Odysseus’ silver tongue and charisma.
It could be said though that Odysseus paid heavily for this decision, as shortly after that his crew mutinied, his ship was destroyed, he was adrift at sea for ten days, and landed on the island of Calypso where he was her prisoner for eight years.
Collapse of Leadership
By the end, Odysseus’ leadership completely collapses. Recall everything that happened so far:
Odysseus’ crew refused to listen to him when he told them they should leave after sacking the Ciconian city. As a result, the Ciconians were able to launch a counterattack and killed many of the Cephallenians (72 to be exact; six men from each boat and there were twelve boats in the Cephallenian fleet).
Odysseus refuses to listen to his crew when they tell him to raid Polyphemus’ cave and leave rather than wait and try to open up diplomatic relations. As a result, six of his crew are killed and eaten. Furthermore, Odysseus refuses to listen to his crew when they tell him not to taunt Polyphemus, who almost sinks their boat twice. Polyphemus is able to call a curse down upon them as a result (a curse which comes true).
Odysseus either doesn’t tell his crew the winds were in the bag Aeolus gave him or his crew doesn’t believe him. Either way, his crew open the bag out of mistrust and envy. As a result, they are blown back to Aeolus after getting so close to Ithaca they could see the smoke from the chimneys.
Odysseus sends a scouting group into the land of the Laestrygonians. The Laestrygonians end up killing some of them and then attacking the whole fleet. Everyone except those on Odysseus’ boat are killed and eaten.
With Circe, I have to wonder if there was envy among the crew concerning Odysseus. Yes, they were taken care of by Circe for a whole year, but it was Odysseus who got to go to bed with her during that time.
And then Odysseus withholds crucial information that would allow his crew to make an informed decision concerning their lives. I have to wonder if his crew suspected that Odysseus did indeed withhold information because when they approached Scylla he suddenly decided to suit up in his armor and arm himself. That was probably a clear signal that Odysseus knew something they didn’t.
And then Scylla struck. And they watched one of the most horrible things they’ve ever seen unfold as their fellow crewmembers were devoured alive by a frightening monster (Circe said Scylla was so frightening it could strike terror into the gods).
Is it any wonder the remaining crew revolted against Odysseus when he told them they should avoid the island where the Sun’s cattle and sheep were? Is it any wonder they defied Odysseus the second he left and ate the cattle? Or that they continued to defy him for a whole week before the wind cleared up?
I say that Odysseus completely failed in his leadership. However, it could be argued that Odysseus had an obstinate crew. The breakdown started when his crew defied his orders to leave the land of the Ciconians after sacking their city. After that, perhaps Odysseus started to trust his crew less and less, to the point where he began refusing to listen to their advice as well as distrust them with certain information?
Was Odysseus isolating himself a wise move because he had an unreliable crew? Or was isolating himself and distrusting his crew a failure of his leadership?
Eurylochus’ Words
The leader of the mutiny, Eurylochus, said this to convince the crew to eat the cattle of the sun:
“All deaths are bad enough but there is none so bad as famine. Why should not we drive in the best of these cows and offer them in sacrifice to the immortal gods? If we ever get back to Ithaca, we can build a fine temple to the sun-god and enrich it with every kind of ornament; if, however, he is determined to sink our ship out of revenge for these homed cattle, and the other gods are of the same mind, I for one would rather drink salt water once for all and have done with it, than be starved to death by inches in such a desert island as this is.”
Odyssey, Book 12; Samuel Butler translation
I have two thoughts on this.
1) Eurylochus’ argument is flawed. There was no guarantee they were going to starve to death, but killing and eating the Sun’s cattle was a guaranteed death sentence. However, this is what Odysseus told them. They didn’t hear it directly from Circe like Odysseus did. They may have thought Odysseus’ instructions couldn’t be trusted, especially since the Scylla incident.
2) This is an interesting contrast to what Achilles said about death in Book 11. Recall that he said he would rather be the servant of a poor man and alive than be king of kings among the dead. Odysseus’ crew resigned themselves to death rather than hold out as long as possible and cling to life. They didn’t heed Achilles’ words that life, no matter how pitiful or painful, was preferable to death.
Couching Disobedience with Religiosity
To justify their sacrilege, Eurylochus and the crew promised the Sun a grand temple when they got back to Ithaca. In other words, they attempted to strike a compromise with the divine. They learned with fatal consequences that the divine does not compromise.
Continuing in their compromised religiosity, the crew offered to the gods oak-shoots rather than barley and water rather than wine. Would it have been better if they offered nothing at all?
It reminds me so much of the religiosity I see today. The amount of compromise people are willing to make with their prayers, their practice, their worship, their values… thinking that what they do is good enough and that God will understand. Believing that down the road they can just do something grand to make up for their present debasement. And if God doesn’t understand, if he doesn’t accept their grandoise offering, then God is just an intolerant brute.
I shudder at all the times I have done this myself.
May I, may we all, cease offering strange fire before the altar of God before it consumes us.
That’s all for Book 12 of the Odyssey.
May your days be filled with grace.
-Andronikos
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Thumbnail: The Companions of Odysseus Steal the Cattle of Helios by Pellegrino Tibaldi. 1554/56. Public domain.