For a list of the major characters, with Greek and Latin names, click here.
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Table of Contents
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: A Full Summary of the Odyssey
Part 3: Musings
The Travails and Triumphs of House Odysseus
The Menacing Phantom
The House That Divided and the House That Didn’t
Revenge: A Comparison
Part 4: Final Impression of the Odyssey
NOTE: I tried to link the table of contents to all the sections of the essay, but Substack is not letting me. If you want to bounce around the essay, you’ll have to use Crtl + F and input the name of the section you want to read.
Part 1: Introduction
The Odyssey is the second stepping stone in the road on my journey through the Western Canon. I first read an abridged version of the Odyssey sometime in high school (I recall it being about one hundred pages, illustrated, with large text). I happened to find it in the school library and read it in one or two sittings. It wasn’t until college that I read the full text.
My journey through the Odyssey was quite a different one compared to the Iliad. The best way I can describe it is that the Odyssey was more psychological, or perhaps metaphysical, compared to the Iliad. The Iliad appeared to grapple with ideas like revenge and war. It appeared to be focused on recording an event where most of the characters did not have growth.1 On the other hand, the Odyssey saw character growth from Odysseus and the three members of his family (especially his son Telemachus). Also, the Odyssey had an “everyman’s journey” feel to it.2 The people Odysseus and his family members meet along the way represent different challenges and temptations in life, but also virtues that are necessary for them to cultivate in order to grow up or become more fully developed as a person.
This is why I named this essay “1001 Nights of the Soul.” The name is a play on the titles of two different works. The first is 1001 Nights, or more popularly known as the Arabian Nights, which is a collection of stories from the Islamic world during the Middle Ages. For the modern audience, the most famous characters from those stories are Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sinbad. Some may even recognize the name of the narrator: Scheherazade. The other work is the Dark Night by St. John of the Cross, or more popularly known as Dark Night of the Soul. It’s a poem about the soul’s journey to its union with God. Each of the four main characters of the Odyssey go through many dark nights, on both a physical and psychological level, and come out better in the end.
Having said all of that, I feel obligated to mention once again that I am not a scholar or an academic. I’m not an expert on ancient Greek history and culture, nor can I read ancient Greek. I am just someone who wants to read classic works, think about them, and share my thoughts with anyone willing to read them. If you are looking for experts in that field, I recommend starting with Edith Hamilton.
I am not familiar enough with the field of ancient Greek history and culture to know whether my thoughts on the Odyssey are common or unique, informed or misinformed, or whether they would have been in the minds of the ancient Greek audience who heard these stories. I don’t know if Homer meant for the Odyssey to be an “everyman’s journey” or to be psychological in nature. Probably, Homer just wanted to tell a really good story—and he did exactly that. The story of Odysseus’ journey home has been one of the most enduring tales in all of Western Civilization. Perhaps, in all of world history.
What I present here in this essay, as well as in my blogs and books, are simply my takeaways—the takeaways of a man who lives in 21st century America, standing on the shoulders of many, many men and their ideas who came after the Odyssey was compiled. Their influences color my understanding of the Odyssey and my response to it. Take it for what you will.
Part 2: Full Summary
Odysseus has been shipwrecked on the goddess Calypso's island for about eight years. He wants to return home to his wife and son, but Calypso is in love with Odysseus and wants him to stay. Athena gets permission from Zeus to put in motion a plan to get Odysseus home. The main issue, however, is that there are 108 suitors who are harassing Odysseus’ wife Penelope and son Telemachus. On top of that, they are visiting his estate every day eating up all his food, drinking all his wine, and using his servants for their leisure and pleasure.
To solve this, Athena visits Odysseus’ estate in disguise and meets Telemachus. She encourages him to hold an assembly to rebuke the suitors for their behavior and then go on a voyage to find out more about his father and whether there are any reports of him still being alive. Athena’s ultimate goal is to build Telemachus’ reputation and make him ready for Odysseus’ homecoming and eventual revenge on the suitors.
Telemachus follows Athena’s advice. He calls an assembly and rebukes the suitors, much to their shock. Next, he secretly prepares a boat and leaves in the middle of the night. When the suitors find out Telemachus has left, they plot to ambush him on his way back and have him murdered.
Telemachus first visits Pylos where Nestor, the oldest veteran in the Trojan War, is king. After that, he visits Sparta, the home of Menelaus the husband of Helen, the woman for whom the Trojan War was fought. Telemachus learns a lot about his father and Menelaus relays to him what a god told him: that Odysseus is stuck on the island of Calypso.
Meanwhile, Athena convinces the gods that it’s time for Odysseus to return home. Zeus commands Calypso to let him leave which she does reluctantly. Odysseus builds a raft and sets sail for home. However, when Poseidon, who has a grudge against Odysseus, finds out Odysseus is being allowed to return home, he sends a storm which causes Odysseus to lose his raft and wash up in the land of the Phaeacians.
Odysseus meets Nausicaa, the princess of the Phaeacians, who happened to be near the shore doing laundry, and convinces her to help him get home. She instructs him to approach her mother, Queen Arete, as a suppliant because King Alcinous will listen to her. Odysseus does so and receives the full cooperation of Alcinous. Odysseus then tells the king, the queen, and the Phaeacian elders assembled about how he ended up in their land.
Odysseus was sailing home after the end of the Trojan War when a storm blew his fleet off course. After this, they encountered danger after danger: the addicted Lotus Eaters, the lawless Cyclopes, the cannibalistic Laetrygonians… Eventually, Odysseus’ fleet shrank until it was only his boat and its crew left. They encountered another danger in the form of the enchantress Circe, who turned some of Odysseus’ crew into pigs, but Odysseus prevailed against her with the help of the gods and turned her into an ally.
Circe sends Odysseus to the land of the dead to consult the blind prophet Tiresias and find out how to finally get home. Odysseus learns what he has to do and also meets famous men and women from the past as well as warriors who died in the Trojan War. When Odysseus returns to Circe, she reiterates Tiresias’ advice and tells Odysseus of the difficult decisions he’s going to have to make in the final stretch of his journey. Failure will mean the death of the rest of Odysseus’ crew and further delays in Odysseus getting home.
Odysseus and his crew leave Circe’s island. After successfully passing by the Sirens by plugging their ears with wax so they can’t hear their deadly songs, they approach the domain of Scylla and Charybdis. Scylla is a horrific monster with six heads that devours any living thing passing nearby while Charybdis is a monster living under the water and creates explosive whirlpools that can wreck any ship. Odysseus instructs his crew to stick closer to Scylla, though he doesn’t tell them some of them will die as a result. After losing six of his crew, Odysseus’ boat passes through.
Odysseus then approaches the island where the cattle and sheep of the Sun graze. Odysseus wants to avoid the island because if they harm any of the Sun’s livestock, the crew will die and Odysseus will be delayed in getting home. However, his crew rebels and demands they land on the island. Odysseus is forced to concede, but forces them to make an oath to not eat any of the livestock. After they land on the island, a storm keeps them from leaving for so long they run out of food. When Odysseus goes further inland to pray to the gods, his crew break their oath to Odysseus and begin to eat the Sun’s cattle. After the storm passes and Odysseus and his crew sail out again, Zeus destroys the boat after the Sun threatens to stop shining on the earth unless the men are punished. The crew drowns and Odysseus washes up on the island of Calypso. After being stuck there for eight years, he is finally able to leave and that’s how he ended up in the land of the Phaeacians.
The Phaeacians are riveted by Odysseus’ story and restate their promise to help him get home. They prepare a boat and sail Odysseus back to Ithaca. Odysseus falls asleep in the middle of the voyage, so the Phaeacians drop him off on the shore along with their gifts to him and leave.
When Odysseus wakes up, he doesn’t recognize Ithaca at first because of a fog over the land. Athena appears to Odysseus and assures him that he’s back in Ithaca. She tells him about the suitors and about Telemachus’ journey to find out more about him. She then turns him into an old beggar and instructs him to visit his swineherd Eumaeus. Eventually, the goal is to get back to his home and enact his revenge on the suitors.
While the old beggar meets with Eumaeus and tells him he knew Odysseus personally and knows something about his whereabouts, Athena instructs Telemachus in a dream to return home and tells him how to avoid the ambush set up by the suitors. Telemachus successfully returns home and goes to visit Eumaeus. Odysseus is briefly turned back to normal to reunite with Telemachus and a plan is formed to get Odysseus in the estate where the suitors are.
Telemachus returns home first, followed by Eumaeus and the old beggar. The suitors treat the old beggar poorly, even going so far as to strike him with a footstool. When Penelope finds out the old beggar knows about Odysseus’ whereabouts and feels sorry for his treatment, she requests an audience with him. The old beggar tells her what he knows about Odysseus.
The next day, Penelope holds a contest: whoever can string Odysseus’ bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axes will win her hand in marriage. The suitors fail to even string the bow. In the middle of the contest, Odysseus reveals his identity to Eumaeus and the stockman Philoetius after seeing proof of their loyalty to him. He instructs them to get all the women inside their rooms and to lock the doors and gates. Afterward, the disguised Odysseus is given the bow, which he easily strings, and shoots an arrow through the twelve axes.
While the suitors are dumbfounded by what happened, Odysseus turns his bow on them and begins the slaughter. Telemachus, Eumaeus, and Philoetius join in, and along with Athena’s divine blessing, successfully kill all the suitors. Odysseus then has all the servants who were disloyal to him rounded up and executed. When Penelope is told that Odysseus is back and he was the old beggar, she is skeptical. After testing Odysseus with something only both of them would know about, they have an emotional reunion and spend the night together.
The next day, Odysseus and the three men who helped with his revenge leave his house and visit his father Laertes. Laertes has confined himself to his farm out of grief. However, when Odysseus reveals himself, Laertes’ sorrow is lifted.
Meanwhile, when everyone else finds out that Odysseus has returned and killed all the suitors, their families want revenge. After being warned by one of their prophets that it will end badly for them, only half of the assembly leaves to confront Odysseus. When they find him at Laertes’ farm, they attack. However, Odysseus, Telemachus, Laertes, and their servants, kill so many of the attackers that Athena steps in to stop the fighting. She mediates between the two groups and they reach a peace agreement.
Part 3: Musings
3.1 — The Travails and Triumphs of House Odysseus
As you saw throughout the story, the Odyssey is not just focused on Odysseus, but also on his family. Just as I believe the Iliad was a bit misnamed, and probably should have been called The Anger of Achilles, I think The Travails and Triumphs of House Odysseus, or something to that effect, would have been a better title for the Odyssey.
Each of the four family members—Odysseus, Penelope, Telemachus, and Laertes—go through their own character arcs where they are presented with challenges and manage to overcome them. I want to talk about each of these four characters. What were their challenges? How did they overcome those challenges? What is it we can learn from their stories?
Odysseus
“Nevertheless, I want to get home, and can think of nothing else. If some god wrecks me when I am on the sea, I will bear it and make the best of it. I have had infinite trouble both by land and sea already, so let this go with the rest.”3
Odysseus is a testament to what you can accomplish with enough resolve. No matter what obstacles got in his way, Odysseus never lost sight of his ultimate goal: to get home to his family. And Odysseus had some huge obstacles. Here is Odysseus when we are finally introduced to him:
Calypso went out to look for Ulysses… She found him sitting upon the beach with his eyes ever filled with tears, and dying of sheer home-sickness; for he had got tired of Calypso, and though he was forced to sleep with her in the cave by night, it was she, not he, that would have it so. As for the day time, he spent it on the rocks and on the sea-shore, weeping, crying aloud for his despair, and always looking out upon the sea.4
On the one hand, you see a homesick man who is broken with grief, a prisoner to the whims of a goddess, shipwrecked there due to Poseidon’s grudge against him. On the other hand though, you see a man who hasn’t given up on his home and family. This is despite the fact that a goddess has kept him on her island for about eight years, trying night after night to seduce him. This is in spite of a god who has been making his life miserable and keeping him from getting home.
Imagine if you wanted to get a college degree, or start a business, or write a book, or find a spouse, and a powerful being came up to you and said, “I’m going to do everything I can, without killing you, to prevent you from accomplishing your dream.” How many of us would not even try? How many of us would try for a period of time, find the powerful being’s interventions too much, and give up?
Odysseus had two powerful beings actively working against him—and he never gave up. Even though he went through a hellish journey thanks to Poseidon. Even though Calypso brought him to her bed every single night for eight years.
Odysseus going to the shore every day to cry his eyes out and long for home was an act of resistance. An act of defiance against the divine forces working against him. And eventually, it worked. Many of the other gods took pity on him and helped him.
It didn’t end there though. Odysseus had to make his own raft and sail away. While he was provided some materials and tools by Calypso, he still had to cut down the trees, shape all the wood, and build the raft. Then, he had to take the raft out into open seas—into the very territory of the god who has a grudge against him. It was a desperate move by Odysseus, but the only move he could make in order to get home.
Sometimes, when it seems like all avenues of accomplishing your goal are cut off to you, all hope appears to be lost, there is always something you can do—even if it’s just a pitiful looking and obstinate refusal to give up. Eventually, and who knows how far down the road, an opportunity will present itself. However, it may require a herculean amount of effort on your part. You may have to cut down the proverbial trees with nothing but an ax, and shape those trees into a raft with your own two hands and some primitive tools, and take it into the proverbial dangerous waters. It may look like an extremely bad idea.
Will that deter you? Or, will you jump on the opportunity to finally accomplish your goal?
Odysseus applies that same tenacity to convince the Phaeacians to help him get back to Ithaca after he washes up on their island, and then again when he has to face against the insolent, but dangerous, suitors. Despite the odds, Odysseus doesn’t rest until he accomplishes his goal. He also doesn’t stop half way. He doesn’t finally get home, only to give up on his family when he finds out 108 suitors have taken over his estate and are harassing his wife and son. If Odysseus could accomplish what he did with two gods working against him, what’s 108 suitors?
There was a dark side to Odysseus’ persistence though—and something we should look out for as well. Before he ended up on Calypso’s island, Odysseus and what was left of his crew were sailing toward the territory of Scylla and Charybdis. He had to decide if he wanted to get closer to one or the other. Getting close to Scylla would mean certain death for at least six of his crew. Getting close to Charybdis would mean possible death for all of them. Odysseus chose to sail closer to Scylla. However, Odysseus did something egregious:
“‘My friends… this is not the first time that we have been in danger, and we are in nothing like so bad a case as when the Cyclops shut us up in his cave; nevertheless, my courage and wise counsel saved us then, and we shall live to look back on all this as well. Now, therefore, let us all do as I say, trust in Jove and row on with might and main…’
"So they did as I told them; but I said nothing about the awful monster Scylla, for I knew the men would not go on rowing if I did, but would huddle together in the hold.”5
Odysseus lied to his crew and withheld crucial information from them that would allow them to make their own decision about what to do. Odysseus failed them as their leader. As a result, this happened:
“Scylla pounced down suddenly upon us and snatched up my six best men… Scylla [landed] these panting creatures on her rock and [munched] 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.”6
Not only was it the worst thing Odysseus saw in his journey, he completely lost the faith of his crew. When Odysseus tried to avoid the Thrinacian island where the Sun’s livestock were, his crew refused to go any further and he was forced to give in and land. They get stuck on the island, and after running out of food, the crew began killing and eating the Sun’s cattle while Odysseus was away. This led to Zeus destroying their boat when they finally sailed out again, drowning the whole crew and leaving Odysseus adrift at sea. Odysseus washes up on Calypso’s island where he remained her prisoner for about eight years.
Morally, this was the lowest point of Odysseus’ journey—and it cost him dearly. He was so fixated on getting home he was willing to deceive his crew about the dangers they were about to face so as to not deal with any resistance. As a result, Odysseus went through multiple painful experiences and then was set back years from accomplishing his goal.
Don’t get so fixated on your goal that you’re willing to sacrifice others’ well being to accomplish it. You’ll lose trust, you’ll experience pain which you can only blame yourself for, and you could hinder the completion of your goal for a long time.
At the same time though, don’t let your low points keep you from your goal. Pay for them, accept that you would have accomplished your goal sooner had you not made those poor decisions and hurt other people, and then move forward for as long as it takes.
There’s a lot we can learn about Odysseus’ journey and character—both what to do and what not to do. However, I think the most admirable part of his story we can reflect on is his resolve, his resilience, his iron will. May we have this as well as we work toward our goals and improve our lives.
Telemachus
“So let me have no more unseemly behaviour from any of you, for I am grown up now to the knowledge of good and evil and understand what is going on, instead of being the child that I have been heretofore.”7
Out of the four members of House Odysseus, Telemachus had the most character growth. It could be argued that Odysseus and Penelope stayed true to their characters despite the heavy trials they went through and Laertes returned to his usual self after everything went back to normal. However, Telemachus started out in this place between childhood and adulthood, and by the end of the story grew up into a man.
This is Telemachus when we are first introduced to him:
He was sitting moodily among the suitors thinking about his brave father, and how he would send them flying out of the house, if he were to come to his own again and be honoured as in days gone by.8
Telemachus is sitting among the suitors, the very men who are tormenting him and his mother, and just brooding. We learn quickly that Telemachus has lost all hope. He believes his father is dead, and therefore nothing can be done about the situation he’s found himself in.
We can partly forgive him for feeling this way. He’s about twenty years old and has grown up without his father. His mother is confined to her room to limit her exposure to the suitors. His grandfather, Laertes, has confined himself to his farm in grief. His other grandfather lives somewhere else. Most of the Cephallenian elders sit back and do nothing about the suitors’ bad behavior, making them complicit in the situation.
However, it’s not good that Telemachus is doing nothing about his situation. Brooding and wishing his father was there, while sitting among the very men who are making his life miserable, is no way to live. In fact, it’s a bit pathetic.
Athena knows this which is why she goes to visit Telemachus in disguise. She is already putting in motion her plans to get Odysseus home, but once he’s home he’ll have to deal with the suitors. For that, Odysseus will need allies. Telemachus could be of help to his father, but he needs to grow up first. He needs to be a man that Odysseus can rely on. Athena has a plan to help Telemachus do just that:
“In the meantime I will go to Ithaca, to put heart into Ulysses' son Telemachus; I will embolden him to call the Achaeans in assembly, and speak out to the suitors of his mother Penelope, who persist in eating up any number of his sheep and oxen; I will also conduct him to Sparta and to Pylos, to see if he can hear anything about the return of his dear father- for this will make people speak well of him."9
One thing that just occurred to me while I was writing this is that Telemachus has no past to speak of. What I mean is, we see stories about Odysseus’, and even Laertes’, past. In Book 19, we learn about a time when Odysseus was a child and went hunting for boar with his grandfather. Also, there’s the fact that Odysseus fought in the Trojan War and of course there’s his voyage home. In Book 24, we learn a little bit of Laertes’ exploits as well from when he was younger.
But, what about Telemachus? He has no stories. He has no accomplishments to speak of. This is what Athena is about to change. By having Telemachus speak out against the suitors in a public assembly that hasn’t been called since Odysseus left for the war,10 and then go on a journey to find out more about his father, he’s going to begin building up achievements for himself.
“Show your mettle, then, and make yourself a name in story.”11
Athena’s words deeply affect Telemachus:
With these words she flew away like a bird into the air, but she had given Telemachus courage, and had made him think more than ever about his father. He felt the change, wondered at it, and knew that the stranger had been a god, so he went straight to where the suitors were sitting.12
Telemachus boldly rebukes the suitors which catches them by surprise. The next day, he does just as Athena advised him and holds an assembly. He calls out the suitors for their wrongdoing and requests a boat to go on his journey. The suitors, as well as the rest of the assembly, also get warned that the suitors’ actions and the assembly’s complacency are going to have dire consequences. Thanks to Telemachus’ bold move to hold an assembly, the suitors and the elders are completely exposed and have no more excuses.
Telemachus goes on his journey. He braves the dangers of the sea. He meets living legends and introduces himself to them. He learns more about his father and his possible whereabouts. He makes a good friend and even takes on a suppliant. And, when he gets back home, he’s a changed person. He’s grown up. He’s achieved something worthy to be talked about. He now has a past to speak of.
Most importantly though, Telemachus is now capable enough to help Odysseus with his revenge. When the time comes, he fulfills his role in Odysseus’ revenge plot spectacularly. He also stands with his father when they are attacked by the suitors’ avengers and even competes with him! This is certainly not the Telemachus we were introduced to in the beginning of the story.
There’s one feat that Telemachus accomplishes that I believe stands above all of those, however: the moment when Telemachus almost strings Odysseus’ bow.13 All of the other suitors try and fail to string the bow. Telemachus almost strings it on his fourth attempt, but pretends to fail when Odysseus signals him to. Telemachus becomes the only other man capable of stringing Odysseus’ bow besides Odysseus himself. He also shows the same kind of tenacity Odysseus has by not giving up on stringing it.
The revenge plot against the suitors and the defense against their avengers were group efforts which Telemachus played a role in. However, the stringing of Odysseus’ bow was something Telemachus achieved on his own. This is why I think it stands above the other feats he accomplished. The stringing of the bow is the culmination of Telemachus’ growth. The proof that Telemachus is no longer the brooding and helpless boy, but is now the confident and capable man.
I still think there is a blueprint in Telemachus’ journey that we can use to help the current and future generations of boys. Telemachus is tasked by the divine to confront his situation head on and go on a journey that has its fair share of dangers (though with a clear goal). He goes outside the comfort of his home. He seeks answers. He learns how to be a man from other men. He comes back home changed. His journey has made him a story—one that he can carry for the rest of his life and helps him to achieve even greater things.
I don’t know how this could translate into real life. That’s above my head. However, I hope something can come from this. Countless boys are directionless, mired in many things that are not good, and without any real help to speak of. In fact, boys are often brought down and diminished. Is it any wonder boys and young men turn to violence, or fringe groups, or even seek to cease being men altogether? Is it any wonder the so-called “manosphere” has been gradually gaining traction?
These trends will continue until our society stops trying to fearfully stamp out masculinity.
Penelope
“Heaven has endowed you with a heart more unyielding than woman ever yet had. No other woman could bear to keep away from her husband when he had come back to her after twenty years of absence, and after having gone through so much.”14
On the surface, it doesn’t seem like Penelope suffered as much as Odysseus and Telemachus did, and that would be correct to a degree. Penelope spent most of her time in her room and almost as much time weeping. Meanwhile, Odysseus was on this physically punishing voyage with the god of the seas making it worse while Telemachus was surrounded by 108 dangerous men who made multiple attempts at his life—all the while, he had no strong male role models or support to speak of. In that regard, Penelope had it easy compared to her husband and son.
However, Penelope’s trials were not on the physical level, but the moral. It could be argued that, in some ways, having your morality tested is far more difficult than most physically taxing experiences. Which would be a preferable experience to go through? An exhausting, stressful, and dangerous journey home? Or, having daily pressure from loved ones, enemies, and society, to break one of your convictions? Odysseus went through hell getting home, but he also made some morally terrible choices and even cheated on his wife with two different goddesses. While he was forced, or felt like he was forced, to make those choices, he still made compromises.
Penelope could have used the excuse of “keeping the peace” or “stopping Telemachus’ suffering” to compromise and either go back home to her father or choose one of the suitors. Those are logical reasons to compromise. However, they aren’t moral reasons. Penelope’s experience is a reminder that holding to your morals or standing on your principles could cause inconvenience, or even suffering, to those around you—stranger, friend, or family. This is why standing for your morals is difficult. Who wants to see the people he loves hurt by his decisions? Who wants to be called heartless, or even worse names, by anyone, but especially by those closest him?
It’s also why you better make darn sure you know what your morals are. You don’t want to cause those problems for something you don’t truly believe in. This is especially true if you have strong positions concerning the hot button issues of the current year.
I’m getting ahead of myself though. What was Penelope standing for? At first, no one, not even the audience, could really tell why Penelope was resisting the suitors, her family’s pressure, or the social conventions to either remarry or go back to her father’s house. She appeared to be indecisive, and as a result the suitors began eating up Odysseus’ estate and Telemachus suffered. We don’t find out until Book 18 why she did what she did:
“My husband foresaw it all, and when he was leaving home he took my right wrist in his hand—‘Wife,’ he said, ‘we shall not all of us come safe home from Troy… I know not, therefore, whether heaven will send me back to you, or whether I may not fall over there at Troy. In the meantime do you look after things here. Take care of my father and mother as at present, and even more so during my absence, but when you see our son growing a beard, then marry whom you will, and leave this your present home.’”15
Penelope made a promise to Odysseus and she intended to keep it. She could have easily backed out on this promise, especially if no one else knew about the promise and she believed Odysseus was truly dead or lost at sea forever. Her standing by that promise, after all, was causing problems—most notably for her son. However, that’s not the kind of person she was. This is one reason why Penelope is most known for her virtue and faithfulness.
The other reason comes up in Book 23. The quote I put at the beginning of this section about Penelope was said by both Odysseus and Telemachus. They were both exasperated at Penelope’s reticence to accept that the man standing in front of her, the one formerly disguised as an old beggar, was really Odysseus. Despite the criticism, she stood resolute. Why? We find out once Penelope receives undeniable proof that the man standing in front of her is indeed Odysseus.
“Do not then be aggrieved or take it amiss that I did not embrace you thus as soon as I saw you. I have been shuddering all the time through fear that someone might come here and deceive me with a lying story; for there are many very wicked people going about.”16
Penelope was willing to endure the chiding of both Odysseus and her son because she did not want to take any chances and accept an impostor—especially if that meant being intimate with him. Her faithfulness to Odysseus, and her virtue, were too important to her to do anything less.
This is something we can all learn from. How important are our morals and convictions? How important is our virtue? Important enough to endure what Penelope did? Important enough to stand alone while our immediate world is against us?
Laertes
“O father Jove, then you gods are still in Olympus after all, if the suitors have really been punished for their insolence and folly.”17
"Good heavens, what a day I am enjoying: I do indeed rejoice at it. My son and grandson are vying with one another in the matter of valour."18
I have mixed feelings about Laertes. On the one hand, he spends most of the story grieving—first for Odysseus, and then for Telemachus after he leaves for Pylos. This is what we learn of Laertes leading up to his appearance in Book 24:
He never goes into town anymore, but lives poorly in the country tiring himself out in his vineyard, and only an old maidservant for company who prepares his dinner (Book 1).
He grieves daily for Odysseus, sleeps on the floor of his house by a fire during the winter and in his vineyard during the summer (Book 11).
He stopped eating and drinking and weeps all day ever since Telemachus left for Pylos (Book 16).
You can kind of understand why Laertes is taking Odysseus’ disappearance and Telemachus’ voyage so hard. Odysseus is Laertes’ only son19 and Telemachus may be his only grandson (nothing much is said about Odysseus’ sister). At the very least, Telemachus is the grandchild Laertes probably spent the most time with, seeing as they both live in Ithaca.
On top of that, he’s lost his wife who died of grief. It’s not a good situation for Laertes who finds himself more and more alone.
On the other hand though, confining himself to his farm meant that Laertes was absent and useless when Telemachus and Penelope had to deal with the suitors. And, when Telemachus begins to do something on his own regarding the suitors, Laertes just gave in further to his grief and assumed the worse. He could have used Telemachus’ example as a wake up call, but instead he used it as a way to feel more sorry for himself.
I have to wonder if Telemachus had some bitter feelings toward his grandfather concerning his behavior. After Telemachus returns home from Pylos and visits the swineherd Eumaeus, as he was instructed to do by Athena in a dream, he tells Eumaeus to go to his mother to inform her of his return. When Eumaeus asks if he should make a detour to Laertes’ farm and give him the news, Telemachus responds:
"More's the pity… I am sorry for him, but we must leave him to himself just now. If people could have everything their own way, the first thing I should choose would be the return of my father; but go, and give your message; then make haste back again, and do not turn out of your way to tell Laertes. Tell my mother to send one of her women secretly with the news at once, and let him hear it from her."20
Telemachus doesn’t have much sympathy for Laertes’ situation. He has a more pressing matter with the suitors—a matter which Laertes has done little to nothing to help Telemachus and Penelope with.
Anyway, this is what we know about Laertes before he is finally introduced in the last book of the Odyssey. When we are introduced to him, he’s exactly as you expect: wearing dirty old clothes and worn out with sorrow. Odysseus even jokes, “you take better care of your garden than of yourself.”21
When Odysseus reveals his identity to Laertes though, Laertes goes through something of a transformation. Or, it could be argued, that rather than a transformation, Laertes is restored to his former self and perhaps feeling a bit younger:
Then the old Sicel woman took Laertes inside and washed him and anointed him with oil. She put him on a good cloak, and Minerva came up to him and gave him a more imposing presence, making him taller and stouter than before. When he came back his son was surprised to see him looking so like an immortal, and said to him, "My dear father, some one of the gods has been making you much taller and better-looking."22
Laertes is no longer crippled by the sorrow he had been nursing for at least ten years.23 What’s more, he got to truly experience the joys of being a grandfather by watching his son and grandson interact and work with each other. This was something denied to him for twenty years. He even got to stand with them when the suitors’ avengers attacked and showed those two that “the old man’s still got it.”
Laertes is an example of the suffering that can be caused by isolating yourself from those who need you—all because you’re feeling sorry for yourself. You help no one, not even yourself, with your behavior. There is a time to be alone to grieve, but not for ten years. Not when family or friends could really use your help and support. It’s something I struggle with. Past experiences leave me preferring to keep to myself. I reason that there is no value in getting involved with others. Been there, done that, got burned. And like they say: once burned, twice shy. However, this has only led me to hurting myself. Maybe it’s time to get out there again—with a little more wisdom compared to before.
Laertes is also an example of the joys family can bring in old age. It’s a shame that the family is being diminished today. That needs to stop, but it won’t until there is a fundamental shift in our culture’s paradigm. Between the toxicity of modern dating and relationships, the detrimental redefining of masculinity and femininity, laws and norms making marriage a bad deal for men especially, and the politicization of everything (thanks to the State trying to have a role in everything), it doesn’t appear our culture will get better anytime soon.
3.2 — The Menacing Phantom
If I could sum up one of the primary traits of the gods as they are presented in the Iliad and the Odyssey, it’s that they are quick to forget a mortal’s devotion to them and slow to forget a mortal’s slight against them. This is especially true for those gods who I consider to be the divine antagonists of these stories.
In the Iliad, Athena and Hera are the divine antagonists. They have a grudge against Troy because one of their princes, Paris, did not pick them in a beauty contest.24 For that reason, they want Troy destroyed and will accept nothing less. They both stop at nothing to make sure the Trojan War keeps going. Hera goes to some lengths to make sure the Achaean army doesn’t abandon the war and go home.25 Athena tempts a Trojan archer and exploits his weakness so he’ll shoot Menelaus and end the truce between the two armies.26 Those are just two examples of what these goddesses do to keep the war going and ensure that Troy loses. Even though ten years have passed since the Trojan War began, and longer since the beauty contest, Athena’s and Hera’s grudges have not abated in the least.27
In the Odyssey, Poseidon is the divine antagonist. Even though he is one of the “Big Three” (along with Zeus and Hades who each control their own domains), he is no less immune to petty grudges. Starting with the Iliad, we find out in Book 21 that he and Apollo helped build the walls of Troy during the reign of King Priam’s father, Laomedon. However, when it came time to pay them, Laomedon not only refused to do so, but tried to have them bound and tortured. This is the origin of Poseidon’s grudge with Troy.28 Even though Priam had nothing to do with what happened to Poseidon, Poseidon still wanted Troy’s destruction.
To Poseidon’s credit, though, he was able to put aside his grudge against Troy long enough to help save Aeneas’ life from Achilles’ rampage (something Hera and Athena refused to do) because Aeneas was fated to survive the war and build a new nation with the other survivors.29 While Poseidon has this grudge, he knows when he has to put it off for the sake of something greater (in this case, Fate). This could partly explain Poseidon’s behavior in the Odyssey when it comes to his grudge against Odysseus.
The way Poseidon is presented in the Odyssey can be described as “haunting.” Homer tells us within the first few sentences that Poseidon has a grudge against our protagonist Odysseus:
Nevertheless all the gods had now begun to pity [Odysseus] except Neptune, who still persecuted him without ceasing and would not let him get home.30
We find out shortly thereafter why Poseidon has this grudge:
And Jove said… “Bear in mind, however, that Neptune is still furious with Ulysses for having blinded an eye of Polyphemus king of the Cyclopes. Polyphemus is son to Neptune by the nymph Thoosa, daughter to the sea-king Phorcys; therefore though he will not kill Ulysses outright, he torments him by preventing him from getting home.”31
No other details are given. If you don’t know the story at all, you may at first believe that Odysseus committed a wrong against Poseidon’s son and therefore find it understandable that Poseidon would punish him. However, we find out later that Odysseus blinded Polyphemus in self-defense. Polyphemus kept Odysseus and some of his crew trapped in his cave and began eating the crew one by one. To escape, Odysseus gets Polyphemus drunk, stabs him in the eye with a sharpened log, and the survivors leave the cave under the bellies of Polyphemus’ sheep when he takes them out to graze.32 Now, it becomes clear that Poseidon is being unreasonable in his grudge against Odysseus and is indeed the divine antagonist.
And pay attention to what Zeus says: “though he will not kill Ulysses outright, he torments him by preventing him from getting home.” Poseidon later repeats this sentiment when he angrily watches Odysseus escape Calypso’s island:
“So the gods have been changing their minds about Ulysses while I was away in Ethiopia, and now he is close to the land of the Phaeacians, where it is decreed that he shall escape from the calamities that have befallen him. Still, he shall have plenty of hardship yet before he has done with it."33
Poseidon is so vindictive that, though he knows Odysseus is fated to get home, he nevertheless wants to make Odysseus’ journey as miserable as possible. He can’t let his grudge go. He can’t be satisfied with the fact that he’s kept Odysseus from getting home for about nine years at this point—eight of which were spent on Calypso’s island where every day Odysseus went to the seashore and wept in his longing for home. Not to mention, it’s been about twenty years since Odysseus has seen his home and family.
It must also be pointed out that Poseidon is angry at Odysseus for blinding his son even though Polyphemus was not only in the wrong, but a blasphemer as well. Here’s what Polyphemus says to Odysseus after Odysseus invokes the law of hospitality:
“Stranger, you are a fool, or else you know nothing of this country. Talk to me, indeed, about fearing the gods or shunning their anger? We Cyclopes do not care about Jove or any of your blessed gods, for we are ever so much stronger than they. I shall not spare either yourself or your companions out of any regard for Jove unless I am in the humour for doing so.”34
I very much doubt Odysseus, or any other human being for that matter, would have gotten away with saying something like that. In fact, we know that’s the case because Poseidon dashed Ajax, son of Oileus,35 on the rocks at sea after Ajax boasted that not even the gods could drown him.36 37 Yet, Polyphemus gets a free pass in Poseidon’s eyes because of nepotism.
To go off on a tangent really quick: is it any wonder philosophy in ancient Greece looked outside of the gods to find answers about the physical world and leading a good life? Is it any wonder Socrates and Plato disdained Homer’s portrayal of the gods? In both the Iliad and the Odyssey, the gods are portrayed in such a way that you wonder why the ancient Greeks had any respect for them. The most judicious thing you could say about the gods is that they represent how chaotic life is: without any reason some people have good fortune while others have bad fortune, and for no apparent reason their fortunes can be reversed. In my opinion, it would be better to say the ancient Greek gods were fickle, petty, self-absorbed, quick to anger, and hypocritical. To believe in gods like those must have been exasperating.
Getting back on track, before we found out the full story of Poseidon’s grudge against Odysseus, the god continuously shows up in name. This is why I used the term “haunting” to refer to Poseidon’s presence in the story. I’ll just list the major occurrences:
Telemachus is sent by Athena to visit Nestor in Pylos. When Telemachus arrives, Nestor happens to be holding a sacrifice for Poseidon (Book 3).
When Telemachus visits Menelaus next, he mentions that Poseidon drowned Little Ajax after he boasted that the gods couldn’t drown him (Book 4).
Odysseus, after escaping Calypso’s island and Poseidon sends a storm to wreck his raft, washes up in the land of the Phaeacians. The Phaeacians have a prominent temple to Poseidon and their king and queen are both descended from Poseidon. Athena goes incognito among the Phaeacians to help out Odysseus because she’s afraid of openly helping him and earning herself Poseidon’s displeasure. She even tells Odysseus “They are a sea-faring folk, and sail the seas by the grace of Neptune in ships that glide along like thought, or as a bird in the air." In other words, this is clearly a land protected and blessed by Poseidon (Books 6 & 7).
One of the stories the blind bard Demodocus tells is when Hephaestus caught his wife Aphrodite in the act of adultery with Ares. When Hephaestus refuses to let them out of the trap he caught them in, it’s Poseidon who mediates a resolution (Book 8).
Alcinous mentions to Odysseus that his father was told by Poseidon he was upset that the Phaeacians are too easygoing when it came to escorting strangers. Someday, his father said, Poseidon is going to wreck one of their boats and bury their city under a mountain (Book 8).
You see what I mean by haunting? Poseidon just keeps showing up throughout the story as if Homer doesn’t want you to forget Poseidon’s presence. How crazy is it that Telemachus visits Nestor, seeking information about his father Odysseus, and Nestor just happens to be sacrificing to the god who has been preventing Odysseus from getting home? What’s more, both Telemachus and Nestor are oblivious to this fact. Only we, the audience, are aware of this strange connection, which leads me to think that Homer peppering Poseidon’s name throughout the story is for his audience to pick up on.
I’ve thought quite a bit about this, but not sure what to make of it. Initially, I thought that maybe Homer is trying to raise the tension of the story. However, when Homer had the perfect opportunity to do so, he essentially punted.
What I’m referring to is Odysseus washing up in the land of the Phaeacians. Odysseus, who has (undeservedly) earned the ire of Poseidon, washes up in a land where the people are blessed by Poseidon, have a temple dedicated to him, and whose rulers are descended from him. In other words, Odysseus is in “enemy territory.”
So Odysseus needs to be careful while in this land, right? He needs to hide his identity and not mention the fact that Poseidon has it out for him… right?
Odysseus does the exact opposite.
He tells the Phaeacians who is he, his whole journey, and even tells them flat out that Poseidon has a grudge against him. And how does the King Alcinous respond? Does he banish Odysseus? Refuse to associate with him any longer? Nope. He finds Odysseus’ story entertaining and helps him get home. Alcinous even tells Odysseus about the prophecy that one day Poseidon is going to punish the Phaeacians for helping a stranger get to his destination. However, he doesn’t connect the dots that this very stranger that they are about to help has angered their patron god and perhaps is the stranger prophesied about!
This is either Homer showing his audience how naive or stupid Alcinous is, or it’s a plot hole.38 Either way, it’s a wasted opportunity. This could have been the perfect chance to introduce to the audience Odysseus’ ability to make up backstories about himself and lie his way out of situations—an ability he later utilizes when he gets back to Ithaca. Homer could have introduced quite a bit of tension into the story as we, the audience, wonder if Odysseus is going to be found out. Is it somehow going to be revealed to the Phaeacians that their patron god has been punishing Odysseus? Or, will Odysseus’ cunning win out?
Anyway, when the Phaeacians send Odysseus back to Ithaca, Poseidon is very angry about this. So angry, that he turns the ship that transported Odysseus into stone just as it returns. Alcinous, alarmed, orders sacrifices to be made to Poseidon so he won’t bury them under a mountain. The story then shifts to Odysseus and the Phaeacians’ fate is left ambiguous for the rest of the poem.39
So, basically, Poseidon punishes a people who see him as their patron god, whose rulers are directly descended from him, all because they helped a man who blinded his son in self-defense (a son, by the way, who openly said he didn’t care about the gods and boasted about being stronger than them). Poseidon’s grudge was more important to him than the people he had blessed and his grandchildren who ruled over them. Do you see why I think Poseidon’s grudge is ridiculous? Why I believe him to be the divine antagonist? Why I think the ancient Greek gods are exasperating?
Having written all of that, there’s one final observation I want to mention which I briefly touched on. Earlier, I mentioned that Poseidon put his grudge toward Troy aside long enough to help Aeneas survive his encounter with Achilles in order to uphold Fate. In the Odyssey, despite Poseidon’s grudge, as soon as Odysseus reaches Ithaca, Poseidon disappears from the story. He no longer torments Odysseus.
Granted, this could be a literary choice. Poseidon’s usefulness as an antagonist is now over. Homer now wants his audience to focus its attention on the real antagonists of the story: the suitors. He also wants his audience to get excited about Odysseus’ revenge against them. That can’t happen if Poseidon keeps popping up. In fact, after Book 13, the book where Odysseus gets home, Poseidon’s name does not even come up again until Book 23, near the end of the poem, when Odysseus is telling his wife Penelope about his grand voyage home. That’s how much Poseidon disappears from the story. This is in stark contrast to how often he was mentioned in Books 1-13.
Putting aside the plot device theory, it could have been easy for Poseidon to continue tormenting Odysseus. H could have assisted the suitors in some way. Or, he could have made Telemachus’ journey home from Pylos and Sparta difficult or harmed Telemachus in some way (a “you hurt my son, now I’ll hurt yours” kind of situation). However, he did none of that. He didn’t even try to wreck the Phaeacian ship when it was carrying Odysseus home—even though he wrecked Odysseus’ raft when he left Calypso’s island. He only punished the Phaeacians after they fulfilled their task. Also, Poseidon didn’t try and stop the sea nymph who helped Odysseus stay afloat in the water before he washed up in the land of the Phaeacians. Lastly, while Odysseus was stuck on Calypso’s island, there is no indication that Poseidon tried to further torment Odysseus. He was content with leaving Odysseus on the island longing for home. So, Poseidon made Odysseus’ life difficult while he was trying to get home, but as soon as he got home, he left Odysseus alone.
So, Poseidon has petty grudges as shown in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. However, as we saw in both poems, he dared not mess with Fate. He made sure Fate carried its course, as much as it may have begrudged him to do so. This is what sets him apart from Hera and Athena when it came to their grudges. I guess this should be expected from one of the “Big Three.”
3.3 — The House That Divided and the House That Didn’t
One thing I noticed as I read through the Odyssey is that Agamemnon and his family are mentioned a lot. Even Agamemnon’s ghost makes an appearance! It could be because the events of Agamemnon’s murder, and especially Orestes’ revenge, are so new and shocking that it couldn’t be avoided. However, I have to wonder if the main reason they keep showing up is to serve as a contrast to Odysseus and his family.
Think of how much their stories parallel each other. Agamemnon sails home from the Trojan War without much hardship. He gets home and is ultimately murdered by his Clytemnestra’s lover Aegisthus. Aegisthus then takes over Agamemnon’s territory for a period of time.40 By contrast, Odysseus has an extremely difficult time getting home. When he does, he finds his house overrun by insolent suitors, and also that Penelope has remained faithful to him. With Telemachus and two faithful servants, Odysseus avoids death and successfully gets his revenge against the suitors. The suitors only got to enjoy Odysseus’ property for a short period of time and were unsuccessful in killing him.
Orestes, Agamemnon’s son, was presented as a positive example to Telemachus of what he could accomplish. Orestes did not have Agamemnon around for ten years of his life due to the Trojan War. He wasn’t around when his father was murdered. However, he came back home eight years later and successfully got his revenge.41 As a result, Orestes made a name for himself due to his accomplishments. Telemachus was encouraged to do likewise:
“Think it well over in your mind how, by fair means or foul, you may kill these suitors in your own house. You are too old to plead infancy any longer; have you not heard how people are singing Orestes' praises for having killed his father's murderer Aegisthus? You are a fine, smart looking fellow; show your mettle, then, and make yourself a name in story.”42
“See what a good thing it is for a man to leave a son behind him to do as Orestes did, who killed false Aegisthus the murderer of his noble father. You too, then- for you are a tall, smart-looking fellow- show your mettle and make yourself a name in story."43
Telemachus didn’t leave home for many years and come back, nor did he have to avenge his father’s murder—but he did have to grow up so he could help with his father’s revenge. His journey to visit Nestor and Menelaus was a miniature version of Orestes’ experience away from home. Both experiences seemed to serve the same purpose of causing the two young men to grow up into adulthood and set them up for their ultimate tasks.
Penelope and Clytemnestra are also contrasted with each other. Quite simply, Penelope remained faithful to her husband and her promise to him while Clytemnestra broke her marriage bond by taking another lover and being complicit in her husband’s murder. Agamemnon’s ghost’s response to the dead suitors sums up the contrast between the two quite nicely:
“Happy Ulysses, son of Laertes, you are indeed blessed in the possession of a wife endowed with such rare excellence of understanding, and so faithful to her wedded lord as Penelope the daughter of Icarius. The fame, therefore, of her virtue shall never die, and the immortals shall compose a song that shall be welcome to all mankind in honour of the constancy of Penelope. How far otherwise was the wickedness of the daughter of Tyndareus who killed her lawful husband; her song shall be hateful among men, for she has brought disgrace on all womankind even on the good ones.”44
Penelope is also seen as a contrast to Helen for similar reasons. Helen makes an appearance in the story and her deeds are talked about multiple times. Helen allowed herself to be seduced by a foreign prince and ran away with him. Penelope did not allow herself to be seduced by any of the 108 suitors, even though there was pressure by her father and brothers to marry one of them.45 Helen couldn’t resist one man, but Penelope was able to resist 108 of them and pressure from her family. Homer drives home the point with both Clytemnestra and Helen when Odysseus says to the ghost of Agamemnon:
“In truth Jove has hated the house of Atreus from first to last in the matter of their women's counsels. See how many of us fell for Helen's sake, and now it seems that Clytemnestra hatched mischief against too during your absence.”46
Unlike Odysseus and Telemachus, Penelope stood in contrast to two members of the house of Atreus. Homer really wanted to drive home how virtuous Penelope was throughout the whole ordeal.
To switch gears a little, I want to note that the comparison between Agamemnon and Odysseus didn’t start with the Odyssey—it started with the Iliad (although, it was more implicit in the Iliad). Throughout the poem, it becomes clear that even though Agamemnon is the commander of the Achaean army, Odysseus is a far better leader than he. Here’s a list of those instances:
Agamemnon puts the whole Achaean army through a really shortsighted and cruel test when he pretends that he’s given up on the war and it’s time to go home. Agamemnon wants to see how the army reacts. The troops, relieved, begin to pack up to go home. It’s been ten years at this point and they miss their homes. Odysseus, spurred on by Athena, rallies the troops together and gives them a rousing speech to line up and get ready for battle instead. He sympathizes with their longing to go home, asks them to hold out a little bit longer, and boosts their morale with a reminder of the prophecy that stated they would win the war on the tenth year (Book 2).
Later on, Agamemnon is no longer pretending to give up on the war. He’s demoralized and now thinks that’s the best course of action. Odysseus rebukes him for saying this out loud, telling him that he can’t have the troops hearing him say that (Book 14).
Odysseus doesn’t let Agamemnon off the hook for how he treated Achilles. Agamemnon publicly dishonored Achilles, so now he will publicly atone for this and reconcile with Achilles. He even tells Agamemnon “it is no disgrace even to a king that he should make amends if he was wrong in the first instance.” The implication: swallow your pride and apologize sooner next time (Book 19)!
To sum up: Odysseus was a much better leader than Agamemnon during the Trojan War and he managed to avoid the same fate as Agamemnon under similar, but critically different, circumstances. Odysseus having a faithful wife was certainly one of those critical differences. There is one other critical difference though: Odysseus had Athena. In other words, Odysseus had the help and protection of a goddess—and that help and protection extended to his family.
Athena motivated Telemachus to go on his journey and even helped him out with it. Later, she tipped Telemachus off to the suitors’ ambush for him so he could avoid it on his way home from Pylos.
Athena advised Penelope in her dreams and caused the suitors to go crazy over her.
Athena helped Odysseus in whatever ways she could to get him home.
Here is probably the most critical part of Athena’s protection—the very moment where Odysseus’ fate deviated from Agamemnon’s: when Odysseus finally arrives back in Ithaca, Athena prevents him from immediately going home. First, she covers the surrounding area with fog so that when Odysseus wakes up he doesn’t recognize anything. Next, she appears to him and tells him everything that’s been happening on his estate. Lastly, Athena then helps Odysseus devise a plan to infiltrate his home and uses her magic to disguise him as an old beggar.
Homer even makes sure the audience recognizes this critical juncture. Odysseus explicitly tells Athena:
"In good truth, goddess, it seems I should have come to much the same bad end in my own house as Agamemnon did, if you had not given me such timely information. Advise me how I shall best avenge myself.”47
If it weren’t for Athena, Odysseus would be dead, Telemachus would have died in the ambush, and Penelope may have been forced to choose one of the suitors who were in every way inferior to Odysseus. On the one hand, it’s a form of deus ex machina.48 On the other hand, the message is clear: whatever it was Odysseus did to endear himself to the goddess Athena, it ultimately saved his life (though it didn’t spare him from the massive hardships he experienced due to him angering another god).
I’m not quite sure what to make of a message like this. Stand out from everyone else in one important and meaningful way? Devote yourself to that one aspect of the divine that best suits your talents and temperament? I’m thinking about this too hard?
3.4 — Revenge: A Comparison
Going through the Iliad, I wrote quite a bit about revenge. In fact, the title of my book about the Iliad is Revenge and its Discontents.49 The anger of Achilles, which revolved around revenge, is the driving force of the whole story:
Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another.50
I would be remiss, then, if I didn’t say anything about the revenge plots that took place in the Odyssey. Specifically: what sets Odysseus’ revenge apart from Achilles’ revenge? The biggest detail to note about their acts of revenge is that, while both were successful, Achilles paid a much higher price for his revenge compared to Odysseus. Why is that?
Lets start with Achilles. His revenge starts when Agamemnon publicly dishonors Achilles. Agamemnon, due to divine retribution, is forced to give up a young woman he won as a war prize and demands immediate compensation. When Achilles tells him to hold off and wait for when they sack Troy, Agamemnon responds by forcefully taking Achilles’ war prize away (another young woman). Outraged, Achilles is about to kill Agamemnon but Athena stops him. Since he can’t kill Agamemnon, he decides to withdraw himself and his Myrmidon army from the war effort. However, Achilles is not content with just this and asks his mother, the sea goddess Thetis, to petition Zeus to cause the Achaeans to lose battles to the Trojans until Agamemnon regrets humiliating him. Zeus agrees and the Trojans begin to push the Achaeans back into their camp and even set one of their ships on fire. Achilles’ best friend, Patroclus, is distraught over what’s happening. He begs Achilles to allow him to lead the Myrmidons into battle and push the Trojans out of the camp. Achilles reluctantly agrees, but when Patroclus chases the Trojans beyond the camp, their leader Hector kills him. Achilles’ revenge ultimately leads to the death of his best friend.
After this, Hector becomes the focus of Achilles’ revenge, but there’s a catch: it’s prophesied that if Achilles goes back out into battle, he will die. Achilles doesn’t care though. He will avenge Patroclus even if it costs him his life. Achilles publicly reconciles with Agamemnon, goes out into battle, and after some setbacks successfully kills Hector. However, once again, Achilles is not satisfied with just that. He hooks Hector’s corpse up to his chariot and drags it back to camp. He will deny Hector a proper burial, deny Hector’s family the ability to mourn over his body, and let the dogs and the bugs feast on the corpse instead. Achilles will continue to drag Hector’s body around until the gods put a stop to it. They send Hector’s father, Priam the king of Troy, to Achilles, and Achilles agrees to give Priam the body of Hector for burial. You have to look to outside sources to find out that, of all people, Paris is the one who ends up slaying Achilles, and with an arrow no less. Achilles’ revenge ultimately leads to his own death at the hands of the arrogant and cowardly prince of Troy who was responsible for the Trojan War happening to begin with.
After going through the Odyssey, we know that Odysseus’ revenge ended quite differently. He successfully gets his revenge against the suitors without losing his son, his wife, or his faithful servants. He family is whole again and he even reunites with his father. And, when the suitors’ male relatives try to get their revenge on Odysseus for killing the suitors, those relatives are only spared wholesale slaughter when Athena intervenes to stop the fighting and negotiates a peace between the two parties. The end.
So, why was Odysseus so utterly successful while Achilles lost quite a bit?
I want to clarify right now that I don’t believe Odysseus’ revenge was more just than Achilles’ revenge. I believe Achilles was fully justified in his anger toward Agamemnon. What happened to Achilles would be like if your boss, angered by the fact that he lost a bonus due to his own mistakes, responds by taking away your bonus so he could have one. It wouldn’t be inappropriate for you to feel outrage and humiliation, to quit your job and deprive your boss of your skills and manpower.
Where I believe Achilles went wrong was when he petitioned the gods to cause the Achaeans to lose to the Trojans. The other Achaeans had nothing to do with what Agamemnon did to Achilles. In fact, it could be argued that they were sympathetic toward Achilles and discontent with Agamemnon’s leadership. However, because of Achilles’ petition, many Achaeans were wounded or killed.
Basically, Achilles took his revenge too far.
Odysseus, on the other hand, didn’t. The suitors had many chances to stop what they were doing. Odysseus even explicitly gave one a chance to walk away. None of them did. When it came time, Odysseus killed all the suitors and executed all his servants who colluded with them. Then Odysseus stopped.
He didn’t desecrate the suitors’ corpses. He didn’t go on to kill most of the Cephallenian elders because they sat back and allowed the suitors to do what they did rather than reign them in. He didn’t go after the suitors’ families. Once he killed the suitors, Odysseus considered his revenge complete.
That’s the primary detail that sets his revenge apart from Achilles’ revenge.
The lesson to be learned? Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, means exactly how it sounds. The phrase is not “life for eye.” You don’t respond to someone who injures your eye by killing him. That takes it too far. You do what’s necessary to pull yourself out of the situation, deprive the other(s) of your presence, and/or get proper restitution, and then leave it at that. Any further, and you may unnecessarily harm those who are innocent of what happened to you. That may have unintended consequences that may be so bad, you’ll wish you never acted in the first place.
Part 4: Final Impression
So, is the Odyssey worth reading?
Absolutely, yes!
While the Odyssey is not as action packed as the Iliad, it contains far more adventure. It’s also a shorter poem compared to the Iliad. Plus, there are fewer characters that you need to remember and keep straight. The themes of family and overcoming tribulations in the Odyssey may also be more appealing to you than the themes of war and revenge in the Iliad.
The Odyssey also contains a lot of fantasy elements, like magic and monsters, so if you’re a fan of Sword & Sorcery and/or Fantasy, the Odyssey is definitely worth reading. It is certainly one of the bedrock works of those genres.51
Before I started on my journey through the Odyssey for the sake of my blog, I would have told you, hands down, that I like the Odyssey better than the Iliad. However, now that I’ve thoroughly read both, I have to say that the Iliad is about equal with the Odyssey in my opinion. I found the Iliad to be more exciting than I remembered and the Odyssey to drag on more than I remembered.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t great works. They are exceptionally great works. Homer deserves his status as one of the best composers in Western Civilization—perhaps even the world. The Iliad and the Odyssey contain timeless stories. A lot of plot devices, character traits, and story developments we consider to be tropes today are found in these 3000 year old epic poems. They are both well worth the read.
But don’t take my word for it. Read them for yourself! You can do it! I don’t care where you live or what you do for a living. If you can read my words right now, you can read the Iliad and the Odyssey. They aren’t beyond you. They are great works precisely because they are accessible—if you are willing to try. Just keep in mind that accessible doesn’t mean simple. It means you don’t need a textbook, or a professor, or a famous author, or a blogger to hold your hand through it. Just pick up the work and begin reading. You won’t know everything it may contain, but nine times out of ten those details aren’t needed in order to follow the story. With enough effort, you’ll be able to read the poems and tell others what they’re about in your own words—just as I did.
May your days be filled with grace.
-Andronikos
The booklist I am going through can be found here.
Buy my book Revenge and its Discontents: My Journey through the Iliad! Electronic and paperback versions available.
Thumbnail: This is a picture generated by AI. Here is their website: Midjourney. As far as I can tell, it depicts Poseidon looming over Odysseus’ ship. It captures what I was trying to describe in the section on Poseidon.
Footnotes:
1It could be argued Achilles, the central focus of the Iliad, was an exception. He gave up his revenge against Hector and returned Hector’s corpse to his father Priam. The scene between he and Priam was very moving. However, he was also warned by his mother, the sea goddess Thetis, that the gods were unhappy with his actions and if Priam petitioned for Hector’s body he would do well to listen. It was already established from the beginning that Achilles revered the gods when Athena stopped him from killing Agamemnon and he obeyed (Book 1). Achilles’ reverence for the gods remained true throughout the whole story. So, was it actual character growth when Achilles gave up his grudge toward Hector in order to let Priam take his body back for a funeral? Did he actually give up his grudge? I think that could have only been truly answered if Achilles had given up Hector’s body without Thetis’ previous warning. I do think, though, that one character who did experience character growth in the Iliad was Menelaus. He started out as someone who was uncertain and relied a lot on his brother Agamemnon. However, when Agamemnon was wounded and taken out of battle, Menelaus stepped up to the plate and proved he didn’t have to stand in his brother’s shadow. For the best summary of this, see my final essay on the Iliad titled “Revenge and its Discontents” in my blog Wends of Change (wendsofchange.substack.com).
2Everyman was a play written in the late 1400s or early 1500s. The story is about Everyman’s journey through life and the people he meets along the way. Everyman represents all of mankind while the people he meets are personifications of different aspects of life, both good and evil. A very popular “everyman” story is The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (1678). Both works are in the public domain.
3Book 5
4Book 5
5Book 12
6Book 12
7Book 20
8Book 1
9Book 1
10[Aegyptius]: “From the day Ulysses left us there has been no meeting of our councillors until now…” (Book 2)
11Book 1
12Book 1
13See Book 21.
14Book 23
15Book 18
16Book 23
17Book 24
18Book 24
19[Telemachus]: “Laertes was the only son of Arceisius, and Ulysses only son of Laertes. I am myself the only son of Ulysses…” (Book 16)
20Book 16
21Book 24
22Book 24
23I couldn’t tell if Laertes was mourning for Odysseus when he left for the war, or only after he was lost at sea on his way home. I’m pretty sure it was the latter.
24This story is alluded to in Iliad, Book 24, but the full story is found in other sources.
25Iliad, Book 2
26Iliad, Book 4
27The events of the Iliad take place in the tenth, and final, year of the Trojan War.
28According to outside sources, Apollo and Poseidon were sent to Laomedon as punishment for a wrong they committed against Zeus. When Laomedon treated them harshly after their punishment was over, Poseidon sent a sea monster to terrorize Troy. The only way to avert the monster was for Laomedon to sacrifice his daughter to it. He called on Heracles (Hercules) to kill the sea monster and save his daughter. When Heracles killed the monster and went to get his promised payment, Laomedon spurned him as well. In response, Heracles sacked Troy and killed Laomedon and all of his sons except Priam. That was how Priam became king of Troy.
29Iliad, Book 20. This becomes the basis for the Latin poem Aeneid centuries later where Aeneas becomes the founder of what would become the Roman Republic.
30Book 1
31Book 1
32See Book 9.
33Book 5
34Book 9
35Also known as Little/Lesser Ajax so he wouldn’t be confused with the towering Telamonian Ajax.
36See Book 4.
37 I have to point out too, that the irony of Polyphemus’ statement is that after Odysseus bests him, he calls on his father Poseidon to make his journey home difficult which Poseidon obliges. So much for not caring about Odysseus’ “blessed gods” and being stronger than they.
38Refer back to my chapters on Books 8 & 13 where I speculate whether Alcinous was a naive man.
39See Book 13.
40This story will be explored in more detail when I get to Aeschylus’ Oresteia. It must be noted, though, the Aeschylus seems to have drawn on a different tradition compared to Homer—one that is much darker (that, or Homer intentionally omitted details; or, the story evolved after Homer’s time to include the darker elements). Agamemnon, because he offended the goddess Artemis, was stuck on an island with the whole Achaean fleet. In order to placate the goddess, he had to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia. Agamemnon refused at first, but when the Achaean fleet was getting ready to mutiny, he had Clytemnestra send their daughter over under false pretenses. Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter, the wind that kept them stuck on the island cleared, and they sailed on to war (in some traditions, Iphigenia is sacrificed; in others, the gods whisk her away and replace her with a sacrificial animal without anyone knowing). Clytemnestra, when she learned what Agamemnon did, was incensed. Aegisthus, who is the sole survivor of an atrocity committed by Agamemnon’s father Atreus, uses the opportunity to seduce and team up with Clytemnestra. They both ambush and kill Agamemnon in his own home. Homer’s version is much different. One could say it’s a sanitized version by contrast—although, one with fewer contradictions (which I’ll explore when I write about the Oresteia). For starters, in the Iliad Book 9, Agamemnon’s three daughters—Chrysothemis, Laodice (more commonly known as Electra), and Iphianassa (Iphigenia)—are all alive. He offers any one of them to Achilles to marry as part of his bribe to get Achilles back in the war. In the Odyssey Book 1, based on the dialogue between Zeus and Athena, it seems that Aegisthus, rather than seducing Clytemnestra as part of his revenge plot, seduced her because he wanted her. Clytemnestra resisted his advances at first, but eventually caved. In Book 11, Agamemnon’s ghost says that Aegisthus invited him to his house where he was ambushed and killed. There is no mention of the atrocity committed against Aegisthus’ family, nor any mention of Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter and Clytemnestra hating him as a result. Lastly, Agamemnon didn’t die in his own home.
41 Homer doesn’t say why Orestes was away from home for eight years. It could be because he didn’t become an adult until then. Homer also doesn’t say why Orestes was gone in Athens to begin with. According to traditions outside the Odyssey, Orestes had been sent into exile so he couldn’t be a hindrance to Aegisthus’ and Clytemnestra’s plans.
42Athena (in disguise) to Telemachus, Book 1.
43Nestor to Telemachus, Book 3.
44Book 24
45“[Penelope’s] father and brothers are already urging her to marry Eurymachus, who has given her more than any of the others, and has been greatly increasing his wedding presents” (Book 15). I’m accepting this as something that was actually happening in the story, but really it’s not clear that it was. Athena was telling Telemachus this in a dream in order to instill a sense of urgency in getting back home to Ithaca. Odysseus was already there and Athena needed Telemachus to join him sooner rather than later to put the revenge plot into motion. Eurymachus and Telemachus hated each other. Eurymachus even plotted multiple times to murder Telemachus. Athena could have been lying to Telemachus about Eurymachus getting into the good graces of his grandfather and uncles in order to rile him up.
46Book 11
47Book 13
48See my chapter on Book 24 for an explanation of this.
49The title is a nod to Civilization and its Discontents by Sigmund Freud.
50The opening lines of the Iliad.
51Along with Beowulf, the legends of Charlemagne, Norse and Celtic myths and legends, Icelandic sagas, and the Arabian Nights. All are classics, all are in the public domain. You can also start with Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch (also known as Bulfinch’s Mythology). This is also in the public domain. Much, much further down the road, I’ll be covering the Saga of the Volsungs, the Nibelungenlied, and the Song of Roland. Look forward to it!