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Not only a classic, but a great adventure as well
12 August 2011 - Athens

There are two books which I believe form the foundation of Western Literature as we know it. One of them is the Bible and the other is The Odyssey. The Odyssey is a story that has everything in it: adventure, action, and even erotica. Originally it was an oral poem that was passed down by ancient Greek bards who would travel the land and in return for food and shelter, would tell the inhabitants of the towns the visited the story of the Trojan War. Aristotle indicates that the Odyssey is only one part of a much larger cycle, but only two epics have survived: this and the Illiad.

The major theme of this story is the Homecoming of Odysseus. Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, travelled with his men to join the war against Troy, which had begun after Paris, one of the princes of Troy, 'kidnapped' the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. Menelaus' brother, Agamemnon, then raised an army of Greeks to travel to Troy to get her back. The war lasted 10 years before Odysseus devised a plan to trick the Trojans into opening their gate, which was in the form of a giant wooden horse (from which comes the phrase, beware of Greeks bearing gifts).

However the Greeks upset the gods, and as punishment the gods scattered the fleet and each one of the Greek generals had their own problems getting home. Agamemnon was killed by his wife's lover, Aegisthus; Menelaus was trapped in Egypt; and Odysseus had his own problems, which in part involved his men. Throughout the story Odysseus is struggling with his men, in particular one who constantly rebels against him and questions his authority. However, as it turns out, Odysseus is the only one that manages to return home.

The book begins in Ithaca, 20 years after Odysseus first left, and there is no indication that he will ever return. Odysseus' wife, Penelope, is fighting off a horde of suitors and is being pressured to remarry but she believes in her heart that Odysseus will return home, and so refuses to marry any of the suitors (not that any woman in their right mind would consider marrying one of those louts). Her son Telemachus also believes that his father is alive and goes on his own journey to Greece to see if he can discover his fate. The suitors, however, are pretty much eating Odysseus out of house and home. Every day they descend on the house and eat and drink Odysseus' wealth away.

This story is a masterpiece. The characters are very well constructed, and Homer uses many descriptors to describe his characters. Odysseus is long-suffering and cunning, while Penelope is faithful. Telemachus is a young man who is going through his right of adulthood, which is why he is travelling to Greece. The Suitors are pretty much the bad guys, and they do meet a very bloody end.

The story is divided into 24 books and the books can each been grouped into groups of four. The 24 books were likely to have been the scrolls that the book was originally written on, though it is unclear whether the groupings were what the original bards would tell in a night (I suspect they told one book per night). Homer goes on a lot of tangents though, and it is through this story that Homer reveals many Greek legends and we also learn much of what happened during the Trojan war. We are told about what happened to Agamemnon and Menelaus. Odysseus even descends into the underworld to speak to the prophet to learn how he can get home, but while there he also meets numerous other shades (the souls of those who had died).

One thing I wish to comment on is the middle four books, in which Odysseus tells the Phaecians (the inhabitants of one of the islands he visits) of his journeys. From what I have heard and read, nobody seems to question the authenticity of the story, but throughout the Odyssey Odysseus is portrayed as a cunning liar. As such I question the truth behind his story to the Phaecains. One thing that stands out is that the Phaecians fled to their current homeland because of problems with the Cyclopes, and lo and behold, one of Odysseus' first adventures out of Troy is where he meets, and blinds the Cyclopes. I suspect he is telling this story (and the truth of it is in doubt) to get onto the right side of the Phaecians. However, his journey to Hades tells a different story, because he speaks of events, such as Agamemnon's murder, that he would have no way of knowing otherwise. Personally I would treat anything that comes out of Odysseus' mouth with the greatest suspicion.

Lots of people have written lots on the book, and it is interesting that in the introduction of the version that I wrote asks the question of why this book has come down to us. That is easy: it is a work of art. It is a very elegantly crafted story that is also a rip-roaring adventure. For a book to survive hundreds of years, it has to be really good, and for it to survive 3000, it pretty much has to be a masterpiece. What he really should have asked was how it survived, and it is interesting to read how it did survive. A lot of the earlier texts that we have were discovered at a much later date indicate that we have always had access to the Odyssey.