The Odyssey: Books 7-12
Episode 25
Professor Pipes continues on her odyssey through The Odyssey, this time with books 7-12.
TRIGGER WARNING: Death
Transcript
Introduction:
Hello and welcome to Piper’s Paraphrases. I’m Professor Pipes, and this week, I’m continuing on in my journey through Homer’s The Odyssey, this time with books 7-12.
Previously:
Previously in The Odyssey, we were introduced to a guy named Telemachus who was all upset about the fact that his dad was MIA after the Trojan War. Oh! And a bunch of dudes were also trying to… marry… his mom. After traveling to see some of his dad’s military buddies, Telemachus found out that he was trapped on an island with a goddess. Cut to, Odysseus, trapped on an island with Calypso. Luckily for him, the gods decided to free him, and after being shipwrecked by Poseidon, he ended up at the land of the Phaecians, where the local princess told him to follow her home.
Summary:
In Book 7, Odysseus heads to the Phaeacian palace to see King Alcinous and Queen Arete, mom and pop of princess Nausicaa. On the way, Athena, disguised as a local girl, secretly hides Odysseus in a cloud, so he can travel unnoticed to the palace, because apparently large, traveling clouds are super inconspicuous. Once there, he tells the surprised king and queen that he is a traveler, far from home, and in dire need of some help. Arete recognizes his clothing, and he explains that he had been the prisoner of Calypso, but after leaving her island, he was shipwrecked and Nausicaa found him in the woods and lent them to him. Alcinous is so pleased with Odysseus, that he offers him his daughter’s hand in marriage. Random stranger, whose name you don’t know, who was punished by the gods in some crazy storm, and who appeared as if from nowhere out of a mysterious cloud? Perfect son-in-law material! Thankfully, Odysseus declines.
In Book 8, Alcinous and his advisors agree that they’ll lend Odysseus a ship, so he can head home. They have a big old feast and festival, with sports, dancing, food, and a bard telling stories about the god Aphrodite having an affair with Ares, and all the gods laughing about it. Ahahahaha, unfaithful wives are hilarious, am I right? Odysseus asks the bard to tell the tale of… him. Odysseus. Saving the day at Troy. Ahh, so humble. Odysseus starts crying as he remembers everyone who died during and after the war, so Alcinous stops the music and is like, dude, who the heck are you and why are you crying? But, nicer.
In Book 9, Odysseus begins to tell Alcinous, and the rest of the party people, his famous tale of all the crazy stuff that happened to him. First, after leaving Troy, he, you know, harmlessly ransacked a nearby city and kidnapped a bunch of people. No big deal. But his terrible CREW decided to stick around and drink and party after he told them to leave, so the local army came by and kind of kicked their butts. Next, a storm sent them to the land of the lotus eaters, who were all drugged up on the plants they eat. These friendly stoners offered the plant to a few of Odysseus’ crew, who then immediately forgot about going home and just wanted more of that sweet, sweet lotus. Once he dragged them back onto the ship, they all headed out again and ended up landing on an island full of giant cyclops. Cyclopses? Cy-CLOPE-ees! Anyway, Odysseus investigated the area, and ended up leading a group of his men into a big old cave, wanting to find out what kind of people lived there. Well, it was a giant, horrible cyclops named Polyphemus, who shut the door with an enormous rock and then ate several of Odysseus’ men before going to sleep. Yum... Buuuuuut Odysseus couldn’t kill him or they’d be trapped. The next morning, the cyclops went out with his sheep and Odysseus hatched a plan and sharpened a big steak. Nope, not that kind of stake, Cooper. How would that even work? The cyclops came back, and ate some more dudes. Then Odysseus told Polyphemus his name was Nobody, got him drunk, and then stabbed him in the eye after he fell asleep, blinding him. But when the other cy… one-eyed giants… gathered outside to see what was wrong, Polyphemus shouted, “Nobody hurt me!” Ahh… I see what ya did there, Odysseus. Meanwhile, Odysseus and crew hid under the sheep and were able to sneak out in the morning. But Odysseus was kind of a cocky jerk, so he taunted the cyclops and told him his real name, his dad’s name, and his address. Because that could never go wrong! Polyphemus got mad, and chucked some giant boulders at the ship and then prayed to his dad, who, by the way, is POSEIDON, asking that Odysseus never make it home, or, if he did, that it would take him a really long time, that he’d lose all his companions, that he’d lose his ship, and that there would be trouble at home. Ummm… check, check, check, and check.
In Book 10, Odysseus is still telling his story to the Phaecians. Next up, he and his crew ended up at the home of Aeolus, who happens to be the ruler of the winds. Being a super nice guy, he bagged up all of the winds that would blow Odysseus off course, leaving only the helpful winds a’blowin’. He gave the bag of bad winds to Odysseus, and they headed home. In fact, they were IN SIGHT of Ithaca, when Odysseus decided to take a little nap. Come on, dude. His crew, being jealous dummies, assumed that the bag held treasure, so they opened it up, and all the winds blew them straight back to Aeolus. This time, he was NOT pleased, and basically told them that the gods were punishing them, so he ain’t gonna help again. Odysseus and the other Acheans, which means Greeks, left, and ended up at the land of the Laestrygonians. They were all “take me to your leader” and a helpful young lady obliged. Unfortunately, the leader, and the people, were giant cannibals, and they ate a bunch of the Acheans and then threw boulders and sank all of the ships, except for Odysseus’s, as they were getting away. Next, they landed on the island of Circe, a beautiful enchantress. A group of men checked out her home, which, by the way, was surrounded by tamed lions and wolves. Not suspicious at all. Circe invited them in, but Eurymachus was like, mmm... sus, so he stayed back. All the rest of the dudes were given some magic potion and then turned into pigs, so Eurylochus told Odysseus, who started barging toward her place, but was stopped by Hermes, who gave him an herb to protect him from her potion. She was so impressed by Odysseus that she freed his men and they all ended up staying at her place for a YEAR. Dude, cheating on your wife for a year? So not cool, Odysseus! Eventually, the crew convinced Odysseus that they should leave, and Circe told him to get advice from Tiresias. Only problem? He’s dead. Road trip to the underworld!
In Book 11, Odysseus (who, you’ll recall, is still telling his story to the Phaecians) made it to the underworld and made a bunch of sacrifices. He eventually saw Tiresias, who told him that Poseidon was punishing them because they blinded his son. Whoops. So if he wanted to make it home, he had to go through this narrow strait, to avoid the notice of Poseidon. Tiresias also warned him that he’d need to avoid an island that has the cattle of the sun god because if they ate the cattle, he foresaw that Odysseus would lose all of his crew and have problems back at home. In any case, he said that when Odysseus did make it home, he’d have to travel to a land where they’ve never seen the sea and then make a big ol’ sacrifice to Poseidon before he’d call it square-zees. Next, Odysseus lists a bunch of different people he talked to in the underworld, including a crewmate who just died, after getting drunk and falling off a roof, and, sadly, his own mother, who died of grief waiting for Odysseus to return. He also saw a bunch of Greek villains and heroes, including some that he fought beside in Troy. Pretty soon, there were just too many ghosts to handle, so he went back to his crew, and they headed back to Circe’s place.
In Book 12, Odysseus tells the Phaecians about his goodbye to Circe and his final obstacles before he eventually ended up at Calypso’s island. Basically, Circe said they’d pass some sirens, which, by the way, are bird ladies, not mermaids, and warned that if they listened to the sirens’ songs, they’d all end up dying. But Odysseus could listen, if he was tied to the ship. Next, she warned him that the strait he’d have to go through had a giant whirlpool monster on one side, which would sink his whole ship and kill everyone, and a six headed monster on the other side, which would kill six of his men. Wow. Great options. Circe said to stay on the second side, so they don’t sink. Say that ten times fast. She also gave the same warning about the island of Thrinakia, with Helios’ cattle, and said to avoid it. Then they left aaaaand, it all pretty much went down exactly as she said it would. They passed by the sirens without much trouble, and Odysseus listened, while tied to the mast. Then they headed into the strait, and Odysseus didn’t tell his crew that 6 of them were going to be killed by Scylla, the six headed monster, in order to avoid having them all hide and then get sucked into Charybdis, the whirlpool. Inevitably, 6 men were killed, and everyone left behind was upset and worn out, so when they saw Thrinakia and Odysseus said to ride on by, they refused, and stopped there. Unfortunately, storms and winds prevented them from leaving, and they eventually ran out of food. Odysseus went inland to pray, and his men got to plotting. Eurylochus, who cleverly avoided being turned into a pig by Circe, apparently ran out of intelligence and told the crew that they should just slaughter the cattle of Helios and eat them, and offer some of them in sacrifice to appease Helios. Right. “I killed your pets, but here are their corpses as a gift!” Yeah, that’ll work. Odysseus returned too late, as they were already mid-barbeque. Apparently Helios found out, surprise surprise, and told the gods to punish Odysseus’ men, so when they set sail, Zeus killed them all with a giant storm, and Odysseus ended up, alone, on the island of Calypso. Soooo… we’re back to where we started, and I’m done for the day! Just kidding - still gotta analyze this crazy stuff.
Analysis:
In these books, we see a lot of the characterization through different characters’ demonstration of or lack of some of the most important ancient Greek virtues, which correspond to our themes.
First up, let’s talk Intelligence. It’s clear that the ancient Greek people saw that victory relied on both brawn AND brains. After all, Athena is one of the most important goddesses, and she’s the goddess of wisdom. We see this struggle between brute force and intelligence personified in the struggle between Polyphemus and Odysseus. The cyclops even gets drunk and falls asleep in the midst of people he knows hate him, thoughtlessly assuming that puny humans can’t possibly defeat big bad him. Meanwhile, Odysseus’ solution is clever and well-thought out, allowing all of the remaining Acheans to escape. All of this demonstrates the necessity and superiority of intelligence. Well, until Odysseus’ intelligence is outweighed by his pride…
...which brings us to our next topic: Humility. We see several characters going against this moral, with dire consequences. First, the cyclops was excessively proud when he thought he could never be defeated, and, well, they stabbed his eye out, kid! But then, while simultaneously faulting the cyclops for his lack of morals, Odysseus decides to boast, and yells back at the cyclops his real name and his home! He’s showing hubris, which means excessive pride, to the point where someone thinks they are on par with the gods. And the result? They’re almost shipwrecked by the cyclops and they get a god for an enemy. Whoops!
Speaking of the gods, our next theme is Faith. Not only do the characters have faith in the gods, but we see a whole lot of prophecies in this section, and they were pretty big in lots of stories from this era. Even Polyphemus, who states that he doesn’t care about the gods or follow their rules, mentions that a prophet had foretold he would be blinded by someone named Odysseus. Then both Tiresias and Circe foretell that if Odysseus’ men disturb the cattle of Helios, the men will all die and Odysseus will return, alone, to trouble at home. And boy are they right!
These books also demonstrate the need to honor or Respect one’s superiors. Usually, that means the gods. And we do see quite a bit of that. The Phaecians are throwing a feast in honor of Poseidon, and Odysseus’ prayers to the gods are answered many times over, like when Hermes brings him an antidote to Circe’s potion or when the gods put Odysseus to sleep so he won’t get in trouble like the rest of his crew. However, we also see the necessity of respecting one’s superiors, namely Odysseus. Over and over his crew ignores him, and it only ever leads to trouble. After raiding a city, they refuse to get back on the ships, so a bunch of them die in battle. When they all almost make it home with the help of Aeolus, the crew doesn’t trust Odysseus, so they open up a bag of winds and get blown off course. Then later, Odysseus tells his crew to avoid the island of Helios’ cattle, and not only do they refuse and land there, but they also eat the cattle, which he explicitly told them not to do. And in the end, they all die! In fact, they don’t even make it CLOSE to the end. Clearly, respecting one’s superiors was really important.
Finally, let’s talk Xenia, or Hospitality. Odysseus gets real mad at the cyclops for, as he puts it, not demonstrating hospitality. That’s a mild way of saying he ate a bunch of guests! Alcinous, on the other hand, is kind to Odysseus, bathes him and clothes him, throws a party in his honor, offers up his daughter, and has everyone give him a bunch of presents, all before he even asks his name. Again, these guys were real big on hospitality. And not eating your guests.
Food for Thought:
Finally, I’d like to leave you with some food for thought.
First, I kind of trash talked the crew a minute ago, but at what points in the story were they in the right and Odysseus was wrong? And why is that important?
Second, look back at the people Odysseus sees in the underworld. What is their significance? Why do you think Homer chose to show these specific people?
Third, how are women portrayed in this section of the story, both good and bad?
Fourth, what do you think about Odysseus’ choice not to tell his men about Scylla or about the prophecy that, if they ate the cattle, Odysseus alone would survive?
Finally, what are the benefits of Odysseus narrating his own adventures in books 9-12? And what might be the problems with having him as our narrator?
Thanks for watching this episode of Piper’s Paraphrases. Now go forth, read a bunch, and be good people.
