The Odyssey

Nostos and Folktale

Aristotle's summary of Odyssey

"A man has been abroad for many years. Poseidon is always on the watch for him. He is all alone. The situation at home is that Suitors are wasting his money and plotting against his son. After a stormy passage he returns, reveals himself, attacks his enemies, kills them and is saved."

Structure of Odyssey• The Telemachy - adventures of Telemachus

- passage to manhood - Bks I-IV• The voyage home of Odysseus

Bks V-VIII, XIII.1-187• The Great Wanderings - Bks IX-XII• Odysseus on Ithaka - family reunion and

triumph of Odysseus - XIII.187-XXIV

Nestor's ExplanationBut after we had sacked the sheer citadel of Priam,and were going away in our ships, and the god scattered the

Achaians,then Zeus in his mind devised a sorry homecomingfor the Argives, since not all were considerate nor righteous;therefore many of them found a bad way home, because of the ruinous anger of the Gray-eyed One, whose father is

mighty.

N.B Dione’s words to wounded Aphrodite

Why Such Difficult Nostoi?

• Nostos• Ajax of Lokris & Cassandra• Killing of Priam on Apollo’s

Altar• Killing of Astyanax

Family Ties• Odysseus• Penelope• Telemachus• Suitors

• Agamemnon• Clytemnestra• Orestes• Aegisthus

Poet and Poetry in Odyssey

• Metaliterary or Metapoetic material• Poetry

– To charm/soothe (magical)– To make men famous– To give delight

“Magical” Song of Phemios

• Phemios “Praiser” • Terpiades “Son of

Delight”• Sad Nostoi for

Suitors• Inspired by Zeus• “Charms” suitors• Similar Song

Example?

Songs of Demodocus• “Revered by the

People”• Bard of the

Phaeacians• “Magical gift of Song”

- Odysseus• Songs:

– Quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles

– Ares and Aphrodite – Wily Odysseus and

wooden horse; capture & sack of Troy

Topical Relevance?

Other Singers

• Sirens• Calypso• Circe• Helen?• Odysseus?

Siren Song• What do they

sing?• Mantic Truth• Flesh-eaters?• Egyptian Ba?

Calypso at the Loom

Circe• Another singing

weaver• Thread Magic

Helen

• Bewitched by Aphrodite?

• Voices of Wives of Greek Heroes in Wooden Horse - possessed?

• Drugs Menelaus & company to “forget all sorrows”

Odysseus as Bard: IX-XII• The Kikonians• Lotus-eaters• Cyclopes• Aiolos• Laistrygones• Circe• Land of Dead• Sirens• Scylla &

Charybdis• Cattle of

Helios• Calypso

Odysseus ducks Sniper Fire?• Eumaius: Odysseus “charms like a singer”• Alcinous:"Odysseus, we as we look upon you do not imagine that you are a deceptive or thievish man, the sort that the black earth breeds in great numbers, people who wander widely, making uplying stories, from which no one could learn anything. You havea grace upon your words, and there is sound sense within them,and expertly, as a singer would do, you have told the storyof the dismal sorrows befallen yourself and all the Argives.”

Folktale Elements in Odyssey

• Son’s search for lost father

• Hero’s adventures in quest

• Hero’s Return in disguise to save beloved (from marriage)

Women’s Roles in Folktale

• Protectress– non-sexual

admiration for virtue, lineage, heroic deed

• Enchantress– “evil witch in wood”– if outwitted, will

serve

• Object of Striving– reason for quest

Women in the

Odyssey

• Athena• Leucothea• Arete• Nausicaa• Circe• Calypso• Helen

Leucothea (& Palaemon)

Arete

Nausicaa

• Lastmann

Circe

Calypso

Helen

Penelope as Folktale Woman

Penelope as Object of Striving

Sought by Odysseus in competition with Suitors

Penelope as Protectress?• Encourages Kind

Treatment of Disguised Beggar

• But Odysseus’ reaction?

• Boulanger

Penelope as Dangerous Enchantress?

• Zeus approves Orestes’ vengeance

• Nestor’s Story of Agamemnon & Warning to Telemachus

• Athena: Orestes as example

Penelope’s Own Words• To Disguised Odysseus:• Pandareos’ daughter,

Aedon (Prokne?); Itylos vs. son of Niobe

• Implication?• Dream of Geese and

Eagle• Implication?

The Nightingale, XIX.515-534But after the night comes, and sleep has taken all others,I lie on my bed, and the sharp anxieties swarmingThick and fast on my beating heart torment my sorrowing Self. As When Pandareos’ daughter, the greenwood nightingale,Perching in the deep of the forest foliage sings outHer lovely song, when springtime has just begun; she, varyingThe manifold strains of her voice, pours out the melody, mourning Itylos, son of the Lord Zethos, her own beloved child,Whom she once killed with the bronze when the madness was upon her;So my mind is divided and starts one way, then another.Shall I stay here by my son and keep all in order,My property, my serving maids, and my great-roofed house,Keep faith with my husband’s bed and regard the voice of the people,Or go away at last with the best of all of those achaiansWho court me here in the palace, with endless gifts to win me?My son, while he was still a child and thoughtless, would not Let me marry and leave the house of my husband; but nowThat he is grown a tall man and come to maturity’s measure,He even prays me to go home out of the palace, fretting over the property, which the Achaian men are devouring.

Penelope’s Dream, XIX.535-553‘But come, listen to a dream of mine, and interpret it for me.I have twenty geese here and about the house, and they feed onGrains of wheat from the water trough. I love to watch them.But a great eagle with crooked beak came down from the mountain,And broke the necks of them all and killed them. So the whole twentyLay dead about the house, but he soared high in the bright air.Then I began to weep - that was in my dream - and cried outAloud, and around me gathered the fair-haired Achaian womenAs I cried out sorrowing for my geese killed by the eagle.But he came back again and perched on the jut of the gabledRoof. He now had a human voice and spoke aloud to me:“Do not fear, O daughter of far-famed Ikarios.This is no dream, but a blessing real as day. You will see itDone. The geese are the suitors, and I, the eagle, have been a bird of portent, but now I am your own husband, come home,And I shall inflict shameless destruction on all the suitors.”So he spoke; and then honey-sweet sleep released me,And I looked about and saw the geese in my palace, feedingOn their grains of wheat from the water trough, just as they had been.’

Wily Penelope?

The Final Test…

• Francesco Primaticcio

• Daumier