Odyssey, The I: Structure Of The Epic

tell me Muse of the Rover the man who wandered far and wide after he sacked the holy city of Troy [Music] many the men whose cities he saw and learned their minds and many of the disasters he suffered on the sea trying to save his life and bring his comrades home tell us goddess daughter of Zeus some of that story so begins one of the finest stories ever told and one of the most famous it is by the Greek poet H its name is the Odyssey which means the story of osus OD disuse the ancient Greek Adventurer liar and hero the time the time is 3,000 years ago the place is the Mediterranean Sea studded with Rocky Islands cut by tricky currents and Rak by sudden storms the Mediterranean is a challenge to every daring sailor aisus himself daring and skillful as he was was wrecked and lost his ship and all his crew after we left the sun God's Island when no land appeared in sight but all was only sea and sky ah then the king of Heaven put a gloomy cloud above our Hollow ship the sea grew dark below we sailed on for a little while but suddenly the West Wind gled Upon Us in a hurricane a raging gust snapped through the ropes holding the Mast they broke the Mast fell backwards all the sails and rigging collapsed into the hold smashing the steeran skull then Zeus above thundered and struck the ship with lightning that all her Timbers shivered under the crash of the boat smoking with Sul over B the sailors fell like gulls they were Carried Away by the waves around the ship for us the sea is the sea water and weather and clouds and the blue sky above the land is the land Earth trees mountains not for the ancient Greeks for the ancient Greeks the whole of nature was populated by gods and Spirits Islands cities mountains the sea all had their guardian divinities and above them all the embodiment of all power and Justice was the king of Gods and Men father Zeus shame upon all mankind how they blame the gods from us they say their troubles come but they themselves they suffer through their own willful Folly and [Music] sin the Great War is Over The War of Troy the kings of the Greek tribes besieged Troy for 10 long years At Last by the trick of the wooden horse they got inside the walls and captured the city which Now lies in ashes and ruins each with his little army and Fleet his Loot and prisoners they have set sail back to Greece but few very few of them returned safely listen to Nestor oldest and wisest of the Greek Kings as he talks with Prince tmus the son of adicus my boy well I recall the misery that we we Gallant Greeks endured so long in the land of Troy there lies bold Ajax buried there Achilles lies and there my own dear son and ilus the brave for nine long years we struggled to destroy the Trojans with every stratagy God made our Victory hard and when at last we captured priam's lofty City and sailed away to be wrecked or storm tossed on the voyage why then even then God God made our homecoming a horror some of the Greek princes offended Heaven by committing an outrage during the sack of tro or on the Voyage Home others made the return Journey only to find that well 10 years is a long time while they were away Rivals had taken over their palaces and their power and sometimes even their wives and were waiting to kill them so died the leader of them all King Agamemnon when a disuse visited the world of the dead he saw his former Chief among the ghosts and heard him tell the story Noble son of leoes wise and cunning Odus I did not die at sea fighting a fearful storm I was not attacked on land an open fight no Heist us planned and carried out my death helped by my devilish wife inviting me to his home he gave me dinner and killed me like an ox killed at us stall there was a wretched death all around me my conrades were cut relentlessly down like pigs slaughtered for meat you have witnessed the violent deaths of many men some killed indels some in the rough melee but there was a sight which would have gripped your heart to see us there beside the wine bowl and the feast lying fell to the ground the floor seething with blood oh with what anguish then I heard Cassandra screaming that traitorous CLM nestra her down clinging to me while I Lay Dying on the ground clutching the blade that killed me meanwhile that she wolf turned her back and though my soul was leaving my body she would not stretch a hand to close my mouth and eyes the cleverest of the Greek Heroes was adicus he needed all his wit and wiess for he had both these dangers to face Rivals taking over his home and the anger of a god odyusa god of the sea so his fleet was destroyed in the storm later his own crew offended the God of the Sun by eating his sacred cattle so they and the ship were sunk while uus was cast away on a remote island and there he remained for 7 years like one of the pathetic displaced persons left derelict at the end of the second world war odius dropped out of sight meanwhile his own kingdom the island of vitha and his own home were being taken over by Rivals these are the petty Chiefs of Ithaca and the neighboring Islands they think odsis is dead so they have moved into his house ody thisius only son tmus is still young and he is all alone what can he possibly do against them nothing but protest an appeal to their sense of justice listen to me you men Aisa hear my words not since King Odus sailed away with his Fleet have we held Council here or summoned a public meeting and now who has called us together what is his purpose to tell us news of some enemy Force approaching or else to bring before us a matter of public concern sir it was I who called the people together here I have no news of invasion no matter of public concern but I have a private worry the Troubles of my home first I have lost my father the noble King Odysseus who ruled among you here as kindly as a father and then there is something worse which means complete Destruction for me my home and family property and life my mother is besieged by sutors against her will these are the young sons of the nobleman hereabouts all day every day they haunt my father's Palace and Slaughter our herds of cattle and sheep and fat goats to Feast on at their Banquets and drink our sparkling wine in Reckless Riot so our property goes to waste we have no Champion like Odus to protect us and I I cannot possibly resist them I'm weak and always will be not a fighting man yet I would surely turn against them had I Strength such conduct is an outrage it's a disgrace to see how my property is ruined you should be ashamed of yourselves you should have more respect for the Judgment of your neighbors watching this and you should fear the WTH of the gods that never tolerate sin but bring on retribution in the name of Zeus in heaven in the name of Justice stop my friends stop and leave me alone with my grief I'm your speech is proud and your temper is violent how dare you try to throw blame and disgrace on us not we the suitors we are not responsible it is your mother dear that most resourceful lady now it is three long years and fast approaching for since she's been tormenting our very heart and soul in part by giving hope and promises to us all and sending messages which are all hypocrisy partly too by a strange and complicated trick good young men my sutters since my husband is dead do not hurry me into marriage let me finish the weaving of this shroud first it is a burial garment for my husband's father and I should be ashamed if he rich as he is were buried without a shroud these were her words and we we generous Hearts believed her then she began and wo the Garment every day and every night she sat by torch light and unwove it and so for three long years she cheated all her sutors but when the fourth year came and time was rolling on one of the women in the house betrayed the secret and we detected her unraveling her work so that she had to finish it much against her will now here is your reply from the sutors mark it well remember it let all the other aans know it send your mother out of the house tell her to marry any man she likes and whom her father approves for we shall go on eating you out of house and home as long as she continues in our present purpose and we shall never go to our homes or anywhere else until she chooses a man whoever she likes and marries antinis I cannot drive her out of the house she gave me birth she brought me up to is far away whether alive or dead but heavy compensation must be paid to her father should I send her back yes and my own father will punish me also so will the gods when my mother calls down upon me bitter curses of hate leaving her home and all my fellow citizens will be indignant no I shall never tell her to go but you if you have any sense of Shame among you leave my house at once look elsewhere for your dinner visit each other in turn eat what belongs to you yet if you think it is a nobler thing and better to waste the substance of a single defenseless man then go on ruin me I pray the immortal gods that Zeus in time may send retribution upon you that you may perish here in my house I Avenged with this the story of The Odyssey has started or rather the stories it has a magnificently complicated plot the Odyssey Homer tells not one Tale But three interlocking Tales first how disuse escaped from The Lonely Island and made his way home and against tremendous odds recaptured his kingdom second the story of his young son tmus growing up and becoming a man and third a long long long flashback the tale of for disuse adventures in his years of wandering between the capture of Troy and his being marooned on the distant Island how skillfully Homer seizes your interest at once he doesn't begin at the beginning you get that through the flashback he doesn't begin in the middle he begins very near the end and moves right into the heart of the action only a few days away from the final crisis when he launches the story the three main characters are far separated from each other tus tmus as we have seen is at home but alone and friendless in his father's house taken over by the tough suitors and the faithless servants as for adicus he is a thousand miles away on the remote island he has been living with a beautiful nymph of the island Calypso she has offered to make him Immortal if he will stay there as her husband this would appeal to many a younger and shallower man like being Shipwrecked on balah high and living there forever but for adicus it is not like real life for him real life means a home a family responsibilities a place in the world without real life odius feels as though he were already dead the problem is too difficult not even the cleverest man in the world can solve it without the help of the Gods and a God does help the third main character Athena remember aysus and puts his case before the Council of the Gods my heart is torn with grief because of wise odyusa appy man far from his friends lonely and sad away on an island lost in the center of the sea he yearns with all his heart to die and yet you pay him no attention father did he not please you by doing sacrifice beside the ships and the plane of Troy so why should you not hate him Zeus my child how could I ever forget the Gallant OD disuse it is posidon who Harbors Relentless anger against him for his son the cyclopes whom he blinded but come let us consider one and all and plan to bring Odus back now Hermes carry this message to beautiful Calypso odyss must and shall go home he will say sail alone for 20 days at Sea in danger on a raft till he arrives at the rich island of the fion they will honor him highly and give him Splendid presence and take him in a ship to his beloved home from this point the three main characters begin to move towards one another Athena leaves Heaven disguised as a human being a sea captain she visits tacus and starts him on his quest adicus helped by Calypso makes a sailing raft and off he starts across the sea still pursued by this stormy anger of posidon he lands on the island of the fans and now now comes the long flashback through the past 10 years Homer brings it in so easily it seems quite natural although it's a Triumph of the storyteller's skill use is being entertained at a banquet by the king of the fans clearly a noble stranger he has not told his name a blind Minstrel has just sung a song telling of the last days of the Trojan War the adventure of the wooden horse of which dsus was the leader now at last reminded by the minstral song of all that he has been through odius Reveals His true identity I am adicus son of King ltis famed on Earth beneath in Heaven above for cunning my home is itha standing out in the sea and marked by one tall Mountain Forest clad all around are many other Islands lying close together further east and closer to the mainland but itha sits low on the horizon westwards she is a hard rough place but a good mother of men nowhere in the world is any place sweeter than home and now in a splendid long narrative uus tells of his exploits since the fall of Troy how he heard the bewitching song of the sirens but escaped how he was captured by the cannibal giant polyphemus but made him drunk and blinded him and got out of his cave by a trick how he outfaced the sorcerer cersi who had changed his men into animals and made her undo her magic and how he ventured to the frontiers of the Land of the Dead and spoke with ghosts in themselves these are fine stories but within the whole poem there are purposes to make us realize how daring and resourceful aisus is not only brave but endlessly inventive yes and lucky so they prepare us to accept the astonishing Ingenuity and gallantry which he is to show against all but impossible odds in the final battle with the sutors after hearing his story the fans put him on board ship and take him to Ithaca his home he is still alone and unknown to everyone but he is no longer a penniless Vagabond for his hosts the fans gave him Rich Gifts of Honor safely home is aisus but he is not safe at home what would happen if he simply walked straight to the door of his house and ordered the sutors out there are over a hundred of them they would simply pick a quarrel with him and Surround him and finish him off it's easy to be bold and rush into the thick of things and start fighting and get killed and be a dead hero it's more difficult but it's far better TCT takes to be clever and that is what a distu does instead of going straight to his house he goes far out into the country where his pigs are kept a miserable lonely place but secure and there he learns from his servants what has been going on and at last he meets his son telemus now son give me a list of the sutors count them over I want to know how many and how strong they are and lay out in my mind a full plan of campaign to see if you and I together can attack them without Assistance or will need others to help Father I've heard you praised for strength and wisdom but what you say is far too bold two men alone could never fight so many warriors there are far more than 20 but listen to the count 52 in all come from delium all young and strong all chosen men with six retainers from Sammy 24 and 20 from zinthus from Ithaca itself come 12 men of the best while we have only four servants beside ourselves if we stand up inside the house against so many then you may pay in Blood and Tears for your revenge no father what we need as allies think of some allies we have Athena we are father's Ze excellent allies yes but they are in heaven no when they hear the war cry they will be beside us when you and I attack the suitors in our Palace [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] think