The Odyssey- the Return of Odysseus

[Music] [Music] at Troy some of the Greeks set fire to their encampments andar upon sturdy ships and sailed [Music] away but others led by boldus stayed behind right in the heart of Troy Town hidden in [Music] [Laughter] Theo the man of Troy themselves had dragged it into to the city and there it [Laughter] St and all around it sat the RO arguing loud and long three ways their minds divided to take sharp swords and Slash the hollow hor to pieces or else to drag it to the cliff and Hur it over or let it stand untouched as an offering to the gods this last indeed was their decision and their Doom for later out they pour towards the sons of the aans leaving their ambush in the horse and Sack the city [Music] [Music] that we believe is how the Odyssey was sung by Homer and for hundreds of years after he died when the Odyssey and that other great heroic tale The Iliad were the most popular poems in Greece they were still spoken at Big public concerts by professional reciters who knew both poems by heart and declaimed them as dramatic poetry The Odyssey is a poem then with fine language and stirring rhythms and many beautiful descriptions for instance the island and the home of the nymph Calypso who kept a disused prisoner for seven [Music] years around her cave there grew a Grove luxu with aler trees and poers and sweet scented [Music] Cyprus birds with long slender Wings nested among the [Music] branches and there about the cave mouth ran a plant vine flourishing in its Pride Laden with clustered gra four Springs were gushing out in Cascades of Bright Water on every side were meows rich with Greenery and violence a sight to gladen even a [Laughter] God as well as beautiful descriptions there are Splendid passages of narrative in The Odyssey one of the best odius telling how he blinded the Cyclops the giant spoke leaned back and fell supine then rolled his huge neck run sideways overcome by Sleep the Conqueror out of his mouth came wine and gobbets of human flesh spewed up in drunken vomit now I pushed the pole Into the Heart of the fire till it grew hot and glowed and sparkled terribly and then God gave us courage I with my comrades pulled it out of the fire and thrusted into his eye while they pressed it down I to above and turned it hard like a ship's Carpenter drilling into a plank his eyelid and his brow were seared by the fierce heat his eyeball burned away the nerves swelled up and burst he roared a hideous Roar that boomed all around the cave and rined the ho smeared with blood out of his eye as well as such Splendid narratives there are many eloquent speeches even the Hideous Cyclops could make a touching speech again as related by adicus the giant sent his sheep to pasture every morning so now he rolled the stone back from the mouth of the cavern and sat beside the entrance groping with hands outspread to catch one of my men walking out with the Sheep but I was not so foolish I devised a scheme I took the giant Rams young strong and thickly fleeced counted them off by threes and tied each three together and lashed one man beneath the middle Ram of the three while I myself chose out the strongest Ram of all clasping him beneath the fleece hiding there face upwards so all my men escaped tied safe beneath the Sheep last went my Ram weighed down with his wool and my cunning the giant stroked his Shaggy back and spoke my ram my favorite R why are you leaving the cave last of all the flock you were never a lagard before no you were always the first stepping fast and Lively to crop the tender grass and drink at the River Springs always was first at Sunset eagerly returning to shelter here now you are last of all and why grieving for your master whom a bad man blinded with his vile companions making me drunk with with wine so when we read The Odyssey we must remember that it is not simply a fine story but a glorious piece of poetry no translation is as beautiful as the original poem partly this is because ancient Greek was such a noble language so much more resonant and various than all modern languages including English listen you've just heard a disu recalling the speech of the Cyclops my ram my favorite Ram why are you leaving the cave last of all the flock you were never a lagard before now in Greek there are more different sounds and the words come in many more patterns of Rhythm so that apart from the meaning it actually sounds more attractive and interesting Kon it actually makes even the brutal giant sound eloquent doesn't it Homer had a wonderful meter to work with a marching swinging dilic hexameter more powerful than anything which has yet been invented in English but first and foremost home was telling an exciting story his audience like all audiences since storytelling began wanted to know the answer to a simple question what happens next now you go home at early Dawn and watch the suitors and then the swin herd will take me to the city disguised as a poor old ugly miserable beggar if they mistreat me in the house restrain yourself no matter how I suffer you control your feelings yes even if you see me dragged headlong to the gates watch and endure in Silence of course you can suggest they dropped this foolish Mischief they will not listen Not For a Moment no the day of their Doom is near [Laughter] and now odyss makes himself into a new and strange kind of hero this was a brilliantly original idea of homers in a heroic age strength and courage are everything it is impossible to imagine any of the other homeric Heroes Achilles Agamemnon Nestor pretending to be a weakling or a beggar even to win a victory but a disuse is an untypical hero [Laughter] hey look at that filing beggar where did he come from [Laughter] [Laughter] listen to me sutors of mine you have been trying to eat and drink this house away in gluttony in the long absence of its master your pretext is that you want to marry me and take me away here is the prize in a Contex open to you all I shall lay down the mighty bow of King uus whoever is the most expert at stringing it by hand and shooting through the row of a dozen standing axes that man can take me I shall follow him and leave this rich and lovely house a house where I was married though I shall long remember it seeing it in dreams come on you suitors here is a prize open to all a woman such as none can find in allia in IUS s or on the dark Mainland come on then no evasions or excuses don't postpone the bending of a bow but let us see you why I myself will make a trial of the bow and if I bend and string it and shoot through the axes then I will not be sad if my mother leaves me to go with another man I shall stay here myself for I shall be well able to fight my father's battles here give me that Co [Laughter] [Laughter] listen you men I have a special word to say suppose LSUS should appear out of the blue miraculously how would you too behave would you side with the suitors or defend God Father in Heaven grant that Miracle then you will see what we are worth in strength and courage home at last I am home after so many trials after 20 years I have reached my country at last and now I know at least that you will welcome me of all the servants here I shall reward you later but now listen well [Laughter] [Laughter] [Applause] [Laughter] D dinner look at the expert a a bow no D is it doesn't just like that at home or El plans to make one though were a champion he bring it I wish him [Laughter] Lu he Str it so that has settled that decisive competition but now another Target which no one ever hits let me take aim at that God guide my arrows straight you dogs you all believe that I would never return home from the land of Troy and so you rap my house and paid your sneaking Court to the wife of a living man with no respect for the gods who dwell in Broad heaven and no sense of Shame before the Judgment of men but now you are tied tight and the KN that TI you is death [Applause] TUS [Applause] [Music] [Music] so in a tremendous scene of Retribution adicus returns and recaptures his home the man who had fought for 10 years in the Trojan War was irresistible in his own house with his son at his side and Faithful Servants to cover him but he had still one more trial of will one more test of cunning [Music] Tas my son let your mother test me we have our secret she and I known to us alone now I look filthy and wear these wretched Beggars Rags how could she honor me or say I was the man let us bathe ourselves and put on cleaner clothes then we shall see a strange woman you are of all the women alive the gods have surely given you the hardest heart no other wife in the world would be so obstinate and turn away from her husband after 20 years well I shall sleep alone make me a bed out there she has a heart as hard as iron a strange man you are I'm not scorning you I'm not even surprised well I remember your face as it was when you sailed away from your home to Troy so now you reia make his bed outside the bedroom which he built with his own hands bring out the bed and spread it deep with blankets woman what you have just said wounds me to the heart who has moved my bed it would be difficult to move without a miracle there was an olive tree inside the sight of my house house well grown with flourishing leaves and a trunk as thick as a pillar round this I built the bedroom adding the door and the roof and then I cut the leaves and branches of the oliv smoothed down the trunk and straightened it and cut it square and this I made the bed post rooted in the ground now I do not know if my bed is still in place has anyone cut through the trunk of the solid tree and moved it away Odus please do not be angry forgive me because I did not welcome you from the first moment my heart was always Frozen with anxiety in case some stranger came and cheated me with lies but you have clearly told the secret of our room which no one knew but you and me and one maid servant the faithful girl who guarded the door of our room and now my cold hard heart grows warm and soft for you [Music]