Watch Lecture (1 hour video)

Delivered 09/02/20

Introduction to Reading Books and the Theme of the Class

Okay, so we are now actually getting into the text. What I’m going to try to do with these is we’re going to be actually going in and churning on stuff. But today, obviously, we’re going to be exploring the Odyssey. But what I’m going to try to do is discuss, whenever we come to do something new, tidbits.

You don’t have to take it. It’s free. So the question is, I want to say, is how do I read a book? And I think this is kind of interesting because I’m a lot older than you and I’ve been reading books for a while. And now it’s just if I read a book, I don’t read nearly as much as I would like. So part of this, being able to go back and read literature, it’s kind of a pleasure.

I was an English major. I like literature. Sometimes when I read a book, though, and this is what I would encourage you all to do, you really don’t always know where it – you can’t always look at it until it’s a whole. And then sometimes it’s really the second time you read something that you really began to understand it.

But when I read a book, I usually begin to ask myself this question. Why the heck is the writer putting this here? And that’s really an important question, the placement of things. When you’re putting something together, so remember I was a creative writing major, so we often did poetry and short stories and plays and screenplays, and I’ve written all these different things.

You’re dealing with structure and you’re asking yourself questions, and where you start is not always where you end. Tolkien talks about this, how he would move things around and change it. And so really an author, you have to realize that they’re not just kind of like, oh, it’s all in their head and putting it out. I mean, maybe for some people, but you begin to kind of work with the character and you’re like, oh, this is actually how this is working and that’s how this is working.

Homer’s Intentional Structure and Odysseus as a Character

That’s going to be important here because we’re going to be able to ask these questions of Homer. Like, why is Homer doing this? But it’s worth your while to think that you’re having a conversation with this author. He or she sat down at some point and began to write this out. And maybe it was quick. Maybe it was a really long time. It took years.

Sometimes novels will work for years and they’ll kind of gestate, you know, and they’ll think and authors will work through it. Sometimes they got an idea and they sit down and work it. Put it aside. So they used to often say for screenwriters, they would say if you write your screenplay, take it, put it, literally put it in a drawer and don’t look at it for six months. Then come back.

And you can kind of come back with a sense of, oh, I’m looking at this not as being in it, but looking at it. So as you read something, be thinking, reflecting on the structure. Then also begin to say, well, where are we going with this and why is the author writing it? And so in a sense, you begin to have that communication. What are you trying to do? And that’s often how we’re going to look at these stories and say, what are they trying to do with this?

Because in a sense, they’re taking you on a journey. They’re taking you through something. And they’re actually writing for you. So in that sense, I didn’t at one point said that these books weren’t written for an English class. And that’s true. But I really want you to look at this and say, oh, but you are a person. And you’re someone that is smart enough and well-read enough to be able to read this book. Does that make sense? There are a lot of people that will never pick up certain pieces of literature. So in a sense, that book wasn’t written for them. But if you’re reading it and wanting to get it, the author is trying to speak to you.

The Two Great Heroes: Achilles and Odysseus

So that’s kind of how I’m looking at a book. That’s how I came to the Odyssey. And it’s, how old do we think? Maybe 2,700 years old? It’s a really old book. Homer wasn’t a Christian. Homer came from a Greek culture though, and he had a lot of history behind him too. So he’s writing in a place and time, and that’s often what I’ll think of. Who is this person? Why are they writing, and what did they see? How is this a window into the world?

Remember I talked about that fascinating scene, which usually doesn’t ever get included, when I think it’s Nestor who sacrifices an animal. It goes page after page of how is the sacrifice set up. This is a picture of how they lived and sacrificed likely during Homer’s time. So, with that in mind, that’s kind of my tidbit for the day. How do you read a book? Be thinking about it as a whole. Be thinking about it from the authorial perspective.

Now, one of the questions I want us to answer is who was Odysseus, right? And all we know of Odysseus, really, is through what are these Greek stories. He was a character, and he was a character that existed before Homer ever got him. Does that make sense? He didn’t make up Odysseus. He’s not like Harry Potter, where there wasn’t a Harry Potter before J.K. Rowling put this together. There wasn’t a Bilbo Baggins before. But there was an Odysseus before Homer got him.

But the Odysseus we know is Homer’s Odysseus. He pretty much has established who Odysseus is and how we’re going to know him. So in that case, I could say who was Homer’s Odysseus, but that’s all we really know of Odysseus. Homer got him, and he’ll never be the same. So with that said, what I want us to know is we’re going to have a little treat here. I’m going to get you out Yeah! Yeah! Wait! Yeah! Hurry! Let’s hurry! Let’s hurry! 1954. Everyone recognize the main actor? Kirk Douglas. Kirk Douglas.

The sound may be a little off because they often do the sound after they… My father Venus, you drunken son of Neptune, enjoy your wine and remember the springy Greeks and the dance they danced in your cave.–I don’t know where we are, sir.–Let me boast so much faster now. Neptune or Eurystice, the god with his strength or the man with his grace. Roar on, you sightless drunkard, roar on! Go ahead, fill the sea with grindstone. Throw another, and another. And when your father asked who took your eye, tell him it was Ulysses. Ulysses, destroyer of cities. Pack of Troy, son of Eartes, and king of Ithaca. Bring your heart, men, up with a child.

So what kind of a Ulysses is this, or Odysseus? Ulysses was the Roman name. Kirk Douglas to me was like the perfect picture of him. He is strong, he’s boastful, he’s powerful, He’s handsome. And they did a really good job with this version of it. So what’s interesting about this is, and we’ve actually, one of the things I wanted to do is talk about having a movie night. We’ll discuss having a movie night at some point at the end, remind me to come back to it.

Contrasting Achilles and Odysseus Through Homer’s Epics

And I can discuss, okay, we can come together and watch you watch the whole film. It’s a very good version of it. And he did a really good job. It kind of picks up, you know, They did a pretty good job trying to say what would it have looked like. But this is this picture. What kind of guy is Odysseus from this scene? How would you describe him? He’s proud. He’s proud? Is that what you get from the book? What about him? Is he, does he basically, I mean, think about that scene. This is kind of the characteristic scene. He’s just beaten this guy, and then he yells and tells him his name.

It’s like, oh, I want you to know that I did this. That there’s this sense of he, you, but, and yet does that get him in trouble? It does, doesn’t it? So what I want us to do in who was Odysseus is we are going to look at Homer’s two great epics and two great heroes. Who is that? Other than you know who that is. Played him in the movie Troy, 1994. Who is it? It’s Achilles. Brad Pitt played Achilles, of course. And Achilles is the hero of what? What play? What epic? The Iliad. It’s the Iliad. It’s Homer’s first play. Our first epic. Bigger. 15,000 lines versus just 12,000 for the Odyssey. And then we have the Odyssey.

Notice here, Achilles. What’s he doing here? Stabbing. Okay. What was Achilles’ great skill? Fighting. Fighting. Oh, man. He was the best fighter. In fact, Achilles stops fighting, and the Greeks start to lose. And he kind of was like, he basically got mad at Agamemnon, and he gets kind of, you know, petulant. And it’s kind of a long story. If you’ve read the opening, I wanted you to have that. Because you’ve got to have, you’ve got to understand the Iliad to understand the Odyssey. There’s tons and tons of references. So I hope that little introduction by Lattimore was helpful. Did you all read that and it kind of caught you up? I’m going to do this as give you material. We may not talk a lot about it, but it will be useful for you.

Odysseus, or excuse me, Achilles is all about strength. And he’s the one reason they basically win the Trojan War. Well, sort of, except how do they really win it? That was because of Odysseus, right? And this is where it gets interesting. What’s the scene here? So what’s probably going on at this point? This is a siren. So he wants to hear something. So how did he figure this out? Well, yes, and he’s listened. And in his brain, she didn’t tell him to go strap himself in quite like this. And he does it because Odysseus is all about his mind. So if Achilles relies on his strength, Odysseus relies on his mind. And these are the two great heroes, right?

The Structure of the Odyssey: Telemachy and Key Sections

And so when you think about this, this is the Iliad. First line, seeing goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilles, and its devastation which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaeans. The Achaeans are the Greeks. So basically, what’s the problem? What’s the main problem? That’s what I love about Homer, as he tells us, right? What’s the issue in the whole Iliad? Who’s the issue? Achilles and his anger. Achilles and his anger, and his pride, as it could also be translated, okay? His anger and his pride, he gets mad, and he’s like, oh, I’m going to do this, right? And what did it do? It’s devastation. It led to all these people dying.

It led to the destruction of, you know, he kills Hector. It just kills, all these people die as a result of Achilles. That’s how Latimer translated him. And then, guess what? Thousandfold upon all the Greeks. So in a sense, it kind of pushed all the way back to this one little story of Achilles’ anger. And the beginning of the Odyssey. Tell me, muse, of the man of many ways, or many devices in some translations, who was driven far journeys after he sacked Troy’s sacred citadel. These are very different stories, aren’t they? And he starts them very different. And these two characters really are the picture of the two sides of Greek, who the ideal Greek hero was.

And the question is, what was their end? So this is really a tragedy versus a comedy, right? What’s a tragedy? Tragedy always ends in the death of the hero. A comedy, when we often have comedy, you know, it’s a laughter. It doesn’t mean laughter. That’s not what it originally meant. It meant a happy ending. or good ending and it ends with the hero alive. That’s what this is. So the Iliad is a tragedy, the Odyssey is a comedy. Even though the will die, Odysseus does not. And what they are exploring is this, that’s a Greek word, erite.

And I got to be honest, I am going to mispronounce Greek left and right, so just that’s the way it’s going to be. So if you re-pronounce it from me, sometimes you can go to Google and find out how I really pronounce this. And to be quite honest, you can talk to Dwayne Thomas. No one’s always sure exactly how things are pronounced, but erite is excellence or virtue. What is excellence and virtue? Well, is it strength of arms or is it intelligence? Can they be together? Because Odysseus had many strengths of arms. But when you think about it, that’s really the comparison between these. Make sense? Thoughts on this? You start to kind of see what Homer’s exploring.

This goes back to the epithets we often use. the epithets that are often used for Odysseus, resourceful Odysseus, right? Okay? The epithets, and I don’t have them all from the Iliad, but if you start to look at these, he begins to say, yeah, these are what we’re going to call these people over and over again. I want you to know that’s who these people are. Now, once we do this, though, this is kind of interesting. How much time actually takes place for the Trojan War? How long was it? Ten years. How long are Odysseus’ wanderings? Ten years.

But how long is the Iliad? Does the Iliad cover the entire Trojan War? What year is it? It’s the tenth year. And it’s really only this little story where basically Agamemnon has, they’ve taken over, and it’s kind of complex, Caresius, he was the priest of Apollo. They take his daughter captive. She’s his concubine slave. but he hasn’t slept with her yet. It’s very important. He prays to Apollo and says, get him back. Apollo says, you better take him back. You better get the girl back. Well, Agamemnon gives the girl back, but Agamemnon’s the king, and guess what? He’s prideful too, so he goes and says, well, I’ve got to have a girl. Why won’t Baricius? Well, that’s Achilles’ girl that he’s taken.

What does it tell us about these guys and taking women? It doesn’t matter. That’s what they were doing. So guess what? Achilles gets mad, right? And there you go. though the whole thing goes over this little petty argument, right, between these men that are huge pride. Do things indwell for Agamemnon? They do not. Do things indwell for Achilles? They do not. And you get to see this picture, though, in media res means in the middle of things, and it’s a technique of writing. He hasn’t started at the beginning of the Trojan War. He starts in the middle of things, in this case at the end.

What Homer is interested in the Iliad is looking at this very interesting question. What does a man’s pride do to destroy him and those around him? The pride of men. The pride of strong, great fighting men. But often can it lead to their own destruction, right? So he has to go, out of all of this huge cycle of stories, Homer made the decision to choose this. You follow me here? This is why Homer is great. imagine you have this stock of stories about the founding fathers right they had histories in Greece this is even though they had been kind of added on to could you tell a story about George Washington well you could tell his whole life but what if you just told about the week when he was crossing the Delaware and dealing with it is that a story there does it make sense you can choose or Thomas Jefferson and James Madison or Thomas Jefferson and who was our second president? John Adams, thank you.

Their fight had to deal with each other. You see what I’m saying? You could choose anything. You could just take a part of Hamilton’s life and just do that. You see what I mean? Often a good storyteller knows where to go for his purposes. And so the Iliad is for his purposes. In the same way, how much time takes place in the Odyssey? Really, I mean, like, think about it. If you start from the beginning and go to the end, Where does it really start? He’s on Calypso’s Island and comes, and it kind of starts, he leaves, shows up at the Phakians, they take him home, a little time passes, not much, he basically, a few days, he goes, shows up with the suitors, kills them. What, a few weeks? A few months, maybe, because it depends on how much long he’s in some of these spots.

Here’s the point. Out of 10 years, we are getting him right at the end. and this is very interesting. Often when you’re editing in film you may take a scene and there may be a scene of all this happening and what they’ll often say is you find the action and you cut out the end and the beginning and you just go for the action. So when you’re cutting you cut from point to point to point. Good stories are the same thing. That’s what Homer’s doing. This is what really intrigues me is so this guy Odysseus, how does he use his brain to get out of all these situations. You follow me?

High-Level Plot Breakdown by Books

So if one story is about Achilles, he has pride and strength, destroys other people. Well, after this guy sacked Troy, what happened to him and all his wanderings? But he was a man of many ways, of devices. And it’s a complex way this is said. Yes, he was pushed in many ways, but he also had many ways of dealing with things. In the Greek, it’s kind of interesting, that word. It’s been translated. It gets translated so many different ways. A man of many devices, a man of many ways. So this is an important principle, and it’s and interesting to say this is how he’s writing, but then you go get all the backstory filled in, right?

So do you learn about the Trojan horse in the Iliad? You don’t. But do you learn about it in the Odyssey? You do. And how does he do it? He has stories within stories. So all these stories, they’re out there and listening. And guess what? Homer decides, oh, I know how. I’ll have some fun here. Odysseus is hidden. You don’t know who he is, but we’re going to tell a story about Odysseus. in the story. See how he’s very smartly trying? This is what a good writer does, is he puts his characters in places where you’re like, oh, why would Homer, could Homer, could the bard, the blind bard that’s speaking there, could he have talked about anything? Well, he could have. There’s all kinds of stories he knew, right? But he chose that one, and Homer had him choose that one. You see my point? It’s about good writing. Why is Homer doing it? For us, for the reader, to catch us up.

Okay, so, What I want us to discuss is what is the structure of the Odyssey at a high level. You can use your table of contents, you can do whatever you want here, but I want you to break it down for me and tell me what is going on. To do that, you’re going to pull up. It’s all yours. The structure of the Odyssey. What is it? Draw it out for me. Tell me. Come on. It’s in poetry. It’s in poetry, but I want to know the structure of the action. Let’s break down the plot in the books and what’s going on. It starts with his son. I forget his name. Okay. Well this is interesting. How does it actually start? With the gods. Ah, so it actually kind of starts, and I’m going to put a little zero here because it’s kind of funny. You’re actually on Olympus, right? And who does it start with? Athena. Okay? I’m going to put that as kind of our zero point.

But the real section starts where? Yes. So we’re in Ithaca. And it’s Telemachus. Well, was Athena worried about Telemachus? No. She actually tells her father, I really am interested. Odysseus has been there all this time and he’s suffering. I want him done. He’s like, okay, daughter, you can have whatever you want. It’s in your power. But then the whole thing shifts and we’re with Telemachus. And this is actually known as, it’s sometimes called, the Telemachy. And it goes, how many books? You look at your table of contents, it has a very nice little section for it. Breaks it all down. But I’ll tell you. You got to figure it out? Four books. Remember, this poem, when it was handed down, was not divided into books. The scholars of Alexandria in around the 3rd century B.C. put it in there, and they very carefully put it together into neat little fours.

first four books books one through four we’ll try to be consistent here are Telemachus and the Telemachy and it seems like it’s kind of moving and not telling us the main story why would you do this if you’re Homer why would you say I’m going to tell a story about but I’m going to start with Telemachus it gives a background but you could have just told that with a quick story, a little background, a little speech that Athena could have given. You could have done that at Olympus. Why do I want to go see this? What’s this doing as a storyteller? What are you doing? Seeing something for yourself is more impactful than someone telling you. Yes. So you’re seeing what’s going on. So it’s not just telling it, you’re seeing it. You’re seeing what is the main problem. What’s the real problem of the story? The suitors. Okay.

The Telemachy and Building Anticipation

So what we’re going to do is we’re going to introduce our main problem, which we’re realizing is the suitors. How does Star Wars open up? The original Star Wars. This is number four. I used to say Star Wars. Everyone knew Star Wars. On Darth Vader. Doing what? Killing someone. And capturing? Yeah, that’s your story. It opens. Everyone forgets, oh, isn’t it on Luke? No. Darth Vader captures. That’s your problem of the whole movie. When does it end? When she’s free. Make sense? So Homer understands this. What’s his problem? It’s the suitors. And you’ve got to see Telemachus. And here’s the other question. Do you see, are there some movies where the main actor doesn’t show up at the beginning? He does. You don’t see Luke Skywalker at the beginning at all. He’s kind of around. He kind of shows up after that first scene. But there are some movies you go for a little while. And you create this anticipation. You know it’s about this guy. You see what I’m saying? He’s creating anticipation.

He’s done all sorts of things. You’ve got a problem with the suitors. We’ve introduced him to Telemachus. And back to our story, mention how you can get this. It gives us backstory, but are there then, who does he go meet? So Athena goes and meets him, right? And we introduced to also Athena and the way she kind of shows up and pushes things along. She sends him where? To Menelaus and Nestor, two of his friends. What do Menelaus and Nestor basically do? they don’t do anything they’re welcome but they do one thing a lot yeah that do that a little bit they always do a sacrifice just you’re always a sacrifice because they want to drink wine and they want good meat okay what yes they explain your backstory that’s your backstory so remember i said the reason this is interesting is think of all the stories in the story.

This isn’t just a straightforward story. This is a very complex piece. This is 2,700 years old, to remind you. Remember I told you everyone said Homer was the greatest? When you start looking at what he’s doing, you’re like, oh, that’s really smart. So he’s created a great backstory, and it’s all things you want to know about. We learned about Menelaus’ wanderings. We learned about what Nestor did. We learned a lot about Odysseus. We not really then you get this problem of the suitors who also then we says okay they’re going to go kill Telemachus they kind of make this decision which could be kind of a plot thing it never kind of comes to pass and it kind of gets ignored but the point is at the time it’s important and guess what we end our book we end the first four with what how do they end it’s a very important principle got everyone likes in TV shows? A cliffhanger. Thank you. It’s a cliffhanger. What’s the cliffhanger? Yes. What’s going to happen to Telemachus? They’re about to go try. It’s an ambush, right? And that is the end of book four.

Olympus Interventions and Odysseus’ Return Sections

And what do you have next? Oh, our little, let’s call this another zero section. for Olympus, actually. We’re back on Olympus. And Athena is again saying, hey, by the way, does it sound like a little repeat from the first part? It does. And Zeus is like, oh, okay, okay, okay, I’ll deal with this. Let’s send Hermes to go kind of deal with Calypso and kind of release Odysseus. And you, Athena, go deal with your stuff, right? And so we’re back on Olympus, which kind of is this weird little touchstone that pushes things along. You have Hermes. Introduce the story. So, what’s the next section? What’s my next section? Odysseus. Yep, and so what do we have? Basically, books. You have Odysseus who is on with Calypso, right? And he ends up going to the Fakins. Right? And this, of course, is books, what? Five through eight. Five through eight. Makes that a little better. Five through eight. Our next four books.

And isn’t it convenient? And what do we have a lot of? First off, we have some action. He’s out at sea. We see him doing stuff. He has to build a boat. You’re seeing all this action. We’re getting a little more action. He goes to the Fakins. He’s got to show up on the shore. A girl finds him. Make sense? This is all action stuff. So we’ve got all this great action. Then, what’s brilliant is, again, what do we have? Now we begin to have action. And it gets intermixed with what? more story, more backstory right? so now we’re hearing a little bit of action and there’s backstory action backstory and we see that he’s still great at racing he’s hidden as a character so we also have this very interesting part of what is known as a reveal a reveal is great you know as the reader that this is who Odysseus is, but do they know it, the Phacians? And does it build anticipation? It does. Oh, what are they going to say when they realize, oh, the guy we’ve been talking about our big story, oh, he’s here.

That’s actually Odysseus, right? And so this whole section here is a setup for Odysseus. And is it interesting? He’s struggling, he’s wandering, he has to use his mind, he has to hide himself. Makes sense? So we’re beginning to see Odysseus’ character. It’s a reveal, and I would say it’s a reveal of character. Does Telemachus have much of a character? Yeah, I mean, he’s kind of a strong guy. You know, he’s a faithful son. But he doesn’t really have this character. Odysseus has this really distinct character. We see it in the Iliad, and we see it here. And you kind of know when you’ve got Odysseus around, you don’t quite know what to expect, right? And he’s certainly very interested in, you know, I mean, heck, does he tell stories? We’re going to get to that in a second. His best is when he tells Athena. What does he say to Athena? One point she shows up to him. He starts making a story up. And she’s like, what did she say to him? She says, come on, I know it’s you. You can’t tell me a story. Yeah, you’re trying to be you. you can’t, don’t lie to me. I know who you really are.

Wanderings, Return, and Climactic Action

So what we see then is the Telemachy. We see this section with the Phaeacans, right? And we begin to have this great reveal. But here’s what’s interesting. Once we have the reveal, what happens next? What does he do? They’re like, “Hey, you’re Odysseus. How the heck did you get here?” Now we have a whole whole new story. And this is known as the Wanderings of Odysseus. It’s a very famous section. You can look at all of his wanderings, but this is a very particular one. Make sense? And this is which books? Nine through twelve. Yep. So you get nine through twelve. And these are the famous stories of Cyclops, the Lotus Eaters, Circe. We’ve looked at these. And it’s all action, isn’t it? It’s a story, but it’s action. And so now, all of a sudden, this is why everyone remembers this. They’re always like, gosh, why did it take so long to get through the parts of the Odyssey? Some people are like, wow, I thought this was all about the Cyclops and stuff. That’s only four books, right? Which everyone remembers. Scylla, Charybdis, all this great stuff.

And a lot of action, isn’t it? And do we begin to see him is that what the main thing of the wanderings is, is we’ve got action that explain why it took him so long, right? Explains why everyone’s dead. They killed the cattle of the sun, which actually is mentioned in the very first part of Book 1. Oh, the reckless fools, they killed the cattle of the sun. That was the one thing. But hadn’t most of them already died? I mean, they got eaten by people. They got killed. It was like, okay, you had one ship left, and then they got all killed. So, I mean, like, it kind of wasn’t a good idea to go hang out with Odysseus. I mean, he wasn’t, for being a brave leader, he wasn’t always interested. I mean, he loved his guys, but he kind of took them into adventurous stuff, and he’d kind of go wander off, which is why I like the Kirk Douglas. You get a picture. He’s a little bit headstrong. The guys are like, I cannot believe you’re yelling at the dadgum cyclops. And they even say, get out. And he’s like, no, no, no, no, I’m going to say it. I’m going to put you in harm’s way. But it’s me, Odysseus. And so he’s just this strength of character and will, which is in a weird way kind of compelling. But if you were one of his men, it would be horrifying, which is what ended up happening to him.

So the point of this action of why is, guess what? Now we know Odysseus’ character, right? It is really, really defined well, and it’s just really an exciting story. Because this gives us action, why character, and excitement. Do you enjoy reading those sections? Yeah, I mean, it’s kind of interesting. So now that we’re into, think, eight books in, two books, guess what? We’re halfway through. So in the middle, he stops, and all of a sudden, so we have stories within stories within stories, don’t you? He goes and sees the dead and guess what? They tell stories. So what you see by this point is almost like this onion layers. And this is another reason this is brilliant. He goes in and realizes there’s history behind it. Who else in the 20th century was brilliant at doing this? He had this huge lore of history he had built and then he came and told a story. Yes sir, this is Tolkien. The reason Tolkien is genius is he did this. He built this whole world and what did he do with the tale of Middle Earth and the Lord of the Rings? In Meteores, in a small section of the story. Jumps in the middle and I’m going to tell you this one section and I’m going to get out. Yes, there’s other history to it. And could he have written that again in other places? I mean, he actually probably could have done multiple stories as deep as the Lord of the Rings. He just didn’t. That’s what Homer’s doing. He has this huge cycle, all this information, and he’s chosen it out. Then he layers it. He wants to bring this. oh, I want to tell this part of the story too and brings it in. This is great genius to be able to do this.

We’ve read enough now to say, oh, well, the other people are doing this. Homer, so far as we know, is the first, or at least he’s the only one we know of that we have his material left doing this. Maybe he learned from somebody and it’s been lost. All we know is Homer was really good at what he did. And so this character, this excitement, we’re halfway through and we’re now at the end of these stories, right, at 12, and we’re about to shift, and suddenly we’ve only had a week? I mean how long has he been gone? I can’t remember the detail of how long he’s at sea maybe it’s two weeks the whole book and yet all of this is in a short period right? okay comments about this so far do you see what we’re doing with this? telling the story, the structure okay tell me what’s next you can do it by four books that’s the nice thing to know you know book 13 what happens? it’s his return It’s his return, right? So it’s the return. So book 13 all the way through what? The return. And this is books all the way to what? 13 plus 4 is 17. Is that right? 13, 14, 15. Thank you. XVI I think is right does a lot happen? it kind of doesn’t you’ve got Eumenios Eumaeus is there the swine herd he shows up Telemachus shows back up but who also is starting to now get involved? back we’ve not seen her for a while yes and even Odysseus at one point tells her why weren’t you involved? I was wondering what happened.

She goes, oh, well, you know, I didn’t really want to get my, you know, uncle mad. You know, he would have gotten mad at me. Why is she not doing it now? Homer realizes it’s a problem, and so he puts it in Odysseus’ mouth. Why were you up there, Athena? I mean, I don’t have any terrible things happening, and now you’re showing up? Well, you know, I didn’t want to get involved, you know, Poseidon. He’s kind of a mean character. But he deals with this. This is what’s great, is he actually is pushing in the world. Because sometimes you realize the world doesn’t always work with what Homer works, but he’s got to work with his material. Like everybody knows certain points. He can play with others. Others are like, it’s kind of fixed. There was a, Troy lost. Hector died. Odysseus had a horse. These are all things he had to work with. But he can emphasize or de-emphasize. He hangs on what he wants to.

Climax, Comparisons, and Character Analysis

In the same way, we really begin to see it’s planning. And this is where we begin to see really Athena really begins to push, doesn’t she? Odysseus is there, and he’s talking, but he’s not kind of doing much. Okay, well, where are the next books? Keep going. Tell me what’s going on. We’ve got book 17 to book 20. So what is Odysseus doing? He’s in disguise. Okay. What is he doing? He’s in disguise, so he returns to Ithaca. This is return to the house, right? And again, what is it more of? Planning, revealing, trickery, right? So he’s really in disguise, thanks to Athena, and he plans, he’s reconnoitering, he’s looking it out, seeing who’s doing what, who’s doing that. He sort of reveals it to Penelope, but he really doesn’t. Penelope kind of wanders around. She’s not a strong character. I mean, Penelope, Athena, you’ve got two different views of women here. But he wanders around plans. But does a lot happen? You’re kind of saying, come on, let’s get to it. But guess what? It’s inching closer.

So what these are doing is, again, building up anticipation. Anticipation. Right? Anticipation for what though? Anticipation for this. And this is how the next section opens, with the bow. Concerned Penelope. I think the sound’s way off on this, my apology. Can I do worse than you? What is incredible. Did you hear? The beggar wants to compare his strength with ours. Would you like to ask beggar for a husband? Have no fear, my queen. I can make no claim on you. I already have a wife. So, what’s interesting is that they really tried to go back and make what it would have looked like. you know, it’s got a sense of what, like in Greece, and the bow and all this stuff. So you see this idea of the home. When they did these movies in the 50s, they often would go through and really try to say, well, using archaeology, what would the interior look like? You know, there’s a sound from heaven. So through the axe handles, and then the great reveal.

So see how it’s all action at this point. It doesn’t even matter what he’s saying, it’s all action. Hear the door. And to it. First among the shooters. First in pride. First in arrogance. You will be the first serve today. Oh, God. Okay. So anyway, it’s a good movie. But I think as you see this, is that all of a sudden, bam, we’re into action. And it’s a lot of action. And it’s bloody. he kind of spares no detail. He’s like, let’s go in and I want to tell you exactly how he dies. Because if you think about it, that’s what they wanted. Do people want the action today? Yeah, let me tell you, I want to see that. That’s what they’re seeing. He describes it very, very carefully. Okay. So what we see is this, is the structure of this story is one, and I guess we can go back to the end, but you know where we’re headed. It goes with action all the way to the end. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. All the things you’ve been anticipating, you’ve built up this tension and all it rolls through.

And then you have this very interesting scene with Laertes. I mean, it goes back to the dead and you have the Laertes. And they’re all going to come out after him. And it’s a little bit, they often call it a deus ex machina, God out of the machine. Literally, Athena goes, okay, well, if one guy died, we’re all fine now, right? Yeah, yeah, you know, and it ends. So it starts with Athena and ends with Athena. And you have this really interesting, does the end seem kind of sudden? Yeah, it is. And everyone was like, well, he’s just following the rules. He wants to get out. What else is there to tell? You know? Some people said, well, the hand was kind of getting weak. Homer was older maybe. Or he just decided, great, the story’s done. Let’s finish. We don’t need to go into more of this because it’s coming in. There’s no simple way of doing this. I’m like, okay, are they having negotiations? That’s so boring. God calls it. You won, Odysseus. Go have a nice day. You see the point here is that you’re looking at the story structure. It’s very important for the enjoyment of it. it is not pieced together. This is a whole. It only works as a whole. Make sense?

As opposed to other stories, mythology, well, it’s a little story here and a little story here, and you can kind of, no, no. Total control, Athena front to back. Okay, this is referring to what is called the Nostoi. It’s a great word. That means homecoming. Every time it talks about the homecoming, it’s the Nostoi. And this is a whole question, is the homecoming of the Greeks. What was it? Well, for most of them, it was bad. A lot of them died along the way. In this case, the Nostoi is good for Odysseus. Though painful, through struggle, you will achieve your destiny. Make sense? That’s a great term, the Nostoi. Let’s do a few comparisons, though, in this that are brought up in the book. This is just a few. There are a lot more that can come. Telemachus, Orestes. Who is Orestes? He is the son of Agamemnon. and Clemenestra. Okay? This story is mentioned a few times. If you didn’t get it by reading the front of the Iliad, that was why I gave that to you. This comes up over and over again, and you hear about early on what Arrestes is doing. What happens? Agamemnon goes back. He returns home. His wife, Clemenestra, has been having an affair with a guy. I think it was Agastos or something like that. He gets in. They throw a party for Agamemnon and kill him. So he’s just turned 10 years away at war, and he gets killed. Okay? Whole other interesting question here. This got all, so you can go read the Greek dramas and tragedies and plays, and all these stories are talked about.

So it’s not like all you have is Homer. You have all the Greek plays that came later, 5th century stuff, later, you know, 4th century. But so this story is there. There’s, you know, there’s the Oresteia, I think it was Aeschylus, did a whole great series trilogy on it. Orestes is his son, and he goes back, and he kills Clymanestra and his mother and her lover. Okay, so you’ve got what’s called, I think it’s called when the husband or when the wife kills the husband, it’s like, I think it’s called Paraside, and then you actually have, is that right, or is it? No, Matricide is the mother, Paraside is the husband. Then you have Matricide, where Orestes kills his mother. This is not good, and Orestes is then later on, you know, pursued by the Furies, And then the story, the Eumenides, it all kind of works out for him. The point is you then have Telemachus, Odysseus, and Penelope. And even Agamemnon picks up on this. Did you pick up on this when they visited the land? He’s like, oh, your Penelope was good. She was very circumspect, and she did not try to kill you. Now, let’s not worry about Odysseus. Odysseus wasn’t actually the most sexually. But he was still considered faithful to her. Men would go off and do their thing, and that was understandable. But so long as you were faithful to your wife, which she is. That’s the picture here. Penelope is what? Circumspect. Right? That’s not what you see about Chimmonestra.

So what you’re seeing built into this are all these very interesting comparisons. Agamemnon full of pride. This is his pride, but he has resourcefulness too. He’s smart and he’s more than willing to humble himself. Can you see Agamemnon or Achilles allowing the suitors to mistreat him so badly? Achilles would have been like, you’re all dead. I’m not doing this at all. I’m going to dress up like that? No way. See what I mean? So in the heart, Odysseus had a sense that he could humble himself to get his way. He could always forestall things. And then you have Athena and Poseidon. These two gods that are doing different things. Athena, goddess of wisdom. Of course she’s going to like Odysseus. Poseidon, he’s an angry, vengeful god. God of the Sea, and the sea is in many cases what was always pushing back on them. Any other comparisons you can think of? There’s a lot in the book. You’ve got Helen gets thrown in there, very interestingly enough. Helen and Penelope. You can go any number of directions. And you look at what Homer’s doing, he’s playing around it. An opportunity. But I want you to think this way. Authors will intentionally or unintentionally put characters that are opposites or play different roles. and in this case this story assumed you as the reader knew all this so you’re kind of coming at a lot of this with a little bit of lack of knowledge it’ll be like someone having again stories of the founding fathers and mentioning something about jefferson and you kind of knew something about jefferson i mean sadly most people today are fairly ignorant of that but there was a point at which you know you with harry potter i’m sure you know she can go in and she’s created a little world and if you jump into the last book you’re not going to know the others but if you know the last you can read the last book but then you really appreciate it if you’ve read the others there’s a mass of knowledge and these comparisons were all there. Make sense?

Odysseus’ Character, Trust, and the Writing Assignment

The question is, what is Odysseus’ central character? And I chose this one because, look, he’s humbled. He’s, in a sense, deceptive. He has another purpose. You think he’s this, but is he really that? Make sense? So this is a really interesting question. a character is the heart of this story. Yes, ma’am? He’s like a true king. He’s not like Agamemnon, who was prideful. Okay. And a true leader is willing to humble the story. So this is a very interesting question because he offered the king of Ithaca. He’s talked to be the king. Now, what’s interesting is these are all what I would like to call pre-Christian, but not pre-man. A whole couple we haven’t talked about yet. is the virtue of the Greeks sometimes does not answer to the Christian virtue, but is a form of virtue. Does that make sense? It’s like, imagine the Gantt charts. Have you ever seen these? And this is an important idea that you see with the, and it explains the history of things a lot. Have you ever seen this? If this is Greek and this is Christian or Jewish, there are areas of overlap but then there are areas that don’t overlap. And so it’s key is to be able to balance because this is not a Christian story but there are honorable things there in it. But there are some things you’re like okay wait that kind of bothers me which would never bother a Greek. You’re like well that was actually virtuous. And so the point is being able to say what would a Greek king have been considered to be good? Yes it’s a Christian king humbling himself but humbling was never considered a good thing. is this humbling out of moral kindness? It’s really not. It’s humbling to get, he’s playing a role to get his way to basically kill him. So there’s a certain level of deception is valued. See what I mean? Like this is kind of a different world of the Christian view of humility. This is, and that’s important to remember.

So if we ask what is, that’s a very good question. Can anyone trust Odysseus? This is the line about him. He knew how to say many false things that were like true sayings. He lies to everybody. He lies to Benelope. He lies to Laertes. You’re like, he’s at the end. Why is he lying to this old man and just say, I’m here? And yet he can’t not. Remember the famous story of the frog and the scorpion? It’s been told a few times. There was basically a frog and a scorpion and they were on one side of the river and the scorpion said, please, will you take me over the river? And the frog said, I’m not taking you over the river. You’ll sting me. And he said, no, no, no, I won’t. I’ll kill myself if I stung you. Okay, okay. So they get in. They’re halfway through the river and the scorpion stings them. And the frog’s like, oh my gosh, you’ve killed me. Now you’ve killed both of us. And the scorpion said, I know it’s terrible, but it was in my character. So it’s an interesting story. I think Orson Welles tells it in one of his movies. It’s an interesting question about our characters driving us, and what do we do? Are we determined by who we are? What is the nature, and this is a very important point of literature, a good character in some cases is both acting out of their character, and yet they’re changing their character. And this goes back into the question, it’s an idea I studied when I was at Oxford, is this idea of what is the character of a person, and in a sense these are their actions, but this is the character. This is an iceberg. The character is what sits below. All you see are their actions. Sometimes you know their thoughts, if you’re a third person omniscient or something, or they tell you. But in general, all you know is actions, but it comes from character. And the reason the Odyssey is so powerful is Odysseus’ character is consistent from beginning to end, isn’t it? No question about it.

So this is what we’re going to look at. Elizabeth Bennett. Marlow. All the different characters. Hamlet. You see their actions. What’s their character? And how does this drive that? That is really the question of literature. This idea of can you change your character? or are you fixed? Which brings us to our next point. Can anyone trust Odysseus? Not sure. This is why I actually asked at one point. Are even the stories of his wandering true? I mean, they’re great, but he lies all the time. Could he have lied to the Phakians? I don’t know. There’s really no proof other than what Homer telling us the stories. He shows up on a raft and he doesn’t have anybody. so who is really in control then is another very interesting question this is our Athena from Clash of the Titans a very famous 80’s film and then Odysseus who is in control is it Odysseus or is it Athena in the question of the control of the gods predestination very much an interesting question they would have called it fate Zeus says he was fated to do this well there are no interesting points where it said the suitors were actually being nice and it said, well, he was not to live because Athena had fated him to die. He was actually being nice to us. So what does that mean? What was the Greek view of this? Don’t confuse the Christian view. But at the same time, because obviously there’s limitations of these gods. Athena and Zeus, they seem to be unlimited, but they also have limitations. They fight with each other. Poseidon wants to do this. You see what I’m saying? Like, Poseidon didn’t really want to get back, but Athena did. And who really decides? Well, Zeus decides. Was Zeus really in control of everything? it gets kind of complex. But it’s a very interesting question is who is really in control from Homer’s perspective and does he really tell us or is that part of the tension? And I would like to ask this question is does the struggle make the man? There’s a French term that says do the clothes make the man or the clothes make the man is what it actually says. And I would suggest well does the struggle make the man in literature? That is that really what you’re looking at is the struggle and the change that goes. Now does Odysseus really seem to change throughout this? It doesn’t really change. There’s not a lot of character arc with him. There’s not much character arc in a lot of this, but he’s consistent and he overcomes his problems, which are very great, using his mind consistently. Resourceful Odysseus. Resourceful Odysseus.

So this is a very interesting question, which brings us to your writing assignment for this week. I want you to convince us. Us is the other nine of us. There’s one of you. And what we’re going to do is I want you to write two pages, and please no more than two, double space, so it’s really only a page, right? Where you need to convince us through a comparison, I think that this person is like this person, and that Homer is using this to compare it this way, or I think these people are opposites. Make sense? You know, you can say it’s a question you have, like We’ve asked, who’s really in control? Well, I think this. It’s a problem. Oh, well, here’s the problem. So why is he kind of stuck for seven years and he didn’t building a, couldn’t he have done that? There are all kind of interesting problems that are out there in the Odyssey that aren’t, they’re like, well, why does he, in the case, start with the telemachy in the structure and go here but not there? You can talk about things we’ve talked about, but I’d like you to try to do your own idea. You can branch off this and then an argument. You know, I think Homer had a father problem. You know, things like that. My point is you can take anything. What you’re doing, though, is taking a small little sliver and making an argument. All I want you to do, I’m not going to talk to you about it, introduce it. You’re going to stand up in front of the class, and I’m going to sit, a little stool, and you’re going to talk. And there’s this really neat thing here that lets me do randomizers with numbers, and I can put nine numbers in, and it’ll just basically put them out randomly. And so that’s what it’ll be. And if we make it through you, we’ll make it through you. Yes, sir? Do we have a podium? Yes, you can have the podium like this. Can we have notes? Oh, absolutely. Well, you’re reading it. Yeah, you don’t have to memorize it. Oh. Yeah, so this is, you’re basically, sorry, that wasn’t clear. You’re basically writing this. You’re not memorizing it. You’re writing your paper, and you’re just reading it in public. It’s all you’re doing.

And so part of it what it is is my theory that it goes back to when I was at Oxford that’s what they would do is that you would have a tutor and you would have to write a paper and then you would read your paper out loud to your tutor and they would stop you and make comments about it and discuss things and ask questions. So in this case we’re all the tutors for each of you and you’re going to read it to us and you all can ask questions. What did you mean by that? I don’t know if I agree with that. well, what about this? And you have to defend it. So you’re the one who will know the most. You’re choosing your own ground to do battle on. So it’s your deal. So usually you’re the authority on this area. You’ve thought about it more than others. But I bring this up is that it will make you a better writer when you think someone else is listening to you. And then when you hear them, so what this is, this will make you a better writer. That’s why the British are great writers and those who go to Oxford and Cambridge, this method works. Usually it’s a smaller group, and you read it to like two or three of yours in the tutor. So you have a tutor and your two or three folks in what’s called the tutorial method. We’re not totally doing that. We’re kind of a modified version, but very similar. Sound good? Don’t go over two pages because I don’t want you to have to do more. Condense your arguments. Okay? Go back and read it and reread it. And the word is, to take a phrase from E.B. White, omit needless words. Oh, I don’t need that. I don’t need that. Just try to convince. Questions? Yes, sir. Can we compare characters from the Iliad and the Odyssey or just the other? Go for it. Absolutely. All of Homer. All of Homer. Yes, sir. Is it a comparison, a question, a problem, and an argument? No. You choose what you want. Choose one of them, although you may say, I found this problem between this comparison. All right. You know, this is a real weird question. Why is this, you know? You know, why does Homer kill everybody off so suddenly and not, like, really deal with some things are really long and some things are really short. Well that’s kind of curious. Why would he do that? Yes? Well we need to write the paper in any special format. Nope because you’re reading it. I will likely never see it. Unless you don’t do it and I’ll make collection at the end of class and for some reason and I’ll try to, I may look. If I kept time I’ll just give it to me, turn it in and I’ll jot down if I have any notes about it. So but I’ll probably what I’ll do is I’ll have notes and then end up just adding it to you. In fact, it’s probably a good way to do this for this because I bring in two copies, one for me and one for you and I’ll make notes on it as you all do it. And notes from the class too. Sound reasonable? I know it’s a little different. We’ll do this again. So the next book is The Confessions. Please start it. Start The Confessions. That will give you two weeks before we have to start dealing with it. We are going to deal with all the confessions at one sitting. I thought about giving it to you in sections, but you’re a Christian and you need to read all the confessions. We’re not going to read all of the Divine Comedy. No. But you need to read all the confessions if you’re going to be a Christian in the West that is educated. You just need to do it. So you’ve got two weeks. There’s plenty of time to do it. Then we’ll talk about it in class and then we’ll do another one of these on the confessions. Then it’ll go another three or four weeks or so on Dante. Dante’s longer. Then we’ll do one. Okay? And there’s a lot more to read in Dante. Dante just, it’s a little more complex than anything we’ve read so far. No more questions? Go forth and prosper.