WEBVTT - An Introduction to Homer's Odyssey 0:00:08.400 --> 0:00:11.640 Welcome to the Hillsdale College Online Courses podcast. I'm Jeremiah 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:12.360 Regan and. 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.040 I'm Juan Davalos, and we're back on a special episode. 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.480 If you remember, last week we did Homer's Iliad, and 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:20.640 this week we're doing Homer's Odyssey. 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:24.040 These are both lectures from our Great Books 101 course, 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:27.160 one of the original online courses, one of the foundations 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:29.600 for our program. And we're doing them because of a 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:32.600 big Hollywood movie coming out about the Odyssey. We want 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.640 to teach people who are interested in that story. In addition, 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:40.080 we ourselves are producing two courses, one on the Iliad, 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.320 one on the Odyssey, 12 lectures each that will really 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:46.400 dive into the story. The Odyssey is a story of homecoming. 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:51.400 It's the story of prioritizing family and statesmanship over mere 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:55.960 glory on the battlefield, and it deserves a lengthy retelling. 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.480 This lecture again from our Great Books 101 course is 0:00:59.660 --> 0:01:03.060 an outstanding introduction. It is taught by the father of 0:01:03.060 --> 0:01:06.020 our forthcoming course. Professor, this is David Whalen and you 0:01:06.020 --> 0:01:08.740 will later this summer see and hear from his son, 0:01:08.780 --> 0:01:09.620 Ben Whalen. 0:01:09.980 --> 0:01:13.060 So now let's turn to Doctor Whalen on Homer's Odyssey. 0:01:16.420 --> 0:01:23.220 Homer's odyssey. Sing to me of the man, muse. The 0:01:23.220 --> 0:01:26.460 man of twists and turns driven time and again off course. 0:01:27.100 --> 0:01:32.020 Once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy. But 0:01:32.020 --> 0:01:35.060 we have to stop right there, don't we? Sing to 0:01:35.100 --> 0:01:38.619 me of the man muse itself. The opening of this 0:01:38.620 --> 0:01:43.539 poem is arresting. It's arresting because we wonder why he 0:01:43.540 --> 0:01:49.300 says sing instead of tell. We wonder why he's asking 0:01:49.300 --> 0:01:51.420 the help of something called a muse to begin with. 0:01:52.820 --> 0:01:58.520 Sing to me of the man muse. So begins the poem, 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:02.080 but also begins Western civilization. We'll come back to that 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:06.240 in just a moment. But let's let's look at this invocation, 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:09.240 this famous invocation of the muse at the beginning of 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:16.560 the poem. First of all, the poet asks for help. 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:22.639 Divine help from a goddess, a muse. The help is 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:26.720 necessary because it's understood that the poem is not simply 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:30.320 an evening's entertainment, although it's certainly that the poem is 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:33.919 not simply a story, though it certainly is. That, or 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:36.160 maybe I should say it is a story, but we 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:39.120 tend to give stories too little credit for the amount 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:43.320 of work they do in our ability to understand the world. 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:49.400 So Homer begins with a request, a prayer, asking the 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:54.200 muse to assist him in telling this story and singing 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:59.430 this song. And it's appropriate that it's a prayer, because 0:02:59.430 --> 0:03:04.190 the burden of poetry is not, as I say, merely entertainment, 0:03:04.190 --> 0:03:11.630 but rather an attempt to penetrate, to cut through the chaos, 0:03:11.910 --> 0:03:16.590 the randomness, the clutter of everyday life and everyday experience 0:03:16.950 --> 0:03:22.190 in order to discern meaning, in order to penetrate through 0:03:22.190 --> 0:03:25.710 to mystery. Now, mystery may sound like it is the 0:03:25.710 --> 0:03:29.510 opposite of meaning, but. But there's a great deal of 0:03:29.510 --> 0:03:32.510 human experience which if you consult your own experience, you 0:03:32.510 --> 0:03:38.030 can confirm at once that is understood but difficult to articulate. 0:03:38.270 --> 0:03:42.070 That is grasped, but difficult to drop into some convenient 0:03:42.070 --> 0:03:47.070 propositional form. That's the kind of mystery that attaches to 0:03:47.110 --> 0:03:54.470 the very deepest things in human experience love, mortality. War, 0:03:55.850 --> 0:04:04.690 Home family. Those are real, evident, immediate things and none 0:04:04.690 --> 0:04:08.730 of us can claim to understand them fully. We understand them, 0:04:08.730 --> 0:04:11.850 but mysteriously. And the burden and the weight of that 0:04:11.850 --> 0:04:15.010 kind of understanding does seem to be a little bit 0:04:15.010 --> 0:04:19.730 beyond the ordinary man or woman's grass, beyond our ability 0:04:19.730 --> 0:04:26.770 to simply do or discuss with the easy grace with 0:04:26.770 --> 0:04:30.290 which we approach what we have for dinner, or what 0:04:30.290 --> 0:04:34.330 is the price of gasoline this week. So it's appropriate 0:04:34.330 --> 0:04:37.290 that it begins. The poem begins with a prayer and 0:04:37.290 --> 0:04:43.010 a request for help. Um, though it comes many, many 0:04:43.010 --> 0:04:46.290 years later, another poet by the name of Robert Browning 0:04:46.970 --> 0:04:52.410 has one of his poetic creations. Say this world's no 0:04:52.410 --> 0:04:56.190 blot for us nor blank. It means intensely and means 0:04:56.190 --> 0:05:00.830 good to. Find its meaning is my meat and drink. 0:05:01.230 --> 0:05:04.670 Let's put a little heart. Not harshly, but crudely. It's 0:05:04.670 --> 0:05:08.270 put a little bluntly and directly. But that really is 0:05:08.270 --> 0:05:10.990 the work of poetry itself, and Homer is doing the 0:05:11.029 --> 0:05:16.869 work of poetry itself. To find the world's meaning. That's 0:05:16.870 --> 0:05:20.950 Homer's meat and drink. It is Homer's prayer. But I 0:05:20.950 --> 0:05:23.510 also said, this is the beginning of Western civilization. That's 0:05:23.510 --> 0:05:26.070 something we should dwell upon for just a moment as well. 0:05:26.550 --> 0:05:32.830 It's the start of Western civilization precisely because. This poem 0:05:32.830 --> 0:05:37.229 and its. And its companion, the Iliad. This poem has furnished, 0:05:37.270 --> 0:05:41.950 has filled. But. But you might think. Furnished the Western imagination. 0:05:42.150 --> 0:05:48.350 Since its composition in the ninth century B.C. this poem 0:05:48.790 --> 0:05:51.870 filled the minds and imaginations of all those great Greeks 0:05:51.870 --> 0:05:56.489 in the classic fifth century BC. The Greeks, who gave 0:05:56.490 --> 0:06:03.890 us so much poetry, drama, philosophy, history, politics that Athens 0:06:03.890 --> 0:06:10.130 that launched Western civilization was educated by and in Homer. 0:06:10.170 --> 0:06:13.090 Even when they repudiated Homer or Homeric things, even when 0:06:13.089 --> 0:06:15.290 they stepped aside or developed or said, we're going to 0:06:15.290 --> 0:06:22.330 do something a little bit different from our great forebear, Homer. Homer. 0:06:23.370 --> 0:06:27.089 He was the context, as it were, within which they worked. 0:06:27.610 --> 0:06:31.130 So this, this it sounds melodramatic, but it isn't. It's 0:06:31.130 --> 0:06:36.650 really true that this poem, this poet, is very seriously 0:06:36.650 --> 0:06:41.610 the father of Western civilization. Well, I want to say 0:06:41.610 --> 0:06:46.050 something about this muse to this divinity. We understand, I hope, 0:06:46.089 --> 0:06:49.050 a little bit why we might have to pray to 0:06:49.089 --> 0:06:52.430 a divinity to assist us carry the burden of this 0:06:52.430 --> 0:06:59.070 mysterious inquiry or inquiry into the mysteriousness of of human experience? Sure. 0:06:59.390 --> 0:07:02.310 But what about a muse in particular? Why not Zeus? 0:07:02.550 --> 0:07:06.830 Why not Apollo? Why not Athena? She's the goddess of wisdom, right? Well, 0:07:07.230 --> 0:07:10.630 the muses. The muses don't get a lot of press. 0:07:10.630 --> 0:07:14.910 They're not talked about a great deal. You might expect 0:07:14.910 --> 0:07:18.870 that the word is etymologically related to our word music 0:07:19.030 --> 0:07:26.030 or amusing or muse. Also, it seems to be related 0:07:26.030 --> 0:07:29.790 to words like mute, which is even more mysterious. But 0:07:29.790 --> 0:07:32.790 we don't have time to explore that relation or connection. 0:07:33.510 --> 0:07:39.070 But it's worth noting that the muse or the muses 0:07:39.110 --> 0:07:44.150 were nine daughters. They're all female, their daughters of Zeus, 0:07:44.150 --> 0:07:49.870 so they have some important Olympian parentage. But their mother, 0:07:50.110 --> 0:07:53.620 the mother is the key here. The mother of the 0:07:53.620 --> 0:08:00.940 muses is a goddess named Mnemosyne MNE. Now, the neat 0:08:00.980 --> 0:08:04.020 thing about Mnemosyne is that those of you who picked 0:08:04.020 --> 0:08:07.700 up the etymology know that that has to do with memory. 0:08:07.700 --> 0:08:11.580 She's the goddess of memory. So what we have are 0:08:11.620 --> 0:08:16.500 these muses, little minor deities given the responsibility to endow 0:08:16.500 --> 0:08:24.060 or to inspire. People with understanding things that are generally 0:08:24.060 --> 0:08:27.780 beyond our Ken. Understanding things that are generally beyond our 0:08:27.780 --> 0:08:33.540 ability to understand readily, especially things that that, that, that 0:08:33.580 --> 0:08:38.020 are framed in what we would call beauty. The beauty 0:08:38.020 --> 0:08:40.860 could be astronomical. There is a muse of astronomy. The 0:08:40.860 --> 0:08:45.100 beauty could be epic poetry, the beauty could be lyric poetry. 0:08:45.580 --> 0:08:48.220 There was even a muse of history. But the point is, 0:08:48.380 --> 0:08:52.800 these muses are, are to inspire us so that we 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:56.319 can do the work of this form of understanding and 0:08:56.320 --> 0:09:00.040 their mother's memory. Now, this doesn't mean the muses are 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:04.560 memory tricks or I'm not suggesting that the muses are 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:07.319 related to memory by way of. Here's a nifty way 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.680 to remember this or that tidbit. Rather, if you think 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:15.559 about Homer's humility before his subject matter, if you think 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:18.680 about Homer's. I need divine help. I can't do this 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.839 on my own. I'm going to have to begin with, frankly, 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:25.240 a prayer. If you think about that, what. What is 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:30.880 clear is that the memory transcends mere individual retention. What? 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:33.719 What Homer is appealing to by invoking the help of 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:39.480 a muse, is the ability of man, both individual and 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:44.680 a culture, to preserve, to maintain its identity. I mean, 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:49.500 it's obvious, isn't it? Think about it without memory, we 0:09:49.500 --> 0:09:59.020 lose our identity as individuals. Without memory, a culture loses its. Identity, 0:09:59.059 --> 0:10:02.780 it loses itself. Homer seems to be aware of all 0:10:02.820 --> 0:10:06.460 of these things as he opens his poem. When I 0:10:06.500 --> 0:10:12.540 teach this in an ordinary class. I usually use the phrase. 0:10:12.540 --> 0:10:19.340 I adapt my translation somewhat. Sing to me, muse. And 0:10:19.340 --> 0:10:23.140 we spend 50 minutes on that alone. So this condensed 0:10:23.140 --> 0:10:27.180 introduction will have to suffice us here. But I emphasize 0:10:27.179 --> 0:10:31.100 the point that in such little things as that is 0:10:31.100 --> 0:10:33.740 all the burden and the weight of great beauty, the 0:10:33.740 --> 0:10:35.980 great beauty of this poem, but also the great meaning 0:10:35.980 --> 0:10:40.660 and the import for individual readers and for, as I say, 0:10:40.700 --> 0:10:49.320 Western civilization itself. So Homer's Odyssey, the muse assists Homer 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:51.920 in telling the story of this man Odysseus, this great 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:58.400 chieftain who fought with the Achaeans at Troy. Odysseus is 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.360 known as the wily one, the clever one, the trickster, 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:05.080 the great tactician. He, of course, is great and mighty 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:07.439 in combat as well, but he is credited with having 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:13.560 devised the scheme of the Trojan Horse. In the main, however, 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:17.560 we should understand that Odysseus, in terms of the epithet 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:19.960 he is given the first time is mentioned. His name 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:24.720 is mentioned in the poem, and that is Odysseus, which 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:29.160 means man of many turnings, poly trapos. When I teach 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:34.640 this in. In an ordinary class, students will sometimes stop 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:39.800 thinking while they're taking notes and just turn into Transcriptionists. 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:42.800 At that moment, I'll do something like tell them that 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:47.179 poly means poly plastic means teeth. So it's Odysseus, the 0:11:47.179 --> 0:11:50.540 man with dentures. If they inscribe that into their notes, 0:11:50.540 --> 0:11:51.940 then I know we're in trouble and we're going to 0:11:51.940 --> 0:11:55.540 have to start all over. Um, it's important to think 0:11:55.540 --> 0:11:58.860 with the professor as the subject is undertaken and rather 0:11:58.860 --> 0:12:03.820 just rather than just transcribe these words. But, but Polytrope 0:12:03.820 --> 0:12:08.540 was man of many turnings is an echo of his 0:12:08.540 --> 0:12:12.980 own name, which is a man of pain or son 0:12:12.980 --> 0:12:18.180 of suffering. Many turnings means clever. It means much experienced. 0:12:18.220 --> 0:12:24.540 It even means well traveled. But. But it applies especially 0:12:24.540 --> 0:12:28.860 to that capacity. Odysseus has to apply a kind of 0:12:29.100 --> 0:12:33.980 tactical wisdom that can extricate him from the difficulties in 0:12:33.980 --> 0:12:37.059 which he very often finds himself, often through his own fault, 0:12:37.059 --> 0:12:41.620 by the way. But this Odysseus, after having helped win 0:12:41.620 --> 0:12:43.980 the Trojan War, departs for home with his men and 0:12:44.050 --> 0:12:46.250 his ships. He is a chieftain, the king of Ithaca. 0:12:48.290 --> 0:12:52.609 Ten years later, when he finally steps onto Ithaca alone, 0:12:52.890 --> 0:12:56.050 having lost all of his men and all of his ships, 0:12:56.210 --> 0:13:00.490 he is a somewhat chastened. But he's still a vigorous warrior, 0:13:00.490 --> 0:13:06.290 and he's still an ingenious tactician. This polytropic. Um, it 0:13:06.290 --> 0:13:08.650 took ten years to get home for a variety of 0:13:08.650 --> 0:13:12.370 reasons we can't detail here, but he has a series 0:13:12.370 --> 0:13:17.690 of adventures. Stories within stories occur to Odysseus over that 0:13:17.690 --> 0:13:21.890 ten year period, delaying him sometimes for years at a time, 0:13:22.050 --> 0:13:28.329 and eliminating ship after ship, man after man, until finally 0:13:28.330 --> 0:13:32.890 he arrives home alone. And at at a certain point 0:13:32.890 --> 0:13:36.170 in that trip, in that journey home, Odysseus is asked 0:13:36.170 --> 0:13:39.090 to recount his adventures. Thus far. It's actually very close 0:13:39.090 --> 0:13:42.410 to his having to his returning home, and he's asked 0:13:42.410 --> 0:13:46.709 to recount his adventures. And in fact, the bulk of 0:13:46.710 --> 0:13:52.510 this poem is Odysseus speaking to. They're called the Phaeacians King, 0:13:52.550 --> 0:13:55.550 Alkinoös and Phaeacians who want to know his story. He 0:13:55.550 --> 0:13:58.870 actually tells the bulk of this story, but by the 0:13:58.870 --> 0:14:03.270 time he steps back onto his home island of Ithaca, 0:14:04.429 --> 0:14:09.310 his house is besieged by 108 suitors, all of whom 0:14:09.309 --> 0:14:13.270 have presumed, perhaps Wishfully, thinking, that Odysseus is dead and 0:14:13.270 --> 0:14:16.230 they're courting, if you want to call it that, his wife. 0:14:16.670 --> 0:14:18.429 We'll come back to that a little bit later, too. 0:14:18.470 --> 0:14:23.830 That's extremely important. They essentially have the house under siege. 0:14:24.070 --> 0:14:27.390 Odysseus returns, adopts a disguise with the help of Athena, 0:14:27.750 --> 0:14:34.950 and ends up. In rather decisive fashion, killing them all. 0:14:36.630 --> 0:14:40.830 He even kills the. The waiting women who were in 0:14:40.830 --> 0:14:55.050 collusion with these suitors. The poem, as all of this 0:14:55.050 --> 0:14:58.290 story is underway, takes up many things that are of 0:14:58.290 --> 0:15:05.010 perennial importance permanent things. It takes up the nature of 0:15:05.010 --> 0:15:12.290 home ordered and disordered. It takes up the nature of hospitality, 0:15:12.290 --> 0:15:15.290 which in this poem is not simply being nice to people, 0:15:15.330 --> 0:15:20.210 being nice to strangers. It is a virtue looked out 0:15:20.210 --> 0:15:23.850 for by Zeus himself. It's taken extremely seriously. It is 0:15:23.850 --> 0:15:26.850 a kind of index of civilization itself. It's not going 0:15:26.850 --> 0:15:29.210 too far to say this is a poem about hospitality. 0:15:29.410 --> 0:15:31.570 I once knew a fellow who said, it's not going 0:15:31.570 --> 0:15:33.729 too far to say this is a poem about eating, 0:15:34.090 --> 0:15:38.290 since so much of it concerns meals, feasting, dining. But 0:15:38.290 --> 0:15:41.710 that is part of hospitality, In fact, this is a 0:15:41.710 --> 0:15:47.110 poem about fidelity. Odysseus wife those 20 years he was gone. 0:15:47.430 --> 0:15:51.550 Ten at Troy, ten coming home. Odysseus wife Penelope is 0:15:51.590 --> 0:15:56.750 is loyal, faithful to him. Agamemnon, a colleague of Odysseus. 0:15:57.190 --> 0:16:01.030 Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra is compared to Penelope in this poem. 0:16:01.750 --> 0:16:07.510 She not only was unfaithful to her husband Agamemnon, but 0:16:07.510 --> 0:16:12.350 she killed him. She and her lover killed Agamemnon when 0:16:12.350 --> 0:16:16.470 he returned home from the Trojan War. At one point, Agamemnon. 0:16:17.070 --> 0:16:20.550 Odysseus ventures into the underworld and speaks to Agamemnon, the 0:16:20.550 --> 0:16:24.790 spirit of Agamemnon, and Agamemnon praises Penelope and says she 0:16:24.790 --> 0:16:27.990 would not behave as did Clytemnestra. So this is very 0:16:27.990 --> 0:16:31.990 much a poem about loyalty. Um. This, one of the 0:16:31.990 --> 0:16:37.430 most famous characters in all of literature is a swineherd, Eumaeus, Odysseus, 0:16:37.430 --> 0:16:40.850 loyal swineherd, while so many other people in the island have, 0:16:40.890 --> 0:16:44.370 as it were, made their peace with the barbarous suitors. 0:16:44.810 --> 0:16:49.410 Eumaeus did not. Odysseus takes shelter with him initially on 0:16:49.410 --> 0:16:52.850 his return to Ithaca, and enlists his help in taking 0:16:53.050 --> 0:17:00.450 back in repossessing his. His home. But the essential quality 0:17:00.450 --> 0:17:04.090 of mind I mentioned a minute ago. This. This thing 0:17:04.090 --> 0:17:09.369 that Homer describes as the ability to overcome adversity through clever, quick, 0:17:09.410 --> 0:17:15.129 tactical thinking is not always seen in adversarial situations. Homer 0:17:15.130 --> 0:17:19.930 depicts that quality of mind, that cleverness in other ways 0:17:19.930 --> 0:17:24.730 as well. At one point in his journey, he's alone. 0:17:24.730 --> 0:17:31.130 Now Odysseus is beset by Poseidon, who for various reasons, 0:17:31.130 --> 0:17:36.850 wants to thwart Odysseus intentions to return home. And. And he. 0:17:37.830 --> 0:17:42.389 He's alone on a raft. Poseidon kicks up a storm. 0:17:42.710 --> 0:17:47.990 Odysseus raft is smashed. He's thrown into the raging ocean. 0:17:48.310 --> 0:17:52.830 His clothes are ripped off. He swims for days and 0:17:52.830 --> 0:17:55.550 finally crawls. He's lost. He has no idea where he is. 0:17:55.550 --> 0:18:03.990 He crawls exhausted onto shore, naked, hungry, sleepless, exhausted. He 0:18:03.990 --> 0:18:10.390 crawls into an olive bush and falls asleep. He wakes 0:18:10.390 --> 0:18:14.510 up to the sound of young girls playing. They're actually 0:18:14.510 --> 0:18:17.790 playing ball and the ball goes into the water. Odysseus 0:18:17.830 --> 0:18:22.990 wakes up, sees his condition, and sees that these young 0:18:23.030 --> 0:18:27.109 teenage girls are his only hope for some kind of help. 0:18:28.109 --> 0:18:32.709 Now think. Think about the rhetorical situation. Think about the challenge. 0:18:32.869 --> 0:18:37.300 You're a 40 odd year old man, Very powerful and 0:18:37.300 --> 0:18:46.260 build very strong but naked, covered with brine from the sea. 0:18:46.940 --> 0:18:51.660 Beaten up. You look like death warmed over. You look 0:18:51.700 --> 0:18:54.500 like a dangerous death warmed over. And you've got all 0:18:54.500 --> 0:18:58.739 these 1416 year old girls you need to enlist the 0:18:58.740 --> 0:19:03.739 help of. And I repeat, you're naked. How do you 0:19:03.740 --> 0:19:08.980 get out of that one? That takes some skill, Odysseus 0:19:08.980 --> 0:19:11.700 says when he wakes up. Man of misery, whose land 0:19:11.700 --> 0:19:15.980 have I lit on now? What are they here? Violent, savage, lawless, 0:19:17.340 --> 0:19:22.740 or friendly to strangers? God fearing men listen, shouting, echoing 0:19:22.780 --> 0:19:26.219 around me. Women, girls, or the nymphs who haunt the 0:19:26.220 --> 0:19:28.859 rugged mountaintops in the river springs and the meadows lush 0:19:28.859 --> 0:19:32.540 with grass. Or I really close to people who speak 0:19:32.540 --> 0:19:36.439 my language up with you. See how the land lies. 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:41.360 See for yourself now. And he does. Muttering so great. 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.280 Odysseus crept out of the bushes, stripping off with his 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:47.200 massive hand a leafy branch from the tangled olive growth 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:51.680 to shield his body, hide his private parts, and out 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:55.680 he stalked as a mountain lion, exultant in his power 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:59.160 strides the wind and rain in his eyes ablaze. And 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:02.880 he charges sheep or oxen or chases wild deer. But 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:06.159 his hunger drives him on to go for flocks, even 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:12.560 to raid the best defended homestead. This violent hunting imagery 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:15.919 is exactly the kind of association that Odysseus in this 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:20.399 situation doesn't want to excite, right? He needs these girls 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:24.920 to stay put and not feel threatened. So Odysseus moved out, 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:29.040 about to mingle with all those lovely girls, naked now, 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:32.439 as he was for NE drove him on a terrible sight, 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:36.460 all crusted, caked with brine. They scatter, they run. But 0:20:36.460 --> 0:20:39.700 the king's daughter is there among them. Now. Sitka is 0:20:39.700 --> 0:20:45.700 her name. The local king, Alcinous, has this teenage daughter 0:20:45.700 --> 0:20:49.780 who's just beginning to think about marriage. She stands firm 0:20:49.780 --> 0:20:54.260 with Athena's help. She turns and faced Odysseus, torn. Now. 0:20:54.900 --> 0:20:57.699 Odysseus has to think there's a certain protocol. If you're 0:20:57.700 --> 0:21:01.140 beseeching someone's help. The normal thing, the proper thing to do. 0:21:01.140 --> 0:21:04.260 The protocol, is to run up and grab their knees. 0:21:04.260 --> 0:21:08.859 You embrace their knees. You reach around them and hold them. 0:21:10.140 --> 0:21:12.300 Should he fling his arms around her knees, the young 0:21:12.300 --> 0:21:15.260 beauty plead for help or stand back, plead with a 0:21:15.260 --> 0:21:17.619 winning word, beg her to lead him to the town 0:21:17.619 --> 0:21:21.340 and lend him clothing. This was the better way, he thought. 0:21:21.340 --> 0:21:25.020 Plead now with a subtle winning word, and stand well back. 0:21:25.260 --> 0:21:29.899 Don't clasp her knees. The girl's might. The girl might bridle. Yes, 0:21:30.340 --> 0:21:34.879 he launched in at once endearing sly and suave. What 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:37.959 follows is a speech a little bit I hope we 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:45.360 can read that demonstrates Odysseus's exquisite rhetorical skill. Now, when 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:47.840 people hear about rhetorical skill, they often assume that means 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:52.719 some kind of deception, some sort of sleight of verbal hand, 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:55.280 as it were. But this is not this is not 0:21:55.280 --> 0:22:00.160 the case at all. The the the the cleverness, the 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:04.160 tactical wisdom Odysseus has doesn't in this case move him 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:07.080 to deception, although he's perfectly happy to deceive when the 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:11.920 need arises. He's got this horrible circumstance he's got to overcome. 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:13.960 And the best way to do that is to put 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:18.480 her at ease. Here I am, at your mercy, Princess. 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:21.359 Are you a goddess or a mortal? Now everyone chuckles 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:23.800 and says, ho ho ho! Isn't that flattery, you know? Wow, 0:22:23.840 --> 0:22:26.840 look at this goddess. But remember, Odysseus has been spending 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:28.840 a lot of time with goddesses. And when he woke 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:33.260 up said to himself. Who are these women, girls or 0:22:33.260 --> 0:22:36.500 the nymphs who haunt the rugged mountain tops? So Odysseus 0:22:36.540 --> 0:22:40.619 actually doesn't know with whom he's dealing. Um, but nevertheless, 0:22:40.619 --> 0:22:44.940 he does know that if it's a goddess, one would 0:22:44.940 --> 0:22:47.260 not want to be mistaken for a mortal. If it's 0:22:47.260 --> 0:22:50.260 a mortal, one wouldn't mind being mistaken for a goddess. 0:22:50.420 --> 0:22:52.540 Here I am. At your mercy, Princess. Are you a 0:22:52.580 --> 0:22:55.300 goddess or a mortal? If one of the gods who 0:22:55.300 --> 0:22:57.900 rule the skies up there. Your Artemis to the life. 0:22:58.100 --> 0:23:01.340 The daughter of mighty Zeus. I see her now. Just 0:23:01.340 --> 0:23:04.020 look at your build, your bearing, your lithe, flowing grace. 0:23:04.020 --> 0:23:07.780 Now you might be thinking. Oh, back away. Oh, no no, no, 0:23:07.780 --> 0:23:10.660 don't go. There it is. Just watch. He knows. He 0:23:10.660 --> 0:23:12.859 knows what he's doing. But if you're one of the 0:23:12.859 --> 0:23:18.940 mortals living here on earth three times. Blessed are your father, 0:23:19.220 --> 0:23:23.740 your queenly mother, three times over. Your brothers too. How 0:23:23.740 --> 0:23:26.939 often their hearts must warm with joy to see you 0:23:26.980 --> 0:23:32.050 striding into the dances. Such a bloom of beauty. True, 0:23:32.290 --> 0:23:34.890 but he is the one more blessed than all other 0:23:34.890 --> 0:23:38.609 men alive. That man who sways you with gifts and 0:23:38.609 --> 0:23:42.850 leads you home. His bride. I have never laid eyes 0:23:42.850 --> 0:23:48.370 on anyone like you. Neither man nor woman. I look 0:23:48.369 --> 0:23:56.649 at you in a sense of wonder. Takes me. Clearly, 0:23:56.650 --> 0:24:01.090 by mentioning family things sacred, or at least very likely 0:24:01.090 --> 0:24:06.690 sacred to this young girl. Father, mother, future hope and husband, 0:24:06.730 --> 0:24:10.889 her brothers, home. All of these references that he makes 0:24:10.890 --> 0:24:14.610 are designed to signal to her. I think they're perfectly sincere, 0:24:14.609 --> 0:24:18.050 but they're designed to signal to her, you have nothing 0:24:18.090 --> 0:24:21.890 to fear. You have nothing to fear. If he had 0:24:22.130 --> 0:24:26.090 evil intentions, he would not be mentioning father and brothers 0:24:26.090 --> 0:24:30.910 and mother and marriage and home and those. grand staples 0:24:30.910 --> 0:24:37.470 of a stable family life. He then asks for her help. Athena, um, 0:24:37.550 --> 0:24:40.550 gives her courage and indeed she does help him. Gives 0:24:40.550 --> 0:24:43.870 him a covering and some oil. He bathes, dresses himself, 0:24:43.869 --> 0:24:46.310 and she takes him to her father's court. And it 0:24:46.310 --> 0:24:48.310 is at that court that we get the bulk of 0:24:48.310 --> 0:24:52.750 the poem. So so this, this ability that Odysseus has 0:24:52.750 --> 0:24:56.670 to extricate himself from difficult and complex situations isn't always 0:24:56.670 --> 0:24:59.270 just having a clever trick to deceive your enemy or 0:24:59.830 --> 0:25:04.350 a good right arm. It is also understanding human nature. 0:25:04.550 --> 0:25:07.150 What does a young girl who's just beginning to think 0:25:07.150 --> 0:25:12.950 about marriage, what does she regard as, as as sacred, 0:25:12.990 --> 0:25:18.590 as valuable, as precious, as. As important for a good life? 0:25:18.910 --> 0:25:21.190 How can I appeal to that? How can I, as 0:25:21.190 --> 0:25:24.429 it were, move or navigate into that in order to 0:25:24.470 --> 0:25:29.090 get her to see my fundamental need? And also her 0:25:29.090 --> 0:25:34.730 fundamental safety with him. Now, this reception that Odysseus receives 0:25:34.730 --> 0:25:39.050 here is in violent contrast with the reception that he 0:25:39.050 --> 0:25:46.570 receives in the famous famous episode concerning the Cyclops. I 0:25:46.570 --> 0:25:51.090 won't read the passage. I hope you will. But the 0:25:51.090 --> 0:25:59.970 Cyclops episode is almost an archetypal presentation of everything barbaric. 0:26:00.010 --> 0:26:06.290 That is. How does man or monster get public social 0:26:06.290 --> 0:26:10.050 common life wrong? And by public social common life I 0:26:10.050 --> 0:26:15.010 mean everything from family, home to community. The Cyclops is 0:26:15.330 --> 0:26:19.810 is spoken of as lawless as not having any communities, 0:26:19.810 --> 0:26:23.770 not having a council where people meet and deliberate. He 0:26:23.810 --> 0:26:28.910 rules his wife Tyrannically, his wife and his children Tyrannically. 0:26:29.190 --> 0:26:33.510 He lives in caves, not in real homes. He doesn't 0:26:33.510 --> 0:26:37.590 even cultivate the earth. He doesn't grow food. He. He's 0:26:37.630 --> 0:26:41.830 a shepherd. He keeps sheep. But. But he won't, even, 0:26:41.830 --> 0:26:47.830 as it were, exercise the discipline necessary to cultivate a crop. Okay. 0:26:47.869 --> 0:26:51.910 These are the things that that that Homer will point 0:26:51.910 --> 0:26:55.190 out often very rapidly, almost as an aside. But as 0:26:55.230 --> 0:26:59.630 as you probably know, the the Cyclops encounter turns out 0:26:59.630 --> 0:27:03.350 very badly. Odysseus goes there with several men, the Cyclops 0:27:03.350 --> 0:27:07.189 in it's, shall we say, a rather shocking breach of 0:27:07.190 --> 0:27:10.950 hospitality eats them. Not all of them. But he takes 0:27:10.950 --> 0:27:14.110 one man in each hand, smashes their brains out on 0:27:14.109 --> 0:27:17.590 the floor and stuffs their bleeding bodies in his mouth 0:27:17.830 --> 0:27:24.270 and swallows. Odysseus finally manages to work out an escape, 0:27:24.810 --> 0:27:27.969 which involves, by the way, his playing on the barbarous 0:27:27.970 --> 0:27:31.530 intemperance of the Cyclops. He manages to get him drunk, 0:27:32.490 --> 0:27:35.010 and when drunk, injures the Cyclops in a way that 0:27:35.010 --> 0:27:39.610 isn't fatal, but does render him harmless to the remaining 0:27:39.650 --> 0:27:43.970 the remaining Ithacans with with Odysseus. Well, this this this 0:27:43.970 --> 0:27:45.969 is a pattern you see over and over in the 0:27:45.970 --> 0:27:49.050 poem you see the presentation of the. A proper kind 0:27:49.050 --> 0:27:52.770 of welcome or hospitality and reception and a barbarous welcome. 0:27:53.690 --> 0:27:57.810 Absence of hospitality, non reception. You see it over and 0:27:57.810 --> 0:28:00.730 over again. And of course most graphic. Maybe that was 0:28:00.730 --> 0:28:02.850 the most graphic, but you see it very graphically when 0:28:02.890 --> 0:28:07.450 Odysseus gets home and his house is besieged by these 0:28:07.450 --> 0:28:13.449 suitors eventually. Um, this is a very difficult poem to 0:28:13.490 --> 0:28:19.689 talk about in a summary fashion because the richness is 0:28:19.690 --> 0:28:21.889 so much not just in the plot, but in the 0:28:21.890 --> 0:28:26.320 details you really want to read the lines? The words 0:28:26.320 --> 0:28:31.080 you want to notice all the details? Homer certainly notices them. Um, 0:28:31.160 --> 0:28:37.800 but but for our purposes. Suffice this. When Odysseus returns 0:28:37.920 --> 0:28:43.280 disguised as a beggar, he is reunited with Telemachus. He, 0:28:43.280 --> 0:28:48.480 Telemachus and Eumaeus conspire together to trap the suitors in 0:28:48.480 --> 0:28:53.800 such a way that allows Odysseus to destroy them. This 0:28:53.800 --> 0:29:00.280 is successful. Um. Penelope is unaware or apparently unaware of 0:29:00.280 --> 0:29:04.640 Odysseus identity. Again, he's disguised as a beggar. The the 0:29:04.840 --> 0:29:08.600 the ruse that they they scheme they devise is successful. 0:29:08.600 --> 0:29:13.400 They're all slain. And Odysseus then presents himself as the 0:29:13.400 --> 0:29:17.360 long lost husband to Penelope. Now Penelope is a wife 0:29:17.360 --> 0:29:22.300 worthy of of Odysseus. Um, she's no fool. She's been 0:29:22.300 --> 0:29:25.860 putting those suitors off for many years by weaving this 0:29:26.260 --> 0:29:29.900 funeral shroud by day and unweaving it by night, promising 0:29:29.900 --> 0:29:31.980 that she'll make some choice of a future husband when 0:29:31.980 --> 0:29:36.620 she finishes the shroud. Well. She weaves. She's finally caught 0:29:36.620 --> 0:29:39.140 out at that. So darn it all, she has to 0:29:39.140 --> 0:29:44.380 finish the shroud. Um, but but she is no fool. 0:29:44.700 --> 0:29:47.140 She knows that Odysseus has been gone a long time. 0:29:47.380 --> 0:29:51.020 She's inclined to think this must be Odysseus, but she 0:29:51.020 --> 0:29:53.740 puts him to a test. And I think we have 0:29:53.740 --> 0:30:01.060 time to read a snippet of that test. She says, well, 0:30:01.060 --> 0:30:02.780 I think you might be Odysseus, but I'm not sure 0:30:02.780 --> 0:30:04.740 we're going to wait and see. We're going to hold 0:30:04.740 --> 0:30:08.500 off for a while. And Odysseus says, strange woman, so 0:30:08.500 --> 0:30:11.220 hard that gods of Olympus made you harder than any 0:30:11.220 --> 0:30:14.220 other woman in the world. What other wife could have 0:30:14.220 --> 0:30:17.380 a spirit so unbending, holding back from her husband home 0:30:17.380 --> 0:30:22.200 at last for her after bearing 20 years of brutal struggle. Come, nurse, 0:30:22.200 --> 0:30:24.240 make me a bed. I'll sleep alone. She has a 0:30:24.240 --> 0:30:31.920 heart of iron in her breast. She replies. Strange man. Wary, 0:30:31.960 --> 0:30:35.560 Penelope said, I'm not so proud, so scornful. Nor am 0:30:35.560 --> 0:30:39.640 I overwhelmed by your quick change. You look how well 0:30:39.640 --> 0:30:42.720 I know the way he looked. Setting sail from Ithaca 0:30:42.760 --> 0:30:46.640 years ago aboard the long oared ship. Come, Eurycleia, move 0:30:46.640 --> 0:30:49.640 the sturdy bedstead out of our bridal chamber. That room 0:30:49.640 --> 0:30:52.120 the master built with his own hands. Take it out now. 0:30:52.560 --> 0:30:55.360 The sturdy bed that it is, and spread it with deep, 0:30:55.680 --> 0:31:01.120 deep with fleece blankets and lustrous throws to keep him warm. Odysseus. 0:31:01.440 --> 0:31:03.600 Homer then clues you in that this is a test, 0:31:03.600 --> 0:31:07.240 putting her husband to the proof. But Odysseus blazed up 0:31:07.240 --> 0:31:10.960 in fury, lashing out at his loyal wife. Woman, your 0:31:10.960 --> 0:31:15.400 words cut me to the core. Who could move my bed? 0:31:15.800 --> 0:31:20.780 What we. What we learn is that Odysseus made their 0:31:20.780 --> 0:31:27.060 marriage bed out of a living rooted olive tree, not 0:31:27.060 --> 0:31:31.660 lumber cut down a tree rooted into the earth. That 0:31:31.660 --> 0:31:35.020 tree he shaped into one of the posts of the 0:31:35.060 --> 0:31:38.180 of the bed attached. The rest of the bed literally 0:31:38.180 --> 0:31:42.700 built the room and the house, around that tree and 0:31:42.700 --> 0:31:51.780 around that bed. Clearly significant of the stability, the strength, 0:31:51.820 --> 0:31:57.940 the rootedness of family, of marriage, of man and wife, 0:31:58.340 --> 0:32:05.900 of home. This is clearly the perfect symbol for a 0:32:05.900 --> 0:32:12.300 home restored to order, strength and stability. This is the resolution, 0:32:12.300 --> 0:32:15.340 as it were, of the poem. That symbol, I think, 0:32:15.380 --> 0:32:18.600 sums it up perfectly. So this this is very much 0:32:18.640 --> 0:32:22.280 a poem about family. It's very much a poem about 0:32:22.280 --> 0:32:24.760 the thing that gives rise or that gives birth to 0:32:24.800 --> 0:32:30.360 all social order, to all public peace. It can certainly, 0:32:30.360 --> 0:32:35.800 as we have seen, be a place of great disorder disruption. 0:32:36.360 --> 0:32:38.400 But if there is going to be peace and harmony, 0:32:38.440 --> 0:32:43.480 it begins there in families, in marriages, men and women, 0:32:43.480 --> 0:32:49.320 and in homes. Odysseus, you recall, had said to Nausicaa, 0:32:49.320 --> 0:32:52.960 and I will conclude with this. He said to Nausicaa. 0:32:53.000 --> 0:32:56.400 He offered her a blessing. I hope this for you. 0:32:57.480 --> 0:33:00.479 It's worth noting that the Odyssey concludes, there actually is 0:33:00.480 --> 0:33:02.920 reference to one little journey. He's going. This big journey, 0:33:02.920 --> 0:33:05.480 but a journey he's going to have to take in addition. 0:33:05.480 --> 0:33:09.880 But it comes with the promise of peace and stability thereafter. 0:33:09.880 --> 0:33:15.080 So I say that the poem does conclude with Odysseus realizing, 0:33:16.230 --> 0:33:20.430 Restoring in his own world, in his own family, that 0:33:20.470 --> 0:33:26.230 which he wished for and blessed. Now sick with that 0:33:26.230 --> 0:33:31.110 is again a husband and house and lasting harmony to 0:33:31.430 --> 0:33:35.030 no finer. Gift in the world than that when man 0:33:35.030 --> 0:33:39.790 and woman possess their home. Two minds, two hearts that 0:33:39.790 --> 0:33:43.710 work as one. Despair to their enemies. A joy to 0:33:43.750 --> 0:33:49.990 all their friends. Their own best claim to glory. Not 0:33:49.990 --> 0:33:56.070 Odysseus martial valor, not Odysseus tactical cleverness. Not even Odysseus. 0:33:57.510 --> 0:34:03.630 Brute strength and force or rhetorical ability. His best glory 0:34:03.830 --> 0:34:09.030 is his home, his family stability there. And with that, 0:34:09.270 --> 0:34:15.190 we'll conclude a very cursory, hopefully mildly tantalizing discussion of 0:34:15.330 --> 0:34:18.009 Homer's great poem, The Odyssey. Thank you. 0:34:19.010 --> 0:34:21.650 Thank you for listening to this episode of the Hillsdale 0:34:21.650 --> 0:34:25.290 College Online Courses podcast. If you want to continue learning, 0:34:25.290 --> 0:34:30.450 please visit hillsdale.edu/course. There you will find over 40 free 0:34:30.450 --> 0:34:35.690 online courses, including Ancient Christianity, the Genesis story, classic children's literature, 0:34:35.690 --> 0:34:39.730 and many more. 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