S1: Welcome to the Hillsdale College Online Courses podcast. I'm Jeremiah
S1: Regan and.
S2: I'm Juan Davalos, and we're back on a special episode.
S2: If you remember, last week we did Homer's Iliad, and
S2: this week we're doing Homer's Odyssey.
S1: These are both lectures from our Great Books 101 course,
S1: one of the original online courses, one of the foundations
S1: for our program. And we're doing them because of a
S1: big Hollywood movie coming out about the Odyssey. We want
S1: to teach people who are interested in that story. In addition,
S1: we ourselves are producing two courses, one on the Iliad,
S1: one on the Odyssey, 12 lectures each that will really
S1: dive into the story. The Odyssey is a story of homecoming.
S1: It's the story of prioritizing family and statesmanship over mere
S1: glory on the battlefield, and it deserves a lengthy retelling.
S1: This lecture again from our Great Books 101 course is
S1: an outstanding introduction. It is taught by the father of
S1: our forthcoming course. Professor, this is David Whalen and you
S1: will later this summer see and hear from his son,
S1: Ben Whalen.
S2: So now let's turn to Doctor Whalen on Homer's Odyssey.
S3: Homer's odyssey. Sing to me of the man, muse. The
S3: man of twists and turns driven time and again off course.
S3: Once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy. But
S3: we have to stop right there, don't we? Sing to
S3: me of the man muse itself. The opening of this
S3: poem is arresting. It's arresting because we wonder why he
S3: says sing instead of tell. We wonder why he's asking
S3: the help of something called a muse to begin with.
S3: Sing to me of the man muse. So begins the poem,
S3: but also begins Western civilization. We'll come back to that
S3: in just a moment. But let's let's look at this invocation,
S3: this famous invocation of the muse at the beginning of
S3: the poem. First of all, the poet asks for help.
S3: Divine help from a goddess, a muse. The help is
S3: necessary because it's understood that the poem is not simply
S3: an evening's entertainment, although it's certainly that the poem is
S3: not simply a story, though it certainly is. That, or
S3: maybe I should say it is a story, but we
S3: tend to give stories too little credit for the amount
S3: of work they do in our ability to understand the world.
S3: So Homer begins with a request, a prayer, asking the
S3: muse to assist him in telling this story and singing
S3: this song. And it's appropriate that it's a prayer, because
S3: the burden of poetry is not, as I say, merely entertainment,
S3: but rather an attempt to penetrate, to cut through the chaos,
S3: the randomness, the clutter of everyday life and everyday experience
S3: in order to discern meaning, in order to penetrate through
S3: to mystery. Now, mystery may sound like it is the
S3: opposite of meaning, but. But there's a great deal of
S3: human experience which if you consult your own experience, you
S3: can confirm at once that is understood but difficult to articulate.
S3: That is grasped, but difficult to drop into some convenient
S3: propositional form. That's the kind of mystery that attaches to
S3: the very deepest things in human experience love, mortality. War,
S3: Home family. Those are real, evident, immediate things and none
S3: of us can claim to understand them fully. We understand them,
S3: but mysteriously. And the burden and the weight of that
S3: kind of understanding does seem to be a little bit
S3: beyond the ordinary man or woman's grass, beyond our ability
S3: to simply do or discuss with the easy grace with
S3: which we approach what we have for dinner, or what
S3: is the price of gasoline this week. So it's appropriate
S3: that it begins. The poem begins with a prayer and
S3: a request for help. Um, though it comes many, many
S3: years later, another poet by the name of Robert Browning
S3: has one of his poetic creations. Say this world's no
S3: blot for us nor blank. It means intensely and means
S3: good to. Find its meaning is my meat and drink.
S3: Let's put a little heart. Not harshly, but crudely. It's
S3: put a little bluntly and directly. But that really is
S3: the work of poetry itself, and Homer is doing the
S3: work of poetry itself. To find the world's meaning. That's
S3: Homer's meat and drink. It is Homer's prayer. But I
S3: also said, this is the beginning of Western civilization. That's
S3: something we should dwell upon for just a moment as well.
S3: It's the start of Western civilization precisely because. This poem
S3: and its. And its companion, the Iliad. This poem has furnished,
S3: has filled. But. But you might think. Furnished the Western imagination.
S3: Since its composition in the ninth century B.C. this poem
S3: filled the minds and imaginations of all those great Greeks
S3: in the classic fifth century BC. The Greeks, who gave
S3: us so much poetry, drama, philosophy, history, politics that Athens
S3: that launched Western civilization was educated by and in Homer.
S3: Even when they repudiated Homer or Homeric things, even when
S3: they stepped aside or developed or said, we're going to
S3: do something a little bit different from our great forebear, Homer. Homer.
S3: He was the context, as it were, within which they worked.
S3: So this, this it sounds melodramatic, but it isn't. It's
S3: really true that this poem, this poet, is very seriously
S3: the father of Western civilization. Well, I want to say
S3: something about this muse to this divinity. We understand, I hope,
S3: a little bit why we might have to pray to
S3: a divinity to assist us carry the burden of this
S3: mysterious inquiry or inquiry into the mysteriousness of of human experience? Sure.
S3: But what about a muse in particular? Why not Zeus?
S3: Why not Apollo? Why not Athena? She's the goddess of wisdom, right? Well,
S3: the muses. The muses don't get a lot of press.
S3: They're not talked about a great deal. You might expect
S3: that the word is etymologically related to our word music
S3: or amusing or muse. Also, it seems to be related
S3: to words like mute, which is even more mysterious. But
S3: we don't have time to explore that relation or connection.
S3: But it's worth noting that the muse or the muses
S3: were nine daughters. They're all female, their daughters of Zeus,
S3: so they have some important Olympian parentage. But their mother,
S3: the mother is the key here. The mother of the
S3: muses is a goddess named Mnemosyne MNE. Now, the neat
S3: thing about Mnemosyne is that those of you who picked
S3: up the etymology know that that has to do with memory.
S3: She's the goddess of memory. So what we have are
S3: these muses, little minor deities given the responsibility to endow
S3: or to inspire. People with understanding things that are generally
S3: beyond our Ken. Understanding things that are generally beyond our
S3: ability to understand readily, especially things that that, that, that
S3: are framed in what we would call beauty. The beauty
S3: could be astronomical. There is a muse of astronomy. The
S3: beauty could be epic poetry, the beauty could be lyric poetry.
S3: There was even a muse of history. But the point is,
S3: these muses are, are to inspire us so that we
S3: can do the work of this form of understanding and
S3: their mother's memory. Now, this doesn't mean the muses are
S3: memory tricks or I'm not suggesting that the muses are
S3: related to memory by way of. Here's a nifty way
S3: to remember this or that tidbit. Rather, if you think
S3: about Homer's humility before his subject matter, if you think
S3: about Homer's. I need divine help. I can't do this
S3: on my own. I'm going to have to begin with, frankly,
S3: a prayer. If you think about that, what. What is
S3: clear is that the memory transcends mere individual retention. What?
S3: What Homer is appealing to by invoking the help of
S3: a muse, is the ability of man, both individual and
S3: a culture, to preserve, to maintain its identity. I mean,
S3: it's obvious, isn't it? Think about it without memory, we
S3: lose our identity as individuals. Without memory, a culture loses its. Identity,
S3: it loses itself. Homer seems to be aware of all
S3: of these things as he opens his poem. When I
S3: teach this in an ordinary class. I usually use the phrase.
S3: I adapt my translation somewhat. Sing to me, muse. And
S3: we spend 50 minutes on that alone. So this condensed
S3: introduction will have to suffice us here. But I emphasize
S3: the point that in such little things as that is
S3: all the burden and the weight of great beauty, the
S3: great beauty of this poem, but also the great meaning
S3: and the import for individual readers and for, as I say,
S3: Western civilization itself. So Homer's Odyssey, the muse assists Homer
S3: in telling the story of this man Odysseus, this great
S3: chieftain who fought with the Achaeans at Troy. Odysseus is
S3: known as the wily one, the clever one, the trickster,
S3: the great tactician. He, of course, is great and mighty
S3: in combat as well, but he is credited with having
S3: devised the scheme of the Trojan Horse. In the main, however,
S3: we should understand that Odysseus, in terms of the epithet
S3: he is given the first time is mentioned. His name
S3: is mentioned in the poem, and that is Odysseus, which
S3: means man of many turnings, poly trapos. When I teach
S3: this in. In an ordinary class, students will sometimes stop
S3: thinking while they're taking notes and just turn into Transcriptionists.
S3: At that moment, I'll do something like tell them that
S3: poly means poly plastic means teeth. So it's Odysseus, the
S3: man with dentures. If they inscribe that into their notes,
S3: then I know we're in trouble and we're going to
S3: have to start all over. Um, it's important to think
S3: with the professor as the subject is undertaken and rather
S3: just rather than just transcribe these words. But, but Polytrope
S3: was man of many turnings is an echo of his
S3: own name, which is a man of pain or son
S3: of suffering. Many turnings means clever. It means much experienced.
S3: It even means well traveled. But. But it applies especially
S3: to that capacity. Odysseus has to apply a kind of
S3: tactical wisdom that can extricate him from the difficulties in
S3: which he very often finds himself, often through his own fault,
S3: by the way. But this Odysseus, after having helped win
S3: the Trojan War, departs for home with his men and
S3: his ships. He is a chieftain, the king of Ithaca.
S3: Ten years later, when he finally steps onto Ithaca alone,
S3: having lost all of his men and all of his ships,
S3: he is a somewhat chastened. But he's still a vigorous warrior,
S3: and he's still an ingenious tactician. This polytropic. Um, it
S3: took ten years to get home for a variety of
S3: reasons we can't detail here, but he has a series
S3: of adventures. Stories within stories occur to Odysseus over that
S3: ten year period, delaying him sometimes for years at a time,
S3: and eliminating ship after ship, man after man, until finally
S3: he arrives home alone. And at at a certain point
S3: in that trip, in that journey home, Odysseus is asked
S3: to recount his adventures. Thus far. It's actually very close
S3: to his having to his returning home, and he's asked
S3: to recount his adventures. And in fact, the bulk of
S3: this poem is Odysseus speaking to. They're called the Phaeacians King,
S3: Alkinoös and Phaeacians who want to know his story. He
S3: actually tells the bulk of this story, but by the
S3: time he steps back onto his home island of Ithaca,
S3: his house is besieged by 108 suitors, all of whom
S3: have presumed, perhaps Wishfully, thinking, that Odysseus is dead and
S3: they're courting, if you want to call it that, his wife.
S3: We'll come back to that a little bit later, too.
S3: That's extremely important. They essentially have the house under siege.
S3: Odysseus returns, adopts a disguise with the help of Athena,
S3: and ends up. In rather decisive fashion, killing them all.
S3: He even kills the. The waiting women who were in
S3: collusion with these suitors. The poem, as all of this
S3: story is underway, takes up many things that are of
S3: perennial importance permanent things. It takes up the nature of
S3: home ordered and disordered. It takes up the nature of hospitality,
S3: which in this poem is not simply being nice to people,
S3: being nice to strangers. It is a virtue looked out
S3: for by Zeus himself. It's taken extremely seriously. It is
S3: a kind of index of civilization itself. It's not going
S3: too far to say this is a poem about hospitality.
S3: I once knew a fellow who said, it's not going
S3: too far to say this is a poem about eating,
S3: since so much of it concerns meals, feasting, dining. But
S3: that is part of hospitality, In fact, this is a
S3: poem about fidelity. Odysseus wife those 20 years he was gone.
S3: Ten at Troy, ten coming home. Odysseus wife Penelope is
S3: is loyal, faithful to him. Agamemnon, a colleague of Odysseus.
S3: Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra is compared to Penelope in this poem.
S3: She not only was unfaithful to her husband Agamemnon, but
S3: she killed him. She and her lover killed Agamemnon when
S3: he returned home from the Trojan War. At one point, Agamemnon.
S3: Odysseus ventures into the underworld and speaks to Agamemnon, the
S3: spirit of Agamemnon, and Agamemnon praises Penelope and says she
S3: would not behave as did Clytemnestra. So this is very
S3: much a poem about loyalty. Um. This, one of the
S3: most famous characters in all of literature is a swineherd, Eumaeus, Odysseus,
S3: loyal swineherd, while so many other people in the island have,
S3: as it were, made their peace with the barbarous suitors.
S3: Eumaeus did not. Odysseus takes shelter with him initially on
S3: his return to Ithaca, and enlists his help in taking
S3: back in repossessing his. His home. But the essential quality
S3: of mind I mentioned a minute ago. This. This thing
S3: that Homer describes as the ability to overcome adversity through clever, quick,
S3: tactical thinking is not always seen in adversarial situations. Homer
S3: depicts that quality of mind, that cleverness in other ways
S3: as well. At one point in his journey, he's alone.
S3: Now Odysseus is beset by Poseidon, who for various reasons,
S3: wants to thwart Odysseus intentions to return home. And. And he.
S3: He's alone on a raft. Poseidon kicks up a storm.
S3: Odysseus raft is smashed. He's thrown into the raging ocean.
S3: His clothes are ripped off. He swims for days and
S3: finally crawls. He's lost. He has no idea where he is.
S3: He crawls exhausted onto shore, naked, hungry, sleepless, exhausted. He
S3: crawls into an olive bush and falls asleep. He wakes
S3: up to the sound of young girls playing. They're actually
S3: playing ball and the ball goes into the water. Odysseus
S3: wakes up, sees his condition, and sees that these young
S3: teenage girls are his only hope for some kind of help.
S3: Now think. Think about the rhetorical situation. Think about the challenge.
S3: You're a 40 odd year old man, Very powerful and
S3: build very strong but naked, covered with brine from the sea.
S3: Beaten up. You look like death warmed over. You look
S3: like a dangerous death warmed over. And you've got all
S3: these 1416 year old girls you need to enlist the
S3: help of. And I repeat, you're naked. How do you
S3: get out of that one? That takes some skill, Odysseus
S3: says when he wakes up. Man of misery, whose land
S3: have I lit on now? What are they here? Violent, savage, lawless,
S3: or friendly to strangers? God fearing men listen, shouting, echoing
S3: around me. Women, girls, or the nymphs who haunt the
S3: rugged mountaintops in the river springs and the meadows lush
S3: with grass. Or I really close to people who speak
S3: my language up with you. See how the land lies.
S3: See for yourself now. And he does. Muttering so great.
S3: Odysseus crept out of the bushes, stripping off with his
S3: massive hand a leafy branch from the tangled olive growth
S3: to shield his body, hide his private parts, and out
S3: he stalked as a mountain lion, exultant in his power
S3: strides the wind and rain in his eyes ablaze. And
S3: he charges sheep or oxen or chases wild deer. But
S3: his hunger drives him on to go for flocks, even
S3: to raid the best defended homestead. This violent hunting imagery
S3: is exactly the kind of association that Odysseus in this
S3: situation doesn't want to excite, right? He needs these girls
S3: to stay put and not feel threatened. So Odysseus moved out,
S3: about to mingle with all those lovely girls, naked now,
S3: as he was for NE drove him on a terrible sight,
S3: all crusted, caked with brine. They scatter, they run. But
S3: the king's daughter is there among them. Now. Sitka is
S3: her name. The local king, Alcinous, has this teenage daughter
S3: who's just beginning to think about marriage. She stands firm
S3: with Athena's help. She turns and faced Odysseus, torn. Now.
S3: Odysseus has to think there's a certain protocol. If you're
S3: beseeching someone's help. The normal thing, the proper thing to do.
S3: The protocol, is to run up and grab their knees.
S3: You embrace their knees. You reach around them and hold them.
S3: Should he fling his arms around her knees, the young
S3: beauty plead for help or stand back, plead with a
S3: winning word, beg her to lead him to the town
S3: and lend him clothing. This was the better way, he thought.
S3: Plead now with a subtle winning word, and stand well back.
S3: Don't clasp her knees. The girl's might. The girl might bridle. Yes,
S3: he launched in at once endearing sly and suave. What
S3: follows is a speech a little bit I hope we
S3: can read that demonstrates Odysseus's exquisite rhetorical skill. Now, when
S3: people hear about rhetorical skill, they often assume that means
S3: some kind of deception, some sort of sleight of verbal hand,
S3: as it were. But this is not this is not
S3: the case at all. The the the the cleverness, the
S3: tactical wisdom Odysseus has doesn't in this case move him
S3: to deception, although he's perfectly happy to deceive when the
S3: need arises. He's got this horrible circumstance he's got to overcome.
S3: And the best way to do that is to put
S3: her at ease. Here I am, at your mercy, Princess.
S3: Are you a goddess or a mortal? Now everyone chuckles
S3: and says, ho ho ho! Isn't that flattery, you know? Wow,
S3: look at this goddess. But remember, Odysseus has been spending
S3: a lot of time with goddesses. And when he woke
S3: up said to himself. Who are these women, girls or
S3: the nymphs who haunt the rugged mountain tops? So Odysseus
S3: actually doesn't know with whom he's dealing. Um, but nevertheless,
S3: he does know that if it's a goddess, one would
S3: not want to be mistaken for a mortal. If it's
S3: a mortal, one wouldn't mind being mistaken for a goddess.
S3: Here I am. At your mercy, Princess. Are you a
S3: goddess or a mortal? If one of the gods who
S3: rule the skies up there. Your Artemis to the life.
S3: The daughter of mighty Zeus. I see her now. Just
S3: look at your build, your bearing, your lithe, flowing grace.
S3: Now you might be thinking. Oh, back away. Oh, no no, no,
S3: don't go. There it is. Just watch. He knows. He
S3: knows what he's doing. But if you're one of the
S3: mortals living here on earth three times. Blessed are your father,
S3: your queenly mother, three times over. Your brothers too. How
S3: often their hearts must warm with joy to see you
S3: striding into the dances. Such a bloom of beauty. True,
S3: but he is the one more blessed than all other
S3: men alive. That man who sways you with gifts and
S3: leads you home. His bride. I have never laid eyes
S3: on anyone like you. Neither man nor woman. I look
S3: at you in a sense of wonder. Takes me. Clearly,
S3: by mentioning family things sacred, or at least very likely
S3: sacred to this young girl. Father, mother, future hope and husband,
S3: her brothers, home. All of these references that he makes
S3: are designed to signal to her. I think they're perfectly sincere,
S3: but they're designed to signal to her, you have nothing
S3: to fear. You have nothing to fear. If he had
S3: evil intentions, he would not be mentioning father and brothers
S3: and mother and marriage and home and those. grand staples
S3: of a stable family life. He then asks for her help. Athena, um,
S3: gives her courage and indeed she does help him. Gives
S3: him a covering and some oil. He bathes, dresses himself,
S3: and she takes him to her father's court. And it
S3: is at that court that we get the bulk of
S3: the poem. So so this, this ability that Odysseus has
S3: to extricate himself from difficult and complex situations isn't always
S3: just having a clever trick to deceive your enemy or
S3: a good right arm. It is also understanding human nature.
S3: What does a young girl who's just beginning to think
S3: about marriage, what does she regard as, as as sacred,
S3: as valuable, as precious, as. As important for a good life?
S3: How can I appeal to that? How can I, as
S3: it were, move or navigate into that in order to
S3: get her to see my fundamental need? And also her
S3: fundamental safety with him. Now, this reception that Odysseus receives
S3: here is in violent contrast with the reception that he
S3: receives in the famous famous episode concerning the Cyclops. I
S3: won't read the passage. I hope you will. But the
S3: Cyclops episode is almost an archetypal presentation of everything barbaric.
S3: That is. How does man or monster get public social
S3: common life wrong? And by public social common life I
S3: mean everything from family, home to community. The Cyclops is
S3: is spoken of as lawless as not having any communities,
S3: not having a council where people meet and deliberate. He
S3: rules his wife Tyrannically, his wife and his children Tyrannically.
S3: He lives in caves, not in real homes. He doesn't
S3: even cultivate the earth. He doesn't grow food. He. He's
S3: a shepherd. He keeps sheep. But. But he won't, even,
S3: as it were, exercise the discipline necessary to cultivate a crop. Okay.
S3: These are the things that that that Homer will point
S3: out often very rapidly, almost as an aside. But as
S3: as you probably know, the the Cyclops encounter turns out
S3: very badly. Odysseus goes there with several men, the Cyclops
S3: in it's, shall we say, a rather shocking breach of
S3: hospitality eats them. Not all of them. But he takes
S3: one man in each hand, smashes their brains out on
S3: the floor and stuffs their bleeding bodies in his mouth
S3: and swallows. Odysseus finally manages to work out an escape,
S3: which involves, by the way, his playing on the barbarous
S3: intemperance of the Cyclops. He manages to get him drunk,
S3: and when drunk, injures the Cyclops in a way that
S3: isn't fatal, but does render him harmless to the remaining
S3: the remaining Ithacans with with Odysseus. Well, this this this
S3: is a pattern you see over and over in the
S3: poem you see the presentation of the. A proper kind
S3: of welcome or hospitality and reception and a barbarous welcome.
S3: Absence of hospitality, non reception. You see it over and
S3: over again. And of course most graphic. Maybe that was
S3: the most graphic, but you see it very graphically when
S3: Odysseus gets home and his house is besieged by these
S3: suitors eventually. Um, this is a very difficult poem to
S3: talk about in a summary fashion because the richness is
S3: so much not just in the plot, but in the
S3: details you really want to read the lines? The words
S3: you want to notice all the details? Homer certainly notices them. Um,
S3: but but for our purposes. Suffice this. When Odysseus returns
S3: disguised as a beggar, he is reunited with Telemachus. He,
S3: Telemachus and Eumaeus conspire together to trap the suitors in
S3: such a way that allows Odysseus to destroy them. This
S3: is successful. Um. Penelope is unaware or apparently unaware of
S3: Odysseus identity. Again, he's disguised as a beggar. The the
S3: the ruse that they they scheme they devise is successful.
S3: They're all slain. And Odysseus then presents himself as the
S3: long lost husband to Penelope. Now Penelope is a wife
S3: worthy of of Odysseus. Um, she's no fool. She's been
S3: putting those suitors off for many years by weaving this
S3: funeral shroud by day and unweaving it by night, promising
S3: that she'll make some choice of a future husband when
S3: she finishes the shroud. Well. She weaves. She's finally caught
S3: out at that. So darn it all, she has to
S3: finish the shroud. Um, but but she is no fool.
S3: She knows that Odysseus has been gone a long time.
S3: She's inclined to think this must be Odysseus, but she
S3: puts him to a test. And I think we have
S3: time to read a snippet of that test. She says, well,
S3: I think you might be Odysseus, but I'm not sure
S3: we're going to wait and see. We're going to hold
S3: off for a while. And Odysseus says, strange woman, so
S3: hard that gods of Olympus made you harder than any
S3: other woman in the world. What other wife could have
S3: a spirit so unbending, holding back from her husband home
S3: at last for her after bearing 20 years of brutal struggle. Come, nurse,
S3: make me a bed. I'll sleep alone. She has a
S3: heart of iron in her breast. She replies. Strange man. Wary,
S3: Penelope said, I'm not so proud, so scornful. Nor am
S3: I overwhelmed by your quick change. You look how well
S3: I know the way he looked. Setting sail from Ithaca
S3: years ago aboard the long oared ship. Come, Eurycleia, move
S3: the sturdy bedstead out of our bridal chamber. That room
S3: the master built with his own hands. Take it out now.
S3: The sturdy bed that it is, and spread it with deep,
S3: deep with fleece blankets and lustrous throws to keep him warm. Odysseus.
S3: Homer then clues you in that this is a test,
S3: putting her husband to the proof. But Odysseus blazed up
S3: in fury, lashing out at his loyal wife. Woman, your
S3: words cut me to the core. Who could move my bed?
S3: What we. What we learn is that Odysseus made their
S3: marriage bed out of a living rooted olive tree, not
S3: lumber cut down a tree rooted into the earth. That
S3: tree he shaped into one of the posts of the
S3: of the bed attached. The rest of the bed literally
S3: built the room and the house, around that tree and
S3: around that bed. Clearly significant of the stability, the strength,
S3: the rootedness of family, of marriage, of man and wife,
S3: of home. This is clearly the perfect symbol for a
S3: home restored to order, strength and stability. This is the resolution,
S3: as it were, of the poem. That symbol, I think,
S3: sums it up perfectly. So this this is very much
S3: a poem about family. It's very much a poem about
S3: the thing that gives rise or that gives birth to
S3: all social order, to all public peace. It can certainly,
S3: as we have seen, be a place of great disorder disruption.
S3: But if there is going to be peace and harmony,
S3: it begins there in families, in marriages, men and women,
S3: and in homes. Odysseus, you recall, had said to Nausicaa,
S3: and I will conclude with this. He said to Nausicaa.
S3: He offered her a blessing. I hope this for you.
S3: It's worth noting that the Odyssey concludes, there actually is
S3: reference to one little journey. He's going. This big journey,
S3: but a journey he's going to have to take in addition.
S3: But it comes with the promise of peace and stability thereafter.
S3: So I say that the poem does conclude with Odysseus realizing,
S3: Restoring in his own world, in his own family, that
S3: which he wished for and blessed. Now sick with that
S3: is again a husband and house and lasting harmony to
S3: no finer. Gift in the world than that when man
S3: and woman possess their home. Two minds, two hearts that
S3: work as one. Despair to their enemies. A joy to
S3: all their friends. Their own best claim to glory. Not
S3: Odysseus martial valor, not Odysseus tactical cleverness. Not even Odysseus.
S3: Brute strength and force or rhetorical ability. His best glory
S3: is his home, his family stability there. And with that,
S3: we'll conclude a very cursory, hopefully mildly tantalizing discussion of
S3: Homer's great poem, The Odyssey. Thank you.
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