Book Review: The Odyssey Books 1-6

Twitter can get a person in trouble. I'm not sure who started it, but somehow Trish from Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity, Jill from Fizzy Thoughts, and I decided that a readalong of Homer's The Odyssey was a brilliant idea for November. And it is. A wonderful idea. Seriously. You should read this. Each week, we are reading six books from the epic poem, and so on to the first post which covers the first six books.

Plot Summary
The Odyssey recounts three simultaneously occurring stories: First, we have Penelope at home fending off suitors who are eating her out of house and home. Second, we have Telemachus on a journey to find out what happened to his father, Odysseus. Third, we have Odysseus trying to make his way home. Books 1 through 6 not only set up each story, but also cover quite a bit of ground in all three plot lines.

Before the story can truly begin, we need the set up which, in this tale, involves a bunch of gods talking. Athena convinces Zeus to help Odysseus escape from Calypso, a goddess who has imprisoned Odysseus on her island for his sweet, sweet love. Sexy, sexy. Athena also, for what is to me a still unknown reason, wants to head to Ithaca to persuade Telemachus to set sail in search of answers as to Odysseus's whereabouts. I have no clue why she couldn't just tell him - maybe it's some rite of passage, coming of age thing? Zeus agrees and the games begin.

Athena enters Ithaca disguised and helps Telemachus grow a pair. See, he's been lounging around in teen angst, pissed off that all these suitors are tearing up his home and sad that his father's dead, but doing a whole lot of nothing about it. Athena pokes and prods and Telemachus finally stands up for himself and his own. Of course, it doesn't actually work, and the suitors laugh at him and mock him. Finally, he takes off with the disguised Athena to find news of his father.

Over the next three chapters, Telemachus visits two kings, Nestor and Menelaus, in hopes of learning his father's fate. Both kings regale Telemachus with tales of Odysseus's bravery, but neither can reveal his current location. They are the mediums through which we transfer from the Trojan War, told in the Iliad, to the story of Odysseus, told here in the Odyssey.

Back in Ithaca, Penelope's a wreck when she hears that Telemachus has run off, but Athena comforts her by assuring her of Telemachus's safe arrival home. When she asks about Odysseus though, Athena's messenger shrugs her off...for no good reason that I can see. Unless she just didn't want to be the one to be all "well, he's been sleeping with this goddess for a while now." The clever Penelope has been successfully fending off her suitors. One plan, which they did catch on to, involved her weaving a burial shroud for her father-in-law Laertes. She promised to marry when she finished, but every night she would secretively undo some of the work she had completed that day thereby extending her reprieve. Awesomeness.

Zeus finally sends Hermes to order Calypso to let Odysseus go which she does reluctantly. Odysseus builds a raft and takes off from Ogygia for Phaecian land, but when Poseidon feels his presence on the sea, he creates havoc with the waves. See, Poseidon is ticked off because Odysseus blinded his son, Cyclops. A minor goddess, a minor god, and the ever-present Athena make sure the lucky wanderer makes it to shore, and Odysseus makes his way to the king's palace after encountering Nausicaa, the princess. Athena had sent Nausicaa to wash her clothes in the stream by where Odysseus slept. When Odysseus sees the princess and her maids, he flatters her and she tells him how to enter the palace. Good stuff, people. It's all very dramatic and chock full of fascinating characters.

Character Comparisons
To even mention all of the characters in The Odyssey, just the first six books, would take forever. The story contains a lot of characters, some mentioned in passing, some with tales to tell. We have our primary characters in Odysseus, Telemachus, Penelope, and Athena, but around them swirl a multitude of people, each with a part to play in this epic tale.

One character-related issue I find fascinating is parallels and foils. Certain characters in the tale undergo similar events, and their reactions reveal themes within the book. Both Nestor and Menelaus focus on the story of Agamemnon who returned home from war only to be killed by Aegisthus who had seduced Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife, in his absence. Orestes, Agamemnon's son, killed Aegisthus in revenge once he returned home. Orestes is set up as an example of what Telemachus should be one day, an honorable man who will have songs sung about him for ages. Telemachus believes his father dead and sees his mother plagued by suitors but is not yet man enough to take charge of the situation.

We also have foils for Penelope: Clytemnestra and Helen. Penelope is stuck at home with a boatload of men who want to marry her, but she remains true to her husband and fends them off with trickery (and much weeping in her room). While Penelope is the faithful wife, the other women mentioned are not so well portrayed. Clytemnestra, as said in the previous paragraph, violates her vows and takes Aegisthus as a lover. And as well all know, Helen is the tramp who started the Trojan War by heading off to Troy with Paris, completely pissing off her husband Menelaus who then waged war for like nine years to get her back.

Social Customs: Hospitality
This may seem a strange thing to harp on, but over and over and over again in the first six books, we get to see the standards of ancient hospitality which shames even the fanciest of contemporary hotels. Every time a stranger arrives at a house, he is treated like royalty: bathed, fed well, entertained, and given a place to sleep.

What's even more interesting to me is that all of this is done before the hosts even know who the stranger is. It would appear that in ancient times, a host did not question a guest until he was cleaned, fed, and rested. Sometimes stories were not exchanged until the next morning. I'm assuming that the appearance of the stranger played a large role in this sort of hospitality, but still it's rather impressive. Menelaus really reveals the reason for such graciousness when he says, "Just think of all the hospitality we enjoyed at the hands of other men before we made it home." In a world without easy modes of transportation - or Holiday Inns - people relied on each other to provide shelter and food on many occasions. Opening your own doors and offering hospitality was a tit-for-tat situation.

On a side note, this sort of analysis is what we call Textual Anthropology in my Literature courses: hypothesizing about social customs and culture based on literature of the time. It's one of my favorite parts of reading older texts. I also wonder if anyone will ever do this for our time based on like Harry Potter or Charlaine Harris or something.... :)

General Conclusion
Not surprisingly, I'm loving this. I've read large chunks of The Odyssey before, but this is my first time reading it front to back in a normal period of time. I find the characters fascinating, the time period intriguing, and the plot exciting. I splurged and purchased the Robert Fagles translation, and I must say I'm glad I did. The text is very accessible and still eloquent and old-world feeling.

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Echoes of Man is my month-long sojourn into antiquity. I plan on entering the ancient world and basking in its glory for the entire month of November.

During this time, I will be reading and reviewing literature of the time and posting about related topics. If you have anything you would like to add - a review, an informative post, etc. - let me know. I would love to have you join in!
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Echoes of Man Image from ~darkmatter257 at deviant art
Odysseus and Calypso by Guillermo
Penelope Weaving by John William Waterhouse
Odysseus and Nausicaa from Perseus
Oresetes...by Bernardino Mei
Map of Antiquity by Dan Phillips