[Title inspiration goes to Madeleine Nelson, with her Homer, y u so sad? Madeleine, at this moment I have no idea what your post is actually about because I saw your post title and I got this idea, but I'll read your post as soon as I finish this one.]
Odysseus is clearly supposed the hero of this story, but he does SO MANY STUPID THINGS. Like seriously, his life could be so much easier, and he could actually get home to his family like he claims to want.
But if he wants to get home to his family, why does he sleep with Calypso when she is finally letting him leave?
And why, when he is on King Alcinous' island, does he ask the bard to sing of the Trojan horse if he clearly can't control his emotions?
At this point of the epic, King Alcinous is finally like, "Dude, who the heck are you?" to Odysseus, and Odysseus tells his story, which brings up a lot more questions:
Why does Odysseus stay in the cyclops' cave for longer than necessary to grab some food? What did he think was going to happen, the huge cyclops would come back and invite the strangers who stole his food to a tea party? I don't think so. Well actually, I guess maybe he did expect a tea party since that's how the other kings had treated him, but in this situation Odysseus took advantage of the cyclops in a similar way to how the suitors were taking advantage of his family. Seriously, what was going through Odysseus' head?
AND THEN ODYSSEUS GETS ON THE BOAT AND TAUNTS THE CYCLOPS?! Are you kidding me Odysseus? Your 20 year journey is completely your fault. Seriously the whole thing could have been avoided.
And what was the deal with Odysseus and Circe? He legitimately just was like, "Nope, I'm not going home yet, even though I can, instead I'll just stay here for a year and live in luxury and bed this super hot wicca babe, no matter that I have a wife and child at home waiting for me." He's a king, so I guess his subjects were waiting for him too. I really do not understand Odysseus at this point.
In book 12, Odysseus continued with the trend of foolishness; he wanted to listen to the sirens song just so that he could be the only one to have heard it and survive, and then he went and tried to fight Scylla even though he was told not to?
I really have no idea what to think of Odysseus at this point -- actually, I do, but it's definitely not that he's a hero. I don't see him as a hero at all so far, and I can only hope that he will be a dynamic character and have some legitimate hero moments later on because so far I am not impressed by him.
Odysseus is pretty much a hot mess at this point. I think he's entertaining, but he definitely brought so much trouble and pain on himself by being stupid. Some of the things he's done are pretty impressive. I mean, how many of us could think of the sheep thing in such a high pressure situation? However, I feel like those things aren't very satisfying, like in a beating the bad guys kind of way. Sure, Polyphemus wanted to eat him, but I don't think of the cyclops as a villain necessarily...
ReplyDeleteLike we said in class today, though, we're actually only halfway through the book. The first half was kind of background, setting the stage for the "homecoming" story. I'm hoping that he can do some more heroic things
But Odysseus IS a hero--this isn't a value judgment, it's a descriptive statement. The very concept of "hero" in Western culture traces back to this guy as one of the original exemplars. So what you're saying is, he's a hero who does stupid things and suffers for them, but he's still the "one who struggles" at the center of the narrative. To call him a "hero" isn't to say he's perfect, or even close to it. We're unraveling what *kind* of hero he is, and the Greek conception seems to admit a whole range of all-too-human flaws.
ReplyDeleteAs Jackson said in class today (paraphrase), at least he's entertaining. We might not want to sign up to be part of his next crew, and we might not trust him if he were *our* leader. But it's more fun to read about this guy who can't stop himself from trash-talking, perhaps, than it would be to read about a one-dimensional superior order of human being.
I find myself sympathizing with Odysseus less and less. He's definitely a hero, and I imagine the original audience appreciated his behavior more--the culture has clearly changed--but these days, he's not the kind of protagonist a lot of us will actually like and support. I don't care for liars or hypocrites.
ReplyDeleteI think that Odysseus gets into these kinds of situations because of his fatal flaw which I'm starting to think is his pride. Like you said, he wanted to hear the song of the sirens and the taunts the cyclops. He obviously didn't need to do any of this, yet he still does.
ReplyDeletePart of what makes Odysseus a hero is the mistakes he makes. He is clearly very flawed--he does all sorts of foolish things, as you said. But he was a hero when he fought at Troy and he is a hero when he returns home. He is brave, and willing to challenge anyone who challenges him or his kin. He is resourceful. Yes, his pride does run away with him quite often, but his flaws do not necessarily make him less of a hero unless you consider a hero to be a perfect person. I think it would be sad if our heroes were perfect, because then no one is a hero and no one can ever be a hero.
ReplyDeleteIt's not that I think he (or heroes in general) need to be perfect, and a lot of what I covered in this post is due to his fatal flaw of pride, but points against him keep adding up. After that graphic Slaughter in the Hall scene I can't even try to sympathize with him, and I feel like I should be able to at least somewhat sympathize with the hero of an epic.
DeleteI think Odysseus was definitely a hero at one point, and especially in Troy, but in this book, especially later parts, I don't see him doing much to help other people unless it affected him.
Odysseus demonstrates many examples of hypocrisy throughout the book, bu t lot of that was representative of the time. Taking into account the everyday misogyny that existed and the long travel times, not everything is as it seems. Men could sleep around more than woman, and if you're traveling somewhere far away, you may as well stay for a while! By today's standards, I would agree that Odysseus isn't a great person but by Ancient Greece's standards, he was a hero.
ReplyDeleteYou know what? Thinking about this way of acting, I wonder if this could be the result from having gone to war and having seen his friends and crewmates die. I mean, he was clearly a strong man, that had seen many killed, but maybe there's a point where Odysseus just lost it?
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