We
start with the Odyssey because it is
a classic version of the hero’s journey. The word “odyssey” has even come to
mean long and arduous wanderings in our day and age, which is, as far as I can tell,
not what the word originally meant in ancient Greece. However, in this blog
post I wish to air the idea that Odysseus was not the usual hero for the
ancient Greeks. The conflict between the diction and events of the story and
Homer’s take on them suggests that the Odyssey
could have been written as an attempt to argue against the quintessential
hero of that time.
In his invocation
of the muse, Homer says, “Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and
turns …” (first page). The phrasing of the description of Odysseus as “the man
of twists and turns” could easily be interpreted as more of an insult than a
complement, but Homer only uses it to praise Odysseys. Homer could have used
any phrase, so why choose “the man of twists and turns”? I don’t think that it
is because that phrase was already praised by the Greeks, because then the translator
would not have used a phrase with those strange connotations. The reason could
be that Homer attempts to make that neutral attribute into a virtue through his
poem. If that is the case, Homer has succeeded, as we in the current day think
that cunningness is a highly valued characteristic for the ancient Greeks. The
ancient Greeks, however, could have believed that craftiness was secondary to physical
prowess. In today’s age, we believe that deception was greatly prized by the Greeks
because Homer believed that it should be, and the prevalence of Homer’s Odyssey causes us to base our image of
those Greeks on his story.
I have no real
proof for that idea. Everything is based on guesswork and embarrassingly little
research, but I mainly wrote this to see if it has any possibility of being
true. The basic argument is that cunningness was not highly respected by the
ancient Greeks, but Homer created a story in which it is raised to the level of
a virtue, and because we base our views of those ancient Greeks on his story,
we believe that they valued cunningness. I would be glad to hear any responses.
I think that there's almost certainly some truth to what you're saying. Even if the culture as a whole values wits, there is wide individual variation, and I imagine this is particularly true in the isolated poleis of Homeric Greece. Many Greek myths do feature cunning plans, but that is true of every culture I can think of around the world, so that is not necessarily an indication of the Greek's distinct values.
ReplyDeleteI'm not qualified to comment on the original Greek, or the translation of the phrase "twists and turns," but in the English rendition, there is some ambiguity here. To call Odysseus "the man of twists and turns" could well refer to his vaunted "cleverness," the stuff Athena praises him for so enthusiastically (akin to his "great tactician" epithet). But as a "man of" twists and turns, this could also be a reflection of his bad luck (which is also what Odysseus is known for)--his would-be direct and straightforward journey home is famously beset by all kinds of "twists and turns," and these torment him and render him "heartsick" and all of that.
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