Hero, Family Man, Total Babe

“The Odyssey may be the single most awesome thing created by a man. Ever.”

 

In fall 2010, faculty member Barb Watson taught Ancient Epic, a senior English class. Her students read Homer’s Odyssey, among other poems and stories, and on top of traditional writing assignments, they contributed to a class blog—an online discussion group of sorts. Here is a sampling of their reflections.

 

“The Odyssey was about this man, Odysseus, who was really smart, but the gods kept him from getting home for 20 years. Less than 20 percent of the book narrated his wanderings, but looking back, that makes sense. As exciting a story almost entirely about Odysseus’ adventures would be, it would have as much substance as a modern action movie, which is hardly epic. 

 

“The Iliad was all about honor, bloodshed, and angry people. The Odyssey is an adventure, leading the titular hero all over the Mediterranean. The story seems a bit more intellectual—not to say that the Iliad was mindless, but the Odyssey has people talking or using trickery to solve their problems, as opposed to Achilles stabbing something in the face when he doesn’t get his way. I love bloodshed as much as any other teenager raised on Hollywood movies and violent video games, but I also appreciate the ability to talk yourself out of a situation, solve your differences amicably, or just plain manipulate people to make things go your way.

 

“When Odysseus is first introduced in the book, he is a little selfish. Through his journey, he sometimes has to go through extra hardships because he does not pay enough attention to his companions. When Aeolus, the god of wind, gave bags of wind to Odysseus, he had no idea his companions would turn on him and tear the bags. Homer wanted to show that people should try to understand others to live in this world.

 

“Though Odysseus is clearly a superior athlete and can (with a little help from Athena) look like a total babe to the unsuspecting teen girl, his heroism lies almost entirely in his wit. He is a true human being filled with longing, love, passion, cunning, and anger.

 

“Why is the Odyssey the Homeric poem that is most remembered? What makes it interesting is Odysseus’s deep love for his home, and the scenes where Odysseus sees his family for the first time in years. The Cyclops and the Sirens are exciting and terrifying, but when we see Odysseus crying, reunited with the people and the land he loves—that’s when we see how great he really is.

 

“The conflict between emotions and rationality is an interesting issue. The ancient Greeks did not favor the extremes; they seemed to favor those who could balance between the two. Near the end of the book, Odysseus gets close to being this ideal man: rational yet able to feel sympathy.

 

“Why is it that monsters and ‘impediments to homecoming’ are always women? First the Sirens make an appearance and then Scylla kills off another six men. Calypso and Circe are also women. Is it just a coincidence that women, along with a cyclops, thunderbolts, and storms, are the problems for the hero? It seems like in ancient Greek society, women are nothing more than sex toys, property, and causes of struggle and hardship. A bit unfortunate.

 

“The most fun parts of the book were scenes like the wrecking of Odysseus’ ship(s), but it was the ordeal with the suitors and Odysseus’ triumph over them, not some mythological monster, that really tied the story together. How incredibly lame would it be if the end went, ‘Odysseus arrived home, walked into his palace, saw the suitors, and went Rambo on them. The end.’

 

“The ending of the Odyssey seems to give the message that after war, there is peace; after death, there is life; and after hate, there is love. It shows that when you may think that there is no forgiveness, there is a way.

 

“When we first started the Odyssey, Barb told us it was a story about homecoming and identity. Throughout the book we saw Odysseus changing who he was to fit where he was. It seems that who he is, in the end, is because of the journey he took.”