Because it is not about sailing off to find something wondrous and new a golden fleece, for example, or an undiscovered land. And this is surely the reason that the poem remains so central to our culture today, some years after it was composed in the 8th or more probably 7th Century BCE. It is a story that asks questions about what it means to be a man, particularly when he has been stripped of the context that has previously defined him: Odysseus is a husband away from his wife, a father who has missed his son growing up, a warrior whose war is over, a king who is far from his kingdom, a leader whose men all die, an adulterer who is the plaything of goddesses, and a son whose mother dies of a broken heart because she believes him dead.
He is a voyager, a pirate, an adventurer, a refugee. The poem also asks its audience to consider the very nature of story-telling, as lies, exaggerations and tall tales vie with one another in a fractured timeline.
His men have all blocked their ears with softened beeswax, because Siren song is deadly and lures men to their deaths. Odysseus is so desperate not to miss out on any part of his adventure that he has his men lash him to the mast of his ship, so he can hear but not move. Talk about a captive audience. We are in no doubt that Odysseus is the hero of many stories, and it is just our good luck to follow him through this particular set of fantastical adventures. The Odyssey covers the year period that it takes Odysseus to return to his home, Ithaca, from Troy.
But it begins near the end of the 10th year, as Odysseus waits on Ogygia, the island where he has been living with the nymph Calypso for the past seven years, gazing out at the sea and wishing he could return home. The first three years of travel brought him into contact with one-eyed man-eaters, drowsy drug addicts, murderous giants, deadly Sirens, a witch, and the terrifying Scylla and Charybdis.
All these adventures are told in flashback. Polyphemos — a one-eyed giant with an appetite for human flesh — traps Odysseus and his men inside his cave.
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Receive personal attention from state-certified teachers specifically trained to teach online. You bet. Once I guided my kids—their humble Tiresias—just a bit below the text, they began to see Homer as more than story and myth; The Odyssey was a fun-house mirror, an endless Rorschach blot in which we could see, not just ourselves and family, but the world too.
We journeyed with Odysseus and made his story, his life, our own. Without sex? Like Jesus? Literature often explores not the what-ifs, but the why-ifs: setting aside faith, why do these tales omit women from the stories of conception? The Lotus Eaters: the perils of addiction, hedonism vs. Circe and Calypso: traditional vs. The Underworld: does a belief in an afterlife undermine this life? We learned heroes are strong and brave, but more importantly, they are wise and sometimes cunning.
Craft and disguise are second in his arsenal; how do we use metaphorical masks in our world? I gave my students a short list of final projects to choose from.
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