Casually Completing Classics #14: The Odyssey Books 20-21

 Book 20

Summary: Oddy Spends the night. The Suitors taunt fate.

Commentary: Odysseus reflects on escaping Polyphemus: "Nobody, only guile,/ got you out of that cave alive." If only he had kept his mouth shut after, they'd have been home years ago. Athena has "body like a woman." The suitors fail to be hospitable to Odysseus, illustrating one of the main themes of the poem. This is why they have to die. (Odysseus later has a meal that doesn't specifically mention an offering to the gods, which is surprising.)

Book 21

Summary: Oddy does a trick shot.

Commentary: There's a good eight lines of Penelope opening a door in this section when she goes to get the bow. I guess it's dramatic buildup, like when someone opens their secret lair or whatever. Penelope finally calls out the suitors for being inhispitable. Odysseus makes the axe-ring-shot (I like to think the axes have rings at the base of the handle to hang them. Apparently is a matter of some debate.) And declares it time, "to cook their lordships' mutton--/supper by daylight."

Casually Completing Classics #13: The Odyssey Books 18-19

 Book 18

Summary: Odysseus wins a bum fight. Penelope "unknowingly" prepares for him. The suitors and maids taunt Ody.

Commentary: "No pith/ was in him, and no nerve, huge as he looked."

A huge guy (for you)

"By god, old Iros is retiros." This is the best translation of this pun out of all the versions I looked at.

Odysseus is not having it with his maids talking shit and fucking the suitors: "you slut; he'll [Telemachus] cut your arms and legs off!"

One of the suitors "shines/ around the noggin like a flashing light,/ having no hair at all to dim his lustre." Sick burn, Homer.

Book 19

Summary: Tele steals hides the weapons. Oddy and Pene talk Oddy's wet nurse recognizes him. Pene plans the axes.

Commentary: Odysseus's prophecy about the geese and eagle is a pretty straight forward prophecy. Eagle kills geese; he kills suitors. It's barely even a metaphor.

Casually Completing Classics #12: The Odyssey Books 15-17

 Book 15

Summary: Telemachus comes home

I took literally no notes in this chapter, which is a first.

Book 16:

Summary: Reunited? The suitors are scumbags.

"[...] and Odysseus' bed/ left empty for some gloomy spider's weaving?" a classical/poetic reference to cobweb vagina 

Book 17:

Summary: Recap! THE GOODEST BOY IN LITERATURE! The suitors are assholes and attack Odysseus (they're doomed). Odysseus plans to meet Penelope.

The first chunk of this book is mostly recap, but we do get to meet Argos, the best dog ever. Odysseus had started to train him before he left, and he's the only one who recognizes him in his disguise. He's waited for him this whole time (20 years, that's like 140 in dog years!) despite being neglected/abused. Odysseus cries a single, manly tear for him. Argos wags his tail once and dies. 

Behold this equally sad modern recreation:

This book also has what I assume is the ancient Greek onomatopoeia for a sneeze, "kchaou!"

Casually Completing Classics #11: The Odyssey Books 13 and 14

 Book 13

Summary: Oddy makes it to Ithaca, meets Athena, and she disguises him.

Let me start by saying how confused I was that Odysseus made it back to Ithaca half way through the book. What else was he going to do? I wondered. I knew he had to meet Argos, shoot the axes, and kill the suitors, but that didn't seem like it could take another 200+ pages (especially when the whole story so far was about that long).

Truthfully, this is a shortish chapter and I didn't take many notes.

Book 14

Summary: Oddy meets his pig farmer and tells a truish account without revealing himself.

Fitzgerald's translation has a kind of old-timey, charming slightly goofy way sometimes and it really comes out in this chapter. After Eumaeus saves Odysseus from the guard dogs he says, "You might have got a ripping, man!" A page later, the narrator says they eat "two young porkers." I don't think I could eat a pig if someone called it a porker. That's too adorable. 

Eumaeus doesn't get enough attention in culture. Most of the human side characters don't, but it's particularly noticeable with him. He's in a full half the book (unlike the crew members who are lucky to show up on five pages) and he's very helpful and loyal to Odysseus. 

After Eumaeus asks Odysseus how he came to Ithaca ("I don't suppose you walked here on the see") we get the great epithet "the master of improvisation"

    He tells a story of his missing time, which is mostly true in the broad strokes, but changes specific names, locations, etc. (also, less goddess/sorceress fucking). He tells a story about being cold when he had to wear a kilt, which is interesting. I assume the original is "skirt" or something.

    Tomorrow, Telemachus makes it home!

Casually Completing Classics #10: The Odyssey Book 12

 Book 12

My Summary: Oddy is dumb and a bunch of men die. Syrens, Charybdis, Scylla, and Helios' Cattle.

I think this is the first time I call him Oddy.

This illustration is totally in my copy.

Odysseus is still in his dumbasshole phase here. He takes the men to feast and hang out with Circe. At least it's only for a day this time. She gives them advice on how to avoid dangers on the way home. Syrens (will sing so beautifully you crash your ship and they'll eat you, have the men plug their ears and tie you to the mast so you can listen), Scylla (hydra/giant squid thing will snatch your men in its tentacles on the way through, just go as quick as you can), and Charybdis (a whirlpool monster, avoid it in favor of Scylla since it'll take a whole ship at a time).

Odysseus asks if he can fight them, or otherwise get through without losing men. Circe responds, "Must you have battle in your heart forever?" Which is a great line. Also, don't eat Helios' livestock.

The crew avoids the Syrens without too much fuss. Odysseus is tied to the mast and yells for them to free him when he hears the song (written in sets of four lines, six syllables, ABAB rhyme), but he's kept in place and they get through fine.

They're trying to sail between Scylla and Charybdis now, and, "Kirke's bidding against arms had slipped my mind," and he grabs weapons and armor. You had to remember five things! 

1. Tie self to mast.

2. Wax in men's ears.

3. Sail quickly by Scylla

4. Avoid Charybdis.

5. No eating the livestock.

FIVE THINGS! For a guy who gets an epithet about being a genius every five pages, Odysseus is a dumbass. Despite this, he only loses six men (one for each mouth, apparently), thus not really facing any consequences for his idiocy. I've read some interpretations that say the entire journey segment (being told by Odysseus, rather than narrated directly by Homer/the speaker) is all bullshit. Does that mean he did something even dumber and this is an awkward attempt to cover it up? (I don't really hold a high opinion of this theory. Odysseus doesn't make himself look great in the telling, and doesn't have much reason to lie. He's well respected anyway.)

They head to Helios' island next, and Eurylochus riles up the crew again. Trapped by storms and in danger of starving, he convinces the men to kill some of the cattle. He does sacrifice some to the gods, making him not a total dumbass. "Better/ open your lungsto a big sea once for all/ than to waste to skin and bones on a lonely island," he says. They kill some kine (kine means a group of cattle. It's so out of use that Blogger spellcheck puts the red squiggly under it.)

Helios calls to Zeus to avenge his cows, Zeus complies. He ends the storms trapping them on the island, lets them leave, and blasts their ship with a lightning bolt. Everyone dies, but Zeus protects Odysseus as he sneaks past Scylla. This leads to him making his way (floating on wreckage for a week and a half) to Calypso, where he is at the beginning of the story.

I'd almost be willing to forgive him if he'd chosen to stay with her after all that, as opposed to hanging out with Circe. 

Maybe everyone dying is what makes him less of a dumbasshole.

Casually Completing Classics #9: The Odyssey Book 11

 Book 11

My summary: Odysseus meets famous dead people.

Hey, this section came up in 15MAD was at the beginning of the year.

Odysseus is starting to come out of his asshole phase: "One shade came first--Elepenor, of our company,/ who laid unburied still on the wide earth/ as we had left him dead in Kirke's hall,/ untouched, unmourned, when other cares compelled us." (He fell off a roof he was drunkenly sleeping on.)

The shade asks for a proper burial, and he agrees.

Many of the shades want to drink blood, which is not a thing we really spirits today.

There is a heartbreaking segment where he tries to hug his mother, Penelope: "with longing to embrace her,/ and tried three times, putting my arms around her,/ but she went sifting through my hands[...] this embittered all the pain I bore,/ and I cried in the darkness:"

Agamemnon shit talks women a bunch, they're all deceivers, never trust them, etc. After Odysseus willingly spent the last year with Circe, it doesn't hit very strongly.

A bunch of other Iliad characters show up and talk about the Trojan war.

Hebe has "ravishing pale ankles." 

This is an interesting book, but I feel like it gets a bit more attention than it deserves. It's much more popular to talk about than, for example, and of the Telemachus books.

Casually Completing Classics #8: The Odyssey Book 10

Book 10

 Been a while. I don't even remember exactly what I usually post in these.

My summary: Odysseus and the crew meet Circe. She turns his men to pigs, but Hermes helps him bone her and she turns them back. He stays a year! And she tells him to go me Tiresias's ghost in the underworld for directions.

I was willing to give Odysseus a pass for Calypso, since he makes a big deal about not agreeing to stay. He's presumably enchanted to some degree, and is at least partially held against his will. Fitzgerald uses some variant of, "but I never gave my consent" repeatedly. In this section he does "consent" to bring his ship ashore after Circe restores his men "being a man I could not help consenting." Variants of this appear a few times in this section, in relation to enjoying her hospitality. Since Hermes has explicitly given him "moly" (no consensus on what plant it is in real life from a quick Google) to make him immune to his charms, it seems like it's pretty much all on him. So, basically, he hangs out on the island banging the woman who tried to keep his men captive for a year while they feast... This seems questionable as a captain, and downright shitty as a husband (we're given no indication that he and Penelope are in an open marriage or something. I assume she'd have had a much better time with the suitors if so.) I wrote about how this is the "DumbAssHole" section a bit last time, and I think this is pretty close to the peak. At best, he's being a douchebag and delaying his travel. To make matters worse he's making his men (they want to leave before he does) hang out with a woman who turned them into pigs. I think if my captain spent a year banging someone who cursed me when I wanted to go home I'd probably mutiny. One of his crewmembers (Eurylochus) more or less says the same thing, but he winds up screwing everyone later in the book so it's kind of a wash. 

Fitzgerald uses the word "pickaback" the same way we use piggyback, which sounds more fun.

Homer does the thing Shakespeare does (who presumably got it from Homer) and has Hermes speak in rhyme here. He doesn't always have the gods do this, which seems kind of odd.

Casually Completing Classics #7: The Odyssey Book 9

 Book 9

Summary Notes: Origin Story! Odysseus blinds Polyphemus and is cursed by Poseidon

I actually just read this book out loud with my kids today (8/27). I use it as one of my intro lessons most years. Partially to teach about storytelling, partially because I like it, and partially because I get to stand on chair and do my best WWE yell. ("X Gon' Give It To Ya" is Odysseus's entrance music.) Odysseus is telling is story to Alkinoos. He escapes Circe (having never given consent) raids some other islands (upsetting Zeus in the process) weathers some storms, and makes it to the land of the Cyclops. Homer spends some time explaining how stupid and uncivilized the Cyclopses are, before Odysseus and his men head inland. This is the beginning of the part of the book that I like to call, "The dumbassholing of Odysseus" where he seems to get less smart and admirable every few pages. He takes an oversized share of the goats they find on the island, and when the men find food and want to return to the ships with it, he insists they wait instead. This leads to a bunch of them getting eaten. Polyphemus calls him a ninny, so he agrees with me. They're trapped, they manage to fashion a spear from some wood they find in the back of the cave, Odysseus gets the cyclops drunk, they stab him in the eye, and escape by hiding under some giant sheep.

Much like the Trojan Horse is only vaguely and sparingly described. Homer doesn't say they have one eye until about 80% of the way through the chapter. Maybe his audience just knew? It appears they existed in other bits of Greek mythology beforehand.

Odysseus's Nobody (rendered as Nohbdy in this translation) trick is always fun. Likewise, Odysseus's boasts (which reads half WWE intro and half Team Rocket motto to me) are entertaining. Again, Odysseus is a moron, even after his crew tells him to stop, and keeps taunting Polyphemus. 

if ever motal man inquire
how you wre put to shame and blinded, tell him
Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye:
Laertes' son, whose home's on Ithaca! 

This is my personal, "If you only read one book of the Odyssey..." Odysseus is still (mostly smart), you get a cool monster, and it shows how he gets lost in the first place.

Here, have a good mashup:

Casually Completing Classics #6: The Odyssey Book 8

 Book 8 Summary/Note: They throw a party. Odysseus wrecks a guy at discus and cries when the bard sings about the fall of Troy.

They call pigs TUSKERS, which is fun. 

Some guy stars shit talking Odysseus and says he has no skill and was the skipper of "some tramp" so Odysseus tells him that he has "an empty noodle" and beats him at discus throwing. 

A harper tells the story of Ares and Aphrodite's affair, which involves Hephaestus calling her a "damned pigeon." He catches them in a metal net, but Hermes is like "doesn't matter, had sex."

There's a reference to a singular God here, which I think is Zeus in other translations. I'm guessing the original might've been something like father-god? Interesting translation quirk.

I believe this is the first account of the Trojan horse. It's brief, basically just that the Trojans brought it in while the Achaeans hid inside. At the end of this section, Odysseus starts crying and Alcinous asks who he is, which prompts Odysseus to finally tell us how he wound up lost at sea in the next section. 

Casually Completing Classics #5: The Odyssey Books 6 and 7

 Book 6

One of the fun parts of this project is finding the origins of popular names, quotes, etc. Book 6 features Nausikaa, which I'm going to assume is the origin of the titular Nausicaä in the Ghibli movie.

Continuing the hospitality theme, Odysseus is helped out by a princess after he washes assure. Athena helps him wash himself, and it sounds like a shampoo commercial for a bit:

Athena lent a hand, making him seem

taller, and massive too, with crisping hair

in curls like petals of wild hyacinth,

but all red-golden. Think of gold infused

Maybe he's born with it, maybe Athena-line.

Short book, my whole summary was "Odysseus washes ashore and is helped by a princess."

Book 7

Summary (I really should type these in, not just the parts I mark up): "Odysseus meets King Alkinoos, who is very friendly."

Athena suddenly turns vaguely British at one point:

"Oh yes, good frandger, sir, I know, I'll show you" and so on. I'm going to assume she's impersonating someone from a certain background that gets turned into a weird dialect in Homer, and that's Fitzgerald's way of replicating it. I feel like that used to be more popular as a translation convention.

"A cheerful man does best

in every enterprise-- even a stranger."

Put that in a fortune cookie or a cat poster.

Odysseus reiterates not giving consent to Kalypso again. UNLIKE CIRCE! Apparently he's good, but not that good.

 

Casually Completing Classics #4: The Odyssey Book 5

o ODYSSEUS IS FINALLY HERE!

First, is (I think) the first appearance of "O Father Zeus and gods in bliss forever," which is used several times.

Hermes is Zeus's favorite son (who else would it be, Perseus?). Hermes is my favorite Greek god, so I'd say he has good taste.

Odysseus apparently hasn't been aging, so is he going to be "younger" relative to Penelope when he gets home? That could be awkward. Not only has he been whoring it up, but he isn't even aging!

My translation makes it pretty clear that Odysseus is raped by Calypso (he repeatedly "doesn't consent" or is "compelled") but I've seen some translations that are a little less direct about it. 

Odysseus's first spoken line:

"After these years, a helping hand? O goddess,
what guile is hidden here?"

There's some foreshadowing of the cyclops encounter with:

"Oh forlorn man, I wonder
why the Earthshaker, Lord Poseidon, holds
this fearful grudge-- father of all your woes..."

But yeah, the big thing here is definitely Odysseus finally showing up.  People think the whole thing is just about him getting home when he doesn't even appear for the first fifth of the book. If you accept that it's about the whole family and their struggles/development, rather than just Odysseus, it's a much easier sell. If you're team, "no, it's about Odysseus!" then it's a pretty bold authorial choice by Homer to just not bother with his main character for a whole act.

 

Casually Completing Classics #3: The Odyssey Books 3 and 4

 Book 3

This book (like several others, and some scenes within books) starts with a sunrise. Usually it's described as having rosy fingertips or something like that. Telemachus goes to visit Nestor, who tells him about the war and returning and has a big feast for him (contrasting the greedy suitors who take advantage of Telemachus and Penelope.) We get the first (I think) appearance of a repeating line "Spare me no part for kindness' sake," as Telemachus asks for news. I think the contrast with the feast is the main point of this chapter, which is relatively short. Beyond that it's just Nestor sending Telemachus to Menelaus.

Book 4

This book has an even stronger contrast with the suitors:

You were no idiot before, Eteoneus,

But here you are talking like a child of ten.

Could we have made it home again-- and Zeus

give us no more hard roving!-- if other men

had never fed us, given us lodging?

You tell 'em, Menelaus. He tells Telemachus more about the war and journey, and Menelaus tells him that his hand and feet are like his father's. As someone with huge feet that he got from his dad, I can relate.

Helen talks about how Odysseus snuck into Troy, and that she recognized him, but didn't give him away. At one point, Menelaus tells about meeting some nereids who use sealskins as (very smelly) disguises. Kind of like a selkie. Always interesting to see parallels in mythology like that. He fought Proteus, who revealed that Odysseus is still alive! We find out he's been trapped with Kalypso for some time, partially explaining the ten years he's been missing.

Back on Ithaca, the suitors find out what Telemachus is doing, and make plans to trap and kill him.

If the first two books set up Telemachus and his quest, these two fill us in on the Trojan war background, and show how terrible the suitors are. Next week: Odysseus finally shows up!

 

 

 

Casually Completing Classics #2 The Odyssey Book 2

 Book 2

I noticed something interesting when I was comparing translations with my step-daughter. Fitzgerald actually has more lines than Wilson. Apparently she broke the lines differently (trying to match Homer exactly). Always interesting to see all the weird background stuff that goes into translation.

Anyway, at line 69 (nice!) in the Fitzgerald, Telemachus asks the suitors, "Where is your shame?" which is a delightfully modern phrase for a sixty year old translation of a couple thousand year old book.

Zeus sends some eagles to rip a dude's throat out as an omen and the suitors are like, "nbd, it's just a bird." Eagles totally kill people everyday, no reason to be concerned. One guy does say, "I'm old enough to know a sign when I see one," which is another fun phrase.

Mentor yells at the Ithacans for letting the suitors get away with it. He points out that there's a lot more of them than there are suitors. If most people just did the right thing, the crappy people would get away with a lot less.

We get a cool version of, "mean what you say/keep your word" will around 287: "he finished what he cared to say, and what he took in hand he brought to pass."

I also like him telling his nurse to tell Penelope he left... eventually. Eleven or twelve days. Or until she missed him. Or hears that he's gone. Wilson's translation is a bit more definitive here. 

Casually Completing Classics #1 Intro and The Odyssey Book 1

    Welcome to a new sub series I'll be working on here: Casually Completing Classics, where I actually finish some of these classical books I've talked about. There won't be a ton of super serious research, commentary, etc. going on. Rather, I'll read them the way you'd read a novel. At whatever pace is comfortable, taking only light notes on things that are interesting/confusing, and jotting a quick summary for each chapter. I have a few used books where people wrote summaries, and I enjoyed having them. I figure I should try doing it myself.

    This is partially inspired by my stepdaughter listening to EPIC: The Musical. I told her I'd read one of the books from it with her, and she picked The Odyssey. I figured we'd do a chapter a week or something, but she's plowing ahead to try to whole thing on summer break. There's no way I can do a in-depth, close read with research at that speed, and keep up with all my other projects. So, I'm trying it this way. 

    I've also been thinking about how I'd like to actually finish some of the pieces I've done excerpts from anyway, and this is a nice way to get started. I have a couple others available. If this goes well, I'll continue with others. If not, I'll keep going with the regular daily updates and do longer reads later. I'm going to try to get one up every Wednesday (to go with the weekly recaps on Monday and Star Wars Classics on Friday). No set timeline for when I'll finish The Odyssey (I'm a little over halfway through this reread), but probably late summer or early fall.

    One last note: I'm primarily using the Fitzgerald translation for this, but I have the Butcher/Lang (the one from T5FSOB), Fagles, and Wilson (the one my stepdaughter is reading) translations at hand (and I suppose anything that's easily on the internet). This isn't a hardcore translation analysis, but it might come up a little, and I wanted people to know which I was using if they looked at my quotes.

The Odyssey: Books 1-

Intro:

    Alright, dusk jacket summary if you've somehow made it to this blog, but don't know what The Odyssey is. It's the second of two epics by Homer (who we know very little about, including whether there even is one actual "Homer" person) dealing with the Trojan war. The Odyssey deals with how Odysseus (the dude who came up with the Trojan horse) gets home from Troy. It introduces a bunch of famous Greek mythological stories and monsters like The Cyclops and the Scylla. At least that's what everybody says.

    I'd argue the voyage home from Troy is actually (an important) subplot, not the main thrust of the book. Odysseus doesn't even show up for the first ten percent of the book, and then by around the halfway point he's already home. At best, the voyage is maybe a third of the story (and that's with some generous accounting of asides, retellings, etc.) Instead, it's a story about how Odysseus's family deals with the suitors who have come to try to seduce Penelope (his wife) in his absence, with each character having their own arc within that plot. Odysseus: Sail home, fight monsters. Telemachus: Look for his father, grow into a man himself. Penelope: Trick horny men, deal with her son growing up. Penelope gets the short end of the stick.

    

     Book 1:

    I love the way these old epic poems start.

Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story

of that man skilled in all ways of contending

    I'm a sucker for a good frame story/epistolary format. It's interesting that frame stories are still pretty popular, but you don't see this style very often anymore. Why can't your urban fantasy story start with: Hey buddy, tell me about that time Sam Skulldudger outfoxed the lycans, vamps, and necros all in one night!

(Beowulf gets the best one, since you get an all purpose interjection as the first word and can make it YO! or HEY! or BRO!)

     Zeus gives a summary of a good chunk of the book. I mostly like this as a preview, but I do think that giving up that the whole thing is Poseidon's fault is a mistake. Talk about Odysseus being lost, fighting monsters, etc. cool. Makes me want to read the book. But I like the idea of the initial inciting incident being a bit more mysterious. Maybe everyone just knows that if you're lost at sea it's Poseidon's fault though.

    Athena goes to Ithaca to talk to Telemachus and send him to look for Odysseus. The suitors are sitting in "easy chairs" which is an interesting phrase to read in an ancient Greek context. Usually I think of an easy chair as a fancy La-Z-Boy or something. It's probably like a chaise. She meets Telemachus and he askes her a million questions, then we get the first appearance of "winedark sea." Most people would call that more of a dark red, but not Homer.  

    There's a whole line of study about how cultures invent words for colors, etc. The consensus seems to be that yes, the ancient Greeks could see blue, but they didn't have a word for it since it's so "default" in nature (sea and sky). Curiously, the word blue does show up a couple times in most translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey, but it's more inferred from other words (descriptions of eyes) than a direct translation. Translation is weird and cool and crazy.

    Stopping there for today. I'd like to do more than one book a day in general, but I've got about a hundred books to put on a shelf.