Odysseus’ Emotional Labours
Robin Phillips - August 2002
In this essay I’d
like to explore some of the obstacles that women present to Odysseus on his voyage
home and what we can learn from these about his character.
Before I begin my discussion a preliminary
comment is necessary about certain assumptions which my discussion will build
upon. In referring to ‘obstacles which Odysseus has to overcome on his voyage
home’, I shall be working on the basis that these obstacles (particularly those
narrated in books 9-12 of the Odyssey) form a series of tests. By
including Charybdis and Scylla as the same test or by omitting to include
Odysseus' encounter with the Phaiakians as one of the tests (since it is really
the first stage of his journey out of 'no man's land' rather than a test of the
same kind as the others), we arrive at twelve labours or tests.[1]
In his Heroes of the City of Man Leithart suggests that this number is
significant since by giving him twelve labours Homer is revealing Odysseus to
be a hero of the same stature as Hercules.[2]
The role of heroic exploits in Greek culture makes this a feasible
interpretation even if the number of tests do not tally.
With that let us began our discussion of the tests women
present to Odysseus, looking first at the situation that occurs with Circe.
When Eurylochos explains to Odysseus that the enchantresses
Circe has turned twenty-two of his men into swine, Odysseus is met by Hermes
who tells him exactly what to do to escape Circe's spell. If this is a test for
Odysseus all he needs to do is to follow Hermes instructions correctly. I would
suggest that the main part of the test comes later when Odysseus is tempted to remain
with Circe. We are not told explicitly that Circe tried to keep Odysseus as
Kalypso later will, and indeed, when he expresses the desire to leave, Circe
helps him by giving him advice. Even so, we may reasonably infer that the
temptation to stay must have been present. After all, Odysseus spent a year
with Circe (9.467) “feasting on unlimited meet and sweet wine” (10.468, 12.30)
and it was only when his companions approached the subject that he gave any
thought to continuing his journey (9.471-475). Furthermore, to continue his
journey meant leaving all the ease, luxury and sexual pleasure that Circe
afforded for a journey the thought of which made Odysseus no longer want to
live (10.498).
Putting all these things together, I
do not think it is unreasonable to suppose that Odysseus must have here been
under a temptation similar to that encountered in the land of the Lotus eaters.
The Lotus eaters, we recall, gave men honey sweet fruit which made them
"unwilling...to go away…and forget the way home." (9.95-97) In the
land of the Lotus eaters it was three of Odysseus' men, not Odysseus, who were
in danger of settling down there for the rest of their lives with no thought of
return. With Circe, on the other hand, it seems that Odysseus would have completely
forgotten the homeward journey had not his companions persuaded him.
Both the Lotus eaters and Circe represent
the threat of death - not physical death but death of the heroic ideal. By
‘heroic ideal’ I mean a system of values in which the notion of kleos (‘what people say of you’) is central. Kleos
can be achieved in many ways, chiefly through glory in battle (Il.
12.322-28), but also though whatever other means the gods might appoint, as in
the case of Telemachos who will ‘win a good reputation’ (1.95) not through
fighting (that comes later when his father returns and after he has already
achieved a degree of kleos) but through travelling to visit and talk to
the great fighters of the Trojan War. Odysseus also achieves kleos through
travels, and in this regard it is instructive that in the fifth line of the Odyssey
the Greek word which Lattimore renders ‘struggling’ has connotations of
struggling to attain or achieve something which relates to one’s honour. It is
precisely this honour that is threatened by Circe. Circe, like the Lotus
eaters, offered
a long life of ease and luxury but the excellence of Odysseus' glory is gone.
For Achilleus, to have returned home would have meant turning his back on the
heroic ideal whereas with Odysseus, for whom kleos is only through
homecoming, his temptation is for the long life of ease by not returning home.
Odysseus still have two similar tests
awaiting him still, both of which involve women. The first of these is the
incident with the Sirens. This is one of the most moving passages in the entire
Odyssey. It is here more than with Circe that we catch a glimpse of the
emotional side of Odysseus’ character. Circe tells Odysseus what he needs to do
if he is to successfully pass this test. The sirens will enchant any who happen
to hear their song and the beach is strewn with the bones of sailors who have
listened to the irresistible music. Circe’s instructions are simple: melt down
wax to stop the ears of the men. Then Circe - who must know Odysseus well by
this time - adds that if he wants to hear the music he must have his men bind
him against the mast with ropes. The men must be given strict instructions that
when he implores them to loosen the ropes they must tie them fast with even
more lashings. (12.39-54)
What do the Sirens thing about? Their song
promises knowledge of "everything that the Argives and Trojans did and
suffered in wide Troy" (12.189-190). It is not insignificant that the
Trojan War is the subject matter of their enchantment. Their song, which begins
with the words "come this way, honoured Odysseus," (12.184) is
clearly tailor-made to be most effective in luring Odysseus, so we may well ask
why a song about the Trojan War would be effective to this end. In addressing
this question we must bear in mind that earlier in the narrative (though not
earlier in Odysseus' life), when Odysseus was at the land of the Phaiakians, it
was the songs about his exploits in the Trojan War, not the story about Ares
and Aphrodite's adultery, that moved Odysseus to tears. Why is this?
To say that Odysseus is susceptible to
experience nostalgia at the remembrance of his past experience is perhaps too
crude a way of stating the matter. He seems to be going through what many
people find at the remembrance of past experiences, namely that it assumes in
retrospect a quality that evokes a yearning sensation. This is not a yearning
to return to those experiences anymore than the intense longing one may be
flooded with at the sight of a far off hill can be satisfied by actually going to
the hill. Rather, the remoteness and inaccessibility of past experience conveys
to it an other-worldly quality since subconsciously it becomes paradigmatic of
the innate longing we all have for something that no earthly experience can
provide but which is tantalizingly suggested during times of intense emotion,
beauty or joy. C. S. Lewis wrote about this peculiar type of ‘joy’ as an
experience in which
…the sense of want is acute and even
painful, yet than mere wanting is felt to be somehow a delight... These things
- the beauty, the memory of our own past - are good images of what we really
desire... For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a
flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a
country we have never visited."[3]
Lewis goes on to conclude (there is not
space to present his argument) that the object of this intense desire is not to
be located in any of the things that actually awake it. Now this is
particularly relevant to Odysseus' desire for the Sirens. Had his desire been
granted when he asked his men to untie him from the mast, he would have spent
the rest of his days listening to their music on the beach but always longing
and never actually possessing that peculiar 'something' that the beauty of
their song suggested but could not provide.
Circe says that the provision given to
enable Odysseus to hear the enchanting music was so that he "can have joy
in hearing a song of the Sirens" (12.52) As she refers to this unsatisfied
longing as 'joy' rather than frustration, this would seem to refer to the kind
of joy that Lewis described as both delight and pain to the one who experiences
it. This understanding of the paradoxical conjunction of joy and melancholy,
longing and satisfaction explains what is found elsewhere in the Odyssey.
In the very moving scene when the men who had been turned into swine are
restored to their former humanity, Odysseus explains how "the lovely
longing for lamentation came over us" (10.397-98 See also Il.
3.139).
Longing is seen as something lovely even when that longing has as its object
something lugubrious. This melancholic longing, the very pain of which is joy
to Odysseus, is something he seeks out. For example, Odysseus says to Eumaios
the swineherd that
But we two, sitting
here in the shelter, eating and drinking,
Shall entertain
each other remembering and retelling
Our sad sorrows.
For afterwards a man who has suffered
Much and wandered
much has pleasure out of his sorrows.
(Od. 15.398-401)
A similar situation occurs when Odysseus is
at the Phaiakians court being entertained by Demodokos. He is reduced to
uncontrollable weeping when Demodokos tells of the quarrel between him and
Achilleus (7.75-92). This experience of weeping and lamentation is so precious
to Odysseus that on the next available opportunity he praises Demodokos and
requests that he and take up "another part of the story" (8.485-498).
Odysseus has sought another opportunity to weep and does so again in full
force.
Only by viewing Odysseus’s encounter with
the Sirens in terms of this complex psychological tapestry are we able to fully
understand its significance. It is significant not so much because it tests
Odysseus (though it does do that, even though the ‘test’ part of it was passed
before he even reached the sirens as a result of taking the necessary
precautions) but because it reveals his deep emotional intensity.
After passing the temptation to bed down
(both metaphorically and literally!) with Circe for a life of ease but no
glory, and after successfully navigating his way through the emotional
labyrinth presented by the Sirens, Odysseus still has another woman awaiting
him, a woman who represents the greatest threat to his homecoming yet. I refer,
of course, to Kalypso.
It
may seem odd for me to suggest that Kalypso represented a temptation for
Odysseus rather than just an obstacle. This is because our first impression of
Odysseus’s reaction to Kalypso is characterized by Odysseus emotions after
seven years there. But
he did not spend all seven years down at the seashore "breaking his heart
in tears, lamentation, and sorrow" (5.83 & 157) for lack of a means to
escape. Homer tells us that
…the sweet
lifetime was draining out of him,
as he wept for
way home, since the nymph was no longer pleasing to him."
(5.152-154)
The implication is that there was once a time
before Odysseus had grown tired of Kalypso when he did not merely "lie
beside her, of necessity " (5.154) but out of desire. At one time at least
Kalypso seems to have proved a temptation to threaten his homecoming in a way
similar to Circe. With Kalypso, however, it is more overt than Circe
– Kalypso holds him captive (though presumably this did not come into play
until after Odysseus ceased to find her pleasing and wanted to leave). It is surely more than
coincidence that there is a link between Circe and Kalypso
in so far as our
first introduction to both women is to find them singing sweetly and weaving on
a loom. (5.61-61, 10.221-222).
Though it is
speculation, perhaps the reason Odysseus ceased to find Kalypso pleasing was
because he eventually remembered his purpose and knew that he must try to find
a way home. Whatever the basis for his decision not to remain with Kalypso
might have been, the fact that he remained steadfast in that decision for so
many years as Kalypso’s hostage must itself have been a difficult task. When
his homecoming seemed totally hopeless, and when his desire for it was
literately killing him (5.152), it must have been a great temptation to capitulate
and accept the life of ease and luxury that Kalypso offered in this setting
that was so idyllic that it rivalled mount Olympus for beauty (5.73-74,
5.75-76). When we remember the powerful way in which Odysseus is affected by
things of beauty, and also the temptation that women and a life of ease has on
him, it becomes most reasonable to view this as having been a temptation to
Odysseus.
The psychological pressure that Kalypso
exerted on Odysseus must also have formed a difficult obstacle to overcome.
Kalypso has convinced herself that her conduct has Odysseus' best interests in
mind, that if he knew all the hardships he were to undergo before getting back
to his country then he would choose to stay with her and be her husband.
(5.206-209) In this Kalypso shows that, unlike Circe, she does not really know
Odysseus very well, or that at least she has wilfully cut herself off from such
knowledge through her possessiveness. The explicit physical possessiveness she
exercises in containing him on the island and causing him to have to sleep with
her (a point around which Homer leaves room for speculation) parallels an
implicit psychological possessiveness in her relationship to him. Kalypso seems
to feel that she owns Odysseus because she rescued him (5.129-130), that she
has a right to weave out his future (5.135) like the thread on her loom and
that she is in a better position than Odysseus to judge what his true needs and
desires really are. (5.206-210) She says to Hermes that she loves and cherishes
Odysseus (5.135), but it is not really love for Odysseus as an individual in
his own right, it is only love for Odysseus insofar as he fulfils her own
dependency needs. Beneath it all lurks a brooding jealousy of Penelope whom
Kalypso knows shared something with Odysseus that she never could. Kalypso
would rather keep Odysseus on her island until the day of his death than to set
him free to return to Penelope, which is the implication of her bitter response
to Hermes' assertion that Odysseus is not appointed to die here. (5.111-120)
I mentioned that Kalypso had certain dependency needs
that she wanted Odysseus to fulfil. It is interesting that there is a reciprocal dependency since Odysseus'
only means of escape rests with Kalypso. When Hermes is sent to liberate
Odysseus he has to first go and command Kalypso to allow it, showing again the
extent to which Odysseus is completely dependent on her. This is a very
different kind of dependence than the psychological dependency-needs that
Kalypso has towards Odysseus (i.e., her need for him to love her, her
need for him to need her), yet the fact that they both need something that only
the other can provide, and that their respective needs are mutually exclusive,
makes their relationship what may be reasonably viewed as a psychological
drama. The particular quality of this co-dependent relationship is not
dissimilar to the relationship between Helen and Aphrodite in the Iliad.
As the survival of Odysseus' homecoming hinges entirely on the goddess
Kalypso's fiat, similarly Helen's survival in the land of the Trojans hinges
entirely on the goddess Aphrodite's fiat. (Il. 3.414-17) Helen longs to
be with her original spouse and not to be in Troy (Il. 3.139, 3.428-29 –
though there are alternative ways of interpreting these passages) but is
controlled by Aphrodite (Il. 3.399-401, 3.414-17) even as Odysseus longs
to escape from Kalypso’s island but is restrained by Kalypso. Helen had not
felt discontent in the early days when Paris had pleased her yet now sleeps
with him out of necessity (Il. 3.410-447) just as Odysseus had not
always felt discontent in the early days when Kalypso had pleased him but now
sleeps with her out of necessity. (Od. 5.154) Aphrodite claims to love
Helen (Il. 3.388 ) just as Kalypso claims to love Odysseus, yet in both
these cases it is a 'love' that is not self-giving but entirely self-seeking,
possessive and contingent on what the goddess can receive from the mortal. As
Kalypso tries to deny Odysseus his homecoming because of psychological and sexual
needs that only he can fulfil, Aphrodite's denial of Helen's request to leave
her alone (Il. 3.399-401) stems from Aphrodite's psychological and
sexual needs that only Helen can fulfil. The entire section at the end of Iliad
book 3, described by Willcock as "a strangely disturbing scene",
shows the extent of Aphrodite's sexual dependency on Helen. This dependency is
complex since it is indirect and seems to be fulfilled only through Helen's
sexual relationship with Paris. Hence, Aphrodite goes to such lengths as to
teleportate Paris from battle to bedroom (Il. 3.382), then approaches
Helen in disguise to try and persuade her to join Paris in bed (Il. 3.383-394),
then blackmails the resistant Helen until she "was frightened and
went" (Il. 3.418-19) all in order to orchestrate a situation in the
day for Helen and Paris to have sex. Aphrodite's vicarious interest in this
sexual relationship is no doubt the context of Helen's suggestion that
Aphrodite go to bed with Paris herself (Il. 3.406). But it is not Paris
as such that Aphrodite is interested in nor is it Helen as such, but rather the
relationship between the two. The apparent explanation for this rests in the
promise Aphrodite made to Paris to give him the most beautiful women in the
world for wife, though there seems to be a deeper psychological complexity to
Aphrodite's motives than merely keeping a promise, but there is not space to
explore this question in any detail. It is sufficient for our present purpose
merely to note the parallels between Aphrodite and Kalypso.
Returning
to our discussion of Odysseus I would like to suggest that in the long interval
between the time when Kalypso ceased to please him and when Hermes was sent to
liberate him, it must have been a great temptation to Odysseus to stop
struggling against what seemed the inevitable and to accept Kalypso's offer. It
is here that Odysseus’ greatest strength as well as his greatest weakness
emerge. We see his strength exhibited in the marvellous words he delivers in response to
Kalypso's final pressure to stay.
Then resourceful
Odysseus spoke in turn and answered her:
'Goddess and
queen, do not be angry with me. I myself know
that all you say
is true and that circumspect Penelope
can never match the
impression you make for beauty and stature.
She is mortal
after all, and you are immortal and ageless.
But even so, what
I want and all my days I pine for
is to go back to
my house and see my day of homecoming.
And if some god
batters me far out on the wine-blue water,
I will endure it,
keeping a stubborn spirit inside me,
for already I
have suffered much and done much hard work
on the waves and in the fighting. So let
this adventure follow.'
(5.214-224)
These words reveal a stubborn, focused determination without which
he surely would not have got passed his first ‘female test’. He has shown
himself capable of not becoming "entangled in a perverse sweetness"[4]
that would alienate him from his true country. This struggle not to become
entangled in the things of the journey and to remain focused on his true
country has proved as much a task for Odysseus as any one-eyed beast or six
headed sea monster. Even when Odysseus is most set on homecoming he can get
easily distracted. That this also reveals Odysseus’ greatest weakness is
confirmed by the fact that most of his temptations are addressed to this level.
Along this line consider how when Odysseus is at the Phaiakians he declines to
compete in the games on the grounds that he is longing to go home. (8.152-157)
Indeed, for a while during his visit with the Phaiakians it seems that Odysseus
can think of little else but his homecoming. Nevertheless, given sufficient
provoking (being taunted into competing), stimulation (Demodokos' storytelling)
and prompting (the request to identify himself which leads to his long story
about his travels) he seems to lose some of the urgency that had characterized
his thoughts prior to the games. Up until his departure he continues to make
the most of this ‘stopover’ not dissimilar to the way he has sex with Kalypso
the night before finally leaving her (5.226-227) or the way in which he
prepared to listen to the music of the Sirens even though he knew he had to
pass by.
It is in this ability to
enjoy the journey and to make the most of every step along that lies Odysseus’s
greatest danger. Among the obstacles Odysseus encounters more of them actually
test his vulnerability and emotions than his cleverness. It is interesting
further that when a test is addressed to this level it always involves a woman,
and never an ordinary mortal woman.[5]
It would seem that Odysseus’ emotional constitution makes him susceptible to
particular vulnerabilities which are drawn out and exploited by females
characters. As we have seen, this involves his vulnerability to the temptation
of a life of ease, his vulnerability to temptations involving beauty, including
the beauty of attractive women.[6]
This does not imply that Odysseus’ emotions
should be viewed as a weakness. Odysseus’ first appearance in the Odyssey is
when he is weeping. (5.151-153) This first scene is significant since it
establishes Odysseus’ character. One feels that this aspect of Odysseus’
character could only be omitted at the expense of his strength. In Homeric
culture the strength of one's emotions seem to be inseparably linked to the
passion of one's emotions. We see this in the fact that it is the archetypes of
masculinity, namely Achilleus and Odysseus, who are the most emotionally
sensitive and passionate if judged on the basis of their tendency to weep, wail
and shed tears. This not only increases our appreciation for Odysseus as a
complex, multi-layered and extremely interesting individual, but challenges
contemporary assumptions of gender stereotypes.
[1] In Od.
1.343 Homer refers to Odysseus as “labouring through many hardships” which
seems to confirm this way of looking at things.
[2] See also, Thalmann, William G. The Odyssey: An Epic of Return.
[3]
C.S. Lewis, The Pilgrim’s
Regress, p. 12 & The
Weight of Glory, p. 7.
[4] The words come from St. Augustine's comments about the Odyssey in his 'On Christian Doctrine.' Cited in Invitation to The Classics, p. 32.
[5] One feels as if "godlike Odysseus" is a man of such stature that it requires women who are either magical or divine to present him with any obstacle, to say nothing of the opposition of the god Poseidon. Just as it was considered glorious to the man whom the gods chose to help, perhaps there was also glory to the man selected to struggle against a god or goddess and overcome. The fact that Odysseus required external help in each of these struggles does not apparently diminished his kleos. Whether this is because the necessity for such help emphasizes the difficulty of these obstacles, or because the fact that Odysseus is usually (though not exclusively) assisted by a divine or semi-divine being is a mark of honour, remains a matter of conjecture.
[6] By understanding the role that women play in presenting such ‘dangers’ we can perhaps understand better why he is slow to reveal his identity to Penelope upon his return home. (19.107-22, 165-7, 336-48, 209-12) When Odysseus saw Agamemnon in the land of the dead, Agamemnon had given him some stern warnings about "the schemes of women". (10.438) Agamemnon's words drew on his own experience of being murdered by his wife Klytaimestra upon his return home, but he also takes opportunity to mention Helen for whom "many of us died" (10.438). By the time Odysseus reaches home he has his own experience to add to that of Agamemnon. No wonder he is circumspect with Penelope and delays revealing his identity!
Thalmann, William G. The Odyssey: An Epic of Return (New York: Twayne, 1992).
Peter J. Leithart, Heroes of the City of Man: a Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature (Moscow, ID: Canon Press) 1999.
Invitation to The Classics: A Guide To Books You’ve
Always Wanted to Read, edited by Louise Cowan and Os Guiness (Grand Rapids,
MI: Baker Books), 1998.
C .S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory and other Addresses (New York: MacMillan Publishing Company), 1962.
Peter Jones, Homer's Odyssey: A Commentary Based on the English Translation of Richmond Lattimore (Bristol Classical Press, 1988).
The Odyssey of Homer, translated and with an introduction by Richmond Lattimore (Harper & Row, 1967).
The Iliad of Homer, translated and with an introduction by Richmond Lattimore (The University of Chicago Press, 1951).
Malcolm M. Willcock, A Companion to The Iliad Based on the Translation by Richmond Lattimore (The University of Chicago Press, 1976)
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