Homer's Greatest Epic: The Odyssey - The Story that Best Personifies the Longing for Home/Hiraeth & The Best of All the Greek Love-Stories Ever - the Archetypal Journey

The Story of the Odyssey

Before I do any deep text by text, word for word analysis of one of the greatest epics of all times (and easily my favourite of the ancient period after maybe the Aeneid), it is important to analyse the over-all story structure and characters and themes. This essay though is one you have the amiable and kindly

The Common Centrist

to thank, as I had been planning it for a few weeks from now, but as we got to chatting I decided it should come out sooner.

The Odyssey as most know was composed in oral fashion by Homer during the centuries that separate the Bronze Age Collapse of the Later Bronze Age (around the end of the second millennium BC), and before the start of the Classical Period of Greece which is to say the age after the 8th or 7th century or so BC.

The story is one that everyone should be familiar with; it is about Odysseus’ journey home after the war in Troy. The Trojan War having begun after Paris a prince stole away the Queen of Sparta, Helen who was the most beautiful woman alive. It happened though that the resultant war saw Troy destroyed and her people scattered across the Mediterranean Sea.

The Greeks though were not have the best time either, as they had comported themselves with such malice and brutality that many were cursed by the gods. Agamemnon who had sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia was to be welcomed home… and knifed to death in his bath by his wife and her lover. In turn Cassandra whom he had taken by force was slaughtered minutes later (poor girl).

Only Menelaus seems to have had a smooth return journey with the reluctant Helen.

Odysseus for his part as the man who had devised the ‘Trojan Horse’, seems to have been cursed though in his case the exact reason is hard to pin down. The reason this is lies in that different tales have different sources of the curse; one is that he had stolen a prized bust the Pallas Athene that belonged to Troy (I quite like this reason), another that it was because it was him who slew Astyanax.

The main cause for his ills though doesn’t lie with these two possible reasons for the curse. Strangely it is more his having displeased Poseidon after blinding Polyphemus the Cyclops son of Poseidon. Stopping by the island of Cyclops, Odysseus was to be sealed in a cave by Polyphemus whereupon he fashioned a spear with his men, only to blind the Cyclops.

Having introduced himself to him as ‘Nemo’ or ‘Nobody’ he was to escape, while Polyphemus screamed out to all in sundry ‘Nobody (Nemo) has blinded me!’ for which his neighbours thought it was some curse from the gods. But Odysseus being Odysseus…. a braggart I mean, he was to boast of his accomplishment in a manner reminiscent of Captain Jack Sparrow, which resulted in a curse by Poseidon.

This is how ALL of Odysseus’ problems begin.

It is also an interesting choice by Homer and those who used to tell the tales of Odysseus before him (as might well have been the case). The idea of the hero being guilty of the vice of vainglory is something that is not uncommon in Greek Mythology, as this was a flaw that Iason from the Argonauts was supposed to on occasion fall prey to, Herakles had his moments as did many others.

The thing is that each of these heroes were to suffer for their boastfulness, just as all those who boast do. It seems that the Greeks did not much like braggarts, which is a contrast to Norse Mythology where ‘boast poems’ as my brothers and I called them in our youth were all the rage.

If Odysseus is proud, he is not without heroic virtues as he’s loyal, valiant and even honourable but the trouble for him is that he’s buffeted continuously by the winds of Fate and ultimately is cut ever more at on an emotional level. The longer the journey goes on for the more broken the once proud warrior-king becomes.

Odysseus as the King Archetype

In the story Odysseus goes through a variety of tragedies, adventures and otherwise gets himself into one mess after another. He is forced to journey to the sorceress-Nymph Circe’s home where he is forced to sleep with her to rescue his men whom are then transformed back into men (because she had turned them into animals). What is more is that he goes on to have to sail past Sirens, he crashes his ship and is introduced to the beautiful goddess Calypso and it is then that he reaches the end of his tether.

The interesting thing about Odysseus is not only how clever he is, but also how committed he is to returning home.

He is a character who in Troy shined brightly as a warrior, and as the best of Agamemnon’s advisors and who was so eloquent that he could convince the Myceneans to give him Achilles’ armour (quite the prize considering the armour itself was forged by the likes of Hepheastus). And yet on the coast of Calypso’s island he’s reduced to sobbing like a baby.

Wailing on her coast as he longs for home, Odysseus is brought to his lowest point. So that we arrive at the main thrust of the story; the homeward journey.

The interesting thing is that Odysseus as a character is someone who left for war probably at middle-age or whilst still young, only to then spend the next ten years fighting and then another ten travelling home. His journey is the sort that could well test the steeliest of men, many of whom might well have given up and yet this he does not do. He never ceases longing for the only home he’s ever truly known, for the wife he still loves and the son he’s not seen grow up.

The King Archetype Odysseus may not have seen his son grow up, and may not have managed to grow old with his wife as he intended, he doesn’t however let these facts weaken his resolve. He might spend some time on Calypso’s island wailing and weeping, but once back out at sea he’s back on the homeward journey.

During the war he was the Warrior Archetype in his fullness, strategic, cunning and wholly devoted to the cause of serving his liege-lord, since he’s little more than a ‘lesser King’ or ‘Under-King’ but on the homeward journey he’s forced into the role of the Lover Archetype. He’s made to screw a number of ladies even as he longs for his wife, Penelope.

But along the way he’s also forced to resort to being the trickster (his main role in most of his stories), or Magician Archetype (as the Magician can be a ‘positive trickster’).

It is when he unveils himself though once he’s back home in Ithaka that he steps fully into the King Archetype. That is to say that once he’s back home he’s not simply the Warrior, the Lover or the Magician but the King in his fullness.

In a way this is the first story in human history that portrays a VERY popular ‘trope’; the Returning King. To an extent one could argue that every ‘Return of the King’ in literary history borrows from Odysseus, from King Arthur, to Galahad, to Conan the Cimmerian, to Aragorn Elessar, to all those of modern Mythic fiction. I’d say Baldr borrows from Odysseus except that it’s unclear how much the Vikings actually knew of the Greek stories when Baldr was conceptualized (one more victory for the Universal Unconscious I guess).

Penelope as the Queen Archetype

Penelope is a Queen who in Greek Mythology is fairly blameless to say the least. In a lot of ways she even represents something of an ideal. Heroic in her own quiet way, she’s as established before someone who was thrust from the quiet sea-side life in Ithaka she had enjoyed throughout the greater part of her life, and into an adventure of sorts that tests her to her limits.

The suitors that assail her are ruthless, cruel and greedy. In a lot of ways her position is an echo of that of Helen of Troy. Helen herself was alongside the Trojans besieged by an army of Greeks, hungry for what she and others within the Anatolian city possessed. So that now in a manner of speaking it is the wife of the most heroic of the Greeks (in the more modern sense of the word heroic) is now under threat by an army.

Penelope naturally doesn’t desire them, and wishes only to wait for her husband and to should he pass away, make sure that their son Telemachus inherits the throne peacefully.

I’m sure everyone’s familiar by now with the ‘triune’ goddess Archetype so that we can safely say that naturally Penelope is the Lover when she’s with Odysseus, as well as the Mother (duh), and Athena is the Daughter (Daughter of Zeus). In this way, we have the tripartite female Archetype. But if you peer closer we see also the Warrior (Athena), the female ruler (Penelope) and the Wife (Penelope again).

Yet what is most remarkable about the Greeks is that in ancient times they gave their heroines and villainesses complex arcs so that these aren’t insipid characters. They are deep, archetypal and convey a great deal of wisdom all while serving as intriguing characters that easily surpass most of those of the past twenty years.

What might boggle the modern mind even more is that Penelope never picks up the sword, never attacks the invaders of her home. No, she’s placid and composed as still water, never letting anything they do or say disturb her. She strives instead to keep calm and protect the house as best she can.

How does she accomplish this?

Simple; by telling them, ‘sure she’ll marry one of them; when she’s finished her funeral shroud’ and finished her mourning for Odysseus. Naturally as she’s Queen and their hostess they can’t really say no to her requests. House-Guest Rights demand that they respect her wishes.

But this is where she shows that she’s no less clever than her husband. No sooner does she sew the shroud than she begins to plug away the stitches she’s planted. In this way at night she ends up undoing the day’s work. Apparently she keeps this up for a number of years, until at last the suitors pick up on the fact that she’s been duping them (they’re not terribly perceptive it seems).

That said, the character of Penelope is one that can be said to personify the virtue of Chastity, but also that of Fidelity. She’s Chaste in mind, heart and body as she considers herself reserved only for her husband. A faithfulness that cannot in Greek Mythology be taken for granted as there were few women who remained wholly faithful to their husbands.

That said her Fidelity is put to the test time and again over the course of 20 years. One can safely say that she’s the greatest of all the Greek heroines, precisely because she remains steadfast and never wavers. Hers is a resolve no less steely than that of her husband.

One could also conclude rather safely that theirs’ is the greatest of all the Ancient Greek love-stories. The reason being that the couple long for one another all throughout the tale, and are madly in love and yet time and again everyone conspires to keep them separated from one another.

They also do not have a young lover’s sort of passion but that of middle-age, one that can only be best described by the Second Letter Corinthians by Saint-Paul: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

It is in many ways the love-story that stands as the ‘Rock’ for much of the ‘Greek-descended’ civilizations that once filled up Christendom.

In a world that reveres Katniss, or whomever the boss-girl of the week is to-day we ought to set before our girls’ the example of Penelope instead. Queen Penelope is the one who against all odds, against all advise, all wishes by those around her clings to the man she swore herself to.

She clutches at him, at his every gift, and at the love they shared to help her survive the years, to help her endure the loneliness and pain until at last he returns home. This alone makes her shine as a ‘Queen Archetype’ character, since as Odysseus grows old, changes and longs and transforms in terms of character development and as a figure so too does she.

Because of this they make the perfect literary couple. So in short; guys go for a Penelope, not a Circe.

Homesickness as the Story’s Main Theme

The Welsh have an amazing term, one that’s been gaining ever more popularity with good reason. That term is Hiraeth, which in the dictionary means: “deep longing for something, especially one's home.”

This is the prevalent theme of the story (if you haven’t picked up on it). It is also the predominant trait that seems to fill every character so that in some way, in some sense they all personify Hiraeth.

Take a look at the following quote from the Odyssey, where Odysseus bursts into tears on the island of Calypso.

“She found him sitting on the shore, and from his eyes the tears were never dried ; his sweet life ebbed away in longings for his home, because the nymph pleased him no more.”

This is just one of the many passages in the book where we see Odysseus break down, wail and bemoan his fate. He never resists Calypso but he never gladly takes to her bed. In this regard we arrive at the main thrust of the story; homesickness.

But what’s so fascinating about this story is that it isn’t just Odysseus who longs for his home, but every other character also. Odysseus is just the lead of the story and the one who is on the physical journey back home. Each of the mortal characters long in some fashion for their home or for a place to call their own.

Penelope is never truly at home as she is under siege by an army of suitors who repulse her. Telemachus has lost his home to an army of men who would just as soon kill him after they claim his father’s throne as they would his mother, so that he must as the man of the house step up.

What is more is that the likes of Helen is filled with Hiraeth, she longs for her home in Troy, since it was the last time she was happy, or so the text implies when we do see her.

Calypso longs for home in the form of a lover, who will love her for who she is. Certainly she becomes greedy for Odysseus, and keeps him against his will, but this doesn’t mean that she isn’t a pitiable character in her own right.

There’s also Argos the Hound. The most loyal dog in Mythology, has over the past twenty years since he first saw Odysseus leave Ithaka remained devastated and faithful to his memory. Longing to see Odysseus he waits for him, as the far-wandering King is who he considers to be his home. The death of Argos is one of the most tragic events in the whole of the Odyssey, and is something that shatters Odysseus but also strengthens him so that he can reclaim what is his.

This brings into question; is home a thing or a person? This is arguably I think a question we all must ask ourselves at some point in our lives. In the case of Odysseus it is his family (his wife, son and dog). In the case of Penelope it is her son and husband, with Telemachus it is his father and mother. The palace they live in is essentially irrelevant, it is a mere ‘thing’ and not a person.

The real longing is for a person. They are what make his homeland what it is.

The whole of the cast of characters of the book clearly suffer from the same sense of loss, the same debilitating Hiraeth. So that not for nothing I dubbed in one of my prior essays the coming age one that is likely to be ‘Ulyssian’ in nature, as what people in the modern age seem to long for their home also. It has been torn from us, and been denied to us and this is the main struggle of the Modern Age, and the main one that we must endure that we might reclaim what was ours.

Each age has its own struggles, ours is the Ulyssian one of finding our way home, reclaiming it as Odysseus does in the final act and then harvesting and beautifying it as he spends his last years doing with his family.

The desire to find and make one’s home and to throw out the rats that have infested it is timeless for a reason, and it is why this story has survived through the ages and been passed down from father to son across almost three thousand years and will continue to be passed down from this day, on to the ending of the world!

Odysseus you see didn’t just triumph over the villainous suitors, over the gods and over other monsters but over time itself. That will always be his greatest conquest.

If my overview of the story has pleased you, hopefully you’ll consider reading my own attempt at a Homeric epic in the form of the Herakliad (or Herakles & the Twelve Labours) if you prefer;

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