The Greeks had an oral tradition that was transferred generation by generation with poems. These poems were not based on random stories. They were based on history and current events of the time. The Odyssey is one of them. The Odyssey was written in the year 700 B. C. E. in Greece by Homer. Homer is considered the greatest poet and the first one. Although the Greeks know about the life of other poets before Homer, there is not any document to probe it. One of the biggest Homer's poems' characteristics is that they start in the middle of the action, in the middle of an important fact. The Iliad is based on the Trojan War, and The Odyssey is the homecoming adventure. These two poems are considered the base of the western literature. In The Odyssey Homer tells us the story of Odysseus, the great hero. With the cleverness of Odysseus, he and his army won the Trojan War, but now after 20 years he starts his homecoming adventure. Homer gives us a lot of descriptions during the poem about Odysseus. Homer made it visible the difference between a good warrior and a good man. Although Odysseus is considered a great hero, some of the passages of the poem show us the dark side of him.
During the first part of the poem, Homer introduces the story and Odysseus "Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story / of that man skilled in all ways of contending."1 Homer invokes a one of the goddesses of inspiration before he starts the poem itself. From the beginning of the poem, Homer shows that the religion is a big part of the Greek culture. The
Gods can decide the luck and the destiny of every mortal. "I fed him, loved him, sang that he should not die / nor grow old, ever, in all the days to come. / But now there's no eluding Zeus's will."(5.142-144). Even the gods have some limitations of power. Although they can control the time and the nature of the things, they have no absolute power. They have Zeus that is the king of the Gods; therefore he is the most powerful God in the poem and in the Greek culture. Odysseus is helped and guided for Athena goddess of the war. But even with that protection, he was apparently stuck in Kalypso's island. He was in that island for 20 years forgetting in some way his wife, son and status of lord of Ithaka. Also our hero Odysseus had very strong discriminatory issues. "Now, by my life, mankind again! But who? / Savages, are they, strangers to courtesy? / Or gentle folks, who know and fear the gods"" (6. 129-131). He made an interesting separation between men, the savages or the gentle Greek folks. If somebody did not have the Greek culture as the religion, could be considered a savage. All savages were treated as animals, without any kind of respect. Odysseus shows all the discrimination that he has in his mind.
Trough the second part of the poem, Odysseus starts his new journey and the homecoming adventure. The first land that Odysseus and his crew landed is the Kikones Island. There Odysseus shows an aggressive attitude when in some way shows that if something is not Greek must to be killed. "I stormed that place and killed the men who fought. / Plunder we took, and we enslaved the women, / to make division, equal shares to all" (9. 47-49). Just in the first Odysseus' invasion, it seems that killing people and making slaves the women is something usual. After that land they arrived to the Lotos Eaters land. "Then I sent out two picked men and a runner / to learn what race of men that land sustained. / They fell in, soon enough, with Lotos Eaters, / who showed no will to do us harm, only / offering the sweet Lotos to our friends" (9. 96-100). They fell in a land of magic plants. Although all the problems could be in some way resolve and the entire mission could fail, Odysseus save his men from the effects of that plant. In the next land Odysseus found the Kyklopes Island, they were giants and just with a huge eye. Kyklopes after killing some of the men of the Odysseus' crew, Odysseus made Kyklopes to trust him. In a clever action, Odysseus lies to the trustful Kyklopes. "Kyklops, / you ask my honorable name? Remember / the gift you promised me, and I shall tell you. / My name is Nohbdy: mother, father, and friends, / everyone calls me Nohbdy." (9. 394-397). After a few minutes of wine and talking, the Kyklops was sleeping. Odysseus and his men insert a spike in the only eye of Kyklopes, destroying his vision completely at once. Although in a clever and strategic moments, Odysseus save most of his crew, he broke some moral rules like killing, lying and so forth.
During the last part of the poem Odysseus had more challenges and more situations where the future of his crew depends. "As the goddess ended, Dawn came stitched in gold. / Now Kirke dressed me in my shirt and cloak, / put on a grown of subtle tissue, silvery, / then would a golden belt about her waist / and veiled her head in linen, while I went through the hall to rouse my crew." (10. 598-603). Odysseus, the 20 years after the Trojan War ended, he lived in the Kalypso's Island. He started this homecoming journey because he had to go back with his wife and family. However, he could sleep with any other woman. When Odysseus finally arrived to Ithaka, he had a plan. He wanted to be camouflage for the public. He had the beggar appearance. The only person who knew this was his old servant. His servant introduced to Telémakhos. Odysseus explained him his plan. "Before long they will stand to right and left of us / in combat, in the shouting, when the test comes / our nerve against the suitors' in my hall. / Here is your part: at break of day tomorrow / home with you, go mingle with our princes. / The swineherd later on will take me down / the port-side trail a beggar, by my looks, hangdog and old. If they make fun of me / in my own courtyard, let your ribs cage up / your springing heart, no matter what I suffer, / no matter if they pull me by the heels or practice shots at me, to drive me out." (16. 317- 328). His master plan was to join the suitors in the way that he could see everything from inside. Although nobody should know that he was already in, there were some key moments where the entire plan could fail. "Tonight the image of my lord came by / as I remember him with troops. O strange / exultation! I thought him real, and not a dream." (20. 99-101). However, he was discovered by the old nurse that knew Odysseus since he was young. After the entire plan is finished he reveals himself to the suitors, he kills them all. "Oh, father, I am he! Twenty years gone, and here I've come again to your land!" (24. 354-356). Odysseus even in the end of the poem, he lies to his father saying that he was Quarrelman, king Allwoes' only son.
Odysseus from the beginning of the poem showed that although he is a wonderful warrior and in the standards of the time he was truly a heroic man, he couldn't be consider a hero in this time because he has immoral issues. The hero of this time, it's a person who fight for a reason and no matter what, that person always does well and for the good of somebody else. Odysseus has fought for a reason, but although he did well almost everything, some of the things he did were immoral and wrong. Also we can see that Odysseus was a hero for Ithaka. But if we see Odysseus with an impartial point of view, he has not too many things to consider him a hero.
Works Cited
1 Homer, The odyssey. Translated by Robert Fitzgerald. Vintage Classics Edition. New York: 1990, p.1.
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