The book opens with, "Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns..." This contrasts to the Iliad that opens with, "Rage — Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles..." Both openings set the tone for the rest of the epic. This will be a story of the adventure of a wily man, in contrast to the tale telling the results of the rage of a warrior.
We start with Athena telling Odysseus' son Telemachus to go and try to find out what happened to his father. He has grown up in the 20 years Odysseus has been away fighting at Troy and trying to return home to Ithaca. The others arrived 10 years earlier, yet Telemachus and his mother, Penelope, hold out hope for Odysseus' return. His home has been overrun by gluttonous suitors who have plans to kill him and marry his mother.
Telemachus starts his journey to the island home of King Nestor. Nestor can give him details of the fight, but not much more after that. So Telemachus heads off to the home of Menelaus and his wife Helen, she being the cause of the Trojan War in the first place. Menelaus can give him more information, but not what he is really seeking. Neither can tell him where his father is now.
Suddenly, the scene switches to Olympus where Athena convinces Zeus to send Hermes to tell the nymph Calypso, who has been holding Odysseus hostage to let him go. Off he sails, but because he has incurred the wrath of Poseidon, he is shipwrecked on the utopian island of Phaeacia. He makes his way to the palace where he is asked to tell the tale of how he came to be upon their shores. So follows most of the rest of the book.
He left Troy with his men and plenty of plunder. They first stop to gain more plunder at the nearby Ismarus. Returning to the homeward journey, they are blown off course for nine days. They arrive at the island of the Lotus-eaters. There, some of his men join the natives in consuming this plant which causes memory loss. Odysseus must drag his protesting and crying men back onto the boat to proceed with their journey or they may never have remembered their task.
Their next stop is the island of the Cyclops. There he meets a murderous son of Poseidon, and we learn the cause of his fury. In order to escape the fierce clutches of the monster, Odysseus blinds the one eye with a red-hot poker. As part of his innate trickiness, he has told the giant that his name is Nobody. Then, as the monster cries in agony, "Nobody is attacking me." Odysseus can be assured that none will come to the rescue.
The remaining crew set sail again and land at the island of Laestrygonia, where giants proceed to eat the men for dinner. They flee to the island of the nymph, Circe. She turned Odysseus' men into swine! When he goes to rescue them, she seduces him and keeps him trapped with luxurious living on her island for a year. Finally he and his men plead to leave. She agrees as long as he agrees to go to Hades and speak to a dead prophet, Tiresias. He will tell Odysseus the way to go. In the kingdom of the dead, he meets not only the prophet, but his own dead mother and the dead warriors from the Trojan War. He sees that although death can seem an easy way out of his troubles, this is not where he wants to be.
They return to the island of Circe to bury the body of one of the shades met in the underworld. She gives Odysseus further direction: they must avoid the siren's song at all cost. Odysseus is to plug up the ears of his men and ties himself to the mast as they pass. Otherwise they will be tempted to join the beautiful women who promise love and companionship and the means of reliving the past. But death is their destination. She also words of warning about a pass with a raging whirlpool, Charybdis, on one side and a "grisly monster," Scylla, lurking on the other. Finally she warns them not to kill the cattle of the sun god, no matter how tempting.
They pass through these trials, losing a few men to Scylla, but Odysseus' men, starving by this point, cannot pass up on the chance to eat the cattle of the sun god. He has warned them, but it is too late. They set off and the sun has his revenge. He destroys their vessel and all in it save Odysseus. Clinging to piece of the ship, he is swept onto the island of the nymph, Calypso.
Hearing his whole story causes the compassionate and hospitable Phaeacians to load him with gifts and safe passage home. They leave him on Ithaca with his treasure in a deep sleep. When they return to their island, still angry Poseidon gets permission from Zeus to turn them to stone and ring the island with a mountain so they can never again help a stranger home.
Once home, Athena disguises him as a beggar. He wants to see the lay of the land. Odysseus finds his son and reveals himself to him. They make a plan to kill the suitors with the help of a few faithful servants. When Odysseus finally reveals himself to Penelope, she is wary that he is a trick of the gods. She offers to have her bed moved out into another area for him to sleep on. He becomes enraged that the bed he made from the trunk of an olive tree would be something to be moved. She sees he is the real thing and they are reunited.
All that remains is to reveal himself to his father and make sure the dead suitors families are held at bay. The story ends happily for Odysseus' family.
The book is ultimately about the importance of family and home. Odysseus is an ambitious man, sure of himself in any situation, yet even he becomes weary. It is only the siren call of home that keeps him going. Many times, he is tempted to give up. He can give into the sirens and momentarily converse with those who know the details of his glorious battles in Troy. He can live happily with Circe. Beautiful Calypso has offered him immortality. He can let down his guard for a minute and be consumed by the cyclops or Scylla or the Laestrygonians. But he continues to battle, even when all is against him. His journey into hades has convinced him that death is not an option. His certainty in the faithfulness of his wife, the desire for his son, and his mission to reclaim his place keeps him going.
Discussion questions from the course:
- Why does Homer begin by invoking the Muse?
I believe that Homer wants the Muse to help him tell the story as accurately as he can. He wants the details preserved and he wants to represent Ulysses honestly in the story. He wants the moral lessons to come shining through to his audience. - How does the cleverness of Odysseus reveal timeless truths about human nature?
Ulysses is constantly referred to as "clever Ulysses." There seems to be this idea that our lives can be summed up in a word. Perhaps that's true. Perhaps when all is said and done, our characteristics morph into one overriding trait. Ulysses is many things. He is brave. He is a loving husband. He wants to be a faithful father. He is a loyal son. He is a tremendous warrior. He is a risk taker. He wants to experience all life has to offer. Yet in the end, he is called "clever" or "wily." Why? Because no matter what Ulysses puts his mind to, the cleverness, the sense of manipulation is always present. He wants to experience the Sirens call, so he finds a way to hear it without succumbing to it. He wants reunite with his wife, but he must do it under a disguise, ostensibly to test her faithfulness. He wants to explore the land of the Cyclops, but must resort to trickery to escape it. He repeated lies about who he is and where he came from. It seems that Homer is right. Maybe most people can be reduced to a single trait. - What are some major themes of the poem, and how are they represented by Homer?
One major theme is the importance of family. Ulysses is constantly guided by his desire to return home to his wife and son. While the extreme length of the journey leads one to wonder just how committed he is to the cause, he always returns to the forgotten path. Even when offered immortality by Calypso, he eventually pulls himself away and begins the journey home again. I think this points to the fact that family is the ultimate good. No matter what twists and turns life throws at us, we can always go home. We should always strive to maintain those relationships, because in the end, nothing else satisfies like family.
Other themes referenced in the work are hospitality, appearances, faithfulness, and maturation.
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