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Odysseus - Part 2 Before Christmas I had ended my mail saying ... "this also the story of a sailor and one who returns home after a long, long absence. And thirdly, the hero moves between the poles of the world whichwere opened by the initial efforts of colonialism. Interesting is also how Christianity treated Odyssey, and what Dante wrote about it." Now for the second part... This is also a story of a sailor, of a sailor who returns home finally, of one who loses almost everything, who is hindered from returning home, who is subjected to all kinds of misfortunes, of a husband and a father who is away for a long, long time. He is believed to be lost and finally given up for dead. People swarm around his pretty wife and want her and her property. They force her to declare that her husband is dead, and to choose one of them. Just at the last moment, he returns home but has to undergo many kinds of tests of his intelligence, endurance and strength before he can really feel at home. The hero moves between the poles of the world as it was known then. The entire mediterranean sea with all its islands and peoples, wars and dangers, dealers and pirates is the stage. The eastern and the western coast, Sicily, Italy, gulf of Gibraltar, all the sea routes and travel times are described in detail. In those places the virtues that are important are different from those that count on the plains of Skamandros. Even when Odysseus is stranded on the coasts of Phaeaken (English ??), his body crusted with salt, he is still "the very best of all the mortals, in deeds and in words". Even Athena regards him so. The sentences (Odyssee, 13, 291-295, 331f) which describe her sentiments are the virtues which make Odysseus the symbol of what is unperishable in a human being. Homer speaks little of his dark sides. It was left to his critics and to the later dramatists of the 5th century to talk about these aspects. See, for example, Euripides in Hekuba (ca. 425), Sophokles in Philoket (ca. 409).... The Christian tradition banished Odysseus to the hell. It could not be otherwise. The unsatiable wish to experience everything, to know everything is a sacrilage as it destroys the family and challenges the God. Thus Dante made him recite his story after he escaped from Ithaca, in the form of a confession of a man who knew no limits... Well, that is a taste of how differently Odysseus has been thought of in the European literature. Now I am ready to read what Rasik wrote about Ulysses and Joyce. Before I end, I would like to say few other things: (a) Ulysses is the English version of the latin name Ulyxes whose original Greek version is Odysseus. (b) One can read on the web the entire Odyssey at: (c) There is another beautiful website on Joyce at: Now off to Rasik's mail including the blooming of Molly in Mysore. Are you reading cj? Chandra |