The Odyssey
Homer
Contributed by Joslyn Justiniano
Book 5-6
Summary

Summary: Book 5

Barring Poseidon, all the gods gather again on Mount Olympus to discuss Odysseus’ fate. Athena’s speech in support of the Greek hero forces Zeus to intervene. Hermes, messenger of the gods, is sent to Calypso’s island to persuade her to leave Odysseus so that he can return home. In reply, Calypso vehemently indicts the male gods and their double standards. She complains that the male gods are allowed to take the mortal lovers but the female gods must always be left to suffer. Finally, she honors the supreme will of Zeus. By now, Odysseus is the lone survivor from the group that he led to Troy. All his crew and boats have been destroyed during the voyage but calypso surprisingly helps him build a new boat and replenishes it with provisions from her island. She is sad, still she watches her object of desire sails away to his home.

After 18 days at sea, Odysseus reaches Scheria, the island of the Phaeacians, it is his next destination appointed by the gods.
Coincidentally, Poseidon, who is coming back from a trip to the land of the Ethiopians, sees him and realizes that the other gods have done kind to him in his absence. Poseidon kicks up a storm to drown Odysseus but the goddess Ino comes to his rescue. Ino provides a veil that keeps him safe after his ship is wrecked. Now out of the deep sea, Athena too comes to the rescue of Odysseus as he is tossed back and forth against the jagged rocks of the coast. Odysseus’ prayers are finally answered when a river up the coast of the island allows him to swim into its waters. As commanded by Ino, Odysseus throws his protective veil back into the water and walks into the forest in the island to take rest.

Summary: Book 6

That night, Athena, disguised as a friend, appears in the dream of Phaeacian princess Nausicaa. She guides the princess to wash her clothes in the river next day. In this way, she will look more appealing to the men courting her. Nausicaa goes to the river next morning and while she and her handmaidens are naked, playing ball as their clothes dry on the ground, Odysseus encounters them. He is himself naked, yet he humbly pleads for their assistance without revealing his identity. The princess leaves him alone to take a bath. Athena makes Odysseus look handsome so that when Nausicaa sees him again she falls in love with him. Afraid of walking into the city with a strange man, Nausicaa gives Odysseus directions to the palace. She even advises him on how to approach Arete, queen of the Phaeacians, when he meets her. Odysseus sets out for the palace with a prayer to Athena for hospitality from the Phaeacians.

Analysis

The first encounter with Odysseus confirms the reader what has already been told about him by Menelaus and Helen. Odysseus' feats during the Trojan War would have already been known to Homer’s audience. Odysseus is known to Greek audience as a very cunning and deliberative person. Homer shows him weighing every decision, whether to try landing against the rocky coast of Scheria or to rest by the river. He finally weighs the option of resting inside the forest and thinks it to be the safest.

Odysseus thinks it over whether to embrace Nausicaa’s knees, the customary gesture of supplication, or address her from a suitable distance. The cunning and calculative approach in these instances help the poet in making audiences believe of Odysseus’ warrior mentality. Odysseus is aggressive, determined and extremely self-confident but he is far from rash. At one point, he chooses to ignore the goddess Ino’s advice to abandon ship, trusting in his seafaring abilities, “It’s what seems best to me” (5.397). He makes a decision and turns his thought into action with speed and poise. His first meeting with Nausicaa is a good example of his inter-personal skills and charisma. His subdued approach comes off as “endearing, sly and suave” to Nausicaa and the readers (6.162).

While self-introspection is a characteristic of Odysseus, the inner debates are in some ways characteristic of the Odyssey as a whole.  Homer's Iliad explores the phenomena of human interaction — competition, aggression, warfare, and the glory that they can bring a man in the eyes of others. The Odyssey, on the other hand, is about the unseen universe of the human heart, feelings of loneliness, confusion, and despair. It is for this reason Homer introduces the protagonist Odysseus in a very unheroic way. He is sulking on a beach, alone, home-sick, imprisoned by love-struck goddess Calypso on her island. Although not entirely absent in the Iliad, these sort of pathetic scenes still seem far removed from the grand, glorious battles of the first epic.

There is no linguistic and historical evidence but some commentators, critics consider the stylistic divergence of scenes like this in the two epic poems as a strong proof of the separate authorship of these two poems.

Commentators have interpreted Calypso’s passionate speech to the gods in many different ways. For some, it is a realistic, unflinching account of the patriarchal culture in ancient Greece. While men of the mortal world, Zeus, and the other male gods indulge in promiscuous behavior, society expects females to be faithful at all times. Calypso’s diatribe is also taken as a reaction to this hypocrisy. There is a natural sympathy towards Calypso, who is making a passionate critique of social norms that are genuinely hypocritical. If we consider the relationship between Penelope and Odysseus, the interpretation becomes even trickier. Homer presents Odysseus’ affair with Calypso in a very normal tone but his tone becomes more much more probing at Penelope’s indulgence of the suitors, even though her faith in Odysseus never wavers. If Calypso’s speech is taken as a criticism of patriarchal norms, it can be seen how the text presents two contrary attitudes toward sexual behavior. Calypso’s speech points out and condemns the unfair double standards that Homer seems to apply to Penelope.

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