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Epic Explorations: Teaching the ‘Odyssey’ With The New York Times

By Ryan R. Goble and Elizabeth Wiersum

• March 21, 2019

Homer’s Muse still sings.

His epic tale follows the wily warrior Odysseus as he twists and turns his way back home to the shores of Ithaca after fighting a 10-year war at Troy. As readers everywhere know, the story’s themes of homecoming and hospitality, hubris and humility, suffering and survival continue to resonate across the centuries.

Three recent books show that much remains to be said and discovered about the epic and its relationship to our lives today. In 2017, the first English translation of the “Odyssey” by a woman, the British classicist Emily Wilson , was published to much acclaim , replacing older translations on some high school and college syllabuses. The same year, Daniel Mendelsohn’s memoir, “ An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic, ” recounted what happened when his 81-year old father decided to sit in on the author’s seminar on the “Odyssey” at Bard College. And in the spring of 2018, Madeline Miller released “ Circe, ” a novel written from the enchantress’s perspective that expands her story both before and after her affair with Odysseus.

Below, five lesson ideas that draw on Times resources to help students navigate the wine-dark seas and discover how the “Odyssey” might speak to their own lives and the world around them.

Five Teaching Ideas

1. The Hero’s Journey

Daniel Mendelsohn explains in his memoir that the word “odyssey” has three meanings: “voyage,” “journey,” and “travel.” As an epic poem, the ”Odyssey” further prepares us for a long narrative told on a grand scale of time and place, featuring a larger-than-life protagonist who is also Western civilization’s oldest hero. Odysseus, whose very name echoes “odyssey,” is often translated to mean “son of pain.” Taken together the man and his journey seem fated for hardship.

At a time when more than 65 million people around the world are officially displaced from their homes by conflict, violence and persecution — the highest figure recorded by the United Nations since World War II — The Times has chronicled many real-life odysseys in reports of those journeys. Invite students to read articles like “ What Refugees Face on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route ” and “ Desperate Crossin g” to learn more, and to find links to themes and ideas in the “Odyssey.” (For more on teaching with this material, you might also consider some of the questions and activities suggested in this Learning Network lesson plan .)

But epic journeys have also been fodder for comedy. Examples include the cartoonist Roz Chast’s take on the hero’s journey , Brian Gordon’s modern take on the Sirens , Lapham’s Quarterly Odyssey Game (tagline: “lose years, gain strength, return to wife”) and the doughnut-fueled “ Lemon of Troy” episode of “The Simpsons” (Season 6, Episode 24), featuring America’s favorite cartoon dad.

The archetypal hero’s journey takes many forms and is particularly accessible for students through film. Have them read Times reviews of a favorite superhero film, like “ Black Panther ,” “ Wonder Woman ” or “ Iron Man ,” then write their own review explaining how the hero develops. They can do this either using the stages of Joseph Campbell’s hero cycle , or compare the journeys of their chosen protagonist to Odysseus’ journey.

While any Marvel or DC Comics hero should suffice, students can also look to animated films such as “ The Incredibles ” and “ Wall-E ,” dramas like “ The Natural ,” “ Glory ,” “ A Better Life ,” or classic comedies like “ Coming to America ,” “ Goonies ,” “ Back to the Future ” or even “ Some Like It Hot .”

2. On Xenia

Xenia is the Greek concept of hospitality. In the “Odyssey,” it is both a civic responsibility — serving the weary traveler who landed on the shores of one’s front door — and a spiritual duty, for it would always be entirely possible that the weary traveler could end up being a god in disguise.

The Learning Network runs an annual Connections Contest , in which students are invited to link anything they’re studying in school with something in the news. This year, one of the winners , Alex Iyer, a student from San Antonio, linked Homer’s “Odyssey” with the Times piece, “ As Rich Nations Close the Door on Refugees, Uganda Welcomes Them ” and talked about the role of xenia in both. Here is his essay:

In literature, we learned that in Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey,” Homer uses the tribulations of the hero Odysseus to illustrate the Ancient Grecian custom of xenia. This custom focused on extending hospitality to those who found themselves far from home. As Odysseus navigates the treacherous path back to his own home, he encounters both morally upstanding and malevolent individuals. They range from a charitable princess who offers food and clothing, to an evil Cyclops who attempts to murder the hero and his fellow men. In class, we agreed that Homer employs these contrasting characters to exemplify not only proper, but also poor forms of xenia. For the people of its time, the “Odyssey” cemented the idea that xenia was fundamental for good character; resulting in hospitality becoming engrained in the fabric of Ancient Grecian society. I saw a parallel to this in a New York Times article called “As Rich Nations Close the Door on Refugees, Uganda Welcomes Them” published on October 28, 2018. Similar to the prevalent custom of xenia in Ancient Greece, Uganda has made hosting refugees a national policy. The country is now occupied by up to 1.25 million refugees, many of whom are fleeing the violent unrest of South Sudan. The xenia of Homeric times implied a mutually beneficial relationship between host and guest. We see this in Uganda, where villagers share land with South Sudanese refugees. Grateful for this generosity, the refugees gladly help out with farming, carpentry, and even translation. Many Ugandans remember when they themselves had to look to Sudan for sanctuary. During the murderous rampages of Idi Amin and Joseph Kony, the Sudanese provided critical support to Ugandan refugees. These memories are motivating modern-day Ugandans to assist refugees, bringing the world a little closer to what xenia strived for over 2,000 years ago. Uganda and South Sudan are by no means wealthy utopias. However, xenia was never about the rich blindly giving to the poor. It aspired to foster symbiotic relationships of openness and inclusivity that would endure through time. It’s interesting that a quaint Greek ideal from thousands of years ago would find a practical application in Uganda. When Amos Chandiga was asked why he lent two acres of his own land to refugees, he simply responded “They asked me, and I gave it to them.” He then patted his chest and said “It comes from here, in my heart.” Perhaps this can serve as a lesson to Americans, as we grapple with modernizing our own asylum policies. Teaching us that, whether rich or poor, open borders give way to open hearts.

You might challenge students to find more articles in The Times that relate to xenia, the spirit behind welcoming the stranger — pieces like “ Refugees Encounter a Foreign Word: Welcome ,” “ Love Thy Stranger As Thyself, ” “ A Lesson on Immigration From Pablo Neruda ,” “ Texas Pulls Up the Welcome Mat ” and “ Where Companies Welcome Refugees .”

And since school functions as students’ September-through-June “home,” they might then work with their counselors and student government to develop a welcoming committee, mission statement, and a set of resources that would have them sharing their hospitality to all those who make their way to the shores of the school, whether incoming freshmen, transfer students, parents at an open house, or athletes visiting the school for a sporting event or competition. They may also work to propose programs and extracurricular activities to ensure that students from diverse backgrounds have a welcome place at the school.

3. Epic Music Playlists

The British author and screenwriter Nick Hornby explained the art of the mixtape his 1995 novel "High Fidelity,” which was later adapted into film . His protagonist, Rob Flemings, explains:

To me, making a tape is like writing a letter — there’s a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You’ve got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention … and then you’ve got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch … and you can’t have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you’ve done the whole thing in pairs and … oh, there are loads of rules.

In the digital age, we still use the analog concept of a “mixtape" to talk about digital playlists or a compilation of related songs. (For example, consider the “ Hamilton Mixtape .”) Many of the playlists streamed on Pandora, Spotify and Apple Music are curated by algorithms based on listener data . That said, these services and others like Mixcloud and SoundCloud also celebrate human curation.

The Times has covered many notable playlists. A Vows column explored how songs texted between a Hollywood couple became the Spotify “mixtape” for their Palm Springs wedding; the Food section wrote about a musician who curated a soundscape for a restaurant ; Politics covered a presidential playlist ; and the Arts section featured the playlist one nonfiction writer created to accompany his book on hip-hop. (Meanwhile, this piece in The Guardian covers the playlists that fiction writers like Stephen King create that are inspired by their books’ characters or themes.)

The New York Times Music section shares weekly playlists of notable new music and videos, and they maintain a Spotify profile with playlists related to their criticism and reporting. The Learning Network has even asked students to share their favorite playlists in the past.

Inspired by these, we created a playlist for the “Odyssey,” which focuses on allusions or retellings of Homer’s epic poem.

See what you think, then tell us: What playlist might you make? Your tracks can be informed by a character’s point of view: How would Telemachus’ playlist differ from Athena’s? Would Calypso’s playlist sound anything like Penelope’s? Students might also create a playlist that addresses a theme like courage or deception, or design one that mirrors the plot in some way, as does a movie soundtrack. Whatever songs you think will capture a unique musical point-of-view of Homer’s epic tale, we invite you to share them as a comment on this lesson, or by tagging us on Twitter @NYTimesLearning .

Finally, you might check out the Learning Network lesson plan “ Nine Teaching Ideas for Using Music to Inspire Student Writing ” to find even more ideas for creating playlists related to topics you are studying in class.

4. Here Be Monsters

Monsters are here, there and everywhere in film and literature. Many Times articles have explored monsters as metaphor. Film Critics have written about what movie monsters teach us about our cultures , childhoods or, most recently, how racism ise the monster in director Jordan Peele’s award-winning film “Get Out .”

Literary and historical monsters are also rich sources for discussion. During Odysseus’ journey he encounters a wide range of supernatural creatures, including the Sirens, Cyclops and the Lotus Eaters. He is caught between the famous Scylla and Charybdis and, at Circe’s behest, visits the Underworld. Many of these places and characters can be read as metaphors for large challenges we face in life.

The New York-based nonprofit organization Artolution recently asked students, “What would creatures in a world without violence look like?” Their short film shows elementary students imagining and creating peaceful creatures. We’d like to suggest a Homeric riff on this idea. Ask students, “What type of monsters would a school-aged Odysseus encounter if he were to spend three years in your middle school or four years in your high school?” Students can draw or use a free monster-making app like this one to create their creatures. You might also share Andrew Bell’s ‘Creatures in My Head ’ website for inspiration. Artwork should be accompanied by a creative narrative or poem about their monster and how it was inspired by “The Odyssey.”

5. Lasting Legacies

It is a minor character in the “Odyssey” who develops one of its most vital themes — the importance of one’s legacy.

Elpenor, one of Odysseus’ men, suffers an unremarkable death, meeting his demise when he falls from a rooftop in a drunken stupor. His story becomes poignant when he meets his leader in the Underworld, and begs to be properly buried and remembered. He pleads:

Don’t sail off and desert me, left behind unwept … No, burn me in full armor, all my harness, heap my mound by churning gray surf — a man whose luck ran out — so even men to come will learn my story (11.79 - 85).

Elpenor’s desire for his story to outlive him highlights the human desire to achieve some mark of the immortality reserved for the gods. At The Times, a team of obituary writers does the important work of summing up those legacies, both for the famous and for those less well-known whose lives nonetheless “ put a wrinkle in the social fabric .” The 2016 documentary “ Obit ” follows that team, as you can see in the film’s trailer , embedded above. In it, Margalit Fox, one of the team, suggests that “obits have next to nothing to do with death and in fact absolutely everything to do with the life.”

While Benjamin Franklin and others did write their own epitaphs, students need not imagine their own deaths in order to ponder the legacy they would like to leave behind. Students can read a selection of Times tributes that commemorate those who have made a lasting impression on the world. Recent tributes include reflections on Aretha Franklin , John McCain , Stan Mikita , and Mac Miller , as well as a collection of tributes The Times put together called “ Overlooked ” that celebrate remarkable people, mostly women, who did not receive a Times obituary when they died.

Students can jigsaw those we suggested or choose someone who interests them . In groups, students might then use these learning experience organizers to think about what makes a life well lived. (Organizers for “cartoonist,” “framer” or “lawyer” work nicely here.) After this process students can brainstorm their life goals for school using the WOOP (Wish-Outcome-Obstacle-Plan) goal-writing method . The “Hidden Brain” podcast and related book explain the science behind the method.

Have students imagine that, 25 years after their graduation, they have been chosen to receive the distinguished alumnus or alumna award for their class. What will the nominating committee say about them? How will they describe what they have achieved and the legacy it will leave for their chosen field? Or, if students would rather write about someone else, have them reflect on the legacy of someone they know personally, such as a friend, parent or mentor.

Let students have fun and focus on making meaning of a life well lived for whatever legacy they choose to write. If they would like to muse about their own lives, invite them to contribute comments to a recent Learning Network Student Opinion question, What Legacy Do You Want to Leave Behind? They could also consider making a mixed media collage about their own or someone else’s legacy, as suggested in this lesson plan by the artist and teacher Clara Lieu.

Selected Additional Resources

From Around the Web:

• To give your students a useful summary before reading scenes and excerpts from Homer’s poem, try this resource from The Conversation that describes the story and its themes, as well as its links to films like “ O Brother Where Art Thou? ” and, more loosely, “ 2001: A Space Odyssey ” and “ Paris, Texas .”

• Creative visual retellings include Gareth Hinds’s graphic novel “ The Odyssey ,” Marvel’s comic series from 2008-2009 and the Eisner Award-winning cartoonist Eric Shanower’s multivolume Trojan War series, “ Age of Bronze .” Readers of all ages will benefit from Marcia William’s beautiful and succinct picture book retelling of the “Iliad” and “Odyssey.” And here is a rubric designed by the instructional coach Nessa Slowinski and the English teacher Lauren Schewe, our colleagues at Glenbard West High School , to help students do comic annotations of the “Odyssey,” as modeled by Nick Sousanis ’s comics studies class at San Francisco State University.

• Brandon Bourgeois has been working on a hip-hop version of the “Odyssey” since he was a graduate student in classics, while students at the University of Michigan have made modern interpretations of Homer’s work the subject of “ The Translation Game .” An anthropomorphic take can be found in Gwen Cooper’s “ Homer’s Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat .”

• If you are teaching the “Odyssey” as part of a humanities course you might explore the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Resource for Educators: Greek Art from Prehistoric to Classical and the Art Institute of Chicago’s resource packet that puts the African-American experience in dialogue with Homer through the Harlem Renaissance artist Romare Bearden’s collage “The Return of Odysseus (Homage to Pintoricchio and Benin).”

• Poems that consider the “Odyssey” from different angles abound. Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “ Ulysses ” imagines Odysseus years after his return to Ithaca, bored and longing again for adventure. Margaret Atwood’s much-anthologized “ Siren Song ” transfers attention to the half-female half-bird mythical creatures. And Louise Glück ’s 1996 collection, “Meadowlands,” is a poetic exploration of the relationship between Odysseus and Penelope. Teachers might also join a Twitter discussion about poems to teach with the “Odyssey.”

From The New York Times:

1997 Arts Article: All-Nighter With the ‘Odyssey’ Two Stamford High School English teachers gave their freshmen students a challenge: How about spending 17 hours overnight at the school to study nearly 500 pages of Homer’s “Odyssey,” hearing it aloud as the epic poet might have offered the adventures of Odysseus to his hungry listeners 2,700 years ago?

1998 Op-Ed: An Odyssey The children who sit before me saw in Homer’s hero that one person can be both powerful and foolish, equally full of influence and errors. When my students learn to see this in themselves, they will become — at last — good leaders.

2007 Op-Ed: The Odyssey Years There used to be four common life phases: childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age. Now, there are at least six: childhood, adolescence, odyssey, adulthood, active retirement and old age. Of the new ones, the least understood is odyssey, the decade of wandering that frequently occurs between adolescence and adulthood.

2008 Science Article: Homecoming of Odysseus May Have Been in Eclipse Two scientists have concluded that the homecoming of Odysseus possibly coincided with a solar eclipse in 1178 B.C.

2008 Book Review: A Long, Strange Trip A British classics professor traces the lengthy shadow Homer’s “Odyssey” casts across Western culture.

2009 Op-Ed: Back From War, but Not Really Home A sense of dislocation has been shared by veterans returning from war since Homer conjured Odysseus’ inauspicious return some 2,800 years ago. ( Related Learning Network lesson plan )

2010 T Magazine Article: Speak Easy | Laura Marling An interview with a musician inspired by The “Odyssey.”

2011 Travel Article: Lost in the Odyssey Inspired by Odysseus, who took 10 years to get to Ithaca from the coast of Turkey, an 11-day journey of epic beauty, hospitality and frustrating ferry schedules.

2011 Video and Article: Odysseus in Socrates Sculpture Park and Odysseus Is Parading Into Queens Using puppets and much imagination, two artists are bringing “The Odyssey” to a riverfront park in Long Island City.

2015 Theater Review: ‘The Odyssey’ Takes a Populist Turn as a Musical Professional actors like Brandon Victor Dixon and amateur entertainers combine to turn this adaptation of Homer’s poem into a vibrant tapestry.

2016 Book Review: ‘Why Homer Matters,’ by Adam Nicolson For the voyager Adam Nicolson, Homer is impossible to understand while sitting behind a desk.

2017 Magazine Article: The First Woman to Translate the ‘Odyssey’ Into English The classicist Emily Wilson has given Homer’s epic a radically contemporary voice.

2017 Science Article: A Grecian Artifact Evokes Tales From the ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’ An engraved stone with a finely detailed battle scene was found in the grave of a warrior buried about 1450 B.C.

2017: Book Review: A Version of Homer That Dares to Match Him Line for Line Emily Wilson’s landmark translation of the “Odyssey” matches the original’s line count while drawing on a spare, simple and direct idiom.

2018 Book Review: Turning Circe Into a Good Witch In Madeline Miller’s latest adaptation of Greek myth, “Circe,” we encounter a thoughtful and compassionate woman who learns to love unselfishly.

Ryan R. Goble is the Teaching & Learning Coordinator at Glenbard Township High School District 87 Public Schools in Glen Ellyn, IL. and the co-author of Making Curriculum Pop: Developing Literacies across Content Areas .

Elizabeth Wiersum teaches English at Glenbard West High School in Glen Ellyn, IL.

• The Odyssey
• Literature Notes
• Major Themes in The Odyssey
• The Odyssey at a Glance
• Poem Summary
• About The Odyssey
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Books 13-14
• Books 15-16
• Character Analysis
• Athena (Pallas)
• Polyphemus (the Cyclops) and King Alcinous
• Circe and Calypso
• Character Map
• Homer Biography
• Critical Essays
• Major Symbols in The Odyssey
• Literary Devices of The Odyssey
• Famous Quotes from Homer's The Odyssey
• Film Versions of Homer's The Odyssey
• Full Glossary for The Odyssey
• Essay Questions
• Practice Projects
• Cite this Literature Note

Critical Essays Major Themes in The Odyssey

Hospitality

The major themes in The Odyssey are especially significant because they serve to form the moral and ethical constitution of most of the characters. The reader learns about the characters through the themes. The more complicated a character is, the more he or she engages these major themes. Therefore, the most complicated character, Odysseus, appropriately embodies each of the themes to one degree or another.

Thinking of hospitality as a major theme in a literary work may seem odd to modern readers. In Homer's world, however, hospitality is essential. Fagles and Knox (p. 45) refer to hospitality as a dominant part of "the only code of moral conduct that obtains in the insecure world of The Odyssey ."

Arriving strangers may be dangerous or harmless, and residents are wise to be prepared for trouble. Often, however, strangers are but wayfarers, probably in need of at least some kind of help. Similarly, the residents themselves — or their friends or kin — may, at some time, be wayfarers. Civilized people, therefore, make an investment in hospitality to demonstrate their quality as human beings and in hopes that their own people will be treated well when they travel. Furthermore, communications are very primitive in Homer's world, and strangers bring and receive news. It was through visitors that the Homeric Greeks learned about and kept abreast of what was happening in the world beyond their local areas.

Hospitality, or the lack of it, affects Odysseus throughout the epic, and the reader can judge civility by the degree of hospitality offered. Odysseus' own home has been taken over by a horde of suitors who crudely take advantage of Ithaca's long-standing tradition of hospitality. Telemachus and Penelope lack the strength to evict them, nor can they hope for much help from the community because the suitors represent some of the strongest families in the area. In his wanderings, Odysseus receives impressive help from the Phaeacians and, initially, from Aeolus. Circe is of great assistance after Odysseus conquers her, and the Lotus-eaters might be a little too helpful. On the other hand, the Sirens are sweet-sounding hosts of death, and Cyclops (Polyphemus) makes no pretense toward hospitality. In fact, Polyphemus scoffs at the concept and the gods that support it.

Zeus himself, king of the gods, is known as the greatest advocate of hospitality and the suppliants who request it; yet even he allows the sea god Poseidon to punish the Phaeacians for their generous tradition of returning wayfarers to their homelands.

Loyalty/Perseverance

Another personal virtue that is a major theme in the epic is loyalty. The most striking example of loyalty in the epic is, of course, Penelope, who waits faithfully for 20 years for her husband's return. Another example is Telemachus, who stands by his father against the suitors. Odysseus' old nurse, Eurycleia, remains loyal to Penelope and her absent master. Eumaeus, the swineherd, and Philoetius, the cowherd, are exemplary in their loyalty to their master and his possessions. Also an excellent if humble host, Eumaeus makes his king proud as he speaks respectfully of the royal family and abhors the invasion of the suitors.

In contrast are goatherd Melanthius and maidservant Melantho. Melanthius has become friendly with the suitors and insults Odysseus while the king is still in disguise. Melantho goes even further, sleeping with the enemy, showing disrespect for the queen, and insulting the beggar/Odysseus. The loyal servants are rewarded; those who betray their master are dealt with more harshly.

This issue, however, can be complicated because many of the people from whom Odysseus expects loyalty are actually his property. Even his wife, Penelope, literally belongs to her husband. As abhorrent as that may seem to a modern reader, possession is part of the justification for a double standard when it comes to sexual fidelity. Penelope is expected to be absolutely faithful to her husband. Given the account of the battle in the hall at the end of the epic, one might well imagine what would happen to her upon Odysseus' return if she were not. Odysseus, on the other hand, is not bound by the same expectation of fidelity.

Penelope and Odysseus especially embody the theme of perseverance. One of the reasons that they are well matched is that they are both survivors. Odysseus has been absent for 20 years, 10 at the Trojan War and 10 more in his journey home. According to the most aggressive of the suitors, Antinous, Penelope has persevered against the invaders for about four years (2.96), playing one against another and confronting them with cunning, most notably exemplified in her ruse of weaving a shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes.

Odysseus' perseverance is legendary, especially in the section of the epic involving his wanderings (Books 9-12). Through the use of guile, courage, strength, and determination, he endures. Perhaps the most difficult test of his perseverance as well as his loyalty is the seven years he spends as Calypso's captive, a situation he can neither trick nor fight his way out. Even when the beautiful goddess-nymph tempts him with immortality, Odysseus yearns for home.

Poseidon and Odysseus are the most noticeable representatives of the theme of vengeance. In order to escape from the cave of the Cyclops (Polyphemus), Odysseus blinds the one-eyed giant (Book 9). Unfortunately, the Cyclops is the sea god Poseidon's son; Odysseus has engaged a formidable enemy. Poseidon can't kill Odysseus because the Fates have determined that he will make it home. However, the sea god can help to fulfill his son's wish that Odysseus should arrive in Ithaca late, broken, and alone, his shipmates lost, and his household in turmoil (9.590-95). In one of the more controversial sections of the epic, Poseidon takes his frustration out on the Phaeacians whose only offense is following their tradition of hospitality by sailing Odysseus home (13.142 ff.).

Odysseus' vengeance is formidable when it is directed toward the suitors and his disloyal servants. He demonstrates impressive tolerance as he endures, in disguise, the insults and assaults of the suitor Antinous, the goatherd Melanthius, and the maidservant Melantho, for example. Each will die a gruesome death. In a surprise attack (Book 22), Odysseus kills the suitors' leader, Antinous, first with an arrow through the throat; he then kills smooth-talking Eurymachus, the other leading suitor, with an arrow in the liver. Melanthius and Melantho die more slowly after the slaughter of the suitors. Odysseus is avenging the suitors' lack of respect for and the servants' lack of loyalty to his office, his property, and his family.

Appearance vs. Reality

The theme of appearance versus reality is at the core of the relationship between Athena and Odysseus. Athena is the maven of makeovers. Her most memorable illusions in The Odyssey are disguises for herself or Odysseus. At the beginning of the epic, she appears to Telemachus as Mentes, king of the Taphians, an old friend of his father who has just stopped to visit in Ithaca. This allows her to encourage the prince and lead him into an expository discussion of the problems in the palace. However, she most famously appears to Telemachus as Mentor, an Ithacan adviser who helps to protect the prince from the murderous suitors and to guide him through his coming of age.

On several occasions, Athena changes Odysseus' appearance, either to disguise him or make him look even more formidable than he normally would. As Odysseus prepares for a banquet in his honor with the Phaeacians (8.20-22), for example, she alters his appearance to make him look taller, more massive, and more splendid in every way. When Odysseus returns to Ithaca in Book 13 of The Odyssey , Athena disguises him as an old beggar, even going so far as to shrivel his skin, remove the "russet curls" (13.456) from his head, and dim the fire in his eyes.

Of course, Odysseus is no stranger to disguise. During the Trojan War, he posed as a beggar to enter the city; he also initiated the ruse of the giant wooden horse filled with Greek soldiers, a story retold by the bard Demodocus, not realizing that the hero himself is present, during the visit to Phaeacia (8.559 ff.).

The recognition scenes with Odysseus' three family members on Ithaca provide significant and sometimes controversial twists on the theme of appearance vs. reality. He appears to his son, Telemachus, as a beggar who is visiting the family's pig farm. When they can be alone, Athena alters Odysseus' appearance to something so impressive that the prince wonders if he might not be a god. At the palace, the faithful nurse Eurycleia privately identifies Odysseus when she recognizes a scar on his leg as she bathes him; however, she vows to keep the news to herself.

Whether Penelope recognizes her husband, on the other hand, is a matter of dispute. Although at times she seems to suspect who he is, she does not officially accept him — though he wins the contest of the giant bow (Book 21) and slays the suitors (Book 22) — until he reveals his knowledge of their wedding bed. The meeting between Odysseus and his father, Laertes, (Book 24) is also somewhat controversial. Some critics argue that Odysseus, in maintaining his disguise, is needlessly cruel to the old man; others conclude that he helps to restore his father to dignity.

Athena admires Odysseus' craft and guile, saying that even a god would have to be "some champion lying cheat" (13.330) to get past him. Deception, illusion, lying and trickery often are thought to be admirable traits in The Odyssey . Athena enjoys them. It's easy to see why Odysseus is her favorite mortal.

Spiritual Growth

One of the questions often asked about a work of literature is whether the principal characters grow or develop as the story progresses. The theme of spiritual growth is central to The Odyssey , especially as it relates to Telemachus and Odysseus.

When the epic opens, Telemachus is at a loss as to how to deal with the suitors who have taken over his home and seek the hand of his mother in marriage for primarily political reasons. His own life is in danger; as a pretender to the crown, he is nothing more than so much excess baggage to the men who would be king. Telemachus needs to grow up fast. Following the usual pattern of a coming-of-age story, the youth sets out with good intentions and an admirable, if naïve, spirit. He faces various barriers, falters temporarily, but eventually prevails.

With Athena's help, Telemachus calls an assembly meeting of Ithaca's leaders and confronts the suitors. Although he speaks well, he finds very little realistic support in the community; nonetheless, he has taken the first step toward maturity.

At the suggestion of Athena, Telemachus visits two old comrades of Odysseus — King Nestor of Pylos and King Menelaus of Sparta — in hopes of learning of his father. At the courts of these great men, Telemachus learns more about himself and how a prince should comport himself than he does about Odysseus. Nevertheless, he is given some hope that his father will return. When Odysseus does come back, Telemachus survives the test of battle and earns his father's trust.

Odysseus' growth is less linear. He was already quite a man when he left for the Trojan War 20 years before. His trials have more to do with refinement of spirit; his growth is in the kind of wisdom and judgment that will make him a better king.

Early on, Odysseus feels compelled to taunt Polyphemus the Cyclops as he escapes from the one-eyed monster. Odysseus shouts his real name at the giant, making it possible for Polyphemus to identify his tormentor to Poseidon, the Cyclops' father. This brings Odysseus, and the Phaeacians, serious problems later.

When he returns to Ithaca, however, Odysseus behaves more prudently. He enters in disguise in order to obtain information about the enemy as well as knowledge of whom to trust. Even when he is taunted and assaulted by the suitors or his own servants, Odysseus manages to maintain his composure and postpone striking back. When he does strike, the time is perfect. By the end of the epic, Odysseus seems to be a wiser, more perceptive leader than he might have been had he sailed straight home from Troy.

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• In the News

What Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ can teach us about reentering the world after a year of isolation

Joel Christensen   is an associate professor of classical studies at Brandeis.  This article  is republished from  The Conversation .

In the ancient Greek epic “The Odyssey,” Homer’s hero, Odysseus, describes the wild land of the Cyclops as a place where people don’t gather together in public, where each person makes decisions for their own family and “ care nothing for one another .”

For Odysseus – and his audiences – these words mark the Cyclops and his people as inhuman. The passage also communicates how people should live: together, in cooperation, with concern for the common good.

Over the past year, we witnessed police violence, increasingly partisan politics and the continued American legacy of racism during a generation-defining pandemic. And for many, this was observed, at times, in isolation at home. I have worried about how we can heal from our collective trauma.

As a teacher of Greek literature , I am inclined to turn to the past to understand the present. I found solace in the Homeric epic “The Iliad” and its complex views about violence after the 9/11 attacks. And I found comfort in the Odyssey after my father’s unexpected death at 61, in 2011.

Similarly, Homer can help guide us as we return back to our normal worlds after a year of minimizing social contact. He can also, I believe, offer guidance on how people can heal.

Conversation and recognition

When Odysseus, a Trojan war hero who returns home after 10 years, first appears in the epic, he is weeping on the shore of an isolated island , watched over by the goddess Calypso, whose name, meaning “one who hides,” further emphasizes his isolation and separation. To make it from this barren shore to his family hearth, Odysseus needs to risk his life at sea again. But, in the process, he also rediscovers who he is in the world by reuniting with his family and his home, Ithaca.

Conversation is central to its plot. While Odysseus’ arrival on Ithaca is packed with action – he dons a disguise, investigates crimes and murders wrongdoers – in reality, the epic’s second half unfolds slowly. And much of it proceeds through the conversations among the characters.

When Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, is given refuge by his unknowing servant, Eumaios, the two of them speak at length, telling true stories and false ones to reveal who they are. Eumaios invites Odysseus with the following words: “ Let us take pleasure in our terrible pains : for after time a person finds joy even in pain, after they have wandered and suffered much.”

It might seem strange to think that recalling pain could give pleasure. But what “The Odyssey” shows us is the power of telling our stories. Pleasure comes from knowing pain is behind us, but it also comes from understanding where we fit in the world. This sense of belonging comes in part from other people knowing what we have experienced.

When Odysseus finally reunites with his wife, Penelope, after 20 years, they make love, but then Athena, Odysseus’ patron and goddess of wisdom and war, lengthens the night so they can take pleasure in telling each other everything they have suffered . The pleasure lies in the moments of sharing.

Healing words

In this past year, I fantasized about moments of reunion as the pandemic dragged on. And I have returned to the reunion of Odysseus and Penelope, contemplating why this conversation is important and what function it serves.

Talk therapy has been an important part of psychology for a century, but conversation and storytelling shape people all the time. The modern psychological approach of narrative therapy as pioneered by psychotherapists Michael White and David Epston can help us understand this better.

Narrative therapy argues that so much of what we suffer emotionally and psychologically comes from the stories we believe about our place in the world and our ability to influence it. White shows how addiction, mental illness or trauma prevents some people from returning to their lives. Narrative therapy can help in these situations and others. It has people retell their own stories until they understand them differently. Once people can reframe who they were in the past, they can have a better chance of charting their course in the future.

“The Odyssey,” I believe, is aware of this too. As I argue in my recent book, “ The Many-Minded Man ,” Odysseus has to tell his own story to articulate for himself and his audiences his experiences and how they changed him.

It takes Odysseus one long evening but four books of poetry to tell the story of his journey, focusing especially on the decisions he made and the pain he and his men suffered . Recasting the past and understanding his place in it, prepares the hero to face the future. When Odysseus retells his own story, he traces his suffering to the moment he blinded the one-eyed giant Polyphemos and bragged about it.

By centering his own action at the beginning of his tale, Odysseus rearms himself with a sense of control – the hope that he can shape the events still to come.

Returning to the world

There’s an important echo here of ideas found elsewhere in Greek poetry: We need doctors for ailments of the body and conversation for sickness in the soul .

After the past year, some of us may find it hard to express optimism. Indeed, I’ve been through this bleakness in my own life when I had to attend a virtual funeral for my grandmother last year and felt that we were not properly honoring our dead. But this spring, as we welcomed our third child into the world, my story shifted to one of hope when I looked into her eyes.

At this moment, I believe that, like Odysseus, we need to take the time to tell each other our stories and listen in turn. If we can communicate what happened to us during this past year, we can better understand what we need, to move toward a better future.

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Life lessons from the odyssey.

By Bwog Staff on Oct 13, 2018 0 Comments

Homer’s Declassified School Survival Guide

Sometimes it’s nice to pretend that we can get some life-applicable skills out of our Core readings. Guest writer Olivia Grinberg-Phillips has collected some Homeric takeaways she thinks everyone ought to know.

Although most of us are knee-deep in midterms, in reality, the Fall and Thanksgiving breaks are just around the corner (a very exciting and spooky corner at that). It’s during those breaks that many of us will go home to our eagerly waiting families. Once there, we will relax, dine, recuperate, and inevitably have to answer that dreaded question: “So what did you learn at school?” Now, despite the fact that we attend a world-class, Ivy League institution, it’s understandable that our minds will most likely draw a painful blank– causing one family member to bitch about the cost of Columbia, while a cantankerous grandparent rants about how “back in my day, we gave a damn about our education…”

So, unless starting family quibbles is your cup of tea (or some bourgeois, seasonal Starbucks drink), I’ve put together a list of 5 life lessons from Homer’s  Odyssey that not only should every college freshman be aware of, but that will also make excellent, Lit Hum-sourced answers to the question “What did you learn at Columbia?”

• To combat against the Carman fire alarms that go off at 1:00 am and prevent you from getting your beauty sleep, plug your ears with beeswax.

Explanation: When Odysseus and his squad were passing by the Sirens and their song, the crew filled their ears to the brim with beeswax to resist the temptation of their voices. This pro tip will plug up your ears so nice and tight that you will sleep through the next fire alarm, and probably the next 15 after that! (NOTE: we do not endorse ignoring emergency systems.)

• If you are going to be a guest in someone’s room, make sure to get not only an invite for yourself, but also approval for any extra friends you want to bring along.

I just love pictures of papyri don’t @ me

Explanation: Partway through their journey, Odysseus’ crew finds themselves on the island of the Cyclops. In this case, you can learn from their mistake of showing up unannounced and not invited in a stranger’s cave, which ultimately leads to the Cyclops having them for dinner (literally). Now for all of us, failing to abide by this social decency could (1) lead to losing that Fro Sci homework plug or (2), if you’re from Barnard, force you to make another Columbia friend so you can continue to finesse free laundry.

• If you are going out partying and mingling with strangers, beware of spiked drinks! While this shouldn’t be the first time you are hearing this, the Odyssey   kills when demonstrating the dangerous outcomes of spiked drinks.

Explanation: During their visit to Circe, Odysseus’ men accept drinks from her, despite having just met, and are consequently turned into pigs and thrown in pens with the rest of her victims. Odysseus, on the other hand, aware of Circe’s tendencies, goes into the situation prepared with drugs that combat the elixir – NOT a suggested tactic for a college freshman – and leaves no worse for the wear.

• For those of you in long distance relationships, when reunited with your boo, try out some role play (maybe dress up as a beggar or homeless person?). It could make things interesting!

Explanation:  When Odysseus finally returns home, he undergoes an elaborate ruse and dresses as a beggar in order to infiltrate his home and kill the men who had been hitting on his wife in his absence. With the help of some very convincing makeup by the god Athena, he keeps his identity hidden from his wife for some time. When they finally do reunite, it seems pretty steamy. Maybe it has something to do with the mystery of what’s beneath the rags…? Anyway, it’s clear that the roles quickly switch, and Penelope is soon the one beggin’ for more.

• Lastly, when navigating the city by yourself, be aware of your surroundings and careful not to get kidnapped and held hostage for 7 years.

Explanation:  While you can argue all you want about how much safer the city is today than it was years ago, and that if you master the New York resting bitch face when you walk then no one is going to give a damn about you, my response will always be: look at Odysseus. On his voyage home, Odysseus was shifted off course by the gods and ended up on a deserted island where the Goddess Calypso held him as her sex hostage for 7 years. Although we can speculate on how much of his captivity was consensual, it does not matter! People in New York, while creative, smart, exciting, and diverse, are weird as hell– I wouldn’t put anything past them. At any rate, be careful out there. And don’t eat the Sun God’s cattle.

Papyrus frags via Wikimedia Commons .

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Gilgamesh — Gilgamesh and Odysseus: the Lessons Learned

Gilgamesh and Odysseus: The Lessons Learned

• Categories: Epic of Gilgamesh Gilgamesh Odysseus

About this sample

Words: 822 |

Published: Dec 3, 2020

Words: 822 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, works cited.

• Homer, Fitzgerald, R., Erni, H., & Homer,. (1963). The Odyssey. Garden City, N.Y: Anchor Books.
• Sandars, N. K. (1972). The epic of Gilgamesh. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

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