12.134-136: "No, row for your lives, invoke Brute Force, I tell you, Scylla's mother--she spawned her to scourge mankind, she can stop the monster's next attack!" Does this mean that Scylla can be killed? Her mother can kill her? This is pretty interesting.
I also find it interesting that the Sungod, Helios, isn't more important. Ra was pretty important, and it seems like the sun should be... important. At least we get some cool words from Helios' name.
12.167-180: It's nice of Odysseus to actually tell his crew what's going on. I had some notes on how it seemed like he didn't communicate that well, which might have been the cause of the random mutinies... but here he does, and they STILL end up mutinying.
It's surprising that the Sirens don't have a bigger role in the story. They seem rather famous--I'm sure they're in other things than just The Odyssey, but this book is what I think of when I think about them. And they don't even have a whole page! There are also some Christian parallels with those guys. Girls. Sin sounds really great, and fun, and beautiful, like the sirens. FALSE. Odysseus really wants to listen to them, and go to them, but his crew has beeswax in their ears... so I guess we just have to use Bible beeswax and ignore it.
This book is good, I suppose, because it's really annoying me that Odysseus' men are being so stupid. It reminds me of those times when you read something embarrassing, and you feel flustered and you almost don't want to find out what happens next, which is an example of some of the criteria I use to determine whether or not something is 'good' (not morally speaking). I hope that makes sense. ANYWAY, the crew is really frustrating. Good going, you idiots, now you're all dead. How many times were you told to ignore the cattle of the sun?
Then Odysseus is done with the story! And it's shorter than I thought! But he's still in the middle, like so many Frankensteins, so we've got time.
Best quote fragment of the entire book: "cramping my style" (12.246).
Sungod)
ReplyDeleteThe Egyptians probably worshipped the sun god because ... he seemed the most powerful to them. Having lots of sun meant having lots of crops, which was good for them. Osiris too... the nile-flood god? Also seriously important. They didn't care as much about, say, volcano gods, because they didn't have any volcanos. See how these are all things that relate back to THEM?
The greeks liked the sun god, but figured he was one of many (pantheon means "all the gods" in greek). The sea was a big deal. The afterlife was a big deal. Volcanos and Victory and Wisdom and Kingship and Crops and stuff...
Sirens) yeah, they happen. No, they're not the hugest deal in the story. They were interesting enough to put in "Wishbone" and "O Brother Where Art Thou?" but aren't actually the hugest part of the story. Yes, they're like temptation.
Temptation) it happens. No, don't ignore things you don't like (because they'll still exist!), but yes, abosolutely stand firm against temptation. DUH Odysseus' crew, they're fake. Possibly mermaids. The crew = Israelites.
Thought)
Do you think Odysseus' life and journey home is somehow allegorical? What if "lotus flowers" mean "stuff you get obsessed with" and "sirens" mean "temptations" ? What then? What is the end destination here? What does it mean that this journey (life) is taking forever?
This is an idea I've had for a while... that the Odyssey is somehow a parable about human life. I think it's probably mostly wrong, but not all wrong. What is Homer saying about our lives if this was his allegorical point?