I love the names of the men competing in the games--Riptide, Bowsprit, Broadsea, etc... they're very fitting, because these characters obviously don't seem to have much to do with The Odyssey as a whole, so they can be titled however Homer wanted them to be (8.130-134).
ALSO, THE OLYMPICS. THIS IS AWESOME. (One time, I decided I was going to adopt a Belorussian [Belarussian?] baby and name her Winter Olympics.) There is a race, wrestling, jumping, and discus, which is really exciting because I competed in the discus once, and it's really difficult (8.140-150). Men back then were probably stronger, because they didn't have machines to do everything for them. You want to go on a boat trip? Row yourself there. You want to walk to Rome, four hundred miles away? Walk there. You want to build a wall out of boulders? Lift them. It's pretty awesome. Forklifts are for wimps.
Then there's some conflict. Broadsea challenges Odysseus (8.182-189). So our hero responds much like Sean/Dark Smoke Puncher: alright, yo, check it. Conveniently, there is a large discus nearby, and he flings it really far (190-220). Then he boasts about it, which is less cool (8.252). It's interesting how this plays out exactly like it would if they were in fourth grade.
That was the contest part, and now there is the song portion of the day. Demodocus, who is a blind bard, sings about Area and Aphrodite, and that's pretty much gross. Hephaestus traps them right in the middle of their Immoral Party. Apparently, Aphrodite doesn't like him because he is crippled. But how did a god become crippled? Shouldn't he be whole and untarnished? And in 8.362, he calls her names. Soon everyone comes out to look, except "modesty kept each goddess in her mansion" (8.367). Of course, now they are modest. Hermes openly says that he is jealous of Ares in lines 381-384, and another wholesome quote is found in 8.371: "A bad day for adultery!"
It's pretty shocking to read this, but I suppose that this sort of story shows up in entertainment all over the world. And That's also pretty shocking.
In other news, I liked how the Phaeacians treat Odysseus. The host/guest relationship (you can read about it in the introduction) is pretty neat, actually. I like the royal family: Nausicaa is respectful, they are kind and wise and Alcinous made Broadsea apologize, and they do things like clean their own laundry in the river. I hope Odysseus' family is like that, too. My only qualm is the incest, but I've mentioned that before.
And suddenly in my notes, I stumble across "oh yeah, Willy Wonka," which makes absolutely no sense.
So in 8.516, Nausicaa is totally crushing on Odysseus, but he deals with it very gently (8.521-526). Even though the introduction MENTIONED THAT SCENE, how it came about was a little unexpected. He just said no, but he did say he would pray to her as a deathless goddess. Can people pray to mortals (I mean, did the Greeks think they could)? She was part god, which I believe is mentioned in her family history (7.61-79), but by now she's mostly human. Would the gods get angry?
8.501: Odysseus mentions Circe, and I wrote down that I predicted a story-time with the Phaeacians. IT TURNS OUT I WAS RIGHT.
Boasting was a big deal. You can boast about how awesome you are if you have arete (excellence, and yes, that's also the name of the queen), because then you get lots of kleos (glory). That's the main thing in the ancient world. So you could actually boast if you were as BA as you said you were.
ReplyDeleteWhy would Odysseus reveal who he was THEN? He was being treated nicely as a guest, receiving mercy from these people who didn't know who he was, and not that he's beaten all their champions he's got to reveal he is so his victory makes some sense. Why didn't he do this earlier?
Maybe his awesome deeds are a better explanation of who he is than his words! maybe he couldn't have told them who he was beforehand, because they wouldn't have believed him, and thrown him out like the lying guest they thought he was. I don't know. Both are possible.
Nausicaa crushed. You would too.
Hephaistos was injured in some war thing, and he stays injured as a god because it was a really bad wound. It's in a book somewhere, or look it up on wikipedia.
OH i knew arete sounded familiar! and now the boatfulness makes sense. sorry i repeated a lot--i didn't have your input on it before. i'll try not to.
ReplyDeleteumm. yeah probably what you just said. because then his actions proved all this stuff... and then this blind bard, demodocus, started singing, and he ws so sad about his life story that he cried and they were all like, what?! and he told them. so that's basically why he did it, i think.
totally.
grosss wikipedia says hephaestus' possible origins oculd be from hera giving birth to him asexually. greek stuff is so weird.
also, it was really vague, saying that he was lame so Hera threw him out of the clouds, but then it says he also could have become lame because of the fall. so basically i'm BACK WHERE I STARTED.
Oh. Guess who else besides Demodocus was a blind bard? Homer.
ReplyDeleteThe gods are... not necessarily better than human beings in a moral sense. They are BIGGER than human beings in that they're more powerful and have more kleos and arete than everyone else. But that doesn't make them better morally.
Mostly, this story shows us how people tend to make up their own idea of what is "moral" or not. Or people have their own ideas of what they think is "good" for us to do or not... nevermind any discussion of "moral."
HOMER WAS BLIND? THIS IS SO TOTALLY AWESOME.
ReplyDeleteUGH THE GODS MAKE ME ANGRY.
that's annoying.