There has been an interesting thread going on in OUSA Classics on First Class about colour perception in different languages and what Homer meant by epi oinopa ponton ("over the wine-faced sea"). How is the sea like wine? Is it the same colour? Book 3 is full of colours or words that seem to refer to colours - but the question whether Homer understood the concept of "blue" or "red" has not been settled yet. Some translators (e.g. my Hungarian version) goes for "blue-haired" Poseidon (logical: god of the sea), while Lattimore is more cautious and has "dark-haired" (kyanokhaitē, l. 6). The bulls sacrificed to him are described as pammelanas ("all black", l. 6). Well, dark. Later, when Nestor and his family sacrifice a cow to Athene, they let flow its "black blood" (melan haima, l. 455). OK, so the sea is like wine (not necessarily red, it seems, but dark? dense? murky? opaque?) and blood is black (dark?). I'm looking forward to some future references of blue or red to be able to formulate some kind of theory. Another interesting issue in Book 3 (in Books 1-2 as well) is the belief that your success is partly due to your actions and partly to the god(s) helping you. When Telemachos is approaching the feasting party on the seashore, Athene tells him not to worry too much about how to address Nestor: "some of it you yourself will see in your own heart, / and some the divinity will put in your mind" (ll. 26-27). Crediting only yourself with your success was rather unwise in the Iliad, if I remember correctly; the gods detest boasting and arrogance and will take action if some fool deludes themselves. In Book 3, fortunately, everybody knows how to behave properly and they show the gods due respect: all through the book they keep pouring the first portion of the mixed wine as libation to the gods (Poseidon, in this instance) and burning bones and fat for them. On the other hand, I personally feel that Athene is meddling in things all the time. She is such a dominant character and is always there manipulating. This, I think, is a very good picture of her.
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Having watched the course introduction video (and realised we are not required to read the whole of the Odyssey!), I am inclined to say the Odyssey is mainly about nostalgia (a Greek word, but did they invent it?), a fantasy about restoring the past. The Iliad is a lot more comfortable about showing life as it is, so I suggest that the Odyssey was written much later, looking back to the Iliad as a model, with a desire to conjure that world up again. There is quite a bit of 'cosmetic surgery' going on, idealisation of characters (I've lost count of the good fathers / kings / old men / wives / servants), and all that eating... In Book 2, Telemachos dashes his sceptre to the ground in the assembly, an action clearly intended to remind us of the same scene in the Iliad (the Odyssey Study Guide drew my attention to this - link on the side bar underneath "Other stuff"). The Iliad begins with a big quarrel, which is mirrored in the assembly episode here. I feel this is very deliberate, but one can't help noticing the difference: in that scene everybody was a king, there was a multitude of them (also heroes), now there is a huge absence, a kinglessness - and no heroes either, they have been replaced by young men who don't work, don't fight, just party all the time at somebody else's expense, wooing a woman past child-bearing age. Everything seems to be just the opposite of what it should be. Everything’s out of order. I must confess I took one look at Lattimore's introduction - read a few sentences about how the punishment of the suitors is too harsh. I do not share this sensitivity; I'm looking forward to the bloodbath! Megaron and view from Mycenae (source: Flickr) Very suddenly, we whoosh down from the sky and land in the world of mortals. We find ourselves in front of the palace in Ithaka. Athene (disguised as Mentes, a guest friend of Odysseus') is spotted by Telemachos, and is invited to join the feast of the suitors, strangely. They seem to be the ones that organise things in this house, and they do like parties. However, their (table) manners leave a lot to be desired and we will soon learn and see how they abuse the sacred institution of hospitality. Telemachos has to apologise to Mentes about the situation. I really liked the way Telemachos is portrayed - just what it's like to be a teenager and not being able to change anything. The most you can do is moan to someone who will listen about how unfair everything is. On the other hand, I feel there is some jealousy in Telemchos' attitude to the suitors: they play games, have free dinners, and there is song and dancing every night. They are having fun while he isn't.
What I remember vividly about reading Book 1 is that it was a shock after the Iliad, and I found its vision of an idillyc society nauseating. But l will be a bit more positive this time. The poet, inspired by the goddess, is going to sing about Odysseus, the man of many ways. His epithet, polytropos ('much-turned'), is ambiguous: it can literally mean 'much-turned, i.e. much-travelled'; or, metaphorically speaking, 'turning many ways, i.e. shifty, versatile, wily'. Now comes the statement of the theme: the word homecoming is mentioned frequently, but I also noticed that other words are repeated often: longing and desire. In l. 13, Odysseus is 'longing (kekhrēmenon) for his wife and his homecoming' (Lattimore swaps the original order in the Greek, where homecoming comes first, wife afterwards - why did he choose to do so one wonders), while Kalypso is 'desiring (lilaiomenē) that he should be her husband' (l. 15). Later, according to Athene, Odysseus 'longs (himeiretai - yet another synonym) to die' (l. 59). There are many kinds of desires, it seems.
I first read the Odyssey roughly ten years ago, almost entirely on trains and buses. I like to think that was a rather clever approach given the subject matter. I can't remember now why I decided to read it along with the Iliad (I started with the Iliad because I somehow got the idea that that was Volume 1 and the Odyssey the sequel). I had been made to read some excerpts at school, but wasn't very impressed so no memories. I must also confess that being Hungarian, I read those excerpts in Hungarian translation, and was further alienated by the impeccably (or so I was led to believe) reproduced rhythm of the original poem. The rhythm of the Hungarian translation is so powerful that I had a classmate whose father used to recite passages from the Odyssey to get her to sleep when she was a baby. And now that I'm doing this course I'm going to read it again, this time in English. I have my Hungarian copy at hand, so it will be interesting to compare the two as well as to consult the original courtesy of Perseus Digital Library (link on the right in "Resources") and thanks to the little Ancient Greek I managed to pick up doing A275 last year. I would like to emphasize, however, that I have relied heavily on the dictionaries included on Perseus, and all my knowledge comes from them! I have made some effort to transliterate Greek words accurately and consistently but can't promise 100% reliability. If you spot a mistake, please let me know. (I didn't try to transliterate proper names though.)
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AuthorHave studied A219 Exploring the Classical World and A275 Reading Classical Greek at the Open University. Currently studying for a Psychology degree. ImagesPlease click on any image to be taken to its source.
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