Odysseus makes a raft with Kalypso handing him the tools and the material. At the same time, it is made clear that Odysseus is the one to make it: he has both the mental skills to design it and the craftsmanship to build it. I think Kalypso is needed to explain where Odysseus got some of the things from, e.g. the cloth to make the sail. I'm sure many people have written pages about Odysseus' raft-making skills, and there must be similar episodes in other epics, but I find it difficult to comment further. On the other hand, in an oral culture these things may be important to include (although it is more poetry than instruction manual, I think). Kalypso gives some parting gifts to Odysseus: clothing, wine and water and a bag full of food. I wonder how all this (not the clothes though, as Odysseus is wearing them - but they will be a problem too a bit later) can stay on the raft. Even if you tie them to the beams, won't the food get soaked, the skins bashed about and burst? It's well-meaning, I'm sure, but Kalypso is not a very practical woman. She lives in her own little world on her own little island with her own little toys. Minus one from now on. Odysseus is on the wide sea, at the mercy of... Poseidon. Poseidon spots him from above (from a mountain actually). He knows he can't change the gods' decision (he acknowledges that "it is appointed / that he shall escape this great trial of misery", ll. 288-89), but grabs his last chance to torment him a bit more. He lets loose all four winds (ll. 295-96 & ll. 330-32). Odysseus is now sure he's going to die a humiliating death at sea (ll. 305-12). Luckily, he has a divine helper (no, not Athene - where is she when you need her?), Ino (also known as Leukothea), a sea goddess. Interestingly, she addresses him by asking why Poseidon is so angry with him (ll. 339-40), but does not wait for an answer (probably Homeric small talk). She goes on to assure him that Poseidon won't kill him and that he is destined to reach the land of the Phaiakians. She tells him to let go of the raft and offers him a magic ("immortal") veil to tie to his chest (after getting rid of the heavy clothes provided by Kalypso). Odysseus, who talks to himself as if Ino was just a voice in his head, is at the height of his paranoia, thinking that it is another deception which one "of the immortals is weaving (...) / against [him]" (ll. 356-57, he never suspects Poseidon personally - why?). It is clear to him that leaving the raft would be madness. This is, I suspect, the last step in the process of depriving Odysseus of everything: first he is a king with his "companions" (followers, men, crew), then after gradually losing them, he becomes the toyboy of a goddess, and now he is losing his clothes (symbol of identity? they are not actually his, though, but still....), and even if he is lucky, he will be washed ashore naked and ashamed, a beggar, a nobody. This is a critical moment. He will have to make do with what is in his head, as nothing else is left to identify himself by. What he only played at before - playing the beggar in Troy, telling the Cyclops Polyphemus that he is "No-one" - turns out to be reality. On another level, it reminds me of the games children play - they pretend they are grown-ups. And then it's not a game any more. Maybe all good stories are about rites of passage, and the Odyssey is, in a way, about initiation rites: taking the individual out of the community, subjecting him to traumatising experiences (sexual encounter, loss of identity, facing the fear of death) at the end of which he emerges as a new person, no longer a child. (I read about initiation rites in A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong, and listened to Peter Meineck's lectures on Classical Mythology.) Odysseus is not ready yet. He is holding on to his raft. Poseidon intervenes with a huge wave, smashing it to smithereens. Odysseus first lets go of his clothes and then the last remaining beam of his raft he was holding onto (at the same time putting on Ino's veil, the tangible symbol of the reassurance that he is not going to die - funny, he is letting go of something but also gaining, albeit temporarily, a magic object that will somehow get him through the worst). When at last Odysseus swims to the shore, Poseidon goes home. I will think about what Poseidon really stands for - any ideas? I suspected at the start that he is not a villain, that he has a different function in the story. What do you think about his role? There follows a lull in the story, as Odysseus, exhausted, is tossed by the waves for 2 nights and 2 days, naked on the "heavy seas". On the third day, there is no wind (Athene has calmed the winds, we are told). Odysseus catches sight of the mainland (as if catching sight of a father recovered from an illness, ll. 394-98). It is life. He thinks he has to grasp it and hold on to it as to the raft (slippery rocks), but that isn't working. The resistance of waves, winds and monsters is too much. He has to think of something else. He finds a river flowing into the sea, prays to the river god (who really is the river) to help him reach land that is life. It is a rebirth, he is described as a baby being born through this flowing channel, with "flex[ing] both knees / and his ponderous hands" (ll. 453-54), "his flesh was swollen" (l. 455) and "the sea water crusted stiffly / in his mouth and nostrils" (ll. 455-56). Exhausted, he unbinds the veil and lets it go (umbilical cord? - it was on his body and Ino warned him that it was only a temporary measure). I find the rock-river contrast interesting. This corresponds to the grasping-letting go motif which dominated this book. This was definitely the letting go bit. We'll see what comes next.
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11/2/2010 01:55:21 pm
Camille Paglia would say the sea represents woman nature (which man is always struggling to break free of) and so Odysseus at sea could be seen as a metaphor for his escape from K. Ties in with being born through the river too.
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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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