Thoughts on the Odyssey

Just thinking here . . . why is it that I've fallen head over heels in love with Homer's Iliad but I'm struggling to fall in love with the Odyssey? It's not that the story is uninteresting . . . The Odyssey tends to be the story children fall in love with. Odysseus goes on crazy adventures, running into the Cyclops, Polyphemus, his men are turned into pigs and he takes on challenges by the gods. And these were the stories I loved in the ninth grade when Mr. Berger told us all to pull out our English books and begin reading. We read at home and sometimes we read aloud in class. (Of course, I read the name "Nobody" as "Nobdy" . . . but, oh well). And I fell in love. However, today, it seems the other way around. Totally intimidated by the Iliad, I several times took on the task of reading this monster only to make it through book one (if I was persistent enough to even make it through that) And the Iliad was filled with blood pulp and other types of gore. Am I just that sick these days? I'm not for sure. However, in my quest to discover the meaning of "truth", I think I've discovered the reality in the Iliad. People can be very cruel. And although Homer's Iliad is fictional, the grotesque brutality of human nature is very real--it is a story about men backed into corners; men threatened. And although Odysseus is certainly threatened in the Odyssey, I do not see him as being threatened the same way as the characters in the Iliad. Not even Odysseus himself is threatened the same way in the Odyssey as he is in the Iliad. True, his life is threatened, but he puts himself there. It is as though he had such great success in Troy that his head has only grown bigger in the sequel. Much like many ball players I've known in my time, Odysseus is frankly, a cocky s.o.b. He overly believes in himself thinking himself almost invinsible. And perhaps that is why the story doesn't strike me as much. Not because the story isn't good. I still love the adventures Odysseus goes on, but he is nevertheless that cocky basketball player I knew in high school. Both stories are true to human nature no matter what magic the gods possess. And Odysseus' truth is, he's full of himself, making me understand why he's gone from Ithaca for 20 years. But Odysseus, I'm only your cheerleader in the Iliad; I don't mind that your cocky ass has trouble making it home.

Thoughts on The Iliad, Horses, and Lions -- Oh my!

And so, I’m reading Books 1-8 of Homer's Iliad and aside from constant slaughter, certain images continue to reappear throughout the text. At first it’s horses. Okay, that’s lovely – my favorite animal growing up as a child. And then it’s lions. Okay, I’m a big cat lover too; always thought it would be nifty to have a domesticated lion in my home one day. And as I’m trekking along in the reading, I’m overwhelmed by long black ships in Book Two, a self-proclaimed “whore” in Book Three, and more slaughter in . . . well, all of the books. Needless to say, the horse and lion imagery stands out as something interesting. And I begin to piece the puzzle together.

I remember as a young girl watching The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with a slew of other young and eager minds at my babysitter's abode. And although I grasped that Jesus, or God, or whomever was actually the lion in the story, the symbolism never dawned on me. However, with age comes growth (hopefully) and I seem to have discovered a link. Typically, the lion takes on a pseudonym. Aka: "King of the Jungle". Alright, we have "King". God in turn becomes associated with the lion in that aspect. God is King. Great. Got it. The lion also represents power. And we've all seen it on Discovery -- a lion with the mass of a small oil rig takes down an unsuspecting zebra. In the Christian Bible, we learn that God is all powerful and can smite anyone he so chooses. Okay. I get that too. And it would make sense that the Greeks would use such a powerful image. (And just a side note, this image should be understood as HUGE foreshadowing -- if you didn't already know the Trojans are taken down by the Greeks...after all, a riderless horse should be easy for a lion to take down). And now the Trojans. Their image? A horse of course. You have Prince Hector, breaker of horses. Hell, the land of Troy is known as the land of stallions. And although horses are powerful, fast, and elegantly beautiful, they are really nothing compared to lions. Horses are herbivorous. Lions, carnivorous. And although lions may be captured and caged, they are not much for being domesticated. Horses are meant to be broken. They're meant to serve mankind. Hello...yet another hint toward the outcome of the Trojan War. The Greeks will also use the horse symbol against their own will -- to penetrate their own walls. Another form of breaking.

And as I continue to read (although I already know the outcome of the war) I am continuously saddened. It feels like reading "Romeo and Juliet" all over again -- you know the couple dies in the end but all the while, you hope that somehow, magically, the text will change and everything will turn out happy and frilly. But frankly, that's just not the way life works. There is no Hollywood ending. There is no cheating. And whether I like it or not (or anyone else for that matter) the Trojans will lose. And had I not known they would lose before reading, I should be able to at least pick up on the animal imagery and what side each corresponds to. And with death surrounding the text, I grasped onto hopefully happy imagery. Horses. Lions. ...Only to be saddened again by it all.