The Odyssey of Homer: Speak, Memory (Lecture on Books I-VIII)

'Speak, Memory — of the cunning hero, the wanderer, blown off course time and again after he plundered Troy's sacred heights.'

Welcome back to the world of Ancient Greece. Let us gather around the singer of tales and listen to the old story told anew: the story of the homecoming of Odysseus.

Today, as we journey through the first eight books of Homer's Odyssey, we're discussing the epic's overture, fathers and sons, the oral-formulaic tradition, vibrant characterisation, nostos, how story heals us, and much more.

Please do feel free to enjoy the discussion even if you haven't read these parts of Homer's Odyssey yet. You can enjoy our talk before, during, or after your reading in the way that best suits you.

Timestamps:

0:00 returning home with Odysseus

2:00 ‘speak, memory, of the cunning hero’

4:00 beginning with an appeal to the muse

6:00 appreciating the opening of the epic

8:00 modern preference for the Odyssey

10:00 why you should chant Homer aloud

11:00 why does the poem begin this way?

13:00 the reason we love hearing old stories

14:00 great literature is endlessly rereadable

16:00 the power of living vicariously 

18:00 what does returning home mean?

20:00 Homer of the Iliad vs the Odyssey

21:00 appreciating the Telemachia together

22:00 tragedy in Agamemnon’s nostos

24:00 the temporality of the Odyssey

25:00 what has happened to our hero?

26:00 the arrogant suitors in Ithaca

27:00 on the theme of fathers & sons

28:00 becoming a man without a father

29:00 on the trajectory of growing up

30:00 when we become our own parents

31:00 Athena guides & protects Telemachus

33:00 the transition from youth to manhood

35:00 Homer’s extraordinary metafiction

37:00 Telemachus rails against the suitors 

38:00 call to adventure on the hero’s journey

39:00 the day-night rhythm of the Odyssey

40:00 stock phrase of Dawn’s rose fingers

41:00 the colour palette of Ancient Greece

43:00 untranslatable oral-formulaic tradition

44:00 Telemachus calls the council of elders

46:00 Ancient Greek concept of aidos/shame

48:00 how Penelope outwitted the suitors

50:00 Zeus sends the omen of two eagles

52:00 recklessness, devouring & pride

54:00 being the child of your parents

55:00 what is the meaning of prayer?

57:00 Eurycleia tries to protect Telemachus

58:00 maternal vs paternal archetypes

1:00:00 the restraining concern of loved ones

1:01:00 you leave the shire to save the shire

1:02:00 first reaction to the Telemachia

1:04:00 one’s first journey away from home

1:05:00 Telemachus travels to meet Nestor

1:06:00 self-consciousness of the Odyssey

1:07:00 what happened after the fall of Troy?

1:08:00 my experience travelling from home

1:09:00 meeting Menelaus & Helen in Sparta

1:11:00 telling tales of our hero’s cunning

1:12:00 how stories ease our pain & grief

1:13:00 hard times become fond memories

1:15:00 discovering the miracle of escapism

1:16:00 capturing Proteus/Old Man of the Sea

1:18:00 meaning of searching for your father

1:19:00 Penelope prays to goddess Athena

1:20:00 finally getting to the hero Odysseus

1:21:00 learning to read dream symbolism

1:22:00 Odysseus in the cave of Calypso

1:24:00 the purity of the Homeric pastoral

1:26:00 Odysseus weeping at the shore

1:27:00 Calypso as both saviour & captor

1:29:00 the danger of remaining in stasis

1:30:00 endless pleasure is actually pain

1:31:00 one needs pain in order to prosper

1:32:00 how Odysseus can inspire us all

1:33:00 our hero leaves the island of Ogygia

1:34:00 Poseidon kicks up an awful storm

1:36:00 welcome to the land of the Phaeacians 

1:38:00 meeting the character of Nausicaa 

1:39:00 heroes must be put to the test

1:40:00 was this epic writer a young woman?

1:42:00 divine guides in unlikely forms

1:43:00 how art preserves the ephemeral

1:44:00 an ancient depiction of utopia

1:45:00 stories as ever-expanding circles

1:46:00 King Alcinous & Queen Arete

1:48:00 Demodocus the singer of the tales

1:49:00 Odysseus performs at the games

1:50:00 singing the fate of the Greeks

1:51:00 Odysseus prepares to tell his tale

1:52:00 assignment for our next discussion

1:52:00 your thoughts on the Odyssey?

Resources to Explore:

• Poetry: There are so many great poems inspired by the world of Homer's epic that make for rewarding reading if you have fallen in love with the Odyssey. Your first port of call should be 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer' by John Keats. This poem is a glorification of the miracle of translation. Keats declares that he never breathed in the pure serenity of Homer's epic until he heard Chapman's translation speak out loud and bold. Do you feel this way about any particular translation? Then there's one of my all-time favourite poems, 'Ulysses' by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, which actually largely recalls Dante's casting of our hero in the Inferno, so it would be rewarding to spend some time in that circle of hell via our lecture to see how Dante responded to Homer. For another splendid option, give C. P. Cavafy's 'Ithaca' a read: 'As you set out for Ithaka hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery. Laistrygonians, Cyclops, angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them' (Sean Connery reads this poem here). There's also Carol Ann Duffy's tender 'Penelope'. You may also find it interesting to compare Odysseus' wandering with that of the Old English poem 'The Seafarer'. I hope you enjoy these complementary poems. We'll have more poetic curations as we continue to journey home together.

• Appreciation: Samuel Butler's The Authoress of the Odyssey is an absolutely delightful read, whilst also being something of a relic of the Victorian age. It's a whimsical and comprehensive analysis of the characters and tone of the Odyssey with the contention that the writer of this epic was a young woman (like Princess Nausicaa). Regardless of whether one agrees, thought experiments like this can be great at shaping and revealing how we personally feel about a work. You may also find British Prime Minister and Oxford-trained classicist William Gladstone's Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age to be a fascinating read too. It was Gladstone who brought analysis of Homer's colour palette ('the wine-dark sea') to the mainstream. And, although mentioned previously, it's definitely worth recommending Albert Lord's deeply influential The Singer of Tales once again, especially if you find the oral-formulaic tradition as interesting as I do.

• Theatre: Our singing bard continually threads allusions to the story of the fate awaiting Agamemnon when he returned home and how his son Orestes took revenge. I love the fact that there are sagas within this saga, lurking in the subtext. And, clearly, Aeschylus loved that too because he chose this particular story for his trilogy of plays the Oresteia, which won first prize at the City Dionysia. I'm a fan of both the Robert Fagles and the Ted Hughes translations. If you want a striking example of how different Ancient Greek theatre was from what we have today, check out this production of Agamemnon, the first play of the trilogy. If tragic theatre captures your imagination, then Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy makes for a fascinating read (we also talk about ancient theatre in our Aeschylus lecture here).

• Art & Music: Homer's epics, like the works of Shakespeare and the Bible, have significantly influenced artists and musicians throughout the ages. It's fascinating to see how other lovers of the Odyssey have captured what's in their mind's eye in different artistic mediums. You can see wonderful selections of paintings for this epic here, here, and here. If you find yourself in the mood for some opera, then Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland) from the seventeenth century is sublime, as is Christop Willibald Gluck's Telemaco, ossia L'isola di Circe (Telemachus, or Circe's Island).

• Action Exercise: Choose a passage from the first eight books of the Odyssey that you would like to commit to memory. We recommended this for our Iliad read-through, so it would be very interesting to compare your two chosen passages. How different are they from one another? What similarities do they share? And what is it about them that appeals to you specifically right now? It could be the rhythm or the imagery or the wisdom it contains. For your chosen passage, challenge yourself to chant it aloud, either to yourself or share it with someone close to you. Let us know which passage you would like to possess by memory.

Reading Assignment:

Our next discussion will cover books nine to sixteen of this sublime epic masterpiece. And we will be discussing this next leg of the journey this coming weekend.

Now we're going to discover everything Odysseus suffered during his struggle to return home. So continue bringing yourself to Homer's epic, making notes on any themes or ideas that capture your attention and imagination.

Questions to Consider:

1) Which character resonates the most with you?

2) What does returning home mean to you?

3) What kind of person do you think Homer was?

4) What was the most significant journey of your life? Who did you become, or realise you were, along the way?

And please do share with us your impressions, favourite passages, and striking ideas from the opening of Homer's Odyssey. If this is your first reading, does the epic meet your expectations? If this is a reread, is the experience any different this time around?

Happy reading, everybody!