The Odyssey

I finished The Odyssey today (E V Rieu's prose version).  First thoughts?

For an ancient text it has a complex structure.  There's certainly a beginning, middle and end but not necessarily in that order, which puts the claims of postmodernists somewhat to shame.  There is a movie-like structure - open in Olympus - cut to Ithica to follow Telemachus for 4 books - cut to Calypso's island and follow Odysseus as he leaves, battles Poseidon then strikes land to meet Naussica - long flashback as he tells the tale of his troubled return from Troy and the loss of all his men - then follow his meandering return to Ithica where he loiters in disguise, testing everyone, before the gothic horror of the slaughter of the suitors and the happy ever after with Penelope and Laertes.

That and Odysseus is definitely not a modern hero.  He's not all that likeable really (Telemachus may be the only decent principal character in the whole tale).  Odysseus is devious, cunning, vain, egotistical, arrogant, quite often staggering obtuse, verbose, irritating and a bully who behaves very badly at times (but only if you assess him through modern eyes).  The way he sets up the slaughter of the Suitors then executes his plan is murderous rather than heroic ... in modern terms.  But he's not a modern hero and his story is not a modern story. It's not even a story about the relationships between human actors (mostly showing interest in the affairs of men).  It's a classical Greek morality tale about what constitutes the proper and improper relationship between men and the immortal gods.  So the slaughter in the banquet hall is righteous vengence and divine retribution for the folly and immorality of the Suitors and the twelve unfaithful maid-servants.  There were quite a few times while I was reading of Odysseus' exploits that I had to step back to remind myself he is heroic in an entirely different way to the cotemporary world's heroic ideal or archetype.  But even now, having finished the text and sitting here writing this I still react against his decision to string the great bow then shoot an arrow through the neck of a man lifting a two-handled goblet of wine to his lips in a room whose doors have been secretly locked by the bloke with the big bow and arrow.

I read the verse version next month. Maybe the poetic structure will create the distance I need between me and my 21st Century tendency to judge in humanist terms.
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