Term Paper on "Homeric Epics -- a Comparison"

Term Paper 6 pages (2127 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Homeric epics -- a comparison of the themes of Book 24 of the "Iliad" and Book 1 of the "Odyssey"

Commentator and classicist Nicholas Richardson has suggested that when Homer ended the "Iliad" the Odyssey was already taking shape in the poet's mind. This comment might seem initially counterintuitive to the modern reader. Contemporary students of the classics customarily approach Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" as enclosed books or separate texts. Also, Nicholas Richardson's suggestion seems to suppose a linear form of authorship between the two books. This idea is more in line of a modern author writing the two epic poems as a saga, rather than the loose construction of an oral poem that the texts are usually assumed to be -- woven together over time, rather than told as one.

It is even speculated that the works might not even be the work of a single poet.

But it is true that both texts, when conjoined, reveal classical ideas and have similar and related themes about the saga of Greek nationhood and identity formation, and honor the ideals of pity and terror before the gods, and humility of great warriors in the face of fate. The "Iliad" begins with a feud amongst the Greeks about a war, and ends with a momentary reconciliation between the two combatants, after the Greek Achilles shows hospitality to the Trojan Priam. The "Odyssey" begins with a feud about the fate of Odysseus and his home that is being overrun by strangers, and ends with a reconstructed family home. The "Iliad's war began by a feud between the gods about which goddess was the fairest of all. It ends with common hope and faith in human piety towards fate and the divine will, and honors the forgiveness of those who are good, sacrifice to the gods, and above all honor the obligations of hospitality. The "Odyssey" begins with the clever trickster Odysseus, lost at sea because of his failure to honor the son of the god Poseidon, the Cyclops, and in the end shows he is rewarded because of his piety towards his patron goddess Athena.

Thus, the two texts, even if they were not constructed in a linear fashion, can be read as having common narrative themes such as the family-upsetting nature of war, the power of curses, forgiveness, and the relationships between fathers and sons. In the final book of the "Iliad" the absurd nature of war and the lack of forgiveness is shown between Priam and Achilles, as the king of Troy begs the warrior for his son's body, and this humility brings the mutual feud between Achilles and Priam to an end. The "Odyssey" ends with a similar scene of reconciliation between Penelope and Odysseus, after a bloody battle that expiates the violence and the wrong of the suitor's occupation of Odysseus' homecoming. Odysseus' reunites with his long lost son, a baby when the entire chronicle began. Only by establishing the unity with Telemachus once again is his quest fulfilled, just as only by gaining Hector's body once again is Priam's quest fulfilled.

The theme of the nature of divine justice and the circularity of justice thus corresponds in both poems. In Book 24 of the "Iliad," Achilles claims that miseries are from "Zeus' jars,' i.e. from fate and the divine will, when making amends with Priam. However, Zeus also says that human hubris magnifies such misery. In the "Odyssey," Zeus from the beginning laughs how mortals are always ready to blame the gods for evils come, but states that even if evils are machinated by divine construction, it is through human folly and hubris that they multiply these sorrows. (I.35) A good example of this can be seen in Achilles' arrogance in dragging the body of Hector, even after Patroclus' funeral games. Achilles' insane actions add even more blood and strife to a bloody war. Odysseus' taunting and his ostentatious cleverness to trick even the son of a gods draws the wrath of Poseidon.

This hubris is shown to be foolish in the "Iliad" because despite the power of Achilles as a warrior on earth, this pity means nothing in the face of Apollo, who shows mercy towards Hector. Apollo refuses to allow his favorite warrior's face to be disfigured, even while he is dragged across the ground. Apollo remembers the honor the man showed him when he was alive, and uses his golden shield to protect the corpse. When making a case to steal the body of Hector, Apollo invokes Hector's former piety before his fellow immortals, noting that Hector made burnt offerings from the finest animals. Eventually, although Achilles' bravery as a warrior is also acknowledged, the gods decide (except the still-embittered Hera) that Achilles is wrong and excessive to vent his fury upon the body of a dead man. Zeus admits that his altar was never stinted of its dues by Hector's hands.

Likewise, the theme of honoring those heroes who honor the gods, even when those heroes are at their lowest points is seen at the beginning of the "Odyssey," when Athena asks her father Zeus to show pity on a man who has been so long suffering woes, even though some of his fate might have been partially justified because of his hubris in the past. Although Odysseus is not the most pious man, the fact that he is a great warrior and has shown piety and deference to the gods in the past is duly noted and acknowledged by Zeus. Although far from perfect, Odysseus is never so foolish as to completely alienate the gods, despite the cleverness of many of his tricks. This is why Athena is able to successfully intervene on her favorite's behalf. In contrast, the folly of Odysseus crew proves their undoing, as unlike their captain, they never honor the gods.

This is noted at the beginning of Book I of the Odyssey, when Homer notes that Odysseus was not able to save his comrades, because they ate the cattle of Apollo. (1.10) Homer implies that the crewmember's lives could have been spared, like their captains, but were not because they violated the respect due to the god Apollo. This shows a violation of leaving the gods their due, as in a sacrifice, and also shows how Odysseus' crew violated the laws of hospitality of a good guest and host of the god. In Book I, Odysseus is trapped in the house of a sea-nymph who is being a bad host to her guest, as she is keeping him a prisoner and refusing to allow Odysseus to go back to his wife and child.

Like Achilles, the nymph is keeping the hero and the story in a kind of stasis, refusing to forgive the past and allow things to move on, and her guest to move on with his life. Achilles' actions stops the natural progression of burial, mourning, and the progression into the afterlife of every soul, and is excessive in the intensity of his actions and ardor for this dead friends and his female captor and host is excessive in her entrapment of Odysseus. Both nymph and warrior are excessive in their grief, thus adding to the natural or already present miseries of the human world.

The disfavor vented towards the inhospitable show how good hospitality is another form of deference owed to the will of the gods. The gods, after debating stealing the body of Hector, decide instead to urge Priam to go to Achilles himself and entreat the warrior for the body. At first, upon hearing this, Hecuba fears for her husband (as Penelope fears for Telemachus, when he goes out into the world seeking news of his father). Hecuba sees Achilles as a cruel savage and fears with some justification that he will have no pity on her husband. But then she makes a sacrifice to Zeus, and when seeing that her husband will not be swayed, decides she must trust the obligations of hospitality that will lay upon the shoulders of her husband, and hopefully protect him against being slaughtered.

The obligations of hospitality, which are violated in the beginnings of the Trojan War, when Paris stole Helen, are honored in the end of the "Iliad," as Achilles gives the body of Hector to his father Priam. However, in Book I of the "Odyssey" these same obligations of host to guest are violated once again, by the suitors of Penelope and to a lesser extent the nymph who saves Odysseus. Showing respect to a visitor in one's home, and the visitor's acknowledgement of such respect was as vital a show of deference to the gods as the animal sacrifices of piety that the gods praise from Olympus when honoring Hector.

At first, after dutifully praising the piety of the king of Troy as well as his son's former shows of respect, the gods seem to machinate the reconciliation between Achilles and Hector. Their influence is clearly shown in their inspiring Priam to go… READ MORE

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