Sunday, May 19, 2024 : TES > Documents > Epic > Mock Epic

The Epic

Myth and the Odyssey

Joseph Campbell, in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, sums up various theories and definitions of myth:

Mythology has been interpreted by the modern intellect as a primitive, fumbling effort to explain the world of nature (Frazer); as a product of poetical fantasy from prehistoric times, misunderstood by succeeding ages (Müller); as a repository of allegorical instruction, to shape the individual to his group (Durkheim); as a group dream, symptomatic of archetypal urges within the depths of the human psyche (Jung); as the traditional vehicle of man’s profoundest metaphysical insights (Coomaraswamy); and as God’s Revelation to His children (the Church). Mythology is all of these. . . . For when scrutinized in terms not of what it is but of how it functions, of how it has served mankind in the past, of how it may serve today, mythology shows itself to be as amenable as life itself to the obsessions and requirements of the individual, the race, the age. (382)

As all of these various theorists attest, the myth seems to be both universal and instructional. Yet, unlike a didactic lecture, myth requires interpretation on a societal and an individual basis. While myth is appropriate to a national identity, it also addresses something very personal: something at the heart of every individual. Homer’s Odyssey addresses specific cultural concerns of his time, but it also appeals to and concerns all humans at all times. Indeed, a specific culture’s heroic ideals will be determined by its myths; however, since myths transcend single cultures, there may exist a universal idea of the hero: a hero for all times.

Odysseus epitomizes the heroic ideals of Homer’s era. The Odyssey, while it may be a product of myth, has become a foundation of myth itself. The Odyssey presents the hero Odysseus—not a perfect human by any means—as a hero that chooses to endure hardships, seek fortune and adventure, and never yield to the caprices of the gods. He becomes stronger because of ostensibly random hardships and continues striving for home—for an idea of his, and his culture’s, identity.

The Odyssey’s heroic ideal lies in the individual character of Odysseus. It addresses a single hero’s longing to reintegrate himself back into his society after a ten-year war. War is perhaps one of humanity’s darkest, yet most familiar propensities, and the war at Troy has consumed ten years of Odysseus’ life away from Ithaca and his family; how is he supposed to return to that life to reclaim his home and family? Odysseus personifies the Promethean element within the human psyche: i.e., the desire to return to that which has been left behind, but with the ever-present drive to transcend a life of common duties and household gods. Odysseus, after tasting the ravages of war, cannot return peacefully to his previous life. It takes a true hero to reclaim a previous, peaceful existence with the knowledge of humanity’s darkest side.

This dark side must be traversed by all humans. Odysseus takes ten years after the fall of Troy to rejoin that which he left behind before his valediction to Ithaca. Yet, the hero must leave the comfort and safety of home in order to discover the value of home. While Odysseus travels alone, his journey, his endurance, and his discovery (or re-covery) of home represents a boon for all of humanity. Odysseus embodies the reader’s own journey through life in search of home.

So war and the return seem representative of the human condition. The belonging to a society (fighting for a communal cause) and then the fight to regain a sense of belonging in a society (the nostos) are two seemingly intrinsic and universal aspects of being human. We are all citizens and aliens. Perhaps, in a Jungian sense, these archetypes preexisted Homer and were used by the poet, but in another true sense, Homer adopts the archetypes and makes them a part of a pandemic, world mythology.

I seem to be skirting the issue: how does mythology inform or enlighten the hero concept of The Odyssey? Well, since Campbell did bring up religion, the pantheon might be worth a look. There seem to be two main gods at work in The Odyssey: Poseidon and Athena. The former represents the forces against Odysseus, the latter works for him. Poseidon, whose name means “master,” is the most capricious of the gods, given to fits of rage that manifest themselves in tempests and earthquakes. He seems to represent all that is quixotic in nature—a powerful enemy against humanity. Unlike the impetuous and war-like Poseidon, Athena, goddess of prudence and wise counsel, is a defensive god who favors peace. If the gods are perceived allegorically, or mythologically as anthropomorphized elements to explain the occurrences of nature, then Odysseus uses his wisdom to overcome, at least for the time being, those ubiquitous powers.

Yet while Athena and Poseidon play active roles in The Odyssey, Prometheus seems to have the most influence on Odysseus. Prometheus, the archetypal trickster, is said to have duped Zeus into choosing the bones and fat of cows for sacrifice, stolen fire from the gods to give to humanity, created the first human from clay and his own tears, and made Pandora, a gift to man that Zeus cursed. Each of the gods is immortal; i.e., the qualities of the gods are forever present in humans. While the Athena element in humans advocates prudence and wisdom, the Poseidon element rails, war-like, against order. The Promethean element seems to offer a golden mean between the two extremes—not war or peace, but the aspect of humans that keeps us striving against the gods and the nature of the cosmos.

Since I began with Campbell, I will end with him: “myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation” (Hero 3). Myth represents that which is mysterious in the universe and within humanity. We are the impetus and the outcome, the beginning and the end. Odysseus and his wanderings have fascinated humans of all cultures for over two-thousand years. Something ostensibly intrinsic in us all yearns for the adventure—the path that will one day lead home.