Odyssey - books 1 & 2

As I was about to open my edition and start reading Book 1, I wondered to myself whether it was because of a nerdy 7th grade whim that the Odyssey was on my list of favorite books. But as soon as I read the first line, AH, everything that I love about this book came back to me. How could I have been so faithless? ;-)

Not cool with idolatry, but I understand why people paint pictures like this. Homer, you are so brilliant.

So we all know the story. The Trojan War has ended, and all the surviving Greek warriors have made their way home, except one. Enter hero Odysseus. The Odyssey opens 9 years after the end of the war, with the king of Ithaca nowhere in sight. Instead, his palace is overrun with cocky suitors vying for his wife, Penelope. His son, Telemachus, has arrived at adulthood and is thoroughly fed up with the aforesaid leeches. Apparently it's taken 9 years to get the oh-so-dynamic set of Olympian gods to notice all that trouble going on in Odysseus's family. So Athena steps in and takes charge of the situation, appearing to Telemachus and persuading him to sail to a neighboring city to search for any news of his father.

One of the things I love about Homer's poetry is how each character is named. Probably for the sake of meter, Homer always attaches an adjective to the person he's writing about. So, for instance, instead of boring old prosaic "Odysseus," we have "resourceful Odysseus." Get what I mean?  It sort of gives the narrative parts a little pizazz. My personal favorite is "rosy-fingered Dawn." I don't know why I get so much of a kick out of this.

This time around, I've already found two "themes" in the Odyssey to think about.

1. Greek mythology v. the True God. Reading the first two books today, I was struck with just how futile the members of the former are. They're pretty much just immortal humans with superpowers. They spend their days doing nothing really productive, unless you call carousing or messing up mortals' lives for entertainment a good use of time. It makes me think of Elijah's taunt to the Baal worshipers in 1 Kings 18:

   "It came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, "Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened." So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them. When midday was past, they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention."

   I am so glad our God is one who cares about his people.
   
2. The family of Agamemnon. Don't let that weird looking name scare you. He's Helen of Troy's brother-in-law. This was quite the dysfunctional family. While he was gone fighting at Troy, his wife, Clytemnestra took a lover and the illicit pair decided to kill Agamemnon upon his arrival home. It all ended with their son killing Clytemnestra to avenge his father's death.
   
   I believe Homer mentions this family so much in the Odyssey to provide a parallel to that of Odysseus. Both families have a father returning home after a long war; both have a wife tempted to commit adultery; both have a son loyal to his father. Perhaps Homer is trying to set up some tension in the story - we, the readers, will be wondering the whole time whether Odysseus's family will end up in the same boat as that of Agamemnon's.

So, can you tell that I love this story yet? Until next week....