summary: book 5
all the gods except poseidon meet again on mount olympus to discuss the fate of odysseus. Athena’s speech in support of the hero convinces Zeus to intervene. hermes, messenger of the gods, is sent to calypso’s island to tell her that odysseus must finally be allowed to leave so that he can return home. In response, Calypso delivers an impassioned indictment of the male gods and their double standards. she complains that they are allowed to have mortal lovers while the affairs of female gods must always be thwarted. her in the end, she submits to the supreme will of zeus. For now, Odysseus only remains from the contingent that he led in Troy; his crew and the other ships of his force were destroyed during his voyages. Calypso helps him build a new boat and supplies it with supplies from his island. Sadly, she watches as the object of her love walks away from her.
After eighteen days at sea, Odysseus sees Escheria, the island of the Phaeacians, his next destination appointed by the gods. At that moment, Poseidon, returning from a trip to the land of the Ethiopians, sees him and realizes what the other gods have done in his absence. Poseidon causes a storm that almost drags Odysseus under the sea, but the goddess Ino comes to his rescue. she gives him a veil that keeps him safe after his ship is shipwrecked. Athena also comes to her aid as he is flung back and forth, now into the depths of the sea, now against the jagged rocks of the shoreline. Finally, a river off the coast of the island answers Odysseus’ prayers and allows him to swim in its waters. He casts his protective veil back into the water as Ino had ordered him to do and walks inland to rest in the safe protection of a forest.
You are reading: The odyssey books 5-8
summary: book 6
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That night, Athena appears in a dream to the Phaeacian princess Nausicaa, disguised as a friend. she encourages the young princess to go to the river the next day to wash her clothes so that she appears more attractive to the many men who court her. The next morning, Nausicaa goes to the river, and while she and her maidens are naked, playing ball while her clothes dry on the ground, Odysseus wakes up in the forest and meets them. naked himself, humbly but winningly begs for his help, never revealing his identity. Nausicaa leaves him alone to wash the dirt and brine off her body, and Athena makes him look especially handsome, so when Nausicaa sees him again she begins to fall in love with him. Afraid of causing a scene if she enters the city with a strange man at her side, Nausicaa gives Odysseus directions to the palace and advice on how to approach Arete, queen of the Phaeacians, when she finds her. With a prayer to Athena for the hospitality of the Phaeacians, Odysseus heads to the palace.
analysis: books 5-6
Our first encounter with Odysseus confirms what we have already learned about him from Menelaus and Helen’s accounts of his exploits during the Trojan War and what Homer’s audience would have already known: that Odysseus is very cunning and deliberative. the poet takes pains to show him weighing every decision: whether to try to land against the rocky shore of scheria; either to rest by the river or in the shelter of the forest; and whether to hug the knees of nausicaa (the usual gesture of supplication) or address her from afar. The cunning and measured approach these cases demonstrate balances Odysseus’ warrior mentality. though aggressive and determined, he is far from rash. instead, he is cunning, cautious, and extremely self-assured. At one point, he even ignores the goddess Ino’s advice to abandon ship, relying on his seafaring skills and declaring: “[it] is what seems best to me” (5.397). in each case, he makes a decision and turns thought into action with speed and poise. In his encounter with Nausicaa, a telling example of his ability to interact with people and his charisma, his moderate approach turns out to be “endearing, cunning, and affable” (6.162).
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While these internal debates are characteristic of Odysseus, they are in some ways characteristic of the Odyssey as a whole. Unlike the Iliad, which explores the phenomena of human interaction—competition, aggression, war, and the glory they can bring to one man in the eyes of others—the Odyssey is much more concerned with the invisible universe of human heart, of feelings. of loneliness, confusion and despair. Not surprisingly, Homer presents the hero Odysseus in a very unheroic way. We first find him sulking on a beach, longing for his home, alone except for the lovesick goddess who has imprisoned him there. Though not entirely unheard of in the Iliad, this kind of pathetic scene still seems a long way from the great and glorious battles of the first epic. even without the linguistic and historical evidence, some commentators consider the stylistic divergence of scenes like this to be strong evidence for the separate authorship of these two poems.
Commentators are divided on their interpretation of Calypso’s remarkable speech to the gods. Some see it as a realistic and unflinching account of how things work in the patriarchal culture of ancient Greece: while men from the mortal world and Zeus and the other male gods can get away with promiscuous behavior, society expects May women be faithful at all times. Others understand Calypso’s tirade as a reaction to this reality. With this interpretation, we find ourselves naturally sympathetic to Calypso, who is making an impassioned critique of social norms that are genuinely hypocritical. The question of interpretation becomes even more complicated when we consider the relationship between Penelope and Odysseus. The poet seems to present Odysseus’s adventure with Calypso without reproach while he looks askance at Penelope’s indulgence of suitors, even though her faith in Odysseus never wavers. If we understand Calypso’s speech as a critique of these patriarchal norms, we can see how the text presents two opposing attitudes towards sexual behavior, and Calypso’s speech seems to point out and condemn the unfair double standards that Homer seems to apply to Penelope.
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