Passion_and_Rage

Kimberly Dill Professor Jeff Porter The Myth of the Hero 6 July 2007 New Warrior In Homer’s epic The Odyssey, Odysseus’ most important quality as an epic hero is his Métis – cunning and trickery. Unlike Achilles in The Iliad, Odysseus is not famous for his great strength or courage, but infamous as a “great tactician…quick at every treachery under the sun – / the man of twists and turns” (Iliad 3:241,243-4). Homer designs a new kind of heroism in direct criticism of The Iliad – Odysseus’ old warrior skills are inappropriate in The Odyssey. His responses to the challenges he faces over the course of his travels show him gradually learning the skills of caution, planning, and self-control. If Odysseus is a new kind of warrior, why does he deal with the suitors in an Iliad like way' The violence against the suitors contradicts the “new” Odysseus. Is the act of violence because of grey-eyed Athena' Before he can get home, Odysseus goes through a re-birth, as a new type of warrior, when he visits with Achilles in the Underworld, when he reviews his past decisions while held by Calypso, and the washing off of the old self getting to Scheria. Homer illustrates the beginnings of Odysseus’ re-birth by visiting Agamemnon and Achilles in the Underworld. Doubt sets in Odysseus’ mind about his own homecoming when he learns of Agamemnon’s wife’s treachery. However, more importantly, Achilles places a seed of doubt about the old warrior code in Odysseus’ mind: “No winning words about death to me…/ By god, I would rather slave on earth for another man” (Odyssey 11:554-5). A warrior’s glory is not worth the losing of life. Homer stresses to his audience what is important – being home and with family – where Odysseus tries to go. While captive on Calypso’s island, the reader observes Odysseus crying – for his home and for his lost men. He has had time to contemplate his past deeds. Living on Ogygia, he has become a nameless person – a man without agency. Repenting and praying to his gods, Odysseus finally gets a second chance at a new life and a way home. However, before his new life can start, he must endure more trials in the baptismal font of the god of earthquake: “He went under a good long while, no fast way out,/ no struggling up from under the giant wave’s assault” (5:352-3). Odysseus has been to the depths and now is back; however, this new beginning is not Odysseus’ own volition. Poseidon tries to destroy him one more time, but Odysseus wants to live and with his desire: “He dove headfirst in the sea, / stretched his arms and strolled for life itself” (5:411-2). New life, a new warrior, is Odysseus’ after his immersion in the depths of Poseidon’s font. Homer undoubtedly illustrates the beginnings of a transformation in Odysseus as he lands on the island of Scheria: His knees buckled, massive arms fell limp, /the sea had beaten down his striving heart. /His whole body swollen, brine aplenty gushing/out of his mouth and nostrils – breathless, speechless, /there he lay, with only a little strength left in him, /deathly waves of exhaustion overwhelmed him now…/But once he regained his breath [he] rallied back to life. (5:501-7) The birth of a new warrior emerges from the womb of past mistakes and lies naked as a newborn waiting to test his new skills of ingenuity and craft. Homer continues to develop this new warrior image with Odysseus’ supplication to Nausicaa, Arete, and King Alcinous; however, it is important to note that Athena helps Odysseus here in Scheria. Odysseus succeeds weaving his tale to the Phaeacians, and because of his supplication and reverence, he finds himself back at home on the shores of Ithaca. Over the course of his travels, Odysseus has had to rely on his Métis and has perfected his skills of caution. This skill of caution is observed when Odysseus lands on Ithaca and invokes the “cunning in his heart” (13:289) against Athena. Homer illustrates to the reader that Athena is pleased with Odysseus’ renewed Métis – she calls him “foxy” and “ingenious” (13:332), a man of “craft and guile” (13:331), one who tells “wily tales” (13:334), and “the best at tactics” and “spinning yarns” (13:137). She likens him to herself: “We’re both old hands at the arts of intrigue” (13:135-6) – Odysseus the best for mortal men and Athena “famous among the gods for wisdom, cunning wiles, too” (13:338-9). Homer imparts to his reader that the Métis of the new warrior rivals the violence of the old warrior; however, having Athena return thwarts this idea of using polymetis in isolation when imminent danger lingers. Odysseus asks Athena to “weave…a scheme” (13:442) to get rid of the suitors in his home. Because Athena is as furious now as she was in Troy, Odysseus feels as if he could “fight three hundred men” (13:445). He incites her to battle with him, or she incites him to battle as she relates happenings at home. Homer devises a plan for his reader: use cunning and trickery first and violence as a last resort. However, the reader has to ask: If Odysseus’ Métis were at new heights after his rebirth, would he have self-control even without Athena' Does she have another agenda' Is she longing for a fight' Athena does weave a scheme and Odysseus begins it with tests of others and for himself. He tests to see who is loyal and those that pass get to live. He is “keen to test the swineherd” (14:521), Eumaeus, repeatedly. He is one of the few that pass. While planning tactics of tests and self-control with Telemachus against the suitors, it is interesting to note that Homer reverts to war-like epithets – “old soldier” (16:289) – to incite the old warrior. Odysseus’ polymetis reverts to the skill of self-control. He tells his son to go home and mix with the suitors and “no matter what outrage [Odysseus] must suffer…/[Telemachus must] look on, [and] endure it” (16:305, 309). Self-control of son and father is pertinent. Melanthius, the goat herder, challenges Odysseus’ self-control with “wild, reckless taunts” (17:254) and “kick[ing] his hip” (17:255). “Odysseus was torn…/should he wheel with his staff and beat the scoundrel senseless' – / or hoist him by the midriff, split his skull on the rocks'/He steeled himself instead, his mind in full control” (17:257-260). The first test of self-control is successful. Tests and self-control continue. Athena wants Odysseus to test the suitors: “Test them, so we can tell the innocent from the guilty” (17:398). This leads to the idea that perhaps the old Iliad ways of war are not necessary. Odysseus tests his self-control again as Antinous “seized [a] stool and hurled it – / Square in the back/it struck Odysseus, just under the right shoulder” (17:509-11). Odysseus, dressed as a beggar, only has words with the suitor and holds back his anger. Rushing towards Antinous, as Achilles might have, would not be in the new warrior-like tradition of being crafty. The “foxy veteran, plotted on”(18:59) continuing to test others in the halls of Ithaca and testing his own Métis. Continuing to test and warn others foreshadows the plan of destruction of the suitors. Odysseus tries to warn Amphinomus to watch what he is doing under the King of Ithaca’s roof. Nevertheless, he cannot “escape his fate./Even Athena had bound him fast to death” (18:177-8). Athena encourages the violence that waits. The new qualities Odysseus uses to survive in the postwar world are still supported by his prowess as an old-fashioned warrior – his diplomacy is unable to avert the suitors’ fate. Odysseus, with the support of Athena, continues to test the suitors and the maids. Homer names him “wily fighter” (20:39) as Odysseus makes plans with Athena and asks how he can get the “shameless suitors in [his] clutches” (20:41) all the while worrying about running from the “avengers” (20:45). Odysseus uses his Métis knowing the end-result of the suitors will be death. The end of the suitors begins with the taunting from Antinous. He taunts the other suitors to the ultimate test – string the bow. Odysseus, “king of craft" (21:306) taunts Antinous with “all his cunning” (21:306) that he will string the bow. Antinous taunts back. This is the war dance of The Iliad – the dance before the death. All the planning and the cunning of Odysseus has lead to the killing. Odysseus kills Antinous and others along side his son, the swineherd and the cowherd. However, Athena is there too along Odysseus’ side just as she was in the Trojan War. Homer distinguishes Odysseus, as he is fighting, as “wily captain” (22:171), “master of tactics” (22:178), “Laertes’ cunning son” (22:200), and “mastermind of war” (22:211). Where is the converted warrior of new' He is not sure of himself in this war: His “knees shook, his heart too, when he saw them/ bucking on their armor, brandishing long spears” (22:156-8). He does not appear to have the fight left in him: Athena hit new heights of rage,/ she lashed out at Odysseus now wit blazing accusations:/’Where’s it gone, Odysseus – your power, your fighting heart'/The great soldier who fought for famous white-armed Helen,/battling Trojans nine long years – non-stop, no mercy,/mowing their armies down in grueling battle…/How can you…bewail the loss of your combat strength in a war with suitors'’ (22:234-9, 241, 243) Athena rallies Odysseus to battle and he kills the remaining suitors in Iliad like violence: Odysseus and his crew are “wheeling into the slaughter, slashing left and right/and grisly screams broke from skulls cracked open – /the whole floor awash with blood” (22:321-3). Where is the converted warrior' What is Homer telling his audience about Athena and her influences over Odysseus’ mind' The Métis can only take one so far and if diplomacy is unable to work, then succumb to violence. Did Athena seek pleasure in battle' When she finishes, she tells the avengers: “Hold back, you men of Ithaca, back from brutal war!/Break off – shed no more blood – make peace at once!” (24:584-5) – What does this mean' Athena realizes that violence cannot continue. The violence Odysseus uses against the suitors and the maids contradicts the man who faced challenges over the course of his travels and gradually learns the skills of caution, planning, and self-control. Homer may contradict the old warrior of The Iliad and the new warrior of The Odyssey by the killings of the suitors. However, Odysseus’ Métis, perhaps, is not enough in itself. Homer tells his reader that there may always come a time when tactful skills fail and force alone will succeed; or one does what Athena says. Work Cited Homer. The Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin, 1996. Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin, 1996.