The Odyssey Book 11 - The Kingdom of the Dead

Part One:

In Book 11, Odysseus describes his journey to the House of Death. During his time in the underworld he encounters an endless list of spirits, including people that he used to be friends with and people that he seems to have never met. The most important person that Odysseus meets, however, is Tiresias. Tiresias tells Odysseus that he will probably be able to complete his journey home if he is able to curb his own (and his crew’s) wild desire and refrain from killing the cattle of Helios. I don’t think Tiresias is able to give Odysseus a for-sure, 100% clear answer because there is no way for Tiresias to know what else Poseidon will do to try to stop Odysseus from reaching home. Also, Tiresias might think that Odysseus isn’t worthy of a speedy return if he is not able to hold himself back from killing the cows. Tiresias also says that Odysseus will die a peaceful death, far from the sea (although, as I talk about later, this is also controversial).

                

               Book 11 also reveals Homer’s society’s views on women. Homer starts his speech about women by saying that “there’s nothing more deadly, bestial than a woman set on works like these” (11.485) and that a man should “never reveal the whole truth” (11.501) to his wife. He also ends his speech very drastically by saying that “the time for trusting women’s gone forever!” (11.518). In a way, though, didn’t Agamemnon have the right to feel this way? Thousands of his comrades had died trying to win one woman, Helen, and all the while his own wife was plotting his downfall. I think he is trying to say something like “look how much trouble the wiles of women have caused!” He says it in a way that sounds sexist, but he has a point. This is interesting, though, because Agamemnon seems to respect Odysseus’ wife Penelope greatly. This made me feel like he was not being sexist for saying those things about his wife; he was just angry at her for doing something horrible, and wasn’t spiting her just because she was a woman. 

GQ - Do you think that Homer saw men as being far superior to women? Does the passage from 11.484 – 11.518 show that Homer saw women as inferior? 

Part Two : 

Literary devices:

The prophecy that Tiresias gives Odysseus uses a lot of literary devices in a very interesting way. First, it uses foreshadowing. He basically gives the reader two possible outcomes and says that one of them is going to happen and the other is not. In this way, I guess it’s not as much foreshadowing as it is strait out telling us. This foreshadowing also brings out the literary device of dramatic irony. Because we know what happens to Odysseus in the end, we know which of the two options that Tiresias mentioned is going to happen. This makes the punishment that Tiresias talks about sound even worse, since we know as we hear about it that Odysseus will have to go through all of those troubles. However, the detail in which Tiresias describes Odysseus’ potential suffering might just be a reflection of the tone of the author, since Odysseus is actually the reader of this story. He was the one who actually experienced all of the hardships that Tiresias says might come about, so he is able to embellish what Tiresias said.  

Epic Machinery:

               The major form of epic machinery that was used in book 11 was Odysseus’ journey to the underworld. As a tool that an author such as Homer would use to write an epic like the Odyssey, a journey to the underworld could be used to represent a lot of things. It could, for instance, represent the time in the epic when the main character has to face all of those who had died before him, and the time when he has to face all of his problems. It is the start of a new beginning, and inspires the hero to keep going. Showing how even the strongest of characters such as Achilles suffer in the underworld leads the visitor to persevere in hopes of staying alive for as long as possible. Entering the underworld is also a test for the hero, forcing them to prove whether or not they are brave enough to face the darkest of trials and show their courage and strength.

Translator’s Notes:

               The translator’s notes are very interesting because they show just how differently some things can be taken. For example, the note about line 11.154 tells us about the line “a gentle, painless death, far from sea.” Since it is legend that Odysseus died “by fishbone,” some have translated this line to mean that he choked to death on a fishbone or that he was poisoned by a fishbone, while others have translated this to mean that he was killed by a fishbone spear. It’s so interesting to me that the language can be taken so radically different, and makes me wonder what else in this story has gone through such change. 

GQ - One of the forms of epic machinery is the use of the number three. In this book, the number three is used when Odysseus sees his mother: “Three times I rushed towards her, desperate to hold her, three times she fluttered through my fingers, sifting away” (11.235-236). What does the number three, and the act of doing things three times, represent?

Part Three:

I would say that the two most important themes that are found in this book are the importance of courage, and the importance of reverence to the dead. Odysseus is revered in this book, even by the greatest people in history such as Achilles, as an extremely courageous man for willingly going to the House of Death. Their reactions made me feel that courage is almost synonymous with power and heroism in their culture. The fact that going to the underworld is a relatively common aspect of Greek literature also shows that reverence to the dead is very important. The dead could give the living advice, and were able to help the hero (such as Odysseus) with their unique point of view.

               The Antlers are back for round two! Like I mention in one of my earlier blog posts, the album Hospice tells an explicit story (in first and second person narrative) of a man meeting a depressed and abusive bone cancer patient in the Sloan Kettering Cancer Ward where he is working, falling in love, and eventually watching her die while he is beside her. Memories, regret and grief recur throughout the album. This song, Shiva, tells about how Silberman confronts his dead loved one by trying to put himself in her shoes. This is similar to Odysseus, because Odysseus forces himself to go to the underworld to ask for help, not matter how horrible of a place it is. Both Silberman and Odysseus gain great insight from their bravery and willingness to face the dead (or what the dead have left behind, since the dead in the Odyssey are only fragments of what they once were, and since Silberan isn’t actually talking to Sylvia).

GQ – Would you be able to face all of the people in your life that have died and that you miss, and would you be able to leave again once you had been back with them? What insight do you think you could gain by communicating with the dead?

Nora in Wonderland

While taking a break from blogging, I decided to watch the recent Alice and Wonderland movie. After watching it for a while, however, I realized that Alice is actually similar to Nora in a lot of ways. For one both Alice and Nora were forced into marriages that did not suit them. Although Nora wasn’t literally forced into marriage like Alice was, she was still forced into marriage in that society had told her that it was her only option. Also, both Nora and Alice leave their marriages in the end because they realize that they are not what’s best for them.

A key difference between the two characters, however, is the amount of time it takes for each woman to realize that their marriage will do nothing but oppress them. Alice was able to see this fact right away, when Nora took years to figure it out. This leads me to believe that Nora would have been much better off if she had had someone like Alice in her life to set an example for her. She spent a large portion of her life believing that being married was the only option, without even thinking about what it meant to be a free individual. If Nora had a role model like Alice, she could have avoided entering an oppressive relationship in the first place.  She wouldn’t have to resort to petty thrills like eating macaroons behind her husband’s back or doing exactly what she knew she shouldn’t do just to be happy. Instead, she could have been like Alice right away; free to search out what it really means to be an individual.

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus

I think that there are a lot of examples of oppressed women in marriage, but while reading A Doll’s House, I noticed how in almost every manner it relates to the movie Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus.  Both Diane Arbus and Nora were oppressed in their marriages. Nora was oppressed by her husband more than anything else, but the connection can still be made that the act of simply being married oppressed both Diane and Nora. Diane was an extremely unique individual, but when she was married to her husband she was not able to pursue what she actually wanted to do in life. Her husband loved her and said that she could do whatever she wanted, but Diane still felt oppressed by the fact that she could never really follow her dreams (as bizarre as they were) while she had to take care of her daughters and her husband. It took a stranger to show Diane that the life she was living was not who she was, and she, like Nora, came to the decision that leaving was the only option.

 Marriage was oppressive for Nora in the exact same way, because she felt that her life under marriage was nothing but a lie. Both Nora and Diane ended up leaving their families to go after their dreams, in spite of the fact that society labels women who do such things as horrible people. Diane was a little bit farther “off the deep end” than Nora was, but the connections between the two women are still very strong. 

"There's nothing ahead but a river I will cross"

While looking around for connections, I stumbled upon the poem “Border” by Taslima Nasrin. At a first glance it might be hard to tell, thanks to its positive tone, that this poem has anything to do with A Doll’s House. Looking further, though, I think it is a good representation of how Nora must have felt about her situation (the act of actually leaving her husband and children). Taslima Nasrin talks about how the thought of moving into unknown territory was not even in her mind for the vast majority of her life. She was living a complacent life. Nora was doing the same thing. When Taslima Nasrin eventually realizes that there is so much more to life than just what she has experienced, she is stopped from pursuing these things by her family. I don’t think they mean to stop her, but in their ignorant way, they do. Taslima Nasrin knows that the way will be tough and that even happiness isn’t certain, but the risk has to be taken. I think the last lines of the Poem sum up both Nora’s and Taslima Nasrin’s situations very well:

There’s nothing ahead but a river

and I know how to swim

Why shouldn’t I go? I’ll go

One difference I noticed is that the line “and then return” is used repeatedly in the poem “Border.” I don’t think the line is necessarily talking about returning to her family, but the connotation is definitely there. I believe that Nora is more adamant about her decision, and (at the point that we are left at at the end of the play) would not even think about going back to her oppressed existence. 

"Border"
I'm going to move ahead.
Behind me my whole family is calling,
my child is pulling at my sari-end,
my husband stands blocking the door,
but I will go.
There's nothing ahead but a river
I will cross.
I know how to swim, but they
won't let me swim, won't let me cross.
There's nothin on the other side of the river
but a vast expanse of fields,
but I'll touch this emptiness once
and run against  the wind, whose whooshing sound
makes me want to dance.  I'll dance someday
and then return.
I've not played keep-away for years
as I did in childhood.
I'll raise a great commotion playing keep-away someday
and then return.
For years I haven't cried with my head
in the lap of solitude.
I'll cry to my heart's content someday
and then return.
There's nothing ahead but a river
and I know how to swim.
Why shouldn't I go?  I'll go

Nora and the Antlers

The play A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen tells the story of a woman named Nora who is oppressed; not only by her husband, but by marriage itself. This oppression leads to her obsession, her forbidden love, of things that she is not allowed to do. Throughout the play, Nora does things behind her husband’s back, and it gives her an inexplicable thrill; a thrill that she is incredibly proud of.

Although Nora was in love with an idea more so than a person, I can still see a strong connection between her forbidden love and the love of Peter Silberman of the Antlers. The album Hospice tells an explicit story (in first and second person narrative) of a man meeting a depressed and abusive bone cancer patient in the Sloan Kettering Cancer Ward where he is working, falling in love, and eventually watching her die while he is beside her. Memories, regret and grief recur throughout the album. The way the songs are written to tell a story and the way they are sung, more than anything else, shows just how strong Silberman’s love was. Throughout the album, he writes about how every day he would be harassed by his family and by his coworkers for doing what he knew was incorrect. Both Nora and Silberman are in love with things that society says are wrong, yet both were exceedingly proud of their actions and were able to live life without regret.

This song, titled Epilogue, is the last song on the album. It describes Silberman’s meaningless and empty life after his love Sylvia’s death. Nora would have felt the same way if she had stayed in her marriage; empty and alone, living a life that was not the real Nora.

In a nightmare, I am falling from the ceiling into bed beside you.You’re asleep, I’m screaming, shoving you to try to wake you up. And like before, you’ve got no interest in the life you live when you’re awake. Your dreams still follow story-lines, like fictions you would make.

So I lie down against your back, until we’re both back in the hospital. But now it’s not a cancer ward, we’re sleeping in the morgue. Men and women in blue and white, they are singing all around you, with heavy shovels holding earth. You’re being buried to your neck. In that hospital bed, being buried quite alive now. I’m trying to dig you out but all you want is to be buried there together.

You’re screaming, and cursing, and angry, and hurting me, and then smiling, and crying, apologizing.

I’ve woken up, I’m in our bed, but there’s no breathing body there beside me. Someone must have taken you while I was stuck asleep. But I know better as my eyes adjust. You’ve been gone for quite awhile now, and I don’t work there in the hospital (they had to let me go.)

When I try to move my arms sometimes, they weigh too much to lift. I think you buried me awake (my one and only parting gift.) But you return to me at night, just when I think I may have fallen asleep. Your face is up against mine, and I’m too terrified to speak.

All of the other lyrics for the songs can be found here. I much enjoy them.
http://antlersmusic.com/lyrics/