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?