INTRODUCTION TO THE ODYSSEY

The Odyssey is so called because it is about the fantastic—oftentimes incredible—misadventures of Odysseus occured between his departure from the Trojan war-fields and his arrival in Ithaka thirtythree years later.

The Odyssey is made up of three parts or elements (that is, a "tercet", abundant in Homer), two of which seem the same, and a third which is similar and intimately associated, but different from the other two, as in the following scheme—

The irony in the Odyssey is that Odysseus could have returned to Ithaka from the Trojan war-fields sourrounding Ilios in one day (perhaps even in half a day), yet it took him 20 years from when he first abandoned these plains and set foot on Neriton (Peljesac Peninsula): now, purged of his sins, as it were, he traversed its length as the seminal substance of his own incarnation and arrived in Ithaka a regenerated man. By difference with the Iliad, which establishes a complex realationship between divine and mortal beings, the Odyssey deals, in a great measure, with the political and economic chaos caused for want of a conciliatory presence of a legitimate territorial lord —Odysseus— though, in an incidental manner, it also recollects varied folklore of diverse communities scattered along the length of the Trojan coast and islands.

 

The Trojan War has not yet come to a close (see Epic Cycle) before Odysseus leaves the the marshy plains in the SKAMANDROS delta-valley, and raids the Kikones [1] in the northernmost limits of the Trojan coast where he seems to looses all contact with reality for the space of 20 years before finally returning to his senses on the shores of Phorkys [12]

Notice that the 12 episodes in the Misadventures of Odysseus are associated with the 12 houses or stations of the Zodiac, beginning, not as we have it today, with Bull (Taurus) in the month of January, and Crab (Cancer) in March, with the Spring Equinox.

Notice that six episodes occur north of the the tip of NERITON (Leukas), and six south of this cape.

A deeper irony of the Odyssey—beyond that of ITHAKA'S relatively short distance from ILIOS—is that Odysseus never really visited the Phaiakes on Skheria [11], but, rather, came perilously close to drowning in the treacherous waters of his very own dominion when he wished to abandon Ogygia (Mljet) and go to Phorkys (Stonski Kanal). Odysseus had traversed these waters at the onset of the Trojan War, some 22 years earlier, when he took the young maiden Khryseis from Agamemnon's camp back to her father (to the very same island where Kalypso held him for nine years).Thus, the account given by Odysseus to the Phaiakes on Skheria sounds like that of the events in the life of a man recurring as he dies—in this case, as Odysseus drowns in the swift currents between Ogygia and Phorkys—

ODYSSEUSLEAVES OGYGIA KIKONES LOTOPHAGOI KYKLOPES AILOLIA LAISTRYGONES AIAIA

ODYSSEUS VISITS NETHERWORLD

ODYSSEUS ARRIVES IN PHORKYS SKHERIA THRINAKIA KHARYBDIS SKYLLA PLANKTAI AIAIA

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The name of Odysseus is often exchanged for that of Ulysses —not that it matters much— like calling Zeus, Jove, and Athene, Minerva... in the case of gods and goddesses their identities and their doings remain the same... however, as concerns mortal man, the names of Ulysses and Odysseus are those of two different personages; the linguistic argument that these names are cognate may be so (whence the erroneous inference of different names for the same person), for Ulysses need stand as an intermediary form between Odysseus and Flixes (or Vlixes).