| 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 the same, and a third which is similar and intimately
associated, but different from the other two, as in the following
scheme—
| THE
EXILE OF ODYSSEUS |
THE
TAKING OF ITHAKA |
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.
| KIKONES |
LOTOPHAGOI |
KYKLOPES |
AIOLIA |
LAISTRYGONES |
AIAIA |
PLANKTAI |
KHARYBDIS |
THRINAKIA |
OGYGIA |
SKHERIA |
PHORKYS |
| BULL |
TWINS |
CRAB |
LION |
VIRGIN |
SCALES |
SCORP |
BOWMAN |
GOAT |
WATERM |
FISH |
RAM |
PLACES
VISITED BY ODYSSEUS
.gif)
Notice
that six episodes occur north of the the tip of NERITON (Leukas),
and six south of this cape.
THE
REALITY OF THE ODYSSEY
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
ARRIVES IN PHORKYS |
SKHERIA
THRINAKIA
KHARYBDIS
SKYLLA
PLANKTAI
AIAIA
|
|
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).
|
