TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE ODYSSEY (SPECIAL MENTION)

 

Sing, Muse, of the special mentions for my Top 10 Books of the Odyssey.

I’ve counted down my Top 10 Books of the Odyssey but there are twenty-four of them, essentially the equivalent of modern chapters, hence a balance of fourteen books for special mention. Obviously, I’m not getting my usual twenty special mentions out of fourteen books, so here’s my fourteen special mentions, one for each book.

 

(1) BOOK 1 – ODYSSEY ALPHA

 

Yes, top special mentions must go to the first and last books of the Odyssey.

The first book of course has the famous opening line of its invocation of the Muse and the subject of Odysseus – “Sing to me, Muse, of the man of twists and turns” (or of many devices or ways).

Sometimes titled Athena Inspires the Prince (for Athena spurring Telemachus, the first book also sets up the whole poem, ironically starting with its protagonist, Odysseus as missing – the Odysseus-shaped hole in Ithaca. A kingdom without its king, a wife without her husband (and mobbed by suitors), a son without a father.

 

(2) BOOK 24 – ODYSSEY OMEGA

 

The last book – The Peace – is somewhat anti-climactic but necessary for the resolution of the whole Odyssey as the goddess Athena intervenes to tie everything up with a nice bow (heh), defusing feuds between Odysseus and the families of the slain suitors. Everything that is, except for Odysseus leaving again to appease Poseidon – that whole bit of going inland with an oar. It prompts to mind that ending gag of the Simpsons Odyssey, where Homer as Odysseus slays the suitors, only to tell Marge’s Penelope, “quit suffocating me, woman, I’m going to Moe’s”.

 

(3) BOOK 13 – ITHACA AT LAST

 

There’s just something particularly poetic (heh) that Odysseus doesn’t return to Ithaca in Book 13 on his own two feet or even in his own consciousness but is carried in asleep – seemingly enchanted sleep – by the Phaeacian sailors of the ship that took him there. It has a certain dreamlike quality – or even more, a symbolic resonance of death and rebirth.

And here on the threshold of the mythic world of his wonderings and the human world of his homecoming, the gods manifest themselves. Poseidon in a fit of pique at Odysseus returning home (enriched by gifted treasure from the Phaeacians even more than he had been from the sack of Troy) deals out some petty punishment – on the Phaeacians. Really, Poseidon?

And Athena appears to Odysseus, ultimately in her full divine form, to aid and guide him – including magically disguising him as a wrinkled, bald old beggar. Although I can’t help thinking of the Simpsons Odyssey skit where Marge’s Penelope looks at a picture of Homer’s Odysseus, muscled and with long flowing hair twenty years earlier (as opposed to how he looks now), and exclaims “I hope he’s still the magnificent physical specimen he was when he left”.

Essentially, the plan unfolds and the pieces come together from there.

 

(4) BOOK 16 – FATHER AND SON

 

In Book 16, Odysseus and his son Telemachus are finally reunited as Odysseus reveals himself to Telemachus at the home of Eumaeus. Although it’s probably a stretch that they were ever united in the first place, Telemachus essentially having grown up from infancy in the absence of his father for twenty years. Athena restores Odysseus’ appearance for the occasion, albeit perhaps overdoing it as Telemachus initially believes him to be a god. Together they devise a plan against the suitors, while back at the palace Penelope confronts those suitors over the plot to ambush Telemachus.

 

(5) BOOK 19 – HUSBAND AND WIFE

 

In Book 19, Odysseus and his wife are finally reunited. Well, sort of. Penelope speaks to the disguised Odysseus and she doesn’t recognize him, but his old nurse Eurycleia does recognize him by his scar when washing his feet.

I mean, everyone cries when Odysseus has to hide his feelings over the death of his faithful dog Argos, but this is just as touching as he can’t break his disguise to console Penelope.

 

(6) BOOK 8 – ODYSSEUS REVEALED

 

Yes – there’s not too much action in books 7-8 and they’re somewhat anti-climactic after the Phaeacian princess Nausicaa rescues Odysseus, but the Phaeacian royal court is critical in aiding Odysseus’ return to Ithaca and indeed giving him more treasure than he had from the sack of Troy.

Accordingly, the Phaeacians would be up there as the nicest guys in mythology – and of course Nausicaa is a babe (whom her father offers to Odysseus for marriage, yet another temptation to Odysseus before returning home albeit given innocently in good faith).

Book 8 is dramatic for Odysseus abandoning his disguise and revealing his identity to the Phaeacians, although King Alcinous had surmised it involved Troy given that Odysseus was moved to tears by a bard’s songs about him and the Trojan Horse.

And of course, it’s the immediate framing device for Odysseus telling of his wanderings in Books 9-12.

A minor plot point but one that has endeared itself to me ever since reading the re-telling of it in Bernard Evslin’s The Adventures of Ulysses – the discus challenge, where a youth taunts Odysseus for not participating in the celebratory games and Odysseus absolutely discus-mogs them all. (In Evslin’s version, he uses a chariot wheel for a discus)

 

(7) BOOK 4 – TELEMACHUS IN SPARTA

 

The Telemachy can feel like treading water before we finally get to Odysseus but Book 4 picks up the pace with the climax of Telemachus’ odyssey, as he arrives at Sparta and finally hears the location of Odysseus, told to him by Menelaus courtesy of the shape-changing god Proteus. There’s also the cliffhanger of the assassination plot by the suitors against Telemachus at the end of Book 4.

Book 4 also features the figure behind the whole war and since essentially named for it, Menelaus’ wife Helen of Troy. Menelaus shares with Nestor in the preceding book the happiest homecoming of heroes from the Trojan War.

The Nolan film conflates Telemachus’ visit to Nestor with that to Menelaus, while also omitting the latter was able to impart to Telemachus, essentially by way of divine Grecian whispers via the shape-changing god Proteus (lending his name to the adjective protean), that Odysseus was still alive and Calypso’s “captive” on her island of Ogygia. That of course sets up Odysseus himself to appear with Calypso in Book 5, although as usual it takes divine intervention by Athena to allow him to leave.

 

(8) BOOK 3 – TELEMACHUS AND NESTOR

 

Yes – it’s not quite up there with Telemachus in Sparta with Menelaus in Book 4, which after all gives us our awaited tidings of Odysseus as well as giga-babe Helen, but Book 3 is close with Telemachus in Pylos with Nestor, the other Greek hero with a happy homecoming from Troy.

The fortunate homecomings of Nestor and Menelaus are obviously in contrast to that of the missing Odysseus, but also that of the Greek hero with the most unfortunate homecoming – one that, as Nestor effectively points out to Telemachus, highlights the threat the suitors pose to Odysseus or his royal household – which was of course the leader of the Greek coalition against Troy and king of Mycenae, Agamemnon.

As I said before, the Nolan film conflates Telemachus’ visit to Nestor in Book 3 with that to Menelaus in Book 4, featuring only the latter.

 

(9) BOOK 7 – RECEPTION OF ODYSSEUS IN PHAEACIA

 

Somewhat anti-climactic after the Phaeacian princess Nausicaa rescues Odysseus, but we do get her hot mother, Queen Arete. I’d fall at her feet and clasp her knees too, especially if Nausicaa was somehow also involved.

As I said, the Phaeacian royal court is critical in aiding Odysseus’ return to Ithaca and the Phaeacians would be up there as the nicest guys in mythology, with some of the best bling in their palace – which features prominently in this book.

 

(10) BOOK 15 – THE RETURN OF TELEMACHUS

 

Telemachus returns to Ithaca from Sparta, having avoided the ambush of the suitors and is guided to the home of Eumaeus by Athena, where he’ll meet his father in the next book.

 

(11) BOOK 20 – PORTENTS ON THE EVE OF BATTLE

 

Book 20 is the eve of the battle of suitors, with divine portents aplenty. But not, you know, the actual battle of the suitors which is why the book ranks this far down in special mentions.

 

 

(12) BOOK 14 – ODYSSEUS & EUMAEUS

 

Odysseus finding a royal servant still loyal to him in Ithaca, the swineherd Eumaeus – even if it’s not up there with his reunion with Telemachus, Argos, or Penelope.

There’s also Philoetius, the royal cowherd – which, together with Telemachus, makes four against the suitors in the final battle – but he doesn’t get the scene Eumaeus does here, hence why the Nolan film omitted him entirely.

Still, it’s treading water until the final showdown with the suitors, not the showdown itself.

 

 

(13) BOOK 2 – TELEMACHUS CALLS AN ASSEMBLY

 

Not quite as dull as its informal title sounds but it’s still the Telemachy when it’s treading water the most. Telemachus calls the first public assembly in Ithaca since Odysseus left – a sign of his coming of age – to denounce the suitors, but the two slimiest suitors blame Penelope for leading them on with her famous shroud trick. The cads!

Divine omens (from Zeus) and assistance (from Athena) occur as Telemachus prepares for his own odyssey to look for Odysseus.

 

 

(14) BOOK 18 – ODYSSEUS AT THE PALACE IN DISGUISE

 

I have to rank this book last as a literal bumfight, where an actual beggar picks Odysseus for a fight and it doesn’t work out too well for the beggar. Yes, the beggar had it coming and the suitors egg him on but it seems somewhat undignified for Odysseus – “somebody get these beggars out of here!”

Still, Penelope puts in an appearance and she’s as hot as ever. Hotter, even.