Tag Archives: Mythology

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Adaptations of the Odyssey (9) Jonathan Shays – Odysseus in America

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Cover of Scribner Book Company 2003 paperback reprint edition – the edition I own (fair use)

 

 

(9) JONATHAN SHAY –

ODYSSEUS IN AMERICA: COMBAT TRAUMA & THE TRIALS OF HOMECOMING (2002)

 

Companion and sequel of sorts to Shay’s Iliad, Achilles in Vietnam, this is not so much an adaptation of the Odyssey as the usage of it as a lens for combat trauma and the concept of “moral injury”.

I can’t find any source for this book as an influence on Nolan’s film but the themes of the film are too uncannily similar for it not to have been influenced by the book. It certainly has been an influence on my own planned adaptation of the Odyssey…but I’ve said too much.

I’ll let the Amazon blurb for the book speak for it:

“In this ambitious follow-up to Achilles in Vietnam, Dr. Jonathan Shay uses the Odyssey, the story of a soldier’s homecoming, to illuminate the pitfalls that trap many veterans on the road back to civilian life…Shay deepens our understanding of both the combat veteran’s experience and one of the world’s greatest classics. In Achilles in Vietnam, Dr. Jonathan Shay used the story of the Iliad as a prism through which to examine how ancient and modern wars have battered the psychology of the men who fight. Now he turns his attention to the Odyssey, the story of a soldier’s homecoming, to illuminate the real problems faced by combat veterans re-entering civilian society. The Odyssey, Shay argues, offers explicit portrayals of behavior common among returning soldiers in our own culture: danger-seeking, womanizing, explosive violence, drug abuse, visitation by the dead, obsession, vagrancy and homelessness…Shay shows how Odysseus’s mistrustfulness, his lies, and his constant need to conceal his thoughts and emotions foreshadow the experiences of many of today’s veterans.”

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Adaptations of the Odyssey (8) The Simpsons – D’oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

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Screenshot from the episode with Homer’s homecoming Odysseus (fair use)

 

 

(8) THE SIMPSONS –

D’OH BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?:

TALES FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, SEASON 13 EPISODE 14 (2002)

 

The Simpsons did it.

Yes, it’s a good gag from a South Park episode (“Simpsons Already Did It”) but in the case the Simpsons did Homer’s Odyssey.

I mean, it was probably inevitable, given the name of its (adult) protagonist (and indeed, they used the title Homer’s Odyssey for another episode which did not adapt the epic).

And they did it pretty well – remarkably so as it was not even a whole episode, but one of three segments of an episode. Even so, it hit the main comedic satire or parody beats  of the Odyssey through a modern lens, with too many classic lines from which to choose.

If I have to choose, it’s a close call with Penelope musing whether Odysseus is the same “magnificent physical specimen as when he left” (complete with a photograph of a muscular fully-haired Odysseus), but I’d go with Odysseus blowing off Penelope after twenty years of war and homecoming.

“Quit suffocating me, I’m going to Moe’s”.

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Adaptations of the Odyssey (7) Coen Brothers – O Brother, Where Art Thou?

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O Brother, Where Art Thou? DVD cover (fair use)

 

 

(7) COEN BROTHERS –

O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (2000)

 

“You seek a great fortune, you three who are now in chains. You will find a fortune, though it will not be the one you seek. But first… first you must travel a long and difficult road, a road fraught with peril. Mm-hmm. You shall see thangs, wonderful to tell…”

So says the Blind Railman, this film’s equivalent of the blind prophet Tiresias in the underworld.

Some might prefer this film adaptation of the Odyssey to that of Nolan – and I obviously regard it as the only other cinematic version worthy of a place in my top ten, albeit second to Nolan’s film.

My reason is that Nolan’s film is a more straightforward adaptation of the original epic. As entertaining as it is, O Brother is only loosely based on the original epic – “a loose comedic retelling of Homer’s ancient Greek epic poem, The Odyssey, set in 1930s Depression-era Mississippi.” Oh – and musical as well.

Indeed, part of the fun is spotting the parallels with the original epic. George Clooney’s Ulysses and Holly Hunter’s Penelope. John Goodman’s cyclops. The sirens – always the best part of the Odyssey and one of the highlights here. And so on.

The other highlight for me was Sheriff Cooley and his relentless pursuit of Clooney’s Ulysses, as well as the latter’s escape by divine fortune. In terms of the epic, Cooley represents Poseidon (or the forces of divine retribution or nemesis in general), but arguably also Hades and the underworld, merged with the Christian Devil.

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Adaptations of the Odyssey (6) Barbara Walker – The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths & Secrets

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HarperCollins 1983 paperback edition (the edition I own) – my favorite cover art for the book!

 

 

(6) BARBARA WALKER –

WOMEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MYTHS & SECRETS (1983)

 

As the title indicates, this is a general encyclopedia of mythology, including classical mythology, including entries for subjects from the Odyssey – most notably for Penelope.

Like Graves and indeed borrowing from him as a reference, the entries are really interpretative notes or commentary – decoding or reconstructing mythology to the monomyth of the Goddess or prehistoric matriarchal religion.

Essentially, throughout all entries there is Walker’s monomyth of the archetypal Goddess throughout mythology and history – or rather prehistory (or perhaps herstory), as the Goddess was displaced, firstly into many goddesses, and secondly by male gods or God.

Or in this case, heroes or hero. There’re not many entries directly for the Odyssey – Odysseus himself does not get one – but there are brief entries for some of its female figures such as Circe, the Sirens, and above all, Penelope.

Teasing out Walker’s adaptation or interpretation of the Odyssey from such entries, primarily that for Penelope (which cites Graves’ The Greek Myths), Walker presents Penelope as yet another manifestation of the Goddess – essentially in the same role as Athena as patron of Odysseus, particularly as a goddess of fate spinning and unspinning the thread of his life (represented by the shroud of his father) such that he has a literally charmed life, escaping dangers and death.

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Adaptations of the Odyssey (5) Robert Graves – The Greek Myths

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Cover 2017 Penguin paperback edition (fair use)

 

 

(5) ROBERT GRAVES –

THE GREEK MYTHS (1955)

 

Similarly to Bulfinch’s Mythology, this book by Graves is a general compendium of Greek myths, including the Odyssey.

However, The Greek Myths by Graves is distinct from Bulfinch’s Mythology in that it extends beyond mere summary to interpretation, albeit Graves’ idiosyncratic interpretation to his overarching “poetic theme” or monomyth of the Goddess, and hence arguably an adaptation.

Essentially, Graves’ study of Greek mythology comes in two parts, summary and interpretation.

The first is a conventional compendium of Greek mythology – literary retellings of the various myths from their sources – and it is this part that is the basis for the book as my favorite single volume study of Greek mythology, albeit somewhat dense in its prose style.

The second part – his interpretative notes or commentary – is where things get wilder, albeit all in good poetic fun. This is where Graves ‘decodes’ or reconstructs Greek mythology to his monomyth of the Goddess or prehistoric matriarchal religion – “Graves interpreted Bronze Age Greece as changing from a matriarchal society…to a patriarchal one under continual pressure from victorious Greek-speaking tribes. In the second stage local kings came to each settlement as foreign princes, reigned by marrying the hereditary queen, who represented the Triple Goddess, and were ritually slain by the next king after a limited period, originally six months. Kings managed to evade the sacrifice for longer and longer periods, often by sacrificing substitutes, and eventually converted the queen, priestess of the Goddess, into a subservient and chaste wife, and in the final stage had legitimate sons to reign after them”.

So there you go. Of course, the historical accuracy of Graves’ interpretation or commentary has been almost universally contested or considered to be idiosyncratic – “the interpretive notes are of value only as a guide to the author’s personal mythology”.

And that extends to his interpretation of the Odyssey, of which I’ll always remember his interpretation of recurring katabasis or descent to the underworld – death and rebirth. One scene that indeed strikes as a ritual burial of death and rebirth is that of the Phaeacians taking Odysseus – who is in a seemingly supernatural state of slumber – ashore on Ithaca, placing him and the treasures they gave him in a cave.

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Adaptations of the Odyssey (4) Bulfinch’s Mythology

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Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus – one of the most famous paintings depicting a subject of classical mythology or indeed any subject, imitated and parodied ever since in popular culture (public domain image)

 

 

(4) BULFINCH’S MYTHOLOGY (1867)

 

Yes, technically this doesn’t adapt the original but includes a summary version of it as part of general compendium of classical (and other) mythology.

Named for its American author Thomas Bulfinch and published as a collection of three volumes after his death in 1867, Bulfinch’s Mythology still remains a classic reference (and handily in the public domain) – as indeed it was for me as my introduction as a child to the world of classical mythology. Well, technically that was the first volume – the Age of Fable – but it did include a summary version of the Odyssey, that along with Evslin and Tennyson, was my childhood version of the epic.

Anyway, its impact as an introduction to classical mythology remains profound – if, deep within my psyche, there is any mythology that tempts me to actual religion, it’s classical mythology – and its summary version of the Odyssey is part of that.

 

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Adaptations of the Odyssey (3) Christopher Nolan – The Odyssey

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Iconic poster image and shot from the trailer for the Nolan film (fair use)

 

 

 

(3) CHRISTOPHER NOLAN –

THE ODYSSEY (2026)

 

“In a time of apparent magic”

 

Well, you must have seen this coming. Christopher Nolan’s cinematic adaptation of the Odyssey is inescapable for inclusion in a top ten compiled in the same year as its release – even more so as Nolan himself observed, the Odyssey “had not been adapted into a large-scale production from a major Hollywood studio” and was hence “an odd gap in movie history”.

Also, I liked it.

It is by no means perfect and necessarily has omissions or changes to adapt the original epic into a single film – but by Athena, it lodged itself deep in my psyche and resonated with me afterwards. Not as deep or resonant as the original epic or my childhood version of it in top spot, but perhaps on a par with Tennyson’s poem – which Nolan’s film echoes in its ending.

Part of that resonance is because Nolan’s film is a distinctly contemporary or modern adaptation of the epic.

The “apparent magic” of the film’s intertitle is poised ambiguously between the psychological and the supernatural – floating as memories through a lotus haze and haunted by the ghosts of war.

Beyond that, there’s the reframing of the poem and the character of Odysseus “into a meditation on the moral consequences of war…using it to reframe the Trojan Horse and Odysseus’ journey as explorations of post-traumatic stress disorder, war guilt, moral injury and the breakdown of trust in civic norms”, albeit it got a little heavy-handed with its message of the Odyssey as part of the Late Bronze Age Collapse and the Sea Peoples.

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Adaptations of the Odyssey (2) Alfred Lord Tennyson – Ulysses

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Profile of the poem as sold on Amazon Kindle (fair use)

 

 

 

(2) ALFRED LORD TENNYSON –

ULYSSES (1842)

 

“I mete and dole

Unequal laws unto a savage race,

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me”.

 

Well, there’s a job description for you, surprisingly close to my actual job description.

Okay, technically it doesn’t adapt the original but is a sequel, invoking the same heroic spirit for one last sail into the sunset – which I can’t help but feel was an influence on my next entry.

However, after Evslin, it was my next invocation of the Odyssey as a child before reading the Odyssey itself.

Alfred Lord Tennyson – archetypal poet of Victorian literature and poet laureate – and his Ulysses – poem in blank verse and dramatic monologue. Dramatic monologue to whom is not clear, but by whom is of course the classical hero of Iliad and Odyssey, Odysseus, or as the Romans called him, Ulysses.

Companion poem to his earlier “The Lotus Eaters” also inspired by the Odyssey but complete opposite to the former poem’s anti-heroism – where “The Lotus Eaters” resists the heroic call to action for slacking off and, well, eating lotus (because we’re just so wasted, man), “Ulysses” accepts it and indeed issues it.

 

“Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,

‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world”

 

Ulysses is particularly effective – and emotive – as that last call to heroic action, literally riding (or sailing) off into the sunset in one’s own twilight.

 

“We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”.

 

 

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Adaptations of the Odyssey (1) Bernard Evslin – The Adventures of Ulysses

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The edition my parents owned and hence the one I read – I think it may be the second edition (fair use)

 

 

(1) BERNARD EVSLIN –

THE ADVENTURES OF ULYSSES (1969)

 

 

Not surprisingly for an adaptation of the Odyssey written for children, I read this book as a child and it was my introduction to the Odyssey, preceding me reading the actual Odyssey by many years. This book is what lodged the Odyssey deep into my psyche and has remained there with it ever since, so much so that even upon reading or re-reading the actual Odyssey afterwards, it remains conflated with or filtered through this adaptation as my childhood version of it.

It helps that the book follows the original narrative closely, give or take what you’d expect in an adaptation for children. As the saying goes, what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts. Evslin even arguably improves on the narrative conventions of Homer for the modern reader – substituting a linear narrative for the non-linear narrative of the original, telling the wanderings of Odysseus firsthand rather than Odysseus telling it to the Phaeacians as a story within the story, and adding or fleshing out details or dialogue from the original. The only jarring thing is the use of the Roman name Ulysses rather than the Greek name Odysseus, as the book otherwise uses the names from Greek mythology.

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Books of the Odyssey

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The Odyssey as told in two images from the Nolan film trailer -he’s a good boy (fair use)

 

 

 

TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE ODYSSEY

 

Sing, Muse, of my Top 10 Books of the Odyssey.

 

After all, there are twenty-four of them, essentially the equivalent of modern chapters, hence more than enough for a top ten.

It gets more straightforward than that as the top four books are obvious. They’re the odyssey part of the Odyssey, often more formally titled the Wanderings of Odysseus. The otherworldly Odyssey. The mythic fantasy adventure Odyssey. What we think of when we think of the Odyssey.

In other words, the part for which most people come to or keep coming back to the Odyssey, or at least remember most about it, in the style of the trope Just Here For Godzilla in TV Tropes.

Except in the case of the Odyssey, Godzilla is the Cyclops, or the Sirens, or any or all of the mythic fantasy elements in Books 9-12, which recount the wanderings of Odysseus from Troy to Helios’ cattle. Interestingly, the contents of these books are the story within the story, told by Odysseus himself to the Phaeacians – which begs the question of how true it is, given Odysseus’s defining traits of deception and disguise.

But what books of the Odyssey do I rank in my top ten after Books 9-12? How do I rank Books 9-12 in my top four? And above all, which of Books 9-12 do I rank in top spot?

Well…

 

 

(1) BOOK 11 – KATABASIS (DESCENT TO THE UNDERWORLD)

 

All true heroes and poets go down into the underworld…

Yes, Book 11 is the single best book of the Odyssey, arguably its narrative and thematic crossroads that tie it all together. It is also the definitive core mythic heart of the Odyssey (within its most mythic part for the wanderings of Odysseus).

Yes, it may not be as action-packed as the other books for the wanderings of Odysseus, or lack the titillation of Circe and the Sirens. I mean, it’s essentially Odysseus just talking to dead people, but he went down to the underworld to do it. Have you gone down to the underworld – and more importantly, come back to tell the tale? I didn’t think so.

There’s a word for Book 11 – katabasis. A katabasis is a journey into the underworld, harrowing Hades as it were – “its original sense is usually associated with Greek mythology and classical mythology more broadly, where the protagonist visits the Greek underworld, also known as Hades”.

And yes, okay, Odysseus barely went into the underworld, a liminal katabasis as it were, certainly when compared with those of some other Greek heroes who went to the very heart of the underworld. I understand there is even some dispute whether he went to the highest part of the underworld, or simply “the lowest edge of the living world” bordering it.

And yes, yes, okay, there’s two words for Book 11 – katabasis and nekyia, the latter being necromancy and tending to involve a vision of the underworld rather than a visit to it. Although it’s not so much that the dead in general have any particular gift of prophecy in the Odyssey, but rather the shade of Tiresias which retains the gift of prophecy he had when he was alive. He just happens to be, you know, dead, so doesn’t do prophecy house calls any more.

However, it remains the first literary katabasis of classical mythology, inspiring in turn the katabasis of the Aeneid, which in turn inspired that of Dante’s Inferno (with the Aeneid’s author Virgil as guide to Dante).

Of course, everyone goes down into the underworld at some point – the trick is to come back.

 

 

(2) BOOK 12 – BETWEEN SCYLLA & CHARYBDIS (OR SIRENS & CATTLE)

 

Book 12 is where it all goes down – literally.

Book 12 is how and why he ends up alone with Calypso on her island or telling his wanderings to the Phaeacians, as literal flotsam and jetsam, sans his remaining ship and men.

Book 12 is the climax of his mythic wanderings – and the climactic destruction of his ship and men, because of their sacrilegious theft of the best cattle from the herds of Helios while Odysseus slept

Although forewarned about the dire consequence of their theft, they were starved for food from being marooned for a month on the island by bad weather – which is to say, by the gods. Odysseus himself was spared as he apparently did not eat the stolen cattle, despite his crew eating them for six days.

That’s not the only supernatural obstacle Odysseus faces in this book – just the final, fatal one for his crew. The book might be summarised as sailing between Scylla and Charybdis, both literally for those two monsters, and figuratively between opposing supernatural forces that threaten to pluck off some of his crew (like the Sirens) or to suck them down to total destruction with their ship (like the cattle of Helios). Although I suppose the Sirens might have well threatened the latter if Odysseus had not been forewarned about their song.

Interestingly, people seem to forget or omit that Odysseus faced Scylla and Charybdis twice – the first famously with his ship and crew, the second drifting on his own after the destruction of his ship and crew when the winds send him back through the two. Odysseus survives his makeshift raft being sucked down by Charybdis only by leaping to grab a tree on her rock and clinging to it until she spat the water with his raft back up again. From there, he drifted for nine days until he ended up on the Ogygia, the island of Calypso.

 

 

(3) BOOK 10 – THE WINDS, THE GIANTS AND THE WITCH

 

Everyone loves Circe.

Yes, she’s the witch part of this book. Sadly there’s no lion or wardrobe.

But seriously, she has been the subject of enduring fascination ever since her depiction in the Odyssey. In terms of Dungeons and Dragons schools of magic, she specialized in transmutation, hence her island of manimals and the pigs she makes from Odysseus’ crew, the former arguably a precursor to the Island of Doctor Moreau. Famously, she did a heel face turn from bad girl antagonist to Odysseus to good girl love interest. The Nolan film omitted the love interest part and the year spent on her island. The book ends with Circe directing Odysseus to the underworld (for his katabasis in Book 11).

The winds are of course a reference to the demi-god Aeolus, ruler of the winds. One of the most heartbreaking parts of the Odyssey is that Odysseus almost makes it home right at the start, courtesy of the divine (or semi-divine) help of Aeolus – until, as usual, his crew screw up. Aeolus literally bagged up all the winds other than the west wind to blow Odysseus home. Odysseus and his crew are literally within sight of home when Odysseus succumbs to sleep and his crew open up the bag of winds, thinking it to be gold. The winds take them all the way back to Aeolus – and Aeolus doesn’t give Odysseus a second chance, perceiving (correctly) that Odysseus is the subject of divinely ordained misfortune. The Nolan film omitted Aeolus.

The giants are the Laestrygonians – a tribe of man-eating giants that destroy all but Odysseus’ ship, or eleven out of twelve of his fleet, along with their crews. Only Odysseus ship survives, with all of his crew, because of his prudence in mooring it in a cove away from the island’s harbor. While the Nolan film retained them as giants, it clearly did so on the basis that the cyclops Polyphemus was man-eating giant enough and instead substituted them as armored figures, almost as emblematic of the encroaching Iron Age.

 

 

(4) BOOK 9 – CICONES, LOTUS-EATERS AND CYCLOPS

 

Yes – it’s the one with the Cyclops.

I might have ranked this book higher, perhaps even highest, reflecting that Odysseus’ encounter with the cyclops Polyphemus and his ruse of naming himself Nobody or Noman is probably the most famous episode from the Odyssey.

The fact that I ultimately preferred the underworld, Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, Helios’ cattle, Circe, Aeolus, and even those other cannibal giants, the Laestrygonians, just goes to show how epic the wanderings of Odysseus were.

Still, Polyphemus plays a fundamental part as the cause for the wanderings of Odysseus, in the curse upon Odysseus that he calls from his father Poseidon and essentially occurs – that Odysseus should not return home but if he did, that he should return alone having lost his men, in the ship of another, and to find his house full of woe.

Despite Odysseus’s hubris in taunting the cyclops with his true identity after escaping, the curse Polyphemus called down upon Odysseus seems inherently unfair – given Polyphemus own violation of sacred hospitality and the small matter of, you know, eating people. Sadly, the Nolan film does not adapt Odysseus’ ruse, or the subsequent taunt of his true identity.

However, Book 9 isn’t all about the cyclops. Prior to Polyphemus, Odysseus encounters the Cicones and the Lotus Eaters.

The Cicones are relatively mundane – Trojan allies that Odysseus and his men sack after leaving Troy, only to succumb to a counterattack while drunk at the plunder party and lose six men from each of his twelve ships. They’re not directly adapted in the Nolan film but are perhaps hinted at in the people being sacked by Odysseus and his men at the outset.

The Lotus Easters are more interesting, at least to me because of their adaptation into a poem by Tennyson that is something of a counterpoint to his poem Ulysses – and because they have lent themselves to a metaphor for “people who spend their time indulging in pleasure and luxury rather than dealing with practical concerns” ever since.

You wouldn’t think that people doped up to their eyeballs with lotus would pose such a threat but they do – albeit by assimilation into their state of narcotic intoxication and amnesia.

The Nolan film conflates the lotus-eaters with Odysseus himself on Calypso’s island – although I’m pretty sure she’s getting stuck into it too.

 

 

(5) BOOK 21 – CONTEST OF THE BOW (RETURN OF THE KING)

 

So what next after Books 9-12 of Odysseus’ mythic wanderings?

What else but Book 21 with the contest of the bow?

I mean, I don’t even have to say anything else as it has the most famous and iconic scene of the Odyssey outside of Odysseus’ wanderings – indeed, probably ranking up there with his wanderings or at least some of them.

It’s the penultimate scene of his triumphant homecoming – the ultimate scene is, of course, in my next entry.

You know the scene just from that description of it as the contest of the bow. Inspired by Athena, Penelope proposes that she will marry whichever suitor can string Odysseus’s bow and shoot an arrow through a line of twelve axe-heads. The suitors all fail. Odysseus, still disguised as a beggar, asks his turn and of course he does it.

And the book ends on a literally thunderous cliffhanger as Odysseus, no longer disguised as a beggar, faces off against the suitors with Telemachus by his side.

 

 

(6) BOOK 22 – FATE OF THE SUITORS (WRATH OF ODYSSEUS)

 

Yes king, slay!

Sometimes described as the slaying of the suitors, although personally I stand by that people missed the chance to mirror the wrath of Achilles from the first line of the Iliad and call it the wrath of Achilles.

While the Wanderings of Odysseus is the adventurous soul of the Odyssey – “I am become a name for always roaming with a hungry heart” – his Homecoming is its emotional core. Home is where the heart is – certainly Ithaca is where the heart of Odysseus is, as well as that of the Odyssey.

The Wanderings of Odysseus are his adventure; the Homecoming of Odysseus is his quest – the restoration of law or order over chaos, arguably of more thematic importance than even the adventurous odyssey.

And it is this book that is the ultimate scene of his triumphant homecoming, that ties it all together – after his revelation as Odysseus comes the revenge against the suitors.

It’s pretty epic as well – Odysseus against over a hundred suitors. Yes, Telemachus and two loyal servants join the fight (in the book as opposed to the Nolan film) but let’s face it – Odysseus does the heavy lifting, although Athena also appears in the battle (in her human disguise as Mentor) to give him a pep talk (and deflect spears thrown by the suitors).

However, one part of this book sits uneasily with modern readers – and modern viewers, hence its omission from modern adaptations such as the Nolan film – and that is Odysseus ordering his royal household maids to be slain for disloyalty. Telemachus comes off even worse than Odysseus, as at least Odysseus ordered a “clean death” by sword while Telemachus has them hanged instead.

 

 

(7) BOOK 5 – CALYPSO

 

After the opening build-up of the Telemachy in Books 1-4 – where’s Odysseus? – we finally see Odysseus and where he’s been for the last seven years, chilling as a beach bum and sleeping with hot sea nymph Calypso at nights on her island of Ogygia. Oh the humanity! I wish I was held “captive” by a sea nymph – who, by the way, offers him immortality if he stays with her.

In fairness, he does cry about it a lot, pining for his wife and home. Although it is funny that Odysseus spent eight of ten years “odysseying” shacked up with one nymph (Calypso) or another (Circe).

But no more! Athena finally does something to help Odysseus, interceding with Zeus to send Hermes to order Calypso to let Odysseus go. Unfortunately, Athena omitted to run his divine hall pass past Poseidon, who promptly sinks Odysseus’ raft. Odysseus is then saved by the sea goddess Ino and he safely reaches Phaeacia, albeit naked because that’s how true heroes roll.

Yes, it’s what I’d call the lesser wanderings of Odysseus – after the greater wanderings of Odysseus in Books 9-12 – but it’s still the wanderings of Odysseus. Also – nymphs!

 

(8) BOOK 6 – NAUSICAA

 

I have a soft spot for Nausicaa, princess of Phaeacia who comes to the aid of the thrice-shipwrecked Odysseus in this book, albeit with some divine guidance from Athena coming to her in a dream.

As I’ve observed elsewhere, at least in my Top 10 Girls of the Odyssey, it’s intriguing how much Odysseus depends on the kindness of women, divine or otherwise – Nausicaa and Athena here of course, but also Circe (albeit after a heel-face turn from antagonist), Calypso and Ino. Not to mention the enduring faithfulness and loyalty of Penelope.

Sadly, this book is skipped by Nolan’s film, which has Odysseus end up directly in Ithaca from Calypso’s island.

 

 

(9) BOOK 17 – ARGOS (WHO’S A GOOD BOY?)

 

Look, I’m not made of stone. I teared up when I saw the puppy in the Nolan film because I knew this scene was coming – Argos, the legendary best of good boys, who waited twenty years for his master Odysseus to come back home one last time before passing away.

 

It’s like the meme of Death taking away the dog:

“It is time to go”

“Was I a good boy?”

“No…I’m told you were the best”

 

Oh – and a bunch of other stuff happens, including both Telemachus and Odysseus returning to the palace, the latter disguised among the suitors as a beggar as his homecoming after twenty years.

But this entry is for Argos.

 

(10) BOOK 23 – ODYSSEUS & PENELOPE

 

As I said, I’m not made of stone. Yes, Odysseus has triumphed in the trials and tribulations of his homecoming, the contest of the bow and the battle with the suitors – but he faces one last test – Penelope herself.

Penelope hasn’t held the line for twenty years of his absence because she’s an idiot – on the contrary, she’s as wary and wily as Odysseus himself, so she gives him one last test to prove himself to her, invoking the secret knowledge of their marital bed known only to the two of them. Odysseus of course knows the secret and so at last they are reunited.

This might seem odd to those who have only seen the Nolan film as Penelope was present for the contest of the bow and the battle with the suitors – and, well, I prefer that climactic and emotive revelation. That turn of her head as Odysseus strings the bow – chef’s kiss. However, her final test to him makes sense in the original literary version as she was not present for those, having been whisked off to her chamber (and put to sleep by Athena) to keep her safe in the impending violence with the suitors.