The Odyssey by Homer

In assembling my Classic Club list, I included a handful of books that I consider to be intimidating reads. Some books are on there due to their impressive length, like War and Peace. Others are on there due to fears that I won't understand them, like Ulysses. I think it's important to challenge myself as a reader, and to make an attempt to read the more difficult classics. There are a total of ten of these books on my list, meaning that I should probably read at least two books from that section per year if I want to spread them out over the life of the five-year challenge. I decided to start with Homer's classic tale of adventure, The Odyssey.

The Odyssey was included in my intimidating category due to its age. This tale of Odysseus struggling to make it home after the Trojan War was being told orally to ancient Greeks before the idea of a book, or of writing itself, for that matter, was even conceived of. I have never read an ancient work on my own before and was concerned that it might be a dry reading experience. I did have a bit of a head start, however, because I teach an excerpted version of The Odyssey to my English I honors students each year. I'm fine reading a version of the tale that's distilled down to the most relevant bits, but I was worried that reading the full version might not be as fun. Luckily, I found out pretty quickly that I was wrong.

*Warning - this summary contains spoilers*

The Odyssey is composed of 24 chapter-like books and describes the story of Odysseus, a hero of the Trojan War who is struggling to make it back to his small kingdom of Ithaca. The gods haven't given him an easy time of things so far. The war itself took him away from his family for ten years, and his journey back has taken another ten, due to a series of terrible mishaps and unlucky adventures. At the start of the story he is released from a seven year imprisonment on the island of the goddess Calypso and makes his way to King Alcinous in Scheria. King Alcinous promises to see him the rest of the way home, but first begs Odysseus to tell him the story of his journey so far. What follows is a thrilling tale full of hideous monsters, gods and goddesses, incredible triumphs, and emotional tragedies. Throughout it all, Odysseus displays the traits of a true epic hero - strength, leadership, prowess in battle, deference to the gods, and intelligence. He also displays more than a few flaws, and his boldness and arrogance get him and his men into more than a few unnecessary scrapes.

While Odysseus is telling his story to Alcinous, an entire other plot is occurring back at his home in Ithaca. Penelope and Telemachus, the wife and son he left behind when setting out for war, have been tormented for years by the eligible young men of the city. These men assume that after all this time, Odysseus is surely dead, and they lay about his estate hoping to tempt Penelope into marrying one of them. The suitors waste Odyssues' wine and livestock and bring dishonor upon themselves with their boorish behavior. When Telemachus, who was just a baby when Odysseus left, reaches manhood, he resolves to discover the truth of what happened to his father. He travels abroad to a few different cities searching for news. In his absence, the suitors hatch a plot to kill him, so that one of them might seize Odysseus' lands and title for themselves. Luckily for Telemachus, the goddess Athena has taken an interest in his safety and protects him from the suitors' evil schemes.

These two stories intersect when Alcinous makes good on his promise and brings Odysseus home to Ithaca. With the help of Athena, he and Telemachus wage a strategic and bloody battle to take back his house and reunite with his family. Odysseus comes back to his rightful place at last and Athena helpfully makes peace between him and the families of the suitors that he killed, closing the tale on a triumphant note.  

Reading The Odyssey was a very unique experience. Not only is it a legitimately exciting adventure story, but it is also very clearly a peek into ancient Greek storytelling traditions and customs. This work, more than any other I have read, is a clear reflection of a totally different time period. Throughout the story I learned about how the ancient Greeks lived, ate, worshiped, and treated guests. I also learned what their stories sounded like when they gathered together to hear a tale, with epithets, similes, and precise explanations of the parentage of each character included. Reading this story carries you away to the ancient world. It's not like reading modern prose, and that's what makes it so cool to dive into.

The best part of the tale for me was definitely the description of Odysseus' journey. The creatures he encounters are fearsome indeed, and his wily escapes from trouble had me cheering him on in his quest to get home. Whether blinding a cyclops, tricking a witch, or skirting a sea monster, Odysseus manages to persevere and keep moving forward. I was surprised to discover that this part of the story only comprised about a third of the total books in the epic. Most of the books are devoted to the suitors back in Ithaca, which was too bad, because I found the spoiled behavior of the human characters to be rather dull in comparison.

Despite that imbalance, the only time the story truly dragged for me was the section between when Odysseus arrives in Ithaca and when he actually takes back his house. Athena disguises him as a beggar so that he can snoop around his own estate unnoticed and formulate a plan before beginning the battle. As he is ridiculously outnumbered, this is a great idea strategically. However, it takes a good many pages before he actually starts the fight. He creates a fake backstory for his beggar persona and insists on telling this story, in detail, to several different characters around his house. I could have done without the repetitions of this cover story for sure, but that was really the only part that I didn't enjoy reading.

While I went into this experience feeling intimidated about taking on an epic story from the ancient world, I found that it wasn't a difficult read at all. I learned a lot about the customs of a time long gone by, and found a deeper appreciation for a story that I had only read the "good parts" of prior to this. I'm glad that I can bring my deeper knowledge of this text into the classroom next year. Beyond the educational aspects of reading The Odyssey, I discovered something more important too - that despite the thousands of years that stretch between this story and myself, there are things about people and situations that will always stay the same. Bravery, loyalty, fear, sadness, and family motivate us to act in ways we never thought possible, both good and bad. The human spirit is so strong that we can overcome nearly anything and fight any monster to get back to those we love. While cultures, religions, and customs will always change with the march of time, what defines a hero has remained the same. The will to fight and get back what's ours are impulses that live on forever in the hearts of men, and those impulses are what makes The Odyssey a truly timeless tale.


Challenge Tally
Classics Club (#61 on my list): 13/100
TBR Challenge (previously owned): 33/60

Total Books Read in 2017: 42