Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea – Part 2: The Odyssey

 

Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea – Part 2: The Odyssey

            In Homer’s Odyssey, the sea serves as both a pathway for Odysseus to achieve his Νόστος or homecoming, as well as a vast barrier that stands in his way of attaining that end. As a sea-based story, it is not surprising that we find a host of nautical and maritime references in the epic. In a similar study of the Iliad, we noted that Homer appeared to be very familiar with all things nautical, to the extent that one wondered if he had ever been a seafarer. The notion that he had once been a sailor is given further credence by his treatment of the same theme in the Odyssey. It is indeed rich with maritime and nautical references, which not only reflect the importance that seafaring had on the lives of the ancient Greeks, but also the central place that the sea holds in the telling of the tale of the return of Odysseus to Ithaca, a place borne of the sea. One comment of Homer’s gives us further insight into the importance of shipbuilding to the peoples of the era.

There are many ships in sea-surrounded Ithaca, new ones and old ones and from these I will choose the best one for you and we will quickly make it ready and launch it on the wide sea.

For the Cyclopes have no red-sided ships, nor do they have any ship builders who can make well-benched ships that would accomplish the purpose of going to the cities of other people as men often do as they cross the sea to visit each other, craftsmen who could have turned this into a well-built island for them.

Perhaps sung by a fellow sailor, the Odyssey is the story of a warrior turned sailor who endured all things on his journey home:

He came to know many cities and the thoughts of many men and many were the evils he suffered at sea while trying to save himself and secure the safe return home of his comrades.

            Though there is no actual evidence that proves Homer was a seafarer, it is very difficult to believe that he had never been to sea or knew nothing about how to sail a ship. He describes the actions that Telemachus and his crew take when they set sail for Pylos and Sparta, and his detail is so complete that one must assume that he had witnessed such events happening several times over the course of his life or had actually performed the same activities himself.

Then Telemachus stepped on board and Athena went before him and seated herself in the stern with Telemachus seated beside her. The men untied the ropes, got on board and sat down on the benches. The flashing-eyed Athena sent them a fair wind, a strongly blowing Zephyr that sounded over the wine-dark sea. Telemachus urged on his comrades and bade them to take hold of the rigging and they listened to what he said. They raised the mast of fir and set it in its hollow socket and bound the forestays and raised the white sails held with well-twisted leather thongs. The wind filled the middle of the sail and the dark waves echoed loudly with the sound of the prow cutting through them as the ship went on its way. After they had tied down the rigging in the dark ship, they brought out the bowls filled with wine and made libations to all the immortal gods and above all to the flashing-eyed daughter of Zeus. And so all through the night and into the dawn, the ship sliced its way through the waves.

            Homer demonstrates a good knowledge of maritime geography and the impact that winds and currents have on travelers. He seems to have a considerable grasp on sailing routes, landmarks and navigational practices, as well as knowledge of seasonal winds and variants. This is particularly evident in the description that Nestor of Pylos gives to Telemachus about their journey home from Troy.

Fair-haired Menelaus came behind me after a time and met us in Lesbos where we were discussing the long voyage, whether to sail to rugged Chios toward the island of Pryria or to sail on with it on our left underneath Chios past windy Mimas. We asked the god to show us a sign and he did so and ordered us to sail through the middle of the sea to Euboea so that we might take flight from the worst of our troubles. A strong wind started to blow and the ships ran quickly over the fish-laden waters and at nightfall we pulled into Geraestus. There on the altar of Poseidon we placed many thighs of bulls, happy to have traversed the sea. It was on the fourth day when the companions of Diomedes the son of Tydeus the tamer of horses beached their balanced ships in Argos. But I kept on sailing towards Pylos for the wind was favourable and had not ceased from the time the god had first sent it to blow.

We were going by sea from Troy, the son of Atreus and I, in total friendship. When we came to sacred Sunion, the cape of Athens, there Phoebus Apollo cast his gentle missiles against him and slew the steersman of Menelaus as he held the steering oar of the speeding ship in his hands. The steersman was Phrontis the son of Onetor, he who was better than all the tribes of men in steering a ship when the stormy winds blow strong. Menelaus stayed there a while, though he was eager to travel onwards, so that he could provide his comrade with funeral rites and suitable burial gift offerings. But when he sailed over the wine-dark sea in his hollow ships and arrived in swift course at the height of Malea, then wide-eyed Zeus, whose voice is carried from afar, planned for him a horrid journey and poured over him blasts of raging winds and the waves thickened into mighty things like mountains. Then dividing his fleet in half, some drew near Crete where the Cydonians dwelt around the streams of Iardanus. There is a smooth high cliff, high up facing the sea on the edge of Gortyn in the dark misty ocean, where the Southwest Wind drives huge waves against the headland on the left toward Phaestus and a little rock holds back the great swell. Some of his ships came there and with great effort the men escaped utter destruction but the ships were broken into pieces, dashing against the reef. But the other five dark-prowed ships were born on the wind and the waves brought them to Egypt.

As Menelaus himself said, I tell you in truth that after eight years of wandering about with great woes, I brought my wealth home in my ships. I wandered over Cyprus and Phoenicia and Egypt and I came to the Ethiopians and the Sidonians and the Erembi and to Libya, where the lambs are born with horns.

While Nestor in Pylos and Menelaus in Sparta were hosting Telemachus, the arrogant suitors were laying plans to ambush the boy and kill him when he returned. Homer’s report of their plans gives us further insight into his knowledge of ships and maritime geography.

Thus he spoke and he chose twenty of the best men and they went their way to the seashore and the swift ship. First of all they drew the ship down to the depth of the salt sea and set up the mast and the sails in the dark ship and fitted the oars into the leather locks and spread the white sails.

The suitors embarked and sailed on their watery way and pondered in their minds about the sheer murder of Telemachus. In the middle of the ocean there is a rocky island called Asteris, midway between Ithaca and rugged Samos. It is not very big but it has a harbour with good anchorage and an entrance on both sides. There the Achaeans waited, preparing to waylay Telemachus.

            All the while, Odysseus was trapped on the island of Calypso and was unable to make his way home because he lacked a ship and men to crew it.

He suffers great pain and lives on the island in the halls of the nymph Calypso and she restrains him there and he is unable to return to his fatherland for he no ships with oars and no comrades to help him make his way over the broad expanse of the sea.

The nymph finally relented and promised to help him return home. As far as a ship was concerned, she told him to build his own and in this part of the story, we get further insight into Homer’s knowledge of ships and shipbuilding. Many references to this point in the epic mirrored the description of ships that we found in the Iliad. Ships were dark, hollow, curved, well-benched, double-oared, swift or speedy and also carried sails. Now we are given further details about how they were constructed.

Do not cry any longer here, unhappy man, and do not let your life slip away in grief, for I am now willing in my heart to send you on your way. Go now and cut tall beams with an axe and make a broad raft and fashion a half-deck above it so that it can carry you across the dark sea.

He started cutting tree trunks and his work went quickly. He cut down twenty in all and he hewed them with the axe and then smoothed them all and made them straight. In the meantime, the beautiful goddess Calypso brought him augers and he drilled holes in all of them and fitted them all to one another and fastened them with bolts and hammered them all together. In the same way that a skilled boat-builder lays out a flat bottom and wide beam of a ship, so also did Odysseus fashion the width of his raft. He built a half-deck and set the ribs close together and finished the raft with long side planks. He set up a mast and a yard arm and fashioned a steering arm with a rudder. Then he fenced in the whole raft from bow to stern with closely-woven willow wicker and filled it all with lots of brush to protect the raft from the waves. Meanwhile the beautiful goddess Calypso brought him a cloth with which he could make a sail and he did so with much skill. He rigged all the sails, braces and ropes fast to the raft and then inched it down to the bright sea using levers.

With a joyful heart the godlike Odysseus spread his sail to the wind and sat and guided his raft skillfully with his well-crafted rudder.

            Odysseus ended up shipwrecked in the land of the Phaeacians and their king Alcinous welcomed him into his home, listened to the tales of his wanderings and then helped him along his way. The ship that he provided for him was fairly large because it carried a crew of over 50 men.

The fifty-two chosen youths went to the shore of the relentless sea as they had been commanded and when they had come down to the ship and the sea, they dragged the dark ship in the deep and set the mast and the sail on the black ship and fitted the oars into their leather straps all in order and then raised the white sail.

            One of the tales that Odysseus told was a harrowing account of his ship being assailed by a hurricane. The story is so realistic that we can only assume that this is something that Homer himself personally experienced, and again we can reach the conclusion that he was at one time a seafarer.

Zeus, the cloud-gatherer, persuaded the North Wind to assail our ships with a violent hurricane and hid the land and the sea with clouds and night descended from heaven. Immediately the ships were driven at an angle and their sails were torn to bits by the violence of the wind. So we lowered the sails onto the ships and feared destruction and in great haste began to row the ships towards the mainland. For two days and two nights we lay by, plagued in our hearts with weariness and sorrow. But on the third morning when fair-haired Dawn brought the day to life, we set up the mast, hoisted our white sails and took our seats and the wind and the steersman made straight. Now I should have made my way to my homeland unscathed, but the North Wind and the waves pushed me back as I was coming around Malea and caused me to wander in my course past Cythera.

            The Strait of Messina separates Sicily and Italy and is home to a rare nautical phenomenon, the meeting of cold and warm currents, the meeting of the Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas, each with a different temperature and level of salinity, and a place where there are very sudden shifts caused by tides, winds and underwater topography. This is the home of the legendary Scylla and Charybdis, and one of the major maritime sailing challenges that faced Odysseus and his crew. Odysseus gave his crew orders on how to sail safely through the strait, but unfortunately lost six men in the process.

But come now and do as I say and everyone obey me. Keep your seats on the benches and smite the deep waves of the sea with your oars, in the hope that Zeus may allow us to flee and escape death. And to you steersman, I give this command and you take it to heart, since you are the one who is steering the hollow ship. Keep the ship well away from the smoke and the billowing surf and aim for the lookout spot so that the ship does not, without us realizing it, run off to sea and heave us into our destruction.

We then sailed up the narrow strait, groaning as we did so. On the one side there was Scylla and on the other side was the divine Charybdis who terribly sucked down the water of the salty sea. Whenever she spewed it out, she was like a cauldron on a great fire, seething and bubbling in great turmoil and high over the tops of both of the cliffs, the spray would fall. But as often as she gulped down the water of the salty sea, she could be seen in utter turmoil inside, and all round the rock roared terribly, while down below, the earth appeared black with sand and yellow fear seized my men. So we looked in her direction and feared for our demise and Scylla seized six men out of my hollow ship, those who had the most strength and who were the bravest.

            Finally, after enduring so many woes over the course of his ten year journey home from Troy, Odysseus landed on Ithaca and Homer reported the moment that the ship touched shore. The hero was asleep when they landed, exhausted from his travels and relieved that he was finally headed for home.

Then for the sake of Odysseus, they spread a rug and a blanket on the half-deck of the hollow ship so that he could sleep there undisturbed at the stern and then he went on board and lay down in silence.

They rowed in here because they knew the place beforehand and immediately ran the ship ashore, halfway up her keel because she was moving so swiftly with the rowers plying their oars with such strength in their arms. They stepped ashore out of the well-benched ship onto the mainland and the first thing they did was to lift Odysseus out of the hollow ship in the rug and blanket and they laid him down on the beach because he was still overcome with sleep.

            In the meantime, his son Telemachus was making his own way home to be reunited with his father and together they would take their revenge on the arrogant suitors. In the report of his sailing, we get another glimpse into Homer’s knowledge of seafaring.

Then he sat down in the stern and made Theoclymenus sit beside him and the men loosened the stern cables. Telemachus urged on his companions to prepare the tackle and they rushed to obey him. They raised the fir mast and set it in its hollow socket and bound the fore-stays and hauled up the white sail using ropes made of twisted ox-hide. Flashing-eyed Athena sent them a favourable wind that blew strongly from the heavens so that speeding quickly, the swift ship might make its way over the salty sea.

            I come from a long line of sailors and seafarers from the Canadian province of Newfoundland. My grandfather was first mate on a ten dory schooner, a fishing vessel that plied the waters of the Grand Banks. My great-grandfather operated the mail boat in the region. There is a Newfoundland folk song that is called “Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor” and it is a re-telling of the Jonah story. The last two lines of the chorus are:

Jack was every inch a sailor

He was born upon the bright blue sea

 

Based upon my study of the extensive and detailed maritime and nautical references in the Iliad and the Odyssey, and the obvious knowledge that Homer displays about the sea and the ships that sail it, I think we can reasonably change the lines of the song to be:

 

Homer was every inch a sailor

He was born upon the wine-dark sea