The Temptation Theme in the Odyssey

The Temptation Theme in the Odyssey

            We all know what temptation looks like. There is a little devil on one shoulder whispering in your ear, “Do it!”, and a little angel on the other shoulder whispering, “Don’t!”  Temptation has been defined as a desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise. Temptation is a recurring theme in Homer’s Odyssey and a major factor that impacts on the hero’s νόστος or journey home, and one which delays the return of Odysseus and his men or puts them in grave danger. The Ithacan warriors returning from Troy face a number of temptations of various kinds along their way home and all of them are a test of willpower and a source of delay. The temptations which face Odysseus and his men are sometimes resisted, but most often they are succumbed to. They highlight the hero’s inability to maintain control of his emotions and actions and the impact that this lack of self-control has on him, his crew and his family. We learn from the epic that yielding to temptation is a weakness that man has and that failing to be strong in the face of temptation can undermine a hero’s search for κλέος. While presenting a distraction and a source of danger, temptation is a true test of a hero’s resolve.

            The first place that Odysseus and his men landed was in the land of the Cicones. They sacked the local city and then, despite the call from Odysseus to leave quickly, his men succumbed to the tempting lure of a big feast and a drunken spree. Then I ordered that we should quickly take flight but like foolish children, the others did not hearken to me. They got drunk on wine, slew many sheep by the shore as well as cattle with curving horns and shambling gait. Things did not turn out too well for the crew the following day. The Cicones came in the early morning, as thick as leaves or flowers that spring up in their season and thus it was that the evil fate of Zeus came upon us hapless men and we suffered great pain… the Cicones prevailed and overcame the Achaeans and six of my well-greaved companions were lost from each ship and the rest of us managed to escape from fate and death.

            The next stop for Odysseus and the crew was in the land of the Lotus-Eaters. Once again temptation got the upper hand and the men succumbed to the lotus flower which induced forgetfulness in them and an abandonment of their νόστος. Whoever ate of the sweet fruit of the lotus no longer had any desire to bring back news or to return but instead were more than willing to stay among the Lotus-Eaters, feeding on lotus and forgetting about their return home. These men I had to drag back to the ships weeping and dragged them onto the hollow ships and fettered them to the benches.

            Next they landed in the land of the Cyclops. Curiosity got the better of them and they entered the giant’s cave, without thinking of the dangers involved. They succumbed to temptation and helped themselves to the monster’s cheese and other provisions. The men urged Odysseus to leave but he was tempted by his desire to see the monster and to ask for hospitality from him. My companions spoke to me and urged that we take the cheeses and leave and afterwards drive the lambs and the kids from the pens to the swift ships and sail over the salty sea. But they did not persuade me and it would have turned out much better if they had. Instead I decided that I wanted to see the man himself and to determine if he would give me the hospitality that is befitting a stranger. Several of the crew were slaughtered and eaten by Polyphemus and ultimately Odysseus blinded him and the hero and the remainder of his crew escaped, after the Cyclops himself succumbed to the temptation of over-indulging in his own supply of wine. The following day, not happy to just leave quietly, Odysseus bowed to temptation once again and shouted out his true name to the Cyclops. That fateful decision, born out of hubris, resulted in the wrath of Poseidon being leveled against Odysseus and ultimately in the loss of his entire crew, not to mention a sizeable delay in his own journey home. Hear me Poseidon, dark-haired earth-mover, if indeed I am your son and you say you are my father, grant that Odysseus, the sacker of cities and the son of Laertes, may never reach his home in Ithaca. But if it is destined that he see his friends and reach his well-built home in his native land, let him arrive late in time in someone else’s ship, after losing all his companions and let him find nothing but misery in his house.

            Next they went to the Aeolian Island where Aeolus who controlled the winds lived. He very helpfully packed all the winds into a bag and gave it to Odysseus to assist him on his journey home. But the hero`s crew gave into the temptation of the desire for wealth and opened the bag, thinking that it was full of treasure which Odysseus was keeping for himself. My companions started to wrangle with one another and surmised that I was bringing gold and silver back home in the sack that the great-hearted Aeolus, the son of Hippotes, had given me. When they opened the bag, the full force of the winds bore down upon them and once more the journey home was put into jeopardy by temptation. So they spoke and the evil plan of my companions prevailed and they opened the sack and all the winds of the heavens poured out. All of a sudden a hurricane snatched them away and bore them weeping into the sea and away from our homeland.

            They came to the island of Circe and a number of men from the crew were sent on a reconnaissance mission to explore the island. They found Circe`s house and gave in to her beauty and her song, all with dire consequences. They stood in the entrance of the house of the goddess with the beautiful locks and from within they heard Circe singing with a lovely voice as she went back and forth at her great immortal loom creating a web of shimmering glory such as only a goddess could create. Then amongst them Polites spoke, a leader of men and the dearest and most trusted one of my comrades. O my friends, within the house someone is weaving a great web and singing beautifully so that the whole house echoes her sweet voice, either some goddess or some woman. So come now quickly and let us call to her. Circe invited them into her home, fed them and offered them wine and they were unaware that she had mixed noxious drugs into their food. She turned the men into swine and cooped them up in a pigsty. Odysseus himself would have been overcome by the same fate, but fortunately Hermes provided him with an antidote for her drugs.

            Circe makes him a tempting offer that he cannot refuse, as long as she meets his conditions. So hang up your gleaming sword in its scabbard and come lay with me in my bed so that by having sex together, we can convince each other that we are friends… But I would not be unwilling to go to your bed, O goddess, if you are prepared to swear a great oath that you will not plan to visit upon me some new mischief to hurt me. Thus I spoke and she immediately made a great oath like I had urged her. When she had indeed sworn and finished the oath, I made my way up to the very beautiful bed of Circe. Odysseus attempts to convince his men to stay on Circe`s island and only his second-in-command Eurylochus argues against it. Odysseus is so taken by Circe and has succumbed so deeply to her temptation that he has to be retrained from attacking Eurylochus and cutting off his head. Circe makes good on her promise to turn the men back into humans again and the one night stand of Odysseus and Circe stretches into a year of passion, thereby delaying their return home. Thus she spoke and our heroic spirits were persuaded. So we stayed there for a whole year, feasting abundantly on meat and sweet wine. But when an entire year had passed and the seasons had turned and the months waned and the days grew long, then my trusty companions called out to me. O possessed one, it is now time for you to remind yourself of your homeland, if you are fated to be saved and to reach your high-roofed house and your fatherland.

            Circe warns Odysseus about the Sirens and tells him how to avoid their temptation. You will come first to the Sirens who beguile whatever men come near them. Whoever approaches them in ignorance and hears the voice of the Sirens, will never again return home and stand with his wife and children at his side rejoicing. The Sirens will beguile him with their shrill voices as they sit in a grassy meadow and all around them is a great heap of the bones of rotting corpses with the skin falling off them. Drive on past them and fill the ears of your comrades with beeswax that you have kneaded, so that they cannot hear the song. But if you are willing to listen to it, then have your comrades bind you by the hands and the feet to the ship’s mast and make the ropes tight so that you might be gladdened to hear the voice of the Sirens. Odysseus and his men followed Circe`s advice and were able to avoid the temptation of the Sirens. They also navigated their way through the dangerous waters of Scylla and Charybdis with the loss of a few men and made their way to the island of Helios.

When Odysseus visited the underworld, the seer Teiresias offered him very clear advice and a warning about submitting to temptation in the land of the sun god Helios. Yet you may still get home, though in dire straits, if you will just curb your own spirit and that of your companions, when you land your well-built ship on the island of Thrinacia, escaping from the purple sea, and you find the cattle and goodly flocks of Helios grazing there, he who observes and hears all things. If you leave them unharmed and just concentrate on your journey home, you just might get to Ithaca, though in dire straits. But if you harm them, then I foretell ruination for your ship and your comrades. Despite the warning of Teiresias and the orders of Odysseus, his men are tempted by hunger to slaughter the sacred cattle of the sun god. Eurylochus makes the argument that it is better to drown than to die of starvation. And if he is angered because of his cattle with the straight horns and is willing to destroy our ship and the other gods go along with this, then I for one would rather die from taking in a single gulp of the waves then to have my life squeezed out slowly drop-by-drop on some desolate island. This lapse of judgment and yielding to hunger leads to divine retribution and the ultimate loss of all the hero`s crew. He is left alone to thrash about on the wine-dark sea. At the same time, Zeus thundered and hurled his thunderbolt at the ship and all whirled around struck with terror and there was the stink of sulphur and my comrades fell from the ship. Like shearwaters, they were borne about on the waves by the dark ship and the god took away from them their chance to return home.

Odysseus lost all his companions and was cast upon the sea and drifted for nine days. On the tenth dark night he washed up on the shore of the island of Ogygia where the nymph Calypso lived. Here Odysseus succumbed to his greatest temptation and cavorted and canoodled with Calypso for seven years, not totally forgetful of his wife and home, but distracted by the endearing charms of the nymph nonetheless. She took me to her home and treated me kindly and fed me and told me that she would make me immortal and ageless for the rest of my days, but she could never compel the heart in my breast. There I remained for a period of seven years and constantly wetted with my tears the immortal garments which Calypso had given to me. When the eighth year came, she urged and excited me to sail forth, either because of some message that she had received from Zeus or because she had changed her mind about me. This was no one-night stand, but rather a full-on bout of marital infidelity and neglect of duty. Cry as he might on the seashore each evening, he still returned to the nymph`s bed when darkness fell. His heroic duty was to return home, protect his family and restore his kingdom, but for seven years he abandoned that duty in the face of temptation.

Back home in Ithaca, the faithful Penelope was the only character in Homer`s narrative who did not succumb to temptation. All of the forces were working against her. Her husband had been gone for twenty years and she did not know if he was alive or dead. Her son Telemachus had grown up without a father and was powerless against his enemies and his very life was in danger. Her livelihood and her property were being consumed around her and 108 arrogant suitors were pressuring her into an unwanted marriage. The temptation to give up and to give in must have been very strong, but the faithful Penelope was steadfast in her resolve and even developed canny tricks to help her stave off what appeared to be inevitable. Unlike all the other characters in the Odyssey, Penelope listened faithfully to the little angel on her one shoulder and brushed off the little devil that was on the other.

It goes without saying that the theme of temptation plays a vital role in the telling of the narrative of the Odyssey. Without the presence of temptation in the story, the tale would have been very flat and uninteresting. We see temptation presenting itself as a series of highly desirable offers and alluring distractions of food, drink, sex and excitement, all of which can either be taken or refused by those concerned. Most often these temptations are succumbed to, usually with dire consequences, even to the point of death. The loyalty and resolve of Odysseus and his crew are constantly tested as they try to make their way home and temptation always stands in their way trying to derail their efforts to do so. We witness νόστος being denied to the many who perish and being hopelessly delayed for the one survivor, Odysseus.