Odysseus’ Ithaca

 

Odysseus’ Ithaca

Where Mycenaean Ithaca was precisely located has been the subject of great debate among classical scholars for some considerable time. In his Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad, Homer named those who had travelled to the Trojan War under the leadership of the great Odysseus and in the Odyssey, the hero described his homeland.

Odysseus led the brave young Kephallenians from Ithaca, well-forested Neriton, Crocyleia, the jagged hill of Aegilips, Samos and Zakynthos and the lands opposite it. These were led by Odysseus, the equal of Zeus in counsel, and with him there came twelve ships bearing red prows.

I live in clearly-seen Ithaca where Mount Neriton is, all covered with quivering foliage and seen from far off, and around it are many islands close together, Dulichium and Same and wooded Zacynthus.

Modern day Ithaca is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, located just northeast of the larger island of Kefalonia and west of mainland Greece, in an area known as the Ionian Islands. Not to be confused with Samos, an island in the eastern Aegean off the coast of Turkey, the Samos (Same) mentioned by Homer in this context, was a city on the coast of Kefalonia. Mount Neriton is located on Ithaca and Aegilips and Crocyleia have both been placed on the present-day nearby Ionian island of Leucas (Lefkada), situated close to modern Ithaca. Wilhem Dorpfeld the archaeologist held that Leucas was Ithaca because it was closer to the mainland and also suggested that Aegilips was actually the island of Meganisi. One ancient story had Dulichium located about two miles off the coast of Kefalonia, but subsequently sunk by an earthquake and yet others reported it as being a city on the island of Kefalonia itself. With all of his various references taken into account, it seems obvious that Homer’s location for Odysseus’ Ithaca was somewhere near to where we find it situated in modern times in the Ionian Sea.

But not everyone agrees that Ithaca was one of the Ionian Islands off the coast of Greece. In his 1897 work, The Authoress of the Odyssey, Samuel Butler places Ithaca on Favignana, one of the Aegadian Islands situated about 18 kilometers off the west coast of Sicily between Trapani and Marsala. In the Odyssey, Homer makes reference to the Harbour of Phorcys on Ithaca and Butler suggests that the Bay of Trapani fits this description. Butler’s rationale for his theory is that the Odyssey was not written by Homer, but by a young Sicilian woman. He postulated that the entire narrative of the Odyssey was located in and around Sicily, and that the authoress wrote herself into the story in the character of Princess Nausicaa, the daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of Phaeacia.

Laura Coffey takes up Butler’s suggestion in her Enchanted Islands, but moves Ithaca even further west in the Aegadian Islands. Homer described Ithaca as being the farthest west island, toward the dusk, and that all others were facing Dawn and the rising sun. To accommodate that description, Coffey places Ithaca on the Aegadian island of Marettimo, some 45 kilometers off the coast of Sicily and farther to sea than Favignana, in fact the westernmost island in the archipelago. Coffey did not find Marettimo particularly welcoming and moved on to Favignana, which to her felt like Circe’s island. “Felt like” are the operative words, as there is no literary evidence that can be pointed to for making her case, only feelings. Homer, on the other hand, was very specific in placing the whereabouts of Ithaca and his location coincides with modern geography.

There are those who make the case that Homer’s Ithaca was not the island known by that name today, but rather the Paliki Peninsula found on the western coast of the nearby island of Kefalonia. Emily Hauser takes up this position in her book Mythica. The theory is that the modern peninsula was once an island and that the channel between it and Kefalonia has since silted over, or that island became a peninsula after an earthquake. Being the furthest west point of the Ionian Islands would fit with Homer’s description of the location of Ithaca being the last point of land facing the setting sun. However, Paliki does not fit with Homer’s description of a channel of water situated between Ithaca and Samos on the east coast of Kefalonia, where the suitors anchored in ambush for the returning Telemachus.

But come now and give me a ship and twenty men so that I can lie in wait and ambush him as he ferries between Ithaca and rugged Samos.

The best of the suitors lie in wait to ambush you in the strait between Ithaca and rugged Samos and they are eager to kill you there before you can return to your native land.

I think that we can safely assume that the Ithaca described as Odysseus’ homeland in the Iliad and the Odyssey is definitely the present-day island of Ithaca in the Ionian Sea. Other proposed locations are pure speculation and have no basis in the literature and have no real geographical foundation. But what did Ithaca look like? Homer often described it as sea-surrounded and clearly seen. He said that it was well-forested and had jagged hills and used terms like rocky and rugged in his descriptions. When King Menelaus of Sparta offered to give horses to Telemachus as a parting gift, Odysseus’ son provided the following description of his homeland.

Whatever gift you wish to give, let it indeed be a treasure, but I will not take horses to Ithaca but will leave them here for you to enjoy, for you are the lord of an extensive plain where a lot of lotus grows and galingale and wheat and spelt and wide-eared barley. But in Ithaca there are no wide fields or meadow-lands. It is a pasture-land that is better for goats than horses, because none of the islands that touch upon the sea are fit for driving horses or rich in meadows, and Ithaca least of all.

The description provided by Telemachus is confusing because it does not jibe with other references to Ithaca made in the Odyssey. There are times when the island is pictured as being rich, fertile and well-tilled. We know that both Eumaeus the swineherd and Odysseus’ father Laertes had extensive gardens. We likewise know from the legends that Odysseus farmed the land. He was plowing his fields and feigning madness when Palamedes visited him to recruit him for the Trojan War at the request of Agamemnon. Was Ithaca rich and fertile, or barren and rocky? Ithaca today is mountainous and rugged, but does contain olive and cypress groves, so perhaps it was both.

The island’s exact location and physical characteristics notwithstanding, the fact remains that Ithaca symbolizes the ultimate destination in the Odyssey and represents the overwhelming longing for home and family and the completion of an arduous challenge. Ithaca is the symbol for the hero’s journey home, his Nostos. It is a powerful metaphor for the struggles often involved in life’s journey. Ithaca is a small island, but it plays a huge role in the story of the Odyssey and serves as a powerful cultural and spiritual symbol for homecoming and perseverance.

The Epic Cycle

 The Epic Cycle

George Lucas, the creator of the Stars Wars franchise, was heavily influenced by Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey as well as by Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, published in 1949. In his book, Campbell explored the theory that mythological narratives frequently share a fundamental structure. He summarized a motif that he called the archetypal narrative or the monomyth with the following description of the hero’s adventure:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

            You can see the influence of Joseph Campbell and Homer all over the works of George Lucas. It is easy to imagine Star Wars as a re-telling of the Iliad and The Return of the Jedi evokes images of the Odyssey. All the other movies in the Star Wars franchise are either prequels or sequels. Can the same be said of Homer’s works? Are the bard’s two lengthy epics parts of something bigger? That is indeed the case and that something bigger is known to classical scholars as The Epic Cycle. The Epic Cycle was a collection of ancient Greek works, all written in the same dactylic hexameter that Homer used for his poetry. They all dealt with the story of the Trojan War and some were prequels to the Iliad and some were sequels, like the Odyssey. The various works contained in the cycle included the Cypria, the Aethiopis, the Little Iliad, the Iliupersis, the Nostoi and the Telegony. Unlike the Iliad and the Odyssey which have survived in complete form, unfortunately the other works in the cycle are only fragmentary or contained in later summaries. In total there were eight works recognized by modern scholars as being part of The Epic Cycle, with several others being included by the 9^th century commentator Photius, but those are largely discounted by classicists today.

            Generally regarded as the first poem in The Epic Cycle, the Cypria was quite well known in classical antiquity, but its 11 books have now been totally lost, except for about 50 lines which have been quoted by other writers. The work was attributed to Stasinus of Cyprus and it is thought to have been written around the late 7^th century BCE. The Cypria was a prequel to the Iliad and reportedly covered the events leading up to the Trojan War, including the war of the Seven Against Thebes, the wedding of Peleus and Thetis and the Judgement of Paris, the events leading up to the capture of Helen, the story of Castor and Pollux, the slaughter of Iphigenia at Aulis, the snakebite suffered by Philocletes on Tenedos, the raiding of Trojan cities by the Greeks, the revenge death of Palamedes by Odysseus, as well as many other events occurring during the first 9 years of the war itself. The final book of the Cypria also contained the Trojan Battle Order and it is thought that the list of the Trojans and their allies that is found as an appendix to Homer’s Catalogue of Ships was actually abridged from the Trojan listing found in the Cypria.

            The Cypria was considered to be a lesser work than the Iliad and the Odyssey, despite the fact that some commentators attributed the work to Homer himself. Aristotle criticized it for lacking narrative unity and thought it to be a mere collection of events rather than a cohesive story. Instead of crafting a well-structured plot, he accused the author of the Cypria of focusing too heavily on just reporting events and thereby creating a lesser epic than Homer’s two masterpieces.

            Homer’s Iliad is always placed second in The Epic Cycle. The 24 books of the epic contain 16,000 lines of dactylic hexameter and the entire text has been preserved since antiquity. It is thought that the work was composed in the late 8^th or early 7^th centuries BCE. The timeframe of the events covered in the Iliad is very narrow, comprising a period of just a few weeks or about 50 days in the final 10^th year of the Trojan War. The major focus of the epic is on the wrath of Achilles, starting with his angry withdrawal from the battle over the Briseis affair and ending with the death of Hector, the return of the Trojan hero’s body to his father Priam and his subsequent funeral. The actual fall of Troy is not even included in the Iliad and for this reason, it is evident that the work was designed to be one part of a larger effort and hence the likelihood that The Epic Cycle indeed did exist.

            Another lost work of The Epic Cycle is the Aethiopis, attributed to Arctinus of Miletus who lived in the 8^th century BCE and likely written during the 7^th century. The work comprised 5 books of verse and only about 10 fragments and a summary by Proclus survive. The Aethiopis was another sequel to Homer’s Iliad and the poem opens shortly after the death of Hector, with the arrival of the Amazon warrior Penthesileia as well as the Ethiopian king Memnon, both fighting in support of the Trojans. The poem details the triumphs of Achilles, including his slaying of the Amazon. It goes on to describe the subsequent death of Achilles at the hand of Paris who shoots an arrow directly into the hero’s vulnerable heel. The poem ends with the fierce struggle over the body of Achilles, his funeral rites and the games which were staged to commemorate him, and then culminates with a dispute over his armour waged by the two heroes who had recovered his body, Odysseus and Ajax.

            The next work in the cycle has come to be known as the Little Iliad and the poem bridged the gap between the death of Achilles and the fall of the city of Troy. In particular the Little Iliad covered the death of Paris (Alexander) at the hands of Philoctetes who had been brought back from Lemnos where he was recovering from his snakebite, the awarding of the armour of Achilles, the bringing of Neoptolemus the son of Achilles into the war, the theft of the wooden image of Pallas called the Palladium, as well as the construction by Epeius and the deployment of the Trojan horse. A substantial fragment of the poem describes how Neoptolemus captures Hector’s Andromache and kills Astyanax the son of Hector by throwing him from the walls of the city. The work of four books was likely composed in the latter half of the 7^th century BCE and was attributed to Lesches of Pyrrha as well as several other ancient writers including Homer himself. Approximately 30 lines of the original work survive as well as an ancient summary of the text attributed to a commentator named Proclus. Aristotle criticized the Little Iliad by saying that it had more plot than an epic should have.

            The next poem in The Epic Cycle was the Iliupersis, or the Sack of Ilium as it is known in English. It comprised 2 books and has been traditionally attributed to Arctinus of Miletus who likely composed it in the 8^th or 7^th century BCE. Once again the original text survives only in fragments and in a summary written by Proclus in his 5^th century CE work entitled the Chrestomathia. This commentator has provided us with summaries of most of the works in The Epic Cycle. The Iliupersis details the fall of the city of Troy including the stratagem of the Trojan horse, the actual sack of the city itself, the slaughter of King Priam, the killing of Astyanax, the sacrifice of the Princess Polyxena at the tomb of Achilles and the abduction of Cassandra by Ajax of Oileus. In Homer’s Odyssey, many of the same events were sung about by the bard who provided the dinner entertainment at the palace of King Alcinous in Phaeacia, his songs bringing Odysseus to tears. Like all the other pieces in The Epic Cycle, the Iliupersis was also composed in dactylic hexameter.

            Next in line in the cycle came the Nostoi or The Returns, which told the story of the return home of the Greek army after the Trojan War, with special emphasis on the events surrounding the returns of Agamemnon and Menelaus. The Nostoi comprised 5 books of dactylic hexameter and was attributed in ancient times to either Agias or Eumelos of Corinth, both from the 8^th century BCE, or alternatively to Homer himself by other commentators. It is thought that the text of the Nostoi was most likely finalized in the 7^th or 6^th centuries BCE and sadly only five and a half lines survive, along with the usual summary by the grammarian Eutychius Proclus. The Nostoi narrates several tales with which we are familiar from their telling in the Odyssey. These include Agamemnon delaying his return from Troy so that he can offer appeasement to Athena, the storm which hits Menelaus on his journey that drives him to Egypt, the safe return home of Nestor and Diomedes, the death of the prophet Calchas on Colophon and finally the return home and assassination of Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. The tale ends with the safe arrival home of Menelaus and the fact that Odysseus is the sole remaining Greek warrior hero who has yet to return from the battle at Troy.

            It is of course natural that the next work in The Epic Cycle is the Odyssey since it starts up where the Nostoi leaves off. All 24 books of the epic survive, detailing the 10 year voyage and struggles of the hero Odysseus as he makes his way from Troy back home to Ithaca and his waiting wife and son, Penelope and Telemachus. Homer’s authorship of the Odyssey was taken as true in antiquity and the work was dated to around the 8^th or 7^th centuries BCE. The Homeric Question casts significant doubt on the actual composer of the two epics attributed to Homer and whether or not such an individual actually existed. Both dual and plural authorships have been suggested by scholars and commentators and there are many arguments for and against such suggestions. The questions of composition and authorship notwithstanding, the fact remains that these two epics are the foundational works of western literature and all the other works that form part of The Epic Cycle can be viewed as simply prequels or sequels to the Iliad and the Odyssey.

            The final work in The Epic Cycle is the Telegony. The poem is sometimes attributed to Cinaethon of Sparta from the 8^th century BCE or stolen from Musaeus by Eugammon of Cyrene from the 6^th century BCE. Only 2 lines of the 2 book poem survive and we are left with relying on the ubiquitous Proclus for his summary in order to know anything about the content. The first book of the Telegony tells the story of Odysseus’ voyage to Thesprotia where he makes the sacrifices demanded by Tiresias when he visited him in the Underworld and then goes on to narrate how Odysseus weds the Thesprotian queen Callidice who bears him a son named Polypoetes. He fights a war on behalf of the Thesprotians and contends with the interference of the gods. After the death of Callidice, he makes his son Polypoetes the king of the Thesprotians and returns home to Ithaca.

            The second book of the Telegony tells the story of the boy for whom the work is named. Telegonus is the son of Circe and Odysseus and grew up in his mother’s home on the island of Aeaea. Circe tells the boy his father’s name and he sets off in search of him. For his protection, Circe arms him with a spear that has been fashioned by Hephaestus, which bears a special spear-point made from the stinger of a poisonous stingray. A storm stranded Telegonus on an unfamiliar island that, unknown to him, turns out to be Ithaca. Suffering from hunger, the boy steals some of the local cattle that he has come upon. In an attempt to defend his property, Odysseus attacks the boy and in the ensuing fight he is killed by the poison spear. Telegonus and Odysseus recognize each other as the father is dying and the son dearly laments the mistake that he has made. He takes Penelope and his half-brother Telemachus back to Aeaea where Odysseus is buried. The sorceress Circe makes them all immortal and in the end, Telegonus marries Penelope and Circe marries Telemachus.

            And so The Epic Cycle is complete. We are unsure who composed them, for there are some 20 authors listed in various sources as possible authors. In addition to the works mentioned above, there are also 4 works known as The Theban Cycle (Oedipodea, Thebaid, Epigoni, Alcmeonis) that are included in The Epic Cycle by some commentators, as well as 8 other epics that are sometimes considered as part of the cycle by others. These include Titanomachy, Heracleia, Capture of Oechalia, Naupatica, Phocais, Minyas, Danais, and Europia.

            The Epic Cycle was the embodiment in literary form of an oral tradition that had developed in the Geek Dark Age before the invention of a Greek writing system. Once that system had been invented, that oral tradition was transcribed into text. Other than for the Iliad and the Odyssey, very little of those original transcriptions of the oral works remain extant. The stories in the epic narratives were based in the main on localised hero cults. Composed in the Iron Age and later Greece, these oral literary epics reflected traditional stories and material from the Mycenaean Bronze Age culture. The Iliad and the Odyssey were at the heart of The Epic Cycle and all the other works served to act as prequels and sequels to the two main works. No doubt they all made interesting entertainment for listeners gathered around ancient campfires and in palatial banquet halls. 

Mythica by Emily Hauser

  Mythica by Emily Hauser

Two tactical errors were made when Emily Hauser came to the 2025 Summer School in Homer hosted by University College London. The first was that she was allotted only 45 minutes to speak about her new book Mythica. An audience of over 200 sat enthralled and we could have gone on listening to her for hours. Sadly her time went too quickly. The second problem was that the local bookseller had only a limited number of her books available and demand for the signed copies far outstripped supply. I placed an order online before even returning to Canada and still waited weeks for my copy to arrive, unfortunately unsigned.

Dr. Emily Hauser is an award-winning classicist and historian and the author of several fiction and non-fiction works, concentrating mainly on the study of women in ancient Greek mythology and literature. Mythica is her latest effort and was published by Doubleday in 2025. The title page describes it as A New History of Homer’s World, Through the Women Written Out of It. It is Hauser’s contention that the male heroes of Homer’s great epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, have been closely studied and analyzed for centuries, but that the complex and fascinating women who stood behind them and supported them have been pushed to the margins of history. In Mythica, Emily Hauser brings focused attention to the old saying, “Behind every successful man there is a woman.” I personally like former President Hubert H. Humphrey’s approach, “Behind every successful man there is a proud wife and a surprised mother-in-law.”

From Helen of Troy, the face that launched 1186 ships, to the faithful Penelope outwitting her 108 ardent suitors in Ithaca, we view Emily Hauser’s enthralling, ground-breaking and highly entertaining way of looking at a total of 17 different female characters from the Iliad and the Odyssey, both mortal and immortal. We find out who these real heroes of the epics were and how they have been remembered or forgotten in history. Hauser’s argument resonates strongly with me. It has long been my position that the women in Homer are essential to both narratives and that there would be no story without them. As I concluded in my paper on Homer’s Women,

On the surface, the Iliad and the Odyssey appear to us to be exciting adventures filled with entertaining stories about fighting men and gods, the gruesome nature of war and the perils of setting sail on the cruel sea. It is like ‘Saturday Night at the Movies’ in a smoke-filled theatre with an open bar. This is real man stuff! But take away Homer’s women and the stories fall flat. There are no stories to tell without Helen, Chryseis, Briseis, Andromache, Nausicaa, Arete, Circe, Calypso and most importantly, Penelope. Was Homer a woman as Samuel Butler suggested? I think not. Was Homer a feminist who presented women in an important role and advocated for their rights and position based on equality of the sexes? He most definitely was, but he did so in a most subtle way. Homer’s women are not overtly thrust to the forefront of the action, but are used discreetly to support the story. Without the firm foundation that they provide, the story would collapse.

Emily Hauser has indeed been thorough in her analysis of her 17 female subjects. She takes us through the original texts of the epics and supporting ancient literary works, in her impressive Bibliography cites almost 20 pages of works studied, has over 30 pages of Notes, delves into the science of DNA and relies heavily on art, archaeology, cartography and geography to make her point. Hers is no casual study by an amateur like myself, but instead the product of a renowned and dedicated scholar who has made Homer and his characters a driving part of her life.

    Emily Hauser says that by putting Homer’s women first, we are able to read these ancient epics in new ways. We can look at the lives of real women across the centuries and relate those lives and their experiences to those that face today’s women and by doing so, see things from an entirely different perspective and then ask ourselves how we think about ourselves and others today. Emily Hauser’s Mythica opens the door to a new and wider conversation. She tells us that history is a conversation that we are all part of and that we need to keep on having that conversation, critiquing it and debating it. Her book and her intense analysis of her subjects provide us with a sterling example of how to accomplish that elusive but important goal. 

Enchanted Islands by Laura Coffey

 

 Enchanted Islands by Laura Coffey

When I first heard about Laura Coffey’s Enchanted Islands, I admit that I jumped to a premature and obviously erroneous conclusion about the book. What I was expecting was a somewhat academic endeavour by a classicist and Homeric scholar to combine literary references with geography in an attempt to pinpoint the locations of the various places visited by Odysseus on his ten year journey home from Troy to Ithaca. I had the privilege of meeting Laura Coffey and listening to her as she presented her book at the 2025 Summer School in Homer hosted by University College London. She gave an impassioned, entertaining and fiery talk about her new book, but the work that she was speaking about was nothing like what I expected. It turns out that Laura Coffey is not an academic, a classicist or a Homeric scholar. She is a travel writer and she pens for The Guardian, BBC Travel and Condé Nast Traveller. Enchanted Islands is her first book.

For centuries people have tried to map the myth of the Odyssey and to find the links between real and imaginary places. Scholars have sought to identify the setting of the Odyssey, the location of Ithaca and to determine which islands or places in the Mediterranean and the Aegean best correlated to the islands or places described in Homer’s work. Homeric translator and classicist Emily Wilson says, “There is some correspondence between the world of Homer and the real world, although the relationship is partial and inexact.” That lack of exactitude has not kept countless generations of classicists and geographers from attempting to nail down Homer’s narrative locations. Their collective results have fallen anywhere along the spectrum ranging from certainty to speculation, from proven fact to sheer whimsy.

Laura Coffey says in her book, “But I am no scholar of ancient Greece, I’ve offered simplistic interpretations of the myth as a lay reader, pulling selections out of sequence from the story, to better relate them to the islands I was in. These are not chronologically ordered, nor does this book attempt to be a fully comprehensive retelling of The Odyssey or a survey of all the geographical theories associated with it, some of the ones I’ve included are deliberately lesser-known.” You can readily see where I was off the track about my expectations for Enchanted Islands.

The homeward journey of Odysseus and the various locations that he touched do provide the framework and the backdrop for Laura Coffey’s story. But her book is principally the story of a young woman caught up in the COVID pandemic of London, embarking on what was supposed to be a simple holiday to escape from the broken heart of a failed romance and to gain some respite from her father’s illness. Unlike the hero Odysseus who travelled to return home, Laura Coffey’s journey was one fashioned around escaping from home. Her fascination with the Greek myth of Homer’s Odyssey turned her simple vacation into a six month voyage centered on discovering the reality of the locations described in the bard’s epic. She chased the mythical hero around the various kingdoms of the sea and in doing so, indeed did find places where the myth and the reality coincided. In her travels, she found interesting people, places to enjoy and the restorative effects of travel and nature. She looked for and discovered happiness in this marriage of myth with reality, but all the time was being drawn back home by the worsening illness and the impending death of her father.

Her attempts to locate the land of the sun god Helios or the homes of the nymph Calypso or the sorceress Circe or the Cyclops Polyphemus or any of the other islands or ports mentioned in the Odyssey, all seem secondary to what she describes as her travels through myth and magic, love and loss. Enchanted Islands is the personal reflection and the memoir of an entertaining travel writer and a good read, but it is not the scholarly work that I supposed it to be, nor was it ever intended to be so.

The Big Contest: Homer Vs Hesiod

 

 The Big Contest: Homer Vs Hesiod

Homer and Hesiod were both foundational ancient Greek poets but they had a very different focus to their works. For Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey provided him with a framework for narrating the heroic deeds of men as they engaged in brutal warfare and contended with the intervention of the gods in their daily lives. Hesiod, on the other hand, in his Works and Days and Theogony, focused on rural life, agriculture, the moral order and the genealogies of the gods. Homer sought to inspire his listeners with the gallant deeds of heroes and the actions of the gods, whereas Hesiod attempted to provide practical and instructional advice to his audience. Homer was a story-teller and Hesiod was a teacher.

            Most scholars see Homer and Hesiod as being almost contemporaries, with Homer perhaps preceding Hesiod by a few years or decades, but with both living in the late 7^th or early 8^th centuries BCE. We know very little if anything about Homer as a person, if indeed such a person actually existed at all. Legend has it that he came from the Island of Chios and that he was blind. He makes no reference to himself in his works and there are those who believe that the name Homer was simply applied to a collective body of authors and bards responsible for the creation of these two important epics from a centuries old oral tradition. But we do know some facts about Hesiod and learn from him personally that he was the son of an impoverished merchant and that he led the life of a farmer in Boeotia. A bitter argument over inheritance developed with his brother when his father died and the authorities were bribed to rule in his brother’s favour. Plutarch tells us that Hesiod was murdered in Locris by the brothers of a woman who had been seduced, perhaps by Hesiod. Homer was a shadowy person from the past who may or may not have actually existed, whereas Hesiod was a living and breathing author. For my own part, I believe that the scores of references to an actual Homer in the writings of ancient authors in the Greek and Roman traditions, offer good enough evidence to assert that Homer was indeed an historical figure.

            Homer’s works were grand and dramatic in nature and portrayed larger-than-life heroes. Hesiod’s works were didactic and instructional and dealt with human labour and divine structure. Homer’s Iliad featured stories of heroic battles, honour (Kleos) and fate and the mighty deeds of gods and men, with Achilles and his wrath being the focal point. The Odyssey told the story of epic journeys and the homecoming (Nostos) of the hero Odysseus and how he was tossed and turned in his travels by the spiteful actions of vengeful gods. Hesiod’s Works and Days placed a focus on farming, justice and the moral order, whereas his Theogony dealt with creation myths and the lineage of the gods. Sometimes the two varied slightly in their details of mythological stories, for example in their different telling of the birth of Aphrodite. Homer presents women as powerful figures who play critical roles in his narratives. In Hesiod, women are seen as a plague against mankind, as exemplified in his telling of the Pandora story. Both authors composed their works in dactylic hexameter verse and we can tell from Hesiod’s use of the language that he was somewhat later in time than Homer, but not by much.

            In Hesiod’s Works and Days, he tells us that he won a tripod at a literary contest in Chalcis, but does not mention that his opponent was Homer. However, this inspired The Contest of Homer and Hesiod, known in literature as Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi. This was an ancient Greek narrative that described a legendary poetical competition between the two most famous epic poets of antiquity. The extant work dates to the 2^nd century CE and is based on an earlier tradition including the 4^th century BCE work Mouseion by Alcidamas. The legendary competition was said to have been held in Chalcis during the funeral games of King Amphidamas who died about 730 BCE after the Lelantine War between Chalcis and Eretria in Euboea and later described by Thucydides. The date of the war and the death of the king are seen as contemporary to the time of Homer and Hesiod and therefore there could possibly be some truth to the competition actually having happened.

            The competition featured a dialogue between the two poets where each presented verses that often involved riddles or the completion of each other’s lines. Homer focused his entries on war and heroic glory and Hesiod concentrated on peace, agriculture and ethical living. The two different approaches highlighted the ancient debate over the true value of epic poetry. It is said that the Greek audience overwhelmingly acclaimed Homer as the superior poet because of the brilliance of his verses. However the judge, King Paneides, ultimately awarded the prize of a bronze tripod to Hesiod, on the grounds that a poet who encouraged agriculture and peace was more valuable to the community than one who sang of war and brutal slaughter. The most complete version of the text is preserved in a manuscript from Florence, but its ancient origins are confirmed in papyrus fragments dating to the 3^rd century BCE.

            When we think of a contest between Homer and Hesiod, the obvious approach is to try and determine which one was ‘better’. However, this is a concept that is meaningless because each epic poet excelled in a different area. Homer composed heroic epics that were rich in adventure and drama and told of compelling heroes performing stellar acts of daring and bravery, all the time contending with the interference of the gods. Hesiod, on the other hand, provided us with didactic works on the fundamental questions of the universe and the origins of the gods, as well as the practical elements of agriculture, life, ethics and morality. Homer was a thrilling story-teller and Hesiod was a practical instructor. Both were foundational epic ancient Greek poets and they were both crucial to Western literature for different reasons. There can be no contest between them.

UPCOMING ARTICLES

                                                             UPCOMING ARTICLES

    The last article on "The Role of Vengeance in Homer" marked the 75th in this series. My goal is to publish 100+ articles on Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as on aspects of the Late Bronze Age. All my articles have been created using my usual less than academic and scholarly approach to classical research. As always, excerpts from the epics have been drawn from my own complete translations of the two works of Homer. What follows is a listing of the next group of articles that are planned:

The Big Contest: Homer Vs Hesiod

Laura Coffey’s “Enchanted Islands”

Emily Hauser’s “Mythica”

The Epic Cycle

Homer’s Land of Ithaca

Continuity Errors in Homer

The Meaning of Names

Calling a Truce

Achilles Fights a River

The Underworld in Homer

Diomedes – A Killing Machine

James Joyce’s “Ulysses”

The Stockholm Syndrome in Homer

The Portrayal of Disabilities in Homer

The Metis Syndrome in Homer

Achilles’ Choice

Dating the Iliad

My Favourite Scenes in the Iliad & Odyssey

Were They Lovers?

My Travels to Ancient Lands

What Makes a City?

The Treatment of the Dead in Homer

The Concept of Arete in Homer

A Study of Grief in Homer

Interpreting the Number 9

Who Were the Trojan Allies?

What Can We Learn From Homer?

The Role of Vengeance in Homer

 The Role of Vengeance in Homer

If you remove the concept of vengeance from Homer’s Iliad, there won’t be much of a story left to tell. The entire narrative is built on the actions of mortals and gods taking revenge on others for slights or misdeeds of various kinds. But vengeance is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it is the medium by which mortals gain Kleos through the performance of heroic deeds, but on the other hand, it is also the cause of much grief and sorrow and serves as a focal point for evil actions as well as serving up both empathy and reconciliation. In addition, the role that the gods play in seeking retribution just adds to the horrors visited upon mankind. There is nothing noble or redeeming in their divine actions as they seek to be repaid for the slights leveled against them by mortals or their fellow gods.

            The Trojan War itself was based on exacting vengeance by both men and gods. From the point of view of the mortals, the war was ostensibly launched by the Greeks as punishment against the Trojans for the kidnapping by Paris the Trojan prince of Helen, the queen of Sparta. Though there is speculation that Helen may have gone willingly and that the war had more to do with economic gain rather than revenge, the fact remains that Homer’s narrative was based on the story of King Agamemnon of Mycenae leading an invasion force against the Trojans to avenge the capture of the wife of his brother King Menelaus of Sparta by Paris the evil-doer. Hers was the face that launched 1,000 ships, or 1,186 to be more exact.

But when the war-loving Menelaus saw him striding along in front of the troops, he was as pleased as a hungry lion that comes across the large carcass of either a horned stag or a wild goat which he devours voraciously, even if vigorous young men and swift dogs are pursuing him. Such as this was Menelaus delighted to espy the godlike Alexander, for he was determined in his mind to seek revenge on the evil-doer. Immediately he leapt onto the ground from his chariot with his weapons.

Menelaus the son of Atreus was the second one to rush forward with his weapon, having prayed to his father Zeus. “O father Zeus, permit me to take vengeance on the godlike Alexander, he who has done me such wretched harm, and allow me to subdue him with my hands, so that all generations of men will shudder at the thought of ever doing evil to a host who offers them only kindness.”

From the divine perspective, revenge was also a key issue in the Trojan War. Alexander, or Paris as he was better known, had taken Helen because she had been promised to him by Aphrodite in a contest held at the wedding of the parents of Achilles. In the famous Judgment of Paris, the Trojan prince had chosen Aphrodite as the “fairest” and had given her the winning title over her rivals Hera and Athena. In revenge, Hera and Athena backed the Achaeans in the ten year struggle and worked diligently to ensure the defeat of the Trojans. Athena’s fury was waged equally against Aphrodite and the Trojans whom she supported.

Thus she spoke and Athena rushed off in pursuit, rejoicing in her heart and smote Aphrodite on the breast with her stout hand and her knees gave way where she was and her dear heart gave up. The two of them lay upon the bountiful earth and Athena spoke over them in a gloating way with winged words. “Let all of those who aid the Trojans when they fight against the armour-clad Argives suffer the same fate as these, just like the bold and brave Aphrodite who came in aid of Ares and went up against my might. It will not be long before we can cease fighting, having utterly sacked and destroyed the well-built citadel of Ilios.”

            The story of the Iliad is indeed based upon the whole concept of vengeance and in fact starts with a moving story of revenge. The daughter of Chryse, a priest of Apollo, had been captured in a raid by the Achaeans and had been awarded to King Agamemnon as a war prize and sex slave. The priest had approached Agamemnon and had offered a significant ransom for the return of his daughter Chryseis, but had been severely rebuked by the king and sent on his way with a warning not to return. The priest invoked the wrath of the god Apollo and the immortal one sent a plague to ravage the Greek forces.

After he had moved some distance away, the ancient one prayed in earnest to the lord Apollo, he whom fair-haired Leto had born. “Hear me o god of the silver bow who hovers in strength over Chryse and Cilla, Smithian god and most favoured ruler of Tenedos. If I ever roofed a temple that was pleasing to you or provided you with the burnt offering of the fat thigh pieces of bulls and goats, then answer my prayer and let the Danaans pay the price for my tears with your arrows.”

Thus was his prayer made known on high and Phoebus Apollo heard him. He stalked down from the summit of Olympus, troubled deeply in his heart and bearing with him his bow and covered quiver. As he moved, the arrows rattled on the shoulders of the angry god. As the far-darting one swept by, his coming was like the night. Then he crouched down among the ships of the Greeks and let fly an arrow. Terrifying was the sound that arose from his silver bow. The mules he attacked first and then the swift dogs. Next on the men themselves he rained down his terrible shafts. The corpses of the dead burned constantly.

            But primarily the Iliad is about one man’s wrath and the havoc that his vengeance visits on others. We are told from the very start that this story is about the wrath of Achilles.

Let wrath be your song O Goddess! Sing of the accursed rage of Achilles, son of Peleus, which brought untold woes to the Achaeans and banished to Hades many stalwart souls of heroes, turning them into carrion for dogs and birds of prey, thereby bringing to final fulfillment the plan of Zeus.

That man’s wrath was demonstrated in many ways and its effect always resulted in severe consequences. First of all, in a fit of pique, Achilles was determined to take his revenge on Agamemnon who had confiscated his war prize Briseis, but the impact on the Greek forces was beyond measure. Without the leadership of Achilles on the battlefield, the Trojans were overwhelming the Greeks to such an extent that Agamemnon finally relented and sent an embassy to Achilles to beg him to return to the fighting. What had started as a vengeful act to embarrass Agamemnon ended up as a disaster for his fellow Achaeans, but still Achilles was not ready to agree. It took the death of his beloved friend Patroclus at the hands of Hector to motivate him back into the action.

            They say that hell hath no fury, and that certainly was the case with Achilles acting in vengeance because of the death of Patroclus. Not only did he relentlessly pursue Hector around the walls of Troy and finally strike him dead, he then proceeded in his revenge to desecrate the corpse of the Trojan hero by fastening his naked body to the back of his chariot and dragging it around in disgrace for days. The Kleos that he had gained by heroically defeating his enemy on the battlefield was washed away by his violation of the sacred duties of heroism perpetrated through his savagery. As if that was not enough, he went so far as to capture twelve young Trojans to sacrifice on the funeral pyre of his friend. There was nothing noble or heroic in this.

When his hands grew tired from all the killing, he captured twelve young men alive from out of the river in blood revenge for the death of Patroclus the son of Menoetius. He led them forth like they were dazed fawns and fettered their hands behind their backs with the leather straps that they used to tie their tunics and gave them to his comrades to lead them to the hollow ships. Then he leaped back into the fray, eager to continue the slaughter.

            But in the end, the wrath of Achilles was overcome by empathy and reconciliation. King Priam of Troy approached Achilles in the dead of night and begged for the release of Hector’s body. Achilles was overcome with emotion and consented. Vengeance was at the heart of the entire narrative and Homer portrayed it and its consequences in the worst possible light. Mortals and immortals caused great distress and sorrow on others through their various acts of revenge and Homer certainly did not glorify vengeance. He saw it as something monstrous and bad, but in the end, good conquered evil.

            Revenge played a central role in the Odyssey as well and we are told in the opening lines that the vengeance of the gods destroyed any plans that Odysseus had to return his men home to the safety of Ithaca.

But do what he might, he was not able to save his men, for their own recklessness made an end of them, fools that they were, for they ate the cattle of the Hyperion Helios and the god took away from them the day that they would ever return home.

All the gods took pity on him except Poseidon, who persecuted Odysseus without end and would not allow him to return to his land.

            Lest mortals make the mistake of blaming the gods for the evils that befall them, Zeus the father of the gods made it very plain from the outset of the story that mortals themselves are responsible for what happens to them. In the Iliad we get the distinct impression that mankind does not have free will and that everything that happens is pre-ordained and cannot be changed by human actions. But here, early in the Odyssey, the message is clear. Gods take action against mortals and in their vengeance they punish mankind, but only because mortals have brought such evils upon themselves, especially if they do things that they have been warned not to do.

It is shameful that mortals blame us gods for all their ills, but what fate comes their way is caused by their own recklessness and they heap it all upon themselves. Look at Aegisthus now, who woos and weds the wife of the son of Atreus unrighteously and then goes and kills him though he knew it would be his own death for I had sent the keen-sighted Hermes, the slayer of Argos, to warn him not to kill this man or to take his wife for Orestes would surely want to take revenge on behalf of the son of Atreus, when he grew up and longed to return to his homeland. So Hermes had spoken but he did not move the heart of Aegisthus with his words of wisdom and now he has paid the full price for his deeds.

            It was vengeance that plunged Odysseus into trouble from the very start on his journey home, vengeance as well as curiosity. He and his crew had landed in the land of the Cyclopes and Odysseus was keen to find out all he could about these creatures and their approach to Xenia or guest-friend hospitality. The answer was quite simple. A Cyclopean monster like Polyphemus eats his guests and smacks them down, blood, guts and bones. In an act of extreme revenge for the killing of some of his crew, Odysseus formed a plan to blind the monster and escape his grasp. Not only was he successful in his vengeance, he bragged about it afterwards. Poseidon, who was the father of Polyphemus, was not about to accept the wounding of his son without consequences, and launched a ferocious attack against Odysseus and his entire crew in revenge.

            Odysseus and his men also incurred the wrath and the revenge of Zeus for the slaughter of the cattle of Helios, the god of the sun. The sacred cattle lived on the island of Thrinacia and were guarded by the daughters of Helios. Odysseus had been strictly warned that the cattle were off-limits by both Circe and Tiresias, but his starving crew undertook their sacrilegious slaughter. In revenge for this action, Zeus destroyed their ship with a thunderbolt and killed the entire crew, with the exception of Odysseus who had abstained from eating the meat of the cattle.

            While visiting King Menelaus and Queen Helen in Sparta, Telemachus was treated to a full story of revenge by his hosts. The tale of Agamemnon, Aegisthus and Orestes had been mentioned briefly in the opening lines of the Odyssey, but from the mouth of the singing bard in Sparta, Telemachus got the full story. In a nutshell, this story of extreme vengeance goes as follows. King Agamemnon was leading an invasion force against Troy in revenge for the Trojan prince Alexander having kidnapped Helen, the wife of Menelaus. The Greek ships were stranded in Aulis by unfavourable winds and Agamemnon was convinced that the only way that they could make sail would be if he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess, because he had offended her by killing one of her sacred stags during a hunt. His wife Clytemnestra never forgave him for this evil deed and when he returned from the Trojan War, she and her lover Aegisthus slew Agamemnon in his bathtub in an act of revenge. In seeking vengeance for the murder of his father Agamemnon, Orestes in turn killed his mother Clytemnestra. Vengeance had come full circle.

            When Odysseus finally reached Ithaca, he found that his home had been taken over, that his livelihood was being threatened, that his son was in danger and that his wife was being pursued by 108 ardent suitors. All in all, it was not a good news day. Odysseus set out to even the score and the remainder of the tale is all about his efforts to avenge these slights against himself, his family and his property. But his wise son Telemachus warned him that, despite his great ability as a fighter, to try and seek revenge against so great a number without help would be dangerous.

Then wise Telemachus answered him. “O father, truly I have heard about your great fame and that you were a warrior with enormous strength and wisdom but what you have said is too great and I am amazed. Two men could not fight alone against so many powerful foes, for there are not ten suitors or twice that, but many more. Forthwith I will tell you their exact number. From Dulichium there are fifty-two chosen young men and six pages attend them. From Same there came twenty-four and from Zacynthus there are twenty Achaeans youths. From Ithaca itself there are twelve men, all of them the noblest and with them is the herald Medon and the divine minstrel and two squires who are skilled in carving meats. If we were to come against them inside, then indeed your return to exact revenge would be bitter and baneful. Now see if you can think of anyone who might be able to help us, someone who would be willing to do so with a willing heart.”

Telemachus knew that the final act of revenge would be delivered by his father Odysseus but his mother Penelope felt that such vengeance could only come from the gods and from Zeus in particular. In this case, the god would act through the hands of a man.

Thus he spoke but she was unmoved. Then she bathed and put on fresh clothes and went to her upper chamber and vowed to all the gods that she would offer a perfect hecatomb if Zeus would bring to pass deeds of revenge.

In both the Iliad and the Odyssey, mortal vengeance is a powerful and destructive driving force that is deeply embedded in the ancient Greek code of heroism. Taking revenge is seen as a necessary act for the restoration of family and personal honour and as a way of upholding the social order. There was no formal system of justice in this ancient society and as a consequence, mortals were expected to punish those who had done them wrong. Divine vengeance in Homer’s epics is a powerful driving force as well and is occasioned by offences against honour, hospitality or Xenia and other sacred laws or customs. Many gods are shown as taking divine retribution on mortals and the results are always highly destructive and lead to prolonged suffering or even death. Divine vengeance is a way of restoring the cosmic order and this need for retribution is often a key element in moving a plot forward or in providing justice. Mortal vengeance is driven by personal emotion but divine retribution is used to restore balance. 

There’s Nothing Like a Good Night’s Sleep

 

 There’s Nothing Like a Good Night’s Sleep 

Of all things there is an abundance, of sleep and love and sweet song and goodly dance. Man would rather have his fill of these things rather than war. 

Very early in the Iliad, King Agamemnon reluctantly sent Odysseus to return the fair-cheeked Chryseis to her father, the priest of Apollo. The Ithacan hero did as he was instructed and when the day was done and the celebrations with the father and his daughter were finished, he and his crew took their rest. Homer’s report of their doing so gave rise to two of my favourite visual images in his works: 

When the sun went down and darkness had arisen, they all fell asleep near the stern of the ship. When rosy-fingered dawn appeared, they weighed anchor and sailed toward the army of the Achaeans. 

            Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey frequently reference sleep as a vital and irresistible force and an escape from war and sorrow - sleep took hold of him and sweetly washed away the cares from his heart, for his limbs were sore and tired from chasing Hector in windy Ilios. Sometimes sleep is presented as just the calm conclusion to a satisfying day. Even the gods are seen to take their rest, as witnessed at the end of their feast on Mount Olympus. 

When the bright light of the sun went down, they all wanted to rest and each went to his own home. Hephaestus, the highly skilled lame craftsman, fashioned for each of them a resting place. Zeus, the god of Olympus lightning, went to his own bed where he usually slept. Before sleep came upon him, he lay down beside Hera of the golden throne.

But we are told in the next line that sleep did not come to Zeus, because he wrestled in his mind all night long how he could bring honour to Achilles and destruction to the ships of the Achaeans. Agamemnon, on the other hand, was sleeping soundly as a dream approached him in the guise of Nestor in the dark of night. Homer’s image is one of poetic beauty and we often find that he is at his artistic best when he describes sleep and its effects on mortals and immortals alike.

Thus he spoke and the dream went forward immediately when it heard his command. It flew quickly toward the swift ships of the Achaeans and approached Agamemnon son of Atreus. When it reached him, it found him sleeping in his tent as the divine nectar of slumber had been poured over him.

Agamemnon may have been fast asleep when his dream messenger arrived, but he was told in no uncertain terms that spending the night in slumber was not fitting for a true leader!

It is not befitting that a man of such wise counsel to whom the people have been entrusted and for whom so many things are important, should spend the whole night in sleep.

Homer often referred to the gift of sleep and called it sweet sleep, most of the time within the context of sleep offering relief from pain, grief, fear or the exhaustion of war. Men are said to have been overcome by sweet sleep. Then the son of Peleus came away from the side of the funeral pyre and lay down all weary and tasted sweet sleep.

Pale fear seized hold of them and from their goblets they poured out wine onto the ground and no one dared take a drink before making a libation to the great son of Cronos. They lay down then and took upon themselves the gift of sleep.

Warriors may take their well-deserved sleep at the end of the day but we are told that though they are fast asleep, they are ready to leap into action and to resume the fighting.

Then they came to Diomedes the son of Tydeus and found him outside his tent with his armour with all his comrades sleeping around him with their shields under their heads and their spears stuck in the ground by their sharp spikes and the bronze of their spears shone brightly from afar like the lightning of father Zeus.

We took our evening meal among the ranks and each man lay down to sleep by the rushing river, still clad in his battle armour.

While warriors slept in their encampment, those on night sentry duty made sure to keep a watchful eye out for the approach of the enemy. Next to a display of cowardice, falling asleep while on lookout duty was a most serious offence.

They gathered together with the company of the watchmen and found that they had kept their post and had not fallen asleep, but all were there ready with their arms. Just like the dogs who keep painful watch over the sheep in the fold when they hear the stout-hearted wild beast coming across the plain and a great noise arises of men and dogs and drives away sleep from them, in the same way did sweet sleep leave their eyelids as they kept watch against evil throughout the night for they kept watching toward the plain to see if the Trojans were advancing. When he saw them, the old man rejoiced and welcomed them and spoke to them with winged words. “Even now, continue to keep watch my dear children and do not let sleep overcome any man, lest we become a source of rejoicing for our enemies.”

But there were other times when the sweet relief of sleep did not come - At the same time, Menelaus was trembling with fear and his eyelids had not been overcome by sleep. Agamemnon was likewise kept awake at times - I turn aside because sleep does not come to me and I worry about the war and the distress of the Achaeans.

Homer often associated sleep with death and made reference to the twin brother deities, Sleep (Hypnos) and Death (Thanatos). He talked about the father of the gods using the scales to weigh the destinies of long-sleeping death, a sleep without end. Later in the Iliad, Zeus told Apollo how to treat the body of the slain Sarpedon and to turn him over to the twins, Sleep and Death.

When the sun had reached the middle of the sky, then indeed the father raised up his golden scales and in them he placed the destinies of long-sleeping death for the horse-rearing Trojans and the bronze-armoured Achaeans. He grasped the scales in the middle but the deadly fate of the Achaeans dipped low. The fate of the Achaeans sank to the bounteous earth, whereas that of the Trojans ascended to the wide heaven.

And then to Apollo spoke Zeus the cloud-gatherer. “Get up now my beloved bright one and having taken Sarpedon far away out of missile range, cleanse him of the black blood and wash him in the waters of the stream and anoint him with ambrosia and clothe him with immortal garments and give him to the swift guardians, the twins Sleep and Death, who will bear him quickly to the rich land of broad Lycia and there his brothers and kinsmen will give him a solemn burial and raise over him a memorial of stone, as is the duty owed to the deceased.”

In addition to describing its great restorative powers, Homer also showed us that sleep could be used as a weapon. Hera hatched a plan to entice Zeus into her bed so that he would fall asleep after a bout of passion and thereby be out of commission while her beloved Achaeans got the upper hand over the Trojans. Hera asked Hypnos, the brother of Thanatos, to assist her in her scheme, but he was reluctant to agree. He finally gave in to her request when she promised him Pasithea, the youngest one of the Graces, as a reward and Sleep stopped the eyes of Zeus.

The best plan came to her mind, namely that she should go to Mount Ida and get herself beautifully ready so he might desire to take her to bed and to make passionate love to her, so that afterwards a warm and peaceful sleep would come over his eyelids and his cunning mind.

There she met Sleep, the brother of Death and she took him by the hand and spoke to him. “Sleep, lord of all gods and all men, if ever you listened to a word of mine in the past, let me persuade you now and I will think of you gracefully all the days of my life. Put to sleep the bright eyes of Zeus beneath his brows as soon as I lay down beside him in affection.”

Then in answer to her spoke sweet Sleep, “Honourable Hera, daughter of great Cronos, another of the great gods that I might lull to sleep even if it were the streams of the river Oceanus from which they all spring forth, but to Zeus I will not come near nor lull to sleep unless he bids me to do so.”

Then the father slept without moving on the top of Gargarus, overcome with slumber and affection in the arms of his wife. Sweet Sleep went running to the ships of the Achaeans to bear a message to the earth-mover earth-shaker. When he squeezed up near to him, he spoke these winged words. “With a forward mind now Poseidon, render aid to the Danaans and give them glory forthwith for Zeus is asleep for a little while for over him have I cast a soft slumber. Hera has beguiled him to her bed to make love.”

Homer included sleep as an integral part of the events portrayed in the Odyssey. Sleep was often shown by the bard to be both a welcome and restorative escape, as seen in the case of Penelope mourning her missing husband and again later when Telemachus was away from home, or when Odysseus fell asleep on his ship.

She went back to her chamber, seized with bewilderment for she was conscious in her heart of the wise words of her son. She went to the upper part of her house with her handmaidens and mourned for her dear husband Odysseus until such time as the bright-eyed Athena cast sweet sleep over her.

But the wise Penelope stayed in her upper chamber, took no food and fasted from eating and drinking, wondering all the while whether her peerless son would escape death or be done in by the insolent suitors. Even as a lion is afraid and worried when among a throng of people who draw a trap around him, so too did she worry when finally sweet sleep came upon her. She lay back and slept and all her joints relaxed.

Sleep came over the eyelids of Odysseus, a sweet pleasant undisturbed sleep that was almost like death.

Sleep came upon him loosening the cares of his heart, limb-relaxing sleep.

The goddess Athena frequently used sleep for her own purposes and unlike in the Iliad, Homer does not reference the god Hypnos in the second epic. Athena delivered sleep to the suitors as well as to the weary Odysseus, as was the case when he landed on the shores of the Phaeacians. And Athena brought sleep upon his eyes that it might overcome his eyelids and quickly free him from his tiring toils. Later he told King Alcinous that he had slept most of the day. The sun was verging towards afternoon when sweet sleep released me. In addition to the goddess Athena, Hermes is also seen as the bringer of sleep in the Odyssey.

Then again the flashing-eyed goddess Athena formed another plan and went to the house of the godlike Odysseus. There she spread sweet sleep over the suitors, overcame them with drink and caused the drinking goblets to fall from their hands. They got up to go to their rest throughout the city and did not stay back long for sleep was descending on their eyelids.

In his hand he took his wand that he uses to put to sleep those whom he will and others whom he awakens from slumber. With this in his hand, the slayer of Argus flew onwards.

He held a beautiful golden wand in his hands with which he lulls the eyes of some into sleep, whomever he wills, and others he wakens from their sleep.

While visiting Sparta, Telemachus asked Menelaus for a place to sleep. But come now and send us to our beds so that we may be lulled by sweet sleep, be rested and be gladdened. In Pylos, Nestor made it very clear that providing a guest with a place to sleep was a vital part of the practice of Xenia or guest-friendship and would not allow Telemachus and his friends to go back to their ship to sleep.

“Zeus and the other immortal gods would forbid that you go to your swift ship from my house as if you were leaving someone who was needy and without clothing and did not have enough cloaks or blankets in his house for himself and his guest-friends to sleep in soft comfort. Surely no dear son of the man Odysseus would ever lie down to sleep on the half-deck of a ship as long as I live and as long as I have children still in my home to entertain strangers and whoever comes to my house.”

Odysseus was able to turn sleep to his advantage while confined in the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus. He encouraged the monster to drink copious amounts of wine and finally he was overcome with sleep. While he was passed out, the hero and his remaining crew blinded the sleeping giant.

Thus he spoke and he reeled backwards and fell on his back and he lay there with his thick neck slanted and the sleep that conquers all overcame him.

When he returned to Ithaca, Odysseus stayed at the home of his loyal swineherd and friend Eumaeus, although he did not at first reveal his true identity to his servant. True to the spirit of Xenia, Eumaeus offered his guest both nourishment and a place to sleep, as well as a welcoming ear for his stories.

These nights are exceedingly long. There is a time for sleeping and there is a time for listening to stories, but you do not have to lie down before you are ready to do so, for there can be distress in too much sleep.

Thus he spoke and then he stood up and made up a bed for him near the fire and covered it with the hides of sheep and goats. And there Odysseus lay down to sleep and over him he spread a big thick cloak that he kept around as a change of clothing in case a big storm should come up. And there Odysseus slept and the young men slept beside him. But the swineherd was not content to sleep there and went outside so that he could be nearer to the boars.

            Penelope made Odysseus welcome in her home, though he was disguised as a dreadful beggar. She listened carefully to his stories but finally told him that sleep was essential for her, both for her strength as well as a way to escape her sorrows.

Then the prudent Penelope answered him. “If you were willing to sit with me stranger and give me comfort within these halls, then sleep would never pour over my eyelids. But there is no way that mankind can go without sleep forever, for there is a time granted for everything upon the earth, the giver of grain. But I will go now into my upper chamber and lie upon my bed which has become for me a bed of sorrows and always wet with my tears, since the day that Odysseus went to evil Ilios, a name that should never be uttered. I will lie down there but you take your rest here in the house where you have strewn your bedding, or let the maids set up a bed for you.”

Having spoken thus, she went up to her bright upper chamber, not alone for she had her handmaidens with her. There she mourned for Odysseus, her dear husband, until such time as the flashing-eyed Athena cast pleasant sleep upon her eyelids.

            But we all know how the story ends. Odysseus killed all the suitors and was restored to his kingship. He and Penelope fall into each other’s arms and make love once more in their marital bed, carved from the olive tree. Sleep will be their reward.

But come now, wife, and let us go to bed so that lulled by sweet sleep, we might take our rest.

Then Zeus-fostered Odysseus described the many woes that he had inflicted on men and all the lamentable evils that he had suffered and she was gladdened to hear his stories and sweet sleep did not fall upon her eyelids before he had had a chance to recount all his tales to her.

Finally he was finished his story and sweet sleep came upon him, the kind of sleep that loosens the limbs of men and it loosened the cares of his heart.

            Homer portrays sleep as a multifaceted force. In the Iliad it is seen as an active divine power that influences the outcome of the Trojan War. In the Odyssey, on the other hand, it is more of a narrative tool that represents both the vulnerability of mortals as well as a way of providing them with restorative relief as a physiological necessity. A major difference between the two epics is found in how sleep is personified in each work. In the Iliad, Hypnos or Sleep is presented as a separate and distinct character, the twin brother of Death or Thanatos. Such is not the case in the Odyssey. In the second epic, sleep is not personified, but is instead a force that is divinely delivered by either the goddess Athena or the god Hermes. This is indeed a distinctive difference and is likely another tick in the column for separate authorship.