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. 

Achilles a Hero – Really?

 

 Achilles a Hero – Really?

Imagine you come across a child in a playground who sometimes acts like a braggart and a bully and at other times complains that someone else always gets the largest piece of cake and that a bigger boy has taken his toy. He is rude to his elders and betters and forms what could be described as inappropriate relationships. At times he threatens to quit the game and take his ball and bat and go home and at other times he just sulks in his room, either playing with himself or by himself, we aren’t sure which. He runs to tell his mommy his problems and weeps in her arms. Then he throws a temper tantrum and cannot be controlled, as he deliberately tries to hurt and torment another child. In my day, a kid like that would have been given a swift kick in the backside and sent to his room with no supper.

This is not the picture of a naughty child in a playground. No, this is a description of Achilles, regarded by many as the epitome of the Homeric hero. The fact of the matter is that he did not achieve his kleos by dying a noble death in battle. In truth, Homer did not even think that his death was worth mentioning. Legend has it that died from an arrow wound to the heel of his foot, a lucky shot by the pretty playboy Paris. His existence in the underworld is portrayed by Homer in the Odyssey as being rather bleak and unsatisfying. He tells Odysseus that he would rather be a common slave on earth rather than the king of the dead. Achilles is not remembered for his heroic deeds. He is immortalized for his wrath and for his weak spot, his Achilles heel.

I write these words, fully aware of the condemnation that I will receive from Dr. Antony Makrinos, a native of Chios and head of the Department of Greek & Latin at University College London, where I recently attended his Summer School in Homer. Achilles is Antony’s favourite hero and I doubt that I will receive an invitation to attend next summer’s session. But let us take a deeper look at why I believe that Achilles is anything but a hero.

His actions bore severe consequences for others: 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.

Achilles’ lack of self-awareness and the fact that he seems to be devoid of empathy means that he remains unaware of the consequences that his actions will have on others.

His is rude to his elders and to those in authority: Ah me, you greedy one garbed in shamefulness, how could any one of the Achaeans now obey you readily or go on a voyage for you or willingly fight for you with force?... But you, O great shameless one, we followed so that you, you son of a bitch, could gain satisfaction for Menelaus and yourself from the Trojans… You drunken cowardly son of a bitch, never have you had courage enough to dress for battle or to go forth to fight along with the chiefs of the Achaeans. You are so afraid of dying you sluggard… You are a king who devours his own people… You can command others but do not give orders to me because I do not believe that I will obey you any longer.

In most cases, insubordination stems from a deep frustration with those in charge and feelings of being mistreated. A toxic work environment can also lead to rebellion against authority. All of these factors were certainly present in the life of Achilles.

He complains of someone else getting a bigger share: Never have I had a prize equal to one of yours when the Achaeans have sacked a well-inhabited fortress of the Trojans… whenever it comes time to divide the spoils, your prize is always far greater and the reward which I take back to my ship is always smaller in comparison.

Achilles expresses that he is always being shortchanged by Agamemnon. This mindset can trigger anxiety and anger and lead to illogical behaviours and strained relationships. The victim of this kind of inferiority complex will often withdraw and we witness this with Achilles.

He complains that a bully is taking away his toy: But now you threaten to take away my prize from me, which the sons of the Achaeans gave me, that for which I toiled so hard.

Bring bullied leads to feelings of insecurity and of being unaccepted and the bullied one will often become isolated, angry or withdrawn.

He threatens to quit playing and to take his stuff back home: So now I will return to Pythia with my curved ship, for it is better to be at home rather than stay here dishonoured piling up riches and wealth for you.

Achilles fails to realize that such tactics seldom work and they actually weaken one’s bargaining position and damage one’s reputation. There are long term consequences here that he fails to take into account, blinded as he is by his wrath.

He is easily overcome by emotion: Great distress struck the son of Peleus and the heart within his shaggy breast was divided, whether to draw the sword from his side and rush through the crowd to slay and despoil the son of Atreus, or to stay his anger and cool his rage.

Intense emotions are more difficult to manage and we see Achilles constantly struggling to maintain control of his feelings. He does not seem to realize the impact that his emotions have on himself or others and this too is a signal of his emotional instability and lack of empathy.

Wait for the day when I tell you ‘I told you so’: Someday a great desire for Achilles will come upon the sons of the Achaeans, one and all, and you will not be able to assist them in any way despite your grief when many lay dying because of the man-slayer Hector. But you will eat your heart out in anger that you did no honour to the best of the Achaeans.

The ‘I told you so’ phrase often comes about from a combination of ego, self-validation and a need to be viewed as correct. The phrase validates a person’s intelligence and judgement in their own mind and increases their sense of self worth, especially when they feel that this sense of worth has been diminished by others.

He cries to his mother about his ill treatment: For indeed Agamemnon, the wide ruling son of Atreus dishonours me for he takes back for himself what was given to me. Thus he spoke shedding great tears and his sacred mother heard him while she sat in the depths of the sea near her ancient father.

A baby cries to its mother because of an instinctive need for caring and attention from its primary care-giver. Mothers are attuned to these cries and respond with empathy and attention. In the interplay between Achilles and his mother, we can conclude that the supposed hero has never grown out of the infant need for maternal comforting.

He sits sulking in his tent playing music: They then came to the encampment and the ships of the Myrmidons and there they found Achilles playing on a lyre that was beautifully wrought and had a bridge of silver. It was part of the spoils that he had taken when he sacked the city of Eetion and he was now gladdening his heart with it singing about the exploits of men.

Sulking is a complex emotional response to events or people and is usually the result of intensive anger or frustration at both. Sulking is passive aggressive behaviour and a coping mechanism for the sulking individual. Some even view sulking as a form of depression.

He expresses stubbornness in the face of logic: Neither Agamemnon the son of Atreus nor the other Danaans will ever persuade me to fight endlessly against the enemy, for there seems to be no profit in doing so. An equal portion of the spoils is allotted to a man, whether he sits at home or if he battles to his best and the coward and the bravest are treated the same. Destruction comes both to him who does nothing as well as to him who works the hardest… he lives on clothed in utter shamelessness. He wouldn’t dare look me in the eye though he has the face of a dog. I will not consult with him or work with him for he has cheated and sinned against me. Never again will he deceive me with words; enough is enough.

The stubbornness of Achilles is a reflection of his inflexibility and resistance to change as well as an indication of his fear of being perceived as wrong. The stubborn person feels the need to maintain control and the condition may be a sign of lack of awareness of self and low self-esteem.

He gets angry with those who do not support him: Do not claim him as your friend in case I, who indeed am your friend, now begin to hate you. It is indeed better that you hate those whom I hate as well.

Achilles may be strongly attached emotionally to his own viewpoint, or he may be exhibiting a lack of empathy or a fear of rejection. In any case, his anger with those who disagree with him or who are apparently not on his side is unhealthy.

He gloats at the suffering of those with whom he is angry: Son of Atreus, now I think the deadly heart of Achilles rejoices in his breast as he clearly witnesses the utter destruction and rout of the Achaeans since he has nothing but smallness in his chest.

Experiencing pleasure at the misfortunes of others can often arise from feelings of superiority and can have a highly negative impact on personal relationships and the development of any sort of empathy. This in turn can lead to a greater likelihood of engaging in behaviours that cause harm or distress to others.

Was his relationship with Patroclus sexual in nature? : Thus he spoke and a black cloud of distress descended on Achilles and with both his hands he gathered up the dark dust and threw it on his head and made ugly his fine countenance and the black soot fell on his fragrantly scented tunic. He stretched himself out in the dust, overpowered in his mightiness and with his own dear hands he tore at and dishevelled his hair.

Although there is no proof, there has long been speculation that Achilles and Patroclus were involved in a homosexual relationship. Inappropriate relationships can impact a person’s well-being and emotional health and can lead to less than healthy patterns of social behaviour such as manipulation, control issues and lack of self-respect.

Did Achilles contemplate suicide? : On the other side of them, Antilochus cried and shed tears and held the hands of Achilles who was moaning in sorrow deep in his heart, for fear that he might cut his own throat with a blade… my dear companion Patroclus has died, he whom I treasured before all my other comrades, even more so than my own life.

Psychologists tell us that there are two distinct phases to the development of suicidal thoughts. The first step is the experiencing of intense psychological pain. The second step involves the feelings of disconnection and the perception that one has become a burden to others. We witness Achilles expressing both these steps following the death of Patroclus.

He acts like a wild madman: Then Achilles grabbed his body by the feet and threw it into the river to float away. He gloated heartily over him and spoke with feathered words. “Float there among the fishes and let them lick the blood from your wounds, for your weeping mother will not be placing your body on a funeral couch.

When a person acts like a madman, such as Achilles does later when he attempts to fight a river, his actions can stem from a variety of factors. Such factors can include mental health conditions, temporary conditions such as stress, or psychological factors such as defense mechanisms or personality traits, social and environmental factors such as a toxic environment or other factors such as misunderstandings, performance pressure or lack of self-awareness.

Achilles throws a temper tantrum: Thus he spoke and then planned great evil for the body of godlike Hector. He pierced the tendon of both his feet between his ankles and his knees and fastened an oxen leather strap through them and then tied them to the back of his chariot with his head trailing behind. He mounted his chariot and lifted into it the glorious armour and whipped the horses with the lash to get them started and the pair of them flew off like a shot.

Dragging Hector’s naked body behind his chariot for days on end is an example of a pure and simple temper tantrum on the part of Achilles. With children, tantrums are a way of releasing pent-up emotions and often indicate a lack of emotional awareness or emotional intelligence. Tantrums are a way of getting attention, communicating feelings and having needs met. In adults we often see tantrums being manifested in actions such as road rage, domestic abuse, throwing objects or other sudden outbursts of impulsive, aggressive and violent behaviours. Here we see another example of the wrath of Achilles.

Achilles has a complete change of personality: So he spoke and in Achilles he stirred the desire to mourn for his father and he took the old man by the hand and pushed him away. The two of them thought about their dead and wept, the one for the sake of the man-slaying Hector as he crawled on the ground at the feet of Achilles, but Achilles himself wept for his father and at other times for Patroclus and the groaning of both of them went up through the house. But when the godlike Achilles had had his fill of mourning and the longing to do so had departed from his limbs and his heart, he sprang up from his chair and taking the old man by the hand and pitying his grey beard and his grey head, he spoke to him with winged words.

Feelings of intense sorrow change Achilles’ demeanor entirely. His deep feeling of sadness over the death of Patroclus and his musings about his own father lead him to accept what has happened and to establish a connection with the old man Priam. He even develops empathy. This reflection and pondering on his part becomes a catalyst for change in his life and opens the door to personal growth for him. His life experiences and the events that he has witnessed result in an unintentional personality change on his part. It is important to note however that he does not make this happen, instead it happens to him.

So were the actions displayed by Achilles the actions of a brave and mighty Homeric hero, or were they the actions of a petty, truculent, self-centered, angry, stubborn, vengeance-seeking, rude and complaining brat who cannot control his wrath or his emotions? It is a term that psychiatrists now say is outdated, but Achilles appears to display all of the characteristics of a paranoid schizophrenic. He is emotionally unstable, perhaps mentally ill, and certainly a danger to himself and to others. In my mind he is nothing like a hero, but he is a foil for one. The more that Achilles acts in a non-heroic fashion, the more he points out the superiority of the true hero of the Iliad, Hector. Hector is a true Homeric hero in every sense of the word and it almost seems that Homer cast Achilles in a most unfavourable light, so that the light which shone upon Hector was even brighter. Was Achilles a hero? Not really!

But this raises another question – did Homer favour the Trojans or the Greeks? Why did he portray the main Trojan character of the Iliad in a more favourable light than the main Achaean one? We may interpret something about where Homer’s heart was centered when we consider that his birthplace Chios is only 7 kilometers off the Turkish coast, whereas Agamemnon’s Mycenae is 420 kilometers away from his native island. Was Homer a closet Trojan?

Guerilla War at Troy

 

   Guerilla War at Troy

In the Iliad, Homer records the battle as being fought mainly along traditional military lines with vast armies being pitched against one another on the battlefield. Ancient Greek warfare typically was fought using a phalanx formation, a large group of heavily armed soldiers who advanced en masse in an attempt to overpower the enemy who were generally arrayed in like manner. These troops were supported by ranks of archers, slingers and charioteers. However, there is much evidence in the epic that indicates that both sides in the conflict were also engaged in what we would call guerilla warfare in modern times. In this paper we will explore the use of such irregular warfare techniques.

The famous catalogue of the ships gives us a great amount of detail about the Achaean men who sailed for Troy, their fighting strengths and their leaders. In total Homer reports that there were 1,186 ships in the fleet with soldiers in 29 contingents from different cities on the Greek mainland and the islands. Based on the average number of men per ship, scholars estimate that the total Danaan force numbered between 70,000 to 130,000 men. It is thought that the Trojan forces and their allies equaled them in numbers. Both armies consisted of infantry carrying shields, spearmen, archers and horse-drawn chariots which usually bore a charioteer and a fighter. Agamemnon himself suggested that the Achaeans far out-numbered the Trojans, although the Dardanian forces were supplemented by allies.

The Greek fighters were arranged in contingents that reflected their home territories and their family units and before a battle or skirmish commenced, the men were marshalled together in their separate contingents by their leaders.

Just as goatherds arrange their own flocks separately, after they have been mixed in the pasture, so the leaders of the men easily maneuvered their soldiers, moving them left and right and up towards the front of the battle line.

The actions of King Nestor of Pylos give us a pretty good idea of how the Achaeans arranged their warriors for battles and the tactics that they used on the battlefield.

Nestor was ordering his troops into ranks and was urging them on to battle. Around him were the great Pelagon, Alastor, Cromius, Haemon the ruler and Bias the shepherd of the people. He put the charioteers with their horses and chariots in the front and placed the many brave foot soldiers in the back so that they might hem in the fighting. He put the cowards in the middle so that even if they did not want to fight, they would be forced to do so. He gave the first order to the charioteers and told them to rein in their horses and not to move in a tumult through the crowd. He ordered those who were skilled charioteers and eager to fight the Trojans not to go it alone, either up front or behind the lines, because they would be more easily conquered if caught fighting alone. He advised that any man in a chariot coming upon another should reach out with his spear towards that man, for that would be a better move. In such manner even the ancients of long ago were able to destroy walls and cities if they kept such tactics in mind.

In his book The Trojan War: A New History published in 2006 by Simon & Schuster, military historian Barry Strauss proposes that both the Greeks and the Trojans made good use of guerilla warfare tactics.

Commando raids, sabotage, kidnapping, theft, spying, throat-slitting in the dark, and ambushes at the stable door all made poor propaganda, however effective they may really have been. So whatever references to such practices survive may only be the tip of the iceberg.

Homer mentions a number of ambushes, covert operations, raids, sorties, and scouting expeditions in and around Troy, almost all carried out by the Greeks. In the Odyssey all of Odysseus’s actions from his return to Ithaca until the slaughter of the suitors and the maids may be seen as one big exercise in irregular warfare, an armed uprising without an army.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare characterized by small, mobile groups using ambushes, sabotage, and hit-and-run tactics to harass and disrupt a larger, more conventional military force. It often involves unconventional strategies, sometimes involving civilians, and can be a component of a larger political or military strategy. The term, derived from the Spanish word for "little war," originated during the Peninsular War in the early 19th century. With this definition in mind, let us examine some incidents of guerilla warfare found in Homer’s Iliad.

An army that filled 1,186 ships had to be fed and with a war waging on the Trojan plains, there was no place or time for agricultural endeavours. If you can’t grow it or raise it yourself, the next best alternative is to steal it from someone who can. The Achaeans regularly raided surrounding cities and took what they wanted and supposedly carried on the practice for all the years that they were encamped on the Trojan plain. Achilles himself boasted of his prowess with this guerilla tactic that most certainly had a severe impact on the enemy by disrupting Trojan supply lines.

Twelve cities of men have I destroyed with my ships and eleven by land and from all these I have taken forth a goodly amount of wealthy treasure and all of it I bore back to Agamemnon the son of Atreus.

It is interesting to note that these raids and the pillaging of surrounding towns to gather supplies and exert dominance over the Trojans, also resulted in sources of conflict among the Achaeans themselves. The booty that was gathered was often distributed in ways that were unsatisfactory to many of the leaders and their soldiers, and in the case of the Chryseis and Briseis affair, the impact of the withdrawal of Achilles from the battle had enormous negative consequences.

In Book X of the Iliad we find Diomedes and Odysseus planning a spying venture into the camp of the Trojans in an attempt to discover their battle plans. Diomedes told Nestor that he preferred not to go alone on the mission.

Then the great-shouting Diomedes spoke to them. “Nestor, my heart and my heroic spirit encourage me to enter the encampment of those Trojan enemies who are nearby, but if some other man came with me, I would feel more comfortable and daring about it. If two go together, then one can determine before the other how best to act but if one goes by himself, he is not as sharp in his thinking and may miss the mark.”

Unbeknownst to the Achaean spies, the Trojans themselves were planning a similar foray into the night. Hector looked for a volunteer to infiltrate the Greeks and found one in Dolon.

When he had gathered them together, he revealed to them his shrewd plan. “Is there one among you who will take it upon himself to accomplish this deed and perform it as a great gift? His reward can be relied upon. If he agrees, I will grant him a chariot and two horses with high-arched necks, the best of those found by the swift ships of the Achaeans, and to him will be attached great glory if he can get near those speedy ships and see if they are closely guarded or whether our beaten foes are planning among themselves to escape or to keep watch throughout the night, having been overcome with troubles.”

Dolon answers Hector’s call and makes a deal to be awarded the noble horses of Achilles if he is successful.

“My heart and my noble spirit urge me on to go near their swift ships and to spy out what is happening. But come now and lift up your staff and promise me that you will grant me the horses and the richly fashioned chariot that even now belong to the son of Peleus and I will prove to be a great spy for you and will not let you down. I will go right up to their encampment and even to Agamemnon’s ship where I will learn from the chieftains sitting in council whether they plan to flee or to fight on.”

            We know from the narrative that Dolon is captured by Diomedes and Odysseus and they question him closely. He gives up all the information that he has and begs for his life but his fate is sealed. Killing a prisoner of war is certainly a tactic of guerilla warfare.

Looking at him with anger, the mighty Diomedes then spoke to him. “Do not think at all about escaping Dolon, even though you bear a truthful message, now that you have fallen into our hands. For if we were to set you free or let you go, you would certainly come back to the ships of the Achaeans either to spy upon us or to wage battle against us. But if you were subdued under my grasp and lost your life, you would never again thereafter bring misery and hardship to the Argives.”

            In the Odyssey Helen relates the story of how Odysseus infiltrated Troy dressed as a poor beaten beggar to spy upon the Trojans and to learn about their plans.

He beat himself up with wretched blows and threw an old rag over his shoulders and he went this way looking like a slave into the broad streets of the city of the enemy. He hid himself disguised like a beggar near the ships of the Achaeans. Looking like this he entered the city of the Trojans and nobody said anything. I recognized him with certainty and I questioned him but he tried to avoid me with his cunning.

And when he had killed many of the Trojans with his long sword, he returned to the throng of the Argives and brought back much news to them.

            The Achaeans attempted to use another type of guerilla action, namely psychological warfare. Achilles had withdrawn from the fighting in a fit of pique and refused to engage in the war because of the personal hurt done to him by King Agamemnon in the Briseis affair. Patroclus approaches Achilles with a plan that he will don the hero’s armour and enter the battlefield disguised as the son of Peleus. This move will terrify the Trojans into thinking that Achilles has rejoined the fight and that their days are numbered.

Allow me to shoulder your armour so that the Trojans, on seeing me think that I am you and leave the battle so that the hard-pressed sons of the Achaeans might be able to catch their breath and recover a bit from the battle. When we are fresh we will be more able to drive weary men away from our ships and tents and back to their city.

            Achilles warns his friend Patroclus not to push things on the battlefield but to return to their ships as soon as he has made his point and tricked the Trojans into believing that Achilles himself is fighting. They will have thus achieved a psychological advantage over the enemy.

If you glory in the victory of battle and are successful in slaying the Trojans, do not press forward to Ilios for one of the everlasting gods of Olympus is liable to step in and enter the fray for Apollo who shoots from afar bears them much friendship. No, turn around and come right back once you have cast the light of deliverance on the ships and let the rest of them battle it out on the plain. For I would hope O father Zeus and Athena and Apollo that no man of the Trojans escapes death, nor any of the Argives no matter how many there are, except the two of us escape death so that we alone might dash down the towers of Troy.

            Of course we know that the plan goes badly and that Patroclus is slain by Hector. His death in turn leads to the actual return to battle by Achilles, the death of Hector, the dissipation of the wrath of Achilles and the ultimate downfall of Troy.

            Indeed the downfall of the citadel of Troy happened because of a superb guerilla war tactic, the Trojan horse. The undoing of the Trojans by the Achaeans and their wooden horse is one of the most famous events in history. With Hector dead, the Trojan War was rapidly drawing to its conclusion when ‘the wily and crafty Odysseus, he of the many counsels’, pulled off the greatest deception of all time and a stroke of pure military tactical genius. The events surrounding the use of the Trojan horse are not even reported in the Iliad and are only briefly mentioned in the Odyssey. It is mainly from accounts such as Vergil’s Aeneid and other ancient literary works that we find out what happened. The tactic was brilliant in both its conception and its undertaking and is the only report of any kind of siege weapon used in the ten years of the Trojan War. Odysseus had the Achaeans construct a huge wooden horse that was capable of concealing thirty warriors in its body. They dragged the wooden horse to the gates of Troy in the middle of the night and left it there. The Danaan fleet then sailed off, as if for home, but only went so far as the island of Tenedos, where they hid from the view of the Trojans. They were assisted by Sinon, who passed himself off as a Greek defector. Sinon convinced the Trojans that the Danaans had given up the fight and had sailed home and had built the horse as an offering to Athena, in atonement for them having previously desecrated her temple in Troy. He told them that the Greeks had built it too big to take into the city, so that the Trojans could not bring it in and gain the favour of the goddess themselves. However, if they were to remove a portion of their city wall, they would be able to drag it inside, and this they did. Under the cover of darkness the Greek warriors, captained by Odysseus, descended from their hiding place within the horse, opened the city gates to their comrades and sacked Troy.

            While many of the irregular war moves depicted in the epics might not perfectly fit a modern definition of guerilla warfare, they are certainly outside the bounds of the usual military tactics employed by armies of the time. Ambushes, raids, spying ventures, disguises and deceit and the use of psychological tactics all serve to exploit the fears and the uncertainties of the enemy. Reconnaissance missions, espionage and the disruption of supply lines also play their part in achieving the goals of these irregular military tactics. Homer’s epics tend to highlight the intense severity of one-on-one combat duels and the clash of phalanxes on the battlefield, but we must not fail to mention the role that guerilla warfare tactics also play in the narratives.

The Presence of Prayer in Homer

 

     The Presence of Prayer in Homer

The Times of India published an interesting article on December 23, 2023 entitled, Are you spiritual or religious? What’s the difference? It explores the meaning of the two concepts and makes a comment about people in ancient times.

What is spirituality?

Spirituality is a person's journey to explore the deeper meaning and purpose of life. It involves methods for self-discovery, inner peace, and connection with the universe or a higher power. Unlike religion, spirituality isn't tied to any organized structure or specific deities that you have to worship. It is about introspection, meditation, mindfulness practices, and being at peace within oneself and the world. Spirituality does not require you to follow certain rituals or doctrines but encourages you to find your ways toward personal growth.

 The institution of religion

Religion, on the other hand, is a structured system of beliefs, practices, rituals, and institutions centered around Gods, Goddesses, gurus, and the like. Religions give you a set path and some rules to connect with the Divine. And it would not be wrong to say that in ancient times and even today, people were more religious than spiritual. While many people adhere to religious beliefs due to family traditions or cultural influences, others are in it just for the comfort and inner strength it provides.

 

                If we accept this definition of religion and look at the various prayer, offertory and oath practices found in the Iliad and the Odyssey, we can conclude that the ancient Greeks of Homer’s time and those of the Bronze Age period that he depicts in his narratives are truly religious people. Prayer in many forms is featured in the two epics and there is a constant interaction between mere mortals on earth and those dwelling in the divine realm. Humans are cognizant of the fact that the gods do not take kindly to those who go against their will and they strive constantly to carry out the wishes of the immortals. As Achilles himself said, It is better for a man to obey the commands of both of you O goddess, no matter how distressed he might be in his own heart, for the gods give ear to those who follow their orders. Humans also have an expectation that the gods will play a major role in intervening in the affairs of men, and they offer prayers and sacrifices in an attempt to understand the will of the gods and to thank them for the beneficial role that they play in their lives, as well as to offer the gods appeasement when things go wrong.

            Prayers and oaths play significant roles in the epics and are often found in combination with certain rituals and with sacrificial offerings. Homer uses these to shape the narrative and to set the stage for divine intervention, a key element of his stories for the two epics are as much about gods as they are about humans. In times of crisis, we see both common folk and heroes using prayers to petition the gods for favours or favourable outcomes. Oaths are used to confirm the truth of what is being spoken, to cement pacts between individuals and to call upon the gods to bear witness to what is being agreed upon and to thereby ensure that it is carried out.

 

            The first prayer of the Iliad is uttered by Chryses the priest of Apollo, who begs King Agamemnon to accept his ransom and to return his daughter to him. But Agamemnon was having nothing of it and, He ordered Chryses off with harsh words and laid a stern command on him. Chryses turns to the god with a prayer:

 

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.

            A great pestilence ensued and the Achaean army was decimated. Calchas the seer was consulted about the cause and he laid the blame at the feet of Agamemnon. Before he confronted the king with the truth, Calchas prompted a solemn oath from Achilles that he would be kept harmless and that Agamemnon would not kill the messenger. After Chryseis was returned to her father, a sacrificial offering was made and prayers were invoked by Chryse to remove the pestilence from the Danaans. The sacrifice and prayer are typical of those found in Homer’s works.

On the well-built altar they quickly placed the sacrifice for the god and afterwards they cleansed their hands with holy water and took up barley cakes. Then Chryses offered up a great prayer on their behalf and raised his hands to heaven. “Hear me o god of the silver bow who protects Chryse and holy Cilla and rules mightily over Tenedos. Indeed you heard me praying before and you honoured me by answering my prayer, but you have inflicted great hardship on the people of the Achaeans. I ask that you now grant me this wish, namely that you ward off this unholy pestilence from the Danaans.”

            Sacrificial offerings and prayers to the gods are usually followed by a ceremonial banquet and the guests consume those parts of the animal that have not been consumed by the flames in honour of the immortals. These ritual sacrifices and meals generally follow a set pattern and are indicative of the kind of religious activities undertaken by the devout. The common elements that we note are as follows:

·         Meals often follow ritual sacrifices and prayer is an integral part of feasting.

·         Meals are always held in common and people do not eat alone.

·         The menu most often consists solely of meat, bread and wine.

·         An offering is usually made to the gods, consisting of the smoke and sizzle of the roasting meat. Gods conveniently have ichor instead of blood in their bodies and as a result, do not consume human food, only nectar and ambrosia.

·         A few drops of wine are always poured out onto the ground as an offering or libation to the gods.

·         Everyone always has enough to eat and drink and no one ever goes hungry or thirsty.

When they had prayed and cast forth the barley cakes, then they drew back the necks of the cattle and slew them. They flayed them and cut off the desirable thigh portions and doubling up the fat pieces, placed them on the raw meat. The old man roasted them on a heap of blazing logs and poured fiery-looking red wine over them while the young men held five-pronged spits in their hands nearby. When the thighs had been consumed and the inner parts had been tasted, they cut the rest into smaller pieces and put them on skewers and roasted them skillfully before removing them from their spits. When they had finished preparing the banquet they feasted and no man wanted for anything. When they had satiated their desire for food and drink, the young men filled all the drinking goblets to the brim and distributed them to everyone.

The spilling of a few drops of wine as a drink libation reminds me of a practice that the nomadic herders of Mongolia carry out when saying goodbye to someone who is leaving in a vehicle of some sort. The mother of the family brings out a shallow basin of milk and offers it to the heavens and then sprinkles all the wheels of the vehicle with a few drops of milk. It is the family’s way of asking the gods to provide the travelers with a safe journey. Another practice invoking the gods is the circling of a pile of stones known as an ‘ovoo’. It is a traditional practice for travelers seeking blessings and safe passage. These stone heaps are considered sacred and are often found on mountain passes, mountain tops, or near rivers and springs. When passing an ovoo, it is customary to circle it three times in a clockwise direction, adding one stone or several to the pile, always an odd number of stones, and sometimes leaving offerings like milk, vodka, a blue ribbon, sweets or money.

Phoenix tells Achilles the power of prayer when he says,

Men can turn the hearts of the gods from wrath with devout prayers, poured out libations and the savour of burnt offerings whenever they step out of line and transgress. For prayers are the daughters of great Zeus, lame and shriveled and looking askance while half-blind, following along behind in the steps of temptation. Temptation is sure-footed and strong and because of this, she outpaces many and comes over the land hindering mankind and prayers come afterwards seeking to heal all. Whoever honours the daughters of Zeus when they come nearby, him they will bless and listen to him when he offers prayers. But if he denies them and refuses firmly, then they leave and go on their way to offer a prayer to Zeus the son of Cronos that Ate may follow that person and disable him until he repays fully.

We see the characters in Homer’s works using prayers as supplication for divine help, to beg for the intervention of the gods in critical events, to seek guidance or direction as well as to express gratitude for favours received. In the Odyssey, Odysseus often prays to Athena for help and guidance and she is most willing to oblige. Polyphemus prays to his father Poseidon to exact revenge on Odysseus for blinding him and the god readily agrees to do so and makes the hero’s journey home a living nightmare. Also the loving mother Penelope prays successfully for the safety of her son Telemachus and he escapes the ambush of the murderous suitors.

Finally we must note that Homer too recognizes the importance of prayer. Both the Iliad and the Odyssey start with a prayer uttered by the bard to the Muse. In effect, both epics are very long prayers.

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. Begin your song O Muse at that first sign of strife between the son of Atreus, lord of men, and the divine Achilles.

Speak to me Muse of that man of many ins and outs who traveled far and wide after he had sacked the lofty citadel of Troy. 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. 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. Tell me all about this O goddess, daughter of Zeus, and start your story wherever you like.

Homer & Dreams

 

Homer & Dreams

            Sigmund Freud looked at dreams as being a window through which we could see into the unconscious mind of an individual. He proposed that dreams represented the repressed desires and unconscious thoughts of the person and that through using the right analysis techniques, a trained individual could reveal the hidden desires of a patient and obtain insight into that person’s psychological state of mind. Freud saw dreams as a form of wish fulfillment, where socially taboo or unacceptable unconscious desires were being disguised or expressed through symbolic imagery in a person’s dreams. The ancient Greeks, as represented by Homer, had a very different view of mortal dreams. They did not see dreams as subjective, psychological phenomena or reflective of a person’s internal psychology. Instead, in the Iliad and the Odyssey, dreams are seen as powerful forms of communication from the divine realm which deliver real world consequences to mortals and have great influence on the course of future events on earth. They deliver very clear messages from immortal powers and contain information or instructions that are to be acted upon by the recipient. Failing to act upon the message of a received dream is tantamount to going against divine will. The gods do not take kindly to those who go against their will.

            The Homeric dream typically has several distinct elements associated with it. The dream originates in the divine realm and the gods use dreams as a way of communicating and interacting with mortals, as well as influencing events through their divine intervention, a habit not infrequently used by the immortals. Unlike modern thinking where dreams are seen as subconscious manifestations, in Homer dreams are external to the dreamer and that person physically interacts with the dream figure or witnesses the dream scenario as it unfolds before them. Homer’s dreams deliver specific messages, information or instructions to the dreamer with the specific intent of guiding that person to perform certain actions at the behest of the gods. Sometimes the visitation of the god to the dreamer can take on the form of an omen or a symbol. Dreams are always interpreted by the dreamer and many times by others, and at times those interpretations are open to inaccuracies.

            Book II of the Iliad starts with Agamemnon’s dream. Zeus made a promise to Thetis that he would assist the Trojans in defeating the Achaeans because of the slight that had been done to her son Achilles. The plan was that he would encourage Agamemnon to attack the Trojans with full force and that the enemy would counter attack and win the battle, because Achilles had withdrawn from the fighting and the Achaeans could not succeed without his help.

Now all the gods and the charioteers slept throughout the night but sleep did not come to Zeus, because he wrestled in his mind how he might bring honour to Achilles and destroy many of the ships of the Achaeans. It came to his mind that the best plan would be to send a portentous dream to Agamemnon son of Atreus, and having called forth the dream, he sent it on with winged words. “Speed forward O weighty dream toward the swift ships of the Achaeans. After entering the tent of Agamemnon son of Atreus, say these exact words that I command of you. Order him to arm the long-haired Achaeans for now is the time for him to seize the city of Troy with its wide streets. All of those immortals who have their homes on Olympus have ceased quarreling with each other. Hera has brought them all to her way of thinking and grief is about to descend upon the people of Troy.”

            King Agamemnon reported that the message was believable because it had come to him in a form that was trustworthy. Hear me my friends! The sweet nectar of a divine dream has come to me in the night. The image that I saw in my dream was like the divine Nestor in size and appearance. In response to the god’s command, Agamemnon is ready to take the action proposed in the divine message. To do otherwise would be unthinkable. Having spoken thus, the dream departed from me and flew away and sweet sleep left me. So, come now and let us arm the sons of the Achaeans. Unknown to Agamemnon, the dream is a deceit and is designed to lead the Achaeans to utter destruction by motivating their king to launch a full-scale attack. The situation was further exacerbated when Agamemnon decided to bolster the fighting spirit of his troops by suggesting that they just pack up and go home. This strategy backfired when the troops rushed to the ships in panic, happy to be rid of the war. Odysseus stepped in and got them to return to the battle and ultimately the Danaans were successful. Zeus knew that Troy was fated to fall and although he appeared to support the Trojans with Agamemnon’s dream sequence, he continued to maintain his neutrality in the fighting by ensuring the final Greek victory.

            In Book XXIII of the Iliad we find Achilles falling asleep while groaning heavily in sorrow over the death of his friend Patroclus. The spirit of the deceased warrior visited him in a dream.

When 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, there came to him the spirit of the unfortunate Patroclus, looking very much like him in stature and voice and in the garments he was wearing on his skin and he stood above the head of Achilles and spoke unto him.

Patroclus delivers his message and asks several things of Achilles in the dream:

Honour me with funeral rites so that I might pass through the gates of Hades. The spirits keep me at a distance, those of men who are done with working, and they will not allow me to join with them across the River and I wander aimlessly through the broad gates of the house of Hades. Give me your hand I beg you, for never more shall I return from Hades once the fire has consumed me.

And the same fate awaits you Achilles who is like unto the gods, for you will be overcome beneath the walls of the wealthy Trojans. And I will ask you one more thing, if you will listen, do not bury my bones apart from yours Achilles but lodge them with yours.

And the grieving Achilles consents to what has been asked of him in his dream and later commands that funeral games be held in honour of his deceased fiend.

Then the swift-footed Achilles answered him. “Why have you come here you beloved head to enjoin me about these things? I will bring all these things to a conclusion and I will do whatever you ask. But come now and stand nearer to me and let us, at least for a little while, comfort each other in our grief.”

This dream sequence is significant because it serves to point out the depth of the friendly relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, the importance of showing honour to the dead and the inevitability of death for the two warriors. It is through death on the battlefield that the Homeric hero achieves honour, glory and a substitute for immortality. Having their ashes in a shared burial is a foreshadowing of their subsequent reunion in the afterlife.

The third major dream sequence in the Iliad occurs in Book XXIV when King Priam receives a dream from the god Hermes, disguised as a Myrmidon soldier, who instructs him on how to penetrate the camp of the Achaeans, locate Achilles and beg for the return of the body of his son Hector.

The son of Cronos sent Iris to sacred Ilios. “Get up and go, swift Iris and leave the site of Olympus and bring a message to Ilios, to great-hearted Priam that he must go to the ships of the Achaeans to ransom his dear son and that he must bring gifts o Achilles that will gladden his heart.

The messenger of Zeus came near to Priam and spoke to him, uttering a gentle sound and yet his limbs were set trembling. “Be of good courage, Priam son of Dardanus and do not be afraid. I do not come to bring you any harm, for I come to you with good intentions. I am a messenger to you from Zeus, who though he is far off, cares for you greatly and has great pity on you.”

Of course King Priam shared his dream with his wife and looked to her for her interpretation and confirmation of what was proposed. In atypical fashion, Hecuba suggested that her husband had gone mad and counselled him to ignore the commands of the god.

“My lady, a messenger from the Olympian Zeus has come to me and told me that I must go to the ships of the Achaeans and ransom our beloved son and bear gifts to Achilles that will gladden his heart. But tell me, what do you think? As far as I am concerned, my heart is overjoyed at the thought of going to the ships and into the midst of the throng of the Achaeans.”

Thus he spoke and his wife answered him with a sharp cry. “O woe is me in my heart. What has happened to the wisdom for which you were famous among those whom you rule and strangers alike? How can you even think about going to the ships of the Achaeans and looking into the eyes of he who has killed so many of your brave and noble sons? You heart is truly made of iron.”

Priam’s journey to the Achaean’s camp is seen by some as symbolic of a journey to the underworld where he confronts death and loss. His meeting with Achilles is a most powerful scene of lamentation, supplication and reconciliation. Priam asks Achilles to think of his own father and the grief that he will bear when his son Achilles inevitably dies. The meeting is a turning point in the story and we witness a monumental shift in the thinking and personality of Achilles. The Iliad began with an invocation to the Muse to sing of the wrath of Achilles, and in this scene, brought about by Priam’s dream sequence, we witness the dissipation of that wrath. We learn that human nature and a shared humanity can transcend war.

The most notable dream sequence in the Odyssey comes in Book XIX when Penelope tells Odysseus, who is disguised as a beggar, about a dream that she has had.

But come now and hear my dream and tell me what it means. I have twenty geese that come out of the water to eat wheat and my heart warms to gaze upon them. But a big eagle with a crooked beak flies forth from a mountain and seizes them all by the neck and kills them and they lie in heaps in the great hall while he is taken aloft into the shining sky.

What is different about this dream, compared to other dreams in Homer, is that it is not a visitation from a divine being with a message or instructions for the dreamer, but rather an omen of things to come. After eating the twenty geese, the eagle perches on the ridge-pole of the house and explains the significance of the dreamy vision.

Be of good courage, daughter of widely-famed Icarius, for this is not a dream but a true vision of what is about to happen. The geese are the suitors and I, who was once an eagle, have come back as your husband and I am the one who will let loose a cruel destiny on all these suitors.

Odysseus attempts to give credence to the dream by telling Penelope,

My lady, it is not possible to turn this dream away and give it some other meaning since Odysseus himself has pointed out how things will come to pass. The destruction of all the suitors is plain to see and not a single one of them will escape from death and fate.

Then wise Penelope interprets the dream herself and notes with skepticism that not all dreams and the omens which they present can be trusted implicitly.

Stranger, dreams are very confusing and of unclear meaning and they do not always find their fulfillment among men. For there are two gates in shadowy dreams, one built of horn and one of ivory. Those dreams that enter through the gate of sawn ivory are deceptive and bear no fulfillment. But dreams that pass through the gate of well-polished horn will find fulfillment when seen by mortals.

Penelope’s dream sequence is significant because it highlights her wisdom and cunning, but also points out the conflict within her of hope versus doubt. It emphasizes her loyalty to Odysseus and her deep love for him and her wish that he will return and exact justice and vengeance. The dream sequence sets the stage for the archery contest and the ultimate victory of Odysseus over those who would destroy his home and family.

Modern thinkers view dreams as subconscious functions of the brain which are influenced by our waking thoughts, emotions and memories. The ancient Greeks, on the other hand, saw dreams as messages from the divine realm that offered information, instructions guidance or prophecies or omens of things to come. This shift in thinking from ancient times to the present is reflective of a move from looking at dreams as external divine interventions, to understanding them as internal, psychological phenomena. As has been pointed out, dream sequences in Homer often play vital and pivotal roles in the bard’s narrative.