1 00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:09,956 Turning to book five now we see Odysseus. We get to meet him and we get to meet him 2 00:00:09,956 --> 00:00:15,233 exhibiting his hero-ness not right off the bat in book five but surely by the middle 3 00:00:15,233 --> 00:00:19,191 of book five and forward. Now given all the characterizations I've 4 00:00:19,191 --> 00:00:23,688 given of Telemachus up till now, as someone who sits around, feels sorry for 5 00:00:23,688 --> 00:00:26,567 himself, doesn't take action, as being not heroic. 6 00:00:26,567 --> 00:00:31,424 Well, when we meet up with Odysseus, he's pretty much matching that description as 7 00:00:31,424 --> 00:00:34,842 well, isn't he? He's just been sitting on the beach and 8 00:00:34,842 --> 00:00:37,420 he's got Calypso who's keeping him captive. 9 00:00:37,420 --> 00:00:40,179 This nymph goddess has him in her clutches. 10 00:00:40,179 --> 00:00:44,593 She won't let him go. He feels sorry for himself and cries on 11 00:00:44,593 --> 00:00:47,075 the beach. There's not much he can really do. 12 00:00:47,075 --> 00:00:51,903 That situation that he is in of powerlessness, though, is soon going to 13 00:00:51,903 --> 00:00:55,213 change. And if you're sitting back wondering, you 14 00:00:55,213 --> 00:00:58,593 know, why does Odysseus spend quite so long on that island? 15 00:00:58,593 --> 00:01:01,834 Why doesn't he break free and get out of there? 16 00:01:01,834 --> 00:01:07,351 Then the other side of you starts to say to yourself, "Well it doesn't seem to be 17 00:01:07,351 --> 00:01:10,455 so bad. He's on an island with this beautiful 18 00:01:10,455 --> 00:01:13,840 nymph. She has desires for him, and" he seems to 19 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:17,310 be in a kind of Bower of Bliss. Of course he's not leaving. 20 00:01:17,310 --> 00:01:21,415 If you start down that path, Well lots of people started down that path 21 00:01:21,415 --> 00:01:24,769 in the past too. The ancients themselves, when they read 22 00:01:24,769 --> 00:01:29,626 this epic, were wondering why did Odysseus spend so much time with that with that 23 00:01:29,626 --> 00:01:32,864 Goddess. But in any case he's there and he's stuck 24 00:01:32,864 --> 00:01:36,507 and there's no way for him to get off. That's quite clear. 25 00:01:36,854 --> 00:01:40,208 He, he's not about to be able to break free of a Goddess. 26 00:01:40,381 --> 00:01:45,412 And his being trapped though at the beginning of the epic it's about to be 27 00:01:45,412 --> 00:01:50,038 changed. Book five you recall, begins it leads us 28 00:01:50,038 --> 00:01:55,263 into a, a new set of, of what we're going to be examining in the epic. 29 00:01:55,263 --> 00:01:59,237 We change course. One through four, we've got Telemachus, 30 00:01:59,237 --> 00:02:05,124 and five through eight we're going to start learning about Odysseus and a 31 00:02:05,124 --> 00:02:12,336 parallel, kind of journey that he's going to make to a place where he can learn and, 32 00:02:12,336 --> 00:02:17,929 and get himself rebuilt. But for him, it's going to be a slightly 33 00:02:17,929 --> 00:02:20,800 different kind of a story. To mark this. 34 00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:26,172 Transition, we have a, as we did at the beginning of book one, we've got an 35 00:02:26,172 --> 00:02:29,990 audience with Zeus. We go back up to the very top of the 36 00:02:29,990 --> 00:02:32,579 universe. We have our audience with Zeus. 37 00:02:32,773 --> 00:02:35,815 There's a strong marker of transition there. 38 00:02:35,815 --> 00:02:41,382 And when the message is given to Hermes, go down and tell Calypso it's time to free 39 00:02:41,770 --> 00:02:45,015 Odysseus. When the message is given to Calypso 40 00:02:45,015 --> 00:02:49,166 Hermes laces it with an interesting thing that we shouldn't just let pass. 41 00:02:49,166 --> 00:02:51,802 He, he basically says, you know, don't cross Zeus. 42 00:02:51,802 --> 00:02:56,009 If you don't do what Zeus says, you know he's going to make your life a living 43 00:02:56,009 --> 00:02:58,477 hell. It means Zeus is going to crush you, 44 00:02:58,477 --> 00:03:01,506 physically. Zeus's power in the Universe comes from 45 00:03:01,506 --> 00:03:05,601 violence and people are frightened of him. This is the kind of Homeric, 46 00:03:05,601 --> 00:03:10,481 The starkness of the Homeric world from the top down that's built in from the, to 47 00:03:10,481 --> 00:03:14,969 the power structures all the way up. It's also the kind of thing we're seeing 48 00:03:14,969 --> 00:03:23,643 exhibited as the great elders of the large aristocratic side, are telling Telemachus, 49 00:03:23,643 --> 00:03:27,821 it's time to get violent. Those suitors, they are all expecting 50 00:03:27,821 --> 00:03:31,548 that's the next step. Well Zeus shows us that, that kind of 51 00:03:31,548 --> 00:03:35,212 thing happens in the wider scale of the universe as well. 52 00:03:35,405 --> 00:03:39,647 So Hermes comes down and delivers the message to Calypso, it's time to let him 53 00:03:39,647 --> 00:03:40,868 go. Calypso relents. 54 00:03:41,061 --> 00:03:45,495 This goddess whose name, Calypso comes from a verb meaning to hide. 55 00:03:46,074 --> 00:03:51,537 Odysseus kind of disappears, is withdrawn from life and from the wider Greek world 56 00:03:51,537 --> 00:03:55,512 for those seven years. He is pulled back and pulled out. 57 00:03:55,692 --> 00:04:00,497 At that time when, Calypso gets the message she lets him go and when she does, 58 00:04:00,497 --> 00:04:06,554 all she has to do is give him some tools. With tools, Odysseus can fix anything. 59 00:04:06,744 --> 00:04:12,881 He gets his axe chops down the trees in a, a beautiful elegant set of motions. 60 00:04:12,881 --> 00:04:16,803 It's extremely efficient. He strips them, plains them, gets them 61 00:04:16,803 --> 00:04:21,738 perfectly true, binds them together, erects a mast, puts together the all the 62 00:04:21,738 --> 00:04:26,799 different kinds of tackle that are required to make his sailing vessel sound 63 00:04:26,988 --> 00:04:32,113 and he's got you know, within no time, a few days, he's got a perfect ship ready to 64 00:04:32,113 --> 00:04:34,770 go. And once he gets started on that craft, 65 00:04:34,770 --> 00:04:38,558 the building, he can't be stopped. Odysseus is a great builder. 66 00:04:38,744 --> 00:04:43,913 This use of hands and the introduction of Odysseus in the scene of the, of the raft 67 00:04:43,913 --> 00:04:47,088 building shows his heroness fully on display. 68 00:04:47,088 --> 00:04:51,198 Heros are just good at things. They have skills to get things done. 69 00:04:51,385 --> 00:04:56,553 They're good yes I mean in a kind of abstract moralistic way but they're really 70 00:04:56,553 --> 00:04:58,296 effective. They're efficient. 71 00:04:58,296 --> 00:05:00,538 They get stuff done. They get action, 72 00:05:00,724 --> 00:05:04,710 They take action and can get it done cleanly and efficiently. 73 00:05:04,710 --> 00:05:10,177 So Odysseus is now gaining back some of what it is he's lost over these last seven 74 00:05:10,177 --> 00:05:14,882 years being disappeared under Calypso. He now is getting his craft back. 75 00:05:15,073 --> 00:05:20,286 His wits are kind of coming back to him and he's able to make his raft. Pages 159 76 00:05:20,286 --> 00:05:25,494 and 60 of our translation. This sail then sailboat then Odysseus 77 00:05:25,494 --> 00:05:29,183 jumps onto and he's able to sail it as a master sailor. 78 00:05:29,183 --> 00:05:34,012 He's not only good at building a raft, He's good at sailing a craft also. 79 00:05:34,012 --> 00:05:37,231 And now notice it, it becomes in his hands, 80 00:05:37,231 --> 00:05:42,463 A perfectly seaworthy vessel. It's just a very primitive raft that he 81 00:05:42,463 --> 00:05:46,889 made out of whatever was around him, all by himself for a few days. 82 00:05:47,090 --> 00:05:51,383 But still he's able to make into a strongly seaworthy vessel. 83 00:05:51,584 --> 00:05:54,672 But ofcourse, Poseidon shows up right there. 84 00:05:54,672 --> 00:05:59,712 We're going to learn lots about Poseidon. Why is it that he's so angry with 85 00:05:59,712 --> 00:06:01,929 Odysseus? We're going to learn. 86 00:06:01,929 --> 00:06:05,826 So, Poseidon crushes him as he's trying to make his way. 87 00:06:06,028 --> 00:06:12,447 And Odysseus at that point then tries to find where he can to land. after he's 88 00:06:12,447 --> 00:06:17,188 journeyed for some time, tries to find out where it is he can land. 89 00:06:17,403 --> 00:06:21,857 He's looking for a spot now to get into his safe harbor. 90 00:06:21,857 --> 00:06:26,240 Now, if you're a sailor, you will know, that seeing a shoreline, 91 00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:28,743 If you're you, you know, in a bad situation, 92 00:06:28,743 --> 00:06:32,581 A bad kind of bad weather, Seeing the shoreline is not necessarily 93 00:06:32,581 --> 00:06:35,752 your friend. If it is a gentle shoreline or if it's has 94 00:06:35,752 --> 00:06:38,089 an inland or a port, that's perfectly good. 95 00:06:38,089 --> 00:06:42,650 You can get in and get out of the storm. But if there's a, a shoreline that doesn't 96 00:06:42,650 --> 00:06:46,600 have a nice place for you to land, a shoreline means certain death. 97 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:50,939 And Odysseus is facing that kind of a thing as he's being tossed by the waves, 98 00:06:50,939 --> 00:06:55,612 And trying to calculate his way into the shoreline that's nearby him after Poseidon 99 00:06:55,612 --> 00:06:58,950 crushes his raft. Now he's able to sense when he gets nearby 100 00:06:58,950 --> 00:07:05,380 the current of a river that's flowing out from the mainland. This is, for him, a, 101 00:07:05,661 --> 00:07:10,720 sign that yes, there's safety there. He can sense in his body the river nymph. 102 00:07:10,899 --> 00:07:15,966 it's as if there's a kind of second nature to him to know where safety's going to 103 00:07:15,966 --> 00:07:18,828 come. So he finds his way in and where there's a 104 00:07:18,828 --> 00:07:23,776 river there must be a way for him to swim in to get away from the violent crashing 105 00:07:23,776 --> 00:07:28,605 of the waves of the sea against the shore line, get into the river, get inland and 106 00:07:28,605 --> 00:07:32,540 at that point he can then crawl out without, without problem. 107 00:07:32,540 --> 00:07:41,305 So when he's gets to that, into that inlet gets out of the river washes up on shore, 108 00:07:41,305 --> 00:07:49,156 Odysseus now emerges literally naked from the roiling sea and just plops on the 109 00:07:49,156 --> 00:07:53,136 shoreline. And there's not much life left in him at 110 00:07:53,136 --> 00:07:56,232 all. In fact, all that he really has is the 111 00:07:56,232 --> 00:08:01,171 ticking of his heart. The only thing that's left operative. 112 00:08:01,392 --> 00:08:07,290 He, on page 167 though, still has enough of his brainpower to start a calculation. 113 00:08:07,290 --> 00:08:15,220 He wonders to himself whether it will be wise for him to, stay nearby the river 114 00:08:15,220 --> 00:08:21,392 overnight and if he does that he runs into a danger, he realizes, he calculates. 115 00:08:21,392 --> 00:08:27,932 That danger is that he could be exposed, because the he, he remembers that a cold, 116 00:08:27,932 --> 00:08:31,092 a wind blows cold from a river toward dawn. 117 00:08:31,092 --> 00:08:37,117 So though it may seem okay now in, by dawn there will be a cold air blowing across 118 00:08:37,117 --> 00:08:42,464 him and he could expire from exposure. So he decides, maybe I should go, up 119 00:08:42,464 --> 00:08:45,892 inland more, But then if he moves inland, he's going to 120 00:08:45,892 --> 00:08:51,471 make himself vulnerable to becoming prey for animals that will hunt him and eat 121 00:08:51,471 --> 00:08:54,186 him. So he's stuck in a situation where he as 122 00:08:54,186 --> 00:08:59,317 to choose between dying of exposure, staying on the on the shoreline, or dying 123 00:08:59,317 --> 00:09:02,539 of being eaten by going into the shelter of the woods. 124 00:09:02,539 --> 00:09:07,551 So what he does is choose a middle course. He set out for the woods not far from the 125 00:09:07,551 --> 00:09:11,422 water. And he winds up getting himself into a 126 00:09:11,422 --> 00:09:16,730 situation where he can make a rudimentary shelter for himself. 127 00:09:16,730 --> 00:09:22,896 And here we see again, Odysseus' craftsmanlike self coming back in spades 128 00:09:22,896 --> 00:09:27,776 and really showing itself. Odysseus goes on and we've got our olive 129 00:09:27,776 --> 00:09:31,579 bush here to help illustrate what he winds up seeing. 130 00:09:31,579 --> 00:09:36,945 He found a grove with a clearing all around and crawled beneath two bushy olive 131 00:09:36,945 --> 00:09:41,564 springs from the same root. One olive wild, the other well bred stock. 132 00:09:41,564 --> 00:09:44,756 No saddened gusty winds could ever pierce them, 133 00:09:44,756 --> 00:09:48,084 Nor could the sun sharp rays invade their depths, 134 00:09:48,084 --> 00:09:51,684 Nor could a downpour drench them through and through, 135 00:09:51,684 --> 00:09:55,080 So dense they grew together, tangling side by side. 136 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:59,716 Now, Odysseus, using his craft, Starts to gather up what he finds. 137 00:09:59,716 --> 00:10:02,790 In fact, he finds Leaves. He finds. 138 00:10:02,790 --> 00:10:09,045 Lots of leaves, an abundance of leaves and his reaction is to feel overjoyed at the 139 00:10:09,045 --> 00:10:12,150 abudance of leaves. He thinks there's extra leaves. 140 00:10:12,150 --> 00:10:17,401 Hey great I've got so many leaves it would be shelter for lots of guys and yet I got 141 00:10:17,401 --> 00:10:21,614 all these leaves to myself. He looks forward to what's going to hap, 142 00:10:21,787 --> 00:10:24,961 what he's able to make out of the situation around him. 143 00:10:25,134 --> 00:10:29,289 He anchors on to the positive things. He focuses on what he's capable of. 144 00:10:29,289 --> 00:10:32,001 He doesn't sit back and feel sorry for himself. 145 00:10:32,001 --> 00:10:34,598 Oh I've gotta sleep in dead leaves all night. 146 00:10:34,598 --> 00:10:39,041 Instead he thinks oh, well this is great. I've got this wonderful abundance of 147 00:10:39,041 --> 00:10:41,696 leaves. That's kind of poignant when you think 148 00:10:41,696 --> 00:10:45,586 about poor Odysseus. And then he's stuck at the very end of 149 00:10:45,586 --> 00:10:48,454 book five. The leaves are all around him, 150 00:10:48,454 --> 00:10:54,046 He's craft, he's crafted himself this special kind of bed out of olive leaves 151 00:10:54,046 --> 00:10:58,490 that's going to we hope, keep him alive enough for the evening, 152 00:10:58,490 --> 00:11:04,799 When Homer closes with really a wonderfully poignant simile about the 153 00:11:04,799 --> 00:11:10,359 situation our hero finds himself in. As a man will bury his glowing brand in 154 00:11:10,359 --> 00:11:16,093 black ashes off on a lonely farmstead, No neighbors near to keep a spark alive, 155 00:11:16,093 --> 00:11:19,296 No need to kindle fire from somewhere else. 156 00:11:19,296 --> 00:11:22,498 So great Odysseus buried himself in leaves, 157 00:11:22,498 --> 00:11:28,605 And Athena showered sleep upon his eyes. Sleep in a swift wave, delivering him from 158 00:11:28,605 --> 00:11:33,297 all his pains and labors. Blessed sleep, that sealed his eyes at 159 00:11:33,297 --> 00:11:37,820 last. So Odysseus gets his rest at the end of 160 00:11:37,820 --> 00:11:43,599 book five after a long book of struggle, After a long book of getting him away from 161 00:11:43,800 --> 00:11:48,034 Calypso, having him escape the dangers that he finds at the sea, 162 00:11:48,034 --> 00:11:52,939 Getting himself inland, escaping the danger of crashing against the shore, 163 00:11:52,939 --> 00:11:58,381 escaping the danger of dying of exposure, Escaping we hope, the danger of dying of 164 00:11:58,381 --> 00:12:01,607 exposure, Escaping, we hope, the danger of getting 165 00:12:01,607 --> 00:12:04,765 eaten by a wild animal. Buried like a firebrand, 166 00:12:04,765 --> 00:12:10,073 A glowing piece of metal underneath ashes as if he himself is now being buried. 167 00:12:10,073 --> 00:12:15,324 Ashes being associated with a funerary rite, as if he himself is getting buried 168 00:12:15,324 --> 00:12:19,150 and now all that he hopes is that he can last, last till the morning. 169 00:12:19,289 --> 00:12:23,330 We'll find out at the beginning of book six if he makes it we'll talk about that 170 00:12:23,330 --> 00:12:24,260 in the next lecture.