1 00:00:04,079 --> 00:00:09,866 Rejoining our hero on Scheria he has washed up onshore, made his connection 2 00:00:11,003 --> 00:00:16,097 with the king and queen, secured his status as a guest friend and now he gets 3 00:00:16,097 --> 00:00:20,024 to enter into the next step of his recovery. 4 00:00:20,024 --> 00:00:24,002 We're really in these books re, rebuilding the hero. 5 00:00:24,244 --> 00:00:31,007 We saw in five him getting acquiring the very basics that he needed to escape from 6 00:00:31,007 --> 00:00:36,589 Ogygia and have his own autonomy again. In book six he pieces together the, the 7 00:00:36,589 --> 00:00:43,484 very rudimentary his ability to speak and he gets some clothes on his back makes his 8 00:00:43,484 --> 00:00:49,032 way into the center of the palace, gets himself a secured spot in this new city. 9 00:00:49,208 --> 00:00:53,789 Now he's going to slowly rebuild his strength and pivotal to that is gonna be 10 00:00:53,789 --> 00:00:57,088 food. He's got to eat somethings and then also 11 00:00:57,088 --> 00:01:01,234 we see him start to perform in these physical games. 12 00:01:01,234 --> 00:01:06,395 The games play a role in book eight as Odysseus is rebuilding himself and 13 00:01:06,395 --> 00:01:10,975 rebuilding his heroness. Strength is an important thing of what it 14 00:01:10,975 --> 00:01:15,053 is to be a hero. We also get in this, this exhibition of 15 00:01:15,053 --> 00:01:20,094 Odysseus' strength through the games. There are some few other grace notes that 16 00:01:20,094 --> 00:01:26,056 show themselves as we're learning what it is that makes Odysseus, Odysseus, someone 17 00:01:26,056 --> 00:01:30,738 so grand as he is. We have a exhibition and a couple of 18 00:01:30,738 --> 00:01:38,211 subtle points of some extremely savvy social instincts that are pretty clearly 19 00:01:38,211 --> 00:01:44,717 something to be that there, there, useful for him and that are also something 20 00:01:44,717 --> 00:01:49,454 difficult to do, a little bit of a high wire act but Odysseus shows himself 21 00:01:49,454 --> 00:01:53,576 extremely skilled at them. For example, near the end of Book seven 22 00:01:53,579 --> 00:01:58,684 Odysseus shows us how alliances work. You'll recall that he made this alliance 23 00:01:58,684 --> 00:02:01,508 with Al Sekawan, it's been very valuable to him. 24 00:02:01,696 --> 00:02:06,552 After he comes makes his contact with Queen Arete you'll notice a kind of 25 00:02:06,552 --> 00:02:10,745 strange back and forth between Alcinous the King and Odysseus. 26 00:02:10,745 --> 00:02:15,841 Alcinous is ready to kind of scold his daughter because Nausicaa has allowed 27 00:02:15,841 --> 00:02:18,692 Odysseus to come into the palace unaccompanied. 28 00:02:18,692 --> 00:02:23,862 So now, who would do that, why wouldn't she accompany you as a stranger into this 29 00:02:23,862 --> 00:02:27,275 city, that's real hospitality. She should be doing that. 30 00:02:27,275 --> 00:02:31,123 So he's hinting that he's a little disgruntled with his daughter at not 31 00:02:31,123 --> 00:02:36,215 displaying the kind of hospitality, Xenia that we know is so important in this part 32 00:02:36,215 --> 00:02:41,037 of the in this part of the story. Odysseus right away jumps in Nausicaa 33 00:02:41,037 --> 00:02:45,012 aside, and makes up a lie. He tells how Cinna was right back to him 34 00:02:45,029 --> 00:02:49,079 and after he makes that comment went no, no, no, no she offered to bring me to town 35 00:02:49,079 --> 00:02:52,040 but I insisted and I said I wanted to go alone. 36 00:02:52,233 --> 00:02:57,007 I wasn't sure that you know, there might be people who talked funny about the two 37 00:02:57,007 --> 00:02:59,057 of us. Me and a young girl walking in and you 38 00:02:59,057 --> 00:03:02,084 might have disapproved. So I insisted that I go in alone. 39 00:03:02,084 --> 00:03:06,691 Well that's of course a lie right. Nausicaa said listen I, I don't wanna take 40 00:03:06,691 --> 00:03:11,232 you in there because people are going to chatter and there's going to be a lot of 41 00:03:11,413 --> 00:03:16,034 you know gossip going on about me walking with a strange man so don't do that. 42 00:03:16,034 --> 00:03:19,085 Odysseus now is protecting the one that protected him. 43 00:03:19,085 --> 00:03:25,053 That white lie is only going to secure his position with Nausicaa and it does him no 44 00:03:25,053 --> 00:03:30,061 harm with respect to anything else. So it's an automatic kind of incremental 45 00:03:30,061 --> 00:03:36,008 gain in his closeness with Nausicaa and his back and forth with her securing that 46 00:03:36,008 --> 00:03:39,069 relationship. We also see in the contexts such as they 47 00:03:39,069 --> 00:03:45,023 happen in book eight that Odysseus knows full well what to do in sometimes complex 48 00:03:45,202 --> 00:03:50,586 social interactions where conflict arises. Remember the young bucks the prince whose 49 00:03:50,586 --> 00:03:54,547 named, they goes accurately translates as Broadsea. 50 00:03:54,745 --> 00:04:00,286 In book eight it's on pages 196 and 97. Broadsea comes over and starts taunting 51 00:04:00,286 --> 00:04:02,999 Odysseus. Now, taunts are kind of standard for, 52 00:04:02,999 --> 00:04:07,079 standard stuff for heroes, taunts and epithets, you take the stuffing out of 53 00:04:07,079 --> 00:04:11,176 your enemy and call them nasty names. But when you do, you're being aggressive 54 00:04:11,176 --> 00:04:15,471 and getting in that person's face, that person, if they're a real hero, is going 55 00:04:15,471 --> 00:04:18,856 to come right back at you. Odysseus is not quite yet ready to do 56 00:04:18,856 --> 00:04:21,629 that. You'll see that there's some teasing that 57 00:04:21,629 --> 00:04:24,964 happens early on, and he lets it go, lets it go, lets it go. 58 00:04:24,964 --> 00:04:29,327 But then on page 196-197 when Broadsea comes and really gets into his face, 59 00:04:29,327 --> 00:04:33,514 Odysseus draws a firm line. And when he does he steps up and throws 60 00:04:33,514 --> 00:04:36,235 the discus farther then anyone had ever seen. 61 00:04:36,235 --> 00:04:40,414 So Odysseus knows when to draw a line, he also knows how to enforce that line. 62 00:04:40,414 --> 00:04:43,788 Those are tricky things, those are really hard to do. 63 00:04:43,788 --> 00:04:48,467 And if your you know, your list of leadership 101 this would be one of the 64 00:04:48,467 --> 00:04:54,088 ones to toss into the hopper. When to give ground and be flexible and 65 00:04:54,088 --> 00:04:58,909 when it's necessary to draw a line. And when you have to draw a line, you have 66 00:04:58,909 --> 00:05:04,650 to draw it with seriousness, you have to be businesslike about it and not back 67 00:05:04,650 --> 00:05:07,310 down. So Odysseus goes ahead and does that. 68 00:05:07,310 --> 00:05:12,719 He also shows later in book eight, page 204 in Fagles' translation, that knows 69 00:05:12,719 --> 00:05:16,937 when it's right to make up. After the conflict has happened with 70 00:05:16,937 --> 00:05:21,454 Broadsie, and he showed himself worthy of respect, and Broadsea does respect him. 71 00:05:21,454 --> 00:05:25,688 When Broadsea comes back to offer amends, and offers him the sword to become 72 00:05:25,688 --> 00:05:28,398 friends. Odysseus takes that right back, and, and, 73 00:05:28,398 --> 00:05:33,006 and is gracious about accepting the gift and is ready to be friends with this 74 00:05:33,006 --> 00:05:35,536 person that had basically insulted him before. 75 00:05:35,536 --> 00:05:39,550 So he knows not only when to draw the line, but also to make up. 76 00:05:39,550 --> 00:05:43,023 So we're seeing him piece together of his hereoness. 77 00:05:43,301 --> 00:05:50,178 And from what we've seen so far in what makes up a hero, we can start to sketch in 78 00:05:50,405 --> 00:05:55,330 a rough definition or at least a rough set of qualities, characteristics, and 79 00:05:55,330 --> 00:05:59,059 attributes that we see in heroes. First of all they suffer, odysseus suffers 80 00:05:59,059 --> 00:06:02,080 tremendously. We're only at the very beginning of the 81 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:06,070 descriptions of the suffering. They're pretty hair curling already, but 82 00:06:06,070 --> 00:06:09,020 wait till we get to books nine through twelve. 83 00:06:09,026 --> 00:06:12,077 The hero also endures. So these difficult situations don't only 84 00:06:12,077 --> 00:06:16,061 cause the hero pain, but the hero bears up under the pain and endures. 85 00:06:16,061 --> 00:06:21,040 A hero is going to be intelligent it's going to be able to use their mind to 86 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:26,045 figure way out of, way the best course of action in any situation. 87 00:06:26,045 --> 00:06:31,013 Hero will also be a great craftsman. Remember Odysseus building his boats. 88 00:06:31,032 --> 00:06:35,094 He's good at sailing, he's good at discus throwing, he's just good at things. 89 00:06:35,094 --> 00:06:39,051 He's good at, he's good at crafts, a very skilled person. 90 00:06:39,210 --> 00:06:43,082 A hero is also going to be, maybe, crafty Someone who's a little sneaky. 91 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:47,076 Odysseus is a big liar. He's lied a tremendous amount already. 92 00:06:47,280 --> 00:06:52,370 It's always been to a purpose he doesn't just lie willy-nilly, but he does is a 93 00:06:52,370 --> 00:06:57,046 lie, this craftiness is something that we are going to see him exhibiting. 94 00:06:57,046 --> 00:07:00,039 A hero clearly gains knowledge through experience. 95 00:07:00,039 --> 00:07:05,041 It's an experiential kind of knowledge that we see our hero gaining especially 96 00:07:05,041 --> 00:07:09,008 through travel. But this knowledge is much more than just 97 00:07:09,008 --> 00:07:10,061 data. Yes, data is important. 98 00:07:10,061 --> 00:07:15,368 Odysseus needs to learn the details of where he is going, but his living through 99 00:07:15,368 --> 00:07:19,354 the experience always is something that gains an additional kind of knowledge for 100 00:07:19,354 --> 00:07:23,950 him, something extraordinarily valuable. A hero is something you can't just Google 101 00:07:23,950 --> 00:07:27,311 it. You can't just kind of, you know, get to 102 00:07:27,311 --> 00:07:31,172 know heroeness, and then just you know, once you do you got it. 103 00:07:31,172 --> 00:07:36,031 That's not it, it's not easy. It's something that you, it's hard won and 104 00:07:36,031 --> 00:07:41,365 has to be won through the only through the knowledge that only comes through 105 00:07:41,365 --> 00:07:43,595 experience. A hero makes alliances. 106 00:07:43,595 --> 00:07:46,851 Odysseus is good at drawing up those connections. 107 00:07:46,851 --> 00:07:51,514 A hero also clearly has strength. That's being put together, re, re, re, 108 00:07:51,514 --> 00:07:53,056 reassembled in book eight. A 109 00:07:53,232 --> 00:07:59,694 Hero also sadly for you aspiring business, business men and business women out there 110 00:07:59,901 --> 00:08:04,779 page 198 in Fagles' translation in book eight, hero is not a merchant. 111 00:08:04,977 --> 00:08:10,740 When they're insulting Odysseus those young bucks and taking the stuffing out of 112 00:08:10,740 --> 00:08:13,138 him. They tease him and call him you must be 113 00:08:13,138 --> 00:08:17,576 some kind of a merchant or something. And Odysseus is greatly offended by that. 114 00:08:17,576 --> 00:08:23,670 So apparently that's not the way forward. You got to be better equipped to do stuff 115 00:08:23,670 --> 00:08:27,489 on the battlefield. That's typically where the hero shows his 116 00:08:27,489 --> 00:08:30,412 strength. So we got to know Odysseus through this 117 00:08:30,592 --> 00:08:35,365 interactions that he's had so far his experience on Ogygia experience with 118 00:08:35,365 --> 00:08:38,945 Nausicaa and with the Phaeacians. But who is he really? 119 00:08:38,945 --> 00:08:42,718 Remember by the end of book eight, he is still nameless. 120 00:08:42,718 --> 00:08:47,001 We don't even know who he is, we have not heard his name. 121 00:08:47,021 --> 00:08:52,048 It's related to us through Homer's narrative but looking at it and through 122 00:08:52,048 --> 00:08:55,066 the eyes of the Phaeacians, he is still anonymous. 123 00:08:55,086 --> 00:09:00,002 What's his identity? Trying to figure that out is a tricky 124 00:09:00,002 --> 00:09:03,028 business. We've watched him piece together some 125 00:09:03,028 --> 00:09:08,080 pieces of it through in five and forward. But in book eight, there's a statement. 126 00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:13,361 From Alcinous' mouth that talks about now, you know, it's time for us to get to know 127 00:09:13,361 --> 00:09:16,793 you, Odysseus, and who you are. We need to know your identity. 128 00:09:16,793 --> 00:09:21,558 And when he does make this statement, we get a really clear definition about what 129 00:09:21,558 --> 00:09:26,953 it is that these ancient Greeks in mythic times thought an identity was all about. 130 00:09:26,953 --> 00:09:32,963 So let's have a look at this, passage at the end of book eight where Alcinous, the 131 00:09:32,963 --> 00:09:35,929 king, is talking, talking directly to Odysseus. 132 00:09:35,929 --> 00:09:40,173 So don't be crafty now, my friend. Don't hide the truth I'm after. 133 00:09:40,173 --> 00:09:41,816 Fair is fair. Speak out. 134 00:09:41,816 --> 00:09:45,456 Come, tell us the name they call you there at home. 135 00:09:45,456 --> 00:09:49,260 Your mother, father, townsmen. Neighbors, roundabout, surely no man in 136 00:09:49,260 --> 00:09:53,555 the world is nameless, all told. Born high, born low, as soon as he sees 137 00:09:53,555 --> 00:09:56,883 the light, his parents always name him, once he's born. 138 00:09:56,883 --> 00:09:59,659 And tell me your land, your people, your city too. 139 00:09:59,659 --> 00:10:04,067 So our ships can sail you home, their whips will speed them there. 140 00:10:04,067 --> 00:10:08,942 And then he goes on jumping a little bit ahead in the text, but come, my friend, 141 00:10:08,942 --> 00:10:13,588 tell us your story now and tell it truly. Where have your rovings forced you? 142 00:10:13,588 --> 00:10:17,991 What lands had been, have you seen? What sturdy towns, what men themselves, 143 00:10:17,991 --> 00:10:21,919 who were wild, savage, lawless. Who were friendly to strangers, 144 00:10:21,919 --> 00:10:23,720 God-fearing men. Tell me. 145 00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:29,353 So, in order to understand who Odysseus is we've got to know a few things. 146 00:10:29,353 --> 00:10:34,030 Definitely we need to know his name. We need also to know his parents name. 147 00:10:34,030 --> 00:10:36,905 That is his lineage. We need to know his land. 148 00:10:36,905 --> 00:10:41,270 Where he's from. The name of his city and his town and what 149 00:10:41,270 --> 00:10:44,321 it's like. So name, lineage the land you're from and 150 00:10:44,321 --> 00:10:48,070 then finally this last piece. We need also to know your past. 151 00:10:48,070 --> 00:10:53,030 We need to know your own history. These are the pieces that are gonna make 152 00:10:53,030 --> 00:10:57,046 up a heroic identity. And Odysseus in order to plug us in to the 153 00:10:57,046 --> 00:11:02,013 rest of himself, he's going to have to take over and give us some more details 154 00:11:02,013 --> 00:11:07,010 about what this background is all about. Odysseus is about to launch in, in Books 155 00:11:07,010 --> 00:11:11,195 nine through twelve, take over the narrative as a whole and give us his own 156 00:11:11,195 --> 00:11:13,082 full story about where he's been.