1 00:00:04,082 --> 00:00:09,087 Before we launch out into Books nine through twelve, Odysseus's famous 2 00:00:09,087 --> 00:00:15,501 adventures there's one other piece of Book eight that we'll really pay some close 3 00:00:15,501 --> 00:00:19,003 attention. In there, we see a figure of a poet, 4 00:00:19,003 --> 00:00:24,009 Demodocus makes a, an appearance. And in focusing on this character, we're 5 00:00:24,009 --> 00:00:30,008 going to get a little window into what it might've been like for this guy, Homer in 6 00:00:30,008 --> 00:00:34,005 his own world. We have a kind of vision through Homer's 7 00:00:34,005 --> 00:00:38,082 eyes of how a poet functions in the society through the character. 8 00:00:38,082 --> 00:00:42,072 Of Demodocus. Very useful thing to just pay a little bit 9 00:00:42,072 --> 00:00:46,024 of attention to. So, we know from Homer's portrayal of 10 00:00:46,024 --> 00:00:50,046 Demodocus that ancient poets had a bardic role in their society. 11 00:00:50,046 --> 00:00:54,043 They sung songs that were there in order to entertain. 12 00:00:54,043 --> 00:00:59,003 They were great entertainers. They were part of the retinue of wealthy, 13 00:00:59,003 --> 00:01:02,036 aristocratic people. They hung around after dinner. 14 00:01:02,250 --> 00:01:07,015 They had some light musical accompaniment. They may well have had dancers 15 00:01:07,015 --> 00:01:10,030 accompanying the different stories that they told. 16 00:01:10,245 --> 00:01:15,044 And they were there in a, a mode to tell episodes from famous mythic past. 17 00:01:15,044 --> 00:01:20,062 So, for example, in this story, we have Odysseys himself asking for, hey, could 18 00:01:20,062 --> 00:01:24,997 you play the one about the Trojan Horse? And Demodocus answers his call, picks up 19 00:01:25,175 --> 00:01:30,115 the, the, the, his musical instrument, and goes ahead and tells the story of the 20 00:01:30,115 --> 00:01:35,728 Trojan Horse, in which Odysseys figures prominently, provokes the, the great hero 21 00:01:35,728 --> 00:01:41,100 to tears, and sets off the course of events that leads [unknown] to try to call 22 00:01:41,283 --> 00:01:45,023 him out and figure out ways to try to identify this man. 23 00:01:45,205 --> 00:01:50,910 So, a, a, a poet after dinner will listen to requests, will tell episodes from great 24 00:01:50,910 --> 00:01:57,765 ancient narrative tales and has a, a, a role as an entertainer in the court 25 00:01:57,765 --> 00:02:04,285 retinue of a, of aristocratic peoples. They're also known for a few feats. 26 00:02:04,285 --> 00:02:08,635 They're able to do things that are a little bit extraordinary. 27 00:02:08,635 --> 00:02:12,724 Two things I'm going to focus on here. Number one memory. 28 00:02:12,724 --> 00:02:18,477 An ancient poet could sit down and recite from memory huge chunks of poetry and 29 00:02:18,477 --> 00:02:24,430 recite them in perfect metrical cadence with musical accompaniment in way that was 30 00:02:24,430 --> 00:02:28,246 stunning. These people had extraordinary powers of 31 00:02:28,246 --> 00:02:34,167 memory and beguiled their audiences with their ability to recall details and tell 32 00:02:34,167 --> 00:02:40,045 things in a beautiful way. Secondly poets exhibited a certain kind of 33 00:02:40,045 --> 00:02:46,054 wonderousness in their ability to take some emotional state, that they themselves 34 00:02:46,054 --> 00:02:51,646 may feel, and impersonate, and exhibit as they are performing their poetry. 35 00:02:51,646 --> 00:02:55,530 And then, transfer that to large groups of people. 36 00:02:55,530 --> 00:03:01,194 So, almost by magic, they can internalize some subjective state and transmit it to 37 00:03:01,194 --> 00:03:05,012 other people. Anyone who's been in a room where a 38 00:03:05,012 --> 00:03:10,031 charismatic figure is working their wiles, already knows that this feel like a kind 39 00:03:10,031 --> 00:03:14,013 of magical power. The bard was thought to have the magical 40 00:03:14,013 --> 00:03:18,743 power residing in them of having other people around being moved by his or her 41 00:03:18,743 --> 00:03:22,080 song be affected by the song that was being sung. 42 00:03:22,284 --> 00:03:28,076 Some people in antiquity compared this power to magnetism something extraordinary 43 00:03:28,076 --> 00:03:34,796 action at a distance that made a, a, certain subjective state and the poet kind 44 00:03:34,796 --> 00:03:39,051 of be like a contagion and spread around the crowd around them. 45 00:03:39,051 --> 00:03:45,664 Now in looking at this figure of Demodocus yes, he gives us a window into how Homer 46 00:03:45,664 --> 00:03:51,003 imagined ancient bards to act. There are also some interesting pieces we 47 00:03:51,003 --> 00:03:56,094 can look at, and we look at the traditions that surround Demodocus and the stories 48 00:03:56,094 --> 00:04:00,096 that he tells. You recall that one of his stories in 49 00:04:00,096 --> 00:04:06,081 perhaps, Demodocus' most famous story, not the Trojan Horse, it's this seen where 50 00:04:06,081 --> 00:04:12,021 Aphrodite has an affair with Ares to the detriment of her loving husband, 51 00:04:12,021 --> 00:04:15,821 Hephaestus. This story unfolds in detail that gives us 52 00:04:16,021 --> 00:04:20,051 pause and makes us feel a little bit sorry for Hephaestus. 53 00:04:20,051 --> 00:04:26,036 Ares comes along and seduces Aphrodite, she gives in, and they go ahead and have 54 00:04:26,036 --> 00:04:30,081 this amorous tryst. Helios, the god who inhabits the sun sees 55 00:04:30,081 --> 00:04:36,033 everything, since he can see everything that's happening on Earth, and he goes 56 00:04:36,033 --> 00:04:39,091 over and tells Hephaestus. Hephaestus then is angry over what's 57 00:04:39,091 --> 00:04:44,176 happening, of course he then goes makes a special netting made out of, of very fine 58 00:04:44,176 --> 00:04:47,099 metal, metal. He is perfect at working with different 59 00:04:47,099 --> 00:04:52,000 kinds of metals and makes a trap that not even gods can escape from. 60 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:56,089 So, next time Ares and Aphrodite get into the bed they get trapped by Hephaestus' 61 00:04:56,089 --> 00:04:59,078 net. And all the gods come around and start to 62 00:04:59,078 --> 00:05:02,054 laugh. They laugh at this awful scene, talking 63 00:05:02,054 --> 00:05:07,034 about oh, ho, ho, ho poor Hephaestus. Look, Ares is having sex with Aphrodite. 64 00:05:07,034 --> 00:05:11,028 Chuckle, chuckle, rib, rib. And then one or two of them says, oh, boy 65 00:05:11,028 --> 00:05:16,021 wouldn't it be nice to be Ares right now because you could have this beautiful 66 00:05:16,021 --> 00:05:20,651 queen to yourself and so on and so on. And it's a, a story that is has, has a 67 00:05:20,651 --> 00:05:24,937 certain edginess to it. It's not quite it pushes the boundaries of 68 00:05:24,937 --> 00:05:27,655 propriety. And if it does to our eyes, well, it 69 00:05:27,655 --> 00:05:32,066 surely did to ancient eyes as well. And, in fact, the tryst of Ares and 70 00:05:32,066 --> 00:05:35,808 Aphrodite was something that was, fascinating to ancient commentators. 71 00:05:35,808 --> 00:05:39,392 They were trying to figure out, what the heck is this doing in here? 72 00:05:39,392 --> 00:05:43,441 This doesn't seem all that it doesn't add anything to the story. 73 00:05:43,441 --> 00:05:48,802 What's Homer trying to tell us with this tryst of, of Ares, the God of War and 74 00:05:48,802 --> 00:05:53,608 Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love. And what's Hephaestus' role in all this? 75 00:05:53,608 --> 00:05:56,637 Well, the allegorists have a field day with this. 76 00:05:56,637 --> 00:06:00,781 They jump on in and claim, in antiquity, that there's all kinds of hidden 77 00:06:00,781 --> 00:06:04,809 subterranean messages in this story of the affair of Ares and Aphrodite. 78 00:06:04,809 --> 00:06:09,800 One of them, Heraclitus from the first Century CE this is not the Heraclitus from 79 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:14,072 the pre-Socratic philosopher this is commentator on Homer's poetry, and 80 00:06:14,072 --> 00:06:18,861 Heraclitus is from the first century CE tells us that the union of Aphrodite, love 81 00:06:18,861 --> 00:06:23,048 and Ares of strife, is, is actually the union of love and strife. 82 00:06:23,048 --> 00:06:28,052 This is a story Aphrodite narrates as the story of the union of love and strife. 83 00:06:28,052 --> 00:06:33,030 There's laughter, surely, when the gods gather round, but it's divine laughter 84 00:06:33,030 --> 00:06:37,273 because it's a cause for joy when love and strife come together. 85 00:06:37,273 --> 00:06:41,395 Never mind Heraclitus that they seem clearly to be laughing out of a 86 00:06:41,395 --> 00:06:45,418 snickering, sardonic kind of emotion, not out of joy, but it didn't matter to 87 00:06:45,418 --> 00:06:48,426 Heraclitus. Then another idea that he forwarded, 88 00:06:48,426 --> 00:06:53,197 claimed that this whole thing was this whole story, was a comment on the art of 89 00:06:53,197 --> 00:06:56,068 blacksmithing. So, we have fire, Hephaestus who softens 90 00:06:56,068 --> 00:07:00,895 iron, Ares by capturing him, and then we need to apply Aphrodite, or sorry, we need 91 00:07:00,895 --> 00:07:06,061 to apply passion, here represented by Aphrodite to the work in order to be good 92 00:07:06,061 --> 00:07:09,089 blacksmiths. And at the end, remember, it's Poseidon 93 00:07:09,089 --> 00:07:14,243 who calls everything off and all the other gods are snickering and Poseidon says, no, 94 00:07:14,243 --> 00:07:18,082 no, that's enough. Let's, you know let them free, Hephaestus 95 00:07:18,082 --> 00:07:21,782 and let them go. So, Heraclitus reads that as an indication 96 00:07:21,782 --> 00:07:26,327 that water, in a form of Poseidon holes the iron out and cools it off. 97 00:07:26,327 --> 00:07:29,607 That's Heracles view of tryst of Aries and Aphrodite. 98 00:07:29,607 --> 00:07:34,842 Another commentator from the first century a man named Cornutus tells us that when 99 00:07:34,842 --> 00:07:38,506 Aries and Aphrodite get together it's kind of adultery. 100 00:07:38,674 --> 00:07:43,622 So fair enough and he says the brutal and the violent do not correspond well with 101 00:07:43,622 --> 00:07:48,017 the cheery and the gentle nor is one naturally intertwined with another but 102 00:07:48,017 --> 00:07:52,008 there is a noble offspring because the legend had it later on that after Ares 103 00:07:52,008 --> 00:07:56,202 and, and Aphrodite got together, there was indeed an issue from their romantic 104 00:07:56,202 --> 00:07:59,548 relationship and this is the god the deity Harmony. 105 00:07:59,729 --> 00:08:04,937 So, we have, in Cornutus' reading yes, it's a representation of adultery but in 106 00:08:04,937 --> 00:08:09,129 the end harmony. Something good comes out of the brutal and 107 00:08:09,129 --> 00:08:13,426 the violent and the cheery and the gentle coming together. 108 00:08:13,675 --> 00:08:19,432 Finally, the author of the life of Homer, an unknown person who was known in 109 00:08:19,432 --> 00:08:23,099 antiquity as Plutarch, but that's not surely the right name. 110 00:08:23,248 --> 00:08:28,546 But the, the unknown author of the Life of, of Life of Homer in the first century 111 00:08:28,546 --> 00:08:33,539 CE, writes this, Ares and Aphrodite are love and strife and they sometimes get 112 00:08:33,539 --> 00:08:37,520 together then there is harmony and sometimes they're apart. 113 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:42,083 Helios denounces them, Hephaestus chains them, and Poseidon water, frees them. 114 00:08:42,083 --> 00:08:48,238 He claims that it is clear from this that the hot, dry essence and it's opposite the 115 00:08:48,238 --> 00:08:52,544 cold, wet one, sometimes draw the universe together, sometimes pull it apart. 116 00:08:52,544 --> 00:08:58,106 So, there are lots of interpretations that get kicked off by this story that 117 00:08:58,106 --> 00:09:03,433 Demodocus tells us of Ares and Aphrodite. And, in fact, as this probably still the 118 00:09:03,433 --> 00:09:09,416 case today, it is the parts of it ancient myths that seem to be the strangest, that 119 00:09:09,416 --> 00:09:15,365 are the most disturbing to us, that are the most provocative the most unsettling. 120 00:09:15,365 --> 00:09:20,505 These are the parts of myth that draw the most attention and get the most work of, 121 00:09:20,674 --> 00:09:24,649 of commentary as people try to figure out what the heck just happened. 122 00:09:24,821 --> 00:09:30,015 Here's an example from antiquity of a myth that gets told, retold, interpreted and 123 00:09:30,015 --> 00:09:33,096 reinterpreted. We're about to kick into some of the 124 00:09:33,096 --> 00:09:37,912 strangest parts of Homer's Odyssey Books9 through twelve are going to introduce us 125 00:09:37,912 --> 00:09:43,197 to things that make out the tryst of Ares and Aphrodite look like kid stuff. 126 00:09:43,404 --> 00:09:47,785 So, hang onto your seats. It gets ugly for awhile but don't worry, 127 00:09:47,785 --> 00:10:03,079 Odysseus will bear up. He will suffer but he will also endure.