123 - Odyssey 2: Man of Wiles

Alex Petkas (0:00)

Imagine there is a gorgeous goddess trying to convince you to become her immortal boyfriend. Would you do it? Well, the man might think, I still have so much to accomplish, rockets to build, novels to write. Well, what if you had already accomplished your greatest deed? Been the man personally responsible for winning the greatest war ever fought till that point, taking down Troy, your fame is guaranteed. Now, how does that eternal goddess girlfriend sound? Odysseus was the sort of man that women threw themselves at. Not just divine sea nymphs, but princesses, sorceresses. Why? How does someone get to be like that? It's not just wealth and fame and good looks. I don't think Agamemnon, the king of the Greeks, got this kind of attention. But this can cause serious challenges. And you might say, well, it's a good problem to have. And maybe so. But for a serious man, it is a problem. So I'm told.

You might have heard someone say these days, oh, Homer doesn't care about the women's perspective. He sidelines the women in his stories. But that's not true at all. Even at the Iliad, but especially at the Odyssey. And part of the reason is to be the kind of hero that Odysseus was, you need to be intimately familiar with the woman's perspective. And the goal isn't to be a playboy. But sometimes you need that ability to persuade women to help you get something that you need, respectable women, and have them feeling good about it afterwards. Because now, just like in those days, there are women who have a tremendous amount of power, and it usually works differently from the way that a man's power works. There are techniques to all of this. You might even say a technology. And Odysseus is the hero who most appreciates technology. If this is your first time tuning in, I'm Alex Petkas, and this is the Cost of Glory, a show dedicated to reviving ancient heroes for life. Most of the figures that we cover are historical, but some are the other kind. Now, this is part of a series dedicated to Homer's Odyssey. But if you haven't listened to the first part, I think this episode kind of stands alone for what it's worth. And you can always go back to the first one later. There's a link to it below. Because we're going to be telling the part of the story in books five through eight, which happens on the same timeline as books one through four from episode one. And it's odd to me that three of the four books here, that is books six through eight, are completely omitted from the Christopher Nolan Odyssey movie. It's odd because the story in these books in this section is possibly the most foundational for understanding what this poem is really about, especially for what Odysseus as a character is really about, what motivates him. That's especially true of the last section of this episode where we're gonna talk about book eight.

But let's get to it. The first word of this poem is man, Andra. A man, sing to me, Muse, Andra, moe, and abemusa.

You could say this poem is all about what it means to be a man in full. We are about to meet the man himself.

But first, the god Hermes, messenger of Olympus, lands on an island and walks up to a cave. He is shocked at what he sees. He stands there and marvels. This is toward the beginning of book five. And by the way, I'm gonna be using Latimore's translation of the Odyssey. I've occasionally tweaked. Last time we used Mendelssohn's, which I like and recommend. But I thought it would be good to let you sample how some of these different versions sound. So here's Latimore. Hermes is marveling. Quote, There was a growth of grove around the cavern flourishing. Alder was there, and black poplar, and fragrant cypress. And there were birds spreading wings who made their nests in it. Little owls and hawks and birds of the sea with long beaks. Who are like ravens, but all their work is on the seawater. And right about the hollow cavern extended a flourishing growth of vine that ripened with grape clusters.

So here the birds tweeting, it's really like paradise, isn't it? But Hermes is here to spoil it all. He's going to deliver some bad news to a sweet lady. It's the nymph Calypso.

Hermes finds Calypso in this cave that he's just walked up to, weaving on a loom with a golden shuttle. Whatever that is, it's some kind of weaving tool. Now Calypso is a goddess, nymphs are minor goddesses. So it's worth pointing out the obvious, but in Homer's world, as often in history, even very high status women do work. Well, anyway, Calypso invites Hermes in, she sits him down, she puts some food in front of him, Ambrosia, and she asks him, why is he here? And yes, why is Hermes here? Well, Hermes explains, it was Zeus who sent me, this is not my idea, but he's the boss. And Zeus told me, quote, you have with you the man who is wretched beyond all the other men of all those who fought around the city of Priam. End quote, the city of Priam, that is, of course, Troy.