Odyssey 1: From Craggy Peaks

Episode Transcript

Kyle 2 (00:00):
We're starting book one of the Odyssey.

(00:02):
Now book one.
Uh, well, the Odyssey itselfcomes after the Iliad.
So Homer had two epics, theIliad and the Odyssey.
And now it's 20 years on everysingle Greek leader who fought
in the Trojan war is now eitherdead or they're back home.
And Odysseus is not, is the onlyguy left.
His wife and his son, they'relosing hope that he's even
alive.

(00:23):
Now books, one through four ofthe Odyssey.
Now I think there's 24 books.
And they don't focus onOdysseus.
They focus on his son toTelemachus.
These divisions, by the way,they were added after Homer.
When Homer orated this epic, itusually took place over three
days, and so an audience wouldsit there for four hours at a
time and listen to the story.

(00:43):
So it was probably divided inthat kind of way, but the, but
the 24 books of the Odyssey arearbitrary.
Now books I-IV though, theyfocus on Telemachus, they're
called the Telemachy.
They do the narrative purpose ofjust emphasizing how badly
Odysseus is needed back inIthaca.
Now.
Odysseus has a wife namedPenelope and she's famous.

(01:07):
She's a symbol of faithfulness.
She's a symbol of cunning.
And Penelope is sitting at homeand there are 108 suitors in her
house and they're all trying tomarry her.
Most of them are younger thanher.
They're, they're basically in itfor Ithaca's throne.
But also Penelope is describedas you know, this amazing
beauty.
And a wit and she's beguiling.

(01:29):
And these suitors are sittingthere just waiting for her to
decide on, on who she wants tomarry, but she's trying to stay
faithful because Odysseus mightbe alive.
Now they loaf about the palacegrounds.
They're eating everything andOdysseus is home.
They're killing his livestock,they're sleeping with the, the
women servants.
They're drinking his wine.
Maybe they're sleeping with themale servants too.

(01:50):
Now we zoom out Homer's Homer'szooms out often to the scene of
the gods on Mount Olympus.
Zeus's daughter Athena is awell-known goddess and we'll
come back to her a lot, she'smade it her business to get
Odysseus home.
And so we're going to hear fromIndia, reading the passages.
Of Athena talking to her father,she's appealing for the gods to

(02:11):
help Odysseus finally, after 20years come back home.

India (02:15):
Athena, her eyes flashing bright, exulted, Father, son of
Cronus, our high and mightyking! If now it really pleases
the blissful gods that wiseOdysseus shall return home at
last let us dispatch the guideand giant-killer Hermes down to
Ogygia Island, down to announceat once to the nymph with lovely
braids our fixed decree.

(02:36):
Odysseus journeys home the exilemust return! While I myself go
down to Ithaca, rouse his son toa braver pitch, inspire his
heart with courage to summon theflowing-haired Achaeans to full
assembly, speak his mind to allthose suitors, slaughtering on
and on his droves of sheep hisdroves of sheep and shambling
longhorn cattle.
Next I will send him off toSparta and sandy Pylos,

(02:58):
which are two Greek city states.
there to learn of his dear father's journey home.
Perhaps he will hear some newsand make his name throughout the
mortal world.

Kyle 2 (03:08):
So now we've met our character Athena.
Now she's the goddess of wisdomand warfare, and she's going to
come back a lot.
If you ever see a goddess thathas gray eyes, a helmet and a
spear, you're probably lookingat Athena, she's a major player
in the Odyssey.
So now let's follow Athena toIthaca.

India (2) (03:26):
Down she swept from Olympus’ craggy peaks and lit on
Ithaca, standing tall atOdysseus' gates, the threshold
of his court.
Gripping her bronze spear, shelooked for all the world, like a
stranger now, like Mentes, lordof the Taphians.
There she found the swaggeringsuitors, just then amusing
themselves with rolling dicebefore the doors lounging on

(03:46):
hides of oxen they had killedthemselves.
While heralds and briskattendants bustled round them,
some at the mixing bowls,mulling wine and water, others
wiping the tables down withsopping sponges, setting them
out in place, still otherservants jointed and carved the
great sides of meat.

Kyle 2 (04:03):
Okay, so Homer is portraying the suitors as
basically shameless andimmature.
They are, the sons of Ithaca'snobility.
Remember, this is 20 years onfrom the Trojan War.
Most of their fathers eitherdied in the war, or they died on
the journey home.
Their disorderly behavior in thepalace is basically a reflection
of the state of Ithaca.
Homer wants you to know Ithacahas fallen into disrepair

(04:27):
because it doesn't have it'sfathers and king.
Okay, so lessons over, whatpiece of eloquence do you want
to highlight?
I love the line"rouse his son toa braver pitch." I just think
that's such a beautiful way tosay that.
Like, I'm going to make himbraver.
Yeah.
Find his courage I'll help himfind his courage.

(04:47):
I love that too.
Uh, it's, it's kind of like, Iwant to learn how to rouse
myself to a braver.
Yeah.
I feel like it's one of thosestatements that I'm going to
hold on to in my own life whenI'm like.
Anxious or nervous or whatever.
I can just sit and say tomyself, like rouse yourself to a
braver pitch, like level it up,girl, you got this.
It also, it reminds me ofEmerson's.
Answer the call of the SpartanFife, which is like the it's

(05:08):
something about courage is alsoa resonance.
Like there's a pitch or a Fife.
Well, the one I was thinking ofis, is.
Down swept, but let me actuallymake sure I get this right.
Down she swept from Olympus'scraggy peaks.
Down she swept from Olympus'scraggy peaks.
There's an ancient poet namedLonginus who wrote this essay on

(05:28):
the sublime, and a Homer was hisexample of, of sublime writing
as a blind is like grandioseit's, it's big, it elevates the
human spirit.
And I don't know, there's justsomething about how Homer writes
or orates where his like, downshe swept from, from Olympus's
peaks.
You can see it.
Like you can visualize her goingfrom Olympus and you can see the

(05:49):
mountain, you know, it's amountain.
If you didn't know that Olympuswas a mountain, you do from the
craggy peaks.
And so like, you can just likevisualize this goddess, like
phffeeew yeah, exactly.
It's beautiful.
And we'll see a couple of sceneslike that actually in the next
lessons.
Um, okay.
Anything you take away from thepassage or.
Rather than something that I'mexcited about, there was
something that I was curiousabout.
Okay.
Does that.
Okay.
So, um, I was curious about whyHermes is called the giant

(06:13):
killer, right?
Like, you know, of Hermes is themessenger God's like, so, but
why is he the giant killer?
Of course, I had to do theresearch on that and he was
called the giant killer becausehe killed the giant Argus who
guarded the nymph Io on Hera'sorders, Hera.
And so, uh, Zeus had him lullhim to sleep Argus to sleep and
then he cut off his head andkilled him to free the nymph Io

(06:34):
from Hera's clutches.
Wow.
That's a lot of names.
That's a lot of names.
Yeah.
Um, my personal curiosity isjust.
The, like, why is the Athena onhis side?
I assume we'll just, we'll getto that.
Or how do you get a god to be onyour side?
That's that's.
That's pretty important.
All right, we'll see you in thenext lesson.