Odysseus is a charming man.
Every hero is strong, smart, capable, and accomplished in his particular area. Odysseus is already a hero when we meet him, having fought in the Trojan war in the Iliad, and endured his suffering already. The thing that sets him apart from other war heroes (aside from being alive still) is that he is dang charming.
He's a very talented storyteller, as we see when Alcinous and Arete beg him to continue talking while he relates his backstory to them. He's "tall and handsome" and Arete comments, "And what a mind!" (12, 338). Alcinous also comments "[Some people] fashion lies out of thin air. But when I look at you, I know you are not in that category," which is interesting because we know that Odysseus is actually quite prone to lying, as he does to his slave and later his wife Penelope, as well as to the cyclops (12, 365-6).
Everybody likes Odysseus, even though to us he doesn't seem all that likeable. He sacrifices others for the good of himself, and he talks about his wife in a way that doesn't sit quite well. But those judgements come from our 21st century eyes. Odysseus would have been a completely likeable character to Ancient Greeks, in fact that's one of his most important attributes. Even Athena likes him. At the very least, his struggle to go home and just be with his family is sympathetic. It's important that Odysseus is charming because it makes him relatable to the audience; it makes us more ok with the messed up things he does, and it makes the reader go along with his story.
Most heroes in most stories are likeable people (or at the very least their struggles are sympathetic), and that's a key way that people engage with hero narratives. While not every story has to have a likeable protagonist to be a compelling story (example, Native Son from last semester); I would argue that we're already seeing evidence in this class that a hero narrative does. Every other example of a true hero's journey that I could think of also has a likeable protagonist. Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter (I'm told), Hamlet, and many more, may have their problems, but their likeability as people endears us to their stories and becomes a key element to how those stories work.
He's a very talented storyteller, as we see when Alcinous and Arete beg him to continue talking while he relates his backstory to them. He's "tall and handsome" and Arete comments, "And what a mind!" (12, 338). Alcinous also comments "[Some people] fashion lies out of thin air. But when I look at you, I know you are not in that category," which is interesting because we know that Odysseus is actually quite prone to lying, as he does to his slave and later his wife Penelope, as well as to the cyclops (12, 365-6).
Everybody likes Odysseus, even though to us he doesn't seem all that likeable. He sacrifices others for the good of himself, and he talks about his wife in a way that doesn't sit quite well. But those judgements come from our 21st century eyes. Odysseus would have been a completely likeable character to Ancient Greeks, in fact that's one of his most important attributes. Even Athena likes him. At the very least, his struggle to go home and just be with his family is sympathetic. It's important that Odysseus is charming because it makes him relatable to the audience; it makes us more ok with the messed up things he does, and it makes the reader go along with his story.
Most heroes in most stories are likeable people (or at the very least their struggles are sympathetic), and that's a key way that people engage with hero narratives. While not every story has to have a likeable protagonist to be a compelling story (example, Native Son from last semester); I would argue that we're already seeing evidence in this class that a hero narrative does. Every other example of a true hero's journey that I could think of also has a likeable protagonist. Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter (I'm told), Hamlet, and many more, may have their problems, but their likeability as people endears us to their stories and becomes a key element to how those stories work.
Nice post! I know I've been somewhat dissenting in class about Odysseus's character, but I agree that we are certainly supposed to view him as charming and sympathetic (which, to an extent, he is to me). Like I've said though, I struggle with his story because so far I haven't seen him regret anything that he's done or caused. He mourns, but he never acknowledges that it is essentially his fault for bringing on Poseidon's curse and getting every single one of his men killed. For me to really connect with him, I need him to journey to his innermost cave and battle his own demons. What I would like to see is a scene of him mourning his men and pondering how could he have done better, then getting himself home and back to Ithaca. The fact that he's even dropped off there kind of bothers me - how much of this story is about Odysseus's growth?
ReplyDeleteThe story does change when thinking about it from a 21st century perspective and imagining how it would have been seen back then. Odysseus was quite a strapping lad and while everyone today kinda hates him, back then he would have been much more liked for following the traditional values of the time i guess.
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point about how we're judging Odysseus from a 21st century perspective. Back then, Odysseus was a hero and it would be his right to brag about his travels, even expected. We can see this in comparison to Telemachus who can't make a speech to the suiters without crying. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to dismiss Odysseus as a "charming man" from a modern perspective as we read about his actions and their consequences, but you're right--he still is a likable character as we can see from the reactions of the people he meets in the Odyssey. He's only human. Though he is flawed and makes reckless decisions at times, we can't disregard the fact that he is talented, brave, and heroic.
ReplyDelete"Charm" is a compelling way to put it, as it is inherently morally ambiguous. People *like* Odysseus, as you say, and this seems to have a lot to do with his natural charisma (as a storyteller, an athlete, a warrior, etc.). And, of course, Athena lavishes some splendor here and there to make him seem even better than he is--but we can read this as like an extra boost of charisma, that ineffable thing that makes people respond so well to him (as we've discussed in class, she seems to just be fully *into* him, not as a moral figure but as a stylistic and fun-to-watch hero: he has "charmed" her as well). But I like the word "charm," as it suggests that a kind of "spell" is being cast--that the perception of the character is biased in some way, as the perceiver is put under the spell of his charm. He tells these made-up stories, and they're so believable, they garner sympathy for him--this is a form of charm.
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