We have discussed the Homeric notion of nostos, which is also discussed in my notes, as well as on page 71 of the introduction of the Odyssey. Nostos is the drive engine of the entire epic. It’s nostos that keeps pushing Odysseus homeward. In order to reach his destination, he needs to overcome great obstacles threatening his memory and thus his identity. As the opposite of memory, oblivion (forgetfulness, amnesia) undermines a person’s consciousness of the self, thus it destabilizes and destroys any sense of identity. Odysseus needs to constantly fight the forces of oblivion to maintain his memory and attain his nostos.
Your first task is to explain in your own words and understanding the meaning of nostos and how it relates to the overall journey of Odysseus. Use specific examples/quotes to illustrate your point.
Your second task is to list and discuss briefly at least 2 incidents/moments in the narrative (Chapters 5-12) in which Odysseus confronts the forces of oblivion that threaten his memory. These forces are represented by certain characters that appear in his path with the purpose of derailing his journey or eliminating him altogether. You need to be specific: Who is threatening Who is threatening Odysseus’ memory and how?
Write about 400 words. Have at least 2 main paragraphs.
The return of Ulysses
The return of Ulysses authored by Edith Hall speaks about intertextuality as important to understanding the writing of the Odyssey and its influence on future literary scholars and authors. In essence, intertextuality refers to the use of text from a different source that is transformed to fit the narrative of a specific piece of literature. Homer’s Odyssey is intertextually linked to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh; Edith Hall writes, “Although it also shares material with the biblical story of Noah and the flood, elements in Gilgamesh are related to both the Iliad and the Odyssey”. The epic of Gilgamesh had far-reaching influence on literary scholars whose works meshed into cultures and traditions across the world. In turn the Odyssey has been a source of inspiration for scholars who followed in its wake; “The Odyssey has generated other texts with foundational status. Creative people inaugurating a new trend have repeatedly found the Odyssey a suitable text on which to rest the burden of their manifestos.” Intertextuality holds a common theme between texts and can at times be viewed as plagiarism because citing the origin of the text or the use of quotation marks is not a requirement. Inspiration like all else has a source and the great epics of our past have served generations upon generations of scholars, artists and other creative people.
Prefiguration is a leading ingredient that brings the Odyssey to life. Homer crafted in word the prototype or mould for future events. Across time, from the writing of the Odyssey, people from different eras, cultures, religions, geographical areas and languages have been able to relate the structure of their being to Homeric text. The Odyssey can be seen as a complete story that encapsulates all aspirations of life and the desire to have one’s own epic. From the young to the old there will be significance in their life relative to the foreshadowing words of Homer. Edith Hall gives a fine example of Homer’s reach; “That ‘existing order’ of cultural history has, moreover, now become international. The Odyssey is the intellectual property of the global village. This great quest epic has sometimes shaped the ways in which people in Africa or Mongolia come to understand their own living traditions of epic”. Hall pins the birth of education on the doorstep of the Greeks and more specifically Homer; “John Ruskin stressed that it does not matter whether or not Homer is actually read, since ‘All Greek gentlemen were educated under Homer. All Roman gentlemen, by Greek literature. All Italian, and French, and English gentlemen, by Roman literature, and by its principles”. From this quote we can clearly see that Homer and the Odyssey can be likened to the seed of intellectual norms.
Homer’s skillful text has influenced the performing arts over the ages and his influence has shaped contemporary film and video productions. Hall recalls an earlier example of this: “Its formulaic type-scenes (hospitality, confrontation, seduction by Sirenic females) have even been analysed as an antecedent of Dallas, the cult American TV soap opera of the 1970s and 1980s”. Homer wrote so vividly and expressed such detail in his work that transforming his text into a visual sense was simply a matter of closing one’s eyes in order to see more clearly; “The Odyssey offers an astonishing variety of sensory experience. Both Homeric epics create strong visual worlds: Cicero remarked on the paradox whereby in the case of a poet who was blind ‘it is nevertheless his painting not his poetry that we see’.” Sculptures and painting through the centuries depict the visualized text of the Odyssey. The basic idea of these creations stem from Homeric text.
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