Homer's odyssey as serious classroom entertainment.

Abstract

Increasingly, few sophomore-level literature surveys include Homer's epics among required readings, partly because of students' lack of enthusiasm for the material. Using a cultural approach to teaching Homer's Odyssey, coupled with essential tenets of phenomenology that foreground the aesthetics of reading, opens classroom discussions to serious topics. Such an approach enhances the entertainment level of literary texts while honing students' critical reading skills, and it shows students the relevance of literature to their lives.

Introduction: Homer versus the XBox

In his first-century BCE Art of Poetry [Ars Poetica], the Roman poet Horace declared that "poets strive either to instruct [prodesse] or to delight [delectare]" [1]. Instructors know, of course, that superior poetic texts delight while they instruct. Unfortunately, few students agree, especially with ancient texts like Homer's epics. The Iliad and the Odyssey's narrative structures are more intricate and dense, their scope more far reaching, and their diction more multivalent than what students are accustomed to reading. That students only experience Homer's epics in the classroom reinforces a preconceived notion that they are inherently boring and irrelevant. Such attitudes are not new, and indeed, when set alongside modern entertainments--iPod, YouTube, XBox, MySpace--it is little wonder that there is no room in the twenty-first-century student's imagination for eighth-century BCE epic. This mindset poses a serious challenge to teaching Homer, and it is understandable why his epics collect dust on instructors' bookshelves. Yet we do our students a disservice, especially our English majors, by neglecting these monolithic texts; except for the Bible, no other tradition has exerted as great an influence on the western literary imagination as Greek mythology, particularly the matter of Troy. English majors will need to understand something about this tradition when they take upper-division literature courses, and the sophomore-level survey, whether of world or western texts, is the only place in many English Department curricula where students can experience Homer.

This essay suggests ways for students to establish connections with Homer by offering a cultural view of the Homeric epic--namely the Odyssey--through the lens of phenomenology. Wolfgang Iser distinguishes the "text created by the author" from "the realization [of the text] accomplished by the reader" [2]. The literary work comes into "existence" when these artistic and aesthetic points converge (275). For Iser, the text generates a particular set of readerly expectations that are constantly modified to engage the reader as the narrative progresses. Ultimately, the text relies on the reader's imagination to unite its disparate elements and construct meaning, or more precisely, a meaning, what Iser calls the text's "gestalt" (284); by imbuing the text with meaning, the reader "implicitly acknowledges the inexhaustibility of the text" (280). Iser's emphasis on the reader's imaginative engagement with a text and the endless possibilities of meaning illustrates how entertainment, experienced in a serious way, can make learning challenging material collaborative and interesting. More significantly, it teaches students how to find their own critical voices. I have discovered that this pedagogical approach engages students on an aesthetic level while it teaches them literary, historical, and philosophical ideas. Since most sophomore-level courses now focus on world literature, and it is often not feasible to teach both epics, this essay focuses only on the Odyssey. The Odyssey complements other literary texts more so than the Iliad because it encompasses a wider range of themes, it exploits not one but two generic systems (epic and comedy/romance), and its entertainment level is more readily accessible to students. Clearly, this approach may be modified for the high school classroom or for the survey of western literature class, where the Iliad can also be taught.

A Cultural and Literary Approach to the Odyssey

Iser notes the pleasure derived from reading about experiences that differ from the reader's own reality, for as he says, "we tend to be bored by texts that present us with things we already know perfectly well ourselves" (281). The Odyssey is so far removed from our reality--temporally, geographically, cosmically--that it feels not only different but alien. For students to explore the epic's literary, political, and social dimensions, they need to know its background. A timeline including basic dates, starting with the Mycenaean Bronze Age (ca 1600-1040 BCE), from which the tales of the Trojan War originated, and extending through the Archaic Age (ca 800-500 BCE), during which Homer composed his epics, with major events highlighted (the destruction of Troy, the fall of the Mycenaean world, the Dark Ages, Homer and Hesiod's dates, etc) firmly establishes the historical framework for the Odyssey [3].

Instructors can distribute it in advance so students are familiar with dates before class discussion. Class time itself, then, can be devoted to fleshing out the timeline by addressing any number of topics students find entertaining. In my classes, we take one class period to gaze into the Mycenaean world by poring over photos of palatial ruins, with their massive walls and intricate floor plans; examining pictures and reproductions of Mycenaean material culture, including works of art, weapons, vases, armor, chariots, and jewelry; and looking at images of Linear B, the Mycenaean writing system. Incorporating archeological images and data into the discussion of historical facts attracts students to the material by giving them a deeper understanding of the symbiotic relationship among literature, history, archeology, and art. The Hellenic Ministry of Culture's comprehensive websites offer dazzling images of Mycenaean- and Archaicperiod artifacts that can be posted as external links to Blackboard Academic Suite or incorporated into PowerPoint presentations. Inexpensive reproductions of artifacts (the supposed mask of Agamenmon, statues of gods and heroes, vases depicting Homeric themes) and museum and archeological guidebooks available online complement photos and images and give students something tangible and concrete.

The rest of class time is spent describing Henrich Schliemann's nineteenth-century excavations at Troy and Mycenae. Most students have an idea of modern archeology from watching the History or Discovery Channels, so they are appalled when they learn that in his zeal to uncover Homer's fabled city, Schliemann demolished the stratum now identified as twelfth-century Troy. Schliemann's unearthing of a treasure worthy of the city's "secret wealth" Hektor mentions in the Iliad (22.142), its theft, disappearance, and rediscovery is a topic that captures students' imagination: Schliemann smuggled the treasure out of Troy and eventually took it to the Berlin Museum in Germany. The gold disappeared after the fall of the Third Reich in 1945, and for decades it was thought to have been irrevocably lost. It was not until 1987 that a curator discovered the treasure hidden in boxes in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, much like the ark of the covenant in the closing scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark [4]. Other topics that entertain while they instruct include the Mycenaean hegemony over the Aegean (including the apparent seizing of power on Crete and perhaps Akrotiri), the Greek "Renaissance" of the eighth century, or the oral and textual transmission of Homer's epics. However many topics are addressed, the primary purpose is to exploit the power of history as "serious entertainment" to teach students about the culture from which Homer derived his material [5].

The historical context of the Odyssey also prepares students for a better understanding of the epic's mythological and literary background. The major early sources of the Trojan War were recounted in eight poems known as the Trojan Epic Cycle, composed between the years ca 750-550 BCE. Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are the earliest narratives in the cycle, with the others being continuations of them or based on oral traditions of the pre-Homeric Troy legend. The Epic Cycle tells, collectively, the beginnings of the war (Cypria), the wrath of Akhilleus in the siege's tenth year (Iliad), the events that occurred between Hektor's death and the Greeks' return home (Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Iliou persis, and the Nosti), Odysseus's ten-year journey to Ithaka (Odyssey), and his adventures following the Odyssey (Telegony). Of the eight texts, only Homer's survive, and scholars must rely on plot summaries of the other epics as recounted by a much later source, Proclus's Chrestomathia (ca 200-400 CE) [6]. Spending part of another class period on this literary material and on the names of the gods and their spheres of influence helps students make sense of the vast number of allusions and references to the gods, characters, and events Homer's audience would have recognized.

Instruction and Delight: Making Homer Relevant

Such a cultural approach to the Odyssey creates an ongoing dialectic among Homer's distant, fictionalized past, his own eighth-century era, and the present day in ways that emphasize the pleasure derived from reading. Classroom discussions, then, can focus on theme, character, genre, literary devices, and ideas, starting with setting, tone, and the characterization of Telemakhos, Odysseus's twenty-year-old son and a character students readily relate to. The first four books, often referred to as the Telemakhia, open in the twentieth year of Odysseus's absence and establish the epic's overarching quest motif through Telemakhos, whom the goddess Athena sends to Pylos and Sparta. Athena tells the boy the ostensible goal of his quest, to "go abroad for news of [his] lost father" (1.326), yet she reveals to Zeus its true purpose: "to warn off that wolf pack of suitors" who have been vying for his mother's hand in marriage for four years and to "win renown about the world" (1.117, 122); in other words, Telemakhos must become a man [7].

In epics, boys become men by performing great feats and establishing reputations: in the Iliad, for instance, Akhilleus, an untried boy when he joined the Greek army, gains his immortal fame through his exploits at Troy (9.531-9). One topic the Odyssey explores is how boys can achieve fame and thereby attain manhood outside of war. For Orestes, son of King Agamemnon of Mykenai, whose tale Athena, Nestor, and Menelaos recount to Telemakhos, the path to adulthood lies in his avenging Agamemnon's death and reclaiming his throne. Homer clearly establishes Orestes as a model for Telemakhos, but whereas Orestes's path is clear, Telemakhos's is shrouded in uncertainty: he cannot take revenge on the suitors dishonoring his house because he is not only outnumbered, but he also has not received an education due to a prince-lessons in weaponry and public oratory. Moreover, the Ithakan throne, unlike that of Mykenai, is not hereditary; therefore, any man who seizes power may be king (1.436449). And with Odysseus missing for the last ten years, Telemakhos is unsure of what course of action to take: does he marry his mother to a suitor and contend for the throne or wait until Odysseus's unlikely return? He sets out to talk to Nestor, Menelaos, and Helen, the people who knew Odysseus best. While he learns of his father's fate, he also gains world experience, practices his oratory skills in assembly and with his social superiors, and discovers how other young men have achieved manhood. These experiences set Telemakhos on the course to manhood, while preparing him for his eventual meeting with his father and final conflict with the suitors.

After a close textual analysis of key passages in the first four books, students then compare Telemakhos's situation with their own experiences and twenty-first-century concerns, including how young people become adults today and how the college experience represents an important life journey. They talk about modern role models and how they might be emulated. Through such an exploration, students see through Homer's fiction and into their own development as adults, their own lives as quest. In my classes, many students choose to write their analytical papers on Telemakhos; one of the best was written by a nineteen-year old woman who perceived similarities between Telemakhos's lonely rite of passage and her own struggles into maturity without parents. By emphasizing the aesthetic pleasure that derives from recognizing similarities between their own life experiences and those of a fictional character, students find they have something to talk about; they also begin to see how Homer's text, originally performed as entertainment, carries with it life lessons universally applicable.

Telemakhos's journey helps students negotiate the rest of the text by setting the stage for the larger theme of Odysseus's return, where Homer develops the motifs he introduces in the Telemakhia, including hospitality, storytelling, revenge, adultery, and the shaping of identity. Whereas Telemakhos's quest to achieve manhood is an experience students can relate to, Odysseus's journey concerns a man who already has a sense of identity and is already an established hero, but who must nonetheless undergo a process of transformation by integrating the man he was before the war---king, husband, father, son---with the man he became at Troy--soldier, advisor, mediator, strategist, "raider of cities" (Iliad 2.320). His quest is not so overt or immediately understandable as Telemakhos's. Odysseus first appears in Book 5, after Athena has arranged for his release from the nymph Kalypso who has kept him against his will for eight years. Odysseus eventually lands on the island of Skheria, naked and destitute. On the advice of Princess Nausikaa, he offers himself as suppliant to Queen Arete, throwing himself in the ashes of her fireplace and stating, "my life is pain" (7.164). This humble Odysseus stands in sharp contrast to the sacker of Ilium, whom Odysseus himself describes in Books 9-12 when he recounts his adventures since the fall of Troy. What Odysseus learns throughout his quest is humility and piety, but his journey is not easy like his son's. The word Odyssey literally means "the tale of Odysseus" [Odyssea] but is now, of course, synonymous with a journey or quest. Odysseus's name is also etymologically related to Odyssomai, meaning "to be wroth against" or "to hate" [8].

Understanding the etymological complexities of Odysseus's name highlights the tests of pain, delay, and loneliness Odysseus experiences. It shows how Zeus did have "a mind to make homecoming hard" for the Greeks (3.142), and it drives home to students that life is always a series of tests, that people must continually strive to reinvent and better themselves. Odysseus only truly begins this arduous journey to self realization after he commits hubris in Book 9, when he transgresses the code of hospitality and then vaunts over the blinded Polyphemos. By the end of the epic, the hero has successfully fused his pre-war and post-war personae in the battle against the suitors. While having non-traditional students in the class makes for a richer discussion, most students have not yet experienced very many life tests, and yet when asked to explain how far they would have gotten if they were Odysseus and why, they often learn something about their own shortcomings (few ever claim to make it home--indeed few get past Polyphemos's cave).

Ideas into Practice

Writing assignments that can generate class discussions might focus on themes (justice, war, adultery, fame, storytelling), genre (I have students identify seventeen conventions of epic and five conventions of comedy/romance, then we discuss the effect of Homer's use of the two generic systems), characterization (of women, men, gods, monsters), and literary terms (metaphor, simile, symbol, image). Two topics for prompts might include the following:

Hospitality

1. Provide a dictionary definition of hospitality, and describe how you act as a host when guests are over. How formal or informal are you in comparison with your grandparents? Explain.

2. How does your idea of hospitality differ from what Alkinoos and Arete extend to Odysseus? Give three reasons why their actions are important to Odysseus's quest to return home. What might these characters tell us about ancient Greek host-guest relationships? What might they say about our own ideas of hospitality?

The Role of Women

1. Re-read the catalogue of women in Book 11 : what social positions do they hold and what experiences do they share? How do they prepare us for Agamemnon's misogynistic speech about Klytaimnestra and all women?

2. How do Athena, Arete, and Penelope break such stereotypes? What might we learn from Homer's conflicting portraits of women?

Conclusion: Beyond Homer

The phenomenological approach suggested here encompasses the necessary components of teaching literature. It allows for close textual analysis and sets the stage for broader discussions of conflict, theme, character, literary devices, and artistic technique that lay the groundwork for exploring other texts. For the western literature survey, the Odyssey works in conjunction with the Iliad, Aeschylus's Oresteia, Virgil's Aeneid, Dante's Divine Comedy, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; for the world literature class, the Odyssey might be followed by the Arabian Nights, Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Murasaki's Tale of Genji, and Gabriel Garcia-Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera. Through the aesthetics of reading, students learn much about literature and something about themselves.

Notes

I wish to thank Tracy Bilsing and Carroll Nardone for commenting on a draft of this essay.

[1]. Aut prodesse volunt aut delectare poetae. Horace. Satires, Epistles, and Ars Poetica. Trans. H. Rushton Fairclough. Loeb Classics. New York: Putnam, 1926.

[2]. Wolfgang Iser. The Implied Reader: Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1974.

[3]. M.I. Finley's Early Greece: The Bronze and Archaic Ages (Rev. ed. New York: Norton, 1981) provides a short but thorough history of the two periods.

[4]. For an overview of Schliemann's discovery and stunning photos of select pieces, see Vladimir Tolstikov and Mikhail Treister's The Gold of Troy: Searching for Homer's Fabled City. Trans. Christina Sever and Mila Bonnichsen: New York: Harry Abrams, 1996.

[5]. Nancy Partner. Serious Entertainments: The Writing of History in Twelfth-Century England. Chicago: Chicago UP, 1977.

[6]. See John Burgess's The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2001.

[7]. Quotations are taken from Robert Fitzgerald's translations (The Odyssey. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1998; The Iliad. New York: Anchor, 1989).

[8]. Henry Liddell and Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. Rev. Suppl. Oxford: Clarendon, 1996.

Kimberly K. Bell, Sam Houston State University, TX

Bell, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of English whose research interests include classical and medieval literature.