Monday, February 6, 2012
The Odyssey Book 10
In Book 10 of The Odyssey, we see Odysseus reaches Aeolus' island. He is hosted there for about a month. Once he sets sail again, the men feel they deserve the gold and silver which they think Odysseus has been hiding from them. When the men grab the bag and open it, they come to find the sack is just wind, and blow themselves back to the island. Odysseus makes choices in this book that backfire on him. One of these choices is to withhold the bag of wind from his crewmates. When the crewmates open the bag of wind, the ship is blown back to King Aeolus' island. What are other choices that Odysseus makes in this book? What does this say about his character? Why doesn't Odysseus get mad when he wakes up and finds out about the wind, and forgiving? On the other hand at Circe's island, why do you think Odysseus took a big risk by going back to save his crew mates from Circe? Do you think he did this because he just wanted to get home or cared about his men? What do you think of Circe's character? Do you think other men who have visited her island go through the same type of treatment? Why does the goddess tell Odysseus about The House of Death? Feel free to answer any of these questions.
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Odysseus has made several minor choices, but all in all, I would say that he is just a man, being pushed and pulled by the will of fate and the gods. He may choose to lead his men into a cave, or to send a few people away to scout out an island, but as far as we are in the book as of now, he has not really made all that many choices independently. He is more of a reactive character than an active one.
ReplyDeleteAs for the bag of winds, that is just his men screwing him over... again. It only supports what a reactive character he is. And of course he was irate when he woke up. However, he handled it calmly. He loves his crew, as shown several times throughout the book (he went to get the back from Circe.)
Circe is another classic example of the lustful and tricky Greek Goddesses. Apparently, Odysseus is quite the catch. She first enchanted all of his men, but then, as soon as Odysseus overpowered her, she was like
"Oh, look how strong and handsome you are. Let's make love in my bed and everything will be ok!"
From there, she entices the crew and Odysseus to stay with her for a year. She is even more lustful than Calypso!
After reading this book, I was very surprised Odysseus did not get mad about the bag of winds. If I was so close to my home land, which I have been wanting to get to for many years, I would have been very angry and disappointed in my crew. I don’t know why Odysseus acted this way, maybe he understood the curiosity of his men. Maybe he thought that Aeolus would give him another bag of winds.
ReplyDeleteI think Odysseus went to save his crew mates from Circe because he thought that he could overcome Circe’s tricks. If he didn’t drink he potion then he would be fine. When Hermes gives him the herbs though everything works out in Odysseus’ favor. I liked Circe. I know she was supposed to be the antagonist in this book, but she is lonely. The reason why she takes these men in and changes them is because she doesn’t want them to leave. I think her flaws make her a very interesting character in this book. As we talked about today in class, having characters with flaws is more appealing.
Odysseus did not get angry at his crew because they were directly responsible for opening the bag of winds, Odysseus could partially be blamed. His men opened the bag because they felt, and for good reason, that Odysseus was keeping some of his gold from them. Odysseus doesn’t seem to share much with his crew, neither does he seem to trust them, as for nine days he held onto the rudder without sleep because he would not trust anyone else. From this perspective his crew almost seem justified in their decision. Though Odysseus is a clever man, his inability to trust and be open with others unnecessarily lengthens his journey.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Odysseus’ decision to go back for his men is the first redeeming one he’s made. He decides to be valorous of his own will and not after being “inspired” by one of the gods. This was somewhat spoiled, however, by aid of Hermes. For once could Odysseus act on his own with humility and not be aided by the gods?
In this book, we learn a lot about the relationship between Odysseus and his crew. As maggie mentioned in her response, I would have been infuriated at the men. After such a long and perilous journey, I was surprised to see Odysseus simply weep instead of yell at the crew. However, I think Odysseus realized that he, in fact, should have told his crew about the bag. The men, along with Odysseus, want to get home dearly, and Odysseus may have realized that he should keep no secrets from the crew and trust them completely.
ReplyDeleteAs well in book ten, we see that Odysseus does care about his men. When the crew is under Circe's poison, he goes back to save them. For the first time in the epic, we see Odysseus being a loyal and caring leader. As mentioned in class today, Odysseus has not given his crew the respect they deserve. Although, they have caused him a lot of trouble. But in order to get home, Odysseus needs to care and remain loyal to his crew as we saw in this book.
This book is filled with numerous situations that continue to prevent Odysseus and his crew back to Ithaca. As George already mentioned, we have many insights on the relationship between Odysseus and his companions. Even though they are all reliable on each other as crew mates, I think there are definitely problems with trusting one another. For example, how Odysseus's crew thought that Odysseus was hiding gold, silver, and other treasures in a bag from them was infuriating to read. After Odysseus nearly saves all of his crew members from Polyphemus with his brilliant stratagem and rescues them from Circe's mischievous potions, they go behind his back and open something that does not belong to them. I would be furious at my companions for not trusting me and my strategies of getting home.
ReplyDeleteI realize that from past books, for example book nine, Odysseus makes the arrogant decision of revealing his true identity to Polyphemus and ultimately forcing them to suffer. In other words, he has not shown his loyalty and devotion that a leader should portray to his comrades until this book. For future situations, I hope that Odysseus takes the hard right rather than the easy wrong, and begins to think about the result when he makes decisions before he gets all of his comrades in more serious trouble than he already has.
I have to agree with Maggie when she says that she was surprised that Odysseus did not get mad about the bag of winds. If i was Odysseus I would have been furious at my crew especially since I was so close to home and now was so far away yet again. It makes it even worse that he had been trying to get home for years and just as he sees shore and is making port, his idiotic crew opens up the bag and he is now much father away from his homeland.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jack when he talks about Circe being another lusty Greek Goddess. It seems that a lot of the Greek Goddesses that Odysseus meets are always trying to trick him and his men into submitting to her. However, Odysseus unlike his men, was able to resist her charm and was able to overpower her. As soon as she is defeated her whole demeanor changes and she starts sucking up to Odysseus in order to save her life, and eventually she is able to entice them to stay with her for a year just as Jack says.
It is interesting to read about Odysseus' men. For the most part they remain nameless. Often when describing a hardship Odysseus says things like "two more men were eaten." In the telling there seems to be little compassion for the nameless victims of Odysseus' travels. However, Odysseus does seem to care deeply about his men because he goes back for them and saves them from Circe
ReplyDeleteHe also shows this when the men open the bag of wind and destroy Odysseus' hopes of getting home. He realizes that all men are flawed and bound to make mistakes so he reacts calmly. He himslef has made many mistakes that led to his endangerment.
This book is an example of how inconsistent Odysseus is when it comes to being a leader. First, he doesn't tell his crew members about his bag of wind, and then he is very selfless when he goes back and convinces Circe to turn his men back into humans. Odysseus is not mad at his men because he realizes that it was his fault that he didn't tell his men what was in the bag, so he blames himself. Encountering Circe was not too big of a deal for Odysseus, because hes gone through a lot more in his hardships at sea. Odysseus is hot and cold, hes inconsistent, and not perfect, which is a good thing; as we said in class, perfect heroes are not always the most interesting ones.
ReplyDeleteI think Odysseus didn't tell the crew because he didn't want to deal with the crew interjecting their opinion. Also, he thinks that he is superior to everyone on his crew. You know this because he is always talking about how he solves the problems and has brilliant ideas. What he does not address is the fact that he creates most of the problems. For example, he never would have had to "solve" the cyclops problem had he not gone to the cyclops island in the first place.
ReplyDeleteOdysseus is very liberal in the sense that he waits for the gods to solve all of his problems. On Circe's island, he finally takes initiative, and solves it by himself. I think that this was a new side of Odysseus, and he will be a much more likable character if we continue to see this side.