Title: The Odyssey (late 8th century BCE)
Author: Homer
Culture: Ionic
Type: Epic Poem
Date Finished: 24th May 2010
The epic poem The Odyssey by Homer is about the mythic Greek Hero Odysseus and his challenging journey back home to Ithaka from Troy, the holy city he victoriously sacked with his Achaean army. He is driven by the desire to get back to his kingdom and family, to protect his city and remove the yearning from the hearts of his wife and son, Penelope and Telemachus, who have to endure the treachery of Penelope’s insolent suitors who are “eating them out of house and home”, as Penelope refuses to marry one or reject all of the suitors.
Meanwhile, Odysseus’ ship is thrown off course by the wrath of Poseidon the sea god, Odysseus and his men struggle to return home, with various trials preventing their return, such as the sweet and deadly songs of the Sirens, the brutal and hungry Cyclops, the lotus-eaters who lure people with psychedelic drugs, the black-witch Circe, the multi-headed beast Scylla and the living whirl-pool Charybdis. After many of Odysseus’ men had died in these traps, the rest were killed by a raging storm set upon them by Zeus, because they had eaten the holy cattle of the sun-god Hyperion, even after being warned by Circe.
Odysseus was the only one to survive the wrath of Zeus by holding onto the ship’s mast. For days he floated on the remnants of his ship, until he came to the island Ogygia of the nymph Calypso. She kept as her sex-slave for five years, before being told by Hermes the messenger to let Odysseus attempt to return home. Reluctantly she tells Odysseus he can leave, giving him wine, clothes and equipment to build a raft. Odysseus sails for almost a month, coming near to the Island of the sea-faring Phaecians. After almost dying in a storm sent by Poseidon, Odysseus is helped by Athena and a goddess of the sea to reach the shore of Phaecia, where he falls asleep, ragged and briny under two thick olive bushes.
After a long and complicated visit and story-telling session on this island, the king orders his best rowers to return Odysseus to his home, which they do smoothly and quickly. They lay him on an Ithakan beach with his treasure, sleeping. After a complicated return, meeting Telemachus first, Odysseus returns to his house, disguised as a beggar. He plots with his son on how to murder the suitors, and eventually kills the hundred of them with the help of two servants, his son and the goddess Athena, reclaiming his house and reacquainting himself with Penelope and his city.
I admired the use of epithets, formulaic phrases and scenes and the general poetry of this lovely epic tale. In my opinion Homer must have been very intelligent and ingenious, with the poetic mind to create repetitions of language devices in the way of describing the characters, of attractive scenes which are repeated at various points in the tale to aid in remembering certain occurrences in the oral poem and to enliven the stylistic colour of The Odyssey. “But when Aurora, daughter of the dawn, With rosy lustre purpled o'er the lawn...(followed by action of characters)” is an example of a formulaic phrase in The Odyssey, describing the mythological Greek perception of the unique light that shines upon the earth at early morning, as the ancient Greeks often described phenomena of the earth with metaphoric tales. This phrase occurs at least six times throughout this poem, and it is followed by a specific action each time it occurs, Homer is aided in remembering certain scenes in sequence. Examples of epithets are “Athena of the flashing eyes”, “Hermes with the golden rod” and “Zeus the thunderer”. These give the listener or reader a more frequent, clear understanding of the gods and characters in the poem, as they basically describe very unique traits of each individual frequently and consistently.

The beauty, fluency and care with which the poetry of this epic poem has been written impresses, amazes and gives me the greatest joy in reading. Alexander Pope’s 18th century translation is written with all of these qualities, offering colourful and diverse descriptions that are very accurate and hold true to Homer’s original. This paragraph demonstrates what I am talking about:

“Till now approaching nigh the magic bower,
Where dwelt the enchantress skill'd in herbs of power,
A form divine forth issued from the wood
(Immortal Hermes with the golden rod)
In human semblance. On his bloomy face
Youth smiled celestial, with each opening grace.
He seized my hand, and gracious thus began:
'Ah whither roam'st thou, much-enduring man?
O blind to fate! what led thy steps to rove
The horrid mazes of this magic grove?
Each friend you seek in yon enclosure lies,
All lost their form, and habitants of sties.
Think'st thou by wit to model their escape?
Sooner shalt thou, a stranger to thy shape,
Fall prone their equal: first thy danger know,
Then take the antidote the gods bestow.
The plant I give through all the direful bower
Shall guard thee, and avert the evil hour.
Now hear her wicked arts: Before thy eyes
The bowl shall sparkle, and the banquet rise;
Take this, nor from the faithless feast abstain,
For temper'd drugs and poison shall be vain.”

In this paragraph fluency is strongly a part, while its beauty is abundant to woo the heart; care has been taken to sustain its grace, and impressions of gaiety will light up the face. Each line rhyme’st with the next in succession, offering description in variety that doth teach a lesson: the mind is entertain’d not by revision, but by variation with poetic incision, as I believe it all to be, though my opinion is wrought with ephemerality.