Homer and His World!

It is not easy to write on Homer! He is, after all, a great poet of ancient Greece, who wrote two great epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey. He might have lived around 700 BC. Recently I started to read the Odyssey, just for want of doing anything else, a book I had bought in 1975 and might have read it that time!

Basically, I reread Odyssey. The theme is the famed Trojan war and its aftermath. Paris, one of the sons of Priam, the king of Troy, had abducted the beautiful Helen, wife of Meneclaus, the ruler of Sparta.

Under the leadership of Agamemnon, the Greek overlord and the brother of Meneclaus, Greek princes, set sail with thousand ships, siege Troy for 10 years and finally contrived the Trojan horse, with which they tricked the leaders of Troy, entered the city and sacked it. Helen was retrieved and the story of Iliad ends there.

Now the story of Odysseus, king of Ithaca and a hero of the war continues, who for the next ten years was driven hither and thither by a series of mishaps, on his return journey to his home, Ithaca. That is Odyssey!

The story is interesting, apart from the historical narration of epic proportions, for the insight into the habits and beliefs of the people of Achaea in that hoary past. The terms Greece or Hellas (Hellenes) were not in usage then, but to Homer they were Achaeans.

First thing to note is how in Homer’s time, people, especially the Achaeans, (latter Greeks) believed that gods in heavens were responsible for the good things or bad things that happened to them. They were either favored by a god or goddess and led to good pastures or having earned the wrath of a god or goddess, repeatedly were subjected to tragedies and difficult times.

Gods were responsible to whatever happened to the humans, was the important belief of the then Greeks. The leader of the Olympian gods was Zeus. He had three wives, including his own sister. Aphrodite, Artemis and Athene were his daughters. Apollo, Ares (Mars), Hermes (Mercury) and Vulcan were his sons. Zeus also had two brothers, Hades, ruling the underworld of the dead and Poseidon, ruling the waves.

Imagine gods having sons and daughters, that too from different wives! Well, to please them and not to incur their wrath, the Greeks offered many sacrifices, of bulls, goats, and lambs. Wine libations were poured out at their altars. Thigh of the sacrificial victim, wrapped in folds of fat was offered to the gods, blood of the victim was collected and offered to the heavens. Thereafter the people and the princes ate the remaining.

They believed on omens, birds, eagles, doves and others as sent by the gods, to indicate good or bad happenings to the humans.

And then men wept, copiously, for their dead, in remembrance of their lost homes, wives and friends and over their misfortunes. Wonder where the stiff upper lip of the English and the modern-day adage that ‘boys do not cry,’ came from!

  

When men of royal birth or a distinguished visitor came to a place, they were given bath by the maidservants. After bathing them, they were rubbed with olive oil, and given tunic to wear and fine cloak round their shoulders. They stepped out of the bath looking like the immortal gods! Wow! This expression occurs many times in the narrative.

When guests were seated for banquet, they were seated in high chairs, and a maid came with water in golden vessel and poured it out over a silver basin so that they can rinse their hands before eating the food.

The maid servants also drew a wooden table to their side, for the house keeper to bring some bread and set it by them with a choice of delicacies. Meanwhile a carver dished out for them on platters slices of various meats, like oxen, pigs and lambs and put golden cups beside them. Then the guests fell to eating!

Most striking thing is that Helen, whose face launched a thousand ships, and the reason for the destruction of Troy, and the loss of the lives of many warriors, was living happily with her husband Menaclaus, her small indiscretion of having run away with a Trojan prince not withstanding! Hmm, weird are the ways of men and women!

The games which took place in every city with events like running, javelin throw, disc throw, boxing, wrestling, jumping are the pointers to modern Olympics, and as such are fascinating.

It is interesting to read about the land of Lotus-eaters, where one forgets everything; the one-eyed monster Cyclops, who ate up some of Odysseus’ men; Calypso, who had kept Odysseus captive for a full 9 years, trying to entice him into marrying her; Circe, who transformed his men into pigs and penned them in pigsties;

Odysseus climbing down into Hades, where the dead souls were left to languish, to obtain oracles; the terrible monster Scylla, who fished his men with her six long necks and devoured them; Charybdis who sucks sea water and spews them out three times a day, Odysseus encountered them all during his voyage back home to Ithaca.

Finally, he reached home only to find several young men courting his wife Penelope, but who faithfully waits for his return and his young son Telemachus, who not able to handle these suitors, was waiting for his father’s return. Skilfully, Odysseus, with much help from his patron-goddess Athene, fights and destroys the suitors and gets reunited with his wife. Bravo!

A very interesting story of gripping events and imaginations describing the return journey of Odysseus. Worth reading at least once in one’s life time!