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The Meaning of Tradition in Homer's Odyssey

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The Meaning of Tradition in Homer's Odyssey The meaning of Tradition in Homer's Odyssey Glorious imperatives in Homeric society By Marcel Bas Pdf version of http://www.roepstem.net/odyssey.html The encounter with the Sirens: Odysseus with his men while he is tied to the mast "La société achéenne de l'âge héroïque, pour lointaine qu'elle paraisse à nos yeux de modernes, n'est en aucune manière une société primitive. A l'éclat de la civilisation matérielle et de l 'art, dont témoignent notamment les vases d'or ciselés de Vaphio ou de Dendra, se joint déjà un grand raffinement de moeurs." - Jean Bérard in Homère, 1963 1 In his book Die Welt der Polis, German philosopher Eric Voegelin remarked that Homer was "the blind man who sees", who looked with high scorn upon the brutal and unjust "Age of Heroes" (1). With The Odyssey Homer is said to have constructed a history in which an assembly of gods have restored justice and punished the evildoers. It is believed that Homer was an advocate of another age, where older traditions and rituals were strictly observed. Alain de Benoist notes: "Mais Homère était plus encore: le dépositaire du vieil esprit hellène dans sa pureté, le maître de toute sagesse, le gardien des traditions." (2) Regardless whether Homer's motivations for the (re)production of The Odyssey were that of a conservative's or whether the verses had been entirely handed down to him from earlier poets and bards, his lengthy epic that recounts king Odysseus' wanderings provides us with a host of rituals, customs, traditions and remarkable sociocultural-religious ideas and attitudes that seem unusual in a modern, individualistic Western person's view. The original Homeric epics have been committed to writing in the 7th and 6th century b.C. Today both Hesiod and Homer as well as many other poets are of an immense importance to the reconstruction of ancient Mediterranean theology (3). This essay will try to give a critical and explanatory summary of these cultural curiosities. I will try to consider this rich array of practices and ideas from a broad, cultural perspective. Much of the rituals and beliefs of the Achaeans were linked with religion, the existential matters of life. In The Odyssey we are allowed to look at funeral rituals and sacrifices. Both Odysseus and the people of Ithaca realise that erecting a mound for their deceased ones is essential for the afterlife and for the people's esteem. As long as Odysseus is missing, the people of Ithaca - including Odysseus' wife Penelope and his son, prince Telemachus - are not sure whether their mourning is done over a hero, who died in battle, or over a warrior who died on a lonely island, or in an other fameless fashion. Fortunately, stories were told about Odysseus which indicated that he had been a good warrior. But Telemachus sighs: "Now the gods have reversed our fortunes with a vengeance - wiped that man from the earth like no one else before. I would never have grieved so much about his death If he'd gone down with comrades off in Troy Or died in the arms of loved ones, Once he had wound down the long coil of war. 2 Then all united Achaea would have raised his tomb And he'd have won his son great fame for years to come. But now the whirlwinds have ripped him away, no fame for him!" (4) [Book I, 272-280] (5) Apparently, for Odysseus and his family (6), fame (Gr. kleos) is unattainable as long as he has not returned (Gr. nostos = homecoming) from Troy, regardless of the Greek successes at Troy. Also Penelope will not experience fame if Odysseus never returns, as she sighs when talking to Odysseus whom she does not recognise yet: "'No, no, stranger,' wise Penelope demurred, 'whatever form and feature I had, what praise I'd won, the deathless gods destroyed that day the Achaeans sailed away to Troy, my husband in their ships, Odysseus - if he could return to tend my life The renown I had would only grow in glory. Now my life is torment…'" [Book 19: 137-143] Later we will return to the concepts of fame and glory. Mourning rituals were not only important to the next of kin, but also to the deceased's soul. The case of Odysseus' brother in arms Elpenor shows us what happens to souls that have not had a proper burial. At Circe's palace, Elpenor had too much wine, fell off the roof and broke his neck. There was no time to build him a grave-mound and to shed tears over him. But Elpenor's spirit will not rest. In one of the most chilling scenes in The Odyssey, when Odysseus descends to the house of Hades where the dead live, Elpenor is the first spirit out of hundreds to come up to Odysseus: "But first the ghost of Elpenor, my companion, came toward me, He'd not been buried under the wide ways of earth, Not yet, we'd left his body in Circe's house, Unwept, unburied - this other labour pressed us. But I wept to see him now, pity touched my heart 3 (...) 'Now, I beg you by those you left behind, so far from here, your wife, your father who bred and reared you as a boy, and Telemachus (...)' 'I beg you! Don't sail off and desert me, left behind unwept, unburied, don't, or my curse may draw god's fury on your head. No, burn me in my full armour, all my harness, Heap my mound by the churning gray surf (...)' 'Perform my rites, and plant on my tomb that oar I swung with mates when I rowed among the living.'" [Book 11, 56-86] (7) We see that a neglected ritual may cause the wrath of the gods. But rituals and customs do not only have a religious imperative; they are also very useful to the characters's emotions and social lives. The English philosopher Roger Scruton noted that Odysseus' encounter with his sorrowful supplicant is an interesting example of what rituals and traditions are and what they mean to people. Scruton claims: "Not only does Elpenor ask to be buried; he also asks that people cry over him. He begs 'don't sail off and desert me, left behind unwept, unburied' (aklauton kai athapton) and Odysseus knows what he is expected to do: he must cremate Elpenor's body, weep over his passing away and erect a memorial. The unborn are of vital importance to this sacrifice of the dead, and by honouring Elpenor Odysseus is also acting for 'those who come after us'. He acts in a way that is immediate to Odysseus' perception, with Odysseus' own love for his family and respect for the father that reared him. The common culture encompasses these complex states of mind and inforces their validity." (8) According to Scruton, in every situation the characters in The Odyssey know what to do; their emotions are pure and their minds and acts are natural. The rituals and customs of a common, public culture narrow the gap between emotion and deed: they tell Odysseus what to do, more so in the situations where love, sorrow, pain, anger or revenge are the true motives and where he meets other people. In a public culture, mourning and weeping is something you just do: "As soon as Dawn with her rose-red fingers shone again I dispatched some men to Circe's halls to bring 4 The dead Elpenor's body. We cut logs in haste And out on the island's sharpest jutting headland Held his funeral rites in sorrow, streaming tears. Once we'd buried the dead man and the dead man's armour, Heaping his grave-mound, hauling a stone that coped it well, We planted his balanced oar aloft to crown his tomb." [Book 9, 8-15] (9) In Book I Athena tells Telemachus to refrain from looking for Odysseus for a year if people tell him that he has been found. Otherwise he must build him a mound, weep over his passing, and expel the suitors. In both The Iliad and in The Odyssey do we find the custom of mourners cutting off their hair. In Book IV this is what Menelaus tells Telemachus to do if Odysseus can be mourned over, but he should also have cheeks wet with tears. In Book 9, verses 72-5, we read that Odysseus "would not let his ships set sail until the crews had raised the triple cry, saluting each poor comrade cut down by the fierce Cicones." (10) Dying in battle is a noble act. Being a great winner dying lonely at sea is, according to Odysseus, humiliating and fameless: "Three, four times blessed, my friends-in-arms who died on the plains of Troy those years ago, serving the sons of Atreus to the end. Would to god I'd died there too and met my fate that day the Trojans, Swarms of them, hurled at me with bronze spears, Fighting over the corpse of proud Achilles! A hero's funeral then, my glory spread by comrades - Now what a wretched death I'm doomed to die!" [Book 5, 338-345] (11) What Odysseus is after is kléos; glory and fame. These are qualifications, bestowed on you by companions, compatriots, the people around you, and by the gods. You cannot have glory without people around you confirming that ("My glory spread by comrades"). Dying without glory is just as worthless as surviving without glory.
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