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'sReview Spring 1986 Editor: The cover is the work of Lydia Sparrow. J. Walter Sterling Managing Editor: Maria Coughlin Poetry Editor: Richard Freis Editorial Board: Eva Brann S. Richard Freis, Alumni representative Joe Sachs Cary Stickney Curtis A. Wilson Unsolicited articles, stories, and poems are welcome, but should be accom­ panied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope in each instance. Reasoned comments are also welcome. The St. John's Review (formerly The Col­ lege) is published by the Office of the Dean. St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland 21404. William Dyal, Presi­ dent, Thomas Slakey, Dean. Published thrice yearly, in the winter, spring, and summer. For those not on the distribu­ tion list, subscriptions: $12.00 yearly, $24.00 for two years, or $36.00 for three years, paya,ble in advance. Address all correspondence to The St. John's Review, St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland 21404. Volume XXXVII, Number 2 and 3 Spring 1986 ©1987 St. John's College; All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. ISSN 0277-4720 Composition: Best Impressions, Inc. Printing: The John D. Lucas Printing Company Contents PART I WRITINGS PUBLISHED IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM O'GRADY 1 The Return of Odysseus Mary Hannah Jones 11 God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Joe Sachs 21 On Beginning to Read Dante Cary Stickney 29 Chasing the Goat From the Sky Michael Littleton 37 The Miraculous Moonlight: Flannery O'Connor's The Artificial Nigger Robert S. Bart 49 The Shattering of the Natural Order E. A. Goerner 57 Through Phantasia to Philosophy Eva Brann 65 A Toast to the Republic Curtis Wilson 67 The Human Condition Geoffrey Harris PART II 71 The Homeric Simile and the Beginning of Philosophy Kurt Riezler 81 The Origin of Philosophy Jon Lenkowski 93 A Hero and a Statesman Douglas Allanbrook Part I Writings Published in Memory of William O'Grady THE ST. J0 HN' s REVIEW Spring 1986 The Return of Odysseus Mary Hannah Jones The first view Homer gives us of lthaka is a feast of the recounts Odysseus' virtues and sufferings to Zeus twice suitors at the house of Odysseus. In between bouts of and twice urges that such a man deserves to be released unrestrained eating and drinking the suitors listen to from sorrow. But most of all the return of Odysseus is songs. Phemius the bard sings for them, not by choice determined by enormous human effort. Odysseus must but under compulsion. The song he sings this night is strive in every way possible to achieve his return, and the nostos, the return, of the Achaeans from Troy. (1.326) his family and friends must strive to keep open a place The nostoi are traditionally a part of what is known as the in their lives for him. Athena sets in motion a plan for epic cycle, the poems which told the whole history of the the return of Odysseus which demands the greatest pos­ Trojan war and its aftermath. Critics have noted that this sible effort on the part of everyone concerned. reference to the nostoi at the feast of the suitors contains The beginning of Athena's plan for the return of Odys­ an evident and double-edged irony. There is one story seus is the sending of both Telemachus and Odysseus of homecoming that cannot be sung yet, the story of on a journey. Telemachus must travel to Pylos and Spar­ Odysseus, which he will bring home with him. The ta; Odysseus must painfully make his way to Scheria and Odyssey is in fact just another of these homecomings, the there win convoy home. Let us examine these two jour­ nostos of Odysseus. But the painful irony for the suitors neys and try to see why they are necessary to achieve is that this story of return has already been set in mo­ the return of Odysseus. tion. Such was Athena's purpose in coming to the feast The first four books of the Odyssey are the story of of the suitors this night. Telemachus: how he makes preparation for the return of Athena's presence has already set in motion the series his father. In his conversation with Mentes, who is of of events which will culminate in the return of Odysseus. course Athena in disguise, we are shown how much is But his return is a complicated matter indeed. Fully one­ needed to prepare him. half of the Odyssey, books one through twelve, is devoted When Mentes asks Telemachus if he is indeed the son to bringing Odysseus from Calypso's island to his native of Odysseus, Telemachus makes a reply that is shocking land. Many things have to be achieved before Odysseus by Homeric standards. Telemachus says that he has been can set foot on Ithaka. told that he is the son of Odysseus, but that he himself The return of Odysseus is in part a matter of fate. He does not know, for no man can know his own parentage. is many times said to be fated to see his friends and home If this were true it would mean the collapse of the heroic again. It is partly a matter of divine intervention. Athena world, since heroes are only heroes because they trace their descent from a god. Everything depends upon what is passed on from father to son; that is why the heroic genealogies are so important. Knowing a man means An alumna of St. John's College, M.H. )ones has been teaching at Mar­ shall University. She is now studying and teaching at the University knowing his father and grandfather and other ancestors. of Pennsylvania. If Telemachus is to be anyone in Homer's world, he must THE ST. JOHN'S REVIEW 1 first come to know that he is the son of Odysseus. This Odysseus is the hero of speech as Achilles is the hero is the preparation that he must make for the return of of deeds, and perhaps this accounts for the obvious differ­ his father. ence in style between the two epics. Deeds are resplen­ Athena sends Telemachus on a journey that contains dent and certain, but can leave no room for subtlety, many echoes of Odysseus' adventures. Telemachus sails while words may be as subtle as the skill of the speaker by night to distant places; he meets a beautiful enchan­ makes them, but they can never be as certain and unam­ tress; drugs are secretly placed in his wine; he is the guest biguous as deeds. And so the Iliad takes its clarity and of people who want to detain him too long. But none of bright passion from the splendor inherent in great deeds, these things is in itself a sufficient reason for this dan­ while the characteristic doubleness and complexity of the gerous journey or a preparation for the return of his Odyssey derive from the ambiguity inherent in all speech. father. When Athena is relating her plan to Zeus she says, Athena replies to Telemachus' shame-faced question "I will send him (Telemachus) to Sparta and to sandy by saying that he was not born and reared without the Pylos, in order for him to inquire after the return of his favor of the gods. (3.28) Telemachus' birth will make him dear father, if he may hear something, and in order for a speaker of well-wrought words; he must rely on his him to attain noble kleos among men." (1.94-5) The Greek Odyssean heritage. Telemachus and Athena join Nestor's word "kleos" means interchangeably fame or glory and sons at the sacrifice and participate in the feast. In the the story or song which glorifies. Athena is sending course of the ceremony greater deference is shown to Telemachus on his journey to inquire after a story and Athena than to Telemachus, because Athena appears to to become part of a story, because only in this way can be a man at least a generation older than Telemachus. he enter the world of his father. But when the time comes for Nestor to question the The first stage of Telemachus' journey is to Pylos to the strangers, it is Telemachus, not Mentor, who speaks for palace of the wise old king Nestor. They come upon Nes­ both. Telemachus deftly and courteously explains why tor as he and his sons and the other men of Pylos are mak­ he has come and how he hopes Nestor can help him. Nes­ ing sacrifice to Poseidon. But Telemachus is suddenly tor, in his long reply to Telemachus' well-ordered and afraid to approach this famous counselor. He says to the concise speech, touches upon Odysseus' special excel­ disguised Athena, "Mentor, how shall I go? How shall lence, his primacy in council, and then breaks off to say, I greet him? I am in no way experienced in well-wrought "(such was) your father, if indeed you are his son. speech." (3.22-23) Telemachus has good reason to be Wonder holds me as I look upon you, for indeed your abashed at his inexperience in speaking. Nestor's primary words are like his, nor would anyone have thought that excellence in the war at Troy was his skill in speech and a younger man could speak so like him." (3.122-125) in council. In his encounter with Nestor Telemachus first finds To be able to speak well is part of being a hero. Phoe­ what can give him the only true assurance that he is in­ nix in his famous speech to Achilles in book nine of the deed the son of Odysseus: he sees in himself the quali­ Iliad says that Achilles' father had sent him (Phoenix) to ties his father is famous for.
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