Zoe Arieux Prof. Sheridan Classical Myth
A Comparison of Societal Views of Kleos in the Odyssey and in Percy Jackson Every society has its own specific cultural aspects and the societies in both the Odyssey and Percy Jackson are no different. With the Odyssey written and taking place in Homeric Greece and with the basis of Percy Jackson being the Odyssey, they share many of the same basic aspects of Greek culture. However, while the virtues of arête, timê, and most prominently kleos can be found throughout the Odyssey in Odysseus himself, they are rarely presented in Percy and if they are, they are often rejected. This disparity of kleos is due to importance of the individual rather than that of the group and vice versa.
The Greek word kleos’ denotation is to hear and its connotation follows, albeit on a rather grandiose scale. To the Greek people, kleos is the pinnacle of fame, the ability to live on even after death through words passed down generation after generation. Warriors, like Odysseus, especially strive to achieve this, waging battle after battle in hopes of gaining arête, then timê, and eventually kleos. In the timê of the Odyssey, Odysseus has little to no kleos, mainly because no one knows that he fought bravely against Troy. Both his crew and comrades in arms are dead.
Achilles, Ajax, Agamemnon, Diomedes, and even Patroclus can no longer disclose how brave and honorable they and Odysseus were during the war against Troy. For ten years, out of the twenty in which Odysseus has been gone from Ithaca, it has been thought that he has been missing or hiding away. Odysseus himself wishes that he “[died that day/...[he] would have a burial then, honored by the army” (Odyssey 5.309-312). If Odysseus had died honorably in battle, it would be known all across the land and he would be mourned by many, but more importantly he would be remembered.
As Odysseus’ story unravels, it is clear that gaining kleos takes precedence over his desire to have a successful nostos. Following the defeat of Troy, Odysseus immediately leads his crew to Cicones, where they plundered the city of its treasures. By continuing to conquer new lands and by gaining new spoils, Odysseus gains even more kleos. To gain even more kleos, he actively goes and seeks out a cyclops, even though he believes them to be savages. He deliberately enters the cave in hopes that “...he [Polyphemus] would give [him] a gift of hospitality,” which would increase his kleos (Odyssey 9.229). He of course receives no gift and only barely escapes the lair by blinding the cyclops, which leads to him incurring the wrath of
Poseidon. Despite the fact that Odysseus already has accumulated many spoils of war, including
Achilles’ armor, he insists on revealing his true identity to the cyclops even with the risks he knows it will bring to his crew. Odysseus is so enthralled by the idea of amplifying his kleos that while escaping the island, he cannot resist taunting Prometheus saying that if “any mortal man, /
Asks how you got your eye put out, / Tell him that Odysseus.../ Son of Laertes, whose home is on Ithaca [did it]” (Odyssey 9.501-506). By telling Prometheus exactly who he is and his address, Odysseus assures that whenever this story is told he will appear as the victor, thus increasing his kleos. Odysseus even goes as far as copulating with two goddesses, Circe and Calypso, even at hazard of losing his virility, to increase his kleos. When Odysseus finally returns home to Ithaca, after he slaughters all the suitors, he futilely has their courtesans hung if only for the intent of making his vengeance more flagrant. If Odysseus does not bear a moral compass, which may be due to spending the last twenty years in combat mentality, then this act in itself is not so terrible. This would have seemed to be the only course of action to any sociopath. However, if Odysseus has somehow managed to cling to even a meager amount of his conscience, this makes him a much worse person. Because to have the ability to know what is right and what is wrong and to still choose to act on what is wrong is so much graver than not being able to; a psychopath is an infinite times more worse than a sociopath. Odysseus is highly intelligent, so he is completely aware of his actions and still chooses to slaughter Leodes and the courtesans. This is a direct parallelism to when Achilles slaughters many trojans at the end of book twenty in the Iliad. Odysseus is so deeply set on increasing his kleos through revenge that he does not care who he harms or kills.
Throughout the entirety of Odysseus’ journey he chooses to delve down paths that ensure a gain in his kleos, instead of taking the path of least resistance for his nostos.
Unlike Odysseus, when Percy reaches Prometheus’ island, he chooses to spare the cyclops instead of blinding him, “I was standing above him, the tip of my sword hovering over his eye...I had won. All I had to do was stab…[he] sounded so heartbroken...How could I kill him in cold blood?” (Percy Jackson 219). Percy chooses to have mercy on Prometheus because he has a strong sense of what is morally right and what is morally wrong and to him killing a creature that is unable to defend itself is wrong, so he refrains from crippling the cyclops. When escaping the island, it is not Percy who loudly taunts Prometheus, but another crew member. He, like the crew in the Odyssey, knows that this action will lead the destruction of their ship and begs his friend to stop. When Percy’s ship is destroyed, he can hear Prometheus celebrating that
“[he] finally sank nobody!” and Percy “hope[s that he] never found out he was wrong” (Percy Jackson 230). Percy has no desire to have his encounter with the cyclops become a popular story that everyone knows. He does not care about gaining kleos, instead his only desire it to keep his crew safe and alive. When he has the opportunity to be the hero of the quest and solely save his people, he allows someone else to. Percy lets the person he dislikes the most acquire all the kleos, which should have rightfully go to him, because he does not care for eternal glory. In fact, when he is offered the opportunity to literally become a god, he outright denies it. Gods surpass humanity in kleos by being immortal and thus never being forgotten. The best way to surpass others’ kleos is to become a god, but Percy says no because kleos means nothing to him.
This disparity in both Odysseus’ and Percy’s personalities disclose the parallelism between the two eras of humanity. It is blatantly obvious that Homeric society valued the individual over the group as a whole. It appears throughout the Odyssey with Odysseus making decisions for his own personal benefit rather than for his crews. This concept is furthered by the relationships between Paris and Menelaus and the theft of Helen in the Iliad. The direct cause of the war was the theft of Helen. Paris was infatuated with winning Helen over, that he did not even stop and consider what the consequences would be for him and his kingdom. While the population of Homeric Greece was significantly less than the population of the modern setting of which Percy lives in, it was much harder to be known to many. Much of what people knew of heroes came orally, stories told from person to person. As stories were passed down, the actual events became blurred, though this could be for better or worse depending on how the events became skewed. It was much easier to keep track of what one person did than a whole crew of men and because kleos was so imperative to Homeric Greece, it is understandable why the individual was valued over the whole. Unlike Homeric Greece, the society of which the events of Percy Jackson occur in is a modern one. Despite the fact that there are billions of more people, it is easier for one to become known. This is mainly due to the technological advances that allow for any one person to know what another is doing in real time. People here have the ability to connect with anyone they choose at any given time and any given place with the only limitation being whether or not there is suitable signal. In this society, a single unknown person can become one of the most discussed people by one click. Because anyone and anybody can become famous in no time at all, the importance of kleos in society significantly diminishes to the point that the group as a whole becomes more important than the individual.
Work Cited
Homer, Stanley Lombardo, and Sheila Murnaghan. The Essential Homer Selections From The Iliad And The Odyssey. United Kingdom, Hackett Pub Company and Incorporation, 2000 Riorden, Rick. Percy Jackson and the Olympians. New York, Disney Hyperion Books, 2005-2009.