In the modern world, traveling from Troy (located in what is now Turkey, along the western seaboard), to the island of Ithaca (an island just off of Greece) would be no big deal. A distance of only a little over 300 miles (as the crow flies) separates the two, so a flight would be quite short (average flight speed these days is ~600 mph) and luxurious. Instead of worrying about sails and various monsters, Odysseus could take a nap while he cruises through the sky.
On the other hand, Odysseus's journey was ANYTHING but easy. This was long before the invention of the airplane, the cell phone, or the Internet. You had to sail to go to another island, and that was pretty dangerous by itself, without any interference from the gods. He pretty much wound up going all over the Mediterranean Sea (I found this really cool map inlay which shows that) over the course of twenty years, and nobody knows anything about him during that time period because there is no real way to send information besides through messengers, who would be terribly inefficient having to go from Troy all the way to Ithaca. The only word people could possibly get is from other ships who happen to meet Odysseus on their way. To me, this illustrates the hardships of getting around in this time period much better than anything I have heard in the past. When it takes you 20 years to travel about a 1000 miles (from Troy to Ithaca that is, not for the entire journey), you're going about 0.006 miles per hour. That's a terribly slow speed. At that rate, Odysseus and his men may have just had better luck walking around the Mediterranean shoreline back to Greece!
While we all know that Odysseus's journey was a difficult one (it's an odyssey, after all!) a lot of us associate it with things like the Sirens, the cyclops, as well as Circe and Calypso. Looking at all this, I've come to realize that one of the major challenges of Odysseus's journey was the journey itself, which just became worse when he had to deal with all the problems from gods and monsters.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that while the interference of the gods as well as the incidences with the Cyclops and other monsters did make Odysseus's journey difficult, it would not have been an easy one on its own, even if Odysseus had a veteran crew. While Odysseus's return is made exciting by the problems he faces along the way home, it only further worsens an already difficult situation, instead of making the situation difficult in the first place.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up a solid point -- Odysseus sailed instead of taking a plane, making the journey home relatively long and difficult. However, I don't think that the odyssey would have taken more than 6 months had Poseidon and Zeus not been pissed at Odysseus. The gods make things happen to Odysseus: Zeus creates a bunch of storms, blowing his ship off-course to Ismarus, then really off-course to the land of the Lotus-eaters; then he meets the cyclops, Polyphemus, after sailing for a while with clear winds (he was doing so well!). After blinding and disrespecting the cyclops, Poseidon wants to make his journey home as difficult as possible. After Polyphemus, anyway, Odysseus kind of determines his own ETA.
ReplyDeleteSo, while the journey home was certainly difficult on its own, I think the gods' intervention makes it an odyssey. I think that the god's intervention makes the situation worse, like you said, but I would like to point out that Odysseus did have a veteran crew. The Trojan War took nine years, Odysseus has only been gone for 10 when he sets sail for home.
Also, cool map. I imagined Troy and Ithaca much farther apart. Odysseus was kind of all over the place.
I agree with the jist of what you are sayng MJ. But, I wouldn't consider Odysseus' journey "ANYTHING but easy". He did hang out at Calypso's island happily (although he did cry, but he does that all over the epic, primarily because it differentiates him from a god to a human) as well as sleep with Circe happily..
ReplyDeleteWhile he does have these smooth patches, they make up about half of the journey...the rest of the journey is definitely a difficult one, with the death of his entire crew and the destruction of his ships. That is "ANYTHING but easy".
DeleteThanks for pointing that out though...I did forget about that when I made the post. :)
The hazards of average travel in this time probably help account for the whole personification of the sea and its "rages" as the god Poseidon, who is so notoriously touchy and prone to hold grudges. The sea was understood to be a mercurial and hazardous place, which could turn friendly or hostile in an instant. You make a good point that Odysseus's travel is certainly made a lot more harrowing by Poseidon and all the delays, but a big reason why everyone back in Ithaca has started to seriously doubt he'll ever return is simply that there are so many things that could have happened to him, even without the gods' intervention. It was far from a sure thing that he'd ever make it back.
ReplyDeleteThat map really helped me visualize just how much Odysseus really had to travel. Anyways I agree with almost all of your points. I really like the one about Odysseus just walking home and he definitely would have made it in only a fraction of a year. (as opposed to 20 whole years). Walking on land would have also shielded him from Poseidon, who is more powerful at sea. Of course, there is no way Odysseus would have known what was in store for him.
ReplyDelete