The Unknown Odysseus: Alternate Worlds in Homer's Odyssey

Chapter Six: Sleepers Awake

Chapter Six sleepers awake the return of the beggar T he Odyssey begins with the question: where is Odysseus? As the story unfolds, a second, more dif‹cult quandary surfaces: who is Odysseus? By the time the disguised hero reaches the threshold of his palace, the ‹rst mystery seems to have been solved but not the second. Indeed, it appears that the two may be related in ways not obvious at the beginning of the poem and that the ‹rst is more complex than we may have originally supposed. The enduring hold on our imagination, of the Odyssey as a poem and Odysseus as a character, can be traced to the issues that arise when we ask these two questions. And because we experience so much of the story through the eyes of its principal protagonist, to answer them is to confront the central meaning of the poem. Only at the end of the narrative do we have all that Homer offers us by way of answers . I suggested in chapter 2 that the dissatisfaction many have felt about the end of the Odyssey has to do with the imperfect ‹t between the hero that the nostos plot requires and the man we have seen evolving in the previous twenty-two books of the poem. Having traced the emergence of the stranger and the trickster in the story, we are now in a position to explore in more depth the implications of the tensions between centripetal and centrifugal forces in the poem and its hero. Rather than seeing the centrifugal aspects of the character simply as failures of self-discipline or 98 excusable naughtiness re›ecting a double standard in the society out of which the poem emerged, we may now consider them as representations of an alternative way of understanding the hero and his mission. To put it another way, we now have a way of telling the story that is more detached from the imperatives of Athena’s perspective. In response to the beggar, Penelope emerges from her quiescence in last third of the poem, stepping forward just in time to offer her husband unwitting support but also some cause for anxiety. The “like-mindedness ” that she and Odysseus exhibit may also be understood in the light of our dual perspective. the male liberator One experience recurs often for those who would work out the internal logic of the Odyssey: tracing consistent patterns of action throughout the journey from Troy to Ithaka, they seem to ‹nd themselves in an interpretive cul-de-sac when the patterns reappear in the poem’s climax and inconveniently undermine our con‹dence in the ‹nality of the hero’s restoration. We have noted, for instance, how often Odysseus enters a space that is somehow feminized and then, by exerting his masculinity, effects his release from a stasis associated with the feminine aspects of the place. The pattern begins in the poem with Hermes in the role of the male liberator, effecting the release of Odysseus from Calypso’s island. From then on, Odysseus becomes his own liberator. The island of the Phaeacians, the cave of Polyphemus, the island of Circe, and the underworld are all feminized places from which Odysseus must free himself. We further observe that Ithaka has been de‹ned from the beginning of the poem by its lack of masculine authority: the suitors are the moral equivalent of children;1 the atmosphere in the palace is characterized by a passivity and impotence that the heroic world, at least, associates with mortal women. At this point, following the return plot, we encounter some interesting questions. If Ithaka does indeed ‹t the model of the feminized space threatening to Odysseus, then what would it mean for Odysseus to be “freed” from Ithaka? Who is the liberator and who is to be liberated? We may, of course, simply declare that Ithaka because it is the goal of the return , is different from all the other places. But other answers might well be possible even if we do not exempt Ithaka. Perhaps the beggar is the Sleepers Awake 99 version of Odysseus to be freed and the returning hero is the liberator. In this perspective, the handing over of the bow is the crucial moment when the hero reappears and the beggar is saved. We may further say that Telemachus’ agency in the return is made yet more vivid in this...