Odysseus Meets Nausicäa, Michele Desubleo (1654) The stranger grazes himself on Trygon's tail and dies, and Telegonus soon realises that he has accidentally brought about his father's death and is heartbroken. When Telegonus lands on Ithaca's shores, a grizzled old man shouts at him and threatens him, completely throwing xenia (hospitality towards strangers, from which we get the term xenophobia) out the window. Side note: This part in Miller's Circe is spooky and harrowing and excellent - it may well be my favourite part of the novel.
When Telegonus grows up, he leaves the magical confines of Aiaia in search of his father, but his witch mother does not let him go unprotected: she equips him with a spear that is tipped with the chthonic sea god Trygon's tail, which is fatally poisoned. When Odysseus left Ithaca, he left his wife Penelope with his infant son, Telemachus when Odysseus left Aiaia, he left his lover Circe pregnant with his son, whom she names Telegonus. Some translations, however, have this as Odysseus' death will come 'out of' the sea, which is also pretty accurate. When Tiresias meets Odysseus in the Underworld, he tells him that 'Gentle death will come to you, / far from the sea' ( Odyssey, trans.
I'm just going to say it: his death is straight-up odd. Odysseus' life comes to a very weird end. But we're probably going to be remembered for our greatest feats and our galavants, like speaking to heroes in the Underworld and outsmarting gods, nymphs, and witches, rather than the time we spent miserably at home. Much like Odysseus hearing tales from bards, we look on social media and wonder if our lockdown lives are living up to our peers', who seem to be learning languages and yoga and botany. I'm probably slightly less concerned than Odysseus with how my legend will be preserved and my standing with the gods, though. This isn't a figure I would usually identify with, but being stuck at home, watching opportunity after opportunity get cancelled, wondering when I can get back to my regular academia routine. To a modern audience, this paints Odysseus - one of the best remembered figures of the Trojan War - as petty and jealous, sitting there comparing his feats to his old comrades and enemies. Even Aeneas, that Trojan refugee, had founded a city' (Ibid.). He grows jealous of the tales of distant glory, of 'Menelaus had built a brand new golden palace, Diomedes had conquered a kingdom in Italy. He was paranoid, always on the lookout for plots to unravel, and restless, constantly wanting to venture out to see again. Miller's Odysseus, after he has left Aiaia and eventually returned to Ithaca, was also bitter and bored, malcontent with his 'greying wife who was no goddess and a son he could not understand' (Miller 2018: 184). Tennyson's embittered Odysseus, drinking and skirmishing and constantly sailing away from Ithaca, is really identifiable with Madeline Miller's Odysseus in Circe. I really enjoy Tennyson's poem because you can really see the ageing Odysseus' preoccupation with his own reputation and legend, his sheer egotism, and his utter restlessness. Or maybe there are new adventures to be had, to increase one's reputation: 'Some work of noble note may yet be done'. Tennyson's Odysseus is intent on reliving the greatest moments of his odyssey, such as travelling to the Underworld: 'It may be we should touch the Happy Isles, / And see the great Achilles, whom we knew'. In his poem Ulysses (1842), Tennyson imagines a bitter and restless Ulysses, unhappy with his old wife and prudent son, often leaving the rocky shores of Ithaca, sailing to 'savage' (eesh) lands to explore and conquer. I certainly don't think so, and nor did Lord Alfred Tennyson. So then, once he got home, do we think that poor, weary Odysseus would rest at his hearth for the rest of his days? Hence the ten years it took him to get home. Clever Stupid Odysseus incurred the wrath of the Cyclops' father: just a powerless loser. Therefore, when Polyphemus' fellow cyclops asked him who had hurt him, he said 'Nobody blinded me!' and they were all: alright cool.īut then, Odysseus' stupid male ego got the better of him and, as he sailed away, he told Polyphemus the name of the man who had blinded him, and that he hailed from Ithaca. Take, for instance, when he escaped the cyclops Polyphemus, blinded him, and cleverly told him that his name was Nobody. I would like to take this moment to remind you of Odysseus' primary character trait: cleverness a monstrously large ego. So, what happened to Odysseus after he returned to Ithaca?ĭid he just kick back, relax, and tell stories of the glory days (or, rather, gory days - heh)? That's what ruddy-faced Menelaus and wrinkly Nestor were doing, and if it's good enough for those Achaean kings, then surely it would be good enough for Odysseus, king of rocky, goat-y Ithaca?
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