At least one key socio-cultural theme in the Odyssey is the idea of the political man: a pious man who fulfills his obligations to the gods, family, civil government, and cultural customs. Odysseus, and to some extent Telemachus, is presented as the exemplar of political man, enacting judgment on those who transgress this ancient Greek ideal.
Of Gods and Men
Where better to begin a discussion of ancient Greek socio-cultural features than with a discussion of gods and men! It could be argued that this is the fundamental structure to the epic story. The epic begins with an address to a Muse—Calliope, who was known for beautiful speech and epic poetry (Cartwright). The poet asks the Muse to recount the story of the resourceful Odysseus. In this request the sun god Helios is mentioned as the poet briefly recounts how some of Odysseus’ men slaughtered Helios’ precious cattle, resulting in their own deaths (1.1-10). From the outset, we are confronted with man’s dependence upon the gods. To cross the gods is to entertain death.
Two gods especially play a prominent role throughout the epic. Poseidon is in the role of antagonist, keeping Odysseus from his home in Ithaca because of Odysseus blinding Poseidon’s son, the cyclops Polyphemus (see Hospitality and guest-gifts below). Athena, on the other hand, pities Odysseus and assists his return home. Clearly, the gods are not always in agreement.
Throughout the epic, mankind is depicted as being at the mercy of the gods, which is why they regularly pray, offer sacrifices, and pour out libations to them, hoping to gain favor or appeasement (Hitch). This is because the Greeks believed the gods to be ultimately responsible for what happens in the world, whether good or ill (Musarrat et al. 18). The importance of honoring the gods, which is to recognize your place in the world, will become especially clear when we look at the place of hospitality in ancient Greek culture and the downfall of the contrarians.
Family Fidelity
The fundamental storyline of The Odyssey is of Odysseus attempting to return home to his family in Ithaca after being away for seventeen years—ten years for the Trojan War and seven years stranded on the island of Calypso. Even though Odysseus is stranded on an island with a Greek goddess of unageing beauty, and even though she offers him immortality with her, his only desire is to return home to his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus. That journey home will take an additional three years.
His response to Calypso, in answer to her question about why he is so desirous to return home despite her beauty and the offer of immortality, sums up the familial piety of political man. It is a love that defies logic, for the logical thing to do, so it seems, would be to accept immortality with a goddess of undying beauty, rather than risk one’s life on a dangerous voyage home only to spend a few more decades (perhaps) on this side of the earth. Yet, his family is part of his identity; and therefore, if he were not to go on this perilous journey home, there is a sense in which he would cease to be himself and would fail to uphold his duties as a husband and father (Markos 90-1). This family fidelity is the driving force behind Odysseus’ odyssey. Without this, there would be no odyssey.
Telemachus, Penelope, and the Suitors
Telemachus, now a young man, exhibits authority over his mother while Odysseus is absent. It is he who runs the house, not Penelope. This is clearly seen in his words to her in Book 1 after Penelope voices her disagreement with the minstrel’s choice of song because it reminded her of Odysseus. Telemachus responds with a rebuttal and the following words: “But speechmaking is men’s business, and mine above all, since mine is the power in this household” (1.358-59).[1] The next line says that Penelope was taken aback, which suggests that Telemachus had never spoken to her in such manner. He has finally come of age.
Immediately afterwards, Telemachus addresses the suitors, telling them that he will bring his case before the assembly. (The assembly or ἐκκλησία was a gathering of male citizens for political decision-making, an important feature of ancient Greek social structure.) Telemachus wants the suitors out of his home, because they are eating up the livelihood of Odysseus’ estate. He will even petition the gods to make them perish; and in this, Telemachus shows himself a respecter of authority, custom, and the home. Like Penelope, the suitors are shocked: “and all of them bit their lips hard, astonished at the way Telemachos[2] had spoken out so boldly” (1.381-82). Telemachus is making it known that he is ready to play the man. He wants justice in the defense of the honor of his household.
Hospitality and Guest-Gifts
Throughout The Odyssey, we encounter numerous cultural customs between strangers. Hospitality plays a central role in understanding these dynamic encounters, with examples both of hospitality and inhospitality; or, in the case of the suitors, taking gross advantage of hospitality. The contrast between people who honor this custom and those who do not is seen in the Phaeacians and the Cyclopes (plural of cyclops), respectively. The Cyclopes are isolated, disrespectful to gods and men, and lack an ordered society. There are no established norms among them; each one does as he pleases. On the other hand, the Phaeacians show respect to strangers and honor the gods (Kurt 147).
When Odysseus and his men come to the Cyclopes country, they venture to a nearby cave, but the cyclops is away. Odysseus’ men implore him to take some supplies from the cave and leave before the cyclops returns. However, Odysseus is set on meeting him, wanting to “find out if he’d treat me as a guest” (9.229). Will he respect the laws of the gods and the customs of men? Note Odysseus’ words addressed to the cyclops (after he returns and discovers their presence) on the customary treatment expected of guests:
But we who come to you now are suppliants, clasp your knees, hoping you’ll treat us as guests, or in some other way give us some kind of present, as is proper with strangers. Kind sir, revere the gods! We are here as your suppliants, and Zeus is the protector of suppliants and strangers…. (9.265-68).
The cyclops’ response to Odysseus is telling. Not only does he say that the Cyclopes do not fear the gods, he boasts that they are “mightier than they” (9.276). When it comes to social structure, the Cyclopes apparently think themselves above all, even the gods, and therefore do not need to respect the will of the gods or the customs of men.
Whereas generous hosts first provide food and drink for their guests before asking their name and background (cf. Telemachus’ greeting of the disguised Athena in Book 1), the cyclops immediately asks who Odysseus and his men are, from where they sailed, and what their business is. What is worse, rather than give them food, he makes food of them, eating some of Odysseus’ men raw. He eventually offers Odysseus the “guest-gift” of having him eaten last of all—a mocking remark. At every point we see the cyclops being the antithesis of the customary hospitality that was expected of civilized society. Eventually the remaining men escape due to Odysseus’ quick and cunning thinking, which is what he is known for, stabbing the eye of the cyclops in the process (we find out that this is what sets Poseidon against Odysseus). Whereas Odysseus would have shown himself an honorable guest, he was forced to enact judgment on the cyclops for his lack of hospitality; judgment comes to those who contradict socio-cultural norms.
The Phaeacians are the exemplars of hospitality in The Odyssey. Food, a bath, an abundance of guest-gifts, lodging, and even safe travel over the “wine dark deep”[3] sea to Odysseus’ home is eagerly supplied to Odysseus. The degree to which the Phaeacians were hospitable to Odysseus is seen in the fact that Odysseus arrives on their island naked, having been shipwrecked because of Poseidon, and leaves lavishly robed and well provided for. A civilized society takes the wild looking man from the bush and clothes him, making him respectable. He is given clothes (stored in a polished chest), gold, a tripod, a cauldron, and additional gifts provided by the Phaeacian counselors to take home with him (13.10-15).
It is important to note that those who honor the gods and possess a community life (e.g. communal singing, dancing, and sport) are the ones who show themselves civilized, being hospitable to Odysseus. The Cyclopes, however, do not honor the gods and live private lives. Frank Redmond’s remarks are on point: “The Phaeacians are also, importantly, a god-fearing people who aid strangers along their way; this attribute separates them from the savage, arrogant attitude that the Cyclopes have towards strangers.” He goes on to note that “law, organization, and craftsmanship” are what make a people civilized, which is what the Cyclopes lacked. This dichotomy is also found in Plato and Aristotle with the concept of the political man, which means man finds his identity in relation to the community, including the community of family, as opposed to living a relatively private life. According to Aristotle, political man “attends the assembly, frequents the Areopagus, [and] is deeply immersed in what one might call civic community life” (Trueman 44).
Another example of breaking with customary practice is the way the suitors exploit hospitality by consuming Odysseus’ food and wine over a period of years while vying for Penelope’s hand in marriage. Due to Odysseus’s absence, the suitors think they can get away with treating his home as their private guest hall, sleeping with his female servants, and eating and drinking as they please without compensation (Baldwin). The Odyssey ends with their death at the hands of Odysseus, signifying the shame and judgment upon those who exploit socio-cultural norms for their own advantage.
Conclusion
The Odyssey, by means of epic story, provides valuable insight into the socio-cultural constitution of the ancient Greeks. Society is seen as functioning properly when people live piously, meaning they are dutiful in their obligations to the gods, family, civil government, and cultural customs. As seen from Odysseus’ persistent desire to return home, the family takes center stage in life and identity. As seen from Telemachus’ authority, men were seen as being heads of homes and leaders in society. As he comes of age, he seeks to follow in his father’s footsteps as a man of honor and duty. We also learned that hospitality was a strong cultural more, and to break with this cultural norm meant to bring shame upon oneself, as with the cyclops (who was blinded by Odysseus) and the suitors (who were killed by Odysseus).
In light of the cultural themes throughout The Odyssey, as well as Odysseus’ role of judgment over those who break from cultural norms, Odysseus comes across as a righter of wrongs. He is an epic hero who represents the esteemed values of the ancient Greeks—a political man. Though he begins as a man of sorrows, he returns home to enact justice on those vying for his bride and once more takes his position as king of Ithaca, thereby re-establishing his social identity and bringing peace to the island (all with the help of the goddess Athena, of course).
Works Cited
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Campbell, W. John. The Book of Great Books. The Wonderland Press, 2000.
Cartwright, Mark. “Muse.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 14 Dec 2012. Web. 26 Jan 2021.
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Green, Peter, translator. The Odyssey. University of California Press, 2018.
Griffin, Jasper. Homer : The Odyssey, Cambridge University Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/apus/detail.action?docID=255212.
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Hitch, Sarah. King of Sacrifice: Ritual and Royal Authority in the Iliad. Hellenic Studies Series 25. Washington, DC, 2009. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_HitchS.King_of_Sacrifice.2009. Last accessed on January 26, 2021.
Kurt, A. Raaflaub, editor. The Adventure of the Human Intellect : Self, Society, and the Divine in Ancient World Cultures. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/apus/detail.action?docID=4517560.
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Markos, Louis. From Achilles to Christ: Why Christians Should Read the Pagan Classics. InterVarsity Press, 2007.
Musarrat, Maria, et al. “A Socio-Cultural Study of the Odyssey by Homer and the Odyssey by Usman Ali: A Comparative Analysis”. International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL) Volume 5, Issue 1, January 2017, http://dx.doi.org/10.20431/2347-3134.0501002.
Porter, Roger J. “Convocation Talk”. Reed College, 1999. https://www.reed.edu/humanities/hum110/odysseyconvocation1999.html. Last accessed on January 28, 2021.
Redmond, Frank. “The Concept of Civilization in Homer’s Odyssey”. 2005. http://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=2011:the-concept-of-civilization-in-homers-odyssey. Last accessed on January 30, 2021.
Trueman, Carl R. The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution. Crossway, 2020.
[1] All quotations from The Odyssey are from Peter Green’s translation.
[2] Green takes a different approach to the spelling of names and places than is typically found in other translations.
[3] There are many poetic descriptions of the sea in The Odyssey.
Drew S. C. Mery 