Paper #3: Abandoning the Gods

“Mortals! They are always blaming the gods/For their troubles, when their own witlessness/Causes them more than they’re destined for!” (Book 1)

INTRO: The Odyssey uses the gods even more explicitly than does The Iliad, with Athena, Hermes, Poseidon, and numerous lesser gods inserting themselves into the story and either saving—or damning—Odysseus and Telemachus. However, for all their involvement, they don’t really do anything that couldn’t happen without their involvement. Odysseus could get lost on his way back home simply because of bad weather and poor navigation; Telemachus could decide to seek his father without Athena’s encouragement; and Odysseus lust after Circe and leave Calypso without Herme’s blessing. What if the gods are simply more an excuse or an explanation of what goes inside a mortal’s head? Especially when that mortal is an obscure “man of twists and turns” like Odysseus?

PROMPT: For your Third Paper, I want you to discuss how the poem would change if we took the gods out entirely. While Circe and Calypso are immortal, they’re not gods in the same way that Athena and Zeus are, so they can stay in. Just think about people Odysseus and Telemachus actually interact with, especially since when they speak to the gods, it’s always through an intermediary. Discuss a few passages that would change in some significant way without the presence of the gods. How would we read these passages differently? How might they complicate or contradict the story as told either by the poet-narrator or Odysseus himself? Again, you don’t have to talk about EVERYTHING that changes, but choose a few passages and CLOSE READ them: show us how removing the god makes us see different possibilities in the story.

SOURCES: Using Morales’ Classical Mythology will be helpful here, since she reminds us that “we [can] read the myth as emblem rather than narrative” (9).  Since the gods are never consistent from poem to poem (or story to story), that suggests that could be a creation of the poet to explain the world around them. So how do these ‘god symbols’ reflect the emotions and psychology of the heroes they influence? Why might we read Athena as some aspect of Odysseus’ own personality, for example? ALSO, you might consider that Odysseus, as the narrator for much of the poem, might be inserting the gods into the story to cover his own tracks. He does occasionally lie and misrepresent facts when he takes over…

REQUIREMENTS:

• No page limit, but have a true conversation with the poem: think, be creative, and play with the words.
• Quote and close read a few passages from the poem; don’t rely on summary or paraphrase.
• Use Morales or Graziosi (or both) as secondary sources in your discussion—and quote them, too!
• DUE FRIDAY, APRIL 16^th BY 5pm!