Odyssey Homer's Odyssey and the

ODYSSEY HOMER'S ODYSSEY and the SPIRIT OF ANCIENT GREEK SOCIETY By the later part of the Greek "Dark Age," circa 800 B.C.E., ideas and traditions linked to the social/cultural arena of ancient Greece concerning the organization of their communities and the proper behavior expected from all Greek men and women, i.e., their shared codes of value, represented the basic components of Greece's emerging new political forms and institutions.

These shared codes of social and cultural value at the end of the "Dark Age" serve as the foundation for Homer's epic poem the Odyssey which was first written down via the oral tradition around the middle of the 8th century B.C.E. This type of epic poetry so closely associated with Homer grew out of centuries of oral performance by countless Greek poets singing of the deeds, exploits and personal values of heroes like Odysseus, the main protagonist in Homer's book-length poem.

Overall, the many and varied behavioral codes portrayed in the Odyssey primarily reflect the values established in Greek society during and after the "Dark Age" and before the rise of political systems (i.e., the polis) based on Greek citizenship. The major characters in Homer's the Odyssey are truly members of the Greek social elite who were expected to live up to a very demanding code of personal, social and behavioral values.

One of these values was excellence which carried with it a powerful demand for obligation and responsibility to one's society and its people. The strongest of these duties was a requirement that friendship between a guest and a host, known as xenia, had to be respected regardless of personal feelings. A her numerous suitors for her hand in marriage despite not knowing for certain that Odysseus is dead or has been taken captive by his Trojan enemies following the Trojan War, described by Homer in his Iliad.

Thus, Penelope's excellence as a high-ranking Greek woman required her to maintain her household and property during her husband's long absence and was obliged to show great stamina in resisting the demands of her many suitors, most of whom were living in the home of Odysseus as very unwanted guests.

Odysseus himself who returns to Ithaca in triumph after twenty years of wandering, is clearly a man with unsurpassed virtues and achievements which shows that the society of Greece after the "Dark Age" expected a great deal from its men and women which entitled them to a certain level of social recognition for their adherence to excellence and virtue or social disgrace for their personal failings.

Thus, under the conditions set forth by these codes and values, any other type of life was seen as contemptible if its central goal was not the pursuit of excellence and the social fame that usually accompanies it (Connolly, 256). The most famous ancient writer and scholar on Greek politics, society and values is the philosopher Aristotle (384 to 322 B.C.E.) who insisted that the emergence of the Greek city-state or polis had been the result of the forces of nature at work.

Aristotle firmly believed that all humans are naturally drawn to the polis because of its social and economic forces. Not surprisingly, Greek geography greatly influenced the creation of the city-state. For example, the very mountainous terrain of the Greek mainland forced the ancient Greeks to build their city-states further inland which physically separated each polis from the other and allowed them to develop their own cultural identifies while sharing specific customs and values and even languages.

In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus rules over the island state of Ithaca, located in the Ionian Sea, and although this state was not a proper polis during the time of Odysseus, it nonetheless symbolized the cultural excellence and traditions of ancient Greece and its daring men and women. Ironically, the island state of Ithaca during the days of Odysseus was very well-known for a type of grape called Robola which was used to make a kind of dry white wine highly sought after by the ancient Greeks.

In the Odyssey, Odysseus utilized his knowledge on making wine to his great advantage after he and his men are captured by the cyclops Polyphemus, made drunk by the wine of Odysseus and his men which allows them to blind Polyphemus and escape with their lives (Connolly, 245).

Of course, since Odysseus was born and raised as a true Greek warrior and king, he was not allowed to indulge in wine to the point of drunkenness which reflects another Greek trait and/or value pertaining to moderation in all things, both public and private. For Aristotle, true freedom and liberty consists in ruling and being ruled in turn and not always insisting on fulfilling one's own personal desires at the cost of others.

Thus, for Odysseus, true freedom can only come about when one is allowed to contribute to society for the betterment of everyone involved, a sure sign of moral correctness and rational thinking. In addition, Aristotle stressed the importance of justice and goodness, for he believed that people possess a sort of inborn knowledge concerning what is right and what is wrong; however, irrational desires often overrule such knowledge and leads people to commit wrong acts or behave inappropriately.

This conflict of desires in human beings could be overcome by achieving self-control via training the mind to win out over primitive instincts and passions. Thus, intelligence is the finest human quality and the mind is the true self, the god-like aspect of every human being.

In Homer's Odyssey, this Greek trait of intelligence is firmly entrenched in many of Odysseus's adventures, one being his clever manipulation of Polyphemus by getting him drunk and then blinding him with a red-hot poker which saved the lives of his men and allowed them to continue on their voyage home (Connolly, 265). One other Greek trait is related to competition, something which Homer uses to a great extent in his poem.

Excellence as a competitive value for Greek males like Odysseus of the social elite shows up clearly in the Olympic Games, a religious festival linked to a large sanctuary devoted to Zeus, king of the Greek gods, and located at Olympia in the northwestern region of the Peloponnesian Peninsula, where the games were held every four years starting in 776 B.C.E. The emphasis on physical prowess, strength and fitness and the public recognition by other men are closely linked to the Greek masculine identity as seen in the Odyssey.

For instance, when Odysseus finally returns home to Ithaca and finds Penelope inundated by suitors in his own house, he kills them single-handedly which demonstrates his strength and endurance as a true Greek hero and as a man with unbounded determination. After a close reading of Homer's Odyssey, it becomes obvious that Odysseus is forced to endure many problems with the gods, particularly with Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea and the.