Friday, October 21, 2016
The Real Couples of the Odyssey
By the time Odysseus reveals himself and embraces Penelope in Books 23 (after one last trick), we we have met many couples in the epic: Besides Odysseus and Penelope, couples in the story include Odysseus and Calypso, (although Odysseus is held against his will); Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, (although not directly); and Menelaus and Helen. What is the significance of these couples? Do some of these couples show the ideal of love and marriage while others show flawed and problematic relationships? According to the story, what should you look for in a relationship and what should you avoid? Do you agree?
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The Real Couples of the Odyssey
ReplyDeleteThe couples in the odyssey go to show the difference in most relationships concerning the actual attraction portion of the relationship. In all of the relationships listed, ¾ of those couples are based on physical attraction (beauty or how another looks), although this seems to be the type of relationships most literature holds, the relationship Odysseus and Penelope have is the kind of real world relationship that ends up being the most successful; mental attraction (when two people’s personality and or mindset are the same). Other relationships in the odyssey compared to Odysseus and Penelope’s are more based on lust, and fall apart extremely easily. An example would be the relationship between Menelaus and Hellen. The only reason that Menelaus and Hellen stayed together (not even then) was because of lust, Menelaus also tried multiple times to murder Hellen, being only stopped by Hellen sobbing and ripping her clothes off (this also was her go-to save when she was about to be killed by soldiers). These types of relationships are present in the odyssey to make the relationship between Odysseus and Penelope seem better, and according to the story you should look for a personality match in a relationship over beauty. Personally, I would prefer this type of relationship. I think that people who prefer physical appearance over personality aren’t looking for a longer-term relationship, and would “scoot out” at any given moment if their partner does or says something they don’t like. I prefer longer-term relationships because you and your partner truly care about one another, and would die for each other (obviously in that given situation). In conclusion, the relationships in the odyssey are very realistic, and display different types of romantic desires in real world situations.
Throughout the Odyssey, there are many different kinds of love that different couples have. Two main kinds of love that are portrayed are the shallow love that is similar to lust and also the deep love that shows that the partners are not only attracted in the physical sense, but they are also homophrosyne, or mentally alike. A couple that expresses the former are Odysseus and the immortal, Calypso, and a couple that expresses the latter are Odysseus and Odysseus’ wife, Penelope. Odysseus was forced into a relationship with Calypso. After a shipwreck, Odysseus washes up on Calypso’s island, where Calypso develops feelings for the hero which are unrequited. However, Odysseus still sleeps with Calypso every night simply because of lust for the beautiful immortal. “In the nights, true, / he’d sleep with her in the arching cave-he had no choice- / unwilling lover alongside lover all too willing…” (5.170-172). This shows that the relationship between Odysseus and Calypso is one sided, forced because Odysseus cannot leave, and exists purely because of Odysseus’ lust for Calypso. For example, all Odysseus does while on Calypso’s island is cry and yearn to go home. “But all his days he’d sit on the rocks and beaches, / wrenching his heart with sobs and groans and anguish, / gazing out over the barren sea through blinding tears” (5.173-176). This suggests that Odysseus doesn’t even care what Calypso is doing during the day, because all he is doing is weeping to leave, which pertains to a shallow relationship. On the other hand, Odysseus and Penelope share a very deep bond, which can primarily be seen when they use deception and trickery to find the truth. For instance, Odysseus lies to Penelope about who he is and he does this to figure out if he can trust her. “Besides myself Deucalion sired Prince Idomeneus, / who set sail for Troy in his beaked ships of war, / escorting Atreus’ sons. My own name is Aethon” (19.206-208). Odysseus is completely lying about his identity and he is doing so to find out if Penelope is really loyal to him or not. This is the obvious use of trickery to find out the truth. Penelope employs the same tactic later to Odysseus as she asks the maid to move her and Odysseus’ bed for Odysseus. This is her and Odysseus’ secret sign because only they know that the bed cannot be moved. “Come, Eurycleia, / move the sturdy bedstead out of our bridal chamber- / that room the master built with his own hands” (23.197-199). This suggests that if Odysseus is really Odysseus, he will recognize the sign. This also shows that Odysseus and Penelope really do have homophrosyne because they both use trickery and deception to figure out the truth. In conclusion, these two different types of love teach the reader that they want the deep and meaningful love over the shallow and lusty love.
ReplyDeleteOf all the lovers in The Odyssey, Penelope and Odysseus are the only true pairing together with ‘true love’, not lust. The main lovers in this epic are Odysseus and Calypso, Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, Menelaus and Helen, and Odysseus and Penelope, and the difference between the first three and the latter is simply the base of the attraction. First, Odysseus and Calypso’s relationship is built almost on desperation; Calypso forces love upon Odysseus, while he does not feel equally, his head and heart stuck with Penelope. Second, the love between Agamemnon and his wife Clytemnestra is riddled with disloyalty; Clytemnestra ends up being too impatient to wait for him to return from war, and sleeps with another man. She then plans his murder, and pulls through with it just as he comes on his home shore. Additionally, Menelaus and Helen’s love is complicated with a history; Helen is never fully loyal to her husband throughout their marriage. Over the course of many events, she escapes her death by exposing her figure, and always ends up being spared. However, Menelaus is not that naïve to be blind to this horror, as he holds a firm hand over her. When Telemachus visits them in Sparta, Helen tells a story, feigning it in a way that favors Menelaus. Noticing her lies, Menelaus tells her, “There was a tale, my lady. So well told” (4.298), inferring to her constant lies; this proves their unstable marriage. Lastly, the true love between Odysseus and Penelope differs from these lust-filled lovers because the love between them is based on mental attraction, as every relationship should be. For example, Penelope does not recognize Odysseus, at first, from his physical figure, but his mind’s cleverness. This is the way love should be based off of, as looks can deceive; this is proved from the three lover pairs in contrast to Odysseus and Penelope.
ReplyDeleteThe significance of these couples in the book of Odyssey is that most of them are in a relationship because of lust or convenience. For example, the relationship between Menelaus and Helen is made because of convenience since neither of them actually express true love to each other, he won the contest to be her husband and after the Trojan War ended because of Helen, they do not trust each other and they only stay together because they have no other choice. Another example is the relationship between Agamemnon and his wife, Clytemnestra. Their relationship was short-term and fell apart after Agamemnon went off to the Trojan War. Clytemnestra cheated on him with Aegisthus. Then her lover kills Agamemnon when he comes back from war. The only people that actually show love to each other in the story are Odysseus and Penelope. When Odysseus has the chance to have immortality and a good life with Calypso at her island, he refuses and wants to go back home to his wife. His wife Penelope, also waits for her husband for twenty years while lying to the suitors which swarm her palace and want to marry her. This relationship is not based off of lust or convenience, it is true love, and Odysseus and Penelope love each other because they think alike and understand each other from half-word. As Odysseus said, “the gods brought me to the island Ogygia, where Calypso lives, with ordered hair, a dread goddess, and she received me and loved me excessively and cared for me, and she promised to make me an immortal and all my days to be ageless, but never so could she win over the heart within me” (7.254-258). This shows that he is being loyal to his wife and does not want to stay with the goddess Calypso even though she offers him anything, even immortality. Odysseus loves Penelope so much that he cares about her being with him than him being immortal.
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