What Happens in The Odyssey?
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What is the significance of the Odyssey in Greek mythology?
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He experiences the lowest of the lows. He is inches from death. And it all ends with a showdown, an epic climax, followed by love, wealth, family, and home. It is every story that has come before and every story that has come since. And that is the story I'm going to be telling today, folks. As I look to the east, rosy-fingered dawn has done her work. The sky is the colour of roses. It's early in the day. A full day at sea awaits. The rig is taut. My provisions are packed. Ahead of me, as I look to the south, I can see the wooded slopes of Ithaca. Friends, we are following in the wake of Odysseus through the Mediterranean In this Odyssey season we'll be exploring the actual history behind the myth and what could have been the true inspiration for the trials and tribulations that Odysseus faces on his voyage and what is it about this story that keeps us coming back time and time again.
In this episode I am on my sunsail vessel cleaving through the water and I am going to tell the story of the Odyssey. So take your place on the benches, grip an oar, push off, and smite the wine-dark waters. You're listening to Dan Snow's History, and together we are making for Ithaca.
The Odyssey is a sequel. It's an account of the 10 years that follow the conclusion of the Trojan War, the massive Greek expedition to Asia Minor to subdue the proud city of Troy and bring home Spartan Queen Helen, who had eloped or been tricked into leaving her husband and moving to Troy with her boyfriend. It's a story divided up into 24 sections or books. And Homer starts the story, not with Odysseus, but by talking about the chaos on the island of Ithaca, home of the hero, Odysseus. We learn in this first section that Odysseus is missing in action, presumed lost at sea. He's been away and accounted for for nearly ten years. His wife, Queen Penelope, is holding out hope. His teenage son, Telemachus, is sad and angry in a very teenage way.
He misses the father he never knew. And he's also being belittled. He's being threatened. He's being mocked by a horde of men in his own palace. A horde of suitors. They want to marry his mum and they probably want to steal his kingdom and treasure. It's not until around 20% of the way into the story that we finally meet our hero. The Sacker of Cities. The wily Odysseus. When we first glimpse Odysseus, he's trapped on an island, specifically Calypso's island. He's been there for seven years and he's suffering terribly, folks. This is a very sad part of the story. He's held against his will. He's forced to live on this tropical island, making love to a beautiful goddess that isn't his wife. It's a terrible ordeal.
It's only from that point onwards that we really hear about the journey, the adventure that he's been on. Now, for the purposes of this episode, I'm going to go straight to the start of Odysseus' journey. I'm going to tell that chronologically from the beginning without jumping around like Homer does. The focus in this episode is going to be on that epic voyage home and what happens when he gets home. There'll be other episodes in this series that can look at all the bigger themes of the Odyssey. Is there any basis in historical fact here? Might something like this have happened? But also what it tells us about ancient Greek fatherhood, kinship, all that sort of thing.
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