We now pass to the second part of the book, which shows Telemachus
accomplishing with the aid of the deity what human institutions failed
to do. If the Assembly will not help him in the great cause, the Gods
will, and now he makes his appeal to them.
The Ithacans had refused a ship in order that he might go and learn
something about his father; that is, they will not permit his
education, which is at present the first object.
He goes down to the seacoast, where he will be alone, communing with
the Goddess and with himself, and there he prays to Pallas, washing his
hands in the grey surf--which is, we may well think, a symbolic act of
purification. Is it a wonder that Pallas, taking the human shape of
Mentor, comes and speaks to him? She must, if she be at all; he is
ready, and she has to appear. Her first words are but the echo of his
conduct all through the preceding scene with the Assembly: "Telemachus
henceforth thou shalt be wanting neither in valor nor in wisdom." She
rouses him by the fame and deeds of his father, because he is already
aroused. Still she is a very necessary part; she is the divine element
in the world speaking to Telemachus and helping him; she shows that his
thought is not merely subjective, but is now one with hers, with
objective wisdom, and will rule the fact. He ascends into the realm of
true vision, and from thence organizes his purpose. It is true that the
poet represents Pallas as ordering the means for the voyage, as at
first she ordered the work of the whole poem. Yet this is also done by
Telemachus who has risen to participation in that glance which beholds
the truth and controls the world.
Often will the foregoing statement be repeated; every divine appearance
in Homer, of any import, is but a repetition of the one fact, which
must always be re-thought by the reader. That which Telemachus says is
no longer his mere wish or opinion, but it is the reality, the valid
thing outside of him, hence it is voiced by the Goddess, and must take
place. Thus the poet often compels his reader to rise with him into the
sphere of the divine energy, where thinking and willing are one, and
man's insight is just the word of the God.
The remaining circumstances of the Book group themselves around the two
centers--Telemachus and Pallas--as the Goddess orders them in advance:
"Go thou home and get the stores ready, while I shall engage a ship and
crew among the Ithacans."
1. Telemachus goes among the Suitors, evidently to avoid suspicion,
which his absence might provoke. They taunt and deride him, whereof
three samples are again given. He goes his way, conscious of his divine
mission, not failing however to tell them: "I shall surely make the
voyage, not in vain it will be." He obtains food and wine from the aged
stewardess Eurycleia, who seeks to dissuade him. Then too his mother
must not know of his plan, she would keep him still a boy in the house,
whereas he has become a man.
2. Pallas in the semblance of Telemachus goes through the town to
secure the ship and crew. Then she pours over the Suitors a gentle
sleep after their revel; she takes away their wisdom, yet it is their
own deed, which just now has a divine importance. Finally she brings
all to the ship, seizes the helm and sends the favoring breeze. Or, as
we understand the poet, intelligence brings about these things under
many guises; even nature, the breeze, it takes advantage of for its own
purpose.
Thus Pallas has the controlling hand in this second part of the Book,
she is above man and nature. We can say that the controlling spirit is
also Telemachus, who manifests Reason, controlling and directing the
world. Note the various forms which she assumes, as Mentor, as
Telemachus; then again she works purely through mind, in the natural
way, as for example, when Telemachus goes home and obtains his food and
wine for the voyage. The poet thus plays with her shape; still she is
essentially the divine intelligence which seizes upon men and
circumstances, and fits them into the order universal, and makes them
contribute to the great purpose of the poem. Still the Goddess does not
destroy man's freedom, but supplements it, lifting it out of the domain
of caprice. Telemachus willingly wills the will of Pallas.
Already it has been remarked that the Goddess is made to command
nature--the breeze, the sleep of the Suitors. It is the method of fable
thus to portray intelligence, whose function is to take control of
nature and make her subserve its purpose. The breeze blows and drives
the ship; it is the divine instrument for bringing Telemachus to Pylos,
a part of the world-order, especially upon the present occasion. The
born poet still talks that way, he is naturally a fabulist and cannot
help himself. In his speech, the hunter does not chase the deer, but
brings it before his gun by a magic power; the mystic fisher calls the
fishes; the enchanted bullet finds its own game and needs only to be
shot off; the tanner even lays a spell upon the water in his vat and
makes it run up hill through a tube bent in a charm. But back of all
this enchantment intelligence is working and assumes her mythical,
supernatural garb when the poet images her control of nature.
Thus in general the Mythus shadows forth objective mind, not
subjective; it springs from the imaginative Reason, and not from a
cultivated Reflection. In our time the demand is to have these
objective forms translated into subjective thoughts; then we can
understand them better. But the Homeric man shows the opposite
tendency: he had to translate his internal thoughts into the external
shapes of the Mythus before he could grasp fully his own mind. His
conception of the world was mythical; this form he understood and not
that of abstract reflection. We may well exclaim: Happy Homeric man, to
whom the world was ever present, not himself. Yet both sides belong to
the full-grown soul, the mythical and the reflective; from Homer the
one-sided modern mind can recover a part of its spiritual inheritance,
which is in danger of being lost.
It is therefore, a significant fact that the education of the present
time is seeking to restore the Mythus to its true place in the
development of human spirit. The Imagination is recognized to have its
right, and unless it be taken care of in the right way, it will turn a
Fury, and wreak treble vengeance upon the age which makes it an
outcast. Homer is undoubtedly the greatest of all mythologists, he
seizes the pure mythical essence of the human mind and gives to it form
and beauty. Hence from this point of view, specially, we shall study
him.
In the present Book the fact is brought out strongly that little or
nothing is to be expected from the Ithacan people toward rectifying the
great wrong done to the House of Ulysses. In part they are the
wrong-doers themselves, in part they are cowed into inactivity by the
wrong-doers. Corruption has eaten into the spirit of the people; the
result is, the great duty of deliverance is thrown back upon an
individual. One man is to take the place of all, or a few men the place
of the many, for the work must be done. The mightiness of the
individual in the time of a great crisis is thus set forth in vivid
reality; the one man with the Gods on his side is the majority. With
truest instinct does the old poet show the Goddess Pallas directing
Telemachus, who participates in the Divine and is carrying out its
decree. This communion between man and deity is no mere mythologic
sport, but the sincerest faith; verily it is the solidest fact in the
government of the world, and the bard is its voice to all ages.
This Second Book has its import for the whole poem. It is now manifest
that Ulysses, when he returns, is not to expect a grand popular
reception; he must bring himself back to his own by his skill and
prowess alone. The people will not help him slay the wrong-doers;
rather the contrary will happen. Again the individual must work out the
salvation of himself as well as of his family and his country.
Telemachus has shown himself the worthy son of the heroic father; the
present Book connects him intimately with the return of Ulysses, and
binds the entire Odyssey into unity; especially does this Book look to
and prepare for the last twelve Books, which bring father and son
together in one great act of deliverance.
If in the previous Book we beheld the depravity of the Suitors, we now
witness the imbecility of the People. Still the spark of hope flashes
out brightly in this Ithacan night; something is at work to punish the
guilty and to redeem the land.
_BOOK THIRD._
In narrative, the present Book connects directly with the preceding
Book. Pallas is still with Telemachus, they continue the voyage
together till they reach Pylos, the home of Nestor. They have left
Ithaca, and come into another realm; this change of place, as is often
the case in Homer, carries with it a change of inner condition; the
voyage is not simply geographical but also spiritual; indeed it must be
so, if the young man is to derive from it any experience.
Great and striking is the difference between Ithaca and Pylos. The
latter is the abode of religion primarily, the new-comers find the
Pylians engaged in an act of worship, in which the whole people
participate, "nine rows of seats and five hundred men in each row."
Too large a number, cry some commentators, but they have not looked
into the real meaning of such a multitude. Here is sacrifice,
reverence, belief in the Gods; while among the Ithacans is neglect of
worship, religious paralysis, and downright blasphemy on the part of
the Suitors. Furthermore, in one country order reigns, in the other is
anarchy. Such is the contrast between the Second and Third Books, the
contrast between Ithaca and Pylos. We can well think that this contrast
was intended by the poet, and thus we may catch a glimpse of his
artistic procedure.
The center of the picture is Nestor, a very old man, who, accordingly,
gives soul to the Book. He is so near the world of the Gods in the
present life, that he seems already to dwell with them; age brings this
serene piety.
No accident is it that this Book of Nestor begins and ends with a
festival of sacrifice and prayer; that is the true setting of his
character. What he says to the visitors will take color and meaning
from his fundamental trait; we may expect in his words a full
recognition of divinity in the events of the world.
But he has been a stout fighter in his time, he was in the Trojan War,
though old already at that period. He will give the lesson of his life,
not during that war, but afterwards. He was one of the heroes of the
Iliad, which poem the Odyssey not only does not repeat, but goes out of
its way to avoid any repetition thereof. Moreover he was one of those
who returned home successfully, can he tell how it was done? This is
the question of special interest to Telemachus, as his father, after
ten years, has not yet reached home.
Herewith the theme of the Book is suggested: the Return. Physically
this was a return from the Trojan War, which is the pre-supposition of
the whole Odyssey; all the heroes who have not perished, have to get
back to Hellas in some way. These ways are very diverse, according to
the character of the persons and the circumstances. Thus we touch the
second grand Homeric subject, and, indeed, the second grand fact of the
Greek consciousness, which lies imbedded in the Return (_Nostos_). A
short survey of this subject must here be given. We have in the present
Book several phases of the Return; Nestor, Menelaus, Ulysses are all
Returners, to use a necessary word for the thought; each man solves the
problem in his own manner.
Now what is this problem? Let us see. The expedition to Troy involved a
long separation from home and country on the part of every man who went
with it; still this separation had to be made for the sake of Helen,
that she, the wife and queen, return to home and country, from which
she had been taken. Her Return, indeed, is the essence of all their
Returns. We see that through the war they were severed from Family and
State, were compelled to give up for the time being their whole
institutional life. This long absence deepens into alienation, into a
spiritual scission, from mere habit in the first place; then, in the
second place, they are seeking to destroy a home and a country; though
it be that of the enemy, and the act, even if necessary, brings its
penalty. It begets a spirit of violence, a disregard of human life, a
destruction of institutional order. Such is the training of the Greeks
before Troy. The wanton attack of Ulysses and his companions upon the
city of the Ciconians (Book Ninth) is an indication of the spirit
engendered in this long period of violence, among the best and wisest
Greeks.
Still, in spite of the grand estrangement, they have the aspiration for
return, and for healing the breach which had sunk so deep into their
souls. Did they not undergo all this severing of the dearest ties for
the sake of Helen, for the integrity of the family, and of their civil
life also? What he has done for Helen, every Greek must be ready to do
for himself, when the war is over; he must long for the restoration of
the broken relations; he cannot remain in Asia and continue a true
Greek. Such is his conflict; in maintaining Family and State, he has
been forced to sacrifice Family and State. Then when he has
accomplished the deed of sacrifice, he must restore himself to what he
has immolated. A hard task, a deeply contradictory process, whose end
is, however, harmony; many will not be able to reach the latter stage,
but will perish by the way. The Return is this great process of
restoration after the estrangement.
Many are the Returners, successful and unsuccessful in many different
ways. But they all are resumed in the one long desperate Return of
Ulysses, the wise and much-enduring man. In space as well as in time
his Return is the longest; in spirit it is the deepest and severest by
all odds. The present poem, therefore, is a kind of resumption and
summary of the entire series of Returns (_Nostoi_). In the old Greek
epical ages, the subject gave rise to many poems, which are, however,
at bottom but one, and this we still possess, while the others are
lost. Spirit takes care of its own verily.
The true Returner, accordingly, gets back to the institutions from
which he once separated; he knows them now, previously he only felt
them. His institutional world must become thus a conscious possession;
he has gone through the alienation, and has been restored; his
restoration has been reached through denial, through skepticism, we may
say, using the modern term. The old unconscious period before the
Trojan war is gone forever; that was the Paradise from which the Greek
Adam has been expelled. But the new man after the restoration is the
image of the complete self-conscious being, who has taken the negative
period into himself and digested it. Fortunate person! he cannot now be
made the subject of a poem, for he has no conflict.
But the young man beginning life, the son Telemachus, is to obtain the
same kind of knowledge, not through experience but through inquiry.
Oral tradition is to give him the treasures of wisdom without the
bitter personal trial. It is for this reason that Pallas sends him to
find out what his father did, and to make the experience of the parent
his own by education; it is, indeed, the true education--to master the
accumulated knowledge and wisdom of the race up to date. So we are now
to have the school period of the son, who is thereby not merely the
physical son (which, he remarks, is always a matter of doubt), but the
spiritual son of his father, whereof there can be no doubt.
The Odyssey proper, toward which we may now cast a glance, contains the
wanderings of Ulysses, and is the work of the grown man who has to meet
the world face to face and conquer it; thus he obtains the experience
of life. The two parts are always to be placed together--the education
of the young man and the experience of the mature man; they constitute
a complete history of a human soul. Both are, indeed one--bud and
flower; at bottom, too, both mean the same thing--the elevation of the
individual into an ethical life in which he is in harmony with himself
and with the divine order. True learning and true experience reach this
end, which may be rightfully called wisdom.
So Telemachus the youth is to listen to the great and impressive fact
of his time, containing the deep spiritual problem which is designated
as the Return. Nestor is the first and simplest of these Returners; he
is an old man, he has prudence, he is without passion; moreover he has
not the spirit of inquiry or the searching into the Beyond; he accepts
the transmitted religion and opinions without question, through the
conservatism of age as well as of character. It is clear that the
spiritual scission of the time could not enter deep into his nature;
his long absence from home and country produced no alienation; he went
home direct after the fall of Troy, the winds and the waters were
favorable, no tempest, no upheaval, no signs of divine anger. But he
foresaw the wrath of the Gods and fled across the wave in all speed,
the wrestle with the deity lay not in him.
It is worth our while to make a little summary of these Returners in
classes, since in this way the thought of the present Book as well as
its place in the entire Odyssey can be seen best. First are those who
never succeeded in returning, but perished in the process of it; of
this class the great example is the leader himself, Agamemnon, who was
slain by his own wife and her paramour. Second are those who succeeded
in returning; of this class there are three well-marked divisions,
which are to be sharply designated in the mind of the reader.
(1). The immediate Returners, those who went straight home, without
internal scission or external trouble; unimportant they are in this
peaceful aspect though they were formerly heroes in the war. Four such
are passingly mentioned by Nestor in his talk: Diomed, Neoptolemus the
son of Achilles, Philoctetes, and Idomeneus. Nestor himself is the most
prominent and the typical one of this set who are the Returners through
Hellas.
(2). The second one of those who have succeeded in getting home is
Menelaus, whose sweep is far beyond that of Nestor and the immediate
Greek world, taking in Egypt and the East. He was separated from
Nestor, having delayed to bury his steersman; then a storm struck him,
bore him to Crete and beyond, the wind and wave carried him to the land
of the Nile. He is the Returner through the Orient.
(3). Finally is Ulysses, not yet returned, but whose time has nearly
arrived. In comparison with the others he is the Returner through the
Occident. But his Return gives name to the poem, of which it is the
greater portion.
Still the universal poem is to embrace all these phases of the Return,
and the son, through education, is to know them all, not by experience
but by information. Thus his training is to reach beyond what the life
of his father can give him; it must be universal, and in this way it
becomes a true discipline. We must note too, that this poem reaches
beyond the Return of Ulysses, beyond what its title suggests, and
embraces all the Returns, Hellenic, Oriental, Occidental, as well as
the grand failure to return.
Such are some of the thoughts which gleam out the present Book and
illuminate the whole Odyssey. We can now consider structure of the
Book, which falls into two distinct parts, determined by the Goddess.
When she makes ready to quit Telemachus, we enter the second portion of
the Book, and Telemachus continues his journey without direct divine
supervision. As the previous Book was marked by the coming of the
Goddess, the present Book is marked by her going. The intercourse of
the youth with Nestor is the extent of her immediate guardianship;
after such an experience, he must learn to make the rest of the journey
through his own resources. Even the deity teaches that there must not
be too much reliance upon the deity. The first portion of the Book
extends to line 328, where Nestor ends his story of the Returns and
suggests the journey to Menelaus for another phase thereof: "the sun
set and darkness came on." The second portion embraces the rest of the
Book. Again we must note that the fundamental Homeric division into the
Upper and Lower Worlds is what divides the Book, thus giving to the
same its organic principle.