Odysseus finally returns home in Book XIII of the Odyssey, but “could not tell what land it was / after so many years away … The landscape looked strange, unearthly strange / to the Lord Odysseus” (XIII. 238-39, 245-46). Odysseus spends the next seven books carefully making his way around Ithaka, making allegiances, and practicing his trademark dissembling and contending in order to insinuate himself into the presence of the suitors to make them eventually “atone in blood!” (XI.132).
Archive | September, 2003
Gogol and Pushkin’s Poshlust
While Gogol, Russia’s master of circumlocution and hyperbole, and Pushkin, the rational romantic, are apparently dichotomous in many ways, both share the singular distinction of forming the foundation of 19th and 20th century literature in Russia and beyond. Distinctly different in various ways, Gogol’s Dead Souls and Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin also, however, share many similarities, [...]
The Odyssey, Book 11 Notes
Book XI of the Odyssey shows Odysseus’ symbolic death and rebirth: a journey into the psyche of Odysseus in which he learns both about his past and future and comes to terms with his responsibilities as a leader, a father, a husband, and a hero. Perhaps most importantly Odysseus learns from the shades of his past the wisdom he needs to return home safely — to defeat his own selfish desires and those of his enemies.
201: Early Morning Ride
You’d think, knowing me, that I would not be as chipper at 4:00 am. But somehow knowing that I would soon be on the Nighthawk speeding northward in this hint of a fall morning provided what an alarm clock couldn’t any other day. Since I needed to be in Roswell (thirty miles north of Atlanta) [...]
The Odyssey, Book 10 Notes
Several themes and scenes from book nine are paralleled in book ten. The theme of hospitality that began book nine also begins book ten on Aiolia Island, domain of the wind king who takes pity on Odysseus and gives him a bag of winds, perhaps an appropriate gift for the tactician.
Andersonville
Over the weekend, Giles and I drove around some of the Georgia sites near Macon. Our first stop, after a rest to recover from Saturday night’s imbibing, we headed, Giles in Passat and I on my Nighthawk, down Highway 49 toward Andersonville National Historic Site and Cemetery. 49 was fabulous: straight roads through farmland and [...]
The Odyssey, Book 9 Notes
Odysseus begins book nine of the Odyssey by venerating King Alkinoos’ rhapsode, emphasizing, in a very rhetorical way, the foundation of human community. At the center of Phaeacia stands the hall of the King in which the people gather to dine in the community of others and listen to the tales of the poet: “Here is the flower of life, it seems to me!” (IX.11).
