The Odyssey first appeared in Homeric Greek during the eighth or seventh century BC. Scholars have debated its dating for centuries without reaching a consensus. Robert Lamberton suggests the epics straddled the beginnings of widespread literacy from the middle of the fifth-century BC. Yet the poems' language dates to long before this period. The Greeks adopted a modified version of the Phoenician alphabet to create their own writing system during the eighth century BC. If the Homeric poems were among the earliest products of that literacy, they would have been composed towards the late period of that century. Rudolf Pfeiffer argues they were probably written down, but there is no evidence for their publishing or physical dissemination for consumption by a literate audience. Dating is further complicated by the fact that the Homeric poems, or sections of them, were performed by rhapsodes for hundreds of years. In the early twentieth century, Milman Parry and Albert Lord demonstrated that they prominently contained the characteristics of oral poetry. This allowed even an illiterate poet to improvise large poems, composing them through speech. Scholars do not agree on how the poems emerged from this tradition. It is not clear whether oral tradition can claim full credit for their composition. In the nineteenth century, a series of related questions about the epics' authorship became known as the Homeric Question. Sources from antiquity created mythic narratives to explain Homer. Debate still persists today over many of the Homeric questions. For example, concerning the compositional relationship between the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the largely lost poems of the Epic Cycle. There are also debates about whether Homer lived and, if he did, when. Some scholars connect the epics' segmentation to the tradition of performance. They suggest it was a creation of rhapsodes. Pseudo-Plutarch attributed the divisions to Aristarchus of Samothrace, but there is some evidence against this. The division was probably made long after the poem's composition but is generally accepted as part of the poem's modern structure.
Plot Synopsis And Structure
Ten years after the Achaean Greeks won the Trojan War, Odysseus, king of Ithaca, has yet to return home from Troy. In his absence, 108 boorish suitors court his wife Penelope. Penelope tells them she will remarry when she is done weaving a shawl; however, she secretly unweaves it every night. The goddess Athena, disguised first as Mentes then as Mentor, tells Odysseus's son Telemachus to seek news of his father. The two leave Ithaca and visit Nestor, who tells them that Agamemnon, the commander of the Greek army at Troy, was murdered soon after the war. Telemachus travels to Sparta to meet Agamemnon's brother Menelaus, who in turn describes his encounter with the shape-shifting god known as the Old Man of the Sea. Menelaus says he learned from the Old Man of the Sea that Odysseus is alive, but held captive by the nymph Calypso. Athena petitions Zeus to rescue Odysseus, and Zeus sends Hermes to negotiate his release. As Odysseus leaves Calypso's island, Poseidon destroys his raft with a storm. The sea nymph Ino protects Odysseus as he swims to Scherie, home of the Phaeacians, and Athena leads the Phaeacian princess Nausicaä to recover him. In the court of Nausicaä's parents Arete and Alcinous, Odysseus excels at athletic games and is overcome with emotion when the bard Demodocus sings about the Trojan War. Odysseus reveals his identity and recounts his adventures following the war. On leaving Troy, Odysseus's men unsuccessfully raided the Cicones. Afterward, on an island of lotus-eaters, they found intoxicating fruit which made them forget about reaching home. On another island, they were captured by the cyclops Polyphemus. Odysseus, deceptively calling himself Nobody, escaped by intoxicating the cyclops and blinding him. However, he boastfully revealed his true identity while escaping, and Polyphemus asked his father Poseidon to take revenge. Odysseus's crew nearly arrived in Ithaca, but were blown off course after opening a bag of winds they received from Aeolus. Afterwards, all but one of their ships were destroyed by giant cannibals called Laestrygonians. On the island of Aeaea, the goddess Circe turned Odysseus's men into pigs. Hermes helped Odysseus resist Circe's magic using the herb moly, and Odysseus forced her to restore the crew's human forms. Odysseus and Circe then became lovers for a year until he left to continue home. Next, Odysseus traveled to the edge of Oceanus, where the living can speak with the dead. The spirit of the prophet Tiresias told him he would successfully return home, but must eventually undertake another journey. Odysseus also met the spirits of his mother Anticleia and former comrades Agamemnon and Achilles. Odysseus's crew then sailed past the Sirens, whose enticing song lured sailors to their deaths. His crewmen plugged their ears with beeswax to avoid hearing them, while Odysseus tied himself to the ship's mast. Next, they navigated the narrow passage between the whirlpool Charybdis and the multi-headed monster Scylla. Finally, on the island of Thrinacia, Odysseus's men killed and ate sacred cattle belonging to the sun god Helios. Helios asked Zeus to punish them, which he did by destroying their last ship. Odysseus, the sole survivor, washed ashore on the island Ogygia. There he met Calypso, who took him captive as her lover until Hermes eventually intervened. After hearing Odysseus's story, the Phaeacians take him to Ithaca, where Athena disguises him as an elderly beggar. Without knowing his identity, the swineherd Eumaeus offers him lodging and food. Telemachus returns home from Sparta, evading an ambush from the suitors. Odysseus reveals himself to his son and the two return home, where Odysseus's elderly dog Argos, long neglected, recognizes him through his disguise; the old dog had been faithfully awaiting his master and upon finally seeing his return, dies peacefully. The suitors mock and mistreat Odysseus in his own home. He and Telemachus hide the suitors' weapons in preparation for violent revenge. Odysseus also reencounters Penelope and her servant Eurycleia, who recognizes him from a scar on his leg. Penelope announces she is ready to remarry, and that she will choose whoever wins an archery contest with Odysseus's bow. After each suitor fails to even string the bow, Odysseus successfully strings it and fires an arrow through a series of axe heads. Having won the contest, he kills the suitors; Telemachus also hangs a group of slaves who had sex with them. Odysseus reveals his identity to Penelope, who tests him by asking to move their bed. He correctly states that the bed, which he carved from the trunk of an olive tree, is immovable, and the two lovingly reunite. The next day, after Odysseus reveals himself to his father Laertes, the families of the murdered suitors gather to get revenge. Athena intervenes and prevents further bloodshed.