The Odyssey by Homer

     The Odyssey is a story that will always be a classic, and it’s been a classic for all 3,000 years it’s existed. First, I must say that this is technically a poem, but The Odyssey is poetry in the same way that pumpkin bread is a bread. It’s only called bread even though it’s a cake.

    The story begins ten years after the fall of Troy. It starts by following Telemachus, son of Odysseus, who is at home and can no longer tolerate the suitors courting his mother, so he goes to search for his father. However, after the first 4 chapters the book shifts to follow Odysseus, the king of Ithaca and the actual protagonist, in his return home. Unfortunately, Odysseus has been trapped on an island by the goddess Calypso for 7 years. Finally, the other gods convince her to let Odysseus build a raft and leave the island. While Odysseus is at sea, Poseidon decides it would be a funny prank to send him a thunderstorm and destroy Odysseus’ raft. Odysseus holds on to a fragment of the raft and eventually lands on the island of the Phaeacians, where he shares the story of how he got to Calypso’s island. The most important event in the story he tells the Phaeacians is the first, where Odysseus and his crew land on an island and they meet the son of Poseidon which happens to be a cyclops (Greek mythology is weird) and who traps Odysseus and his crew. They then ram the cyclops’ eye with his own walking stick and blind him which greatly angers Poseidon. The other important event is when Odysseus’ crew kill a cow fulfilling a prophecy that they will all die, and Odysseus will return home to find his wife being courted by the band of suitors. Back in the Phaeacians’ island they send Odysseus home where Athena disguises him as a beggar. He eventually gets invited to a party where all the suitors are, and takes revenge upon them, restoring peace to Ithaca.

    One of the best things about this book is how much it stands out and is still unique even today. A lot of this can be attributed to how the story is told in anecdotes based on a combination of Greek mythology and fully original ideas. This also allows for a very restricted and controlled use of gods and magic so it doesn’t feel like a cop-out when the gods solve a problem via divine powers. Something else unique to this book is how pretty much half of it is told in flashbacks which doesn’t have too much effect on the story but is still interesting.

    Something else the story does exceptionally well is maintain good momentum making it very difficult to put down. The anecdotes lead into the next seamlessly and build on what previously happened. All of this builds up to what I would go so far as to call a thunderous and culminating climax which is one of the strongest I have ever read.

    Even though it does a lot well, there are some flaws. One of the more forgivable ones being how the book forgets about a couple major characters like Calypso. Something less forgivable is how disconnected the part at the beginning about Telemachus is from the rest of the story. While it’s very effective for introducing him into the story, it’s a bit excessive and could have been done better. Also, while it’s not difficult to understand what’s happening in the story, there are some parts where having background information would make it a lot clearer, like why Poseidon’s son is a cyclops. Ironically however, there is actually very little about The Odyssey which is archaic. The only noticeable thing that’s archaic is how whenever someone speaks the book describes it as, “his words flew out.”

    While there are some flaws, they are minor in comparison with what the book does well, and The Odyssey is still a classic which will always be unique for many reasons.

4/5

-Ben