Homer begins the Odyssey as follows: “Tell me, Muse, about the artful man who wandered so far after managing to take the holy city of Troy, saw the lands of many people and became familiar with their customs, and heartrendingly suffered many sorrows at sea as he tried to save himself and bring his companions back to their native land”. We notice from the very beginning that Homer sketches the personality of Odysseus in a generous way. He is clever, crafty. However, the equilibrium of his psychic condition will undergo many trials. Sometimes he will be enthusiastic, brave, euphoric, eager to try, to conquer, to fall in love, and other times he will suffer much bitterness, disappointment and frustration.
From the beginning of the Odyssey, therefore, Homer prepares us for the ambivalence that will plague the heart of his hero. But the name Odysseus is not given by chance; it comes from the verbOdysomai, which means, I feel pain; in other words, I am grieving, I am afflicted, I am much suffering. Homer tries to embellish Odysseus' personality in order to rein in his passion, to moderate the storms of his soul. But Homer personally identifies with his hero, and he himself succumbs to the same ambivalence. Hard as he tries to idealize Odysseus' personality and ethos, he describes many elements that reveal the intense contradictions of his own psychic condition.
It is not by chance that Homer selects the goddess Athena to assist and advise him. For the ancient Greeks, Athena was not only the goddess of wisdom, arts and letters, but also the goddess of war. These characteristics represent a portrait and likeness incarnate of the ideal man, “Kalou kagathou”, upstanding and virtuous, beautiful in body and soul. This ideal man, therefore, the man of Homer, the hero Odysseus, represents a symbol of the people and the poet. It is a symbol derived from ancient Greek patrimony, which the poet's spirit decoded, analyzed with remarkable craftsmanship, and delivered to perpetuity. This man/hero became the representative of the Greek nation, who always believed in contemplation, logical analysis, but also in strength and pathos. Homer defends everywhere the moral picture of Odysseus. He presents him as respectful of the gods and the laws. His attitude towards others is portrayed usually as amicable, humane and compassionate.
In contrast, the tragic poets do not accept the embellished portrait of Odysseus. They, as skillful analysts and explorers of the subconscious, are concerned in their works not only with the hero's outward representation, but more so with what is hidden in the depth of his soul, in his subconscious, whereas Homer is kind towards Odysseus. He tries to hide the catastrophic and instinctive impetuousness of the hero. Odysseus successfully repels his aggression, according to the disposition of Homer.
The tragic poets, and especially Sophocles and Euripides, accustomed to analyzing the conditions of the soul of the heros in their tragedies, discover hidden in the behaviour of Odysseus the unconscious clashes and paradoxes of his personality. Sophocles, in the tragedy “Ajax”, presents him as the illegitimate son of Sisyphos: cunning, scheming, arrogant, timid. But at the end of his tragedy he portrays him as virtuous, magnanimous and wise. In the tragedy “Philoctetes”, Sophocles describes him as hard, unhesitating, of base morality …. Again he presents him as the illegitimate son of Sisyphos, who was bought by Laertes.
Euripides, in the tragedy “Iphigenia in Aulis”, introduces Odysseus as forcefully pressuring for the sacrifice of Iphigenia when the rest, ie. Agamemnon her father, Clytemnestra her mother, Menelaus and Achilles, try to save her. In this play Odysseus is again revealed demeaningly as an illegitimate son of Sisyphos. Sisyphos is a hero of Greek mythology, famous for his cunning. According to the myth, he managed to cheat both Death and Hades. In the tragedy “The Trojans”, Euripides portrays Odysseus as hard and unfeeling. "The Trojans" refers to the aristocratic women of Troy, who, after the defeat, were destined to be divided as slaves among the Greek conquerers. Hecuba, wife of Priam King of Troy, and mother of Hector, is given to Odysseus. Cassandra, his daughter, is given to Agamemnon. Andromache, wife of Hector, is given to Neoptolemos, son of Achilles. At the urging of Odysseus, Polyxenie, another daughter of Priam, is sacrificed on the tomb of Achilles and Astyanax, the young son of Hector and Andromache, is thrown over the city walls and killed.
From “The Trojans”, Talthivios the herald declares the decree to Andromache.
Talthivios: “They will kill your son. See how you are informed of bad tidings”.
Andromache: “Alas, it is yet worse than my new wedding”.
Talthivios: “In the conference of the Greeks, the opinion of Odysseus prevailed”.
Hecuba, mourning her grandson Astyanax, says, “You deserve more honour than the weapons of the wicked and wise Odysseus”.
In another tragedy of Euripides, “Hecavi”, the chorus declares to Hecavi the decision to sacrifice her daughter Polyxenie on the tomb of Achilles. Chorus: “Those who discussed the matter came out equal – minded, until the opinionated Odysseus, flatterer of the masses, long – winded, sweet – talker, convinced the whole army not to slight the first among the Achaeans over the slaughter of a slave. And soon Odysseus will come here to forcefully take from your embrace your tender daughter”. In this tragedy, Odysseus is portrayed as a great talker, manipulator of the people, unhesitating, hard, forceful and graceless.
Homer, although avoiding judgment on many of Odysseus' actions, which in keeping with prevailing morality would come under censure, nevertheless describes them in detail, and on occasion justifies them as the result of the will of the gods, or even the pronouncement of the oracle. Therefore, manifestations of the unconscious clashes in the soul of Odysseus guide the hero's actions, but when they could be condemned by common logic and morals, then the poet makes plain to stress that it is not the fault of the hero but of some god or oracle.
Reading the Homeric epics we notice that Odysseus is associated with various female characters in different ways. At the beginning of the expedition, at Aulis, only he insists and succeeds in the killing/sacrifice of Iphigenia. After the conquest of Troy, he insists on killing Polyxenie. He takes as slave Hecavi, although she saved his life when he sneaked into Troy. From Odysseus' behaviour towards these women, we note an unjustified and deadly aggression towards the female race emanating from his soul. Subsequently, he is attached amorously to Circe for one year; then follows the sea voyage Nekia, which ends up in Hades. There, amongst others, he sees his mother Antikleia, who informs him that she died of a broken heart at his delayed return to Ithaka. This brings him grief. When he meets Calypso his sorrow is dispelled and replaced by euphoria. He enjoys a passionate affair with her for seven years.
After seven years he is again overwhelmed with sadness. He wishes to return to Ithaka, near his wife and son. After the island of Calypso he arrives at the island of Phaiakos, where the king's daughter Nausicca falls in love with him. But Odysseus does not reciprocate this love. As he approaches Ithaka, his amorous instincts wane. Other passions prevail: hate, murder, revenge, destruction. In the soul of the hero, the time has come for the Apollonian order to be replaced by the Dionyssian disorder. Odysseus becomes intoxicated with the desire for revenge and punishment of the suitors. The storms of his soul, which for so many years he has tried to restrain, unleash themselves uncontrollably. He is overcome by frenzy. Nothing moves him, not even the pleading of the suitors. All who tried to become lover/husbands of Penelope, in his mind hateful paternal substitutes for the cunning treachery and faithlessness of Sisyphus, must die. But this revengeful mania of Odysseus does not stop. After the killing of the suitors comes the punishment of the unfaithful maids, the maternal or conjugal faithless substitutes. These will be killed by his son Telemachus. Not, however, with his phallic-like arms such as sword, spear or arrow, but by decapitation, characteristic symbolism in keeping with the prohibition of incest.
The disposition of Odysseus towards female persons or maternal substitutes is analagous to his identities. That is, he identifies them with the good or bad experiences of his childhood. In these female persons he seeks the imaginary good mother of his childhood, the ideal standard of faith and devotion. At the end of every relationship, however, there is disappointment and disillusionment. The homesickness, the longing for the return to Ithaka to the good and fantasized mother Penelope, and to the narcissistic substitute of his son, are the main factors which help him sustain his psychological balance. However, under this precarious balance are hidden doubt and anxiety.
After the return to Ithaka, Odysseus again leaves his family and continues his wandering. It is almost certain that man throughout his entire life continues to seek, and tries to realize, the ideal mother of his childhood that he never knew. The storms within the soul of the small child carry on thoughout his whole life. The storms in the soul of the ordinary person, however, are manifest differently from those of the heros such as Odysseus or the poets such as Homer.
Certainly the subconscious clashes of the soul, the contrasts and paradoxes, are the common element of the works of the great creators, poets, writers and artists. It is the archtypical element of the collective subconscious that is expressed in the works of these creators and which emanates from their talent. About this ability of the creators, Freud writes in his book “Psychoanalysis and Literature”, “Our method, that is psychoanalysis, consists of the conscious observation of the abnormal proceedings of the soul towards others in order to guess and formulate the laws that govern them. The creator surely follows in another way: he guides his attention to the unconscious inside his own soul, watches vigilantly the possible developments and gives them an artistic expression, instead of suppressing them with conscious criticism. So he derives from himself what we learn studying others, that is which laws must the function of the unconscious follow, but he does not need to express these laws, not does he know them with scientific assurance, as they are embodied in their works on account of their talent”.
We, who specialize in the health of the mind and are preoccupied with the mysteries of the human soul, have a vision and a purpose for our fellow men, which is expressed in the ancient Greek Delphic maxim “KNOW THYSELF”.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Homer, “Odyssey”
- Homer, “Ilias”
- Sophocles, “Philoctetes”
- Sophocles, “Ajax”
- Euripides, “Iphigenia in Aulis”
- Euripides, “The Trojans”
- Adames Efthimios, “Omer and the enigmatic figure of Odysseus”
- S. Freud, “Psychoanalysis and literature”
- S. Freud, “Psychology of the erotic life”
- S. Freud, “Narcissism”
- Themirstocles Athinogenis, “The man of Omer”
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