Homer's Odyssey: A CommentarySnider, Denton Jaques
Philosophy
Homer's Odyssey: A Commentary
Snider, Denton Jaques
Epic poetry, Greek -- History and criticism; Homer. Odyssey; Odysseus, King of Ithaca (Mythological character) -- In literature
It is also to be noted by the reader that each, the man and the
Goddess, ascribes to the other the credit of skill and forethought,
specially the credit of coming to Ithaca in disguise to discover the
true situation. Says Pallas: "Another man would have rushed to see wife
and children in his house, but thou wilt first test thy wife." Here the
Goddess gives the thought to the man. Says Ulysses: "Surely I would
have perished in my own palace, like Agamemnon, if thou, O Goddess,
hadst not told me everything aright." Here the man gives the thought to
the Goddess. This is not a contradiction, both are correct, and the
insight is to see that both are one, and saying the same thing at
bottom. The deity must be in the man, as well as in the world; and the
man must hear the deity speaking the truth of the world ere he attain
unto wisdom.
Even the mist which hung over the landscape at first, has now
completely vanished; Ulysses recognizes all the local details--the
haven, the olive-tree, the grot of the Nymphs, and the mountain; all
the Ithacan objects of Nature come back fully. But chiefly he
recognizes the Goddess, whereupon both can pass to the great matter in
hand--the deed.
3. This deed has been often mentioned before--the purification of
Ithaca, chiefly by the slaughter of the Suitors, "the shameless set,
who usurp thy house and woo thy wife." Sitting on the roots of the
sacred olive, the two, the man and the deity, plan destruction to the
guilty. Verily those double elements, the human and the divine, must
co-operate if the great action be performed. The eternal principle of
right, the moral order of the world, must unite with the free agency of
the individual in bringing about the regeneration of the land. Thus
after their complete recognition and harmony, which takes place out of
separation, Ulysses and Pallas look forward to the impending deed,
which is their unity realized and standing forth as a fact in the
world.
4. Finally we have the manner of doing the deed, the plan is laid
before us. Pallas tells Ulysses that he must again assume his disguise,
both in the hut of the swineherd and in the palace at Ithaca. She does
not propose to do his work for him; on the contrary it must be his own
spontaneous energy. In fact, Pallas is in him making this suggestion,
yet outside of him, too, speaking the voice of the situation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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