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
Already it has been remarked that the Goddess is made to command
nature--the breeze, the sleep of the Suitors. It is the method of fable
thus to portray intelligence, whose function is to take control of
nature and make her subserve its purpose. The breeze blows and drives
the ship; it is the divine instrument for bringing Telemachus to Pylos,
a part of the world-order, especially upon the present occasion. The
born poet still talks that way, he is naturally a fabulist and cannot
help himself. In his speech, the hunter does not chase the deer, but
brings it before his gun by a magic power; the mystic fisher calls the
fishes; the enchanted bullet finds its own game and needs only to be
shot off; the tanner even lays a spell upon the water in his vat and
makes it run up hill through a tube bent in a charm. But back of all
this enchantment intelligence is working and assumes her mythical,
supernatural garb when the poet images her control of nature.
Thus in general the Mythus shadows forth objective mind, not
subjective; it springs from the imaginative Reason, and not from a
cultivated Reflection. In our time the demand is to have these
objective forms translated into subjective thoughts; then we can
understand them better. But the Homeric man shows the opposite
tendency: he had to translate his internal thoughts into the external
shapes of the Mythus before he could grasp fully his own mind. His
conception of the world was mythical; this form he understood and not
that of abstract reflection. We may well exclaim: Happy Homeric man, to
whom the world was ever present, not himself. Yet both sides belong to
the full-grown soul, the mythical and the reflective; from Homer the
one-sided modern mind can recover a part of its spiritual inheritance,
which is in danger of being lost.
It is therefore, a significant fact that the education of the present
time is seeking to restore the Mythus to its true place in the
development of human spirit. The Imagination is recognized to have its
right, and unless it be taken care of in the right way, it will turn a
Fury, and wreak treble vengeance upon the age which makes it an
outcast. Homer is undoubtedly the greatest of all mythologists, he
seizes the pure mythical essence of the human mind and gives to it form
and beauty. Hence from this point of view, specially, we shall study
him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account