STORY 1:14:49 listening time Odysseus – “the polytropus man” – sets sail for home. Adventures at Ismarus and in the Land of the Lotus Eaters follow. A detailed flashback takes us to Ithaka, to explore Penelope’s three duties in her husband’s absence: stewardship, sexual fidelity, and raising an heir. The episode concludes with Odysseus and…
STORY 1:14:49 listening time Odysseus – “the polytropus man” - sets sail for home. Adventures at Ismarus and in the Land of the Lotus Eaters follow. A detailed flashback takes us to Ithaka, to explore Penelope’s three duties in her husband’s absence: stewardship, sexual fidelity, and raising an heir. The episode concludes with Odysseus and his “12 bravest men” about to enter a mysterious … Show Notes
STORY 1:03:45 listening time This episode includes all of the adventures – the horror, the comedy, and the strategy – inside the cyclops Polyphemus’ cave. The episode concludes with Odysseus being cursed, followed by a short primer on how to curse one's enemies, Bronze Age style. COMMENTARY: UNDERSTANDING XENIA 21:49 listening time The Odyssey’s most central and recurring theme involves the … Show Notes
STORY 46:05 listening time The Great Wanderings continue, and disaster follows disaster. First Odysseus squanders opportunity for easy homecoming via King Aeolus’ magical bag of wind. And then Odysseus loses most of his ships and crew, in the Lastrygonian harbor of death. COMMENTARY: THE ODYSSEY AS LITERATURE’S DEFINING QUEST STORY 27:13 listening time I offer a detailed primer on all of … Show Notes
STORY 55:57 listening time Odysseus’ crew arrive on Circe’s island, where they are transformed into pigs (most likely for behaving like pigs). After rescuing his crew, Odysseus decides to postpone his homecoming a full year, unwilling to resist the pleasures of the Circe's “gorgeous bed”. COMMENTARY: MARITAL FIDELITY IN THE BRONZE AGE 21:45 listening time Was Odysseus being unfaithful to … Show Notes
STORY 53:00 listening time Odysseus visits the underworld and has some interesting conversations with the dead. His mom warns him about the deteriorating situation in Ithaka; Agamemnon warns him about the fidelity of wives (an Odyssey “recurring theme); and Achilles shares his post-life existential crisis: “was all of my earthly kleos really worth anything?”. COMMENTARY: THE ODYSSEY: SEQUEL … Show Notes
STORY 58:55 listening time Odysseus listens to the Sirens. I pause to provide a historical review of how Sirens evolved over time, following Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus then chooses between Charybdis and Scylla, and I pause to relate a seriously twisted “Scylla back-story”. And finally, we witness the incredibly disturbing deaths of all of Odysseus’ remaining crew. COMMENTARY MY FAVORITE HOMER … Show Notes
STORY 53:58 listening time The episode opens in year seven of Odysseus’ long, largely undocumented sojourn on Calypso’s island. Odysseus is longing for home, apparently unmoved by the promise of immortality with a goddess. Up on Mount Olympus: Athena pleads Odysseus’ case, Zeus relents, and Hermes is sent to Calypso’s island with orders that “Odysseus must be set free”. And as the episode … Show Notes
STORY 54:12 listening time At the same time as Hermes takes flight to Calypso' island, in order to rescue Odysseus, Athena takes flight to Ithaka, in order to “rescue” 20-year old Telemachus: from his remarkable immaturity. This episode picks up the story in the twentieth year of Odysseus’ absence, and details the “Ithacan constitutional crisis” confronting Penelope, Telemachus, and the people … Show Notes
STORY 49:47 listening time Athena sends Telemachus off on his first ever “road trip” – to Pylos and to Sparta – in the hopes that it might help the milquetoast young man to “grow a pair”. Telemachus meets some familiar characters from Iliad: windy old king Nestor, blustery Menelaus, and the “enigmatic-as-ever” Helen of Troy (now, once again, “of Sparta”). Telemachus witnesses unresolved … Show Notes
STORY 1:04:45 listening time At the same time as Athena is in Ithaka - “mentoring” Telemachus - Odysseus washes ashore the land of the Phaeacians: badly beat up, half-starved, and totally naked. And his only hope of receiving the xenia that he needs, is to somehow find a way to supplicate a feisty young teenage princess named Nausicaa. The episode is dominated by the brilliant and delightful … Show Notes
STORY 1:17:58 listening time Odysseus – his identity still a secret - spends a very full day as the guest of the King Alcinous and Queen Arete. Most of the day is spent in Odysseus doing his best to NOT reveal his identity. But songs sung by the bard Demodocus, and an ugly incident on the sporting field, both nearly blow Odysseus’s disguise. I pause our story to explore "Homer the … Show Notes
STORY 1:33:00 listening time Odysseus – after twenty years away – wakes up on the shores of his own dear Ithaka. Athena provides her boy with an intelligence briefing, a reconnoiter strategy, and, of course, a disguise. And then Odysseus launches into the most dangerous part of his homecoming journey yet: figuring a way to overcome 108 dangerous suitors, and one very circumspect wife. This … Show Notes
STORY 1:35:50 listening time Our story opens with possible “recognition”. Penelope and a homeless beggar (Odysseus) have a long conversation, and take turns decoding a dream. Does Penelope know that the beggar is Odysseus? The next day Penelope announces that her husband is dead, and now is the day to choose a new husband. Penelope sets a contest of strength – who can string, draw, and shoot … Show Notes
STORY 1:03:05 listening time And finally, Penelope and Odysseus (no longer in disguise) meet. Penelope sets one final test, Odysseus passes it, and certain recognition ensues. Following that, Homer attempts to tie up a few lose ends in his plot - and leaves even more dangling - and The Odyssey comes to a close. COMMENTARY MAKING SENSE OF THE ODYSSEY’S SPUTTERING FINALE 25:05 listening … Show Notes
