I am reading and enjoying, “An Odyssey, A Father, A
Son, and an Epic” by Daniel Mendelsohn. Chapter II is “Apologoi” not apologies.
Oops. The author translates the word from the Greek as Narratives;
Books 9-12 of the Odyssey. “A title that underscores Odysseus ‘wondrous
way with words, his sly expertise as a raconteur and fabulist”. That’s a
nice euphemism!
The boys find themselves adrift on the sea with a boat full of enthusiasts
following Odysseus’ travels across the Mediterranean. The son suddenly
realizes that the other guests like his students had come to know his father as
this song-singing old gentleman; affable and entertaining.
Mendelsohn continues retelling tales from the Odyssey. He does a remarkable job
of explaining the whole incident in Polyphemus’ cave with outis, metis and “My name
is Nobody.” (Hey! I just got that! Movie of the same name:
1973, Terence Hill and Henry
Fonda. One of my favorites as a kid. Only took 45 years for me to
make the connection. )
When debating rather to take the strenuous hike to
Circe’s supposed claustrophobic cave, the father says they have to go.
Because it is seven tenths of the story.
(Seven of the ten years homeward were spent here.) Love that logic. That’s why I bought the
book. When the younger man admits his extreme claustrophobia his father
says “It will be okay, I will hold our hand all the way.” That night over drinks the cruise’s social
director says to the younger man, “So you survived?” referring to the
claustrophobia he mentioned to her. Before he could say anything his father
says his son held his hand all the way because at his age he was worried about
falling.
The author points out that the “Nekyia”, the journey
to Hades, happens halfway through the Odyssey. “In order to move into the
future, we must first reconcile ourselves with our past. “ He compares the
rites there to “the best horror movies”, something I might have noticed once in
my youth. Father and son visit the place where Odysseus and company
sailed into the underworld at the Phlegraean Fields. This is the place
where the gods, goddesses and demi-gods slaughtered the giants.
Discussing the fall of Icarus;
“Yes, I said, smiling,
It’s about hubris, about the foolishness of challenging the gods.”
He gave me an amused
look. “I think it is about the foolishness of challenging your father!”
The father and son have a conversation about
homosexuality. Apparently the son is openly gay and is surprised to find
his father “has some experience in this area”; when the father was in high
school a gay boy had been fond of him. No telling yet what this has to do
with the Odyssey.
His students note “dark parallels” between the
adventures Odysseus relates to the Phaeacians and the early adventures as
related by Homer. As if “the stuff he’s telling the Phaeacians is totally made
up.” I personally have been a big supporter of this notion his Kevin
McGrath pointed out in a lecture that something like 80% of Odyssey is told by
Odysseus. I like this argument because it explains away Achilles comments
in Hades. Plus Odysseus lies constantly and consistently throughout his
adventures; it seems improbable plot-wise and impossible based on his
characterization throughout classical literature that he could tell the truth
and nothing but the truth for that long a recitation. My hero, Jenny Strauss
Clay is also a character in the book, she points out Homer’s comment at 8.447,
something about a knot Odysseus learned from Circe. That seems to kill
the students argument that Odysseus made up his adventures with Circe.
All it proves to me is that she taught him a knot. Everything else is
still up in the air.
Towards the end of this chapter father and son
discussed death. As if Odysseus return is a kind of death, the end of the
adventurer Odysseus who is now the old king of a petty realm. The father does
not fear death so much but the diminishing that so often precedes it for the
elderly: ill-health and dementia. (Things the reader knows will happen to
the father.) I read this discussion this morning, but yesterday, my dance
partner and I were the entertainment at long term at the hospital. A
nurse helped a ninety-one year old woman up out of here wheelchair so she could
“dance” with me. Another elderly woman agreed to country swing with one
of the nurses and ended up leading! There were people there who had no idea who
we were, what we were doing or saying. But in response they smiled in
pleasure at us. Pleasure and smiles are worth living for.
