Reading Notes: Homer's Odyssey, Part B

Ulysses and the Sirens. Herbert James Draper, 1909

Web Source: Wikimedia Commons

     I think the theme that I have for this week is that I don't like Odysseus. I wrote about it extensively in my last reading, but I think it's just... like I know that there's only so much he has control over. The gods and the fates control so much, that he can only do what he can do. But I still feel like, when presented with different options, he always chooses the worst ones. 

    The story of Odysseus's mother really hit me hard in this reading. She basically just wasted away while waiting for Odysseus to come home, and that's just so sad! She died waiting for him; meanwhile, he spent an entire year on Circe's island (Reading A). It's just so hard to believe that he really missed his mother, or misses his father, wife, and son, when he isn't rushing to get back to them. He continually searches for the greatest adventure, and that makes it hard to take him seriously when he talks about how much he misses them and wants to see them. 

    I really enjoyed the story of Agamemnon, weird as that sounds. It's just such a wild way to die, being slaughtered by your wife immediately upon your return. And, while I obviously don't condone murder, it's hard to really feel sorry for him. He was horrible to the people around him (like the fight with Achilles described in the Iliad last week), and that includes his wife. His fight with Achilles was literally about a woman. So it's actually quite ironic that he was killed by a woman.

    Lastly, Achilles' story was actually really interesting. I feel like he actually learned something in death, and it made me truly pity him. The point where he said that he'd rather be poor and weak, but alive, than dead in all his glory just hit different. It really highlights the fact that death truly is the great equalizer, and the gift that we have in life.