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Essay: Exploring the Enchanting Narratives of Greek Mythology

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  • Published: 1 April 2019*
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  • Words: 1,351 (approx)
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Mythology was never something that particularly interested me until recently. In fact, my experience with mythology was limited to Walt Disney’s Hercules. It was not until I read Homer’s Odyssey that I realized that reading Greek mythology is somewhat of an enjoyable experience. Unlike my experience with playwrights such as Shakespeare and Molière, my eyes glided effortlessly from word to word as I read about the trials and tribulations of godlike Odysseus, son of Laertes. I always knew that mythology was important in that it shed light on political and religious institutions of the ancient Mediterranean world, but there is a philosophical aspect of it that I also find truly fascinating that extends itself not only to the nature of the human condition, but also the way we experience literature.

Last spring, I took a course in the French department that focused on something called the “literary experience.” It is a complex concept to explain, but for the purposes of this essay, it suffices to say that the words “experience” and “experiment” are synonymous in French and so the literary experience asks us to think of a piece of literature (or film) as an experience that the audience has while reading a book or watching a film. Furthermore, it asks us to think of the work in question as a sort of experiment being conducted by the author or director that the audience must submit themselves to.

Maurice Blanchot is a mid-20th century writer who has written extensively on the idea of what he likes to call “literary space” and the way we, as humans, experience literature. For example, in Blanchot’s 1950 novel, Thomas l’Obscur (1950), he writes of the experience of a character who is drowning. As Blanchot constructs the narrative of the drowning man, he reaches a point where he no longer knows where his body ends and the water begins. Many people that have almost drown, or have had any near-death experience for that matter, enter a liminal space between life and death wherein he or she is being drawn towards death while not quite reaching it. It is Blanchot’s hope that in constructing this narrative, that the audience can submit themselves to it and in a way, experience the event. Scary as it sounds, further reflection of an incident such as this might reveal that this position of liminality between life and death is in fact a position of privilege and it is evident that Odysseus enters this liminal space during his encounter with the Sirens in book 12 of the Odyssey.

When I use the term “narrative,” I am not referring to the narrative of Odysseus because the Odyssey is not a narrative; it is an epic. Instead, many mid-20th century French writers and philosophers such as Michel de Certeau, Jacques Lacan, and certainly Maurice Blanchot would agree that the world of the Odyssey is formed out of many smaller narratives. In other words, the Odyssey itself is not a narrative that starts on the first page and ends on the last page, but rather it is a world that exists in its own space that is constructed from all of the smaller narratives in the epic such as Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens.

There seems to be a certain call to action when in the first book, Zeus says to his godly companions, “but come, let all of us who are here work out [Odysseus’] homecoming and see to it that he returns” (Odyssey 1 76-77). And so, the story is set in motion and only a couple of pages later, the wheels are turning so that Odysseus can finally depart from Ogygia where he has been detained by Kalypso. Out of all the trials Odysseus must endure to return to Ithaka where his beloved wife Penelope and his son Telemachus await him, there is only one instance where Odysseus’ much-desired homecoming is woven explicitly into the episode – the encounter with the Sirens. Circe warns Odysseus, “that man who unsuspecting approaches them, and listens to the Sirens singing, has no prospect of coming home and delighting his wife and little children as they stand about him in greeting, but the Sirens by the melody of their singing enchant him” (Odysseus 12 40-44). It is somewhat unsettling to the reader to hear Circe threaten the thing that Odysseus longs for most.

Circe instructs Odysseus on how to proceed if he wished to listen to the Sirens singing and Odysseus follows her instructions, but in doing so he puts himself in a position wherein the only thing standing between him and his destruction is the fact that he had placed wax in the ears of his comrades and had himself bound to the mast of his ship. This seems like a careless thing for a man to do who in book five declined Kalypso’s offer of immortality: “but even so, what I want and all my days I pine for is to go back to my house and see my day of homecoming” (Odyssey 5 219-220). So, why risk it at all?

I was instructed very early on in my literary studies to pay attention to every single word. The word that interests me in Circe’s warning to Odysseus is enchant. Definitions of this word suggest that to enchant someone is to influence by way of charms or incantations. Or, if you prefer a more realistic definition, to enchant someone can mean to attract or strongly influence. Since we are dealing with mythology, I do not think it is wrong to consider the former definition of the word. Next, we must consider the part of Circe’s warning where she says, “that man who unsuspecting approaches them” (Odyssey 12 40-41). This is the sole reason that Odysseus can endure his encounter with the sirens. He is not unsuspecting of what is to come and is therefore able to make a calculated decision to submit himself to the enchantment of the Sirens and in doing so, he places himself in the liminal space I mentioned earlier because he is neither deaf to the Sirens’ song nor completely taken by it since he is bound to the mast of his ship.

Additionally, there is a psychological explanation for Odysseus’ decision to submit himself to the Sirens’ song. That is, people often submit themselves to things such as self-inflicted pain or nearly drowning themselves not because they want to die, but because it causes them to feel an affirmation of their existence, even if the act is self-destructive. This doesn’t mean that Odysseus is clinically depressed and needs to consult his psychologist, but it does affirm that he is in fact godlike Odysseus – it is part of the essence of his character which is emphasized time and time again as he narrowly escapes death throughout the epic.   

This episode also says something very powerful about the human condition in that it exposes an instant in which man, subjected to something so delightful and enchanting, proves to be unfaithful to himself. The music is nothing but an entrancing illusion promising all that one desires, only to reveal itself as fatally misguiding. Throughout the epic, Odysseus persists through his trials never once losing sight of his end goal. That is another reason that the encounter with the Sirens is so extraordinary in that, even though he is tricked, it is the only instance in the book where Odysseus loses sight of his objective and almost loses everything. It is not dissimilar to a married man being seduced by a woman half his age. Men (and women) can become enchanted and lose sight of what is important to them.

Homer has created a world that has remained on the bestseller list for nearly three millennia and for that reason it is important to consider the literary experience that he has created for us. This collection of narratives certainly doesn’t fit into the category of “quotidian,” but it wouldn’t be much of an experience if it did and that is what makes the Odyssey such a timeless masterpiece.

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