-Keagan Tice
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Odysseus
Looking online I found that Odysseus's name originates from a Greek word meaning "to hate". Initially this confused me as Odysseus does not appear hateful in nature, but upon further speculation I thought that this could be directed towards him. Mr. Trout had explained Book 9 from a different perspective; being sympathetic towards the cyclops. Perhaps that was the original intention of the author, if not it certainly gives the sympathy card for the Cyclopes more legitimacy. Thoughts?
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Keagan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this. You are absolutely right about Odysseus's name. I just looked it up in my Greek lexicon (dictionary), and here's what it says about the root word: it's a verb meaning "to be wroth against, to hate another." Sometimes names can precede meanings, but in this case the lexicon says that the verb came first and that Odysseus's name is likely based on it.
Now, Keagan's question is a good one: what does this say about Odysseus? How does this change the way we interpret his character? Is he hateful, or is he the one being hated?
Any thoughts?
I'm still struggling with this one. Knowing The Odyssey as well as I do, I still can't see the import of this meaning. Why would the poet have chosen a name with that specific meaning? Maybe it has to do with how he was previously perceived, that is, in The Iliad. In that work, he was not always well respected by the other soldiers because he was trickster, he didn't fight fairly. In fact, he often won disputes through arguments and guile rather than by feats of arms. Maybe it's that other warriors disliked him for being talker, not always a fighter (though he was a good fighter, too).
ReplyDeleteAjax in particular didn't like him. There's a legend that after Achilles was killed, his armor was up for grabs. Both Ajax and Odysseus wanted it and Agamemnon, the king, was to decide who got it. Ajax argued that he was the manlier of the two, and so deserved so manly an armor; Odysseus, on the other hand, makes a more eloquent argument and is awarded the armor. Ajax goes mad over it and eventually kills himself. I think the key thing here is that we never hear what Odysseus actually argued, just that it was eloquent, which implies that he may not have deserved it.
Again, any thoughts?