Abstract
Although nature looms large throughout Homer’s Odyssey, literary critics have entirely neglected to discuss his construction of the natural world in this foundational Western work. This neglect might be the result of two factors: the blurred line between geographical and fantastical locales in Odysseus’ travels and the blurred line between natural forces and deities. This essay recognizes that Homer not only reconstructs the Mediterranean world in his epic through detailed references to weather, geology, plants, birds, and animals but also that his similes suggest a consciousness of inter-species relationships. Principally, however, this essay argues, as does William Cronon, that “relationships, processes, and systems are as ecological as they are cultural,” and that Odysseus’ response to nature may usefully be understood in relation to three ecocritical models: the anthropocentric or domination model, the stewardship model, and the biomorphic model. His exploitative and aggressive behavior toward the Cyclopes, Circe, and the cattle of the Sun is contrasted with his recognition upon his homecoming of his own animal nature and his appreciation of the agrarian and pastoral life. While the tradition of writing in The Odyssey genre has vigorously continued in Western literature, only recently have contemporary environmental writers moved toward a recognition of the threat of the anthropocentric perspective to the imperative of working toward the stewardship and biomorphic models.
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Notes
See Free essays: Symbols in Homer’s Odyssey. Retrieved August 6, 2008, from http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=6681. Free Essays on Homer’s Odyssey: The metaphor of the dawn. Retrieved August 6, 2008, from http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=5936. Stanford, W. B. (1969). The Ulysses theme. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, and Hall, E. (2008). The return of Odysseus: A cultural history of Homer’s Odyssey. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.
See Nelson, C. (Ed.). (1969). Homer’s Odyssey: A critical handbook. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Qtd in Black, R. W. (2008). What we talk about when we talk about ecocriticism. Retrieved September 16, 2008, from http://www.asle.org/site/resources/ecocritical-library/intro/defining/black/.
Melville, H. (1988). Moby-Dick (p. 55). Evanston/Chicago, IL: Northwestern University Press/Newberry Library.
See Johnson, C. D., & Johnson, V. (Eds.). (2003). Understanding the Odyssey: A student casebook to issues, sources, and historic documents (pp. 65–66, 68–69). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Segal, C. (1994). Singers, heroes, and gods in the Odyssey (p. 3). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Ibid., 3, 8; Clarke, H. W. (1967). The art of the Odyssey (p. 45). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Hughes, J. D. (1975). Ecology in ancient civilizations (p. 48). Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.
All quotations from The Odyssey occur in Stanley Lombardo’s translation (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2000) and are identified parenthetically in the text.
Hughes, Ecology (p. 18). Hughes develops his ideas regarding human impact on the Mediterranean ecosystem more fully in his later book, Pan’s Travails: Environmental Problems of the Ancient Greeks and Romans (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994). A third book, The Mediterranean: An Environmental History (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005) considers Greek environmental history in relation to a broad definition of the Mediterranean and in relation to contemporary times.
Hughes, Ecology (p. 70).
Hughes, Pan’s Travail (p. 1).
Hughes (p. 19).
See Sigler, C. (1994–1995). Wonderland to wasteland: Toward historicizing environmental activism in children’s literature. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 19.4, 148–153. See also, James D. Proctor, who differentiates between non-anthropocentric ethics and anthropocentric ethics, the former concerned with human desires—“where people value nature instrumentally, as a means to human material, aesthetic, or other ends,” the latter where “people primarily value nature intrinsically, without reference to human ends.” Qtd. in Cronon, W. (Ed.). (1996). Whose nature? The contested moral terrain of ancient forests. Uncommon ground: Rethinking the human place in nature (p. 281). London: Norton.
Hughes, Ecology (p. 12).
Finley, J. H., Jr. (1966). Four stages of Greek thought (p. 28). Stanford, CA/Oxford: Stanford University Press/Oxford University Press.
According to Hughes, the Greeks “tended to assign a lower social position to those who labored with their hands” (Ecology, p. 81).
Polyphemus’ process of milking his animals is described as being especially careful, and his process of making whey as elaborate: “Half of the white milk / He curdled and scooped into wicker baskets, / The other half he let stand in the pails / So he could drink it later for his supper. / He worked quickly to finish his chores” (p. 131).
The gruesome and extensive details of the mutilation of Polyphemus’ eye which resulted in his blinding would have been especially painful to Homer, who reputedly was himself blind.
Although feminist readings of The Odyssey have recently proliferated, to my knowledge, no ecofeminist reading of the epic has been done. Ecofeminist readings of women’s association with nature argue that this association often reinforces women’s nurturing and sensual aspects to the detriment of their intelligence.
Through references to clothing, Homer reveals Odysseus’ maturation. Although as Odysseus, in resuming his position of leadership, will cover his nakedness and shed his natural garments, these humble natural garments represent the process by which Odysseus gains in empathy of others. Rescued by Nausicaa, the young Phaecian princess, Odysseus is re-clothed, first in leaves, covering his nakedness before her and her handmaidens, and then in royal garments. Returning to Ithaca, however, he descends to the lowest social rung, disguising himself as a beggar in tattered and filthy rags as well as “a great deerskin cloak with the fur worn off” (p. 205).
Odysseus later explains his intention to perform the duties of a slave—“any of the things / Lesser men do when they wait on nobles” (p. 232).
He will weep again when his old nurse, with the help of other women, purifies his house, “For in his heart he knew them all” (p. 352).
See Johnson and Johnson.
Cold Mountain received the National Book Award; The Road was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Hughes, Pan’s Travails (p. 182).
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Schultz, E. Odysseus comes to know his place: reading the Odyssey ecocritically. Neohelicon 36, 299–310 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-009-0001-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-009-0001-9