Transcription
We conclude the Odyssey today. And as we discussed, uh, last lecture, the Odyssey is really about a homecoming. About three members of a family, uh, Odysseus, Penelope, who after 20 years' separation must come together again and rediscover their love for each other. And as we discussed last class, all three suffer from depression.
Um, Odysseus suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder because war has shattered his identity, his sense of self, his worldview, his purpose. Penelope, um, is depressed because the love of her life has disappeared, and she doesn't know if, uh, he's dead or alive. Telemachus is a teenager, a young man who cannot inherit his father's legacy or his mother's wealth. Okay. So all three are depressed. And today we will discuss how love, uh, brings the three together and resurrects all three.
All right. Okay. So a major topic that we will discuss throughout the semester is the idea of love. What is love? How does it manifest itself, and why is it so important? Okay. So remember that consciousness is the universe. Okay? And our consciousness is, uh, infinite. But we don't know that because, in order to navigate our reality, we hallucinate time and space. And time and space makes us believe that we are separate from everyone else, when in reality, we are unified with everyone else. Okay. So the reality that we see is a, a hallucination created by our ego. Okay. And our ego makes us believe that we are separate from each other. And love is the force. Okay. Love is the monad, God, or love that burns in us and compels us to return to the monad, and which is, which reminds us that we are all interconnected. Okay. So love is the force that compels us into unity. And when we meet someone that we truly love, we move together back to the monad. And within the monad, our love is imprinted. And this love, um, becomes a force onto itself that compels us back into it. All right?
So, in other words, um, Penelope and Odysseus are in love with each other, and they, and as a result, no matter how far away they are, they still are drawn back to each other because they complete each other, right?
So another way of saying this is that because our consciousness is infinite, okay, it exists in even dimensions. We can break our consciousness into three planes. Okay? There's a plane of the mind. Okay, our conscious, subconscious mind. Okay, and we are aware of this. But then there's the spirit, okay, which is basically the heart, our emotions, how we feel. And then at, at the very core of our consciousness is the soul. And all three planes exist at the same time. And when all three align or correspond, we are happy. We know who we are. We know what we should do. But when all three split apart or they are in conflict with each other, this creates the idea of cognitive dissonance. And this leads to trauma and depression. And that's the issue that, uh, Odysseus, Penelope, and Telemachus face, where they're in their soul, okay? They know that they're all alive and they will all return to each other one day, okay? But in their spirit, they, because of the distance, they have a sense of depression because they are away from each other. And in their mind, they logically believe that, uh, Odysseus is dead, and Odysseus believes that I can never return home. Okay. So there is a disunity of these three things. And for the family to reunite, they also must combine all three together. Okay? Does that make sense? Right now, these three different planes believe different things. There's a different narrative, and they must combine this narrative into one complete worldview if they are to come together as a family. That is the struggle, uh, within the Odyssey. That is the journey of the Odyssey.
All right. Okay. So, um, the main idea that I want you to understand is that love is a unity of all three, and love is the burning of the soul. Okay? In other words, what love ultimately is, is intimacy. How do you know if you love someone? You love someone not because you think about this person all the time. Not because you obsess about this person. You want to possess this person. You love this person. Uh, you know you love this person if you understand this person intimately. Okay. So, in other words, you're able to communicate, um, and understand each other in an intimate language with code words and secrets. You understand secrets. Okay? Does that make sense?
All right. So let's look at this concretely. Now, last class, we read, um, uh, Telemachus visiting Sparta, where Helen and Troy and her husband, King Menelaus, live. We discussed how the two don't actually love each other. We know because they don't speak to each other. They say words, they tell stories, but they don't really hear each other. Okay? So, for example, the example is that, uh, Helen, Menelaus, and Telemachus, they all get drunk, and Helen is telling stories of Troy, and she tells a story of how Odysseus infiltrates Troy, and he's disguised as a beggar. But, but because Helen is the smartest person in the world, she sees through his disguise. She bathes him, and then Odysseus tells her about the Trojan Horse, and then she helps the Greeks implement their plan. And so she's a real hero of the story. Okay? This is a story she tells herself. Um, she doesn't really think about the reaction of Menelaus, who's lost, um, his brother Agamemnon, and his friend Achilles, and many other Greeks because of the children of war. Okay? She doesn't really care about his feelings. She doesn't really hear him, and he doesn't really hear her. Okay? So, after she tells the story, remember Menelaus tells a different story, which is, "Helen, you almost got us killed because when the Trojan Horse came into Troy, you came and you tried to trick us into revealing ourselves by calling names of our wives in their voices. And it was only Odysseus who saved us, but because he clapped our mouths." Okay? So, basically, they are shouting at each other, but they don't really hear each other. And when Helen is telling the story, Helen just drifts away. Okay? So this is not love. They are together because they're stuck together. Okay?
Now, what, what now we're going to see a different version. Okay? We're going to see what love really is like. And so what's, what's hap, what happened is that Odysseus is disguised as a stranger and returns to Ithaca, and he, um, he plots with his son, Telemachus. Telemachus actually knows who he is, but no one else knows who he is. And right now, in his house, it is overrun by suitors. Okay? There's dozens of them who are trying to wait for Penelope's, uh, hand. But Penelope doesn't really tell them anything. So they just sit around and eat all the food that they can. Okay? They get drunk. They sleep with the servants. They, um, they make a mess of things. Okay? And Odysseus goes as a beggar, and they just, and they abuse him as well. But Penelope hears that there's a stranger in the house, and she also hears that, um, um, he knows that her husband Odysseus is still alive. So she's curious, and she asks the beggar Odysseus to come to her apartment so that they can discuss.
Now, the problem is this. The problem is that the house is full of servants, and some of them are spies to the suitors. And Odysseus has disguised himself because he's afraid that the suitors, if they knew, um, who he really was, it would kill him. But he also doesn't really trust Penelope. Okay? He doesn't really know how she feels about him after 20 years, because really, he abandoned her, right? So, um, they have a conversation, but it, it's a conversation that happens on three different planes, right? The mind, the spirit, and the soul. At the soul level, they both know who each other are right away. Okay? Okay? Because they've been communicating, um, multi-dimensionally. So at the soul level, they know the truth. At the spirit level, they are afraid of each other, but they long for each other. At the mind level, okay, this is really important. At the mind level, they don't know who, who each other, um, are, because if they did, they'd all be dead. Okay? The suitors discover who Odysseus really is, they would kill Odysseus. Okay? So, this conversation between Penelope and Odysseus is the first conversation they've had in 20 years. And this conversation is going to happen at three different levels. Okay? So, you need to analyze, um, the conversation at these three different levels to understand how love works.
All right? So, remember, they're talking to each other, but there are servants. And these servants, some of them are spies for the suitors. Okay? So there's an public, public language and there's a private language all in the same time. Okay?
So, um, Penelope asks the stranger, Odysseus, "Prove to me that you actually know my husband." Okay? So, uh, can you read, Ivory?
>> Yeah.
>> Uh, good woman, Odysseus, the great master of subtlety, returned. How hard it is to speak after so much time apart. Why, some 20 years have passed since he left my left my house and put my land behind him. Even so, imagine a man as I portray him. I can see him now. King Odysseus. He was wearing a heavy linen cape, sea purple.
>> Okay, stop. Okay. Um, keep going.
>> In double fold with a a golden brooch to clasp it. Twin sheets for the pins on the face. A work of art. A hound clutching a damsel fawn in its front paws. Slashing it as it rips. All marvel to see it. Solid gold as it was. The hound slashing, throttling the fawn in its death throes. Hooves failing to break free. I noticed his glossy tunic too, clinging to his skin like this, like the thin, glistening skin of a dried onion. Silky, soft, the glint of the sun itself. Women galore would gaze on it with relish. And this, too. Bear it in mind, won't you? I have no idea if Odysseus wore these things at home, or a comrade gave him, as he boarded ship, or a host, perhaps. The man was loved by many. There were a fewans to equal him. And I, I gave him a bronze sword myself, a linen cloak, elegant, deep red, and a fringe shirt as well. And I saw him off in his long bench ship of war in the lordly style. Something else. He kept a herald beside him, a man a little older than himself. I'll try to describe him to you best I can. Round shouldered. He was swarthy, curly, curly-haired. His name, Eurybates, and Odysseus prized him most of all his men. Their minds worked as one.
>> His words renewed her deep desire to weep.
>> Okay. Her words renewed her deep desire to weep. Okay? Meaning that he, his words moved her spirit, moved her heart. Okay? Now, you read this, and you have absolutely no idea what's going on. And in fact, no one knows what's going on. The servants, the suitors, they might overhear this, but they have absolutely no idea what's being talked about. But these words are able to move Penelope to tears because she now feels her heart stirring. She now feels as though her heart is alive again after 20 years of being dormant. Okay? Why? The answer is that in this language, there is a code. There is a great secret that only Odysseus and Penelope know. Okay? And you, you can't actually find it yourself, but I'll tell you what it is, and it's the word brooch. Golden brooch. Okay? This reveals that this person speaking must be Odysseus. And the end, and the reason why is, look at the detail, uh, on the face of the work of art, a hound clutching a double fawn. It goes on and on and on and on. And what does this poetry reveal? This poetry reveals that this brooch is prized. This brooch is embedded in the imagination of Odysseus. So what is this thing? This is a thing that 20 years ago, Odysseus is about to set sail to Troy, right? Says, says to Odysseus, the prophecy says, "You'll be gone for 20 years, 10 years in Troy, 10 years lost at sea." Now says, "I know." And the prophecy says, "Take this with you. It's a golden, it's a golden brooch. Okay? Take this with you and promise me that you'll return this to me." And what he says, "Yes." Okay? Now, he gets lost at sea and he loses the boat. But what does he bring back? He brings back the memory of their departure together. And this is what the words reveal. Okay? It's impossible to see. All right? And it's something that you will have to discover for yourself. But I'm telling you right now what this is, right? So this is an example of the mind, the spirit, and the soul, the language working together. Okay? And now Penelope, in her spirit, knows this must be Odysseus. Okay? Not the mind. The mind is still stuck in the present, but her soul has always known. Now her spirit knows. All right?
And then after this conversation, where Penelope is moved by her spirit to acknowledge that her husband is still alive, they can call a plan to kill all the suitors. And the plan is this: Penelope will announce to the suitors, "Listen, it's been 20 years, and it's about time I get married and get out of the household. So, I'm going to have a competition. Whoever wins this competition, I will marry." Okay? And the competition is this: Now, this has a bow. Um, if you're able to string together this bow and shoot a target, then I will marry you. Okay? And the great secret, of course, is that there's only one person in the whole universe who can string together this bow, and that, of course, is Odysseus. No one else can do this. So the suitors don't know this. So, uh, there's a competition. All the suitors try their best, but they can't do it. And then Odysseus, who's still disguised as a beggar, says, "Let me try." Okay? And the suitors are like, "What are you talking about? You're just a stupid beggar. Get out of here." But somehow, Odysseus is able to try, and of course, he strings together the bow. Okay? And this is the climax of the epic, the Odyssey. Okay? So we'll read it together. All right. Can, can you, um, read it, Ivory?
>> So they mocked mastermind in action. Once he'd handled a great bow and scanned every inch. Then like an expert singer skilled at lyre and song, who strains a string to a new peg with ease, making the pliant sheep gut fast at either end. So with his with his virtuoso ease, Odysseus strung his mighty bow. Quickly his right hand plucked the string to test his pitch, and under his touch, it sang out clear and sharp as a swallow's cry. Horror swept through the suitors, faces blanching white, and Zeus cracked the sky with a bolt, his blazing sign, and the great man who had borne so much rejoiced at last that the that the son of Cronus flung that omen down for him.
>> "Okay, keep on reading."
>> He snatched a winged arrow lying bare on the board. The rest still bristled deep inside the quiver, soon to be tasted by all the feasters there. Setting shaft on the hand gripped drawing the notch and bowstring back right from his stool just as he sat, but aiming straight and true. He let fly and never missing an axe from the first axe handle clean on through the last, and out the shaft with with his raised head shot free. My son. Odysseus looked to Telemachus and said, "Your guest sitting here in your house has not disgraced you. No missing the mark. Look, and no long labor spent to string the bow. My strings not broken yet. Not quite so frail as the mocking suitors thought. But the hour has come to serve our master's right. Supper in broad daylight. Then to other rebels, song and dancing, all that crowns a feast."
>> Okay. So remember, the main, um, problem, uh, conflict in the Odyssey is that Odysseus, his worldview is shattered. His sense of identity, purpose is shattered. He went to Troy to fight for justice, to fight for family, to leave a legacy for his son. But instead, he, he ends up destroying families. He ends up causing a war cry, and he's too ashamed now to face his son. Okay? So this passage where Odysseus, uh, assembles his bow and shoots a target, what it represents metaphorically is a resurrection of his soul, his worldview. Okay? The alignment of his mind, his soul, and his spirit, which makes him invincible now. And what allows him to assemble the bow? What allows him to resurrect his, his identity? The love of his son and the love of his wife, right? Because he first needs to, um, know if Penelope still loves him or not. And he knows because they, when they talk, they're able to understand each other intimately. Okay? So now, what's, what will happen is it's almost as though, um, a normal person is now transforming into a Superman. Okay? And because, um, he knows he's fighting for right, Zeus, um, gave him a blazing sign. Okay? So now that he has resurrected himself, the gods look down and rejoice and smile upon him, and he knows that finally he will fight for justice, for family, for his son. Okay? And, and even though, uh, he and Telemachus are heavily outnumbered, they basically kill everyone. Okay?
All right. So now, after the suitors are dead, uh, Odysseus has a problem, which is he now has to reveal himself to Penelope. Okay? So, at the soul level, they are together again. At the spirit level, they're still together. They're now together again. At the mind level, it's harder. It's hard. Okay? Because how does Odysseus explain to her why he was gone for 20 years? How does he explain to her that he was in disguise all this time? Okay? So, um, let's read this passage to see how they reconcile themselves. Okay?
>> All right. So, this is Penelope, um, who, who is still distant. Okay? This is Odysseus has revealed himself, but Penelope has got cognitive dissonance. Okay? She's still depressed, and she doesn't yet want to admit to in her heart that her husband is still alive. Okay? All right. So, she's keeping distance from him. So, he basically tells, um, her maid, "Your, to make a bed for, for Odysseus." She's still not comfortable with him. So, they'll sleep in different chambers tonight.
>> Come, your move this sturdy bedstead out of our bridal chamber. That room the master built with his own hands. Take it out now. Sturdy bed that it is. And spread it deep with fleece blankets and lesser throws to keep him warm.
>> Okay. So, you know, I'm, you know, you, it's all a shock to me, Odysseus. I know you're my husband, but you've been gone away for 20 years. So, I would feel much more comfortable tonight if you slept somewhere else. Okay? So, we're going to move your bed and move it, uh, move it outside, and we'll cover it with nice blankets. All right? Keep on going.
>> Putting her husband to the proof, but Odysseus blazed up in fury, lashing out at his loyal wife. Woman, your words, they cut me to the core. Who can move my bed? Impossible task, even for some skilled craftsman. Unless a god came down in person, quick to lend a hand, lifted it out with ease, and moved it elsewhere. Not a man on earth, not even at peak strength, would find it easy to prize it up and shift it. No, a great sign, a hallmark lies in its construction. I know. I built it myself. No one else. There was a branching olive tree inside our court, grown to its full prime. The bowl like a column, thick set around it. I built my bedroom, finished off the walls with good, tight stonework, roofed it over soundly, and added doors, hung well and stuck snugly wedged. Then I chopped, I lopped the leafy crown of the of the olive clean, cutting the sun-bear from roots up.
>> Okay, keep on going.
>> Piling it round with a bronze smoothing adze. I had the skill. I shaped it plumb to the line to make my bed posts. Bored the holes it needed with an with an auger. Working from there, I built my bed start to finish. I gave it ivory inlays, gold and silver fittings, wo the straps across it all gleaming red. There's our secret sign. I tell you our life story. Does the bed, my lady, still stand planted firm? I don't know. Or has someone chopped away that olive trunk and hold our bed set off? Living proof. Penelope felt her knees go slack. Her heart surrender. Recognizing the strong, clear signs Odysseus offered. She dissolved in tears, rushed to Odysseus, flung her arms around his neck, and kissed his head and cried out. Cried out, "Odysseus, don't flare up at me now. Not you. Always the most understanding man alive. The gods. It was the gods who sent in sorrow. They grudge us both alive in each other's arms, from the heady zest of youth to the soup of old age. But don't fault me. Angry with me now because I failed at the first glimpse to greet you, hold you so." In my heart of hearts, I always cringe with fear some fraud might come beguile me with his talk.
>> Okay. So again, this is a secret language. This is an intimate language between Odysseus and Penelope. On the surface, it seems as though Penelope is just testing Odysseus. "Are you really my husband? Do you really know that this bed is something that can't be moved?" And Odysseus says, "Yes, I know." Okay? That's the public. Okay? But at the subconscious level, at the spirit level, what, what this conversation really is about is Penelope is saying to Odysseus, "You know, 20 years ago, you abandoned us for glory in war. How do I know that if we let you back into our life, you won't seek adventure again? You just won't run off and, uh, go to war to seek eternal glory?" Now, Odysseus says that this bed is my heart. This bed is something that I worked really hard to create with loving care for years and years and years. And this is where my heart is. The bed is my love for you, and it cannot be moved, and it's something that is the foundation of who I am. So I will never ever leave you again. I will make my home here with you for all eternity. Okay? All right. And so what we now see is finally the alignment in Penelope between mind, spirit, and soul. And that makes her alive again. Okay? All right. Now she's happy. She flings herself around Odysseus and acknowledges the love of her life has returned. Okay?
So the last thing I want to discuss with you is what really is the purpose of life. So, um, while on his journey, Odysseus travels to the underworld and he meets Agamemnon and Achilles. Okay? And Odysseus and Achilles have a conversation. Okay? Okay. Can you read, uh, Ivory?
>> Yeah. But you, Achilles, there's not a man in the world more blessed than you. There never has been, never will be one. Time was when you were alive, we honored you like a god. And now down here, I see you lorded over the dead in all your power. So grieve no more, a dying great Achilles.
>> Okay. So this brings us back to the Iliad, right? Remember in the Iliad, um, the Iliad is about Achilles, and Achilles tells everyone that I came to, I came to Troy because I was given a prophecy. I could either die, um, an old man who no one knows back at home, or I could die young as a great hero in the shores of Troy. And of course, that's not really a choice. Of course, I want, I want to be famous. Of course, I want people to celebrate me. Okay? So he, he goes to Troy. He kills Hector, proves he's the greatest warrior in the world. The Greeks celebrate him, and then he dies, uh, at the shores of Troy, as is prophesied. Okay? And so Odysseus meets Achilles, and Odysseus says to Achilles, "Achilles, you must be so happy down here because everyone worships you. And just as everyone worships you back in our world, you've accomplished everything that you've set out to accomplish, Achilles. You must be so happy with yourself, right?" And then Achilles says,
>> I reassured the ghost, but he broke out protesting. No winning words about death to me, shining Odysseus. By God, I'd rather slave on earth for another man, some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive, than rule down here over all the breathless dead. But come, tell me the news about my gallant son. Did he make his way to the wars? Did the boy become a champion? Yes or no? Tell me of noble Peleus. Any word you've heard, still holding pride of place among his Myrmidon hordes? Or do they despise the man in Hellas and Ionia because old age has lamed his arms and legs? For I no longer stand in the light of day, the man I was, comrade-in-arms to help my father, as once I helped our armies, killing the best fighters Troy could field in the wild, wide world up there.
>> Okay. So Achilles responds and says, "Odysseus, I'm dead now. So now I can look at my life in its entirety. I can now, for eternity, consider what is, what is important, what is purposeful, what gives us meaning and purpose. And I discovered, like, you know, what I regret my life because I should have died an old man with my family rather than go die young on the shores of Troy, because being dead, I asked myself, what makes me happy? And what makes me happy are the memories of my father, the memories of my son. That's what I care about. That's the purpose of life. That is what gives life meaning." Okay? So that is the ultimate, the ultimate moral of the story of the Odyssey, which is to say that we are here to seek love because love is what gives meaning and purpose to our, um, lives. So to construct a family, to build a family that you can love, is much more important. It will give you much more happiness than building an empire, than being the most famous person in the world. And this story, this legacy, is what will become the foundation of Greek civilization, which is humanity's greatest civilization. Okay?