The Odyssey - Book 08 - The Mystery Builds - Who is the Stranger?

• Reading time: about 38 minutes
• What's with these Phaeacians anyway?

• After Odysseus's ship is dragged down to the sea, a banquet begins, and at it, the blind bard Demodocus sings a song about a fight Odysseus and Achilles once had.
• Is this a reference to a disagreement Achilles and Odysseus had in The Iliad about the revenge upon Hector for Patroclus's death? Alcinous alone sees Odysseus crying during the singing and ends the song and suggests games instead.
• Let the games begin!
  • Soon, though, Odysseus gets into a quarrel with some of the Phaeacians who made fun of him. Odysseus rises to their challenge and shuts them up.
  • Note how, whenever challenged, Odysseus rises to the challenge and meets it. The Phaeacians back off. Odysseus is a man of experience. The Phaeacians back away from experience. King Alcinous backs off from further games when he sees Odysseus is beating his people.
  • Remember that the Phaeacians ran off to this remote island when challenged by the Cyclops, rather than confront those monsters. Some modern critics see a weakness in what seems to be a perfect, utopian society. For example, "Their life has no promise, no potentialities, no dynamism; to remain with them would drain Odysseus of his heroism by depriving him of any chance or need of action. It would be a living death." (H.W. Clarke, The Art of the Odyssey (Englewood Cliffs, 1967), 54)
  • It does seem clear that what is prized by the Phaeacians is a non-confrontational world whereas Odysseus must make his mark. Do you see evidence for this contrast in what you've read so far? What meaning do you derive from this contrast? [Discuss Ody Bk08 Q01]
• The funny story of Hephaestus, Ares, and Aphrodite breaks the challenging atmosphere of the previous section. The tone is changed and Broadsea/Euryalus gives a gift to Odysseus to make amends for his previous insult.
• Arete still is reserved in her dealings with Odysseus. Remember she is the one who must finally give him the gift to leave.Nausicaa once more speaks to Odysseus, and in a present-day movie they would embrace and marry. But Odysseus keeps her at a physical distance though he thanks her for his life in the most respectful tone possible.

• Who is Odysseus showing himself to be at this point?

• Demodocus sings of the fall of Troy, and once more Odysseus weeps and once more King Alcinous is made uncomfortable by Odysseus's weeping and breaks the mood. By clicking on the link, you may hear a sound file of how The Odyssey may have been performed in Homer's time. RealPlayer link recommended.
• "The artistic purpose of the book has been well defined by Mattes. It is to rehabilitate Odysseus, to infuse into him the heroic spirit: ‘Just because he has eaten, bathed, and put on some borrowed clothes … has he become once again the old brilliant Odysseus? No! Much has still to happen, precisely what is described in Book 8.’ The essential part of the book is the long quarrel scene. It is there … that Odysseus is converted from [someone] without rank in society, into [someone] to be honored with gifts and deference." (Heubeck, vol. 1, 344) The book ends with the mystery of who the stranger is firmly in everyone's mind. We might ask at this point, Who is Odysseus beginning to be revealed to be — by his words and his actions — at this point? [Discuss Ody Bk08 Q02]