Homer's Odyssey Part 26

(_a_) His wrath--both rightful and wrongful.

(_b_) His reconciliation with Agamemnon and his own people.

2. His second att.i.tude, or cycle of conduct toward the Trojans.

(_a_) His wrath--both rightful and wrongful.

(_b_) His reconciliation with Priam and the Trojans.

Such is the general organism of the Iliad which is seen to be perfectly symmetrical within itself. (For a fuller account see author's Commentary on the Iliad, pp. 36-8.) Note that the negative att.i.tude of Achilles is that of wrath; in his anger he will destroy his people and his cause, and finally, in the dragging of Hector's corpse, he disregards the G.o.ds. Yet be overcomes both these negative att.i.tudes in himself and becomes reconciled.

II. The Odyssey has two phases of Negation, both of which the heroes (father and son) must overcome.

1. The negative spirit caused by the Trojan War and its overcoming.

(_a_) The ignorance of the son and its overcoming.

(_b_) The destructive tendency of the father and its overcoming.

2. The negative spirit abroad in Ithaca (Suitors) and its overcoming.

(_a_) The hut of the swineherd (preparation).

(_b_) The palace of the King (execution).

That is, Ulysses and Telemachus have the double problem, which organizes the Odyssey: they must conquer their own internal negation, then proceed to conquer that of the Suitors. Both poems divide alike; both have the same fundamental thought: the individual as hero is to master his own negative spirit and that of the world, and then be reconciled with himself and the world. The Iliad has essentially but one thread of movement, that of Achilles; the Odyssey has two such threads, if not three--father, son, and perchance wife, making the total Family as the unit of movement.

Thus the Iliad and Odyssey are one poem fundamentally, showing unity in thought and structure, and portraying one complete cycle of national consciousness, as well as one great phase of the World's History.