We conclude the Odyssey today. And as we discussed last
lecture, the Odyssey is really about a homecoming, about three
members of a family, Odysseus, Penelope Tanakis, 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.
Odysseus suffers from post traumatic stress disorder
because war has shattered his identity, his sense of self, his
worldview, his purpose. Penelope is depressed because
the love of her life has disappeared and she doesn't know
if he's dead or alive. Tamak has is a teenager, a young
man who cannot inherit his father's legacy or his mother's
wealth. OK, so all three are depressed
and today we will discuss how love brings the three together
and resurrects all three. All right.
OK, so a major topic that we will discuss throughout the
semester is the idea of love. What is love?
How does it benefits itself and why is it so important?
OK, so remember that consciousness is the universe,
OK? And our consciousness is
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, OK? So the reality that we see is
this a human nation hallucination created by our
ego. And our ego makes us believe
that we are separate from each other.
And love is the force, OK? 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.
OK, 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 when the monad, our love is
imprinted and this love becomes a force onto itself that compels
us back into it. All right.
So in other words, 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 we're saying this is
that because our consciousness is infinite, OK, it exists in
different dimensions. We can put our conscious into
three planes, OK? There's a plane of the mind, OK,
Our conscious, subconscious mind, OK.
And we are aware of this. But then there's the spirit, OK,
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
Odysseus, Penelope and Tamakis face, where they're in their
soul, OK? They know that they're all alive
and they will all return to each other one day, OK, But in their
spirit that because of the distance, they have a sense of
depression because they are away from each other and their mind,
they logically believe that Odysseus is dead.
And Odysseus believes that I can never return home.
OK, So there is a disunity of these three things.
And for the family to reunite, they also must combine all three
together. OK.
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.
And that is the struggle within the Odyssey.
That is the journey of the Odyssey.
All right. OK, so 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, OK?
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.
You know you love this person if you understand this person
intimately. OK, so in other words, you're
able to communicate and understand each other in an
intimate language with cold words and secrets.
You understand, secrets doesn't make sense.
All right, so let's look at this concretely now.
Last class, we read Tamakis visiting Sparta, where Helena
Troy and her husband King Nanalas live.
We discuss 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.
We don't really hear each other. OK, so for example, the example
is that Helen, Menelaus and Tamarcus, 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 chosen of horse, and then she
helps the Greeks implement their plan.
And so she's a real hero of the story.
OK, this is a story she tells herself.
She doesn't even think about the reaction of mental loss.
Who's lost his brother Agamendon and his friend Achilles and
other many other Greeks because of the children war.
OK she doesn't really care about his feelings.
She doesn't really hear him and he doesn't really hear her.
OK so after she tells the story remember Mendelas tell tells a
different story which is Helen you almost got us killed because
when the children horse came into Troy you came and you try
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 clashed our mouths.
OK so basically they are shouting at each other but they
don't really hear each other. And when when loss is telling
the story Helen just drifts away.
OK, so this is not love. They are together because
they're stuck together. OK, now what?
Now we're going to see a different version.
OK, We're going to see what love really is like.
And so what's what's happened? What happened is that Odysseus
is disguised as a stranger and returns to Ithaca.
And he he plots with his son Tamakus.
Tamakus actually knows who he is, but no one else knows who he
is. And right now in his house, it
is overrun by suitors, OK? There's dozens of them who are
trying to wait for Penelope's hand.
But Penelope doesn't really tell them anything.
So they just sit around and eat all the food that they can, OK?
They get drunk, They sleep with their servants.
They, they make a mess of things, OK?
And Odysseus goes as a beggar and they just.
And they abused him as well. But Penelope hears that there's
a strange in the house and he she also hears that he's he
knows that her husband Odysseus is still alive.
So she's curious and she asked 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 this is it's a skies has disguised himself because he's
afraid that the shooters, if they knew who he really was, it
would kill him. But he also doesn't really trust
Penelope, OK? He doesn't really know how she
feels about him after 20 years because really he abandoned her,
right? So they have a conversation, but
it's it's a conversation that happens on three different
planes, right? The mine, the spirit and the
soul. At the soul level, they both
know who each other are right away, OK, because they've been
communicating multi dimensionally.
So 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.
OK, that's really important, the mind level.
They don't know who each other are, because if they did,
they'll all be dead. OK, The shooters discovered who
Odysseus really is. They would kill Odysseus.
OK, 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. OK?
So you need to analyze the conversation at least 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.
OK, so there's an public, public language.
And there's a private language. All happened at the same time.
OK, So penalty. Ask the stranger.
Odysseus, prove to me that you actually know my husband.
OK, so can you read Ivory? A 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 let my left my house
and put my land behind him. Even so, imagine the man as I
portray him. I can see him now.
King Odysseus. He was wearing a heavy woollen
weight Cape Sea purple. OK, stop.
OK. Thank you.
One more. In double folds with a a golden
brooch to collapse it. Twin chiefs for the pins on the
face. A work of art.
A hound clenching a dapple fawn in his front paws, slashing it
as it riffs. All marvel to see it solid gold
as it was. The hound slashing, throttling
the fawn in his death throes who's 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 Odysseys wore
these things at home, or a comrade gave him as he boarded
ship or host. Perhaps the man was loved by
many. There were a few Achians sequel
him and I I gave him a bronze sword myself, a lined cloak,
elegant deep red and a French shirt as well, and I saw him off
in his long benship 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 swore the curly curly haired his name Euribates and
Odysseus prized him most of all his men.
Their minds worked as one. His words renewed her deep
desire to weep. OK.
Her words renewed her deep desire to weep.
OK, Meaning that his words moved her spirit, moved her heart.
OK, now you read this and you have actually 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. OK, why?
The answer is that in this language there is a code, there
is a great secret that only Odysseus and Palpi know, OK, 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. OK, this reveals that this
person speaking must be Audysseus and the end and the
reason why is look at the detail on the face of work of art, how
things planting a double film, it goes on and on and on and on.
And what does this poetry reveal?
This poetry reveals that this broach is prized.
This broach 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?
Penalty says, says to Odysseus, the prophet says you'll be gone
for 20 years, 10 years in Troy, 10 years lost at sea.
This is as I know. And penalty says, take this with
you. It's a golden.
It's a golden broach, OK? Take this with you and promise
you that you'll return this to me.
And what this is, yes. OK, now he get lost at sea and
he loses the broach. But what does he bring back?
He brings back the memory of their departure together.
And this is what the words reveal.
OK. 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,
OK. And now Penelope, in her spirit
knows this must be Odysseus. OK, 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 it 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, OK. And the competition is this.
This is has a bowl. If you're able to string
together this bowl and shoot a target, then I will marry you,
OK. And the great secret, of course,
is that there's only one person in the whole universe who can
string together this bowl. And that, of course, is
Odysseus. No one else can do this.
So the the students don't know this.
So there's a competition. All the shooters try their best,
but they can't do it. And then Odysseus, we still
disguise that. The beggar says let me try, OK.
And the shooters are like, what are you talking about?
You're just a stupid beggar. Get out of here.
But somehow this is is able to try and of course it shootings
together the bowl. Okay, and this is the climax of
the epic, the Odyssey. Okay, So what we did together?
All right, Can you read it, Ivory?
So they're marked. They are the shooters.
Of course, mastermind in action. Once he'd handled the great bow
and scanned every inch. Then like an expert singer
skilled at lyre in song, who strains a string to a new peg
with ease, making the ply and sheep gut fast at either end.
So with his with his virtuoso ease, Odysseus strong his mighty
bow. Quickly his right hand plugged a
string to test his pitch, and under his touch it sang out,
clear and sharp as a swallows 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 cunning Cronus flung that omen down for
him. OK, keep on reading.
He snatched A winged arrow lying bare on the board, the rest
still bristle deep inside the quiver soon to be tasted by all
the feasers. There sitting shaft on the hand
gripped, drawing the notch and bowstring back 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 wade.
Brazen headshot 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 is 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 masters right. Suffer in broad daylight, then
to other rebels, song and dancing, all that crowns of
feast. OK, so remember the main problem
conflict in the Odyssey is that Odysseus, his worldview is
shattered, his sense of identity, purpose is shattered.
He went to try to fight for justice, to fight for family.
To leave a legacy for his son. But instead he ends up
destroying families, he ends up causing a war crime.
And he's too ashamed now to face his son.
OK, so this passage where Odysseus assembles his bow and
shoots a target, what it represents metaphorically is a
resurrection of his soul, his worldview, OK?
The alignment of his mind, his soul and his spirit, which makes
him invincible now. And what allows him to assemble
the bull? What allows him to resurrect his
identity? The love of his son and the love
of his wife, right? Because he first needs to know
if Penelope still loves him or not.
And he knows because they when they talk, they're able to
understand each other intimately.
OK, so now what's what will happen is it's almost as though
a normal person is now transforming into a Superman.
OK. And because he knows he's
fighting for right, Zeus gave him a blazing sign.
OK, 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. OK.
And And even though he and Tabaqas are heavily outnumbered,
they basically kill everyone. OK.
All right. So now after the suits are dead,
Odysseus has a problem, which is he now has to reveal himself to
Penelope. OK.
So in the soul level, they are together again.
At the spirit level, they're still together.
Together. They're now together again.
The mind at the mind level, it's harder.
It's harder, OK, 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?
OK, so let's read this Patches to see how they reconcile
themselves. OK All right, so this is panoply
who who is still distant. OK, this is has revealed
himself, but Penelope has got kind of dizziness.
OK, she's still depressed and she doesn't yet want to admit to
in our heart that her husband is still alive.
OK All right, so she's keeping distance from him.
So he basically tells her maid, your Clea, to go make a bed for
for Odysseus. She's still not comfortable with
him. So they'll sleep in different
chambers tonight, OK? Call Mira Clea, move this sturdy
bed set 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 luster
throws to keep him warm. OK, so you know, I'm, you know,
it's all shocked 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 to if you slept
somewhere else. OK, so we're going to move your
bed and 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 shifted.
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 a 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 out of 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. OK, keep on going.
Planning it round with a bronze smoothing ad, I had the skill.
I shaped it plumbed 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, wove the straps
across it, oxide gleaming red. There's our secret sign.
I tell you our life story. That's the bed, my lady, still
sand planted firm. I don't know.
Or has someone chopped away their olive trunk and hold their
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 it
head and cried out. Cried out, Odysseus, don't flare
up at at me now. Not you, Always the most
understanding man alive. The gods.
It was the gods who sent in a sorrow.
They grudged 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.
I had 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 this talk. OK, so again, this is secret
language. This is an imminent 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, OK, that's the public, OK.
But at the subconscious level, at the spirit level, 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 go to
war to seek eternal glory. Now, this 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 of eternity, OK?
All right. And So what we now see is
finally the alignment and Penelope between mind, spirit
and soul, and that makes her alive again.
OK, all right, now she's happy. She flings herself around
Odysseus and acknowledges the love of her life has returned.
OK, so the last thing I want to discuss with you is what really
is the purpose of life? So while on his journey,
Odysseus travels to underworld and he meets Agamemnon and
Achilles. OK.
And Odysseus and Achilles have a conversation.
OK, can you read? I agree.
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 archives honour you like a
God. And now down here I see you
lorded over the dead in all your power.
So groove no more a dying great Achilles.
OK, so this brings us back to the Iliad, right?
So remember in the Iliad, the Iliad is about Achilles, and
Achilles tells everyone that I can, I can destroy because I was
giving a prophecy. I could either die an old man
who no one knows back at home, or I could die young as a great
hero and the source 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. OK.
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 and the source of Troy, as is prophesized.
OK. And so Odysseus meets Achilles.
And Odysseus says, 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, then 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 became become a
champion? Yes or no?
Tell me of noble Pelius. Any word you've heard still
holding pride of place among his Murmodon hordes?
Or do they despise the man in Hellas and Amphithea because old
age has claimed 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 is once I helped
our armies killing the best fighters Troy could field in the
wild wide world up up there. OK, so Akili's response and says
Odysseus, I'm dead now. So now I can look at my life in
its entirety. I can now for all of attorney
consider what is what is important, what is purposeful,
what gives us meaning and purpose.
And I discovered that, you know what I regret my life.
Because I should have died an old man, my family, rather than
go die young in 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, are the
memories of my son. That's what I care about.
That's the purpose of life. That is what gives life meaning.
OK, 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 our
lives. So to construct a family, to
build a family that you can love, it's 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. OK.