There was fairly a bit of debate just lately about how a lot (some) males apparently take into consideration historical Rome. Whether or not it’s the historical past of battles, the togas, the architectural feats survived by ruins unfold all through the Mediterranean basin, or the array of movies from Ben-Hur and Spartacus to Gladiator and Gladiator II, some individuals appear significantly fascinated with historical Rome. However latest and forthcoming movies recommend that we’d all profit from spending extra time serious about historical Greece.
The Return is a 2024 movie adaptation of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, directed by Uberto Pasolini and starring Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus and Juliette Binoche as Penelope (of their first on-screen reunion since The English Affected person). As well as, it was just lately introduced that Christopher Nolan’s subsequent movie will likely be an adaptation of The Odyssey, reportedly starring Matt Damon because the wayward Odysseus and Anne Hathaway because the homebound Penelope.
. . . works like The Odyssey have additionally fashioned who we’re.
Although written practically 3,000 years in the past, Homer’s mythological account of Odysseus is well-known: We first encounter him in The Iliad because the king of Ithaca, who joins his fellow Greeks to wage conflict for ten years towards the Trojans for his or her seize (or seduction) of Helen. In the end, Odysseus allows their victory by way of the deception of the picket horse. Following their triumph, a lot of the Greeks return house, however as recounted in The Odyssey, that’s not the destiny of Odysseus and his males. He spends one other ten years making an attempt to get again to Ithaca, the place his home is below siege from suitors who would marry his spouse, Penelope, and kill his son, Telemachus.
I’ve spent many hours serious about Odysseus and his trials over this previous 12 months. The Odyssey was the Core E book at Wheaton Faculty, the place I educate undergraduate courses. The concept of the Core E book program is for the entire faculty group to learn the identical e-book (along with the Bible), interact in communal reflection and studying, and take part in on-campus occasions associated to the e-book.
However this raises some fairly urgent questions: Why ought to Christians trouble studying works by non-Christians, together with issues written earlier than Christ, particularly when they’re filled with pagan gods, immoral heroes, and condoned violence? Why ought to we learn this epic poem, whose protagonist is typically shrewd and self-sacrificial, however can also be boastful, duplicitous, and vengeful? Or, to place it fairly bluntly, shouldn’t we simply learn our Bible? Through the years, I’ve discovered by way of discussions in each the classroom and the church that Christians typically need to learn these sorts of books, however they’re unsure in the event that they ought to learn them and, in the event that they do, how these works would possibly relate to their religion.
Know Thyself
Studying books like The Odyssey (or The Iliad or Virgil’s Aeneid) may appear counterintuitive for followers of Christ, however pre-Christian works can truly assist us to “know thyself,” as the traditional Greek proverb instructs us. The Odyssey is without doubt one of the oldest surviving works of literature, and it has formed—and continues to form—our collective creativeness and cultural identification.
All through Homer’s poem, Odysseus and his males should consistently navigate risks which can be by now acquainted to readers: the cave of the Cyclops, Poseidon’s rage, and the dual perils of Scylla and Charybdis. Much more acquainted to us, although, are their wishes for fulfillment, safety, and love. Once we first meet Odysseus, he’s trapped on the luxurious island of the goddess Calypso. Although residing in an obvious paradise, he longs for house: “Odysseus . . . was sitting by the shore as standard, sobbing in grief and ache; his coronary heart was breaking. In tears he stared throughout the fruitless sea.” (5.81-84)
After all, as Christians, our worldview is formed primarily by God’s Phrase, which is the primary and last authority for all issues of Christian religion and apply (i.e., our orthodoxy and our orthopraxy) and which continues to form our tradition in methods seen and unseen. But works like The Odyssey have additionally fashioned who we’re. Studying these works helps us to grasp our collective historical past and the broader cultural waters wherein we swim. Not studying them solely results in collective amnesia.
A Common Situation
In Emily Wilson’s wonderful translation of The Odyssey, Odysseus is often known as “long-suffering” (3.84) for what he endures by the hands of others. For instance, when he’s lastly allowed to depart Calypso’s island on a raft, he’s confronted by a storm conjured by Poseidon: “Extra ache? How will it finish? I’m afraid the goddess spoke the reality: that I’ll have a sea of sufferings earlier than I attain my homeland” (5.299-302). It’s not with out cause that his journey is described as an “odyssey of ache” (5.340).
However it is usually the case that Odysseus and his males are topic to the results of their very own flaws and failures. For instance, they might escape once they discover themselves trapped within the cave of Polyphemus, the Cyclops, however Odysseus insists on staying to demand items from him, which results in the deaths of a number of of his males (9-227-29). Later, once they have practically returned to Ithaca, the boys’s curiosity causes them to open a bag that is stuffed with wind, which blows them again out to sea (10.47-49). Most tragically, on the island of Helius, the Solar God, the boys eat the forbidden cattle whereas Odysseus sleeps (12.358). Like Moses descending from the mountain and listening to the sound of the Israelites worshiping the golden calf (Ex. 32:17-19), Odysseus smells the burning of meat: “My males did dreadful issues whereas I used to be gone” (12.371-72). In response, Zeus destroys their ship, and the entire remaining males drown—aside from one: Odysseus (12.414-17).
Whereas studying The Odyssey with my courses this 12 months, I used to be often stunned by the ways in which this historical poem spoke to our religion at this time.
Among the many many issues which have made The Odyssey so compelling throughout the centuries is its narrative filled with imperfect characters who reveal the common human situation of brokenness and the necessity for redemption. For some readers, Odysseus will likely be learn because the victorious hero and king returning house to reclaim his rightful place. However for others, he will likely be seen as a deceitful, colonizing, and murdering adulterer. In fact, he’s each. Characters like Odysseus replicate the complexity of what it means to be human. Although the setting and historical narrative of The Odyssey are international to us, in some ways, its fallen world and flawed characters are all too acquainted. Certainly, the Bible, too, presents us with a grand narrative filled with imperfect heroes all in want of redemption—aside from one.
A Man of Sorrows… and Hope
Spoiler alert: Odysseus makes it again house.
After twenty years of conflict and wandering, he finally finds himself again in Ithaca: “I’m right here now. I suffered terribly for twenty years, and now I’ve come again to my very own land” (21.206-08). However all is just not nicely at house: his spouse, Penelope, is affected by suitors, who overtly berate and threaten their son, Telemachus. After being disguised as a beggar by the goddess Athena, Odysseus sneaks again into his own residence. In a dramatic second, he reveals his identification to the suitors and Penelope when he shoots his personal bow and arrow by way of twelve axe heads (21.422-24). What follows is a vengeful slaughter of all those that threatened Odysseus’s household and residential.
Maybe surprisingly, Odysseus is perhaps learn as an imperfect foreshadowing of Christ’s life and work. He’s, in any case, a long-suffering son who left his homeland (his father, Laertes, grieves the son who he believes has died), and he’s described as a “man of sorrows” and rightful king whose return is promised (19.119). He even reveals himself to those that didn’t acknowledge him initially, echoing Christ’s look to Mary Magdalene within the backyard (John 20:11-18) or to the 2 disciples on the street to Emmaus, who don’t know who he’s at first (Luke 24:13-35). However it seems that even when Odysseus does make it house by way of many risks, toils, and snares, he can’t carry true restoration to his home and land. His gospel is just not certainly one of grace and peace.
Understanding the distinction between a fictional character like Odysseus and the true individual of Jesus Christ, who we declare as Lord and Savior, is essential. However it is usually the case that Christians all through the church’s historical past have discovered God’s fact in surprising locations. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215), for instance, regarded Greek philosophy as “a stepping-stone to the philosophy which is in line with Christ” (Stromata 6.8). Centuries later, Protestant reformer John Calvin (1509-64) equally pointed to the potential of discovering God’s fact wherever, even in pagan authors: “If we regard the Spirit of God as the only fountain of fact, we will neither reject the reality itself, nor despise it wherever it shall seem, except we want to dishonor the Spirit of God” (Institutes 2.2.15).
What stepping-stones would possibly we, led by the Spirit, discover in Homer’s textual content? Regardless of its historical context and mythological style, The Odyssey factors us to 2 nice truths that we are able to readily embrace as Christian readers:
- First, Odysseus reminds us that all of us want a homecoming wherein relationships are restored, our house is at peace, and the desk is ready for a feast. It seems that we’ve extra in widespread with this determine from historical Greek literature than we’d have imagined. All of us, like Odysseus, are on a journey house.
- Secondly, as Odysseus painfully demonstrates, the fulfilment of our common want and our desired homecoming can’t be achieved by way of our personal efforts. That type of restoration can solely come about by way of Jesus Christ, the true “man of sorrows” (Isa. 53:3), whose life, loss of life, and resurrection brings full, lasting peace.
Whereas studying The Odyssey with my courses this 12 months, I used to be often stunned by the ways in which this historical poem spoke to our religion at this time. True, none of us had battled towards Troy or sailed throughout the ocean whereas avoiding monsters. But Odysseus managed, regardless of his very obvious flaws and the truth that Homer wrote centuries earlier than Jesus’ earthly life, to level us to Christ.
In his story, we discovered a companion on the best way house.
