What Homer's 'Odyssey' can teach us about reentering the world after a year of isolation

[TexasTowelie]

In the ancient Greek epic “The Odyssey,” Homer’s hero, Odysseus, describes the wild land of the Cyclops as a place where people don’t gather together in public, where each person makes decisions for their own family and “care nothing for one another.”

For Odysseus – and his audiences – these words mark the Cyclops and his people as inhuman. The passage also communicates how people should live: together, in cooperation, with concern for the common good.

Over the past year, we witnessed police violence, increasingly partisan politics and the continued American legacy of racism during a generation-defining pandemic. And for many, this was observed, at times, in isolation at home. I have worried about how we can heal from our collective trauma.

As a teacher of Greek literature, I am inclined to turn to the past to understand the present. I found solace in the Homeric epic “The Iliad” and its complex views about violence after the 9/11 attacks. And I found comfort in the Odyssey after my father’s unexpected death at 61, in 2011.

Read more: https://theconversation.com/what-homers-odyssey-can-teach-us-about-reentering-the-world-after-a-year-of-isolation-159036

[soothsayer]

1. Jaynes uses the Iliad and the odyssey to show where humans became conscious

It’s very interesting.

[-misanthroptimist]

2. To me, one of the more interesting aspects of Homer...

...is how little people have changed in the last few thousand years. Despite all of our gains in knowledge and technology, the human motivations and reactions outlined by Homer still ring true.

[Tanuki]

4. Not just humans...

Dogs' reactions to their warriors coming home have not changed since Argos.

[-misanthroptimist]

5. True

But the number of dogs in policy-making has been minimal throughout history. I don't think that that's necessarily a good thing.

[sheshe2]

3. Interesting read.