For my senior seminar paper, I’m writing about the influences of classical Greek literature in Southern Renaissance literature. Basically, it is stemming from a novel we read about the Civil War which is loosely structured after the Iliad. Consequently, I’ve been reading a lot about Greek epics and heroes. One of the books I’ve read is The Heroic Paradox by Cedric Whitman, and he presents this as the heroic paradox:
“And, as the Greek tradition presents [the hero] to us, we see him motivated by two simultaneous, opposite needs: the need for absolute status, and the need for human context, commitment; or, as the Greeks would put it, the urge toward divinity, and the necessity of remaining mortal.” (p. 20)
In his discussion of heroes, Whitman makes an interesting observation that Odysseus actually solves the paradox. When he chooses to return home rather than stay on the island of Calypso, who promises him immortality, he “asserts moral and social values” and essentially “chooses the mortal and rejects the divine.”
What does everyone think of this - the paradox itself, or how Odysseus fits in it? I think that Odysseus has an immortality of sorts in his fame; therefore, he really has not rejected the divine, and in a way can achieve both. It’s not something central to the arguement of the paper, just a thought I wanted to share!
[quote]”I think that Odysseus has an immortality of sorts in his fame; therefore, he really has not rejected the divine, and in a way can achieve both.”[quote]
I definitely agree with that statment. I only thought that he would have been bored with the perfection of immortality and that the adventurous life of mortality and obtaining knowledge is what calls to Odysseus, but I also see that your point also fits into that thought as well. And how true it is! He still lives on as long as people sit down and read The Odyssey.
When I have time for life, I think I will look up that book you cited–The Heroic Paradox. Looks interesting!
Really interesting paradox that you raise, Erin. Let’s discuss this in class. Why does he reject immortality? You raise an interesting suggestion; and he does continue to manage his “fame” very actively–his narrative to the Phaiacians, for ex.
There is something about Odysseus, though, that is in love with life–with human life–with suffering, in particular, which the gods do not experience.
Perhaps Odysseus rejects immortality because with immortality comes a lack of curiosity–a lack of suffering–a lack of experiential knowledge?