The Homeric Changes to the Traditional Image of Odysseus
Comparative studies allow us to reconstruct Odysseus’ image and the role in the oral pre-Homeric tradition. He is not a protagonist of the epic there but, representing the trickster type, rather the antagonist of the hero-protagonist. Both polarized characters represent two types of behavior assessed by the audience in terms of their usefulness for the survival of the community. In his readiness for sacrifice, the hero displays an altruistic attitude, positively valorized as moral behavior. The trickster’s egoistic behavior moves away from moral principles, but it can also ultimately bring benefit to the whole community. Similarly to the behavior of the trickster-antagonist, that of the hero-protagonist is also ambivalent, as it can likewise bring harm to the community, which – though temporary – often takes on the dimension of a disaster. Odysseus’ similarities to the god Hephaestus have been recognized previously by some scholars, and they do not seem to be coincidental: both characters reveal traits of crafty and dangerous dwarves, who are also excellent craftsmen and have magic at their disposal. The author(s) of the Odyssey and, to some extent, also of the Iliad reconfigure and transform this traditional character in a manner typical of oral tradition, which has always been open to reinterpretation.
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Karol Zieliński is a classical philologist and professor at the Institute of Classical, Mediterranean and Oriental Studies at the University of Wrocław, Poland. He is the head of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on the Relationship between Oral and Written Culture and editor-in-chief of Quaestiones Oralitatis, a journal that deals with the issues of orality and its relationships with literature. He specialises in Greek literature of the archaic period, especially with a view to its links with oral tradition. His publications include monographs: Słońce w rozpaczy. Liryka miłosna Safony w aspekcie oralności (The Sun in Despair: Sappho’ s Love Lyric Poetry in the Aspect of Orality, 2006), Worldview in Narrative and Non-narrative Expression: The Cognitive, Anthropological, and Literary Perspective (2021, co-editor) and The Iliad and the Oral Epic Tradition (2023).
E-mail: karol.zielinski@uwr.edu.pl
