8.521-549

ταῦτ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἀοιδὸς ἄειδε περικλυτός· αὐτὰρ Ὀδυσσεὺς
τήκετο, δάκρυ δ᾽ ἔδευεν ὑπὸ βλεφάροισι παρειάς.
ὡς δὲ γυνὴ κλαίῃσι φίλον πόσιν ἀμφιπεσοῦσα,
ὅς τε ἑῆς πρόσθεν πόλιος λαῶν τε πέσῃσιν,
ἄστεϊ καὶ τεκέεσσιν ἀμύνων νηλεὲς ἦμαρ·
ἡ μὲν τὸν θνήσκοντα καὶ ἀσπαίροντα ἰδοῦσα
ἀμφ᾽ αὐτῷ χυμένη λίγα κωκύει· οἱ δέ τ᾽ ὄπισθε
κόπτοντες δούρεσσι μετάφρενον ἠδὲ καὶ ὤμους
εἴρερον εἰσανάγουσι, πόνον τ᾽ ἐχέμεν καὶ ὀιζύν:
τῆς δ᾽ ἐλεεινοτάτῳ ἄχεϊ φθινύθουσι παρειαί·
ὣς Ὀδυσεὺς ἐλεεινὸν ὑπ᾽ ὀφρύσι δάκρυον εἶβεν.

So the famous bard sang his song. But Odysseus
melted, and tears ran down his cheeks from under his eyelids.
as a woman weeps, clutching her beloved husband,
who has died before the city, fighting for his people,
warding off the pitiless day from the city and its children.
And she, seeing him dying and gasping for breath,
winds herself around him and wails shrilly. But striking her
from behind on the back and shoulders with their spears
the men drag her into slavery, to suffer pain and misery,
and her cheeks are marred with most pitiful anguish.
So Odysseus shed pitiful tears from under his brows.

Odyssey 8.521–31

The many strands of connection between both the song, the simile, and other major themes in the poem are difficult to untangle. The song celebrates Odysseus’s mastery of deception, the quality he himself cites to identify himself to the Phaeacians (9.19). The fall of Troy will be reenacted in Odysseus’s penetration of his own palace in Ithaka, where he will play the role of the deceptive Trojan Horse to bring down the corrupt regime of the suitors. Yet the simile links Odysseus not to the invading conquerors, but to the enslaved women who have lost their husbands. There is another such reversed simile in the poem, describing Penelope’s joy at finally seeing her husband:

ὡς δ᾽ ὅτ᾽ ἂν ἀσπάσιος γῆ νηχομένοισι φανήῃ,
ὧν τε Ποσειδάων εὐεργέα νῆ᾽ ἐνὶ πόντῳ
ῥαίσῃ, ἐπειγομένην ἀνέμῳ καὶ κύματι πηγῷ:
παῦροι δ᾽ ἐξέφυγον πολιῆς ἁλὸς ἤπειρόνδε
νηχόμενοι, πολλὴ δὲ περὶ χροῒ τέτροφεν ἅλμη,
ἀσπάσιοι δ᾽ ἐπέβαν γαίης, κακότητα φυγόντες:
ὣς ἄρα τῇ ἀσπαστὸς ἔην πόσις εἰσοροώσῃ,
δειρῆς δ᾽ οὔ πω πάμπαν ἀφίετο πήχεε λευκώ.

As when land appears welcome to swimmers,
whose well-made ship Poseidon has wrecked
in the sea, pounded by the wind and heavy waves,
and a few swimmers escape toward land from
the gray sea, and thick brine covers their skin,
overjoyed, they step on land, escaping evil,
so was her husband welcome to her as she looked at him,
and she did not release him from her white arms.

Odyssey 23.233–40

The simile could apply much more closely to Odysseus, when he sees land after Poseidon smashes his boat in Book 5 (itself prompting a striking simile: 5.394–99). The effect of this kind of reversal is not easy to define, but the passage seems to blur the boundaries between Odysseus and Penelope.

If we look at the language of the simile here, we find more blurring. Odysseus “melts” (τήκετο, 522) after hearing the song. Forms of the verb τήκω appear six times in the Odyssey apart from this passage, in Book 11 (201) when the ghost of Odysseus’ mother describes her death from longing for her son, in the simile from Book 5 (396) about Poseidon wrecking Odysseus’ boat, and four times in the description of Penelope’s anguished reaction to hearing news of her husband from the beggar in Book 19 (204, 207, 208, 264). The simile here in Book 8 links the weeping Odysseus to his mother, who died of grief for her lost son, and to his wife, who weeps in response to news about her long-lost husband, delivered, unbeknownst to her, by the husband himself in disguise.

The rich matrix of emotion in these passages eludes definitive analysis. With Odysseus about to embark the final leg of his journey home, Homer marshals the resources of his traditional style to turn our eyes back to the hero’s brilliant campaign to enter and destroy Troy from within, then immediately complicates the tableau by reminding us of the gruesome toll that triumph took on the most helpless of its victims. That pain then migrates through repeated imagery to the royal palace in Ithaka, where the queen, who has herself been under siege from the suitors, waits longingly for her husband to save her and their kingdom, suffering the same kind of pain as does the anonymous woman in the simile in Book 8, through the agency of the same man. Most tantalizing of all is the blurring of the boundaries of Odysseus’s identity, as he merges with his victims, including his own wife, suffering as they do the consequences of his triumphs.

This potent mix of imagery adds to the already complex character we have seen emerge on Scheria. Part powerful warrior, part anonymous underdog, relying at times on his physical strength, at times on his formidable intelligence, the figure who comes into focus before us assumes yet another layer of richness in these final verses before he reappears in his full glory. The ultimate manipulator of others enters, for a brief moment, into their inner world, at once a conqueror and a vulnerable victim.

Further Reading

Foley, H. “’Reverse Similes’ and Sex Roles in the Odyssey.” Arethusa 11: 6–26.

Conclusion

Alkinous, most patient of monarchs, finally confronts Odysseus with the ultimate question: who is he, where is he from? By having his hero withhold this vital information until the very end of his sojourn on Scheria, Homer allows us to absorb the full complexity his character through his various interactions with the Phaeacians. What we witness is something much richer than what would be revealed if the hero had identified himself earlier. Odysseus begins to emerge through the memories of other characters in the poem’s first four books, then appears at his lowest point, a helpless love slave of Calypso. By refusing the nymph’s offer of an eternity of anonymous pleasure in favor of a desperate struggle to survive in a limited existence, he marks the first outlines of his character. An intervention from Zeus, nudged by Odysseus’s fierce defender Athena, frees him for a time, before Poseidon takes vengeance for the injury to the Cyclops, leaving the hero bobbing and sputtering in the sea. Another intervention, this time by a kindly nymph, delivers him to the beach on Scheria at the beginning of Book 6.

Beginning as a naked, vulnerable stranger, Odysseus slowly wins the confidence of the Phaeacians, overcoming their suspicions. In his masterful handling of the young princess, the bluntness that characterizes his interactions with Calypso gives way to keen observation, delicacy, and tact, qualities that he will draw on frequently during his stay on Scheria. The king and his sons offer a different kind of challenge, requiring a carefully calibrated self-assertion. The queen, a more persistent interrogator than her husband, prompts clever evasive action from the hero. Throughout these various encounters, Odysseus clings to his anonymity, waiting for the right moment to reveal his identity. Meanwhile, the poet is creating his hero before our eyes, shading in more complexity with each scene.

The songs of Demodocus expand the background for Homer’s story. The obscure quarrel with Achilles, then a comic transfiguration of the coming battle with the suitors in Ithaka, and finally reaching back to the war at Troy, another transfiguration of the poem’s climax, this time tinged with suffering. The simile following this song completes the layered characterization that the poet creates in the Phaeacian episodes, using the resources of his poetic tradition to weave a complex tapestry, connecting Odysseus’s emergence from anonymity on Scheria with both the adventures of Telemachus in Sparta and the final triumph over the suitors. Both sides of Odysseus’s character are on display in Books 6 through 8, the powerful hero who can overcome resistance with his physical gifts and the crafty descendent of Autolycus, getting his way through deception. The balance, judging from the final verses of Book 8, tips toward the latter persona. In the next four books, Odysseus’s narration of the struggles that brought him to the shores of Scheria, this version of the hero will continue to predominate, as the hero deploys his many strengths against a fantastic array of opponents.