Plato's Myths

Allegorical Meaning of Homer's Odyssey


Detlev Conrad Blunck, Ulysses on the Island of Calypso (1830)

 
Question: Did Odysseus go on an inner journey?

This page is in the process of being updated. What follows is a basic outline only. (Jan. 28, 2018)

YES, but the key is to understand the work allegorically, with Odysseus representing you, or your own psyche. Each episode in the story illustrates a different obstacle to overcome or milestone to reach on the philosophical inner journey back to mental integrity, and to that soundness of mind which the ancient Greeks called sophrosyne.

For example:

  • The story of Circe symbolizes ones overcoming the temptations of gross pleasures like food and sex.

  • Calypso symbolizes an attachment to merely earthly beauty, which threatens to stall our search for deeper, more spiritual beauty, truth and meaning.

  • Scylla and Charybdis symbolize, at least by some accounts, the struggle to overcome, on the one hand, temptations of food and drink and other such things that ‘suck you in’ (Charybdis) —- and, on the other hand, things like pride, ambition and anger than can bring us crashing against the rocks like a vicious, multi-headed monster (Scylla).

  • Once he arrives at Ithaca, Odysseus must slay the suitors of Penelope. The suitors (led by Antinous — whose name means literally ‘enemy of the Mind’), symbolize passions and temptations that seek to draw away our soul (symbolized by Penelope) from integrity and from wisdom to folly.
Several commentaries have been written on this, ranging in time from the 3rd century (from Porphyry, a Neoplatonist philosopher) to modern times. I would most recommend three, which include these from the 19th century:
  • Thomas Taylor, On the Wanderings of Ulysses (1823; Taylor based this on De Ulyxis erroribus by earlier "anonymous" commentator, now believed to be Manuel Gabalas).

  • William Watkins Old, New Readings of Homer, including "On the Esoteric Meaning of Homer’s Odyssey" (pp. 9−42).
and a more recent one: Ultimately the best way to answer your question is to read these works and see if you can, based on their interpretations, apply allegorical meanings of the Odyssey to your own daily journey to authenticity, peace, wisdom and ‘knowing thyself.’

Bibliography

Allen, D. C. Mysteriously Meant: The Rediscovery of Allegory and Pagan Symbolism in the Renaissance. Baltimore, 1970.

Beardsley, David A. Homer's Odyssey as spiritual quest. Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, 2014.

Borris, Kenneth. Allegory and Epic in English Renaissance Literature: Heroic Form in Sidney, Spenser, and Milton. Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Brumble, H. David. Classical Myths and Legends in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: A Dictionary of Allegorical Meanings. Routledge, 2013.

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton, 1949.

Chance, Jane.  Medieval Mythography. Vol. 1: From Roman North Africa to the School of Chartres, A.D. 433-1177; Vol 2: From the School of Chartres to the Court at Avignon, 1177-1350; Vol. 3: The Emergence of Italian Humanism, 1321-1475. University Press of Florida, 1994.

Clarke, Howard. Homer’s Readers: A Historical Introduction to the Iliad and the Odyssey (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1981), ch. 2

Cullhed, Eric (tr.). Eustathios Of Thessalonike: Commentary On Homer’s Odyssey.Volume 1, On Rhapsodies A-B. Uppsala University, 2016.

Edinger, Edward F. The Eternal Drama: The Inner Meaning of Greek Mythology. Boston, 1994.

Ford, Andrew. Performing interpretation: early allegorical exegesis of Homer. In: Epic Traditions in the Contemporary World: The Poetics of Community, ed. Margaret H. Beissinger et al. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), pp. 33-53.

Frame, Douglas. The Myth of Return in Early Greek Epic. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978.

Gabalas, Manuel (attr.); Columbus, Johannes (tr.).  Incerti Scriptoris Graeci Fabulae Aliquot Homericae de Ulixis Erroribus Ethice Explicatae. Greek text and Latin translation. Leiden, 1745 (orig. publ. J. G. Eberdt, 1678). Latest Greek edition is A. Westermann, Μυθόγραφοι: Scriptores poeticae historiae Graeci, Brauschweig, 1843 (pp. 329-344 & Pref. p. xvii), with corrections proposd by R. Hercher, Zu Nikephoros Gregoras De erroribus Ulixis, Philologus, 8, 1853 (pp. 755−758).

Herington, C. J. Homer: A Byzantine perspective. Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, vol. 8, no. 3, 1969, pp. 432–434.

Jung, Carl G. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. R.C.F. Hull, Trans. Collected Works of C. G. Jung, vol. 9, part 1. Princeton, 1959 (repr. 1969, 1981).

Lamberton, Robert. Homer the Theologian: Neoplatonist Allegorical Reading and the Growth of the Epic Tradition. Berkeley: University of California, 1986.

Mulryan, John (tr.); Brown, Steven (tr.). Natale Conti's Mythologiae. Volumes 1 and 2. Tempe: ACMRS, 2006.

Nagy, Gregory. Homeric Questions. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996.

Old, William Watkins. New Readings of Homer. London: Blackwood, 1860. See, e.g., 1. On the Esoteric Meaning of Homer’s Odyssey (pp. 9−42).

Philo of Alexandria; Colson, F. H & Whitaker, G. H. (trs.). Allegorical Interpretation I−III. In: Philo in Twleve Volumes.  Loeb Classical Library. Vol. 1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1931.

Philo of Alexandria; Yonge, Charles Duke (tr.). Allegorical Interpretation I−III. (Yonge's title: On the Allegories of the Sacred Laws). In: The Works of Philo Judaeus, in Five Volumes. Vol. 1. London: Bohn, 1854; pp. 52−175. Updated e-book edition.

Plato; Fowler, Harold North (tr.). Phaedrus. Plato in Twelve Volumes. Vol. 1. Loeb Classical Library L036. London: Heinemann, 1913 (repr. 1966).

Plato; Shorey, Paul (tr.). Republic. Plato in Twelve Volumes. Vols. 5 & 6. Loeb Classical Library L237, L276. Harvard University Press, 1937 (v1), 1942 (v2).

Plotinus; Armstrong, A. H. (tr.). Plotinus, in Seven Volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press, 1968–1988.

Porphyry. Lamberton, Robert (tr.). Porphyry: On the Cave of the Nymphs in The Odyssey. Barrytown, NY: Midpoint Trade Books, 1983. (Includes Greek text.)

Porphyry. Taylor, Thomas (tr.). Porphyry: On the Cave of the Nymphs in the Thirteenth Book of the Odyssey. London: John M. Watkins, 1917 (orig. publ. London, 1823 [below], pp. 171−200). (pdf version)

Rahner, Hugo. Greek Myths and Christian Mystery. B. Battershaw (tr.). London: Burns and Oates, 1963.

Ross, Alexander. Mystagogus Poeticus: or The Muses Interpreter. London, 1648.

Russell, Donald Andrew; Konstan, David. Heraclitus: Homeric Problems. Society for Biblcal Literaure, 2005.

Russo, Joseph. A Jungian analysis of Homer’s Odysseus. The Cambridge Companion to Jung, Cambridge, 1997. (pp. 253−68).

Taylor, Thomas. On the wanderings of Ulysses. In Select Works of Porphyry. London: J. Moyes, 1823; Appendix, pp. 241−271. (pdf version)

Uebersax, John. The monomyth of fall and salvation. Christian Platonism. Web article. 2014. Accessed 17 Januray 2019.

Uebersax, John. Platonism as psychotherapy. Christian Platonism. Web article. 2014. Accessed 17 Januray 2019

rev. 18 Jan 2022

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