Structure of The Odyssey
In Relation to the Psyche- Part 2
Odysseus/ The Hero
Joseph Campbell said many wonderful things about the hero’s journey. Among them are the ideas that the Hero begins his odyssey undifferentiated, encounters many different beings and many pairs of opposites, integrates each encounter, expands his consciousness such that he eventually reaches the unification, a state of non-duality. “Myth is the revelation of a plenum of silence within and around every atom of existence. Myth is a directing of the mind and heart, by means of profoundly informed figurations, to that ultimate mystery which fills and surrounds all existences.”1
The hero then returns to bring a “boon” back to the society from which he came, and everyone’s life is expanded and altered. Their consciousness is expanded by his stories and his presence (The Tibetans have a phrase for the expanding benefit from being near “enlightened” beings, “enlightened intent.”)
But the return “home” is preceded by a quest. The Iliad, Homer’s epic poem that precedes The Odyssey, is a description of the first half of life, the quest. According to Edward Edinger, in The Iliad the raw masculine energies are in full force, unchecked. Here the destructive qualities of life arise and either conquer outer events or tear them down. Either way one must leave the home and differentiate from the mother and father figures. It isn’t until the Trojan War ends that Odysseus begins to look for a way home. This can be described as one’s concerns in the second half of life. The ego, with its blood lust and self-centeredness gives way to larger concerns. Instead of looking for ways to be different, reifying the dualistic quality of experiences, looking for fame and fortune and rewarded for individual triumphs, the self begins to yearn for the similarities and symbiosis with all that lives. Odysseus moves from being all masculine to incorporating the feminine or Anima quality present within him. Union is sought between the conscious mind and the unconscious.
One of the things worth looking at is that Odysseus stays with Calypso for eight years. This indicates to me that after the brutality of the war he has been able to reconcile male and female aspects in his psyche. This is why he has been able to stay for so long, whereas in many other Greek myths, such as Theseus, the feminine aspect is not integrated, but instead is abandoned. Odysseus has mastered the concept of relatedness, and this serves him in the challenges he will be facing later in the poem. Yet at this point in The Odyssey he does not have the ability to leave.
It is interesting that the god who detains Odysseus on the island of Ogygia is not actually Calypso but the god Poseidon. We find out later in the poem that Poseidon does this because Odysseus blinds his son- Polyphemos, the Cyclops. Later in the book I explore this more fully.
As we have considered, Poseidon resides in the sea, the archetypical place of the unconscious. I think that in psychological terms being detained by Poseidon energy means that the thinking function is not developed enough to recognize and integrate deeper levels of knowing, and these deeper levels can swamp an ego unprepared for it.
Another example of the way that Odysseus has reached some level of psychological integration is that he is able to approach each encounter in the poem with a certain amount of openness and intellectual resiliency. He doesn’t back down, and his thinking mind is aligned with the other aspects of his being- feeling, sensing, and intuition. He possesses mastery. And because he has balanced the aspects of his personality he can conquer his challenges.
Homer uses many terms to describe Odysseus: Great Tactician, Expert In Adversity, Master Of Invention, Master Of Land Ways And Sea Ways, Old Soldier, Raider Of Cities, The Man Of Ranging Mind, indicating that his mastery extends to all endeavors. He definitely has the gift of gab. For some reason this gives him an engaging quality. Through this he has a way to have relatedness with other people and basically connect with others in meaningful ways.
Odysseus’ relationship to Athena is profound. Athena is the goddess of knowledge and the goddess of mastery. She is like his patron saint, his ally, and proof of the work he has done to individuate and move towards wholeness.
On reading The Odyssey for the first time it appeared to me that Odysseus has no fear. When I consider Odysseus as my personal dream I see myself as possessing a strong sense of mastery in the world. At the same time, I recognize a balance of masculine and feminine. Upon reading it again he is the captive of Calypso. So while on one hand he has integrated his masculine and feminine aspects he still is unable to pull away from her. I think Calypso is a mild form of the devouring mother. She is keeping him there for her own selfish pleasure and will not acknowledge who he really is and what he wants. Calypso is a hindrance to his growth and his evolution as a conscious loving being.
But this ‘stuckness’ is purposeful. Odysseus eventually gets to leave Ogygia because Athena appeals to Zeus on his behalf. As we’ve looked at earlier, the goddess Athena is the aspect of consciousness that generates mastery in the world. Because Poseidon allows Odysseus to languish under Calypso’s hand for eight years I think this means that Odysseus needed this time, this “liminal” period, in order for his own intuition to strengthen and know what must be done. Something else is working in him, and we could call it the god within. Psychologically I think it’s his numinous working and finally making it’s request known, and finally he is able to integrate it and leave the island.
At the very end of the poem we see Odysseus make the cycle complete. After he has slain all the suitors, he shares with Penelope what Tireseus saw for him at the end of his life. Tireseus says that he would become a teacher with disciples;
“Tireseus told me I must take an oar
And trudge the mainland, going from town to town,
Until I discover men who have never known
The salt blue sea, nor flavor of salt meat- strangers
To painted rows, to watercraft and oars like wings,
Dipping across the water. The moment of revelation he foretold…
Some traveler falling in with me will say:
“A winnowing fan, that on your shoulder there, sir?”
There I must plant my oar.”2
To winnow is to eliminate waste or to get rid of something undesirable. You could also say it is to remove impurities and inaccuracies, or spot the truth in something. In practical use a winnowing fan is a hand-held wooden filter, held in the hands and shaken to separate wheat from chaff. I take this to signify the completion stage for Odysseus. He has come to be an enlightened being.
The Boat / The Ego
The boat to me represents the ego. It doesn’t have the ability to plumb the depths of the “wine dark sea.” Nor can it fly. Historically the sailing ships available to people at the time that Homer wrote the poem are called a Bireme (two sets of oars on each side of the boat) or a Trireme (which has three sets). These are in addition to the sails. The boat can harness wind power as well as manpower from the rowers, and ride ocean currents through its rudder and keel. So it can harness some natural directional qualities. It can incorporate the wetness, the darkness, and be influenced by the moon and the tides. It is a tiny part of the totality. However, on its own it is aimless, just like our egos. On its own it cannot move towards ascension into spirit, nor can it move downward into Soul, unless it is receiving proper instructions. The best captain for such a vessel is not the thinking mind but the heart. Heart wisdom gives direction and purpose to our egos.
The Ocean/ The Unconscious
Homer uses many descriptions for the Ocean, almost as many as he uses for Odysseus; Winedark Sea, Cold Fish-Breeding Sea, Immortal Sea, Tract Of Desolation, Fathomless Unresting Sea. I think this is important because words cannot adequately describe the ocean. It is truly ineffable. It is the prima materia upon which our conscious life floats. There is an infinite number of ways to explore the symbolism present in the appearance of the ocean. In myths as well as in dreams the ocean to me represents the creative potential from which our conscious lives manifest. Water represents life-promoting, life-giving nourishment that can never be depleted for it is, in essence, our essence. C.G. Jung has distilled his ideas about the ocean into this beautiful little phrase, “The sea is the favorite symbol for the unconscious, the mother of all that lives.”3
The Land/ Sub personalities
I think the islands represent the sub personalities, the seemingly disparate and unconnected aspects of our psyche. Roberto Assagioli writes about this psychosynthesis. His approach is to use Active Imagination to harmonize the aspects. In The Odyssey the distance between the islands represents the fragmented psyche. As I consider how this may be working within me I recognize how I am split into different pieces and that this seeming separation is the root of some of my suffering. The islands here are separated by the Ocean, which can represent the unconscious.
In my own case I occasionally experience the ocean as a quieting energy, and a chasm through which my boat (my ego) must find a way. I cannot see the separate islands (I don’t recognize the sub personalities). When I am on one I can’t see the others, I can’t imagine the others. And so these islands are acting as independent states. Like the ego function, they are not directed, they are not unified, and I don’t feel whole, I feel fragmented. Looked at another way, if I were able to bring my unconscious into consciousness it would be like turning water into earth. I could then stand in one place and be connected to all the islands.
The Sky / Olympus
The sky represents three things to me. First and foremost the sky is where Mount Olympus is located, the homeland of the gods. The gods represent the unmanifest and eternal, the timeless aspect of our being as Awareness; there is an ascensional quality that happens inside of me when I think of Sky in this way.
Also, the wind that powers the ship’s sails exists in the air. It tends to be where signs and omens were seen in the form of birds. Throughout The Odyssey birds appear in the sky as a portent of action about to take place. They are never harmed, but instead, act in harmony with the race of men. Psychologically I would say that the birds represent the intuition function. By understanding and appreciating the messages from birds the characters in The Odyssey are in harmony with their own intuitive nature, and there is an acknowledged degree of integration and wholeness.
The sky also represents the space in which everything happens. In us it is the space between thoughts. As “Sailor” Bob Adamson points out, abiding in this space confirms the nature of what we truly are and allows us to dis-identify with what we are not;
“What you are in essence is self-shining, pure intelligence. The very idea of shining implies a movement. Movement is energy. So, I call it ‘pure intelligence-energy’. It is shining through your eyes. You cannot say what it is, and you cannot negate it either. It is ‘no thing’. It cannot be objectified. It ever expresses as that living, vibrant sense of presence, which translates through the mind as the thought ‘I am’. The primary thought ‘I am’ is not the reality. It is the closest the mind or thought can ever get to reality, for reality to the mind is inconceivable. It is no thing. Without the thought ‘I am’, is it stillness? Is it silence? Or is there a vibrancy about it, a livingness, a self-shining-ness?…We think that we have to attain something and then stay there. Realize that you have never left it at any time. It is effortless. You don’t have to try or strive or grasp or hold. You are that.” 4
References
1. Campbell, J. (2008). The Hero With A Thousand Faces. Novato, CA: New World Library
2. Homer (1992). The Odyssey (R. Fitzgerald, Trans.). New York, NY: Everyman’s Library/Alfred A. Knopf
3. Jung, C.G. (1970). “Special Phenomenology,” Psyche & Symbol, (Violet S. de Laszlo, Ed.) Trans: R.F.C Hull. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
4. Adamson, Bob (2006). What’s Wrong With Right Now Unless You Think About It? London: Non-Duality Press.