PART 1
Confession: before last week, I hadn’t read Homer’s Odyssey for over 30 years. But to prepare for watching Nolan’s film, I spent a few days reading the Wilson translation and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Reading it in high school, when I knew practically nothing about Greek life, literature, and culture, and reading it again after having spent decades studying the Greco-Roman world—I see now with new eyes. So on this reading, I tried to be keenly aware of how Homer’s world works and what might be worth pointing out to readers of the Bible who want to better understand the ancient world—pre-industrial, agrarian, oral, patriarchal, full of war, full of gods, witchcraft, poets, bards, and muses, great artists and spellbinding storytellers.
Yes, Homer wrote the Odyssey many centuries before the New Testament; but historically and culturally Homer’s world is closer to the New Testament than our modern world. Of course, civilization morphed and evolved from Homer to Virgil, but the impact Homer had on the Greco-Roman world is massive.
If you need a recap of the STORY of the Odyssey, check out the first essay in this Substack series.
Below you will find my personal reflections as I read the Odyssey anew as a biblical scholar and student of Classical Antiquity.
Religion: Appeasing the Fearsome Gods
Homer’s world was a world of gods, demigods, powerful creatures, monsters, mortals, and more. I was struck time and again by how Homer interweaves the lives of gods and mortals. The whole Iliad/Odyssey saga is kicked off by the machinations of the gods Eris, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. The Odyssey figures prominently the will and actions of Athena, Poseidon, and, of course, mighty Zeus. Mortals, like Odysseus, are wise to gain the respect and support of the gods, not to cross them. After all, “everybody needs the gods” (Homer writes). Here are some fascinating tidbits I noticed on the latest read of this now-even-more-popular epic.
Zeus: Homer’s characters explain how Zeus is ultimately holding all the cards; Zeus “gives to each as is his will.” He is the one “whose voice resounds around the world.” Zeus is portrayed as an ultimate judge of gods and mortals. “Zeus watches everyone, and punishes the sinner.” At his best, he is fair in judgment. Hermes reports, “None can sway or check the will of Zeus.” He is resolute. Elsewhere, we are told, “The minds of the immortals rarely change.”
In Homer’s world, Zeus is also viewed as benevolent. Time and again we are told, Zeus “loves the needy,” or Zeus “blesses the needy.”
Another, alternative attitude towards the Olympians also emerges in the Odyssey, that the gods don’t really care. One character confesses, O Zeus, “You are father of humanity, but you do not take pity on our pain.” The gods are distant and indifferent.
Athena: Wise Athena is also as central of a character as clever Odysseus. She is constantly moving from Odysseus to Telemachus to Olympus to orchestrate Odysseus’ safe return. She admires this mortal and has resources she puts at his disposal. She often works subtly, surreptitiously, or indirectly to aid Odysseus. She shapeshifts into the appearance of Mentor. She even shapeshifts into Telemachus briefly. She repeatedly gives Odysseus a “glow up” to support him: “she made him taller and sturdier, so these Phaeacians would welcome and respect him.” And: “Athena stood near him and increased his strength.” One thing I did not know before—gods like Athena could make themselves selectively visible, so on one occasion, Odysseus could see her, but not Telemachus who was nearby. One of my favorite tactics of Athena: she disguises Odysseus in a mist to conceal his identity when he returns home to Ithaca.
For Studying the New Testament: As the apostles are preaching to Greeks (e.g., in the Book of Acts), we modern readers must keep in mind their broader worldview: the gods are mysterious, unknown, fickle, often toying with humans. They are easily offended, they demand sacrifice, they have both virtues and vices, but in the end they act a lot like mortals. Greeks and Romans were constantly afraid of offending their gods—because they know the stories of Paris, Achilles, and Odysseus. Within this culture, the apostles preach love, forgiveness, mercy, and truly knowing God through the Holy Spirit.
Fate
Lurking in the background of the Odyssey is the reality of “fate” (or the work of the Fates). The Olympian gods are powerful, Zeus is the king of gods, but “fate” seems to operate even outside of Zeus’s control, or there are competing views and traditions in Homer’s work about who ultimately decides the outcome of human events. Athena (as Mentor) confesses to Telemachus that “death is universal. Even gods cannot protect the people that they love, when fate and cruel death catch up with them.” Alcinous, the noble ruler of the Phaeacians, reminds the lords at his banquet that no matter the wit and strength of the human or support of the gods, “he must endure whatever was spun out when he was born by Fate and by the heavy ones, the Spinners.”
For Studying the New Testament: The apostles taught that a benevolent god calls all to repent and be saved. There are no Spinners, no strings to spin, no Fate, only the one good and gracious God. There is judgment to come, but there is no mystery behind the one God’s will of making all things new.
Virtue
The Odyssey makes a telling statement: Athena, though she was committed to aiding Odysseus and his family, “she did not grant decisive victory; she kept on testing Odysseus’ courage, and his son’s.” There is the perception that the gods not only love or hate mortals, but challenge and weigh them. Two virtues are dominant in this epic.
Xenia (Hospitality): The key virtue that is highlighted in the Odyssey is zenia, hospitality towards strangers, one of the “holy laws” of the gods. Nausicaa explains that “All foreigners and beggars come from Zeus, and any act of kindness is a blessing.” And Eumaeus says, “Zeus watches over beggars and guests and strangers.”
When arrogant Antinous hurts a beggar (who is actually Odysseus in disguise), the other suitors warn Antinous: “You ought not to have hit a poor old beggar! If he turns out to be a god from heaven it will end badly! Gods disguise themselves as foreigner and strangers to a town, to see who violates their holy laws, and who is good.”
The Odyssey features both good examples of hospitality (like the Phaeacians receiving and supporting Odysseus) and bad examples (like the one mentioned above with Antinous).
Metis (cunning): This refers to the virtue of cleverness, cunning, scheming, and this is the core attribute of Odysseus. The trojan horse ruse is perhaps the most famous of Odysseus’s schemes. The escape from the cyclops Polyphemus. The use of wax in their ears for Odysseus’s crew to survive the sirens. The bow contest. This was probably the most entertaining aspect of Homer’s epic for ancient audiences.
For Studying the New Testament: I can’t say metis is a focus of the New Testament, but hospitality certainly is. In the Old Testament you have the visitors to Abraham (Gen 18), the angels at Sodom (Gen 19), with Gideon (Judg 6), Joshua 5, the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24). Hebrews talks about “entertaining angels unaware.” Overall in the NT, hospitality is affirmed as a virtue, whether God or angels are in disguise or not. The key term philozenia is found many times and refers to “love for strangers.” As in: compassion, concern, practical care (Rom 12:13; 1 Peter 4:9; 1 Tim 3:2).
Slavery
Slavery is not really a theme of the Odyssey as much as an assumption. Slaves are everywhere (related to households). They serve two purposes: #1: They do work, serving their masters: running errands, food preparation, taking care of animals, bathing guests and family, making clothes, providing entertainment. #2: They are a sign of power, status, and wealth. The King of the Phaeacians had an astounding 50 slaves. When Odysseus is in disguise as a beggar, he makes up a tale about riches to rags: “My slaves were numberless, my wealth was great.” Slaves held a tenuous and liminal status in the household. They were often close enough to the family to be humanized and appreciated, but there was also suspicion of theft or treachery. When queen Penelope finds out that some of her servants betrayed her, she refers to them as “fickle, doglike slave girls.”
But slaves could also become friends and confidants, and in turn the slave could become fond of the master. At least, that is how Homer portrays it. One of the main characters of the Odyssey is Eumaeus, Odysseus’s trusty (now blind and elderly) swineherd. He is like a brother or uncle to Odysseus. When Odysseus dreams of home, he says, “May I live out my final days in sight of my own property and slaves and home.”
For Studying the New Testament: In the Roman Empire, slaves are also everywhere; yes in households, but also in civic contexts, businesses, and often in public far more than in the Greek world. And they carry the same liminal status. They could be loved and cherished, or hated and beaten. Either way, they are considered property.
The sad reality is that it is possible that the apostles and other Christian leaders had slaves (e.g., Acts 12:13). Scripture calls for love and concern and respect for slaves. It is debated whether they sought to set slaves free as a gospel imperative. But one thing is notable and irrefutable: slaves were attracted to early Christianity, not least because Jesus Christ died a slave’s death and rose again with the nail scars.
UP NEXT: More on the Odyssey an the NT; and my review of Nolan’s Odyssey!
By the way, I flesh out some of these ancient context insights in my book STRANGE RELIGION
I love these comparisons. I too reread the tale recently and pondered the hospitality similarities. My daughter in 9th grade read it in LA, and that was what she took away as well. Also, if you expand your comparison to the Old Testament, you certainly find metis as a therme in Genesis. (Deceit/crafty skill)
Acts 14 only makes sense in the world you just described. Paul heals one man in Lystra and the crowd decides Zeus and Hermes have come down in human form. The priest of Zeus brings out oxen for sacrifice.
Why that reflex? These people grew up on the stories where gods walk in disguise and the town that fails the hospitality test gets destroyed.