Essay: The Odyssey, written by Homer and translated by Robert Fagles/Mary Zimmerman

Men often make calculated, conservatory choices instead of making choices that demonstrate courage, self-confidence, and brotherhood.  The Odyssey, written by Homer and translated by both Robert Fagles and Mary Zimmerman, is an epic Greek poem about a hero named Odysseus who performs many brave and courageous acts.  The novel revolves around the journey of Odysseus and the many roadblocks and challenges that he encounters on his journey.  When Odysseus is faced with a problem, he always finds a way  around it, or defeat it head on.  When faced with the challenge of avoiding a cyclops who was ready to devour him and his crew, he was able to hide under cattle and escape without the Cyclops noticing until it was too late.  When defeat seemed imminent in the Trojan War, Odysseus came up with the idea of the Trojan Horse, giving the Greeks a massive victory over Persia.  However, on his heroic journey, he faced a dilemma that was both unconquerable and unescapable.  He could either sail past Scylla and be sure to lose any six of his men, including himself,  or he could sail through Charybdis and either have his entire crew survive or have the ship go down and be devoured by the dangerous whirlpool.  While it may have seemed as if it was smarter to lose six of his men, instead of risking the loss of all one hundred, the dilemma was more complicated .  Odysseus had been with his entire crew since the beginning of the Trojan War and it would devastate the morale of the whole crew even if only one member was lost.  However, if the whole ship went down each man would die in honor, knowing that they died as brothers.  By choosing to pass through Scylla instead of Charybdis and losing six men, Odysseus violated values of Greek culture and bravery, he did not make decisions that show unity among his crew, confidence in him and his crew’s ability and an appreciation for all of the sacrifices that they have made together.
When Odysseus chooses to pass through the monster of Scylla instead of Charybdis, he sacrifices the bond he and his crew members share with one another, as six vital members of his crew will be feasted upon by Scylla and be gone forever.  In Greek culture, loyalty and brotherhood are two key features of any true hero.  By passing through Scylla, Odysseus willingly sacrifice six members of his crew who have stayed by his side for the last twenty years.  Had he passed through Charybdis, he would have allowed for all of his crew to stay alive and be triumphant as one or they would have died, sucked up by the whirlpool as one.  When a crew of brave, loyal men stand by someone for twenty years, it is unthinkable to let them six of them die at one’s own will, in order to increase your one’s own chances of survival.
The groups of people who are remembered in history as heroes, stick together and are forever dedicated to the general well-being of each other as a whole.  The Little Rock Nine, a group of black high-school students, were the first black students to ever attend a high school with whites.  They were constantly in fear, as white students and parents constantly threatened to kill them, their families and made going to school miserable as they were constantly harassed and never knew if they were going to make it to their next class alive.  However, they managed to survive this period of hardship by depending and trusting one another.  Anyone of the students could pull out of the Central High, at any time without any repercussions and go back to attending segregated all-black schools.  However, all nine of the students stuck it out because they knew that they could never survive a year of Central High without one another.  They looked out for each other, defended each other, and saved each other from picking fights with the white students.  Like Odysseus’s men through hardship in both the Trojan War and Odysseus’s journey, they used each other in order to keep their spirits high and be strong enough to endeavor the tough realities of the future.
Odysseus’s men have journeyed together for twenty years and have formed unbreakable bonds.  Like the Little Rock Nine, Odysseus’s men needed each other to have faith and persevere their confidence in Odysseus’s leadership and what their future held ahead of them.  When Odysseus passed through Scylla, he lost six men and his crew began to lose confidence in his leadership.  They forced him to stop at the island of the Sun, where they were ordered by Odysseus not to eat the cattle of the island, for they belonged to the Sun God, Helios.  While Odysseus was asleep, the men grew impatient, as they were starving and carried on with eating the cattle anyways.  They were unable to restrain themselves, as they had six fewer men to raise their spirits and prevent them from eating the cattle.  Eventually, a frustrated Odysseus and his men returned to the sea, only to have their ship destroyed by Zeus for eating the cattle of Helios.  Odysseus was the only one to survive as he drifted along with some driftwood from the ship.  He successfully managed to pass through the monster of Charybdis by hanging on to the fig tree while Charybdis formed its’ whirlpool.  When the whirlpool closed, he drifted through Charybdis and found himself washed up on Calypso’s island.  The original fear of taking the route of Charybdis was that Odysseus would lose both his own life and his crew’s, however by passing through Scylla he lost his whole crew anyways because he did not weigh the value of brotherhood and loss in his decision making.   Unlike Odysseus’s crew, the Little Rock Nine led a successful integration of Central High because they all stuck together.  They managed to stay optimistic about the hardship that lay ahead of them because they had each other to lean on. Therefore, it would have been smarter to sail through Charybdis because passing through Scylla caused his men to be killed because they lost faith in the future of their journey as they lost six men, and if they passed through Charybdis, there would be no conflicts of greed or loss of faith among Odysseus and his crew.
Odysseus’s journey from the Trojan War to the moral dilemma of Scylla and Charybdis has been both long and miraculous.  Odysseus has faced death in the eye many times, yet he still manages to stay alive.  He managed to evade the Cyclops, defeat the Persians and outsmart Circe, while losing valiant members of his crew, like Elpenor, along the way.  Given the fact that he has sacrificed so much and has run the table so many times, it would be foolish for him to squander all of his previous achievements and sacrifices just to take a safer path.  Odysseus owes it to the dead members of his crew to ensure that he makes their sacrifices worthwhile.  Elpenor did not die to watch Odysseus squander saving his whole crew and letting six men die, instead of pursuing total victory.
When Odysseus travels to the underworld, he encounters Elpenor, who asks him to give him a proper burial by saying:
No, burn me in full armor, all my harness,
Heap my mound by the churning gray surf –
A man whose luck ran out –
So even men to come will learn my story.
Perform my rites, and plant on my tomb that oar
I swung with mates when I rowed among the living.’ (11:251-252)
By listening to Elpenor’s request, Odysseus is able to return to Circe’s island and give Elpenor the burial rights that he deserved.  By doing this, he was able to satisfy Elpenor’s fear of being forgotten among the living, for there was no place to mark his burial and his life.  Odysseus’s ability to acknowledge Elpenor’s sacrifice was absent when he chose Scylla over Charybdis.  Elpenor valiantly followed and fought for Odysseus to see Odysseus and his crew to return home as heroes, and not to watch them crumble after losing six men.  Elpenor did not die in hopes of Odysseus be the only member of the crew to return home, he died to watch the crew return home in total victory or to return to the House of the Dead and reside with Elpenor, knowing that they did their best to return home as one, whole, united team.
Odysseus and his men have endured a journey of hardship and struggle, making it foolish to pass through Scylla instead of Charybdis and squander the opportunity of making their sacrifices and struggle through a perilous journey worthwhile.  When faced with a similar struggle Winston Churchill once said, ”If you’re going through hell, keep going.”.  Churchill’s message is that if you’ve already begun to endure hardship, make sure that you make your previous trials worthwhile, otherwise your wasting an opportunity for greatness.  In May 1940, the country and government of England was faced with a difficult moral dilemma.  Nazi Germany had conquered most of Europe and was about to conquer all of Europe by driving the British troops out of Dunkirk, a seaport on the English Channel in France.  Either the newly-appointed prime minister and the parliament of England could try and make a peace treaty with Nazi Germany and hope form generous conditions, or they could refuse to give in to the enemy and fight as heavy underdogs against the German forces.  Churchill decided to try and defend England, for the nation had fought too hard to give up.  Had England sought to make an agreement with Germany, all of the British soldiers who lost their lives while fighting for England would have meant nothing.  Making a peace treaty would be like choosing to go through Scylla because the men who died, didn’t die for a cause that they devoted themselves to.  Defending Britain would be like choosing to go through Charybdis because either all of Britain would fall as one, or the nation would manage to defend itself and prosper.  Given the fact that England was able to defend itself with the help of Allied forces, proves that Odysseus should have chosen to go through Charybdis, for the reward if he made it through, would have been too great to pass up.
Odysseus’s precarious journey presented him and his crew with many risky situations.  Odysseus’s success in overcoming many monsters and problems largely contributed to his legacy and prophecy.  However, in the dilemma between Scylla and Charybdis, he did not pursue a total victory, for his ship was guaranteed to lose members of his crew when he decided to pass through Scylla.  In order to live a life with purpose, one must strive for their own version of complete greatness or die trying.  It is better to live a life of certainty and know that you’re doing your best to fulfill your passions and destinies.  Had Odysseus never passed through Scylla, he would never doubt his decisions, for he would either be living triumphantly or resting in peace after a long journey.  Odysseus says the following in reflection after six men were taken at Scylla:
Out of all the pitiful things I’ve had to witness,
Suffering, searching out the pathways of the sea,
This wrenched my heart the most (12:279)
Odysseus’s decision to pass through Scylla haunted him afterward, for his heart was full of remorse for the decisions that he had made.  His decision to pass through Scylla instead of Charybdis will stay lingering in his mind forever because he will always doubt whether or not he made a decision that best suited the livelihood of his crew, and the morality of his actions.
In history people leave legacies not by living steady lifestyles and making safe choices, legacies are solely defined by risk-takers.  Neil Armstrong, the first man to land on the moon, took a major risk in pursuing his passion and destiny.  Traveling to the moon and back was a life-threatening task that had never been successfully done before.  Had Armstrong never gotten off of his couch, only imagining what it would be like to be the first man on the moon, he would live a life in which he would never know whether or not he was missing a chance to leave a legacy bigger than his own life.  By not choosing Charybdis, Odysseus will always have doubts wandering in his head about whether or not he missed a chance to further enhance his legacy and story.
When presented with a moral dilemma, men often make seemingly logical, prudent and watchful decisions instead of making decisions that show faith, determination and kinship.  By deciding to face the monster of Scylla instead of Charybdis, Odysseus squandered his opportunity to keep his whole crew happy and intact.  By choosing Scylla, he lost six men and the rest of his crew, for they had lost their faith in Odysseus’s leadership, and the journey that presented itself to them ahead.  Fallen crew members, like Elpenor, did not die to watch Odysseus sacrifice six men to increase the general crew’s survival, he died to watch them stick together and use their bond with one another to survive.  By choosing Scylla, Odysseus had disregarded Elpenor’s sacrifice, for he then chose to kill another six members of his crew.  Passing up on sailing through Charybdis and potentially keeping his whole ship and crew intact taints his legacy, for he did not make a decision that promoted total victory, which would have further strengthened it.  By choosing Scylla or Charybdis, Odysseus ended up injuring his moral reputation, and ruining the lives of his originally faithful crew.