EXAMINATION OF DUTY AND SELF CONTROL IN THE ODYSSEY Aashna Jamal INTRODUCTION Under the rule of Zeus, events did not occur in isolation but in interdependence causing there to be a flux in the totality of events and the whole drama being played on a cosmic plane. The central theme of Zeus’s rule is the preservation of his “ oikos” or household management where the prevalence of order over Chaos is of utmost importance. In this paper, using the Odyssey as a case study, I will examine the thematic importance of the decisions taken by a hero in accordance to or defiance of self control and pietas and the consequences they lead to. These expectations are clearly marked out for the reader who waits in anticipation to garner the fate of the hero. I will analyse the themes of self control and pietas or duty in the Odyssey and discuss their special significance in this epic. I will then briefly talk about the Hindu concept of duty or Dharma with reference to the Ramayana. I however do not intend to use the concept of monomyth coined by Joseph Campbell also referred to as the hero's journey(which is a basic pattern that its proponents argue is found in many narratives from around the world.) in comparing these epics. The example of the Ramayana will only serve my purpose of highlighting the theme of duty in mythologies across the world. Lastly, I will conclude with the importance of inspecting these themes because of their significance to the plotline. Georg Wissowa notes that pietas was meant by the Romans as "the conduct of the man who performed all his duties towards the deity and his fellow human beings fully and in every respect."Around the year 70 BC, Cicero defined pietas as the virtue "which admonishes us to

do our duty to our country or our parents or other blood relations. 1 Essentially a Roman concept ,I will employ it in this paper in context to Greek Mythology. Self control in this paper will be discussed in terms of the extent an individual has control over his decisions whether mental, physical or psychological.

ILLUSTRATIONS DUTY Though the concept of duty is referred to in the very first book of the Odyssey it is of special interest as it examines the duty Zeus as a king bears towards the mortal Odysseus who has not been able to get back to Ithaca from Troy and is living under bounded captivity on Calypso’s island Ogyia. The unwritten rule in Greek myths is that humans are but a pawn on the chessboard of the God’s world. They live in the world of the Gods who are answerable to none but Zeus and are not always the figures of benevolence. The question put forth is that what happens if Zeus forgets his duty? Who will hold him accountable? Though Zeus is the God of justice, he is sometimes constrained from meting it out thus fulfilling his duty as in the case of Odysseus because he has to take into account the wrath of Poseidon. In this very instance, a parallel can be drawn between Zeus and the hero of the story who is similarly constrained from fulfilling his duty due to his detainment by Calypso. Athena ’s role of reminding Zeus to do the right thing is analogous to Hermes’s in persuading Calypso to let go of Odysseus as Gods tend to forget their “ correct roles’’ in the order of the Universe.

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Wikipedia

The idea of duty as seen in the Odyssey is very disparate for men and women as is exemplified by the treatment of Penelope and Odysseus’s behaviour in context to fidelity. Penelope is deified as an ideal woman and wife as she remains faithful to her husband for the twenty tears he is away as opposed to the adulteress Clytemnestra who betrays and subsequently kills Agamemnon. However, fidelity is expected of her but Odysseus is only expected to complete his duty towards his household by coming back and establishing it again to its former glory. Odysseus’s recovery of will and noble virtue called sophrosune after his trysts with Calypso and Circe are focussed upon not his divergence from the right path. Camus best understands it, “fidelity to his limits.’’2 A clear gender bias arises where his attempt at thentos (a mortal subject to death) is celebrated over his refusal to immortality given by Calypso which would never have been the case had a woman been in a similar situation. She would have been admonished on getting into the situation in the first place. The poem recalls Calypso’s angry statement about the double standard for immortals: male gods are allowed to take mortal lovers, while female goddesses are not. Father to son duty is poignantly portrayed with several examples throughout the epic. Telemakhos placed Mentes’ things in the rack with his father’s spears showing his love towards a father he has never known but also illustrating the Greek notion of duty towards your father as in the case of Orestes who takes the revenge for his father’s murder. Odysseus on his return visits his father first after giving up his disguise and his wiliness fails in front of the man whom had he abandoned and stayed away from home; he would have been discredited forever. The master servant relationship is one that presents a different take of duty in the Odyssey in terms of loyalty and faith in the master in his absence. The swineherd Eumaios is depicted as a noteworthy servant who serves the suitors out of force not free will as is Eurycleia,the maid
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Fitzgerald,The Odyssey

who remains faithful to Penelope and Telemakhos.Melantho and Melanthios are the quintessential bad chickens come to roost when the master is away. The divergence from duty is fiercely punished as is in the case of the philandering maidservants who are executed after having to mop up the blood of the suitors they had been in cahoots with. However, Odysseus does show a sense of justice when he lets Phemios the minstrel off the hook for entertaining the suitors under compulsion showing him to be clearheaded but formidable when opposed. Xenia or the treatment of foreigners and guests is of central importance in Zeus’s kingdom. He values it greatly especially between kings and hence it becomes the duty of each ruler to provide for guests even before asking their names. Telemakhos displays this when he invites in Mentes;Nestor and Menelaus delay the question of asking the guest’s identity as etiquette in that time dictated so. Gifts were a way of solidifying the world by a balance between kingly families for example the wine bowl wrought by Hephatheseus that Menelaus given to Telemakhos. The theme of not coveting another man’s belonging (the proper receival of hospitality) comes up again and again in Greek stories. The suitors display gluttony and encroach upon Odysseus’s house and desire his wife which leads to a bloody massacre in which they get their due. The consequences of intruding upon someone else’s oikos come at a heavy price as shown in Book 24. From the above illustrations, it obvious how following duty is important in the Greek world. Small mistakes can lead to great problems for the characters beit Odysseus in The Odyssey or Agamemnon in the Iliad who offended Apollo.

SELF CONTROL Self control is another major theme in the Odyssey where the protagonist’s endurance and will is put to the test several times. The hero is treated as a human with fallacies but is expected to rise up to high moral standards even though the gods themselves flout them many a time. The portrayal of the hero or a human is as always weaker than the gods but the expectations directed at him of reaching a high moral pedestal is a curious feature of Greek Mythology. Interestingly enough, slight deviations from the ‘right’ path are permitted as long as he wanders back to a morally chartered course. Even before embarking on the voyage back to Ithaca, Odysseus displays a lot of self control when in the Trojan horse. Helen mimics the wives of the warriors inside in order to entice them out so they give away their position, Odysseus is the one who holds the warriors back from doing this exercising self control and control over his men. (Book 4) But his breach of self control on the island of Polyphemus costs him his safe passage back home to Ithaca becoming a drifter for twenty years. He could have refrained from calling out his name but he succumbed to the desire of Kleos or his own renown thus putting him in a position where Poseidon cursed his passage back home for hurting his son Polyphemus. Odysseus also tries to please the gods when he refuses to eat the sun god’s cattle even though his men break down and eat them. The Sun enraged by their actions, complains to Zeus who enraged by their actions strikes the lot of them with a thunderbolt when the Achaeans set forth on sea from which Odysseus emerges as a lone survivor. (Book 12) .Gluttony is also displayed as a total loss of self control in the case of the Laistrogynes, a race of powerful giants whose king, Antiphates, and unnamed queen turn Odysseus’s scouts into dinner.Food is treated as an extension of friendship and reverence in Greek myths where the trick played by Prometheus on Zeus cost the entire mankind.

At Circe’s island,the men who are rescued by Odysseus’s intervention do not seem blissfully happy about the freedom from captivity. Submission and the wilful loss of self control-Do these men find human life tiresome and full of danger and would rather remain animals without a care in the world than be expected to go back to their previous lives? This is the exact conundrum faced by Odysseus throughout his travels where he has to choose duty over a careless existence; danger over leisure. He accepts the slothful existence at Calypso and Circe’s island causing his men to reproach him, “Captain, shake off this trance and think of home.” 3The momentary loss of selfcontrol is finally replaced by determination to set forth again. It isn’t clear however whether it is due the call of duty or the pursuit of kleos as though being served on hand and foot is fun,it doesn’t lead to your name being remembered down the ages. It is hard to divorce the two ideas and I personally feel that it was the combination of the two which made him want to go back though the future was uncertain for him. The sexist approach in Greek Mythology again creeps in when Calypso gives an impassioned speech about how the male gods have affairs with mortals while the female gods like Demeter aren’t allowed to do so. ‘Oh, you vile gods, in jealously supernatural’ (Book 5)This selective approach to the expectation of self control even within gods reverberates in the human world where Penelope’s fidelity was taken for granted even with juxtaposition with Clytemnestra. As a woman, she is expected to have control over her desires and is allowed no excuses. After having philandered around, Odysseus expects his wife to have stayed faithful to him by using the ‘immovability of the bed’ metaphor in Book 23. He slowly displays a hardened control over his will when the temptation offered by the Lotus eaters to just relax is spurned by him and he maintains his desire to get back home. While

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Fitzgerald,Introduction ,The Odyssey

passing the sirens, the crew stuffed their ears with beeswax, however Odysseus was anchored "lashed by ropes on the mast" at his own request, having been told to do so by a prophet, Teiresias. While tied up, he tried to convince his crew mates to stop, even though he knew it was the last thing he should do, displaying a sense of recklessness and powerlessness over himself, however in this instance the crew display a quality other than submissiveness where they allow their reasoning to control them rather than duty towards their master. After getting back Odysseus withstands pain for glory when he dresses up like a beggar and lacerates himself so he can sneak into the city of Troy and learn their plans. His cunning and intelligence win over his desire to show himself and openly challenge the suitors who were where lording over his home-eating food at his expense, drinking his wine, flouting his son’s authority and vying for his wife. (Book 4) The lack of self control on the part of various women in the Odyssey helps the hero progress in his journey. Calypso and Circe give into their desires and in the process help him as well. Same is the case with Nausikaa who is of marriageable age and who instead of interacting with Odysseus should have run in the opposite direction seeing a strange man. The beauty Athena endowed on Odysseus at the moment helped his case which shows how the weakening of human resolve by the gods plays a huge role in how a hero’s story plays out. Additionally, repetition in the poem often occurs with some variation from occurrence to occurrence or with a change in context that gives repeated phrases or encounters new meaning .In Book 19 Odysseus launches into a tirade against Melantho but by Book 20 he responds with a manner akin to disgust and pity and reigns in his sharp words .In this case, the evidence of self control is more due the knowledge of a victory in the near future than a controlled sense of manner.

Self control in all spheres of life is shown as the ultimate aim of a human’s life. The Odyssey embodies the consequences of the loss of self control and the rewards obtained by gaining mastery over your instincts. COMPARISON Mythology provides us with an idea about the values, culture and intellectual development of the people of those cultures and civilizations. Two of the most vibrant, advanced and complex mythologies are that of the ancient Greeks and the Hindus (Indian. These two religions and cultures existed in different parts of the world and were separated by great distances butut there are some amazing similarities between their fables and myths and I will compare the theme of duty(pietas) in two epics -Ramayana and the Odyssey. The brief summary of the Ramayana is as follows- “Dasaratha of Ayodhya chooses his son Rama as his successor, Kaikeyi, one of his three wives, implores him to make her son, Bharata, king. Dasaratha, having previously given his word to grant her a wish, must accede, and banishes Rama to the forest for fourteen years. Rama's wife, Sita, and his brother, Lakshmana, accompany him. In the forest, the demon Surpanakha sees Rama, and falls in love with him. He rebuffs her, and Lakshmana wounds her as she attempts to assault Sita. She flees to her brother Ravana, King of Lanka who has ten heads and twenty arms, rules and uses his formidable powers to suppress sacred rituals. She tells him of Sita's beauty and he, inflamed with desire, battles Rama for her. When he fails, he disguises himself, tricking Rama and kidnapping Sita to take her back to Lanka. Imprisoned in Ravana's garden, Sita maintains her virtue and her fidelity to Rama. The monkey general Hanuman, an ally of Rama, who had saved his kingdom, eventually finds Sita, and Rama and Lakshmana, along with Hanuman's monkey army, attack Lanka. After many battles, they kill Ravana and rescue Sita. Because Sita has lived with another man, Rama requires her to walk through fire to

prove her chastity. Rama returns to Ayodhya, where his stepbrother, Bharata, entreats him to take the throne. He does so, but shortly thereafter he banishes Sita to the forest because of his doubts about her virtue. In the forest, Sita contemplates drowning herself, but the sage and poet Valmiki appears in the poem, imploring her not to do so. She heeds his advice, and in her isolation bears twins to Rama. Once the boys, Luv and Kush are born, she asks Valmiki to write Rama's story for them. It is several years before Rama realizes his mistake and finally comes to bring Sita home. When the family is reunited, the twins sing the Ramayana for their father. Sita, in order to prove her virtue, implores the earth to swallow her up, leaving Rama to care for their sons.’’ 4Though condensed the above paragraph is a condensed summary of the 24,000 couplet long epic written by Valmiki in the 4th or 5th century BCE. The Ramayana epitomizes the spirit of ancient India with its vague but grand concepts of moral rectitude and its consequences for a person’s fate. Both Rama and Sita are portrayed as following their dharma,a term meaning ‘personal duty’ as well as ‘law,eternal law,’ and personified as the God of Justice.’’5. Dharma is quite easily comparable to the Greek idea of Pietas or duty where Odysseus tried to pursue high ideals even if he suffered from occasional lapses.The difference is that Rama painstakingly puts Dharma over everything else where he first gave up the throne on his father’s insistence as a well behaved son and as a king who sets a precedent, he sent his wife away when questions were raised against her chastity against his own desires. Odysseus tries to have his cake and eat it too for example he goes back to Penelope but not after having spent time with Circe and Calypso.

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http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/extra/bl-ramayana-summary.htm B.A. Van Nooten in his introduction to Buck’s translation of The Odyssey

Sita is the ideal wife who places her husband’s interests over her own, her steadfast loyalty and chastity make her the ideal Hindu wife as is Penelope who also embodies the concept of Pativrata-a wife entirely devoted to her husband. Sita’s devotion to her husband manifests itself not only in her rejecting the overtures of Ravana like the case of the suitors but also physical and mental action when she chooses to accompany Rama on his Vanvaas(exile) fulfilling the duty of a wife. Ravana is comparable to suitors who covet another man’s wife showing lack of self control which leads to dire consequences for him.Bharata completes his duty as a faithful younger brother who rules Ayodhya in Rama’s absence by placing Rama’s slippers on the throne which is reminscient of Eumaios and Eurycleia who do their duties even in their master’s absence. Greek gods and goddesses intervene in human events but are distinct entities but in contrast, the concept of Gods in Eternal Dharma is that of many parts of one whole Supreme Entity. The Avataar of God on Earth is the physical appearance of the Supreme Entity. But, in doing so, the Avataar becomes a part of human society and follows the laws or practices of human society at that time like Rama who is an Avaatar of Lord Vishnu on earth and needs to always be on high moral grounds whereas Odysseus as a mortal is excused certain slips. Though a brief comparison, it is interesting how the same concepts gained equal importance in two civilizations separated by time and space. Dharma is the ‘law of being’ without which humans cannot exist and in the same way duty is seen as of foremost importance in Homer’s epics. CONCLUSION

The themes of self control and pietas discussed by me in the paper form narrow determined pathways in a minefield of Greek adversities, divergence from which lands the character in a perilous position. It provides the reader with a structure armed with which he can deduct the results of certain decisions and actions .In this particular epic, though Odysseus and his journey is dominated to a certain extent by the will of the fates, some of his decisions decide the route and length of his voyage as in the example of Polyphemus which incurred the wrath of Poseidon who constantly denied him safe voyage till the intervention made by Zeus. Self control as a theme is reflected in the Aeneid as well where Aeneas leaves Troy amid ruins even though his burning city tries to keep him back and he displays the sense of duty when he leaves Dido to go and found Rome. It is thus obvious that these themes overcome boundaries of time and remain important in characterizing people in an epic. The Odyssey is can be best explained as a story which hangs on these two strings which could either sink Odysseus’s boat or push him forward. Through his own capabilities and divine intervention , he made it to Ithaca leading to a glorious tale being concocted which has lived on for centuries. This epic was written when the civilization it was celebrating had clearly passed way with all the grandeur and heroicness of those days. Homer seems to stress on the loss of the qualities man possessed in yesteryears as opposed to the clear ‘Iron Age’ life of man in his day.The Gods in this epic seem to be more mature than what their behaviour was in the Iliad showing their progress with each Homeric epic. Lastly,the Odyssey remains an engrossing book with multiple themes to observe and a travesty of information to absorb.