Poseidon and His Son: Reflections of chaos in the Odyssey
Throughout Homer’s epic, the Odyssey, Poseidon is often characterized as a destructive and cruel deity. He is seen as the primary Olympian antagonist of “that kingly man” Odysseus, whom the other gods seem to hold in high esteem. When viewed from a broader perspective, however, it can be seen that Poseidon, representative of all of the forces of physical and mental chaos, is an intricate part of Odysseus’s own mind. In fact, many of the chaotic turns that define Odysseus’s journey are caused by his own actions. Poseidon is simply the resulting force of these actions. The encounter between Odysseus and Poseidon’s son Polyphêmos the Kyklops is an allegorical episode that defines Poseidon as a force of nature, and his son as a result or specific instance of that force. In the Kyklops episode, Odysseus is encountering a personified version of that part of his psyche resulting from the chaos and turmoil of his actions during and after the siege of Troy. In ancient Greek mythology, a son’s character is believed to be a reflection of his father. Early in the poem, Telémakhos demonstrates this axiom by responding to Athena’s questioning about his father, “My mother says I am his son; I know not surely. Who has know
In a more direct fashion, Polyphêmos is representative of specific aspects of his father, the god Poseidon. Polyphêmos’s name means, roughly, “many fames”, and he is portrayed as crude and uncouth, a savage who practices cannibalism. He is also egotistical and sacrilegious, scorning Zeus and the gods by claiming that the Kyklopês “have more force by far” (p.153) than the Olympians. Poseidon, to the ancient Greeks, was a nearly unfathomable deity, a force of nature represented by the thundering waves, earthquakes, and disaster. In the mind of a man, this force could be reflected as the destructive chaotic impulses which can lead to mental confusion and eventually insanity. If Polyphêmos is Poseidon’s son, then the clear implication is that the “many fames” he represents are the result or fruition of acts of chaos and destruction. Polyphêmos is the embodiment of Odysseus’s experience during and after the Trojan War, or on a larger scale, of war in general. He is a cannibal because the fame that Odysseus and others have gained in ransacking Troy has come at the cost of many good men’s lives. The Kyklops kills and devours Odysseus’s shipmates, just as the war consumed many that sailed with him to Troy. The Kyklopês were “giants, louts, without a law to bless them” (p.148). This lack of civilization or regulation implies the barbarity and lawlessness of war. Poseidon, like the other gods of Olympus, was more than just a humanlike immortal to the ancient Greeks. He was a force, an archetype that could be found internally in the human mind as well as in
Some topics in this essay:
Homer Odysseus’s,
Polyphêmos Kyklops,
Trojan War,
Nearly Odysseus,
Odyssey Poseidon,
Olympians Poseidon,
Troy Kyklopês,
Poseidon Polyphêmos’s,
Polyphêmos Poseidon’s,
ancient greeks,
Throughout Homer’s,
“many fames”,
siege troy,
force nature,
poseidon’s son,
trojan war,
forces poseidon,
throughout poem,
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Approximate Word count = 1071
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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