0:00:04.075,0:00:09.040
As if we needed anymore indication from[br]book one that it was time for Telemachus

0:00:09.040,0:00:13.023
to, to grow up a little.[br]It actually comes out of Athena's mouth in

0:00:13.023,0:00:16.059
her disguise.[br]She's standing next to him on page 87 and

0:00:16.059,0:00:21.001
says you must not cling to your boyhood[br]any longer, it's time you were a man.

0:00:21.001,0:00:25.030
So, Telemachus realizes it's time to[br]change, somethings got to give.

0:00:25.258,0:00:31.008
It spurs him into his action of failed[br]attempt to rile the suitors in his of

0:00:31.008,0:00:34.757
beginning of Book two.[br]And then, he gets ready to haul off on

0:00:34.757,0:00:37.411
this tour with mentor as his guide,[br]Athena.

0:00:37.411,0:00:41.993
And when he does head out on this tour,[br]he's going to learn things.

0:00:42.206,0:00:48.862
Travels a way for him to gain knowledge.[br]And in his tour round these great capitals

0:00:49.094,0:00:54.645
in books three and four, what Telemachus[br]is really going to do is take a journey

0:00:54.645,0:00:58.000
into a past.[br]And this past is already something that

0:00:58.000,0:01:02.034
has a kind of grandeur to it.[br]He'll look at Pylos and this wonderful

0:01:02.034,0:01:05.052
wealthy citadel of, of, of that we see[br]with Nestor.

0:01:05.052,0:01:09.582
And then, we're going to move on to Sparta[br]and see Menelaus and Helen of Troy

0:01:09.582,0:01:12.471
herself.[br]We're going to see grand figures that are

0:01:12.471,0:01:17.764
already a mythic proportion according to[br]how Telemachus marshal his engagement with

0:01:17.764,0:01:20.934
them.[br]I thought in making this turn to this

0:01:20.934,0:01:26.350
grand past such as we're going to see in[br]three and four, I might just toss up here

0:01:26.350,0:01:31.646
a slide of a famous probably our most[br]famous ancient citadel from this time, the

0:01:31.646,0:01:36.827
citadel of Mycenae, Agamemnon's palace[br]This is so-called lion gate and it has an

0:01:36.827,0:01:41.030
air of majesty to it.[br]And, thinking back to the time when this

0:01:41.030,0:01:44.330
was built back in the first early, you[br]know, early, early, early times first

0:01:44.330,0:01:48.484
millennium BCE and even before these[br]citadels emerged up out of the out of the,

0:01:48.625,0:01:54.109
the plain around us and at a time, when[br]there were simple agrarian folk in most

0:01:54.109,0:01:58.053
parts of the world.[br]There would be these grand citadels.

0:01:58.053,0:02:03.795
And in the memory of time as the citadels[br]age and as history builds up around them,

0:02:03.795,0:02:09.094
and events take place that involve these[br]places, eventually people start to think,

0:02:09.094,0:02:15.238
my gosh, how in the world did they build[br]those things, anyway, all those centuries

0:02:15.238,0:02:17.977
ago?[br]And when they did that, they started down

0:02:17.977,0:02:23.023
a path of imaging that their ancestors[br]were greater than they were.

0:02:23.212,0:02:28.059
They even called these stones, Cyclopean[br]stones because they felt there was no way

0:02:28.059,0:02:33.028
a human being could have moved them and[br]they are kind of things that only a

0:02:33.028,0:02:35.938
Cyclops could move.[br]So, there was a, a, a kind of, of mythic

0:02:37.006,0:02:41.099
orientation toward their deep past that[br]the Greeks already had during Homer's

0:02:41.099,0:02:44.273
time.[br]The, the impulse here to look at your

0:02:44.460,0:02:49.655
ancestors as being much greater than you[br]were leads us to our first universal law

0:02:49.655,0:02:52.916
in the course.[br]I'm going to give you a few universal laws

0:02:52.916,0:02:57.567
in the course guarantee to be universal[br]money back guarantee.

0:02:57.716,0:03:00.555
And how much money do we pay for a course[br]there anyway?

0:03:00.555,0:03:03.615
Anyway, universal laws are money back[br]guarantee.

0:03:03.615,0:03:08.589
Universal law number one, nostalgia is the[br]most powerful force in the universe.

0:03:08.798,0:03:14.633
When people are looking back to their past[br]they always imagine that it must have been

0:03:14.633,0:03:17.893
better.[br]Seems to be something that is exhibited

0:03:17.893,0:03:22.748
across time and surely the Greeks are[br]susceptible to this form of nostalgia as

0:03:22.748,0:03:25.763
well.[br]So, Telemachus has his cue, it's time to

0:03:25.763,0:03:29.733
go and off he goes.[br]He's going to visit two amazing places.

0:03:29.923,0:03:34.816
Athena's going to bring him along.[br]He's going to see Nestor's coastal city.

0:03:35.022,0:03:40.843
And when he does, he's going to move from[br]the his edge of his island of Ithaca and

0:03:40.843,0:03:45.698
have a trip down by boat to Pylos.[br]Now remember, when he arrives by boat in

0:03:45.698,0:03:48.828
Pylos, what does he see there on the[br]shore?

0:03:48.828,0:03:54.638
There are nine divisions of 500 people[br]each.

0:03:54.638,0:04:00.854
So, already, we've got 4,500 people on a[br]beach, that's probably going to arrest

0:04:00.854,0:04:05.015
your attention.[br]And now in case, we haven't gotten your

0:04:05.015,0:04:09.068
attention, each of those groups of 500,[br]each of those nine groups of 500 is

0:04:09.068,0:04:13.081
slaughtering nine bulls.[br]So, we've got 81 bulls being slaughtered

0:04:13.081,0:04:18.028
simultaneously on a beach.[br]If that doesn't grab your attention, then

0:04:18.028,0:04:23.094
you probably need some smelling salts.[br]What Telemachus sees there absolutely is

0:04:23.094,0:04:28.055
just extraordinary to him.[br]The grandeur of this scene something

0:04:28.055,0:04:32.008
amazing.[br]And the display of wealth, the conspicuous

0:04:32.008,0:04:36.021
display of wealth.[br]81 bulls during Telemachus' time is, a, a

0:04:36.021,0:04:42.085
fortune to last, you know the equivalent[br]of a fortune that could last a huge chunk

0:04:42.085,0:04:45.767
of a lifetime.[br]And yet, here they are just being expended

0:04:45.767,0:04:48.078
in this one event on the shores as he[br]goes.

0:04:48.078,0:04:51.067
So, we know we're entering into a world of[br]grandeur.

0:04:51.067,0:04:54.945
And now, keeping in mind that this is a[br]world of grandeur, we're always going to

0:04:54.945,0:04:59.642
be remembering, although it's going to[br]take Telemachus a little while to remember

0:04:59.642,0:05:04.450
himself, that this should be the kind of[br]grandeur that exists in his household.

0:05:04.450,0:05:07.738
And instead, these vagabonds are running[br]riot across it.

0:05:07.884,0:05:10.353
From Pylos and then, we go over land, over[br]to Sparta.

0:05:10.353,0:05:14.953
And at that point, we're going to meet[br]Menelaus, Agamemnon's very brother, and

0:05:14.953,0:05:17.975
Helen of Troy, that face that launched a[br]thousand ships.

0:05:17.975,0:05:22.297
We're going to have a private audience[br]with her through Telemachus' eyes, we're

0:05:22.297,0:05:25.198
going to see Helen.[br]Now, through this trip through this

0:05:25.198,0:05:30.091
traveling that Telemachus is going to do,[br]it's a way for him to gain knowledge.

0:05:30.091,0:05:35.790
And at the same time, he's mirroring in a[br]smaller, more controlled way, the kind of

0:05:36.021,0:05:40.057
adventure that his father is on.[br]For each of them the experiential

0:05:40.057,0:05:45.049
knowledge that's gained through traveling[br]is something that's profound, that's

0:05:45.049,0:05:50.061
powerful, that's life-shaping that gives[br]them tools, and that allows them to

0:05:50.061,0:05:54.941
advance in their own lives.[br]Travel is a deeply powerful tool according

0:05:54.941,0:06:01.035
to the scale of values.[br]So as he gets ready to make his journey,

0:06:01.035,0:06:07.016
makes his connection gears up his boat,[br]gets his provisions, makes his way to

0:06:07.016,0:06:12.059
Pylos, sees this grandeur, he sits down[br]and has his audience with Nestor.

0:06:12.059,0:06:17.580
When he gets to Sparta, he'll sit down and[br]have his audience with Menelaus and with,

0:06:17.772,0:06:21.394
with Helen.[br]Now, at each turn, the, the elders sit

0:06:21.394,0:06:27.666
back and listen to Telemachus' version of[br]events, and the first thing they do, when

0:06:27.666,0:06:33.069
they hear what is happening, is to react[br]the way, presumably, we're being taught a

0:06:33.069,0:06:38.081
person should react, they don't just feel[br]sorry for Telemachus, they don't pat him

0:06:38.081,0:06:42.006
on the head and give him some Kleenex,[br]they're angry.

0:06:42.006,0:06:47.001
They're angry.[br]The constant exhibition of Telemachus's

0:06:47.001,0:06:51.042
elders after he tells them this story is[br]to feel anger.

0:06:51.254,0:06:55.074
We see this multiple times as the story is[br]being told.

0:06:55.315,0:07:02.006
Athena has already shown it page 85, as[br][unknown] mentor, she is outraged and she

0:07:02.006,0:07:05.057
talks about how shameful this exhibition[br]is.

0:07:05.057,0:07:11.033
On page 134, we hear from Menelaus, we[br]also hear from Nestor, that this is

0:07:11.033,0:07:16.022
shameful what's happening.[br]Anger comes up when they hear this.

0:07:16.252,0:07:21.352
The tour is partly an education for[br]Telemahus to be schooled in how his

0:07:21.352,0:07:24.890
emotions ought to be working.[br]His emotions need some calibration.

0:07:24.890,0:07:29.240
They need some changing.[br]Oftentimes, I think we think that emotions

0:07:29.240,0:07:33.759
are just kind of natural responses to[br]things and that just by nature you are

0:07:33.759,0:07:38.061
going to feel things like embarrassment,[br]or anger, or joy or what, whatever it is.

0:07:38.246,0:07:43.057
But the stance that Homer is taking here[br]in the Odyssey is a little bit different.

0:07:43.057,0:07:47.012
It seems that Telemachus actually needs[br]some schooling in this.

0:07:47.012,0:07:51.074
There's an acculturation that he needs to[br]do to know that it is right now to feel

0:07:51.074,0:07:54.201
anger.[br]That is the kind of emotional response he

0:07:54.201,0:07:57.884
should be having.[br]Each person that he talks to expresses

0:07:57.884,0:08:01.034
that.[br]Then also, at each turn, we hear a

0:08:01.034,0:08:07.085
particular name that's brought up.[br]When we're talking to Nestor on page 113,

0:08:07.085,0:08:14.021
the name Orestes comes up.[br]Athena disguised as mentor on page 115

0:08:14.021,0:08:17.076
talks about Orestes.[br]Menaleus, page 141.

0:08:17.076,0:08:22.052
After hearing the story of what's[br]happening in Telemachus household, talks

0:08:22.052,0:08:27.065
about Orestes, and in fact, casting our[br]mind back for a second, back to book one

0:08:27.066,0:08:31.775
Zeus in his introductory remarks right at[br]the very beginning, talks about Orestes

0:08:32.027,0:08:38.236
right on page 78 in the translation.[br]At each point a person who mentions

0:08:38.236,0:08:43.957
Orestes is an older authority figure.[br]They're reacting to this expression of

0:08:43.957,0:08:47.248
powerlessness.[br]In Zeus' case, it's the idea that people

0:08:47.248,0:08:52.552
just toss up their hands and it just feels[br]like everything is just faded and it's the

0:08:52.552,0:08:55.767
gods fault.[br]Instead, take action like that Orestes

0:08:55.767,0:08:58.910
did.[br]The mentor Nestor and Menelaus each after

0:08:58.910,0:09:03.944
they hear the story that Telemachus tells[br]and of his own pathetic powerlessness in

0:09:03.944,0:09:07.841
the situation say, oh, have you heard the[br]one about Orestes?

0:09:07.841,0:09:12.559
Now, what are they referring to?[br]What is this situation involving Orestes?

0:09:12.559,0:09:17.427
Well, it just so happens that the, one of[br]the famous stories of homecoming is

0:09:17.427,0:09:22.450
something that's already percolating in[br]the background of Homer's Odyssey.

0:09:22.643,0:09:27.598
When Agamemnon famously makes his way[br]home, he gets home pretty quickly.

0:09:27.598,0:09:32.918
It's not a struggle for him to get a ship[br]back to his to his citadel.

0:09:32.918,0:09:36.218
But when he does, he sees his wife.[br]Hello and I'm, I'm back home.

0:09:36.218,0:09:41.846
He doesn't realize that his wife has taken[br]up a liaison with a lover and that the two

0:09:41.846,0:09:46.217
of them go ahead and murder Agamemnon[br]shortly after he arrives.

0:09:46.217,0:09:51.711
Now, this is an awful thing, Clytemnestra,[br]Agamemnon's wife, and her lover killed the

0:09:51.711,0:09:56.997
head of household, Agamemnon, her husband.[br]Now, it just so happens that within the

0:09:56.997,0:10:03.170
Greek ethical code, if someone kills your[br]father as a son or a daughter, it is now

0:10:03.170,0:10:07.755
your duty to kill your father's killer.[br]Well now, what happens in Agamemnon's

0:10:07.755,0:10:10.823
family?[br]Agamemnon's own son and daughter are

0:10:10.823,0:10:16.175
responsible now for taking revenge against[br]this killer, which means for them, killing

0:10:16.175,0:10:18.849
their own mother.[br]This is a nasty business.

0:10:18.849,0:10:23.694
This is ugly, and this is awful.[br]In Homer's version of it, the part that's

0:10:23.694,0:10:26.600
really emphasized is the lover part,[br]Aegisthus.

0:10:26.773,0:10:31.022
It's, he's talked about as the one most[br]responsible for the death of Agamemnon.

0:10:31.022,0:10:34.663
So, Orestes goes ahead and takes care of[br]business and kills Aegisthus.

0:10:34.828,0:10:38.527
But it's a messy story.[br]It's already messy in Homer's time.

0:10:38.527,0:10:43.469
And if you get even messier when we[br]concentrate on it in our out weeks of the

0:10:43.469,0:10:48.985
class, we're going to turn to, after we[br]turn to classical Athenian tragedy we're

0:10:48.985,0:10:52.947
going to see the story of Agamemnon told[br]through Aeschylus' eyes.

0:10:52.947,0:10:56.045
My goodness, that's going to make my hairs[br]grow.

0:10:56.543,0:11:03.153
But when Homer focuses on it, what he[br]means to point is, Orestes in a situation

0:11:03.153,0:11:09.573
that was very ugly and very nasty, he had[br]the gumption to do what needed to be done.

0:11:09.573,0:11:16.124
Even in a situation where that was nasty,[br]nasty business, Orestes, did, what needed

0:11:16.124,0:11:19.453
to be done.[br]Orestes and the story of run, cycling

0:11:19.453,0:11:23.192
around Agamemnon show up multiple times in[br]Homer's Odyssey.

0:11:23.192,0:11:28.819
And in relation to Telemachus, they always[br]show up as this kind of coda tom that's

0:11:28.819,0:11:33.461
placed on the end of Telemachus feeling[br]sorry for himself in the code that comes

0:11:33.461,0:11:37.243
from a more, from an older more[br]experienced person saying, you know what,

0:11:37.243,0:11:41.216
even in the nasty business that Orestes[br]had to take care of, his house was all

0:11:41.216,0:11:44.187
messed up and Orestes came in and took[br]care of business.

0:11:44.187,0:11:49.021
So when Telemachus is being schooled on[br]how he should be reacting to the world,

0:11:49.021,0:11:53.520
he's being introduced generally to the[br]grand and aristocratic world that is his

0:11:53.520,0:11:57.651
birthright, that he ought to be enforcing[br]to be his own on the island of Ithaca,

0:11:57.651,0:12:00.515
he's being introduced to an emotional[br]response.

0:12:00.515,0:12:03.978
He's being enculturated to the right[br]emotional response.

0:12:03.978,0:12:08.125
Anger is what the person is supposed to[br]feel when something as nasty as what is

0:12:08.125,0:12:12.011
happening in your house is happening.[br]Not pity , not sorry for yourself.

0:12:12.011,0:12:16.407
Not powerlessness.[br]He's also being schooled in historical

0:12:16.407,0:12:19.375
lessons.[br]By saying, look, if you're in this

0:12:19.375,0:12:24.919
situation, you think you've got it bad,[br]well, don't overlook what happened in a

0:12:24.919,0:12:29.797
similar, you know, in a, in a situation[br]that was surely as bad as yours, and

0:12:29.797,0:12:34.779
probably much worse.[br]Also, Orestes took care of business in his

0:12:34.779,0:12:38.266
own situation.[br]And you, as the son of a father whose

0:12:38.266,0:12:43.852
being displaced by people that are eating[br]you out of house and home, it's going to

0:12:43.852,0:12:49.041
be incumbent upon you, their hinting,[br]hinting, hinting to take action yourself.

0:12:49.041,0:12:53.078
Go ahead and be the Orestes of your own[br]story and take action.

0:12:53.078,0:12:59.038
Now, in book four, there's a wonderful[br]scene that I just wanted to spend a little

0:12:59.038,0:13:04.643
bit of time with, we get to after we've[br]had a chance to meet Nestor and his

0:13:05.015,0:13:11.899
amazing display of wealth we get a chance[br]to see what's happening, in the, the house

0:13:11.899,0:13:15.920
of house of Menelaus.[br]We also get to see that beautiful woman

0:13:16.099,0:13:21.051
Helen of Troy herself.[br]She comes in and has an entrance into the

0:13:21.051,0:13:24.088
story.[br]We get to hear from her and hear her own

0:13:24.088,0:13:27.537
story.[br]When she does jump into the story there

0:13:27.537,0:13:31.052
are some interesting things for us to[br]recognize.

0:13:31.052,0:13:34.066
First of all, her beauty.[br]Her bewitching guile.

0:13:34.066,0:13:38.046
It's extraordinary.[br]It's, it's obviously overwhelming.

0:13:38.223,0:13:41.079
She is indeed the face that launched a[br]thousand ships.

0:13:41.079,0:13:47.029
When we get to see her she brings in a[br]nice bowl for us to drink from that is

0:13:47.029,0:13:51.081
going to soothe our, our pains or else an,[br]an alcoholic beverage.

0:13:51.081,0:13:55.061
But she also adds to it something extra,[br]something special.

0:13:55.061,0:14:00.790
These are special drugs that she got on[br]her sojourn in Egypt when she and Menelaus

0:14:00.790,0:14:04.998
were blown off course.[br]And these drugs, she can now mix into

0:14:04.998,0:14:10.280
wine, that mix into this wonderful potion,[br]where no one could feel any pain for

0:14:10.280,0:14:14.066
having had it.[br]The narcotic effect of the wine is another

0:14:14.066,0:14:18.527
thing that seems to be hovering around the[br]aura that is Helen.

0:14:18.527,0:14:23.231
So, in the case of Helen, we have beauty,[br]we have magical power, we have

0:14:23.231,0:14:26.129
intoxication.[br]A little bit of danger, as well, because

0:14:26.129,0:14:31.849
she can bring you out of this world.[br]All of these things together showing up in

0:14:31.849,0:14:36.564
the figure of Helen, this is a cluster of[br]ideas that we're going to see visited

0:14:36.745,0:14:40.009
regularly in Homeric epic.[br]Of women who have power.

0:14:40.009,0:14:43.033
Who have very clear erotic dimension to[br]their power.

0:14:43.033,0:14:46.038
Who also are mixed up in the idea of, of,[br]of magic.

0:14:46.245,0:14:51.030
Who have extraordinary beauty.[br]And who when they arrive in a room, turn

0:14:51.030,0:14:54.415
lots of heads.[br]There's a tremendous power that Homer sees

0:14:54.621,0:15:00.448
in, in this cluster of ideas, and we're[br]going to see it represented in multiple

0:15:00.448,0:15:06.212
places as our story moves forward.[br]Not least, when we turn to away from our

0:15:06.212,0:15:11.487
story of Telemachus in the first four[br]books of the Odyssey and move on to meet

0:15:11.669,0:15:23.816
our hero, the man himself the, the, the[br]man the muses are singing of, Odysseus.

0:15:24.583,0:15:33.027
He'll appear in our next lecture.