With the disclaimer that I’m not into Homeric scholarship at all so this is just me pulling things out of thin air and overall vibes, but I love the idea of the Odyssey reimagined as a horror story. Something crawls out of the carnage of the Trojan War and drags itself home across a monster-infested Mediterranean, and past a certain point that thing is more revenant than living human. Again, this is more fanfiction than textual interpretation, so please refrain from being annoying in the notes.
Enough feminist retellings of Greek Classics, I want cosmic horror retellings that really lean into the idea that everyone is powerless against their fates and the gods. Everyone is already dead, Odysseus died a long time ago, but Athena won’t let him die, and Penelope weaves and undoes and weaves again and waits for the shambling corpse of her husband to make its way home and lie down next to hers, and perhaps what happened to Hector and Achilles was a mercy after all?
I love when characters are biologically alive, but narratively dead, when they passed the narrative event horizon a long time ago and now the only thing left is their metaphorical reanimated corpse being dragged through the remainder of the story, and I love when this is a deliberate literary device to hammer in the tragedy and horror of the event that marked the point of no return for their character arc.
Something crawls out of the carnage of the Trojan War and drags itself home across a monster-infested Mediterranean. It’s a man. Or at least it looks like a man. Eyes glazed over. Drenched in blood and war. By all rights he should not be walking. He should be fallen in glory with all the rest. But Athena likes him far too much. Likes his strategy in battle. Likes the rhythm in his violence far too much to be merciful and let him fall. And so something crawls out of the carnage of the Trojan war. But nobody crawls out of the carnage of the Trojan war.
And Athena likes him far too much to let him stop now. Odysseus tries to return to his wife. But Odysseus is dead already. So the shambling Nobody enters the Mediterranean and trails suffering and war all along the meandering track he takes.
By all rights he should have died. He should have died in the Trojan war, or from the cyclops, or from Scylla, or simply from the sea. But Athena likes him far too much, and the cunning that endeared him to her has not flickered out quite yet.
Odysseus tries to return to his wife. Penelope sits, weaving and unweaving and reweaving the same tapestry. Penelope sits, certain in her husband’s death and certain in his return while men pound against her door and requesting her life for their ascension. Penelope sits, and weaves, and waits. Odysseus tries to return to his wife but he is dead already, and Athena likes him far too much.
Odysseus is alone. All his crew dashed on teeth and Athena’s favor for their captain. Odysseus tries to return to his wife. “But you are far too bright and clever to be wasted,” whispers Athena. “Let us see what else you can do.” And thus the raft crashes and Odysseus, tugged along on a string held by his goddess, crawls out from another wreck. And Odysseus had been dead for a long time already, but Athena will not let him fall. So Penelope waits for Athena to return the corpse of her husband.
Odysseus tries to return to his wife and Athena let’s him go. He lands in Ithaca drenched and dripping with carnage and war. Penelope sits and waits and re-weaves the tapestry for the last time. She certain in her husband’s return and certain in his death. Odysseus tries to return to his wife. But there are suitors blocking his path. Athena delights one last time in the trickery and violence of her chosen Odysseus. Odysseus is dead, and now so are all the suitors on the path up to his wife.
Odysseus tries to return to his wife. He has reached Penelope’s weaving room and stands in the doorway. He flickers once and then there is nothing left in his eyes. Penelope sits. Her husband has returned and she has never been more certain of his death. Something crawled out of the carnage of the Trojan war and it has returned her husband. Athena liked him far too much, but Odysseus is dead so she will let him fall into the arms of his wife.
“I’m the only Odysseus who will ever come to you.” “I’m all the Odysseus you’re going to get.”
imagine what it must be like to do scholarship on the odyssey when your name is odysseus. big brain move like who is going to disagree w odysseus’ takes on the odyssey. nobody
kirk gets out of every situation being like you see this table right here this table is made of wood and now you see long ago people made tables out of wood in earths 20th century though tables can be made of other materials right mister spock and spocks like yes there are tables made of metal alloys combinations of materials in fact tables are an object defined by structure rather than material and kirks like yes yes very good so we all agree this is a table and finally the guy whos holding them hostage looks down at the table and kirk kicks the table at him
today in defenses of boromir that no one asked for: tired of reading that boromir’s death was in vain because he failed to save merry & pippin from the uruk-hai. the fact that this clearly important warrior was willing to die to protect those two is what convinced the urukhai that they had indeed captured the halfing who carried whatever important thing saruman wanted. they took the hobbits to isengard (to isengard gard) because they thought they had the right ones! boromir didn’t succeed in preventing their capture but he did in fact keep them alive by making them seem valuable. furthermore, he actually also saves frodo in this way: because the orcs and uruk-hai think they have what they came for, they stop looking and turn back: if they had not, they might have ultimately found and captured frodo or at least raised the alarm that a hobbit with an Important Thing was on the loose, setting others searching. which is the very heart of tolkien’s worldview - that you do the right thing because it is right, and doing the right thing is never in vain.
to conclude this essay boromir died a hero and saved not just merry and pippin but also frodo and sam.
some excellent additions in the tags here @erynalasse & @manta-ray-parade
