Similarities Between The Odyssey And The Aeneid
A Tale of Two Epics An epic is typically defined as a long poem pertaining to a hero’s journey, focusing on the achievements and obstacles of said hero. An epic can be external—a literal journey from one place to another in which the hero faces physical challenges and struggles, needing to overcome them using resolve and guile, or an epic can be internal—in which the hero faces more mental obstacles, needing to make smart decisions using thoughtfulness and wisdom. Homer’s The Odyssey and Virgil’s The Aeneid are both classic epics of the Ancient Mediterranean world sharing many similarities but also having many differences, one of which is The Odyssey is more of an external epic whereas The Aenied is more of an internal epic. Odysseus and
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Aneas both partake in similar epic journeys, but it is the elements unique to each character’s journey, such as the nature of his heroic actions, the type of women he encounters, and his ultimate homecoming at the end of the journey, that dictates whether his individual epic is more external or internal. When a hero is faced with a serious decision or challenge that needs to be acted on, it is the circumstances of the challenge or the manner in which the decision is made that will indicate whether that hero’s epic journey is external or internal. In Odysseus’s case many of the obstacles he faces are physical interactions with other people. One particular example is Odysseus’s run-in with the Cyclops, Polyphemus. This is a concrete event, occurring outside of the hero’s mind, so it contributes to The Odyssey being an external epic. In Book 9, Odysseus and some of his crew arrive on the island of the Cyclops and he decides to venture into the cave. They wait for Polyphemus to return and in the meantime make themselves comfortable in his home. When he returns Odysseus is faced with a challenge of how to deal with the Cyclops and how to escape his cave. After he gets Polyphemus drunk and the Cyclops passes out Odysseus takes the heroic action of, “hoisting high that olive stake with its stabbing point, straight into the monster’s eye” (Book IX, Ln. 427-428). This physical action and immediate cunning decision to physically attack his enemy shows that his epic is external, and it is only one of many similar events that Odysseus encounters. On the other hand, although Aneas is also on a physical journey his is more of a mental journey. His actions are also heroic, but they are not as concrete and take more internal debating than Odysseus’s. The specific instance in which Aneas displays heroic actions is at the beginning of his journey when he has to decide what to do after Troy has been captured. The Trojans bring the Horse into the city and it ultimately ends in disaster, and Aneas has to begin making decisions that will affect not only him, but the people he cares about as well. He initially thinks about his actions and “to arm was my first maddened impulse—not that anyone had a fighting chance in arms” (Book II, Ln. 420-421). This decision shows that his epic begins as internal and will continue to be mainly internal throughout the rest of the epic. After he realizes that the fighting is useless and Troy will be captured, he realizes “For the first time that night, inhuman shuddering took me, head to foot. I stood unmanned, and my dear father’s image came to mind” (Book II, Ln. 429-431). Aneas faces the challenge of having to decide whether to fight, to go, or to find his father and save him. He then speaks with his mother and she tells him to go, to not kill Helen. Aneas makes the decision and it further indicates that his journey is an internal one. The emphasis of this challenge is in making difficult decisions rather than enduring a physical battle. Maybe if he had chosen to stay and fight he would have created more of an external journey, but his thoughtfulness and inner conflict lead him on an internal one. The idea of physical or mental heroic actions is only the beginning of what makes Odysseus and Aneas’s journeys what they are. A traditional element of an epic that is seen in both The Odyssey and The Aeneid is an encounter with a woman who creates some sort of road block in the hero’s journey. The nature of this woman, the type of person she is, and how the hero reacts to her will also helps to dictate whether the journey is external or internal. The woman that Odysseus is trapped by is the goddess Circe. She is tricky and creates obstacles for Odysseus and his men so that they cannot leave her home. First she turns his men into pigs and then when he narrowly escapes her magic he has to promise to sleep with her so that she will not curse him as well. He does what she says so that he can continue on the rest of his journey. He then mopes until she turns his men back into humans and once they live there for a year they ask to leave. When Odysseus asks Circe if she will let them leave her home she replies “Royal son of Laertes, Odysseus, old campaigner, stay on no more in my house against your will” (Book X, Ln. 537-538). Although Circe may have trapped the men there for more than a year it was merely just to have them there. She is a tricky woman and was just a physical obstacle in Odysseus’s journey. There were no feelings between the two, no inner conflict in Odysseus’s mind, he was just enjoying the luxury she provided. He was physically trapped, kept there because she provided things that he enjoyed. Her contribution to his journey being external is seen in how easily she let him go. She sent him off on the rest of his journey with no hesitation, no lingering feelings, further exemplifying that she was merely another physical obstacle. On the other hand the woman of Aneas’s journey, Dido, is much more emotionally attached. It all starts when Aneas arrives in Carthage. Dido begins to fall for him immediately, and after hearing the story of his journey she is madly in love with him. They get trapped in a cave and Dido is deceived by the idea that she and Aneas are now married, which carries the feelings she has for him to an entirely different level. Aneas stays in Carthage for a while, helping Dido build the city and enjoying himself, but eventually the time comes that he needs to re-embark on his trip. He needs to leave but he must deal with Dido before doing so due to the fact that she is so emotionally attached. When he tries to depart she confronts him, asking, “Can our love not hold you, can the pledge we gave not hold you, can Dido not, now sure to die in pain?” (Book IV, Ln. 419-421). Her feelings for Aneas and her belief that they are married contribute to the fact that his journey is internal. He may leave anyway because fate always wins out, but while he is in Carthage there are mutual feelings for Dido and he does not mind staying with her. He has to make the decision to leave this woman who so deeply loves him. Aneas’ encounter with Dido presents a roadblock similar to Odysseus’, but he has more emotional feelings for this woman than Odysseus had for Circe, indicating that he has to make another decision on his internal journey. Compared to Odysseus he loses more as a result of the decision to depart from Dido. The tricky nature of Circe and the loving nature of Dido contribute to the external versus internal nature of each character’s journey. The idea of nostos, or homecoming, is a big part of epic and it is a major factor in determining whether Odysseus and Aneas’s journeys are essentially external or internal.
Odysseus began his epic journey with one goal in mind, return to his homeland of Ithaca to reunite with his wife and family. Throughout his trip he ran into many physical obstacles that helped to define his journey as external, but his homecoming ultimately confirmed that definition. It begins when he returns to Ithaca, unsure of where he is. Athena then appears and reveals his homeland to him while disguising him to assure that he gets home and reveals himself in a safe manner. He proceeds to reveal his identity to those close to him, first the nurse and then his son Telemachus. The event that truly signifies his homecoming is when “with his virtuoso ease Odysseus strung his mighty bow” (Book XXII, Ln. 456). He then is revealed to the suitors and battle erupts in his home. Odysseus comes out victorious and there is relief at his return. Because this final act of victory for Odysseus is such a physical act it concludes that his journey was external. He overcame numerous physical obstacles, traveling from place to place, and he finally closes his journey with the conquering of another one. The presence of so many concrete, physical aspects of Odysseus’s journey categorizes it as an external epic, one that involves more interaction with the outside world than with the mind. Aneas’s fate however, is a bit more abstract. He is destined to end up in Italy to begin the Roman Empire and he knows that, but he is not technically returning to his home. The idea of “homecoming” in The Aeneid, even though it is not a traditional homecoming, plays into the fact that Aneas’s epic is internal because no matter where he gets caught up he needs to have the will power to keep moving. He is very much obedient to fate, even when he is enjoying himself with Dido he realizes that he has to leave. It is seen when,
“Duty-bound, Aneas, though he struggled with desire to calm and comfort her in all her pain” (Book IV, Ln. 545-547). Aneas understands that his homecoming to Italy is important and he is willing to do whatever it takes to get to where he needs to be, even if it causes mental conflict within himself. There is no definitive ending for Aneas, no happy return to his kingdom, but rather a new beginning. He defeats Turnus and is able to start his new life, signifying the fact that he made all the right choices, he overcame all of the mental obstacles that his journey presented, and this means that he successfully completed his internal journey. He got where he wanted to be because of his thorough thinking and determination. A hero’s journey can be as epic as any other hero’s, but it is what he encounters along the way and how he reacts to it that will ultimately determine whether the epic journey is external or internal. In Odysseus’s case his physical conquerings, heroic actions, and encounter with the tricky Circe, as well as his victorious homecoming, all define his journey as an external epic, one where the majority of his actions are in relation to the outside world. On the other hand, Aneas’s internal journey is defined as so because of how much of the conflict occurs within his mind. He has to make a tough decision about leaving his homeland in the beginning, and about his departure from the women he had relations with, and as well as his choice to follow fate to his “homecoming” in Italy. Both heroes ended up where they were supposed to be, but it was the unique elements of each journey that defined them as external or internal.
Aneas both partake in similar epic journeys, but it is the elements unique to each character’s journey, such as the nature of his heroic actions, the type of women he encounters, and his ultimate homecoming at the end of the journey, that dictates whether his individual epic is more external or internal. When a hero is faced with a serious decision or challenge that needs to be acted on, it is the circumstances of the challenge or the manner in which the decision is made that will indicate whether that hero’s epic journey is external or internal. In Odysseus’s case many of the obstacles he faces are physical interactions with other people. One particular example is Odysseus’s run-in with the Cyclops, Polyphemus. This is a concrete event, occurring outside of the hero’s mind, so it contributes to The Odyssey being an external epic. In Book 9, Odysseus and some of his crew arrive on the island of the Cyclops and he decides to venture into the cave. They wait for Polyphemus to return and in the meantime make themselves comfortable in his home. When he returns Odysseus is faced with a challenge of how to deal with the Cyclops and how to escape his cave. After he gets Polyphemus drunk and the Cyclops passes out Odysseus takes the heroic action of, “hoisting high that olive stake with its stabbing point, straight into the monster’s eye” (Book IX, Ln. 427-428). This physical action and immediate cunning decision to physically attack his enemy shows that his epic is external, and it is only one of many similar events that Odysseus encounters. On the other hand, although Aneas is also on a physical journey his is more of a mental journey. His actions are also heroic, but they are not as concrete and take more internal debating than Odysseus’s. The specific instance in which Aneas displays heroic actions is at the beginning of his journey when he has to decide what to do after Troy has been captured. The Trojans bring the Horse into the city and it ultimately ends in disaster, and Aneas has to begin making decisions that will affect not only him, but the people he cares about as well. He initially thinks about his actions and “to arm was my first maddened impulse—not that anyone had a fighting chance in arms” (Book II, Ln. 420-421). This decision shows that his epic begins as internal and will continue to be mainly internal throughout the rest of the epic. After he realizes that the fighting is useless and Troy will be captured, he realizes “For the first time that night, inhuman shuddering took me, head to foot. I stood unmanned, and my dear father’s image came to mind” (Book II, Ln. 429-431). Aneas faces the challenge of having to decide whether to fight, to go, or to find his father and save him. He then speaks with his mother and she tells him to go, to not kill Helen. Aneas makes the decision and it further indicates that his journey is an internal one. The emphasis of this challenge is in making difficult decisions rather than enduring a physical battle. Maybe if he had chosen to stay and fight he would have created more of an external journey, but his thoughtfulness and inner conflict lead him on an internal one. The idea of physical or mental heroic actions is only the beginning of what makes Odysseus and Aneas’s journeys what they are. A traditional element of an epic that is seen in both The Odyssey and The Aeneid is an encounter with a woman who creates some sort of road block in the hero’s journey. The nature of this woman, the type of person she is, and how the hero reacts to her will also helps to dictate whether the journey is external or internal. The woman that Odysseus is trapped by is the goddess Circe. She is tricky and creates obstacles for Odysseus and his men so that they cannot leave her home. First she turns his men into pigs and then when he narrowly escapes her magic he has to promise to sleep with her so that she will not curse him as well. He does what she says so that he can continue on the rest of his journey. He then mopes until she turns his men back into humans and once they live there for a year they ask to leave. When Odysseus asks Circe if she will let them leave her home she replies “Royal son of Laertes, Odysseus, old campaigner, stay on no more in my house against your will” (Book X, Ln. 537-538). Although Circe may have trapped the men there for more than a year it was merely just to have them there. She is a tricky woman and was just a physical obstacle in Odysseus’s journey. There were no feelings between the two, no inner conflict in Odysseus’s mind, he was just enjoying the luxury she provided. He was physically trapped, kept there because she provided things that he enjoyed. Her contribution to his journey being external is seen in how easily she let him go. She sent him off on the rest of his journey with no hesitation, no lingering feelings, further exemplifying that she was merely another physical obstacle. On the other hand the woman of Aneas’s journey, Dido, is much more emotionally attached. It all starts when Aneas arrives in Carthage. Dido begins to fall for him immediately, and after hearing the story of his journey she is madly in love with him. They get trapped in a cave and Dido is deceived by the idea that she and Aneas are now married, which carries the feelings she has for him to an entirely different level. Aneas stays in Carthage for a while, helping Dido build the city and enjoying himself, but eventually the time comes that he needs to re-embark on his trip. He needs to leave but he must deal with Dido before doing so due to the fact that she is so emotionally attached. When he tries to depart she confronts him, asking, “Can our love not hold you, can the pledge we gave not hold you, can Dido not, now sure to die in pain?” (Book IV, Ln. 419-421). Her feelings for Aneas and her belief that they are married contribute to the fact that his journey is internal. He may leave anyway because fate always wins out, but while he is in Carthage there are mutual feelings for Dido and he does not mind staying with her. He has to make the decision to leave this woman who so deeply loves him. Aneas’ encounter with Dido presents a roadblock similar to Odysseus’, but he has more emotional feelings for this woman than Odysseus had for Circe, indicating that he has to make another decision on his internal journey. Compared to Odysseus he loses more as a result of the decision to depart from Dido. The tricky nature of Circe and the loving nature of Dido contribute to the external versus internal nature of each character’s journey. The idea of nostos, or homecoming, is a big part of epic and it is a major factor in determining whether Odysseus and Aneas’s journeys are essentially external or internal.
Odysseus began his epic journey with one goal in mind, return to his homeland of Ithaca to reunite with his wife and family. Throughout his trip he ran into many physical obstacles that helped to define his journey as external, but his homecoming ultimately confirmed that definition. It begins when he returns to Ithaca, unsure of where he is. Athena then appears and reveals his homeland to him while disguising him to assure that he gets home and reveals himself in a safe manner. He proceeds to reveal his identity to those close to him, first the nurse and then his son Telemachus. The event that truly signifies his homecoming is when “with his virtuoso ease Odysseus strung his mighty bow” (Book XXII, Ln. 456). He then is revealed to the suitors and battle erupts in his home. Odysseus comes out victorious and there is relief at his return. Because this final act of victory for Odysseus is such a physical act it concludes that his journey was external. He overcame numerous physical obstacles, traveling from place to place, and he finally closes his journey with the conquering of another one. The presence of so many concrete, physical aspects of Odysseus’s journey categorizes it as an external epic, one that involves more interaction with the outside world than with the mind. Aneas’s fate however, is a bit more abstract. He is destined to end up in Italy to begin the Roman Empire and he knows that, but he is not technically returning to his home. The idea of “homecoming” in The Aeneid, even though it is not a traditional homecoming, plays into the fact that Aneas’s epic is internal because no matter where he gets caught up he needs to have the will power to keep moving. He is very much obedient to fate, even when he is enjoying himself with Dido he realizes that he has to leave. It is seen when,
“Duty-bound, Aneas, though he struggled with desire to calm and comfort her in all her pain” (Book IV, Ln. 545-547). Aneas understands that his homecoming to Italy is important and he is willing to do whatever it takes to get to where he needs to be, even if it causes mental conflict within himself. There is no definitive ending for Aneas, no happy return to his kingdom, but rather a new beginning. He defeats Turnus and is able to start his new life, signifying the fact that he made all the right choices, he overcame all of the mental obstacles that his journey presented, and this means that he successfully completed his internal journey. He got where he wanted to be because of his thorough thinking and determination. A hero’s journey can be as epic as any other hero’s, but it is what he encounters along the way and how he reacts to it that will ultimately determine whether the epic journey is external or internal. In Odysseus’s case his physical conquerings, heroic actions, and encounter with the tricky Circe, as well as his victorious homecoming, all define his journey as an external epic, one where the majority of his actions are in relation to the outside world. On the other hand, Aneas’s internal journey is defined as so because of how much of the conflict occurs within his mind. He has to make a tough decision about leaving his homeland in the beginning, and about his departure from the women he had relations with, and as well as his choice to follow fate to his “homecoming” in Italy. Both heroes ended up where they were supposed to be, but it was the unique elements of each journey that defined them as external or internal.