Plato's Myths

ALLEGORICAL MEANING OF HOMER'S ODYSSEY

Detlev Conrad Blunck, Ulysses on the Island of Calypso (1830)

Question: Did Odysseus go on an inner journey?

This page is in the process of being updated. What follows
is a basic outline only. (Jan. 28, 2018)

Y
ES, but the key is to understand the work
allegorically, with Odysseus representing
you, or your own psyche. Each episode in
the story illustrates a different obstacle to
overcome or milestone to reach on the
philosophical inner journey back to mental
integrity, and to that soundness of mind which the ancient
Greeks called sophrosyne.

For example:

The story of Circe symbolizes ones overcoming the

temptations of gross pleasures like food and sex.

Calypso symbolizes an attachment to merely earthly

beauty, which threatens to stall our search for deeper,
more spiritual beauty, truth and meaning.

Scylla and Charybdis symbolize, at least by some

accounts, the struggle to overcome, on the one hand,
temptations of food and drink and other such things
that ‘suck you in’ (Charybdis) —- and, on the other
hand, things like pride, ambition and anger than can
bring us crashing against the rocks like a vicious,
multi-headed monster (Scylla).

Once he arrives at Ithaca, Odysseus must slay the

suitors of Penelope. The suitors (led by Antinous —
whose name means literally ‘enemy of the Mind’),
symbolize passions and temptations that seek to draw
away our soul (symbolized by Penelope) from
integrity and from wisdom to folly.

Several commentaries have been written on this, ranging in

time from the 3rd century (from Porphyry, a Neoplatonist
philosopher) to modern times. I would most recommend
three, which include these from the 19th century:

Thomas Taylor, On the Wanderings of Ulysses (1823;

Taylor based this on De Ulyxis erroribus by earlier
 "anonymous" commentator, now believed to be
Manuel Gabalas).

William Watkins Old, New Readings of Homer,

including "On the Esoteric Meaning of Homer’s
Odyssey" (pp. 9−42).

and a more recent one:

David A. Beardsley. Homer's Odysseyas Spiritual

Quest. Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, 2014.

Ultimately the best way to answer your question is to read

these works and see if you can, based on their
interpretations, apply allegorical meanings of the Odyssey
to your own daily journey to authenticity, peace, wisdom
and ‘knowing thyself.’

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allen, D. C. Mysteriously Meant: The Rediscovery of
Allegory and Pagan Symbolism in the Renaissance.
Baltimore, 1970.

Beardsley, David A. Homer's Odyssey as spiritual quest.

Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, 2014.

Borris, Kenneth. Allegory and Epic in English Renaissance

Literature: Heroic Form in Sidney, Spenser, and
Milton. Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Brumble, H. David. Classical Myths and Legends in the

Middle Ages and Renaissance: A Dictionary of
Allegorical Meanings. Routledge, 2013.

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Princeton, 1949.

Chance, Jane. Medieval Mythography. Vol. 1: From

Roman North Africa to the School of Chartres, A.D.
433-1177; Vol 2: From the School of Chartres to the
Court at Avignon, 1177-1350; Vol. 3: The Emergence
of Italian Humanism, 1321-1475. University Press of
Florida, 1994.

Clarke, Howard. Homer’s Readers: A Historical

Introduction to the Iliad and the Odyssey (Newark:
University of Delaware Press, 1981), ch. 2
Cullhed, Eric (tr.). Eustathios Of Thessalonike:
Commentary On Homer’s Odyssey.Volume 1, On
Rhapsodies A-B. Uppsala University, 2016.

Edinger, Edward F. The Eternal Drama: The Inner

Meaning of Greek Mythology. Boston, 1994.

Ford, Andrew. Performing interpretation: early allegorical

exegesis of Homer. In: Epic Traditions in the
Contemporary World: The Poetics of Community, ed.
Margaret H. Beissinger et al. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1999), pp. 33-53.

Frame, Douglas. The Myth of Return in Early Greek Epic.

New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978.

Gabalas, Manuel (attr.); Columbus, Johannes (tr.). Incerti

Scriptoris Graeci Fabulae Aliquot Homericae de
Ulixis Erroribus Ethice Explicatae. Greek text and
Latin translation. Leiden, 1745 (orig. publ. J. G.
Eberdt, 1678). Latest Greek edition is A. Westermann,
Μυθόγραφοι: Scriptores poeticae historiae Graeci,
Brauschweig, 1843 (pp. 329-344 & Pref. p. xvii), with
corrections proposd by R. Hercher, Zu Nikephoros
Gregoras De erroribus Ulixis, Philologus, 8, 1853 (pp.
755−758).

Herington, C. J. Homer: A Byzantine perspective. Arion: A

Journal of Humanities and the Classics, vol. 8, no. 3,
1969, pp. 432–434.

Jung, Carl G. The Archetypes and the Collective

Unconscious. R.C.F. Hull, Trans. Collected Works of
C. G. Jung, vol. 9, part 1. Princeton, 1959 (repr. 1969,
1981).

Lamberton, Robert. Homer the Theologian: Neoplatonist

Allegorical Reading and the Growth of the Epic
Tradition. Berkeley: University of California, 1986.

Mulryan, John (tr.); Brown, Steven (tr.). Natale Conti's

Mythologiae. Volumes 1 and 2. Tempe: ACMRS,
2006.

Nagy, Gregory. Homeric Questions. Austin: University of

Texas Press, 1996.

Old, William Watkins. New Readings of Homer. London:

Blackwood, 1860. See, e.g., 1. On the Esoteric
Meaning of Homer’s Odyssey (pp. 9−42).
Philo of Alexandria; Colson, F. H & Whitaker, G. H. (trs.).
Allegorical Interpretation I−III. In: Philo in Twleve
Volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Vol. 1. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1931.

Philo of Alexandria; Yonge, Charles Duke (tr.). Allegorical

Interpretation I−III. (Yonge's title: On the Allegories
of the Sacred Laws). In: The Works of Philo Judaeus,
in Five Volumes. Vol. 1. London: Bohn, 1854; pp.
52−175. Updated e-book edition.

Plato; Fowler, Harold North (tr.). Phaedrus. Plato in

Twelve Volumes. Vol. 1. Loeb Classical Library L036.
London: Heinemann, 1913 (repr. 1966).

Plato; Shorey, Paul (tr.). Republic. Plato in Twelve

Volumes. Vols. 5 & 6. Loeb Classical Library L237,
L276. Harvard University Press, 1937 (v1), 1942 (v2).

Plotinus; Armstrong, A. H. (tr.). Plotinus, in Seven

Volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University
Press, 1968–1988.

Porphyry. Lamberton, Robert (tr.). Porphyry: On the Cave

of the Nymphs in The Odyssey. Barrytown, NY:
Midpoint Trade Books, 1983. (Includes Greek text.)

Porphyry. Taylor, Thomas (tr.). Porphyry: On the Cave of

the Nymphs in the Thirteenth Book of the Odyssey.
London: John M. Watkins, 1917 (orig. publ. London,
1823 [below], pp. 171−200). (pdf version)

Rahner, Hugo. Greek Myths and Christian Mystery. B.

Battershaw (tr.). London: Burns and Oates, 1963.

Ross, Alexander. Mystagogus Poeticus: or The Muses

Interpreter. London, 1648.

Russo, Joseph. A Jungian analysis of Homer’s Odysseus.

The Cambridge Companion to Jung, Cambridge, 1997.
(pp. 253−68).

Taylor, Thomas. On the wanderings of Ulysses. In Select

Works of Porphyry. London: J. Moyes, 1823;
Appendix, pp. 241−271. (pdf version)

Uebersax, John. The monomyth of fall and salvation.

Christian Platonism. Web article. 2014. Accessed 17
Januray 2019.

Uebersax, John. Platonism as psychotherapy. Christian

Platonism. Web article. 2014. Accessed 17 Januray
 2019
rev. 28 Jan 2018

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