“Wisdom is not accidental. It must be earned. It arrives in our hearts only when we are broken and the truth emerges from what we have endured. Surviving shipwreck, Odysseus has avoided another seduction, the charms of the princess, but now he must cast a spell of his own. To escape the seductive clutches of Calypso, he had to break her enchantment, with a little help from the gods, especially Athena. Now, to earn the ship that will finally take him home, he must win over Arete and Alcinous and the gathered assembly. Passage home won’t be given away for nothing. He will pay his way through his spellbinding storytelling. Still more important is how and why the great but vain, tender but tough, Odysseus does so. Finally, he is capable of telling his version of events because he has been listening.
“Homer is conveying to us that we cannot claim to know ourselves until we find out who we are in the context of history, other people, and culture. Even then, the poet reminds us, we need to stay humble to stay the course. We find our spiritual home through art, music, literature, and poetry.”
