When we read the Odyssey, we accepted that Penelope stayed faithful to Odysseus when she could have made her life easier by marrying one of the suitors. We accepted the double standard of how it was excusable for Odysseus to cheat, but not Penelope. However, what if Penelope had married a suitor? Would we even still be reading the Odyssey? The entire Odyssey centers around Odysseus returning home to Ithaca. However, is it possible that Odysseus would never have left Ogygia because the gods never would have sent Hermes to order Calypso to release him from her island if he had nothing to return home to? In that case, theoretically wouldn’t the entire Odyssey never have happened because it all centers on Odysseus managing his way home. Maybe it is possible that modern day values would have changed. For example, maybe we would not only accept the double standard as normal, but it people might still implement it. Many stories between the Odyssey and several other religious texts withhold stories nearly identical stories. If the Odyssey’s morals changed, do you think that it is possible that modern day values, relayed by religious texts would have also changed and thus our entire society would be different? How do you think our society would be different?
Seeing as how the Odyssey is a western classic, and many modern stories descend from it. If being unfaithful was a theme in this story, I wouldn't be very surprised if the stories that come from the Odyssey had that theme also. And since the Odyssey is a prime example of western culture, unfaithfulness would become implanted in our modern day lives, and if your wife went missing for a relatively long time, you could just marry another one. Perhaps the song Unfaithful by Rihanna would lose the un- prefix. Our world could be an extremely different one if the Odyssey displayed different values than the ones it does in this world. However, the Odyssey was meant to impress the audience, to captivate them, and that is why it became so popular. If they Odyssey was an iconoclast of its time, perhaps the importance of it would not be as strong as it is now. Then, the Greeks would find another story to be proud of, and modern stories could descend from that one. There are definitely many different paths that we could take if the Odyssey was not the Odyssey that we know.
ReplyDeleteTareck--
ReplyDeleteI really like your title! Very catchy.