Another technique that Homer employs to strengthen the concept of the underworld as dreary and depressing, is the duality of light and darkness. At the exposition of the passage Odysseus and his crew describe their journey “the sun went down,/and all sea routes grew dark. Our ship then reached/the boundaries of deep-flowing Oceanus”(14 -15) Homer’s choice for a nocturnal setting for the journey foreshadows the descent as night, much like the underworld is associated with death, gloom, and depression and in this context is personified as the Hades’ herald as she leads them to realm of the living dead.. This belief is reinforced by Homer’s use of the epithet “Fearful” when describing the night “Fearful Night envelops wretched mortals” (21). By describing the night as fearful, one of the prominent tones of the underworld, Homer fortifies the correlation between night and the underworld. In contrast, when he compares the underworld to the secular realm, Odysseus exhibits sympathy and pathos towards the living dead when he says “Bright Helios never gazes down on them, /…ruinous night being rove over those wretches (19-20)”. According to Odysseus the spirits in the underworld exist in a interminable, melancholy night, and this is the only aspect to their existence. Again Homer uses an epithet “Bright” when describing the sun, depicting it as an opulence accessible only to the mortal realm. The speaker’s use of words such as “ruinous” and “wretches”, both of which are cacophonous words, again portray the misery and desolation of Hades. This contrast contributes even more to the forbidding image of Hades when Homer uses it to illustrate the dominance of darkness over light. This is first seen, when Odysseus offers up the lamb as sacrifice “slashed the lamb and ewe, / letting their black blood stream into the wellpit” (41-42). Blood, is a powerful symbol of life and existence, and there is an oxymoron, when Homer contrasts it with the color black, which is an eternal symbol of death. This oxymoron signifies the domination of death over life in the underworld. Another occurrence where the prominence of darkness is exemplified is when Odysseus orders his men to “…make/ burnt offerings of flesh to the gods below-/ to mighty Hades and dread Persephone.” (53-55). Hades and Persephone are both given reverent epithetic titles, and by doing so, Homer reveals a conception of regality and reverence to Odysseus’s perspective on darkness, as one of prevailing doom. The duality of light and dark is the foundation and amplification of a paranormal tone, as well as a disconsolate and sinister atmosphere. The intensity of the menacing atmosphere allows the reader to associate Hades and his underworld with evil, which in turn creates more tension for the safety of Odysseus.
A concept closely coupled with opposition of life and death is the juxtaposition of youth and age, which Homer portrays very effectively throughout the passage. He parallels, the journey from a child to and elderly to the journey from the living to the dead. This is first noted when, Odysseus expresses the rise of the phantoms, “shades of the dead—brides, young unmarried men,/old ones worn out with toil, young tender girls/with hearts still new to sorrow,” (44 – 46) . Homer embodies youth and life in the form of the “brides” and “young unmarried men and tender girls”, while the “old ones worn out with toil” represent the pains of the elderly. Youth is universally depicted as the essence of liveliness and exuberance, and thus life in its happiest stage. Aging on the other hand is depicted as a painful and distressing process, and this depiction relates to the journey from the secular realm to the supernatural realm as one portrayed in a similar manner. Homer represents the journey from youth to old age to the journey from living to the dead as two parallel journeys that have similar traits. Odysseus’ exploration of the threshold between the two realms is a significant to the poem’s theme of life and death.
Consequently, Odysseus undergoes a spiritual revelation as he realizes that there is much he is unaware of, and this journey results in an alteration of Odysseus’ soul and nature. Until this part of the epic poem, Odysseus has been characterized as a courageous royal and a valiant hero, however his visit to the underworld brings forth new aspects of his personality. This is seen when Homer describes Odysseus’s response to the phantoms rising, “…grew sick with fear” (49) and “Pale fear took hold of me.” (50). Entering the unknown territory, Odyssey’s stray from his heroic persona is evident as his admits to his fear of the unidentified shades in Hades. He describes the phantoms as “…the blurred and breathless dead” (31). The alliteration formed by ‘blurred and breathless’ succeeds in accentuating the indistinct nature of the spirits in the underworld. The world ‘breathless’ creates a poignant image of the silence of life, implying that the afterlife is much like a perpetual purgatory. Through his fear, Odysseus views Hades with a notion of submissive acknowledgment and approbation, especially as he offers sacrifices and libation to the gods of the underworld, in return for their help. His greatest spiritual change is his realization that immortality will gain him the atrocity he just witnessed in the underworld: an ineffective existence.
Thus by reading the excerpt, the reader encounter Odysseus’ physical journey into Hades, as well as the emotional transformations that he experiences. As he descends into the underworld in his quest for knowledge and aid, Odysseus’ physical and spiritual states are significantly altered. Additionally, the excerpt accurately portrays the Crossing of the Threshold phase in the Monomyth cycle in which the Hero descends from the real world to the unchartered lands of the afterlife. Homer uses various techniques such as mentions of weaponry and brutality, as well as the duality between light and dark particularly the dominance of darkness over light to portray Odysseus’s descend to the paranormal realm. Moreover, his journey is accentuated between the parallel of life and death to the aging journey. This passage not only brings detailed insight to Odysseus’s character development but also portrays his continuation as the heroic persona.
