The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [179]
And of course we also begin to see in the Quest, more explicitly than in the earlier types of story, occasions where the hero and his companions themselves make potentially fatal errors, putting them at the mercy of their dark antagonists - and these invariably result from a failure of their own awareness.
When Odysseus sets out with his men for home there is no doubt about his manly strength and cunning. As a soldier he has been one of the great heroes of the Trojan War. What does come into doubt as soon as the journey begins is their ability to see clearly the nature of all the dangers they encounter on the way, and whether they have the self-control and willpower which will enable them to resist those perils. The essence of the journey is how again and again they make foolish errors, falling into one trap after another. They fall for almost every temptation placed in their way. To begin with they are beguiled and intoxicated by the pleasures of Lotus-eating. They then meet their first really serious disaster by failing to recognise the true nature of the island and the cave where Polyphemus lives. When Aeolus gives them bags holding all the contrary winds which enable them, still early in the journey, to come back within sight of Ithaca, Odysseus drowses off, losing consciousness. His men, blinded by greed into thinking the bags contain treasure, open them, leading to the worst disaster of all, when they are blown onto the island of the cannibal giants of Laestrygonia, who eat eleven of the twelve shiploads. They are fooled by the treachery of Circe, who seems to offer them feasting and ease, but in fact only wants to imprison them as animals. They fail to steer a proper course between the deadly `opposites' of Scylla and Charybdis, suffering further losses to the monster Scylla.
Gradually, however, as the journey proceeds through one disaster and neardisaster after another, Odysseus develops clearer vision and greater self-control. Already, by the time they reach the island of Laestrygonia, Odysseus has become canny enough to remain behind, while the crews of the other eleven ships are tricked into their doom. When they arrive next on Circe's isle, he is again careful to send only half his surviving men ahead, and it is this which allows him to win the help of the god Hermes in overcoming the witch's powers and liberating all her victims. Once the Witch-Temptress has been mastered, she switches from dark to light to become an invaluable helper. And it is she who sends Odysseus on down to the underworld where the `wise old man' Teiresias gives him a vision of what still lies ahead of him and what he must do to finish the journey. He survives the enchantments of the Sirens by the forethought of having himself strapped to the mast, although he cannot then stop his men from disobeying his strict orders not to interfere with the cattle of the Sun, which leads to their being struck by a thunderbolt. This leaves Odysseus at last all alone, to face yet another disaster when he steers this time too near the other `opposite, the whirlpool Charybdis. At this point, literally `all washed up, he is only too grateful to sink into the embraces of the beautiful Calypso for a seemingly interminable period of sensual ease and doing nothing, the longest episode of the entire journey. It takes Odysseus seven years to develop the strength and willpower to break loose from Calypso's enchantments (with the aid of the king of the gods, Zeus). But again, once he has developed the manly resolve to free himself from this unreal, twilit existence in the witch's cave, she switches to become a helper. After a last ordeal by shipwreck, he is washed up on the island of King Alcinous and his daughter, the Princess Nausicaa; and here he can tell the tale of all his adventures, as if he has returned to `the real world'. Finally he lands back in Ithaca to begin the second half of the story. He has at last become master of himself and is ready for his final great