(Post by: Madie Hobbs)
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve gone to the movie theatre twice to see The Odyssey, which has quickly taken over much of my brain space as I wrestle with each truth or folly conveyed through the actions of each character. After reading the epic, I understood the basic plot of Odysseus’s story, but the film has brought this tale back to the forefront of my mind.
Many of us know at least some of the events that take place in The Odyssey, like the great fall of Troy, the Trojan Horse entering gates that have never been broken through, carrying inside a hoard of Greek warriors, come to take back Helen, who ran away with a Trojan prince. The Greeks have sat on the beach before this great city for ten years, attempting, through many schemes, to draw out the Trojans and lure them into battle.
There were selfish ambitions at play for most of the Greek warriors. Agamemnon, a feared king bent on conquest, thinks only of himself throughout this great battle. He wishes to conquer the world, and Troy is next on his list of conquests. His brother, Menelaus, husband of Helen, wishes only to sack Troy so as not to be made a fool of by his wife, who found love elsewhere and fled from him. Achilles, one of the greatest warriors in all mythical accounts, goes for glory, that his name might be remembered for centuries to come, though he knew he would not survive to see his home ever again.
Odysseus, on the other hand, indeed had ambition for glory and victory, however, he understands the folly and ulterior motives of all he fights alongside. He went mainly to spare his son, who would no doubt have been killed by Agamemnon should Odysseus have refused to fight for him.
The story of the Odyssey details the many years Odysseus spends trying to get home, back to Ithaca where suitors have invaded his home and try, through all manner of twisted schemes, to force Penelope, Odysseus’s wife, to marry one of them.
Odysseus endures many perils as he is out at sea with his crew which I have not the space in this post to detail in their entirety, but the one thing each of his trials emphasizes is either his internal battle with trying to make his way to a home he isn’t sure he wishes to return to, and his endeavors to keep himself and his men from making choices they will undoubtedly regret.
Once Odysseus does finally make it home, he is a changed man, one hardened by wind and waves, one who has doubted the gods and yet been at their mercy, one who understands that what happened at Troy had the power to change, completely, the tides of human history.
For lest we not forget, Odysseus was the great warrior who formulated the idea of the Trojan horse. The plan was simple, but deadly. The Greeks would hide a portion of their ships from the Trojans, using them to carve a great gift, while the rest of their ships would sail off, tricking the Trojans into believing they had given up and were returning home.
The horse was hollow, with space for a party of men to hide inside and was left to the Trojans as a gift from Athena. Once the horse was brought inside, those hiding within it slipped out into the city, killing as they went, and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army to enter.
No mercy was extended, no restraint shown in plunder, no hope was left for Troy.
Now, I want to make it clear; this is not an anti-war essay. War, while ugly, is sometimes necessary. Odysseus understood this.
What he also came to understand, upon his return home, is that this one event, this plan he was so congratulated in formulating, destroyed, in part, the bonds of civilization. This horse was left as a gift, a representation of peace, and was brought into the city with ecstasy and awe, a spectacle meant to be brought into a home to represent victory.
Yet it was used for evil.
It was a trick, and a low one at that. It broke all the rules of civilization, of a common law all were called to abide by.
Odysseus does not necessarily mourn the war; he mourns the ripple effects of it. When he returns home, he sees the same law he broke being broken in different ways by different individuals. This betrayal set a precedent, one that would be reversed only through painstaking effort, an effort Odysseus himself was more than willing to put in. He understood that it would only be through songs and poems, highlighting not only the heroic deeds of those who fought at Troy, but also their failings, that we may learn honor and right living.
I wonder, how many Trojan horses are being accepted into our homes this day? How many cheap tricks are we sold that hold fascination and curiosity, but result in war and defeat?
Believe me, our world is full of Trojan horses, beautiful without and filled with swords within. We live in a world of cheap tricks, and yet we take them in at every turn, and make our homes among them.
I know I don’t need to spell this out for you. Your trick is in your thoughts even now. You know what you have opened your gates to, as I do as well.
But here is what we cling to: walls can be rebuilt, temples reformed, streets washed clean. Our true place is behind gates not of our own making, but gates of eternal stock, gates which have weathered every storm and foreign enemy.
Odysseus once feared he had destroyed civilization. That his actions would have eternal impact. They have, in some ways. What he didn’t know was that civilization did not rely on him. Civilization rests only on the shoulders of Christ, and he is not fooled by cheap tricks.
The Few 