sententiae antiquae

The title should have let me know everything the article was going to say, but let's pick out some whoppers. "Homer ends the Odyssey with an exhortation from the god Cronus to Odysseus" I should have stopped reading. O Tempora O Mores, where are the copy editors!

"The implication is that Odysseus became a wise and just ruler, dispensing kindness through strength." Odysseus murdered 108 suitors, strung up his own enslaved women, and was about to get murdered himself. He has to leave Ithaca after the poem

"And the means of attaining this new golden age will be a culture of amity and harmonious relations that celebrates human achievements other than war, maintaining peace through wise leadership" No golden age in Homer. it is just not a thing. Trust me, I'm a Homerist

"A prototypical Nietzschean life-affirming heroic individual but also one who transcends partisan identities to achieve an integrated, unitary sense of being" Every part of my being is on fascist alert right now

"The term ‘identity politics’ is a recent innovation, but the idea of dividing society into competing, mutually-antagonistic groups narrowly-defined by a non-integrated partisan sense of identity is not new" WTF? how does the Odyssey have anything to do with this?

"What makes the link between Homer and Nietzsche so interesting is that both, in effect, present the inner struggle as being about the intuitive (rather than rational) grasp of what it is to be a unitary being" Odysseus an example of someone struggling to attain unity is cool

Read Homer, for real, What is this? No. "This culture failed the Achaeans at Troy, who after ten years were facing defeat. The situation was resolved by a new kind of man, Odysseus, king of Ithaca, a man of many talents but one who was held in low esteem by his peers."

"During his voyage home, Odysseus discovers that he is capable of imposing brutal self-discipline in a way that inspires gentler sentiments. " Is this from the ducktales Odyssey?

Let me repeat: Odysseus murdered 108 suitors, strung up his own enslaved women, and was about to get murdered himself. He has to leave Ithaca. The Odyssey is not a celebration of Odysseus.

"He was known as being crafty and cunning and perhaps even a little wise, but the Greek warrior-heroes looked with disdain upon these qualities." Paging @caseyduehackney someone doesn't understand heroism!?

Yeah, this is true. But this is not a good thing. Heroes bring suffering to their communities. "Yet, at the end of the Odyssey, Odysseus is presented as having achieved real depth of character, self-insight, and self-control."

"Homer’s Odysseus is a man of real existential depth, and this is the result of an inner struggle to overcome his own limitations." Yes, he does it by losing his crew, sacrificing his people, and instrumentalizing everyone in his life

"Odysseus is the first recognizably Western man" As a murderous conqueror who cares only about himself? Ok.