Literary Genres in Thucydides’ Account of the Sicilian Expedition

A Response to Book Six of The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

In book six of Thucydides’ The Peloponnesian War, he provides an account of the Sicilian expedition. In this narrative, Thucydides combines various aspects of different literary genres in order to recount the history of the war. These genres add to Thucydides’ narrative both stylistically and contextually. The first genre from which Thucydides pulls is epic poetry. He uses Homer’s Odyssey, which was an important text for the education of Greek males. Incidentally, Thucydides, while recounting a story about war, references a story about a nostos or homecoming, as opposed to Homer’s war epic the Iliad. The other genre that is important to Thucydides’ narrative about the Sicilian expedition is tragedy as direct speech constitutes a large part of this book.

Early in book six Thucydides references Homer’s Odyssey, from which he seems to draw information directly: “Here follows an account of the original settlement of Sicily, and a complete list of the various peoples who occupied the island. The most ancient were the Cyclopes and the Laestrygonians, who are said to have inhabited some part of the country” (Thuc. 6.2). Both the Cyclopes and the Laestrygonians are monstrous, cannibalistic creatures in the Odyssey. This reference to the Cyclopes and Laestrygonians reveals something about his view of those who inhabit the island. He instantly sets up Sicily as a place of “otherness,” of monsters and barbarians, which underscores the idea of the xenophobic Greek male. In Homer, these monsters are completely incapable of hosting Odysseus and his crew; they violate guest-friendship. This disregard for guest-host relations means that they do not worship Zeus properly, which marks them as a non-Greek “other.”

From a modern perspective, Thucydides’ referring to these creatures as actual past inhabitants of the island might remove a certain amount of credibility from the text. However, Thucydides makes it clear to the reader that, because the source of this information is poetry, he himself is skeptical of the veracity of this: “I can give no information about who they were, where they came from, or where they subsequently went: we can only go by what the poets tell us, and individuals are free to form their own opinion about them” (Thuc. 6.2). He is aware, and shares his awareness with the reader, that Homer’s epic is limited when it comes to facts about these populations. Despite Thucydides’ skepticism regarding information gathered from epic poetry, he still chooses to construct his narrative dialogue, which is a feature of Homer’s epics as well, making his own text resemble that of an epic poem.

However, Thucydides’ use of dialogue is also reminiscent of another genre: tragedy. Thucydides’ inclusion of direct speech is a choice. He could have written the speeches indirectly, summarizing their content, but, instead, he wrote them in a way that reveals the influence that drama had on this narrative. His narrative choice of including direct dialogue from historical figures such as Nicias and Alcibiades conveys the importance of rhetoric as well. The speeches in the text have the same purpose for the readers that spoken ones have for an audience: To persuade. Persuasion through rhetoric was such an integral part of Athenian democracy that it appeared in plays—tragedies and comedies—and in this historical narrative as well. Language, specifically speech, is crucial to Thucydides’ narrative.

Book six of Thucydides’s The Peloponnesian War not only includes the literary style of tragedy, but also conveys the ideological values of Athens in a similar way. Tragedies, such as The Persians, portrayed the values of Athens through the lens of the “other.” Moreover, one playwright, Phrynichus, was fined because he set his tragedy in Athens, thereby reminding Athenians of their concerns and troubles. Athenian tragedy relied on alterity in order to prevent this upset. The Persians reveals the importance of moderation to Athenians through the excesses of the Persians (i.e. the foreigners). Similarly, book six, for example, gives a detailed account of the history of Sicily’s population, and Thucydides explains that the island changed hands many times. In other words, the inhabitants of Sicily were not the original settlers, which highlights the fact that Athenians considered themselves native to Athens. Thucydides’ focus on the changing populations of Sicily may show that considering themselves as native to Athens was an important part of being Athenian for them.

Thucydides weaves characteristics of epic poetry and tragedy throughout his story of the Sicilian expedition. Epic poetry appears in the narrative with the reference to Cyclopes and Laestrygonians, and tragedy appears through dialogue. The inclusion of these genres also serves to highlight the idea of “otherness” and the importance of rhetoric. This focus on the “other” helps to reveal some aspects of the ideology of Athens while the inclusion of rhetoric emphasizes the importance of persuasion for Athenians.

 

Works Cited

 The Peloponnesian War. Trans. Martin Hammond. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.

The Women of the Odyssey

A Response to the Odyssey, attributed to Homer

 

Calypso and Nausikaa both offer Odysseus a refuge from his arduous journey. On the one hand, Calypso “holds him there by force” (153) while Nausikaa is incapable of forcing Odysseus to stay. However, Nausikaa does represent a temptation for Odysseus because she is a beautiful young woman on the verge of being married (a parthenos) who lives on an island that is undeniably blessed by the gods. When he meets Nausikaa for the first time, he says, “‘Here I am at your mercy, princess’” (173). She, like Calypso, offers Odysseus food, shelter, a place to bathe himself, and clothing. This sequence is reminiscent of the scene in The Epic of Gilgamesh when Shamhat introduces Enkidu to civilization: After having sex with Shamhat, he puts on a piece of her clothing, eats bread, and drinks beer—both bread and beer require human technology to create. The islands of Calypso and Nausikaa also represent civilization, from which Odysseus is removed while on the open sea, and these females are dangerous because they can—and Calypso does—have sex with him. Sex is, like food and bathing, an element of civilization, which has the potential to trap Odysseus. In Calypso’s case, her desire to have sex with Odysseus leads her to keep him with her forcibly. For Nausikaa, he would need to marry her before he could have sex with her, which would effectively trap him with her. However, neither female wins his heart; therefore, if he connects with them physically, the couple would still lack the corresponding emotional tie that he has with Penelope. Both Calypso and Nausikaa, ultimately, would provide a home for Odysseus, but not the right home. If Odysseus’ kleos is gained through his nostos, then Calypso and Nausikaa are dangerous because they, theoretically, have the power to prevent him from gaining said kleos.

Eidothea, on the other hand, helps Menelaus continue his journey to return home: “‘she [feels] sorry for [Menelaus], show[s him] mercy’” (135). Calypso eventually aids Odysseus solely because Hermes tells her that that is Zeus’ will. Therefore, in the end, both Calypso and Nausikaa are powerless to stop him though they may want to do so. Eidothea was not coerced by another god to help Menelaus, and she was not driven by sexual desire for him; instead, she is motivated by pity. All three females are figures who help the hero; they offer him—or give him the means to return to—civilization. They help the male hero cross the boundary between civilization and savageness or wildness. This savageness that dictates the journey home may be attributed to the hero’s need to survive. This means that the hero, while on his journey, becomes driven by his gaster (stomach); this organ, which represents base, animalistic needs, guides him because those needs are what help him survive. Therefore, the civilization, however temporary, offered by these females give Odysseus the opportunity to use the higher functions that distinguish man from beast. He can engage in the practice of guest-friendship, participate in sports and games, and engage rhetorically with other men—a skill at which Odysseus excels.

Contentment and Restlessness: Homer’s Odysseus and Tennyson’s Ulysses

A Response to The Odyssey by Homer and “Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

 

Throughout Homer’s epic, Odysseus’ longs to and fights to return home. However, Homer still includes a prediction of the hero’s death long after his successful nostos. In his poem “Ulysses,” Tennyson seems to expand on this aspect of the epic, showing us Ulysses’[1] life after his homecoming. The two poems depict this hero in very different ways. Odysseus and Ulysses differ in their opinion of home and their desire to travel, but, interestingly enough, they both exhibit similar curiosity. In both the poem by Homer and the one by Tennyson, the hero must travel the unexplored land and meet the locals. Both Odysseus and Ulysses want to learn what they do not yet know, to discover how other people live and what they are like. However, Tennyson’s hero is unable to satisfy his curiosity while Odysseus’ curiosity, as far as we know at the end of the epic, seems to end after returning home; he does not venture away from home unnecessarily and no longer seeks new lands nor inquires after strange men. This difference between the two portrayals of this mythic figure makes us wonder why. Why is Tennyson’s hero left unsatisfied and incomplete in some way while Homer’s lives happily at home until the end of his days? Tennyson’s “Ulysses” questions the home—its importance and its glory. Odysseus does not lack the curiosity we see in Ulysses; therefore, it is Odysseus’ love of his home that gives him the ability to stop wandering. Ulysses’ disregard for his own home allows his curiosity to grow within him, unchecked, until his own death, a death that does not resemble the one Tiresias predicts for Odysseus.

Homer’s Odysseus and Tennyson’s Ulysses seem to differ in at least one fundamental way: Homer’s hero journeys in order to reach home while Tennyson’s journeys simply for the pleasure he finds in the journey itself. When we first meet Odysseus in the epic, he is unbelievably distraught by the fact that he is being held “by force” on Calypso’s island (Od. 5.16): “Off [Odysseus] sat on a headland, weeping there as always,/wrenching his heart with sobs and groans and anguish,/gazing out over the barren sea through blinding tears” (Od. 5.93-5). The hero mourns his extended separation from his family despite the luxurious nature of the island and Calypso’s offer to make Odysseus immortal. In this passage, the sea is described as “barren” (Od. 5.95), which evokes images of a vast and bleak stretch of water. While this is hardly a pleasant image, Odysseus still wishes to sail on that sea because it is his only means of returning home. The hero says, “I pine, all my days—/to travel home and see the dawn of my return” (Od. 5.242-3). This is what drives Odysseus, his desire to reach home. He has a final goal; he travels in order to reach home, which means that he desires the end more than the journey itself.

On the other hand, Tennyson presents a hero who practically disdains home, instead yearning for travel and adventure. In fact, the word “barren” appears in this poem as well (Tennyson 2), but it refers to Ulysses’ “still hearth” (Tennyson 2). This bleak, unpleasant image[2] is applied to the home, which makes the concept of Ulysses’ nostos much less appealing than it appears in Homer’s epic. Tennyson does actually describe the sea similarly with words such as “dark” (Tennyson 45) and “dim” (Tennyson 11). Nevertheless, the poem makes it clear that Ulysses prefers the “dim sea” (Tennyson 11) to the “barren crags” (Tennyson 2) of his home. Ulysses seems to have reached home, but in the poem, we see him continuing his journey after his nostos. Even the idea of a final destination seems distasteful to this hero: “How dull it is to pause, to make an end” (Tennyson 22). For Ulysses, the journey becomes the goal because he finds stopping to be boring, “dull” (Tennyson 22). The scholar W.B. Stanford’s book The Ulysses Theme examines literature that alludes to or that was inspired by The Odyssey, and he writes about Tennyson’s poem, saying, “This Ulysses follows [a] pointing finger, outwards, away from home, into the unknown, not towards Homer’s Ithaca” (Stanford 204). He seems to have a persistent longing to travel, to constantly move, to unknown places. He has a restlessness lacking in Odysseus.

However, Odysseus in Homer’s epic is fascinated by the unknown as well. He explores several islands in order to appease his own curiosity: “He sat up with a start, puzzling, his heart pounding:/‘Man of misery, whose land have I lit on now?/What are they here—violent, savage, lawless?” (Od. 6.130-2). He wonders about similar questions whenever he comes across new and uncharted territory. The focus in this passage rests on the nature of the unknown men. More than the place itself, Odysseus wants to learn about the people who inhabit it, whether they are like him or not. Do they worship the gods? Establish and follow laws? Eat bread like he does? Basically, Odysseus wants to know what the people are like wherever he goes because each new shore is entirely unknown at first. In the proem of The Odyssey, the poet tells us, “Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds” (Od. 1.4). In book nine, we see an example of Odysseus learning about other “men,” and, ultimately, we see how poorly this can end for Odysseus when he learns about the Cyclopes. When Polyphemus asks for Odysseus’ name, the Cyclops violates guest-friendship, which reveals the Cyclops’ attitude toward the gods. Thus, Odysseus knows immediately that Polyphemus does not worship Zeus properly because Zeus protects guest. His realization, though quick, does not happen soon enough to protect members of his crew from being eaten by the Cyclops. The hero’s curiosity often has disastrous consequences in the epic, and, by the end of his journey, he loses his entire crew.

In “Ulysses,” the hero seems to benefit greatly from his own quest for knowledge. Ulysses is able to satisfy not only his curiosity, but he can also placate what Stanford calls his “wanderlust” (Stanford 202). In Tennyson’s poem, the hero does not seem to suffer any readily apparent consequences for the curiosity he experiences even after his successful homecoming. Instead, Ulysses says, “Much have I seen and known—cities of men/And manners, climates, councils, governments” (Tennyson 13-4). Based on his description, his journey has taken him to other places that are more similar to his home than the places Odysseus describes in Homer’s epic. Ulysses has met people who establish councils and governments, which implies that they live by laws unlike the independent, ungoverned Cyclopes of The Odyssey. His subsequent travels take him to “cities of men” (Tennyson 13), which means that they may resemble Ithaca like Phaeacia does. However, Tennyson does not reveal any more information, so we are left wondering if, like the Phaeacians, these other men are fundamentally different from or problematic for the hero. In other words, the Phaeacians back away from conflict, confrontation, and competition, which, as a warrior, is problematic for Odysseus. Ulysses’ “cities of men” remain generic and unnamed in the poem (Tennyson 13), thereby leaving our own curiosity unsatisfied.

In The Odyssey, when Odysseus travels to the Kingdom of the Dead in book eleven, Tiresias predicts the hero’s death. The prophet, addressing Odysseus, says, “‘And at last, your own death will steal upon you…/a gentle, painless death, far from the sea it comes/to take you down, borne down with the years in ripe old age/with all your people there in blessed peace around you’” (Od. 11.153-6). The picture Tiresias presents of Odysseus’ future is peaceful and honorable. The hero will have successfully returned home and lived out his life to a “ripe old age” (Od. 11.155), which, in this epic, is how he is ultimately able to achieve kleos. This offers us a glimpse into the hero’s future, and Tiresias’ words, perhaps, also help to drive Odysseus to reach his home. The knowledge of his imminent success and ultimate glory that Tiresias provides him may contribute to the hero’s motivation when confronted with so much hardship and suffering.

Stanford explains in his book that the appearance of the predicted death of Odysseus stems from a misunderstanding of the text: “The fourth phase in the career of the wandering Ulysses is not directly derived from Homer. Homer implied that Ulysses would die quietly and in Ithaca amid the prosperity of his people. But the prophecy of Teiresias was open to misunderstanding and was later interpreted as predicting a tragic death for Ulysses” (Stanford 201). Indeed, we can see that Tennyson’s Ulysses, though he is not yet dead at the end of the poem, is weakening quickly and far from peaceful. Even in his old age, the hero is as restless as ever: “Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will/To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” (Tennyson 69-70). Unlike the beautiful scene that Tiresias’ prediction conveys in The Odyssey, here Tennyson presents us with an almost grotesque, yet valiant, image of the hero. Ulysses is “[m]ade weak by time” (Tennyson 69), which means that he is aged and probably lacks the agility of his youth; he is no longer the strong, handsome warrior we meet in the Iliad or even in The Odyssey. However, his self-proclaimed “strong…will” does return some of the hero’s former glory to him (Tennyson 69). This ceaseless journey is simultaneously sad and heartwarming because we know what Ulysses could have had, what Tiresias predicts for him, but he apparently does not accept that peaceful death at home: “’Tis not too late to seek a newer world” (Tennyson 57). Tennyson’s hero, perhaps, wants more than that—dying at an old age surrounded by loved ones—for himself. He yearns for adventure and knowledge rather than the “barren crags” (Tennyson 2) of his home.

These differing representations of Odysseus/Ulysses lead us to wonder about the poets’ decisions. The poet of The Odyssey was bound by the mythic tradition: Odysseus must make it home safely and die at an old age. However, Tennyson was free to manipulate the story in ways that defy Odysseus’ established mythic fate. Perhaps Tennyson’s decision to make Ulysses travel endlessly connects to his time and culture, Britain in the Victorian Age, which prized progress and the acquisition of new knowledge. He had the power to take what he wanted from Odysseus’ story and change whatever did not suit his purposes. Therefore, unlike Odysseus who, above all else, wants to restore his household, Ulysses longs for knowledge more than he longs for the stasis of domestic life.

Works Cited

Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. Ed. Bernard Knox. New York: Penguin Books,           1996. Print.

 

Stanford, W.B.. The Ulysses Theme: A Study in the Adaptability of a Traditional Hero. Oxford:     Basil Blackwell & Mott, Ltd., 1963. Print

 

Tennyson, Alfred. “Ulysses.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Gen. ed. Stephen        Greenblatt. 9^th ed. Vol. E. New York: Norton, 2012. 1123-25. Print.

 

[1] I will, from this point on, refer to Tennyson’s Odysseus as Ulysses in this essay, and to Homer’s as Odysseus.

[2] The word itself is less significant as Robert Fagles’ translation of The Odyssey was published long after Tennyson’s “Ulysses.”

 

An Absent Hero

A Response to Book 1 of the Odyssey, which is attributed to Homer

Odysseus’ absence in Book 1 of The Odyssey means that the reader’s first impression of this hero comes through the words and opinions of other characters, both mortals and immortals. We see that the gods admire this hero, especially Athena, who appreciates his cunning. We also see Odysseus’ wife and son remaining loyal to him after so many years after away from home by rejecting and condemning the suitors even while they continue to uphold guest-host relations by allowing the suitors to remain in their house. Due to Odysseus’ absence, there is a lot of tension and anxiety in his household. The epic raises the question of inheritance with Telemachus; at first, he is unable to step up and assume authority. However, Athena, who goes to Ithaca in disguise in order to motivate Telemachus, gives him advice: “You must not cling to your boyhood any longer—/it’s time you were a man” (1.340-1). Therefore, we come into the epic seeing Ithaca overrun by suitors and Telemachus on the verge on becoming a man. The opening book turns the epic’s focus to Odysseus’ home and his family, which gives the reader a picture of Odysseus’ end goal. We know what Odysseus must face upon his return.

Book 1 emphasizes this idea of the unwelcome hero returning home by telling the story of Agamemnon, who was killed upon his homecoming. The anxieties of the hearth are echoed and amplified by Agamemnon’s story. Clytemnestra’s adultery demonstrates the worst possible outcome for a hero returning home from war. This theme of adultery is paralleled not only by the presence of the suitors but also by Telemachus’ doubting his mother. When Athena comments on the “[u]ncanny[1] resemblance” Telemachus bears to his father (1.241), Telemachus says, “Mother has always told me I’m his son, it’s true,/but I am not so certain” (1.249-50). He expresses anxiety about his mother’s faithfulness; he questions the validity of his inheritance. The story of Agamemnon’s homecoming also introduces the idea of revenge that ‘fixes’ a home. Orestes murders his mother and Aegisthus, her lover, after he discovers they are responsible for his father’s death. In fact, Orestes’ actions effectively end the cycle of violence that has existed in his family for generations. Therefore, bloodshed and revenge become a part of the home, and then the problem becomes how and when to stop that violence. We do not yet see this violence occurring in Odysseus’ home in Book 1, but Agamemnon’s story introduces the idea to us; the story of the unwelcome hero within a scene taking place in Odysseus’ home evokes the same tension and anxiety in the reader that the characters feel. Our anxiety, which stays with us throughout the epic, is heightened due to this dramatic irony, because we know what awaits Odysseus although he does not.

 

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[1] The word ‘uncanny’ is an interesting choice for the translator to make because it is so closely related to ‘home.’ It means both familiar and unfamiliar, known and unknown, like the home yet simultaneously off or not quite right. The word may apply to Telemachus’ resemblance to his father, but it applies to the state of their home as well.

Food for Thought

A Response to The Odyssey, attributed to Homer

Is the journey the reward? In Phaeacia, Odysseus explains the stomach’s influence. It represents the core of the body. The belly is the guiding force, the gut instinct behind a person. Odysseus chooses to follow his gut and consequently survives every obstacle.

The human form is perfectly functional when all of the constituent parts run in harmony. However, if someone neglects certain pieces the results can be fatal. The belly, hidden away, seems insignificant to a person.

The belly’s a shameless dog, there’s nothing worse. Always insisting, pressing, it never lets us forget- destroyed as I am, my heart racked with sadness, sick with anguish, still it keeps demanding, ‘Eat, drink!’ It blots out all the memory of my pain, commanding, ‘Fill me up!’ (186).

It can seize control of the mind if it is left unattended. If the head is the authority, the decision-maker, what does it mean that it can be so easily swayed by the stomach? The mind can temporarily suppress hunger, but inevitably the hunger will rage up and consume the mind. The head determines the fate of the body, but the stomach provides the foundation for it. If a card is pulled from the bottom of the structure, the carefully crafted house of cards collapses.

A sturdy base can hold up the rest of the framework. Odysseus’ most basic desire is to return home. This is his guiding force. The delectable temptation to journey home is too much for Odysseus to ignore. He yearns for the welcome of a familiar hearth that provides comfort. That is the bounty that he longs to devour. When Calypso holds him on the island, he is essentially useless, “weeping there as always” (155). However, after Odysseus “fortified himself” by restarting his pursuit of home he is able to tread water for days a time (155). Treading water implies keeping the head above the water level. He saves his head by following his gut instinct.

The other element of the stomach is, of course, physical. Food is a basic necessity for life. Therefore, when Odysseus does not eat for those days that he is stranded out at sea, he loses his strength. His mind must go into its unconscious state to escape from the pain of his empty belly. Athena sent “sleep in a swift wave delivering him from all his pains and labors” (167). However, she must wake, guide and hide him until he is nourished. “The awesome goddess poured an enchanted mist around him” (180). It requires external influence to overcome the nagging of an empty stomach.

A well-nourished body can endure strife. A neglected belly can become the Achilles’ heel of even the strongest man. It erases memory and reason, reverting man back to a savage state. Odysseus’ epic journey home proves trying. However, isn’t the sweet satisfaction of satiating that hunger rewarding enough to justify the trials? There is little that is more comforting than a full stomach. Odysseus’ ultimate feast is his homecoming.

Unending Forward Motion

A Response to “Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Tennyson uses—and twists—the well-known story of Ulysses (A.K.A Odysseus) to praise the Victorian lifestyle, which is characterized by industrial/technological progress and British imperialism. The former will be the focus of this short essay. The poem, “Ulysses,” portrays industrialization as a journey, a great search for knowledge and for the betterment of the traveler(s).

Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, tells the story of Ulysses, whose primary objective is to return home (nostos). There is a drastic reversal of the motivation behind Ulysses’ journey in Tennyson’s poem, which serves to emphasize the importance of the journey itself, to the point of removing any end or destination (including Ulysses’ home): “It little profits that an idle king / By this still hearth, among these barren crags” (1-2).  Tennyson’s description of the absence of motion creates images of emptiness. This emptiness, or “barren[ness],” causes the reader to want Ulysses to act and to move because to stand motionless stalls the engine of life. It does not “profit.”

Ulysses says, “I cannot rest from travel” (6). He does acknowledge that his journey has brought pain and suffering along with enjoyment and growth (7-8). This admittance, that progress is a double-edged sword, is brief and singular. In fact, Ulysses goes on to say that he has gained glory and honor from his journeying: “I am become a name” (11). However, Ulysses also benefits from increased knowledge of “cities of men / And manners, climates, councils, governments” (14-15). Tennyson alludes to imperialism, implying that imperialism provides a positive influence on everyone involved.

Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough

Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades

Forever and forever when I move.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

To rest unburnished, not to shine in use! (19-23)

Tennyson means that “experience” should be measured by how much further forward it takes an individual or a nation. It is “an arch wherethrough / Gleams that untraveled world” (19-20). Progress reveals to people the possibility of more progress; it is an unceasing process of improvements. People should not be satisfied by any one invention or experience. Rather, they should see that invention or experience as something to be improved upon, a place from which to continue their forward motion. In line 23, Tennyson’s word choice clearly references machinery—“unburnished, not to shine in use!”—in order to emphasize the comparison between industrialization and Ulysses’ journey.

The “yearning… / To follow knowledge” (i.e. the desire to travel) marks the difference between Ulysses and his son, Telemachus (30-31). Tennyson equates Telemachus to a Victorian woman with terms such as, “sphere / Of  common duties” (39-40). In Victorian England, “spheres” would have been an obvious allusion to gender roles. Telemachus’ “common duties” are at home (in the domestic sphere), on his island; he is confined to a home-based life, and therefore a female, role. Although, his father does say, “most blameless is he” because Telemachus does not know anything else—much like a woman (39). The words that follow (“tenderness” and “household”) on line 41 and 42 respectively, drive the comparison home—so to speak. In this feminine portrayal of Telemachus, he is untraveled, and thus unknowledgeable. Telemachus is Ulysses’ antithesis in this poem: “He works his work, I mine” (43).

The final stanza of Tennyson’s poem continues to describe the nature of Ulysses’ journey. He says, “’Tis not too late to seek a newer world. / … / for my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset” (57, 59-60). Ulysses (and for that matter, Victorian England) yearns to follow his forward trajectory despite any struggles or hardships that may entail. He (and they) strives for something greater; Ulysses does not and cannot know what that something is because it will be entirely new. Victorian England means for industrialization to reach unforeseen heights.

Not only does Ulysses celebrate the glory of his journey, but he also grieves the journey’s inevitable end. This gives the poem a somber and melancholy undertone.  The “’Tis not too late” of line 57 refers to Ulysses’ old age; he is old, but not dead yet. He explains that, “Though much is taken, much abides; and though / we are not now that strength which in old days / Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are—“ (65-67). Ulysses accepts the fact that he cannot live forever. However, he does not see his maturity as debilitating: “Though much is taken, much abides” (65). His youthful strength and vigor have left him, “but [he is] strong in will” (69). Ulysses’ desire to move forward keeps him on his path. These passages remind the reader that time continually moves onward. And as time progresses so do technology and industry. Death may stop Ulysses from experiencing all that could be, but he will continue to seek new experiences despite his weakness and old age because witnessing progress and innovation is worth the added effort.

Industrialization moved Victorian England swiftly forward during the 19^th Century. Their “journey” had no end in sight, and Tennyson approved of this because England’s goal was, “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” (70).

To consider: What do we lose by always moving forward? Can we ever go back (turn back time or return home)? Is change always a good thing? To what extent should we try to hold on to the past?