If my recollection is correct, and at the end of Odyssey ends with Odysseus returning alone, I was simply wondering why Tennyson portrays him speaking to his fellow mariners, since they are all dead according to Homer.
Tennyson's Ulysses isn't Homer's Odysseus. Tennyson is following Dante who is following a Roman tradition that's a departure from the Greek. Homer wasn't the only classical writer who wrote about the Trojan war and didn't have a monopoly on how the ancients thought about those characters.
Well thanks. After Zina commented, I began looking into it and I can't see where Dante said Ulysses went out again. And I don't see any prophecy in the Odyssey that Odysseus going out again. In the Odyssey, his crew mates are dead. Or in the Aeneid. Unless I missed something. Maybe Tennyson was making his own tradition. Not trying to argue. Glad to learn something I didn't know before.
There is a prophecy in the Odyssey that he goes back out at some point after killing Penelope’s suitors, and then Dante adds details to this final departure in Canto XXVI.
Terrific to see this. Thanks, Zina. I'm confused that Ulysses calls to his mariners to join him on a final voyage, though. I thought he alone returned. Poetic license used on another's poem, I guess. " My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me—
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Great point. I think he just loves being the leader in the adventure. His glory only comes from witness and validation. If I do something great, someone needs to see it. I think that is contrasted to his people in the beginning of the poem. It’s more fun to get into adventures with other adventurers.
I loved this poem the first time I read it when I was much younger, even though I didn’t fully understand it. So many excellent lines.
Zina,
Thanks so much for the dedication! And of course for your reading of this great poem.
Loved this
Aha!
If my recollection is correct, and at the end of Odyssey ends with Odysseus returning alone, I was simply wondering why Tennyson portrays him speaking to his fellow mariners, since they are all dead according to Homer.
Tennyson's Ulysses isn't Homer's Odysseus. Tennyson is following Dante who is following a Roman tradition that's a departure from the Greek. Homer wasn't the only classical writer who wrote about the Trojan war and didn't have a monopoly on how the ancients thought about those characters.
Well thanks. After Zina commented, I began looking into it and I can't see where Dante said Ulysses went out again. And I don't see any prophecy in the Odyssey that Odysseus going out again. In the Odyssey, his crew mates are dead. Or in the Aeneid. Unless I missed something. Maybe Tennyson was making his own tradition. Not trying to argue. Glad to learn something I didn't know before.
There is a prophecy in the Odyssey that he goes back out at some point after killing Penelope’s suitors, and then Dante adds details to this final departure in Canto XXVI.
Terrific to see this. Thanks, Zina. I'm confused that Ulysses calls to his mariners to join him on a final voyage, though. I thought he alone returned. Poetic license used on another's poem, I guess. " My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me—
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world."
Great point. I think he just loves being the leader in the adventure. His glory only comes from witness and validation. If I do something great, someone needs to see it. I think that is contrasted to his people in the beginning of the poem. It’s more fun to get into adventures with other adventurers.