Jonathan Burgess’s The Travels of Odysseus proposes a detailed study of the theme of travel and its different meanings and contexts in the Odyssey.
In a pun on the motif of traveling, he introduces the concept of “Homeric Vagary” at the outset of the book in order to facilitate this endeavor and as a term to capture the Odyssey’s complexities, peculiarities, and inconsistencies (p. 4–5). The following quote not only explains this novel and ingenious idea but also reflects Burgess’ view of the poem:
I consider the Odyssey an inventive and idiosyncratic version of the traditional story about Odysseus’ return. The scale of the poem is impressive, as is a free-wheeling curiosity that matches that of its protagonist. As I was writing this book I increasingly suspected that the Odyssey was self-aware of its wayward tendencies, a phenomenon that eventually I called “Homeric Vagary.” The word “vagary” stems from Latin vagari, “to wander,” and so the phrase is a pun (my apologies, gentle reader). Punning itself is one aspect of a broad range of Homeric poetics that are representative of Homeric Vagary. The poem displays a tendency for tangents and a tolerance for complicated themes, causality, and plot. That is not to accuse the poet of lack of control, like Analytical scholarship within Homeric studies. Rather, I consider Homeric Vagary to be characteristic of a confidently creative poet. (p. 4).
At a later instance, additional components of the notion of “Homeric Vagary” are specified: “playfulness, irony, emotion, suspense, illogic, and delay—what I would call Homeric Vagary.” (p. 119). Thus, the theme of travel becomes a heuristic device for reading and interpreting the poem and provides a versatile framework for explaining its poetics and coping with its idiosyncracies.
After these introductory remarks, Chapter 1 (“Contexts of Odysseus’ Travels”) proceeds to explore various contexts and comparanda for Odysseus’ travels in the Odyssey: Burgess lists and briefly discusses the Epic Cycle (esp. the Nostoi and the Telegony), comparable mythological tales of traveling heroes like Gilgamesh, Heracles, or Perseus, as well as the genre of travel writing. As another comparandum, Burgess considers the characterization of Odysseus himself both within Homer (“Homeric Odysseus”) and outside Homer (“cyclic and post-Homeric Odysseus”). He concludes this first chapter with a brief outline of the content of the following sections and the promise of a meandering, multifaceted, and exciting progress:
Odysseus is the central focus of travel in the Odyssey and beyond. (…) By the end of this study we should understand the contexts, themes, and implications of Odyssean travel tales. You will often be invited by me to leave the main path of Odyssean travel to pursue Homeric Vagary wherever it leads. I will be alert to surprising and complex aspects of the poem, whether large (e.g., causality and plot) or small (e.g., wordplay, tangents, and paradox). (p. 29).
Chapter 2 (“Wandering to Ithaca”) explores Odysseus’ journey home and especially the hero’s own account of his “wanderings” to the Phaeacians in Books 9–12. Burgess starts with the poem’s explanation of Odysseus’ νόστος (“return”) in the proem and the negative depiction of his companions. He then moves on to consider the spatial and temporal aspects of the “wanderings”, the Phaeacian context of Odysseus’ stories, the implications and connotations of the ancient term ἀπόλογος for Odysseus’ tale of his “wanderings”, as well as questions of plot, causality, and possible patterns of the Apologos. The chapter ends with a discussion of issues of “ethnography” and depictions of other creatures and peoples in the “wanderings”. Burgess concludes that the Apologos presents a mixture of supernatural aspects, which are not unusual in the context of heroic myth, as well as “real-world content.” Even though the phantastic elements are more conspicuous, Odysseus’ tale also encompasses Ancient Greek socio-economic, ethnographical, and colonial conceptions that are ultimately rooted in the ‘real world’ of the Odyssey poet, whom Burgess dates to the mid-seventh century at the earliest—without going into detail about questions regarding the date, composition, and recording in writing of the poem, as these issues are not essential to the argument.
Chapter 3 (“Travels at Ithaca”) explores the actions of Odysseus upon his return home to Ithaca. This section starts with a brief discussion of Homer’s Ithaca, before moving on to an extensive consideration of Odysseus’ “lying tales”, starting with the motif of “lying travelers at Ithaca.” Burgess then examines the themes of the “lying tales” about false travels that Odysseus himself tells while in disguise as well as the putative function of these “lying tales” to “test” suitors, slaves, and family. The chapter concludes with an extensive comparison of the “lying tales” to the “wanderings” that were discussed in the previous chapter. In doing so Burgess points out the curious contrast that the Apologos, which is depicted as a true account by Odysseus himself, is full of unrealistic elements and details while the “lying tales”, which are obviously fabrications of Odysseus, are not only plausible and realistic but also contain references to real-world issues like slavery which are absent from the Apologos.
Finally, Chapter 4 (“Leaving Ithaca”) first discusses issues arising from the end of the Odyssey, which indicates existing or potential further adventures of its eponymous hero. These travels of Odysseus after his homecoming include not only the “inland journey” predicted by Teiresias’ in Odyssey Book 11, but also journeys to Thesprotia, northwestern Greece, or even the Italian peninsula in the west. Such versions are attested in other lost traditions that are only transmitted indirectly (e.g. in Proclus’ summary of the Telegony, the overview of Apollodorus’ Epitome, or the Aristotelian Constitution of the Ithacans, whose story of Odysseus’ exile was summarized by Plutarch). One section is dedicated to the extensive ‘Odyssey’ passage in the Alexandra of the Hellenistic poet Lycophron (Lyc. 648–819), which likely attests to different peoples and places attempting to link themselves to the hero through genealogy or his alleged burial place. In this context, Burgess also discusses the thematic connections between Elpenor and Odysseus as well as different versions of Odysseus’ death, some of which encompass additional ‘travels’ of the corpse and burial in different locations away from Ithaca.
As Burgess announced at the beginning of his monograph, the trajectory of his study is not always tidy and linear, but despite some detours, meandering, and ‘sightseeing’ along the way, the structure of the book is still clearly apparent. Its progress broadly follows the composition of the Odyssey, with Chapter 2 focusing of Books 9–12, Chapter 3 on Books 13–24, and Chapter 4 on Homeric allusions to events that occur after the narrative of the poem as well as cyclic and non-Homeric tales of later travels of Odysseus. Although each of the four chapters has its own brief conclusion, the book itself ends rather abruptly after the last chapter without a comprehensive, final summary. Burgess certainly keeps his promise of providing readers with an engaging, fascinating, and wide-ranging journey through the Odyssey, with the different lines of inquiry held together by the theme of travel and the notion of Homeric Vagary. But the book’s impressively wide range of topics and issues addressed and discussed in detail means that an attempt at an overarching conclusion drawing the various strands together is probably too much to hope for, and ultimately impossible.
After finishing the book, I was left with the impression that its emphasis on the travels of Odysseus and the various motifs which seem to be connected with the travel theme (e.g. lying, disguises, and other subterfuges) is particularly suitable for highlighting the specifically Odyssean elements of the poem. As an indication of the potential of this approach, I offer one additional thought about how looking at the theme of travel also indirectly serves as a heuristic device. This becomes evident by considering what this thematic focus does not capture, and it necessarily neglects another important influence of the Odyssey, i.e. its relation to the other Homeric poem, the Iliad. Besides the motifs connected to the theme of traveling, the Odyssey also encompasses scenes that seem to be rooted in Iliadic heroism (e.g. Odysseus bragging to the Cyclops and telling him his real name in Od. 9.501–505, his futile arming against Scylla in Od. 12.226–230, or the arguably most Iliadic passage of the Odyssey, the killing of the suitors in Book 22). This contrast is clearly brought out by consideration of the theme of travel which points out the privileging in the Odyssey of the theme of ‘travel’ over ‘war’ as well as the preference for the related themes λόχος and μῆτις over πόλεμος and βίη.
In conclusion, Burgess’ Travels of Odysseus offers an insightful and fascinating reading of the Odyssey in an undogmatic but broadly neoanalytical and oralist framework. The particular focus on the theme of travel strikingly accentuates the specifically Odyssean elements of the poem, and Burgess offers sensible interpretations for several of the Odyssey’s much-discussed and contentious passages based on the intriguing idea of Homeric Vagary.