The Odyssey

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0:00Today, we start the Odyssey. And the Odyssey is a sequel to the Iliad, and it's a family story. It's a story about a homecoming. There are three main characters, right? There's uh Odysseus. Sorry. Odysseus, who is the main character, and that's why it's it's called the Odyssey. Um then there is Penelope, who is his wife, and there's Telemachus, who is their son. [snorts] And as we discussed when we um read the Iliad, Homer is first and foremost concerned about the human condition. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to live in a world of war, of trauma, of tragedy? And how can we overcome uh this adversity? So, um the Odyssey is about three individuals and a family, and they're all traumatized. They're all heartbroken. Okay? So, Odysseus is we trying to return home from the war. And his problem is that he has PTSD, which is post-traumatic stress disorder. And this is very common for soldiers who return from war. They've seen so much violence, they've seen so much tragedy, they've seen so much senseless death, that their souls are shattered. And that is Odysseus' problem. Then you have Penelope, who's suffering from depression. And why is she depressed? Because her husband has been away for 20 years. And she doesn't know if he's alive

2:00or he's dead. He's probably dead, right? It's been 20 years. There's been no sign of him for the past 20 years, but she cannot bring herself to admitting that um he's dead. So, she's put herself in a very precarious situation. There's dozens of suitors who want her hand in marriage. And she she wants to say no, but she's afraid that if she does that, then uh she'll be alone for the rest of her life. But, she doesn't want to say yes because she refuses to admit that her husband, the love of her life, Odysseus is dead. In her heart, she feels that he's still alive, but in her head, she cannot justify it. She cannot explain it. It's just a feeling in her. Okay? And so, her response, and this is what we call cognitive dissonance. Her response is just to shut down. Okay? She just spends all her time alone in her room. At first, she's weaving stuff, but then she just sits in her room. All right? And then there's Telemachus. Telemachus, his problem is that his he doesn't know if his father is dead or alive. But, the man is a legend. This is a man who won the Trojan War by coming up with a stratagem with the Trojan Horse. Okay? So, he is a legend in this world, and everyone sings his praises. And he's his son, so he's living in his shadow, okay? And he wants to prove he's better than his father. He wants to become a hero himself, but he's being burdened by the legacy of his father. The other issue is that unless his

4:00father is dead, he cannot inherit his father's legacy, right? His prop- the property, uh the reputation cannot be transferred to him. Then there's his mother, who is just sitting around the house every single day. If she were to get married, she would leave, and then he could be master of his own house, right? But she's still around, so he's kind of stuck. At the same time, the suitors are waiting for Penelope's answer, which is never going to come. So, they're just in the house, and they're eating up all um his wealth. So, he is just seeing his life wither away, and there's nothing he can do about it. All right? So, um he is just depressed as well, and he's angry. But, you know, all these things are the same thing. It's really one of cognitive dissonance. It's really one of depression. It's really one of trauma. All right? So, there's another way we can analyze what's going on, and to think about the soul. And the soul is something that the ancients were really concerned about, because it was really the most fundamental issue of what it means to be a human being. It's something that we don't talk about today. Something that we don't think about today, because we live in a world of material science. If you can't see it, it doesn't exist. But, uh for most of humanity, uh for sorry, for most of human history, humanity has understood the soul as very present, and as very real, and the most significant thing in our lives, okay? So, the soul that they understood, um let let's talk about their understanding of the soul. And this is true for a lot actually a lot of cultures. First of the soul is a very complex thing, okay? [clears throat] It has almost infinite dimensions. The different layers to the soul. And this really a part of

6:03the soul that is you, okay? That is you, the person. But who you are as a person is ultimately influenced by other influences as well, by other factors as well, okay? So, these influences include your family, okay? Your culture, the history, um, and maybe the gods, okay? So, again, there are infinite dimensions and these dimensions have an impact on you. And maybe when you die, maybe there's a part of you that lives on, okay? But there's also parts of you that flows back into these different streams of the universe. Okay, so it's a very complex thing. Now, the soul, another name for the soul that we use today, uh, if you go to psychology class, their name for the soul is the worldview. [snorts] Okay? So, we have a much more simplistic understanding of our psychology than the ancients. They didn't know the worldview is just our understanding of who we are, [snorts] where we came from, and our place in the universe. Okay? It comes and we believe it comes from our memories and our experiences. Okay? And [snorts] the worldview is important because it allows us to understand us and ourselves. This is important for things such as planning. Right? Only if you know who you are, can you actually plan ahead? Because then you know what you want to do, what you want to accomplish, okay? It allows for empathy, building relationships with others, okay? It allows for judgment.

8:05Basically, [snorts] what's good, what's bad. What do you like? What don't you like, okay? So, the worldview and the soul are fundamental to who we are. Now, in psychology, what they will teach you is that trauma splinters the worldview, okay? There's something about your experience that is fundamental to your identity, [snorts] but um because it is so painful, you forget about it. Or you refuse to see it. And this causes a rupture in your identity, in your coherent sense of the world, which destroys your worldview, okay? And this leads to depression. What is depression? Depression is the inability to act and to think, okay? You don't know what you want to accomplish. You don't trust yourself. You don't know what you like. And so what what's what's of depression? You sleep a lot. You find no pleasure in anything. You feel no emotion. You feel sort of numbness, okay? And that's why people they tend to take drugs, or they just sleep all the time, or whatever, okay? All right? Because you're unable to act. And that's exactly what's happening to Odysseus, Penelope, and Telemachus. All right? There's a trauma in their lives, okay? And they just believe this as well. Okay? There could be a trauma that splits the soul. Okay? And it could be a demon. It could be um a really painful incident. It could be anything. Okay? But it splits your soul. And if you are to recover, then you have to repair your soul. And that's a fundamental conflict and the dilemma within the Odyssey. You have three individuals Odysseus, Penelope, Telemachus. Their

10:06soul has been splintered. And so when they're on a journey, their own Odyssey to repair their soul. [snorts] And the answer, of course, is each other. Okay? Their love for each other. That's what's what That's what's going to save the world. Okay? The love of family. And that is the fundamental message of the Odyssey. All right? And that's why it's such a powerful read. Okay. So, let me give you some background as to the plot. So, um as you know, the Odyssey begins in in media in median res. Okay? In the middle of things. Which is to say that a lot of things have already taken place and it happens just in the middle of the plot. Okay? In the In the In the In the beginning, Odysseus has been away for 20 years. And he's stuck on an island with Calypso. All right? Penelope is depressed and sitting by herself in the room. Telemachus is angry. Okay? Athena comes and tells Telemachus, "Come with me. I will help you find your father." Okay? [snorts] Um so uh [sighs] The story starts with the Trojan War, of course. Okay? So, remember the Tro- There's the Helen has been taken to Troy. She falls in love with Paris because that's what Aphrodite promised Paris as a prize. Um and now her husband, the king of Sparta, Menelaus, and uh um and his brother, Agamemnon, the king of kings, are like, "We're going to raise an army and we're going to get back Helen, okay?" And this is prophesized. This is This is to be the greatest war in human history. It will make It will make mortals into gods, right? That's why Achilles enters this war. Because this is the opportunity for him to prove that he is the greatest warrior of all in all of human history.

12:07And that's why he goes to Troy. Odysseus is also supposed to go to this war. But Odysseus, he's different from Achilles. Because Odysseus loves his wife, Penelope. And he has a new son, 6 months 6 months old, Telemachus. So he's conflicted. And he really doesn't want to go to war. But the Greeks need him because the gods have told the Greeks that it is really Odysseus who will win the war. He is the one who will come up with the Trojan horse, the stratagem that will win this war. So you need this guy. Okay? So Odysseus doesn't want to go, but the Greeks insist. So the Greeks send two messengers to uh Ithaca, um where Odysseus lives. Now Odysseus, what he does is he pretends to be mad. So he dresses up like a beggar, okay? He's a king, but he dresses up really badly. He's going around the farmland and throwing salt everywhere he goes. He looks crazy, okay? And you throw salt in the land to kill crops. So he looks kind of crazy. But the But the Greeks understand that this is a man of disguises. He's a man of stratagems. He's very clever. So it's probably a trick. So what they do is they take his 6-month-old son, Telemachus, okay, and put him in front of Odysseus. Now, Odysseus is plowing the field and salting the fields, okay? And basically the task is this, if you're really mad, you're going to run over your son, Telemachus, and kill him. If you're not mad, if you're not really crazy, then you're going to stop and go somewhere else and save your son. So, so let's see if you're really crazy. [snorts] And so, Odysseus, of course, uh turns away and saves his son. And the Greeks are like, "Ha, you see? You're tricking us all along. Come with us to uh Troy." And so, Odysseus has no choice but to go. Okay?

14:07So, this is why Odysseus goes. He's forced to go. But you think about it, this story doesn't really make any sense, right? And that's the um greatness of Homer because he's telling us the complexity of human psychology. Odysseus is really, really smart. He thinks ahead, right? He should know that if he were to have this stratagem, the Greeks would see it see through it really quickly, right? So, what he should be doing is hiding from the Greeks, right? Or maybe um just moving away. If you really, really don't want to go to this war, you just run away and take your family with you. Okay? Or, you know what? Just kill these guys because you're crazy, right? All right, so um what this tells us is that yes, um Odysseus really loves his family and he wants to be with his family because he knows that if he goes to Troy, he'll be gone for 20 years. That's 20 years um that that he won't be able to see his son, Telemachus, grow up, okay? But at the same time, this is the greatest war in human history. Achilles is going, Agamemnon is going. Does Odysseus want to be really want to be left out? Does he really want to be the one guy uh who's like a coward? Who's like, "You know what? I'm just going to stay home." Right? The Greeks will just laugh at him for the rest of his life saying, "You're just a pussy." Right? You've been whipped by your wife. He doesn't want to do that. So, it's a conflict. Right? So, what he does is he comes up with a stratagem that allows the Greeks to see through it really quickly and force him to go so he doesn't have to be any responsibility for what he does. All right? And that is the complexity of the human soul. That is the complexity of our worldview. All right? So, he goes to Troy and he has to explain himself why he's

16:07there. And he he knows he's going to be away from home for 20 years, 10 years in Troy, 10 years being lost at sea. All right? So, his worldview is this. Why am I here in Troy? Well, the first reason is just justice. Right? This is a just war because a Trojan stole Helen and therefore the Greeks must avenge the honor of Menelaus. Okay? Second is family. [snorts] Helen should be with her children. Helen should be with her family in Sparta. We have to return her to Sparta. How would I feel if Penelope was stolen from me? I would everyone to go fight with me to get her back as well, right? About family. Okay? Now, the third reason is legacy. Yes, he will not see uh his son Telemachus for 20 years. Therefore, he has to build him a legacy that will carry him for the rest of his life. If he is in Troy and he wins this great war, he becomes this great hero, then Telemachus himself will be famous as the son of of Odysseus. People respect Telemachus. He wants to build a legacy for his son. He wants to tell his son, "This is This is how you should live your life. You should live a life of honor, of justice, of truth." Okay? So, these are the three reasons why he goes to um Troy. And we have to remember that this is all to justify his conflict, okay? There's a conflict, there's a rupture in his soul, and he he needs to mend it by explaining

18:07why he's doing what he's doing. Okay? Because again, he's abandoning his family for 20 years. Okay. [snorts] So, um what's going to happen is this. This is This is the worldview that Odysseus has when he enters Troy. The problem starts when they win the war. Okay? Because when they win the war, then Odysseus is forced to see that all of these three things were wrong. Okay? He will discover that this war was not about justice. It was just about revenge and murder. It isn't about family, it's about destroying families. Because when you win this war, you enslave the women and kill the husbands. Right? That's destroying families. [snorts] And it's not about legacy because you've destroyed the Trojan civilization for no particular reason. Because Helen Helen doesn't even want to go back to your Sparta. Okay? And this causes cognitive dissonance. And this is what causes his PTSD. Okay? Or trauma. And so for So the Odyssey is his journey to repair his soul so they can go home. Okay? Does it Does it make sense, guys? That's what the Odyssey is about. Okay. So what we're going to do now is we are going to um read certain sections. Okay? So this is from the Iliad, actually. Okay? This is from the Iliad. And And so remember in book one of the Iliad, Achilles and Agamemnon have this nasty fight where Achilles is like, "Screw you. You're a dog. I'm not going to fight for you ever again." Agamemnon's like, "Screw you. I don't need you." Okay? But in book two, Agamemnon recognizes that, "Oh, this is actually a problem because Achilles is

20:08the greatest warrior that we have. And if Achilles doesn't want to fight, then that's bad for morale." Okay? We might actually even lose this war. So Agamemnon, being stupid, he has this stupid idea. And this stupid idea is this: How can I rally my soldiers? How can I galvanize them into action now that Achilles has abandoned battlefield? I know what I'll do. I'll tell them they can go home. Ha! Reverse psychology, guys, right? Reverse psychology. Because when I say, "You guys can go home," every Greek WILL BE LIKE, "NO! WE CAME all the way to Troy to win glory for you, Agamemnon. We're going to fight to the death to ensure that you get your glory, AGAMEMNON. WE DON'T WANT TO GO HOME. DON'T MAKE US GO HOME. WE WANT TO FIGHT." OKAY? SO THAT'S THE PLAN. And of course, it backfires. And when people hear, "Oh, we go home," they all run away. And Agamemnon's like He now is cognitive dissonance. He's like What? Uh what? He doesn't understand what's going on, okay? And at this point in the story, the war should be over because all the Greeks just got went home. And again, what happens is Odysseus will come and save everyone because he will recognize that Agamemnon's just being stupid and he will force all the Greeks to uh return back to their posts, okay? All right. So, I Can Can you read, please? Testing his men. Testing his men, but he only made the spirit race inside their chests. All the rank and file who never heard his plan. And the whole assembly surged like big like big waves at sea, the Achaean sea when east and south winds drive it on, blasting down in force from the clouds of father Zeus, or when the west wind shakes the deep standing grain with her with hurricane gusts that flatten down the stalks. So, the mass assembly of troops was was

22:08shaken now. They cried in alarm and charged towards the ships, and the dust went whirling up from under rushing feet as the men jostled back and forth, shouting orders. Grab all the ships. Drag them down to the bright sea. Clean out the launching channels. Shrill shouts hitting the heavens, fighters racing for home, knocking the blocks out underneath the holes. Okay. So, this just shows you how stupid Agamemnon is because Agamemnon thinks that his soldiers soldiers want to fight this war. But all the soldiers are homesick. They're sick of this stupid war. They They don't even know why why they're in this war, okay? So, the moment that Agamemnon says, "You guys You guys can go home." They're all like, "We're We're going to get home as soon as possible." Okay? They miss their wives. They miss their children. All right? So, after they did and Hera are up up in the sky, okay? Mount Olympus. And they They They watch us and like, "Oh my god. Agamemnon's going to lose us this war. What a And Hera says to Athena, oh sorry sorry sorry, it's not actually Hera and Aphrodite, it's Hera and Athena because they're the ones who lost the contest to Aphrodite, okay? But Hera says to Athena, YOU GET DOWN THERE, MAN, and you stop this, okay? So Athena rushes down and he talks to Odysseus, okay? All right, can you read? And now they might have won their journey home, the men of Argos fighting the will of fate. Yes, if Hera had not alerted Athena. Inconceivable, child of Zeus whose battle shield is thunder, tireless one, Athena. What, is this the way? All the Argives flying home to their fatherland, sailing over the seas broad back. Leaving Priam and all the men of Troy a trophy to glory over. Helen of Argos, Helen for whom so many Argives lost their lives in Troy, far from native land. Go, range the ranks of Achaeans arms in bronze. With your winning words, hold back each

24:08man you find. Don't let them haul their rolling ships to sea. Good. Keep on reading. The bright-eyed goddess Pallas lost no time. Down she flashed from the peaks of Mount Olympus, quickly reached the ships and found Odysseus first, a mastermind like Zeus, still standing fast. He had not laid a hand in his back black-benched hole, such anguish racked from his heart and fighting spirit. Now close beside him the bright-eyed goddess stood and urged him on. Royal son of Laertes. Laertes, Odysseus, great tactician. What, is this the way? Okay, so um so everyone's going to go home and you would think that Odysseus would be the first person to get on a ship to go back to see his son and his wife, okay? But he's he's um standing there. He's kind of confused. All right? So, he's like, "This doesn't make any sense to me. Why would Agamemnon do this?" But at the same time, he sort of shows you that he actually doesn't really want to go home. Right? Because if he really wanted to go home, he'd be home by now. Turn on going. All you Argives flying home to your fatherland, tumbling into your war-swept ships, leaving Priam and old men of Troy a trophy to glory over. Helen of Argos. Helen of Argos, Helen for whom so many Argives lost their lives in Troy, far from native land. No, don't give up now. Range the aching ranks with your winning words, hold back each man you find. Don't let them haul their rolling ships to sea. He knew the goddess's voice. He [snorts] went on the run, flinging off his cape as Eurybates picked it up. The herald of of Ithaca always at his side. Coming face to face with Atreides Agamemnon, he relieved him of his father's royal scepter. Its power can never die, and grasping it tightly, off he strode to the ships of Argives armed in bronze. Okay. So, he's not going to

26:08single-handedly save the Greeks from losing this war, okay? So, um Athena, right? Athena is always part of Odysseus. It's part of his soul, right? The intuition. And his intuition tells him something is something wrong here. I need to stop this, okay? Also, [snorts] what Look at Agamemnon. Agamemnon is frozen. He He is so distraught. He's shut down, okay? His brain has stopped working. It's frozen because this is not supposed to happen, right? When he says that you guys can go home, he wanted everyone to say, "No, we're going to stay and fight for you, Agamemnon." All right? So, it's cognitive cognitive dissonance. It's so much cognitive dissonance that when um Odysseus takes the royal scepter, everyone doesn't even notice. The royal scepter is part of his soul, right? It's his legacy. It's what gives him authority. He's the king of kings. And Odysseus just takes takes the crown from him and says like, "No, I'm the king for now to save this war." Okay? And it just shows you how committed Odysseus is to winning this war. He really believes that this war is about justice, about family, about building a legacy for his son. So, he refuses to lose this war. All right? Keep on going? I I thought I Oh, sorry. Sorry. Uh yeah. All right. All right. So, um But, that's the Iliad, okay? And again, what will happen is that Odysseus will win this war and he'll win eternal glory for himself with the stratagem of the Trojan horse. All right? Now, [snorts] we go to the Odyssey. And in the Odyssey, we don't actually meet Odysseus for many many books, okay? It's only towards the middle that we meet Odysseus. In the first few books, it's it's a story of Telemachus and his journey to find his

28:09father, okay? And when we meet Odysseus, he's a very different person from when from the Iliad. Remember in the Iliad, he is trying to win this war. He's very energetic. He's galvanized. He's very heroic. Okay, but when we see him in the Odyssey, he's a changed person. In fact, he's a broken person. So, what's happening is that um Odysseus Odysseus and his crew try to go home and get lost at sea. They have many adventures. They get shipwrecked on an island. Um and he's and he becomes the sex toy, okay, literally a sex toy of a goddess named Calypso. All right? So, basically he's getting whipped every day uh at night and then uh he goes to the beach and he cries. Okay? So, uh And so so so he's he he he's he's a prisoner of Calypso for many years, and the gods, Zeus, Athena, they get together and and and say, "You know what? We can't have this happen anymore, okay? Uh this is needs to go home." So, they send Hermes to tell Calypso, "You have to send Odysseus home. The gods will it." And Calypso says, "Sure, why not?" Okay? So, can you read? With that, the powerful giant killer sped away. it's Hermes, okay? So, Hermes has told Calypso, "You have to let this guy go." The queenly nymph sought out the great Odysseus. The commands of Zeus still rang in her ears, and found him there on the headland, sitting still, weeping, his eyes never dry, his sweet life flowing away with the tears he wept for his foiled journey home, since the nymph no longer pleased. So, he's sitting, he's still, he's weeping, his eyes never dry, and all he's thinking about is the past, okay? This is clear signs of depression. PDST, okay? Keep on going. In the night, true, he'd sleep with her in the in the arching cave. He had no choice, unwilling lover alongside lover

30:09all too willing. But all his days he sat on rocks and beaches, wrenching his heart with sobs and groans and anguish, gazing out over the barren sea through blinding tears. Okay, so he's a broken man. As he's a very different person from the Iliad, okay? So, now the question then is, why? What happened to him? All right? So, um Calypso says to Odysseus, "You know what? It's been great having a sex toy, but the gods insist that you have to go home. But you know what? You can all you can choose to be my sex toy for all eternity. I can make you immortal, right? You can go home, but I can make you immortal and you'll be my sex toy for all eternity. Now, this is is like, that's a really nice offer. I I really want to do this, but I need to go to home, okay? So, he leaves and he gets an island. And on this island, he's given a ship to go home. Okay? But, before he goes home, as the custom, they hold a banquet for him. Okay? And they really don't know who he is. He they don't really know he's Odysseus. All right. So, during the banquet, um what's the tradition is to have a bard sing a great story. Okay? To sing a story of great deeds. And of course, he sings about the Trojan War, okay? So, so can you read um I I read. Yeah. The strife between Odysseus and Achilles, Peleus' son. Okay. So, so the bard is singing about the Trojan War, okay? Mhm. How once at the gods' flowing feast, the captains clash in the savage war of words, while Agamemnon, lord of armies, rejoiced at heart that Achaeus' bravest men were battling so. For this was the victory sign that Apollo prophecies at shrine in Pytho when Agamemnon strode across the rocky threshold, asking the oracle for advice. The start of the tidal waves of ruin tumbling down on Troy's and Achaeus'

32:10forces both at once, thanks to the will of Zeus, who rules the world. That was the song the famous harper sang, but but Odysseus, clutching his flaring sea-blue cape in both powerful hands, drew it over his head and buried his handsome face, ashamed his host might see him shedding tears. Whenever the rapt bard would pause in the song, he'd lift the cape from his head, wipe off his tears, and hoisting his double-handed cup, poured out to the gods. But as But soon as the bard would start again, impelled to sing by Phemius' words, who reveled in the tale, again Odysseus hid his hid his face and wept. Okay, so this is great banquet. And uh the bard sing about the Trojan War. And at this point you think that Odysseus would like, "Hey, that's me, man." He'd be very proud. But instead he cries and he cries, okay? This again is trauma. Where the memories are storing pain in him. So clearly something happened during the Trojan War that made him want to forget about it. That made him resent himself. Okay? That caused his soul to be ruptured. All right? All right. So um Keep on going? Odysseus, master of many exploits, praised the singer. I respect you, Demodocus, more than any man alive. Surely the Muse has taught you, Zeus' daughter, or god Apollo himself, how true to life, all too true, you sing the Achaeans' fate, all they did and suffered, all they soldiered through, as if you were the as if you were there yourself or heard from one who was. But come now, shift your ground. Sing of the wooden horse Epeius built with Athena's help, the cunning trap that good Odysseus that good Odysseus brought one day to the heights of Troy, filled with fighting men who laid the city

34:10waste. Sing that for me, true to life as it deserves, and I will tell the world at once how freely the Muse gave you the gods' own gift of song. Okay. So he's feeling all this pain because of memories of the Trojan War. But he recognizes that if he's willing to go home, because remember he's on his journey home, he needs to confront his pain. He needs to admit his pain. Okay? So now he's going to ask the bard to sing the memory that he's most trying to repress. He's trying to He He wants to now focus on the Trojan War and really come to terms with his own trauma. Okay? All right. So this So So let's let Let's see what happens. Sorry. Stirred now by the muse, the bard launched out in the fine blaze of song, starting at just the point where the main Achaean force, setting their camps a fire, had boarded the oar-swept ships and sailed for home. But famed Odysseus's men already crouched in hiding in the heart of Troy's assembly, darkened that horse the Trojans dragged themselves to the city heights. Now it stood there, looming, and round its bulk the Trojans sat debating, clashing days on [music] end. Three plans split ranks, either to hack open the hollow vault with ruthless bronze, or haul it up to the highest ridge and pitch it down the cliffs, or let it stand, a glorious offering made to pacify the gods. And that That final plan was bound to win the day. For Troy was fated to perish once the city lodged inside her walls the monstrous wooden horse, where the prime of Argive power lay in wait with death and slaughter bearing down on Troy. Okay. All right. And he's saying how Troops of Achaeans Achaeans broke from cover, streaming out of the horse's hollow flanks to plunder Troy. He's saying how left and right they ravaged the steep city, saying how Odysseus marched right up to Deiphobus's house, like the god of war

36:13on attack with thy hard Menelaus. But Deiphobus is a name for Priam, okay? They They They want to go kill the king. You know what I'm saying? There, he's saying, Odysseus fought the grimmest fight he had ever braved, but he won through at last, thanks to Athena's superhuman power. That was the song the famous harper sang. The great Odysseus melted into tears running down from his eyes to wet his cheeks. As a woman weeps, her arms flung round her darling husband, a man who fell in battle fighting for town and townsmen trying to beat the day of doom from home and children. Seeing the man go down, dying, gasping for for breath, she clings for dear life, screams and shrills. But the victors just behind her digging spear butts into her back and shoulders drag her off in bondage, yoked to hard labor, pain, and the most heartbreaking torment waste her cheeks. So, from Odysseus's eyes ran tears of heartbreak. Okay, so now we know what happened, okay? All right, so what happened was this. For 10 years, Odysseus and the Greeks were trying to defeat the Trojans, and they could not do it because the Trojans were behind a walled city. So, Odysseus prayed and prayed to Athena for inspiration, and then one day, he had it, the Trojan horse, okay? So, he sneaks in So, he gets in into the underbelly of the Trojan horse along with other soldiers, and then they get into the city, and like, you know, they're really scared, they're really excited. Then they're able at night to uh leave the Trojan horse and then open the gates of Troy, and the Greeks stream in, and they start to conquer the city. And then Odysseus, you know, he is killing, okay? Because it's war, and he's full of adrenaline. But then something catches his eye. All right? He strikes down a soldier, and then the a woman comes crying. And she's traumatized at the sight of the death of

38:15her husband. And he's And Odysseus is traumatized by this woman being traumatized. Because he came to Troy to save the woman, right? He sees Penelope in this woman. He says, "I came all this way to make sure that Helen could be safe with her husband." And now he just recognized that I just killed someone's husband. But only that, but the Greeks come and they take her off to be enslaved. So, he by winning this war has to has destroyed every single family in Troy. He's caused the suffering of thousands and thousands of women and children. And that is what he sees for the first time, okay? For the longest time he believed that he was here to fight for justice, to save families, to leave a legacy for his son Telemachus. And now he recognizes, "No. This is not a just war. I'm destroying a civilization. This is not a war about family. This is This is a war about destroying families. And what am I What legacy am I leaving my son? How will my son feel if he knows how I destroyed families like ours? And this causes trauma in him. It splits his soul. And it drives him crazy, basically. And that's the conflict, the central conflict in the Odyssey. Having done so much evil, how can you go home? How can you repair yourself? How can you mend your soul and repair your worldview so that you can live for your family?

40:16Okay?