A coworker of mine turned me on to the idea of writing for Odyssey after I told her about how I wanted to write and needed a way to commit my time to doing it while also juggling classes, work, friends, and everything else heaped onto a college student’s plate. I thought, “Why not?” and here I am. Throughout the process of looking into what Odyssey had to offer its readers and its writers and of applying to write for Northeastern University’s community I found myself questioning the meaning behind the title of the website. I wondered what it meant for the people involved in this vast web of human beings called “Odyssey” and how it could mean the same thing for so many different people from so many walks of life.
The "Odyssey" was Homer’s second epic poem. The "Iliad," which detailed the events of the end of the Trojan War fueled by Paris of Troy who took the Spartan king’s wife Helen, and its sequel The "Odyssey" are the two oldest surviving works of Western literature. The sequel picks up after the war and follows war hero and greek Odysseus on his decade long journey home to Ithaca after the fall of Troy. On his journey home Odysseus must fight off numerous foes including the temptations of an island of Lotus-Eaters who allow the fruits to put them to sleep and forget all of their ambitions, a Cyclops, a tribe of man-eating giants, and Sirens whose songs drive sailors to crash their ships into the rocks. When he finally arrives home Odysseus must fight off the dozens of suitors that have attempted to take his wife’s hand in his absence. I never had to read The "Odyssey" in high school, only the "Iliad," but Odysseus’ epic journey has become iconic and the word odyssey has come to mean a long quest, either physical, spiritual or intellectual, marked by changes of fortune.
I thought about what this centuries long history meant for a community like The Odyssey, which seems to be comprised heavily of college students or at least people around that age range.
Many of the themes that are present in Homer’s epic poem seem so relevant for college students. Homecoming is a theme used extensively throughout the work and is Odysseus’ goal when he leaves Troy, to arrive home. This idea is all too familiar to college students. Before leaving home for school there was no such thing as a homecoming unless you went on a particularly long vacation, but now it seems to be all we do. Winter Recess Homecoming, Spring Break Homecoming, Summer Vacation Homecoming. Every time I walk into my front door with my gross amount of luggage and my mother and sister run to the door to greet me it feels like its been twenty years (ten years of war and a ten years’ journey) since I was last home.
Odysseus is cursed by Poseidon to wander the seas for ten years before he can return to Ithaca and it feels like, a lot of the time, thats exactly what college students are apt to do. Wander. I have no idea where I want to go in life (Okay, I kind of have an idea but you get what I mean) and neither do any of my friends (Again, you get it). Most of college just seems like a random sequence of accidents that push me in the right direction. None of it seems like a conscious choice, I just feel like I’m being propelled the right way by some larger force called life. Like Odysseus before me who allowed the gods and the many mythic forces he encountered to drive him homeward to Ithaca I feel exactly the same way as I approach Commencement (still very, very far off, but probably not as far as I’d hope).
Through The "Odyssey" another common theme was for Odysseus to test the loyalty of others and for others to test Odysseus’ identity. Tests, I know are far too real for college students, though maybe the tests we’re used to are a tad more literal than those Odysseus faced. Being an English major, truthfully, I don't encounter many sit down bubble sheet exams but with every paper I write or dreaded Blackboard post with an 8 PM deadline I find myself and my capabilities being exercised the same way Odysseus was on his intense expedition.
Odysseus supposedly lived over three thousand years ago but something about his struggles seem so applicable to what most people go through on a daily basis. It seems like the same way I can connect with someone who lived countless centuries ago, the great amount of people who contribute to this website can connect. I believe at the heart of it is the 'Odyssey' itself, the journey, that everyone in conscious human history shares. The journey from point A to elusive point B is what a man who fought in an ancient Greek war and a college student in 2018 can have in common, whether that journey is across the Aegean Sea or across campus.
