God And Odysseus

The Image of Odysseus in the Works of N.Kazantzakis

Maka Eradze

(The Odyssey – a Modern Sequel)

Odysseus and God (Chapter from MA thesis in Modern Greek Studies)

Odysseus and a worm: Odysseus sees a dream – a worm that struggles to fulfill its little, meaningless pursuit. Odysseus looks at the worm with empathy, takes it in his hands and the worm with the warmth of his hands turns into a butterfly. Odysseus is a creator; Odysseus is an image of God. This episode practically demonstrates a prophesy of the utopian state, that collapses so quickly. Once, starved Odysseus tries to use a trick: he orders Orpheus to cut out a headless sculpture of God. This sculpture is so comic, no room is left for the extra interpretations of the aim of the image; Odysseus (Kazantzakis) mocks at all the idolaters that are in a search of the outer God manually creating it without any quest inside. Hear, open your mind, brothers and I will tell you! God doesn’t reside in the clouds nor in the dark hell Nor like a shade wonders in human fantasy, God crosses this dried land with us and fights by our side! 1 Just because God is inside us and fights by our side, his main weaponry is this world itself – the land of ours - there is no hatred towards any earthly happenings. Earth - a great feminine Arche, conjunct with the masculine one creates the final reason. God of Kazanzakis is equal to man and co-fights. He is always by the human side, enough to follow him. Kazantzakis’ Odysseus looks him in the face, plays with him, just like God plays with Odysseus. His God is gloomy, often gracious; like Olympian Gods, he also has a human face and this face demonstrates only the fact that man and God head together to the final purpose. God will not save us: we are going to save God by struggle, creation, by

1

Οδφςςεια,page. 498

The Image of Odysseus in the Works of N.Kazantzakis

Maka Eradze

(The Odyssey – a Modern Sequel)

converting matter into the spirit.2 God and man coexist – they struggle and stand together. God objectively exists, however, he should be reanimated in each of us in order make him the Subjective God. Many scholars, based on his political views and public work, have made some false statements and sold the desired for the possible; its true – his political views were the same utopian and nihilistic (as a result) as those of Plato (The Republic) but what about the philosophy and the personal beliefs? Though P. Bien in his work 3 expresses his high opinion about the views of Prevelakis and Vretakos, he a priori rejects the discourse of nihilism, as nihilism paralyzes action – “from the biographies of the spiritual figures we learn that the salvation of the desperate come not from the personal achievements but from God’s grace: Apocatastasis comes only on the passive obedience basis.4 This work of Kazantzakis should be perceived as a whole: with all its controversies, self-contradictory theories and irony, which is of no less importance. While discussing the Metrics5 of the work, Avgeris says that the metrics of The Odyssey resemble the metrics of that of low comedy of Ancient Greece. Surprisingly, the author of very interesting findings, Avgeris splits The Odyssey into the parts – metrics, poetry, lyrics, philosophy... though comic (I would say, tragicomic) passages are so typical for this work, one can laugh wholeheartedly. But this aspect of the work is not going to be discussed here. The discussion is about Thesis, Antithesis and their crown – number Three, the hint of which is given in the letter of N. Kazantzakis, published in Nea Estia. Ithaca is the beginning of the journey. This is the symbolic passageway of Odysseus from Real Ithaca to his decease. Gradually - by the continual negation, Ithaca represents the first stage of the negation on the way from matter to spirit. It unites the whole range of stages, the negation of which is portioned from rhapsody to rhapsody in The Odyssey. The struggle with the matter ends in the rhapsody XIV, where Odysseus already crosses the immaterial world and becomes an ascetic. Here he goes through all the stages, 2

Ν.Καηαντηάκθ, Αςκθτικι, Ακινα, 1971,85 Peter Bien,Καηαντηάκθσ- θ πολιτικι του πνεφματοσ, απόδοςθ ςτα ελλθνικά Α.Δ.Λαμπρίδου 4 ------- Page. 243 5 Μάρκου Αυγζρθ, Ζλλθνεσ Λογοτζχνεσ, ΙΚΑΡΟ΢, 1993. page. 244 3

The Image of Odysseus in the Works of N.Kazantzakis

Maka Eradze

(The Odyssey – a Modern Sequel)

previously described in The Saviors of God: he breaks free from the Ego, nationality, ancestors, from the material part of the world - nature, animals, and plants, aspires to loneliness and moves from matter to spirit. Odysseus builds a genuine utopian state in a desert; this state is “harmonious” with the fascistic state laws, previously illustrated by Kazantzakis himself:6 According to Kazantzakis, the main characteristics of the fascistic state is the system that carries responsibility for every area of everyday problems in human life, that brings down the rights of the citizens in the name of common benefit. 7 This definition itself that is written prior to this rhapsody, demonstrates Kazantzakis’ awareness about the utopia and this “strange resemblance” with The Republic of Plato is not discovered by the scholars. The state is really utopian and that’s why it’s destroyed at the end, but why to build a state if known the tragic end? So we have the following reason: it has to be thrown down as proof that the struggle is necessary and that the goal is the action itself, that Odysseus the Creator must leave some material values behind himself, which are of course futile, but those make the road to the final purpose. And still, we have a question – so what is the goal? Ithaca or the journey? To my opinion, the goal is the cycle. The goal is the road that never ends. Ithaca is just one stage of the cycle of repetitive negations. Repetitive negation is one of the main motives in the Odyssey. Through the negation of the negations we come across the final purpose. According to P. Bien, Kazantzakis tries to bring down the two main elements, characteristic to the Western civilization: Ancient Greek legacy and Christianity. The main essence of the Greek spirit is the regenerative cycle; Christianity though, goes straightforwardly to the divine presence. Although the statement heads to the fact, that Odysseus uses the rectilinear way – he gets to the cycle through the chain of negations. That leads to the Elan Vital theory: materialization, dematerialization, materialization etc.

6

Peter Bien,Καηαντηάκθσ- θ πολιτικι του πνεφματοσ, απόδοςθ ςτα ελλθνικά Α.Δ.Λαμπρίδου page. 272

7

Peter Bien,Καηαντηάκθσ- θ πολιτικι του πνεφματοσ, απόδοςθ ςτα ελλθνικά Α.Δ.Λαμπρίδου page. 270

The Image of Odysseus in the Works of N.Kazantzakis

Maka Eradze

(The Odyssey – a Modern Sequel)

Hope, fear and despair are the earthly weaknesses. Man finds his freedom just when he fights these weaknesses in himself. Topographic belonging just temporarily helps conceal the fear of loneliness. Ethnical belonging gives the strength to fight the feeling of danger. But, of course, this doesn’t abolish the fear of loneliness, just vice versa – when one seeks for a “shelter”- be it homeland, existence, God or anything else; this once again proves the fear. As a result, the fear disappears only temporarily. That is why Ithaca is so important for the complete image of Odysseus. Odysseus commences his journey only when he leaves Ithaca, develops the entire road and gets back... to Ithaca, which determines the whole process of the reiterative journey. Kazantzakis’ idea of Freedom - Irish scholar of Kazantzakis, W.B. Stanford sums up the Kazantzakis’ idea of Freedom: désolation – this is the divine law (punishment) of Complete Freedom. But Kazantzakis indifferently looks in the face of this law. Complete freedom is the severance from the human kind: and each stage of freedom is done by abandoning one of the elements of the social life. 8 Odysseus goes through the cyclic journey from himself to himself. This is the struggle of the earth and heaven, struggle for harmony. The function of Odysseus is the eternal creation. Though Odysseus is a superhuman, at the same time, he is a general idea of an ordinary human-being, born not only for the daily existence. It’s God that struggles to escape in each of us, God that struggles for freedom by our side.

8

Π.Πρεβελάκθ, Ο ποιθτισ και το ποιιμα τθσ Οδφςςειασ. Ακινα 1958, page.65, W.B.Stanford, Ο “Ulysses” Σου Joyce και θ “Οδφςςεια” του Καηαντηάκθ, μετ.΢.Π.΢[αββίδθ]; Αγγλοελλθνικι Επικεώρθςθ, Ακινα,φκινόπωρο 1954, page. 123