Examples Of Sleep In The Odyssey

“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?” is a quote by the writer Ernest Hemingway; however, in the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer, the protagonist, Odysseus, often follows the converse of this quote. The Odyssey recounts the story of Odysseus as he encounters disaster after disaster on his journey to return to his home, as well as his struggles to adjust and deal with his wife’s suitors one he arrives. Even in his sleep, Odysseus’s life can fall apart. Although sleep serves as an escape from reality, leaving reality for too long can lead to undesirable outcomes that could have otherwise been avoided, something that Odysseus experiences multiple times in the poem. Sleep is used by Homer in The Odyssey

For example, when Odysseus is recounting dangerous his journey to Penelope, he falls asleep at the end of his tales: “Remembering, / he drowsed over the story’s end. Sweet sleep / relaxed his limb and his care-burdened breast” (XXIII, 384-386). Odysseus is talking to his wife who he only recently reunited with, but he is still constantly agonizing over his issues. In book XXIII, Odysseus is seen worrying about what to do after killing all of the nobles’ children in the previous book. Sleeping is described as helping Odysseus take his mind off of his actions and help him relax his anxieties. Odysseus is comforted by sleep when he is on his way home from Phaiakia as well. The Phaiakians row Odysseus back to Ithaka, and Odysseus sleeps on the ship: “Slumber, soft and deep / like the still sleep of death, / weighed on his eyes / as the ship hove seaward . . . This night at last / he slept serene, his long-tried mind at rest” (XIII, 79-115). Odysseus has been impatient and anxious to leave, and after finally embarking on his journey to his homeland, he is able to take his thoughts off of his worries by sleeping. Sleep is described as “serene (115)” and peaceful, thus comforting his “long-tried mind (115)” to suggest it’s comforting powers. Odysseus no longer has to focus on his journey or his actions like he has constantly been

When Odysseus is gifted a bag of winds to sail him home, he falls asleep and his crew opens the bag out of distrust. Odysseus recounts the moment: “Temptation had its way with my companions, / and they untied the bag. / Then every wind / roared into hurricane; the ship went pitching / west with many cries; our land was lost” (X, 51-55). Odysseus’s crew are unable to control their curiosity as Odysseus is unconscious. Odysseus is constantly warned not to eat any of Helios’s cattle of the sun, and he warns his crew not to either or else they will be punished severely by the gods; however, Odysseus’s men decide to eat the cattle while he is sleeping. Odysseus wakes up to find out about the information, stating, “Just then my slumber / left me in a rush, my eyes opened, / and I went down the seaward path. No sooner had I caught sight of out black hull, than savory odors of burn fat eddied around me; / grief took hold of me . . . (XII, 469-474). The feasting of the cattle eventually leads to Zeus killing everyone in Odysseus’s crew except for Odysseus. Because of his slumber, Odysseus was not around to stop his crewmen from eating the cattle which led to multiple deaths occurring. Odysseus no longer has the ability to order others around and prevent them from disobeying. This leads to catastrophic events that could have otherwise been avoided if he was awake and