LAL #035 — Norm Reads Aloud: The Odyssey, Book V

Law and Legitimacy

“Here is your servant; lord, have mercy on me.” Zeus decrees that Odysseus shall be released from his captivity to Kalypso. He is sent to see along, on a raft built with his own hands. After many days, he spies land, but a vengeful Poseidon stirs the oceans. Odysseus is capsized and exhausted. He fears death, but is show the way to shore by by a helpful goddess and the gift of Athena, “the gift of self-possession.” He reaches land, spent, and prepares a bed of leaves beneath some olive branches where he hopes rest will restore him.

Too busy to read? Fine—I will read for you. Listen as though your soul’s life depends on it, because, in fact it does.

Herewith, Book V of Homer’s Odyssey.

See: LAL #028 for my reading of Book IV.

See Also: Norm Pattis on Patreon.

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I’ve a confession: Months go by without my ever turning on the television; I cannot recall the last time I watched cable news. I see the talking heads, and I think Macbeth: “Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” All the chatter, all the news, the breathless repetition of the obvious, the rendering of half-truths into complete nonsense, and yet the audience, the millions who cannot tear themselves away from the noise. We’re rubbernecking at the catastrophe that has become our common lot. We can do better. We are living on the capital of a great civilization, drawing down from ancient fonts of wisdom even as we tear at the foundations of what makes our foolish extravagance possible. It’s terrifying. So what can you do? Nourish the best within you and within our civilization. Read the classics, I say. Start with the Bible, or, with Homer. Aren’t we all Odysseus's son now? “He’s gone, no sign, no word of him; and I inherit trouble and tears …” Odysseus is a man of many wiles and troubles. Join me as we chart his course.

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