the story of Ulysses with
the stay at Calypso's Isle. Thus the poem unfolds in the order of
society, starting with the state of nature, passing thence to a
civilized condition, and showing finally the conflicts of the same with
the negative forces which develop in its own bosom. Homer could have
landed Ulysses at Phaeacia, and could have made the Ulyssiad start in
that sphere, placing Calypso's Book just after the account of the
slaughter of the Oxen of the Sun. But what a loss would that have been!
No social development would thus be suggested in the movement of the
poem, and the individual Ulysses would have to pass, not from
institutional Phaeacia, but from savage Ogygia to the reformation of
Ithaca. In this way we realize to ourselves the true instinct, or
perchance the profound thought which underlies the structure of this
portion of the poem.
Thus we conceive the double movement of the Ulyssiad through its three
main stages, in which we feel strongly emphasized the idea of
development, of a genetic process. These lands and peoples are
generated by the wanderer's own spirit, though they all exist in their
own right and are carefully set down in Homeric geography. Ogygia is
the product of Ulysses himself, and so he goes thither to the reality.
The misfortunes in these lands are the very deeds of the offenders
returning upon them. As the Gods are both subjective and objective, so
are these poetic places and persons; they are both in Ulysses and
outside of him, they are the inner change of the individual and the
outer development of the world. Each, however, fits into the other, is
inseparably intertwined with the other; both together form the double
movement which is the fundamental structural fact of the present
division of the Odyssey.
Of course our unfolding of the subject must follow the movement of the
poem, but we shall not neglect the movement of the individual.
Accordingly Calypso's Island, Ogygia, is the realm which is to be first
considered.
_BOOK FIFTH._
In this Book the reader will observe two distinct parts, which are so
often found in Homer and constitute the deepest distinction in his
poems: these two parts are the Upper World of the Gods and the Lower
World of Man, both of which are shown in action and counteraction. The
grand dualism between the mortal and the immortal is fused into a
living narrative and makes the warp and woof of Homeric poesy. The
general purport of both parts i
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