Today we start the Odyssey. And the Odyssey is a sequel to the Iliad and it's a family story. It's a story about a homecoming. There are three main characters, right? There's uh Odysius, sorry, Odysius, who's the main character, and this why it's called the Odyssey.
Um then there is Tanelpi who is his wife and there's Tanakis who is their son [snorts] and as we discussed when we um read the Iliad Homer is first and foremost concerned about the human condition. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to live in a world of war, of trauma, of tragedy, and how can we overcome uh this adversity? So, um the Odyssey is about three individuals in a family and they are all traumatized and they're all heartbroken. Okay, so Odysius is trying to return home from the war and his problem is that he has PTSD, which is post-traumatic stress order.
And this is very common for soldiers who returned from war. They've seen so much violence, they've seen so much tragedy, they've seen so much senseless death that their souls are shattered. and that is a disease problem. Then you had Penelope who suffering from depression and why is she depressed? Because her husband has been away for 20 years and she doesn't know if he's alive or he's dead.
He's probably dead, right? It's been 20 years. There's been no sign of him for the past 20 years. but she cannot bring herself to admitting that um he's dead. So she's put herself in a very precurious situation.
There's dozens of suitors who want her hand in marriage and she she wants to say no, but she's afraid that if she does that then uh she'll be alone for the rest of her life. But she doesn't want to say yes because she refuses to admit that her husband, the love of her life, Adysius, is dead. In her heart, she feels that he's still alive. But in her head, she cannot justify it. She cannot explain it.
It's just a feeling in her. Okay? And so her response, and this what we call cognitive dissonance, her response is just to shut down. Okay? She just spends all her time alone in her room.
At first, she's weaving stuff, but then she just sits in her room, right? And then there's Tamakus. Damakus his problem is that his he doesn't know if his father is dead or alive but the man is a legend. This is a man who won the Trojan war by coming up with a strategy with a Trojan horse. Okay, so he is a legend in this world and everyone sings his praises and he's his son.
So he's living in his shadow. Okay. And he wants to prove he's better than his father. He wants to become a hero himself, but he's being burdened by the legacy of his father. The other issue is that unless his father is dead, he cannot inherit his father's legacy, right?
His pro the property uh the reputation cannot be transferred to him. Then there's this mother who's just sitting around the house every single day. If she were to get married, she would leave and then he could be master of his own house, right? But she's still around. So he's kind of stuck.
At the same time, the suitors are waiting for Peny's answer, which is never going to come. So they're just in the house and they're eating up all um his wealth. So he is just seeing his life wither away and there's nothing he can do about it. All right. So um he is just depressed as well and he's angry.
But you know all these things are the same thing. It's really one of chronic dissonance. It's really one of depression. It's really one of trauma. All right.
So there's another way we can analyze what's going on. And the thing about the soul and the soul is something that the ancients were really concerned about because it was really the most fundamental issue of what it means to be a human being. It's something that we don't talk about today, something that we don't think about today because we live in a world of material science. If we can't see it, it doesn't exist. But uh for most of humanity uh for sorry for most of human history humanity has understood the soul as very present and as very real and the most significant thing in our lives.
Okay. So the soul that they understood um let let's talk about their understanding of the soul and this is true for a lot actually a lot of cultures. First of all soul um is a very complex thing. Okay. [clears throat] It is almost infinite dimensions.
The different layers to the soul and there's really a part of the soul that is you. Okay? That's just you, the person. But who you are as a person is ultimately influenced by other um influences as well by other factors as well. Okay.
So these influences include uh your family, okay, your uh culture, the history, um and maybe the gods, okay? So um again, they're infinite dimensions and these dimensions have an impact on you. And maybe when you die, maybe there's a part of you that lives on, okay? But there's also parts of you that flows back into these different streams of the universe. Okay?
So it's a very complex thing. Now the soul um another name for the soul that we use today uh if you go to psychology class the name for the soul is the world view. [snorts] Okay. So we have a much more simplistic understanding of our psychology than the ancients. The idea of the worldview is just our understanding of who we are, [snorts] where we came from, and our place in the universe.
Okay? It come and we believe it comes from our memories and our experiences. Okay? [snorts] And the world view is important because it allows us on ourselves. This is important for things such as planning, right?
Only if you know who you are can you actually plan ahead because then you know what you want to do, what you want to accomplish. Okay? It allows for empathy, building relationships with others. Okay? and allows for judgment.
Basically, [snorts] what's good? What's bad? What do you like? What don't you like? Okay.
So, the world view and the soul are fundamental to who we are. Now, in psychology, what they will teach you is that trauma splinters the world view. Okay? There's something about your experience that is fundamental to your identity [snorts] but um because it is so painful you forget about it or you refuse to see it and this causes a rupture in your identity in your coherent sense of the world which destroys your worldview. Okay.
And this leads to depression. What is depression? Depression is the inability to act and to think. Okay? You don't know what you want to accomplish.
You don't trust yourself. You don't know what you like. And so what are the symptoms of depression? You sleep a lot. You find no pleasure in anything.
You feel no emotion. You feel sort of numbness. Okay? Okay. And that's why people they tend to take drugs or they just sleep all the time or whatever.
Okay. All right. Because you are unable to act. And that's exactly what's happening to Adysius, Penelpi, and Tamakis. All right.
There's a trauma in their lives. Okay. And they just believe this as well. Okay. There could be a trauma that splits the soul.
Okay? And it could be a demon. It could be um a really painful incident. It could be anything, okay? But it splits your soul.
And if you are to recover, then you have to repair your soul. And that's a fundamental conflict and dilemma within the Odyssey. You have three individuals, Adysius, Penelpi, Tamakus. Their soul has been splintered. And so they're on a journey, their own odyssey to repair their soul.
[snorts] And the answer of course is each other. Okay, the love for each other. That's what's that's what's going to save the world. Okay, the love of family and that is the fundamental message of the Odyssey. All right, and that's why it's such a powerful read.
Okay, so let me give you some background as to the plot. So, um, as you know, the Odyssey begins in immediate intermediate rest. Okay, in the middle of things, which is to say that a lot of things have already taken place and happens just in the middle of the plot. Okay, in the in the in the beginning, Odysius has been away for 20 years and he's stuck on an island with Calypso, right? Penelpi is depressed and cinemas is angry.
Okay, Athena comes and tells Damascus, "Come with me. I will help you find your father." Okay. [snorts] Um, so [sighs] the story starts with a Trojan war, of course. Okay, so remember the Tro there's the Helen has been taken to Troy. She falls in love with Paris because that's what Aphrodite promised Paris as a prize.
Um and now her husband, the king of Sparta, Mana, and her um and his brother Egabana, the king of kings are like, "We're going to raise an army and we're going to get back Helen." Okay? And this is prophesized. This is this is to be the greatest war in human history. It will make it will make mortals into gods, right? That's why Achilles enters this war because this is the opportunity for him to prove that he is the greatest warrior of all in all of human history and that's why he goes to Troy.
Odysius is also supposed to go to this war. But Adysius, he's different from Achilles because Adysius loves his wife Penelope and he has a new son, six months, six months old Tanakas. So he's conflicted and he really doesn't want to go to war. But the Greeks need him because the gods have told the Greeks that it is really Adysius who will win the war because he's the one who will come up with the Trojan horse, the strategium that will win this war. So you need this guy.
Okay. So this doesn't want to go but the Greeks insist. So the Greeks send two messengers to uh Ithaca um where Odysius lives. Now this is what he does is he pretends to be mad. So he dresses up a beggar.
Okay, he's a king but he dresses up really badly and he's going around the farmland and throwing salt everywhere he goes. He looks crazy. Okay, and you throw salt in the land to kill crops. So he looks kind of crazy, but the but the Greeks understand that this is a man of disguise. He's a man of strategims.
He's very clever. So it's probably a trick. So what they do is they take his 6mon year old son Tamakus, okay, and put it in front of Odysius. Odysius is plowing the field and salting the fields, okay? And basically the test is this.
If you're really mad, you're going to run over your son Tamakus and kill him. If you're not mad, if you're not really crazy, then you're going to stop and go somewhere else and save your son. So, so let's see if you're really crazy. [snorts] And so this is of course uh turns away and saves his son and the ha you see you're tricking us all along. Come with us to uh Troy.
And so this is has no choice but to go. Okay. So this is why Odysius goes. He's forced to go. You think about it, the story doesn't really make any sense, right?
And that's the um greatness of Homer because he's telling us the complexity of human psychology. But this is really really smart. He thinks ahead, right? He should know that if he were to have the strategium, the Greeks would see it see through it really quickly, right? So what he should be doing is hiding from the Greeks, right?
or maybe um just moving away. If you really really don't want to go to this war, you just run away and take your family with you. Okay? Or you know what, just kill these guys because you're crazy, right? All right.
So, um what this tells us is that yes, um Odysius really loves his family and he wants to be with his family because he knows that if he goes to Troy, he'll be gone for 20 years. That's 20 years um that that he won't be able to see his son Tammakus grow up. Okay. But at the same time, this is the greatest war in human history. Achilles is going.
Eggman is going. Does Odysius want to be really want to be left out? Does he really want to be the one guy is who is like a coward who is like, you know what, I'm just stay home. Right? The Greeks will just laugh at him for the rest of his life saying, "You're just a pussy." right?
You've been whipped by your wife. Doesn't want to do that. So, it's a conflict, right? So, what he does is he comes up with a strategy that allows the Greeks to see through it really quickly and force him to go. So, he doesn't have to bear any responsibility for what he does.
All right? And that is a complexity of the human soul. That is a complexity of our worldview. All right? So he goes to Troy and he has to explain to himself why he's there and he he knows he's going to be away from home for 20 years, 10 years in Troy, 10 years being lost at sea, right?
So his worldview is this. Why am I here in Troy? Well, the first reason is justice, right? This is a just war because the Trojan stole Helen and therefore the Greeks must avenge the honor of men. Okay.
Second is family. [snorts] Helen should be with her children. Helen should be with her family in Sparta. We have to return her to Sparta. How would I feel if Penplay was stolen from me?
I would want everyone to go fight with me to get her back as well, right? It's about family. Okay. Now, third reason is legacy. Yes, he will not see uh his son Kamakis for 20 years.
Therefore, he has to build him a legacy that will carry him for the rest of his life. If he is in Troy and he wins this great war and he becomes this great hero, then Tamakus himself will be famous as a son of of Adysius. People respect Tamakus. He wants to build a legacy for his son. He wants to tell his son this is this is how you should live your life.
you should live a life of honor, of justice, of truth. Okay, so these are the three reasons why he goes to um Troy. And we have to remember that this is all to justify his conflict. Okay, there's a conflict. There's a rupture in his soul.
He needs to mend it by explaining why he's doing what he's doing. Okay? Because again, he's abandoning his family for 20 years. Okay? [snorts] So um what's going to happen is this this is this is the worldview that Odysius has when he enters Troy.
The problem starts when they win the war. Okay? Because when they win the warus is forced to see that all these three things were wrong. Okay. He will discover that this war was not about justice.
It was just about revenge and murder. It is about family. It's about destroying families because when you win this war, you enslave the woman and kill the husbands, right? That's destroying families. [snorts] And it's not about legacy because you've destroyed the Trojan civilization for no particular reason because Helen Helen doesn't even want to go back to Sparta.
Okay? And this causes cognitive dissonance and this is what causes his PT SD okay or trauma. And so for in so the Odyssey is his journey to repair his soul so that he can go home. Okay, does it does that make sense guys? That's what the Odyssey is about.
Okay, so what we're going to do now is we are going to um read certain sections. Okay, so this is from the Iliad actually. Okay, this is from the Iliad and and so remember in book one of the Iliad, Achilles and Manon have this nasty fight where Achilles is like screw you. You're a dog. I'm not going to fight for you ever again.
Eggman is like screw you. I don't need you. Okay. But in book two, Eggman recognizes that, oh, there's actually a problem because Achilles is the greatest warrior that we have. And if Achilles uh doesn't want to fight, then that's bad for morale.
Okay, we might actually even lose this war. So Eggman on being stupid, he has this stupid idea. And his stupid idea is this. How can I rally my soldiers? How can I galvanize them into action now that Achilles has abandoned battlefield?
I know what I'll do. I'll tell them they can go home. Huh? Reverse psychology, guys. Right?
Reverse psychology. Because when I say you guys can go home, every Greek WILL BE LIKE, "NO, we came all the way to Troy to win glory for you, Eggman. We're going to fight to the death to ensure THAT YOU GET YOUR GLORY, EGGMAN. WE DON'T WANT TO GO HOME. DON'T MAKE US GO HOME.
WE'RE GOING TO FIGHT." OKAY, SO THAT'S the plan. And of course, it backfires. And when people hear, "Oh, we go home." They all run away. And is like he now has caught a dissonance. He's like what?
Huh? What? He doesn't understand what's going on. Okay. And at this point in the story, the war should be over because all the Greeks just got went home.
And again, what happens is Adis will come and save everyone because he will recognize that just being stupid and he will force all the Greeks to uh return back to the post. Okay. All right. So, Ivory, can can you read, please? Testing his men.
Testing his men, but he only made the spirit race inside their chests. All the rank and file who never heard his plan. And the whole assembly surged like big like big waves at sea. The Aarian sea when east and south winds drive it on, blasting down in force from the clouds of Father Zeus. Or when the west wind shakes the deep sanding grain with with hurricane gusts that flatten down the stalks.
So the mass assembly of troops was was shaken now. They cried an alarm and charged towards the ships and the dust went whirling up from under rushing feet as the men jostled back and forth shouting orders. Grapple the ships. Drag them down to the bright sea. Clean out the launching channels.
Shrill shouts hitting the heavens. Fighters racing for home knocking the blacks out underneath the holes. Okay, so this just shows you how stupid Eggman is because Eggman thinks that his soldiers actually want to fight this war, but all these soldiers are homesick. They're sick of this stupid war. They they don't know why why they're in this war.
Okay, so the moment that Amanda says, "You guys can go home." They're all like, "We we're going to get home as soon as possible." Okay, they missed their wives. They missed your children. All right, so Aphrodite and Hera are up up in the sky. Okay, model Olympus. And they they watch us and like, "Oh my god, Ag Manon's going to lose us this war.
What a moron." And Hera says to Athena, "Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. It's not actually Hera and Aphrodite is Hera and Athena because they're the ones who lost the um contest to Aphrodite." Okay. But Hera says to Athena, "YOU GET DOWN THERE, MAN, and you stop this." Okay. So Athena rushes down and he talks to Adysius. Okay.
All right. Can you read it? And now they might have won their journey home. The men of Argos fighting the will of fate. Yes, if her had not alerted Athena.
Inconceivable. Child of Zeus, whose battle shield is thunder. Tireless one. Athena. What is this the way?
All the archives flying home to their fatherland. sailing over the seas brought back, leaving Prime and all the men of Troy a trophy to glory over. Helen Argos, Helen, for whom so many archives lost their lives in Troy, far from native land. Go range the ranks of Aken's arms and bronze. With your winning words, hold back each man you find.
Don't let them haul their rolling ships to sea. Okay. The brighteyed goddess Palace lost no time. Down. She flashed from the peaks of Mount Olympus quickly reached the ships and found Adys Adysius first.
A mastermind like Zeus still standing fast. He had not laid a hand in his back blackbenched hole. Such anguish racked from his heart and fighting spirit. Now close beside him the brighteyed goddess stood and urged him on. Royal son of Leartes Leartes Adysius great testician.
What is this the way? Okay. So um so everyone's trying to go home and you would think that Adysius would be the first person to get on a ship to go back to see his son and his wife. Okay. But he's he's um standing there.
He's kind of confused. All right. So he's like this doesn't make any sense to me. Why would do this? But at the same time, it sort of shows you that he actually doesn't really want to go home, right?
Because if we want to go home, he'd be home by now. Keep on going. All you archives flying home to your fatherland, tumbling into your or swept ships, living prime, an old man of Troy, a trophy to glory over. Helen of Argos. Helen of Argos.
Helen for whom so many archives lost their lives in Troy. Far from native land. No, don't give up now. Range the aen ranks with your winning words. Hold back each man you find.
Don't let them haul the rolling ship to sea. He knew the goddess's voice. He [snorts] went on a run, fleeing off his cape as Yuri picked it up. The herald of of ethica always at his side. Coming face to face with Atrites Agamemnon, he relieved him of his father's royal scepter.
Its power can never die. and grasping it tightly off, he strokes the ships of Argam armed and bronze. Okay, so he's now gonna sing singly save the Greeks from losing this war. Okay, so um Athena, right? Athena is always part of Odysius.
It's part of his soul, right? The intuition and his intuition tells him something wrong here. I need to stop this. Okay. Also [snorts] what?
Look at a manon. A manon is frozen. He he is so distraught. He's shut down. Okay.
His brain has stopped working. It it's frozen because this is not supposed to happen. Right. When he says that you guys can go home, he wanted everyone to say no. We're going to stay and fight for you.
Eggman on. Right. So it's kind of dissonance. It's so much cogn dissonance that when um Odysius takes the royal scepter, everyone doesn't even notice the royal scepter is part of his soul, right? It's his legacy.
It's what gives him authority. He's the king of kings. And this is just takes takes a crown from his like, "No, I'm the king for now to save this war." Okay? And it just shows you how committed Odysius is to winning this war. He really believes that this war is about justice, about family, about building a legacy for his son.
So, he refuses to lose this war. Right. I I thought I Oh, sorry. Sorry. Yeah.
All right. All right. So, um but that's the Iliad. Okay. And again what will happen is that Audacious will win this war and he will win eternal glory for himself with a strategim of the Trojan horse.
Right now [snorts] we go to the Odyssey and in the Odyssey we don't actually meet Odysius for many many books. Okay, it's only towards the middle that we meet Odysius. In the first few books it's it's a story of Tamakus and his journey to find his father. Okay. And when we meet Odysius, he's a very different person from when from the Iliad.
Remember in the Iliad, he is trying to win this war. He's very energetic. He's galvanized. He's very heroic. Okay?
But when we see him in the Odyssey, he's a changed person. In fact, he's a broken person. So, what's happening is that um Adis and his crew try to go home and they get lost at sea. They have many adventures and he gets shipwrecked on an island. Um, and he's and he becomes the sex toy.
Okay, literally a sex toy of a goddess named Calypso. All right, so basically he's getting raped every day uh at night and then uh he goes to the beach and he cries. Okay. So, uh, and so, so, so he's he he's a prisoner of Calypso for many years and the gods Zeus, Athena, they get together and and, and say, you know what? We can't have this happen anymore.
Okay, Odysius needs to go home. So, they send Hermes to tell Clip, "So, you have to send Odysius home. The gods will it." And Eclipse says, "Sure, why not?" Okay. So, can you read? With that, the powerful giant killer sped away.
So, it's Hermes. Okay. So Hipper has told Cypso, "You have to let this guy go." The queenly nymph sought out the great Adysius. The commands of Zeus still ranging in her ears and found him there on headland, sitting still, weeping, his eyes never dry, his sweet life flowing away with the tears. He wept for his foiled journey home, since then no longer pleased.
So he's sitting, he's still, he's weeping, his eyes never dry, and all he's thinking about is the past. Okay, this is clear signs of depression, PDST. Okay, you want in the night? True, he'd sleep with her in the in the arching cave. He had no choice.
Unwilling lover alongside lover, all too willing, but all his days he sit on rocks and beaches, wrenching his heart with sobs and groans and anguish, gazing out over the barren sea through blinding tears. Okay, so he's a broken man. He's a very different person from the Iliad. Okay, so now the question then is why? What happened to him?
All right, so um KTO says to Adysius, you know what? It's been great having a sex toy, but the gods insist that you have to go home. But you know what? You can all you can choose to be my sex toy for all eternity. I can make you immortal, right?
You can go home, but I can make you immortal. and you'll be my sex toy for all fraternity. Now, this is is like that's a really nice offer. I I really want to do this, but I need to go home. Okay.
So, he leaves and he gets an island. And on this island, he's given a ship to go home. Okay. But before he goes home, as a custom, they host a banquet for him. Okay.
And they really don't know who he is. He They don't really know he's Odysius. All right. So during the banquet um what's the tradition is have a bar sing a great story. Okay.
To sing a story of great deeds. And of course he sings about the Trojan War. Okay. So So can you read um I I Yeah. The strife between Adysius and Achilles Pelius's son.
Okay. So So the B is singing about the sword war. Okay. How once at the gods flowing feast the captains clashed in the savage war of wards while Agamemnon lord of armies rejoiced at heart that Achius's bravest men were battling so for this was the victory sign that Apollo prophecies at his shrine in Pytho when Agamemnon strode across the rocky threshold asking the oracle for advice the start of the tidal waves of ruin tumbling down on Troy's and Aius's forces both at once thanks the will of Zeus who rules the world. That was the song the famous Harper sang.
But Adysius, clutching his flaring sea blue cape in both powerful hands, drew it over his head, and buried his handsome face. Ashamed his host might might see him shedding tears. Whenever the wrath bard would pause in the song, he'd lift the cape from his head, wipe off his tears, and hoisting his double-handed cup, pour it out to the gods. But as but soon as the bard would start again impelled to sing by face's lords who reveled in his tail again Adysius hid hid his face and wept. Okay, so there's this great banquet and uh the bar sing about the children war and at this point you think this is like hey that's me man he'd be very proud but instead he cries and he cries okay this again is trauma where the memories are stirring pain in him so clearly something happened during the Trojan war that made him want to forget about it that made him resent himself okay that caused his soul or to be ruptured.
All right. All right. So, um, keep on going. Adysius, master of many exploits. Praise the singer.
I respect you, Deathus, more than any man alive. Surely the muse has taught you, Zeus's daughter, or God Apollo himself. How true to life, all too true. You sing the Aens's fate. All they did and suffered, all they soldered through.
As if you were the as if you were there yourself or heard from one who was. But come now, shift your ground. Sing of the wooden horse Epus built with Athenus's help. The cunning trap that good that good Adysius brought one day to the heights of Troy, filled with fighting men who laid the city waste. Sing that for me.
True to life as it deserves. And I will tell the world at once how freely the muse gave you the gods his own gift of song. Okay. So he's feeling all this pain because of memories of the war. But he recognizes that if he's willing to go home because remember he's on his journey home.
He needs to confront his pain. He needs to admit his pain. Okay. So now he's going to ask the bar to sing the memory that he's most trying to repress. He's trying to he he wants to now focus on the children war and really come to terms with his own trauma.
Okay. All right. So this so so let's let's see what happens. Sorry. Stern by the muse.
The bard launched out in a fine blaze of song. Starting at just the point where the main aen force setting their camps of fire had boarded the or swept ships and sailed for home. But famed Adysius's men already crouched and hiding. In the heart of Troy's assembly, dark in that horse, the Trojans dragged themselves to the city heights. Now it stood there looming.
And round its bulk the Trojan sat debating, clashing days [music] on end. Three plans split ranks. Either to hack open the hollow vault with ruthless bronze, or haul it up to the highest ridge and pitch it down the cliffs, or let it sand, a glorious offering made to pacify the gods. And that that final plan was bound to win the day. For Troy was faded to perish once the city lodged inside her walls the monstrous wooden horse where the prime argu power lay in weight with death and slaughter bearing down on Troy.
Okay. All right. And he's saying how troops of aes broke a broke from cover streaming out of the horse's hollow flanks to plunder Troy. He's saying how left and right they ravaged the seep's city. Saying how Adysius marched right up to De Feebis's house like the god of war on attack with thieard men lost.
Defabis isn't for pride. Okay. They want to go kill the king. You want to go there? He sang.
Adysius fought the grimst fight he had ever braved, but he won through it last thanks to Athenus's superhuman power. That was a song the famous Harper sang. The great Adysius melted into tears, running down from his eyes wet his cheeks. As a woman weeps, her arms flung around her darling husband, a man who fell in battle, fighting for town and townsmen, trying to beat the day of doom from home and children. Seeing the man go down, dying, gasping for breath, she clings for dear life, screams and shrills.
But the victors just behind her, digging spear butts into her back and shoulders, drag her off in bondage, yolked to hard labor, pain, and the most heartbreaking torment, waste her cheeks. So from Adysius's eyes ran tears of heartbreak now. Okay. So now we know what happened. Okay.
All right. So what happened was this. For 10 years, Odysius and the Greeks were trying to defeat the Trojans and they could not do it because the Trojans were behind a walled city. So Odysius prayed and prayed to Athena for inspiration and then one day he had it. The Trojan horse.
Okay. So he sneaks in. So he gets into the underbelly of the Trojan horse along with other soldiers. And then they get into the city and like you know they're really scared, they're really excited. Then they're able at night to uh leave the Trojan horse and then open the gates of Troy and they stream in and they start to conquer the city and then Odysius, you know, he is killing, okay, because it's war and he's full of adrenaline.
But then something catches his eye, right? He strikes down a soldier and then the a woman comes crying. and she's traumatized at the sight of the death of her husband. And he's and this is traumatized by this woman being traumatized because he came to Troy to save the woman, right? He sees Penelope in this woman.
He says, "I came all this way to make sure that Helen could be safe of her husband." And now he just recognized that I just killed someone's husband. But not only that, but the Greeks come and they take her off to be enslaved. So he by winning this war has has destroyed every single family in Troy. He's caused the suffering of thousands and thousands of women and children and that is what he sees for the first time. Okay.
For the longest time he believed that he was here to fight for justice, to save families, to leave a legacy for his son Tamakis. And now he recognizes no this is not a just war. I'm destroying uh a civilization. This is not a war about family. This this a war about destroying families.
And what am I what legacy am I leaving my son? How my son feel if he knows how I destroyed families like ours? And this causes trauma in him. It splits his soul and it drives him crazy basically. And that's the conflict, the central conflict in the Odyssey.
Having done so much evil, how can you go home? How can you repair yourself? How can you man your soul and repair your worldview so that you can live for your family? Okay.