Trust seems to be a major theme in The Odyssey. The gods frequently interfere with the lives of mortals, often disguising themselves as humans or animals. This makes it important for mortals to act carefully and to try to treat everyone with kindness. Given the fickle nature of the gods, it is also important to know when to trust them.
In the first few books, we see Odysseus unsure about whether he should trust a few goddesses. When Calypso announces that she promises to release Odysseus, he doesn't want to trust her because she has trapped him for so long and forced him to do things against his will. After setting sail from Ogygia, Odysseus becomes the victim of Poseidon's wrath. Ino offers to help him but he doesn't trust her at first because he is still cautious from his experiences with Calypso.
Another major theme in the Odyssey that is related to trust is hospitality. Whenever Odysseus and Telemachus set foot on foreign soil, they are welcomed by locals and given food and shelter without hesitation. The locals, who are sometimes complete strangers, trust Odysseus and Telemachus to be peaceful guests, while Odysseus and Telemachus expect their hosts to be friendly.
Normally host and guest get along quite well in the Odyssey, but when trust is violated by either party the results are disastrous. Some of the few examples of a violation of trust that we have encountered so far are the suitors lounging around in Odysseus' palace and Odysseus barging into the cyclops' cave. In the first example, the lazy behavior of the suitors inflames Telemachus' aversion towards them. Granted, their intentions alone are probably enough to garner ill will, but perhaps if they behaved properly Telemachus would have been less bitter towards them. In Polyphemus' case, rude guests were probably unexpected, so it is understandable that he lashed out at Odysseus (although it seemed harsh for the cyclops to devour Odysseus' crew members).
It's interesting to see how trust plays a role in the relationships between characters. This analysis can sometimes help us understand the reasons behind characters' actions.
I think the pattern of things going horribly wrong when hospitality is broken is also very evident in the scene with the Laestrygonians, where Odysseus's men almost become dinner when they just expected to be fed. I think it is interesting that this betrayal of hospitality occurs so often in the book when good hospitality seems expected by all guests and travelers.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how a god is to be respected when you don't know if they're affecting you or interacting with you, like with the whole hospitality and routine sacrifice thing. But when a god actually is interacting with you, then it's time to put your guard up and loosen your trust of them by quite a bit. We've seen this happen quite a few times throughout the story so far.
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