The Theme in the Work
The poem asks who the hero is before saying his name. The proem defines him by an adjective, polýtropos, and the name only appears in verse 21 (Book I). Telemachus, for his part, does not know whether he is the father's son: he tells Athena that his mother affirms it and that no one knows his own origin by himself (Book I). The doubt is resolved by third parties: Menelaus and Helen recognize the young man by his face, his hands, his feet and his hair (Book IV), after Nestor is astonished at the way he speaks (Book III).
Among the Phaeacians, the hero is a guest without a name. Athena makes him seem taller and stronger, Euryalus takes him for a merchant, and Alcinous declares that he does not know his name (Book VIII). What lifts him out of anonymity is the weeping before the songs of Demodocus, and Alcinous says that no one is wholly without a name and asks for his. In Book IX, Odysseus answers with the name, the father and the stratagems; in the cave of Polyphemus, he trades everything for Nobody, to later shout the true name, with lineage and address.
In Ithaca, the problem is reversed. Athena pours mist over him so that neither his wife, nor the citizens, nor his friends recognize him (Book XIII), and makes him an old beggar. The recognitions come one by one, each with its own sign: Telemachus accepts the explanation that Athena changed his father (Book XVI); the dog Argos recognizes his master (Book XVII); the nurse Eurycleia, the scar (Book XIX); Eumaeus and Philoetius, the scar shown (Book XXI); Penelope, the bed (Book XXIII); Laertes, the scar and the trees of the orchard (Book XXIV).
The poem treats identity as something that must be proved before someone, and by different means for each. The name is not enough, because the hero hides it or trades it for Nobody; the body is enough for the nurse and for the father; only what belongs to the couple convinces Penelope. The question the first book leaves with Telemachus, whose son he is, and the one the hero faces, who one is without the name, have in the text the same answer: someone who recognizes him.
Where It Appears
- Book I: Telemachus says his mother claims he is Odysseus's son, but that no one knows his own origin by himself, and wishes he had been the son of a happy man.
- Book III: Nestor is astonished at Telemachus's way of speaking, similar to his father's, and the young man's doubt about his origin is resolved by a third party.
- Book IV: Helen recognizes Telemachus by his face, without him saying a word, and Menelaus confirms it by his hands, feet, gaze and hair.
- Book VIII: Alcinous says that no one is wholly without a name and demands the guest's, after seeing him weep at the song about Odysseus at Troy.
- Book IX: Odysseus tells the Phaeacians his name, father and stratagems, presents himself as Nobody to the Cyclops and then shouts the true name, with lineage and address.
- Book XIII: Athena pours mist over Odysseus so that no one recognizes him and then disguises him as an old beggar, with wrinkled skin, no hair and dim eyes.
- Book XVI: Telemachus takes the guest, transformed by a god, and accepts that he is his father only after Odysseus explains that the change is the work of Athena.
- Book XVII: The dog Argos wags its tail on seeing Odysseus, the only one to recognize him at the palace entrance, and dies soon after.
- Book XIX: Eurycleia recognizes the scar when washing the beggar's feet, and Odysseus silences her with a threat of death.
- Book XXIII: Penelope accepts her husband only when he describes the bed built around the olive tree, a sign that only the two of them and one servant knew.
Passages
Telemachus answers Athena about his own origin.
μήτηρ μέν τέ μέ φησι τοῦ ἔμμεναι, αὐτὰρ ἐγώ γε / οὐκ οἶδʼ· οὐ γάρ πώ τις ἑὸν γόνον αὐτὸς ἀνέγνω.(1.215-216), my mother says I am his son; I, however, do not know, for no one has ever known his own origin by himself.
Alcinous treats the name as the condition of being a man.
οὐ μὲν γάρ τις πάμπαν ἀνώνυμός ἐστʼ ἀνθρώπων, / οὐ κακὸς οὐδὲ μὲν ἐσθλός, ἐπὴν τὰ πρῶτα γένηται, / ἀλλʼ ἐπὶ πᾶσι τίθενται, ἐπεί κε τέκωσι, τοκῆες.(8.552-554), for no one among men is wholly without a name, neither bad nor good, from the moment he is born, but parents give a name to everyone once they have begotten them.
The man who told Alcinous who he was changes his name to survive.
Οὖτις ἐμοί γʼ ὄνομα· Οὖτιν δέ με κικλήσκουσι / μήτηρ ἠδὲ πατὴρ ἠδʼ ἄλλοι πάντες ἑταῖροι.(9.366-367), Nobody is my name: Nobody is what my mother, my father and all my companions call me.
Far from the shore, he wants the deed to have an owner.
Κύκλωψ, αἴ κέν τίς σε καταθνητῶν ἀνθρώπων / ὀφθαλμοῦ εἴρηται ἀεικελίην ἀλαωτύν, / φάσθαι Ὀδυσσῆα πτολιπόρθιον ἐξαλαῶσαι, / υἱὸν Λαέρτεω, Ἰθάκῃ ἔνι οἰκίʼ ἔχοντα.(9.502-505), Cyclops, if any mortal asks you about the shameful blindness of your eye, say that it was Odysseus, sacker of cities, son of Laertes, who has his house in Ithaca, who blinded you.
In Ithaca, the narrator explains the mist.
ὁ δʼ ἔγρετο δῖος Ὀδυσσεὺς / εὕδων ἐν γαίῃ πατρωΐῃ, οὐδέ μιν ἔγνω, / ἤδη δὴν ἀπεών· περὶ γὰρ θεὸς ἠέρα χεῦε / Παλλὰς Ἀθηναίη, κούρη Διός, ὄφρα μιν αὐτὸν / ἄγνωστον τεύξειεν ἕκαστά τε μυθήσαιτο, / μή μιν πρὶν ἄλοχος γνοίη ἀστοί τε φίλοι τε, / πρὶν πᾶσαν μνηστῆρας ὑπερβασίην ἀποτῖσαι.(13.187-193), And the godlike Odysseus woke, sleeping on his paternal land, and did not recognize it, having been absent so long; for the goddess Pallas Athena, daughter of Zeus, had poured mist around him, to make him unrecognizable and to tell him everything, so that neither his wife, nor the citizens, nor his friends would know him before the suitors paid for all their insolence.
Penelope answers her son that there are signs that only the two of them know.
εἰ δʼ ἐτεὸν δὴ / ἔστʼ Ὀδυσεὺς καὶ οἶκον ἱκάνεται, ἦ μάλα νῶϊ / γνωσόμεθʼ ἀλλήλων καὶ λώϊον· ἔστι γὰρ ἡμῖν / σήμαθʼ, ἃ δὴ καὶ νῶϊ κεκρυμμένα ἴδμεν ἀπʼ ἄλλων.(23.107-110), if it is truly Odysseus and he has come home, we will recognize each other all the better; for we have signs that only we two know, hidden from others.
Laertes yields to the count of a boy who followed his father through the orchard.
ὄγχνας μοι δῶκας τρισκαίδεκα καὶ δέκα μηλέας, / συκέας τεσσαράκοντʼ(24.340-341), you gave me thirteen pear trees and ten apple trees, and forty fig trees.