I often find myself thinking about the Greek hero Odysseus (and NO – this is not one of those Elon Musk things where he claims he thinks about the Roman empire daily or how men supposedly think about the Roman empire multiple times a day. In the last year, I’ve only thought about the Roman empire once – when I heard that Ridley Scott was making a sequel to Gladiator. But I digress. We were talking about Odysseus.)
The epics Iliad and Odyssey by Homer are essentially a two-decade-long narrative of Odysseus. (I highly recommend reading Stephen Fry’s entertaining Troy and the recently released Odyssey. That horrible Brad Pitt movie Troy does not do justice to the Iliad.) For those of you not well-versed with these stories (and why should any sensible human fill their head with this gobbledegook) here is the CliffsNotes version of the story:
- Helen is married to Menelaus of Sparta (so she is Helen of Sparta)
- At the time of her wedding, every king/ warrior/ hero from the Greek world had pledged themselves to her safety and protecting Menelaus
- Paris – a prince of Troy – abducts Helen and takes her to Troy (Ilium) – present day Turkey
- Menelaus’ brother the great Agamemnon gathers all the Greek heroes and sets sail to destroy Troy and bring back Helen (Helen now literally becomes the face that launched a thousand ships)
- There are heroes like Ajax and Achilles amongst the Greeks, but their MVP is clearly Odysseus of Ithaca (think of him as Durant and Curry rolled into one)
- The adjective most used to describe Odysseus is “wily”. But this doesn’t really do justice to Odysseus as a character – he is brave, curious, a master strategist, a leader of men and well – in the spirit of calling a spade a spade – wily and deceitful. Most importantly – he understands the futility of war and wants to stay home with his wife Penelope and newborn son Telemachus (he tries a number of things to stay away from this war, including pretending to be mad but the Greeks see through his plan)
- A point of note: Odysseus has descended from the Greek god Hermes and is favored by Athena. The war between the Greeks and Trojans is a family feud amongst the Greek pantheon – with each god aligning themselves with the heroes on either side
- Quick jump – the war lasts for 10 years! In a battle of attrition both sides experience heavy losses. Even the gods have grown weary and want this war to end
- Odysseus comes up with an idea (or is it Athena directly speaking to him?) – build a giant wooden horse and hide 30 warriors inside and let all the other Greek ships leave Ilium
- The Trojans are overjoyed to see that the Greeks have run away and left behind this magnificent offering – a giant horse. They bring the horse inside their fortified city whose walls have kept the Greeks at bay for 10 years
- The 30 warriors inside – trigger warning – proceed to destroy all of Troy – no one is spared. Even the gods are horrified. The Greek ships come back – more killing ensues
- Helen is reunited with Menelaus. The Greeks finally leave Troy with slaves and other treasures and set sail for home
- Troy (present day Turkey) and Greece are not that far apart. It takes a few days to sail between them (modern ships can do it in 14 hours). But the gods have other plans – some warriors make it back in time, others are waylaid and perish on the way back. Some take weeks and others take months to get back home. It is all quite tragic.
- Odysseus loses every single Ithacan under his command on the way back and takes 10 years to get back home!
- 10 years – facing the wrath of Poseidon, fighting a cyclops, going to the land of the dead, being captured by the witch-goddess Circe, facing the sirens and the monsters Scylla and Charybdis and being a prisoner of the nymph Calypso for 7 years
- Then he pretends to be a beggar in Ithaca and along with his son Telemachus saves his kingdom from all the suitors trying to marry his wife Penelope Odysseus, Penelope and Telemachus are finally united. Odysseus – after a 20 year detour – is finally home (but not for too long)
If you play video games you have probably heard the terms: main quests and side quests. The main quest is typically a linear storyline – with a clear beginning, middle and end. There are boss battles on the way and through each obstacle your character becomes stronger – better equipped to face the next challenge (think of the God of War series or the new smash hit Black Myth: Wukong). There are also a lot of side quests along the way – you can earn extra points/ treasures or gain new powers or just explore the world a bit more. They are mostly not essential to the main storyline of the game.
Most players don’t even bother with side quests. They keep their eyes on the prize and swiftly move through the main quests. But then there are players like me who love side quests! I want to explore every part of the game. If a tile exists on the game map – I want to see it. I take a lot of detours – and eventually get back on to the main path of the game’s storyline.
If we take a step back and look at our lives and our careers – they are no different from a game. I see extremely passionate and driven people around me – very clear about their long-term objectives. These are clearly “main quest” people. Then there are people who like a good mix: they mostly stay on the main quest of life but do like to indulge in the occasional side quest. And as I’m discovering recently – there are more and more folks like me – side quest players. Driven by curiosity, we take a lot of detours and have fun along the way. At times the main quest is almost incidental though it keeps pulling us back in.
Which brings me back to Odysseus. I am not able to decide whether he was a main quest player or a side quest player. Was the main quest to stay in Ithaca or to be a Greek hero and gallivant around the Mediterranean? Were the 10-year-long Trojan War and the 10-year-long Odyssey side quests or the main quest?
We’ll have to ask Homer.