Wikipedia: Psychopathy is traditionally defined as a personality disorder characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and disinhibited or bold behavior.
Although Odysseus isn't antisocial, he does exhibit a weird lack of empathy and remorse for his crew members. I don't recall any times in the Odyssey where Odysseus seemed to lament the loss of his men. He never mourned the loss of his crew, the only time he had a funeral for one of his crew members was when he was explicitly told by that man's spirit to do so. Later, when he slaughters the suitors in his palace, he sheds no tears over the loss of life. Most of these men were his citizens, I would expect that, if in some unfortunate circumstance a leader has to kill many of their subjects, they would feel remorse for what they did; Odysseus did not. In addition, contrary to most works of this genre, Odysseus, the hero, never looks back and laments over what he could have done differently to save more people. In most of the heroic material that I have consumed, the hero is always beating themselves up over some small oversight that could have saved more lives.
Odysseus' bold behavior also fits with Wikipedia's definition of a psychopath. Going against Circe's advise about the Scylla, Odysseus is stupid and decides to arm his best men to fight it. His bold action costs the men their lives. After this scene, Odysseus shows no remorse for his men's cursed fate.
Does this seem like a potential topic for an essay? Are there any other blatant examples of this tendency?
This is interesting. Odysseus character does seem off, but I never thought of considering him a psychopath! I kind of see it. Though I think your example of him never mourning deaths is a great one, many just casual aspects of Odysseus' character are off. I feel as though his tendency to disguise himself (especially from his own wife who hasn't seen him in 20 years) could definitely fit into having a lack of empathy. Maybe it's just me, but I always saw that action kind of sketchy. What kind of man comes home after 20 years and just goes into planning a killing spree instead of reuniting with his family? Just some thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting possibility to consider. Of course, we can't effectively "diagnose" a character based only on these literary examples, but it is interesting to think about how Odysseus's remorse (or lack thereof) is depicted in the poem. In some ways, he does seem rather monomaniacal, not the greatest or most selfless "leader of men." But at the same time, he's constantly breaking down in tears, and a huge part of Odysseus's credibility as a hero has to do with our perception of him as long-suffering, as emotionally tormented by his exile. We could view his ability to control his emotions in order to pull off the big surprise-attack at the end as an admirable, heroic trait--or as further evidence of his psychopathy. There is something unnerving about his ability to sit before his wife, whom he hasn't seen for twenty years, and pretend he's this old traveler from a far-away land. When he pulls the same trick on his father, for no good plot-based reason at all, we might indeed start to question his mental health.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that he is a psychopath. You cite some examples saying that he does not feel remorse for the loss of his comrades. The thing is, he actually does. I think that most of the time he just doesn't really have the time to feel bad for them because he's about to be killed by a monster or a god. Also, we have to remember that he is telling these stories himself, and its not exactly necessary to the story to say that he was getting emotional over the loss of his crewmates.
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