Comprehensive Research Paper: The Odyssey and the Art of War

Homer through the Eyes of Sun Tzu:Odysseus and His Generals versus an Army of Suitors

Little is known about Homer, who lived around the time of the poet Hesiod, or about 800 B.C.E (Coffin, Stacey, Cole and Symes 75), so it is nearly impossible to tell whether or not his tactical disposition stems from actual experience.  As a bard, Homer largely ignores historical facts and geographical accuracy in favor of a good plot, since “neither the myth-tellers nor their audiences were scholars” (Finley 16), but he writes believable, tactically sound battles.  Even his more peaceful scenes reflect his talent for strategy when compared to the work of Sun Tzu.

While he is the author of one of the most lasting tactical manuals in history, The Art of War, Sun Tzu’s history is just as murky as Homer’s, although he is thought to have lived during the sixth century B.C.E (Conners), about two centuries after the poet.  Despite the fact that the definitive work on tactics and warfare had not yet been written, Homer shows in The Odyssey that he is perfectly capable when it comes to those subjects, and that even members of the least military social classes in ancient Greece—such as the bards and scholars—knew at least a little of tactics.  Through Penelope’s deceptions, Telemachus’s cultivation of allies and service as a guide to Odysseus, Odysseus’s own actions both as the sovereign of Ithaca and as one of his own generals, and the suitors’ actions for good or ill in their own cause, Homer demonstrates that Sun Tzu is not the first person to understand how to win—or to lose—a war.

In response to Odysseus’s unspoken command as their sovereign to prepare for his return from the Trojan War—for no man goes to war preparing never to come home again—Penelope and Telemachus make separate plans against the army of suitors, even though they do not know whether or not Odysseus has survived past the sacking of Troy.  They follow this command, not just out of the loyalty and love of a wife and son for their husband and father, but also from the loyalty of generals to their sovereign king.  Their plans also, while made separately from each other, contribute positively as a whole to the overall strategy.  Penelope practices the necessary deceptions of war, and Telemachus renews his father’s alliances and friendships and solicits aid in the advent of his father’s return.  When Odysseus finally does come home, Telemachus becomes his father’s guide in an Ithaca which has become unfamiliar during Odysseus’s two-decade absence.  This dove-tailing of successful strategies shows Homer’s war faring skill.

The conflict between Odysseus’s family and the suitors who plague Penelope is an unconventional form of warfare, and for an unconventional war, what is better than an unconventional general?  Although there were exceptions, women were not typically warriors, neither during Homer’s time, nor during the time that The Odyssey was supposed to have taken place.  Yet Penelope manages to run Ithaca through her grief over Odysseus’s absence for twenty years (Atchity and Barber 15).  During those two decades, she also practices the art of tactical deception, in hope of and preparation for Odysseus’s safe return.

As Sun Tzu says, “all warfare is based on deception” (Tzu 3), and Penelope has mastered this key strategy.  Because she does not know whether or not her husband lives, Penelope cannot, in good conscience, remarry.  Were she to do so, and were Odysseus to return after the fact, life for all parties involved would become, at the very least, complicated.  Penelope’s need to put off remarriage until she knows Odysseus’s fate imbues her, as well as Odysseus and Telemachus, with the Moral Law in this atypical war (Tzu 2).

On another note, Penelope cannot force the suitors to leave her presence, because Odysseus’s two-decade absence has convinced her husband’s peers—and their sons—that she is now a widow.  At that point in time, young widows were expected to remarry as quickly as they could find acceptable new husbands.  Since she cannot remarry, but cannot reject the suitors, Penelope deceives them for a time.  For three years, Penelope asks her suitors for time to weave a burial shroud for Odysseus’s father, “old lord Laertes” (Homer II.109), because, she says, “I dread the shame my countrywomen would heap upon me,/yes, if a man of such wealth should lie in state/without a shroud for cover” (Homer II.111-113).  That is not the sneaky part of Penelope’s actions; however, although she weaves the shroud by day, by candle-lit night she unravels it, tricking the suitors into believing that the shroud has taken a long time to make, since it needs to be very intricate in order to honor Laertes.

Although the suitors eventually catch Penelope at her unmaking—thanks to the loose lips of one of the household women (Homer II.120-121)—Homer shows that her strategy was largely a delaying action.  For she is outnumbered, and Sun Tzu says to “avoid what is strong and [ . . . ] strike at what is weak” (Tzu 20).  In so doing, Penelope has managed to put off the suitors long enough for her son, Telemachus, to grow up and to begin making his own contributions in the plot to rid Ithaca of the suitors’ unwanted company.

Since his father Odysseus left Ithaca twenty years ago, Telemachus is now at least nineteen years old—no longer a boy, but not yet a man.  In addition, Telemachus is the crown prince of his country, and will be expected to rule either when he comes of age or in the event that news of Odysseus’s death finally reaches Ithaca.  The young prince has had no role model, however, and does not have the knowledge, experience or assistance necessary to fulfill his father’s unspoken command.  To that end, Telemachus renews his father’s old alliances with nearby kings such as Nestor and Menelaus (Homer III-IV).  This is a sound strategy, according to Sun Tzu, for Telemachus’s family has the moral “high road” in the struggle to rid itself of Penelope’s suitors, and so Telemachus has wisely decided to take Athena’s advice and “join hands with [his] allies” (Tzu 26).

Telemachus’s role is not finished when he returns to Ithaca, however.  He must also act as a guide for his father.  While it is true that Ithaca is Odysseus’s home land, and he knows his house and the land itself very well, the king is not familiar with the “pitfalls and precipices” that await him in the suitors’ designs (Tzu 23).  So, in order for his father to “turn natural advantage to account,” he must make use of Telemachus, a “local guide” who has seen and learned the ways by which their enemy operates (Tzu 23).  This allows Odysseus to step in and pick up the strategy where Penelope and Telemachus have left off as soon as he arrives in Ithaca.

Odysseus, as sovereign, trusts his subordinates to follow his command of preparation during his absence and also trusts them to remain loyal while he is away.  He also employs spies in order to keep abreast of the situations in which he is likely to find himself.  As a general, Odysseus praises those loyal to him and punishes the traitors in his midst, without confusing the two extremes.  The punishment fits the crime, and the worthy deed receives the praise.  Odysseus also is not rash in his actions; he takes the time to think through his strategy and has learned the costs of undue haste through his many trials since leaving Troy (Homer IX-XII).

When he finally reaches Ithaca, Odysseus does not immediately go to his home, because he has been warned about the suitors’ occupation, and knows he is outnumbered.  Since he cannot win by attacking directly, he makes the best effort he knows to gain foreknowledge, namely “the use of spies” that Sun Tzu asserts is the tactic which “enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men” (Tzu 48).  Instead of immediately declaring himself at the gates of his home, Odysseus instead goes to the home of Eumaeus the swineherd—a spy he knows will not have been turned by the enemy (Homer XIV)—and there receives a more detailed report.  Telemachus joins the two older men upon return from his own voyage, and there becomes a combination of spy and guide for his father as well.

Odysseus’s confidence in Penelope, Eumaeus and Telemachus, not only to deceive the enemy and acquire and provide necessary information, but also to obey his orders is another factor that eventually leads to his victory over the suitors.  Odysseus’s trust in his “army’s” abilities, obedience and loyalty bolsters their morale, and in turn they become more obedient and motivated to help Odysseus in his cause.  This cycle of confidence and boosted morale is a major contributor to Odysseus’s victory against the suitors.

The generals are rewarded for their obedience and exemplary deeds, and those rewards are made the sweeter through the knowledge that Odysseus is also consistent where punishment is concerned.  This consistency is another factor which contributes to Odysseus’s eventual victory.  For Sun Tzu is certain that the army in which there is “the greater constancy both in reward and punishment” is likely to be the victor in battle (Tzu 2), provided certain other military conditions are met as well.  After he has slaughtered the suitors, Odysseus punishes the women who had become traitors, spying for and sleeping with the suitors.  He administers the sentence on the women, and has Telemachus and the others who have fought on his side carry out the women’s punishment:

Start clearing away the bodies.
Make the women pitch in too.  Chairs and tables—
scrub them down with sponges, rinse them clean.
And once you’ve put the entire house in order,
march the women out of the great hall—between
the roundhouse and the courtyard’s strong stockade—
and hack them with your swords, slash out all their lives—
blot out of their minds the joys of love they relished
under the suitors’ bodies, rutting on the sly! (Homer XXII.462-470)

While Telemachus, Penelope and Eumaeus have given exemplary service, on the opposite end of the spectrum, the women have committed treason against their sovereign.  Odysseus is a strong leader who knows that, in order to keep an army in line, reward and punishment should fit the deeds for which they are administered.  This balance of reward and punishment will at least tip the scales of possibility slightly toward the side of victory.

Finally, Odysseus is not hasty in making plans for battle.  Not only does he spend time with Eumaeus in the swineherd’s home to gather information and to rendezvous with his spies and guide, but Odysseus also spends time observing the suitors and their spies with his own senses.  With Athena’s help, he is disguised as a beggar—practicing his own bit of deception—in order to observe the suitors in secret, and takes the time necessary to “ponder and deliberate” before finally making his move (Tzu 24), stringing his bow, declaring himself and beginning the slaughter (Homer XIII.491-XXII).  The suitors, despite their efforts, do not have a chance, which Homer illustrates through their own actions as well as through the actions of Odysseus and his family.

While the suitors do make some good tactical decisions, their failure to become a cohesive unit with a strong general contributes to their failure against Odysseus, Penelope and Telemachus.  In addition, although the suitors do well in foraging off of their enemy and turning spies to their cause, they make one of the cardinal mistakes of warfare: laying a long, morale-draining siege campaign on the enemy.  The suitors also believe they have the Moral Law on their side, but it is truly Odysseus and his followers who have that advantage.

The suitors do not send home for more food and supplies, which would be costly to them and their families and fellow countrymen.  Instead, they employ the military practice of “foraging on the enemy” (Tzu 6), which puts the cost of feeding the “press of suitors” onto Penelope, Telemachus and the people of Ithaca (Homer I.156).  That same army of one hundred eight suitors employs the same tactic as Odysseus which is so praised by Sun Tzu—spying on the enemy (Homer XVI.276-281, Tzu 48-49)—by turning some of Penelope’s own women against her, as the loyal Eurycleia offers to report to Odysseus (Homer XIX.552-554).

Although they are foraging off of their enemy and wreaking havoc with the economy of Ithaca, the suitors have laid siege on Penelope herself.  This is a grievous error, according to Sun Tzu, because such a siege will “exhaust [their] strength” (Tzu 5).  The suitors are not physically exhausted before Odysseus’s return, but rather the strength of their claim to holding the right because of Penelope’s deception wanes the longer they stay, as does their mental strength.  The longer they stay, the less logical their arguments against Penelope and Telemachus become.  They willfully fight Odysseus (Homer XXII), believing they have a right to the throne they have spent so much time pursuing, even though its rightful incumbent has returned.  Their victory is made impossible, because they have engaged in a long, wits-dulling campaign—two situations which are mutually exclusive (Tzu 6-7).

Although Antinuous is the most vocal of all the suitors, they do not have a clear leader, and therefore do not have a general.  Their lack of proper leadership and inability to become a cohesive army keeps them from their goal—for one of them to become the new king of Ithaca through marriage to Penelope—and allows Odysseus to defeat them that much easier.

A final mistake the suitors make is claiming the Moral Law.  According to Kenneth Atchity and E. J. W. Barber,

because Telemachos [sic] was too young when Odysseus went off to war, the succession of Odysseus had not yet been established firmly enough to prevent others from seeking Penelope as the key to the wealth and power of Ithaka [sic].  Into the void, therefore, rush suitors willing to play the suicidal role of matrilineal king-designate, pressuring Penelope to choose one of them to displace Odysseus and the patriarchy.  (Atchity and Barber 21)

Penelope is “behaving as good patrilineal wife” (Atchity and Barber 21), and stands against the suitors through deception.  Their continued siege of Ithaca and Penelope herself, and their refusal to leave upon Telemachus’s request ultimately wrenches the Moral Law from them.  They have overstayed their welcome, which goes against the ancient Greek hospitality customs.  Had the suitors retreated instead, both sides could have claimed the Moral Law, instead of only Odysseus’s side.

Because the suitors ultimately had to lose, they had to be tactically inept.  They did not, however, have to do everything wrong—that would not have been believable.  Homer, through his descriptions of their tactics, showed that he understood not only how to win a war, but what factors would contribute to the loss of a war as well.

Homer’s epic poetry is timeless, no matter the tactics involved in the individual situations and battles.  The stories helped the Greeks of his day to understand and shape their heritage, part of which was warfare.  Through his descriptions of the suitors’ blunders—and right actions—as well as of Odysseus’s and his generals’ actions, Homer demonstrates a knowledge of tactics which, although not fully articulated until Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War, was still understood on some level before that time.

Works Cited

Atchity, Kenneth, and E. J.W. Barber. "Greek Princes and Aegean Princesses: The Role of Women in the Homeric Poems." Critical Essays on Homer. Boston, MA: G.K. Hall, 1987. 15-36. Print.

Coffin, Judith, Robert Stacey, Joshua Cole, and Carol Symes. Western Civilizations Their History & Their Culture. Seventeenth ed. Vol. 1. New York: W W Norton & Co, 2011. 75. Print.

Conners, Shawn. "Modern Introduction." Introduction. The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Classic Collector's ed. El Paso, TX: El Paso Norte, 2009. Print.

Finley, M. I., and Bernard Knox. The World of Odysseus. New York: New York Review, 2002. Print.

Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Shorter Second ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2009. 274-563. Print.

Knox, Bernard. "Introduction." Introduction. The World of Odysseus. New York: New York Review, 2002. Vii-Xviii. Print.

Tzu, Sun. The Art of War. Ed. Shawn Conners. Trans. Lionel Giles. Classic Collector's ed. El Paso, TX: El Paso Norte, 2009.  E-book.

Teacher Comments and Grade: Excellent work Darcy!  Fine interweaving of the 2 works in a convincing way that is seamless and makes the 2 works apply to each other effortlessly.  Really good writing also--great attention to detail! A