HOW WILL TRUMP’S ODYSSEY END?

 

The year 2026 will be remembered for the celebration of America’s 250th birthday. The events of this year will be compared with those in other milestone celebration years and used to chronical the ebb and flow of American history.

I believe that one of the most widely discussed events from this year will be the manner in which Homer’s The Odyssey left an indelible impression on the cultural and political life of America. Odessey mania is sweeping the country following the release of Christopher Nolan’s epic movie, staring Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway. Prior to the movie’s release, a new highly regarded translation of Homer’s The Odyssey, was released by Daniel Mendelsohn.

My wife and I felt that Nolan’s creation was timely and enthralling cinema. The movie has influenced American society by igniting online culture-war debates over casting and interpretations. (Many scholars trained in the classics take issue with Nolan’s approach.)

The movie triggered widespread public reflection on national identity, misapplied military conflict, and the modern relevance of classical myth. Reviewers of the movie have noted that the sensory-heavy, large-format cinematic production compels audiences to feel the brutal physical toll of the hero’s journey rather than romanticizing the adventure of one man trying to reunite with his family.

The film has sent thousands of new readers back to Homer's original text as depicted in Mendelsohn’s and other modern translations.  According to the Guardian, “The movie’s most significant accomplishment might be turning a nearly 2,700-year-old epic poem into the most sought-after book in America.”  It was reported that in this country sales increased by roughly 76% and by an astounding 700% in the UK.

The popularity of The Odyssey has led many commentators to consider Donald Trump and his presidency through the lens of Homer’s epic works. There are many interesting parallels that come to mind.

Ironically, exactly ten years ago, in August of 2016, when Trump was first running for president, I wrote a commentary for this newspaper titled “Donald Trump as Homeric Hero.” After reading the excellent book, Why Homer Matters by Adam Nicolson, I had an epiphany that “Trump was staging a Homeric hero quest.”

I explained my analysis as, “the dichotomy between the warriors ‘outside the walls’ who view the civilized class ‘within the walls’ as too soft, corrupt, and dysfunctional. The quest is for the people of the ‘earth’ and ‘sword’ for whom action is everything and words have no meaning to tear down and replace the existing structure.”

I went on to say, “The hero’s goal is to crush what has come before and to take life back to a simpler time. The Homeric tradition sings the praises of a powerful leader who is able to meld uncooperative bands of miscreants into a coherent force to conquer what was thought to be the essence of the civilized world.”

Ten years ago, I reasoned that, “Trump may be the newest manifestation of the Homeric myth. The Homeric view of the world centers on revenge and conflict, not consensus or compromise.  Power is something to be fought for, not passed peacefully from one political elite to the next.  The Homeric warrior who can reach the pinnacle of power without the aid of other politicians or institutions owes nothing to the order that came before.  He controls his destiny.”

To prove my point, in a recent wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, Trump claimed that his power as commander-in-chief is limited only by his own morality and judgment, not by international treaties or laws.

My conclusion was that, “for those of you, who think I am giving Donald Trump too much credit, remember that Agamemnon, the Greek leader, was also called psychopathic.  In the Iliad he murders his daughter to gain a favorable wind to Troy and later steals Achilles’ woman, Briseis, thereby angering his greatest asset against the Trojans. Are Trump’s public acts those of a narcissistic madman or of an Alpha Greek warrior in the Homeric tradition?”

As the Trump presidency has unwound over six years, other Homeric similarities, not my own, have been widely discussed. First, Trump is called a “trickster” in the classical tradition as practiced by Ulysses. He employs no set strategy and instead is unpredictable and breaks conventional rules to outmaneuver opponents. Unfortunately, these tactics have not succeeded in Iran.

 

Second, Trump’s unstructured and repetitious political speeches are described as similar to the Greek oral tradition. He is fond of using catchy epithets (“crooked Hillary” instead of “swift footed Achilles”) to captivate a crowd from memory, not a teleprompter.

Third, Trump presents himself as the “lone warrior” and often remarks that “I alone can fix it.” This mirrors Ulysses in the Odyssey, the ultimate individualist who would rather do things his way than to follow the gods. 

How will Trump’s odyssey end? A core theme of Homer’s epic is xenia, the sacred Greek law of hospitality toward strangers and travelers. The Greek version is unlike the interpretation in Nolan’s movie, where the hospitality seems to be based on the Judeo-Christian, golden rule. In the classical version, you were kind to strangers because they could be gods in disguise.

Nevertheless, Trump’s actions with his brutal policies toward immigrants, disregard for those in need, and attacks on foreign dignitaries seems to directly violate xenia. Disobeying this policy (also known as Zeus’s Law) always brought ruin to Greek epic characters.