The afterlife of an epic

Plato (left) and Aristotle in a detail from Raphael's The School of Athens. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

This is the very last week here of a long running series on the Odyssey of Homer and what it has to say to us today. You'll also find links and comments about (some) current events. If you like the classics, check the blog archives. The series started August 4 and has run on weekdays since then, hitting most of the stops of Odysseus on his 10 year journey home.

Given the popularity of this story over the ages, it's no surprise that people would have a hard time leaving it alone. The figure of Odysseus keeps showing up in works of literature over the ages.

One place where he showed up in classical Greece was in Plato's Republic. This is a little ironic since Plato didn't have a very high impression of Homer or at least of the moral value of his epics (probably because he didn't get it).

Toward the end of Plato's most famous dialogue comes a discussion of the afterlife commonly known as "the myth of Er." In the story, Er is a soldier who has what we would call a near death experience in which he gets to explore the afterlife and return to tell the tale.

In the afterlife, souls are rewarded or punished for their deeds on earth. For the very wicked, the punishment seems to last forever. Others, after a suitable interval, have a chance to choose their next life. Some humans choose to live as animals and vice versa. Many souls make grave mistakes at this point, choosing what seems to be a pleasant life even though it may lead to further punishment and sufferings.

After all his travels and sufferings, Odysseus has had his fill of adventure and the quest for glory. He chooses a dull life that others rejected. As Plato put it,

There came also the soul of Odysseus having yet to make a choice, and his lot happened to be the last of them all. Now the recollection of former tolls had disenchanted him of ambition, and he went about for a considerable time in search of the life of a private man who had no cares; he had some difficulty in finding this, which was lying about and had been neglected by everybody else; and when he saw it, he said that he would have done the had his lot been first instead of last, and that he was delighted to have it.

As we'll see tomorrow, Dante envisioned a whole different scenario for Odysseus...in hell.

WEIGHING IN ON THE MELTDOWN. Here are the views of five economists on where the economic mess is likely to go from, of all places, al Jazeera.

COAL STRUGGLE MAKES CNN. Some coalfield groups and residents are proposing wind energy as an alternative to mountaintop removal mining. The story is going national.

LATIN LIVES. Who said it was a dead language anyway?

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ALFRED ADLER?

Caption: Psychologist Alfred Adler, by way of wikipedia.

Welcome to Goat Rope. This week it's old school psychology with a heavy dose of current events and commentary.

When the early history of psychoanalysis is discussed, three names are usually front and center: Freud, Jung and Adler. While Freud and Jung still have large popular (not to say cult) followings, Adler (1870-1937) is by far the least known. Ironically, his work can be seen as a forerunner of the current cognitive behavioral approach to psychology and psychotherapy.

Adler was a Viennese physician who was an early collaborator of Freud's. The relationship continued for around 10 years, with Adler eventually serving as president of the Viennese Psychoanalytic Society. However, Adler wasn't shy about developing his own ideas and Sig was never a great celebrator of theoretical diversity, and the two parted ways in 1911.

Adler was nowhere near as sexy as Freud, whether you take that literally or metaphorically, or as occultish as Jung. His basic idea was that people try to move from a perceived negative state to a positive, more complete situation as they understand it and that the best way to do this includes relating productively to other people. He called these striving for superiority and social interest, about which more tomorrow.

LABOR'S LEGACY. Here's a good op-ed from down Florida way that appreciates labor's legacy for all Americans.

FROM THE WEST COAST, here's a good item reminding us that markets are not God.

COMING HOME? A disproportionate number of homeless people are veterans, according to this study.

POST HOC, ERGO PROPTER HOC. Here's an item in praise of Latin which also notes how many things have gone south since its study declined. El Cabrero is thinking of taking up Latin if I ever get anywhere with Greek.

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAVE TO GET BACK IN THE PREHISTORIC WATER, a pretty nasty new one has just been found. You can count on Goat Rope to keep you up to date with dinosaurs and other things that happened millions of years ago. We might get behind on other stuff.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED