In the _Iliad_ Odysseus is constantly exhibited as a contrast to the
youthful Achilles. Wherever prudence, experience, and policy, are
required, Odysseus comes to the front. In Achilles, with his furious
passions and ill-regulated impulses, there is always something of the
barbarian; while Odysseus in all his actions obeys the voice of
reason. It will readily be seen that such a character, essentially
intellectual, always moving within due measure, never breaking out
into eccentricity or excess, would appeal less to the popular
imagination than the fiery nature of Pelides, "strenuous, passionate,
implacable, and fierce." And on this ground we may partly explain the
unamiable light in which Odysseus appears in later Greek literature.
Already in Pindar we find him singled out for disapproval. In
Sophocles he has sunk still lower; and in Euripides his degradation is
completed.
VI
Space does not allow us to give a detailed criticism of the _Odyssey_
as a poem, and determine its relation to the _Iliad_. We must content
ourselves with quoting the words of the most eloquent of ancient
critics, which sum up the subject with admirable brevity and insight:
"Homer in his _Odyssey_ may be compared to the setting sun: he is
still as great as ever, but he has lost his fervent heat. The strain
is now pitched in a lower key than in the 'Tale of Troy divine': we
begin to miss that high and equable sublimity which never flags or
sinks, that continuous current of moving incidents, those rapid
transitions, that force of eloquence, that opulence of imagery which
is ever true to nature.
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