The Odyssey – Homer

Rating: 4/5

Lost References:

Desmond goes on a sea voyage and gets lost for years. When he finally gets back, he marries Penelope, which is the name of the wife Odysseus finally comes home to after his years lost at sea. This book is also in the Lost game Via Domus (which is particularly fitting, since the name translates to “The Way Home”).

Thoughts:

It’s more entertaining than the Iliad, for those of you who read that one and were bored by Homer (even I thought it dragged). For starters, there’s more of a storyline. It’s not just a big, long battle. It’s a string of adventures that take cleverness as well as strength. Though still present and meddling, the gods aren’t as involved as they are in the Iliad, either. I should also mention that the whole style is so different that some scholars speculate that Homer didn’t write it, and I tend to agree with them. (If you’re interested, read up on Robert Graves’s theories.) The one thing I don’t like about the Odyssey book is how Odysseus keeps forgetting about Penelope. Still, it works out in the end.

Above: Left, screencap of Desmond and Penny’s reuinion and right, detail of Odysseus Returns to His Wife Penelope by Isaac Taylor.

Epic of Gilgamesh

Rating: 2/5

Lost References:

Locke works on a crossword puzzle in the Swan hatch. Question 42 is “Enkidu’s friend” Locke writes “Gilgamesh” as the answer (though Lostpedia guesses that this is incorrect) The Epic of Gilgamesh centers on an ancient hero who, after some adventures with Enkidu, watches his friend die and then goes on a quest for immortality. Lost, meanwhile, has three immortal-ish characters: Jacob, the Man in Black, and Richard. By the end, none of them are immortal anymore, but, hey, they had a good run. Oh, and Gilgamesh never gets that immortality, either.

Thoughts:

The text, being so fragmented, is hard to read. Then it repeats itself extensively. As a result, I went back and forth between not knowing what was happening to knowing far too well. I guess the characters want everyone on the same page, because when they tell a story, it’s duplicated at least once, word for word. As fans of ancient literature will know, other cultures use this literary technique, not just the Mesopotamians. I suppose it served them well, but it doesn’t work for a modern audience. That said, it’s a decent adventure, and it’s one of the oldest surviving works of literature, so props for that.