,--men acting hell on earth, as Goethe said. But
in the Odyssey the goal of the hero is his home. The magnet is not
Helen's beauty, but Penelope's faithfulness. Odysseus, mighty warrior,
crafty leader,--who with his sword has smitten the Trojans, by his wiles
destroyed their city,--Odysseus is driven for ten years through hostile
seas and men and gods by the compelling passion of home-sickness!

In the Odyssey, it is the battle with the sea which does most to toughen
and supple and make indomitable. The soldier and sailor are the pioneers
of the race. These and the tiller of the earth are the strong roots out
of which are to grow the flower and fruit.

In the Iliad, woman appears in Helen as the tempting prize and the gage
of battle, and in Andromeda as the tender wife foredoomed to bereavement
and captivity. In the Odyssey, woman plays a higher part--as Penelope,
faithful and prudent and patient wife, fit spouse for Odysseus; as
Eurydice, the devoted old nurse; and as Nausicaa, loveliest of pristine
maidens.

"The story of her worth shall never die; but for all humankind immortal
ones shall make a gladsome song in praise of steadfast Penelope." It is
a noble story: the fidelity of a wife, the undaunted courage of a man; a
long battle with adversity, crowned with the joy of love's reunion; the
meeting with servant, nurse, dog, son, wife, father.

Odysseus fights his battle as every hero must,--against hostile nature
and man,--by courage and patience and craft, and a confidence that the
heavenly power will somehow bring him through.

So at the heart of the Iliad and the Odyssey is an austere and sweet
message. The singers who embodied it in tales which stir every pulse
with delight were among the supreme teachers of mankind. The inner
meaning of humanity's story which their songs display is still the lesson
set us,--out of adversity man may win fortitude; through battle,
shipwreck, and overthrow he scales the heights of manhood; and the
faithful pilgrimage ends in a home which is dearer for all troubles past.

The Homeric poems show man in his first full awaking to beauty and to
music. They show more. The fashioning of the supernal world in man's
mind varies with people and with time. Here it is Zeus and Hades, again
it will be Jehovah and Satan, and then Heaven and Hell. But in the Iliad
and Odyssey the human heart recognizes its rightful lords as long as it
shall endure,--Courage and Pity, Fortitude a