s seen to be the same at bottom: it is
to remove the obstacles which stand in the way of the Return of Ulysses
to home and country. These obstacles arise from the Gods above and from
Nature below--the divine and the physical, though the latter also is
presided over by deities. Thus the Greek hero, with the aid of the
higher Gods, is to put down the lower ones, or convert them into aids
for his advancement towards the grand end, which is his institutional
life in Family and State. In this way only can Ulysses, from his
alienation, attain unto harmony with himself and with the Divine Order.

The first part of the Book gives the Council of the Gods and its
consequences reaching down to the mortal who is the subject of
deliberation. We shall note three stages in this movement from Olympus
to Earth: (1) Zeus to Hermes, (2) Hermes to Calypso, (3) Calypso to
Ulysses. Thus from the highest the decree is brought below and opens
the providential way.

The second part deals with the mortal, who is brought into relation
with three Gods, all representing phases of the physical element of
water: (1) Neptune, the great deity of the sea, (2) Ino Leucothea, a
lesser deity of the same, (3) the River-God, through whose channel
Ulysses comes at last to land. It is manifest that he must rise beyond
these water-divinities with their uncertain fluctuating element, and
attain to the fixed earth with its life, ere he can find repose. We
shall now develop these two parts of the Book with their subdivisions
in the order stated above.

I.

First then is the divine obstacle, which has to be removed by the Gods
in Homer, when the individual is ready to have it removed. This
obstacle is at present centered in the Goddess Calypso, the marvelous
concealer and extinguisher of the Hero in her island Ogygia. Neptune is
not here spoken of, though his element, the sea, is mentioned as
something which must also be met and transcended; the Hero through his
own will can surmount this difficulty. Verily Calypso is the grand
spiritual hindrance of Ulysses, and, to help him get rid of it, the
Olympians assemble and start the movement, the conditions being that he
is internally prepared to be helped by the Gods. Of the latter fact we
shall note a number of indications hereafter.

Of this divine activity in removing the first obstacle we may
distinguish three phases:--

1. The council of the Gods on Olympus under the presidency of Zeus, and
the decree the