n Phaeacia, however,
there is no striving apparently, it is contented with itself and stays
with itself, seeking no neighbors; it is the land of rest, of cessation
from conflict, possibly of stagnation, unless it is stirred by inner
scission.

The transition from Phaeacia to Fableland is, therefore, full of
meaning. It is possible that Ulysses or the poet wished to show these
people the struggles which were slumbering in their society, for all
civilized order has the possibility of them. The negative spirit will
rise hereafter in their midst; so it rose in legendary Greece after the
Trojan War, so it rose in historical Greece after the Persian War. Thus
we may catch a prophetic tinge in this web of marvelous tales. On the
other hand, we should note also that Ulysses has reached the land of
peace just through the realm of strife and negation.

2. The next important thing is to observe how the poet is going to
locate, and environ this negative world. As it is the opposite of the
civilized order of Hellas, he throws it outside of Hellenic boundaries.
Over the Greek border somewhere it has to be placed; thus it passes
easily from the known to the unknown, out of the civilized to the
barbarous, out of the natural, to the supernatural.

All this we feel at once in the narrative. It is true that the first
destructive deed, the attack upon the Ciconians, occurs within the
limits of historical Hellas, in a region well known; but this act is
the prelude and the example, the offenders are at once borne to the
Lotus-eaters, who have the faintest touch of historical reality, and
thence to Polyphemus who is wholly fabulous. In this realm of pure
fable they stay till the end, having been cast out of Greece by the
poet on account of their hostile spirit.

Moreover we should note that they move about on the sea, that most
unstable element, in contrast to the fixed land; on the one there is
order and law, on the other caprice and violence. Yet certain fixed
points are set in this uncertain domain, namely the islands, which
however, are wholly separated from Hellas and her life, and have
inhabitants of their own, strangers to Hellenic influence. Ulysses and
his crew will pass from island to island, each of which will show its
meaning in some way antagonistic to Greek spirit. Out of the pale they
all lie in the boundless billowy waters; thus the Odyssey in this part
becomes a sea poem, while in the other two parts it is essentially a