f self-offering, which has not yet
flowered but is certainly budding far back in old Hellas. He must do
for others what he does for himself, if he be truly the universal man,
that is, if he be Hero. For is not the universal man all men--both
himself and others in essence? So Ulysses tries to save his companions,
quite as much he tries to save himself.

But he did not do it, he could not do it; herein lies his limitation
and theirs also, in fact, the limitation of the entire Greek world.
What did these companions do? "They perished by their own folly;" they
would not obey the counsel of their wise man; they rejected their Hero,
who could not, therefore, rescue them. A greater wisdom and a deeper
suffering than that of Ulysses will be required for their salvation,
whereof the time has not yet come. He would bring them home, but "they
ate of the oxen of the sun;" they destroyed the attribute of light in
some way and perished. The fact is certainly far-reaching in its
suggestion; a deep glance it throws into that old heathen world, whose
greatest poet in the most unconscious manner hints here the tragic
limitation of his people and his epoch. It is a hint of which we,
looking back through more than twenty-five centuries can see the full
meaning, as that meaning has unfolded itself in the ages. Time is also
a commentator on Homer and has written down, in that alphabet of his,
called events, the true interpretation of the old poet. Still the
letters of Time's alphabet have also to be learned and require not only
eyesight but also insight.

The Invocation puts all its stress upon Ulysses and his attempt to save
his companions. It says nothing of Telemachus and his youthful
experience, nothing of the grand conflict with the suitors. Hence fault
has been found with it in various ways. But it singles out the Hero and
designates three most important matters concerning him: his knowledge,
his suffering, his devotion to his companions. Enough; it has given a
start, a light has been put into our hand which beams forward
significantly upon the poem, and illumines the mazes of the Hero's
character.

Mark again the emphatic word in this Invocation; it is the Return
(_nostos_), the whole Odyssey is the Return, set forth in many
gradations, from the shortest and simplest to the longest and
profoundest. The idea of the Return dominates the poem from the start;
into this idea is poured the total experience of Ulysses and his
companions.