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Dr Simon (this issue) has presented us with 'an important unconscious fantasy configuration' (note: not the important unconscious fantasy configuration) 'that structures the Odyssey and underlies the character of Ulysses'. The fantasy is of sibling rivals struggling for the mother—on the oral level for her breasts and milk; on the oedipal level for the sexual possession of her body. Dr Simon points out the 'ubiquity' of oral themes and imagery in the Odyssey. He describes the main image of this great work—the journey—as representing developmental movement, a life, an advancing from the oral to the oedipal.
Orality does seem to dominate the Odyssey. And not only in the imagery but overtly. Henry Fielding, in Tom Jones, called it 'that eating poem'. The Odyssey is held to be a later poem than the Iliad —many say a poem of Homer's old age (if one assumes the two poems to be written by one Homer). The events come after the heroic struggle of the Iliad. The Odyssey, although full of fighting and murder, is more about peace than war. The theme of the hero's return home is the end of a cycle—back towards the beginning. I wonder if the preponderance of oral themes might stem from the second childhood of advanced age.
Xenophon said of Homer that he 'has written about practically everything pertaining to man' (Hadas, 1954, p. 141). Of course, Homer has written about everything in his own way. (Dr Simon has published an excellent paper about the Homeric concept of the mind); (Simon & Weiner, 1966.) Everything is in the Odyssey, and it follows that everything libidinal is there too: oral, anal and phallic. The Odyssey is the first peripatetic work of literature—the first of many masterpieces (including Freud's 'Interpretation of Dreams') structured around a journey. The journey is one of man's great metaphors. It can symbolize birth and death and the passage of life from birth to death. It is a metaphor for development and maturation (therefore there can be ora