False myths and pop culture distort the work: 91% believe that the Sirens are fish-women and 52% indicate Virgil as the author. From Libreriamo’s investigation the need to rediscover the classics emerges
Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation and a dizzying box office were needed to revive one of the absolute masterpieces of world literature: theOdyssey. Yet, the rediscovered love for the hero of Ithaca and his vicissitudes clashes fiercely with the historical memory of the work and its protagonists. When questioned about details of the story, routes and mythological creatures, the majority of Italians struggled well below a 6 on their report cards. We all know Ulysses, of course, but regarding his timetable and his traveling companions, a thicker fog reigns than that which can be found in the Lower Po Valley in winter. The result? A flourish of epic blunders (just like the poem) that oscillate between the tragicomic and the surreal.
The disheartening fact on the knowledge of Homer’s work
The classic epic represents the pride, identity and driving force of all modern adventure storytelling, but it is often ignored or distorted by those who should preserve its memory. Having doubts about whether Virgil wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey or ignoring the true appearance of the Sirens have become widespread uncertainties. Today, over 7 out of 10 Italians fail to accurately reconstruct Homeric masterpieces, indulging in sensational oversights, embarrassing assumptions and decidedly imaginative beliefs borrowed from cinema or cartoons.
This is what emerges from a national survey conducted by Let’s bookthe digital media dedicated to consumers of culture, created with the Swoa (Web Opinion Analysis) methodology by analyzing approximately 1,500 spontaneous conversations published on social networks, forums, blogs and online communities with the aim of measuring the real “confidence” of readers with the priceless classical heritage, and identifying the most resistant false myths linked to Homer’s work.
The pop cannibalization of culture
«In Italy we are fortunate to have scholastic and cultural roots deeply linked to classical epic, but ironically we are the first to not sufficiently remember our founding texts», he declares Saro Trovatosociologist and founder of Libreriamo.
«Just look at the data: our Homeric baggage has been cannibalized by pop culture. Classicism is not just library dust, but a place of identity that has shaped our way of telling stories. To safeguard this heritage you must first of all actually read it. The dramatic percentage of incorrect answers demonstrates that we have an urgent need to bring citizens closer to reading the great classics, stimulating active memory and defeating the intellectual laziness that leads us to confuse the journey of Ulysses told by Dante with the original one by Homer. It would be necessary to pick up the texts again without preconceptions, a habit that schools should renew to create a permanent “narrative confidence” with absolute masterpieces. A way to encourage greater common awareness linked to the immense literary heritage that underpins our civilisation.”
The data on how little Italians know the Odyssey
Going into the detail of the data emerging from the questionnaire, the most serious gaps are found in the field of the authorship of the work and the temporal development of the plot. The narration of the very famous Trojan Horse for 76% it is mistakenly placed in the beating heart of the Iliad or the Odyssey, ignoring that the wooden deception is only mentioned by Homer and told in detail in the Aeneid. Things are no better for authorial authorship: as many as 52% of those interviewed attribute the Odyssey directly to Virgil, confusing centuries of history and different poetic traditions.
Another sensational blunder concerns the journey of Ulysses: for over 7 Italians out of 10 (72%) the Itaca hero spent twenty years at sea fighting monsters, ignoring the 10 years of war in Troy and, above all, the 8 years spent practically stationary on the islands of Calypso and Circe. The oversight regarding the protagonist’s motivations is also sensational: 79% are convinced that Ulysses traveled out of curiosity to discover new worlds (false myth derived from Dante), rather than out of the desperate need to return home to his wife.
The most common errors related to the Odyssey
In addition to the gaps of a literary nature, the investigation revealed curious distortions and responses to the limits of the absurd which make one smile but which show, at the same time, the need for more widespread education. As many as 91% of Italians confuse Homeric Sirensmonstrous creatures half woman and half bird, with the fairytale little mermaid half woman and half fish, exchanging an ancient Greek myth with medieval and Disney fairytale imagery.
The poor one Penelope For 64% of Italians, she becomes a skilled housewife intent on knitting with knitting needles (a technique that did not exist in ancient Greece) rather than weaving on the loom. Scylla and Charybdis, the two sea monsters of the Strait of Messina, are magically transformed for 63% of the sample into two rocky islands or, alternatively, into two rival sorceresses.
Many underestimate the role of Telemachus within the plot of the Odyssey, identifying him as a defenseless child throughout the story (71%). In reality, Telemachus is a twenty-year-old who not only undertakes a courageous journey alone (to Pylos and Sparta) to seek news of his father, but upon Ulysses’ return he fights side by side with him in the palace against the Suitors.
Finally, the deception of “Nobody” carried out against Polyphemus, it is considered the moment of the absolute and definitive triumph of Ulysses by 58% of Italians, forgetting that, a second later, the hero recklessly shouts his real name, condemning himself to the wrath of Poseidon.
