The science behind the myth: Homer's "Odyssey" - Matt Kaplan 

Whatever they're ingesting makes them waaaaay too creative in their storytelling.

+Zedfinite You know, being out in the open sea for too long can give you some hallucination. Just go out and ask some fisherman nowaday and you got difference kind of crazy stories already :))))

+Sand Shadow Actually after looking it up Jimson Weed is also known as Angles Trumpet which has been used/known to cause someone to forget and cause someone to hallucinate

+Anton K but greeks are seafarers and traders. there may be a loose evidence they might have heard of these herbs, by word of mouth from others.

+Anton K I feel that when they refer to Jimson's Weed, they're referring to the entire genus, not just the single species in North America. All members of the genus have the same hallucinatory effect, and there is a species native to Tunisia, which would have been very accessible to the Greek.

Matthew Laing It would be holy if given by the gods so technically it could be called Holy Moly.

I Randomly Post Everything I agree

Ohhhhh.... Now I know . Thnx

I think that it is from holy guacamole, and holy moly is short for that. Maybe

Nah it comes from "Holy Moses" just a minced up "clean" version. Was a popular saying with old superheros.

You might like a show that was on the history channel called "Clash of the Gods." In it they go over popular myths and the historical events that may have caused it. They have 2 episodes that go really deep into The Odyssey.

asaavedra0327 Yeah, I saw the show :) I love it and wish they'd make more!

"Myths are just truths we've forgotten."

I highly recommend you to read 'The hero with a thousand faces' by J. Campbell

Euhemerism - myths are distorted accounts of real historical events, history in disguise

RustyRC83 Rc some stories could have had that purpose, even if it wasn't intentional. But it is generally thought that the Odyssey came about just as many other Greek stories did - as a way to entertain the crowds. During early Greek history, especially the Greek Dark Age (so somewhat before the Odyssey was written down), travelling poets (rhapsodes, something similar to bards) were really popular in Greece. Many (or all) of the stories they were telling basicall had the same structure and same fillers, which served as an easier way to remember the story, so you can retell it a bunch of times. These fillers and structure are visible in both the Illiad and the Odyssey and some other myths that were written down (but with the latter, mostly fillers are visible because they weren't always written in verse). Anyway, some other details of the stories often changed because the stories were long, and it was hard to remember everything without writing it down (which they didn't do), plus the same basic story was retold by more than one bard. That's why you have more than one version for basically every Greek myth, including the Odyssey (because 'Homer's Odyssey' is only one version, but the most well known one). And among the things that changed sometimes were the descriptions of plants, so I doubt the main purpose of the stories was what you said, but I definitely agree that it had a part. After all, many myths and stories in various folklores were more or less cautionary tales.

It's more than that. The Iliad and the Odyssey are like an enciclopedia: they contained all the knowledge of the ancient Greek civilization of circa 700/600BC, from plants (such as in this case), to society (like in the Odyssey, where almost every class of the society is described) to other more practical tasks as to how to build a raft (again in the Odyssey).

I had the same thought!

Eh, doubt it's that sophisticated really. But fun fact: Homer probably was only the first guy to write the story down, because these tales were usually memorised and told by bards and passed on verbally only. Which is evidenced by known traditions, and the fact that the tale is a lot more captivating told than read. There is a little bit of science behind it, but the gist is: It's nicer to listen to it, than to read it.

Odyseeus is usually depicted with a beard

*+CybeargPlays* Reminds me a bit of _Another World_.

Hanrui Huang It is Art ;) It is free of interpretation

bricknose tru

bricknose mee tooooooo

I agree. Also, I love your username.

SnowLeopard84 fangirl lol yeah

Vbgbcvtthfhtf

They used to be considered truth, but modern times translate things differently thus turning them into seemingly fiction

qht you just said sounded very deep and meaningful and barely understood any of it lol

I didn't know your mother was named Molly. :p

ThisisNOTCONNECTED TOMYRU-vid Oh man. Anyone got some ice?

Does this mean I'm bad, because my name is Molly...

Moly*

It should mean that you were a gift from a gods, and have the power to stop poisonous witches.

A year long vacation! They sure enjoyed themselves for the time, and without even realizing the time they spent. Yeah, totally.

yes

Fig Newton AYYYE THEY KNEW HOW TO GET TUUUUUUUUUUURNT THOOOOO

they were feeling like rockstars

That's why it took them so much to get back home, the Bros were chasin the dragon

Doc Fig shook

Moly

+Dayz 3O6 thats not what πολυμηχανος means...but a man of many tricks.

***** I've read the Iliad and that is one of his title. The other being "King of Ithaka" and "Odysseus the cunning".

no you misunderstood me. i mean "Man of Many Devices" in greek is πολυμηχανος,which really means a man of many tricks and not of many devices.

***** I think the book mistranslated it.

Dayz 3O6 could be

Did you remember

Waiting for you to remember

MrMac5150 Lol... I'm way passed 15. I sent a message to my English teacher after watching this video.

I know this is 3 years in the future but you are so right !

@@malaanandakumar2906 I know this is 2 months in the future but you are also right.

@@jacobwiessner7650 I know this is 4 days in the future, but I don't agree 😂

jacob wiessner I know this is 4 months in the future but you are also right!

@@curiousbench I know this is one day in the future but you are right too!

+Marcos Zarate Awesome epics, Homer.

That is true. Ancient cultures knew many things that got lost to us due to the dark middle ages, and we are just researching them now.