The Catholic Book Club discussion

5. The Eighth Arrow: Odysseus in the Underworld, A Novel is obviously The Odyssey meets The Inferno, but where Dante is to some extent a tourist through Hell, Odysseus and Diomedes literally fight their way through. What do you think Fr. Wetta's purpose was in this approach to the story?

I think that it is a story of redemption and second chances and we look the things in common of the ancient Greek religion and the Christianity something very close to abolition of men.

I think, too, the approaches reflect the person. Dante was a scholar. So, observation, learning, etc. benefitted him. On the other hand, Odysseus was a warrior, so it would make sense for him to have to fight.

On the flipside, Dante was receiving a warning. Odysseus was working though a punishment.

Also, I found it very interesting that Odysseus was not freed from the flames until he prayed. 3,000 years and all he had to do was ask for help. How ironic that sometimes our own sufferings could be eased if only we would allow God to help us.

If I understand well, this is a fiction within a fiction. Odysseus actually went to heaven through God's grace and was dismayed when Dante placed him in the agonizing flames of hell. So, he decided to write his own version of "Inferno" through the lens of a Greek hero; that's why Catholic elements are cloaked under mythological terms. The story itself is an allegory of Odysseus' conversion and redemption through the seven heavenly virtues and the unconditional abandonment of the soul to God — which I think is supposed to be the eighth arrow, more than Odysseus himself.

It's true that Odysseus has to fight, while Dante was only a spectator, but the fighting here is more of an internal struggle than a physical brawl. I mean, Odysseus has to use his brain, but it was harder for him to practice virtue than to outwit his enemies.

I think it's funny, too, that Odysseus, who is known for spinning a yarn (and who Dante places in hell for telling lies) admits at the start of the book that this whole adventure is just one more lie.

Emmy wrote: "I think it's funny, too, that Odysseus, who is known for spinning a yarn (and who Dante places in hell for telling lies) admits at the start of the book that this whole adventure is just one more lie."

I have a friend who does not read fiction, mostly history and economics. I've told him that the difference between literature and history is that literature is the telling of truth with untrue facts and history is the telling of lies with true facts. That mostly just irritated him. But if I'm right, that suggests there is a larger truth in Odysseus' tale.

Haha, I can see how that would irritate your friend, but I think that you've got a point there (especially when it comes to the literature side of things!)

Perhaps the truth here is Odysseus's redemption, not that he escaped from hell. I don't remember many of the details from my first read-through (just that I loved it), but I wonder if this isn't more of a Purgatory.

Emmy wrote: "Haha, I can see how that would irritate your friend, but I think that you've got a point there (especially when it comes to the literature side of things!)

Perhaps the truth here is Odysseus's red..."

I thought about it at first, but it would be hard to explain the demons and damned souls, and Satan himself in the darkest pit. But it's interesting to note the Scholastic notion of "hell" as not only the place of the damned, but a general "lower place" (inferus) containing the "Bosom of Abraham" (limbo of the fathers), the Purgatory and the Gehenna of fire (eternal punishment).

But again, if Odysseus never went to Hell to begin with, in a way, he escaped from it! xD

Emmanuel wrote: "I thought about it at first, but it would be hard to explain the demons and damned souls, and Satan himself in the darkest pit. "

In The Great Divorce C.S. Lewis started from the medieval idea of Refrigerium, a place where people in hell could find a breather, and added the idea that those people could decide to leave hell and proceed to Heaven. In the second case, their stay in hell would have been Purgatory.

Fonch wrote: "I think that it is a story of redemption and second chances and we look the things in common of the ancient Greek religion and the Christianity something very close to abolition of men."
Exactly.

Emmanuel wrote: "Emmy wrote: "Haha, I can see how that would irritate your friend, but I think that you've got a point there (especially when it comes to the literature side of things!)

Perhaps the truth here is O..."

I kind of tried to weasel my way out of this predicament by having "The Parthenon" (aka The Blessed Virgin) tell him this would be his "purgation"...

Emmanuel wrote: "If I understand well, this is a fiction within a fiction. Odysseus actually went to heaven through God's grace and was dismayed when Dante placed him in the agonizing flames of hell. So, he decided..."

This sort of discussion brings me such joy. It's the sort of thinking I had hoped to inspire.

Emmy wrote: "I think it's funny, too, that Odysseus, who is known for spinning a yarn (and who Dante places in hell for telling lies) admits at the start of the book that this whole adventure is just one more lie."

That's my theological "escape hatch."

Thanks Father 😍.

Lewis believed in purgatory even he thought that he would conclude it his existence in the purgatory. It is thought that Niggle leaf the reply to the Great Divorce there is a reference to the purgatory. I like more than "Great divorce".