I brought up this point in class and I don’t know why, but I keep thinking back to it over and over again… It is the fact that Odysseus’ men, even after surviving the horrific Trojan War, were still fated to die. It really has to be terrible… Expecting to be returning home to wife, children, and homeland, only to have your head bashed against a rock by a giant one-eyed brute who then commences to eat your flesh and entrails… Or to be sailing along when a giant, six-headed, tentacled, she-monster casually picks you up out of your ship and eats you while you scream back to your captain the entire time. Then, even if you somehow survived all of these tortures, Zeus decides to strike your ship with lightning, killing you and all of your crewmates. Clearly, this is not the warm homecoming the soldiers expected.
This somewhat reminds me of the Sultana disaster of the Civil War. After four long, grueling years of warfare, soldiers were relieved to finally be heading home and many used the nation’s rivers as the quickest means to travel. About 2,200 people were crammed aboard the Sultana, a steam-powered riverboat traveling up the Mississippi River. The ship’s crew knew that this number was far too many for the ship to handle, but disregarded that fact. They also neglected to take a decent amount of time to fix the boilers, which were damaged during the war. These two factors proved to be fatal as one night the vessel exploded as it was crossing the river to pick up more coal. An accurate list of passengers was never taken, but it is estimated that around 1,500 perished that night. This just reminded me of the Odyssey… Here are these war-weary soldiers ready to return home to their loved ones, only to be killed because of poor decisions made by those in charge.
This somewhat reminds me of the Sultana disaster of the Civil War. After four long, grueling years of warfare, soldiers were relieved to finally be heading home and many used the nation’s rivers as the quickest means to travel. About 2,200 people were crammed aboard the Sultana, a steam-powered riverboat traveling up the Mississippi River. The ship’s crew knew that this number was far too many for the ship to handle, but disregarded that fact. They also neglected to take a decent amount of time to fix the boilers, which were damaged during the war. These two factors proved to be fatal as one night the vessel exploded as it was crossing the river to pick up more coal. An accurate list of passengers was never taken, but it is estimated that around 1,500 perished that night. This just reminded me of the Odyssey… Here are these war-weary soldiers ready to return home to their loved ones, only to be killed because of poor decisions made by those in charge.