Ulisses e Penélope: rumo e desvios cíclicos

This essay deals with the mythical episode of the involuntary stay of Odysseus in the Ogygia Island. Taking a comparative perspective, a parallel is drawn between the Homeric model given by the Odyssey’s V canto – much more purified and ethic, wherein the hero manages to escape from that “deviation” to the fundamental “course” of his inner path, which is returning to the love of his family – and the sarcastic version of the Eça de Queirós’ story The Perfection – where Odysseus fights for his right to return to his mortal imperfection. In connection with this subject, it is discussed the traditional version of the
same myth, introduced by the poems of The Epic Cycle, which present the hero’s extra‑marital affair (with Calypso) as one of many adulterous conquests of an anti‑hero, devoid of moral principles.