Over the holidays, I started to read Homer's Odyssey. When I was reading Book IX, the story seemed familiar. I had read parts of it before from another source, but I could not remember where. I found myself digging through books I had stored in the garage until I found one I had read a few years ago authored by Robert M. Price. Price's background includes a Ph.D. in both Systematic Theology and the New Testament. Price made a comparison between Book IX of the Odyssey and Mark 5:1 - 20. I didn't think much about it at the time, because I had not read the Odyssey, thus I didn't have a background to process what Price was referring to. But now that I have read book IX, I understand the comparison. Here is a very short description of the ninth book of Homer's Odyssey:
Ulysses and his legion came ashore to an island overrun with wild goats, which had meadows that in some places came down to the sea shore. Ulysses and his men walked to a cave on the island to meet a cyclops whose name was Polyphemus. Upon meeting Ulysses, Polyphemus asked Ulysses in a loud voice ". . do you sail as rovers, with your hands against every man, and every man's hand against you?" Polyphemus asks Ulysses his name, to which Ulysses answers "Noman." Ulysses cast out Polyphemus's eye and escaped under the belly of the cyclops' sheep. When Ulysses boarded his ship and left the land he called out to Polyphemus, "Cyclops, if anyone asks you who it was that put your eye out and spoiled your beauty, say it was the valiant warrior Ulysses, son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca." As Ulysses sailed away, Polyphemus begged Ulysses to stay to which he answered no.
I then read Mark 5: 1 - 20, here is a very short description from these verses:
Jesus and his disciples came ashore to a land that was overrun with pigs, which had meadows that allowed the pigs to walk down to the sea. Jesus and his disciples walked to a tomb and met a man so strong that no chain could bind him. The man asked Jesus in a loud voice "What have you to do with me, Jesus . . . do not torment me." Jesus asked him his name, to which he replied "Legion." Jesus cast out the legions from the man into the pigs of the land. When Jesus boarded his ship to leave the land he told the man to "Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he had mercy on you." As Jesus sailed away, the man asked to come with Jesus, to which he answered no.
The author of Mark has obviously reused the poetry of Homer. Replacing Ulysses with Jesus, goats with pigs, cave with tomb, the Cyclopes with a possessed man and so on. The author of Mark also gave two more hints to the reuse of Homer: 1. The other side of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus sailed was in older times called Ashteroth Karnaim. Giants with the name of Rephaites were known to live in Ashteroth Karnaim, further relating the story to the Cyclopes. 2. As you may recall from Homer, Circe (Greek goddess of magic) turned Ulysses legions into pigs, just as Jesus in this setting cast the legion into pigs. The author of Mark chose the name "Legion" to represent Ulysses and his men, pointing the reader back to the Odyssey.
Biblical scholars point to many areas in the Bible, which are reuse of earlier myths and legends. Recycling of stories from The Odyssey, The Iliad, ancient Egyptian writings, and other older poetry are a consistent throughout the Bible.
When we hear Jesus turned legions into pigs we think of this as history and "proof" of the divine, but when we read Circe turned legions into pigs we think of this as a myth. Why do we perceive it this way? Logically if one of these stories is divine it would be the original story, or Greek mythology as it pre-dates Christian mythology. However as there is no evidence to either story, reason tells us to view both at face value, which is to view both as poetry. Knowing this Jesus story is based on Ulysses, does it alter your perception?
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