Comparing Travel In The Odyssey And The Lieutenant Nun

In literature, travel often acts as a familiar plot device used to catalyze a character’s growth. Certainly, while there is an undeniable correlation between traveling and then undergoing metaphysical travel, the formula itself has become predictable and overused in literature. Despite a number of disparities between the two pieces in terms of plot, characters and genre, Homer’s Greek Odyssey and the Lieutenant Nun both question the connection between physical and metaphysical travel, thus breaking free of dull paradigms. In The Odyssey, the victorious hero Odysseus spends ten years traveling in an attempt to return to his home, Ithaca. The Lieutenant Nun, one of the earliest known autobiographies by a woman, recounts the extraordinary tale

of Catalina de Erauso, who in 1599 escaped a Basque convent disguised as a man and went on to live a wildly fantastic life, traveling across the New World. The Odyssey and The Lieutenant Nun showcase the ability of one’s disposition to influence that same person’s concept and ability to travel, then contrast that strength against the ineffectiveness of physical travel.

A person’s outlook has the potential to substantially influence the events of their life. By way of example, the respective protagonists of The Odyssey and The Lieutenant Nun have contrasting personalities and viewpoints: Catalina de Erauso is hasty and violent compared to the proud and duplicitous Odysseus. Their personalities affect a number of aspects in their stories, including their interactions and relationships with others, or their ability to solve problems; more importantly, however, is how these distinct personalities tangibly diversify their travels. For Erauso, travel represents freedom and a means of escaping an inauspicious situation. At the beginning of her memoir, Erauso, like many other young women her age, is on the verge of taking her vows to become a nun. From the perspective of an outsider, she is “but a girl” (3) directing her attention solely on “[professing] herself as a nun” (Erauso 3). Unbeknown to those around her, the Basque

convent impedes her both physically and emotionally: the nuns beat her and she is unable to explore the truth of her gender identity. After a number of years, Erauso finally does decide to escape the convent, despite the potential danger. At first, travel is incredibly arduous: she “[sets] off without knowing where [she] was going” and survives eating “nothing more than the herbs [she] had found growing by the roadside” (Erauso 4). Yet, she does not stop traveling; through her experiences at the convent, that Erauso learns to perceive travel in high regard, as a symbol of freedom and as solution to her problems. Because of this attitude, Erauso grows and develops her identity in such a way that makes travel easier. Erauso’s practiced fluidity, whether it be her ability to slip from one identity to the other or the fluidity in her mobility is what allows her to escape serious punishment. Matured into a person possessing a mixture of feminine innocence and masculine violence, vulnerability and strength, compliance and resilience she can manipulate others to her advantage and reach whatever destination she desires.
Greatly contrasting Erauso, Odysseus’s view of travel is inherently negative.

Considering only the plot of The Odyssey, there is reason to believe the two would have similar viewpoints: in both pieces, travel is used as a means for the protagonist to achieve their goals. However, due to several factors including his attitude, travel becomes much more difficult for Odysseus. To Odysseus, the journey back to Ithaca is a nearly insurmountable hurdle that he hopes to surmount as soon as possible. Whether it is using Aeolus’s wind or choosing a route that will pass by treacherous monsters, Odysseus does anything in his power to reduce the amount of time his journey will take. While it is understandable, considering the sheer number of deadly monsters roaming the waters, these shortcuts are often what bring about problems and end with the death of his men. Moreover, it is worth mentioning a major factor in lengthening the time of Odysseus’s journey is his excessive pride. For a man in a such rush to return home, it is unfortunate that the nature of “Odysseus,/ raider of cities” (Homer 9.561) is to boast and consequently earn the wrath of Poseidon. Because Odysseus lacks the humility to accept his victory quietly, he not only inevitably causes the death of many crewmen but irrevocably extends the length of his homeward journey, as

well.
Over the course of the years covered in The Lieutenant Nun, Erauso shows meagre personal or emotional growth. The Erauso at the end of the memoir is nearly identical to the girl from the beginning; the only indication of time passing is Erauso literally writing that it has. Not long after the beginning of her story, readers are exposed to “the autobiographical revelation of Erauso’s true self” (Goldmark 215) and what is most likely most defining moment of her character. Before any travel even occurs Erauso takes “off [her] veil” (Erauso 4), an action with great importance, both literally and figuratively. No longer restricted by gender paradigms intended to silence and immobilize her as a woman, she finally transforms into the person she had been hiding her entire life. In the context of The Lieutenant Nun’s time period, “Erauso’s decision to escape her convent, dress like a man, and fight indios in the New World appeared courageous rather than disobedient. In many ways, she performed (...) masculinity”. Right away, Erauso positions herself as a man and begins to establish the stereotypically male traits of her new persona: bravado, competitiveness, and aggressiveness. Continuing on, Erauso exhibits irascibility and promptly responds to insults by [giving them] a slash worth ten stitches” (Erauso 12). While her experiences do cause her develop physically, becoming a more successful soldier and murderer over the years, that appears to be the extent of her development. Nearly the entirety of Erauso’s memoir is devoid of emotion; one of the only emotions she describes is joy about meeting her brother. Another is despair after killing him. Even these moments of great importance, however, receive only a few words of recognition. After twenty-six years of incredible experience and nearly continuous travel, Erauso is a woman who clearly values her skill and prowess as a soldier and as a man far more than she does her emotional development, thus demonstrating a complete lack of emotional growth from the girl in the convent.
Odysseus has all the well-known defining characteristics of a Homeric leader: strength, incredibly sharp intellect, nobility, a thirst for glory, and confidence in his authority. A different distinguishing trait of these leaders that many forget however, is their invariable nature. “The communis opinio [of homeric characters] is that they are static or ‘flat’(Morris 324), and Odysseus is no exception. At the beginning of the epic, Odysseus is aptly described as “the man of twists and turns” (Homer 1.1) and throughout his travels, Odysseus undoubtedly lives up to this epithet; he employs his quick thinking to trick the Cyclops in Book Nine or to listen to the Sirens’ song in Book Twelve. Nevertheless, Odysseus’ intelligence is, in a manner of speaking, his hubris; for every issue his shrewdness solves, it creates another. That is to say, cognizant of his inordinate intelligence, Odysseus could easily be considered arrogant. “During his ten-year struggle to return to Ithaca after the fall of Troy, Odysseus encounters ogres, enchantresses divine favour and hostility and suffers these setbacks due to cupidity and curiosity” (Giles-Watson 558). Odysseus’s audacity is what invokes the wrath of Poseidon, causes him to be blown off course by Aeolus’s wind or lose men on the island of the Cicones. In the end, although most of it is inauspicious, Odysseus’s twenty years of travel offer worldly experience and ought to bestow him with enough sagacity to return home utterly transformed. In spite of this, however, Odysseus arrives in Ithaca as essentially the same man as when he left. During his first interaction in Ithaca, he attempts to conceal his identity from Athena; next, he and the goddess make plans to deceive his family and friends. Even after having his journey derailed as a result of his trickery for twenty years, Odysseus’s duplicitousness has not subsided and he shows no evidence of ever intending to change his ways.
The Odyssey and The Lieutenant Nun are iconic pieces of literature both surrounding diverse accounts of travel. While each work of literature portrays travel differently, as either an opportunity for freedom in Erauso’s case or an arduous hurdle for Odysseus, both effectively highlight the fragile link between physical and metaphysical travel. Specifically, these pieces demonstrate that while there is certainly a connection between one’s character and their travels, physical travel does not unquestionably cause metaphysical travel. The rejection of the widely accepted relationship between the two concepts is what reveals just one of the many reasons The Odyssey and The Lieutenant Nun continue to be widely studied as literature in modern times.