The Odyssey and Man of Constant Sorrow

In the movie O Brother Where Art Thou, there are references to the Odyssey. In the movie, three fugitives met up with a talented guitar player and recorded a song called "Man of Constant Sorrow", and that made me think of Odysseus in Calypso's Island. While he was trapped on the island, he cried on the beach every day. I guess he was constantly in sorrow for 6-7(?) years. Anyways, the lyrics of the first two verses are:

(1) I am a man of constant sorrow, 
I've seen trouble all my day 
(2) I bid farewell to old Kentucky, 
The place where I was born and raised 
(The place where he was born and raised)
(3) For six long years I've been in trouble, 
No pleasures here on earth I found 
(4) For in this world I'm bound to ramble, 
I have no friends to help me now 
(He has no friends to help him now)
Adding to part 1, Odysseus did see trouble from after the Trojan War until he was trapped on the island. In part 2, if you replace Kentucky with Ithaca, which is actually "the place where he was born and raised". In part 3, Odysseus was also in trouble for 6 years before he was actually freed from the island. And in part 4, Odysseus' men are all killed before he got trapped in the island so he didn't have any friends to help him.
All in all, I can see Odysseus singing this song on the beach every day, and since he is sitting on a beach, he might as well be a Soggybottom Boy.

Comments

  1. KatFebruary 15, 2019 at 7:20 PM

    Cool blog post! While watching the movie I really enjoyed this song and the two scenes in which it was sung were some of my favorites. I didn't pick up on a lot of the lyrics though and thought it was just a cinematic element, but I agree that the lyrics draw a lot of similarities to Odysseus's story which I hadn't noticed.

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  2. Elizabeth TFebruary 23, 2019 at 11:51 AM

    You're actually so right! I didn't catch many of the lyrics during the movie, but the part about being in trouble for six years is basically a perfect fit for Odysseus' actual story. Another way the Coen brothers draw parallels without making them too blunt.

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  3. samFebruary 25, 2019 at 8:00 AM

    what makes it even more interesting is that O Brother could have been made specifically to model that song because in the original fiddle tune written in the 20's there was an additional verse
    It’s fare you well to a native country
    The places I have loved so well
    For I have seen all kinds of trouble
    In this cruel world no tongue can tell
    which draws even more parallels to the story.

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