Homer and Fitzgerald: Critique of the Purity Fetish

Homer shows us how one can be great yet impure, Fitzgerald how all will be lost in the search for purity. Both express the same philosophic truths: reject the lifeless purity fetish.

Homer’s Odyssey is one of the foundational texts of Western civilization. The insights it provides of the human condition, especially tailored to Ancient Greek life, are plentiful. It is not without reason that 28 centuries after we are still studying this magnificent work. In the West, it is hard to imagine a university graduate who has not had to plow through their Homer.