Art, Beauty, and the Need to Make it New

In her seminal book, On Beauty and Being Just, Elaine Scarry notes that the encounter between Odysseus and Nausicaa in book six of Homer’s Odyssey stands as a paradigm of the experience of both beauty and wonder. You may recall that just before this encounter Odysseus escaped from seven years of captivity on Calypso’s island. As he and his men sail away, the god Poseidon catches sight of them and, still furious that his son, Polyphemus, had been blinded by Odysseus, sends a massive storm that ends in their shipwreck.