Barry Stocker
Department of Humanities and Social Science
[email protected]
Faculty of Science and Letters
https://barrystockerac.wordpress.com
TOPICS IN LITERATURE AND SOCIETY.
ITB 213E/CRN 20144
SPRING 2015
NOTES WEEK SEVEN
Homer
The Odyssey
Books 17 to 24
Book Seventeen
Telemachus arrives at the palace and is reunified with his mother. The suitors continue to
behave badly. He tells his mother of his trip to Pylos and Sparta and what he heard there
of Odysseus. That Odysseus was detained by Calypso on her island, but would come
home before long with much treasure.
Theoklymenos repeats his prophecy that Odysseus will return soon. Odysseus (in
disguise) travels to the palace with Eumaeus. He is taken for a particularly disgusting
beggar by a swineherd who works for the Suitors and neglects his proper duties.
Odysseus is accused of seeking food for nothing and being lazy.
Odysseus tells Eumaeus that his stomach obliges him to go to the palace, just as the
stomach leads men to send ships over the sea. Telemachus has told Eurmaeus that he
should take Odysseus/the stranger to the city so that he will not be a burden at home and
can get food from the Suitors.
Eumaeus was happy to have Odysseus/the Stranger as a guest but s very willing to obey
Telemachus and avoid the troubles of a disobedient servant. On the road, just outside the
palace, Odysseus sees a dog, Argos, he left behind as a puppy when he went to Troy. He
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must have been a nearly full grown puppy since it is said that he was a powerful graceful
hunting dog who went on the hunt with Odysseus and could catch any animal.
Odysseus cries to see his noble dog treated poorly. Argos recognises Odysseus and
behaves a like a dog that has seen its owner. He is now sitting on the dung pile, covered in
ticks, neglected by Odysseus’s servant, apparently a sign of the disorder that follows when
a master goes away, as Eumaeus explains.
The dog Argos dies immediately after recognising Odysseus. In the palace, Odysseus/the
stranger begs for food from the Suitors. Some treat him well, but we are told that they will
still suffer when Odysseus takes his revenge. Antinous behaves very badly to Odysseus/
the Stranger throwing a chair at him.
Antinous accuses the Stranger of consuming the wealth of Odysseus when he is doing so
much more. Even the other Suitors are shocked because they are familiar of the hospitality
that Zeus commands for strangers and that gods sometimes appear as beggars to test
human behaviour (linking Odysseus with the gods).
Odysseus tells a new story of his life that day, in his disguise, claiming that he was from
Cyprus, and connected with royalty, that his friends attacked Egyptians resulting in
revenge from the Egyptians including slavery for Odysseus in disguise as a vagabond.
Odysseus seems shocked by raiding people to steal their wealth, kill and enslave them,
though he has frequently done the same.
Penelope hears about the Stranger and tells Eumaeus to bring him so she can have news
of Odysseus. Odysseus/the Stranger tells Eumaeus that he will go in the evening, when it
will be safer for Penelope as the Suitors will not notice the visit. Eumaeus makes his way
home.
Book Eighteen
A well known beggar arrives, known as ‘Iros’, which is not his original name but a name
given to him for his willingness to run and take messages for those who give him
something. He does not like Odyssesu/the Stranger being a rival beggar in what he thinks
is his territory.
3
The result is a fight parodies the fights between heroes in The Iliad. That is it parallels and
imitates those fight, but in way which is much lower and maybe comic though any comedy
is very cruel. Odysseus is willing to fight Iros who threatens him in a very aggressive way,
while Odysseus says there is room for more than one beggar and the gods decide on
prosperity.
The Suitors encourage the fight (just as the gods like to cause wars between kings)
offering a goat’s stomach full of fat and blood to the winner. Odysseus pretends to be
unwilling but driven by hunger, so accepts the fight. Athene gives Odysseus some of his
normal appearance, making Iros afraid.Iros is now less willing to fight.
Iros cannot escape from the situation, as the Suitors force him to fight. Antinoos, tells him
that he will be sent to Echetos on the mainland if he loses. Echetos is not mentioned
outside Homer in any surviving text and not much explanation is given here. He appears to
be a monstrous king who tears off the ears, noses and genitals of those in his power
feeding them to dogs.
Again a reference to the horror of being eaten by dogs, previously appearing of the horror
of heroes at the idea of being left unburied on the battlefield so that dogs will eat their
corpse. Odysseus does not only beat him, but seriously injure and cause some kind of
brain damage or shock so that Iros seems drunk, and the Suitors continue to threaten to
send him to Echetos.
The scene suggests extreme cruelty may be directed at beggars and those at the lowest
end of the social scale, or as Vico says, the Homeric aristocrats regard themselves as
gods and the lower classes as animals. However, the scene also shows that beggars are
regarding as having some place and rights in the social order if they behave correctly.
Odysseus tells one of the Suitors, Amphinomos, that no creature is weaker than man
because men believe when they have good fortune that nothing cam harm them, so are
not prepared for bad fortune when it comes. He says the Suitors will fall from fortune when
Odysseus returns and he will soon. Odysseus say that the hopes Amphinomos will escape
the revenge of Odysseus.
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Amphinomos recognises the truth of what Odysseus says, but feels powerless to escape
his fate. He has already been destined to die at the hands of Telemachus. Athene now
inspires Penelope to visit the hall where Telemachus, Odysseus, and the Suitors are
gathered, so that Odysseus will be even more inspired.
Athene wants Penelope to inspire Odysseus by being as beautiful as possible. Athene
sends her a restorative sleep then servant women beautify her. Penelope goes to the hall
with two servant women because she believes it would be immodest for a woman to go on
her own.
Penelope explains her sadness at the long absence of Odysseus and his words when he
was leaving for the Trojan War that he might not come back and she could remarry after
raising Telemachus into a bearded young man. She comments on the bad behaviour of the
Suitors. Antinoos replies claiming she is rude for not accepting gifts.
Odysseus (who still appears to be an elderly beggar and stranger) tells the servant women
to go back to their quarters and think about their queen (presumably instead of the
Suitors). One of them insults Odysseus, but Odysseus threatens to get Telemachus to cut
her up and all the servant women leave.
Athene wants to provoke Odysseus to the greatest possible anger so gets one of the
Suitors, Eurymachos, to insult Odysseus and offer to employ him as a farm servant.
Odysseus responds that he could best the Suitor in contest for skill and endurance in
farming. The whole scene suggest that the Homeric aristocracy and kings are really
farmers who go to war.
The aggressive Suitor injures a cup bearer trying to throw a chair at Odysseus.
Amphinomos calms the situation persuading all the Suitors to go to bed and let
Telemachus look after the Stranger who is a guest in his house. They all drink wine and
make libations to the gods, and then disperse.
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Book Nineteen
We begin to see that Odysseus (still disguised as a old stranger/beggar) is planning a
massacre of the suitors and of those women in the palace he believes have not been loyal
to him, Penelope, and Telemachus during his long absence. He tells Telemachus to gather
all the weapons in the hall, and to have excuses ready if the Suitors ask where they are.
The point is that the weapons should be under the control of Odysseus not the Suitors
when he reveals himself and ‘punishes’ the Suitors. The excuses that Telemachus can
make are that the weapons are very dusty and old, so should be kept out of the way. They
are the weapons Odysseus left when he went to Troy.
Penelope then comes down to the hall from her personal rooms with her servants who
clear up what the Suitors left. The housekeeper, Melantho, insults Odysseus as before and
tries to send him away. Odysseus insults her and tells Melantho that he fell from good
fortune.
Melantho doesn’t like him, because if she falls from good fortune she will be punished for
her offences against the family of Odyssesus. Penelope agrees, insults Melantho as well,
saying that Melantho knows she wants to speak to the Stranger, and tells her to give
Odysseus a chair with a fleece (sheepskin with wool still on) across it.
Penelope asks Odysseus/the Stranger who he is where is from. He refuses on the
grounds that it would make him to sad to talk about what he has lost. Penelope speaks of
her sadness at the long absence of Odysseus, explaining how all the local lords are in the
palace pressuring her to remarry, while she does not want to see anyone for any reason.
She explains how she tries to delay agreeing to marry any of the Suitors by telling them
that she is weaving a funeral shroud for the father of Odysseus (Laertes) who is not dead,
but is old and unwell, and that it would be improper to marry again before the job is
finished. She spends years weaving and then unweaving.
Finally some of her servants inform the Suitors of this trick, so she has to stop and they
become even more aggressive. Penelope asks again about Odysseus’ name and origin. At
6
this point he tells her a story in which he takes the identity of a Cretan hero from the Trojan
War, but otherwise tells the truth.
He claims to have met Odysseus on his way to Troy, because Odysseus was a hereditary
guest friend (entitled to expect hospitality) of the royal family of Crete. He describes Crete
as full of different peoples, different kinds of Greek as well as other peoples which makes it
the opposite of Ithaca, which is small and seems to have only people of local origin.
The comparison between Crete and Ithaca is strengthened when Odysseus emphasises
that Crete is an island. He describes Odysseus as having many friends, meaning good
relations with Greek kings and heroes, making himself one of the most respected figures
among the kings and heroes. We also see that Odysseus is a talented liar here.
Penelope asks for details of what Odysseus was wearing in Crete. When Odysseus/the
Stranger describes this in accordance of her own memory of what he was wearing.
Odysseus also tells Penelope that Odysseus is currently consulting Zeus, but will be home
soon to make everything right again.
she is deeply impressed, saying that before she regarded Odysseus/the Stranger with pity,
but now she regards him as a friend (and therefore someone who deserves the best
hospitality).
She offers him a bed with the best bedding and a bath with the help of servant women.
Odysseus refuses the bed saying he is used to an uncomfortable couch and that he
prefers to be only bathed by a respectable elderly servant woman only. Penelope finds
such a woman, Eurykleia, who was Odysseus’ wet nurse and is still very loyal to her.
When she washes Odysseus she sees a scar above his knee, which reveals his identity.
The poem explains how Odysseus got this scar. As a baby he was shown to Autolykos, his
grandfather on the side of his mother. Autolykos is given the chance to name him and
chooses ‘Odysseus’ meaning ‘distasteful’ because he was born in a distasteful place.
It is not explained why Autolykos (described as a great thief) describes the land of his royal
son-in-law as distasteful, which is rather aggressive and inappropriate. Perhaps this is a
7
way of emphasising that Ithaca is one of the lesser kingdoms of the Greek heroes and
does not have much to attract outsiders.
The Greek ‘odysseus’ (as word not personal name) is more normally translated as hateful,
hated, hating, something to do with hatred. Lattimore has chosen to moderate the likely
meaning. As a young man Odysseus visits Autolyko, and goes on a boar hunt, which might
remind the reader of all the references to heroes at Troy as fierce wild boars in The Iliad.
Odysseus is severely wounded by a boar during the hunt leaving a very distinctive scar
which can only be known to those who have seem him naked, serving the same function
as a name which is presumably why the story of the scar is linked with the story of his
naming, both referring to suffering of some kind.
Eurykleia is happy and excited to recognise Odysseus and wants to tell Penelope.
Odysseus silences her, telling Euykleia that he will kill the Suitors and the bad women
servants, but he will kill her as well if she interferes with his plan. She offers to tell
Odysseus which servant women have been traitors, but he says he will find out himself.
Penelope does not see or hear any of this, as Athene intervenes. This divine intervention
is necessary to the story which is now resting on the tension aroused by two questions:
when will Odysseus kill the Suitors? When will he reveal himself to his wife? Penelope
does now tell Odysseus of a disturbing dream she had recently.
She was happily watching twenty geese pick grain out of a water trough when an eagle
dived down and broke their necks. Birds were linked with prophecy in ancient Greek (and
Roman) paganism, and the eagle was the bird of the king of the gods, Zeus. Penelope
hears a voice in the dream , claiming to be her husband and not to be disturbed by the
dream because it means he is coming home to kill the Suitors.
Odysseus/the Stranger tells Penelope that her husband has already told her the meaning
of the dream. Penelope, however, says that while some dreams about the future are true,
others are deceitful. She adds that the sad moment is coming when she will leave Ithaca,
as she is going to set up a test to select one of the Suitors as a husband.
8
The test is that Penelope will set up twelve axes through which Odysseus one shot an
arrow. Presumably axes with a hollow part in the middle of the cutting part, large enough
for an arrow to pass. The Suitor who strings the bow most easily and shoots an arrow
through all twelve axes will marry her.
Odysseus/the Stranger tells her not to be sad, because Odysseus will certainly return
before the contest starts, so she should have the contest as soon as possible. He refers to
himself as ‘Odysseus of the many designs’. Penelope then retires to bed and cries thinking
about Odysseus.
Book Twenty
Odysseus is restless as he waits for sleep as he would like to start killing those servant
women who are sharing the beds of the Suitors. Athene appears before him and calms
him, assuring him that when the time comes to kills the Suitors, she will help him and he
will not be in any danger.
Penelope has disturbing dreams and longs for Odysseus. Odysseus asks for a sign from
Zeus who gives him one in the form of a mill women responsible for milling wheat for
bread. She complains about becoming worn out working for the Suitors and hopes that
Odysseus will return to kill them all.
In the morning Telemachus enters the hall and is disturbed to find Odysseus/the Stranger
sleeping on a simple couch and criticises his mother for it. Odysseus’ old nurse Eurykleia
explains that it was the choice of Odysseus and his mother is not to be blamed. The
Suitors enter early because it is a public holiday leading to rising tension.
A herdsman bringing flocks for the Suitors, who has already encountered Odysseus/the
Stranger becomes aggressive accusing Odysseus of being a greedy and aggressive
beggar, but another herdsman expresses his sadness at the disorder in Ithaca since
Odysseus left, the greed of the Suitors eating the cattle.
He longs for Odysseus to come back and disperse the Suitors. He fears that he is a
stranger wandering in rags somewhere, just like Odysseus/the Stranger. Odysseus/the
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Stranger swears an oath by Zeus that Odysseus will return and kill the Suitors while the
herdsman is still around the palace.
Meanwhile the Suitors are plotting the death of Telemachus, they see an eagle carrying a
pigeon and decide the plan will not be completed, though no explanation is given for how
they are connected, but may be it is because the eagle is not seen killing the pigeon.
Telemachus seats Odysseus very respectfully and promises to protect him from the
Suitors.
Telemachus ‘heart full of guile (trickery)’ criticises the greed of the Suitors, saying that the
palace belongs to Odysseus so is not a public place (presumably not a public place in the
sense of not a place where anyone can eat at the expense of the king or the public).
In order to provoke the suffering of Odysseus and his desire for revenge, Athene induces
one of the Suitors to insult Odysseus/the Stranger and throw an of hoof at him. Odysseus
does not react and just smiles in an unamused way as with earlier insults. Telemachus
takes the opportunity to condemn the Suitors again and invites them to kill him rather than
make him suffer their bad behaviour.
One of the Suitors tries to calm the situation by saying everyone’s problems will be solved
if Penelope marries one of them, in which case they will all leave and Penelope herself will
be living at the expense of her new husband while Telemachus is able to preserve his
inheritance. Odysseus must be dead by now so Telemachus cannot complain that the
Suitors are courting Penelope.
Telemachus himself makes his language more moderate claiming that he wants his mother
to remarry quickly. He says he is just unwilling to force her. The Suitors start laughing now
under the influence of Athene. The laughter is extreme and sounds like lamentation, their
eyes are bursting with tears and their food has become a mess of blood.
This description maybe more in the perceptions of Theoklymenos, the prophet that
Telemachus brought with him from Pylos. He speaks out and tells the Suitors that he sees
darkness, tears, bleeding walls, wailing, ghosts going to the underworld, the sun blotted
out from the skies and a disgusting mess.
10
The Suitors laugh at Theoklymenos and threaten to sell him and Odysseus/the Stranger
into slavery. Penelope is listening at the door as this scene unfolds which is a deed of
wrongdoing which will be the first step of the Suitors towards the massacre that Odysseus
is planning.
Book Twenty-One
Penelope now decides to bring the bow for the competition she announced earlier to see
which Suitor can string the bow most easily and then shoot an arrow through twelve
axeheads. The bow was a gift to Odysseus when he was in Lakedaimon (Sparta) and is so
special to him that he does not take it to Troy.
Penelope recovers it from a room deep in the palace full of iron, bronze, and silver. She
announces the competition. Telemachus first says he will try to see if her can stop his
mother from leaving him alone in Ithaca (a change from what he was saying in the last
book). He is about to succeed, but Odysseus makes a sign to stop him.
The reason that Odysseus does not want Telemachus to thread the bow is that he has a
plan to wait for the Suitors to fail and then undertake the challenge himself. After some of
the Suitors fail, Odysseus reveals himself to Eumaeus and to the oxen herder (presumably
Philoetius who appears earlier), because they were the only men who have prayed for
Odysseus to come back.
Their job will be to give him the bow and then get the serving women to lock the doors to
the hall from the outside and stay quiet. Odysseus shows the scar from the boar described
earlier and tells them that after he has killed the Suitors and restored order that they will
have homes next to him, so becoming the leading aristocrats of Ithaca.
Again, there is the suggestions that the kings and lords of Homeric poetry are close to the
time when such people were the biggest herders and farmers in a community. More
Suitors fail to thread the bow and they decide to wait until the next day when they will
grease the bow with animal fat to make the task easier.
11
They show little interest in Penelope, merely wanting to match Odysseus with the bow.
Odysseus/the Stranger now asks to test his strength with the bow. The Suitors resist even
when Penelope says she will not marry Odysseus/the Stranger if he succeeds but give him
some presents and arrange for him to go wherever he wants to go.
Telemachus sends Penelope out of the way, saying that he is the master of the hoıse now,
words she apparently finds serious.The Suitors say they are afraid that if people know
Odysseus/the Stranger succeeded where they failed they will look weak and worse than
the previous generation of men, leading to mockery.
Telemachus insists on Odysseus/the Stranger having a chance. Odysseus succeeds in
threading the bow and Zeus sends a signal. The signal from Zeus is thunder and lightning,
which are always associated with the King of the gods.
The Suitors are now terrified, presumably sensing that this is Odysseus returned to take
revenge. Odysseus succeeds in shooting an arrow through the axes. He tells Telemachus
it is time for the Achaeans (Suitors) to eat.
Book Twenty-Two
The Suitors start their banquet, but this is interrupted by Odysseus firing an arrow at
Antinoos, leader of the Suitors as he drinks wine, killing him immediately. Another suitor
says that Antinoos was responsible for the worst of their plans and actions, and the rest of
them are willing to compensate Odysseus if he spares their lives.
Odysseus looks darkly at him and says no amount of treasure will stop his anger. He is
determined to kill them all. They try to resist taking out swords and using the banqueting
table as a defence. However, Odysseus kills everyone except for the minstrel and the
herald, partly at the request of Telemachus.
The minstrel is someone who sings poetry like that of the Homeric poems, so there is a
suggestion here of the value and ethical innocence of the poet present at episodes of
wrong doing. The herald has a function related to that of the poet of communication, so
something similar applies about value and ethical non-contamination.
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Athene helps provoke and orchestrate the slaughter. She tells Odysseus to be merciless,
appearing in human form. Her aegis (a cloak with terrifying things hanging from it) induces
terror among the Suitors. The herdsman Melanthius who appears earlier, serving the
Suitors and insulting Odyssesu/the Stranger is seen bringing armour and weapons to the
Suitors and is killed.
The bodies are piled up like fish caught by a fisherman. Malanthius’ body is insulted and
bits are fed to dogs. Presumably because treason to the master is particularly scandalous.
Odysseus now wants to know which servant women betrayed him by going to bed with the
Suitors and asks for all the women to be brought in.
Eurykleia, his old nurse, tells him that it was just twelve who betrayed him, out of fifty, and
it is enough to kill them. Odysseus accepts this advice though earlier he told Eurykleia that
he did not need her advice and would work out which servant women were guilty later. The
twelves are brought in to Odysseus.
Odysseus puts rope round them like a trap for birds who think they have found a safe
place but then find they are caught up in a net. Odysseus then strings them up kills them
like killing captured birds, described as a pitiful death. He decides the hall should be
cleaned up before Penelope sees it, which is a big job.
Book Twenty-Three
Eurykelia goes to Penelope and tells her that Odysseus has returned. Penelope is
unwilling to believe her, but comes down to the hall. When she sees Odysseus, she is
unwilling to believe the man she sees is Odysseus. Telemachus accuses her of being
hardhearted, Odysseus says he will persuade her when they are alone.
The means by which Odysseus persuades Penelope that he is her husband is the secret
they share of how their marital bed was built, which is in a fixed position round an olive
tree. Odysseus built the bed himself, again indicating that Homeric kings are close to the
chieftains of bands in pre-city society.
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At this point Penelope acknowledges that the Stranger is her husband Odysseus. He
accuses here of being hardhearted. She responds that she does not want to be like Helen
of Argos (also known as Helen of Sparta) deceived by the words of Paris, so that she went
to Troy with him and started the Trojan War.
Odysseus explains that he will have to leave again soon to make his peace with Poseidon,
but that when he returns he will live peacefully into old age, and death will come from the
sea. After they renew their marital relations in bed, Odysseus tells her of the adventures
that make up The Odyssey and she explains what she suffered from the Suitors.
After the slaughter of the Suitors, Odysseus is aware that he has created a conflict with the
powerful families of the island and the region, since the Suitors are the heirs and sons of
the local and regional lords. Their families are likely to seek revenge as soon as they hear
of the massacre so Odysseus tells Penelope to keep the deaths secret.
Book Twenty Four
The god Hermes the souls of the dead suitors, squeaking ghosts as the dead are
portrayed in Homeric poetry, and takes them to Hades, the underworld dwelling place of
the souls of the dead. Agamemnon and Achilles are in conversation about how
Agamemnon died without honour.
That is Agamemnon was killed by his wife’s lover (his wife was Klytemnestra, here referred
to as daughter of Tydaeus) in a conspiracy with the wife. For the dead in Hades, including
Agamemnon it would have been better to die earlier in the Trojan War which would have
been followed by an honourable burial.
We hear of how Achilles received a great funeral outside Troy with funeral games and
mourned by his mother, the goddess Thetis, as well as all the Greeks. The Suitors arrive at
the gates of Hades and explain the story of how they courted Penelope and died at the
hands of Odysseus.
Their story largely corresponds with the point of view of the poem, which is largely the
point of view of Odysseus and Telemachus. One variation is that the Suitors regard
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Penelope delaying the choice of new husband by unpicking her woven funeral shroud
(‘web’) for Laertes (father of Odysseus) as part of a plot to murder them.
Penelope told the Suitors to wait until she had completed the honourable duty of
completely a funeral shroud for Laertes while he was still alive, but unpicked it by night
using torches (instruments holding fire) to light her work. She does so until a servant
woman tells the Suitors.
It seems clear that Penelope had no idea when of if Odysseus was coming back, and no
expectation that he would massacre the Suitors on return. Agamemnon praises the virtue
of Penelope in contrast with the wickedness of his wife, which stain all women even
women of virtue.
Meanwhile back in the land of the living, Odysseus and Telemachus go into the
countryside of Ithaca to find Laertes. Laertes is dressed in rags working in an orchard,
mourning Odysseus. This is presented as extreme behaviour resulting from Odysseus’
twenty year absence.
Laertes’ simple work and appearance might also refer to the closeness of Homeric epic to
a time in which ‘kings’ were the most powerful people in an agricultural community, and
who worked their own land like anyone else, even with the assistance of slaves as in the
case of Laertes.
There is a Sicilian woman in Laertes’ household who directs Odysseus to Laertes. As we
shall see, Vico thinks references to peoples from outside Greece and Troy (as with
Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians) are evidence that the Homeric poems include
material from later than the Trojan War.
However, archaeological evidence shows there was trade between Mycenaean Greece
and Italy, including Sicily, so it is quite possible that servants, slaves and workers, might
have travelled/been captured over this geographical area.
When Odysseus first finds Laertes, he conceals his identity, again, and claims to be a king
or lord who hosted Odysseus a few years before on his way back from Troy, giving
15
Odysseus valuable presents as he left and observing favourable bird signs. This increases
Laertes’ grief, who fears Odysseus has died since and throws dust on his head
The mourning relates to the absence and possible death of Odysseus, enhanced by the
fear that he died at sea or land without a funeral so that his body is eaten by fish or by
birds and dogs, so that he does not die honourably in battle with a appropriate funeral, or
at home where his wife and family will organise a funeral and mourn him.
Odysseus now reveals that he is Odysseus, but has to persuade his father that he is who
says he is by referring to events of his childhood and youth, including the boar tusk scar.
Laertes is convinced and Odysseus explains that the danger from the Suitors has passed,
since he has killed them all. However, there is danger from their powerful families.
News does spread to the Cephallenians (Kephallenians). Cephallenians refers to people of
the Ionian islands off the west coast of Greece, south of Ithaca, where the many of the
Suitors originated. The families appear to with them in Ithaca at this point, so that they
learn quickly of the deaths and go to the palace to bury their sons.
Their leader Eupeithes, father of Antinoos, also claims to be seeking revenge for all the
Greeks (Achaians) who went under Odysseus’ command to Troy and died. The conflict
between Odysseus and the revenge seeking families therefore seem to be part of broader
questioning of Odysseus’ power and of his participation in the Greek league against Troy.
They Kephallenains are in a hurry to take revenge as they are afraid that Odysseus will
travel to Elis and Pylos. The fear of Odysseus visiting kingdoms in the Peloponnesus is
presumably that he will create an alliance to defeat the Cephallenians, and the whole thing
seems to refer to a struggle over whether Ithaca will dominate Cephallenia or Cephallenia
will dominate Ithaca.
Odysseus’ herald Medon and the minstrel Phemios (Odysseus would have killed them for
associating with the Suitors if Telemachus had not intervened) go to the angry crowd of
relatives of the Suitors, though it also seems it might be a crowd of the whole ‘city’
population, relatives and all the others who were inevitably in contact with the Suitors.
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A Mycenaean ‘city’ probably consisted of a citadel taken up by a palace and a few other
important buildings, with homes of shepherds and farmers just outside the walls of the
citadel, maybe these people entering the citadel during time of war. The Kephallenians
meet in assembly so may have some kind of political debate and limits on kingly power.
There is also an assembly in Ithaca which Medon addresses though it is not clear whether
this is an exceptional riotous situation or evidence that kings met with and consulted their
people. The role of Medon and Phemios suggests the importance of communication,
political and poetic, to the peace of the community.
The prophet Halitherses addresses the families of the Suitors, telling them the Suitors had
done wrong to Odysseus, that Odysseus’ violence was justified punishment and that had
no reason to attack Odysseus. Most of the Kephallenians are not ready for peace though,
and follow Eupeites in rushing to put on armour in order to attack Odysseus.
The gods Zeus and Athene are watching and Athene asks Zeus if they should allow more
bloodshed. Zeus tells Athene she is free to arrange things as she chooses, but that the
best thing is to end the fighting, for oaths of friendship, for peace and prosperity under
Odysseus . Athene helps Laertes kill the leader of the families of the Suitors.
Athene but then appears as Mentor (Odysseus’ old friend and adviser, also apparently
respected by the Cephallenians) and speaks to Odysseus and the families of the Suitors,
asking them to make peace. The families run from Odysseus who is still ready to kill them,
but Zeus intervenes with a thunderbolt.
Athene/Mentor explains that the thunderbolt is a message from Zeus for Odysseus to stop
the killing. Both sides now make oaths of peace and that ends both The Odyssey and the
double Homeric epic of The Iliad and The Odyssey, which began in The Iliad with divine
punishment of the Greeks and the anger between Agamemnon and Achilles.
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