HOMER
ODYSSEY
LECTURE 2-6
JANUARY 11-23, 2017
LECTURE 5
THE OIKOS
LECTURE OUTLINE
1. The oikos and kingship
2. Families & War
3. Penelope, Odysseus’s wife
THE OIKOS
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Oikos—household, private, composed of kin+
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Agora—public space (assembly in Homer, later the
marketplace)
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Composition of the oikos
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Family—Patriarchal structure, wife runs the house (including
craft-work like weaving)
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Includes grown children & their families
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Servants & slaves
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Retainers—Non-kin aristocrats attached to the house
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Guest-friends
CUSTOM & RULE
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Custom rules social interactions
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Determined by your role & situation
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In Ithaca, without Odysseus there, proper actions are
unclear
•
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What is the status of the oikos? Is Penelope a widow? Is
Telemachus in charge?
Rule (basileus)
•
Translated as “king,” perhaps “ruler” or “prince” is closer
to the reality
•
You rule your oikos (private) and local kingship (public)
KINGSHIP IN ITHACA
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The situation (1.451-62)
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Oikos problem
•
•
Wealth being consumed
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Penelope’s remarriage & role in the house
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Telemachus is ready to assert his rule over oikos
Kingship problem
•
•
Penelope and the selection of the next king?
Telemachus’s private problem (marriage, oikos) is bound
up with the political problem (kingship)
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What Telemachus needs from the assembly
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Goal: Resolve the private problem
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Needs support or sympathy from the people
•
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Mentor & Halitherses
Telemachus travels to Pylos & Sparta
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Friends outfit the ship
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Contact his father’s old allies
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Suitors feel threatened & plot to murder Telemachus
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Does Odysseus’s return solve the problems?
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Yes, through force
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Retribution for the disrespect to his house
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Killing of the suitors solves the private problem
•
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Result is the start of a blood-feud
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Questions legitimacy of Odysseus’s kingship
(24.470-5)
Peace is made. Ithaca & House of Odysseus are
restored.
FAMILIES & WAR
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Problem: Kings are gone for 10-20 years
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What happens when you’re gone & when you
return?
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Agamemnon in Mycenae
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Betrayal, murder, revenge
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Telemachus compared to Orestes
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Menelaus & Helen—Restored House of Sparta
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Double wedding
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Sadness in the court
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As cause of the Trojan War
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Helen’s drug & self-vindicating story
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Menelaus’s response
Restoration without the feelings
What will the fate of Odysseus’s house be?
PENELOPE, ODYSSEUS’S WIFE
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The trick of the loom
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Telemachus’s view (1.289-91)
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Odysseus’s pleasure at his wife’s craft (18.316-9)
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Reunited husband & wife
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Penelope’s choice (23.97-9)
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Tests Odysseus
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Make love & tell each other stories (23.342-53)