Timothy Dolch

IPS 8311: and Vergil

One of the most perplexing events in the is ’s decision to test her suitors by means of ’s bow. The fortuitous nature of this decision has been the mainspring of a variety of speculations concerning the causal sequences within the narrative and

Homer’s thematic intentions. I propose to discuss the questions raised by Penelope’s decision as well as several theories that attempt to explain it. I conclude that even though the plot resolution of is credible, some of the questions must remain open. In this way the Odyssey is true to life.

I group the questions surrounding Penelope’s decision to initiate the bow contest into two categories. First, there is the question of divine involvement in human decisions. Homer initially attributes the decision to Penelope, but later he credits with putting it into her mind. Second, there is the question of Penelope’s recognition of Odysseus. On the surface of the text, she does not recognize him until he describes his bed to her after killing the suitors.

However, her decision to initiate the bow contest after the disguised Odysseus assures her that he will soon return, suggests, to some interpreters, a silent collusion between them.

Divine Intervention

At the beginning of book 21, Homer tells us:

Now the bright-eyed goddess put it into the mind Of Icarios’ daughter, the prudent Penelope, To set the bow before the suitors and the gray iron In Odysseus’ halls as a contest and a start for slaughter.1

1 21.1-4 1

In this passage the action of Athena appears crucial. Odysseus had been trying to think of a plan of attack against the suitors since he arrived in , but apparently he is unsuccessful. He makes some preparations together with Telemachos, removing the weapons from the dining hall and discussing whether to look for more comrades.2 But these preparations do not amount to a plan. Only the intervention of Athena moves the plot forward.

If we are meant to take Athena’s intervention seriously, then there are two different lessons we might draw from it. The first is that it would confirm the correlation of Athena and

Odysseus. Both are shrewd, and Athena intervenes shrewdly on Odysseus’s behalf where his own shrewdness falls short. She could almost be considered his personal patron deity.3 Homer’s point in this could be that the divine appears to us in our own form, confirming the strength of our central disposition. The Biblical statement,

To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.4 expresses something of the theme.

The second lesson of Athena’s intervention would be to affirm Odysseus’s active dependence on divine aid. The chief gods in the Odyssey, Athena and , clearly favor the justice of Odysseus’s dispatch of the unjust suitors. Zeus provides omens and Athena provides promises of direct support for Odysseus.5 Odysseus acts in expectation of their help by preparing for the battle even though he has no definite plan for how it will take place. His own

2 16.233-320, 19.1-35

3 13.296-301

4 Psalm 18:25-26, NIV

5 13.392-96; 16.170-1; 18.112-18; 19.535-58; 20.47-51, 98-121. See Rozokoki, Alexandra, “Penelope’s Dream in Book 19 of the ‘Odyssey,’” The Classical Quarterly 51, no. 1 (2001): 4. 2 wisdom is not enough to accomplish his task, but he follows the signs he is given and puts himself in the place suitable for receiving divine assistance, which comes in the provision of the bow.

Yet against these interpretations of the significance of Athena’s intervention stands the fact that Homer has Penelope announce her decision two books earlier, with no reference to divine intervention.6 Penelope has been discussing a dream about Odysseus’s triumphal return with Odysseus himself, still disguised as a beggar. Odysseus assures her that the dream is true, but she does not believe him. She then tells him of her intention to set up the bow contest and marry the winner. No supernatural explanation is given or required; her decision is her own.

She tells Odysseus of it the night before Athena is supposed to have put it in her mind.

The apparent conflict between the two accounts of Penelope’s decision can be explained in several ways. We could theorize that books 19 and 21 were composed at different times, perhaps even by different authors, and that the final assemblage is simply inconsistent. I find this hard to believe, because there is a single line of development. Moreover, the two accounts can be more easily reconciled. Again, we could say with Walter Allen that Homer “sacrifices the credibility of the character of Penelope to his plot.”7 On this interpretation there are inconsistent accounts of Penelope’s decision because Homer is interested more in drama than in Penelope.

This seems a drastic narrowing of the scope and interest of the poem, however. Surely Homer is concerned with more than just cobbling a plot. Furthermore, Penelope is a major character,8 and

6 19.571-74

7 Allen, Walter Jr., “The Theme of the Suitors in the Odyssey,” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Society 70 (1939): 116.

8 On Homer’s exploration of the character of Penelope see Chris Emlyn-Jones, “The Reunion of Penelope and Odysseus,” Greece & Rome, Second Series, vol. 31, no. 1 (Apr. 1984): 10-14. 3 her integrity as a character is important to the integrity of Odysseus and to his interactions with her, and thus to the plot as well.

There are two ways to reconcile the two accounts of Penelope’s decision without impugning the integrity of the poem or its characters, both of which involve attention to timing.

One way is to recognize that the opening of book 21 may be telling us that Athena’s intervention was in the decision to put the bow out that very morning, not necessarily in the decision to use the bow simpliciter. Penelope’s statement in book 19 does not commit her to immediate action, and the fact that Odysseus urges her not to “delay this contest any longer” may suggest that she has already been delaying carrying out a decision that she had made some time earlier.9 Another way to reconcile the accounts is to say that they represent an instance of the narration of simultaneous events as if they happened consecutively. Homer has been shown to use this authorial technique in other places.10 Taking this view, we may suppose that book 21 is telling us that Penelope’s decision on the previous night was just as much Athena’s doing as her own— an instance of dual causality. We may then infer that Homer begins the book by restating the decision in order to remind his audience what has occurred, to credit Athena with it, and thereby to introduce the proximate cause of the events to follow. Admittedly, the gap of a whole book casts doubt on this interpretation. On the other hand, the book-length gap between Penelope’s discussion with Odysseus and the contest itself calls for some kind of reminder. In any case, it is not my intention here to defend this interpretation, only to suggest it as a way to explain the apparent conflict between the two accounts of Penelope’s decision.

9 19.584

10 Basset, Samuel E., “The ,” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 49 (1918): 47-49. 4

If we take either of the latter two interpretations just presented, the lessons discussed above retain their validity as reflections on an integral narrative. Athena’s intervention could still be a necessary source of Odysseus’s style and success. Nevertheless, the purely human account of Penelope’s decision in book 19 provides grounds for questioning the moral deductions. We could perhaps naturalize the lesson of active dependence into something like,

“chance favors the prepared mind,” and explain the correlation of Odysseus and Athena as due to the projection of the divine from the self. On these points, it seems to me, the questions must remain open, for Homer does not explicitly settle them for us.

Penelope’s Recognition of Odysseus

I turn now to the questions of Penelope’s recognition of Odysseus. A major problem surrounding Penelope’s decision to initiate the bow contest is the possibility of her recognizing

Odysseus prior to the contest. The dramatic recognition scene in book 23, in which Penelope refuses to believe Odysseus until he describes the master bed that he built into the house, has not convinced some critics that she did not recognize Odysseus sooner. According to these critics, the fortuitousness of her decision to bring out the bow is strong evidence for the view that she has recognized Odysseus and now uses the bow contest to provide him with the means to destroy the suitors.

Before addressing the question of whether Penelope recognized Odysseus before the bow contest, we should ask the logically prior question whether Penelope wanted the suitors to be killed, or whether she actually wanted to marry a suitor. Some scholars point to her description of her dream to Odysseus in book 19 as evidence that she wanted to marry a suitor. In the 5 dream, she saw a flock of geese devoured by an Eagle. The Eagle then told her that he was

Odysseus, and the flock was the suitors whom he would kill. During the dream, Penelope says

But I wept and lamented in the very dream, And the fair-haired Achaian women gathered about me, As I piteously grieved that the eagle killed my geese.11

Penelope’s grief in the dream can be taken to indicate that she was looking forward to marrying a suitor.12 Another passage that some think favors the view that Penelope wanted to marry a suitor is the opening of book 21, in which she announces the contest with an apparent seriousness not evident in her previous visit to the suitors’ banquet in book 18.13 I do not agree with these interpretations, but before discussing their shortcomings, we should notice that they do provide a reasonable explanation for why Penelope brings out the bow the morning after her conversation with Odysseus. He had assured her that Odysseus would be home very soon. Therefore, on the view being considered here, she holds the contest immediately in order to get married and be gone before he comes home! On this view the suspense of the epic is heightened, and Odysseus is finally moved to act by the urgency of the situation.14

A number of counterpoints can be made to the view that Penelope wanted to marry a suitor. In regard to her dream, it is clear in the text that she grieved for the geese before she heard the eagle’s interpretation.15 In fact, she says that the eagle “checked me,” i.e. that he stopped her grieving.16 Further, she plainly tells the disguised Odysseus that she does not

11 19.541-43

12 Rozoki, 2-3.

13 Allen, 118.

14 Allen, 118.

15 19.541-550. Rozokoki, 2-3.

16 19.545 6 believe the dream, even though she wants to.17 In regard to her seriousness in book 21, we can observe that she weeps when retrieving the bow, and that she reviles the suitors even as she announces the contest.18

Assuming, then, that Penelope did not want to marry a suitor, we come to the question of whether, and to what extent, she recognized Odysseus before bringing out his bow. We meet here some of the same theories already discussed in relation to divine intervention. Some scholars have thought that the Odyssey must be based on an earlier poem in which the recognition explicitly took place before the bow contest.19 Allen argues, again, that Penelope’s character is not well developed, claiming that Homer avoids having us think about her motives.20

I think it is reasonable to reject these interpretations again for the same reason given above, that they do not do justice to Homeric depth and integrity. Against the view that Penelope colludes with Odysseus, I should point out that there is no evidence within the narrative itself to indicate that Penelope knows what is going to happen during contest. To the contrary, when Odysseus takes the bow, she is still in the room, and Telemachos has to usher her out and see that the doors are shut.21 A more moderate version of the recognition thesis proposes that Penelope has a growing intuitive recognition of Odysseus in books 17-23, which either never quite becomes conscious, or is never explicitly acted on for fear of being mistaken.22 A slightly different version of this is that she believes the disguised Odysseus when he tells her that he shall soon

17 19.560-568. Rozokoki, 4-5.

18 21.56, 68-72

19 Emlyn-Jones, 2.

20 Allen, 122.

21 21.344-358, 380-85

22 Emlyn-Jones, 2-5. 7 return, but that she does not believe the beggar himself is Odysseus. On these two interpretations, further questions arise. Does Penelope think Odysseus is in the house and will reveal himself when she brings out the bow? Is the bow contest a stalling tactic, because she knows that none of the suitors will be able to string it?

I am inclined to think that Penelope did not know that the beggar was Odysseus, and that her behavior indicates despair and resignation more than anything else. When she tells Odysseus about her plans for the bow contest after telling him that she does not believe her dream, it is as though she were offering her plans for the contest as proof that she does not believe the dream.

Unless she knows that none of the suitors could string the bow—which would strongly imply either recognition of Odysseus or a stalling tactic—Odysseus’s response, urging her to go ahead with the contest, sounds fantastical. When he suggests that he will arrive before the suitors string the bow, the implication to her mind must be that he will arrive that very night, perhaps any minute. Her response, “Stranger, if you should like to sit by me in the halls / And delight me, sleep would never be shed on my eyelids,”23 is gently sarcastic, and suggests that she no longer takes the stranger seriously because he appears to be simply trying to cheer her up with nonsense. There is a great deal of dramatic irony in the scene, and ultimately in the contest itself. Penelope holds the contest because she is in complete despair, and yet it provides her own and Odysseus’s salvation. Here the plot of the Odyssey finds its resolution in an event that resists complete explanation.

Conclusions

23 19.589-590 8

Penelope’s decision to initiate the bow contest is the turning point of the latter half of the

Odyssey. Odysseus spends book after book insinuating himself into the suitors’ banquet and trying to devise a plan by which he can kill them. His plan never gets very far, but everything falls into place once Penelope decides to bring out the bow, or rather, once she falls into despair.

This event can be considered from several aspects. As a tale of divine intervention, it provides the story with certain moral lessons. As a case of dual explanation, it provides a ground to consider naturalism. Its ambiguity creates suspense leading up to Odysseus’s victory, and provides continuing ground for reflection afterward. A number of questions can be raised as to why Penelope behaves the way she does, but ultimately these should point us back to a deeper appreciation of the fact that the story finds its resolution in spite of all of the questions that do not receive a definitive answer. Homer’s work here reflects the nature of life itself, in which we must find purpose without being able to understand with any final certainty the reasons why everything should occur just as it does.