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Home , Anticlea, Arcesius, Icarius (Spartan)

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Hermes Spartan royal Arcesius house

Laërtes Anticlea Icarius

Odysseus Clytemnestra

Telemachus Orestes

Penelope is cousin of Clytemnestra (killed by son Orestes) Zeus

Spartan Royal House X Icarius Tyndareus Leda Zeus

Penelope Clytemnestra Helen king of Mycenæ king of

Telemachus Iphigenia Electra Orestes Hermione Odyssey 1: Telemachia

Council of Gods

Neptune absent — Ethiopia

Zeus discusses Ægisthus/Agamemnon/Orestes

“ told Ægisthus this in all good will but he would not listen, and now he has paid for it.” Zeus on Mortals

Ah how shameless—the way these mortals blame the gods. From us alone, they say, come all their miseries, yes, but they themselves, with their own reckless ways, compound their pains beyond their proper share.

Look at Aegisthus now… above and beyond his share he stole Atrides’ wife, he murdered the warlord coming home from Troy though he knew it meant his own total ruin.

Far in advance we told him so ourselves, dispatching the guide, the giant-killer Hermes. ’s Plan

Send Hermes to Island— tell to let go

Athena will go to Ithaca, inspire Telemachus with courage to summon assembly and confront the suitors, then send him to Sparta and .

Does not wait for Zeus’ assent to the plan. This is not Zeus’ plan yet. No timetable. This is, however, the plot of Odyssey 1-4. Odyssey 1: Telemachia

Athena goes to Ithaca disguised as Mentes

suitors arrogant, lazy, lack ξενία

has ξενία, Telemachus lacks courage/glory

Penelope noncommittal

ξενία — polite hospitality Odyssey 1: Telemachia

…and straight to the porch he went, mortified that a guest might still be standing at the doors.

Pausing beside her there, he clasped her right hand and relieving her at once of her long bronze spear, met her with winged words: “Greetings, stranger! Here in our house you’ll find a royal welcome. Have supper first, then tell us what you need.”

ξενία — polite hospitality Odyssey 1: ξενία

takes spear and stores it safely escorts guest to chair of honor with footstool

pulls up chair beside to talk

maid provides water to wash hands

food and wine provided Odyssey 1: ξενία

“Who are you? where are you from? your city? your parents? What sort of vessel brought you? Why did the sailors land you here in Ithaca? Who did they say they are? I hardly think you came this way on foot!

And tell me this for a fact —I need to know — is this your first time here? Or are you a friend of father’s, a guest from the old days? Once, crowds of other men would come to our house on visits —visitor that he was, when he walked among the living.” Odyssey 1: ξενία

Mentes, a Taphian trading iron for bronze

Odysseus is alive.

He’s held captive on an island, “and hard men, savages, somehow hold him back against his will.”

He’s coming back. Odyssey 1: Telemachia Mentes’ plan for Telemachus

Try publicly to get rid of suitors Call an assembly and publicly tell suitors to leave Take ship and 20 men to look for father Go to Pylos, talk to Go to Sparta, talk to Menelaus Is father dead? No: put up with suitors for up to a year father will kill suitors Yes: celebrate funeral, make mother marry then kill suitors yourself — remember Orestes? Odyssey 1: Telemachia Telemachus acts up

Penelope doesn’t want to hear sing about and the returning heroes

Telemachus tells her to go inside: “I hold the reins of power in this house”

Telemachus announces that he’s calling an assembly to give suitors notice to vacate Odyssey 2: Telemachia Assembly

first one since Odysseus left

Telemachus’ complaint Antinoüs’ response: blame Penelope and her weaving

omen: two eagles fight ’ interpretation: Odysseus returns

“I said then: after many blows, and all his shipmates lost, after twenty years had wheeled by, he would come home, unrecognized by all.” Odyssey 2: Telemachia Assembly

Eurymachus’ response:

“Stop, old man!” Eurymachus, Polybus’ son, rose up to take him on. “Go home and babble your omens to your children — save them from some catastrophe coming soon. I’m a better hand than you at reading portents. Flocks of birds go fluttering under the sun’s rays, not all are fraught with meaning. Odysseus? He’s dead now, far from home — would to god that you’d died with him too.” Odyssey 2: Telemachia After the Assembly

Athena becomes tells Telemachus to sail secretly gets ship and crew

Antinoüs tries to get Telemachus to relax others will get things ready for the journey

…while the suitors, busy feasting in the halls, mocked and taunted him, flinging insults now. “God help us,” one young buck kept shouting, “he wants to slaughter us all!” Odyssey 2: Telemachia After the Assembly

Telemachus gets supplies secretly: “Don’t tell Mom!”

Athena readies the ship and crew and incapacitates the suitors Odyssey 3: Telemachia Pylos (Nestor)

huge sacrifice to (4500 worshippers, 81 bulls)

“How can I greet him, Mentor, even approach the king?”

Who welcomes them? Pisistratus! (not the tyrant)

Nestor: “Out on a trading spree or roving the waves like pirates, sea-wolves raiding at will, who risk their lives to plunder other men?” Odyssey 3: Telemachia Pylos (Nestor)

Nestor remembers leaving Troy — bad assembly

Nestor and those who left first got home safely

Agamemnon got home, but Ægisthus killed him Orestes killed Ægisthus Telemachus should also make a name for himself

Athena flies off; Telemachus bunks with Pisistratus Pisistratus drives Telemachus to Sparta Odyssey 4: Telemachia Sparta (Menelaus)

merry feast in progress horses stabled; bath offered; hands washed; food offered

“You must be descended from a line of scepter-bearing kings, for poor people do not have such sons as you are.”

Menelaus recalls wanderings: Cyprus, Phœnicia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Sidonia, Erembia?, Libya got very rich on seven-year voyage grieves for Odysseus more than anyone else

Odyssey 4: Telemachia Sparta (Menelaus & Helen)

Helen enters, recognizes Telemachus Menelaus: “I should have founded a city for Odysseus in and built him a house. I should have made him leave Ithaca with his goods, his son, and his people, and sacked for them some one of the neighboring cities that are subject to me.” Odyssey 4: Telemachia Sparta (Menelaus & Helen)

Helen drugs the wine

Helen tells of Odysseus’ secret mission into Troy: “He killed many Trojans and got much information before he reached the Argive camp"

Menealus tells of Odysseus in the wooden horse and how Helen tried to trick them Odyssey 4: Telemachia Sparta (Menelaus & Helen) next day: Menelaus asks why Telemachus has come

Menelaus remembers about capturing Proteus Ajax drowned, Agamemnon was killed by Ægisthus Odysseus is alive, with Calypso

Telemachus gets ready to return to Pylos (with a gift!) Odyssey 4: Telemachia The Suitors’ Conspiracy

suitors don’t realize Telemachus sailed plan to ambush him at sea

Medon informs Penelope, who also didn’t know detachment of suitors sails out to meet Telemachus and kill him

To be continued… (but not until book 15!) What possibilities await Telemachus?

How do Clytemnestra and Helen affect our judgment of Penelope?

Compare and contrast Nestor and Menelaus as instances of the archetypal returning hero.

How do Agamemnon, Nestor, and Menelaus affect our view of Odysseus? Odyssey 5 Second Council of the Gods

“Never let any sceptered king be kind and gentle now, not with all his heart, or set his mind on justice — no, let him be cruel and always practice outrage. Think: not one of the people whom he ruled remembers Odysseus now, that godlike man, and kindly as a father to his children.”

“Wasn’t the plan your own? You conceived it yourself: Odysseus shall return and pay the traitors back.” The Plan of Zeus

“Odysseus journeys home —the exile must return. But not in the convoy of the gods or mortal men. No, on a lashed, makeshift raft and wrung with pains, on the twentieth day he will make his landfall, fertile , the land of Phæacians, close kin to the gods themselves, who with all their hearts will prize him like a god and send him off in a ship to his own beloved land, giving him bronze and hoards of gold and robes — more plunder than he could ever have won from Troy if Odysseus had returned intact with his fair share.

So his destiny ordains. He shall see his loved ones, reach his high-roofed house, his native land at last.”

Odyssey 5 Calypso’s Island Hard-hearted you are, you gods! You unrivaled lords of jealousy — scandalized when goddesses sleep with mortals, openly, even when one has made the man her husband.

And I welcomed him warmly, cherished him, even vowed to make the man immortal, ageless, all his days… But since there is no way for another god to thwart the will of storming Zeus and make it come to nothing…

I’ll send him off, but not with any escort. I have no ships in reach, no crew to ply the oars… Odyssey 5 Calypso’s Island

In the nights, true, he’d sleep with her in the arching cave —he had no choice— unwilling lover alongside lover all too willing… But all his days he’d sit on the rocks and beaches, wrenching his heart with sobs and groans and anguish gazing out over the barren sea through blinding tears.

“…don’t be angry with me, please. All that you say is true, how well I know. Look at my wise Penelope. She falls far short of you, your beauty, stature. She is mortal after all and you, you never age or die…” Odyssey 5 Day 5

Odysseus sets sail on his raft

Day 18

Land ahoy!

Poseidon returns from Ethiopia

Ino and the scarf Athena Odyssey 5 Day 20

Odysseus grabs hold of a reef Odyssey 6 Nausicaä

Athena sends a dream: marriage marriage wash clothes marriage Odyssey 6 The Beach

And out he stalked as a mountain lion exultant in his power strides through wind and rain and his eyes blaze and he charges sheep or oxen or chases wild deer but his hunger drives him on to go for flocks, even to raid the best-defended homestead.

So Odysseus moved out, about to mingle with all those lovely girls…

Odyssey 6 The Beach

“γουνοῦμαί σε, ἄνασσα· θεός νύ τις ἦ βροτός ἐσσι;”

“Only yesterday, the twentieth day, did I escape the wine-dark sea.”

“And may the good gods give you all your heart desires: husband, and house, and lasting harmony too. No finer, greater gift in the world than that… when man and woman possess their home, two minds, two hearts that work as one. Despair to their enemies, a joy to all their friends. Their own best claim to glory.” Odyssey 6 Consolation

“…it’s Olympian Zeus himself who hands our fortunes out, to each of us in turn, to the good and bad, however Zeus prefers … He gave you pain, it seems. You simply have to bear it.” Odyssey 6 Xenia

But here’s an unlucky wanderer strayed our way and we must tend him well. Every stranger and beggar comes from Zeus, and whatever scrap we give him he’ll be glad to get. So, quick, my girls, give our newfound friend some food and drink and bathe the man in the river, wherever you find some shelter from the wind. Odyssey 6 marriage marriage marriage

At first he seemed appalling, I must say — now he seems like a god who rules the skies up there! Ah, if only a man like that were called my husband, lived right here, pleased to stay forever…

go to the orchard (alōē) Odyssey 7 arrival at Scheria of the Phæacians

“The men here never suffer strangers gladly, have no love for hosting a man from foreign lands.”

mist Gaia

Uranus

Cronos Rhea Eurymedon X

Zeus Poseidon

Nausithoüs X

X Rhexenor Alcinoüs

Arete Nausicaä Phæacians Odyssey 7 ’ Palace is guarded

And dogs of gold and silver were stationed either side, forged by the god of fire with all his cunning craft to keep watch on generous King Alcinous’ palace, his immortal guard-dogs, ageless, all their days.”

Scheria is a utopia with lots of defenses… why? Odyssey 7

Who are you? Where are you from? Who gave you the clothes you’re wearing now? Didn’t you say you reached us roving on the sea?

Odysseus …and the goddess took me in in all her kindness, welcomed me warmly, cherished me, even vowed to make me immortal, ageless, all my days — but she never won the heart inside me, never. Odyssey 7 Alcinoüs Father Zeus, Athena and lord ! if only — seeing the man you are, seeing we think as one — you could wed my daughter and be my son-in-law and stay right here with us. I’d give you a house and great wealth —if you chose to stay, that is. Odyssey 8 Party for a Stranger

ἦμος δ’ ἠριγένεια φάνη ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς, ὤρνυτ’ ἄρ' ἐξ εὐνῆς ἱερὸν μένος Ἀλκινόοιο, ἂν δ’ ἄρα διογενὴς ὦρτο πτολίπορθος Ὀδυσσεύς.

When young Dawn with her rose-red fingers shone once more the holy might of Alcinous rose from bed and too god-born Odysseus, sacker of cities, rose. Odyssey 8 Party for a Stranger

Call in the inspired bard Demodocus. God has given the man the gift of song, to him beyond all others, the power to please, however the spirit stirs him on to sing.

…and when they’d put aside desire for food and drink, the Muse inspired the bard to sing the famous deeds of fighting heroes— the song whose fame had reached the skies those days: The Strife between Odysseus and , Peleus’ Son…

…thanks to the will of Zeus who rules the world.

Odyssey 8 Games for a Stranger

I never took you for someone skilled in games, the kind that real men play throughout the world. Not a chance. You’re some skipper of profiteers, roving the high seas in his scudding craft, reckoning up his freight with a keen eye out for home-cargo, grabbing the gold he can! You’re no athlete. I see that.

Philoctetes alone outshot me there at Troy when ranks of Achaean archers bent their bows. Odyssey 8 Demodocus again

Odysseus asks Demodocus to sing of the Horse

“…sang how Odysseus marched right up to Deiphobus’ house like the god of war on attack with diehard Menelaus.”

Come, tell us the name they call you there at home — your mother, father, townsmen, neighbors round about. Surely no man in the world is nameless, all told. Born high, born low, as soon as he sees the light his parents always name him, once he’s born. Odyssey 8 Foreshadowing

True, there’s an old tale I heard my father telling once. Nausithoüs used to say that lord Poseidon was vexed with us because we escorted all mankind and never came to grief. He said that one day, as a well-built ship of ours sailed home on the misty sea from such a convoy, the god would crush it, yes, and pile a huge mountain round about our port. Who is The Man, the stranger with no name?

What narrative possibilities await him?

What does Nausicaä want for him? What might the Phæacians do to him?

How can he now save his homecoming day?