S1: Welcome to the Hillsdale College Online Courses podcast. I'm Jeremiah Regan.
S2: And I'm Juan Davalos. We are on to a new
S2: course today, The Odyssey. We're going to be covering lecture
S2: one today, Ithaca. And I'm going to start by making
S2: a confession here, which is that unlike Jeremiah, I know
S2: very little about Homer's Odyssey for now. That's right. So
S2: I am going to be actually just a student of
S2: this course, and I'm really excited about it because it's
S2: one of those things that I've always wanted to dive into.
S2: And I started obviously watching with lecture one, and I'm
S2: really excited because it's a beautiful course and Jeremiah can
S2: tell us a little bit more about it.
S1: The Odyssey is an epic poem that was, we would
S1: say authored, but really because it was transmitted verbally, was
S1: created by the poet Homer, who was also the author
S1: of The Iliad. And the Odyssey takes place after the Iliad.
S1: The Iliad is mostly about the last few days of
S1: the Trojan War. It's about the rage of Achilles and
S1: the will of Zeus. The Odyssey is named after its protagonist, Odysseus,
S1: and Odyssey, in our modern parlance, has come to mean
S1: like a long journey. And that's because that's what Odysseus
S1: undertakes in The Odyssey. He's been in Troy, fighting the
S1: Trojan War for ten years. It takes him ten more
S1: years to journey home through many twists and turns, through
S1: many travails and temptations. But he makes his way back
S1: to his home, where he is a king and will
S1: have to re-establish his kingdom.
S2: So I know that Doctor Whalen is going to go
S2: into more detail on this, but why should we? Obviously,
S2: this is a great story. It has survived the test
S2: of time. But why should we care about a story
S2: like this one?
S1: It's for several reasons. One is that it's beautiful. Homer
S1: is an outstanding poet. He writes memorable nuggets, but also
S1: this is a very long extended poem. So he's the
S1: master of the short and the long. It's about ancient
S1: Greeks and Greek mythology. But Homer taps into the universal
S1: human condition, and he tells us something about all men
S1: at all times, the types of virtues and vices that
S1: men have, the temptations they face. So Odysseus, for example,
S1: does not have necessarily, though he is an accomplished warrior,
S1: the same martial skill as Achilles, the greatest warrior. Odysseus
S1: has other traits, though he's very cunning, prudent. That means
S1: he's able to look at circumstances and determine what actions
S1: will lead to the most good. But he's also a
S1: character who undergoes development and improvement. Throughout the course of
S1: the poem, we watch as he learns lessons about hubris
S1: or arrogance that he later Applies to great success. The
S1: hubris early in the poem causes many problems for him
S1: and his men. Later in the poem, he is more
S1: humble and he's wiser, and he's able to avoid the
S1: types of disasters that could befall him had he not
S1: learned his lesson. So it's a great historical work, and
S1: it's a great human work. It's as relevant today for
S1: human beings who are examining themselves as it was for
S1: the Greek listeners 2500 years or more ago. But on
S1: top of that, it's filled with colorful characters, adventures, all
S1: kinds of things that make a story great.
S2: If this is your first time jumping into this amazing story,
S2: I encourage you to go to hillsdale.edu/course and pick up
S2: a copy of the book. That's hillsdale.edu/course. At the top,
S2: you'll see the tab that says books, and you can
S2: buy a copy of The Odyssey. The translation is by
S2: Robert Fagles. That's Edu forward slash course.
S1: Now, let's turn to Professor Whalen with lecture one of
S1: the Odyssey. Ithaca.
S3: This is an epic poem from archaic Greece, composed perhaps
S3: around the year 750 BC, but set in a heroic
S3: age even more distant than that around maybe 1100 or
S3: 1200 BC at the end of the late Bronze Age.
S3: We know nothing about the author of this poem. We
S3: call him Homer. Other than the tradition that he was blind,
S3: he was, though undoubtedly a master storyteller and poet. I
S3: want to dive into the poem. But first, a word
S3: of encouragement. Nothing I say can replace or stand as
S3: a substitute for the reading of Homer's Odyssey here at Hillsdale.
S3: We like our students to encounter the primary works, to
S3: read the great books. We don't want our students just
S3: to read about them or to just know about the story,
S3: but to actually hear Homer's voice. And in case you
S3: are intimidated by the thought of reading a nearly 3000
S3: year old poem, I want to encourage you. You will
S3: be surprised at how readable, accessible, and even downright delightful
S3: Homer's story is. We are working with Robert Fagles translation
S3: of The Odyssey, which is quite easy to understand and
S3: quite readable. It's gripping and striking in many ways. So
S3: don't be intimidated. Grab a copy, crack it open. You'll
S3: find it as readable as any contemporary novel, and it's
S3: one of the greatest works of Western literature. Hello, I'm
S3: Benedict Whalen, professor of English at Hillsdale College, and I'm
S3: delighted to have you join me as we read through
S3: Homer's The Odyssey. Book one of the Odyssey starts with
S3: these words sing to me of the man muse, the
S3: man of twists and turns, driven time and again off course.
S3: Once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy. Many
S3: cities of men. He saw and learned their minds many pains.
S3: He suffered. Heartsick on the open sea, fighting to save
S3: his life and bring his comrades home. But he could
S3: not save them from disaster. Hard as he strove, the
S3: recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all the blind fools.
S3: They devoured the cattle of the sun and the sun.
S3: God wiped from sight. The day of their return. Launch
S3: out on his story. Muse, daughter of Zeus. Start from
S3: where you will sing. For our time to buy. Now
S3: all the survivors, all who avoided headlong death. Were safe
S3: at home. Escaped the wars and waves. But one man alone.
S3: His heart set on his wife and his return. Calypso,
S3: the bewitching nymph, the lustrous goddess, held him back deep
S3: in her arching caverns, craving him for a husband. But then,
S3: when the wheeling seasons brought the year around, that year
S3: spun out by the gods when he should reach his home. Ithaca.
S3: Though not even there would he be free of trials,
S3: even among his loved ones. Then every God took pity.
S3: All except Poseidon. He raged on, seething against the great.
S3: Odysseus till he reached his native land. Now the first
S3: 12 lines here are what we now call or describe
S3: as the epic invocation. It's the part at the beginning
S3: of a great epic poem where the poet raises a
S3: prayer to the goddess, the muse, for inspiration. This becomes
S3: a convention in epic literature, following Homer, Virgil, Dante and
S3: following epic poets all offer invocations in a similar style.
S3: The epic invocation also establishes the subject of the poem. Here,
S3: the man of twists and turns. Now, to know more
S3: about this man, we need to establish a little bit
S3: of our background. What was this Troy that Odysseus plundered?
S3: To learn more about Troy, We would need to turn
S3: to Homer's earlier epic poem, The Iliad. That epic poem
S3: is about a great war fought over a woman named Helen. Helen,
S3: the daughter of Zeus, the chief of the gods, was
S3: the most beautiful woman in the world. And when she
S3: was young, all of the greatest men, princes and kings
S3: of Greece, came courting her as they were trying to
S3: win her hand. They made an agreement. They swore an
S3: oath that they would all band together and support and
S3: defend and protect the marriage of whomever Helen ended up with.
S3: Helen ended up marrying the king of Sparta, Menelaus. Several
S3: years after their marriage, however, a young prince from the
S3: city of Troy. His name was Paris. He came and
S3: according to different traditions, he either seduced or abducted Helen
S3: and carried her off to the city of Troy. In
S3: keeping with the oath that they had all sworn, all
S3: of the great princes and men of Greece gathered their
S3: subjects together and joined Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon as
S3: they sailed to Troy to win back Helen. While there
S3: the great hero of the Greeks, Achilles fought, and after
S3: the close of the epic, finally died. He is the
S3: primary character of the Iliad. While at Troy, Achilles and
S3: the other great princes of the Achaeans fought to regain Helen.
S3: But they also fought to gain glory. Or, to use
S3: the Greek phrase kleos kleos means glory, or fame, or
S3: that which is heard about a person. It is the
S3: thing that heroes strove for as well as victory. Now
S3: different things can denote kleos, the armour of an enemy
S3: whom one has defeated the prizes one wins in a
S3: contest with one's peers, or even the songs that bards
S3: sing about, one that carry one's renown and fame, or
S3: kleos abroad to the larger Greek population. Now, in the Iliad,
S3: Achilles is given a unique choice. He hears a prophecy
S3: regarding his death. He can either fight and die at
S3: Troy while gaining undying Cleo's undying glory, or he can
S3: live through the war and return home. But he returns
S3: home in obscurity and won't have the kleos that he
S3: fights for now in the Iliad. Achilles is uncertain as
S3: to what he'll really do until his friend Patroclus joins
S3: the combat and his friend dies at Hector's hands, and
S3: Achilles desire to avenge his friend's death leads him into
S3: the battle and finally to his own death. Now, in
S3: the larger mythology, after the close of Homer's Iliad, the Greeks,
S3: the Achaeans do finally sack Troy. They do this through
S3: the plot of the Trojan Horse, Odysseus's idea. Odysseus counsels
S3: his fellows to build a giant, hollow wooden horse that
S3: they leave behind as a trophy for the Trojans. The
S3: fleet should sail away and the horse should be left
S3: there on the shore. They follow this plot, but they
S3: fill the horse with all the greatest warriors of the Achaeans.
S3: The Trojans thinking they've won the war, bring the horse
S3: into their walls, and at night the Greek warriors burst
S3: out of the horse. They open the gates to the
S3: army that has returned in the night, and they sack
S3: the citadel. Now, this story is a famous instance of
S3: Odysseus cunning, or to use the Greek word, his mates.
S3: Odysseus was famous, renowned throughout the Achaean forces for his cunning,
S3: for his wisdom, for his practical intelligence. But in the
S3: sacking of Troy, many atrocities are done, different rapes and
S3: pillages happen, and certain temples of the gods are desecrated.
S3: This offends various of the gods of Olympus, and so
S3: the gods then punish the triumphant Greek warriors as they
S3: attempt to return home. Now, a triumphant homecoming or a
S3: return home was known among the Greeks as a nostos,
S3: and this was also very valued, very sought after by
S3: the Greeks. If, on the one hand, the Achaean warriors
S3: wanted Kleos, they also want to do accomplish a nostos
S3: a triumphant return home. The gods, angered by the behavior
S3: of many of the Achaeans during the sack of Troy,
S3: decide to punish the Greeks and interfere with their triumphant homecomings,
S3: their nostos. Some are struck down by the gods, some
S3: are blown all over the Mediterranean, and Menelaus brother Agamemnon,
S3: the leader of all the Achaean forces, as he returns home,
S3: is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra, who had taken up
S3: a lover Aegisthus, while he was gone in the ten
S3: years at Troy. Eventually, their son Orestes comes and avenges
S3: his father's death by murdering his mother, Clytemnestra. Orestes will
S3: prove an important role model that characters in The Odyssey
S3: will think about. Now, all of that is important background
S3: information for us. But if we look at this poem,
S3: Homer's epic invocation for the Odyssey, we learn several other
S3: interesting things. For instance, we learn that much time has
S3: passed since the sack of Troy, since the fall of
S3: that great city, before this poem opens. In fact, so
S3: much time has passed that all of Odysseus's men have died.
S3: The passage of this time leads us to the convention
S3: that epic poets follow after Homer, which is. They start
S3: their poems in the middle of things, or, to use
S3: the Latin phrase in media res, the Iliad for Homer
S3: started nine years into the war against Troy. The Odyssey
S3: starts nine years into Odysseus attempt to get home. Now,
S3: the very first word in the Greek of the Odyssey
S3: is the word andra, which means man. And in the
S3: first line of the Odyssey in Greek, we have one
S3: important adjective that describes the man named there, and that
S3: is poly tropin, a form of that adjective is rendered
S3: here in Fagles translation as the man of twists and turns.
S3: Other translators render polytrope as crafty, or of roundabout ways,
S3: or of resourceful or of many ways. This is one
S3: of the most important attributes of the man that our
S3: poem is going to be about. Now, on one level,
S3: he is of many twists and turns of many ways
S3: because he has been driven time and again off course.
S3: That is physically in his journey. He has had twists
S3: and turns. But on a deeper level, metaphorically and about
S3: Odysseus's character, he's a man of twists and turns in
S3: that he doesn't quite follow a straight line. He's a
S3: deep man. He's a man who's hard to grasp, a
S3: man who's hard to pin down. He will be a
S3: challenge for us to understand. This characteristic of Odysseus as
S3: a polytropic, tropin as a man of twists and turns
S3: is related to that earlier term. I already mentioned that
S3: Odysseus has Mattis. He has cunning. If he is a
S3: man of twists and turns of poly tropin, he is
S3: also a man of cunning and intelligence in many ways
S3: a man of poly moieties. That is, he has many
S3: different forms of understanding and thought. Poly moieties is one
S3: of Odysseus primary epithets. An epithet in ancient Greek literature
S3: is repeatedly used. Descriptive phrase Homer attaches many different epithets
S3: to his different characters. As you're reading this epic, you'll
S3: notice that Athena might be described as the sparkling eyed
S3: goddess or grey eyed Athena. We hear of weary Penelope
S3: or cautious Penelope. We even get epithets describing inanimate things
S3: like rosy fingered dawn before Odysseus. His most important and
S3: most commonly used epithet is Poly Mattis. It's related to
S3: his being of twists and turns. He's a man of
S3: many different forms of thought. Now, one of the ways
S3: in which Odysseus is a man of twists and turns
S3: and is hard to pin down, is reflected in the
S3: very poetry of this beginning. That is, we actually don't
S3: get Odysseus name until 24 lines in. In Fagles translation
S3: in the original Greek. We don't get the name of
S3: Odysseus until 21 lines in. So we hear, sing to
S3: me of the man muse, the man of twists and turns.
S3: But even his name escapes us for nearly 25 lines.
S3: This delay increases the dramatic nature, the quality. It emphasizes
S3: the man. He is slow to reveal himself to us.
S3: He is slow to come into vision for us. This
S3: is in contrast to Achilles, the main character of the Iliad.
S3: Achilles and his wrath is named in the very first
S3: line of that poem. Here Odysseus, with his very name,
S3: waits and lingers in the background. And when he does
S3: come before us, he will be a challenge for us
S3: to understand. Now, Odysseus's name itself is also an interesting one.
S3: There's some scholarly debate about the exact roots, the linguistic
S3: origins of Odysseus's name. We certainly think that it is
S3: perhaps related to words meaning to be angry at, but
S3: it also seems to be associated with a verb that
S3: can mean who suffers pain or also, conversely, inflicts pain.
S3: And I actually like this duality in Odysseus's name. That is,
S3: he is one who suffers pain and one who inflicts pain. Now,
S3: a few other important details that we get here in
S3: these opening lines is that we hear Odysseus, many cities
S3: of men. He saw and learned their minds. It's a
S3: sort of a curious phrase. Here. We have emphasis here
S3: again on Odysseus intellectual qualities. That is, he sees cities,
S3: and he doesn't just know their architecture or their religion
S3: or their cuisine, but he understands their intellectual makeup. He
S3: learns their minds. Odysseus is a penetrating and deep thinker.
S3: We also learn that Odysseus has survived something that destroyed
S3: all of the rest of his men. There is something grizzled,
S3: something hardened, something of the survivor. In Odysseus. He survives
S3: where others die. Then also interestingly, we learn that Odysseus
S3: is beloved by goddesses. There's this nymph Calypso, who loves him,
S3: who wants him as a husband. But then he's also
S3: hated by other gods. Poseidon, the brother of Zeus, a
S3: very powerful god, is bent on Odysseus destruction. So Odysseus
S3: has this funny quality where he's beloved of some gods
S3: and hated by others. And despite it all, he manages
S3: to survive. The final, really important thing we see here
S3: in these opening lines is that Odysseus is striving to
S3: get home. He wants to get home to his wife,
S3: his heart set on his wife and his return. But
S3: this nymph, this goddess Calypso, wants him as her husband. That,
S3: as we see right at the beginning of this epic,
S3: that there is a threat to Odysseus marriage. Now, if
S3: we recall in the Iliad, we can think of a
S3: whole political order, a whole city of men brought to
S3: its destruction because it committed itself to the violation of
S3: the marriage of Helen and Menelaus. Here in the Odyssey
S3: we are immediately informed of a threat to Odysseus marriage.
S3: And we should, after reading the Iliad, also wonder about
S3: the political order that that marriage supports. We will discuss
S3: this more as our narrative unfolds. But marriage and its
S3: relation to the political order is of primary importance for Homer. Now,
S3: after this opening invocation, Homer takes us to Mount Olympus,
S3: the home of the gods, where we hear an interesting
S3: conversation between several of them. The very first spoken words
S3: of this epic are spoken by Zeus, the king of
S3: all the gods, and he has this complaint to make.
S3: But the other gods at home in Olympian Zeus halls
S3: met for full assembly there, and among them. Now the
S3: father of men and gods was first to speak, sorely troubled,
S3: remembering handsome Aegisthus, the man Agamemnon's son, renowned Orestes, killed.
S3: Recalling Aegisthus, Zeus harangued the immortal powers. Ah, how shameless
S3: the way these mortals blame the gods from us alone,
S3: they say, come all their miseries. Yes, but they themselves,
S3: with their own reckless ways, compound their pains beyond their
S3: proper share. Look at Aegisthus now. Above and beyond his share.
S3: He stole Atreides wife. He murdered the warlord coming home
S3: from Troy. Though he knew it meant his own total ruin.
S3: Far in advance. We told him so ourselves. Dispatching the guide.
S3: The giant killer. Hermes. Don't murder the man, he said.
S3: Don't court his wife. Beware. Revenge will come from Orestes,
S3: Agamemnon's son, that day. He comes of age and longs
S3: for his native land. So Hermes warned with all the
S3: goodwill in the world. But would Aegisthus hardened heart give way?
S3: Now he pays the price all at a single stroke,
S3: and sparkling eyed Athena drove the matter home. Father, son
S3: of Cronus, our high and mighty king. Surely he goes
S3: down to a death he earned in full. Let them
S3: all die so all who do such things. But my
S3: heart breaks for Odysseus, that seasoned veteran cursed by fate
S3: so long, far from his loved ones. Still he suffers torments. Now,
S3: this opening conversation is very interesting. On the one hand,
S3: we return to the theme of a threat to marriage.
S3: And here we see the threat to marriage from the
S3: other side that is, Aegisthus courted the hero's wife while
S3: the hero was away at Troy. This, in fact, represents
S3: something that we will see with Odysseus's wife, Penelope on Ithaca.
S3: Not only is Calypso a threat to the marriage in
S3: her pursuit of Odysseus, but there are suitors who are
S3: courting Odysseus's wife, Penelope. So we see possible threats to marriage,
S3: both with the man and with the wife. But more largely,
S3: Zeus's complaint here is that men blame the gods for
S3: the suffering that they bring on themselves. This raises another
S3: important theme for the Odyssey as a whole. What are
S3: the sources, the causes of the suffering that mankind endures?
S3: Are the gods the source of our suffering? Is it
S3: chance or is it the actions of men themselves? Homer
S3: will look closely at this in the following narrative. Now,
S3: as the story continues, Athena convinces Zeus to let them
S3: dispatch Hermes, the messenger god to Calypso, telling her she
S3: has to let Odysseus off her island, and she herself
S3: decides to go down to Ithaca. Odysseus. Home island to
S3: inspire his son Telemachus. Telemachus was an infant when Odysseus
S3: left for Troy, but the war took ten years, and
S3: Odysseus has been traveling for nine years. So Telemachus is
S3: about 19 years old, about 20 years old. At the
S3: opening of this work, and Athena decides to go down
S3: to inspire Telemachus to start to move him, to prepare
S3: for his father's return. And so Homer tells us. And
S3: down she swept from Olympus, craggy peaks and lit on Ithaca,
S3: standing tall at Odysseus gates, the threshold of his court
S3: gripping her bronze spear, she looked for all the world
S3: like a stranger now like mentees. Lord of the Taphians.
S3: There she found the swaggering suitors just then amusing themselves
S3: with rolling dice before the doors, lounging on hides of oxen.
S3: They had killed themselves, while heralds and brisk attendants bustled
S3: round them, some at the mixing bowls, mulling wine and water,
S3: others wiping the tables down with sopping sponges, setting them
S3: out in place. Still other servants jointed and carved the
S3: great sides of meat. First by far to see her
S3: was Prince Telemachus sitting among the suitors, heart obsessed with grief,
S3: he could almost see his magnificent father here in the
S3: mind's eye. If only he might drop from the clouds
S3: and drive the suitors, all in a rout throughout the
S3: halls and regain his pride of place and rule his
S3: own domains. Daydreaming. So as he sat among the suitors,
S3: he glimpsed Athena now and straight to the porch he went,
S3: mortified that a guest might still be standing at the doors,
S3: pausing beside her. There he clasped her right hand and,
S3: relieving her at once of her long bronze spear, met
S3: her with winged words. Greetings, stranger. Here in our house
S3: you'll find a royal welcome. Have supper first, then tell
S3: us what you need. He led the way in Pallas.
S3: Athena followed. Once in a high roofed hall. He took
S3: her lance and fixed it firm in a burnished rack
S3: against a sturdy pillar there, where a row on row
S3: of spears, embattled Odysseus spears stood stacked and waiting. Then
S3: he escorted her to a high, elaborate chair of honour.
S3: Over it draped a cloth, and here he placed his
S3: guest with a stool to rest her feet. But for himself,
S3: he drew up a low reclining chair beside her, richly
S3: painted clear of the press of suitors concerned. His guest,
S3: offended by their uproar, might shrink from food in the
S3: midst of such a mob. He hoped once more to
S3: ask her about his long lost father. A maid brought water. Soon,
S3: in a graceful golden pitcher and over a silver basin,
S3: tipped it out so they might rinse their hands, then
S3: pulled a gleaming table to their side. A staid housekeeper
S3: brought on bread to serve them, appetizers aplenty too lavish
S3: with her bounty. A carver lifted platters of meat toward them,
S3: meats of every sort and set beside them golden cups.
S3: And time and again a page came round and poured
S3: them wine. Now we see here several important things. Of course,
S3: Telemachus is here as a young man yearning for his
S3: father's return. We see his great desire for his father.
S3: We also see the presumptive and offensive behavior of the suitors.
S3: And in fact, Telemachus is worried that this guest, this
S3: stranger to his house, might be offended by the bad
S3: behavior of the suitors. We also see Telemachus attention to
S3: this guest. And this introduces another motif or theme that
S3: is quite important for Homer's work as a whole. And
S3: that is the theme of hospitality, or Xenia in Greek.
S3: Hospitality was very important in this culture for many reasons.
S3: First of all, of course, travel was very difficult at
S3: that time, and so strangers, travelers from distant lands had
S3: already encountered great difficulties before arriving at your palace, at
S3: your house. But travelers were quite important because travelers could
S3: bring news of distant events, and news at that time
S3: would travel quite slowly. Travelers also could establish bonds between
S3: different cities, palaces, peoples and communities. That is, if you
S3: accept with hospitality, a traveler from distant Sparta say, then
S3: when you are traveling to Sparta, you might expect reasonably
S3: similar hospitality. So hospitality formed a sort of glue, a
S3: social bond that knit these different cities and peoples together. Travelers,
S3: in fact, were said to be sacred to Zeus. This
S3: principle of hospitality, this principle of Xenia, was a virtue
S3: that Zeus himself enforced. He said that we must be
S3: hospitable to strangers. Now, in this culture, the guest also
S3: has certain obligations. If he can expect to be fed,
S3: washed and housed, he should share news. He should entertain
S3: his hosts, tell stories, sing songs, perhaps compete with them
S3: in games, perhaps exchange gifts with the host. And he
S3: must be careful not to tread upon or violate this
S3: principle of hospitality. That is, while he can expect to
S3: be treated well, he should not over extend his welcome.
S3: He shouldn't overstay his welcome. This is part of what
S3: we see the suitors doing. They are violating the principle
S3: of hospitality by using their hosts. Now, while the suitors
S3: are carousing in Odysseus halls, Athena and Telemachus have a conversation,
S3: and Athena inspires Telemachus by assuring him that his father
S3: is still alive. Then she turns and observes the behavior
S3: of suitors. Homer tells us. Still, the clear eyed goddess
S3: reassured him, trust me, the gods have not marked out
S3: your house for such an unsung future. Not if Penelope
S3: is born a son like you. But tell me about
S3: all this and spare me nothing. What's this? Banqueting, this
S3: crowd carousing here? And what part do you play yourself?
S3: Some wedding feast, some festival. Hardly a potluck supper, I
S3: would say how obscenely they lounge and swagger here, look,
S3: gorging in your house. Why, any man of sense who
S3: chanced among them would be outraged. Seeing such behavior, Athena
S3: provokes Telemachus. With this, Telemachus goes on to complain that
S3: he doesn't have the power or the authority to dismiss
S3: the men. The men are there ignoring young Telemachus and
S3: always trying to win the favor of Penelope. Telemachus goes
S3: on to say this curious detail about his mother's behavior. Listen.
S3: All the nobles who rule the islands round about Dulichium
S3: and same and wooded Zacynthus too, and all who lord
S3: it in rocky Ithaca as well. Down to the last
S3: man they caught my mother they lay waste my house
S3: and mother. She neither rejects a marriage she despises. Nor
S3: can she bear to bring the courting to an end.
S3: While they continue to bleed my household white. Soon you wait.
S3: They'll grind me down as well. Shameful! Brimming with indignation, Pallas!
S3: Athena broke out. Now Telemachus here presents us with an
S3: interesting detail and a difficult question. Mother neither rejects a
S3: marriage she despises, nor can she bear to bring the
S3: courting to the end. Why, if Penelope despises the proposed marriages. Why?
S3: If she is not interested in these suitors, does she
S3: not bring the courting to an end? It's a very
S3: interesting question, one that Telemachus himself can't answer, and one
S3: that sits for us as a very important issue at
S3: the opening of this poem. In fact, this question is
S3: repeatedly phrased over the course of the Odyssey and becomes
S3: one of the dominant motifs or questions that we have
S3: regarding our characters. What is Penelope really up to with
S3: the suitors who are besieging her household? We'll follow this
S3: question as we go. Indeed, Penelope, like Odysseus, is going
S3: to be somewhat difficult to pin down. If Odysseus is
S3: a man of twists and turns and of Metis Penelope two,
S3: and presents interpretive difficulties for us. What exactly does she want?
S3: What are her ends? What are her aims? Now we'll
S3: get a glimpse of Penelope in just a moment. But
S3: first Athena encourages Telemachus. She tells him he should gather
S3: all the nobles in a council the next morning to
S3: see if they will restrain the suitors. And then she says,
S3: if they won't, he should sail to the mainland of
S3: Greece to visit Nestor in the city of Pylos, and
S3: then Menelaus in the city of Sparta, visiting those two
S3: men who had been with his father at Troy. They
S3: had both returned home. Their veterans who knew Odysseus well,
S3: and Telemachus, Athena advises him, should go to those cities
S3: to see if those veterans had heard anything about his father.
S3: We can see here Athena's important role in the Odyssey
S3: in getting all of our action moving. She sends Hermes
S3: to Ogygia to free Odysseus, and she inspires Telemachus to
S3: move to the mainland of Greece. Now, at the end
S3: of this inspiring speech to Telemachus, she flies off like
S3: a bird, and Telemachus realizes that he's been speaking to
S3: one of the gods. He is heartened and and inspired
S3: by this. And then our narrative turns to Penelope. Homer
S3: tells us amidst them. Still the famous bard sang on,
S3: and they sat in silence, listening as he performed the
S3: Achaeans journey home from Troy. All the blows Athena doomed
S3: them to endure. And now, from high above, in her
S3: room and deep in thought, she caught the inspired strains.
S3: Icarius daughter Penelope, wary and reserved. And down the steep
S3: stair from her chamber she descended. Not alone. Two of
S3: her women followed close behind that radiant woman. Once she
S3: reached her suitors, drawing her glistening veil across her cheeks,
S3: paused now, where a column propped the sturdy roof with
S3: one of her loyal handmaids stationed either side, suddenly dissolving
S3: in tears and bursting through the Bard's inspired voice, she
S3: cried out, phemius! So many other songs, you know. To
S3: hold us spellbound. Works of the gods and men that
S3: singers celebrate. Sing one of those as you sit beside
S3: them here. And they drink their wine in silence. But
S3: break off this song, the unendurable song that always rends
S3: the heart inside me. The unforgettable grief. It wounds me
S3: most of all. How I long for my husband. Alive
S3: in memory. Always that great man whose fame resounds through.
S3: Hellas right to the depths of Argos. Now Telemachus, having
S3: been inspired by Athena, tries to act like the man
S3: of the house and tells his mother to go back
S3: to her chamber, and that he will deal with the suitors.
S3: But the depiction of Penelope here is quite interesting, that
S3: she is high up in her room and deep in thought,
S3: and that when she comes to the suitors, she descends
S3: to them. Penelope is high, both because her chambers above them,
S3: but also symbolically she sits above them. She is the
S3: thing the suitors are striving for. She's also the person
S3: Odysseus is striving to return to. She's also deep in thought.
S3: She resonates with Odysseus in this way. She is Matisse.
S3: She has her own cunning, her own intelligence. Here now why?
S3: Penelope will come down to the suitors and in front
S3: of them express her longing for her husband without dismissing her.
S3: Sending the suitors away again expresses this question what is
S3: it that Penelope is after? What is. What is she
S3: motivated by? What is she aiming for? We have here
S3: in book one of the Odyssey, a very interesting situation.
S3: Clearly we have a police in crisis. We have a
S3: marriage under assault, we have a lost ruler and a
S3: god setting things in motion. What Penelope is up to
S3: on Ithaca and Telemachus. Adventures on the Greek mainland are
S3: what we'll look at in our next lecture.
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