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The Odyssey Homer
Books 15–16
Summary: Book 15
Athena travels to Sparta, where she finds Telemachus
and Pisistratus, Nestor's son, asleep in Menelaus's palace. She
appears to Telemachus in a dream and tells him that he must hurry
home to Ithaca before the suitors succeed in winning his mother's
hand. She also warns him of the ambush that they have set and explains
how to avoid it. Finally, she instructs him to head first for the
home of the swineherd Eumaeus, who will convey the news of his safe
return to Penelope.
The next day, Telemachus announces his departure and accepts gifts
from Menelaus and Helen. As Telemachus pulls away from the palace
in his chariot, an eagle carrying a goose stolen from a pen swoops
down beside him. Helen interprets the incident as an omen that Odysseus
is about to swoop down on his home and exact revenge on the suitors.
Once at Pylos, Telemachus has Pisistratus drop him off
at his ship, insisting that he has no time to spare to visit Nestor
again. The ship is about to set off when Theoclymenus, a famous
prophet's descendant who is fleeing prosecution for a crime of manslaughter that
he committed in Argos, approaches Telemachus and asks to come aboard.
Telemachus welcomes him and offers him hospitality when they get
to Ithaca.
In the hut of Eumaeus, Odysseus tests the limit of his
hospitality by offering to leave in the morning, a false gesture
that he hopes will prompt Eumaeus to offer to let him stay longer.
He urges the old man not to go out of his way and says that he will
earn his keep working for the suitors, but Eumaeus will have none
of it. To get mixed up with those suitors, he warns, would be suicide.
Odysseus and the swineherd then swap stories. Eumaeus explains how
he first came to Ithaca: the son of a king, he was stolen from his
house by Phoenician pirates with the help of a maid that his father
employed. The pirates took him all over the seas until Laertes,
Odysseus's father, bought him in Ithaca. There, Laertes' wife brought
him up alongside her own daughter, the youngest born.
The next morning, Telemachus reaches the shores
of Ithaca. He disembarks while the crew heads to the city by ship.
He entrusts Theoclymenus to a loyal crewman, Piraeus. As they part,
they see a hawk fly by carrying a dove in its talons, which Theoclymenus
interprets as a favorable sign of the strength of Odysseus's house
and line.
Summary: Book 16
When Telemachus reaches Eumaeus's hut, he finds the swineherd talking
with a stranger (Odysseus in disguise). Eumaeus recounts Odysseus's
story and suggests that the stranger stay with Telemachus at the
palace. But Telemachus is afraid of what the suitors might do to
them. Eumaeus thus goes to the palace alone to tell Penelope that
her son has returned.
When father and son are alone in the hut, Athena appears
to Odysseus and calls him outside. When Odysseus reenters the hut, his
old-man disguise is gone, and he stands in the pristine glory of his
heroic person. At first, Telemachus cannot believe his eyes, but then
the two embrace and weep. Odysseus recounts his trip with the Phaeacians
and then begins plotting the overthrow of the suitors. He formulates
a plan to launch a surprise attack from within the palace: Odysseus
will enter disguised as a beggar and Telemachus will hide the palace's
surplus arms where the suitors cannot easily reach them. The two
of them will then seize the arms and slaughter the suitors.
Before Eumaeus can give Penelope news of Telemachus's
return, the messenger from the ship arrives and informs the entire
palace that Telemachus has returned. The suitors, dejected that
their plot has failed, huddle outside to plan their next move. Antinous
recommends putting Telemachus to death before he can call an assembly at
which the suitors' dirty schemes can be aired, but Amphinomus, one
of the more thoughtful and well-behaved suitors, persuades the others
to wait for a sign from the gods before doing anything so rash.
Penelope later finds Antinous in the palace and denounces him for
the plot against her son, the details of which Medon had overheard
and revealed to her in Book 4. Eurymachus
succeeds in calming Penelope down with his lies and false concern
for the safety of Telemachus.
Analysis: 15–16
In Books 15 and 16,
the plot becomes much more complicated, as Homer plants details
and characters crucial for bringing the story to its climax.
For the first time in the poem, the paths of Odysseus and Telemachus
converge. Athena must have them meet in the privacy of Eumaeus's
huta meeting in the palace might be suspicious, since princes and
beggars have no reason to interact with each otherso that Odysseus
can reveal his identity to his son without endangering his plans
to exact vengeance upon the suitors. From a literary standpoint, the
tender irony of a king and prince reuniting in the lowly hut of
a swineherd reaffirms these men's human qualities. They are not
simply the emotionless figures of established and budding hero,
respectively, but rather emotional individuals with interior lives.
Up until the suitors' discovery of Telemachus's
return, Homer has generally refrained from individualizing the suitors;
they work much better as an undifferentiated mass of degenerate, one-dimensional
characters with whom we have no desire to sympathize. But in the
suitors' ensuing debate, two sides emerge: one, whose spokesman
is Antinous, is predictably thuggish; the other, however, advocates
a more thoughtful and moderate position. To represent this latter
side, Homer introduces the suitor Amphinomus, who is thoughtful,
pious, and eager to see what the gods think before doing anything
rash; additionally, he is one of Penelope's favorites. These positive
attributes complicate the justness of Odysseus's revenge, as the
suitors are no longer exclusively faceless villains; Odysseus's
revenge will come at the expense not only of the truly malevolent
suitors but also of the few who are not wholly bad individuals.
Helen's and Theoclymenus's interpretations of the separate
bird omens rely on the perception of Odysseus as an aggressive,
predatory creature: in each incident, a more powerful, regal bird
(eagle, hawk) asserts its superiority over a more common, vulnerable
one (goose, dove). Just as these rapacious birds swoop down upon
their unsuspecting prey, so too, the interpretations imply, will
Odysseus pounce upon the suitors without warning. Ancient Greek
culture revered omens as indications of unalterable divine will,
and the prophet Theoclymenus, whom Telemachus finds, begins to play
an important role. Over the next few books, the number of omens
in need of interpretation rises dramatically, as Homer increasingly depicts
the suitors as condemned men and ever more explicitly foreshadows
their impending doom.
Homer continues exploring how the extension of, and reaction to, xenia,
or hospitality, reflects various characters' concerns. Nestor's
insistence that Telemachus stay and feast with him in Pylos before
returning to Ithaca confirms that he is a commendable, gods-fearing
man. Telemachus's eagerness to avoid this social commitment may
seem a breach of social propriety, but, in desiring not to delay
his return further, he resembles his shrewd father. His evasion is
justified by his prioritizing of practical considerationsthe need to
return home quicklyover decorum and other formal considerations.
Besides, Telemachus's warm reception of Theoclymenus, in addition
to the genuine urgency of the moment, takes some of the edge off
of his apparent inconsiderateness.
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