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DIRECTIONS: Prepare to discuss major themes and ideas from The Odyssey by reading and annotating the passage
below for characterization of Odysseus and Penelope.
BACKGROUND
After twenty long years, Odysseus finally lands on the shore of Ithaca thanks to the guidance of the goddess Athena and
the generosity of neighboring king. After hearing from his son Telemachus (whom Odysseus has just met for the first time
since his Telemachus’’ birth) about the suitors who have overtaken his house in their attempts to replace him as king,
Odysseus devises a plan: he’ll return to his house disguised as beggar; knowing that Greek custom holds that all guests
are to be treated with dignity and respect, Odysseus will know who deserves punishment according to how he is treated.
Not surprisingly, the suitors are violent and disrespectful toward the man they perceive as a dirty beggar. The suitors
seeking to marry Odysseus’ wife Penelope have also grown impatient with her refusal to choose one them as her new
husband. Trying to delay the decision that seems unavoidable, Penelope agrees to pick a new husband once she has
finished weaving a death shroud for Odysseus’ father Laertes. For many months, Penelope deceived the suitors by
weaving all day, then undoing what she has woven every night. Just as the disguised Odysseus arrives, the suitors find
out from a disloyal servant and they demand that she make her choice.
from Book 21, “The Test of the Bow”
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Now Penelope
sank down, holding the weapon on her knees,
and drew her husband’s great bow out, and sobbed
and bit her lip and let the salt tears flow.
Then back she went to face the crowded hall
tremendous bow in hand, [...]
Thus in her beauty she approached the suitors,
and near a pillar of the solid roof
she paused, her shining veil across her cheeks,
her maids on either hand and still,
then spoke to the banqueters:
“My lords, hear me:
suitors indeed, you recommended this house
to feast and drink in, day and night, my husband
being long gone, long out of mind. You found
no justification for yourselves—none
except your lust to marry me. Stand up,then:
we now declare a contest for that prize.
Here is my lord Odysseus’ hunting bow.
Bend and string it if you can. Who sends an arrow
through iron ax-helve sockets, twelve in line?
I join my life with his, and leave this place, my home,
my rich and beautiful bridal house, forever
to be remembered, though I dream it only.”
Of course, none of the suitors are able to string Odysseus’ bow, much less shoot an arrow perfectly through twelve axe
sockets. Telemachus insists that the suitors let the old beggar try. The suitors laugh at this suggestion, but allow the bow
to be brought to the disguised Odysseus. The beggar looks the bow over, making sure it is still in sound condition after
twenty years of disuse. Finally, he quickly and easily strings the bow and shoots an arrow perfectly through the sockets.
The doors to Odysseus’ great hall are then locked from the outside, and Odysseus suddenly shrugs off his beggar’s robes
and regains his kingly stature. Odysseus then takes another arrow and shoots the suitor Antinous, one of the more
aggressive and disrespectful suitors, through the neck and head just as he leans back to take a drink. The suitors try to
beg for mercy, but Odysseus, now joined by Telemachus and armed with weapons and shields, refuses their pleas.
from Book 22, “Death in the Great Hall”
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As [the suitors watched], sickly green fear
pulled at their entrails, and their eyes flickered
looking for some hatch or hideaway from death.
Eurymachus alone could speak. He said:
“If you are Odysseus of Ithaca come back,
all that you say these men have done is true.
Rash actions, many here, more in the countryside.
But here he lies, the man who caused them all.
Antinous was the ringleader, he whipped us on
to do these things. He cared less for a marriage
than for the power Cronion has denied him
as king of Ithaca. For that
he tried to trap your son and would have killed him.
He is dead now and has his portion. Spare
your own people. As for ourselves, we’ll make
restitution of wine and meat consumed,
and add, each one, a tithe of twenty oxen
with gifts of bronze and gold to warm your heart.
Meanwhile we cannot blame you for your anger.”
Odysseus glowered under his black brows
and said:
“Not for the whole treasure of your fathers,
all you enjoy, lands, flocks, or any gold
put up by others, would I hold my hand.
There will be killing till the score is paid.
You forced yourselves upon this house. Fight your way out,
or run for it, if you think you’ll escape death.
I doubt one man of you skins by.” [...]
And the suitors mad with fear [...]
stampeded like stung cattle by a river [...]
After them the attackers wheeled, as terrible as falcons
from eyries in the mountains veering over and diving down
with talons wide unsheathed on flights of birds,
who cower down the sky in chutes and bursts along the valley—
but the pouncing falcons grip their prey, no frantic wing avails,
and farmers love to watch those beakèd hunters.
So these now fell upon the suitors in that hall,
turning, turning to strike and strike again,
while torn men moaned at death, and blood ran smoking
over the whole floor.
The suitors make various unsuccessful attempts to expel Odysseus from his post at the door. Athena urges Odysseus on
to battle, yet holds back her fullest aid, waiting for Odysseus and Telemachus to prove themselves. Six of the suitors
attempt an attack on Odysseus, but Athena deflects their arrows. Odysseus and his men seize this opportunity to launch
their own attack, and the suitors begin to fall. At last Athena’s presence becomes known to all, as the shape of her shield
becomes visible above the hall. The suitors, recognizing the interventions of the gods on Odysseus’ behalf, are frantic to
escape but to no avail. Thus the battle with the suitors comes to an end, and Odysseus prepares himself to meet
Penelope.
Athena places a blessing on Odysseus before he goes to meet his wife in their chambers which enhances his appearance
and makes him look almost as radiant as a god. However, Penelope does not recognize her husband beneath this radiant
exterior and treats him coldly when he comes to see her.
from Book 23, “The Trunk of the Olive Tree”
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“Strange woman,
the immortals of Olympus made you hard,
harder than any. Who else in the world
would keep aloof as you do from her husband
if he returned to her from years of trouble,
cast on his own land in the twentieth year?
Nurse, make up a bed for me to sleep on.
Her heart is iron in her breast.”
Penelope
Spoke to Odysseus now. She said:
“Strange man,
if man you are...This is no pride on my part
nor scorn for you – not even wonder, merely,
I know so well how you – how he – appeared
boarding the ship for Troy. But all the same…
Make up his bed for him, Eurycleia.
Place it outside the bedchamber my lord
built with his own hands. Pile the big bed
with fleeces, rugs, and sheets of purest linen.”
With this she tried him to the breaking point,
and he turned on her in a flash raging:
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“Woman, by heaven you’ve stung me now!
Who dared to move my bed?
No builder had the skill for that – unless
a god came down to turn the trick. No mortal
in his best days could budge it with a crowbar.
There is our pact and pledge, our secret sign,
built into that bed – my handiwork
and no one else’s!
An old trunk of olive
grew like a pillar on the building plot,
and I laid out our bedroom round that tree,
lines up the stone walls, build the walls and roof,
gave it a doorway and smooth-fitting doors.
Then I lopped off the silvery leaves and branches,
hewed and shaped that stump from the roots up
into a bedpost, drilled it, let it serve
as model for the rest…
…There’s our sign!”
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…Their secret! as she heard it told, her knees
grew tremulous and weak, her heart failed her.
With eyes brimming tears she ran to him,
Throwing her arms around his neck, and kissed him,
murmuring:
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“Do not rage at me, Odysseus!
No one ever matched your caution! Think
what difficulty the gods gave: they denied us
life together in our prime and flowering years,
kept us from crossing into age together.
Forgive me, don’t be angry. I could not
welcome you with love on sight! I armed myself
long ago against the frauds of men,
imposters who might come – and all those many
whose underhanded ways bring evil on!
…But here and now, what sign could be so clear
as this of our own bed?
No other man has ever laid eyes on it –
only my own slave, Actoris, that my father
sent with me as a gift – she kept our door.
You make my stiff heart know that I am yours.”
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Odysseus and Penelope tell each other about all that happened to them while Odysseus was away. Then Odysseus visits
his father, Laertes, to give him the good news of his safe return.
Odysseus
Character Trait- BRAVERY
Penelope
Character Trait- BRAVERY
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