Hermione! Do you know anything about her? She's Helen's daughter, and it says she is 'a luminous beauty.' I wonder, as a good nerd ought, if there is any correlation between her and J.K. Rowling's character.
Menelaus (the red haired king, as Homer is sure we know) exemplifies the stranger-talk in the introduction. However, he is also described as dear to Zeus. Which, then, does Zeus like better: Menelaus, or the strangers?
How many times will Homer repeat the same things? This is only the fourth book, and I've heard quite about about how Agamemnon is dead. It seems that Homer wants you to read the Iliad, because he's quite proud of it.
Is Helen married to Menelaus? I'm quite confused. She's rather frank, though, if you look at 4.162. Goodness! ... Or rather, not.
Odysseus seems to have endeared himself to many people. At this point, I'd rather like to meet him--four chapters without a single word from the poor man. I wonder why Athena is so partial to him--was it explained? Will it be? Is it just a fact that a reader must accept? Was it from an event in The Iliad, one that Homer did not cover in the summaries in The Odyssey?
Helen drugs the wine! They're sad to think of their lost family, friends, and fellow warriors. However, I don't think the best way to dissolve anger (4.245). Even if someone were to die in front of you, the description says, you would not cry, nor, I'm guessing, even be sad (4.249-251). There are better ways to cheer someone up, ways that are founded more with good ethics. Homer speaks about it in a way that makes it seem really great; he praises her as Zeus' daughter. There are better ways to be joyful, but once again, I'm referring to being a Christian, and this is a fictional book, and I can't change it, so maybe I should chill out for a second. But still--when has drugging anyone ever been good, except in medical situations?
"Dawn with her rose-red fingers" ... again.
4.359 overweening
Everyone is quite long-winded.
"Have you seen my dad?"*
"Yeah, so, this one time in Egypt..." An hour passes. "Then he told me your dad is on an island! Weird, right?"
Gods are stupid... again. They make hardly anything easy. Proteus of Egypt--that Old Man of the Sea who never lies--is betrayed by his own daughter. Proteus is keeping Menelaus on the island because he didn't sacrifice to all the gods while he was in Egypt, and he needs to go back and re-do it so he can go home. This is like keeping debtors in jail so they can pay off their debt (like so many parables). Then Eidothea instructs Menelaus and his men to disguise themselves as seals in a plot to trick Proteus. I know, it makes it quite a bit more exciting, a transforming god and men in sealskin... but betrayal is not the answer. Then they can ask these all-knowing gods--who don't know when a seal is really a king--if people are alive across the sea. Somehow, too, I disagree with them telling of everyone's fate to whomever asks. The gods' logic is undeniable, like so many California girls.
4.610: "How long must you weep? Withering tears, what good can come of tears?" I refer to Matthew 6:25-34. Yus! Biblical connections!
Now the suitors are plotting, as Eurycleia and I foretold. And she feels bad for keeping secrets from Penelope. I suppose it's not good to always be hiding the truth from people (that Telemachus left), but he asked her not to tell so she wouldn't die of grief, as she seems in danger of doing. In this situation, it seems alright.
The Mentor confusion resurfaces: Athena's poser-hood is problematic. Athena also cares for Penelope again by sending that phantom. It does tell her Telemachus will be safe, however, it's not incredibly caring in that it won't say anything about Odysseus. If his whereabouts are known, why won't anyone say and reassure Telemachus and Penelope? This seems heartless. Surely there are easier ways than winging about like an eagle, dropping cryptic signs and making everyone sail about the high seas. The phantom even refuses to say anything of Odysseus, saying, "It's wrong to lead you on with idle words" (4.942). This is so confusing. These gods and their whims are selectively kind, and it's frustrating.
*It's a reference to Finding Nemo in Flushed Away... remember?
They drugged the wine. We drug ourselves with ice cream and coffee--and call it "comfort food." What's the difference?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the ancient greek idea of death? Explain it. Is it the END? Mostly, they're remembering their dead companions by remembering the glory (kleos) and excellence of their lives. They lived excellently, remember that, because we have no idea what happens next. yus.
Yes, that's a empty and missing a really important JESUS. But there might be something to be said for seeking to live this life as excellently as possible.... Think of Albion, and how those warriors were... happier. And crazier. and that was good.
Helen... is "Helen of Troy, the face that launched a thousand ships" ...and is more or less responsible for the whole friggin' Trojan war. Look it up. She was the second-hottest woman in ancient greece (first hottest being someone named Ione). Apparently, she was hot, married to Menelaus, and some dude named Paris lusted after her, abducted her, and then got chased by all of greece. Agamemnon was there for the money, Menelaus was there for his wife, and Odysseys got forced to help cos Agamemnon was a bully.
no, she drugged the wine to make them be falsely happy. that's dishonest. you shouldn't be falsely happy. you should be... happy with what you have. i eat ice cream because it tastes good. if i'm sad, ice cream doesn't make me feel better, it just tastes good. i eat it when i'm happy, too. you don't drug wine if you're happy. it's a way to fake emotion and escape from reality, and it's dumb.
ReplyDeletedeath thoughts: i don't know who/what Albion is. sorry. also, it's still sad and lame. it is good to want to live this life as well as you can, but it's sad that for them, that's all it is. then you die, and you ghost around underground, crying. that's a depressing thing to expect later on.
thanks. i only vaguely knew the story from all of the repetition in the epic... haha. I KNOW it's for a thousand good reasons and hexamagic diameter or whatever you called it. it doesn't mean i can't find it funny.
Albion = The Song of Albion trilogy by Stephen Lawhead. He's got a similar warrior/bard/ancientish world thing going on as we do here. Only his books aren't 3000 years old.
ReplyDeleteWe'll talk more about death when we get to the underworld.