Telemachus has some tight friends who promise to keep his treasure for themselves if he gets offed. Knowing that the other option would be distributing it amongst the suitors, this is a pretty strong gesture of friendship. My thoughts then moved on to the fact that Greeks don't get an income just for being Greeks, and this must be why Odysseus was plundering all the time, and part of why people give guest gifts, and why everyone is handing out treasure... what goes around comes around. And foreign kings gave both Odysseus and Telemachus a boatload of golden goods, so now the whole family is super rich. Excellent.
Theoclymenus is the seer that Telemachus picked up, and now I understand why--they are more birds hanging around, and he translates this for Penelope or Telemachus or whoever is asking. No one believes him, but hey, Homer gave him a purpose in life.
17.185: Homer describes the suitors as being "full of swagger." 2011, you're not cool.
As Eumaeus and Odysseus walk to his mansion, one of the jerk suitors starts to beat up on Odysseus. Thankfully, he is built like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and cannot be moved (17.255-256).
Enter Argos, the loyal dog (17.317-360). Odysseus cries. Exit Argos, the loyal dog.
In lines 381, 385, and 646, three different characters tell Odysseus that "Bashfulness, for a man in need, is no great friend." Thinking today of people who stand in the Dunkin' Donuts' parking lot and ask you for $2, I get kind of freaked out, so speaking only about beggars in ancient Greece, I guess this makes total sense. Even strangers were almost like beggars--the whole Zeus thing meant that they should be welcomed, but really, they want a place to stay and food to eat. So bashfulness would not be good in that situation.
Due to lines 602-612, I laughed out loud. Telemachus sneezes, and it marks Penelope's words as true. GREEKS, I TELL YOU.
Antinous is jerk pretty much all the time, and he throws a stool at Odysseus (508-512). Who does that, really? But thankfully, Homer agrees with me in his description of Odysseus as "steady as a rock" (17.512). His amazing foresight meant that he wanted Dwayne to play Odysseus in a potential movie. He even has a sacrificial bull tattooed on his bicep.
This chapter reminds me that posers have been around for a long, long time. That's the suitors-posers. They didn't do anything, they don't deserve any kleos or a hot wife. When all the REAL men went off to war, they sat around home being cowards.
ReplyDeleteAnd now they're hanging around Ithika palace and eating all of Penelope's stuff, being total slobs and not, apparently, paying for anything. They're being bad guests AND bad human beings, AND pretending that they're all that. How come guys like Antonius get to have noble speeches at the mess table, when they're the pansy who sits around scarfing someone else's food all day?
Weak. They are decidedly not-arete.