Odysseus Laertiades, Heroic Homebody

(The movie -- a confused mashup of Homer's epics, ancient stories, and bad modern fan fiction told by a Gladiator --- gives an excuse to dust off a 40+ year old essay...) 

“My name is Nobody: mother, father, and friends, everyone calls me Nobody” [1]. With these words Odysseus at once both fooled the murderous Cyclops pursuing Odysseus and his men and pointed out his own uncertain standing in the world. Many years after the destruction of Troy and the end of the war, Odysseus was still struggling to reach his home in Ithaca. Memorable passages in The Odyssey tell of fantastic exploits against giants and witches, gods and goddesses. Almost half of the text, however, relates the quickly developing events following Odysseus' landing on the island of Ithaca and it is these very human events, even more than his earlier adventures, that reveal Odysseus' character. 

This part of The Odyssey can be summarized as follows. Odysseus returns to his estate about twenty years after having reluctantly left home to join Agamemnon and fellow Greeks to fight against Troy. There having been but sparse news of Odysseus, he has been thought probably dead and Penelope, his wife, a widow. His house and Penelope are besieged by nobly born but unprincely suitors seeking Penelope's hand in marriage. Odysseus enters his house disguised as a beggar and is provided his strong bow (unwittingly?) by Penelope. By the strength of his planning and his bow, aided by a goddess, his son Telemokas, and two loyal friends, Odysseus slays the suitors and in so doing reclaims his kingdom.

Recognition

We can think of a homecoming as having two stages: the recognition of the physical form - a familiar face, a bearing - and the reestablishment of familial connections. It would have been one thing if Odysseus had sailed into the harbor with his fellow warriors, returning to the acclaim of their families and neighbors, and rich with Trojan spoils, to reclaim their homes. Family reunions would have come naturally amidst the general community celebration that would have followed. Odysseus, returning alone and destitute, faced the combined problems of ridding his home of the dangerous suitors and reestablishing his identity. He goes a long way toward proving his rightful kingship by slaughtering the suitors who had been dishonoring his estate and his wife. But a long time had passed since he had spoken lovingly to his wife, and he has also heard that his father despairs of ever seeing his son again. He is no longer a 'nobody' but it remains for him to become a husband and a son. 

Telemokas

Telemokas was too young to remember Odysseus before he went to war so physical recognition is not possible; the direct statement of paternity is required. Upon command from Athena “…dissemble to your son no longer …”[2], Odysseus tells Telemokas that “I am that father whom your boyhood lacked”. Telemokas, having been struck by the miraculous transformation of Odysseus from his disguise as the old beggar into a radiant, god-like being, wonders only whether Odysseus isn't really rather a god, and so is easily convinced. Although a physical kinship is never disputed, the burden of proof had been placed on Telemokas to show that he is really up to his father's heroic spirit. Athena asks “make it clear to me : you must be, by your looks, Odysseus' boy?”[3] but later challenges Telemokas …if you have your father's spirit…the son is rare who measures with his father.” [4] Not that the resemblance is solely physical; untaught Telemokas almost preternaturally shows the skill of his father in stringing the strong bow. “Amazement came upon all beholders as they saw the sureness of his movements, because he had never watched this thing being done”.[5] And he had his father's skill in debate.

Only when father and son stand side by side in the battle with the suitors are they finally bonded together, Odysseus telling his son “Telemokas, the stranger you welcomed in your hall has not· disgraced you…” and in response “Telemokas, true son of King Odysseus, belted his sword on…and …stood in the forefront near his father.”[6] The kinship of the fighting spirit is adoptively extended to the loyal servants “…and you shall be brothers-in-arms of my Telemokas” [7].

Penelope

Penelope's recognition of Odysseus comes down to the combined questions: what did she know and when did she know it? In this matter we travel well-worn ground, for the most part. The critic D.J. Stewart writes “the most important -and clearly the most debated -episode in these intermediate books is less an episode than an argument among scholars whether Penelope recognizes Odysseus before he in fact declares his identity” [8]. Odysseus never declares his identity to her, however, he rather “only waited for what his wife would say when she had seen him” [9]. Stewart concludes, “that Penelope does recognize Odysseus seems to be certain. “

Certainly, Odysseus had not changed too much in the intervening years. Even the herdsman Philoitios says to the disguised Odysseus “…Sir, I began to sweat when I first saw you, and tears came to my eyes, remembering Odysseus.” [10] But Odysseus, as the stranger at the manor, had put off Penelope's request for an interview saying “…let her remain till sundown in her room.”[11] He only meets with her late at night when physical recognition would be unlikely. Despite this precaution, she is deeply moved by the encounter. “My heart within me stirs …no one ever came, I swear, who seemed so like Odysseus -body, voice and limbs - as you do” [12]. And they develop a friendship, speaking in the dark. Penelope says “…dear guest, no foreign man so sympathetic ever came to my house, no guest more likeable, so wry and humble...” and when she calls to the old nurse she slips “…come here and bathe - bathe your master I almost said.” Odysseus fears his old nurse will recognize him not by sight but by touch “…she must not handle his scarred thigh, or the game was up.” [13] And indeed after feeling the scar his nurse says “You are Odysseus!  I could not see you until now -not till I knew my master's body with my own hands” [14].

Penelope's suspicions may have prompted her to tell her new friend about her idea for a contest to decide her husband “…listen carefully …l shall decree a contest for the day. The one who easily handles and strings the bow and shoots through all twelve axes I shall marry” [15].

The next time Penelope sees the “beggar” it is broad daylight and the initial trial of stringing the bow has already defeated the suitors. It is “watchful Queen Penelope” who supports the beggar-Odysseus' claim to try the bow. She then takes a good look at Odysseus and reasons as she speaks her thoughts “…the stranger is a big man, well-compacted, and claims to be of noble blood. Ai! Give him the bow and let us have it out!” [16]. This sounds much like a cry of recognition, the realization that Odysseus is home and that he will soon hold the means of his vengeance, the bow brought by her, in his hands.

After the slaughter, the suitor Amphinedon, explaining to fellow-shade Agamemnon, imagines that “[Odysseus] assigned to his wife her part: next day she brought his bow and iron axeheads out to make a contest.” [17]. As Dorthea Wender writes, “Amphimedon's story ...implies that Penelope had already recognized her husband and was part of the revenge plot” [18]. Wender further argues “as Woodhouse points out, Homer had a difficult problem at this point in the story; if Penelope recognizes Odysseus before the suitors are dealt with, her behavior preceding the revenge can be made convincing. but the recognition scene between husband and wife -a high point of the epic - will be robbed of dramatic power.”

This argument fails on two points -that Penelope's decision to impose the bow-test is unreasonable if she hasn't recognized Odysseus, and that the physical recognition of Odysseus as returned lord is the same as the emotional recognition of a still-loving husband. Penelope has a most striking dream that is interpreted (within the dream!) as “…all those geese were the suitors, and the bird was I. See now I am no eagle, but your lord come back to bring inglorious death upon them all!” [19]. And on the day that she decides on the bow contest, Penelope is told by the seer Theoclymenus that Odysseus was in Ithaca planning evil for the suitors. It may be that Penelope suspected the guest-friend was Odysseus and intended to place his weapon into his hands.

Alternatively, she feared for the safety of her returning husband and wanted to reduce the multitude of suitors to one - the winner of the contest - or, if there are none capable of the feat, remove from them all any trace of rightful claim to her. She may also have reasoned that if there were a suitor capable of the feat, he may even (who knows?) be set upon by the jealous losers. In either case, Penelope's proposal of the bow-test is reasonable as a ploy to reduce the danger to her returning husband without assuming her recognition of Odysseus.

Cedric Whitman states “[t]here can be little doubt in any case that Penelope's intuition has long since told her who the beggar is … why then, if she knows him, does she not acknowledge him at once, when the suitors are slain? The reason is that the role of husband has yet to be recreated …” [20]. Surely Penelope knows that Odysseus has come home to claim his estate, his inheritance. And the relatively well-informed reader knows that Odysseus has chosen to come back to the human love of Penelope, rejecting the immortal, divine love of the nymph Calypso. But Penelope only remembers sitting next to the disguised Odysseus, crying “…tears shed for her lord - and he close by her side. Imagine how his heart ached for his lady, his wife in tears; and yet he never blinked; his eyes might have been made of horn or iron for all that she could see” [21]. Although Odysseus had received many reassurances that Penelope was still loving and faithful, she was still rather “in the dark” as to his intentions. Albert Keller suggests “[t]he fact that Odysseus deprecated remarriage during the minority of his son points to the dynastic succession and the interests of the house as paramount” [22]. So, she may fear that he has come home, but not for her, and “…in the matter of actual rights, the woman's position was but slightly guaranteed.”

Penelope, unnecessarily assured by the old nurse that it really is Odysseus awaiting her downstairs, asks herself “had she better keep her distance and question him, her husband? Should she run up to him, take his hands, kiss him now?” [23]. She rather finds a course between, not running up to him and finding despite Telemokas' prompting that “I cannot question him.” She says “there are secret signs we know, we two.” But Odysseus is tired and Penelope directs the nurse to place outside the chamber his bed, one post of which, she and he well know, is the trunk of a still-rooted olive tree.

Cool Odysseus, able to master his seething temper as the disguised beggar in the face of outrageous insults, here loses his detachment entirely and cries “woman, by heaven you've stung me now!”. This is not simply another disappointing delay in his homecoming; he fears the loss of his journey's goal. After a blustering recount of his construction of their unique bed, wondering who could have dislodged their “pact and pledge, our secret sign, built into that bed”, he realizes he has been tested. On this point Howard Clarke writes “…and, finally, a living olive tree, with all its multitude associations for the Greeks … becomes the great symbol of The Odyssey.”

Laertes

Odysseus' son was too young to remember him from before he left for Troy. Upon his return, his father Laertes is too old to recognize Odysseus and again he is motivated, this time by his father's pain, to discard his by-now-automatic caginess and reveal himself “…he could not watch this any longer. He leaped and threw his arms around his father, kissed him and said: 'Oh, Father, I am he!'”[25]. As for the proof Laertes demands, Odysseus offers “the scar then, first of all.” But the sign that was sufficient for his old nurse or the old herdsmen, he knows, is inappropriate for his father, even with the child-like touch “you and mother made me go” on the hunt.

Odysseus quickly offers as, “again- more proof” his boyhood memories of his father naming and giving him “thirteen pear trees, ten apple trees…each one to bear in turn.” This final reference to the seasons gently reminds Laertes of the generations - already Telemokas has borne himself well in battle. The critic Whitman sees that here Odysseus is “in a way declaring his patrimony, his knowledge of the land, his role as rightful and legitimate heir. And with this recognition Odysseus has, in a sense, restored his selfhood completely” [26].

A proud recognition of the familial fighting spirit is again echoed when Odysseus, Telemokas, and Laertes stand together against the vengeance-seeking townsmen. Odysseus tells Telemokas “In fighting power we have excelled this lot in every generation” [27]. Telemokas replies “Father, watch and see the stuff that's in me.” Old Laertes is moved “Ah what a day for me, dear gods! to see my son and grandson vie in courage!”, and prompted by Athena's reference to his own father 'Arkeisiades' (son of Arceisius), Laertes shows his 'stuff' by bringing down the instigator of the townsmen with a well-aimed spear.

Conclusion

The latter books of The Odyssey follow Odysseus again taking up his domestic roles as father to Telemokas, master to his loyal servants, lord of the estate to the suitors, then husband to Penelope and finally son of Laertes. This progression reverses the natural order of family roles; a man is naturally first a son, then a husband, and finally a father. The odyssey then is the progress of a man reversing the unnatural events that followed his leaving to war and through this process finally returning emotionally to his home and family.

 

Notes

1) The Odyssey, by Homer, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, Anchor Books, Doubleday Co., Garden City, 1963.

2) ibid 16.173 (chapter.line)

3) ibid 1.205

4) ibid 2.269

5) 21.120 The Odyssey, translated by Walter Shewring, Oxford U. Press, Oxford, 1980

6) R. Fitzgerald, QQ. cit. 21.422

7) R. Fitzgerald, QQ. cit. 2l.215

8) p.l02 The Disguised Guest, D.J. Stewart, Bucknell U. Press, Lewisberg, 1976

9) R. Fitzgerald, QQ. cit. 23.94

10) R. Fitzgerald,QQ. cit. 20.202

11) R. Fitzgerald, QQ. cit. 17.565

12) R. Fitzgerald, QQ. cit. 19.365

13) R. Fitzgerald, QQ. cit. 1.390

14) R. Fitzgerald, QQ. cit. 19.480

15) R. Fitzgerald, QQ. cit. 19.570

16) R. Fitzgerald, QQ. cit. 21.333

17) R. Fitzgerald, QQ. cit. 24.167

18) The Last Scenes of the Odyssey Dorthea Wender, Mnemsyne v.52, 1978

19) R. Fitzgerald, QQ. cit. 19.551

20) p.84 The Odyssey and Change , Cedric Whitman

21) R. Fitzgerald, QQ. cit. 19.210

22) p.224 Homeric Society, Albert Keller, Longmans, Green, and Co., NY, 1913

23) R. Fitzgerald, QQ. cit. 23.86

24) Introduction, Twentieth Century Interpretations of the Odyssey, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1983

25) R. Fitzgerald, QQ. cit. 24.336

26) p.301 Homer and the Heroic Tradition, Cedric Whitman

27) R. Fitzgerald, QQ. cit. 24.510