Odyssey Study Guide Contents
In Book XVI of the Odyssey, the theme of returning home is pretty much over, since both Odysseus and his son are in Ithaca. This book is about the reunion of father and son. From here on, the main theme is revenge against the suitors, who have violated what may be thought of as the guest-host relationship. Earlier books have dealt with the host-guest relationship, where the issue is hospitality shown to guests, most recently focusing on the question of whether there is a limit to how generous the host should be. Now we're dealing with the reverse, the obligations of the guest to the host, which is unusual. Even myth tells of the former, as in the story of Philemon and Baucis in which Zeus visits the mortal couple and is pleased with his reception.
Book XVI presents some puzzles:
1.) Why is it just being suggested now that the suitors leave and send gifts to Penelope to try to woo her? Why is it important to get rid of Telemachus? What does Penelope actually bring to the marriage? Her beauty and cunning? Land? The throne? Is she another Helen or a female Odysseus? The speeches of the suitors don't seem to clarify this.
2.)What is the sum total of the suitors?
There are fifty-two chosen youths from Dulichium, and they have six servants; from Same there are twenty-four; twenty young Achaeans from Zacynthus, and twelve from Ithaca itself, all of them well born. They have with them a servant Medon, a bard, and two men who can carve at table.If that's actually the total, then it's 108 plus attendants. Scholars have puzzled over the dining arrangements for an evidently larger than ordinary dining hall.
3.)Was Odysseus seriously criticizing his son for not standing up to the suitors or preparing for their tag team revenge?
4.)Why does Odysseus say Zeus will be on his side? Zeus has been invoked in the context of badly behaved hosts, but does he bear the same attitude towards badly behaved guests?
5.)Why do the dogs, who have already recognized Telemachus, but not Odysseus, recognize and recoil in fear from Athena, whom Telemachus does not even see?
6.)Why does Eumaeus maintain secrecy about Telemachus' return when the messenger from the ship has already announced it publicly?
"The Suitors of Penelope," by Samuel E. Bassett. Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 49. (1918), pp. 41-52.
"The Odyssean Suitors and the Host-Guest Relationship," by Harry L. Levy. Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 94. (1963), pp. 145-153.
