Odyssey Scholarship

• What did Peter Jones believe the three interpretations of Odysseus's character to be?

  "First, he is the loyal hero-husband, whose eyes are fixed on one goal only: return home… Second, he is the eternal wanderer, fired with a passion for knowledge and experience. Third, he is an anti-hero, a mean, selfish time-server who employs disguise and deceit often to gain the most disreputable ends."
• What did Barbara Graziosi say about Odysseus's character?

  "Odysseus could never....be pinned down."
• What did Michael Silk say about Odysseus killing Leodes?

  "Odysseus is a returned husband, long-missing and plausibly presumed dead; Leodes, among many others, desired his wife. Few of Homer’s modern readers would condone revenge killing in such a context, let alone acclaim it, but the Odyssey does – or does it…?"
• What did Julia Stanton believe the purpose of revenge to be?

  "It is supposed to punish the aggressor, restore honour and maintain social balance. Sometimes characters need to ensure that the punishment is either not too lenient or too severe – e.g. Odysseus stops Eurycleia from triumphing over the suitors’ deaths as it is not the proper thing to do – they were meant to die due to their transgressions."
• What did Loney argue about revenge in relation to the Odyssey?

  The Odyssey is full of vengeance and that it is a vengeance which is reciprocal (tisis), like xenia. If someone is insulted/hurt, depending on the amount of harm and how close you are to the victim, you have to wield a certain amount of punishment/vengeance. Violence and acts of vengeance run through the Odyssey – e.g. Poseidon’s vengeance on Odysseus for blinding Polyphemus, and Odysseus’ vengeance on the suitors.
• Which roles did Gregory Nagy believe Odysseus could fit into

  1. The soldier of fortune who comes back to his wife, whose faithfulness in his absence determines his true identity.
  2. The returning king who becomes reintegrated into society.
  3. The pilot lost at sea who finds his bearings.
  4. The seer returning home from his quest.
  5. The trickster who retraces his steps
• What did Nagy state made Odysseus become a hero

  The fact that "he manages to return home"
• What does Nagy say about the relationship between Telemachus and Athene?

  "Especially when mentoring Telemachus as Mentes, Athene ‘mentally connects’ him to his father and to the concept of being a hero like his father."
• What does Nagy say about the relationship between nostos and kleos?

  "Odysseus's kleos is connected to his nostos."
• What does Sheila Murnaghan believe about the plot of the Odyssey?

  "It is coloured by the premise that Odysseus is always in control.”
• Why did Murnaghan believe Odysseus's beggar disguise to be important?

  "Odysseus can always be in control as he can outwit others."
• What does Michael Silk say about Nausicaa?

  The episode with her was a "playful romantic interlude"
• What did Paul Chrystal say about women in the Odyssey?

  "Nausicaa, Penelope, Helen… are all free to come and go as they please; they are certainly not secluded or segregated from their men. Their domestic roles are clearly delineated but they are active and integral to their respective households.”
• What does William Thalmann believe about slaves in the Odyssey?

  "Slaves are sharply opposed into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ slaves. Thus the slave is viewed either as “lacking autonomy, and so corruptible, a dangerous element lurking in the very foundation of the oikos, or as capable, because of an innate nobility (inner strength of character) which is impervious to changes in fortune, deciding to remain loyal to an absent master.”
• What did Michael Silk believe Odysseus's most heroic quality to be?

  His cunning
• What did Michael Clarke believe motivated a typical Homeric warrior?

  "A need for social validation: status, respect, honour in the eyes of other men.”
• What does Simon Goldhill say about xenia in the Odyssey?

  Xenia is a way of judging the different societies in the Odyssey, including how civilised they are, and also helps to develop the characters: “The treatment of a xenos (guest/host) functions as a criterion between the different societies Odysseus visits, as his own playing of various guest roles goes toward the development of his character.” E.g. Odysseus even appears as a disguised guest in his own house. How he handles this shows how his character develops and what he is like as a character.
• How does Brad Hastings describe the relationship between Fate and the gods?

  "The Greek gods are also depicted as utterly human; they serve as a mirror of men and women, and are subject to the whims of fate.”
• What does Jack Newton Lawson say about how Fate affects the gods?

  “There are ambiguities concerning who and what is ultimately responsible for the decree and execution of fate.”
• What did James McDonald and Norman McKendrick believe about families in the Odyssey?

  “In Homer’s poem, the family is always and everywhere aristocratic."