Odyssey Scholars

• Griffin - the god's have supreme power, but they are not omnipotent ... men have free will and are responsible for their actions
• Camps - supernatural powers are at work everywhere and always in the homeric poems
• Bernadete - [the punishment of the Phaeacians is to] instil fear of the god's constant hidden presence
• Jones - the god's are concerned about the justice of human behaviour
• Jones - they [the gods] appear only in disguise
• Jones - [in the Odyssey the gods] their presence is far less noticeable
• Jones - but there is still one god with a high profile in the Odyssey - Odysseus' patron Athene
• Jones - it is tempting to say that Athene's presence diminishes the stature of Odysseus
• Jones - but it is important to emphasise that in Homer the gods only help those who are worthy of it
• Jones - the suitors' wanton and conscious destruction of Odysseus' household and disregard for the bond of Xenia are enough to justify their deaths
• Griffin - does not throw away his life for glory
• Jones - the odyssey makes the household rather than the battlefield the centre of its world
• Kahane - the actions of the Odyssey are motivated by the idea of a return to the "inner space"
• McDonald and McKendrick - possessions measure a family's wealth and determine its importance, its reputation, kleos
• Kelly - a range of different female types and female style soft affection
• Jones - unique in Homer for closeness of relationship it depicts between god and mortal
• Jones - her [Penelope] loyalty remains constant
• Jones - and her [Penelope] trick is worthy of Odysseys himself
• Graziosi - all women and monsters Odysseus encounters represent a danger to him. some are sweet, some are terrifying, but they all impede his return home
• Ni Mheallaigh - weaving was an archetypal female activity ... yet in ancient poetry, the silent weaving woman becomes a dangerously ambivalent figure
• Jenkyns - loyalty is a supreme virtue in the lowly
• Jenkyns - the odyssey, however, gives prominence even to slaves and beggars
• Jenkyns - for those who, in such a world, show themselves worthy to be trusted, the response is warmly emotional
• Rieu - Eumaeus and Eurycleia are stalwart paradigms of order in a place dominated by disorderly suitors, they represent what the palace used to be like - and will be again when its master is restored