scholarship

• the key scholars are:

  • Peter Jones
  • Ahuvia Kahane
  • Barbara Graziosi.
  • James Morrison
  • Edith Hall 
  • Emma Kearns
  • Michael silk
  • Michael Clarke
  • Thomas Walsh
  • Stanton
  • Loney
  • Felson
  • Nagy
  • Sheila Murnaghan
  • Chrystal
  • Franklin
• James Morrison states:

  “We might think of the figures in the Agamemnon story as role models, both positive and negative, for the major figures in the epic. Will Penelope prove herself better than Clytemnestra? Will Telemachus act as nobly as Orestes?”
• Edith Hall states:

  “In Odysseus the Greeks had a glamorous hero and expert navigator"

  and

  "Odysseus is a hero who also symbolises Greek intellectual prowess.”
• Peter Jones states Odysseus as:

  "an anti-hero, who employs disguise and deceit often to gain the most disreputable ends"
• Michael Silk states:

  “Odysseus’ most heroic quality is his cunning”
• Emma Kearns states:

  The Gods are didactic, and “they offer a mirror on society itself”
• Barbara Graziosi states:

  "it is Penelope herself who constitutes the greatest peril for Odysseus.”
• Edith Hall claims:

  “By the end of the Odyssey, all good Xenia has been rewarded and all bad Xenia punished.”

  (not true as the Phaeacians were punished for good Xenia, Polyphemus wasn't blinded becauase of xenia etc...)
• Peter Jones questions Odysseus, stating:

  "is the suitors' mass slaughter an appropriate punishment, especially as Odysseus also plans to seek compensation for their depredations by raiding their property."
• Loney states:

  "the odyssey is filled with vengeance"
• Gregory Nagy states:

  Athene helps Telemachus and Odysseus to live up to their heroic standards by transforming herself into friends and mentors – Mentes and Mentor.
• Sheila Murnaghan states:

  The odyssey & Odysseus return was “governed by Athene’s unprecedentedly overt and continuous intervention on her favourite’s behalf”
• Michael Clarke states:

  • “The Homeric hero/warrior is not necessarily a model of moral excellence.”
  • and
  • “The Homeric warrior is driven to action by a need for social validation: status, respect, honour in the eyes of other men.”
• Felson and Slatkin state:

  “Penelope is not lesser than her husband – they share their ingenuity”
• Hastings states:

  “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.”
• Silk claims that Penelope is "durable"
• Goldhill states:

  “Xenia is a way of judging the different societies in the Odyssey”
• Loney states how the Odyssey is "filled with vengeance”
• Walsh states:

  Polyphemus, the cyclops, is wrong in defying the Greek institution of xenia, making Odysseus’ vengeance a justifiable reaction
• Stanton says how Homer believes retributive justice is justifiable, but shouldn’t be celebrated like a victory in battle, highlighted by Odysseus stopping Eurycleia from celebrating the suitors’ deaths.
• Chrystal states:  Helen, Arete, Nausicca and Penelope have “their domestic roles clearly defined but they are active and integral to their respective households.”
• Silk describes Penelope as "durable"