STORY 0:00 – 1:36:40
Our story opens with possible “recognition”. Penelope and a homeless beggar (Odysseus) have a long conversation, and take turns decoding a dream. Does Penelope know that the beggar is Odysseus? The next day Penelope announces that her husband is dead, and now is the day to choose a new husband. Penelope sets a contest of strength – who can string, draw, and shoot Odysseus’ bow? – and that contest ultimately reveals all. Then follows “Revenge”, and our story turns disturbingly bloody.
POST-STORY COMMENTARY: MAKING SENSE OF THE ODYSSEY’S BLOODBATH ENDING 1:36-40 – 2:22:50
This commentary is devoted to exploring the bloody “revenge” episodes that dominate – and cast a disturbing pall – over the concluding section of Homer’s Odyssey. I review various scholarly explanations of – and responses to – the massacre of the suitors and the hanging of the slave girls. My overriding questions are: how do we contemporary readers feel about these scenes; how does Homer expect us to feel, and; did Odysseus have any other choice?
RELATED IMAGES
I struggle to find details – title of work, name of artist, date – for some images. If you can help, please forward information to me. Thanks. Jeff
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- Odysseus and Penelope, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, 1751-1829
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- Odysseus and Eurycleia
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- Oydsseus and the Axe Heads
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- modern attempt to shoot an arrow through 12 axes
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- Odysseus Kills the Suitors
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- Telemachus and Odysseus Battle the Suitors
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- Ulysses’ Revenge on Penelope’s Suitors, by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 1783-1853
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- Death at the Palace
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- Slaughter in the Hall
