STORY 0:00 – 53:45
Athena sends Telemachus off on his first ever “road trip” – to Pylos and to Sparta – in the hopes that it might help the milquetoast young man to “grow a pair”. Telemachus meets some familiar characters from Iliad: windy old king Nestor, blustery Menelaus, and the “enigmatic-as-ever” Helen of Troy (now, once again, “of Sparta”). Telemachus witnesses unresolved marital hostility between Helen and Menelaus – concerning those awkward “Paris years”. And then Helen drugs her (possibly abusive) husband’s dinner wine.
POST-STORY COMMENTARY: AESCHYLUS’ ORESTIAN TRILOGY and THE HORRIBLE HOUSE OF ATREUS 53:45 – 1:35:59
The Odyssey is replete with cautionary tales of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, and with salutary tales of Agamemnon’s son Orestes. In this commentary I explain Homers’ reasons for returning again and again to these two stories, by reviewing the gender and the justice assumptions that inform Homer’s text.
And then I resume my continuing story of The Horrible House of Atreus, which I began in Trojan War: The Podcast, “Episode 9: Iphigenia”. I conclude with a 30-minute summary of Aeschylus’ Orestian Trilogy, including a discussion of the evolution of Athena, and of concepts of justice, from Homer’s time to Classical Greece.
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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- Telemachus Departing from Nestor, Henry Howard, 1769-1847
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- Telemachus and Pisistratus take a road trip
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- Helen and Menelaus, by Jan Styka, 1858-1925 (no wonder she drugged his wine!)
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- Helen of Troy, by Rossetti, 1863 (Did Menelaus provide that black eye?)
