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Having earned his final step his final way in he Odysseus finally gets to have his
reunion with Penelope. Only after proof back and forth do they
finally get their moment to see one another.
Homer expresses this moment in a wonderful simile that draws on some of the ways
similes work that we pointed out earlier but we take a look at that one.
Penelope, actually, she's looking at joy, warm as the joy that shipwrecked sailors
feel when they catch a sight of land. Poseidon has struck their well-rigged ship
on the ocean sea, on the open sea with gale winds and crushing walls of waves.
And only a few escape, swimming and struggling out of the frothing surf to
reach the shore. Their bodies crusted with salt but buoyed
up with joy as they plant their feet on solid ground again, spared a deadly fate.
So, joyous now, to her, the sight of her husband, vivid in her gaze.
And her white arms embracing his neck would never for a moment let him go.
So, what is happening inside this simile? You'll remember in some of the earlier
ones that we looked at, key characters get a chance to kind of trade places.
As Homer starts the comparison that seems to be a comparison of one person that you
pretty sure who it is. But then, it gets turned around and
matches another, another person who is taken the place of that other one.
We saw this one Eumaeus was compared to a father welcoming home a son who's been
gone a long time. When Eumaeus embraces Telemachus, we
definitely see it here. Look at the joy that Penelope feels.
She feels the joy of someone who is like a sailor, who have been, who's been
shipwrecked, shipwrecked. Who Poseidon has wrecked with awful
punishments. Who's just barely escaped by swimming, who
is struggling in the frothing surf to reach the shore.
And then, she feels like someone who is just landed on homeground and is able to
plant her feet solidly again. What Homer does with this simile is to
allow Penelope to be Odysseus for a while. And so, too, can Odysseus, the one that
welcomes home the one that's been so far away for so long, play the role of
Penelope. It's a wonderful simile that shows the
closeness of their intimacy. Penelope's suffering at home is here
compared and, and, and, made congruent with, Odysseus's tremendous suffering out
there on the wilder world. The two of them share their reunion.
They also have shared an identical, in this case, at least congruent kind of pain
Homer's very clever and subtle way for continuing the connection between these
two. Now, that they have made their connection,
the two of them sit down and have their reunion.
The reunion, first of all, starts with a lot of talking, a lot of telling, I've got
my story and I have to tell it to you. The whole epic comes out again as Odysseus
tells Penelope where he's been. We have to fill in this piece of his
identity. He's earned back his name.
He's earned back his strength. He's got clothing back on him.
He's got his place now on Ithaca. He's got his place in his city.
He's got his house back. He's got his family back.
He's got his son back, and now finally, he has Penelope back.
And when he has that, he needs to share with Penelope all this past that she has
missed out on in his own life for him to fill her in.
So, he launches in and goes through this whole long retelling of the entire Odyssey
as he lets her know what it is. Then things turn and Book 24 begins and
things are not over. The Odyssey is in some ways, it's kind of
like a story that just can't quite end. Some have suggested who've taken a close
look at Book 24 that this must have been added on later to the, the original
Odyssey that had only 23 books. I'm not sure I, I buy that, that argument.
The basis for the argumentation is only what you all have already been exposed to.
There's no exterior evidence based that we're appealing to.
It's just how closely this Book 24 parallel fit in with all the rest.
I think the thematic statement that it's making that says that Odysseus's Journey,
this great archetypal wayfarer is not going to end with him safe at home.
There's always more wandering. The Odyssey is not really going to end.
So, in Book 24 the story continues. We wind up following the suitors down to
the underworld. They've been killed, as you know, and
down, down they go. We hear then, the whole story one more
time as the suitors were counted to Agamemnon, they tell him all the things
that have gone on and how Odysseus set things right, he's of course thrilled
because for his friend and contrasts his own situation, the one that's been
coursing through the background of Odysseus' story Agamemnon in the, in the
closing book yet again, contrasts his own situation with that of, of, of, of the
situation of Odysseus and Penelope. There is a strong indication of the
momentousness of what has just happened. Where it's, it's so huge that tales about
it are not just limited to this upper world.
Tales about it are buzzing across the whole cosmos.
Up in Olympus, they care, down in the underworld, they care and surely in our
world people care. Odysseus, as this all is going on, heads
off to visit his father, Laertes, finds him rolling around in the cow dung.
Poor man. Feeling in this awful situation, Odysseus
almost strangely almost a little perversely decides to start testing his
father and lying to his father and all these things.
It's difficult to say what that task is, I want to make sure that you're really my
father, I want to make sure you really love me.
Well, the man is rolling around in dung because you're missing, of course, he
loves you. But it is just Odysseus's way, he is a
tester, he is a trickster, and he is a liar.
So, he goes through his testing of his father.
His father then, wants some test in return, are you really Odysseus?
And Odysseus shows him his scar, so his identity proof comes back again he can
show himself to Laertes as being the man that he is.
The towns people in Ithaca are upset about what's happened.
[laugh] their relatives their suitors have just been killed they are ready for
battle. They get ready to bring things to a head.
Odysseus now stands again with his allies, he's got Telemachus, he's got Eumaeus, and
now, he's got his father by his side Laertes too were ready to do battle Athena
comes in seems like a yet another kind episode of spear throw is about to happen
with strong cascading violence and wave after wave of, of killing.
Athena then, at that point jumps on him. She has a, a spear cast [unknown] at least
Laertes, his hand Athena makes it into a clean kill.
This saps the energy of the enemy. She then comes in, makes peace and says,
now it is done. As a, like a god on the machine, she comes
in and settles things in her disguise. She comes in and settles things.
And people at least Odysseus, has a sense that it's Athena.
But she comes in a disguise and says, no more, no more, the war is done.
When she does the suitors' relatives now slink away.
And with that, Odysseus has regained all of the things that make him Odysseus.
His house is now stable. We know what he has to do next, he's got
to go take that, remember, the ore and bring it all the way inland until someone
mistakes his ore for a winnowing fan. Once he does, he'll know he's far enough
away from the sea that should he build a temple there, Poseidon will feel as though
recompense has been made for the leaving of his son Polyphemus.
So, we know that Odysseus has more adventures ahead of him.
He has recovered now his identity. He's pieced together his name, his
strength his capabilities, his family, his house, his city his relationship, his
connection with Penelope solidified. His connection in a kind of epilogue
moment with his father. His connection with his past is now
rejoined. So, Odysseus now is finally whole again.
His poor, beaten and battered man that we saw at the beginning of Book one is now
ready to be Odysseus again. He's earned his place back to being
himself. I hope you enjoyed it.
Looking forward to reading more myth with you all.
It's a great way to start. It's always a little sad to leave the
Odyssey but trust me, great things are coming around the corner, too.