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So, in thirteen through sixteen, there's a
kind of reunion that's happening about

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Odysseus to his native land but it's
happening in fits and starts.

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He's constantly lying, he's telling people
half truths and full lies.

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He's making connections with people but
not quite his own inner circle yet.

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Well that's, this changes in Book sixteen.
He does have an actual reunion that comes

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with someone in his, in his inner circle.
He gets reunited with his own son,

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Telemachus, in quite a moving scene.
The beginning of sixteen, as it starts, is

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quite, quite interesting stuff, isn't it?
There's a wonderful simile that starts

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this book off.
I thought we'd take a chance to, to take a

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look at this.
Homeric similes Homer uses similes to

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tremendous effect through the poems in
both the Iliad and the Odyssey.

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In they work slightly different in each
epic.

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In the Odyssey what we often get is a way
for the, the characters in the story to

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change places.
They get compared to things that seem like

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other characters should be being compared
to.

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And so, connections are drawn among the
characters inside the stories.

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Let's take a look at this example.
Telemachus comes home.

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And when he does, we hear Odysseus looking
at him and thinking about him.

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And then, the narrative seamlessly moves
in this direction.

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Straight to the prince he rushed, and
kissed his face, and kissed his shining

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eyes.
Both hands, as the tears rolled down his

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cheeks.
As a father brimming with love, welcomes

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home his darling only son in a warm
embrace, what pain he's borne for him and

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him alone.
Home now, in the tenth year from far

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abroad.
So, the loyal swineherd hugged the beaming

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prince.
He clung for dear life, covering with

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kisses, yes, like one escaped from death.
Now, what has Howard done in the simile?

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Well, we got into it quite subtly, it's a
little bit hard to tell at the very

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beginning.
Who's the one who's running straight to

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the prince and kissing him?
It seems like it could be Odysseus.

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Welcome, welcoming him like a father
welcomes someone home.

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He's been gone for a long time.
Well, look what's happened here.

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Homer has put Eumaeus in the place of
Odysseus.

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So, Eumaeus here, gets to be the father
figure that Homer is not quite ready to

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have Odysseus be.
Odysseus still needs to keep his distance,

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keep far away.
Telemachus gets to get reconciled with a

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kind of father figure here by the simile
but in this case, it's Eumaeus.

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So, Eumaeus gets a chance to play Odysseus
here.

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But then also, read a little bit further,
it's as long, in a subtle way, Telemachus

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gets a chance to be Odysseus, too.
Because when Eumaeus welcomes him home, he

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welcomes him home like someone who's been
gone for ten years from far abroad.

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Long away and being far abroad in, in, in
far away voyages.

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So, Telemachus, although he hasn't been
gone for twenty years he's been gone for

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ten.
It's in a way, he's compared to Odysseus'

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ten, at least the ten years of Odysseus'
absence where he, himself, is far away.

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So, each character gets a chance to kind
of step into the shoes of the other, and

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they show some really wonderful
connections between them.

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Now Eumaeus at that point, goes off on his
mission, and Odysseus, to bring messages

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to Penelope, and Odysseus is alone with
Telemachus.

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At that point, Athena leaves and notice
what she does when she leaves, she gives a

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kind of wink, she nod, gives a nod and
well, wrinkles her eyebrows over at

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Odysseus as if, hey now's the time.
This wink back and forth between them,

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secret sign, a secret conveyance of
information between Athena and Odysseus.

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Telemachus doesn't see her.
Telemachus is not in on it yet.

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Odysseus is involved in his own circle of
knowledge with Athena, Telemachus in a, in

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a different circle of knowledge that is
not overlapping.

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Soon enough, these two are going to
overlap.

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But for now they're in slightly different
worlds.

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At that point, Odysseus reveals himself to
Telemachus and the revelation of father to

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son is abrupt.
It's not gradual.

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Eumaeus is going to take a long time for
Odysseus to come back and get ready to get

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to know him, but with Telemachus, he jumps
right out and, and he's ready to show

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himself to Telemachus.
Telemachus is confused, doesn't realize,

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wait a minute it can't really be you.
And then they just break down and have a

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wonderful tender embrace.
Telemachus quickly mistakes Odysseus for a

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god, and just like Odysseus did when he
washed up on Scheria, he is quick to say

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no, no, no.
I'm not a god.

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No, no, no, I'm not a god.
When, when a, when a hero is identifying

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him or herself, what the hero does first
is to disclaim a divine aspect.

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That shows great deference to the
divinities.

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So, you got to say, no, no, no, I'm not
more than I am.

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I'm just a human being.
So, Odysseus does that just as he does on,

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on the island of Scheria.
After the long tender embrace and tears

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wetting the ground, Odysseus is ready for
business.

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Let's get down to business.
Tell me about the suitors.

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How many are there?
How are they armed?

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How, you know, unarm them and what's our
plan?

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He lays everything out and gets right down
to business.

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Now, in this communication that we've seen
between Odysseus and Athena, we've seen

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this kind of sly, careful way that they
come back and forth but we're only just

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now getting introduced to the real secret
communication, that's going to be

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happening in these closing books.
That's the one between Odysseus and

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Penelope.
Eumaeus is off and remember, the journey

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that he is off on, he is going to bring a
message from the stranger that's washed up

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on shore to Penelope.
Eumaeus will be shuttled back and forth

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bringing messages between the Penelope and
Odysseus at first.

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Soon enough, Odysseus is going have his
chance to make his own case, to make his

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own pitch to Penelope.
We'll see that the lying will continue.

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It's not about to just waltz right in,
and, say, hi honey, I'm home.

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That doesn't work so well, we've seen that
in Agamemnon's case and he's going to have

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to make his way though more subtly and
more slyly to Penelope.

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We're also going to need to keep an eye on
what Penelope knows.

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It's not a simple case of her not quite
knowing what's happening.

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There are some points in her narration, in
her story of how the events are, are

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coming that make us wonder about how much
Penelope knows and when she knows it.

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It seems like she's moving along this
course of events not just as a passive

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player but as a very active player.
She makes an entrance now in this next

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part of the epic.
Here's that there was some plot against

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her son, comes down and scolds the
suitors.

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And at that point, after she drops her
bombs, and, and lays down some nasty words

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against the suitors, she disappears and
goes upstairs, and goes to sleep.

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You'll notice that Penelope does a lot of
this in the coming book.

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She'll come down, make some statements, go
upstairs, I've got the vapors, I've got to

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go to sleep.
When she does this kind of disappearing

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act though watch out because oftentimes
something has gone on in the message that

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should just, that she's just laid down.
Someone's overheard something that she

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intended or, it's hard to tell.
And it's going to carefully, subtly move

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this back and forth.
That subtleness that Odysseus is conveying

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through his own techniques is going to be
met with a similar kind of.

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And even more an Even deeper kind of
subtleness, caution, and circumspectness

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in the figure of Penelope.