Odysseus has made his reunion with his
son. Made a connection with the swine herd, in
Eumaeus' hut. And now he's ready to, to start,
reconnoitering. Moving his way into the next step which is
going to be getting himself into the center of this town.
And eventually into Odysseus' house. And from there, make his connection with
Penelope. Telemachus, it shows at the beginning of
seventeen, has learned the stuff that he was supposed to learn during that journey
as he went around to see the great aristocratic friends of his father.
He learns what it is to be a purposeful, now slightly angry man, who's in charge of
a house that other people are abusing. He starts to move around more
purposefully. He lays down markers to the suitors
telling them that, that things that they're doing are not quite right.
He guarantees statements that some people make in his own house, so he starts to
take responsibility for other things. And we're going to watch this growing up
of Telemachus on display in book seventeen.
He, at the very beginning of the book lies to Eumaeus about Odysseus, doesn't he?
So he is now in Odysseus's inner circle of lies, and he himself becomes a liar just
like his father chosen as growing up to take a different role in his group.
He says to Eumaeus, take this stranger. He knows that it's Odysseus, Eumaeus
doesn't. Eumaeus, take this stranger to Odysseus'
house so he can get some food begging there.
I can't feed everyone that comes up to me so he's going to have to beg some scraps
from the suitors. Now, in doing that on page 354, what
Telemachus is doing is positioning his father, disguised as the beggar.
And positioning his father in such a place that he can now get to know what the lay
of the land is hanging around with the suitors.
And then, Telemachus shows his responsibility, kind of stepping up a
little bit more. His first conversation with Penelope, he
says I need to go meet my friend, Theoclymenus, whom I brought with me and I
need to take care of him. He says on page 356.
So he's starting to, sort of, step up. He's been educated.
Let's see here in this picture of the young Telemachus getting schooled.
He's been educated and he's now ready to start taking responsibility for some of
the things in this house. Closing off, book seventeen, there's a
different statement that comes out Telemachus' mouth than the one that we're
used to seeing him. Remember in those early books, he's
constantly talking about how the gods are not on my side, if only the gods were on
my side, the gods are giving awful things to me.
He now says what heroes say at the close of seventeen, page 374.
I'll tend to all things here, I and the deathless gods.
Now this is what a hero does. Yeah, sure, it's up to the gods, but it's
also up to me. There's an understood double determination
in the events that go on for a hero in the events that a hero is responsible for.
Yeah, sure, the gods steers all things but that doesn't mean that the hero is not,
therefore, also responsible for what happens in, in the, the, the purview of
the hero, what's going on in their terrain.
The theme carries on in book eighteen. Telemachus is still hovering around the
center of the city, and when he sees Odysseus as this beggar, and Iris, the
other lowly beggar. The two of them are about to get into a
fight and there's nasty words back and forth and they take oaths at the beginning
So if I win, this happens. If you win, that happens.
This all unfolds on page 377. Odysseus, Telemachus at that point steps
up and says okay, you all can, can count on me to guarantee the oaths that you've
just taken. I am going to be the guarantor of the
oaths that you all just taken so go ahead and have your fight but under the
understanding that I'm going to make sure that what you all agree to is going to get
executed in the end. That kind of authority to execute on
someone else's promises is the kind of thing that someone who's in charge of a
situation takes. So Telemachus is showing himself to be
that way. After Penelope in Book eighteen points out
how this stranger Odysseus was abused by the suitors, he jumps in and starts to
take responsibility for that situation too.
And so at this point on, page 383, that Telemachus basically undoes any doubt that
we had about whether he's grown up. Remember at the very beginning of the, of
the epic, Athena comes up to Telemachus and says basically, just come on, grow up.
It's time for you to get going, take responsibility.
On book eighteen he says, I used to think as a child, but not anymore.
My heart takes note of everything, feels it too, both the good and the bad.
The boy you knew is gone. So Telemachus is now stepping into a
different stage of life. And he is ready to take on responsibility
for, not just his own messes, but other people's messes.
That's probably a pretty strong part of what it is to grow up, is taking on other
people's messes. Who knows, maybe there should be a
universal law built into this one. To grow up means to take on other people's
messes. But Telemachus is stepping up to do that
and ready to, ready to do it. Others seem to notice that this is going
on. At the close of eighteen, he makes threats
on page 389 that the suitors take seriously.
People are recognizing that he's talking more stringently.
Page 419, we see another example of this. The suitors bite their lips, amazed at
Telemachus stepping up and getting his, getting his more grown up person to take
responsibility for what's happening around him.
Then we also see some close-up with what the suitors are all about.
We see this through Odysseus's eyes. We've heard from them, we've seen the
misery and threats to Telemachus. We've seen Penelope have some very small
interactions with them. But we really get to see them at work.
See them, see the suitors being the suitors through Odysseus' eyes.
And this starts opening up to us in this section of the, of the text through book
seventeen and eighteen. Odysseus makes his way in and makes
contact and we get to see what they're like.
So these suitors, who are eating Odysseus out of house and home and helping themself
to whatever they feel like that belongs to someone else.
When a beggar comes in and ask them for their scraps, they turn him away
similarly. The suitor's not only abused the xenia
that they expect is going to be offered them as sort of guests who horribly
overstay their welcome in Odysseus' house. But, they've not only pervert that xenia
but they also refuse to offer the xenia they should offer to the stranger that
washes up into their, into their region in this courtyard of Odysseus' house.
They treated him with abuse. They don't give him any food.
They surely don't wash his feet. None of the things that a great aristocrat
is supposed to do when a stranger comes up on their shores.
Even lowly ones should receive this treatment.
Remember what Nausicaa said when she saw Odysseus at the beginning of book six.
He was basically dead. He had no clothes on.
He was totally bedraggled. He was in that beggar situation.
Even worse off than he is right now. At least he has rags on when he approaches
his own house. When Nausicaa saw that uh-huh, naked and
destitute Odysseus, she said even this person deserves our respect because all
guest friends come from Zeus. So she said in book six you got to be nice
even to those lowly people, rode down to the totem pole.
But the Suitors don't have any of the graciousness of this.
They don't give him hospitality. They're busy you know, hoarding and taking
Odysseus' goods without sharing anymore themselves.
Page 366, that comes out. Then Odysseus, as he, as he works his way
into this group has a chance to tell his story.
We've seen him do this in the context of Eumaeus.
When he offers a story, Eumaeus listens to all the details and makes a connection
with them. Not so, with the suitors.
Odysseus goes on, talks about being a Cretan sailor.
They don't understand the meaning. They don't understand that, yeah, maybe
there's a stranger here we should be nice to.
They have no fellow feeling. No linkage with Odysseus.
368. That comes off, they treated him very
rudely. Contrast this with what Eumaeus does.
Eumaeus is doing the right thing. The suitors are doing all the wrong things
when it comes to xenia. When they cross this threshold and act so
ugly, in such an ugly way to Odysseus. Yeah, they're, they're treating a beggar
poorly, and they should have treated a beggar better.
But they're also running afoul of this critical code that is built into what it
is to be Greek. You ought to treat strangers well.
So, it's not just that you're doing something that's a little bit rude to this
one person, you're violating a core social custom of what it is to be a Greek.
So these suitors are violating something quite strong here and being quite so rude
to Odysseus. Also, they are violating a code that is a
strong, strongly knitted into the Greek cultural fabric.
But it also comes from Zeus himself. So they are committing a kind of offense
against Zeus by not treating a stranger well.
And this comes out. Gods arrive and disguised in every way.
We hear again at page 370. Gods arrive disguised in every way.
That person who you don't who it is could be god.
You should treat them well. And if you don't, you are violating even
the great authority of Zeus. Looking forward to book twenty, one of the
suitors comes up and says, you want a guest gift, you beggar?
Fine, I'll give you guest gift. And takes an ox hoof and he hurls it,
hurls it at Odysseus. Further perversion of the custom of the
xenia. What you are supposed to do is not take
the hoof which can be used as a weapon, but take the meat which is nourishing.
Give it to somebody who comes to your house, take care of them but they're not
doing that. As this book, you know, carries forward
book seventeen. We see further Eumaeus develop in his role
as messenger. He brings a message from the stranger to
Penelope at 371. Then comes back and, and talks to Odysseus
and Odysseus asks then Eumaeus to bring a message back to Penelope.
That message of Penelope, hey, stranger who has just washed into my house.
I'm so far away from my husband. Maybe you'd like to have a private
audience with me? And invites him to go ahead and come on in
and talk to her. Already a little bit forward, that
maneuver. Odysseus sends back the message, not yet.
Let's wait until nighttime. Very interesting exchange of messages
there. They're, they're easy enough to take on
the plain surface level and may well be that all that's happened is Penelope has
said, yeah, sure I'd like to talk to this stranger.
I could find out about my husband. And this stranger says, well let's do it
later on. It's more convenient for me.
But, there's something also, the, the, the forwardness of Penelope may, asking to
make an audience with this stranger whose nothing but a beggar.
And then the stranger coming back and saying, rather than just sort of dropping
everything and saying, oh my gosh the lady of the house is willing to speak with me.
But rather, saying, hold off, wait. Let's do it at nighttime, when we can do
it in a different kind of setting. Both those things I think are, it's
possible that there's a subterranean back message being sent in the message.
So, kind of like, metadata built into the message that's being sent that says "I
want to pay some attention to you" on both sides.
We'll see what that attention's going to be in the coming books.
So, things start to unfold rapidly and quickly in seventeen through twenty.
Lots of the good stuff starts to, unpack itself here.