1 00:00:04,083 --> 00:00:09,066 The events that lead up to Odysseus and Penelope having their time together in 2 00:00:09,066 --> 00:00:14,212 Book nineteen, there are some further questions that we can ask about how this 3 00:00:14,212 --> 00:00:18,720 whole set of stories comes about. What exactly does Penelope know about 4 00:00:18,720 --> 00:00:23,647 what's happening in front of her? It's a very subtle couple of suggestions 5 00:00:23,647 --> 00:00:28,557 that Homer makes that maybe Penelope actually knows a little bit more than we 6 00:00:28,557 --> 00:00:32,752 might think that she does. It's not exactly clear what her state of 7 00:00:32,752 --> 00:00:37,772 knowledge is at any point in time, but it's also seen, instead, there's a little 8 00:00:37,772 --> 00:00:42,043 more that she knows. She's busy with her weaving and her 9 00:00:42,043 --> 00:00:48,043 unweaving and this cleverness of Penelope and her circumspect ability to move around 10 00:00:48,043 --> 00:00:53,826 events without necessarily getting right to them it leads us to have a second look 11 00:00:53,826 --> 00:00:59,292 at her and ask the question whether she might know more than appears at first. 12 00:00:59,292 --> 00:01:04,446 So, she has had a back and forth through Eumaeus to make her connection with 13 00:01:04,446 --> 00:01:08,203 Odysseus. Odysseus is going to come to see her in 14 00:01:08,203 --> 00:01:11,347 the evening. In the building up to that in Book 15 00:01:11,347 --> 00:01:17,087 eighteen, she is up in her chambers and she gets a visitation, Athena, in this 16 00:01:17,087 --> 00:01:23,026 figure of Eurynome appears to her and kinda says you know, it's time to start 17 00:01:23,026 --> 00:01:26,070 moving this thing along. So, get yourself gussied up, and go on 18 00:01:26,070 --> 00:01:29,864 down there and talk to these suitors. And, give a message. 19 00:01:29,864 --> 00:01:33,488 Tell them you're kinda ready to bring this thing to a head. 20 00:01:33,488 --> 00:01:36,285 Well, Paulette, Penelope goes ahead and does that. 21 00:01:36,445 --> 00:01:40,974 She puts on her finery comes down from her chambers as she does, walks in to the 22 00:01:40,974 --> 00:01:45,405 public space, and starts to make a speech. And says, you know, you all have been 23 00:01:45,405 --> 00:01:49,081 eating me out of house and home, but it's time for that to stop. 24 00:01:49,224 --> 00:01:53,490 You want to marry me, well, the, well, the old custom is that somebody wanted to 25 00:01:53,490 --> 00:01:59,244 marry a bride should bring the gifts to that bride rather than taking her stuff to 26 00:01:59,244 --> 00:02:02,552 themselves. So, you all should go off and bring me a 27 00:02:02,552 --> 00:02:09,589 bride, sorry, bring me gifts. And, she couches this in this elegant why? 28 00:02:09,589 --> 00:02:16,883 She says, Odysseus told me Just before he left that is as soon as my son grew some 29 00:02:17,091 --> 00:02:22,908 hair on his chin, that if he still wasn't back by that time, it would be okay for me 30 00:02:22,908 --> 00:02:28,511 to go ahead and take up with someone else. Now, you and I know, reading carefully, 31 00:02:28,719 --> 00:02:33,090 Book eighteen, we know that that's a lie. How is it that we know that? 32 00:02:33,090 --> 00:02:39,033 We know it through Odysseus's eyes. One way of reading this scene is that, 33 00:02:39,033 --> 00:02:42,090 we've gotta ask ourselves, why is Penelope lying? 34 00:02:42,090 --> 00:02:49,405 What is it about this particular moment in time that leads her to come down and spout 35 00:02:49,405 --> 00:02:52,095 out this lie to this whole group of people? 36 00:02:53,205 --> 00:02:58,097 One possible answer to this question of why Penelope lies is contained in the 37 00:02:58,097 --> 00:03:02,077 response, that Odysseus gives when he hears the lie. 38 00:03:02,077 --> 00:03:11,424 Odysseus after the lie comes out, page 384, glows with joy at her trickery. 39 00:03:11,424 --> 00:03:16,384 Goring gifts from her suitors now enchanting their hearts with wild, 40 00:03:16,384 --> 00:03:20,876 seductive words, but all the while, with something else in mind. 41 00:03:20,876 --> 00:03:27,307 So, what's just happened is that Odysseus, who happens to be out there among this 42 00:03:27,307 --> 00:03:32,653 group of people that Penelope is addressing, hears from her, from his wife 43 00:03:32,653 --> 00:03:38,066 a elaborate lie that talks about how something that Odysseus asked her to do if 44 00:03:38,066 --> 00:03:42,759 he was gone for this long, is now requiring her to talk to them about 45 00:03:42,759 --> 00:03:47,778 bringing this thing to a head, about not just kinda carrying out with normal 46 00:03:47,778 --> 00:03:53,132 business, but we're going to about to change things around here, and we're going 47 00:03:53,132 --> 00:03:56,018 to get into the next stech, step of events. 48 00:03:56,018 --> 00:04:01,030 He asks himself now, why does she, Penelope tell this lie? 49 00:04:01,030 --> 00:04:05,049 Well, Odysseus gives us the answer. According to him, she's lying with 50 00:04:05,049 --> 00:04:08,753 something else in mind. Now, what's the something else in mind 51 00:04:08,753 --> 00:04:13,071 that she's lying in order to do? Sure, it could be that she just wants to 52 00:04:13,071 --> 00:04:17,035 get a bunch of gifts from the suitors, that's what she says. 53 00:04:17,234 --> 00:04:22,048 It could also be, and look at what the effect is, that this is a way for Penelope 54 00:04:22,048 --> 00:04:26,914 to tell that stranger who she knows is out there in that group of people that if you 55 00:04:26,914 --> 00:04:32,662 are really Odysseus, you're the one person in the world who's going to know that this 56 00:04:32,662 --> 00:04:35,696 is a lie. And if you really are Odysseus, you'll 57 00:04:35,696 --> 00:04:38,686 know that there's a subterranean message here. 58 00:04:38,686 --> 00:04:41,497 There is meta data attached to this message. 59 00:04:41,497 --> 00:04:46,405 And if you really are Odysseus out there, you beggar, you're going to know that this 60 00:04:46,405 --> 00:04:50,081 thing is a lie. No one else in the world will be able to 61 00:04:50,081 --> 00:04:53,597 pick up on that. So, what Penelope has done is made a 62 00:04:53,597 --> 00:04:59,261 public statement in front of this whole group of people such that, if the one out 63 00:04:59,261 --> 00:05:04,540 there is a stranger just happens to be Odysseus, he will know that it's a message 64 00:05:04,540 --> 00:05:08,064 for him. Because it is a purposeful lie that she's 65 00:05:08,064 --> 00:05:11,097 now telling to start, to spring things to the next level. 66 00:05:11,097 --> 00:05:16,030 When she's doing that, she's cluing in Odysseus, if he's out there, that the 67 00:05:16,030 --> 00:05:20,058 stage of events is about to happen. She's going to call these things to a 68 00:05:20,058 --> 00:05:23,027 head. And what she does is say, okay, you're now 69 00:05:23,027 --> 00:05:27,043 going to have to compete for me and that's when the axe trick comes up. 70 00:05:27,043 --> 00:05:32,023 And remember, the way that Odysseus gets his, by cleverness, the bow in his hands 71 00:05:32,023 --> 00:05:36,573 and all the other weapons away from the suitors, he becomes maximally powerful and 72 00:05:36,573 --> 00:05:40,950 they become maximally vulnerable. The way he does that is by using this bow 73 00:05:40,950 --> 00:05:44,389 and arrow trick. So, when Penelope says, yeah, I'm going to 74 00:05:44,389 --> 00:05:48,091 take one of you now because Odysseus asked me, said it was okay for me to do that. 75 00:05:48,091 --> 00:05:52,061 I'm going to take one of you now and we're going to bring things to the next level. 76 00:05:52,061 --> 00:05:56,377 She is announcing to Odysseus out there that this whole things happening based on 77 00:05:56,377 --> 00:05:59,095 a lie, and if you're Odysseus you will pick that up and you'll know. 78 00:05:59,095 --> 00:06:04,570 So that you'll be ready to know that something's up and I'm, in on it. 79 00:06:04,570 --> 00:06:08,168 A lie to the broader public is seen through. 80 00:06:08,168 --> 00:06:13,517 Only by the true Odysseus, and this is her way of seeing if that person is the true 81 00:06:13,517 --> 00:06:16,597 Odysseus. Book nineteen, we get started on the 82 00:06:16,597 --> 00:06:21,793 conversation that goes back and forth. From now until the end of our, our 83 00:06:21,793 --> 00:06:26,131 lectures on seventeen through 200, we're going to be talking about Book nineteen in 84 00:06:26,131 --> 00:06:30,459 the, in the, the, the coming two one-half lectures, two more after this. 85 00:06:30,459 --> 00:06:33,945 Nineteen is an amazing book. All kinds of things happen there. 86 00:06:33,945 --> 00:06:38,796 Odysseus and Penelope come together. They, Odysseus has had his circuitous path 87 00:06:38,796 --> 00:06:43,699 throughout the broad sweep of the, of the world, and even down to the underworld, 88 00:06:43,699 --> 00:06:48,087 back through all of his adventure. He made his way back home, and now he's 89 00:06:48,087 --> 00:06:51,056 made it into the inner chambers of his house. 90 00:06:51,056 --> 00:06:54,084 Having a private audiences, audience with his wife, Penelope. 91 00:06:54,084 --> 00:06:59,068 She has gone, gone through her own long path her suffering, all these years not 92 00:06:59,068 --> 00:07:04,368 having had this person nearby has led her to this spot now in the room with 93 00:07:04,368 --> 00:07:08,060 Odysseus. They're having this private discussion 94 00:07:08,060 --> 00:07:12,385 back and forth. Now, as the this beautiful painting 95 00:07:12,385 --> 00:07:16,083 reflects for us its private yes but only to a degree. 96 00:07:17,223 --> 00:07:23,013 Look at the maiden off to the side, off in the dark, kinda keeping an eye on them. 97 00:07:23,013 --> 00:07:28,020 We have to remember that when Penelope and Odysseus are talking together, there are 98 00:07:28,020 --> 00:07:33,003 this whole ring of servant girls that are around the outside of them, and they can 99 00:07:33,003 --> 00:07:36,788 hear just as this person here can overhear, they can overhear what Penelope 100 00:07:36,788 --> 00:07:41,040 and Odysseus are saying. So, the indirection and the carefulness of 101 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:45,407 both of them in revealing themselves to each other is likely because they're 102 00:07:45,407 --> 00:07:48,043 worried about what the other one is going to think. 103 00:07:48,043 --> 00:07:52,075 But, it's surely also especially in the case of Penelope, likely the case that she 104 00:07:52,075 --> 00:07:56,454 does not want to tip off these serving maids that there might be something up 105 00:07:56,454 --> 00:07:59,088 with this person who just washed on shore. He might be Odysseus. 106 00:07:59,088 --> 00:08:03,098 If they ran and embraced each other right here in the in their, in, in their 107 00:08:03,098 --> 00:08:07,337 chambers on their first meeting, those servant girls would see what was up and 108 00:08:07,337 --> 00:08:11,011 you could be sure that they go off and tip off the suitors. 109 00:08:11,173 --> 00:08:15,032 The surprise of Odysseus's about to spring on them would be completely lost. 110 00:08:15,032 --> 00:08:18,793 So, instead, they're both circumspect., both Odysseus and Penelope. 111 00:08:18,793 --> 00:08:26,048 She then, in the beginning of their back and forth, their in this private chamber 112 00:08:26,048 --> 00:08:31,322 in the fire light, there's a kind of a closeness here in this situation to what 113 00:08:31,322 --> 00:08:35,529 Odysseus had with Airete. A closeness with a queen and a grand house 114 00:08:35,689 --> 00:08:39,789 in a, in a, by a fire light. She then asks his identity, his name, 115 00:08:39,789 --> 00:08:44,591 where he's from, and his parents. She also tells him of his, of her own 116 00:08:44,591 --> 00:08:48,240 weaving and unweaving. She kind of lets him in on some of her 117 00:08:48,240 --> 00:08:53,313 schemes that she's been trying to play out with to keep these suitors at bay. 118 00:08:53,313 --> 00:08:56,472 On page 395. Odysseus, then, launches in an answer to 119 00:08:56,472 --> 00:09:01,071 her question of who he is on his long lie about his Cretin background. 120 00:09:01,071 --> 00:09:07,313 He gives his name there as Aethon, and claims to have seen Odysseus who is away 121 00:09:07,313 --> 00:09:10,094 at the Dodona. He says, asking, it's interesting, 122 00:09:10,094 --> 00:09:15,019 Odysseus, in his disguise as a beggar, conveys to Penelope here. 123 00:09:15,019 --> 00:09:16,868 He says, your husband, Odysseus, I've seen him. 124 00:09:16,868 --> 00:09:19,331 I know him and I know he's on his way home. 125 00:09:19,331 --> 00:09:23,929 Right now, he's trying to decide whether he should come back home just straight 126 00:09:23,929 --> 00:09:30,066 away or in a disguise. He's at Dodona, he tells us on page 400, 127 00:09:30,066 --> 00:09:36,070 considering whether he should come back and just reveal himself directly to us, or 128 00:09:36,070 --> 00:09:41,019 come back in disguise. Again, a subterranean message that this 129 00:09:41,019 --> 00:09:46,051 Odysseus disguised is saying, if the real Odysseus ever does come back, maybe I'm 130 00:09:46,051 --> 00:09:49,051 him. If the real Odysseus ever does come back, 131 00:09:49,051 --> 00:09:54,093 he's going to be careful about whether he should come in just waltz right in here, 132 00:09:54,093 --> 00:09:58,231 or come back in disguise because things are a little bit off in his household. 133 00:09:58,231 --> 00:10:02,081 Do you think that's wise Penelope? And Penelope is basically, you know, 134 00:10:02,081 --> 00:10:06,629 getting the message that Odysseus is, if he's coming back, going to be cautious. 135 00:10:06,629 --> 00:10:11,075 She then responds, well she, during this back in forth a little bit prior to this, 136 00:10:11,075 --> 00:10:14,065 she responds quickly by saying, okay, I'm going to test you. 137 00:10:14,065 --> 00:10:17,813 You say, you know my husband Odysseus? Okay, I'm going to test you. 138 00:10:17,813 --> 00:10:20,604 397. First of all, she starts to ask about his 139 00:10:20,604 --> 00:10:23,553 clothes. So, you think you know Odysseus, what does 140 00:10:23,553 --> 00:10:25,745 he wear? And Odysseus can go through and say 141 00:10:25,745 --> 00:10:30,544 exactly what Odysseus wears, being him. He knows the answer to this question. 142 00:10:30,718 --> 00:10:35,413 She then starts to quiz him on more and more intimate details that only Odysseus 143 00:10:35,413 --> 00:10:38,465 would know. And, this stranger who claims to know 144 00:10:38,465 --> 00:10:41,235 Odysseus, is going to have to pass this test. 145 00:10:41,235 --> 00:10:45,269 Eventually, even after he reveals himself to Penelope and claims that, well, I am 146 00:10:45,269 --> 00:10:49,208 the real Odysseus, there's more test's he's going to have to pass. 147 00:10:49,208 --> 00:10:52,403 Penelope will be cautious, she will be circumspect. 148 00:10:52,574 --> 00:10:58,037 Yeah, Odysseus is surely being cautious here, but Penelope is going to be equally 149 00:10:58,037 --> 00:11:01,094 cautious in return. Neither of the two of them are, are able. 150 00:11:01,094 --> 00:11:06,283 They just kinda drop everything and rush into each others arms, there's too much 151 00:11:06,283 --> 00:11:10,031 danger afoot. Close of Book twenty, we get some further 152 00:11:10,031 --> 00:11:13,065 back and forth after all these signs come unfolding. 153 00:11:13,065 --> 00:11:16,081 We talked about some of these in a previous lecture. 154 00:11:16,279 --> 00:11:19,767 The close of Book twenty, we have Penelope, wise Penelope. 155 00:11:19,947 --> 00:11:24,009 She is in this car chair. She sits within earshot of the door, 156 00:11:24,009 --> 00:11:28,040 listening to what's going on. She hears laughing, rowdy men were told, 157 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:32,035 this is all on page 423. But as for supper, she says, what could be 158 00:11:32,035 --> 00:11:35,225 less enticing, speaking about well, sorry, I said she says. 159 00:11:35,225 --> 00:11:38,000 We don't know for sure this is in Penelopes's mind. 160 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:41,902 The way Homer tells the story, though, it's hard to tell, it seems as though, 161 00:11:41,902 --> 00:11:44,440 this could just as well be in Penelope's mind. 162 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:49,179 She's sitting listening and the next thing we hear Homer saying is, but as for 163 00:11:49,179 --> 00:11:53,664 supper, what could be less enticing than what a goddess and powerful man would 164 00:11:53,664 --> 00:11:58,542 spread before them soon a groaning feast for they'd be first to plot their vicious 165 00:11:58,542 --> 00:12:00,785 crimes. They've been first to plot their vicious 166 00:12:00,785 --> 00:12:03,545 crimes. So, Homer elides the difference between 167 00:12:03,545 --> 00:12:08,572 Penelope sitting and listening and this revelry and this awful stuff that's about 168 00:12:08,572 --> 00:12:12,739 to happen to the suitors. It seems on page 423, that Homer's giving 169 00:12:12,739 --> 00:12:17,504 us another hint, that you know what? Penelope kinda knows these suitors are 170 00:12:17,504 --> 00:12:21,820 about to, about to go down. There's more for us to say about Book 171 00:12:21,820 --> 00:12:24,326 nineteen. The next two lectures will occupy us 172 00:12:24,326 --> 00:12:30,080 trying to piece together all the wonderful things in this intensive book.