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SO Penelope has heard the story that she's
going to hear from this stranger who came

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to her house about being a Cretan sailor.
She's not sure she trusts it, but she goes

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ahead and hears the story.
This sailor may know Odysseus, and so it

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goes.
They turn then to the next point in their

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conversation, and now Penelope has her
turn to talk for a little while.

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She extends the hospitality in her first
gesture saying well, you know, let's wash

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your feet and you can sleep here inside
the inner rooms.

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That's already a gesture to this person,
letting Penelope, letting the person know,

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you know, I'm interested in hearing some
more from you stranger.

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And then she says that to make the next
step here of foot washing, she has this

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trusting maid servant, Eurycleia, who just
so happened to have raised Odysseus at her

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knee, and know him extremely well.
And maybe she could wash your feet,

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stranger.
So when Eurycleia goes ahead and takes on

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this job, Odysseus kind of, before he
quite knows what's going on, it's upon him

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that this trusted servant is going to wash
his feet.

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At that point he thinks, oh my God.
She's going to see the scar.

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Odysseus has a scar.
He has a scar in the, nearby his inner

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thigh.
It's a, in other words, a part of his body

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that you wouldn't just necessarily see if
you saw him up on the street.

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It would be underneath his clothing.
It was close enough to his private areas

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that Odysseus is not going to have the
scar shown around to anyone at any time.

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Not everyone's going to know about it, but
some people do and it's surely the case

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that Eurycleia knows about this scar.
If she gets involved in the washing she's

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going to see it.
And it's true.

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In antiquity, as today, if someone's
trying to make sure that they have, verify

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an identity of someone, finding a scare is
as good as finding, you know, an, an

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identification badge.
Scars operate in order to identify people.

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Now why is that?
Well, scars are the remnant trace of some

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past.
A scare is a story.

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And individuals have stories that make
them different from everybody else and a

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scar is one of those things that captures
such a story.

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So Odysseus has one of these.
Eurycleia comes over to greet him.

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They get started on the footwashing with
some uncanny kinds of conversation

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recognizing how much he resembles
Odysseus.

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You seem a lot like him and oh, you know,
your hands are kinda like him too and oh

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my goodness.
And at that point she gets the bowl

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underneath his feet and lifts to see the
foot and at the same time sees the scar.

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Now at that point we hear a very long
extended discussion of where the scar came

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from.
Homer intrudes in this moment with a

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beautiful example of Rain Composition.
You'll remember we made a mention of what

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that is in an earlier lecture.
Now Homer will mention some specific,

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oftentimes concrete object, a long
digression about that object, and then he

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mentions the specific concrete digression
again to return to the story.

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Well, here we have that scar, that scar,
which.

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And then we go on for two full pages in
your translation of detailed conversation

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from Homer, nearly a 100 lines about where
this scar came from, and what it means.

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And all of this, you can imagine going
through Eurycleia's mind for that

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momentary.
Look, oh my gosh it's the scar, and if I

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were making a movie of this in Hollywood I
would position the camera above this and

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see the kind of foot dropping in slow
motion and have this reverie of the back

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story wash over Eurycleia in this very
quick style, and she is going through and

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re-living the memory of the scar.
So the scar is something we learn in the

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story, that is deeply connected to an
intimate part of Odysseus' past.

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His maternal grandfather has been to visit
the baby.

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Makes a deal so that the baby can come
visit him when he grows up a little, and

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is ready to become a man.
Odysseus then goes through in this kind of

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manhood ritual of joining a dangerous
hunt.

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Waking up early in the morning with a
chill in the air, carrying a spear.

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And goes with his, maternal side of his
fa, of his family, the grandfather and the

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uncles, out to seek a boar.
Now a boar is not just a pig.

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A boar is a very dangerous creature.
Here represented in a Roman stature of

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quite magnificent proportions.
The boar is a very dangerous creature.

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Those tusks in the front are nasty.
It itself is nasty and very strong.

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It's territorial and doesn't like it's
territory encroached upon.

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It also is very good food.
So people, indeed in antiquity, and still

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today hunt and kill boar, and then eat it.
So Odysseus is with this side of the

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family off to kill the boar.
Well the boar is quite dangerous.

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The boar is hunkered down, Odysseus is
approaching and making his lunge but the

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boar comes out and gets a gore out of him
first.

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Then Odysseus comes back and kills the
boar.

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So he gets his scar.
He earns his scar and the scar is forever

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attached to this moment in Odysseus's life
where he passes from being a boy to being

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a man.
So a pivotal part in Odysseus emerging

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into his own mature identity.
There are other things that happen during

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the story as well.
You will recall that Odysseus actually

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gets his name from such an event.
The maternal grandfather, at that point,

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bestows upon him the name Odysseus, which
he, at that point, ties to an, an

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etymology in Greek, linking that name with
Greek words for "pain." It's a little bit

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of a stretch, but it's good enough.
That the idea of painfulness dwells inside

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of the sounds that make up Odysseus's
name.

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And, Odysseus so then gets, earns his
name, earns that critical piece of his own

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identity, in this incident with the boar.
So not only is Eurycleia recognizing just

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any scar, a scar which acts as an identity
token to verify that this really is

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Odysseus, but it's one that Odysseus
himself earned, in earning his own

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identity and earning his own name.
So the scar is deeply tied in with

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Odysseus' own identity.
Homer also has a particular way of

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describing this very dangerous creature,
one that is gonna tie us back in to

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Odysseus himself.
Have a look at page, book nineteen, page

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404 in your Fagles translation.
We have a discussion of that boar and

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where it is, just before it comes out and
lunges at Odysseus.

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Then and there a great boar lay in wait,
in a thicket layer so dense that the

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sudden gusty winds could never pierce it.
Nor could the sun's sharp rays invade its

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depths.
Nor a downpour drench it through and

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through.
So dense, so dark, and piled with fallen

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leaves.
This is the boar's thicket and where the

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boar is waiting to strike against
Odysseus.

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Compare it to what we saw at the end of
book five.

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Page 167 in the Fagles translation.
Remember Odysseus at this point is trying

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to find a spot to shelter himself.
So that he can have a lair in which he'll

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be protected for the night.
He found a grove with a clearing all

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around and crawled beneath two bushy
olives spring from the same root.

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One olive wild, the other a well bred
stock.

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No sodden gusty winds could ever pierce
them nor could the sun's sharp rays invade

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their depths nor could a downpour drench
them through and through so dense they

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grew together tangling side by side.
Homer repeats the exact same four sentence

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Greek description of the shelter that
Odysseus has at his most extreme moment.

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Just when he's about to maybe die over the
eve, over the night, but instead has

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another chance at life when he awakes the
next day.

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So this place, where a kind of, incubator,
where he can preserve his life over the

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night.
That description is precisely identical to

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the description of where the boar is
laying out in hiding.

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So Odysseus is here, tied to the boar.
He is made connected to the boar in the

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sense of not only having the challenge to
slaughter this thing so that he can.

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Have a great exploit.
It gives him a chance to move from being a

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boy to a man.
And also earns him his name.

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Well, we are connected even, Odysseus is
connected even further with the boar

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through this repetition of lines.
Showing that Odysseus' connection with the

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boar runs very deep.
So this scar, this one that Eurycleia gets

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us connected with, we get to see the
entire episode with the boar come out

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through this scar episode.
Eurycleia sees it.

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She ties Into it, and now she knows that
this is indeed Odysseus.

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00:09:06,244 --> 00:09:12,555
Now, having made this connection, she is
sure that this person that is in front of

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her is the real Odysseus.
Now, it's a little bit frightening at

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this, at this moment, because there's
something.

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There's a, a secret that's now out there,
that shouldn't be out there.

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Odysseus is not ready.
For Penelope, for all the serving women

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that are sitting around the outsides that
are having, sleeping with the suitor, with

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the suitors.
He's not ready for that secret to get out.

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And knowing what's about to happen because
she sees, and he can tell that she knows.

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So, not only does she know, but he knows
that she knows.

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He then stops her.
Takes his hand and puts the secret back

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down in her mouth.
And says don't you dare tell or I'll kill

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you.
This is someone who's an intimate of his.

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A very close in with his family, this
serving woman, Euryclea, beloved by the

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family.
Not just Odysseus, but Telemachus also.

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All the way back to, the, the, back to the
times when Telemachus was a small child.

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So he, It is not that he takes her less
seriously.

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It is that he takes this secret very
seriously, it is not now time for it to

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come out.
So, he stops it from coming out of

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Eurycleia's mouth and even threatens her
own life to say I will kill you if you let

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the secret out.
It's not yet time.

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00:10:26,075 --> 00:10:29,072
The secret code of knowledge can not yet
be shared.

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00:10:29,089 --> 00:10:33,003
It's only something that Telemachus is in
on so far.

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Now, Eurycleia has figured it out but
Odysseus does not want her to share.

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Soon enough it's going to come to
Penelope, but he's not quite ready for

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that to happen.
He's certainly not ready for it to be

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public.
The next stage of this that's gonna happen

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is we're going to close off book nineteen
having a look at Penelope's dream.