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Book nineteen bring, brings things to a
head for us.

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We've seen Odysseus and Penelope coming
together in our last discussion.

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Prior discussions we've talked about
Odysseus giving his lie to Penelope, then

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having his scar spotted by Eurycleia.
And now, as a kind of coup de gras to what

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happens in Book nineteen, Penelope drops
some things on Odysseus.

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She goes ahead and tells him her dream.
Book twenty, that's going to follow this

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as loaded with divine signs, each of which
is confirming that Odysseus is about to

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come or is already here.
The dream of Penelope that was perhaps the

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most elaborate and most carefully wrought
of all of these divine signs, suggesting

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that Odysseus is indeed really here.
And, it's, it's in a, in an almost, move

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of vertiginous ingenuity.
Homer has Odysseus involved in his own

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self-revelation to Penelope but through
his own disguise.

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Let's keep an eye on how all these moving
parts moving parts work.

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But, before we do, I'd like to introduce
another universal law.

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What's been happening in these secret
codes of knowledge back and forth with

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Odysseus and Athena, and then Odysseus and
Telemachus, and the, the special messages

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that they send one another is that they,
we have some proprietary knowledge.

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Knowledge that not everybody knows, but
only a select few know.

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This is secrecy and it's worked to great a
great degree in this part of the story.

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I'm going to actually lay down a universal
law here that secrecy creates intimacy.

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This is universal law number six, I
believe, and like all universal laws, is

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pretty much universal.
Guaranteed to be true.

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You can use it in, who knows someday maybe
we'll publish you know, a book on, laws of

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universe according to Greek mythology.
Structures universal laws.

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Universal law number six, secrecy creates
intimacy.

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Proprietary knowledge makes people feel
closer together.

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And there's a corollary to this universal
law which says, that if you want to flirt

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with someone, tell them you had a dream
about them.

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However, this corollary should only be
used with extreme caution, it has a very

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high degree of difficulty.
If you just walk up to someone and say,

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hey, I had a dream about you, they might
think, you know, that's kind of creepy.

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It's a little bit too intimate.
Don't, you know, too much information.

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Please don't go on.
But, you can see what Penelope does with

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this particular corollary in this part.
And, and works out okay for her.

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Remember, the back and forth that's been
happening, the two of them are quiet in a,

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in a quiet conversation in the firelight.
There some serving maids around the edges.

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But, the two of them have their own sort
of private audience.

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They're having conversations back and
forth.

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He's told his lies to her, she's ordered
the foot washing Eurycleia has spotted the

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scar.
Penelope in all this seems like she's

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sensed something's going on but she never
says and Homer, Homer never says it.

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And so, she knew it was Odysseus but
there's stuff that's been happening in

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Book nineteen.
And Penelope's not unobservant.

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So, the she is sitting on a chair emulated
with ivory, we learn at page 392.

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Odysseus is looking at her with eyes made
of horn, we hear on page 397.

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Eyes made of horn.
Now, Penelope says, okay stranger, you can

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sleep we'll, we'll put a bed down for you.
I wanna take care of you like you are a

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guest.
Not regal bed but we're you know, kinda

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take care of you.
This is an indication from Penelope that,

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you know, even though you are a stranger,
I want to treat you a little better.

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I'm interested in you, is kind of what
that message is.

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And, she says, but you know, before I do,
I want you to help me because I recently

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had this dream and I need you, stranger,
to help me interpret the dream.

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She tells him that an eagle comes down and
kills a bunch of birds that had been

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feeding in a trough at her house.
She's upset at the violence and the, and

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the and the carnage.
And then, the eagle flies over to her, as

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if to reassure her, and says, I am
Odysseus.

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I am here in order to set your house
right.

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And all is going to be well because I'm
back.

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And then, the eagle flies away.
She then says to this stranger, stranger,

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I want you to be the interpreter of my
dream.

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Now, functionally, what she's asking to
Oddy, asking Odysseus, when she asks him

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that, she wants him to be the interpreter
of her dream.

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Well, her dream already has one of those.
It already has an interpreter.

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The eagle interprets the dream.
So, when she asks Odysseus to be the

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interpreter, she's also simultaneously
asking him to please, be the eagle.

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She's asking Odysseus, then, not only to
be the interpreter of her dream, but also,

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by the language of her dream itself, to be
Odysseus.

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She's asking the stranger to be Odysseus.
At this point, Odysseus kind of starts to

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almost be at a loss for words, which is
kind of interesting to see.

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I mean, Odysseus, the great talker, is
never at a loss for words.

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And says, well, my goodness, interpreting
this.

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It looks like the eagle kind of got it,
and it seems like Odysseus is back.

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And it seems like he's about to kill all
these suitors.

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So, yeah.
That kinda seems like what the dream means

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to me.
At which point, Penelope does one of her

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wonderful things, oh, you know stranger,
you might be right.

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But, you never know.
Dreams are often times just flitting

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fantasies, they don't mean anything.
Sometimes they're true, sometimes they're

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false.
Those that are true come out of a gate of

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horn, those that are false come out of a
gate of ivory.

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Well, earlier in Book nineteen, we've been
told Penelope is sitting on a chair inlaid

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with ivory.
She is associated with the gate of false

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dreams.
Homer had, tells us that Odysseus is

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looking at her with eyes made of horn
associating him with the god, gate of true

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dreams.
Now, what's happening with those

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associations is very subtle.
And I could only suggest, I don't know for

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sure, but it seems to me that Homer is
making a suggestion in associating

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Penelope with the gate of false dreams
that what she's really telling him here is

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a story to carry on what she's already
been doing in Book nineteen, to test.

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To test.
Let me tell you this dream, let's see what

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you make of it.
And in looking at his reaction, he's going

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to then, she's going to then learn
something about who this person is.

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It could be that Penelope's dream is
something she's just made up in order to

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test Odysseus.
And when Homer has her sitting on a chair

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inlaid with ivory, associating with false
dreams, it could be that that's what's

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happening.
And when Homer has Odysseus associated

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with horn, it could be that he's now
speaking the truth saying, yeah, Odysseus

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really is coming to set things right.
Very subtle things I wouldn't necessarily

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make a big case out of it.
But, it seems to me that the dream is a

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world that is packed with hidden meanings.
I've made stretches into a number of those

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different layers of metadata that might be
built in here.

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The, what we know for sure is that
Penelope claims to Odysseus that she had a

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dream, that Odysseus is here and he's come
and set her house right.

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She's asking him whether, what he thinks
about that, and whether he thinks that

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might be true.
He's saying, yes, indeed.

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It's true.
From here, Book twenty will lay down the

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signs that show that the rest of this show
in many other ways that this message is

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corroborated by other divine signs which
will lead us to the doorstep of the Book

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21 and a lot of changes about to take
place in the house of Penelope and