1 00:00:04,086 --> 00:00:09,976 Having earned his final step his final way in he Odysseus finally gets to have his 2 00:00:09,976 --> 00:00:13,874 reunion with Penelope. Only after proof back and forth do they 3 00:00:13,874 --> 00:00:16,533 finally get their moment to see one another. 4 00:00:16,533 --> 00:00:21,306 Homer expresses this moment in a wonderful simile that draws on some of the ways 5 00:00:21,306 --> 00:00:26,048 similes work that we pointed out earlier but we take a look at that one. 6 00:00:26,257 --> 00:00:31,386 Penelope, actually, she's looking at joy, warm as the joy that shipwrecked sailors 7 00:00:31,386 --> 00:00:35,742 feel when they catch a sight of land. Poseidon has struck their well-rigged ship 8 00:00:35,742 --> 00:00:41,202 on the ocean sea, on the open sea with gale winds and crushing walls of waves. 9 00:00:41,202 --> 00:00:46,187 And only a few escape, swimming and struggling out of the frothing surf to 10 00:00:46,187 --> 00:00:50,142 reach the shore. Their bodies crusted with salt but buoyed 11 00:00:50,142 --> 00:00:55,642 up with joy as they plant their feet on solid ground again, spared a deadly fate. 12 00:00:55,642 --> 00:01:00,108 So, joyous now, to her, the sight of her husband, vivid in her gaze. 13 00:01:00,108 --> 00:01:05,788 And her white arms embracing his neck would never for a moment let him go. 14 00:01:05,788 --> 00:01:10,355 So, what is happening inside this simile? You'll remember in some of the earlier 15 00:01:10,355 --> 00:01:13,972 ones that we looked at, key characters get a chance to kind of trade places. 16 00:01:13,972 --> 00:01:19,024 As Homer starts the comparison that seems to be a comparison of one person that you 17 00:01:19,024 --> 00:01:22,199 pretty sure who it is. But then, it gets turned around and 18 00:01:22,199 --> 00:01:27,409 matches another, another person who is taken the place of that other one. 19 00:01:27,409 --> 00:01:32,107 We saw this one Eumaeus was compared to a father welcoming home a son who's been 20 00:01:32,107 --> 00:01:34,898 gone a long time. When Eumaeus embraces Telemachus, we 21 00:01:34,898 --> 00:01:38,655 definitely see it here. Look at the joy that Penelope feels. 22 00:01:38,655 --> 00:01:44,146 She feels the joy of someone who is like a sailor, who have been, who's been 23 00:01:44,146 --> 00:01:48,062 shipwrecked, shipwrecked. Who Poseidon has wrecked with awful 24 00:01:48,062 --> 00:01:52,327 punishments. Who's just barely escaped by swimming, who 25 00:01:52,327 --> 00:01:56,036 is struggling in the frothing surf to reach the shore. 26 00:01:56,036 --> 00:02:01,085 And then, she feels like someone who is just landed on homeground and is able to 27 00:02:01,085 --> 00:02:06,254 plant her feet solidly again. What Homer does with this simile is to 28 00:02:06,254 --> 00:02:11,431 allow Penelope to be Odysseus for a while. And so, too, can Odysseus, the one that 29 00:02:11,431 --> 00:02:17,183 welcomes home the one that's been so far away for so long, play the role of 30 00:02:17,183 --> 00:02:21,049 Penelope. It's a wonderful simile that shows the 31 00:02:21,049 --> 00:02:26,293 closeness of their intimacy. Penelope's suffering at home is here 32 00:02:26,293 --> 00:02:32,940 compared and, and, and, made congruent with, Odysseus's tremendous suffering out 33 00:02:32,940 --> 00:02:37,691 there on the wilder world. The two of them share their reunion. 34 00:02:37,691 --> 00:02:44,014 They also have shared an identical, in this case, at least congruent kind of pain 35 00:02:44,192 --> 00:02:49,078 Homer's very clever and subtle way for continuing the connection between these 36 00:02:49,078 --> 00:02:52,084 two. Now, that they have made their connection, 37 00:02:52,084 --> 00:02:56,030 the two of them sit down and have their reunion. 38 00:02:56,030 --> 00:03:00,804 The reunion, first of all, starts with a lot of talking, a lot of telling, I've got 39 00:03:00,804 --> 00:03:05,528 my story and I have to tell it to you. The whole epic comes out again as Odysseus 40 00:03:05,528 --> 00:03:09,095 tells Penelope where he's been. We have to fill in this piece of his 41 00:03:09,095 --> 00:03:11,094 identity. He's earned back his name. 42 00:03:11,094 --> 00:03:15,054 He's earned back his strength. He's got clothing back on him. 43 00:03:15,054 --> 00:03:19,019 He's got his place now on Ithaca. He's got his place in his city. 44 00:03:19,019 --> 00:03:21,099 He's got his house back. He's got his family back. 45 00:03:21,099 --> 00:03:25,035 He's got his son back, and now finally, he has Penelope back. 46 00:03:25,035 --> 00:03:29,091 And when he has that, he needs to share with Penelope all this past that she has 47 00:03:29,091 --> 00:03:33,011 missed out on in his own life for him to fill her in. 48 00:03:33,011 --> 00:03:39,737 So, he launches in and goes through this whole long retelling of the entire Odyssey 49 00:03:39,988 --> 00:03:47,218 as he lets her know what it is. Then things turn and Book 24 begins and 50 00:03:47,218 --> 00:03:51,723 things are not over. The Odyssey is in some ways, it's kind of 51 00:03:51,723 --> 00:03:57,039 like a story that just can't quite end. Some have suggested who've taken a close 52 00:03:57,039 --> 00:04:02,061 look at Book 24 that this must have been added on later to the, the original 53 00:04:02,061 --> 00:04:07,051 Odyssey that had only 23 books. I'm not sure I, I buy that, that argument. 54 00:04:07,247 --> 00:04:12,092 The basis for the argumentation is only what you all have already been exposed to. 55 00:04:12,092 --> 00:04:16,086 There's no exterior evidence based that we're appealing to. 56 00:04:16,086 --> 00:04:21,025 It's just how closely this Book 24 parallel fit in with all the rest. 57 00:04:21,224 --> 00:04:26,593 I think the thematic statement that it's making that says that Odysseus's Journey, 58 00:04:26,593 --> 00:04:32,383 this great archetypal wayfarer is not going to end with him safe at home. 59 00:04:32,622 --> 00:04:37,708 There's always more wandering. The Odyssey is not really going to end. 60 00:04:37,708 --> 00:04:43,065 So, in Book 24 the story continues. We wind up following the suitors down to 61 00:04:43,065 --> 00:04:47,108 the underworld. They've been killed, as you know, and 62 00:04:47,108 --> 00:04:50,733 down, down they go. We hear then, the whole story one more 63 00:04:50,733 --> 00:04:56,316 time as the suitors were counted to Agamemnon, they tell him all the things 64 00:04:56,316 --> 00:05:01,764 that have gone on and how Odysseus set things right, he's of course thrilled 65 00:05:01,764 --> 00:05:07,511 because for his friend and contrasts his own situation, the one that's been 66 00:05:07,511 --> 00:05:12,537 coursing through the background of Odysseus' story Agamemnon in the, in the 67 00:05:12,537 --> 00:05:17,313 closing book yet again, contrasts his own situation with that of, of, of, of the 68 00:05:17,313 --> 00:05:21,546 situation of Odysseus and Penelope. There is a strong indication of the 69 00:05:21,546 --> 00:05:26,890 momentousness of what has just happened. Where it's, it's so huge that tales about 70 00:05:26,890 --> 00:05:29,693 it are not just limited to this upper world. 71 00:05:29,693 --> 00:05:33,084 Tales about it are buzzing across the whole cosmos. 72 00:05:33,084 --> 00:05:39,018 Up in Olympus, they care, down in the underworld, they care and surely in our 73 00:05:39,018 --> 00:05:43,028 world people care. Odysseus, as this all is going on, heads 74 00:05:43,028 --> 00:05:48,027 off to visit his father, Laertes, finds him rolling around in the cow dung. 75 00:05:48,027 --> 00:05:51,487 Poor man. Feeling in this awful situation, Odysseus 76 00:05:51,487 --> 00:05:55,499 almost strangely almost a little perversely decides to start testing his 77 00:05:55,499 --> 00:05:58,092 father and lying to his father and all these things. 78 00:05:58,260 --> 00:06:03,025 It's difficult to say what that task is, I want to make sure that you're really my 79 00:06:03,025 --> 00:06:05,212 father, I want to make sure you really love me. 80 00:06:05,212 --> 00:06:09,375 Well, the man is rolling around in dung because you're missing, of course, he 81 00:06:09,375 --> 00:06:12,136 loves you. But it is just Odysseus's way, he is a 82 00:06:12,136 --> 00:06:14,254 tester, he is a trickster, and he is a liar. 83 00:06:14,387 --> 00:06:16,434 So, he goes through his testing of his father. 84 00:06:16,434 --> 00:06:20,062 His father then, wants some test in return, are you really Odysseus? 85 00:06:20,062 --> 00:06:24,504 And Odysseus shows him his scar, so his identity proof comes back again he can 86 00:06:24,504 --> 00:06:28,030 show himself to Laertes as being the man that he is. 87 00:06:28,030 --> 00:06:32,013 The towns people in Ithaca are upset about what's happened. 88 00:06:32,203 --> 00:06:37,040 [laugh] their relatives their suitors have just been killed they are ready for 89 00:06:37,040 --> 00:06:40,052 battle. They get ready to bring things to a head. 90 00:06:40,219 --> 00:06:44,843 Odysseus now stands again with his allies, he's got Telemachus, he's got Eumaeus, and 91 00:06:44,843 --> 00:06:51,013 now, he's got his father by his side Laertes too were ready to do battle Athena 92 00:06:51,013 --> 00:06:56,046 comes in seems like a yet another kind episode of spear throw is about to happen 93 00:06:56,046 --> 00:07:01,543 with strong cascading violence and wave after wave of, of killing. 94 00:07:01,778 --> 00:07:08,649 Athena then, at that point jumps on him. She has a, a spear cast [unknown] at least 95 00:07:08,649 --> 00:07:12,992 Laertes, his hand Athena makes it into a clean kill. 96 00:07:13,242 --> 00:07:19,281 This saps the energy of the enemy. She then comes in, makes peace and says, 97 00:07:19,281 --> 00:07:23,821 now it is done. As a, like a god on the machine, she comes 98 00:07:23,821 --> 00:07:29,033 in and settles things in her disguise. She comes in and settles things. 99 00:07:29,033 --> 00:07:33,028 And people at least Odysseus, has a sense that it's Athena. 100 00:07:33,260 --> 00:07:38,032 But she comes in a disguise and says, no more, no more, the war is done. 101 00:07:38,032 --> 00:07:41,804 When she does the suitors' relatives now slink away. 102 00:07:41,804 --> 00:07:47,253 And with that, Odysseus has regained all of the things that make him Odysseus. 103 00:07:47,451 --> 00:07:51,684 His house is now stable. We know what he has to do next, he's got 104 00:07:51,684 --> 00:07:58,025 to go take that, remember, the ore and bring it all the way inland until someone 105 00:07:58,025 --> 00:08:03,049 mistakes his ore for a winnowing fan. Once he does, he'll know he's far enough 106 00:08:03,049 --> 00:08:09,034 away from the sea that should he build a temple there, Poseidon will feel as though 107 00:08:09,034 --> 00:08:14,024 recompense has been made for the leaving of his son Polyphemus. 108 00:08:14,024 --> 00:08:18,018 So, we know that Odysseus has more adventures ahead of him. 109 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:23,021 He has recovered now his identity. He's pieced together his name, his 110 00:08:23,021 --> 00:08:28,045 strength his capabilities, his family, his house, his city his relationship, his 111 00:08:28,045 --> 00:08:33,504 connection with Penelope solidified. His connection in a kind of epilogue 112 00:08:33,504 --> 00:08:38,154 moment with his father. His connection with his past is now 113 00:08:38,374 --> 00:08:41,987 rejoined. So, Odysseus now is finally whole again. 114 00:08:42,197 --> 00:08:48,366 His poor, beaten and battered man that we saw at the beginning of Book one is now 115 00:08:48,366 --> 00:08:54,330 ready to be Odysseus again. He's earned his place back to being 116 00:08:54,330 --> 00:08:55,996 himself. I hope you enjoyed it. 117 00:08:56,131 --> 00:08:58,250 Looking forward to reading more myth with you all. 118 00:08:58,337 --> 00:09:01,006 It's a great way to start. It's always a little sad to leave the 119 00:09:01,006 --> 00:09:13,051 Odyssey but trust me, great things are coming around the corner, too.