Having earned his final step his final way
in he Odysseus finally gets to have his reunion with Penelope.
Only after proof back and forth do they finally get their moment to see one
another. Homer expresses this moment in a wonderful
simile that draws on some of the ways similes work that we pointed out earlier
but we take a look at that one. Penelope, actually, she's looking at joy,
warm as the joy that shipwrecked sailors feel when they catch a sight of land.
Poseidon has struck their well-rigged ship on the ocean sea, on the open sea with
gale winds and crushing walls of waves. And only a few escape, swimming and
struggling out of the frothing surf to reach the shore.
Their bodies crusted with salt but buoyed up with joy as they plant their feet on
solid ground again, spared a deadly fate. So, joyous now, to her, the sight of her
husband, vivid in her gaze. And her white arms embracing his neck
would never for a moment let him go. So, what is happening inside this simile?
You'll remember in some of the earlier ones that we looked at, key characters get
a chance to kind of trade places. As Homer starts the comparison that seems
to be a comparison of one person that you pretty sure who it is.
But then, it gets turned around and matches another, another person who is
taken the place of that other one. We saw this one Eumaeus was compared to a
father welcoming home a son who's been gone a long time.
When Eumaeus embraces Telemachus, we definitely see it here.
Look at the joy that Penelope feels. She feels the joy of someone who is like a
sailor, who have been, who's been shipwrecked, shipwrecked.
Who Poseidon has wrecked with awful punishments.
Who's just barely escaped by swimming, who is struggling in the frothing surf to
reach the shore. And then, she feels like someone who is
just landed on homeground and is able to plant her feet solidly again.
What Homer does with this simile is to allow Penelope to be Odysseus for a while.
And so, too, can Odysseus, the one that welcomes home the one that's been so far
away for so long, play the role of Penelope.
It's a wonderful simile that shows the closeness of their intimacy.
Penelope's suffering at home is here compared and, and, and, made congruent
with, Odysseus's tremendous suffering out there on the wilder world.
The two of them share their reunion. They also have shared an identical, in
this case, at least congruent kind of pain Homer's very clever and subtle way for
continuing the connection between these two.
Now, that they have made their connection, the two of them sit down and have their
reunion. The reunion, first of all, starts with a
lot of talking, a lot of telling, I've got my story and I have to tell it to you.
The whole epic comes out again as Odysseus tells Penelope where he's been.
We have to fill in this piece of his identity.
He's earned back his name. He's earned back his strength.
He's got clothing back on him. He's got his place now on Ithaca.
He's got his place in his city. He's got his house back.
He's got his family back. He's got his son back, and now finally, he
has Penelope back. And when he has that, he needs to share
with Penelope all this past that she has missed out on in his own life for him to
fill her in. So, he launches in and goes through this
whole long retelling of the entire Odyssey as he lets her know what it is.
Then things turn and Book 24 begins and things are not over.
The Odyssey is in some ways, it's kind of like a story that just can't quite end.
Some have suggested who've taken a close look at Book 24 that this must have been
added on later to the, the original Odyssey that had only 23 books.
I'm not sure I, I buy that, that argument. The basis for the argumentation is only
what you all have already been exposed to. There's no exterior evidence based that
we're appealing to. It's just how closely this Book 24
parallel fit in with all the rest. I think the thematic statement that it's
making that says that Odysseus's Journey, this great archetypal wayfarer is not
going to end with him safe at home. There's always more wandering.
The Odyssey is not really going to end. So, in Book 24 the story continues.
We wind up following the suitors down to the underworld.
They've been killed, as you know, and down, down they go.
We hear then, the whole story one more time as the suitors were counted to
Agamemnon, they tell him all the things that have gone on and how Odysseus set
things right, he's of course thrilled because for his friend and contrasts his
own situation, the one that's been coursing through the background of
Odysseus' story Agamemnon in the, in the closing book yet again, contrasts his own
situation with that of, of, of, of the situation of Odysseus and Penelope.
There is a strong indication of the momentousness of what has just happened.
Where it's, it's so huge that tales about it are not just limited to this upper
world. Tales about it are buzzing across the
whole cosmos. Up in Olympus, they care, down in the
underworld, they care and surely in our world people care.
Odysseus, as this all is going on, heads off to visit his father, Laertes, finds
him rolling around in the cow dung. Poor man.
Feeling in this awful situation, Odysseus almost strangely almost a little
perversely decides to start testing his father and lying to his father and all
these things. It's difficult to say what that task is, I
want to make sure that you're really my father, I want to make sure you really
love me. Well, the man is rolling around in dung
because you're missing, of course, he loves you.
But it is just Odysseus's way, he is a tester, he is a trickster, and he is a
liar. So, he goes through his testing of his
father. His father then, wants some test in
return, are you really Odysseus? And Odysseus shows him his scar, so his
identity proof comes back again he can show himself to Laertes as being the man
that he is. The towns people in Ithaca are upset about
what's happened. [laugh] their relatives their suitors have
just been killed they are ready for battle.
They get ready to bring things to a head. Odysseus now stands again with his allies,
he's got Telemachus, he's got Eumaeus, and now, he's got his father by his side
Laertes too were ready to do battle Athena comes in seems like a yet another kind
episode of spear throw is about to happen with strong cascading violence and wave
after wave of, of killing. Athena then, at that point jumps on him.
She has a, a spear cast [unknown] at least Laertes, his hand Athena makes it into a
clean kill. This saps the energy of the enemy.
She then comes in, makes peace and says, now it is done.
As a, like a god on the machine, she comes in and settles things in her disguise.
She comes in and settles things. And people at least Odysseus, has a sense
that it's Athena. But she comes in a disguise and says, no
more, no more, the war is done. When she does the suitors' relatives now
slink away. And with that, Odysseus has regained all
of the things that make him Odysseus. His house is now stable.
We know what he has to do next, he's got to go take that, remember, the ore and
bring it all the way inland until someone mistakes his ore for a winnowing fan.
Once he does, he'll know he's far enough away from the sea that should he build a
temple there, Poseidon will feel as though recompense has been made for the leaving
of his son Polyphemus. So, we know that Odysseus has more
adventures ahead of him. He has recovered now his identity.
He's pieced together his name, his strength his capabilities, his family, his
house, his city his relationship, his connection with Penelope solidified.
His connection in a kind of epilogue moment with his father.
His connection with his past is now rejoined.
So, Odysseus now is finally whole again. His poor, beaten and battered man that we
saw at the beginning of Book one is now ready to be Odysseus again.
He's earned his place back to being himself.
I hope you enjoyed it. Looking forward to reading more myth with
you all. It's a great way to start.
It's always a little sad to leave the Odyssey but trust me, great things are
coming around the corner, too.