![]() ![]() Menelaus' queen is the same Helen whose abduction from Sparta caused the Trojan War. Homer leaves the plot of Telemachus dangling as selected suitors board a vessel to set up the surprise attack. Penelope is distraught to learn of her son's trip and the planned assassination but is soothed by a vision sent by Athena. In the morning, Menelaus expresses outrage at the behavior of Penelope's suitors and encourages Telemachus by telling him that Odysseus is alive and a captive of Calypso.īack in Ithaca, the suitors have discovered that Telemachus is gone and plan to ambush his ship on its return. The king and queen recall some of Odysseus' exploits at Troy but postpone serious talk until the next day. Telemachus is moved to tears by Menelaus' recollections of his friend Odysseus. Finally, this verse refers to Odysseus using both his name and his patronymic.When they arrive at Sparta, Telemachus and Pisistratus are warmly welcomed. The modifying adjective αἰδοίη (respected) calls attention to the honor a married woman should get, and subtly jibes at the suitors for their improper behavior. While a κούρη (young maiden) would be unlikely to have a husband, much less an adult son, a γυνή certainly could be married and have a family of her own. Alone, it may be used in the vocative as a form of respectful address. Odysseus, in contrast, calls Penelope a γυνή, or a sexually mature woman the word may also mean, among other things, the mistress of a house and a wife. The suitors, naturally, are not anxious to dwell on the fact that Penelope is already married. These words present her in an entirely different light from the language used by the suitors when they address Penelope with a full-verse vocative. Throughout the conversation between him and Penelope in Book 19, Odysseus begins several speeches to her with this full-verse vocative. Ὀδυσῆος (O respected wife of Odysseus, son of Laertes), 19.165. This climactic conversation, for many the highlight of the entire poem, contains the single most elaborate speech frame in the Homeric epics. This information brings Penelope down to talk to the stranger for herself, and in another long conversation, Penelope tests the stranger and satisfies herself that he is indeed her husband. The Penelope-Odysseus reunion returns to center stage at the beginning of Book 23, when Eurycleia rushes up to her mistress’ quarters to tell her that the suitors are dead and the anonymous beggar who killed them is Odysseus. Odysseus now goes among the suitors, wins the bow contest, and slaughters the suitors. At the end of the second section of this conversation, Penelope decides to hold the bow contest. ![]() This conversation falls into two parts, separated by the incident of Eurycleia and her recognition of Odysseus’ scar. ![]() Penelope and Odysseus first meet face to face in a long conversation that essentially takes up all of Book 19. ![]() The gradual rapprochement between Penelope and Odysseus, stretching over several books of the Odyssey, contains two major movements or sections, one in Book 19 and one in Book 23. The story of Penelope and Odysseus and their drawn-out reunion over the course of the last third of the Odyssey is one of the most extensively studied portions of the Homeric epics. ![]()
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