The SuitorsViews Of Odysseus In Homer's The Odyssey

In Homer’s The Odyssey translated by Robert Fagles, Ithaca, the land that Odysseus once ruled is in turmoil as Penelope, the Queen struggles with the combating or accepting the forces that surround her. Penelope struggles with decisions and can’t commit to marrying again as she holds out false hope that her husband Odysseus will return. Telemachus, her son has not been given the proper tools by Penelope to lead the empire making it hard for him to help her rid of the suitors. Distractions around Penelope contribute to her being unaware of the pain that could be inflicted upon her family & her. Penelope is to the blame for the multitude of problems that don’t only affect those in the palace but affect all of Ithaca.

Unlike Odysseus Penelope is confined by the gender roles of her time and cannot use physical strength against the suitors or even direct verbal rejection, instead Penelope resorts to her emotional resilience and wit in order to challenge the suitors. She wrongly reassures the suitors that once she finishes weaving a gift for Odysseus’s father, she will choose someone to marry her, “’Young men, my suitors, let me finish my weaving, before I marry’…every day she wove on the great loom but every night by torchlight she unwove it.” (II. 103-104, 112-113) Penelope’s actions are strategic and well calculated. Her main goal, like Odysseus, is to successfully overcome her situation. She understands that she may not be able to physically fight the suitors but she can trick them until Telemachus or Odysseus are able to. By crafting a lie that delays the suitors from marrying her immediately, Penelope restrains the suitors from seizing Ithaca, her household, and posing a threat to Telemachus or Odysseus. Her lie gives Odysseus a crucial advantage in the physical fight against the suitors as he comes back to a city and household where Penelope

First, the wooers showed total disrespect to Odysseus and his family when they came in his house uninvited, asked for Penelope

Competition for beauty and other feminine qualities is not the only struggle that is presented throughout the story. One big issue the Penelope struggles for is for power and control; however, most of her life deals with a true lack of power and respect. One example of a lack of power is with the entire wedding procedure. Instead of picking someone who she would like to marry, there is a competition for her hand it marriage and she does not have any control over it at all. Ultimately, she is wedded to Odysseus and her struggle to gain power yet again continues. The next time Penelope battles for power is when she gets to the island of Ithaca where she meets Odysseus father, mother, and the woman who has taken care of Odysseys his entire life, Euryclea. Penelope and Euryclea

Homer’s The Odyssey is based during ancient Greek times when good xenia, or hospitality, is expected from both the host and guest. Throughout the epic, both good and bad xenia is shown, but the expected good xenia is not shown by everyone, even Odysseus.

When Odysseus arrives at Ithaca he finds that his home has been invaded by suitors. Each suitor's plan is to get Penelope's hand in marriage so they can be king of Ithaca. The only way Odysseus can stop this is by killing every single suitor in his residence. So after he was disguised as a beggar and successfully completed Penelope's trial he started a battle with all the suitors. After the battle in book 22 Odysseus decides that everyone that was participating in the suitor's plot should be severely punished.

To begin, I believe that Odysseus was justified in his actions towards the suitors because, after being gone for 20 years, he comes back to find that his palace is overrun by disgusting and despicable wooers and others that disgraced his home and abandoned their loyalty to him. For example Odysseus says “'Ye dogs, ye said in your hearts that I should never more come home from the land of the Trojans, in that ye wasted my house, and lay with the maidservants by force, and traitorously wooed my wife while I was yet alive, and ye had no fear of the gods, that hold the wide heaven, nor of the indignation of men hereafter. But now the bands of death have been made fast upon you one and all.” This shows that Odysseus is angered and very hurt by their actions and has every right to act accordingly.

Odysseus is always a topic of conversation with Penelope and, twenty years later, is still waiting and hoping for Odysseus to come home. She weeps for him every day and “[her] heart pines away” (394). Her loyalty to Odysseus is displayed when the suitors come into question. Penelope is extraordinarily opposed to the idea remarriage and continues to put off the topic despite the persistence of the suitors. To keep the suitors at bay she even tells the suitors that she cannot marry until she finishes weaving the shroud for her father. The catch is, she unravels her work every night. This trick allowed Penelope to occupy the suitors for three years. Her loyalty persists enough though she believes Odysseus to be dead. Odysseus is not faithful, however, he is loyal. He has several affairs with different women, yet that does not change how much he loves Penelope. When we first see him on Calypso’s island, he is weeping for his wife and home and even denies the offer of immortality so he can return to Ithaca and see his wife. When he returns home, he still worries about Penelope and tries to offer her comfort as best he can. Odysseus also shows his loyalty when he is offered a foot bath by Penelope once returning to his palace and specifically requests an older woman bathe his feet. Part of the reasoning behind that could be that he wishes to show himself as faithful once he reveals himself as not a beggar, but the old king.

My first element of this proof is Penelope is being forced to marry one of the suitors. My second element of this proof is Penelope is mourning for Odysseus’ and Telemachus’ return to Ithaka. My last element of this proof is the suitors are being disrespectful to Penelope’s, Odysseus’, and Telemachus’ home.

As such, Penelope questioned the heroic history unlike in the classical tale where Odysseus is celebrated for his heroism, and Penelope could pretend when around other people including her husband so that they would not uncover what she knew and doubted about Odysseus’s story. “Odysseus spent his first hours in the palace snooping around and being abused by the Suitors, who jeered and threw things at him” (Atwood 69). Penelope is not a helpless person like in the original story and even as she is villainous compared to Homer’s epic poem she does with good intentions to help her husband without his

The context in which Penelope shares her tale of woe is particularly ironic. After she scolds her servant for being rude to the beggar in her home, she sits him down to find out who he is. However, he declines to share and she instead tells him of her heartache. She tells of how she has done everything in her power to ward off the suitors, but pressures are mounting and she does not know what else to do. Penelope’s “parents are pressing [her] to marry” and “[her] son agonizes over the fact that these men are devouring his inheritance” (Lombardo, 2000, p. 295). She shares all of this with someone she assumes is a stranger to she and her family, however it is in fact her lost Odysseus. In Penelope’s eyes, she has no one left to turn to, and instead seeks solace in the company of a man off the street she

While, Penelope’s payment for the altered stories shows her desire to only believe the best about Odysseus. However, the maids create Odysseus’s character to be more scandalous and the complete opposite, when compared to Penelope. Their narrative suggests that he doesn’t seem to be bolting back to Ithaca. Demonstrating, there is an alternative version of the story, where Odysseus is less admirable and irresponsible.

As Penelope waits countless years for her husband, Odysseus, to return from the war, not once is she unfaithful. “Let me finish my weaving before I marry” (Homer 1325). Penelope utilizes all methods of procrastination in order to delay the suitor’s marriage proposals and give Odysseus enough time to return home, something that can only be done through heart. Easily, Penelope can take the suitors hand in marriage but instead, she waits for Odysseus’ arrival. “‘Odysseus my Lord among the rest. If he returned, if he were here to care for me, I might be happily renowned’” (Homer 1309-1311)! Although she is certain as to whether or not he will make it home alive, she never lost hope in seeing him again and stays hopeful that he will come back to her and fill her empty heart. Thus, even though Penelope never knows of Odysseus’ where- abouts, she never stops loving him and anticipating his return. Penelope’s everlasting loyalty reveals that the Greek culture is very family oriented. Prominently, Penelope depicts the Greeks behavior as family oriented through her actions with Odysseus by never giving up on him and remaining faithful to their relationship and their

Penelope spends most of her time in the Odyssey longing for her beloved husband to return to Ithaca. While Odysseus is in battle at Troy and on his way back home, loneliness and sorrow fills Penelope’s heart. Even as her heartache continues, suitors raid her home of food, livestock, and successively asks for her hand in marriage because of the widespread belief that Odysseus died. Although she feels uncomfortable with the suitors, it is custom in Ancient Greece to demonstrate hospitality to visitors. Penelope spends many years with over a hundred suitors but finally after 20 years of waiting, she hears from her nurse news of Odysseus’s homecoming. Because of her doubts, Penelope decides to test Odysseus: “Come Eurycleia, make the bed outside the room which he built himself; out the fine bedstead outside, and lay out the rugs and blankets and fleeces” (256). Knowing that the bed was made by Odysseus himself out of a tree, Penelope tests him to see if it really is Odysseus. Although her clever test angers Odysseus at first, they happily reunite and Odysseus takes charge over his kingdom once again.

Throughout history, a great civilization does triumph over a weak or corrupted society. The suitors pursuing a relation with Penelope knew their treacheries. According to Bolton, it was suspected in the Greecian time that the gods and goddesses would disguise themselves as mortals. No one would know if the beggar whom they fed or turn away was actually Zeus or one of the immortals. Penelope’s suitors broken the sacred custom of xenia, hospitality of strangers supplied with food, housing, and sometimes clothing. When they broke the custom, the gods would enact justice by allowing a killer to slay them one by one in the name of Zeus. In the latter half of "The Odyssey", Odysseus takes on the role of the disguised lord. Just as Telemachus was tested by traveler Athena at the palace, Odysseus tests the suitors and his former servants. Those who welcomed and