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10c. Odysseus' Return Home

Odysseus Returning home

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Saksham Sharma
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25 views

10c. Odysseus' Return Home

Odysseus Returning home

Uploaded by

Saksham Sharma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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10c

Odysseus’ Return Home

Overview
After his sojourn on the island of Calypso, Odysseus travels on his raft to
the Phaeacians and then home to Ithaca.

Geography: Ithaca
Ithaca (also Ithaki or Ithaka), the homeland of Odysseus, is a Greek island in
the Ionian Sea on the western side of mainland Greece.
Ithaca
Ιθάκη, Greece Directions
4.7 942 reviews

View larger map

Map data ©2024 Report a map error

Google Maps. "Ithaca." [Map.] Google Maps. . (). https://www.google.com/maps/embed?


pb=!1m14!1m8!1m3!1d336242.821241642!2d20.781451604893554!3d38.466300802359626!3m
2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x135d952249df9f5f%3A0x6acd8d9ffb56445a!2sIthaca!5e0!3
m2!1sen!2sca!4v1662565631406!5m2!1sen!2sca.
Photograph of Ithaca, Greece.

David C Tomlinson/The Image Bank via Getty Images

When Odysseus arrives home, he is disguised by Athena as a beggar. There


are more than one hundred suitors who are vying for the hand of Penelope
and who spend their days feasting on Odysseus’ wealth and Odysseus
must defeat them to reclaim his palace and wife Penelope.
Penelope can be seen as a female counterpart to Odysseus,
in that she is very clever and remains faithful to her husband.
For an interesting modern take on Penelope’s role in the myth,
you may want to check Margaret Atwood’s novella
The Penelopiad,
(https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/6127/the-
penelopiad-by-margaret-atwood/9780676974256) which
retells the Odyssey from the female perspective of Penelope.

Reflect

Why do you think it is important to know about

the story of Odysseus from Penelope’s


perspective?
What themes and motifs do you expect would be

significant in such a retelling?

Penelope puts the suitors off by promising to marry one of them once she
has finished weaving a burial garment for Odysseus’ father, Laertes. She
weaves by day but undoes her work by night, until the fourth year, when she
is discovered by the treachery of one of her maids.
Penelope Unraveling Her Web, a late eighteenth-century painting by Joseph Wright of Derby.

Joseph Wright of Derby, Penelope Unraveling Her Web, 1783–84, oil on canvas, 106 × 131.4 cm, J.
Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RJ5.
Reflect

Visit Penelope Unraveling Her Web


(https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RJ5)
page on the J. Paul Getty Museum website to
inspect Joseph Wright of Derby’s
painting Penelope Unraveling Her Web and read
the accompanying description, then reflect on the
following questions:

What do you like most about the painting?

In your opinion, why does Penelope refuse to

remarry? What does that show about her


character and about her relationship with

Odysseus?
Odysseus eventually reveals himself to Penelope, but first he speaks to her
as a beggar in order to maintain his disguise, which is therefore an
advantage against the suitors. Penelope reveals to the disguised Odysseus
that she plans to give herself the next day to the suitor who can string
Odysseus’ bow and shoot an arrow straight through twelve axe heads (i.e.,
the small hole in the axe head in which the wooden handle fits—a difficult
shot to say the least!). Odysseus attends this competition, still in disguise.
None of the suitors is successful, and Odysseus asks to try. He is mocked,
as he appears to be an old beggar, but he performs the task easily. He then
reveals himself to be a strong warrior and with the help of Telemachus kills
all of the suitors.
Odysseus Slays the Suitors in His Palace at Ithaca, a mid-sixteenth-century fresco painting by
Giovanni Battista Castello.

Giovanni Battista Castello, Genoa: Villa Pallavicino Delle Peschiere; Salon: Odysseus Slays the
Suitors in His Palace at Ithaca, ca. 1560, fresco painting,
https://library.artstor.org/asset/ARTSTOR_103_41822003807037.

A mid-fifth-century vase painting depicting Odysseus killing Penelope’s suitors.

Penelope Painter, Skyphos: View 1-Odysseus Slaying the Suitors: det.: Odysseus, ca. 450 BCE, vase
painting, https://library.artstor.org/asset/ARTSTOR_103_41822000406411.
Mid-fifth-century BCE ceramic vessel depicting Odysseus attacking three of Penelope’s suitors.

Penelope Painter, Skyphos, Side B: Three Suitors Being Attacked by Odysseus [Attischer Skyphos:
Odysseus tötet die Freier der Penelope], ca. 440 BCE, ceramic vessel, 29.5 cm (height), 23 cm
(diameter), Staatliche Museen, Berlin, https://library.artstor.org/asset/BERLIN_DB_10313749247.
Watch: Clip from Troy the Odyssey

Watch this clip from the movie Troy the

Odyssey (2017) showing Odysseus, disguised as a


beggar, taking part in the suitors’ competition.

Troy: The Odyssey (2017) - I Am The King Of Ithaca …

Movieclips. "The Odyssey (2017)—I Am the King of Ithaca Scene


(8/10) | Movieclips." [Video.] YouTube. 2:25. (2019 February, 2019).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_Zo1Wg4RAM.
Penelope and Odysseus are reunited, at which point she tests his identity by
questioning his knowledge of their unique marriage bed, one leg of which
was made from a living olive tree. The Odyssey narrates the romance and
tenderness of their first night together in twenty years, as they alternate
between making love and talking to each other.

There is brutality in Odysseus’ conquest, given that he forces the twelve


servant women of Penelope to clean the hall and then hangs them in the
courtyard. The brutality of Odysseus’ handling of the suitors and
treacherous servant women is harshly juxtaposed at the end of this great
journey with the romance of his reunion with Penelope, a reminder that the
faithful Odysseus is a great warrior who has returned at long last from war
and brought something of this to the domestic sphere. His heroism is multi-
faceted—he is a warrior, a clever man, a faithful husband, son, and father, an
adventurer, but also a harsh exacter of revenge for his family. His
adventures and heroism have had an immense impact on mythology up
until the present day.
Ulysses and Penelope, a mid-sixteenth-century painting by Francesco Primaticcio.

Francesco Primaticcio, Ulysses and Penelope, ca. 1563, Wildenstein and Company, New York,
https://library.artstor.org/asset/ARTSTOR_103_41822000871697.
Reflect

Comment on the brutality of Odysseus with

Penelope’s suitors and servant women. How do

you interpret his behaviour?

What is your favourite episode of Odysseus’

journey? Why? Do some research on your chosen

episode and record your main takeaways for your


future reference.

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