Date: 11/19/2015
Beginning time: 11:45 am
Ending time: 12:30 pm
Duration (hrs.): 1.5
Location: Just Hall

Reading reflections

I spent some time in the afternoon reading The Odyssey’s Book 24. The section starts with Hermes escorting the suitors’ ghosts to the Underworld. We find Achilles and Agamemnon talking to each other. Achilles is talking about the Trojan War, and Agamemnon is talking about how he was killed by his wife. They see the suitors entering the Underworld, and Agamemnon asks why they are there. Amphimedon gives Agamemnon a brief synopsis of how they died. Amphimedon essentially blames their death all on Penelope, who, as he claims, refused to remarry after Odysseus left, and had been tricking the suitors for years. But Agamemnon is proud of Odysseus for having such a faithful wife (we all remember how he died).

Meanwhile, Odysseus, Telemachus, and their herdsmen reach Laertes’ garden. Odysseus tells the other men to go to his house prepare food while he goes to Laertes to test his loyalty. Odysseus finds Laertes in his garden, looking sad and wearing old, raggedy clothes. Odysseus greets his father by insulting the old man’s attire. Laertes asks who the man is, and Odysseus says his name is Quarrelman (that is the translated name). He says he catered to Odysseus when he was in his home, but Laertes does not believe that Odysseus is okay and has returned home. Odysseus finally decides to reveal his true identity but, of course, Laertes does not believe him. As proof, Odysseus shows his father his scar. They reunite and they are happy.

The father and son join Telemachus and the others in the house, but in the town, Eupeithes, Antinous’ father, realizes that his son has been murdered by Odysseus, and the sounds coming from the palace were actually not wedding planning. So he and a group of others go to Laertes’ house to kill Odysseus. Athena, seeing what is happening from Olympus, asks Zeus what should be done, but he simply tells her to decide the fate of the involved mortals. The men are fighting, and Laertes kills Eupeithes. That is when Athena reveals herself to the men, in god form, and ends the battle.

The end…

Date: 11/19/2015
Beginning time: approx. 2:00 pm
Ending time: 3:30 pm
Duration (hrs.): 1.5
Location: Locke Hall, room 118

We talked about Book 24 today in class, discussing the Achilles-Agamemnon conversation, the quarrel at the end, and the overall opinion of the Book and of the poem as a whole. So let’s start with the Achilles-Agamemnon conversation.

It didn’t dawn on me at first, but we see that Homer uses the conversation between the two Greeks as an opportunity to tell listeners/readers more about Achilles’ inevitable death during the Trojan War. For those who read The Iliad, they know that the poem ends without talking about how Achilles died, leaving them wondering how he died. Most people know from movies or other stories that Achilles was killed by Paris when he shot an arrow in Achilles foot — the only place on his body where he was vulnerable (hence the term Achilles tendon). But in The Odyssey, the conversation between Achilles and Agamemnon reveals a little bit about what happened to Achilles moments after he died.

Agamemnon says that the Greeks fought over Achilles’ body for hours. He says, and I’m paraphrasing, that the Greeks would have defended his body all day and night if necessary, because that’s how meaningful Achilles was to the Greeks. During the funeral, many gifts were given, and his mother, along with other sea goddesses mourned over his body. His body was burned and his bones were placed next to Patroclus’ bones. His funeral was grand; the Nine Muses even sang at his funeral. Traditionally, a series of games are held after the funeral ceremony, and the goddess Thetis delivered gifts to the game winners. Essentially, Achilles’ life was highly honored, and he was regarded as a great man from the perspectives of mortals and gods. Pretty interesting!

We also went over in class the final scene of the Book — the min-war in front of Laertes’ house. Eupithes is killed by Laertes. It’s quite ironic how Antinous and his father were killed by Odysseus and his father, respectively. Most of my classmates felt that Eupithes deserved to die for his behavior, but personally I didn’t notice any indication that he needed to die. Sure, his son was an awful person, and we all know that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but still… I suppose it needed to happen.

We also talked about Athena in Book 24. This particular goddess loves war; so why would she decide to end the battle in Book 24? Dr. Sandridge drew an interesting contrast between her role in The Odyssey and The Iliad. I didn’t remember this under Dr. Sandridge brought it up, but in The Iliad, Athena was in a position where she could have ended the Trojan War, during its tenth year. The war was essentially at a standstill, until Athena told Paris to shoot Menelaus with an arrow. Paris does so, reigniting the Trojan War. In The Odyssey, Athena is in a similar position, where she can decide whether to ignite a battle or end it, and she decides to end it.

Overall though, the last Book seemed out of place. My classmates admitted that they felt that the last Book was unnecessary, and that the poem should have ended when Odysseus and Penelope stayed up all night talking and making love. And I agree. While I did enjoy the brief Underworld scene, I don’t see how, overall, the Book added any substance to the poem as a whole.

But I did enjoy the poem as a whole. Thinking back on it, I feel very accomplished to be able to read to very historic, popular poems, and I think going forward in life, I will find that a number of parallels can drawn between the poem and everyday circumstances. Plus, if for some reason I run into an opportunity to have an intellectual conversation about Homeric writing or Ancient Greek literature, I’ll have something to talk about. You never know!