Books 4-6

The instance in which Penelope discovers that Telemakhos has left in search of his father reveals a great deal about the relationship between mother and son. She thinks of him as her baby, not a full grown man yet and this is precisely what Telemakhos is trying to move beyond. I think that this is what has made Telemakhos so nonchalant and soft in the beginning. He has all this potential stored within him, yet Penelope can't see him as more than her little boy. Without a father's presence to toughen him up, Telemakhos remains a quiet, passive child. It can very well be that Homer is trying to show us how the lack of a father's presence has prolonged Telemakhos's childhood in a sense. It is very obvious that Penelope is tough in her own way for showing the suitors a cold shoulder, but it's also true that mothers tend to baby their children more than fathers. This is imperative in revealing how Telemakhos was, and most importantly, what he was seen as.

It's kind of sad to think that on one hand we've got Penelope being a faithful wife amidst a mob of men who want her, while on the other hand Odysseus is having affairs with countless women on his way home. I would say that he's delaying his homecoming on purpose on the account that the longer he stays away from home, the more women he can encounter and have affairs with. What's holding me back from that conclusion is that the reader must not forget that Odysseus angered Poseidon multiple times by being boastful and blinding the Cyclops and so, Poseidon is giving him a hard time in the form of natural obstacles. I can sympathize with Odysseus for the latter because if you've got a giant, freaky-looking monster about to eat you, you'd want to do anything to stop that from happening. However, Odysseus's over-confidence gives off a certain essence of his character. He is a flawed hero and all this time he doesn't bother to get on better terms with Poseidon. This is not only a statement about his pride, but also a statement that raises the question of how badly Odysseus actually wants to go home. Clearly, the gods are petty. In many ways, they are childish and just as flawed, if not more flawed than mortals. If you sacrifice enough animals along with a few materialistic objects, the gods are happy. The way I see it, Greek gods and goddesses have always been favorable towards mortals who keep reminding them of their authority and grandeur. Athena is a goddess and has no need for gold and heaps of animal flesh. She has enough of that but to sacrifice a heifer and have its horns guilded in gold is like sucking up to Athena and telling her that she is the best. Odysseus could easily win back Poseidon's favor if he wanted to and quite frankly, a man who really wants to go home after years and years of being tossed around from island to island would do all in his power to make the situation more agreeable for himself. Instead, he chooses to stick around and enjoy himself with Kalypso. If he could trick a giant Cyclops, he could clearly have found a way to get away from Kalypso. I think he clung to her more than she to him.

All this time, Odysseus may have been physically deterred in many ways from getting home, but mainly he was mentally deterred. Odysseus is a thinker and he has proven his capability of thinking himself out of the stickiest situations, time and time again. Yet when Homer first reveals him to the reader, he is crying over his situation rather than doing something to get himself out. He feels guilty perhaps for cheating on Penelope or more likely, he misses the place where he has the most authority and respect, but clearly not enough to do something about it (I mean, come on, the choice is between immortality and all this other trivial stuff). Also, since the question of Penelope's fidelity has been brought up, I really don't think Penelope would have secretly cheated on Odysseus and then pretended not to have done so. The idea just goes against the whole act of going through the effort of weaving and unravelling her work each day. She's clever but not conniving. To me, it makes more sense to think that Odysseus goes home to a wife who has remained faithful to him unlike Klytemnestra and Helen, yet he still wont be happy. Odysseus becomes defined by his troubles and endless journeys. As insensible as it sounds, it's almost as though Odysseus cannot settle down with a trouble-free life. Sometimes achieving your highest goal too soon is not such a good thing. It leaves you with nothing more to strive for so you can't even live satisfied with your accomplishment--the satisfaction actually comes from the active pursuit of that goal. As long as Odysseus is in the act of trying to get back home he is satisfied, as his pursuit of that goal has much more to offer than the goal itself.