Book 24 - The Feud is Ended Flashcards
1
Q
Book 24
How does book 24 start
A
- The scene changes abruptly
- Hermes leads the souls of the suitors, crying like bats, into Hades
- Agamemnon and Achilles argue over who had the better death
- Agamemnon describes Achilles’ funeral in detail
- They see the suitors coming in and ask how so many noble young men met their end
2
Q
Book 24
What is said from contrasting viewpoint about Penelope
A
- The suitor Amphimedon, whom Agamemnon knew in life, gives a brief account of their ruin, pinning most of the blame on Penelope and her indecision
- Agamemnon contrasts the constancy of Penelope with the treachery of Clytemnestra
3
Q
Book 24
What happens back in Ithaca initially
A
- Odysseus travels to Laertes’ farm
- He sends his servants into the house so that he can be alone with his father in the gardens
4
Q
Book 24
What is Laertes looking like, and how does Odysseus appraoch this
A
- Odysseus finds that Laertes has aged prematurely out of grief for his son and wife
- He doesn’t recognize Odysseus, and Odysseus doesn’t immediately reveal himself, pretending instead that he is someone who once knew and befriended Odysseus
5
Q
Book 24
Describe the father son reunion cutesy moment!!!
A
- But when Laertes begins to cry at the memory of Odysseus, Odysseus throws his arms around Laertes and kisses him
- He proves his identity with the scar and with his memories of the fruit trees that Laertes gave him when he was a little boy
6
Q
Book 24
What happens immediately after theryve reunited
A
- Laertes and Odysseus have lunch together
- Dolius, the father of Melanthius and Melantho, joins the
- While they eat, the goddess Rumor flies through the city spreading the news of the massacre at the palace
7
Q
Book 24
What do the suitors sorta then debate
A
- The parents of the suitors hold an assembly at which they assess how to respond
- Halitherses, the elder prophet, argues that the suitors merely got what they deserved for their wickedness, but Eupithes, Antinous’s father, encourages the parents to seek revenge on Odysseus
8
Q
Book 24
What do the suitors go do once theyve debated
A
- Their small army tracks Odysseus to Laertes’ house, but Athena, disguised again as Mentor, decides to put a stop to the violence
- Antinous’s father is the only one killed, felled by one of Laertes’ spears
9
Q
Book 24
How does it all end with Athena (thank god)
A
- Athena makes the Ithacans forget the massacre of their children and recognize Odysseus as king
- Peace is thus restored
10
Q
Book 24
Why do some believe the epic ended in book 23
A
- The end of this scene gives the story nice closure, while the scenes that follow seem un-Homeric
- The bat metaphor at the beginning of Book 24 is unusual, as most Homeric metaphors exploit bright, pastoral imagery
- The description of the suitors being led into the underworld is even more troubling, since it deviates from the Homeric principle that only the soul of a properly buried body can enter Hades
- Book 11 bears out this principle, as Elpenor petitions Odysseus for a proper burial, unable otherwise to gain entrance to the underworld.
11
Q
Book 24
What are the subjective arguments for why the epic ends early
A
- The conversation between Achilles and Agamemnon has little point or relevance to the story;
- the conversation between Odysseus and Laertes is clumsy;
- Odysseus’s revelation to his father of his identity seems anticlimactic after the tension that he creates with his disguise
- Furthermore, the lunch with Dolius ends without exploring or even acknowledging the obvious tension that should exist between Dolius and Odysseus since Odysseus has murdered Dolius’s two children
- Halitherses’ speech in the assembly piles on blame gratuitously and without sophistication,
- and Athena’s tacit support for the exclusive murder of Antinous’s father—a character introduced only a few lines earlier—is bizarre.
12
Q
Book 24
Why is it illogical for book 23 to be the end though
A
- The suitors’ families will doubtless be enraged when they discover what has happened to their children, as Odysseus himself predicts
- Something must be done to appease or stop them, but the earlier ending would leave this problem unaddresse
- It would also leave Odysseus in the odd position of having revealed his identity to all of his loved ones (including Eurycleia) except his own father, even though Laertes’ grief at Odysseus’s absence is rivaled only by that of Odysseus’s deceased mother
- It is perhaps fitting, then, for Homer’s audience—the gods-worshipping warrior culture of Greece—that an epic so marked by divine intervention should end with Athena restoring peace and urging Odysseus not to “court the rage of Zeus who rules the world!” (24.597).
