Enslaved characters Flashcards
1 events:
Slaves facilitate Xenia by providing food and drink for guests.
Phemius the minstrel is forced to perform for the suitors
1 analysis:
Slaves are key to upholding basic social values like Xenia but are powerless when guests abuse their roles.
1 Scholarship?
‘Xenia was an essential functioning of ancient society, in the Odyssey it is a way of judging societies and individuals’
Goldhill
2 events?
Eurykleia cries when Telemachus tells her of his journey he has to undertake, but she promises to not tell Penelope anything.
2 analysis:
Loyalty and maternal care from slaves mirrors ideal familial relationships
3 events:
Lesser focus on slaves on Pylos- it’s Nestor and his family who organise their guests being fed and bathed
4 events:
Female slaves attend Helen
6 events:
Nausicaa expected to do household tasks like wash clothes despite being a princess.
Works together with her slaves to clean them, and then they all play together
Nausicaa still orders them around
Quotations for Book 6?
‘Mistress and maids… began playing with a ball’
‘Girls, give the stranger something to eat and drink’
6 analysis:
Presents an idealised view of master-slave relations, but Nausicaa still asserts authority- class divisions are still present even in what seems like friendship
7 events:
Eurymedusa introduced:
Brought by ship and selected as a prize for Alcinous
She nursed Nausicaa
7 analysis:
Highlights how slave’s roles often involve shaping noble children’s early lives, blurring the lines between slave and family member
9 events and analysis:
Cyclops don’t have slaves
Structured societies need hierarchies and rules
10 events:
Laestrygonians also don’t have slaves- keeping slaves could be a potential indicator of civilisation.
Circe’s slaves only appear once she has sworn an oath to not harm Odyssey and his men anymore.
10 analysis:
This act that proves her civilisation comes alongside the appearance of slaves- significant.
11 event/quote:
‘I would rather work the soil as a serf on hire than be king of all these lifeless dead’ - Achilles
13 event:
Athena tells Odysseus to go to Eumaeus over his wife or father. He is the most devoted to Odysseus despite not being family.
14 event:
‘And you, Eumaeus’ - direct address, showing his importance to Homer, despite being a slave
15 events + quote:
Eumaeus gives his backstory, and reveals he’s actually from a noble family
‘My father…a man like a God, was king’
16 events:
Eumaeus welcomes back Telemachus like he’s his beloved son
Eumaeus offers to go and put Laertes out of his misery by letting him know of Telemachus’ return- Telemachus doesn’t allow this.
16 scholarship:
‘Good servants in the poem enjoy a status almost equivalent to membership in the master’s natural family’
- S. Olson
17 events:
Melanthius insults and kicks Odysseus
Eumaeus escorts odysseus to the palace
Eumaeus reproaches Antinous for his poor behaviour
17 quote:
‘Antinous, you may be nobly born, but there’s nothing noble in your speech’
18 events?
Melantho mocks Odysseus
