Justice and Revenge Flashcards
Revenge for Odysseus who learned of the suitors in the underworld - he plots revenge with Athene in book 13
Odysseus ‘Great heavens… I would have come to the same miserable end as King Agamemnon… if you… had not made all this clear to me… But come, devise some ingenius scheme to punish these miscreants’
Dramatic irony - suitors bad behaviour in the later parts of the book made even worse as they are directed towards the beggar we know is Odysseus - the King of Ithaca. Odysseus is the judge of their behaviour - but does this save them from their deaths?
Antinous ‘picking up a stool he threw it and it struck Odysseus on the back under the right shoulder’
Book 22 - Odysseus lays out the reasons as to why they will be killed - he doesn’t listen to Eurymachus who offers to pay reparations. It is due to their abuse of xenia and disrespect of his status and authority in his absence.
'’You dogs!… You never thought to see me back from Troy. So you fleeced my household; you raped my maids you courted my wife behind my back though I was alive- with no more fear of the gods in heaven than of the human vengeance that might come. One and all, your fate is sealed.’
The suitors’ intention to murder Telemachus (headed up by Antinous) could be said to deserve revenge
Penelope ‘how dare you plot against Telemachus’ life… it is sacrilege’
Eurymachus tries to pacify her ‘these encouraging words were on his lips, but death for Telemachus was in his heart’
The bard song in book 8 sees Aphrodite having an affair with Ares - Hephaestus (the lame god) finds out. Whilst some gods laugh but Poseidon takes it seriously - the story mirrors ideas within the narrative but does hold themes of Justice and revenge
‘When they caught sight of Hephaestus’ clever device a fit of unquenchable laughter seized the blessed gods’
‘“Hephaestus’, said Poseidon the Earthshaker, ‘if Ares doesn’t repudiate his debt and abscond, I myself will pay you the fine’.
The killing of Odysseus men can be considered justice for Hyperion the sun god (they abuse xenia)
Hyperion to Zeus ‘if they do not repay me in full for the slaughtered cows, I will go to Hades and shine among the dead’
The blinding of Polyphemus and the divine antagonism of Odysseus can be seen as justice and revenge for them both for abusing xenia
‘if anyone ever asks you how you came by your blindness, tell him your eye was put out by Odysseus, sacker of cities’
Cyclops’ prayer to Poseidon ‘Hear me, Poseidon…let him come late (to Ithaca), in wretched plight, having lost all his comrades, in a foreign ship and let him find trouble in his home’
Was it justice that the Phaeacians should be punished by Poseidon for offering xenia?
Poseidon initially proposes to ‘wreck that fine ship… on the misty seas… and… fence their town with a ring of high mountains.’
Zeus persuades him that is not necessary (ie not justified) so he
‘turned her (the ship) to stone and rooted her to the sea bottom’
Is it justice that all suitors die? Amphinomus shows kindness to Odysseus in book 18
‘Your health, my ancient friend! You are having a hard time now but here’s to your future happiness’
