Odyssey Scholar Quotes Flashcards
Edith Hall on Odysseus - Positive
Very intellectual, charismatic all-round hero, as well as a domestic husband
Jenkyns on Odysseus - Positive
In the main part, Odysseus is a big epic warrior, in his own narration he seems to be more like a folktale trickster
Doherty on Odysseus - Positive
No living male character is portrayed as a match for Odysseus
Clayton on Odysseus - Positive
Uses his verbal skills to trick Polyphemus by telling him his name is “nobody”
Graziosi on Odysseus - Negative
Meathead
Odysseus gets home not because of his own cleverness but because of random events which he has no control over
Griffin on Odysseus - Negative
Odysseus does very little that is heroic, he accepts humiliations and at moments looks like a real beggar than a hero
Jones on Odysseus - Positive and Negative
Jones on Odysseus - Odysseus is no more perfectly good than the Cyclops is perfectly bad
Jones on Odysseus’ Wit - Positive
Can be recognised by intimates and by signs and actions
Clayton on Odysseus’ Wit - Positive
Where he is physically unimpressive, his verbal skills make up for it
Jenkyns on Gods - Positive
Gods are too grand to have emotions
Jones on Gods - Positive
Men are at the whims of Gods
Jenkyns on Odysseus and Athene
Relationship is like banter between a Olympian goddess and a mortal man
Bernard Knox on Gods and Mortals - Positive
Almost everywhere in the peaceful world, women, human and divine have important roles
Folit Weinberg on Gods - Positive
Odysseus is saved from Circe because of Hermes
Morisson on Calpyso - Negative
Calypso is a surrogate wife; women who in one way or another try to take the place of Penelope
Walcot on Xenia - Positive
Book 8 is how to entertain a stranger, Book 9 is how to not entertain a stranger
Goldhill on Women - Negative
There is repeatedly a threat to Odysseus when a female wants to make him her husband
Jones on Xenia - Negative
Calypso is too hospitable
Folit-Weinberg on Women - Positive
We learn what it means in the Odyssey to be female through Nausicaa and Circe
Murray on Penelope - Positive
Penelope is the only character who can outwit Odysseus in wisdom and cunnning
Penelope is as much the heroine as Odysseus is the hero
Kelly on Women - Positive
Nausicaa is a helper figure
Jones on Women - Positive
Women hold the key to his salvation in the early books of the Odyssey
Wile on Women - Positive
The audience know that Nausicaa is no threat
Atwood on Penelope - Negative
Penelope was sleeping with the suitors and had the maids killed so Odysseus wouldn’t find out
Goldhill on Women - Negative
There is repeatedly a threat to Odysseus when a female wants to make him her husband
Fenik on Penelope - Negative
Penelop is Boring
Edith Hall on Nostos - Positive
Nostos is what Odysseus craves
Jones on Nostos - Positive
Odysseus is the loyal husband whose eyes are fixed on one goal only, return home
Folit-Weinberg on Nostos - Negative
Circe’s island is the only place where Odysseus forgets his nostos
Halverson on Suitors
The suitors are consuming the household, their presence has been a defilement of the household
An assault on the integrity of the Oikos and even minor collaboration with its attackers are high crimes
Stanton on Suitors
Odysseus does not see himself as the cause of the suitors deaths, rather their own hard actions and doom of the gods caused it
Hall on Suitors
Odysseus kills the suitors who exactly mirror his own actions in the land of the Cyclops
Atwood on Suitors
Suitors courted Penelope for wealth and status rather than love
Graziosi on Revenge - Positive
It’s a story of return, infidelity and revenge told again and again throughout the Odyssey’s entirety
Loney on Revenge - Positive
Vengeance is reciprocal like Xenia, depending on how you’re hurt, you have to be given a certain amount of punishment accordingly
Silk on Revenge - Negative
Few modern readers would condone revenge in such a context
Schein on Polyphemus - Negative
The savagery is exaggerated by the way he eats his victims raw - barbaric
Hall on Polyphemus
Is his self-defence really shocking?
