Dead Suitors

       My opinion of the suitors has changed a lot over the course of The Odyssey. They're clearly the bad guys from the start, but I remember them not seeming horribly obnoxious during the Telemachiad. While the suitors were lazy and greedy and excessive in their feasting, they didn't seem so bad to me at first because of the ambivalence we feel towards Penelope at the beginning of the story. I remember the class mentioning several times how Telemachus was getting annoyed with Penelope for leading the suitors on and not making a clear decision about taking a husband or remaining a widow. He seems to blame her for toying with them and elongating the whole process. Because of the distrust surrounding Penelope, the suitors seemed more within their right to be courting her and waiting for her decision (she does say she'll marry one of them during the whole weaving incident). However, the suitors start to go downhill the farther into the story we get. First a group of them plots the murder of Telemachus, which cuts short any pity the reader might have ever felt for them, and although they do not succeed in this endeavor, it shows what they're willing to do to become rich and doesn't make them look good at all.

      It's not until Odysseus returns to Ithaca that I really felt my opinion of the suitors plummet. Instead of welcoming a beggar with hospitality, as we have seen in many other kingdoms throughout this book, the suitors kick Odysseus, throw stools at him, call him names, and threaten him. They are really awful, especially Antinous who is vicious to the beggar-king. While I wasn't really itching for an all out slaughter like Athena and Odysseus were, I definitely did not like the suitors at all by their final chapter. They failed the test of hospitality which is such an obvious custom of this time, and they have been squandering a house that doesn't belong to them for years, behaving as though the servants are theirs. That being said, I felt the slaughter to be a little over the top as a means of revenge. While I understand the sort of necessity in ending with Odysseus crushing 100+ guys for an aesthetic appeal to the ending of such a long quest, I still don't particularly like the way that things play out. It just seems a little cruel to brutally murder all these men, even though the suitors were pretty bad people. I can't help thinking Odysseus, with all his cunning, could have thought of a different course of action to spare all the blood, but we know he and Athena were really wanting the blood, and he did deserve to feel angry at these guys. It still just felt a little too much for me to see Odysseus as an appealing hero. The worst part of it for me was the end when he brought out the maids and made them clean up the bodies and then hung the women. It was emphasized as a painful death and seems so violent, especially since their only crime was disrespecting someone they hadn't met and sleeping with single men who'd been living there for years. And there's Melanthius, who was certainly a despicable person, but his death is the most gruesome of all of them and he is not only killed, but mutilated and tortured. Reading these parts just didn't make me have much respect for Odysseus, because while one could argue the suitors deserved to die, I don't think anyone deserves to be slowly cut into pieces, no matter how badly they offended Odysseus.

       So I don't really know how I feel about the slaughter of the suitors, but I definitely agree they deserved some sort of punishment as they showed their nastiness and unwelcoming attitudes at the end of the story. I still wish Odysseus/Athena had thought of something better, or had at least been somewhat kind and granted the some of the people quicker deaths.

Odysseus...meh

       Maybe it's because of the group presentations this week, which all hilariously summarized Odysseus' wanderings quite sarcastically, but I'm a little disappointed with Odysseus as a hero so far. It's clear that to the people of Greece during this time period he is an epic hero because he has survived so much hurt and he is favored by the gods. I know it's not really fair to judge him by today's standards, but I can't really help it, he just kind of annoys me. While he is humble enough to reject other peoples comparison of him to the gods, he's still somewhat fond of his own strength, especially in requesting songs be sung about himself when he's with the Phaeacians. Odysseus receives tons of help from Athena, and while that's apparently super cool back then, it doesn't make him very heroic in my eyes especially as he doesn't do much to thank her for being the only reason he's still alive. In general, anytime the Greeks want to thank the gods all they do is kill a bunch of animals, which doesn't seem to be a very sincere or personal display of gratitude (I know, I know, historical context). To me Athena is the most heroic character in the book at the moment, and that's not really fair because she's a goddess.

       One of my least favorite things about Odysseus right now is his concern for Penelope being faithful to him while he's off sleeping with Circe for a whole year. I mean obviously this is a sexual double standard of the time period, but I think Calypso points it out pretty clearly when she argues how men are allowed to have all these affairs and women aren't. It's just irritating when Odysseus claims he's being faithful to Penelope just because he misses her... kind of a loose definition of faithful.

       The main heroic trait Odysseus seems to have is his insane physical strength. It's definitely pretty awesome that he can swim for days and fight off giant monsters, but he's also getting power boosts from Athena and it doesn't really give him a satisfying heroic character. Odysseus is supposed to be known for his "twists and turns," his wisdom and cunning tricks, and a big part where he displays this is in his defeat of Polyphemus. However after our class discussion I'm not even finding that very heroic. Odysseus did what he had to do to get out, but he also bragged about it and could have avoided the whole situation by not taking advantage of the cyclops. While I can understand why he seems very noble and god-like to the other people in the book, to me he is just not very likable. 

       The only thing that changes my mind a little about Odysseus's character is reading the passages where he is distraught and pleading to go home, because then I do feel sorry for him and can see his pain and feel how terrible it would be to be lost for 10 years with no family and all your friends being constantly killed or eaten. Reading the actual text does make me pity him more and perhaps I would like him better if I had read all of the books in the "Wanderings" section. As of now I admire his strength and his cunning, but in general I do not like him and I wish he would actually say something sincere instead of just pretending to be faithful.

My Heroic Obsession

I forced myself to refrain from writing about Lord of the Rings for my personal essay because I talk about it far too often and wanted to at least attempt to show that I have read some books besides Tolkien’s classic trilogy. Nevertheless I find myself thinking of Lord of the Rings frequently in this class because it is such a perfect example of the hero’s journey and it is probably my favorite story, and definitely my favorite movie, ever (big surprise to all of you, I’m sure). 

I read The Fellowship of the Ring for my banned book project subbie year, and though it wasn’t the most action-packed book ever, I found it quite charming and I loved hobbits and their simple lifestyle. The Lord of the Rings movies have been a family favorite since I was about 5 so I sort of entered a relapse obsessiveness phase after reading the books, which I must admit I have not left in the 4 years since (in fact I have reread the books and The Hobbit and seen The Hobbit movies in the meantime). My family now watches the extended edition of the movie trilogy every year over winter break. Living that geek life.

The Lord of the Rings is a beautiful story to me because there is so much at stake, the risks are so high, and yet the heroes are small little “halflings” whose only weapon against evil is their extraordinary willpower. Frodo and Sam, a wealthy hobbit and his gardener, wander on towards a likely doom, holding on to nothing except their friendship and desire to save their homeland. It’s not a particularly complex storyline, but it’s a powerful juxtaposition of two overwhelmingly sympathetic protagonists climbing through a land of unspeakable evil. LOTR has many hero characters, so that it’s hard to determine who the main hero really is, and I like this because it’s a little more realistic than a kind of superhero image in which one person is responsible for the fate of all. Frodo is usually recognized as the hero because he was the actual ring bearer, however it's also easy to argue that Sam is more of a hero because he is frequently responsible for Frodo’s survival, as are countless other characters. I do think Frodo deserves his spotlight because it is his initiative and sacrifice that renders the quest successful; it is his body and mind that are damaged beyond return. Frodo does become dependent on the Ring and ultimately succumbs to its temptation, but I think this makes him almost more sympathetic and heroic because it demonstrates both that he is not perfect and the scope of the pressure and burden that he carried.

Part of why The Lord of the Rings is an even better story than the classic hero narratives, is that while much is restored and most people live happily ever after, Frodo, our hero, does not. Having journeyed on foot to the most evil place on Earth, Frodo at first returns to Minas Tirith, the great city of men, to a hero’s welcome complete with feasting and songs written about him, gifts from the King and Queen, and months of partying and recovering with all of his friends. It’s not until Frodo returns to his own home in the Shire that we realize Frodo’s suffering has not ended with the destruction of the Ring. Frodo is often ill from his physical and emotional wounds, he is very tired and he is seen as weird by the rest of Hobbiton, who does not understand everything he has been through. While Sam, Merry, and Pippin, are admired and marvelled at, Frodo no longer fits in. He states in the movie adaptation of The Return of the King: “How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on when in your heart you begin to understand... there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend, some hurts that go too deep, that have taken hold.” There is an overwhelming comparison to the return of a soldier from war, no longer knowing how to face ordinary situations after encountering such terror and death. Tolkien himself fought in World War I and almost all of his friends were killed. While Frodo’s companions are able to heal and live their lives happily in the Shire, Frodo leaves, sailing into the West with the elves so that he can receive their comfort and healing, but effectively dying to the people he has left behind. I like this ending more than a traditional happily-ever-after because it is more realistic in establishing the trauma that Frodo went through in carrying such an evil object, and also the sense of loss that I think any hero would feel after going on a journey that nobody at home can really relate to, and how distanced they would feel.

While I may be a little obsessive and repetitive in my LOTR comments, it’s because the story is meaningful to me and was a significant part of my childhood. The excellent movie soundtrack, the ease at which one can quote it, the maps, cultural nuances, and other languages that Tolkien provides for his creations, and the themes of caring for the earth and a warning against reckless power, all make The Lord of Rings my favorite heroic journey.