Book 3: Paris/Alexandros challenges Menelaos
“We’ll fight it out for Helen and all her wealth.
And the one who proves the better man and wins,
He’ll take those treasures fairly, lead the woman home.
The rest will seal in blood their binding pacts of friendship” (86-89)
Symbolism: contest with a woman as «prize» (women’s exchange value)
Duel returns to the cause of the Trojan war: Paris’ abduction from Sparta
Helen: victim or criminal?
Iris summons Helen
Helen is weaving the war of the Greeks against the Trojans
Book 3 focuses on Helen’s role in the war (female agency)
Priam and Trojan elders at the Scaean Gates (view on the battlefield)
Elders: “…Ah, no wonder/the men of Troy and Argives under arms have
suffered years of agony all for her, for such a woman./ Beauty, terrible beauty!”
Helen blames herself for the suffering she caused:
«And I wish bitter death had been what I wanted, when I came hither,
following your son, forsaking my marriage bed...» (173-4)
Back on the battlefield… Aphrodite meddles and rescues Paris
Helen, Aphrodite’s pawn (cf. line 450): Aphrodite asks Helen to go to Paris
“Maddening one, my goddess, oh what now?
Lusting to lure me to my ruin yet again?” (lines 460-461)
Helen: a mortal doublet of Aphrodite?
Human vs. divine will or Helen’s inner struggle?
Book 6: Hector returns to Troy. Encounter with Andromache
Book 3: Paris = lover/anti-hero
Book 6: Hector = warrior/defender of Troy & family man
Book 6 explores polarities:
battlefield / city
war (Ares) / love (Aphrodite)
male / female spheres
Hector at Troy: “ascending scale of affections” (M. Katz)
Hector meets:
Trojan women
Hecuba (mother)
Paris (brother)
Helen (sister-in-law)
Andromache (wife)
Andromache at the Scaean Gates, with son Astyanax (not at home)
Her “advice” (431-34): «. . . Stay here on the rampart, . . . But draw
your people by the fig tree where the city/ is openest to attack,
and where the wall may be mounted...»
Women as war captives
Andromache as widow / war prize (Hector is most troubled about
the potentiality of his wife’s life in slavery, 449-465)
Father and child (Hector, the family man)
Merging of the two spheres = temporary (cf. lines 466 ff.)
Women’s roles in Bk 6:
• religious agents (priestess Theano, prayer and gift to
Athena)
• wives, mothers
• mourners in funerary ritual
(lines 500-2 : women’s lamentation for Hector while he
lives).
In Book 24, women mourn Hector dead.
What have we learnt?
Dates: Bronze/Mycenaean Age (1600-1200 BCE); Trojan War (1200 BCE);
Homeric Poems (750 BCE)
Places: Mycenae, Tiryns, Troy, Pylos, Sparta, Knossos (Crete)
Terms: Linear B, formula, oral composition
Names: Agamemnon, Achilles, Nestor, Thetis, Menelaos, Paris/Alexander,
Helen, Hector, Priam, Hecuba, Astyanax, Achaeans (=Greeks), Briseis
Themes: honor & undying glory (define masculinity),women as spoils of
war/prizes (Briseis, Helen), female roles: wives/mothers, religious agents,
mourners, Helen’s
Quiz
• Which god visits Odysseus’ home in Ithaka to give
Telemachos advice?
A. Zeus
B. Poseidon
C. Kalypso
D. Athena
The Odyssey = “a poem about Odysseus”
= a return (nostos) poem (Od. = last Greek hero to return home
from Troy)
= a tale of adventure and survival. Od. = resourceful, crafty
Book 1
Assembly of the gods: Zeus will allow Odysseus (detained by
nymph Calypso) to go home.
Scene switches to Ithaka: suitors press queen Penelope to
marry.
Telemachus distraught.
Athena rouses Telemachus to seek news of Odysseus.
Coming-of-age of Telemachus: separation from the mother
and quest for absent father
Homecomings
Success or failure of return?
Stability of marriage integral to success of hero’s return in
epic
Agamemnon’s failed return
1. Zeus mentions Aegisthus’ murder by Orestes,
Agamemnon’s son. The story behind it:
a) Adultery (Clytemnestra and Aegisthus)
b) Agamemnon returns from Troy and is murdered by
Aegisthus
c) Orestes kills Aegisthus and avenges his father
Book 1
Will Odysseus’ return be like Agamemnon’s?
Agamemnon-Odysseus?
Aegisthus– suitors?
Clytemnestra-Penelope?
Orestes-Telemachos?
Zeus blames Aegisthus (32-41); Athena tells Telemachus
to be like Orestes (296-300)
Book 1
Penelope as «stand-in-queen» has limited authority
to deal with:
Problems:
power vacuum (suitors threaten to usurp
Odysseus’ kingdom & property)
Suitors’ abuse of hospitality (they court Penelope,
waste Odysseus’ property)
Transfer of Odysseus’ estate to Telemachos
Book 19: Recognition scene
Interview of the disguised Odysseus with his wife,
Penelope:
Penelope in mourning & loyal to Odysseus
Odysseus tells Penelope a false tale about her
husband’s imminent return
Eurykleia, Odysseus’ nurse, recognizes him by his
childhood scar
Penelope sets up the contest of the bow for the suitors
with herself as the prize (a wedding contest)
Penelope tests Odysseus through interview
She is a master weaver:
• she weaves shroud
• weaves/plots clever schemes
Contest of the bow
Book 23: last identity test (the marriage bed)
Odysseus, the master trickster, is tricked!
Metis (intelligence/resourcefulness) is not sex specific
Odyssey, Book 19
Odysseus and Penelope
Book 19: Recognition scene
Penelope = a good match to Odysseus
Both are patient, resourceful, smart
Both display metis (“cunning intelligence”)
Ideal marriage = a partnership:
“No finer, greater gift in the world than that,
when man and woman possess their home, two minds,
two hearts that work as one.” (Book 6)
Double standard: P.’s faithfulness NOT matched by Od.’s!
Odyssey expresses male anxiety about women:
female monsters, goddesses, and mortal women
in Od.’s adventures: threatening and helpful
Penelope: also threatening, because his
homecoming depends upon her
Athena: hero’s protector (virgin goddess, male
characteristics)
Anonymous poll
• Penelope is represented as:
A. A victim of her circumstances
B. Active and resourceful
What have we learnt?
• Odyssey: a poem about homecoming
• Names: Zeus, Kalypso, Athena (Mentes), Telemachos,
suitors in Ithaka, Aegisthus, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon,
Orestes, Eurykleia
• Themes/Topics: Penelope as stand-in-queen, successful/
failed returns, marital fidelity, ideal marriage (like-
mindedness, cunning, intelligence), recognition by wife (=
key to hero’s successful return); Women as protectors (e.g.,
Athena) or theatening to Odysseus (e.g., Kalypso,
Penelope)
