Odyssey Quotes

Master of metaphors

Aristotle - metaphors

Sent the women scuttling through the house, their knees trembling

Odysseus’ threat that Telemachus will ‘hack you to pie

Heartbreaking drudgery

Description of a servants’s work

There’s never a gentle word to be had, nor a kind deed either

Penelope’s treatment of Eumaeus

Pick out the disloyal from the innocent

Eurycleia’s loyalty to Odysseus is demonstrated as she is willing to sort through the other maids

The poem is a marvellous accomplishment

Kirk - accomplishment

He who neither thinks for himself nor learns from others, is a failure as a man

Hesiod - learning

No prize is better than a worthy wife

Hesiod - wife

He who harms a guest or suppliant… he angers Zeus himself

Hesiod - xenia

The Polyphemus Group, c.520BCE, The British Museum

Cyclops Vase

Penelope At Her Loom, c.480BCE, Museo Civico in Chiusi

Penelope Vase

Women Weaving Wool, Amasis Painter, c.550-530BCE, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Women Vase

The Siren Vase, c.480-470BCE, The British Museum

Siren Vase

It was not his destiny

Zeus’ discussion of Aegisthus suggests that there is freewill in the world of the Odyssey

I would rather work the soil as a serf on hire

Achilles would rather be alive and a slave than remain dead

Poseidon will relent

The ultimate power of the king of the gods is demonstrated through Zeus’ command

Homer’s superior gifts of irony

Bonifazi - irony

Tend to your own tasks, the distaff and the loom

Telemachus instructing his mother to do womanly tasks

I hold the reins of power in this house

Telemachus asserting male control

The adventures themselves are timeless and placeless

Griffin - adventures

First recorded example of a man telling a woman to shut up

Beard - first example

The original tricky bastard

Goldhill - og

The Odyssey only has one proper hero, Odysseus himself

Finley - hero

Lord of the liars

McCarthy Woolf - liars

The loyal hero-husband… the eternal warrior… an anti-hero

Jones - descriptions of Odysseus

Penelope is a model of fidelity

Griffin - Penelope and fidelity

He knows Penelope’s worth is far greater than even divine beauty

Jones - Penelope’s worth

Penelope is actually the equal of Odysseus

Jones - homophrosyne

Homer makes the growing up of Telemachus an issue of the epic

Rieu - Telemachus growing up

The poem’s fate is absolute and stands above the gods

Duffy - fate

Athene is the power behind the plot in the Odyssey

Knights - Athene and plot

Empowered femininity conveyed in the world of the gods

Wilson - femininity and gods

There can be no doubt that they are wholly ruthless, and will deserve the death they finally get

Jones - suitors’ death

The integrity of the oikos is the central and dominating issue of the Odyssey

Griffin - oikos

This appears to be done through fear, not generosity

Roisman - xenia

Homer… a feminist pioneer

Jones - feminist Homer

Women hold the key to salvation in the early books

Jones - women and salvation

Never fails to wring my heart

Penelope’s response to the bard

’Appointed by the gods for her to yield’

The ‘fatal day’ when Clytemnestra cheated

Helen ‘slipped a drug’ to banish ‘all painful memories’

Fear of women associated with witchcraft and scheming

’If a deer put her two little unweaned fawns’ to sleep in a ‘mighty lion’s den’

The suitors in comparison to Odysseus

‘In his accustomed place’ crying

Odysseus regularly grieves for home and Penelope, with the present continuous tense showing continuous torment. Not the usual impression of a hero

’My wise Penelope’s looks and stature are insignificant compared with yours’

Odysseus flattering Calypso

’It is my never failing wish’

Odysseus’ nostos

’There is nothing better or finer than when two people of one heart and mind’ are together

Odysseus and homophrosyne

’Nausicaa of the white arms’

Nausicaa’s pale epithet as the Greek beauty standard

‘Wept as a woman weeps’

Odysseus’ pain shown with a gender reversing simile as a woman taken into slavery. Odysseus as ‘sacker of cities’ has done this himself

’My fools of men refused’

Odysseus is a good leader and gives good advice, but is not listened to

’Like fishes on a spear to make their loathsome meal’

Powerless vulnerable metaphor to create sympathy for the men that died at the hands of the Laestrygonians

’My men were as deeply moved as if they had reached their homeland’

Odysseus’ relationship with his men

’Three times, like a shadow or a dream, she slipped through my hands’

Odysseus’ attempt to embrace his mother

’All the women who had been the wives of daughters of the great’

A common Homeric catalogue details women only known because of their relationship with men

’In her ignorance did a terrible thing’

Homer absolves women from blame through this description of Jocasta/Epicaste

Odysseus ‘would be happy’ to stay longer as ‘I would win a warmer and greater respect from everyone’

Odysseus values kleos more than nostos, and is willing to delay his journey home

’She has branded with infamy not herself alone but the whole of her sex’

Agamemnon’s opinion of Clytemnestra seems reminiscent of Eve

’Dauntless man’

Achilles’ description of Odysseus

’Held in the spell of his words’

Odysseus’ storytelling ability

’The most faithful steward of his property’

Book 14 is almost a morality play through this description of Eumaeus as loyal, hardworking and a good servant who is thus not punished

’Flung his arms round his noble father’s neck and burst into tears’

Telemachus’ emotional and childish reunion with Odysseus, depicted in a famous painting by Doucet

’Cried aloud piercingly and more convulsively’ than birds of prey when villagers have stolen their eggs from their nest

Inverted simile describing loss when Odysseus and Telemachus have gained each other. Shrieking cry shows intensity

‘Father and son discussed the situation’

Telemachus has become older and bolder as he questions his father judgement and stands as equals

‘Dirty pig’ and ‘nauseating beggar’

Melanthius’ insults towards Odysseus and abuse of xenia justifies his death

’Just shook his head in silence’

Odysseus’ response to Antinous’ actions shows control over emotion and builds anticipation for the climax

’You’re a doomed man if he turns out to be some god from heaven’

A suitor’s warning to Antinous shows that you should give good xenia incase it is a test (link to Roisman)

’Hearts melted with desire’

Suitors’ reaction to seeing Penelope

’Wished the anguish to bite deeper yet’

Athene wants Odysseus to feel more emotional - so he is angrier to fight the suitors better or for her own amusement? (The gods ‘kill us for their sport)

’Reached broad heaven itself, like that of some illustrious king’

Penelope’s kleos

’I ask you to consider these problems’

Odysseus questions Athene and asks for her consul rather than following her advice unquestioningly - perhaps showing a closer relationship than that of the Odyssey

’My maids are hauled about’

Suggestion of rape of the maids by Telemachus, and therefore unfair to kill them as punishment

’Might well have strung it yet’

Telemachus, by the end of the epic, is proving to be as strong as Odysseus

’The long spear planted in Amphinomus’ body’

Physical strength of Telemachus

’Torture him for a while’

Odysseus’ cruelty to Melanthius

’Their feet twitched’

Slow, painful death of the maids evokes pity for women

’What a strange man/woman you are’

Penelope and Odysseus mirroring each other’s words

’Even death, Achilles, did not destroy your name’

Agamemnon regarding Achilles’ kleos

’Capacity to endure’ and ‘ability to think for himself under pressure’

Jones - stand out qualities of Odysseus

’Ancient Greeks placed an absolute value on a man’s loyalty to his household’

Jones - devotion to oikos and Penelope

’Perfect slave’

Thalmann - description of Eumaeus

’Telemachus leaves Ithaca to establish his identity. Odysseus must return to do so’

Jones - Telemachus and Odysseus as parallels

’No one can permit himself the luxury of trusting anyone else in Homer’s world’

Walcott - trust

’Is he able to react with anything other than violence?’

Miller - Odysseus’ use of violence to solve problems

‘The face that launched a thousand ships’

Marlowe - Helen of Troy

’There is no place more dangerous for a man in Greek myth than near Odysseus’

Haynes - dangers of Odysseus

’Only time in Greek myth that a mortal has been offered immortality and refuses’

Haynes - Calypso’s offer of immortality

’Few of Homer’s modern readers would condone revenge killing… but ‘The Odyssey’ does’

Silk - revenge killing

’Slaves were notorious for changing alliance’

Roisman - slaves and loyalty

‘Like a loving father’

How Odysseus ruled Ithaca

‘Are you some goddess’

Odysseus’ tactical flattery of Nausicaa

’He looks like an immortal god’

Alcinous’ description of Odysseus

’Famous deeds of the heroes’

Kleos

’My loyal companions’ or ‘an untrustworthy crew’

Odysseus’ contrasting descriptions of his men

’On second thoughts I refrained’

Odysseus showing consideration

‘So persuasive, so quick-witted, so self-possessed’

Athene’s tricolon describing Odysseus

’Like the schemer and soldier that he was’

How Odysseus thinks

’Keep these arrogant suitors penned up’

Animalistic comparisons of the suitors as prey

‘I urge you to think once more’

Telemachus showing consideration

’My childhood is a thing of the past’

Telemachus dismissing his childhood

’Like a young god’

Description of Telemachus

’Telemachus obeyed his father’

Telemachus demonstrating filial duty

’Athene put courage into her heart’

Athene inspiring Nausicaa