We are right at the end of the book and about to read the ending to The Odyssey. From what I've heard without actually reading the ending yet, the Suitors meet a really brutal end. I'm expecting heads being smashed and people being cut up which is very gruesome. Do they really deserve it tho? It all really depends on the perspective you take. Whether you're looking at it from Odysseus's or the suitors point of view.
From the view of suitors they're using Greek hospitality as a reason to allow them to stay at Odysseus's house. They come to the house they are accepted and allowed to eat and drink. But this never really turns off and they just keep eating, drinking and taking advantage of the hospitality. Penelope and Telemachus don't like what they're doing but they also never really stand up and demand that the all get out, since Penelope is just telling all the suitors maybe to marriage and Telemachus just can't stand up for himself. But there is also this group of suitors that is plotting against prince Telemachus which isn't something that should be taken lightly because what would stop that same group from doing that against Odysseus if they were successfully.
Odysseus on the other hand had some justifiable reasons to be mad. Not only were they trying to kill his son, they were trying to take his wife as well. And as far as I know there isn't really a definition of hospitality which makes eating all my food, trying to kill my son, and marry my wife OK. We also have the thing vengeance hero thing where he's dressed up as a beggar and takes all this abuse just to get his revenge but at the same time this is sort of weird because he's sort of expecting the abuse. But the most convincing thing that I heard in class was what Dong-Ha said. And that is Odysseus had been gone for 20 years and has lived his through his hero's journey. He wants to get home and relax not have to deal with all these horny college kids trying to get with his wife.
In the end I don't think slaughtering is really necessary. Maybe they could have been put in jail. Like "Oh you liked my house so much, why not try the big house?" That sort of thing but thats just me. Do other people feel the same way or do you all think they should just die?
Like we've said in class, Homer presents some ambiguity and encourages debate, but I think the crucial detail is the murder plot from the suitors. To not even run or attempt to separate from these criminals implies ambivalence if not unspoken support. Considering the cultural context of the time, I think the slaughter is justified.
ReplyDelete"Horny college kids trying to get with his wife" might be my favorite ever summation of the suitors and what's wrong with them. There is a kind of generational dynamic going on here, with the implication that these young men were in short pants the last time Odysseus was actually king, so they don't respect him the way they should. There's the sense of these young whippersnappers laying around, disrespecting the traditions of hospitality, being mean to beggars, and generally behaving irresponsibly. Odysseus's return is a form of restoring order, an old order, to modern decadent chaos. (It's also a revealing aspect of why they're so hostile to Telemachus--he's a little younger than them, but basically a peer, and they have trouble seeing him as a "prince.")
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