Book 4

Book 4

1. The growth of Telemachos

   • Travels without Athena
   • Able to stand on his own two feet
   • Finds the ratification of kleos that Nestor bestows upon him
     • Gains kleos by looking like his father and having the same qualities
       • Kleos is carried over to him from his fathers deeds
         • Accumulates his own kelos
   • Doubtful that he learns anything of xenia
     • Book 1: already shows that he is well acquainted with the custom
   • Homer emphasises how impressed Menelaus is with Telemachos' discretion and tact
     • Not even an older man could speak and do as well
       • 4.228
     • Telemachos impresses everyone of his hosts, whereas the suitors seek to murder theirs.
       • Exploration of the idea of hospitality provides a background for the contrast between the suitors and Telemachos to be heightened.
         • Contrast is already emphasised through the repeated recollection of Agamemnon.
   • He strictly observes every divine law, unlike the suitos

2. Introduction of Menelaus creates sympathy towards Telemachos' case

   • He too has experienced grief
     • His brother Agamemnon was killed by Aegisthus upon his return from the Trojan War
       • Aegisthus is killed by Agememnon's son, Oretes
         • Telemachos' mission parallels Oretes'
           • Avenge his father by driving out the interlopers who have taken over his fathers house.
       • Clearly relevant to Telemachos
       • Aegisthus took Agamemnons absence as an opportunity to consort his wife
         • Suitors and Penelope.
           • The suitors have exploited Odysseus presumed death to gorge themselves on his provisions and pursue his grieving wife
       • Recounted by Nestor (Bk 3) and Menelaus
         • Nestor uses Agamemnon's fate as a warning to Telemachos: he is not to leave his estate unguarded for too long or it will be stolen from him
           • End of Book 4 with the suitors plot.

3. Menelaus is characterised by...

   • Quasi-divine wealth
   • Vast travels around the Mediterranean
     • Adventures around Egypt raise questions over Homer's geographical knowledge
       • Confused
       • Contact between Greece and Egypt virtually ceased after the Mycenaean age
         • Not restored until Ionians and Carians, on an Egyptian raid were commanded by King Psammetichus to bring him into power
         • Egyptian tales may reflect Mycenaean traditions, but it's more than likely contempory
       • 335-7
         • Homers geographical ignorance is shown here
       • 515. Maleia
         • Strange geography, tip of the Peloponnese
           • Agamemnon is supposed to be in Mycenae
   • Adventures with Proteus makes Odysseus' wanderings less out of the ordinary
     • Proteus is Poseidon's servant and shape shifter
       • His daughter who tells him how to catch her father and gain the truth from him.

4. Helen

   • As self-critical as she is in 'The Illiad'
   • Signs of tension
     • Use of drugs could have possible sinister connotations

5. Hear first hand of the exploits of Odysseus at Troy

   • Helen: how Odysseus dressed as a beggar to infultrat the city of Troy
     • Ability for disguise will come into play when he returns to Ithaca
     • Foreshadows his return to Ithaca disguised as a begger
     • Focuses on his intelligence
   • Menelaus: Odysseus' masterful gambit allowed the Greek army to enter Troy= Trojan Horse
     • Ability of control
     • Speaks of Odysseus in such high regard
       • Strange that he does not offer to return with Telemachus to Ithaca to kill the suitors
         • Homer cannot have a story in which Odysseus is not the noble hero returning to slaughter suitors
     • Focuses on his ability to endure
       • Enduring is often an epithet used for Odysseus

6. When Telemachos arrives, Menelaus is having a feast for his daughter Hermione

   • Sending away to marry Achilles son
     • His son is also getting married
   • The rich social occasion is forgotten upon his arrival
     • thus questions it's authenticity
   • Provides a contrast to his lonely life in Ithaca and the struggle against the suitors
     • Menelaus has a community and family life
   • 39-58
     • lavish description of food, drinks, animals, baths and surroundings.
       • highlights the life experienced by a hero
       • offers an insight into the life of a wealth Greek.
         • 95, Destroyed Household
           • Menelaus refers to how his own home became run down during his 18 year absence
             • Reflects how Odysseus home is being treated and the state upon his arrival home
               • Foreshadowing of the trouble that awaits him
             • Prepares us for what's in store for Odysseus
           • Telemachos wants the suitors to go as they are destroying his substance, not because they are wooing his mother.
   • Ivory
     • Phonicians traded ivory
     • Connection to the Greek world
   • Travelling and collecting wealth through xenia and raids was an acceptable past time for the aristocratic Greeks.

7. Egypt

   • 85-9
     • Travellers tales are in abundance throughout 'The Odyssey'.
       • Lands of flowing milk, cheese and meet must have been appealing to the Greeks
         • Greek soil offered thin pasturing to the animals
         • Did the Greeks have agricultural knowledge or land?
         • Possible time of famine?
       • The Odyssey is full of stories within a story
         • Only way in which Homer can convey these stories of past failures and triumph is through the reminiscence of the characters telling the,
           • Frequently past suffering is juxtapose with present happiness.
   • 226-32
     • Evidence that the Egyptians have imported opium from Cyprus
       • Could be the drug that Helen uses to cheer up her husband and Telemachos
   • Helen has a strong connection to Egypt
     • Herodotus suggests that it was Helens' image that when to Troy whilst she was in Egypt
       • Menelaus returned with Helens image and found the true Helen in Egypt on his return journey

8. Greeks often describe passions and emotions as external forces that descend upon a man and leave him powerless in their grip

9. Transition back to Ithaca is abrupt but essential

   • Homer brings us up-to-date with events transpiring there
   • Three Themes
     • 1) Murderous intentions of the suitors
     • 2) Isolation and helplessness of Penelope
       • Penelope's helplessness is exaggerated by her reference to 'stormwinds' and suicide by her feelings
     • 3) The importance of Telemachos to Penelope now that he has gone on a mission that she doesn't deem him prepared for
       • Penelope's entrances carry a pattern: an entry, a complaint, series of rejections, a departure often in grief and a reaction from the suitors
         • Structure stresses her weakness and dependence
           • Homer counters this with her desirability, beauty, loyalty and intelligence
             • 791, as a lion
               • Penelope being likened to a lion is made less strange as warriors in 'The Illiad' were likened to a lion more than any other animal
                 • Suitors are threatening her way of life

10. Whatever the cause of an action, the Greeks often scribe it to a man and god at the same time

    • Constant feature of Homeric Psychology
      • The plan and the deed are virtually inseparable: once a deed is planed, it is done
        • Uncomplicated and natural liveliness to the characters turning their conscience deception into an unheroic trait
    • 762, Atrytone
      • A title of Athena