NOTE: Remember that I changed the schedule to give you an extra class day to work on the paper. So we DO have class on Tuesday, but not on Thursday, the 27th, when the paper is now due. The paper assignment is posted a few posts down from this one.
Answer two of the following for Tuesday's class:
Q1: In Book 23, Telemachus accuses his mother of having a heart “colder than stone,” and even Odysseus claims that she has “more than…any/Other woman, an unyielding heart.” How does Penelope defend herself against these charges, and why might she have continued to test Odysseus to the very end?
Q2: After the slaughter, Odysseus, much more clear-headed, informs his son that “When someone kills just one man,/Even a man who has few to avenge him,/He goes into exile, leaving country and kin” (217-218). Do you think Odysseus is ready to act ‘heroically’ here and take responsibility for his heinous actions? Or is he still looking for a way to get off scot-free?
Q3: In Book 24, Zeus solves the problem of revenge by making the islanders conveniently forget Odysseus’ crimes. This way, they can “live in friendship as before,/And let peace and prosperity abound” (241). Is this a satisfying or even fair ending to the poem? Why do you think the gods would take such an active role in the story when they typically only advise or create illusions?
Q4: Some scholars believe that Book 24 is not one of the original books of the epic, but was tacked on by a later writer or tradition. Besides the strange intrusion by Zeus, why else might this book sound ‘off’ compared to the rest of the story?
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