I'm back. Told you so. First chapter of a new book. Here we go.
To sum it up: Odysseus never made home and is being held hostage by a nymph named Calypso. And back on the home front his house is overrun with men wanting to marry his wife for his fortune. Plus this takes place ten years after "The Iliad." There you go. Onto some other stuff that interested me.
This is a really good one right here. Zeus says, "Oh for shame, how the mortals put the blame upon us gods, for they say evils come from us, but it is they, rather, who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given[.] What does this mean to you? Let me know. Leave a comment. You might be the first.
To me it's Zeus saying, "We don't desire all this evil to befall you mortals. It's because you don't listen to us. We tell you what to do and all you have to do is listen. But you don't listen. Thus bringing suffering on yourselves." Something like that. We can't go beyond the destiny that the gods give us. Even they have to follow it and can't change it. It's been "given" to us. We can either take it or suffer without it. It's like playing Operation. Can't touch the sides. Can't walk outside the path of destiny. Without consequences.
I believe that this idea works, at least, for what Zeus is talking about. In "The Iliad" the gods seemed very keen on keeping everything within it's proper destiny. Like when Zeus let the other gods rejoin the fight as they pleased so that Achilles wouldn't fell Troy before its destined time. But I digress.
It was also really thought provoking when Telemachus, Odysseus' son, rebuked Penelope, Odysseus' wife, when she objected to a song being sung, by one of her potential suitors. It's understandable why she wouldn't want to hear it. The song referenced the voyage home from Troy for the Greeks. And her husband never made it back. For ten years, she's believed him dead. But either way Telemachus rebuked her. He reminded here that she isn't the only wife not to have her husband return from war.
This has been a subject of extreme interest for me. The idea of being right in one's suffering. Sure, there's someone who has it worse than you, but does that make your suffering meaningless? Penelope has a right to grieve for her lost husband. But is her son also right in the fact that she shouldn't act as if she's the only one who lost her husband? It's a deep question. And we're still digging for the answer. I tend to side with letting the person grieve. Until it becomes counter-productive. Feel free to contact me about this. I would love to discuss it further. I'm pretty sure that I didn't cover it thoroughly enough in this post. Moving on.
To end on a happy note, as the title indicates the gods bring Telemachus some good news. Athena tells him that his father's alive and coming home soon. YAY!!
I might also add that Athena isn't quite so terrible of a person (goddess?) in this book so far. She was so mean spirited in "The Iliad." But the important thing is that Odysseus is still alive. Watch out all you varments. Daddy's coming home. I think we'll be hearing "Are we there yet?" a whole lot. See you next time.
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