DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT AN ANCIENT GREEK SCHOLAR. FOR THE FULL DISCLAIMER, READ HERE
Ulysses felt for her and was sorry for her, but he kept his eyes as hard as horn or iron without letting them so much as quiver, so cunningly did he restrain his tears.
Odyssey, Book 19; Samuel Butler translation
Book 19 Summary
Odysseus instructs Telemachus to go move the weapons and armor into another room under the pretext of getting them cleaned. After doing so, Telemachus goes to bed for the night while the disguised Odysseus meets with Penelope.
Penelope tells Odysseus about her plight with the suitors while Odysseus tells her the same fake backstory he told the swineherd Eumaeus. He describes his own appearance and clothes as they were during the Trojan War which convinces Penelope that the disguised Odysseus met and fought alongside Odysseus in the past.
The disguised Odysseus then tells Penelope what he heard about Odysseus’ journey and that he is certainly coming back very soon. Penelope doesn’t believe him, but promises a reward if it turns out to be true.
Penelope wants to give Odysseus some warm blankets to sleep in and have her maidservants wash him, but he rejects both and requests only an older woman who has gone through hardships herself to wash him. Penelope offers him Euryclea, an elderly maid who nursed Odysseus from birth.
When Euryclea goes to wash the disguised Odysseus’ feet, she sees a scar on his leg that he got as a child and immediately recognizes it. Just before she could tell Penelope the beggar is Odysseus, he catches her and threatens her into silence.
Penelope and the disguised Odysseus talk a little more where she tells him she’s going to set up a challenge for the suitors. Whichever one completes the challenge will earn the right to marry her. Odysseus tells her that’s a good idea and both of them retire for the night.
She’s Right There
I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for Odysseus to be right there, face to face with his wife, and pretend to be a stranger and not reveal his identity. When Penelope begins to weep after Odysseus tells her how he knows… Odysseus… Homer writes:
Ulysses felt for her and was sorry for her, but he kept his eyes as hard as horn or iron without letting them so much as quiver, so cunningly did he restrain his tears.
Odyssey, Book 19; Samuel Butler translation
Odysseus had to fight himself to hold back his tears and not make it obvious that he was holding back his tears. How many men would break watching his wife grieve over the fact that she thought he was dead or lost? How many men would want to throw away the ruse and console their wives?
Odysseus exercised quite a bit of willpower in that moment. We know, though, that he has quite a bit of it. Remember that he turned down marrying or staying with Circe, Calypso, and Nausicaa, and pushed himself through one of the worst journeys a man has ever gone through, all to get back home to his wife and son. I have to wonder, though, if that moment watching his wife weep for her lost husband was harder to endure than all the other things he went through?
Odysseus’ Fake Backstory
Odysseus tells Penelope the same fake backstory he told the swineherd Eumaeus. I mostly just want to make a few observations, the first of which is more of a question:
When Odysseus gives a fake backstory to the disguised Athena back in Book 13, he tells her he’s from Crete and killed a son of Idomeneus, king of Crete and one of the Trojan War veterans (he’s also in the Iliad), in self-defense and fled. In the backstory he tells Eumaeus and Penelope, he says he’s from Crete and fought alongside Idomeneus. In fact, he tells Penelope he’s related to Idomeneus. My question is why Odysseus decided to stick with Crete and being associated with Idomeneus in some way in both of his made up backstories? Are they good friends? Are they on poor terms? Did something happen between them during the Trojan War? Are Crete and Ithaca close to each other?
When Odysseus tells Penelope what he heard about… Odysseus’ whereabouts… he weaves in events that actually happened to him, like losing his crew after they ate the cattle of the Sun, ending up in the land of the Phaeacians as a result, and getting help from them.
When Odysseus tells Penelope about his own whereabouts, he noticeably leaves out the weirder elements like the Sirens, the visit to the land of the dead, and Scylla and Charybdis. Also noticeable, he leaves out the events that would make him look bad like the Cyclopes, the Laestrygonians, and Aeolus. He also leaves out Circe, Calypso, and Nausicaa.
Interpretation of Dreams
If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know that one thing that interests me a lot is all the little times a story reveals something about the worldview of the culture it came from. The more exciting tidbits, to me, are the bits of knowledge that the culture takes for granted and may not see a need to record under normal circumstances.
Having said that, it’s striking to note that Penelope asks the disguised Odysseus his interpretation of a dream she had. It’s interesting to me that the idea that dreams may be warnings or predictions of the future, and therefore they needed to be interpreted, was so widespread in the world. Dreams fascinated the ancients as much as they fascinate us today.
Even more interesting is what Penelope says about dreams:
“Dreams are very curious and unaccountable things, and they do not by any means invariably come true. There are two gates through which these unsubstantial fancies proceed; the one is of horn, and the other ivory. Those that come through the gate of ivory are fatuous, but those from the gate of horn mean something to those that see them.”
Odyssey, Book 19; Samuel Butler translation
In some ways, this is a pretty rational view of dreams. Some dreams are meaningless, while others hold great significance. The issue is figuring out which dreams are which. We do much of the same today. Did I have that dream because I spent hours watching that TV show or was working on that project? Or did I have that dream because I’m worried about something and sense something is wrong?
I wonder how widespread in ancient Greek culture this idea about dreams was—that dreams can come through one of two gates and that determines whether the dream is nothing or substantial? Another question I can’t answer due to my ignorance of ancient Greek culture.
That’s all for Book 19 of the Odyssey.
May your days be filled with grace.
-Andronikos
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Thumbnail: Terracotta plaque depicting Odysseus talking to Penelope, c. 460-50 BCE, from Melos.