Aerin’s Reviews > The Odyssey > Status Update

Odysseus,
seeing his father worn by age and burdened
by desperate, heartfelt sorrow, stopped beneath
a towering pear tree, weeping. Then he wondered
whether to kiss his father, twine around him,
and tell him that he had come home again,
and everything that happened on the way—
or question him. He thought it best to start
by testing him with teasing and abuse.

Odysseus really is an asshole sometimes.

Odysseus ripped off his rags. Now naked,
he leapt upon the threshold with his bow
and quiverfull of arrows, which he tipped
out in a rush before his feet, and spoke.

“Playtime is over. I will shoot again,
towards another mark no man has hit.
Apollo, may I manage it!”

Aww yeah, Ancient Greek action movie time!

Finally getting to the good part; I just don’t find the first several books of Telemachus moping around all that interesting.

Fun fact: when I lived in Sicily, I lived on the “collina dei ciclopi” (cyclops hill), where Polyphemus allegedly had his cave, and our apartment had a view of the “isole ciclopi” (cyclopean isles), the giant rocks/small islands he chucked into the water after the fleeing Odysseus.

I love how the gods are portrayed in Homer as petty, meddling gossips. Just sitting around Olympus, chatting over cups of ambrosia, like “So what are we gonna do about this Odysseus situation? Is Poseidon ever gonna give him a break, or what?”