Zeus

Who He Is

Zeus is the god who rules the others and, in the poem, the guarantor of the law of hospitality: the stranger and the beggar come from him, and it is in his name that shelter is asked. He hardly appears on stage outside the councils, and he decides the return of Odysseus from afar, with a nod, a thunderclap, a bolt. He opens the poem by saying that men blame the gods for their troubles, when they suffer beyond their share through their own folly, and this moral rule runs through the whole work.

Trajectory

In Book I, he opens the council of the gods thinking about Aegisthus, who killed Agamemnon after being warned by Hermes: mortals blame the gods, but they suffer beyond their share through their own folly. Then he explains to Athena why Odysseus does not return, and the reason is a father's: Odysseus blinded Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, and the god does not kill him, but makes him wander. The return is decided in heaven, with the opposing god far away.

In Book II, he sends two eagles from the top of a mountain; they circle over the assembly, look upon everyone's heads with a deadly air, and depart, and the seer Halitherses reads in them Odysseus's return.

In Book III, Nestor says that Zeus planned a grievous return for the Achaeans, because not all of them were wise or just, and Telemachus tells him that Zeus has kept the end of his father hidden.

In Book IV, Menelaus hopes that he will put an end to his sufferings, and Proteus tells him he should have sacrificed to Zeus and the other gods before leaving. Helen says that Zeus gives each man both good and evil. Menelaus, according to Proteus, will go to the Elysian Field because he is Zeus's son-in-law.

In Book V, when Athena complains that no one remembers Odysseus, Zeus returns to her the plan, which was hers, and sends Hermes to tell Calypso that Odysseus will leave without escort of gods or men, on a raft, and will reach, on the twentieth day, Scheria, land of the Phaeacians, who will cover him with goods.

In Book VI, Nausicaa tells the maids who fled from the naked man that strangers and beggars come from Zeus, and that the gift, even if small, is dear. In Book VII, Echeneus reminds Alcinous that it is necessary to pour libations to Zeus, protector of respectable suppliants, and the king does so.

In Book VIII, in the song of Demodocus, Hephaestus demands from Zeus the return of the bridal gifts before he releases Ares and Aphrodite, and Odysseus promises to invoke Nausicaa if Zeus brings him home.

In Book IX, Odysseus invokes Zeus Xenios, avenger of suppliants and guests, before Polyphemus, who replies that the Cyclopes do not care about Zeus, because they are stronger. After the escape, Odysseus tells the Cyclops that Zeus punished him for devouring guests. In the end, Zeus refuses the sacrifice of the ram and thinks about how he would lose the ships and the companions.

In Book X, it is Zeus who made Aeolus keeper of the winds, to calm them or stir them as he wishes. In Book XI, Odysseus tells Agamemnon in Hades that Zeus hated the house of Atreus from the beginning, on the counsel of women, and tells Ajax that Zeus hated the army of the Danaans.

In Book XII, he raises a storm in the third watch of the night, over the island of the Sun. The Sun threatens to go down to Hades if Odysseus's companions do not pay for the cows, and Zeus tells him to keep shining and promises to shatter the ship with a bolt. Then the wind ceases on the seventh day, he puts a cloud over the ship, hurls the thunderbolt, and takes the return from the companions.

In Book XIII, Poseidon complains that the Phaeacians, who are of his blood, left Odysseus in Ithaca, and recalls that he never denied him a full return, since Zeus had promised it with a nod. Zeus replies that the gods do not dishonor him and that he may punish the mortals who despise him. He advises turning the ship to stone in sight of all.

In Book XIV, Eumaeus, who welcomes the beggar without knowing who he is, says it is not lawful for him to dishonor a guest, because all strangers and beggars come from Zeus, and that he welcomes him out of fear of Zeus of hospitality and out of compassion. Odysseus, in the story he invents, also makes the Egyptian suppliant someone spared out of fear of Zeus Xenios.

In Book XV, Telemachus asks Zeus to fulfill the omen of the eagle, and Laertes, according to Eumaeus, asks Zeus every day to let his life go. In Book XVI, Telemachus admits that Athena and Zeus are enough as defenders.

In Book XVII, Eumaeus says that Zeus of wide voice takes away half of a man's excellence when the day of slavery seizes him. In Book XVIII, Odysseus tells Amphinomus that men's minds are like the day that the father of men and gods brings them.

In Book XIX, Odysseus swears by Zeus, and Eurycleia laments that Zeus hated Odysseus more than all others. In Book XX, Odysseus asks Zeus, with raised hands, for a double sign, and Zeus thunders from the high clouds. In Book XXI, he thunders again when the bowstring sings.

In Book XXII, Eurymachus says that Zeus did not fulfill Antinous's plans, and Phemius hesitates between the altar of Zeus and the knees of Odysseus. In Book XXIII, Penelope calls Helen born of Zeus, and Odysseus, in the account of the night, tells of the bolt of Zeus that destroyed his companions' ship.

In Book XXIV, Athena asks him whether the war goes on. Zeus reminds her that the plan of vengeance was hers, and sets the terms: faithful oaths, Odysseus as king, and the gods will bring about a forgetting of the killing of sons and brothers. A bolt falls before Athena to stop Odysseus, and he stops.

Themes Embodied

Zeus embodies Revenge, through the path of hospitality: it is to him that everyone turns to ask for shelter, and it is in his name that whoever violates it is punished. He embodies Home, exile, and return, because it is he who decides Odysseus's return, and he shows what the poem calls a double determination: the gods decide, but men also answer for what they do.

The Zeus of the Odyssey is more rule than presence. The rule he states in the first book, that whoever suffers may bear the blame for their own suffering, is what the poem applies to Aegisthus, to Odysseus's companions, and to the suitors. At the same time, the god whom Odysseus invokes as avenger of guests refuses the sacrifice at the end of Book IX. The text does not explain why, and leaves the two things side by side: Zeus is the guarantor of the law, and acts according to plans that mortals do not read.

Relationships

• Odysseus: the man whose return he decides with a nod and whose suffering he measures.
• Athena: the daughter who brings Odysseus's case to the council and to whom he returns the plan of vengeance.
• Poseidon: the other god, whose anger against Odysseus he acknowledges and limits.
• Polyphemus: the Cyclops who says he does not care about Zeus.
• Eumaeus: the servant who welcomes the beggar out of fear of Zeus of hospitality.