Loyalty and Betrayal

The Theme in the Work

The poem opens with a betrayal that serves as a mirror. Zeus recalls Aegisthus, who killed Agamemnon and took his wife even after being warned by Hermes (Book I). Nestor tells how Aegisthus won Clytemnestra (Book III), and Menelaus repeats the ambush that Proteus described to him, the paid lookout and the twenty men hidden at the feast (Book IV). In Book XI, Agamemnon himself tells, in Hades, that he was killed at the table, like an ox at the manger, and advises Odysseus not to be gentle with his wife, making an exception for Penelope.

Loyalty comes from below. Mentor rebukes the people of Ithaca, who fall silent before a few suitors, forgetful of the king who governed like a father (Book II). Eumaeus built the pigsty on his own, welcomes the beggar out of fear of Zeus without believing what he says, and prays for the master's return (Book XIV). In Book XX, the cowherd Philoetius says he still awaits the master's return, and the weakest of the maids at the mill, the only one still working, asks that it be the suitors' last banquet. In Book XXI, Eumaeus and Philoetius pray to the gods for Odysseus's return, and he reveals himself to them.

Penelope is the center of doubt. Antinous accuses her of giving hope to everyone with messages while thinking of something else (Book II), Athena repeats the phrase as information (Book XIII), and Agamemnon, at the end, praises her good judgment and her fidelity to her lawful husband, against the bad reputation of Clytemnestra (Book XXIV).

The suitors betray hospitality and the house: they set an ambush of twenty men against Telemachus (Book IV), and the goatherd Melanthius brings weapons to them during the slaughter (Book XXII). Odysseus's companions, in turn, untie the bag of the winds while their chief sleeps (Book X) and kill the cattle of the Sun after swearing not to touch them (Book XII). Eurylochus, who twice reads the danger correctly, accuses Odysseus of the death of the companions of the Cyclops, and the poem does not refute him (Book X).

Loyalty, in the poem, is proved in the absence of the master: Eumaeus cares for the master's goods without knowing whether he is alive, Philoetius and the maid at the mill wait, and the dog Argos waits twenty years (Book XVII). Betrayal, by contrast, always appears as opportunity: that of Aegisthus with the husband away, that of the suitors with the king given up for dead. The same Odysseus who demands loyalty is the one who tests the loyal ones, with the cloak in Book XIV and with the question to the servants in Book XXI.

Where It Appears

• Book I: Zeus recalls Aegisthus, who killed Agamemnon and took his wife even after being warned by Hermes, and the case works as a mirror of what the suitors do in Ithaca.
• Book II: Mentor rebukes the people of Ithaca, who stay silent before a few suitors, forgetful of the king who governed like a father.
• Book IV: Antinous and the suitors set an ambush of twenty men in the strait between Ithaca and Samos to kill Telemachus on his return, and the herald Medon tells everything to Penelope.
• Book X: The companions untie the bag of Aeolus while Odysseus sleeps, because they think he keeps gold and silver, and the storm carries them back.
• Book XI: Agamemnon tells in Hades that Aegisthus and his wife killed him at a feast, and advises Odysseus never to be gentle with his wife, with an exception for Penelope.
• Book XIV: Eumaeus welcomes the beggar out of fear of Zeus and out of compassion, without demanding that he be believed, and shares with him what he has without knowing who he is.
• Book XX: The cowherd Philoetius says he still awaits the master's return, and Odysseus swears by Zeus and by the table of hospitality that the master will return.
• Book XXI: Odysseus asks Eumaeus and Philoetius what they would do if he returned and, reading the truth in their spirit, shows them the scar.
• Book XXII: The goatherd Melanthius climbs to Odysseus's room, brings shields, spears and helmets to the suitors, and afterward is bound and mutilated.
• Book XXIV: Agamemnon praises Penelope for her fidelity to her lawful husband, while Clytemnestra, who plotted the crime against her husband, will have a hateful song sung about her among women.

Passages

Mentor points out where the city's failure lies.

Agamemnon takes from his own death an advice for Odysseus.

Soon after, the same Agamemnon makes an exception.

Eumaeus says why he welcomes the guest, and it is not because he believes him.

Odysseus yields to his companions, on one condition.

Odysseus swears to Philoetius that the master will return.

The weakest of the maids gives voice to the omen.

Agamemnon measures Penelope's fame by what he himself suffered.