Revenge

The Theme in the Work

Vengeance begins outside Ithaca. Poseidon pursues Odysseus because he blinded Polyphemus, his son, and the punishment is wandering, not death (Book I). Polyphemus prays that the hero arrive late and in misery, without companions, in a foreign ship, and find disasters at home (Book IX). The curse does not prevent the return, which fate guarantees: it only makes it long and costly, and Tiresias repeats it (Book XI).

The model of the avenging son is Orestes. Athena gives him to Telemachus in Book I, Nestor repeats the example in Book III, and Proteus, through the mouth of Menelaus, says that Orestes may already have killed Aegisthus (Book IV). Telemachus replies that he would like to have equal strength to punish the suitors, but that the gods have not granted him that fortune.

In Ithaca, vengeance is a plan made in silence. Athena promises Odysseus that the floor will be stained with the blood of the suitors (Book XIII); he swears to Eumaeus, without revealing himself, that the master will return and avenge himself on whoever dishonors his wife and son (Book XIV); father and son arrange the removal of the weapons from the hall and the silence (Book XVI). Odysseus endures the kick of Melanthius and the footstool of Antinous (Book XVII), fights Irus measuring his blow (Book XVIII), and orders his heart to keep still, recalling the Cyclops (Book XX).

The killing is narrated with the reason for each decision. The contest of the bow is called the beginning of the slaughter (Book XXI). Odysseus refuses the compensation offered by Eurymachus, because what he demands is excess; kills Leodes for the seer's craft of the suitors; spares Phemius and Medon; and prevents Eurycleia from shouting for joy, saying it is not lawful to glory over dead men (Book XXII). Telemachus decides that the twelve shameless maids will not have a clean death, and Melanthius is mutilated (Book XXII).

Vengeance begets another. Eupeithes, father of Antinous, wants to avenge his son (Book XXIV); Halitherses says the fault lay with the Ithacans, who did not restrain their sons, and the spiral only stops when Athena shouts and Zeus hurls the thunderbolt. The peace that Zeus proposes is the forgetting of the death of the sons and brothers.

The poem justifies Odysseus's vengeance instead of merely telling it: the suitors were the first to plot unworthy acts (Book XX), and he says that what he demands is excess, not goods (Book XXII). But the same book shows what justice leaves out, the maids hanged like thrushes in a net, and the next book shows that the justice on one side is an affront to the other, because Eupeithes uses the word that Odysseus used. The final peace is imposed from above, and the text does not say whether the families are convinced or merely disarmed.

Where It Appears

• Book I: Athena reminds Telemachus that Orestes gained fame by avenging his father, and advises him to think how to kill the suitors, by cunning or openly.
• Book III: Nestor tells of Orestes killing Aegisthus, and Telemachus wishes he had equal strength to punish the suitors, but says the gods did not grant him that fortune.
• Book IX: Polyphemus, blinded by Odysseus, prays to Poseidon, his father, that the hero arrive late and in misery, without companions, in a foreign ship, and find disasters at home.
• Book XIII: Athena promises to stand beside Odysseus and that the floor will be stained with the blood and brains of the suitors, and plans the slaughter with him, the two seated by the olive tree.
• Book XIV: Odysseus, without revealing himself, swears to Eumaeus that the master will return this very year and will avenge himself on whoever dishonors his wife and son.
• Book XVI: Father and son secretly agree on the death of the suitors: Telemachus will carry the weapons from the hall upstairs, and Odysseus asks that he endure the offenses to the beggar.
• Book XX: Odysseus orders his heart to keep still, recalling the Cyclops, and asks Zeus for a sign, which comes in the thunder and in the words of the maid at the mill.
• Book XXI: Proposed by Penelope under the inspiration of Athena, the contest of the bow is called the beginning of the slaughter, and Odysseus shoots through the twelve axes with the arrow.
• Book XXII: Odysseus shoots Antinous, refuses the compensation Eurymachus offers because he demands the excess, and spares the bard Phemius and the herald Medon.
• Book XXIV: Eupeithes gathers the Ithacans to avenge his son, and the spiral of deaths stops only when Athena shouts and Zeus hurls a thunderbolt before her.

Passages

Nestor gives Telemachus the example of the son who avenges his father.

Polyphemus asks that the return be costly.

Odysseus swears to Eumaeus the return and the vengeance, without saying who he is.

Lying in the vestibule, Odysseus speaks to his own heart.

Eurymachus offers to pay, and Odysseus refuses.

Eurycleia is about to shout for joy, and Odysseus holds her back.

On Olympus, Zeus dictates the terms of peace.