She gets Odysseus’s bow out of storage and takes it out to the contest. Penelope tells the suitors, ”I offer you the mighty bow of Prince Odysseus; and whoever with his hands shall lightliest bend the bow and shoot through all twelve axes, him I will follow.

Penelope wakes in the night and prays to Artemis for death or for a fate like the Pandareids’ at a crucial moment in the Odyssey’s plot.

Zeus

Odysseus

A maid grinding barley hears the thunder clap and knows Zeus must be around and listening. She prays that all her hard work to feed the greedy suitors will soon be over.

Penelope stalls the suitors for three years by saying that she would marry when she is finished weaving a shroud for Odysseus’s family. She would weave during the day and undo her work at night, so she would never finish.

Odysseus’s two suitors. Why is Penelope crying in lines 1-4? Because she is sad that he isn’t home yet. She proposed that whoever can string Odysseus’s rigid bow and shoot an arrow through a dozen axes.

Odyssey Questions 2

Together, Odysseus, Telemachus, Eumaeus and Philoetius kill the suitors and the disloyal maidservants. For reasons of oral presentation (i.e., a memory aid), the suitors are usually listed in the same order throughout the Odyssey.

Odysseus’ wife Penelope has suitors because of Odysseus’ long absence. They assume that he is dead, and they hope to marry Penelope to inherit all that she has. The suitors believe Odysseus to be dead. They wish to inherit his vast fortune and kingdom.

Basically, the suitors run rampant through Odysseus’ mansion, eating all of the food, slaughtering the livestock, and harassing Penelope for her hand in marriage. Remember, poor Penelope and her son have to deal with this for years and years.

In the Odyssey, Penelope says that she will marry whoever is able to shoot an arrow through twelve ax heads using Odysseus’s bow.

She calls him a big oaf and says that he ogles women. What scheme does Penelope devise to avoid marrying the suitors. She says that she will marry when she finishes her burial shroud, but every night she saps all progress. He asks for a woman who has suffered as much as me.

For three years, Penelope has put off choosing a husband among the suitors by saying that she must first finish weaving a shroud for Laertes. Each day she weaves and each night she unravels her day’s work. Thus she delays for three years until a treacherous maid spills the beans.

She tells Odysseus, when he is disguised as a beggar, that she can no longer avoid it: Her parents are pressuring her, and Telemachus is “galled as [the suitors] squander his estate.” To determine which man she will marry, she devises a contest: Whoever can string Odysseus’s old bow and shoot an arrow through the …

Penelope shows her cleverness through three different ways: an interrogation, a challenge, and a secret between her and Odysseus. Homer displays Penelope’s cleverness through an interrogation between her and Odysseus.

Pausanias 8.12. 5 records the story that Penelope had in fact been unfaithful to Odysseus, who banished her to Mantineia upon his return. Other sources (Duris of Samos; the Vergilian commentator Servius) report that Penelope had sex with all 108 suitors in Odysseus’ absence, and gave birth to Pan as a result.

Penelope is a ‘good wife’ but her character is developed further. Penelope is able to take advantage of a situation and use the resources at her disposal in order to defend her family (demonstrated by the plots she is involved in).

Odysseus’s suffering was more because he had been traveling, facing dangers of so many kinds. He has been pushed and lost all his men he had promised to protect and guide home. Penelope may have been alone for so many years but she also had her son.

The main form of Penelope’s suffering lies in her agony over not knowing where or how her husband is during the twenty years he is gone. Additionally, obnoxious, barbaric suitors take over Penelope’s palace, and she must endure their rude comments and insinuations.

Polyphemus’ curse on Odysseus greatly adds to his suffering: he ensures the deaths of all the rest of Odysseus’ crew as well as his delayed nostos, fuelling his desperation and thus suffering across his journey. Ultimately, however, Odysseus’ hubristic nature is often the cause of his own suffering.

He has a tragic flaw, which can best be identified as hubris (an overbearing arrogance or misguided pride) as one of several distinguishing traits.

No one but Odysseus can be blamed for this – his men try to ‘restrain and pacify’ him, to no avail. Odysseus’ hamartia (his arrogance) directly causes his men suffering; he is the one responsible. Odysseus’ men, at many points throughout the story, display an attitude of recalcitrance towards him.

Odysseus is considered an epic hero for his role as King of Ithaca, his participation in the war, and his journey home.

He eventually chose to take Circe’s advice and steer closer to Scylla, and so he lost six more men there when she came out of her cave and took them. Finally, after his ship’s crew ate the sacred cattle of the sun god, Helios, the remainder of Odysseus’s men were slain by Zeus. Only he survived to go on.

What caused Elpenor’s death? He fell off of Circe’s roof.