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and he pondered within him
whether to go for him with his cudgel, and take the life from him,
or pick him up like a jug and break his head on the ground. Yet
still he stood it, and kept it all inside him.
(Od. 17.2358) |
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The interesting point here is that Odysseus weighs two aggressive alternatives, but in fact chooses a third course of action: to do nothing at all. Although he is very much provoked (cf. earlier  : 216) he follows Athena's instructions. Unspoken thoughts take the place of action. At the same time, the embedded focalization ( ) makes clear to the reader what he would very much have liked to do.12 If we recall the rough treatment of Thersites by the Iliadic Odysseus in Iliad 2, we can imagine how he would have reacted in normal circumstances. The insight we are given into Odysseus' mind makes his actual restraint all the more clear . . . and admirable. Eumaeus, who is present at the confrontation between Odysseus and Melantheus, does not restrain himself: he reacts not with the kind of deeds Odysseus had in mind, but with words (23846). |
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The confrontation with Melantheus forms the prelude to an even tenser situation, when the suitor Antinous throws a footstool at Odysseus. This is what happens: |
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but he stood up to it, steady
as a rock, nor did the missile thrown by Antinous shake him,
but he shook his head in silence, in the depths of his heart devising evils.
(Od. 17.4635) |
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Once more, Odysseus keeps his footing, both literally (he does not fall) and figuratively (he does not retaliate). But inwardly his anger against the suitors is mounting. The verb used here,  , explicitly means 'to plan inwardly, in the interior ( ) of one's mind'. Thus there is a suspenseful contrast, to be savoured only by the reader, between Odysseus' outward immobility, highlighted by the comparison with a rock,13 and the turmoil of his inward feelings. Some verses later Odysseus does react with words (46876), coolly maintaining the adopted identity of a beggar:  ('therefore, if there are any gods or any furies for beggars, |
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12 Voigt (1934) 80. |
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13 For rock or stone as a symbol of steadfastness, cf. 19.494:  . |
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