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Antinous may meet his death before he is married': 4756). Thus the embedded focalization  replaces action and is itself replaced by carefully chosen words. |
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The next point at which Odysseus has to curb himself occurs at the beginning of book 18. Spurred on by the suitors, the beggar Irus and the "beggar" Odysseus engage in a wrestling contest. As the fight begins, Odysseus deliberates on the course of action to follow: |
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whether to hit him so that the life would go out of him, as he
went down, or only to stretch him out by hitting him lightly
And in the division of his heart this seemed best to him,
to hit him lightly, so the Achaeans would not be suspicious.
(Od. 18.90-4) |
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The first alternative (to kill Irus outright), which recalls Odysseus' suppressed impulse in passage (5), is what he would normally have done. The second alternative (to lay Irus down gently) is dictated by reason. It is this alternative which he chooses. In this passage we find explicitly expressed what in the previous passages had remained implicit, viz. the motive for Odysseus' restraint: to avoid attracting the attention of the suitors (and thus giving away his true identity). |
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By far the most elaborate restraint scene is found at the beginning of book 20. It is triggered by the laughter of female servants on their way to their lovers, the suitors. This is almost more than Odysseus can bear, as he lies awake, troubled by worries about the suitors: |
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and much he pondered in the division of mind and spirit,
whether to spring on them and kill each one, or rather
to let them lie this one more time with the insolent suitors,
for the last and latest time; but his heart was barking within him.
And as a bitch, facing an unknown man, stands over
her callow puppies, and barks and longs to fight, so Odysseus'
heart was barking inside him as he looked on these wicked actions.
(Od. 20.10-6) |
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