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is different too: knowing that the moment of revenge is near, he no longer 'plans evil for the suitors', but smiles 'very18 sardonically' at their powerless insolence.19 |
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Thus the reader sees how a menacing and superior tone slowly creeps into Odysseus' unspoken thoughts, while until the very end the suitors remain unaware of the danger threatening them. 'For', as the narrator remarks, 'who would think that one man, alone in a company of many men at their feasting, though he were a strong one, would ever inflict death upon him and dark doom?' (22.124). Some lines later the moment of revelation comes. Finally Odysseus can say and do what he had wanted to say and do all the time: he can call the suitors dogs, denounce their behaviour in the palace, openly announce their death (3541) . . . and kill them. |
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But the suitors are not the only ones from whom Odysseus hides his emotions and plans. There is Penelope too, who must remain unaware of his identity even longer. The test comes in book 19, in the course of the intimate conversation between the queen and the "beggar". The latter has just told a lying tale, in which Odysseus played an important role (165202). Penelope reacts to the story with a flood of tears and starts lamenting 'her husband sitting next to her' (209), as the narrator says, explicitly noting the irony of the situation.20 This emotional reaction, which reveals Penelope's loyalty and love for him, does not leave Odysseus unaffected: |
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But Odysseus
in his heart had pity for his wife as she mourned him,
but his eyes stayed, as if they were made of horn or iron,
steady under his lids. Thus he craftily hid his tears.
(Od. 19.20912) |
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Odysseus inwardly pities Penelope note the affective reference to her as  , which parallels  in 209 but outwardly he |
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18 The intensifier  is otherwise found only in direct speech (Od. 11.135 and 23.282). I differ with Stanford (1958) ad loc., who does not consider the smile to be a secret (he takes  as 'in his anger' instead of 'in his heart') and takes  as implying a gesture. Cf. also the Lexikon des frühgriechischen Epos s.v.  , B 13aß ("still für sich"). |
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19 For Odysseus' smiles in the later books of the Odyssey, see Levine (1984). In my view, Odysseus' sardonic smile is scornful (Ameis-Hentze and Levine) rather than bitter (Stanford 1958) ad loc. |
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20 Dekker (1965) 232, Emlyn-Jones (1984) 5. |
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