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Odysseus until 23.205ff.29 This situation, in which Odysseus is present in the palace without Penelope knowing it, yields numerous ironies, dramatic scenes, and moments of suspense, as well as two fascinating passages of unspoken thought. |
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The first occurs in that famous and much disputed scene of 'Penelope before the suitors' (18.158303). It all begins with a passage of unspoken thought . . . by Athena: |
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But now the goddess, gray-eyed Athene, put it in the mind
of the daughter of Icarius, circumspect Penelope,
to show herself to the suitors, so that she might all the more
open their hearts, and so that she might become more precious
to her husband and son, more than she had been before this.
(Od. 18.15862) |
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It is very important to distinguish here between the idea which Athena puts into Penelope's mind and the goddess's intentions in doing so, which are disclosed only to the reader, and not to Penelope.30 Thus Penelope mentions to her servant Eurynome the idea of appearing before the suitors (165) but, rationalizing this strange and sudden impulse, provides her own motive: she wants to talk to Telemachus (1668). This she does in 21525, but she does more. She announces to the suitors that the moment carefully defined by Odysseus when leaving for Troy has come to remarry (25773). She adds that it grieves her that the suitors fail to woo her in the usual fashion, viz. by offering many presents (27480). The reader, usually so well informed, is unprepared for Penelope's sudden announcement to remarry, and eagerly awaits a comment by the narrator explaining how her words are to be taken. What is she up to? Instead of the narrator, however, it is Odysseus who evaluates Penelope's speech for us: |
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29 The moment of recognition is very much disputed: see Harsh (1950), Amory (1963) 10021, Vester (1968), Emlyn-Jones (1984), and Murnaghan (1987) 11847. Analysts like R. Merkelbach and D. Page have, of course, their own radical solutions to this question. |
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30 This distinction is made by Beßlich (1966) 139, Müller (1966) 1189, Vester (1968) 430, Emlyn-Jones (1984) 10, and Hölscher (1988) 248; but not by Whitman (1958) 303, Merkelbach (1969) 12, and Austin (1975) 208. |
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