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She spoke, and much-enduring great Odysseus was pleased
because she beguiled gifts out of them, and enchanted their spirits
with sweet words, while her mind felt differently.
(Od. 18.2813) |
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We are dealing here with a highly complex passage: Penelope's unspoken thoughts (she said X, but thought Y) are presented as part of Odysseus' unspoken thoughts (he was pleased because she said X, but thought Y). Not surprisingly, the passage has produced a wealth of interpretations.31 One of the more popular is that Odysseus is pleased because he knows that Penelope is not seriously considering remarriage and only solicits gifts under false pretenses. Odysseus knows Penelope's secret thoughts, either (1) because in the original version of the poem the recognition of husband and wife took place much earlier, and the revenge scheme, the first stage of which is the announcement, was planned by them together, or (2) because we are to suppose and Odysseus would know that Odysseus' parting speech, which she quotes in 25970, was invented by her, or (3) because the narrator simply provides him with this, strictly speaking, illogical knowledge. My own interpretation of this passage is as follows. To start with, I think that Penelope is seriously proposing remarriage, as witness her words in 19.57181 and 21.6879.32 It is true that in the two other places where the expression  occurs (2.912 and 13.3801) the implication is clearly that Penelope is promising to remarry, but does in fact have other plans, i.e., is not considering remarriage. There, however, the  -clause contrasts with a 'promise of marriage'  -clause, but in passage (17) it contrasts with an 'eliciting gifts and charming through sweet words' -clause What are these sweet words? They cannot refer to Penelope's announcement to remarry, since the words she uses are far from sweet: she speaks of 'hateful marriage' ( : 272) and refers to herself as 'accursed me' ( : 273). No, the sweet words must be the last part of her speech, in which she subtly suggests that the suitors should bring her gifts (27480). Nowhere does she directly address or criticize them, but she speaks in general about suitors from the past and uses third person verb forms. Of course, her final words  cannot but refer to the (reprehensible) behaviour of her own suitors; if, however, we compare this speech with her earlier, angry one (16.41733), it may be seen as (relatively) sweet.33 Odysseus is highly appreciative of Penelope's businesslike attitude; even though she loathes her |
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31 See, amongst others, Page (1955) 1246, Müller (1966) 1212, Vester (1968) 432, Fenik (1974) 120, Levine (1983) 177, Emlyn-Jones (1984) 11, Murnaghan (1987) 1312, Hölscher (1988) 2467, and Byre (1988) 1723. |
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32 Page, Vester, and Byre (see previous note) also take her words as serious. |
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33 Hölscher (1988) has missed the point when he refers to lines 18.27480 as a ''Schelte" (245) and "das heftige Mißfallen" (250). |
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