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So he spoke, but the spirit inside his heart was hopeful
that he would be able to string the bow and shoot throught the iron.
(Od. 21.967) |
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For the reader, Antinous' words are ironical in two senses: (1) when he says that there is no man present like Odysseus, he cannot know that in fact Odysseus himself is present;37 and (2) when he says that nobody will be able to string the bow, words which his secret thoughts prove to be insincere, he is unwittingly speaking the truth. But his unspoken thoughts tell us something else about Antinous: this leader of the suitors, in both word and deed, in his heart turns out to actually equate himself with Odysseus; he fully expects38 that he will be able to do what only Odysseus can do. His role as leader and his pretensions will make him the prime target of Odysseus' revenge, as the narrator announces (to the reader) in the lines immediately following upon his secret embedded focalization (989). |
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The preceding pages have amply demonstrated the presence of the purportedly modern novelistic device of unspoken thought in the oldest narrative text of West European literature, the Homeric epics. They have also shown that these texts, apparently filled with only words and events, also allow room for thought, which may take the place of deeds or words, or be juxtaposed to them. Whereas embedded focalization the form which unspoken thought takes in Homer occurs both in the Iliad and in the Odyssey,39 the potential secrecy inherent in this narrative mode is fully exploited only in the second poem, in particular in its second half, Odysseus' homecoming. Almost all the characters involved have their reasons for harbouring secret thoughts, and the phenomenon of unspoken thought acquires a thematic relevance on the level of the characterization of individual personae, as well as on that of the poem as a whole. |
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The device unmasks the suitors as depraved and vain, thus contributing to their portrayal as 'bad guys', who deserve to be butchered by Odysseus. |
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In the case of Telemachus, the device makes clear two things. Throughout the Odyssey we see Telemachus aspiring to emulate his father: like him he makes a modest 'odyssey' of his own, shows himself to be wily,40 and fights like an accomplished Iliadic warrior. We are now able to add that as regards self-restraint, another of Odysseus' characteristic traits, Telemachus |
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37 See Dekker (1965) 262, who notes this irony, not the second one. |
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38 The verb  usually has an optimistic tone in Homer, see J.N. O'Sullivan in the Lexikon des frühgriechischen Epos, s.v. |
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39 In both epics it occupies about 5% of the total text. |
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40 See for this aspect of his character, Austin (1969). |
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