The Odyssey
Then Minerva said to Jove, “Father, son of Saturn, king of kings,
answer me this question—What do you propose to do? Will you set them
fighting still further, or will you make peace between them?”
And Jove answered, “My child, why should you ask me? Was it not by your
own arrangement that Ulysses came home and took his revenge upon the
suitors? Do whatever you like, but I will tell you what I think will be
most reasonable arrangement. Now that Ulysses is revenged, let them
swear to a solemn covenant, in virtue of which he shall continue to
rule, while we cause the others to forgive and forget the massacre of
their sons and brothers. Let them then all become friends as
heretofore, and let peace and plenty reign.”
This was what Minerva was already eager to bring about, so down she
darted from off the topmost summits of Olympus.
Now when Laertes and the others had done dinner, Ulysses began by
saying, “Some of you go out and see if they are not getting close up to
us.” So one of Dolius’s sons went as he was bid. Standing on the
threshold he could see them all quite near, and said to Ulysses, “Here
they are, let us put on our armour at once.”
They put on their armour as fast as they could—that is to say Ulysses,
his three men, and the six sons of Dolius. Laertes also and Dolius did
the same—warriors by necessity in spite of their grey hair. When they
had all put on their armour, they opened the gate and sallied forth,
Ulysses leading the way.
Then Jove’s daughter Minerva came up to them, having assumed the form
and voice of Mentor. Ulysses was glad when he saw her, and said to his
son Telemachus, “Telemachus, now that you are about to fight in an
engagement, which will show every man’s mettle, be sure not to disgrace
your ancestors, who were eminent for their strength and courage all the
world over.”
“You say truly, my dear father,” answered Telemachus, “and you shall
see, if you will, that I am in no mind to disgrace your family.”
Laertes was delighted when he heard this. “Good heavens,” he exclaimed,
“what a day I am enjoying: I do indeed rejoice at it. My son and
grandson are vying with one another in the matter of valour.”
On this Minerva came close up to him and said, “Son of Arceisius—-best
friend I have in the world—pray to the blue-eyed damsel, and to Jove
her father; then poise your spear and hurl it.”
As she spoke she infused fresh vigour into him, and when he had prayed
to her he poised his spear and hurled it. He hit Eupeithes’ helmet, and
the spear went right through it, for the helmet stayed it not, and his
armour rang rattling round him as he fell heavily to the ground.
Meantime Ulysses and his son fell upon the front line of the foe and
smote them with their swords and spears; indeed, they would have killed
every one of them, and prevented them from ever getting home again,
only Minerva raised her voice aloud, and made every one pause. “Men of
Ithaca,” she cried, “cease this dreadful war, and settle the matter at
once without further bloodshed.”
On this pale fear seized every one; they were so frightened that their
arms dropped from their hands and fell upon the ground at the sound of
the goddess’ voice, and they fled back to the city for their lives. But
Ulysses gave a great cry, and gathering himself together swooped down
like a soaring eagle. Then the son of Saturn sent a thunderbolt of fire
that fell just in front of Minerva, so she said to Ulysses, “Ulysses,
noble son of Laertes, stop this warful strife, or Jove will be angry
with you.”
Thus spoke Minerva, and Ulysses obeyed her gladly. Then Minerva assumed
the form and voice of Mentor, and presently made a covenant of peace
between the two contending parties.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] [ Black races are evidently known to the writer as stretching all
across Africa, one half looking West on to the Atlantic, and the other
East on to the Indian Ocean.]
[2] [ The original use of the footstool was probably less to rest the
feet than to keep them (especially when bare) from a floor which was
often wet and dirty.]
[3] [ The θρόνος or seat, is occasionally called “high,” as being
higher than the θρῆνυς or low footstool. It was probably no higher than
an ordinary chair is now, and seems to have had no back.]
[4] [ Temesa was on the West Coast of the toe of Italy, in what is now
the gulf of Sta Eufemia. It was famous in remote times for its copper
mines, which, however, were worked out when Strabo wrote.]
[5] [ i.e. “with a current in it”—see illustrations and map near the
end of bks. v. and vi. respectively.]
[6] [ Reading Νηρίτῳ for Νηίῳ, cf. “Od.” iii. 81 where the same mistake
is made, and xiii. 351 where the mountain is called Neritum, the same
place being intended both here and in book xiii.]
[7] [ It is never plausibly explained why Penelope cannot do this, and
from bk. ii. it is clear that she kept on deliberately encouraging the
suitors, though we are asked to believe that she was only fooling
them.]
[8] [ See note on “Od.” i. 365.]
[9] [ Middle Argos means the Peleponnese which, however, is never so
called in the “Iliad”. I presume “middle” means “middle between the two
Greek-speaking countries of Asia Minor and Sicily, with South Italy”;
for that parts of Sicily and also large parts, though not the whole of
South Italy, were inhabited by Greek-speaking races centuries before
the Dorian colonisations can hardly be doubted. The Sicians, and also
the Sicels, both of them probably spoke Greek.]
[10] [ cf. “Il.” vi. 490-495. In the “Iliad” it is “war,” not “speech,”
that is a man’s matter. It argues a certain hardness, or at any rate
dislike of the “Iliad” on the part of the writer of the “Odyssey,” that
she should have adopted Hector’s farewell to Andromache here, as
elsewhere in the poem, for a scene of such inferior pathos.]
[11] [ μέγαρα σκιοέντα The whole open court with the covered cloister
running round it was called μέγαρον, or μέγαρα, but the covered part
was distinguished by being called “shady” or “shadow-giving”. It was in
this part that the tables for the suitors were laid. The Fountain Court
at Hampton Court may serve as an illustration (save as regards the use
of arches instead of wooden supports and rafters) and the arrangement
is still common in Sicily. The usual translation “shadowy” or “dusky”
halls, gives a false idea of the scene.]
[12] [ The reader will note the extreme care which the writer takes to
make it clear that none of the suitors were allowed to sleep in
Ulysses’ house.]
[13] [ See Appendix; g, in plan of Ulysses’ house.]
[14] [ I imagine this passage to be a rejoinder to “Il.” xxiii. 702-705
in which a tripod is valued at twelve oxen, and a good useful maid of
all work at only four. The scrupulous regard of Laertes for his wife’s
feelings is of a piece with the extreme jealousy for the honour of
woman, which is manifest throughout the “Odyssey”.]
[15] [ χιτῶνα “The χιτών, or _tunica_, was a shirt or shift, and served
as the chief under garment of the Greeks and Romans, whether men or
women.” Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, under
“Tunica”.]
[16] [ Doors fastened to all intents and purposes as here described may
be seen in the older houses at Trapani. There is a slot on the outer
side of the door by means of which a person who has left the room can
shoot the bolt. My bedroom at the Albergo Centrale was fastened in this
way.]
[17] [ πύματον δ’ ὡπλίσσατο δόρπον. So we vulgarly say “had cooked his
goose,” or “had settled his hash.” Ægyptius cannot of course know of
the fate Antiphus had met with, for there had as yet been no news of or
from Ulysses.]
[18] [ “Il.” xxii. 416. σχέσθε φίλοι, καὶ μ’ οἷον ἐάσατε...... The
authoress has bungled by borrowing these words verbatim from the
“Iliad”, without prefixing the necessary “do not,” which I have
supplied.]
[19] [ i.e. you have money, and could pay when I got judgment, whereas
the suitors are men of straw.]
[20] [ cf. “Il.” ii. 76. ἦ τοι ὄ γ’ ὦς εὶπὼν κατ’ ἄρ’ ἔζετο τοῖσι δ’
ἀνέστη
Νέστωρ, ὄς ῥα.......................................
ὄ σφιν ἐὺ φρονέων ἀγορήσατο καὶ μετέειπεν.
The Odyssean passage runs—
“ἦ τοι ὄ γ’ ὦς εὶπὼν κατ’ ἄρ’ ἔζετο τοῖσι δ’ ἀνέστη
Μεντορ ὄς ῥ’.......................................
ὄ σφιν ἐὺ φρονέων ἀγορήσατο καὶ μετέειπεν.
Is it possible not to suspect that the name Mentor was coined upon that
of Nestor?]
[21] [ i.e. in the outer court, and in the uncovered part of the inner
house.]
[22] [ This would be fair from Sicily, which was doing duty for Ithaca
in the mind of the writer, but a North wind would have been preferable
for a voyage from the real Ithaca to Pylos.]
[23] [ κελάδοντ’ ἐπὶ οὶνοπα πόντον The wind does not whistle over
waves. It only whistles through rigging or some other obstacle that
cuts it.]
[24] [ cf. “Il.” v.20. Ἰδαῖος δ’ ἀπόρουσε λιπὼν περικαλλέα δίφρον, the
Odyssean line is ἠέλιος δ’ ἀνόρουσε λιπὼν περικαλλέα λίμνην. There can
be no doubt that the Odyssean line was suggested by the Iliadic, but
nothing can explain why Idæus jumping from his chariot should suggest
to the writer of the “Odyssey” the sun jumping from the sea. The
probability is that she never gave the matter a thought, but took the
line in question as an effect of saturation with the “Iliad,” and of
unconscious cerebration. The “Odyssey” contains many such examples.]
[25] [ The heart, liver, lights, kidneys, etc. were taken out from the
inside and eaten first as being more readily cooked; the {Greek}, or
bone meat, was cooking while the {Greek} or inward parts were being
eaten. I imagine that the thigh bones made a kind of gridiron, while at
the same time the marrow inside them got cooked.]
[26] [ i.e. skewers, either single, double, or even five pronged. The
meat would be pierced with the skewer, and laid over the ashes to
grill—the two ends of the skewer being supported in whatever way
convenient. Meat so cooking may be seen in any eating house in Smyrna,
or any Eastern town. When I rode across the Troad from the Dardanelles
to Hissarlik and Mount Ida, I noticed that my dragoman and his men did
all our outdoor cooking exactly in the Odyssean and Iliadic fashion.]
[27] [ cf. “Il.” xvii. 567. {Greek} The Odyssean lines are—{Greek}]
[28] [ Reading {Greek} for {Greek}, cf. “Od.” i. 186.]
29[] [ The geography of the Ægean as above described is correct, but is
probably taken from the lost poem, the Nosti, the existence of which is
referred to “Od.” i. 326, 327 and 350, &c. A glance at the map will
show that heaven advised its supplicants quite correctly.]
[30] [ The writer—ever jealous for the honour of women—extenuates
Clytemnestra’s guilt as far as possible, and explains it as due to her
having been left unprotected, and fallen into the hands of a wicked
man.]
[31] [ The Greek is {Greek} cf. “Iliad” ii. 408 {Greek} Surely the
{Greek} of the Odyssean passage was due to the {Greek} of the “Iliad.”
No other reason suggests itself for the making Menelaus return on the
very day of the feast given by Orestes. The fact that in the “Iliad”
Menelaus came to a banquet without waiting for an invitation,
determines the writer of the “Odyssey” to make him come to a banquet,
also uninvited, but as circumstances did not permit of his having been
invited, his coming uninvited is shown to have been due to chance. I do
not think the authoress thought all this out, but attribute the
strangeness of the coincidence to unconscious cerebration and
saturation.]
[32] [ cf. “Il.” I. 458, II. 421. The writer here interrupts an Iliadic
passage (to which she returns immediately) for the double purpose of
dwelling upon the slaughter of the heifer, and of letting Nestor’s wife
and daughter enjoy it also. A male writer, if he was borrowing from the