It's incredibly obvious that the suiters are painted to look like the bad guys as much as possible by Homer. From the very beginning they are depicted as incredibly abusive of Telemachus' hospitality, lounging around the palace doing nothing but eat and complain and plot murder. Later on, their cruelty extends to Odysseus himself, resorting to throwing things at him (disguised as the beggar) and they are painted as pure evil, no doubt to build suspense and anticipation for their impending deaths.
The hatred placed on them is so heavy-handed though, Homer may as well just say "Hey, look! These are the bad guys! Right here!" From a story-telling perspective, all the hatred for them is pretty great. It'll make the ending just that much more satisfying. Once the suiters are more closely examined, however, I feel like their fates may seem just a tad bit unfair. First and foremost, from a legal perspective, they really have every right to be there and capital punishment is, for the most part, unjustified. Penelope's husband has been missing for a whopping 20 years now, and there isn't a single person we've met so far who truly believes that he'll be returning. Alone, abuse of hospitality really isn't punishable by death. The suiters are there to form a political bond, and the moment that Penelope does that, presumably they will leave Telemachus and her alone.
They've been in an awkward limbo for quite some time now, and lounging around probably does seem like a viable option to them now. They don't just want to leave and accept Ithaca as being king-less, and at the same time, Penelope refuses to choose anybody. For at least the first part of the story, Telemachus has just been a doormat, so they really don't feel to threatened by him. The suiters feel that the kingdom is dysfunctional in its current state without a definite ruler and are just sorta rolling with that for the time being. Their agitation is somewhat justified in this regard.
In addition to all of this, the suiters aren't even completely under their own free will. Not once, but multiple times has Athena used her magical god-powers to intimidate them with Telemachus' larger-than-life form and in various instances she's even inspired them to say cruel things, throw things, and just generally be assholes in order to make Odysseus even more upset and prepared to slaughter them all.
Almost all of this was touched on in class today in one way or another, and is just something to think about while proceeding into books 21 and 22 (Oh man am I excited). I'm interested in other peoples' thoughts on whether or not the behavior of the suiters really justifies the inevitable deaths of every one of them. It's an interesting conundrum of morality (and possibly anger management).
I have to sat that the suitors do get what comes to them. It may not seem like it should be considered capital punishment to abuse a house's hospitality to us, but in the situation it is in, I think that it is justified. Firstly we know that hospitality is a huge deal in this culture. There is reference to Heracles killing one of his own guests and therefore losing all favor with the gods. I don't think that it is too much of a stretch to say that abusing hospitality the way that the suitors have done is an atrocious crime to the Greeks. Think of it this way: instead of just overstaying their welcome, they are stealing from Odysseus. That and they are harassing Penelope. As well as making fun of and insulting Telemachus. There's a very good reason that Homer paints them in a bad light - its because they are bad guys. These ideas really show that one of the main themes in this book is to treat people the way you want to be treated. They treated everyone else like shit and so they got a shit ending.
ReplyDeleteI think that your point about Athena using her god-powers to manipulate them to say things they may not have otherwise said is an important fact to consider when judging the suitors, because without their cruel bullying, they seem much more humane. I am not sure if the suitors necessarily deserve to live, but the fact that they are so manipulated makes me have more sympathy for them.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing to consider is that fact that they tried to kill Telemachus, which paints them as even worse than just hurting people and abusing hospitality. I feel sympathetic towards the suitors that didn't really hurt anyone. If anything they don't need to be killed and Odysseus as king should simply be able to remove their power and privilege which seems much more appropriate to the situation than just killing them.
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