#odysseyblogging

[finelythreadedsky]

i've talked before about athena's habit in the odyssey of finishing a conversation with a mortal and then turning into a bird and flying away, but i somehow didn't pick up that the first time she does it, in book 1, she's indoors

[goosemixtapes]

in middle school i had the weirdest most intense grudge against odysseus (like. famous odysseus of odyssey fame) because for two or three years in a row the school forced us to read a modernized section of JUST the cyclops part in the odyssey so all i ever saw was him committing acts of hubris and letting his men die and i was genuinely angry that this fictional man thought he was such hot shit when any goddamn fucking fool could have told you not to mess with the cyclopes. and when i say “in middle school” i mean up until like a couple months ago when i read the iliad and now he’s my secondary emotional support classical man

[gaydelgard]

the story of this dlc is like. even worse than the main game lmao like the cutscenes are all extremely awkward

but im like mad cause u get there and hermes (in the worlds doofiest voice) tells you you can “prove yourself” to persephone by dealing with a troublemaker or you could go talk to hekete or persephone herself and its like yeah cool. and then it only gives you ONE quest to do and its to go find the troublemaker. and then help him undermine persephone. like ??? why should i do that ???? i dont really want to do that. why should i come in here and fuck her shit up in her own home i havent even talked to her. you implied id have options with the dialogue but i guess that was all bullshit? im angry

[finelythreadedsky]

so frustrating to read about the bow contest in the odyssey. like you all do not get it! it's an impossible task!!!! whether or not penelope recognizes odysseus at this point, she knows full well that there's not a chance any of the suitors are going to be able to string the bow! penelope saying she'll marry whoever can shoot through the axes is the same sort of thing as saying she'll marry when she finishes the shroud! except with the bow she can place the blame on them by saying they failed to complete the task required to earn her hand, potentially buying her indefinite time.

[finelythreadedsky]

rereading emily wilson's rendering of the hanging of the slave women in odyssey 22 and i was really struck by how she consistently calls them "girls," even when the greek explicitly refers to them as γυναῖκες, and i was wondering why she might have made this choice to make them appear younger in english than they do in greek, but i realized that greek doesn't have anything else to call them. there simply isn't a word for a "girl" who isn't a virgin and isn't being talked about as someone's daughter. by virtue of being enslaved and raped, they are referred to as adult women, no matter how young they are.

[finelythreadedsky]

gut response: does the odyssey eat the iliad?

yes

no

Voting ended onMar 26, 2024

no secret third thing.

[finelythreadedsky]

hold this space for my alternative odyssey that includes the beruriah incident

[finelythreadedsky]

achilles choosing between living on through nostos and living on through kleos vs odysseus choosing between literally living forever and living on through both kleos and nostos. thinking this through.