23.160 Athena or Hephaestus: Gods associated with skill in handicrafts and technology.
23.221 That foreigner: The foreigner is Paris, who came from Troy in the Near East, to Sparta in Greece. The connection between Helen’s situation and that of Penelope herself is not spelled out, and some readers, in antiquity as well as more recently, have argued that the passage is an interpolation. But there are no linguistic grounds for excluding the lines, and they can make perfectly good sense if the reader is prepared to do some interpretative work. Penelope is using Helen as an example of two distinct facts about her situation: first, that trusting strangers can be disastrous (so Penelope is not wrong to mistrust this particular stranger), and second, that people in general, and perhaps women in particular, may not be fully in control of their actions, and may not be able to see the consequences of choices that they are forced to make (so, she may hint, Penelope too might not have been to blame if she had ended up marrying a suitor).
23.230 Actoris: Actoris is mentioned only here, and it is possible that she has died, to be replaced by Eurynome—which would explain why Penelope is sure that Actoris has not told the stranger the secret.
23.318–19 wrecked / his fleet and killed his men: There is a line here in some of the texts, missing from most, which reads, “All of them. And Odysseus alone escaped in his black ship.” This is likely to be a later addition, since the reference to the speaker himself by name seems implausibly clumsy.
BOOK 24 SUMMARY
Hermes leads the spirits of the dead suitors down to Hades. Achilles and Agamemnon are conversing; Agamemnon tells Achilles about Achilles’ funeral. Agamemnon greets the dead suitors; Amphimedon, a suitor, tells how they died. Agamemnon expresses jealousy of Odysseus for having a loyal wife, unlike his own, who killed him. Odysseus goes to the countryside and meets his old father, Laertes, in his orchard. He pretends to think Laertes is a slave and makes up a fake story about his own identity, claiming to be a guest-friend of Odysseus. Laertes is overwhelmed by grief. Odysseus at last reveals his identity, proving it with a childhood memory of being taught about all the trees in the orchard. When they return to the hut, Odysseus reveals himself to the slaves. Meanwhile, news of the suitors’ murder has got out. The people gather in outrage outside the palace, and Eupeithes, the bereaved father of Antinous, speaks out against Odysseus. Old Halitherses tries to restrain the crowd, reminding them that the suitors behaved badly and fighting is risky. But over half still want to fight. Athena and Zeus agree that Odysseus should be appointed as king in Ithaca and there should be peace. Odysseus, his son, his father, and his slaves all arm; Athena, disguised as Mentor, joins them. They begin killing. Eupeithes dies first, and all the rebel Ithacans would have been slaughtered, but Athena intervenes and stops the bloodshed, even though Odysseus himself is eager to keep killing.
24.42 your days of driving chariots forgotten: Achilles is usually known as “swift-footed,” a quick sprinter on foot rather than on a horse or chariot. The most famous episode in which he uses a chariot is near the end of The Iliad, when he drags the body of his slaughtered enemy Hector round the walls of Troy—a gesture of brutality that is forgotten in Achilles’ own splendid death scene.
24.97 wound up the war?: The metaphor, present in the original, is of winding a skein of yarn.
24.113–14 fighting for a city / and women?: The idea is that a group like the suitors, all strong young men, are the type to be chosen for a naval expedition, hunting party, or similar expedition. Agamemnon is trying to think of situations in which a group of young men might all be killed together.
24.120 we had to work so hard to sway that man: According to legend, Odysseus tried to get out of going to the Trojan War by feigning madness. The usual story is that he was demonstrating his insanity by plowing his field using a donkey and an ox yoked together (animals with different strides who would not plow well together). Palamedes, a Greek who had come on the embassy with Agamemnon and Menelaus, put the newborn Telemachus in front of the plow, and Odysseus veered away from his son—thus demonstrating his sanity.
24.147–48 she showed it to us, / bright as the sun or moon: This passage seems to reflect a different version of the story, in which Odysseus arrives on Ithaca at the exact moment that Penelope is forced to finish the weaving, and to alternative versions in which Odysseus and Penelope colluded together to kill the suitors.
24.208–9 he fought / hard for it, and his house was there: It is unclear whether Laertes won his land by wresting it from its natural, untilled state to cultivation, or by taking it from the original inhabitants—either is possible.
24.236–37 he wondered / whether to kiss his father, twine around him: The Greek verb translated here as “twine around” means literally, “to grow around,” as if the embracer is a vine growing around the tree of the embraced.
24.274 I gave him seven heaps of golden treasure: Literally, seven “talents.” It is unclear exactly what measurement the Homeric “talent” is, and perhaps it is not very exact. The term is used only of gold in Homer. The later Attic talent, used for measurement of silver, was about fifty-seven pounds.
24.304–7 I am from / Alybas. . . . My name is Eperitus . . . Apheidas, son of Polypemon: Alybas is probably a made-up place, perhaps coined by analogy with alaomai, “to wander”; ancient scholars thought it was in southern Italy. The made-up name Eperitus suggests “picked” or “chosen.” The fictional father’s name, Apheidas, suggests “Generous,” and the grandfather, Polypemon, “Rich” or “Much Suffering.”
24.321 pierced through his nostrils: The oddly specific physiological detail has been taken as metaphorical by some commentators, but it seems best to take it as entirely literaclass="underline" the sudden welling up of tears puts pressure on the sinuses.
24.357 Cephallenia: See the note to 20.213.
24.385–86 The old slave Dolius / approached them with his sons: Dolius is also the father of Melantho and Melanthius, who were slaughtered by Odysseus, unbeknownst to him. The poem never shows us his reaction when he finds out what his master has done to his other children.
24.389 also the old man, made weak by age: Presumably the old man is Dolius, even though the same slave also cares for old Laertes.
GLOSSARY
PRONUNCIATION KEY
a as in cat
ah as in father
ai as in light
aw as in raw
ay as in day
dew as in dew
e as in pet
ee as in street
ehr as in air
er as in bird
eu as in lurk