1.421–444

τοῖσι δὲ τερπομένοισι μέλας ἐπὶ ἕσπερος ἦλθε:

And black dusk came over them in the midst of their merrymaking.

Odyssey 1.423

Permanent night is coming for these men, but not quite yet, as they head off heedlessly to their homes. The rest of the book is taken up with a full and revealing description of Telemachus retiring for the night. He has started the journey toward adult maturity, a movement the poet has portrayed in various ways. Now, as he goes to bed, the childhood he is leaving behind surfaces once more. His bedroom reflects his special status, in a sequestered corner of the courtyard, away from the troubles in the main hall. Like his mother, he lives “high up” (ὑψηλὸς 426; cf. 362, 16.449; 18.206, 302; 19.600, 602). “Upstairs” is a safe refuge for vulnerable women and children in the Odyssey, and the associations are not confined to houses. Nausicaa, the nubile young Phaeacian princess that Odysseus meets in Book 6, drives to the countryside in “lofty wagon” (ἀπήνην / ὑψηλὴν ἐύκυκλον, 6.57–58 = 70–71). The princess is headed for the countryside, a notoriously dangerous place for young women, often the site of rape (cf. Homeric Hymn to Demeter 4–20; Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 117–25; Hesiod, fr. 26.10–23 M–W), and her wagon provides a portable bedchamber to protect her chastity.

The portraits of Telemachus and Nausicaa contain several parallels. Both sleep in secluded places, providing protection for their innocence. His bedroom is up in a tower, “protected on all sides” (περισκέπτῳ ἐνὶ χώρῳ, 426); she sleeps in a room with the doors firmly closed and guarded by handmaidens (6.28–29). He is still tucked into bed by his childhood nurse, Eurykleia, she by hers, Eurymedousa (7.7–13). Both children serve as guides for Odysseus, leading him at critical moments toward the obstacles he must surmount to reach home: Nausicaa leads Odysseus to her parents’ house, where he must win the favor of the king and queen to get a ride home in their ship; Telemachus, prepares the way for his father in Ithaka in Books 16–22, bringing him into the midst of the suitors, whom he must defeat to secure his home and family. In each case, the poet provides a subtle and sensitive portrayal of adolescence, using symbols that mark both young people as balanced on the boundary between childhood innocence and emerging adulthood (see essay on  6.1–47).

Conclusion

Homer apparently worked within the constraints of a medium originally designed to compose poetry without the aid of writing. Telling a long, complex tale under these circumstances, performing before an audience whose attention might wander, meant the poet had to maintain a strong and constant hold on their imagination. Book 1 of the Odyssey shows us the poet’s mastery of his art. The short proem swiftly establishes key elements of his hero’s character, his complex identity (πολύτροπον, 1), his supreme self-control in the face of powerful forces that would keep him from returning home, and the wisdom he has gained through suffering. The first scene of the story then plunges us directly into the crisis in Ithaka, the boorish suitors ranging unchecked through the royal palace, depleting the supplies of food and drink. In the king’s absence, there is no one to step into the breech and reestablish right order. Penelope is sequestered upstairs, paralyzed by grief, Laertes is too old to take control and Telemachus is too young.  

This dire situation looms over everything that follows, creating an overriding imperative: Odysseus must survive his journey and restore right order by reassuming his proper roles as king in Ithaka, husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of Laertes. Anything or person that impedes this restoration, no matter how sympathetic, an innocent young princess, a friendly suitor, inept crewmen, all must give way; acts that might seem repellent or at least morally ambiguous, the slaughter of 108 young men, some of whom might be the children of friends of Odysseus, the hanging of twelve maids who were led astray by the suitors, are acceptable, even desirable. The logic of this moral calculus is ruthless and largely unquestioned in the poem’s rhetoric; its driver on the divine level is Athena, whose single-minded manipulation of people and events that might stand in the hero’s way lies behind much of the story’s action.

Creating expectations in his audience and then playing against them is another way that Homer pulls us forward. As the first and most elaborate surviving example of the nostos, the Odyssey contains built-in questions, about how and whether its hero can successfully return home from Troy and what he will find if he does survive. To further focus our expectations, the poet offers a specific mythical paradigm to measure his story against, the disastrous homecoming of Agamemnon from Troy, his sexual betrayal and murder by Clytemnestra and her lover, and his son’s righteous vengeance. Because Zeus introduces the paradigm in the poem’s first scene and we are presumed to know its particulars, questions arise: Will Odysseus survive his journey home only to be killed in the palace? Will Penelope remain faithful to Odysseus or give in to the suitors? Will Telemachus measure up to Orestes’ example?

By the close of Book 1, we have seen that the gods—and in particular, Athena—are determined that Odysseus make it home safely and have launched a two-step plan to get both Telemachus and Odysseus moving after a period of stasis. The young prince, nudged by his disguised guest, has taken the first steps toward positioning himself as either his father’s supporter or his replacement. As he climbs into bed, we wonder how he will fare as he pursues the two parts of Athena’s plan for him, confronting the suitors and setting out on his own journey of discovery.

Further Reading

Felson, N. 1997. Regarding Penelope, 111–113. 2^nd ed. Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press.

Nagler, M. 1974. Spontaneity and Tradition: The Oral Art of Homer, 131–166. Berkeley and Los Angeles: The University of California Press. 

Wohl, V. 1993. “Standing by the Stathmos: The Creation of Sexual Ideology in the Odyssey. Arethusa 26:24.

Van Nortwick, T. 2008. Imagining Men: Ideals of Masculinity in Ancient Greek Culture, 6–7. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.