I Wanna Follow The Trend

So, I would like to talk about a few things, one of which includes the slaughter of the suitors. Yay! I'm gonna talk about something a lot of other people have talked about!

So, first off, I didn't see what Odysseus did as vigilantism because he was told that there was a prophecy that included him going back to Ithaca and slaughtering the suitors. In my eyes, he was just following his Fate. Okay, so maybe it wasn't completely necessary to kill all of the suitors, but I found it really satisfying. They were mostly depicted as being stupid (being fooled for 3 years...not gonna get into that...so not worth ranting about...again...), being quite rude (using up Odysseus' wealth), being hypocritical (telling beggar Odysseus that he shouldn't go around leeching off the wealth of others), and just downright being annoying and refusing the LEAVE ITHACA AFTER LIKE 4-5 YEARS.

Next, I know people probably are grossed out by what I thought about the description of the slaughter but I still do think it should have been more descriptive. Maybe I just like violence more because I'm a messed up human being, but I feel the slaughter was over too quickly. Yeah, actually, I'll go with that. It was a slaughter, not a fight. Odysseus went into some berserker rage and literally killed anybody and everybody in his way until Telemachus convinced Odysseus to not kill the bard. Because of this berserker rage, everybody in Odysseus' way was annihilated. Having weapons didn't even help, if anything, it might have made Odysseus angrier. I mean, I like that it wasn't a super drawn out battle, but it was too short. It's like in other Greco-Roman epics, most fights are just, "These two awesome warriors and their super descriptive looks were getting ready to fight, they engage, and one of them comes out victorious." A bit of an exaggeration, but you get my point, hopefully.

And now about Athena. I really am so conflicted on what to think. She wanted the slaughter of the suitors, but then doesn't want to witness another fight? I mean, she was able to bless Laertes so he could easily kill Eupithes, father of Antinous-I'm-A-Huge-Dick-That-Can-Only-Mooch-Or-Be-A-Crappy-Suitor with one throw of the spear. That's just awesome. Yet she doesn't want Odysseus to have another slaughter? I get that she didn't want a war to break out, but I think this war would be nothing compared to the Trojan War.

Lastly, I would like to say that Odysseus fits in the Greco-Roman hero mold in another way other than his generic heroic qualities and fatal flaw. He's descended from Zeus. I'm not gonna give the name of Odysseus' grandfather who's the son of Zeus because I just don't want to try to find it again.

That's all. Bye.

I'm Running Out of Ideas!~

So, I didn't mention some of the important stuff of book 8 of the Odyssey in my narrative yesterday so I'll just talk about that really quickly. The blind bard, Demodocus, was motivated by the Muse to sing about the struggle between Achilles and Odysseus. It's not that the bard was just trying to be a dick to Odysseus. I'm not sure if the bard knows that it's Odysseus, but even if the bard knows, it's not that he's trying to call Odysseus out. The Muse is an important figure because they always are the ones that motivate the bards and the poets and everyone to actually sing the poem/story. Without the Muse, there would likely be no story to be told.

The next thing I'd like to address is the ignorance (or whatever you want to call it) of king Alcinous and pretty much everybody else at the party. When Odysseus is trash talking the people, he clearly says something along the lines of, "The only person who was better at the bow than me during Troy was Philoctetes." I feel like that alone would give away who Odysseus was. I mean, really? You've probably heard tales about the brave warrior Odysseus who was one of the strongest people ever and you can't figure out that the guy bragging about how good he is at the bow is Odysseus? The guy even says that the only other people who can beat him at the bow are dead (some killed by Apollo because they were just that good with a bow)... I'm not sure if the king is just playing dumb or something, but I find it hard to believe he can't figure out it's Odysseus, in case I haven't made that point clear enough.

Lastly, I'd just like to give a fun fact I found out about and no, it's nothing like my "fun" fact that Alcinous is married to his niece, it's that Achilles had a badass group of warriors that followed him into battle called the Myrmidons. They were a group of people that were descended from a demigod king named Myrmidon. Who was the godly parent, you might ask? Well, it's the one guy that just can't keep it in his pants! Zeus, of course! Now, Zeus has seduced women in some really weird ways, but I'm not going to get into those other ways right now. I'm focusing on how Myrmidon was conceived. So, Zeus sees this beautiful woman and reacts similarly to Ares when he sees Aphrodite, "Oh! Let's bone!" and so, Zeus comes down in the form of an ant. Yeah, an ant (which is what Myrmidon is named after). Another version of this story says that Zeus seduced Eurymedusa, Myrmidon's mom, in the form of her husband, Myrmex. Not cool, Zeus, not cool at all. But yeah, so this guy named Myrmidon managed to become a king of Thessalian Phthia, a city which was found by Achilles' grandfather. How nice! Everything is in a full circle, kinda.

Narrating and Summarizing, it's a Fine Line.

So I've been practicing for my group's presentation of the Odyssey for tomorrow, and I've realized how tough it is to narrate. There's a really fine line between summarizing what happens and actually narrating. I'm pretty sure I'm still doing a mixture of both. It really makes me wonder about oral traditions way back when. They must have practice a ton in order to actually narrate the story. I mean, yes, reciting stories was a bigger part of society back then than it is today, but that doesn't mean it's any easier! It might become easier after you have to practice a lot, but there's still the first few times where you need to learn to narrate rather than summarize.

So keeping that in mind, there's also the problem of speaking slowly so everybody can follow what you're saying and making sure that you enunciate so people can hear what you're saying. Doing this is especially challenging for me because I just absolutely HATE talking in front of people for a presentation. I stutter really badly (in a way that reminds me of my sister's stuttering on certain words like lettuce) and sometimes I even break out into a sweat. I can't help but wonder if there were people back then that would also be nervous talking in front of people. Would they have a hard time telling the story because they were too focused on trying to finish as quickly as they could? Maybe some of them wouldn't be able to recite the poem/story and just had to give up their dreams of being an amazing storyteller.

While I haven't given up my dreams of being the world's best storyteller who's named Eric W. Kong, I don't think I'll achieve that goal anytime soon. So, if anybody reads this post before tomorrow, I sincerely apologize if I speak too quickly or don't enunciate clearly. And if I'm not really narrating, I will also be really sorry. That's all from me today!

So Drunk Storytelling is in, Right?

So I was thinking about how various ancient dead people like Homer (for the sake of simplicity I'm just gonna imagine Homer as one dude) would sing their epic poems to a group of people, which would take a while, I assume. So, I wondered if any of them had to just stop every once in a while and take a breather. I mean, I get lightheaded if I get into a conversation with a friend for more than 15 minutes, so if these ancient storytellers were anything like me (which I doubt, but that's not the big issue at hand), then they would get really lightheaded too. It makes me wonder if any of them would just be singing/reciting their poem and then pass out. I could see that happening, though probably not very often.

But running low on oxygen isn't my most important thought on these poets. So, yeah, they would be singing and stuff and so as a result, wouldn't their throats get really dry? And wasn't drinking wine a big part of their culture? So, just imagine this: you're at this tavern hearing the epic tale of Odysseus, and Homer's getting thirsty. He then turns to his right (or left, that part isn't terribly important), and picks up a cup filled with wine and drinks it to quench his thirst. Now, if the wine isn't very diluted with water, then Homer would probably get drunk relatively quickly, even if he's used to drinking. So, continuing imaging, you got this storyteller who's just getting more and more drunk while telling you this story. I'm not sure if the story would better or worse, but I feel like this would have been able to get some people to laugh. I mean, drunk storytelling!

Now, maybe this didn't happen, but still! I kinda wish it did because it would be so funny! Just some old(er) guy so drunk that they can't even enunciate their words anymore but is still trying to finish part of the story. Or the even funnier situation (in my mind, at least), this old guy is so drunk that mid mumble he just passes out. I don't know why I find that so amusing, because that would probably really hurt, especially if the person who passes out is an older person.

But yeah, that's my random though of the day. I mean, from my very limited knowledge about ancient Greco-Roman cultures, I feel like these poets would use wine if they got thirsty so who know? Maybe recounting the stories would take a long time because the reciters would get too drunk to continue...

I don't wanna forget this stuff!

So I'm not sure how this post will turn out because I'm just planning on saying what I wanted to say this morning in class before I forget about it. So, first off, is Telemachus kind of a jerk to his mom? I mean, on one hand he gets some courage and stops moping so he can tell the suitors to leave. It may not work, but at least he did it. But then when the bard is singing about Odysseus' journey and Penelope (if I got the name wrong, I'm sorry) asks for the bard to stop the song, Telemachus seems to almost snap at her. I mean, sure maybe he thinks she should be over Odysseus, but at the same time, he was grieving not that long ago. Also, he seems to not want his mother to be with any of the suitors. To be honest, I don't care that much about the reason, but if he thinks that his mom shouldn't stop the bard from singing about Odysseus, I think it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that his mom would be ready to marry again. Maybe Telemachus just had a lot of pent up rage and frustration and his mom was the unfortunate receiver of this, but that's not a good excuse.

Next off, is it just me, or are the suitors extremely stupid? I mean, they were fooled for THREE years? Now, maybe Penelope was just working on a really big web (I'm assuming this just means she's weaving some project, not a literal web, but who knows?) but still, I doubt it would take three years unless she was knitting nice scarves, matching gloves, and matching hats for all of the suitors. And even then I highly doubt it would take that long to finish this. And from the looks of it, she would've gotten away with fooling everyone for an even longer amount of time if that one woman that was in on the queen's secret didn't spill the beans. Sure, I feel bad that the suitors seem to be tricked and lied to, but seriously? It's kind of hard to feel sorry for people when they're stupid (I hope this doesn't offend anybody or anything, I mean solely in the context of these epics, where I swear there's always a group of stupid people)...

The next order of business, the violence of the suitors. I mean, there's literally a part where they say that if Odysseus were to come back, he wouldn't be able to beat all of them, and "Even if Odysseus of Ithaca did arrive in person,/...Here on the spot he'd meet/a humiliating end if he fought against such odds" (101). So, maybe I'm reading this incorrectly, but these suitors are saying that even if Odysseus came back, they'd more or less humiliate him and kill him. Really? They're THAT desperate to marry Penelope? They'd kill her husband? Man, that would make for a terrific conversation at the table, just imagine it, "Hey honey, do you remember the time I killed your previous husband and married you? Wasn't that just a riot?" or maybe, "Hey Penelope, you should marry me, I'm the one that landed the killing blow on Odysseus, so I'm the manliest and best suited for you!" I mean, what would they hope to accomplish? If Odysseus returned alive and these suitors killed him, I feel like it would have a high chance of guaranteeing that Penelope wouldn't marry them.

Furthermore, really Athena? I mean, yes Poseidon is out of town right now, but you're sending Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, out to search for Odysseus. Okay, that doesn't sound terrible, but did you forget that Poseidon is the reason that Odysseus is lost at sea right now? Or maybe that Poseidon can more or less control all of the ocean? So you send Telemachus out when Poseidon's away, great, but what about when Poseidon returns? What's stopping him from making Telemachus get lost? I feel like this wasn't thought through very thoroughly. Also, who's gonna be stopping the suitors if Telemachus is gone? I mean, it seems like there needs to be a strong male figure around, so who's gonna fill those shoes? Telemachus doesn't have a son to do that, and I don't feel like the suitors would be good choices...

Lastly, I want to talk about Telemachus' age. Now, I always imagined that Telemachus was around the same age as Achilles' son. Achilles left for Troy when his son was around 3 or something. Later, it's mentioned about how Achilles' son was there to kill king Priam. Now, in the art depictions, Achilles' son looks to be around 18, which is older than what he should be (13, since the Trojan war was around 10 years). And assuming Odysseus has been lost for around another 10 years, I'd say that Telemachus could be around 23, like Neoptolemus (also called Pyrrhus). I think that Telemachus wouldn't be older than 23, but I also feel like it's possible that Telemachus is younger than that. Not as young as Aeneas' son, Ascanius, who would be around 14 (I think, again, this is all estimates) at this point when Odysseus is lost. Since it's been said in class that Telemachus is close to becoming a man, or at least is at the age where he can be considered one, since he's able to be sent out on a voyage (or mission, or quest, or whatever searching for his dad can be called), then I think he's at least 16. Now, this is a Greek epic, but the Greeks and Romans had similar cultures in some aspects, and I remember that the Roman boys came of age when they turned 16. So, I'd assume that Telemachus is no older than 23, but no younger than 16. Of course, since it's never mentioned, and I'm not some ancient scholar or anything, I could be wrong, but that's the estimate I have for ya'll.

So I have all this written down now so maybe I won't forget it. Or I still might. No idea. You might agree with me, or disagree. Either way, I can't really make you agree or disagree, so feel free to think what you will. I'm tired after writing for 30 minutes straight so I think I'm done here. Enjoy, or don't, up to you.