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Homer | Olympians | Mortals | Other Gods and Monsters | Design | Resources
Odysseus | Penelope | Telemachus | Nausicaa
In Book 1 of the Odyssey, Zeus lectures the other Olympians about how wrong mortals are for blaming their troubles on the gods: "They say it is from us evils come, yet they themselves / By their own recklessness have pains beyond their lot" (trans. Cook). Whether or not we agree with Zeus, there can be no doubt that some suffering is the lot of every human being. Bibliographies attached to this page will give you information about the protagonist and his wife, Odysseus and Penelope, and two interesting members of the next generation, their son Telemachus and the Phaeacian princess Nausicaa.
Illustrations. The two illustrations on the top of the page are opposite sides of the same Attic red-figure skyphos from Chiusi, ca. 440 B.C. On the left, Telemachus stares at his mother Penelope (perhaps it is the attitude suggested by her son's stance that puzzles her more than the importunate suitors). On the right, Odysseus's old nurse recognizes him from his scar as she washes his foot. In the Odyssey, the nurse is named Eurycleia, but this vase calls her Antiphata. Ancient art provides us with a surprising number of variations from the accounts recorded in written texts.
Above, a red-figure amphora, ca. 440, shows the naked Odysseus presenting himself to Nausicaa. The goddess Athena stands between them as though to mediate. To the right of Athena, the attendant closest to Nausicaa flees while her companion on the far right continues with the washing of clothes, oblivious as yet to the arrival of a naked man. Below, an illustration modeled after Flaxman shows Penelope discovered by her suitors as she takes out by night the weaving she had done the previous day.
