![]() ![]() In any case, Odysseus and Penelope had lived in Ithaca several years and Telemachus was just a babe, when King Agamemnon's agent Palamedes came to the island and destroyed their family life by outwitting Odysseus, and forcing him to comply with the oath he himself had invented and join the alliance that was being formed in order to sail to Troy and demand, by persuasion or by force, the restoration of Helen and the property stolen by the seducer Paris when he, guided by Aphrodite, visited Sparta. And they may be right: for if Odysseus had not conceived The Oath of Tyndareus, he would never have lost Penelope, and yet without the invention of the oath he would not have married her at all. Some would say that the gods planned it all, and that mortals have no choice against their will. Odysseus joined the alliance against Troy reluctantly, for this man did not dream of war and adventures, but instead of a quiet life at home. And yet, when she retired upstairs to her room, she would weep again for her beloved husband. Some could reasonably tell her that Odysseus was not the only man who never returned from Troy, and she could find the argument perfectly wise. For during the time her husband was away, she, not knowing whether he was dead or alive, passed her days in continuous mourning, founding relief only in tears or sleep. Penelope says that no one was dealt, because of the Trojan War, a heavier blow than her. But Odysseus returned and no one of them escaped the palace alive. SUITORS OF PENELOPE are called those who wished to marry Penelope and living in the palace of Odysseus consumed his wealth at their feasts during his absence. "I would rather die by the sword in my own house than witness the perpetual repetition of these outrages, the brutal treatment of visitors, men hauling the maids about for their foul purposes … wine running like water, and those rascals gorging themselves, just for the sport of the thing, with no excuse, no rational end in sight." ( Odysseus to Telemachus. Back comes the lion to his lair, and hideous carnage falls upon them all." ( Menelaus to Telemachus. ![]() ![]() "So the cowards want to creep into the brave man's bed? It is just as if a deer had put her little unweaned fawns to sleep in a mighty lion's den and gone to range the high ridges and the grassy dales for pasture. And when no one could string the bow, Odysseus took it and shot the SUITORS. Odysseus came to the palace disguised as a beggar, and when Penelope declared that she would marry the man who could bend Odysseus bow and shoot an arrow a contest was arranged. They then put their heads together, and planned the downfall and death of the SUITORS. One day Odysseus landed in Ithaca, and while he stayed at Eumaeus 1's hut, he met his son Telemachus, who had just arrived from Pylos and Sparta, where he had expected to gather news about his father. When the SUITORS discovered Penelope's trick, they refused to leave Odysseus' palace unless she married one of them, and in the meantime they consumed Odysseus' estate in great parties and banquets. Penelope disliked the SUITORS' attentions, and in order to win time fooled them with the help of The Shroud of Laertes, which she wove by day and unravelled by night. During the prolonged absence of Odysseus, the SUITORS OF PENELOPE began courting his wife. ![]()
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