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The suitors in the Odyssey - Coggle Diagram
The suitors in the Odyssey
Everything Odysseus isn't (derogatorily)
Only serve to act as villains
But SOME aren't all bad and it would be unfair in some cases to say that all of the suitors are the same
Main antagonists of the story (but are less complex)
Have no use in the oikos (fail to do what a husband should)
Self-indulgent
Book one
"Swaggering" and barely acknowledge Telemachus and Penelope
Book 17
Call Odysseus "a plague"
Books 4 and 16
Wish to kill telemachus for their own gain
Pose a threat to oikos
Come in unwanted and raid everything (including female slaves)
Take advantage of absent king
pose a threat to nostos
Want to marry Penelope
Want to kill Telemachus (set an ambush)
Threaten everything Odysseus wants to go home for
Don't have any nostos themselves - lack of family
Unheroic
Failed ambush
Lack of xenia (frontloaded in book 1)
Antinuous throws a cow hoof at Odysseus (the main hero)
Lack of respect for the Gods
Bad at making speeches
Seen as Polyphemus in a civilised manner (peril with how it's a society the Greek audience can understand it)
Antinuous
"One who is antagonistic"
Leader of the suitors
described as "blackhearted"
First one to die in book 22
IRONY (would only respect because of position)
What some monarchy would be like without heroic qualities
Example of what a Homeric citizen shouldn't be like
Depicts what happens when you're not noble
Add to shame culture (and hence are unnoble)
Eurymachus
Second one to die
Avenger of Antinuous (lack of leadership qualities with how he tries to blame
Emphasises how the
union between Eurymachus and Penelope was supported by penelopes father and brothers
Leodes
Failed to string the bow in book 21
Supplicates Odysseus
Has his head unjustly cut off by Odysseus in a blind rage
Sacrificial priest; was a sin to kill a priest in Homeric times
Modern scholarship
"The triumph of good over evil" (Morrison)
"The cream of the populace"
"Degenerate corruption of heroes" (Barowe)
Aegisthus allusion in books 1, 4
Foreshadows suitors fate
Homer wishes to impress the audience with importance of allusion
"These are the crimes which in effect the suitors are hoping to commit" (Richard Jenkyns)
Are sometimes referred to as "aristoi" ("the best")
Class-wise yes
Juxtapose to lack of heroic qualities
Could be a criticism of arostrcracy with lack of heroic skills?