The suitors in the Odyssey
Everything Odysseus isn't (derogatorily)
Self-indulgent
Book one
"Swaggering" and barely acknowledge Telemachus and Penelope
Book 17
Pose a threat to oikos
pose a threat to nostos
Want to marry Penelope
Want to kill Telemachus (set an ambush)
Unheroic
Failed ambush
Lack of xenia (frontloaded in book 1)
Come in unwanted and raid everything (including female slaves)
Antinuous
"One who is antagonistic"
Leader of the suitors
described as "blackhearted"
Call Odysseus "a plague"
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
First one to die in book 22
Eurymachus
Second one to die
Avenger of Antinuous (lack of leadership qualities with how he tries to blame
Emphasises how the
Antinuous throws a cow hoof at Odysseus (the main hero)
Lack of respect for the Gods
Threaten everything Odysseus wants to go home for
Don't have any nostos themselves - lack of family
Only serve to act as villains
Add to shame culture (and hence are unnoble)
But SOME aren't all bad and it would be unfair in some cases to say that all of the suitors are the same
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"
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)
click to edit
Are sometimes referred to as "aristoi" ("the best")
Class-wise yes
Juxtapose to lack of heroic qualities
union between Eurymachus and Penelope was supported by penelopes father and brothers
"Degenerate corruption of heroes" (Barowe)
Main antagonists of the story (but are less complex)
Bad at making speeches
Books 4 and 16
Wish to kill telemachus for their own gain
Have no use in the oikos (fail to do what a husband should)
Could be a criticism of arostrcracy with lack of heroic skills?
Take advantage of absent king
Seen as Polyphemus in a civilised manner (peril with how it's a society the Greek audience can understand it)