Thought 41: Notes on The Odyssey

• Homecoming: νόστος
• Guest-friendship: ξενια
• Odysseus kills the suitors but also hangs the maids of his who consorted with the suitors.
• ἀναγκη, necessity, and μοῖρα, fate, seem to be the result of negotiations and agreements among the gods as to what should happen to whom, bearing in mind that 'As the highest of the gods, Zeus is cosmic destiny.' (—Martin Heidegger, Early Greek Thinking—The Dawn of Western Philosophy, Logos (Heraclitus, Fragment B 50).
• brutality in evidence in the epic: mutilation of genitals, noses, and ears; cut and thrust of stabbing objects such as bows and arrows, knives, swords, spears.
• role of direct divine intervention as Pallas Athena dons mortal appearance to guide father (Odysseus) and son (Telemachus).
• political correctness v patriarchal savagery
• recognition scenes, e.g. between Odysseus and his blind father.