Odyssey - Sheila Murnaghan (essay date 1987)

Sheila Murnaghan (essay date 1987)

SOURCE: "Recognition and the Return of Odysseus," in Disguise and Recognition in the "Odyssey," Princeton University Press, 1987, pp. 20-55.

[Here, Murnaghan explores the theme of disclosure and recognition as it relates to Odysseus and Laertes, Telemachos, Eumaeus, and Penelope, as well as discussing Odysseus's need to re-establish his past relationships with these characters.]

During their meeting in Book 13, Athena and Odysseus sit down together at the base of an olive tree and concoct the plot through which, imitating the story of a disguised god, he will defeat his enemies. This then becomes the plot, in a literary sense, of the second half of the poem, a plot shaped by the deployment of a divine strategy to make possible a story of mortal revenge. Its climactic moment is Odysseus' imitation of a divine epiphany when, having strung the bow, he reveals himself to the suitors with bewildering...

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