Odyssey XXI-XXIII

Book XXI
Minerva now put it in Penelope's mind to make the suitors try their skill with the bow and with the iron axes, in contest among themselves, as a means of bringing about their destruction. She went upstairs and got the store room key, which was made of bronze and had a handle of ivory; she then went with her maidens into the store room at the end of the house, where her husband's treasures of gold, bronze, and wrought iron were kept, and where was also his bow, and the quiver full of deadly arrows that had been given him by a friend whom he had met in Lacedaemon- Iphitus the son of Eurytus. The two fell in with one another in Messene at the house of Ortilochus, where Ulysses was staying in order to recover a debt that was owing from the whole people; for the Messenians had carried off three hundred sheep from Ithaca, and had sailed away with them and with their shepherds. In quest of these Ulysses took a long journey while still quite young, for his father and the other chieftains sent him on a mis sion to r ecover them. Iphitus had gone there also to try and get back twelve brood mares that he had lost, and the mule foals that were running with them. These mares were the death of him in the end, for when he went to the house of Jove's son, mighty Hercules, who performed such prodigies of valour, Hercules to his shame killed him, though he was his guest, for he feared not heaven's vengeance, nor yet respected his own table which he had set before Iphitus, but killed him in spite of everything, and kept the mares himself. It was when claiming these that Iphitus met Ulysses, and gave him the bow which mighty Eurytus had been used to carry, and which on his death had been left by him to his son. Ulysses gave him in return a sword and a spear, and this was the beginning of a fast friendship, although they never visited at one another's houses, for Jove's son Hercules killed Iphitus ere they could do so. This bow, then, given him by Iphitus, had not been taken with him by Ulysses when he sailed for Troy; he had used it s o long as he had been at home, but had left it behind as having been a keepsake from a valued friend. Penelope presently reached the oak threshold of the store room; the carpenter had planed this duly, and had drawn a line on it so as to get it quite straight; he had then set the door posts into it and hung the doors. She loosed the strap from the handle of the door, put in the key, and drove it straight home to shoot back the bolts that held the doors; these flew open with a noise like a bull bellowing in a meadow, and Penelope stepped upon the raised platform, where the chests stood in which the fair linen and clothes were laid by along with fragrant herbs: reaching thence, she took down the bow with its bow case from the peg on which it hung. She sat down with it on her knees, weeping bitterly as she took the bow out of its case, and when her tears had relieved her, she went to the cloister where the suitors were, carrying the bow and the quiver, with the many deadly arrows that were inside it. Along with her came her maidens, bearing a chest that contained much iron and bronze which her husband had won as prizes. When she reached the suitors, she stood by one of the bearing-posts supporting the roof of the cloister, holding a veil before her face, and with a maid on either side of her. Then she said: "Listen to me you suitors, who persist in abusing the hospitality of this house because its owner has been long absent, and without other pretext than that you want to marry me; this, then, being the prize that you are contending for, I will bring out the mighty bow of Ulysses, and whomsoever of you shall string it most easily and send his arrow through each one of twelve axes, him will I follow and quit this house of my lawful husband, so goodly, and so abounding in wealth. But even so I doubt not that I shall remember it in my dreams." As she spoke, she told Eumaeus to set the bow and the pieces of iron before the suitors, and Eumaeus wept as he took them to do as she had bidden him. Hard by, the stockman wept also when he saw his master's bow, but Antinous scolded them. "You country louts," said he, "silly simpletons; why should you add to the sorrows of your mistress by crying in this way? She has enough to grieve her in the loss of her husband; sit still, therefore, and eat your dinners in silence, or go outside if you want to cry, and leave the bow behind you. We suitors shall have to contend for it with might and main, for we shall find it no light matter to string such a bow as this is. There is not a man of us all who is such another as Ulysses; for I have seen him and remember him, though I was then only a child." This was what he said, but all the time he was expecting to be able to string the bow and shoot through the iron, whereas in fact he was to be the first that should taste of the arrows from the hands of Ulysses, whom he was dishonouring in his own house- egging the others on to do so also. Then Telemachus spoke. "Great heavens!" he exclaimed, "Jove must have robbed me of my senses. Here is my dear and excellent mother saying she will quit this house and marry again, yet I am laughing and enjoying myself as though there were nothing happening. But, suitors, as the contest has been agreed upon, let it go forward. It is for a woman whose peer is not to be found in Pylos, Argos, or Mycene, nor yet in Ithaca nor on the mainland. You know this as well as I do; what need have I to speak in praise of my mother? Come on, then, make no excuses for delay, but let us see whether you can string the bow or no. I too will make trial of it, for if I can string it and shoot through the iron, I shall not suffer my mother to quit this house with a stranger, not if I can win the prizes which my father won before me." As he spoke he sprang from his seat, threw his crimson cloak from him, and took his sword from his shoulder. First he set the axes in a row, in a long groove which he had dug for them, and had Wade straight by line. Then he stamped the earth tight round them, and everyone was surprised when they saw him set up so orderly, though he had never seen anything of the kind before. This done, he went on to the pavement to make trial of the bow; thrice did he tug at it, trying with all his might to draw the string, and thrice he had to leave off, though he had hoped to string the bow and shoot through the iron. He was trying for the fourth time, and would have strung it had not Ulysses made a sign to check him in spite of all his eagerness. So he said: "Alas! I shall either be always feeble and of no prowess, or I am too young, and have not yet reached my full strength so as to be able to hold my own if any one attacks me. You others, therefore, who are stronger than I, make trial of the bow and get this contest settled." On this he put the bow down, letting it lean against the door [that led into the house] with the arrow standing against the top of the bow. Then he sat down on the seat from which he had risen, and Antinous said: "Come on each of you in his turn, going towards the right from the place at which the. cupbearer begins when he is handing round the wine." The rest agreed, and Leiodes son of OEnops was the first to rise. He was sacrificial priest to the suitors, and sat in the corner near the mixing-bowl. He was the only man who hated their evil deeds and was indignant with the others. He was now the first to take the bow and arrow, so he went on to the pavement to make his trial, but he could not string the bow, for his hands were weak and unused to hard work, they therefore soon grew tired, and he said to the suitors, "My friends, I cannot string it; let another have it; this bow shall take the life and soul out of many a chief among us, for it is better to die than to live after having missed the prize that we have so long striven for, and which has brought us so long together. Some one of us is even now hoping and praying that he may marry Penelope, but when he has seen this bow and tried it, let him woo and make bridal offerings to some other woman, and let Penelope marry whoever makes her the best offer and whose lot it is to win her." On this he put the bow down, letting it lean against the door, with the arrow standing against the tip of the bow. Then he took his seat again on the seat from which he had risen; and Antinous rebuked him saying: "Leiodes, what are you talking about? Your words are monstrous and intolerable; it makes me angry to listen to you. Shall, then, this bow take the life of many a chief among us, merely because you cannot bend it yourself? True, you were not born to be an archer, but there are others who will soon string it." Then he said to Melanthius the goatherd, "Look sharp, light a fire in the court, and set a seat hard by with a sheep skin on it; bring us also a large ball of lard, from what they have in the house. Let us warm the bow and grease it we will then make trial of it again, and bring the contest to an end." Melanthius lit the fire, and set a seat covered with sheep skins beside it. He also brought a great ball of lard from what they had in the house, and the suitors warmed the bow and again made trial of it, but they were none of them nearly strong enough to string it. Nevertheless there still remained Antinous and Eurymachus, who were the ringleaders among the suitors and much the foremost among them all. Then the swineherd and the stockman left the cloisters together, and Ulysses followed them. When they had got outside the gates and the outer yard, Ulysses said to them quietly: "Stockman, and you swineherd, I have something in my mind which I am in doubt whether to say or no; but I think I will say it. What manner of men would you be to stand by Ulysses, if some god should bring him back here all of a sudden? Say which you are disposed to do- to side with the suitors, or with Ulysses?" "Father Jove," answered the stockman, "would indeed that you might so ordain it. If some god were but to bring Ulysses back, you should see with what might and main I would fight for him." In like words Eumaeus prayed to all the gods that Ulysses might return; when, therefore, he saw for certain what mind they were of, Ulysses said, "It is I, Ulysses, who am here. I have suffered much, but at last, in the twentieth year, I am come back to my own country. I find that you two alone of all my servants are glad that I should do so, for I have not heard any of the others praying for my return. To you two, therefore, will I unfold the truth as it shall be. If heaven shall deliver the suitors into my hands, I will find wives for both of you, will give you house and holding close to my own, and you shall be to me as though you were brothers and friends of Telemachus. I will now give you convincing proofs that you may know me and be assured. See, here is the scar from the boar's tooth that ripped me when I was out hunting on Mount Parnassus with the sons of Autolycus." As he spoke he drew his rags aside from the great scar, and when they had examined it thoroughly, they both of them wept about Ulysses, threw their arms round him and kissed his head and shoulders, while Ulysses kissed their hands and faces in return. The sun would have gone down upon their mourning if Ulysses had not checked them and said: "Cease your weeping, lest some one should come outside and see us, and tell those who a are within. When you go in, do so separately, not both together; I will go first, and do you follow afterwards; Let this moreover be the token between us; the suitors will all of them try to prevent me from getting hold of the bow and quiver; do you, therefore, Eumaeus, place it in my hands when you are carrying it about, and tell the women to close the doors of their apartment. If they hear any groaning or uproar as of men fighting about the house, they must not come out; they must keep quiet, and stay where they are at their work. And I charge you, Philoetius, to make fast the doors of the outer court, and to bind them securely at once." When he had thus spoken, he went back to the house and took the seat that he had left. Presently, his two servants followed him inside. At this moment the bow was in the hands of Eurymachus, who was warming it by the fire, but even so he could not string it, and he was greatly grieved. He heaved a deep sigh and said, "I grieve for myself and for us all; I grieve that I shall have to forgo the marriage, but I do not care nearly so much about this, for there are plenty of other women in Ithaca and elsewhere; what I feel most is the fact of our being so inferior to Ulysses in strength that we cannot string his bow. This will disgrace us in the eyes of those who are yet unborn." "It shall not be so, Eurymachus," said Antinous, "and you know it yourself. To-day is the feast of Apollo throughout all the land; who can string a bow on such a day as this? Put it on one side- as for the axes they can stay where they are, for no one is likely to come to the house and take them away: let the cupbearer go round with his cups, that we may make our drink-offerings and drop this matter of the bow; we will tell Melanthius to bring us in some goats to-morrow- the best he has; we can then offer thigh bones to Apollo the mighty archer, and again make trial of the bow, so as to bring the contest to an end." The rest approved his words, and thereon men servants poured water over the hands of the guests, while pages filled the mixing-bowls with wine and water and handed it round after giving every man his drink-offering. Then, when they had made their offerings and had drunk each as much as he desired, Ulysses craftily said: "Suitors of the illustrious queen, listen that I may speak even as I am minded. I appeal more especially to Eurymachus, and to Antinous who has just spoken with so much reason. Cease shooting for the present and leave the matter to the gods, but in the morning let heaven give victory to whom it will. For the moment, however, give me the bow that I may prove the power of my hands among you all, and see whether I still have as much strength as I used to have, or whether travel and neglect have made an end of it." This made them all very angry, for they feared he might string the bow; Antinous therefore rebuked him fiercely saying, "Wretched creature, you have not so much as a grain of sense in your whole body; you ought to think yourself lucky in being allowed to dine unharmed among your betters, without having any smaller portion served you than we others have had, and in being allowed to hear our conversation. No other beggar or stranger has been allowed to hear what we say among ourselves; the wine must have been doing you a mischief, as it does with all those drink immoderately. It was wine that inflamed the Centaur Eurytion when he was staying with Peirithous among the Lapithae. When the wine had got into his head he went mad and did ill deeds about the house of Peirithous; this angered the heroes who were there assembled, so they rushed at him and cut off his ears and nostrils; then they dragged him through the doorway out of the house, so he went away crazed, and bore the burden of his crime, bereft of understa nding. Henceforth, therefore, there was war between mankind and the centaurs, but he brought it upon himself through his own drunkenness. In like manner I can tell you that it will go hardly with you if you string the bow: you will find no mercy from any one here, for we shall at once ship you off to king Echetus, who kills every one that comes near him: you will never get away alive, so drink and keep quiet without getting into a quarrel with men younger than yourself." Penelope then spoke to him. "Antinous," said she, "it is not right that you should ill-treat any guest of Telemachus who comes to this house. If the stranger should prove strong enough to string the mighty bow of Ulysses, can you suppose that he would take me home with him and make me his wife? Even the man himself can have no such idea in his mind: none of you need let that disturb his feasting; it would be out of all reason." "Queen Penelope," answered Eurymachus, "we do not suppose that this man will take you away with him; it is impossible; but we are afraid lest some of the baser sort, men or women among the Achaeans, should go gossiping about and say, 'These suitors are a feeble folk; they are paying court to the wife of a brave man whose bow not one of them was able to string, and yet a beggarly tramp who came to the house strung it at once and sent an arrow through the iron.' This is what will be said, and it will be a scandal against us." "Eurymachus," Penelope answered, "people who persist in eating up the estate of a great chieftain and dishonouring his house must not expect others to think well of them. Why then should you mind if men talk as you think they will? This stranger is strong and well-built, he says moreover that he is of noble birth. Give him the bow, and let us see whether he can string it or no. I say- and it shall surely be- that if Apollo vouchsafes him the glory of stringing it, I will give him a cloak and shirt of good wear, with a javelin to keep off dogs and robbers, and a sharp sword. I will also give him sandals, and will see him sent safely whereever he wants to go." Then Telemachus said, "Mother, I am the only man either in Ithaca or in the islands that are over against Elis who has the right to let any one have the bow or to refuse it. No one shall force me one way or the other, not even though I choose to make the stranger a present of the bow outright, and let him take it away with him. Go, then, within the house and busy yourself with your daily duties, your loom, your distaff, and the ordering of your servants. This bow is a man's matter, and mine above all others, for it is I who am master here." She went wondering back into the house, and laid her son's saying in her heart. Then going upstairs with her handmaids into her room, she mourned her dear husband till Minerva sent sweet sleep over her eyelids. The swineherd now took up the bow and was for taking it to Ulysses, but the suitors clamoured at him from all parts of the cloisters, and one of them said, "You idiot, where are you taking the bow to? Are you out of your wits? If Apollo and the other gods will grant our prayer, your own boarhounds shall get you into some quiet little place, and worry you to death." Eumaeus was frightened at the outcry they all raised, so he put the bow down then and there, but Telemachus shouted out at him from the other side of the cloisters, and threatened him saying, "Father Eumaeus, bring the bow on in spite of them, or young as I am I will pelt you with stones back to the country, for I am the better man of the two. I wish I was as much stronger than all the other suitors in the house as I am than you, I would soon send some of them off sick and sorry, for they mean mischief." Thus did he speak, and they all of them laughed heartily, which put them in a better humour with Telemachus; so Eumaeus brought the bow on and placed it in the hands of Ulysses. When he had done this, he called Euryclea apart and said to her, "Euryclea, Telemachus says you are to close the doors of the women's apartments. If they hear any groaning or uproar as of men fighting about the house, they are not to come out, but are to keep quiet and stay where they are at their work." Euryclea did as she was told and closed the doors of the women's apartments. Meanwhile Philoetius slipped quietly out and made fast the gates of the outer court. There was a ship's cable of byblus fibre lying in the gatehouse, so he made the gates fast with it and then came in again, resuming the seat that he had left, and keeping an eye on Ulysses, who had now got the bow in his hands, and was turning it every way about, and proving it all over to see whether the worms had been eating into its two horns during his absence. Then would one turn towards his neighbour saying, "This is some tricky old bow-fancier; either he has got one like it at home, or he wants to make one, in such workmanlike style does the old vagabond handle it." Another said, "I hope he may be no more successful in other things than he is likely to be in stringing this bow." But Ulysses, when he had taken it up and examined it all over, strung it as easily as a skilled bard strings a new peg of his lyre and makes the twisted gut fast at both ends. Then he took it in his right hand to prove the string, and it sang sweetly under his touch like the twittering of a swallow. The suitors were dismayed, and turned colour as they heard it; at that moment, moreover, Jove thundered loudly as a sign, and the heart of Ulysses rejoiced as he heard the omen that the son of scheming Saturn had sent him. He took an arrow that was lying upon the table- for those which the Achaeans were so shortly about to taste were all inside the quiver- he laid it on the centre-piece of the bow, and drew the notch of the arrow and the string toward him, still seated on his seat. When he had taken aim he let fly, and his arrow pierced every one of the handle-holes of the axes from the first onwards till it had gone right through them, and into the outer courtyard. Then he said to Telemachus: "Your guest has not disgraced you, Telemachus. I did not miss what I aimed at, and I was not long in stringing my bow. I am still strong, and not as the suitors twit me with being. Now, however, it is time for the Achaeans to prepare supper while there is still daylight, and then otherwise to disport themselves with song and dance which are the crowning ornaments of a banquet." As he spoke he made a sign with his eyebrows, and Telemachus girded on his sword, grasped his spear, and stood armed beside his father's seat.

Book XXII
Then Ulysses tore off his rags, and sprang on to the broad pavement with his bow and his quiver full of arrows. He shed the arrows on to the ground at his feet and said, "The mighty contest is at an end. I will now see whether Apollo will vouchsafe it to me to hit another mark which no man has yet hit." On this he aimed a deadly arrow at Antinous, who was about to take up a two-handled gold cup to drink his wine and already had it in his hands. He had no thought of death- who amongst all the revellers would think that one man, however brave, would stand alone among so many and kill him? The arrow struck Antinous in the throat, and the point went clean through his neck, so that he fell over and the cup dropped from his hand, while a thick stream of blood gushed from his nostrils. He kicked the table from him and upset the things on it, so that the bread and roasted meats were all soiled as they fell over on to the ground. The suitors were in an uproar when they saw that a man had been hit; they sprang in dismay one and all of them from their seats and looked everywhere towards the walls, but there was neither shield nor spear, and they rebuked Ulysses very angrily. "Stranger," said they, "you shall pay for shooting people in this way: om yi you shall see no other contest; you are a doomed man; he whom you hav e slain was the foremost youth in Ithaca, and the vultures shall devour you for having killed him." Thus they spoke, for they thought that he had killed Antinous by mistake, and did not perceive that death was hanging over the head of every one of them. But Ulysses glared at them and said: "Dogs, did you think that I should not come back from Troy? You have wasted my substance, have forced my women servants to lie with you, and have wooed my wife while I was still living. You have feared neither Cod nor man, and now you shall die." They turned pale with fear as he spoke, and every man looked round about to see whither he might fly for safety, but Eurymachus alone spoke. "If you are Ulysses," said he, "then what you have said is just. We have done much wrong on your lands and in your house. But Antinous who was the head and front of the offending lies low already. It was all his doing. It was not that he wanted to marry Penelope; he did not so much care about that; what he wanted was something quite different, and Jove has not vouchsafed it to him; he wanted to kill your son and to be chief man in Ithaca. Now, therefore, that he has met the death which was his due, spare the lives of your people. We will make everything good among ourselves, and pay you in full for all that we have eaten and drunk. Each one of us shall pay you a fine worth twenty oxen, and we will keep on giving you gold and bronze till your heart is softened. Until we have done this no one can complain of your being enraged against us." Ulysses again glared at him and said, "Though you should give me all that you have in the world both now and all that you ever shall have, I will not stay my hand till I have paid all of you in full. You must fight, or fly for your lives; and fly, not a man of you shall." Their hearts sank as they heard him, but Eurymachus again spoke saying: "My friends, this man will give us no quarter. He will stand where he is and shoot us down till he has killed every man among us. Let us then show fight; draw your swords, and hold up the tables to shield you from his arrows. Let us have at him with a rush, to drive him from the pavement and doorway: we can then get through into the town, and raise such an alarm as shall soon stay his shooting." As he spoke he drew his keen blade of bronze, sharpened on both sides, and with a loud cry sprang towards Ulysses, but Ulysses instantly shot an arrow into his breast that caught him by the nipple and fixed itself in his liver. He dropped his sword and fell doubled up over his table. The cup and all the meats went over on to the ground as he smote the earth with his forehead in the agonies of death, and he kicked the stool with his feet until his eyes were closed in darkness. Then Amphinomus drew his sword and made straight at Ulysses to try and get him away from the door; but Telemachus was too quick for him, and struck him from behind; the spear caught him between the shoulders and went right through his chest, so that he fell heavily to the ground and struck the earth with his forehead. Then Telemachus sprang away from him, leaving his spear still in the body, for he feared that if he stayed to draw it out, some one of the Achaeans might come up and hack at him with his sword, or knock him down, so he set off at a run, and immediately was at his father's side. Then he said: "Father, let me bring you a shield, two spears, and a brass helmet for your temples. I will arm myself as well, and will bring other armour for the swineherd and the stockman, for we had better be armed." "Run and fetch them," answered Ulysses, "while my arrows hold out, or when I am alone they may get me away from the door." Telemachus did as his father said, and went off to the store room where the armour was kept. He chose four shields, eight spears, and four brass helmets with horse-hair plumes. He brought them with all speed to his father, and armed himself first, while the stockman and the swineherd also put on their armour, and took their places near Ulysses. Meanwhile Ulysses, as long as his arrows lasted, had been shooting the suitors one by one, and they fell thick on one another: when his arrows gave out, he set the bow to stand against the end wall of the house by the door post, and hung a shield four hides thick about his shoulders; on his comely head he set his helmet, well wrought with a crest of horse-hair that nodded menacingly above it, and he grasped two redoubtable bronze-shod spears. Now there was a trap door on the wall, while at one end of the pavement there was an exit leading to a narrow passage, and this exit was closed by a well-made door. Ulysses told Philoetius to stand by this door and guard it, for only one person could attack it at a time. But Agelaus shouted out, "Cannot some one go up to the trap door and tell the people what is going on? Help would come at once, and we should soon make an end of this man and his shooting." "This may not be, Agelaus," answered Melanthius, "the mouth of the narrow passage is dangerously near the entrance to the outer court. One brave man could prevent any number from getting in. But I know what I will do, I will bring you arms from the store room, for I am sure it is there that Ulysses and his son have put them." On this the goatherd Melanthius went by back passages to the store room of Ulysses, house. There he chose twelve shields, with as many helmets and spears, and brought them back as fast as he could to give them to the suitors. Ulysses' heart began to fail him when he saw the suitors putting on their armour and brandishing their spears. He saw the greatness of the danger, and said to Telemachus, "Some one of the women inside is helping the suitors against us, or it may be Melanthius." Telemachus answered, "The fault, father, is mine, and mine only; I left the store room door open, and they have kept a sharper look out than I have. Go, Eumaeus, put the door to, and see whether it is one of the women who is doing this, or whether, as I suspect, it is Melanthius the son of Dolius." Thus did they converse. Meanwhile Melanthius was again going to the store room to fetch more armour, but the swineherd saw him and said to Ulysses who was beside him, "Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, it is that scoundrel Melanthius, just as we suspected, who is going to the store room. Say, shall I kill him, if I can get the better of him, or shall I bring him here that you may take your own revenge for all the many wrongs that he has done in your house?" Ulysses answered, "Telemachus and I will hold these suitors in check, no matter what they do; go back both of you and bind Melanthius' hands and feet behind him. Throw him into the store room and make the door fast behind you; then fasten a noose about his body, and string him close up to the rafters from a high bearing-post, that he may linger on in an agony." Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said; they went to the store room, which they entered before Melanthius saw them, for he was busy searching for arms in the innermost part of the room, so the two took their stand on either side of the door and waited. By and by Melanthius came out with a helmet in one hand, and an old dry-rotted shield in the other, which had been borne by Laertes when he was young, but which had been long since thrown aside, and the straps had become unsewn; on this the two seized him, dragged him back by the hair, and threw him struggling to the ground. They bent his hands and feet well behind his back, and bound them tight with a painful bond as Ulysses had told them; then they fastened a noose about his body and strung him up from a high pillar till he was close up to the rafters, and over him did you then vaunt, O swineherd Eumaeus, saying, "Melanthius, you will pass the night on a soft bed as you deserve. You will know very well when morning comes from the streams of Ocean us, and it is time for you to be driving in your goats for the suitors to feast on." There, then, they left him in very cruel bondage, and having put on their armour they closed the door behind them and went back to take their places by the side of Ulysses; whereon the four men stood in the cloister, fierce and full of fury; nevertheless, those who were in the body of the court were still both brave and many. Then Jove's daughter Minerva came up to them, having assumed the voice and form of Mentor. Ulysses was glad when he saw her and said, "Mentor, lend me your help, and forget not your old comrade, nor the many good turns he has done you. Besides, you are my age-mate." But all the time he felt sure it was Minerva, and the suitors from the other side raised an uproar when they saw her. Agelaus was the first to reproach her. "Mentor," he cried, "do not let Ulysses beguile you into siding with him and fighting the suitors. This is what we will do: when we have killed these people, father and son, we will kill you too. You shall pay for it with your head, and when we have killed you, we will take all you have, in doors or out, and bring it into hotch-pot with Ulysses' property; we will not let your sons live in your house, nor your daughters, nor shall your widow continue to live in the city of Ithaca." This made Minerva still more furious, so she scolded Ulysses very angrily. "Ulysses," said she, "your strength and prowess are no longer what they were when you fought for nine long years among the Trojans about the noble lady Helen. You killed many a man in those days, and it was through your stratagem that Priam's city was taken. How comes it that you are so lamentably less valiant now that you are on your own ground, face to face with the suitors in your own house? Come on, my good fellow, stand by my side and see how Mentor, son of Alcinous shall fight your foes and requite your kindnesses conferred upon him." But she would not give him full victory as yet, for she wished still further to prove his own prowess and that of his brave son, so she flew up to one of the rafters in the roof of the cloister and sat upon it in the form of a swallow. Meanwhile Agelaus son of Damastor, Eurynomus, Amphimedon, Demoptolemus, Pisander, and Polybus son of Polyctor bore the brunt of the fight upon the suitors' side; of all those who were still fighting for their lives they were by far the most valiant, for the others had already fallen under the arrows of Ulysses. Agelaus shouted to them and said, "My friends, he will soon have to leave off, for Mentor has gone away after having done nothing for him but brag. They are standing at the doors unsupported. Do not aim at him all at once, but six of you throw your spears first, and see if you cannot cover yourselves with glory by killing him. When he has fallen we need not be uneasy about the others." They threw their spears as he bade them, but Minerva made them all of no effect. One hit the door post; another went against the door; the pointed shaft of another struck the wall; and as soon as they had avoided all the spears of the suitors Ulysses said to his own men, "My friends, I should say we too had better let drive into the middle of them, or they will crown all the harm they have done us by us outright." They therefore aimed straight in front of them and threw their spears. Ulysses killed Demoptolemus, Telemachus Euryades, Eumaeus Elatus, while the stockman killed Pisander. These all bit the dust, and as the others drew back into a corner Ulysses and his men rushed forward and regained their spears by drawing them from the bodies of the dead. The suitors now aimed a second time, but again Minerva made their weapons for the most part without effect. One hit a bearing-post of the cloister; another went against the door; while the pointed shaft of another struck the wall. Still, Amphimedon just took a piece of the top skin from off Telemachus's wrist, and Ctesippus managed to graze Eumaeus's shoulder above his shield; but the spear went on and fell to the ground. Then Ulysses and his men let drive into the crowd of suitors. Ulysses hit Eurydamas, Telemachus Amphimedon, and Eumaeus Polybus. After this the stockman hit Ctesippus in the breast, and taunted him saying, "Foul-mouthed son of Polytherses, do not be so foolish as to talk wickedly another time, but let heaven direct your speech, for the gods are far stronger than men. I make you a present of this advice to repay you for the foot which you gave Ulysses when he was begging about in his own house." Thus spoke the stockman, and Ulysses struck the son of Damastor with a spear in close fight, while Telemachus hit Leocritus son of Evenor in the belly, and the dart went clean through him, so that he fell forward full on his face upon the ground. Then Minerva from her seat on the rafter held up her deadly aegis, and the hearts of the suitors quailed. They fled to the other end of the court like a herd of cattle maddened by the gadfly in early summer when the days are at their longest. As eagle-beaked, crook-taloned vultures from the mountains swoop down on the smaller birds that cower in flocks upon the ground, and kill them, for they cannot either fight or fly, and lookers on enjoy the sport- even so did Ulysses and his men fall upon the suitors and smite them on every side. They made a horrible groaning as their brains were being battered in, and the ground seethed with their blood. Leiodes then caught the knees of Ulysses and said, "Ulysses I beseech you have mercy upon me and spare me. I never wronged any of the women in your house either in word or deed, and I tried to stop the others. I saw them, but they would not listen, and now they are paying for their folly. I was their sacrificing priest; if you kill me, I shall die without having done anything to deserve it, and shall have got no thanks for all the good that I did." Ulysses looked sternly at him and answered, "If you were their sacrificing priest, you must have prayed many a time that it might be long before I got home again, and that you might marry my wife and have children by her. Therefore you shall die." With these words he picked up the sword that Agelaus had dropped when he was being killed, and which was lying upon the ground. Then he struck Leiodes on the back of his neck, so that his head fell rolling in the dust while he was yet speaking. The minstrel Phemius son of Terpes- he who had been forced by the suitors to sing to them- now tried to save his life. He was standing near towards the trap door, and held his lyre in his hand. He did not know whether to fly out of the cloister and sit down by the altar of Jove that was in the outer court, and on which both Laertes and Ulysses had offered up the thigh bones of many an ox, or whether to go straight up to Ulysses and embrace his knees, but in the end he deemed it best to embrace Ulysses' knees. So he laid his lyre on the ground the ground between the mixing-bowl and the silver-studded seat; then going up to Ulysses he caught hold of his knees and said, "Ulysses, I beseech you have mercy on me and spare me. You will be sorry for it afterwards if you kill a bard who can sing both for gods and men as I can. I make all my lays myself, and heaven visits me with every kind of inspiration. I would sing to you as though you were a god, do not therefore be in such a hurry to cut my head off. Your own so n Telemachus will tell you that I did not want to frequent your house and sing to the suitors after their meals, but they were too many and too strong for me, so they made me." Telemachus heard him, and at once went up to his father. "Hold!" he cried, "the man is guiltless, do him no hurt; and we will Medon too, who was always good to me when I was a boy, unless Philoetius or Eumaeus has already killed him, or he has fallen in your way when you were raging about the court." Medon caught these words of Telemachus, for he was crouching under a seat beneath which he had hidden by covering himself up with a freshly flayed heifer's hide, so he threw off the hide, went up to Telemachus, and laid hold of his knees. "Here I am, my dear sir," said he, "stay your hand therefore, and tell your father, or he will kill me in his rage against the suitors for having wasted his substance and been so foolishly disrespectful to yourself." Ulysses smiled at him and answered, "Fear not; Telemachus has saved your life, that you may know in future, and tell other people, how greatly better good deeds prosper than evil ones. Go, therefore, outside the cloisters into the outer court, and be out of the way of the slaughter- you and the bard- while I finish my work here inside." The pair went into the outer court as fast as they could, and sat down by Jove's great altar, looking fearfully round, and still expecting that they would be killed. Then Ulysses searched the whole court carefully over, to see if anyone had managed to hide himself and was still living, but he found them all lying in the dust and weltering in their blood. They were like fishes which fishermen have netted out of the sea, and thrown upon the beach to lie gasping for water till the heat of the sun makes an end of them. Even so were the suitors lying all huddled up one against the other. Then Ulysses said to Telemachus, "Call nurse Euryclea; I have something to say to her." Telemachus went and knocked at the door of the women's room. "Make haste," said he, "you old woman who have been set over all the other women in the house. Come outside; my father wishes to speak to you." When Euryclea heard this she unfastened the door of the women's room and came out, following Telemachus. She found Ulysses among the corpses bespattered with blood and filth like a lion that has just been devouring an ox, and his breast and both his cheeks are all bloody, so that he is a fearful sight; even so was Ulysses besmirched from head to foot with gore. When she saw all the corpses and such a quantity of blood, she was beginning to cry out for joy, for she saw that a great deed had been done; but Ulysses checked her, "Old woman," said he, "rejoice in silence; restrain yourself, and do not make any noise about it; it is an unholy thing to vaunt over dead men. Heaven's doom and their own evil deeds have brought these men to destruction, for they respected no man in the whole world, neither rich nor poor, who came near them, and they have come to a bad end as a punishment for their wickedness and folly. Now, however, tell me which of the women in the house have misconducted themselves, and who are innoce nt." "I will tell you the truth, my son," answered Euryclea. "There are fifty women in the house whom we teach to do things, such as carding wool, and all kinds of household work. Of these, twelve in all have misbehaved, and have been wanting in respect to me, and also to Penelope. They showed no disrespect to Telemachus, for he has only lately grown and his mother never permitted him to give orders to the female servants; but let me go upstairs and tell your wife all that has happened, for some god has been sending her to sleep." "Do not wake her yet," answered Ulysses, "but tell the women who have misconducted themselves to come to me." Euryclea left the cloister to tell the women, and make them come to Ulysses; in the meantime he called Telemachus, the stockman, and the swineherd. "Begin," said he, "to remove the dead, and make the women help you. Then, get sponges and clean water to swill down the tables and seats. When you have thoroughly cleansed the whole cloisters, take the women into the space between the domed room and the wall of the outer court, and run them through with your swords till they are quite dead, and have forgotten all about love and the way in which they used to lie in secret with the suitors." On this the women came down in a body, weeping and wailing bitterly. First they carried the dead bodies out, and propped them up against one another in the gatehouse. Ulysses ordered them about and made them do their work quickly, so they had to carry the bodies out. When they had done this, they cleaned all the tables and seats with sponges and water, while Telemachus and the two others shovelled up the blood and dirt from the ground, and the women carried it all away and put it out of doors. Then when they had made the whole place quite clean and orderly, they took the women out and hemmed them in the narrow space between the wall of the domed room and that of the yard, so that they could not get away: and Telemachus said to the other two, "I shall not let these women die a clean death, for they were insolent to me and my mother, and used to sleep with the suitors." So saying he made a ship's cable fast to one of the bearing-posts that supported the roof of the domed room, and secured it all around the building, at a good height, lest any of the women's feet should touch the ground; and as thrushes or doves beat against a net that has been set for them in a thicket just as they were getting to their nest, and a terrible fate awaits them, even so did the women have to put their heads in nooses one after the other and die most miserably. Their feet moved convulsively for a while, but not for very long. As for Melanthius, they took him through the cloister into the inner court. There they cut off his nose and his ears; they drew out his vitals and gave them to the dogs raw, and then in their fury they cut off his hands and his feet. When they had done this they washed their hands and feet and went back into the house, for all was now over; and Ulysses said to the dear old nurse Euryclea, "Bring me sulphur, which cleanses all pollution, and fetch fire also that I may burn it, and purify the cloisters. Go, moreover, and tell Penelope to come here with her attendants, and also all the maid servants that are in the house." "All that you have said is true," answered Euryclea, "but let me bring you some clean clothes- a shirt and cloak. Do not keep these rags on your back any longer. It is not right." "First light me a fire," replied Ulysses. She brought the fire and sulphur, as he had bidden her, and Ulysses thoroughly purified the cloisters and both the inner and outer courts. Then she went inside to call the women and tell them what had happened; whereon they came from their apartment with torches in their hands, and pressed round Ulysses to embrace him, kissing his head and shoulders and taking hold of his hands. It made him feel as if he should like to weep, for he remembered every one of them.

Book XXIII
Euryclea now went upstairs laughing to tell her mistress that her dear husband had come home. Her aged knees became young again and her feet were nimble for joy as she went up to her mistress and bent over her head to speak to her. "Wake up Penelope, my dear child," she exclaimed, "and see with your own eyes something that you have been wanting this long time past. Ulysses has at last indeed come home again, and has killed the suitors who were giving so much trouble in his house, eating up his estate and ill-treating his son." "My good nurse," answered Penelope, "you must be mad. The gods sometimes send some very sensible people out of their minds, and make foolish people become sensible. This is what they must have been doing to you; for you always used to be a reasonable person. Why should you thus mock me when I have trouble enough already- talking such nonsense, and waking me up out of a sweet sleep that had taken possession of my eyes and closed them? I have never slept so soundly from the day my poor husband went to that city with the ill-omened name. Go back again into the women's room; if it had been any one else, who had woke me up to bring me such absurd news I should have sent her away with a severe scolding. As it is, your age shall protect you." "My dear child," answered Euryclea, "I am not mocking you. It is quite true as I tell you that Ulysses is come home again. He was the stranger whom they all kept on treating so badly in the cloister. Telemachus knew all the time that he was come back, but kept his father's secret that he might have his revenge on all these wicked people. Then Penelope sprang up from her couch, threw her arms round Euryclea, and wept for joy. "But my dear nurse," said she, "explain this to me; if he has really come home as you say, how did he manage to overcome the wicked suitors single handed, seeing what a number of them there always were?" "I was not there," answered Euryclea, "and do not know; I only heard them groaning while they were being killed. We sat crouching and huddled up in a corner of the women's room with the doors closed, till your son came to fetch me because his father sent him. Then I found Ulysses standing over the corpses that were lying on the ground all round him, one on top of the other. You would have enjoyed it if you could have seen him standing there all bespattered with blood and filth, and looking just like a lion. But the corpses are now all piled up in the gatehouse that is in the outer court, and Ulysses has lit a great fire to purify the house with sulphur. He has sent me to call you, so come with me that you may both be happy together after all; for now at last the desire of your heart has been fulfilled; your husband is come home to find both wife and son alive and well, and to take his revenge in his own house on the suitors who behaved so badly to him." "'My dear nurse," said Penelope, "do not exult too confidently over all this. You know how delighted every one would be to see Ulysses come home- more particularly myself, and the son who has been born to both of us; but what you tell me cannot be really true. It is some god who is angry with the suitors for their great wickedness, and has made an end of them; for they respected no man in the whole world, neither rich nor poor, who came near them, who came near them, and they have come to a bad end in consequence of their iniquity. Ulysses is dead far away from the Achaean land; he will never return home again." Then nurse Euryclea said, "My child, what are you talking about? but you were all hard of belief and have made up your mind that your husband is never coming, although he is in the house and by his own fire side at this very moment. Besides I can give you another proof; when I was washing him I perceived the scar which the wild boar gave him, and I wanted to tell you about it, but in his wisdom he would not let me, and clapped his hands over my mouth; so come with me and I will make this bargain with you- if I am deceiving you, you may have me killed by the most cruel death you can think of." "My dear nurse," said Penelope, "however wise you may be you can hardly fathom the counsels of the gods. Nevertheless, we will go in search of my son, that I may see the corpses of the suitors, and the man who has killed them." On this she came down from her upper room, and while doing so she considered whether she should keep at a distance from her husband and question him, or whether she should at once go up to him and embrace him. When, however, she had crossed the stone floor of the cloister, she sat down opposite Ulysses by the fire, against the wall at right angles [to that by which she had entered], while Ulysses sat near one of the bearing-posts, looking upon the ground, and waiting to see what his wife would say to him when she saw him. For a long time she sat silent and as one lost in amazement. At one moment she looked him full in the face, but then again directly, she was misled by his shabby clothes and failed to recognize him, till Telemachus began to reproach her and said: "Mother- but you are so hard that I cannot call you by such a name- why do you keep away from my father in this way? Why do you not sit by his side and begin talking to him and asking him questions? No other woman could bear to keep away from her husband when he had come back to her after twenty years of absence, and after having gone through so much; but your heart always was as hard as a stone." Penelope answered, "My son, I am so lost in astonishment that I can find no words in which either to ask questions or to answer them. I cannot even look him straight in the face. Still, if he really is Ulysses come back to his own home again, we shall get to understand one another better by and by, for there are tokens with which we two are alone acquainted, and which are hidden from all others." Ulysses smiled at this, and said to Telemachus, "Let your mother put me to any proof she likes; she will make up her mind about it presently. She rejects me for the moment and believes me to be somebody else, because I am covered with dirt and have such bad clothes on; let us, however, consider what we had better do next. When one man has killed another, even though he was not one who would leave many friends to take up his quarrel, the man who has killed him must still say good bye to his friends and fly the country; whereas we have been killing the stay of a whole town, and all the picked youth of Ithaca. I would have you consider this matter." "Look to it yourself, father," answered Telemachus, "for they say you are the wisest counsellor in the world, and that there is no other mortal man who can compare with you. We will follow you with right good will, nor shall you find us fail you in so far as our strength holds out." "I will say what I think will be best," answered Ulysses. "First wash and put your shirts on; tell the maids also to go to their own room and dress; Phemius shall then strike up a dance tune on his lyre, so that if people outside hear, or any of the neighbours, or some one going along the street happens to notice it, they may think there is a wedding in the house, and no rumours about the death of the suitors will get about in the town, before we can escape to the woods upon my own land. Once there, we will settle which of the courses heaven vouchsafes us shall seem wisest." Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said. First they washed and put their shirts on, while the women got ready. Then Phemius took his lyre and set them all longing for sweet song and stately dance. The house re-echoed with the sound of men and women dancing, and the people outside said, "I suppose the queen has been getting married at last. She ought to be ashamed of herself for not continuing to protect her husband's property until he comes home." This was what they said, but they did not know what it was that had been happening. The upper servant Eurynome washed and anointed Ulysses in his own house and gave him a shirt and cloak, while Minerva made him look taller and stronger than before; she also made the hair grow thick on the top of his head, and flow down in curls like hyacinth blossoms; she glorified him about the head and shoulders just as a skilful workman who has studied art of all kinds under Vulcan or Minerva- and his work is full of beauty- enriches a piece of silver plate by gilding it. He came from the bath looking like one of the immortals, and sat down opposite his wife on the seat he had left. "My dear," said he, "heaven has endowed you with a heart more unyielding than woman ever yet had. No other woman could bear to keep away from her husband when he had come back to her after twenty years of absence, and after having gone through so much. But come, nurse, get a bed ready for me; I will sleep alone, for this woman has a heart as ha rd as iron." "My dear," answered Penelope, "I have no wish to set myself up, nor to depreciate you; but I am not struck by your appearance, for I very well remember what kind of a man you were when you set sail from Ithaca. Nevertheless, Euryclea, take his bed outside the bed chamber that he himself built. Bring the bed outside this room, and put bedding upon it with fleeces, good coverlets, and blankets." She said this to try him, but Ulysses was very angry and said, "Wife, I am much displeased at what you have just been saying. Who has been taking my bed from the place in which I left it? He must have found it a hard task, no matter how skilled a workman he was, unless some god came and helped him to shift it. There is no man living, however strong and in his prime, who could move it from its place, for it is a marvellous curiosity which I made with my very own hands. There was a young olive growing within the precincts of the house, in full vigour, and about as thick as a bearing-post. I built my room round this with strong walls of stone and a roof to cover them, and I made the doors strong and well-fitting. Then I cut off the top boughs of the olive tree and left the stump standing. This I dressed roughly from the root upwards and then worked with carpenter's tools well and skilfully, straightening my work by drawing a line on the wood, and making it into a bed-prop. I then bored a hole down the middle, an d made it the centre-post of my bed, at which I worked till I had finished it, inlaying it with gold and silver; after this I stretched a hide of crimson leather from one side of it to the other. So you see I know all about it, and I desire to learn whether it is still there, or whether any one has been removing it by cutting down the olive tree at its roots." When she heard the sure proofs Ulysses now gave her, she fairly broke down. She flew weeping to his side, flung her arms about his neck, and kissed him. "Do not be angry with me Ulysses," she cried, "you, who are the wisest of mankind. We have suffered, both of us. Heaven has denied us the happiness of spending our youth, and of growing old, together; do not then be aggrieved or take it amiss that I did not embrace you thus as soon as I saw you. I have been shuddering all the time through fear that someone might come here and deceive me with a lying story; for there are many very wicked people going about. Jove's daughter Helen would never have yielded herself to a man from a foreign country, if she had known that the sons of Achaeans would come after her and bring her back. Heaven put it in her heart to do wrong, and she gave no thought to that sin, which has been the source of all our sorrows. Now, however, that you have convinced me by showing that you know all about our bed (which no human being has ever& nbsp;seen but you and I and a single maid servant, the daughter of Actor, who was given me by my father on my marriage, and who keeps the doors of our room) hard of belief though I have been I can mistrust no longer." Then Ulysses in his turn melted, and wept as he clasped his dear and faithful wife to his bosom. As the sight of land is welcome to men who are swimming towards the shore, when Neptune has wrecked their ship with the fury of his winds and waves- a few alone reach the land, and these, covered with brine, are thankful when they find themselves on firm ground and out of danger- even so was her husband welcome to her as she looked upon him, and she could not tear her two fair arms from about his neck. Indeed they would have gone on indulging their sorrow till rosy-fingered morn appeared, had not Minerva determined otherwise, and held night back in the far west, while she would not suffer Dawn to leave Oceanus, nor to yoke the two steeds Lampus and Phaethon that bear her onward to break the day upon mankind. At last, however, Ulysses said, "Wife, we have not yet reached the end of our troubles. I have an unknown amount of toil still to undergo. It is long and difficult, but I must go through with it, for thus the shade of Teiresias prophesied concerning me, on the day when I went down into Hades to ask about my return and that of my companions. But now let us go to bed, that we may lie down and enjoy the blessed boon of sleep." "You shall go to bed as soon as you please," replied Penelope, "now that the gods have sent you home to your own good house and to your country. But as heaven has put it in your mind to speak of it, tell me about the task that lies before you. I shall have to hear about it later, so it is better that I should be told at once." "My dear," answered Ulysses, "why should you press me to tell you? Still, I will not conceal it from you, though you will not like it. I do not like it myself, for Teiresias bade me travel far and wide, carrying an oar, till I came to a country where the people have never heard of the sea, and do not even mix salt with their food. They know nothing about ships, nor oars that are as the wings of a ship. He gave me this certain token which I will not hide from you. He said that a wayfarer should meet me and ask me whether it was a winnowing shovel that I had on my shoulder. On this, I was to fix my oar in the ground and sacrifice a ram, a bull, and a boar to Neptune; after which I was to go home and offer hecatombs to all the gods in heaven, one after the other. As for myself, he said that death should come to me from the sea, and that my life should ebb away very gently when I was full of years and peace of mind, and my people should bless me. All this, he said, should surely come to pass." And Penelope said, "If the gods are going to vouchsafe you a happier time in your old age, you may hope then to have some respite from misfortune." Thus did they converse. Meanwhile Eurynome and the nurse took torches and made the bed ready with soft coverlets; as soon as they had laid them, the nurse went back into the house to go to her rest, leaving the bed chamber woman Eurynome to show Ulysses and Penelope to bed by torch light. When she had conducted them to their room she went back, and they then came joyfully to the rites of their own old bed. Telemachus, Philoetius, and the swineherd now left off dancing, and made the women leave off also. They then laid themselves down to sleep in the cloisters. When Ulysses and Penelope had had their fill of love they fell talking with one another. She told him how much she had had to bear in seeing the house filled with a crowd of wicked suitors who had killed so many sheep and oxen on her account, and had drunk so many casks of wine. Ulysses in his turn told her what he had suffered, and how much trouble he had himself given to other people. He told her everything, and she was so delighted to listen that she never went to sleep till he had ended his whole story. He began with his victory over the Cicons, and how he thence reached the fertile land of the Lotus-eaters. He told her all about the Cyclops and how he had punished him for having so ruthlessly eaten his brave comrades; how he then went on to Aeolus, who received him hospitably and furthered him on his way, but even so he was not to reach home, for to his great grief a hurricane carried him out to sea again; how he went on to the Laestrygonian city Telepylos, where the people destroyed all his ships with their crews, save himself and his own ship only. Then he told of cunning Circe and her craft, and how he sailed to the chill house of Hades, to consult the ghost of the Theban prophet Teiresias, and how he saw his old comrades in arms, and his mother who bore him and brought him up when he was a child; how he then heard the wondrous singing of the Sirens, and went on to the wandering rocks and terrible Charybdis and to Scylla, whom no man had ever yet passed in safety; how his men then ate the cattle of the s un-god, and how Jove therefore struck the ship with his thunderbolts, so that all his men perished together, himself alone being left alive; how at last he reached the Ogygian island and the nymph Calypso, who kept him there in a cave, and fed him, and wanted him to marry her, in which case she intended making him immortal so that he should never grow old, but she could not persuade him to let her do so; and how after much suffering he had found his way to the Phaeacians, who had treated him as though he had been a god, and sent him back in a ship to his own country after having given him gold, bronze, and raiment in great abundance. This was the last thing about which he told her, for here a deep sleep took hold upon him and eased the burden of his sorrows.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

1. Idi Amin Dada Oumeen (1924, AKA “Butcher of Africa”, “Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea”) who was the military officer and president of Uganda (1971-1979) tortured and murdered almost 100,000 to 500,000 (most source says 300,000) during his presidency in 1972. To secure his regime, he launched a campaign of persecution against rival tribes and Prime Minister’s (Milton Obote) supporters. Among those to die are ordinary citizens, former and serving Cabinet ministers, the chief justice, Supreme Court judges, diplomats, academics, educators, prominent Roman Catholic. Determined to make Uganda "a black man's country", he expels the country's 40,000-80,000 Indians and Pakistanis. "If they do not leave they will find themselves sitting on the fire," He warned. In some cases entire villages are wiped out. Later he left the country with his wives, children, maids and were not allowed to enter the country again. President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, said “He will arrest him if he returns to the country alive but if he dies abroad his body could be brought back for burial.” The Ugandan Government says that he is free to return but would have to "answer for his sins" and would be dealt with according to the law. In the context from Odyssey, the Suitors have respected no man and women in the world, neither rich nor poor. They misbehaved to Telemachus, Penelope, their maids; taking them to bed, etc. Each of them (The Suitors) even wanted Penelope to be their wife. Finally when Odysses saw all this, he killed all the Suitors and 12 maids “…for their wickedness and folly.” Do you think he did the right thing? Well, I think he did not. If anyone who is not innocent towards country, misbehaves elders, should not be given harsh punishment like death penalty which Odysess did in this context. Amin also killed many people, but he was given the permission to be buried in his own country. He was given an opportunity to accept his mistakes and would have given justice accordingly to law. Odyesses should have taken this content more seriously and given them one more opportunity or different punishment (like life time imprisonment, etc). Killing does not helps to be good leader, instead weakens the power of leadership. Now it seems like Odyesses is also a bad person who killed the Suitors for Vengeance.
http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/amin.html

2. We heard about many failed old-fashioned fairy tale, one of them was modern marriage, brought down by anger, tears and adultery. Almost 15 years after the wedding between Lady Diana Spencer and Charles, the Prince of Wales, the consummately incompatible couple announced that they had finally reached an agreement on the terms for their divorce. The agreement gives Diana and Charles equal access to their children, Prince William, 14, and his brother, Prince Harry, 11. They love each other but don’t have faith in each other. They spend their most of the time without each other. Moreover, it seemed that Charles was still involved with another woman (Camilla Parker Bowles), according to British newspaper reports. Diana got depressed making several half-hearted suicide attempts that were widely seen as cries for help. Odyssey and Penelope’s relation was in good shape but little weaken. Both of them were in love with each other even though they haven’t seen each other for 15+ years. When can see the love shown by Odyssey when he said “Do not wake her yet.” to Euryclea. When Euryclea went upstairs to wake her up, she said, “and see with you own eyes something that you have been waiting this long time past.” This clearly shows that Penelope was waiting for Odyssey even though she believed “Odyssey is dead far away from the Achean land; he will never return home again.” She was excited “Then Penelope spang up from her couch threw her arms round Euryclea, and wept for joy.” to listen to this good news. A healthy marriage has good understanding between two people. Neither Odyssey thought about second marriage nor Penelope. Penelope raised Telemachus alone by herself, where Odyssey always wanted to go back to his country, his home and see his wife. Relationship is like a cart. We cannot run with one wheel. Pair is required.

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/13/world/charles-and-diana-agree-on-divorce-terms.html?pagewanted=1
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Online Response #1

Question 1:

I believe that Odysseus murdered the suitors and their mistresses out of vengeance and justice. While he was gone, there was no sign of respect for his home, his wife, his son, or his belongings. Based on this, Odysseus would have been killing them out of vengeance. Odysseus tells Euryclea, the head servant, that "Heaven's doom and their own evil deeds have brought these men to destruction, for they respected no man in the whole world." Therefore, Odysseus is explaining that he has killed these men and women out of justice, for these men had no respect for anyone, and it would be unjust to keep them in the world. This is a lot like the execution of Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein was tried and declared guilty for murdering 148 Shi'ite boys and men in the 1980s, which were retaliatory after they allegedly tried to assassinate him. However, Hussein has allegedly ordered the deaths of tens of thousands, some say millions, of his own people, therefore he was tried for this smaller-scaled infraction, executed because of it, which was justice, but has done much else wrong, so it is also vengeance. The suitors and their wives weren't respectful of Odysseus, so their murder was vengeance, however they weren't respectful to anyone, so it is justice.




Question #2

I think Odysseus and Penelope do have a healthy relationship. Penelope has wanted Odysseus to return for the entire time he was away, which is healthy. In book XXIII Euryclea says to Penelope "for now at last the desire of your heart has been fulfilled; your husband is come home." Although they were apart for 20 years, which is a very extreme circumstance, once Penelope believes that it is in fact Odysseus standing before her, they both seem to love each other very much. Penelope asks that Odysseus tell her about his travels, and Odysseus is honest with her, telling her about his near death experiences and even his infidelities - Circe, and how Calypso kept him in a cave and wanted him to marry her, bestowing upon him immortality, he was still faithful to Penelope and intended to return home to his wife. Odysseus "had" to cheat on Penelope to escape from Circe's grips, and Paul Amato, a professor of sociology at Penn State said "wives are more likely to forgive their husbands if their husbands were not 'in love' with the other woman." Odysseus had to do what he had to do to get home, and he made it home, and his relationship with Penelope remained strong even through his absence, which shows that it is also a healthy relationship.






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homework

Student: Soriba Sylla

1) Most of people, who order the modern- day executions of war criminals, believe that is for justice. The war criminals pass in front of law before getting what the law wants for them. As Levin, Kelvin M. mentions about executions of war criminal:” Executions were not simply designed to carry out punishments and maintain unit cohesion; they provided troops and opportunity to think about the kind of death they wanted for themselves.” (Source: Civil War Times; April 2010, vol. 49)
I don’t see the similarity between Odysseus section killing and execution of war criminal. Ulysses killed suitors because he was angry of them. However, execution of war criminal is effectuated under the law. So, that execution is not for vengeance, but for justice.
The people who order execution of war criminals are enforcing the law up the criminals. So, that execution is processing under the respect of the human right. The criminals have all right to express themselves before their executions and to say good bye to their friends and families. I find that there are people whose job is to prepare war criminals for death. For example “Charles Quintard, who served as a chaplain for the 1st Tennessee Infantry, preparing a soldier for death and urging him to repent and offer final words was extremely important. One "poor fellow" under Quintard's guidance urged him to "cut off a lock of his hair and preserved it for his wife” Levin, Kelvin M. Source: Civil War Times; April2010, Vol. 49 Issue 2, p46-53.
By contrast of Odyssey section, Ulysses killed the suitors without the laws. Well, the suitors behaved badly in Ulysses house. They ate his food, goat and drunk his wine. They even slept with his servants. Also, they wanted to marry his wife. But they didn’t do any killing before. Ulysses executed Suitors for the Vengeance. That makes this section execution different to war criminals’ one.

2) I think Ulysses and Penelope have healthy marriage, because they have been in long time marriage without divorcing, also, no one of them has complained about pain neither healthy problem. Therefore, they are physical healthy. Then, Ulysses is wealthy man. He has a lot of fortune; he is cared about his wife. Therefore, he employed a lot of people as house servants. So I can say that they are mentally healthy too, in their marriage. According to the journal “Recent studies based on longitudinal data have found that getting married (and staying married to the same person) is associated with better mental health outcomes. Waite, Linda J. & Lehrer, Evelyn L. Source: Population & Development Review; Jun2003, vol.29 Issue 2.
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I - According to the article from The World Tribune, in North Korea men are executed if they are suspected to be against their leader Kim Jong-Il.(http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/breaking2453446.086111111.html)
If whether is for vengeance or for justice it is no stated, but in my believe it could be both. Probably it could be depending on their “crime”, a punishment for breaking or obstructing the law, but more as a vengeance for betraying their leader, to prove that he is the only one that is the greater being, and to show the rest of the people that the cost of betraying him could cost your life. Odysseus kills the suitors and the mistresses because he feels that they betrayed him, the leader, the superior being that represent the “country”, that no one shall doubt him and take advantage of his belongings, and his family in his absence.

II - I believe that a HEALTHY relationship is not only when the couple stays together, but also having contact and the sharing of moments, such as happiness, sadness, anger, celebration, ... and so forth. Waiting for someone for twenty years?? I guess is not impossible depending on the belief of the person, but for most people its something impossible. In the Odyssey they are loyal to each other in terms of love, but not in terms of healthy marriage. I have a friend that is in a long distance relationship, but thanks to all the technology that we have they communicate often. After four years they met physically and now they soon will get married, I could comprehend that even far apart but because they can communicate they have a healthy and a prosper relationship, different from Ulysses and Penelope that doesn't have any kind of contact. Another fact to support my opinion is my personal experience of a long distance relationship, in the beginning the distance seemed not to be a problem, waiting for two months was bearable, just for the thought that when we see each other the magic would come back, as time passed, I started to feel that it was not a healthy relationship, many things were missing, each one having different life in different parts f the world, there was no sharing of anything. Even though we didn't fight I believe that even fighting is part of a healthy relationship. I still love him but the relation does not exist anymore. Just part of a good memory.
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question 1

The most recent, highly anticipated/watched execution was of the Iraqi dictator – Saddam Hussein. He was captured during a futile drive for WMD by the US and tried by the US and handed over to his home country for carrying out the execution by Iraqi officials elected by the US. Then president – George Bush mentioned Saddam deserves this for killing hundreds of innocents and breaking human rights laws during his rule. Najeed al-Nauimi, a member of Saddam's defense team said the trial process was biased and timing of Saddam's imminent execution is "political revenge being carried out by the present government."(1) The Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said those who oppose the execution of Saddam were insulting the honor of his victims(1). It sounded more like revenge than justice being served.
Odysseus mentioned of having killed the suitors and their mistresses brutally for vengeance. Even when Leodes begged at Odysseus’s feet to spare his life and pleaded of his innocence, Odysseus decapitated him. He killed all the suitors and then the women of the house who were not loyal to him. The only difference between the executions by Odysseus and that of Saddam are, Odysseus openly shows it to be vengeance, whereas the current Iraqi government can not afford to do that.


(1) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,239783,00.html
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tabassum tayyab

In my view, Odysseus and Penelope had a healthy marriage and a good romantic relationship. For instance, they had secret signs which only the two of them knew, Penelope wanted to make sure of his identity with the help of those signs. Also the fact that Odysseus made their bed from a whole olive tree himself shows how deeply he loved her and regarded their bed to be a sacred nest of love. The longing in their eyes for each other is another illustration of their feelings. I did some research on my next door neighbor – Emily, Emily has a very healthy marriage with Bert for the last five years. She confirmed that only true lovers refer to each other with special names other than the customary - honey, darling, sugar etc. When asked if they had any secret signs, she mentioned they don’t have any; but they do have some gestures and phrases which only the two of them can decipher and know what is being actually meant.
My interview of my cousin Ripa, happily married for 15 years with two kids also confirmed the same facts.
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tabassum tayyab

The most recent, highly anticipated/watched execution was of the Iraqi dictator – Saddam Hussein. He was captured during a futile drive for WMD by the US and tried by the US and handed over to his home country for carrying out the execution by Iraqi officials elected by the US. Then president – George Bush mentioned Saddam deserves this for killing hundreds of innocents and breaking human rights laws during his rule. Najeed al-Nauimi, a member of Saddam's defense team said the trial process was biased and timing of Saddam's imminent execution is "political revenge being carried out by the present government."(1) The Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said those who oppose the execution of Saddam were insulting the honor of his victims(1). It sounded more like revenge than justice being served.
Odysseus mentioned of having killed the suitors and their mistresses brutally for vengeance. Even when Leodes begged at Odysseus’s feet to spare his life and pleaded of his innocence, Odysseus decapitated him. He killed all the suitors and then the women of the house who were not loyal to him. The only difference between the executions by Odysseus and that of Saddam are, Odysseus openly shows it to be vengeance, whereas the current Iraqi government can not afford to do that.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,239783,00.html
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Modern Day Executions & Healty Marriage (No Relation)

I. Modern Day Executions

Odysseus killed the suitors to avenge his honor. His reason for brutally killing the suitors was because they disrespected his house, his son, and his wife. The drank and ate his food, tried to marry his wife while he was away fighting war, and laid with is female servants. He killed the maids because theu will ill to his wife and the nurse, and because they laid with the suitors. Saddam Hussein was executed because of his many crimes against the Iraqi people. They felt that Saddam caused much terror and executed many in the same exact form in which he was killed from.

www.msnbc.msn.com


II. What constitutes a healty marriage?

Do I feel that Odysseus and Penelope have a healthy marriage? I would argue yes. A healthy marriage is based on communication and truthfulness. It is also suppose to be built on faithfulness but that was thrown out the window win Odysseus laid with Circe. Nonetheless, he was still very open and honest with Penelope about his travels and infedelity, "why should you press me to tell you? Still, I will not conceal it from you, though you will not like it. I do not like it myself". "Then he told of cunning Circe and her craft". Marriage is about a partnership, identifying a problem and working through it.
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Odyssey XXI-XXIII

In my opinion, the main reason Odyssey killed the suitors and their mistresses is for vengeance. The suitors tried to take Odyssey’s land and all other treasures belonging to his family. Besides, they took advantage of the women of the cloister. Odyssey clearly explains them the reason of their coming execution: “Dogs, did you think that I should not come back from Troy? You have wasted my substance, have forced my women servants to lie with you, and have wooed my wife while I still was living. You have feared neither God nor man and now you should die.” He is so full of anger when the suitors ask him for mercy on them by saying that he will not stay his hand till he has paid all of them in full. His son, Telemachus, also chooses to not let the women who misconducted themselves die a clean death, for they were insolent to his family. Euryclea, the nurse, brings us to the same point that vengeance drove Odyssey to execute the suitors. When Odyssey sends the nurse to his wife to call her she says: “…your husband is come home to find both wife and son alive and well, and to take his revenge in his own house on the suitors who behaved so badly to him.”

Executions of High Nazi officials also were based upon vengeance. They committed a crime that is still known around the world. Nazis murdered from 15,003,000 to 31,595,000 people total. They occupied territories that didn’t belong to them, rubbed people’s properties, used slaved labor, make medical experiences on alive people, abused and murdered civilians, especially Jews. Most Nazis were absolute racists, they believed utterly in the superiority of the "Aryan" race. People were burned alive, gassed in vans or fake shower rooms, starved or frozen to death, worked to death in camps, or beaten or tortured to death simply because of their race, religion, handicap, or sexual preference. In fact, Nazis had no right to decide who should live and not. All people are born equal!

The suitors and Nazi head leaders committed crimes that cause no other feeling toward them than revenge. The impulse for revenge is natural. People have a desire to see those responsible for crimes hurt the way their victims were. However, the idea of punishment for crime is not just about vengeance. It is also about justice. People must be responsible for their crimes. Therefore, nowadays we have a court system to bring those responsible to justice. However, there are still cases when people execute the criminals by themselves due their religion believes or distrust in a court system. Nevertheless, it is also quite interesting that people do not experience the relief they expect to feel after the execution. Their pain of loss beloved ones is so enormous that even vengeance can’t repair it. Odyssey feels the same dissatisfaction when the execution was over. He reminds the head servant that there is no glory or joy in the execution.

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Odyssey XXI-XXIII

1) The Nanking Massacre, the "Forgotten Holocaust" or "Rape of Nanking" occurred on December 13, 1937 when Imperial Japanese Army invaded the city of Nanking in China and over a six week period murdered and tortured countless civilians whose only crime was being Chinese. "The soldiers raped the women, set people on fire, ripped out beating hearts and took pictures as souvenirs...and enjoyed the power of doing so..". When Odysseus kills the suitors and their mistresses in a cruel remorseless way, he still reminds the head servant that there is no glory or joy in their execution. When the Japanese executed all those innocent people, they found joy in doing so which is disturbing and it was killing the Chinese more for vengeance than justice.
"To this day the Japanese government has refused to apologize for these and other World War II atrocities, and a significant sector of Japanese society denies that they took place at all." The death of Emperor Hiroshito who made all the major decisions, including the one to invade China, was like Gods way of serving justice, because he ordered the troops to commit such horrific crimes. He was pretty much just as responsible for this genocide as Adolf Hitler was for the genocide of European Jews during the Holocaust.

http://www.nanking-massacre.com/
http://executions.justsickshit.com/2008/01/03/1937-mass-executions-of-chinese-at-hands-of-japan/

2) According to the Ohio State University Research Article on Healthy Marriages, some factors that contribute to a healthy relationship are: "Fostering good communication, building trust, resolving conflict in a positive way, paying attention to details of your partner's life, having realistic expectations, having shared values/responsibilities, spending time together and adopting to change." In my personal opinion, the marriage between Odysseus and Penelope is a semi healthy one. Their only problem is that they spent more time apart than together, 20 years of not seeing each other is a long time. The fact that Penelope was loyal, patient and faithful to Odysseus while he was away, shows that they have trust in their marriage. When Odysseus returned and they've shared their life stories and what they've been through while being separated, means that they fostered great communication and are eager to learn more about each others lifestyle. Her understanding of what he has been through and her acceptance of who he is a true indicator of that she loves him no matter what. She is willing to do/give up pretty much anything for him as he is for her. Although their lives are different, they adapt well to the changes that happen in their partners life. All in all they have most of the good marriage qualities and I would say that they seem satisfied and happy together.

http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~news/story.php?id=2401
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Ulysses

Coming home and seeing your family at risk and disrespected brings a thought of doing what ever necessary to bring safety and honor to ones home. Ulysses did that, he killed not because he was at war but because he needed to for the sake of his family. His family was in danger, Antinous ringleader of the suitors wanted to kill Ulysses son Telemachus in order to be chief man of Ithaca. In deed Ulysses did have an option whether to let the rest of the suitors live along with the mistresses. But who knew if there was to be another to plot the death of any of Ulysses family member in return of power and control. Ulysses went ahead and killed everyone he could in order to bring the peace back to his home with great intentions of putting fear into anyone who had thoughts of intent on doing harm to his family. Ulysses felt no glory or joy because these where not honorable people. They were scoundrels to Ulysses they were not worthy of anyone shedding a tear because of their actions and their distrust that has been brought to his home. In Comparison Leaders of the wars such as Adolf Hitler, Sadaam Hussein and many more they where killers and murderers. They felt the need of power and by doing so they killed thousands by executing them. These so called leaders went to war on exterminating people who was innocent and there is no honor in that. In War Crimes Trials it states "they established mechanisms and precedents for dealing with war crimes by formal proceedings rather than by acts of vengeance." So in reality what they did was plan on how to murder all these innocent people in an orderly fashion and saying that they was at war. In contrast to Ulysses he did it to defend and honor his Family.

The relation between Ulysses and Penelope it is of a true romance. The fact that Ulysses was gone for 20 years and still manage to have his beloved wife still in hope of his
return does not only mean the world to a husband, but it shows the infinite love that Penelope has for Ulysses. Nothing was left out of what they spoke to each other everything was said even though it could have hurt the other.
According to ezinearticle.com it says that communication
is the key to a successful relationship. Ulysses and Penelope might not had been together for more
than half their marriage but the fact that nothing was kept a secret it made their marriage work.









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Odyssey XXI-XXIII

1- Most modern-days executions of war crimes falls into one of three categories: Crimes against peace, Crimes against humanities, and traditional war crimes. A clear example of war execution took place after World War II when the Allies procecuted a number of leading Nazi officials at the Nurember Trials for crimes against peace. During this war the Nazis invaded and occupied several sovereign states such as: France, Australia, Poland, etc... Hermann Goring was one Nazi official who was convicted of crimes against peace and humanity. Goring helped plan and carry out the invasions of Poland and Australia and was the one who ordered the destruction of Rotherdam. In my opinion i believe that this was a really coward and unjust act because by destroying Rotherdam at the same time they will destroy the peace of people who lived there. In comparison with odysseus in the book of "Odyssey" I really think that as the Nazi Odysseus also acted in vengeance because when he was absent the suitors never respect Penelope or her son. Also odysseus felt that by not doing anything to them he was dishonoring his own house.

2-It is really hard to say it, but i really think that Penelope and Odysseus have a healthy marriage. Eventhough Penelope had to wait for 20 years the return of Odysseus i still believe the have a healthy marriage because Penelope was loyal and devoted to her marriage. She was a clear example of familial love. Also because there is no doub that Penelope and Odysseus love one another, their intimacy allow Penelope to know things about Odysseus that anybody else knew. She waited over 20 years for her husband and rejected any other man. after Odysseus came back thay still love and trust each other. Based on an article that i read from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services i could say that a healthy marriage consist of understanding, and the acceptance of each other. along with it also the skill of how couples communicate and work together as a team.
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Ulysses and Hitler comparison

Question 1

Adolf Hitler ordered the killing of more than 6 Million Jews between 1939 and 1945 during the Second World War. Even though there is no logical reason for picking the Jews and executing Millions of them, Hitler himself was fully convinced of the validity of his reasoning. To him Jews were just like the suitors in Odyssey, living off somebody else’s wealth. He also reasoned that Jews wanted to steal everything that Germans worked for, their jobs, their money etc. (holocausttimeline.com). The suitors were disrespectful of another’s properties as well “…people who persist in eating up the estate of a great chieftain and dishonoring his house...”
Hitler has the same reasoning as Ulysses; the Jews were taken away property of the Germans. There were of course other reasons as well (the Purification of the German Arian race was the main reason.) According to him, his reason for killing them is just. And according to Ulysses his reason is just as well. In my opinion I can see Ulysses reasoning for just especially when we take into consideration that this was hundreds of years ago. Furthermore Ulysses does not like making a big deal out of the executions even if he sees them as just “…it is an unholy thing to vaunt over dead men. Heaven’s doom and their own evil deeds have brought these men to destruction…” There is nothing that justifies Hitler’s reasoning. Nothing can justify what he has done.

Question 2

Ulysses and Penelope do seem to have a good relationship. She is faithful to him and waits for him for 20 years. She does not seem to be as the “traditional” Greek women who were said to be just interested in sex. She seemed to have been faithful to her husband or 20 years and even when people told her that he was surely dead, she kept on believing that he will return. Not sure what woman nowadays would do that. I do have a feeling though that she also likes his money (“…this house of my lawful husband, so goodly and so abounding in wealth.”) It is also said in the except that she mourned her husband until she cried herself to sleep.
I am not sure if their relationship can be called a healthy one because they have not seen each other for 20 years but when Ulysses comes home he tells her everything that he had encountered and she told him what had happened in her life. It looks like they were able to talk openly about everything.
According to the University of Maryland a healthy relationship is based on trust and two interdependent people. Ulysses and Penelope seem to trust in each other and live interdependent lives. Penelope was living independently for 20 years. They are also interested in each other’s work / adventures and enjoy listening to each other. Penelope also supports Ulysses in whatever he does, even when he kills all the suitors in their house and it means that they might have to leave and live in hiding.
All in all I think that they are very happy together. It’s not necessarily healthy to be a part from each other that long but it definitely proves that they love each other even through the distance.

http://www.umaryland.edu/counseling/selfhelp/marriage.html
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1. Hideki Tojo was a Japanese militarist and a supporter of Nazi Germany. On December 13, 1937 Hideki Tojo leaded his Japanese troop invaded China's Capital Nanking for six weeks. It called "Nanking Massacre" or "Rape of Massacre". According to the statistic that provide by historian, during these six weeks, Japanese soldiers had killed 300,000 Chinese people and raped 20,000 women. They almost killed anybody in the city included civilians, women, and children. They killed people with cruel ways, such as "shooting, stabbing, burning, excavating the heart", cutting down people's heads and hanging on the trees. The Japanese soldiers raped girls and women and killed them afterward. They robbed people's house and burned down the whole city. Hideki Tojo executed by hung after World War II. According to my opinion, Hideki Tojo's execution is justice, because under his rule, his troops had invaded China in a such brutality ways that many people cannot even imagine. His troops killed thousands and thousands of innocent people. His act was inhuman and not acceptable. Compare to Odyssey, he kills the suitors and their mistresses brutally because he wanted to revenge for their dishonor and misconduct to his family. As what Penelope said "suitors who persist in abusing the hospitality of this house because its owners has been long absent". and "they showed no disrespect to Telemachus". Odyssey asks Euryclea who are misconduct and who are innocent in the house and he believe the people with misconduct should be punish by bad end.
http://www.nanking-massacre.com/

2. There are two couples were interview for how to have a "Healthy Marriage". There are few important points they had made which are "having trust, supporting each other, sharing life together, and communication". Base on my opinion, i would say Odysseys and Penelope don't have a healthy marriage because Odysseys and Penelope had separated for twenty years. In these twenty years their marriage is empty. They don't know what each other had been done during twenty years. Penelope doesn't trust her husband will come back. Once they lose trust, there is no way they can supporting each other. They cannot communicate each other, cannot share their happiness and sadness together. Odysseys and Penelope have live their own life for twenty years. They may be would like to share everything but the problem is they don't have chance. However, I do believe they have strong marriage because Odysseys didn't find another wife, and his goal is come back to his own country and own house. Penelope didn't find another husband and she raised their son by herself. Even though they have empty twenty years marriage, i believe after they met, they can still rebuild their healthy marriage, because in their heart they still love and care each other. At the end of story, "she told him how much she had had to bear in seeing the house filled with a crowed of wicked suitors" and "he told her everything about his journey and she was so delighted to listen that she never went to sleep till he had ended his whole story". They are building up what they missing in these twenty years marriage!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5704878576859047873#
http://www.umaryland.edu/counseling/selfhelp/marriage.html
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Saturday, February 27, 2010

Odyssey XXI-XX111

1)The Sentencing and Execution, of Nazi War Criminals, 1946: In November 1945, the group of Nazi leadership including Hitler’s Deputy Rudolph Hess and Herman Goering were waiting for their trial in Nuremberg courtroom. They were 22 of them and each of them was also accused of one or more of four charges; such as pursuing forceful war, abusive to the slaves and brutally murder of 6 million Jews, crimes against peace, war crimes, etc. But the Nazi group were defending themselves saying that they were just following orders and they expected the Judge to overlook all of their acts against humanity. There charges were enormous against the Nazi leadership group and intolerable to absorb. There were enough evidence against them to find guilty; out of 21 of them, 11 were found guilty and were sentenced to death by hanging and the rest received prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life. After the verdict, most of them had mix reactions but they expected the vicious outcome. Now days, justice is varied different ways as we all know that if someone is sent to life in prison because whatever the reason is. This would be extreme because to find justice we can always try to give a second chance or lesser punishment and this way we are also able to set an example. But in Odysseus situation, coming back home after two decades finding about the suitors and their mistresses untrustworthiness and misbehavior towards his wife and family made him so furious that he took away all of their lives violently which he thought was the right thing to do. But killing doesn’t always bring justice and it is not always a good solution of punishment; being a leader or a hero there is a possibility to set up examples to find justice, where vengeance is the least option. No matter how bad things the suitors did, they could have gotten another chance and Odysseus could have set the word justice by not taking action by such a cruel approach and punish the suitors in different way. In both circumstances, the Nazi war criminals and Odysseus’es killing could have been avoided, even though enough evidences were present; there shouldn’t be any pleasure or credit by taking away people’s live and which proves the unfair cruelty towards human..

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/nuremberg.htm

2) In Odysseus and Penelope’s marriage life, the characteristics of healthy marriage are mostly obvious because healthy marriages are based on not only love, trust, honor, understanding, but also with mutual respect and patience for one another and mutual commitment. Being away from each other for a longer period might bring some distance between two couples, but it didn’t happen in Odysseus and Penelope’s life because both of them kept themselves busy by pursuing their responsibilities and time went by to fast. There were loneliness, absence of sex in their life but when it comes to a real healthy marriage where patience and acceptances are there that means the partners never criticize or try to belittle the other person. Odysseus and Penelope had a strong bond in their relationship that the gap of many years in between them never mattered, they both were loyal to each other, physical needs did not take a very important role in their devoted marriage life. Sacrificing for good reasons always pay us back which happened in Odysseus and Penelope’s life. Finally they got to get together and they shared by telling their stories which brought them more closely than ever. There are lots of things came between two of them while Odysseus was away, but their strong connection of feelings, trustworthiness, and mutual respect for each other kept them in a well-built relationship which can be referred as a healthy marriage.

According to Dr.K.R.Mansoor Ali in his writing Marriage - A Psychological Approach states “how a mature/healthy relationship can be built where is the ability of giving is there and also it is achieved through personal maturity”. Comparing this statement with in Odysseus and Penelope’s life style, the base of that they had built for their conjugal life is everlasting which becomes obvious when Odysseus comes back, then him and Penelope shares about their unending love.

http://www.similima.com/pm7.html

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Odyssey XXI-XXIII

Question 1:

Odysseus was a great Greek hero. He exhibited the characteristics of a hero. He showed his strength, courage, intelligence and his leadership abilities. After reading the Odyssey obook, I have questions in my mind: Does Odysseus always make correct decisions and does the right things? Does a hero never have any regrets? The book XXII reveals the theme of the death and bloodshed, the slaying of the suitors. In my opion, this is just like the Nazi massacred the Jewish or the murder Saddan Hussein made to the Shias which is cruel and sinful. However, Odysseus is different, modern history indentify Nazi and Saddam was hanged in Iraq in 2006 by his own people. Ironically, he is the dictator who created then it was deatroyed by America.

Http://www.alternet.org/world/46093
Base on the fact, I would say justice somthime might be the excuse of the fight, killing or war. Justice is the better word for person or group interest and the judgment will suggest which fact the winner wants people to know.



Question 2:

The marriage between Odyseeyes and Penelope is not heathy since they had lived apart for 20 years. In the past 20 years, they had no communication with each other, and they couldn't share
any happiness and sadness together. When there difficulties, they faced and solved them by themselves but not together. Other than that, "Laughter is a requirment of any satisfying life. Laugh with a partner is part if the cement that can keep you together for a lifetime. Never stop doing things together for fun." Yes, this is true. No matter how fifficult and serious our lives gets at times, we should never stop doing thing together for fun. This is the import way to keep our marriage health. However, can Odyseeyes and Penelope to have a healthy marriage by having fun, communicating to their partner? Nope, this is pity! Even Penenlope is the greatest mother who took care of the children on her own, and refused all the suitors. It is still not a healthy marriage. Base on the theory of Futris, "Spending time together, building trust, sharing values, sharing respinsibilities are the indicators of the relationships." http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/

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In this modern day execution, there has been the case of Hideki Tojo, the Prime minister of Japan who planned the bombs in Pearl Harbor in 1941 has been sentenced and executed by hanging on December 23, 1948, for he was committed of fighting against China, America, France (Indochina), Netherlands, and British. He was classified of class A criminal against the peace, and he accepted what he has done hurting the lives of Japanese and others. From my point of understanding, Tojo understood his result of winning the war and the consequences of losing it, so his execution is the justice because many men lives has been perished because of his waving wars. In part of Odysseus, his action for killing suitors and mistresses was to revenge for the pain that his family has suffered. These suitors invaded his house partying, drinking wines, sleeping with other mistress, and specially hurting the feeling of Penelope, his wife. They questioned about whether Odysseus alive and acted as if they were the owners of Odysseus’s house. They treated Penelope as a property that they can claim by fighting. Those arrogant acts of suitors were no more than humiliating the Odysseus, so he exterminated them to pay off what they did.

Odysseus and Penelope’s love is a wonderful ideal of marriage, for Penelope’s commitment with her husband overcomes the influences other men’s power and lustful thoughts. Moreover, Penelope restrains her deep love passion and checks whether that is her real husband when she first sees Odysseus again after twenty years far apart by keeping a distance and asking question, for she loves her husband too much. However, that ideal love is too much in complex American society right now. Once time, Americans value marriage as their American dreams in which life, liberty and perusing of happiness can be fulfilled; however, now that notion is defined as culture of divorce, which individual deliberation is life without blinding commitments. We now see marriage as an obstacle, confiding, and oppressive, for the couple finds themselves unhappy or incompetent with each other creating conflict in the marriage. Based on my Sociology class that I taking right now with the book “You may ask yourself”, it stated that intimacy relationship is the built up of mutual dependence. If one partner overpowers the other, the marriage will be fall apart just like slave and masters.

http://www.americanvalues.org/html/r-marriage_in_america.html
http://www.trial-ch.org/en/trial-watch/profile/db/legal-procedures/hideki_tojo_17.html
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Question 2

Ulysses and Penelope have a healthy marriage. They communicated with each other (he told her everything he had gone through including the prophesy he wanted to hold back from her), they cared for each other (the way they held each other when Penelope realized it was Ulysses. And how they caressed each other the whole night long), and they were faithful to one another (Penelope did not "misbehave" with the suitors or any other man, Ulysses did not accept the wedding offer from the nymph Calypso.)

In the American Physcological Association website there are nine physcological task for a good marriage, some I can say were fulfilled by Ulysses and Penelope. (limitations in determining whether the others apply because we don't have a detailed story of their marriage.)

Task 1 -"Build togetherness based on a shared intimacy and identity..." Ulysses and Penelope had this togetherness based on intimacy. When Telemachus reproached Penelope for not believing the stranger was Ulysses she said, " we shall get to understand one another better by and by, for there are tokens with which we two are alone acquainted, and which are hidden from all others."

Task 2 - "Nurture and comfort each other...offering continuing encouragement and support." Penelope supported Ulysses in the prophecy given to him by Teiresias. She helped him look on the bright side of this prophecy by pointing out that the Gods secured that he would be happy in his old age.
http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/marriage.aspx
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Question 1

The Nuremburg trials, consisting of 11 sub trials, were held against Nazi leaders from the years of 1945 - 1949. The Chief prosecutor, Robert Jackson, sought to bring justice to the war criminals on behalf of the U.S. In his opening statement he made clear that it was not a mere fact of vengeance but a valiant effort of many powerful countries to bring justice. Some where executed, others sentenced to life in prison, and other were acquitted.


Ulysses and the prosecutors in the Nuremburg trail have one thing in common, they used execution to punish the wrong doers. In regards to really seeking justice, as in the Nuremburg trials, I believe Ulysses uses justice as a cover up for his vengeance. He makes a point that he is doing justice when he tells the servant there is no glory in their deaths but, yet he has no mercy on those who forcefully contributed to the wrong of the suitors. I.e. He had no mercy on Leiodes who didnt agree with the suitors behaviors. In the case of Phemius and Medon, they were saved, because Telemachus pleaded for their lives.



http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/Jackson.htmlcrimesthey -- Robert Jacksons opening statement

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/subsequenttrials.html -- The Nuremburgs verdicts
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Odyssey XXI-XXIII

1. In 1945 Irma Grese was hanged for her participation in Bergen-Belsen. Irma was a Senior supervisor from 1943 at the age of 19 years old. She committed crimes against Polish and Hungarian Jews. Irma Grese at the time was in charge of 30,000 women who she abused physically and emotionally. Some of her abuse was beating and shooting prisoners, savaging of prisoners by her trained dogs, selecting prisoners for the gas chamber, etc. Just to name a few of the charges brought against her at her trial. Irma was put on trial along with many other war criminals by the Britians. Irma Grese was later sentenced to death by hanging(execution) where she later tried to appeal but was denied. Those ordering the execution did not give reasons for her sentence but merely looking at the evidence that was brought against her by witnesses. Since we know in today's society that mistreatment or ill treatment of any human being is subject to a sentence then we can say that this sentence was one for justice and not revenge. In Odyssey's reading you find that Ulysses reasons for the killing of the suitors and their mistresses was one of justice for all that has happened within his home and land while he was away. Even though the reading might not have went into details about the suitors behavior but it must have been extremely intolerable and in that Ulysses decided to take action. Justice in my terms is setting the record straight between two parties.

http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/irma.html

2. Odysseus and Penelope's relationship based on the reading seems to be healthy marriage. I carefully observed Penelope's reaction and even her emotions to her husband's absence for 20 or more years. One of the couples that i would use is my parent's Mr. & Mrs Anglin have been married for over 53 years. I observe my parents to see how they react to absence and even other major problems that a marriage can come in contact with. In the Bible one of the scriptures that is founded in the book of Mark 10:9, "What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." This simply relates to the relationship that Penelope and Odysseus, they have been through alot as a couple and even though the suitors wanted to come between and destroy the marriage that they have it was still difficult to do so at the time, because of the connection that they have from being married.
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Odyssey

1. Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s president from 1979 to 2003 tortured and murdered thousands of innocent Iraqi people who somehow disagreed with his politics. It was believed that he ruled with an “iron fist” and kept his country divided according to the people’s ethnicity and religious beliefs. However, his actions were actions of a despot; nothing could impede him from punishing those who opposed his government. In 1988, one of the regions of Iraq carried a campaign against the Kurdish population in northern Iraq with the purpose to reassert Iraq’s control over that territory. The real goal of the movement was permanent elimination of the Kurdish problem. The campaign during which about 200,000 Iraqi troops attacked the area was comprised of eight stages. The inhabitants of the village were divided into two groups. Men from 13 to 70 were brutally murdered and thrown into the mass graves. The other group was consisted of women, children and elderly; they were sent to selection camps. Those who dared to resist were murdered at the spot. As a result of the massacre, hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled the area. Yet it is estimated that up to 182,000 Kurds were slaughtered during the “campaign”. (www.topics.nytimes.com)
Saddam Hussein explained his atrocious act by the fact that the county needed a tough ruler. Furthermore, referring to Kurdish village massacre, he declared he would not tolerate any disloyalty.
When Ulysses returned from his long journey and found out his house full of disloyal and carless suitors eating his food, drinking his wine and engaged in immoral actions with their mistresses, he punished them severely: Ulysses killed all of them. In my opinion, both cases are similar as the major reason of Saddam Hussein’s killings and Ulysses’ punishments was disloyalty and betrayal. This “forced” them to respond to the problem by taking steps that they considered necessary; in particulate they referred to execution and punishment. However, it has neither joy nor glory in it. Yet it justifies their unjust brutality.
2.
Throughout the story, there is no reason to say that Penelope is guilty of something or she has done anything wrong to hurt her marriage. She is raising her children without their father and she does not have an affair with anyone even though her husband has been gone for twenty years. In my opinion, their marriage would be healthy if it were possible for the two of them to be together. Otherwise, if two people are living apart, their marriage cannot be called healthy. Penelope is a great example of a loyal woman who is not seeking for physical pleasures (sex); instead she is protecting her marriage. For the time period when Penelope and Ulysses were separated, her love to her husband was somehow “platonic” because it lacked physical interactions between the two.
Dr. Charles and Elizabeth Schmitz, in their award-winning book Building a Love That Lasts, try to give some recommendations how to sustain a long-term marriage based on love. They define the core elements of such marriage, and loyalty, mutual respect, integrity and the time spent together fall in this category. In our case, although some of the key components such as loyalty and mutual respect are present, sexual relationship has been absent for more than two decades. And according to the psychological evolution by J.F.Nisbet, sexless marriage can lead an individual to depression and loneliness.
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Thursday, February 25, 2010

★★★★★★★☆★★

1. In 1948, Hideki Tojo was sentenced by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) of hanging (www.china.org.cn/english/features/135371.htm) due to his war crime during World War II. Tojo was a Japanese Militarist who shared similar ideas with the Fascists, and committed massacres and invasions in more than 10 Asian countries, as well as attacked the Pearl Harbor Incident in Hawaii. Therefore, most people believe that the execution was for justice; yet, his followers "retained his ashes and built Yasukuni Shrine" for Tojo and some other Class A criminals. At this point, Tojo had a different after-life experience than those suitors: Tojo was hanged with his entire body, and his ashes were living in a shrine; some suitors were cut into piece, and all suitors’ corpses were disregarded. However, on the other hand, Tojo and the suitors share a trait: they resist and “fight.” Tojo "shut himself before being caught" in order to escape from the hanging, though he was rescued (www.executedtoday.com/2008/12/23/1948-hideki-tojo-and-six-other-japanese-war-criminals/); as Eurymachus advocated, “He will ... shoot us down till he has killed every man among us. Let us then show fight,” the suitors fought for their final hope.

2. I would say Odysseys and Penelope have a good and moral marriage, but absolutely not a healthy one. It is moral because both of them are loyal to their marriage, especially Penelope. Ancient Greek literature endows women a sexual image, which argues that they only care about sex, but Penelope raises the children by herself, takes care of their home, refuses any suitor’s proposal, and endures loneliness. In fact, Penelope had already showed her loyalty when she is asked to choose stay by Penelope or her parents, as Robert Bell states, “She did not answer but merely dropped her veil over her face; this signified that she would follow her husband” (P348, Women of Classical Mythology). Furthermore, the marriage is not healthy. Scott Gardner, Kelly Giese and Suzanne Parrott point out according to the experiment they did that, a positive and satisfied marriage at least should include "proper attitudes, communication, and sex" (P521-527, Evaluation of the “Connections: Relationship and Marriage” Curriculum); nevertheless, odysseys and Penelope are impossible to communicate and have sex during that missing 20 years.
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Tuesday, February 2, 2010

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