"[...] Odysseus doesn't have to be grieving at all, in either of the epics, no? He's all sparkly-eyes and manipulative."
Er, not quite. A man who spends almost ten years trapped on an island, yearning for his homeland doesn't strike me as quite the same 'sparkly-eye[d]' Odysseus of the Illiad. He's in a situation where all his wiles avail him naught, and his patron goddess appears to have abandoned him.
In fact, the Odyssey is pretty specific about Odysseus' emotional state every single day he stays on Calypso's island: endless tears streaming down his face as he stands his daily lonely vigil by the sea, facing the direction of Ithaca.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-01-27 03:43 pm (UTC)Er, not quite. A man who spends almost ten years trapped on an island, yearning for his homeland doesn't strike me as quite the same 'sparkly-eye[d]' Odysseus of the Illiad. He's in a situation where all his wiles avail him naught, and his patron goddess appears to have abandoned him.
In fact, the Odyssey is pretty specific about Odysseus' emotional state every single day he stays on Calypso's island: endless tears streaming down his face as he stands his daily lonely vigil by the sea, facing the direction of Ithaca.