So I have thoughts about the Ithaca Saga that just will not leave my mind. I originally wanted to include them when I would get around to posting Ithaca Saga art, but alas I cannot wait any longer (ironic, I know).
First of all, some general thoughts: I am endlessly fascinated by the idea that Penelope and Odysseus' love runs so deep despite them (to my knowledge) having been apart for much longer than they actually knew each other. It seems that Odysseus was about Telemachus' age when he left for war, so about twenty years old. But he and Penelope couldn't have been acquainted, much less married since birth, right? Which means, again, their time together must have been rather short compared to the time they spent forcibly separated.
Similarly intriguing is the thought of Telemachus longing to meet, loving and being loyal without fault to a man - his father - whom he does not even remember. Sure, Penelope probably made sure he had a lively image of who Odysseus was before he left, but still. To me, this actually says a lot about how much Telemachus trusts his mother: He has unfaltering faith in her word that his father is a man who will come back no matter what, and equally importantly, a man worth waiting for no matter how long he takes. Telemachus just takes her word for it, and when Odysseus finally returns, fights alongside him, trusting deeply that now this great hero he has looked up to all his life will help him finally make things right.
Now about the actual songs: my thoughts on The Challenge are pretty much summed up with these first two paragraphs, but I would like to add one charming little detail that always sticks out to me: Never once does Penelope call Odysseus her old husband; She cleverly conceals this by still mentioning "her husband" and "old" in the same sentence, but the "old" only ever refers to the bow he left behind.
I don't really have anything for Hold Them Down, but the song Odysseus gets me excited again.
Is it not possible that, underneath all the terrible fury and rage Odysseus feels towards the suitors (these feelings only deepening as he hears about their horrible intentions), he is maybe a little bit relieved? Because as awful, as much of a nuisance and as much of an actual threat as they are, their mere presence proves that Penelope has persevered? That she has decided to stay loyal to him for all this time, and that she fought tooth and nail to hold these violent, powerful men off for twenty years? Even if she could never know for certain when and whether he would come back at all? Maybe he is even a little bit proud of her?
I Can't Help But Wonder: A very sweet song, and many have interpreted the part of Odysseus and Telemachus in ways that I can only be grateful to have read. However what interests me most is the Athena and Odysseus part. This part finds Athena admitting that after all this time, she can finally see a world in which kindness stands a chance against cruelty, and offering him a way out of his crimes by putting the weight of his decisions on her and her morals she taught him instead. Maybe she even feels something akin to remorse for raising him so in the first place. But Odysseus vehemently denies her now changed world view and clings to the idea of Ruthlessness that he has come to accept as inevitable; He does however try to take the blame away from himself (and maybe by extension from Athena?), stating that it is the world that forces him (and has forced her) into this cruel mindset. To me, this reads as him feeling guilt for all that he has done. And refusing to accept that in the pursuit of his goal, he has neglected to think about what comes after he reaches Ithaca. He even goes as far as to say that only an immortal goddess with many centuries to come could ever make a change in the world as he knows it know, placing his doubts and refusal of guilt on her once again. (I am not satisfied with the wording of this part... I do hope it is not just incoherent nonsense, but I might edit it in the future.)
Finally, Would You Fall in Love With Me Again, one of the most beautiful songs I have ever had the pleasure to listen to. Where do I even start.
So Odysseus enters Penelope's room knowing that she has fought off 108 men for 20 years in hopes to eventually reunite with him, but he also knows she did it with the man in mind that he was 20 years ago. He knows he has changed, and he does not know what to expect from her, because he also remembers her as the woman she was 20 years before. Naturally, he is more than a little bit nervous. When she turns to him, he notices she sure looks different from when they had last seen each other, and she promptly voices the same about him. Possibly she has even started to forget what he looks like? So how can she, after all these years, be sure that this is really him? The illusion that they could just go on where they last left off is thus thoroughly shattered within their first few moments reunited.
Odysseus, as much as he dreads it, knows he must (and also wants to) be clear to Penelope about what he has done these past two decades, to give her a fair chance to reevaluate what she thinks and thought about him. He warns her that he is not who she assumes he is.
Penelope, I imagine, interprets the situation a little bit differently: She is a bright woman, surely she has noticed there has been no talk, no attempt at peace between the suitors and her husband before the massacre began. And she must also be aware that no one besides her son fought alongside him - at least Eurylochus and Polites would have been expected to be by his side, right? I am convinced she knows he has changed - if only by nature of having to have survived in a sea full of ancient monsters and ruthless gods; I assume she is not quite aware of him sacrificing his men at this point yet. But I think she is asking him about something else in this moment: When she sings, with suspicion in her voice, "What kinds of things did you do?", I think she is asking him, "Have you been unfaithful to me? Have I been holding out for you more than you have held out for me? Was all this I have endured for nothing?" And so I think she is maybe even a little bit relieved when he tells her about the atrocities he has committed to come back - specifically because he wanted so deeply to return to her.
I truly cannot begin to imagine what she feels as she moves on to her final question, her final test: When she inquires about the wedding bed, is she still testing whether it really is her husband? Is she trying to indeed prove to the man himself that he is still the one she fell in love with back then? Does she want to root out any last doubts she has herself?
Or is she possibly even annoyed that he assumes he has to ask for her love anew? Is she a little bit angry that he insults her intelligence because he thinks she believes he survived on this ocean full of monsters for 20 years on kindness alone? Does she feel hurt because he assumes her love is not strong enough to stand this test of time and patience and change? Or maybe she feels all of the above and that is why it bursts out of her when she finally yells at him that yes, she does still love him, no, she did not stop for even a second, and yes, he still has kindness in him and the man he was before he left?
The bit about her shutting up his talk about her having waited for this different, better version of him ("I know that you've been waiting, waiting for love) by simply answering "No, I've been waiting for you, whatever that may entail" has been put into far better words by many people before me, but I still want to point it out because I think about it a lot :)
Most of this has probably been expressed by far more eloquent folks before, and these ideas are probably much more obvious than I may think... Keep in mind also that I have never read the Odyssey, so if any of this is explored or mentioned in the source material, then I'm sorry, I guess, and thank you for still reading to the end :)
