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By Hyginus's account, Odysseus never forgave Palamedes for ruining his attempt to stay out of the Trojan War. When Palamedes advised the Greeks to return home, Odysseus hid gold in his tent and wrote a fake letter purportedly from Priam. Thus Palamedes was accused of treason and stoned to death by the Greeks.

been thinking about this audio a lot LMAO. rip my guy

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putting on the bullshitting face

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Elite moments in the Odyssey

A curated selection of my favorite details in this silly epic that changed storytelling forever. Homer is hilarious.

- Whenever anyone asks Odysseus where he’s from and he seizes the opportunity to lie continuously for several pages.

- Victims of his elaborate, entirely false backstories include: the cyclops, the suitors, the swineherd, the goddess Athena (who immediately calls bull), his son, his wife, and his father. Odysseus just loves lying

- Every time Athena makes Odysseus hotter and taller so he can rizz someone up

- His brilliant strategy to survive Charybdis’ whirlpool (cling to fig tree “like a bat”)

- When Telemachus casually drops that he is well aware that Mentor is actually Athena and she pretends not to hear and continues to act like she’s just some guy

- When Odysseus falls asleep while the Phoenicians give him a lift home, and instead of waking him when they reach Ithaca, the sailors just pick up the corners of his blankets to dump him on the shore and leave

- Odysseus subsequently waking on a random beach and spending several pages violently confused until Athena, slapping her forehead, has to appear to tell him what’s going on

- Penelope’s weaving and unweaving of the tapestry to get out of marrying the suitors. it’s so stupid that it’s brilliant

- When Odysseus goes to the land of the dead and Achilles and Patroclus appear together <3

- That time Odysseus and Athena sit down on a rock together to plot and scheme etc

- When the maid who raised Odysseus recognizes the gigantic scar he used to always brag about and he grabs her by the neck and tells her to shut the hell up. Elegant elegant man

- Odysseus’s dog who stayed alive for over 20 years so he could lay eyes on him before dying on the spot

- Every time someone says bro you’re kind of hot for a beggar and Odysseus says yeah I know right?

- When Circe was like oh dude I can’t kill you? Guess I’ll sleep with you

- “‘You bitch!’ retorted the ready-witted Odysseus”

- Penelope later calls this maid a bitch too

- When Odysseus avoids competing in the Phoenician games until one of the Phoenicians calls him weak and lazy. so he thoroughly wipes the floor with them

- The sheer number of boats Odysseus crashed

- The sheer number of times Odysseus started sobbing in public

- When one of the Suitors smacks beggar Odysseus with a stool and it takes everything in him to not go insane on them

- Every time Odysseus anonymously gasses Odysseus up

- And last, but not in any way least, the Trojan horse plan. We all know it. We all love it. But take a step back and think for a moment how delightfully absurd it is

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warrior of the mind

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epithets

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They're so married your honor

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the royal family,,,

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that one couple from Greece

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These days I find myself thinking a lot about Odysseus' relationship with the divine (I listened a lot to "Warrior of the mind" and "My Goodbye" so that explains it)

I remembered a beautiful book, "La mente colorata" (The colorful mind) by Pietro Citati. The author explains that in the generations before the Trojan War, gods and men lived side by side. They fought, challenged each other, mated...

With the heroes of the Trojan War, however, we see a change. Only a few, only the most special, have direct relationships with divinity. Of course, some are deceived by dreams (Agamemnon), others are betrayed at the last moment in battle (Hector), and in general everyone is subjected to the will of the Olympians, who sometimes instill strength (Diomedes) and other times can lead to madness (Ajax). But some, only the most special, can address them directly and receive an answer. Only a few have the privilege of seeing the gods, of recognizing them when they are in front of them, without being deceived by their disguises. Among these I'd say the most relevant are the two demigods (Helen and Achilles of course) and two mortals (Odysseus and Diomedes).

Odysseus in particular has one of the most extraordinary relationships with Athena. He sees her and speaks to her, she advises and reassures him throughout the war. This is why I find it incredibly heartbreaking that in the ten years that separate him from Ithaca, Odysseus complains that he can no longer hear her. He speaks to her but she no longer responds and Odysseus does not understand why, he cannot believe it. When he finally sees her again, now that he has arrived in Ithaca, he is incredulous, he cannot help but ask her why she abandoned him for so long. She answers in an almost awkward way in our eyes: she explains that it was to not disrespect her uncle Poseidon, but assures him that she has always watched over him and his family. Then Odysseus asks why she did not warn his loved ones that he was alive and intending to return. Here too, Athena's answer is evasive.

Honestly, I think everyone can read what they want into this episode, but I personally recognize the coldness and distance of the gods. Being their favorite does not ensure any salvation, because the gods are easily distracted, they lose interest. The fight for the survival of mortals can never be more than a source of entertainment for them, even when they love the players. The Greek gods can be sweet and terrible at the same time.

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Diomedes:Do you ever wanna talk about your son Achilles ? Achilles: No Odysseus:I do Diomedes:I know, Odysseus Odysseus:I am the father of Telemachus Diomedes:I know Odysseus

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Sketch

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Posting my various Telemachus doodles here as well!!🤲

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Hi fellow compatriot😁👋

I find it very funny that Palamedes is a character clearly only created to make Odysseus look bad.

There is no trace of him in either the Iliad or the Odyssey, but at a certain point he appears out of nowhere in later sources and the authors start attributing literally everything to him! It starts with the unmasking of Odysseus' madness and the embassy to the Trojans, then he is added to the expedition to find Achilles, and at a certain point it is decided to shit outside the potty and the most absurd things are attributed to him: the invention of dice, the invention of writing, of weights and measures, of checkers, of numbers, of sentinels.

All this fuss just to be able to say: Palamedes was cool and Odysseus killed him, what an asshole.

But since I hope you will get on board with me on the train of hatred for Palamedes, I will remind you of another thing that has been attributed to him: Epipola was a woman who fought in the Greek army disguised as a man, and who had enlisted to save her father. Palamedes discovered her, denounced her to the army and had her stoned. Even Achilles was disgusted by that.

That's why of the 200 versions of Palamedes' death I prefer the one where he himself is stoned. Karma, some may say.

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telemachus: would you still love me if i was a worm

peisistratus: … yes?

telemachus: ok follow up question. would you still love me if i asked you to break the customs of xenia and just drop me off at my ship

peisistratus, sighing: my dad is gonna be so pissed [swerves chariot around]

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I find it very funny that Palamedes is a character clearly only created to make Odysseus look bad.

There is no trace of him in either the Iliad or the Odyssey, but at a certain point he appears out of nowhere in later sources and the authors start attributing literally everything to him! It starts with the unmasking of Odysseus' madness and the embassy to the Trojans, then he is added to the expedition to find Achilles, and at a certain point it is decided to shit outside the potty and the most absurd things are attributed to him: the invention of dice, the invention of writing, of weights and measures, of checkers, of numbers, of sentinels.

All this fuss just to be able to say: Palamedes was cool and Odysseus killed him, what an asshole.

But since I hope you will get on board with me on the train of hatred for Palamedes, I will remind you of another thing that has been attributed to him: Epipola was a woman who fought in the Greek army disguised as a man, and who had enlisted to save her father. Palamedes discovered her, denounced her to the army and had her stoned. Even Achilles was disgusted by that.

That's why of the 200 versions of Palamedes' death I prefer the one where he himself is stoned. Karma, some may say.

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Just to be clear, my source is always the Odyssey by Homer, not Epic the musical (unless it is specified)

I seriously need people to understand that Penelope didn't wait for Odysseus for twenty years because social expectations dictated it, or because she was expected to be a faithful wife even untill she died.

Actually it was exactly the opposite: her father wanted her to remarry, some of the women wanted her to remarry, her son made her understand that if she took another husband and left home he wouldn't stop her. And at a certain point she recounts that before leaving for war Odysseus had told her that if he were to die, she could remarry whoever she liked (making sure first that Telemachus would take the throne without problems).

I need people to understand that Penelope's choice was entirely personal. She didn't remarry because her love for Odysseus had never abandoned her, because she knew that with no one else could she find that complete identity of thought and mind, that homophrosyne that she had with him.

It was not the choice of a woman who was modest and trapped by the expectations of her time. It was the choice of a woman who was freer and more independent than others, who preferred to remain without the protection of a man rather than resign herself to not having HER man.