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The hospitality/violation of hospitality theme continues, as does the HEAVY FORESHADOWING with Aegisthus stories being repeated: "Aegisthus killed him over dinner, just as a person kills an ox at manger."

Helen tells the story of Odysseus sneaking into Troy dressed in rags - she recognized him but didn't betray him, and he killed a bunch of Trojans on his way out, which she approved of. This is BEFORE the horse. Small spoiler... ... ... ... ... ... You can see why they left this out of the movie.

Great bit when Athena in the guise of Mentes offers a prayer to the gods - and the text notes that she makes it all come true herself, ha ha.

Then Telemachus lays into the suitors, telling them Zeus is gonna punish them and they're gonna die right here! A pretty clear echo of Zeus saying he warned Aegisthus, setting up these suitors as jackasses who couldn't take a divine hint and deserve what they have coming.

Intrigued by this scene for 3 reasons: 1. Penelope has multiple slaves. 2. The song talks about Athena cursing the Greeks - but now she's helping Odysseus. 3. Telemachus, pumped up by Athena to seize his destiny, now acts like a jerk to his mom. No one's really coming off great!

Telemachus is a real dick when you first see him talk to Penelope! She's mourning, complaining about a song someone's singing about how Athena cursed the journey of the Greeks coming home from Troy, and he basically says quit whining. "It is for men to talk, especially me. I am the master."

lol from her first convo with Telemachus, Athena's intentions are crystal clear: "You need Odysseus to come back home and lay his hands on all these shameless suitors!" You get the impression that the poet telling the story knows that everyone knows the story already. The pleasure's in the telling.

Lot of attention to everyday details here that I'd forgotten. Athena's golden sandals and bronze-tipped spear; the suitors on hides, playing checkers; Telemachus sitting on a "chair of inlaid wood"; a whole lot more. And very specific actions for everyone. Really setting the scene every time.

And then she immediately pivots to "But I am agonizing about Odysseus and his bad luck." Maybe she does think Aegisthus deserved it - she ends up facilitating Odysseus killing all the Aegisthus-like suitors, after all. But it comes off like flattering the old man to get him on your side lol.

Bit that made me laugh: when Athena first approaches him, Zeus is scoffing at mortals who complain about gods, saying the gods WARNED Aegisthus not to court Clytemestra and kill Agamemnon! Aegisthus had it coming! And Athena says "Father, he did deserve to die. Bring death to all who act like him!"

Athena's plan is to get Hermes to tell Calypso to let Odysseus go. Meanwhile, she'll go to Telemachus, get him to stand up to his mother's suitors and then sail off to seek word about his father's fate/whereabouts. And then she does all that - mostly in the guise of Mentes.

The real-time plot is driven entirely by Athena, who decides Odysseus has suffered enough and tells Zeus they should let him come home. Zeus is like, yeah, I always liked that dude; he sacrificed to the gods! But Poseidon hates his guts! How do we get around that? And Athena has a plan.

Okay, three books in (a book is a chapter)! And it's totally the Athena/Telemachus show so far. Intrigued by the starting point - the Trojan War's long over and Odysseus (we are told; we don't see it) has been languishing, forgotten, with Calypso. Lots of spoilers in the first few pages lol!

Read just a few pages of the intro & the translator's note, which both seem great, but they're long and I'm eager to dig into the text. I'll go back & read 'em later. I do like that Wilson says she chose to actually make the translation verse and have it be the same number of lines as the original.

Okay, Emily Wilson, you pulled me in! I'm reading your translation of the ODYSSEY, first time I've read this poem since college. Let's see how it goes...

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oh by the way! if you're planning to go watch The Odyssey and would like a bathroom break, I'd recommend going at the point at which the gang encounters the big fellas in the forest, there's around two minutes there of not-very-plot-relevant fighting, bit early in the film but better than nothing

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oh my god lol