A guest (friend, stranger, or famed visitor) arrives in an unknown land and is met with a king’s welcome, showered with food and drink, welcomed as a friend – it is a familiar and repeated scenario in Homer’s epic, The Odyssey. In book 4, however, the situation is repeated with a fatal twist. When Agamemnon reaches the safety of land at last, Aegisthus greets him by “Picking the twenty best recruits from town / he packed them in ambush at one end of the house, / at the other he ordered a banquet dressed and spread / and went to welcome the conquering hero, Agamemnon, / went with team and chariot, and a mind aswarm with evil, / Up from the shore he led the king, he ushered him in – / suspecting nothing of all his doom – he feasted him well / then cut him down as a man cuts down some ox at the trough!” (Book 4, ll. 595-602).
Homer’s repetition of the scenario of men’s warm reception to guests of all kinds underscores the extreme importance, almost sanctity, of hospitality to the Greeks. A horrible story even if it were to stand alone, the heinous episode of Agamemnon’s visit to Aegisthus is magnified because it is a stark exception to the pattern. Aegisthus welcomes Agamemnon into his home, lavishes him with a great feast, then finishes with murder rather than dessert.
Homer’s use of repetition (and deviations in the pattern) of examples of Greek hospitality places the story of Aegisthus’ murder of Agamemnon, his guest, into cultural context. This cultural lens opens the door to recognition of the event’s intended significance.
--Carly Turner
Professor Anderson always makes me laugh when she mentions the men doing their usual: eating meat, getting bathed, singing songs. Carly's example of how the pattern is disrupted is such a noticeable event, and one that I find very poignant.
ReplyDelete"A horrible story even if it were to stand alone, the heinous episode of Agamemnon’s visit to Aegisthus is magnified because it is a stark exception to the pattern. "
ReplyDeleteI liked this point because it showed that Homer used repetition to establish a pattern so that he could BREAK that pattern and thereby affect the reader.