Villain with a Thousand Faces

     Well, we made it.  The grand finale, the big finish, the climax of Homer's entire Odyssey.  And it's a bunch of unarmed people getting slaughtered inside a locked room.
     Okay, they're not ALL unarmed by the end, but it still seems as if Odysseus steps a little out of line towards the end there.  Killing in cold blood even those who begged for mercy, torturing Melanthius, and murdering all the "disloyal" women (after he forced them to carry their lovers' bodies out) does not seem especially heroic.  It honestly seems more like something the villains of a story would do, or even something out of a horror movie.  Even those who get a relatively good death, dying in combat with a weapon in their hand rather than cowering at your attacker's feet, are still cut down ignominiously.  For instance, Amphinomous's death is described as glorious, but he is still stabbed from behind by Telemachus as he attempts to engage Odysseus.  Those who don't even get that kind of "courtesy," like Antinous, are killed while they are unarmed, perhaps while they're barely aware they are even in danger.
     Throughout the entire story, we have been continually preoccupied with perspective.  When Odysseus was actually telling the story of his wanderings, we had to take his words with a grain of salt.  He clearly was coloring his narrative to make himself look good, and undermine the validity of his opponents.  Even now that the poem is again about him, I think there is still a great amount of bias in the telling of the story.  Perhaps we need to take a moment to consider the other side of things.
     Imagine things from the majority of the suitors' perspectives.  Sure, for those ringleaders whose offenses were the most egregious, they couldn't really expect anything better from Odysseus coming home.  But those who were already having their doubts, such as Amphinomous, really get kind of screwed over.  After the first several deaths, the suitors offer to surrender, return home, and even send tribute back to Odysseus as reparations.  But he refuses, and kills even those who beg for mercy.  For the serving women he murders, all they did was make the best out of a bad situation, in what was probably a less than fortunate life to begin with.
     It's always interesting to consider the perspectives of minor characters in any story, and can even be comedic at times.  But in the Odyssey, many of these alternate perspectives give Odysseus an at best entitled and unreasonable appearance, and at worst make him almost the villain of a horror story.

Wait and See

     In class over the last few days, we repeatedly touched on the question of whether Telemachus was a hero in the literary sense.  For the most part, these discussions were premised upon the first five books of the poem being, in essence, a separate story, of which Telemachus would be the hero.  Obviously we cannot use evidence from anywhere beyond that as none of us have read that far (you know, probably), but perhaps it would be beneficial or even required to do so.  Telemachus's heroism, though a basis is laid for it at the beginning, would have to be affirmed and legitimized by his actions later in the book.
      I think that basically everything that Telemachus has done so far is merely part of the call to adventure, and his journey has not yet begun.  Athena comprised the greatest portion of the call, and Telemachus went through trying to reject it with his initial reluctance and then his uncertainty in himself later on.  However, as yet all he has done is travel around, be treated royally as a guest, and ask people questions.  Even more contrary, his questions have all had to do with when/if his father, a proven "hero," will return and take care of things for him.  While it is true that he has been becoming more of the prince that he is supposed to be, I would argue that this is still just becoming "ordinary life" for him - this is almost something he should have been doing all along, and will continue to do once life returns to normal.
     Rather than his heroism or lack thereof being already proven, I think that what happens in later chapters will truly define the answer to the question of whether Telemachus is a hero or not.  If the suitors waiting to ambush him are driven off or defeated by an outside force, if Telemachus simply returns home to await the return of his father, if Odysseus handles the suitors single-handedly, I would call Telemachus's bid at being a hero of his own story over.  If, however, Telemachus deals with the ambush himself, if he takes action even before his father's return, if he figures as a player and not merely a spectator after Odysseus's return, then perhaps he is a hero after all.
     Interestingly, if Telemachus does what we must do to identify him as hero or mere character, he is probably the latter.