Acts of Hubris - "The Odyssey" Book 17 by Homer

Stephen Alexander Beach

Book 17 picks up with Telemachus going into town to the palace from out in the swineherding fields and returning from his trip. When Telemachus returns he tells his mother to offers prayers and sacrifice for revenge, while he goes to pick up a friend Theoclymenus, the seer, that he brought with him. His friend Piraeus aided Telemachus and is going to keep the treasure from Menelaus and Helen at his home for sake keeping. 

"Theoclymenus - Descendent of the seer Melampus, son of seer Polypheides, and himself a seer. In Homer's Odyssey he is a fugitive from Argos, having killed a man, and Telemachus gives him safe passage from Pylos to Ithaca. Here he predicts that Odysseus is not far away and is devising punishment for the Suitors. Later he solemnly warns the Suitors themselves of their impending deaths ... But the Suitors pay no attention and simply mock the seer." (Cassell's 740) 

Telemachus brings Theoclumenus back to the house and they wash up and eat. Then Telemachus tells Penelope of his "odyssey," so to speak in encountering Menelaus and Helen and the word he heard of his father, stuck on an island without way home. The seer then adds a prophecy that Odysseus is home in native soil plotting revenge. 

Hubris in Ancient Greece

In Ancient Greece "hubris" is more literally "violent arrogance" and is certainly one of the attitudes that the gods do not tolerate. It will end in your torture and death. Hubris is to think that one is equal to or greater than the gods, and will not be allowed. Think of Ajax laughing at the gods after he survives a crazy storm on the sea. "Ajax, now, went down with his long-oared sleet. First Poseidon drove him onto the cliffs of Gyrae, looming cliffs, then saved him from the breakers - he'd have escaped his doom, too, despite Athena's hate, if he hadn't flung that brazen boast, the made blind fool. 'In the teeth of the gods, ' he bragged, 'I have escaped the ocean's sheer abyss!' Poseidon heard that frantic vaunt and the god grasped his trident in both his massive hands and struck the Gyraean headland, hacked the rock in two, and the giant stump stood fast but the jagged spur where Ajax perched at first, the raving madman - toppling into the sea, it plunged him down, down in the vast, seething depths. And so he died, having drunk his fill of brine." (Bk 4 560 -575) 

Act of Hubris - Melanthius 

While this is going on Eumaeus, the swine herder and Odysseus set from the farms into town. On the way they encounter Melanthius, Odysseus' goat herder, who begins to verbally abuse Odysseus. Not only that but he kicks Odysseus, trying to send him flying off the path (and kill him? It was just mentioned that the path was dangerous). 

"Melanthius ('Black') - In the Odyssey, Melanthius is the son of Odysseus' old and faith servant Dolius. He is Odysseus' goatherd on Ithaca, but unlike the swineherd Eumaeus and the cowherd Philoetius, both of whom remain faithful to their master, he betrays him and sides with the rapacious Suitors, as does his sister Melantho. He insults and kicks Odysseus when he comes home disguised as a beggar, and even after he learns his master's identity, he tries to help the suitors by bringing them weapons in the final, fatal battle. Eumaeus and Philoetius tie him up and leave him locked in the storeroom, then when all the suitors have been massacred, they punish him for his treachery by cutting off his nose, ears, hands, feet and genitals, and throwing them to the dogs. He is left to die." (Cassell's 490, 491) 

Here is his disgusting insult: "'Look!' - he sneered - 'one scum nosing another scum along, dirt finds dirt by the will of god - it never fails! Wretched pig-boy, where do you take your filthy swine, this sickening beggar who licks the pots at feasts? Hanging round doorposts, rubbing his back, scavenging after scraps, no hero's swords and cauldrons, not for him. Hand him over to me - I'll teach him to work a farm, muck out my stalls, pitch feed to the young goats; whey to drink will put some muscle on his hams! Oh no, he's learned his lazy ways too well, he's got no itch to stick to good hard work, he'd rather go scrounging round the countryside, begging for crusts to stuff his greedy gut! Let me tell you - so help me it's the truth - if he sets food in Odysseus' royal palace, salvos of footstools flung at his head by all the lords will crack his ribs as he runs the line of fire through the house! ... 'Listen to him!' the goatherd shouted back. 'All bark and no bite from the vicious mutt! One fine day I'll ship him out in a black lugger, miles from Ithaca - sell him off for a good stiff price! Just let Apollo shoot Telemachus down with his silver bow, today in the halls, or the suitors snuff his life out - as sure as I know the day of the king's return is blotted out, the kind is worlds away!'"

While Odysseus controls his anger, Eumaeus prays for the gods justice on Melanthius. Melanthius then quickly goes and slips in with the Suitors, who are his friends. When Eumaeus and Odysseus arrive at the palace, Eumaeus goes in while Odysseus stays out at the gates. There he sees his old dog, Argos, who was once an animal of pride and is now brought low to laying on heaps of dung, sick and about to die. "But the moment he sensed Odysseus standing by he thumped his tail, nuzzling low, and his ears dropped, though he had no strength to drag himself an inch toward his master. ... But the dark shadow of death closed down on Argos' eyes the instant he saw Odysseus, twenty years away." 

Once they are inside, Telemachus has Odysseus go beg from the suitors for food (certainly a test of the suitors). Melanthius speaks up and calls out Odysseus as the beggar he saw. 

More Acts of Hubris - The Suitors

Antinous, in an incredibly ironic act of hubris calls our Eumaeus for bringing Odysseus into the palace. "Haven't we got our share of vagabonds to deal with, disgusting beggars who lick the feasters' plates? Isn't it quite enough, these swarming crowds consuming your master's bounty - must you invite this rascal in the bargain?'" 

"Antinous - In Homer's Odyssey, Antinous is the ringleader of the Suitors, the young men who have invaded Odysseus' house in Ithaca during his long absence, carousing at his expense and hoping to marry his wife Penelope. They all behave outrageously, but Antinous is the most brutal and insolent of them all. He is the instigator of the plot to kill Telemachus. Later, when Odysseus comes to the palace disguised as an old beggar, Antinous strikes him with a footstool and incites the genuine beggar Irus to fight him. He is justifiably Odysseus' first victim after the stringing of the great bow. ... In the pitched battle that follows, Odysseus and his three allies massacre the rest of the Suitors. Antinous' father, Eupeithes, is the leader of the Ithacans who attack Odysseus and his allies in an unsuccessful attempt to avenge their sons' deaths." (Cassell's 104) 

Telemachus puts Antinous in his place, but Antinous takes a stool and throws it at Odysseus, hitting him in the shoulder when Odysseus points out the irony of Antinous criticizing the beggar for asking for another man's food when Antinous is not even eating his own food! And so Odysseus and others condemn him saying, "But if beggars have their gods and their Furies too, let Antinous meet his death before he meets his bride!" ... "that was a crime, to strike the luckless beggar!" and "Your fate is sealed if he's some god from the blue. And the gods do take on the look of strangers dropping in from abroad - disguised in every was as they roam and haunt our cities, watching over us-". 

This is a key point that is continually made, that guests, even beggars, and those in need are sacred and should be welcomed. You don't know who your guests are that show up at your house, they could even be the gods themselves in human form, and so to act with such pride as to harm a guest and treat him with such malice and death threats is to offend the gods as well. Even Penelope recognizes and speaks out about this shameless act. "'May Apollo the Archer strike you just as hard!' And her housekeeper Eurynome added quickly, 'If only our prayers were granted - then not one of the lot would live to see Dawn climb her throne tomorrow!'" She calls Antinous "black death itself." 

And so Penelope wants to summon the beggar and give him a warm welcome and ask of news of Odysseus. Odysseus says to wait into the halls are clear in the night of the suitors, and so Eumaeus heads back to the farm for the night.