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Sadra Marie Bowie Mindi Vogel World Lit. 3 March 2014 The culture of ancient Greece was very different from our own. Many actions that we consider everyday would horrify the Greeks, and much of what was considered a social norm in their time is thought to be appallingly barbaric now. In situations such as the slaughter of Penelopes suitors by Odysseus, we are likely to find him merciless and inhuman. However, to the Greeks, he was acting in defense of his honor, and as such, his behaviour was not merely considered excusable, his massacre of the suitors was regarded as the only correct way for him to respond to the situation. Due to the cultural differences between the Greeks and ourselves, it is difficult in a modern setting to view the brutal methods employed by Odysseus and Telemachus as heroic. We are constantly being told of horrific tragedies through media. Due to this overexposure to calamities, we have an intrinsic aversion to the violence seemingly considered so commonplace by the Greeks. This means that when Odysseus and Telemachus, "bind Melanthius' hands and feet behind him (...) then fasten a noose about his body, and string him close up to the rafters from a high pillar, that he may live on in agony,"(304), we're horrified. The inhumanity of the torture is, to us, earth-shakingly heartless. To them, however, Melanthius deserved no better than his fate. He had, after all, "done much wrong on [Odysseus'] lands and in [his] house"(301), and was considered an abhorrent traitor rather than someone worthy of mercy. Despite the pain that Melanthius experienced, however, a still more brutal scene is to follow: in

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the end of book twenty-two, the maids who have slept with the suitors are forced to clean up the area where the suitors have been slaughtered, after which all of these women are murdered. Obviously, in 2014, it is difficult to say that Telemachus and Odysseus made the right decision. It becomes even more difficult to say that they were correct when you consider that the women were going to be run through with swords, a gruesome but at least honorable way to die, but were refused a clean death because they were insolent to me [Telemachus] and my mother [Penelope], and used to sleep with the suitors(312), and therefore were hung. As difficult as it is to look at this combination of psychological torture and physical violence as acceptable, we must remember that, from a Greek standpoint, these women had behaved in ways that meant that they deserved to die. They had, essentially, been fraternizing with the enemy, and as such, were traitors to the king and his family. Does this make it okay that twelve women were murdered? Not to us. However, we must recognise that the culture of the Ancient Greeks was very different from ours and that even if we are completely horrified at the seemingly mindless eradication of human life that occurs throughout the last few chapters of the Odyssey, we ought to realize that whether we view what was was done in those situations as acceptable or not, they deserve respect. This is not to say that we should take on those beliefs and cultural norms as our own, or even that we should act as if we find them to be right. What it does mean, however, is that we need to respect the Greek culture and try to understand why they glorified murder in defense of personal honor, even though it is hard to view the methods utilized by Odysseus as heroic.

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Works Cited Homer. The Odyssey. Ed. Cynthia B. Johnson. New York: Pocket, 2005. Print.