Eumaeus, a swineherd, servant, and loyal friend of Odysseus, provides insight into the Greek view of fate and one's station in life. Even though Odysseus and Telemachus treat Eumaeus with kindness and respect, Eumaeus is clearly below their station in life--in his eyes and theirs. As it turns out, however, Eumaeus originally belonged in the upper classes: he was kidnapped--pirated away--from his upper class family when a child and bought from his captors by Laertes, Odysseus' father, and he then became part of the servant class. When Odysseus hears Eumaeus tell the story of how he arrived in Ithaca, Odysseus' reaction is not to express horror that Eumaeus has been placed in the "wrong" social station but that Eumaeus should be happy because he has always been treated well as a servant. This seems at first to be an incongruous reaction, but it is in keeping with the Greek belief system: Eumaeus is where he is because the Gods and Fates placed him there, and it is not mankind's right to alter his fate in any material way.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
The statement "Development policy needs to be about poor people, not just poor countries," carries a lot of baggage. Let's dis...
-
"Mistaken Identity" is an amusing anecdote recounted by the famous author Mark Twain about an experience he once had while traveli...
-
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
De Gouges's Declaration of the Rights of Woman was enormously influential. We can see its influences on early English feminist Mary Woll...
-
As if Hamlet were not obsessed enough with death, his uncovering of the skull of Yorick, the court jester from his youth, really sets him of...
-
In both "Volar" and "A Wall of Fire Rising," the characters are impacted by their environments, and this is indeed refle...
No comments:
Post a Comment