This document analyzes Homer's Odyssey and how it depicts the transition from the old world order of war and piracy to a new order of justice and established economies. It argues that Odysseus must fully reclaim his identity as a warrior and master of his household in order to complete his journey home. His violent acts of slaughtering the suitors and disloyal servants serve to purge his household of threats and establish his rule, thereby spearheading the transition to the new just order blessed by Zeus.

1. Julie Metzler
Final Paper
PHIL 150
Homer presents a paradoxical situation for Odysseus in The Odyssey; to return home
from the war, Odysseus must completely change who he is, from courageous warrior to lord and
master of his home. Odysseus’s journey to re-establish his home before he can truly return home
symbolizes the establishment new world order in all of Greece, an economy of justice and
markets, vastly different from the old, war-torn piracy that previously riddled the land. Homer
uses The Odyssey to show that a new order comes solely through the blood of, and built on the
cooling remains of, the old order. Justice is established through injustice and difficult choices on
the part of those who would lead, as Odysseus does.
One of Odysseus’s most significant choices in The Odyssey is his choice to remain mortal
and leave Ogygia instead of taking Calypso up on her offer to stay with her as an immortal.
Odysseus outright declines Calypso’s offer saying,
I long-I pine, all my days-/to travel home and see the dawn of my return/ And if a god
will wreck me yet again on the wine-dark sea/ I can bear that too, with a spirit tempered
to endure./ Much have I suffered, labored long and hard by now/ in the waves and wars.
Add this to the total-/bring the trial on! (OD 5.242-247).
Odysseus is telling Calypso that no matter what suffering lies ahead of him, which she has
warned him is coming if he leaves Ogygia, he would rather leave and experience the suffering
just to get back home. This is significant because Odysseus actively chooses to embrace his
mortality and suffering. It is important because Odysseus’s value systems are exposed-he cares
more about being around other people who can witness his greatness than he cares about the
eternal life that immortality brings. This immortality that Odysseus is chasing relies on the
presence of other people who will spread tales of Odysseus’s prominence-which will carry his

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name on in history. Odysseus’s chosen immortality is a vestige of the war-driven world of The
Iliad, remnants of which are also shown in Telemachus’s visit to Sparta, Menelaus’s kingdom.
Menelaus welcomes Telemachus and Pisistratus to his home, inviting them to eat and
drink-staying as long as they desire, as well as giving Telemachus the most precious gifts from
his treasure trove.
Help yourselves to food, and welcome! Once you’ve dined/ we’ll ask who you are. (OD
4.68-69). Stay on in my palace now with me,/ at least till ten or a dozen days have
passed./ Then I’ll give you a princely send-off-shining gifts,/ three stallions and a chariot
burnished bright-/ and I’ll add a gorgeous cup. (OD 4.660-664).
Menelaus’s focus on generosity and hospitality come from the past ways of displaying one’s
wealth in Greece. Unlike modern times, to show wealth, the Greeks gave away their wealth to
prove that they have enough to give. Menelaus welcomes Telemachus into his house without
even knowing who he is, even during a wedding celebration, and after he discovers
Telemachus’s patronage, he gives Telemachus the best gifts that his stocks can supply. This is a
foil for the struggle Telemachus is facing at his own home-the new order of home life versus the
hospitality ideals of the warlords of The Iliad. Another foil for the changing standards of
hospitality is the barbaric standards of Telepylus, the land of the Laestrygonians.
The Laestrygonians initially appear to be traditionally hospitable; Artacia inviting
Odysseus and his crew into her father’s halls for a meal. However, as soon as the crew reaches
the palace, the Laestrygonian queen grabs one of the crew, tears him apart, and eats him. The rest
of the Laestrygonians follow her lead and “speared the crews like fish/ and whisked them home
to make their grisly meal” (OD 10.135-136). Unlike Menelaus’s welcome for Telemachus:

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which was complete with a meal, an offer to stay with him living in luxury, and a veritable
treasure of gifts-the Laestrygonians bait Odysseus’s crew with a meal to bring them in, and then
slaughtered them. This demonstrates the difference between the ideals of hospitality of the war-
ridden Greece changing into the principles of peaceful Greece. Hospitality is no longer prized
above all other virtues, self-preservation and egocentricity reign supreme, as shown when the
Laestrygonians rip apart Odysseus’s crew instead of welcoming them and feeding them, as
Menelaus does for Telemachus. The vestiges of the past are fading; Ithaca displays this shift in
philosophy best.
Odysseus arrives back on Ithaca after twenty years of war and perilous journeys home in
an odd manner; in fact, he is dropped on the island still sleeping. When he awakes, Odysseus
does not recognize his home, both due to the fact that he has been gone for so long, and more
importantly, because Athena has placed a mist around Odysseus so she could change his
appearance for his protection. Odysseus exclaims in despair:
Man of misery, whose land have I lit on now?/ What are they here-violent, savage,
lawless?/ or friendly to strangers, god-fearing men?/...damn those lords and captains,/
those Phaeacians!.../ Sweeping me off to this, this no-man’s-land, and they,/ they swore
they’d sail me home to sunny Ithaca-well,/they never kept their word. (OD 13.228-241)
Odysseus is angry at the Phaeacians because he thinks they found an island and dropped him off
there instead of on Ithaca as they had promised. Little does he know, he is already on Ithaca.
This is significant because despite having been gone for twenty years, Ithaca is still Odysseus’s
home, and he has no idea that he is back. This signifies Odysseus is physically home on the
island of Ithaca, but not mentally and spiritually home yet. Odysseus needs to reclaim his home

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and title before he is fully home. Odysseus figures out where he is, with the help of Athena, but
he does not go straight to his palace, because he knows that to reclaim his title is more than
merely walking into the palace and proclaiming his return to Ithaca.
Before Odysseus can march into the palace and reclaim his land, he must first get rid of
the suitors who plague his household and determine who is still loyal to him and his line of
descendants. Odysseus even tells Telemachus that before telling anyone else that Odysseus had
returned to Ithaca, they need to:
Assess the women’s mood/ and we might test a few of the serving-men as well:/ where
are the ones who still respect us both,/ who hold us in awe? And who shirk their duties?-/
slighting you because you are so young. (OD 16. 337-341).
Odysseus is telling Telemachus of his plan to scout out the general feelings of loyalty in the
servants and weed out the disloyal ones. His goal is to discover who respects and follows
Telemachus, despite his age, due to his status as Odysseus’s son, and who would be willing to
fight with Odysseus against the suitors once he reveals himself to be Odysseus, and not an old
beggar. This is due to the fact that Odysseus knows that he needs support from people other than
his son and Athena to defeat all the suitors. Also, he needs to re-establish order-which was lost
when he was presumed dead and all the suitors moved in for their chance to marry Penelope. To
reinstate this order, Odysseus needs loyal servants to fight with him, and also to know which
women to make an example of once he reclaims his rightful place as master. All of this spying
and deception leads up to violence, which is Odysseus’s tool to set up a new order with him as
the head.

5. Julie Metzler
Final Paper
PHIL 150
Odysseus must perpetrate extremely violent acts to re-establish himself as the lord and
master of Ithaca. Not only does he slaughter all of the suitors, with the help of Telemachus,
Eumaeus-the loyal swineherd, and Philoetius-the loyal cowherd, but Odysseus also hangs the
maids who slept with the suitors, and rips off Melanthius, the goatherd’s genitals, feeds them to
the dogs, and chops off the goatherd’s hands in a fit of rage. However, all this violence serves the
greater purpose of establishing the new order that Odysseus is spearheading. This new order is
not one of war and piracy in which there is no justice, only life and death; prosperous because of
the treasure taken from those who have died opposing the wealthy. The new order is one of
justice and established rules in which kingdoms are safe and not raiding other kingdoms for
profit, but trading and prospering together. The war logic is giving way to make room for a
market economy in which there are established kingdoms, with kings to rule them, instead of
many different households all having a say and stake in the land. However, for the new order to
be established, the ways of the old order, war and violence, are needed. Odysseus utilizes his
skill in battle to defeat all the suitors, purge his household of those who would threaten his rule
as king and establish his right to rule for all time. Zeus blesses this transition, telling Athena to
stop Odysseus from killing the fathers of the suitors:
Now that royal Odysseus has taken his revenge,/ let both sides seal their pacts that he
shall reign for life,/ and let us purge their memories of the bloody slaughter/ of their
brothers and their sons. Let them be friends,/…Let peace and wealth/ come cresting
through the land. (OD 24.533-538).
Zeus is not only blessing Odysseus’s rule of Ithaca for his remaining lifetime, Zeus is
commanding Athena to go down to earth and make sure that this new rule is instated in place of
the “bloody slaughter”. He is commanding that they all be friends instead of constantly in a state

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of fear that their neighbors would attack them, and that peace spread though the land by way of a
new system of rule, one that will not repeat the mindless slaughter of the suitors and disloyal
servants. In this way, Odysseus establishes a new order, on the bones of the old one.
This new order Odysseus institutes in The Odyssey is in direct contrast with the one
Achilles lived in during the Trojan war in The Iliad. Achilles and Odysseus are faced with
similar conditions in which they have a different relationship to the normal human condition:
knowing that they will die. Achilles knows that he has two set fates to choose from, and
Odysseus has the opportunity for eternal life. Both opt into the immortality through fame, but for
different reasons. Homer uses both Odysseus and Achilles to examine what it means to be
human. The Iliad presents a world in which it is human not only to be aware that death is the
final destination for all humans, but being fully human is also to have courage-being aware that
death might be at hand in battle and taking the risk anyway. The Odyssey presents a world in
which riches and wealth are prized-courage is a thing of the past; to now be human a person is
aware of their impending doom and hoards all their treasures to become more rich and live more
lavishly until their inevitable passing. Achilles reflects one sense of humanity-having courage
and killing Hector, knowing he will die soon after. Odysseus reflects the other sense-destroying
all in his path until he reaches his goal and reconquers his land, as well as establishing his rule of
the kingdom. Both men live on through history with a fame-driven immortality which is what
both were searching for-a way to be remembered.
“Rage-Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles” (IL 1.1). So begins
Homer’s epic, detailing the rage of Achilles; a hero born to a mortal father and an immortal
mother, forever setting him apart from his Achaean brethren. However, it is not simply Achilles’
blood status that renders him apart from his comrades. Unlike any other fighter-who are not

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aware of how, when, and where they are destined to die-Achilles is explicitly aware of his fate,
or rather, two fates, both of which he ultimately desires, but cannot pursue. This cognizance not
only gives Achilles a unique and mania-filled perspective on the definition of fairness and
equality in battle, but also transforms from a gift to a curse as the time to choose a fate grows
nearer. Achilles’ rage stems from this knowledge, and the ever-approaching day when he cannot
sit passively by, but instead must select a path to follow for the rest of his life. The
transformation of Achilles from the rage filled and never willing to go into battle Achilles, to the
Achilles who is accepting of his fate and wanting the battle to finally be over for him can be
attributed to his active choice to die in battle, and his acceptance of this mortal fate after
witnessing his own death-in the form of Patroclus wearing his armor. Mortal fate, which is the
certainty of death, is called into question and examined in The Iliad; Achilles’ position being
used as a foil to shed light upon the human relation to death
The rage of Achilles, the central point of book one, is not as simple as it appears to the
untrained eye. Agamemnon forcibly takes Brises, Achilles’ war prize, but that is not the source
of the godlike anger that Achilles displays-rather, it is the outlet Achilles has chosen to use to
exhibit his frustration so as not to lose face in the eyes of his peers. This can be observed when
Achilles calls out Agamemnon for never joining the fray of battle, saying:
You lack the courage, you can see death coming./ Safer by far, you find, to foray all
through camp” (IL 1.268-269).
Agamemnon’s refusal to fight mirrors Achilles threat of rejecting to go into battle; calling
Agamemnon a coward for staying in camp would contradict what Achilles is doing, if the source
of his rage was truly the loss of his prize. Instead, this gives an insight into where Achilles is

8. Julie Metzler
Final Paper
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mentally, showing that Achilles has a different, better, reason for not fighting. Also, Achilles
rebukes Phoenix for telling him to recall the tale of Curetes, a warrior who chose to rejoin the
battle, but too late to receive any honors. Achilles points out that “my honor lies in the great
decree of Zeus” (IL 9.741) truly showing that Achilles has pulled out of the fight for a deeper
reason than a petty grievance.
This reason for Achilles’ refusal to do battle, as well as the core of his rage, envelop the
second half of book nine when Odysseus is pleading with Achilles to fight again. Achilles is
enraged by his sole relationship with death and fate. Achilles is aware of his two possible fates,
and being forced to choose whether he lives or dies is at the core of his wrath. Achilles outlines
both fates Thetis, his mother, has presented to him, and his hesitation presents the idea that he is
still not sure what fate to choose.
If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy/ my journey home is gone, but my glory never
dies./ If I voyage back to the fatherland I love/ my pride, my glory dies . . . / true, but the
life that's left me will be long/ the stroke of death will not come on me quickly. (IL
9.500-505).
Achilles is still weighing his options, and is leaning toward sailing home-he even tells Odysseus,
Ajax, and Phoenix that he and the Myrmidons are leaving then and there, which Phoenix
convinces him to wait one more night, then decide. Achilles is dissatisfied with his options, and
mewls about the rewards men receive in battle being the same.
One and the same lot for the man who hangs back/ and the man who battles hard. The
same honor waits/ for the coward and the brave. They both go down to Death/ the fighter
who shirks, the one who works to exhaustion (IL 9.385-388).

9. Julie Metzler
Final Paper
PHIL 150
Here, Achilles is not referring to the distribution of lots, but instead to the certainty that all men
have about their relationship to death. All men know they are going to die, but have no idea how,
when, or where, and especially are not forced to actively choose between life and death. Achilles
is not afraid to die, but at this point, he is not sure if he wants to. Achilles hungers for glory, but
desires to be around to experience the joys and reap the benefits-which he is only able to achieve
after his death, an event he is loath to face anytime soon.
Unfortunately, the death of Achilles is closer than he imagines, but not in the traditional
sense of the word. Patroclus goes into battle wearing Achilles’ armor and is slain, sending
Achilles from one end of the spectrum to the other. Instead of not wanting to fight, Achilles is
hungry for battle, and nothing can keep him from the embrace of war. Achilles does not care
about worldly honors any longer, ambivalently telling Agamemnon:
Produce the gifts if you like, as you see fit/ or keep them back, it's up to you. But now/
quickly, call up the wild joy of war at once!/ It's wrong to malinger here with talk,
wasting time/ our great work lies all before us, still to do (IL 19.177-181).
It can be said that Achilles is keen to do battle because he is guilty about Patroclus’ death in his
place, as he says the Achaean armies should only fight “once we've avenged our shame” (IL
19.248), but that is only the surface reason. Achilles has accepted his looming kismet because he
witnessed himself die-using Patroclus as a proxy, dressed in Achilles’ armor. Achilles has made
peace with his lot in life so even when his horse, Roan Beauty reminds him of the impending
doom, Achilles wearily replies with:
I know, well I know/ I am destined to die here, far from my dear father/ far from mother
(IL 19. 498-500).

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Final Paper
PHIL 150
Achilles’ rage about his fate has subsided, and he accepts that he will die a mortal death. This
explains the complete juxtaposition of the rage filled and never willing to go into battle Achilles,
to the Achilles who is accepting of his fate and wanting the battle to finally be over for him.
Achilles’ rage is the central point of The Iliad, and is so much more than it simply
appears on the surface. It is multi-faceted and mysterious, revealing glimpses of its true nature
only when Achilles speaks. Achilles’ awareness of his fate drives him into a frenzy, and his
refusal to fight reflects this more than anything. Once Achilles has seen Patroclus, dressed as
him, die he begins to accept this mortal death with the knowledge that he will live on in the great
songs of the Achaeans, finally choosing to join the fray once again, this time with the full
awareness and intention to die in battle. Achilles portrays an unusual human relation to death,
creating a situation in which to examine the regular relation to death by probing the reverse
situation.