Comparative Literature and Culture 1020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Foot Washing
2 Mar 2016
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Importance in marriage ceremony placed upon bearing children. Odysseus" travels mimick penelope"s weaving on loom. Weaves all day, then stays up and unweaves all night. So she does not have to marry another; she is *the* virtuous wife. Nobody knows whether odysseus is alive or not; still remains faithful. Spends his nights with calypso; but days on the shore weeping and longing for home. She can offer him immortality, but he does not want this. The fedelity of the woman is key to the return home. Takes entire second half of story to tell how he gets from shoreline to his home. He avoids her questions and tells her she is a king. Odysseus tells her that he is a cretan traveller who met odysseus, and that he is travelling home to her. He defers the revelation of himself unto penelope. The nurse recognizes odysseus due to a scar from an earlier war.
