In Homer’s The Odyssey, Homer presents a perplexing and complex dilemma revolving around the ambiguity and problematic language used to describe the ideology of justice and vengeance. Moreover, it is the returning of equivalent harm for harm that seems to run through the heart of the archaic Greek culture that allows for crimes to merge with and become their own punishment. The relationship between crime and punishment is a tight linkage that seems to be arranged by Homer in an attempt to justify the moral positions as well as the actions of many major characters throughout The Odyssey. Distinctively, the role of justice and vengeance can be exhibited in the interactions between Polyphemus, Odysseus, Poseidon and the suitors. The conflict …show more content…
However, the grievances that are laid upon him and his men do not come from Polyphemus specifically but rather through prayer and petition come from Poseidon. Homer exemplifies the animosity and need for revenge harbored by Poseidon in his petition to Zeus. Poseidon comes before Zeus demanding that the Phaiakian’s be punished for their involvement in aiding Odysseus (XIII 128-38) and it is Poseidon alone who executes violent revenge (XIII 159-184). While Poseidon’s revenge may seem harsh and at times excessive, they are hardly without motive. It is interesting however that while it can be implied that both Odysseus and Polyphemus were acting out of a misplaced sense of justice, Poseidon, a God who is transcended, never mentions justice as a motif. Homer does not depict Poseidon to be motivated by a sense of higher moral order, thus influencing the narrative to yet again coincide with his distorted view of justice. Zeus in his opening council with Athena connects Poseidon’s bitterness directly with Odysseus’ blinding Polyphemus, stating that Poseidon is “nursing a grudge because of the Cyclopes, whose eye he (Odysseus) blinded” (I 69). This is also reciprocated to Odysseus by Hades who adds “Shaker of the Earth, who holds a grudge against you in his heart, and because you blinded his dear son” (XI 103). Further, …show more content…
Homer does this though through a distortion of justice, establishing the norm for how punishments are to be employed in the midst of wrong doing. Through Odysseus’s revenge on Polyphemus and Poseidon’s reckoning on Odysseus, so will the suitors be subject to the vicious cycle that has been established in the Homeric literature. However, within the context of the suitors, it would actually appear that Homer’s statute of justice stands true, or does it? The suitors have been portrayed throughout The Odyssey as being persistent in their destructive behavior thus rendering Odysseus’s retribution just. The suitors plot against Telemachus (XV 28), attempt to woo Penelope for selfish gain (III 265-272) and constantly feast and drink from Odysseus’s stores (I 158-159). These acts are portrayed by Homer as being crimes in and of themselves and serve as the grounds by which Odysseus will enact his revenge. However, Odysseus has been rumored dead for an extensive length of time and it was only after seven years when he was supposed to be back in Ithaca did the suitors ever begin pursuing Penelope. Further, even when Odysseus does arrive home, the suitors have not won the heart of Penelope and she has been faithful to him, sleeping with none of the suitors.