Odyssey 21-24

         The bow represents then end of a long journey, and when Ulysses strings and draws the bow it signals the end of the suitors and the return of the king. When Penelope opens the room where the bow resides, she cries because she can't run any longer, she can't delay any more. Her fate is not in her hands. It is also giving up the man she loves, giving it away to someone else. Perhaps its that she isn't ready to move on, she can't bear the thought of not only the man being lost, but his possessions too. What is she to do without his wealth? When Telemachus tries to bend the bow he's huffing and straining and on the fourth try puts his weight behind his pull and starts to bend it. Ulysses has that "that's my boy" moment right then but even as he is proud, he doesn't forget that the plan is for Ulysses to bend the bow to announce his return, and at the same time arm himself for the coming slaughter. And really, that's the the bow means in the story, the harbinger of the suitors' demise and Ulysses's return.
          Ulysses explains to the suitors after Antinous dies a terrifically written death that they're lives are forfeit, their debauchery and exploitation of his house is reason enough for them all to die. Eurymachus doesn't believe he is Ulysses, but pleads mercy by offering riches and livestock from every suitor. He's trying to bribe Ulysses, but he has no need for such pleasantries, their fate is sealed, he will not back down, the price is blood. He' filled with hate and wrath, and he is eager to unleash it. I get the feeling that he is saying these words while grating his teeth, eager for Eurymachus to stop talking to he can exact his punishment. I think I would be more lenient to the suitors if I was in his position. If i were him, I would probably exile them, strip them of all their titles, deeds, lands, wealth, and property, and send them off on a ship with no provisions. But that could only happen after I crack some skulls, as I think there would be plenty of resistance, in the end, to get what Ulysses wants, he uses force, and force was the only way. The suitors would never so easily give up unless they knew their life was on the line. So...that means that someone had to die to prove that Ulysses was serious, he not in negotiating mood. Killing Antinous was like killing the head on a snake, now the body is flailing and panicked.
           This violence is violence done for vengeance, for retribution, for justice. It is righteous in the eyes of Zeus. That is the key difference between the war over Helen, that was a war of lust, anger, and ego.

Odyssey 16-20

          I've read the passage that described the meeting of Telemachus with his father. It was very emotional. Then Ulysses is turned back into an old withered man. Why keep Ulysses' identity a secret? Perhaps to spy on the suitor's behavior before he acts, to gain as much information as he can. He wants them to begone from his home of course, would the suitors leave if it was known that Ulysses has returned? I suppose the reaction when Ulysses is revealed in his home in the midst of all the suitors would be priceless for Ulysses, and the longer and more humble he is, the more surprising still the reveal would be. It takes a lot of fortitude in mind to withstand the insults to his character, and until then, and his friend Eumaeus had to endure such speech from Melanthias. Ulysses just takes the insult, knowing that soon he will have his vengeance, soon he will meet his wife, and so he tolerates the brazen Melanthias.
         The epic always writes each dinner as some sort of grand feast, it is written as if the feast is not lacking any of the vital viands a feast must have, liquor and meat. Its funny that nearly every dinner is so luxurious. The feast held at Ulysses' estate is no different. Then Irus shows up, there simply so that the reader knows that Ulysses has not changed, he is still combative and still powerful and that his disguise only affected his image, not his strength. It also shows that these suitors love sport and fighting, they are bored, after all, conflict, even conflict as petty as this one is entertainments they relish. Irus is one of those people who show up to parties uninvited and eat all the food. He sees Ulysses is his disguise and assumes he can pick on him because Ulysses can't defend himself. Irus never challenges people he thinks can put up a fight. He's a bully, and of course, the moment he realizes he could lose the fight, he becomes cowardly and tries to back out. The suitors will have none of it, they got out of their chairs and formed a ring, they went to all this trouble to see a fight, they aren't going to let this opportunity slip by. I laughed when Ulysses, in an attempt to hide his identity, hold back when he punches Irus, and even then, demolishes Irus's jaw. Its part of Ulysses's character to never back down from a challenge, this is another example of that.

odyssey books 6-10

         Our hero Ulysses has been trying to return home, and when he reaches the isle of Calypso he is tempted to stay. This is just another trial he has to overcome. One could say that her cooperation with Ulysses is a sort of affirmation that he has passed the trial, that he really does wish to return home and that he won't quit. Calypso loads supplies on his boat, so it seems she likes Ulysses. I really didn't find this part interesting. What was really interesting is book eight, when Ulysses is treated like an honored guest. Here we see his personality clearly. Here he is tested in physical ability and in discipline.
       
         Alcinous holds a contest of sport, and the participants each throw discus. Ulysses is taking no part, and says that he is past his prime, which i assume is what this phrase means :"Sad from my natal hour my days have ran". He says this after Eurylaus speaks to everyone but Ulysses is particular that the stranger should try a throw, because of Ulysses' physique.  So Ulysses declines politely. But then Eurylaus shames Ulysses into participating, saying only sons of fame, the native athletes on the island are great, and that Ulysses is not as good as them.
         Here we see that what follows is a response that tells me that Ulysses is very prideful, has honor, dignity, and to be told by this youngster that he is no athlete, is insulting to him. He is possessed of hubris, and says that he is amongst the sons of fame, that he can tolerate the insult, and says "no more I waive to prove the hero--slander stings the brave." What he says here is that he won't sit idly by and while someone speaks of him as anything but a hero, as weak or old. So he has an "I'll show you!" attitude. He's not a humble person. "Such was was my boast while vigour crown'd my days, now care surrounds me, and my force decays;" Here he says he is past his prime and he is past the point in his life where he would openly boast that he was the best, in his youthful days. He then astonishes everyone around when he hurls a rock bigger than a discus twice as far as the other athletes hurled their own.
          Racing wrestling, discus, and gauntlet, . What is the gauntlet?

Odyssey books 1-5

         Telemachus does a lot of speaking, and he declares that Ulysses is coming after twenty years. Eurymachus pretty much says "oh, we have a wise guy over here! Well let me tell you your mom is the hottest and most high born lady in the land, we will never leave until she dies. You're father's dead too, why do you hold on to useless hope? Stop being stubborn!" So here the text does a good job of defining Telemachus. he is angry that people are quick to court his mother, and enough time has passed to make him start issuing threats. He is seen as brash and foolish, optimistic is the worst way. He is stubborn, he won't change his stance, he is proud, and he is scared of what would happen, what it would mean, for his father to never return. Telemachus beseeches to the warrior maid, which I later found out to be Pallas. And then the goddess comes down is Mentor's form and tells him that his enemies will fail. And they set sail at the end of book 2.
         We have to hear about Telemachus's story before Ulysses because what is Ulysses' goal? To go home of course. He has to see his family, he has to return from Troy. And every time we read about Ulysses referring to home images of Telemachus appear in our heads, and we know what Ulysses fights for. Telemachus was tired of being helpless, and aspired to do something about it and set sail in search of Ulysses. It can be said that both journeys of the father and son parallel and at the same time, are much different form each other. Ulysses is cocksure and wise, he knows he is wise. Telemachus is young, but is humble, he knows he isn't wise enough to "...meet, or how accost the sage, Unskill'd in speech, not yet mature of age?" he says in book 3 to Mentor. He also does not have to play the leadership role like his father does. It's a story about both characters, and they are linked because one cannot read of Ulysses and not call to mind Telemachus and vice verse.
        

Genesis 37 39-50

         The youngest brother Joseph is loved by his father over his other brothers, this was perplexing to them. Even more insulting to the brothers were the dreams that Joseph had the gall to recite. Clearly Joseph isn't very smart. His brothers sold him into slavery whereupon Joseph earned the respect of Potiphar. Curiously, being a slave wasn't so bad for Joseph, because the Lord was with him, even as he was thrown is jail, somehow the warden decides Joseph shouldn't be stuck in a cell and instead makes him responsible for the jail. Joseph becomes the Pharaoh's second in command eventually.
         What is important to note is that God is with Joseph every step of the way, and the dreams that Joseph had were not something to brag about but a prophecy that fortold his rise to power. The rise to power that was destined to occur, that happened because his brothers were jealous, and happened because they wouldn't kill him, and most of all, it happened, so that during the seven years of famine, many many people would not die.
          The point of the Joseph narrative isn't to show how generous the Pharaoh is, or to explain how one fifth of all crop yield belongs to the Pharaoh, but to show how God was a good god to Jacob by favoring his descendants and honoring the covenant. The theme of the youngest son is the favored son continues through Jacob and then to Joseph and his sons. Perhaps this is a pattern that continues long into the future. The themes are, the youngest son is the glorious one, the Lord will watch over and guide the Jews, and Jacob's sons create the twelves tribes of Israel. The generosity of the Pharaoh is unbelievable, but not the point.
        

genesis 25-28 32-33

Characters in Genesis seem to live well beyond a hundred years. Ishmael dies when he is 137. Esau and Jacob are both equal, both firstborn, but Esau is just slightly older, which makes him the bigger nation, and receives the greatest inheritance and is blessed by God to have his younger brother's nation serve him. but Esau sells his birthright for food, as he doesn't care about it, in the face of starvation, his birthright seems trivial in comparison. Also, if Esau were to die, then the birthright goes to Jacob, so instead of letting Esau die, Jacob offers a deal to Esau, a very one sided deal.
           I love how the first line in chapter 26 begins with saying that a famine occurs, and then bothers to to clarify that this is a different famine! So it wasn't OK to be detailed about how Isaac ends up on the pyre when Abraham is told to sacrifice him, but its dreadfully important to say that this famine is different, even though we know its a different time period. In chapter 26 Isaac makes the same mistakes his father made, he told everyone that his wife was his sister, but no one took her as a wife so no one was punished. He was actually guaranteed safety from Abimelek.
           Isaac could only gift one blessing, why couldn't he give two, and recant the first? Is there a limit that God has imposed, or is it self imposed by some sort of rule he created? Instead he didn't give Esau a blessing at all, instead Esau will serve Jacob, thanks to Isaac's wife.  She exploited the gullibility of her husband to garner a blessing for Jacob. Why Jacob? She doesn't even care that she's betraying Esau and the trust between husband and wife? Of course, Jacob goes along with it, he didn't want to be subservant to his older brother, but does he realize that what he does is no better than what Esau must now endure? Then she ask the question "why should I lose both of you in one day?" I have an answer to that, because you're the arbiter of discord and vengeance by foisting betrayal upon your own household! Then she says how much he hates Hittite women, and then it becomes clear why she didn't want Esau to receive the blessing, because his descendants will be Hittite.
             Jacob knows he wronged Esau and when he hears of Esau's return to him with 400 men he realizes that his doom is near. He knows what he did was wrong. He knows that his brother has right to be angry. But when Esau appears Jacob is surprised to learn that Esau had forgiven him. Jacob knew so little about his brother, had no idea what kind of man he became. Isaac's blessing, in the end, was hollow.
          

genesis Chapters 12, 16-18, 21-23

          I find it ironic that Abram's intention was good when he said that Sarai was his sister, as we was only trying to protect himself, but in the end, the Pharoah is angry because he was lied to, and because of that lie he suffers. This also calls into the idea that the Pharoah is a respectible man, he only took Sarai to be his wife because he thought she was single. Is the rule that you should not lay with another man's wife universal in this story then? Abram was fearful of the Egyptians, had no evidence that they would do what he thought they would do, kill him and then take his wife, yet he thought they would do just that. He was ignorant of the Pharoah's morality and Egypt's morality in general. That ignorance proves to be the reason he was forced to leave Egypt.
            In the second story Hagar the slave gives birth to a boy, this boy is the son of Abram who is 86 years old! Sarai couldn't have children, she was sterile, and she became jealous of Hagar's fertility and what Hagar represents, even though Sarai was the one who suggested to Abram to conceive with Hagar. She sees Hagar as inferior to her.
            I find the exchange between Abraham and God very interesting, the amount of fear in Abraham's voice is telling. It seems as if by questioning God Abraham is walking a very thin line. If his god wished it he would be annihilated, but his questions are of such great importance to him that he persists anyways. He doesn't want to ask if only ten good people are in Sodom would the city be spared before finding out that asking about twenty is fine, that's how afraid Abraham is. God could recent his covenant just as easily as it was given.
            I don't find it odd at all that Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son at all. He never questioned the Lord and never once thought about his actions. But what was really important though was what he said to his son, Isaac. Abraham didn't tell him that he was the sacrifice. Why was that? He was so eager to do it but he couldn't bring himself to acknowledge it to his son. Perhaps he realizes deep down in his heart that what God told him to do was wrong, that his son would be confused and afraid. His son didn't have quite the faith that Abraham did, and it also didn't occur to Abraham that the covenant God promised him would be broken if he killed his son. What if it was a trick? What if it was someone else who told him under the guise of God, would Abraham still do it? Of course he would because he knows he must obey absolutely and not to question, that's how fearful he is of the Lord.

          

Geneis 4, 6-9

        4. When Abel and Cain offered their respective gifts, God finds favor in Abel, and Cain becomes angry. Cain kills Abel, and his punishment is he can't farm and will not be murdered. As a farmer who loves his work, He wanted to die but he would not. God didn't prevent Abel's death but he protects Abel's murderer.
         It doesn't make sense, Lemech kills a man like Cain did, and says he will be avenged 77 times! Is murder justified if the victim wronged the murderer?
         The the story of Noah's ark God is repulsed by his own creation, yet instead of killing everything and starting over, he wants to preserve Noah's family and 2 of each animal. Its odd how speficif the time scale is. Or the fact that Noah is 600 years old in the story. But Gd enjoys the smell of live animals being sacrificed to him appease him. Noah and Abel had offered animals to God and both times God was pleased. When Cain offered fruit, God was not impressed. What does this say about God in these myths? At the same time, the Cain and Abel myth is a contradiction to the Noah's Ark because in ninth chapter the Lord says:
“Whoever sheds human blood,
   by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
   has God made mankind."
Yet when Cain kills Abel God makes it clear no one will kill him, his blood therefore will not be shed. Why is that? It seems like these are different gods! In the second part of  the ninth chapter Noah is drunk and sleeping naked, Canaan get punished because his father saw him naked while Shem and Japheth covered Noah. That's an interesting way to punish someone, by cursing their descendants. This a common theme in the old testament, in one instance God tells his followers that those who worship false idols will have their descendants cursed.
5. Civilization rises through consumption, the ate of eating another. One tribe devours another, whether by force or by diplomacy. The tribe increases in size as it merges. The same principle applies to glaxies, our Milky Way galaxy is as big as it is through the merging of galaxies, in fact the Milky Way is eating two galaxies right now. Even though in the story Cain didn't murder Abel in order to found a city, it is true that God preserved him, and later did build a city.