A few comments, drawn from the Fagles translation – a bit more stylistically loose, or rough, than the Lattimore cited for Book 1.
48: "No, the crisis is my own." Telemachus
curtly proclaiming to the assembly that the absence of his father and,
the "worse disaster," the brazenness of the suitors, are what impel him
to address them.
91–122: the insolent Antinous (wouldn't you like to see him
get his comeuppance?) sneers at Penelope's stratagem of delay, the
daily weaving and then nightly unweaving of
the "shroud for old lord Laertes" until they "caught her in the act –
unweaving her gorgeous web." There are many classical instances of a
women using a domestic practice as a vehicle for resistance. According
to the great critic Geoffrey
Hartman,
 |
| Edward Burne-Jones, "Philomene" (1896). |
Aristotle, in the Poetics (16.4), records a striking phrase from a play by Sophocles, since lost, on
the theme of Tereus and Philomela. As you know, Tereus, having raped Philomela, cut out her tongue to prevent discovery.
But she weaves a telltale account of her violation into a tapestry (or robe) which Sophocles calls "the voice of the shuttle."
If
metaphors as well as plots or myths could be archetypal, I would
nominate Sophocles' voice of the shuttle for that distinction.
178: being skilled at "reading bird signs" vs.
the skepticism that "not all are fraught with meaning" (204). Throughout
the epic, there are many portents from the gods, some more ambiguous than
others. They are sometimes misread, ignored,
denied. Usually, we (as listeners) know whether these signs and wonders
are genuine, which gives us an ironic superiority in knowledge over some
of the characters within the poem itself.
250: "Mentor took the floor." 'Mentor' starts
here as a character, and by the 18th century becomes what's called an
'eponym' – a noun formed after the name of a person (a 'mentor'). See
the Online Etymology Dictionary:
"wise advisor," 1750, from Greek Mentor, friend of Odysseus and adviser of Telemachus (but often actually Athene in disguise) in the "Odyssey,"
perhaps ultimately meaning "adviser," because the name appears to be an agent noun of mentos "intent, purpose, spirit, passion" from PIE *mon-eyo- (cognates:
Sanskrit man-tar- "one who thinks," Latin mon-i-tor "one who admonishes"), causative form of root *men-
"to think" (see mind (n.)). The general use of the word probably is via later popular romances, in which Mentor
played a larger part than he does in Homer.
306–13: So how can your journey end in shipwreck or defeat?
Only if you were not his stock, Penelope's too,
then I'd fear your hopes might come to grief.
Few sons are the equals of their fathers;
most fall short, all too few surpass them.
But you, brave and adept from this day on —
Odysseus' cunning has hardly given out in you —
there's every hope that you will reach your goal.
"Your goal" is both a geographical destination
as well as a kind of 'telos,' the ultimate 'goal' or 'end' of
Telemachus' development into a man, a man worthy of being the son of
Odysseus. In a way, his paternity (think back to Book
1) will be proven by his own performance.
378: [wine] waiting the day
Odysseus, worn by hardship, might come home again.
What do you make of Telemachus drawing this wine reserved for his father's homecoming? Premature? Prolepsis?
468–71: Suddenly wind hit full and the canvas bellied out
and a dark blue wave, foaming up at the bow,
sang out loud and strong as the ship made way,
skimming across the whitecaps, cutting toward her goal.
And with that lyricism, we have launched. At last.