Spiridon Iosif Capotos (Boston University)
Of all the language that characterizes women and their sphere of action in the Odyssey, the formulaic system involving the upper/inner rooms is the only one used exclusively of Penelope. Scholars, especially since Nagler’s influential article (1974), have linked the formula with Penelope’s faithfulness to Odysseus. It is certainly correct that Penelope’s actions in the upper rooms always involve physical or psychological intimacy (sleep, mourning, prayers), and that the action of climbing upstairs (εἰς ὑπερῷ᾽ἀναβᾶσα/ἀνέβαινε) reminds the audience of Penelope’s physical and psychological isolation inside the palace. In book 18, however, Penelope goes downstairs to meet the suitors (ll. 206-213), and the same formula, this time with καταβαίνω, expresses the intent to arouse the suitors’ desire for marriage. The suitors’ reaction is unexpected and unsettling: they are overcome by sudden desire and wish to sleep with Penelope. That Penelope could in fact remarry has often been argued by scholars (see Reece 2011), but what makes this passage remarkable is that the possibility of her remarriage is conveyed by the formula that elsewhere expresses Penelope’s separation from the suitors, and by extension her loyalty to Odysseus. I argue that this striking change of meaning can be explained by looking at Odysseus in book 5 (see de Jong 2001, 447).
In Books 5 and 18 Penelope and Odysseus each experience a sudden desire to die at a critical point in their stories, the end of Odysseus’ captivity (see 1.59, 5.151-153) and the inevitable arrival of Penelope’s marriage (see 18.201-205). Penelope’s descent is also preceded by her sense of powerlessness and the need to show herself to the suitors (μηκέτ᾽ ὀδυρομένη κατὰ θυμὸν / αἰῶνα φθινύθω). The same powerlessness characterizes Odysseus in Ogygia (ll 160f. ἐνθάδ᾽ ὀδύρεο, μηδέ τοι αἰὼν / φθινέτω). Both passages highlight weeping, wailing, and wasted life, and husband and wife are described in the same terms. Thus, the inner rooms in book 18 work as a double of the island of Ogygia, and the suitors take the role of Kalypso as unwanted sexual partners. This reading is also supported by the role of the inner rooms in the Iliad, which are consistently associated with sexual intercourse (cf. Il. 2.514 and 16.184).
The implications of this proposed reading are twofold. In terms of structure, the parallel between Odysseus and Penelope equates their stories, and thus increases the tension in the narrative and prepares the final resolution. In terms of formulaic language and type-scene, it is remarkable how Penelope’s descent and the reversal of ἀνα- for κάτα- in the formula lead to an overturning of the meaning of the inner rooms, which acquire a seductive connotation otherwise unknown to the Odyssey but not to the Iliad and imply a much subtler use of the formula than has been often recognized.