Odyssey, Books 20-24

3. The symbolism of the bed

Penelope uses the bed that she shares with Odysseus, as Odysseus' last test. She wants to be sure that the man standing before her, truly is her husband, back after twenty years. She instructs one of her servants to move the bed, knowing that it is impossible to do so. Odysseus immediately makes this clear, describing how the bed is impossible to move. "Who could move my bed? Impossible task..." Odysseus then goes on to describe how he build the bed him self as he recalls all of its fine details. Penelope now knows that this is truly Odysseus. No one knows that bed as well as Odysseus does. No one has ever laid in it with Penelope, aside from Odysseus. Here is the symbolism. The bed represents Penelope's loyalness. She never let anyone lay beside her in Odysseus' absence, that is why she is so sure that Odysseus is the only one who truly knows the bed; That is how she knows that Odysseus is truly standing before her. Back when the suitors plagued the house, the bed used to represent a goal for the suitors. They all wanted to lay with Penelope. It represented extreme lust in the suitors' minds. Now, with the suitors gone and Odysseus back in his rightful place of power, the bed once again represents the love and between Odysseus and Penelope, and the loyalness that Penelope has show when Odysseus was gone. The bed is for them two, and no one else. That will never change, nor will their love for each other. Their feelings will never shift, just has the bed will never move.

4. The resolution of the final book

I didn't expect the poem to end so abruptly. After spending only one night with Penelope, Odysseus is off with his son and servants to visit his father. This makes sense, but why didn't he bring along Penelope? He has spent hardly any time with her. Then suitors' loved ones then try to kill Odysseus in yet another battle, but Athena stops it all and demands peace. So peace just like that? Not questions asked? Why couldn't this happen during other events in the poem? Is it just because Zeus finally wants to grant peace? Why now? Is it just to end the poem? I am sure the suitors' loved ones are still angry. Do they just fear the gods so much that they decide to instantly listen, or do they except peace because the instigator of this last violent out break, and their leader, Eupithes, is killed immediately? All of this doesn't bother me that much I suppose. The suitors are dead, Odysseus is again the ruler, the gods declare peace. What really bothers me is the absence of Odysseus' last journey. "...we have still not reached the end of our trials. One more labor lies in store-boundless, laden with danger, great and long, and I must brave it out from start to finish." Odysseus then goes on to describe the journey that the prophet in the house of death instructed him to go on: go far inland, pant his oar, make sacrifices to Poseidon, and so on. I feel that this is very important, and it is just left out. When will Odysseus go one this journey. What is peacefully Ithaca like? What will come of Telemachus? The poem kind of just ends, and I am not sure how I feel about that. It's as if there are some books missing or something.