Metaphor in The Odyssey

Since poplars and willows are commonly found around graves, this is a reference to death as an untimely occurrence as well as a landmark for Odysseus on his journey.

Anticlea means this both literally and figuratively. It's difficult to reach Erebus, because it's so far from the mainland, but it's also difficult for Odysseus to see it, as a man whom we're led to believe has many years ahead of him.

This may be a double entendre, or a phrase with double meanings: Telemachus may have in mind both the animals being sacrificed and the suitors, of whom he intends to make another kind of "sacrifice" as he and Odysseus take revenge upon them for their insolence.

In ancient Greek culture, bards (poets) and minstrels were thought to be inspired by the Graces and the Muses and were honored for their talents. Comparing Odysseus to a bard elevates him to this status and gives backhanded praise to Homer for being able to write a story about people who tell such good stories.

Interestingly, this isn't the first time Penelope has been mentioned as being by a "bearing-post" of the house. As before, this can be taken as a sign that she needs to feel some kind of support in this tense atmosphere. It's also foreshadowing of a scene later in the poem.

If the geese in Penelope's dream represent the suitors, as Odysseus claims, then her feelings in the dream suggest that she would accept a suitor to remarry. This is not surprising that after years of doubting whether Odysseus was alive and after being pursued by this large group of men, Penelope would start to feel attracted to at least some of those who want her hand.

These sudden changes are not meant to be taken literally but rather metaphorically. It's unclear whether Theoclymenus sees these things because he's a seer and can foretell the future or because the suitors are behaving so strangely that it's as if the world is shrouded in darkness.

A gadfly is a species of fly well-known for biting and goading cattle. In modern parlance, it also refers to an irritating or difficult person, so that if we liken the suitors to the cattle, Odysseus becomes the gadfly who, at least from their perspective, torments them unfairly.

If Eumaeus was trying to bolster Odysseus' spirits by mentioning his father, Homer is trying to undermine their courage by suggesting that even the strong grow weak and feeble. This fight will not be as easy as Odysseus hoped, and perhaps not as righteous.

Just as Antinous kicks a table as he dies, Eurymachus kicks a stool. The poet may be using this image to create realism. When mortally wounded men are in their death throes, they often kick reflexively, and that kick is their last movement. Hence the phrase "kick the bucket."

That is to say, that Odysseus' body will go unburied and will instead be left out in the elements, where the vultures can eat him. Vultures have been mentioned a number of times already, most notably in the story of Prometheus, so that this line inadvertently aligns Odysseus with a hero.

Continuing this elaborate metaphorical framework, Odysseus calls himself *Eperitus, *which means both *selected *(or, better, singled-out) and someone who is fought over, a man whose life is one of struggle. Both meanings apply to Odysseus during his voyage home, in which he has been singled-out by the gods for special attention and been forced to struggle for his life.

Polypemon means full of sorrow, and Laertes has just demonstrated that he is, metaphorically, the son of sorrow or grief. This kind of word play is extremely clever and difficult, and couldn't be achieved on the spot by any of the other character in The Odyssey. It's only Odysseus, with his great facility of language, who can lie so intricately.