I thought I should note that I finished reading Homer's Odyssey. In reality, I am taken by the culminating scene, one of dreadful revenge that is wrought by the returning king who manages to massacre the crowd of loutish suiters who wished to win the hand of his faithful wife, Penelope. I was also taken by the fantasy elements of this epic, and in particular, the trail of perils that is encountered by Odysseus as he seeks to return to his homeland in Ithaka.
But what sticks to me, nonetheless, is the sheer joy of a character such as Antinoos, the suitor who lead the other in devising plans to eat away at the estate of Odysseus and revel in the bonhomie that is characteristic of a band of thieves. He is very skilled at manipulating as well as deceiving others, and it is indeed entertaining to see how he deflects all criticism as he tries to justify his behavior. Of course, he has no excuse, and his punishment is dreadful, but one relishes his sheer chutzpah, to quote one of my favorite Yiddish words. He abuses all hospitality, and yet does so in an entertaining way that makes me, perversely, root for him. Even his death is entertaining, given that he is the first to be felled by the arrows that are strung by Odysseus, he who launches one into his throat as he, unsuspectingly, is drinking with a mug up to his mouth. If this is not slapstick a la Roadrunner and Coyote, I don't know what is.
All in all, I continue to be fascinated by the Greek world and by ancient Greek culture. As I have confessed to a colleague at my university, it makes me wish that I had become a classicist. I wouldn't be any more prosperous, but I would have been much more stimulated by what I consider the true roots of my identity. They don't lie in provincial Mexico, they lie in ancient Greece.
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