The Odyssey, Ep. 12: Husband and Wife

Jeremiah Regan (0:09)

Welcome to The Hillsdale College Online Courses Podcast. I'm Jeremiah Regan.

Juan E. Dávalos (0:12)

And I'm Juan Davalos. We are back with The Odyssey, the last lecture, number 12, Husband and Wife.

Jeremiah Regan (0:18)

You have a really interesting observation about one of Professor Whalen's comments in this, the final lecture of the course.

Juan E. Dávalos (0:23)

Yeah. So towards the conclusion of the course, Dr. Whalen makes a point that it's just been in my mind, and I was curious on how to think through that. And so one of the points he makes is that the gods in the Odyssey are inscrutable and inconsistent in affecting their will, or at least we perceive how they affect their will in a manner that's inconsistent, but that this volatility necessitates men to imitate Odysseus and Penelope to be virtuous, to be cunning, loyal, and to contrive ways to serve as the agents for the justice of the gods. So in a sense, it's that mysterious nature of the will of the gods that necessitates men to be virtuous.

Jeremiah Regan (1:08)

Yeah, they are distant and it's hard to understand the way they are working out their will. And so what is a man to do? Wait for explicit instructions or to use the virtues that he possesses to put himself in the best, the highest likelihood situation to be pleasing to them. We're of course reading a pagan poem about pagan gods, but we can think about our own walk with Christ, our own Christian faith. And the Lord does not provide explicit instructions for every decision, every conversation, every action that you take. He's given us laws, he's given us the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

And what are we supposed to do? We're supposed to pray and inwardly digest and then work through these things and live our lives to honor and glorify Him. And that requires us to make some decisions based on prior knowledge in the exercise of Christian virtue.

Juan E. Dávalos (2:07)

Yeah, and not to get too personal, but I think we can all relate to a time in which we've been in circumstances that it's difficult to know how to react, especially, you know, we are all, to a certain degree, cunning and try to maneuver ways that we think are best. But I can think of many times in my life when I've had, I've been in a fork in the road, so to speak, and you have to decide how you're going to act in a certain situation.

And the best way to do so is to say, well, what is the right one? It sounds simplistic, but yeah, what is the right way? What is my duty in this particular instance? And then just follow that.

Jeremiah Regan (2:57)

So through scripture and the natural law, God has already told you how to figure that out. And that's kind of what we're seeing about Odysseus. His virtue is based on his long practice in these things, the development of his cunning and his strength, which allows him to use prudence and look at circumstances and do the right thing. So there's a lesson that a Christian can put that in, view that through the lens of their faith and understand how God has given us laws both natural and revealed in scripture. And that's our guidebook for correct action.

We don't need to wait in decision and say I don't know what to do. It's not to say you don't need to think about things, but you have been given the ingredients to make the right decision. You have to weigh those and practice those habits and walk in faith.

Juan E. Dávalos (3:45)

I hope you've enjoyed this course, The Odyssey, as much as we have. If you're interested in going to our page and actually getting a certificate for completing the course, you can do so by going to hillsdale.edu/course.

You can rewatch the lectures or go and take the quizzes in order to get the certificate of completion. That's hillsdale.edu/course. And if you do that, you can also go and start the next course we'll be discussing in our podcast, which is next week with the Iliad.

Jeremiah Regan (4:15)

So now let's turn to Professor Whalen for the conclusion of The Odyssey, Lecture 12, Husband and Wife.

Benedict Whalen (4:28)

In our last lecture, we saw Odysseus string his bow and defeat the suitors. And we closed with him purifying and cleaning his house in preparation for his meeting with Penelope.

In this lecture, we will cover Books 23 and 24 of The Odyssey, in which Odysseus is reunited with Penelope, he visits his aging father, and he establishes peace on Ithaca.