How Did Odysseus Kill The Maids

The Clothes Line

In Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, many different punishments are inflicted on various characters that reflect their actions, such as when the maids die as a punishment for their adultery. In book XXII, Odysseus reveals himself to his wife’s suitors and begins to murder each one in a way that promotes justice and reflects their actions. Once Odysseus killed all the suitors, he called down the maids to help clean up the mess. Even though the maids are employees of the family, they also committed disgraceful acts. Night after night they would sleep with the suitors, fully aware that these men were courting their mistress, Queen Penelope. While the maids are cleaning up the remains of the murdered suitors, Odysseus converses with

The acts of violence against the maids reflected the chores they had to do for Odysseus and his family. While Odysseus was gone, their main focus was to help the suitors with an array of tasks, such as cooking, washing, and cleaning. Cleaning was one of the many ways the maids cared for the suitors' bodies and environment. Odysseus orders the maids right before their death, “Tables and chairs will be scrubbed with sponges, rinsed and rinsed again” (488-489). Telemakhos was given orders from his father, Odysseus, to impale the maids until they die. Instead, Telemakhos hanged them using nooses all in a line, tightening them simultaneously. This image looks very similar to how clothing hangs on a clothesline. The nooses all in a line can also be linked to hanging meat for the suitors’ consumption, as feasting was one of their favorite pastimes. The maids’ acts of service toward the suitors culminated by sleeping with them. When Telemakhos was given orders to kill the women by impaling them with a sword, he changed the punishment because he wanted them to have a longer, more shameful death. He thinks to himself right before killing them, “I would not give the clean death of a beast to trulls who made a mockery of my mother and of me too” (513-514). He would rather have the women suffer for longer than put them out of their misery

The method of death Odysseus ordered was very violent and would have destroyed the maids’ bodies, unlike the way Telemakhos carries out their deaths. During the time period that the Odysseus lived, females were expected to stay a virgin until marriage. Even when women did get married, it was only acceptable for them to have sex with their husbands. Odysseus’s punishment was meant to destroy their impure bodies, especially because they were sleeping with his wife's potential future husbands. A reason why Telemakhos might have changed his punishment is because he doesn’t see these maids as impure, instead he sees them as fragile. He may not see them as impure because of his age and his perception of his mother. Instead, he sees them as fragile, an assumption that was made in Odysseus’s time was that women are delicate and inferior to men. A death by suffocation is far less physically destructive than being stabbed to death, thus making it more fit for a woman. Telemakhos even compared the maids to doves and larks, two birds that represent peace and innocence. Homer described the way the women would be hanged: “They would be hung like doves or larks in the springes triggered in a thicket” (520-521). Even when they are dying they are seen as innocent and frail. When Telemakhos hung them, he left the part of the body responsible for child bearing unharmed. This could be because a woman's main job