Bow and the Lyre

Seth Benardete was professor of classics at New York University. He was the author of The Being of the Beautiful, The Rhetoric of Morality and Philosophy, Socrates' Second Sailing, and The Tragedy and Comedy of Life.

Guided by the fundamental problems opened up through his studies of the Platonic dialogues, Seth Benardete unravels the intertwined threads of Homer's Odyssey and finds at its core the choice Odysseus makes to be human—to return home rather than accept Calypso's offer of immortality. This choice reflects the understanding Odysseus has of his fate, on which the Olympian gods have in turn imposed a design of their own, assigning Odysseus a part in their plan of withdrawal. Once home, Odysseus strings his bow and makes it sing, Homer tells us, as easily as a bard his lyre; but whether the apparent fusion of rationality with spiritedness in the soul of Odysseus allows him to share Homer's perspective is the Platonic question that animates Benardete's penetrating and illuminating reading of the Odyssey.

• Chapter 1 Notice to the ReaderChapter 2 PrefacePart 3 Part I: The BeginningsChapter 4 TheodicyChapter 5 PoliticsChapter 6 TelemachusPart 7 Part II: Pattern and WillChapter 8 NestorChapter 9 Helen and MenelausPart 10 Part III: Odysseus' ChoicePart 11 Part IV: Among the PhaeaciansChapter 12 ShameChapter 13 ParadiseChapter 14 PridePart 15 Part V: Odysseu' Own StoryChapter 16 Memory and MindChapter 17 NatureChapter 18 HadesChapter 19 DestinyPart 20 Part VI: Odysseus' LiesPart 21 Part VII: Nonfated ThingsChapter 22 Theoclymenus and EumaeusChapter 23 The Slave GirlsChapter 24 The Name and the ScarPart 25 Part VIII: The Suitors and the CityChapter 26 The SuitorsChapter 27 The CityPart 28 Part IX: RecognitionChapter 29 PenelopeChapter 30 HadesChapter 31 LaertesChapter 32 NotesChapter 33 Index