The Ethics of Revenge and the Meanings of the Odyssey by Alexander C. Loney (review)

Although readers of the Odyssey have traditionally accepted Odysseus' bloody attack upon the suitors as justified, in the last century some have questioned the appropriateness of the hero's actions. Cedric Whitman, for example, found Odysseus' revenge repugnant.¹ Similarly, Margaret Atwood's novella Penelopiad criticizes Odysseus (and Telemachos), especially drawing attention to the severe treatment of Penelope's maids (2005). Despite these and other voices, until now there has been no book-length scholarly treatment of the ethics of Odysseus' revenge. In this book Loney thoroughly explores Odysseus' revenge in terms of the accepted rules for tisis (τίσις, retribution) in the archaic period. He concludes that the Odyssey presents a troubling picture of a revenge exceeding proper bounds. He further contends that, while the poem has a surface agenda of valorizing Odysseus, there are subtexts and ironies questioning the hero's actions and warning the reader of the dangers of vengeance.

Part I of Loney's study examines the nature of tisis in early Greece, especially in Homer. Originally tisis and its cognates referred to a debt or payment owed, thus suggesting a transactional basis for retribution. In the gift-giving culture that Homer presents, tisis can be seen as "negative reciprocity" or "an exchange of harms or losses" (23). Loney argues that the established rules of reciprocity ideally call for immediate repayment as well as equity or similarity of payment for the harm incurred. A third factor Loney emphasizes is the nature of the judge in cases of tisis. Loney sees Odysseus' role as judge of the suitors as problematic, since he is hardly a disinterested third party. In this section Loney also looks at the story of Orestes' revenge as told in the Odyssey and suggests it as a pattern for revenge narratives in the poem. He posits seven elements usually found in Odyssean revenge narratives: (1) absence of the master; (2) unheeded warning; (3) plotting the offence; (4) the offence; (5) plotting for retribution; (6) retribution; (7) restoration of order (61–62). A central term that is almost always used to refer to the evil action bringing on revenge is "recklessness" (ἀτασθαλίαι).

In Part II, Loney uses his schema to examine three examples of divine revenge in the poem: Zeus' vengeance for the killing of Helios' cattle, Poseidon's vengeance for the blinding of Polyphemos, and Poseidon's revenge against the Phaiakians for transporting Odysseus. In these instances of divine vengeance, Loney argues that there is "a symmetrical equivalence between offence and punishment" (115). In contrast, Odysseus' revenge against the suitors is excessive, because the suitors never actually commit murder. Unlike Aigisthos, who successfully seduces Klytaimnestra and kills Agamemnon, the suitors only intend to commit major crimes. They try to seduce Penelope and kill Telemachos, and presumably they would be more than ready to kill Odysseus if he were to arrive openly at the palace, but they are not successful. Thus their actions are insufficient to justify Odysseus' revenge as it occurs in the text. This implicit unfairness is further hinted at by Homer through suggestions of excessive violence, such as in the lion simile, where Odysseus as a feasting lion can be seen as essentially cannibalistic (Od. 22.401–406), as well as in the sheer gore found on the bloody floor of Odysseus' home.

In Part III, Loney continues to look at the interpretational ramifications of Odysseus' violence and the poem's deus ex machina ending. Loney especially concentrates on the voices of the suitors and their families, which he sees as calling into question the surface interpretation of the poem. We hear, for instance, from Eurymachos begging for mercy, from Amphimedon complaining in Hades, and from Eupeithes grieving for his son Antinoös. When we consider the violence of Odysseus' actions, the unfulfilled nature of the suitors' crimes, and the perspectives voiced by the suitors and their families, we find that Odysseus' triumph takes on...