How to End the Odyssey

Abstract

Abstract This contribution discusses the plot of the Odyssey as a field of opposing forces shaping the ending of the poem: (i) the generic tension between folktale and epic; (ii) the fundamental ambiguity of the poem’s climactic event, the killing of the Suitors (justice or revenge?); and (iii) the antagonism between Zeus and Poseidon. On this basis two competing scenarios for the ending of the poem are proposed: amnesia and departure, the former viewing the theme of revenge on the human plane, the latter on the divine.