In the readings for the past couple days, the character of Eumaeus has seemed really weird to me, and his history makes by far the least sense of any story in the Odyssey so far. He actually seems like a pretty nice guy in general when we first meet him. He's very kind and hospitable to Odysseus when he thinks he's a stranger, makes sacrifices to the gods, and is extremely loyal to the royal family of Ithaca. Just a normal, "loyal swineherd."
But when he tells us his backstory, his character begins to make absolutely no sense. He says that he was born the prince of another city, but a slave (his nurse) decided to take him with her as payment to some sailors for helping him escape. Laertes, Odysseus's father, bought him as a slave, and he was raised with Laertes's children, even being considered of equal status to Odysseus's sister. They then make him a swineherd when he grows up and, because of their kindness in raising him, he remains pretty good friends with them.
First of all, a lot of elements of the story just seem very strange. Eumaeus's nurse steals him for the sailors because he will apparently get a very high price when he's sold as a slave, for no reason other than he is a prince. Is there any particular advantage to having a prince as a slave? It seems like either whoever bought him wouldn't know/care, or, if they did know, would try to find out where he was from and return him to his parents. It's not clear whether or not Laertes knows, but even with him, it's strange that he raises a slave that he bought alongside his own children like he was one of them, and also that he bought a 2-year-old for no apparent purpose except to have him. Also, after raising him with his kids, Laertes just sends him out to be a normal swineherd, without giving him any special status or job even after he lived with them for years. It seems kind of weird to just throw him out to do some random manual labor job.
What makes even less sense is how Eumaeus reacts to all this. One would think that he'd be pretty unhappy that, although he's a prince and was raised along with Odysseus and his sister, they were able to get a lot of social status while he was just sent off to take care of some pigs. He seems to show absolutely no resentment towards Laertes for this decision or jealously of Odysseus for getting such a better position in life than him. He remains very admiring of both of them, as well as of Telemachus, who he has a sort of father/son relationship with (this also raises the question as to why Telemachus is apparently spending a fair amount of his time with someone who is, at least to him, a random swineherd). Eumaeus also makes absolutely no effort to go back to his home city, though it seems like he'd be free to do so. He knows what city it is/where to find it, so he would probably have thought at some point "Hey, if I go back there, I would be a prince and eventually the king, which seems a lot better than what I'm doing now." But instead of going and taking advantage of his royal blood, he stays right where he is, herding pigs. Something's definitely wrong there.
Yeah I also found this bit of the chapter really troubling. At first I thought it was a lie, but this doesn't seem to fit with Eumaeus's persona. Perhaps it's meant to be a little unrealistic, but ultimately makes him even more endearing as the example of an honorable, grateful, and hospitable man.
ReplyDeleteI think you make a very interesting point about Eumaeus having seemingly no resentment or jealousy of Odysseus, when technically by birth Eumaeus has just as much right to a throne as Odysseus does. Perhaps, since Eumaeus was taken away at such a young age, he views Ithaca as his home, and has no desire to go back and rule as king over people he doesn't know. Or maybe there is no easy way to return to his birthplace? Either way, I agree with you that it seems strange that Eumaeus has royal blood but is still happy to tend to pigs.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's a possibility that Eumaeus doesn't want to go to an unfamiliar place after thinking about it some more. In book 20, Odysseus and Eumaeus talk to a friendly cowherd, Philoetius, who is very similar to Eumaeus in his loyalty to Odysseus and his kind treatment of Odysseus as a stranger. In their conversation, Philoetius complains about having to serve the suitors, who he doesn't like, because Odysseus is gone. He actually directly says that he would feel weird about going to a new place, even if it would put him in a better situation. He also says that even if he did want to leave he probably wouldn't because there was still a chance that Odysseus could return, demonstrating his loyalty. Eumaeus could have similar motives for staying, though his royal blood obviously gives him much more of an incentive to leave.
DeleteThis was pretty strange. The way that he talks about it, it seems like the idea of returning home didn't even cross his home. He is very proud and thankful of the life he leads, and seems very content for things to stay the way they are. You would think that, if he were told he had been a prince, he would return to his homeland. This makes me wonder if he made up the story, but spinning a tale like that is pretty uncharacteristic of Eumaeus.
ReplyDeleteThis was pretty strange. The way that he talks about it, it seems like the idea of returning home didn't even cross his home. He is very proud and thankful of the life he leads, and seems very content for things to stay the way they are. You would think that, if he were told he had been a prince, he would return to his homeland. This makes me wonder if he made up the story, but spinning a tale like that is pretty uncharacteristic of Eumaeus.
ReplyDeleteGiven the aristocratic orientation of the poem in general, the fact that the especially good and loyal swineherd turns out to have (unverifiable) "royal blood" is maybe significant, a way of signaling that he's somehow more special than the other servants--just as he's especially not susceptible to their corruption.
ReplyDelete