Dealing with Insults, Sex, and Cleanliness: Telemachus's Speech to the Enslaved Women in Odyssey 22

Abstract

This thesis explores the terms καθαρός (“clean”), ὄνειδος (“abuse”), and καταχέω (“pour down”) in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey as a way to analyze and understand the nature of Telemachus’s accusations towards the disloyal slave women in his speech to them immediately before killing them. With a clearer understanding of each of the words, some ambiguities surrounding Telemachus’s claims become clearer and allow insight into both his own worldview and broader Homeric concepts of cleanliness, insults, and pouring.In Chapter 1, the somewhat generic verb καταχέω (“pour down”) is analyzed with respect to its various types of direct objects, making the meaning of the unique instance of ὄνειδος as the direct object in Telemachus’s speech clearer. Chapter 2, examining the term ὄνειδος (“abuse”), looks at some of the ways that the term can be used to threaten the status of important men—a concern for maturing Telemachus—and the potential for nuances in gendered opposition with the word. Chapter 3 examines the relatively few occurrences of καθαρός (“clean”) in Homer and the reasons why Telemachus’s use of the word stands out particularly oddly in comparison to the rest. The word is not linked to death in any other use, so there seems to be some kind of shift in meaning, but there are important gendered connotations behind the word that are brought out from the other examples.