The Significance of the Slaughter of the Cattle of the Sun
Uploaded by sammy69 on Oct 26, 2011
This paper discusses the parallels and connections between the slaughter of the Sun God’s Cattle and the killing of Penelope’s suitors in “The Odyssey.” (4+ pages, 1 source; MLA citation style)
I Introduction
If often seems that the characters in Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey” never learn from experience—particularly Odysseus’s crew. They get into trouble repeatedly, from which Odysseus rescues them, only to have them get into further difficulties. Their slaughter of the Sun God’s cattle is the last, and final, blunder in a series of catastrophes that marks their journey home.
In this brief paper, we’ll explore why, in view of the behavior of Penelope’s suitors, Odysseus’s men’s slaughter of the Cattle of the Sun is significant.
II Discussion
It’s possible to draw many parallels between the killing of Helios’s cattle and the killing of the suitors that ends the poem, but perhaps the most striking is the fact that the slaughter of the cattle directly foreshadows the slaughter of the men.
In many ways, the suitors who have been courting Penelope in her husband’s absence have proven to be no better than animals; we might consider them a “herd.” They seem to follow a herd instinct: they are always together; they have an apparent leader, Antinous, whom they follow, but casually, as cows might meander along after a single individual; and they seem to do the same things at the same time, as if none of them is capable of independent thought.
In addition, like a herd, they have taken over Penelope’s home and made it their “territory”; they “graze” as they please there, eating, drinking, stealing, raping the serving women, and trying to get Penelope to agree to marry one of them. Although Antinous is the most active of them, it is difficult to differentiate one from another, since Homer has made them all equally grasping, unprincipled, and vicious. They all resemble each other, and I believe that is intentional: we are meant to see them as a group, and the slaughter of Helios’ cattle is a direct forecast of the deaths of these men.
There are other similarities that are significant. In both cases, there is a taboo against the action being contemplated. The suitors have no concrete evidence that Odysseus is dead, but they are attempting to get his wife to agree to marry one of them anyway. ...