1.) Eumaeus first appears in the Odyssey on page 301- line 7.
2.) Book Fourteen's title is The Loyal Swineherd and the entire chapter proves Eumaeus's loyalty to Odysseus. He takes care of the animals in Odysseus' kingdom. He tells the beggar (Odysseus) how mad it makes him that he has to serve the suitors in his "great king's" home. He doesn't think that Odysseus will come home but he is so miserable without him. "Here I sit, my heart aching, broken for him, my master, my great king fattening up his own hogs for other men to eat, while he, starving for food, i wager, wanders the earth" (Book 14, ln. 44).
3.) Eumaeus's loyalty reminds me of Penelope's. Odysseus must be a wonderful person and a very hard man to forget, because it seems that everyone in his kingdom is dying without him. Before Odysseus, dressed as a beggar, goes to bed he notices that the swineheard doesn't go to bed indoors and it makes him very happy, "not his style to go to bed indoors, apart from his pigs. He geared up to go outside and it warmed Odysseus' heart, Eumaeus cared so much for his absent master's goods" (Book 14, ln. 592). Penelope is a woman and therefore her reaction to her husband's absence is different, she cries and mourns, her loyalty is the same. Athena tells Odysseus of the pain she is enduring, "But she, she waits in your halls, as always, her life an endless hardship...wasting away the nights, weeping away the days" (Book 13, ln. 383).
4.) I believe that Eumaeus is a hero. He has never left his master's home even though his master did and has not returned for twenty years. He takes care of Odysseus' belongings and doesn't approve of people coming in and trying to take it. He mourns for Odysseus like a best friend would. He is more of a quiet hero because he hasn't taken any action, but he still is a hero because of his undoubted loyalty.
11 comments:
I think you made a very good point in what you said, but it hard for me to consider Eumaeus as a hero because he only has one quality that i would consider heroic and that is loyalty. He is very loyal to Odysseus as is Penelope and many others that arn't mentioned. I Think that if we were to consider Eumaues a hero we could consider everyone a hero because everyone has to have at least one heroic quality. It's having most of them if not all of them that makes you stand above the rest.
Although Eumaeus is very loyal to Odysseus, I don't believe that that alone makes him a hero. A great deal of Book 13 tells how Eumaeus stayed true to Odysseus and never accepted the suitors as his master, but thats all it does. It doesn't say that Eumaeus is brave, strong, adventurous , or helps others. The only quality of a hero he has is loyalty and that alone can't make him a hero.
I completely agree with this statement. Eumaeus is a hero through and through because he stood up for what he believed in and not what was popular, like the vying for Penelope. He can also be considered heroic for being afraid not for himself, but for Odysseus. That is loyalty and bravery: two heroic traits.
It appears that everyone agrees, as do I, that Eumaeus displays unflagging loyalty towards his absent lord, Odysseus, in maintaining his obligations to him without a solid hope of ever receiving recognition for it again. Even his words betray no errant fancy in supposing his return when he dispels the disguised O.'s reassurances: "don't try to charm me now, don't speelbind me with lies" (14.438) He has been painfully deluded as to his master's return before, the pain of which he is unwilling to repeat. But can this obviously deep-felt loyalty be construed as heroism?
Initially I sided with Rob on this one. But after rereading Jessicapa's proposition one aspect struck me which is, I suppose, easy to forget sometimes in the midst of these hundreds of pages. That is, the simple duration through which Eumaeus' loyalty has persisted. It's been TWENTY YEARS this guy has been hanging around waiting for some word of Odysseus' return. True, he has all the bacon he could ever want, but really, twenty freak'n years? Pig busting can't be that much fun. For me, somewhere in that twenty year time span his loyalty crossed into the heroic-loyalty territory, even if only marginally. And he seems to have, in addition, remained a dignified, principled sort through it too. Cheers Eumaeus.
Even though Eumaues was very loyal to Odysseus and his land, I do not feel that makes him a hero. In order for Eumaeus to be a hero in my eyes he should have done more. He should have fought off the suitors or done anything in his will to remove them from his home. Even though he didn’t except the suitors as his master that just clarified how loyal he was to his master, so once again that does not make him an hero.
I think anyone can be considered a hero depending on your definition of a hero. Sometimes just one heroic act can earn someone the label of "a hero". Aside from loyalty I consider Eumeaus a hero because even though things became difficult, he followed by his master's example and helped the beggar (as Odysseus).He made sure that everyone had a fair share of the hog they had killed when he "carved it all out into seven equal portions"(14.492). He was charitable, just and gave his " strange new friend" (14.503)"all we have to offer" (14.504). I know that if I was washed up on a shore in a strange land, my hero would have done what Eumaeus did.
You've brought up a good point on the qualities on Eumaeus's part, but I do beg to differ on his hero part. Loyalty and friendliness, to me, did not quite up in the alley of being an hero. Eumaeus would be hero if he could get rid of suiters, the way he did to the swines, but he didn't do that part. Any way, three cheers for Eumaeus for being loyalty for sooo looong!
BA #4
I agree with plec and yelida on the fact that you can look at our definition of a hero and almost mold it to make even a character like Eumaeus seem like a hero. True, loyalty over years for his master seems heroic but you still have to question what else he has done to make him truly heroic. Has he saved any lives of men? Defended his queen from the sutors? NO, all he has done has looked after the pigs (he is doing a good job too). So if a man who looks after pigs and displays a strong loyalty to Odysseus over the years cuts it as a hero who else are we going to add to our list of heros?
BA #4
I agree with what everyone is saying. I do not believe that Eumaeus can be considered based on loyalty alone, because there are many people who are loyal to others, does that make them heroes? Eumaeus was not brave enough to stand up against the suitors, instead he continued to feed them and in a way, promote that they are living in Ithaca. Eumaeus was loyal to Odysseus but he is not a hero.
I agree that Eumaeus is indeed a hero. Though he exibited loyalty evidently as his main heroic trait,(as understood when he said, "Never another master kind as he! I'll never find one...it's longing for him that wrings my heart," (14.161-168), he is also self-less and giving. These traits qualify him as a hero. I beleive he didn't fight off Penelope's suitors because he has a sort of self-less, subdued, under-the-surface heroism. He is not ego-driven as Odysseus is, and therefore didn't fight off the suitors, but remained as loyal to his deep-down hope that Odysseus will save the day as he is to his pigs. In a sense, it was heroic of him not to take the spot light by fighting off the suitors because he, remaining true and loyal to Odysseus, longed for his friend to get the possible credit.
I agree that Eumaeus can be seen as a hero by some, depending on your definition of a hero. The class' evolving definition of a hero, thus far, has included loyalty (which he is to his master), "brave" and "courageous", which Eumaeus is when he walks with Odyesseus (disguised as a beggar) to the palace and thus faces the abuse of the suitors. We also said that what makes a hero is being "admirable" and "true to task." Both of these can apply to Eumaeus because one can look up to his loyal qualities and for the entire time Odysseus has been gone he's been true to his task. Eumaeus is also selfless (a heroic trait) when he gives all that he has, even though he doesn't have much himself, to a stranger. Along with being selfless this makes him a good host, which is significant in the story. We are shown here that being a good host is not so much noble but humble.
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