With Odysseus's return, the story is getting more and more gripping. Everything about his return is designed not to repeat the fate of Agamemnon, who was killed by his wife's lover, in some accounts, and by Klytemnestra herself, in other accounts. I don't think Odysseus expects Penelope to turn against him--but perhaps, wily as he is, he does not even take that for granted, but uses his days as a spy in his own home, to find out what she--and her serving girls--think about Odysseus and the suitors. All in pursuit of vengeance.
The book ends with an absolute blood bath.
Although I find revenge a despicable and destructive motive, both in personal relationships and politics, I am quite aware that there have been times when I wanted badly to avenge myself and where I indulged in fantasies of getting back at someone who had injured or somehow humiliated me. I see the attraction, even addiction, to revenge: is it about justice? Is it an archaic desire for a kind of catharsis, where you want to purge yourself of your violent hate of someone by hurting them in turn?
Now, as someone who has had to keep peace in a family, between friends, and, to some extent, at work, I recoil from vengeful impulses. I acknowledge their existince and then dismiss them (or try to dismiss them).
What i notice in The Odyssey, however, is that the Gods are fully involved in retributive justice, in revenge. Athene makes sure that the suitors behave more and more outrageously, almost as if she is worried that Odysseus's and Telemachus's violent anger might slacken, especially since some of the suitors, like Antinoos, are thoughtful and, it seems, "not so bad":
And Athene by no means allowed the bold suitors
To refrain from grievous outrage, so that still more pain
Might enter the heart of Odysseus (Book 20, page 226, lines 284-286).
I wonder to what extent such retributive justice still shapes contemporary politics and interpersonal relationships. Does it? And if so, how? And is that entirely a bad thing (as I tend to think)?
Revenge is a vicious circle. I learned this from the ancient Chinese philosophy when I was a child. If one seeks revenge from the other, there is never a ending. When I think about some classical Chinese literature and modern TV series, the major theme is vengence. When one family member victimized by the other, the other member would seek revenge. And there will be always the next generation to carry out this "duty" to exact revenge and counter-revenge. As Claudia Durst Johnson says, Retribution is "an endless row or falling dominos, one action leading to another ad infinitum." While it comes to the concern of the world wars that caused by retailiations and retributions, I believe an eye for eye makes the whole world blind.
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