Odysseus' nostos

Analyze the purpose of all of the violence in books 22-24. Do you think that this is necessary for Odysseus' successful nostos? Why or why not?

I had mixed emotions about Odysseus' nostos. He did go through 10 years of monsters, witches, sirens, storms and other various forms of mayhem, only to come home to several men harassing his wife and plotting to murder his son. He definitely has a right to be angry, and gathering that he is a great and mighty hero who is favored by one of the most powerful goddesses on Mount Olympus, his reputation exemplifies his possible bloodlust during situations like these. Also, this book was based back in Ancient Greece, which means the majority of female characters in Greek mythology were described as either obedient housewives or magical sex-symbols (minus most of the goddesses on Mount Olympus). Odysseus fell victim to the charm of many of these women. Calypso, Circe and the sirens all thwarted Odysseus on his journey back to Ithaca. Keeping in mind that it was a man who wrote this book in Ancient Greece, Homer probably wanted to keep the male characters stronger than the women. This is why I think it may have been necessary for Odysseus to claim his nostos by slaughtering everyone and ending strong, instead of coming home, tired and weak after his ordeals. Although this is only one side of the argument, I also felt that Odysseus could have fulfilled his nostos without the blood and gore.

On the anti-violence side of things, I think it would have made more sense if Odysseus simply murdered the suitors, and spared all of the innocents. The maids received the worst of it all. If Odysseus was supposed to be the protagonist, I would think of him as kind and compassionate. By executing the maids, my image of this character shattered like glass. I understand that Odysseus might feel betrayed by the maids since they chose to serve the men who came into his home and harassed his wife, but in the end, what were the maids to do? They were maids, not queens. The maids may have been the lowest of the low in terms of the palace-dwellers. They aren't really maids at all, they are slaves. They live to serve. They would have (most likely) been killed anyway, if they denied service to the suitors. Things may have been different if the suitors were women. People seemed to be a bit more lenient towards women bickering with other women in literature of this time. Yet, if a woman talked back to a man during this time period, especially a slave like they were, it simply wasn't heard of, and probably wasn't taken lightly either. In other words, I'm not quite sure if Odysseus' actions should be labeled as correct or not. There are so many things that justify both sides of the argument.