Everybody is a son of.
Yes, indeed. It's the equivalent of a last name for us. It's more obvious in names like Ericson or Williamson.
It occurs to me that the suitors' disrespect for their elders is
of a piece with their abuse of hospitality. This is a pretty shoddy
lot, by Greek or modern standards.
Rosemary, my own take on wise men not lying, is simply that they
are wise enough to know that it doesn't pay in the long run. You get
caught in the lies and lose your credibility, at the very least.
Does Telemachus know that this is Athena accompanying him? There
is a real 'Mentor', a known friend and guide. He knows that Athena
once appeared to him in that form, but does he really know that the
'Mentor' accompanying him day by day is Athena and not his friend?
Where is the real Mentor, by the way? Is this some sort of godly
'occupation' of a mortal?
Interesting questions about modern sacrifices. I would suppose that
practices like the Lenten fasts are a modern form of sacrifice. And
many people still practice giving up something special for the season.
Congregations are frequently asked for a 'sacrificial'level of giving
for some church need.
I suppose that originally the idea of sacrifice was to give back,
in some way, in gratitude for all that the gods gave men. Obviously,
they don't need those slaughtered oxen, etc., for food. It was the
idea that counted.
The suicide bombers who give up their lives are doing so in hopes of
a great reward in paradise, and the assurance that the act is pleasing
to God. Just as terrible an injustice as Agamemnon's sacrifice of his
daughter. May that is why Athena hated the man. ??
GUM, I took those references to Telemachus looking like his father
to be the normal, common, .."Oh, you look just like your Daddy! I'd
know you anywhere!"
