One Thousand Objects In Homer's Odyssey

A Symbol is Worth One Thousand Objects In the right hands, any item can become an omen of anything. In Homer’s epic The Odyssey
, the bow and loom concurrently symbolize both life and death. At different times, they represent opposite ideas. Individually, they are distinct objects. When one imagines bows, he envisions a weapon used typically in hunting, while one thinks of a loom as a tool used to weave wonderful woolen items. But in the epic, these items portray life in some instances while signifying death in others. With a loom, one can weave beautiful articles of clothing for the living, but also burial shrouds for the dead, such as the one Penelope pretends to create for
Laertes. When a hunter discharges his bow, it murders the

After shooting Antinous, Odysseus admonishes the suitors by shouting “‘You dogs! you never imagined I’d return from Troy—/ so cocksure that you bled my house to death,/ ravished my serving-women—wooed my wife/ behind my back while I was

22. 356-42) Odysseus threatens the suitors with death, which his bow will soon deliver to them. He further emphasizes the symbolism of death when he advises the suitors that their necks are already in the noose. Once Odysseus begins to slaughter the suitors, the bow takes on its symbolism. However, in killing the suitors he also brings joy to the royal family. After Odysseus finally executes all of the suitors, Eurycleia feels so overjoyed that she happily requests that Penelope “‘Follow me down! So now, after all the years of grief,/ you two can embark, loving hearts, along the road to joy./ Look, your dreams, put off so long, come true at last—/ he’s back alive, home at his hearth, and found you,/ found his son still here. And all those suitors/ who did him wrong, he’s paid them back, he has,/ right in his own house!’”( Od.
23. 57-63) Eurycleia has become more alive, and now she wants the long separated married couple to reignite their spark and relive the old days when the only people in the palace were them and baby Telemachus.
Both the bow and the loom represent life and death, especially during the loom trick