Consequences of disloyalty...
Something I came to recognize towards the end of The Odyssey was the picture of loyalty and disloyalty. At the end of the book we see several characters showing signs of either loyalty or disloyalty; but more importantly then that, we see the consequences of those loyal or disloyal actions.
Odysseus's servants for instance. He has two or three servants that rise up and fight the suitors with him after they realize their master has returned. They are faithful to remain by his side even after 20 years. Although it never really mentions their rewards for such services, I bet that even if they were just considered highly favored by Odysseus, that'd be good enough for them.
The maid servants however, are completely disloyal to Penelope. They sleep around with her suitors, which was a big deal, even though Penelope didn't really care about the suitors. If you were a servant, you were suppose to do whatever your master required and asked of you. By saying in the book that the maids were 'sneaking out and sleeping with the suitors in the night' you can come to the conclusion that it wasn't a request of them from Penelope.
The consequences for disloyalty in The Odyssey are pretty major. The punishment for disloyalty is death. There's pretty much no way around that.
As I think about this, I can't help but to compare it to our world today. When someone is disloyal to a spouse, or a friend, they divorce them, they stop speaking to them, then they move on. With little thought to how the other person feels. The consequences for having no integrity is basically nothing anymore. I can't help but think what our world would look like today if we had the desire to be more loyal to those we cared about and loved.
P.s. I commented on Mallory Searcy's post "Time"
I get where you are coming from. Servants are always to be loyal to their masters just like it says in the bible. They shared a bond of mutual trust and friendship, but these maid servants did not seem to care about the feelings of their mistriss. A good servant would be willing to die to protect their master, but these girls were to tied up in their own pursuit of pleasure to even care what Penelope was thinking or feeling during this time of hardship. They at least could have been sympathetic towards her. I mean her husband has been gone for twenty years and yet she still longs for him. Could they have just respected their lady's feelings towards the suitors and not get involved? Maybe the Oddysey would have been different if they had?
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