sey_ the fateful story peeps from the background,
and strongly hints what is to become of the suitors of Penelope, who
are seeking to do to Ulysses what AEgisthus did to Agamemnon. They will
perish, is the decree; thus we behold at the beginning of the poem an
image which foreshadows the end. That is the image of AEgisthus, upon
whom vengeance came for the wrongful deed.

The Gods, then, do really exist; they are the law and the voice of the
law also, to which man may hearken if he will; but he can disobey, if
he choose, and bring upon himself the consequences. The law exists as
the first fact in the world, and will work itself out with the Gods as
executors. Is not this a glorious starting-point for a poem which
proposes to reveal the ways of providence unto men? The idea of the
Homeric world-order is now before us, which we may sum up as follows:
the Gods are in the man, in his reason and conscience, as we moderns
say; but they are also outside of man, in the world, of which they are
rulers. The two sides, divine and human, must be made one; the grand
dualism between heaven and earth must be overcome in the deed of the
hero, as well as in the thought of the reader. When the God appears, it
is to raise man out of himself into the universal realm where lies his
true being. Again, let it be affirmed that the deities are not an
external fate, not freedom-destroying power, but freedom-fulfilling,
since they burst the narrow limits of the mere individual and elevate
him into unity and harmony with the divine order. There he is truly
free.

Thus we hear Zeus in his first speech announcing from Olympus the two
great laws which govern the world, as well as this poem--that of
freedom and that of justice. The latter, indeed, springs from the
former; if man be free, he must be held responsible and receive the
penalty of the wicked deed. Moreover, it is the fundamental law of
criticism for the _Odyssey_; freedom and justice we are to see in it
and unfold them in accord with the divine order; woe be to the critic
who disobeys the decree of Zeus, and sees in his poem only an amusing
tale, or a sun-myth perchance.

But here is Pallas Athena speaking to the supreme deity, and noting
what seems to be an exception. It is the case of Ulysses, who always
"gave sacrifices to the immortal Gods," who has done his duty, and
wishes to return to family and country. Pallas hints the difficulty;
Calypso the charmer, seeks to detain him in her