In his epic poems, Homer often chose mundane objects to symbolically encompass many of the story's themes. In The Iliad, a nailed golden scepter embodies the major themes of the epic, and the marriage bed of Odysseus and Penelope plays the same role in The Odyssey. Close examination reveals that the themes of both epic poems are reflected in their respective symbolic objects. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In Book XXIII of The Odyssey, Penelope prompts Odysseus to describe his unique marriage bed. This is a clever ploy because only Odysseus knows the details of their bed since he personally built it (“I myself, no other man, have made it” Line 189). The bed is unique in its construction; one of the posts is the trunk of an olive tree, thus making the massif immobile. The permanence of the bed is the shadow of Ulysses' greatness. The bed remained in its place for 20 years, and although Odysseus has been gone for 20 years, he never relinquished control of his domain and has now managed to re-establish himself as a rightful ruler. Additionally, constructing the bed from an olive tree evokes images of home and contentment; Olive trees are native to Greece and often symbolize peace in Greek mythology. The bed represents the intimacy between Odysseus and Penelope; they dedicated their marriage on this bed, and are probably the only two people to have ever slept there ("no other mortal except has ever seen it, but only you and I" ln. 226). Odysseus says that the doors of the inner chamber were “[fitted] close together,” just as Penelope and Odysseus are metaphorically in their marriage. The bed can be seen as representing the oikos, or home. Ulysses does not speak of “a” bed; he speaks of “his” bed, the one that is inside his own house. He asks: “Which man put my bed elsewhere? » (Ln 184). It's almost as if it's not the house itself that matters to Odysseus, but rather his bed. The bed is at the center of the house, the oikos, and can be considered the center of Ulysses. He said: "I laid my chamber round this and built it, until I/finished it, with close stones, and I covered it well,/and I added compacted doors, fitting tightly together” (lines 192-194). ). Physically, the bed is in the middle, meaning that Odysseus' bed is the center of his oikos. The role of the bed in representing Odysseus' power is equally important. The one who sleeps in the master's bed is responsible for the domain. Because Penelope did not allow anyone else to sleep in Odysseus' bed, he is still, albeit in absentia, in power and responsible for his lands and home (although the suitors have tested this power ). His control is then asserted by the annihilation of the suitors and his restoration as lord. Turning to The Iliad, we see that the scepter that Achilles throws to the ground in Book I is as symbolically important in the epic as Odysseus's bed is in the epic. The Odyssey. This unique scepter expresses the importance of Achilles because only a privileged few are allowed to use it. Homer explicitly describes the ownership of the scepter beginning with Agamemnon: "The mighty Agamemnon/stood up holding the scepter which Hephaestus had carefully wrought/Hephaestus gave it to King Zeus, son of Kronos/and Zeus in turn gave it to the courier Argeiphontes. ,/and the lord Hermes gave it to Pelops, the horse driver,/and Pelops gave it again to Atreus, the shepherd of the people” (book II, lns 100-105). Most of its previous owners were gods.