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Oxymorons
Definition of Pathos
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Pathos is an argument that appeals to... read full definition
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Pathos is... read full definition
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective... read full definition
Book 1
Explanation and Analysis:
At the beginning of The Odyssey, Athena, who favors Odysseus, uses pathos when interceding on his behalf at a council of the gods. Addressing her father, Zeus, and conceding that another mortal, Aegisthus, "goes down to a death he earned in full," she states:
Father, son of Cronus, our high and mighty king,
surely he goes down to a death he earned in full!
Let them all die so, all who do such things.
But my heart breaks for Odysseus,
that seasoned veteran cursed by fate so long —
far from his loved ones still, he suffers torments [...]
Odysseus longs to die . . .
Olympian Zeus, have you no care for him in your lofty heart?
Did he never win your favor with sacrifices
burned beside the ships on the broad plain of Troy?
Why, Zeus, why so dead set against Odysseus?
Athena begins her pathos-laden speech by affirming that Aegisthus, who joined his lover, Clytemnestra, in killing her husband, King Agamemnon, fully deserves his death at the hands of Orestes, son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. However, she makes a strong emotional appeal on behalf of Odysseus, who "suffers torments" and even "longs to die" as a result of his long separation from his home and family. Here, she both acknowledges the pain that the indifference and hostility of the gods have brought to Odysseus and even claims that her own "heart breaks" for the mortal. Last, she makes a direct appeal to Zeus's own emotions, asking him if he has no "care" for Odysseus in his "lofty heart." In this passage, Athena wields pathos extensively in order to convince the other gods to circumvent Poseidon's plan to punish Odysseus.
Related Themes:
Book 2
Explanation and Analysis—Good Calm Sense:
When Antinous, leader of the suitors, complains about Penelope's tricks and argues that Telemachus should send her back to her father's home so that he might select a husband on her behalf, Telemachus uses both logos and pathos in his argument that it would be unjust to send his own mother away:
But with calm good sense Telemachus replied:
“Antinous, how can I drive my mother from our house
against her will, the one who bore me, reared me too? [...]
Oh what I would suffer from her father —
and some dark god would hurt me even more
when mother, leaving her own house behind,
calls down her withering Furies on my head,
and our people’s cries of shame would hound my heels.
I will never issue that ultimatum to my mother.
And you, if you have any shame in your own hearts,
you must leave my palace!
Here, the poem emphasizes the logical nature and "good calm sense" of Telemachus's response. He argues that it would be inappropriate for a son to banish his own mother, as this would violate his natural obligation to her. Further, he reasons that the gods themselves would likely punish him for sending Penelope from "her own house," sending "Furies" to torment him. He wraps up his argument with a strong emotional appeal, noting that the suitors must leave if they have "any shame" in their "hearts," underscoring the disgrace that their presence has brought to his family. His speech here, combining pathos and logos, attests to the budding maturity of Telemachus, who is poised to assume a more active role in Ithaca.
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Book 11
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Shadow:
In a speech saturated with pathos, Odysseus recounts meeting his deceased mother, Anticleia, in the afterlife. Earlier, Odysseus saw his mother's shade in Hades but made the difficult decision to push her away in order to closely follow Circe's instructions. After he receives a prophecy and warning from Tiresias, however, Odysseus searches for his mother, who explains the sad circumstances of her death:
'No, it was my longing for you, my shining Odysseus —
you and your quickness, you and your gentle ways —
that tore away my life that had been sweet.’
And I, my mind in turmoil, how I longed
to embrace my mother’s spirit, dead as she was!
Three times I rushed toward her, desperate to hold her,
three times she fluttered through my fingers, sifting away
like a shadow, dissolving like a dream.
Here, Odysseus narrates his journey to the underworld to the Phaecian king Antinous in a manner that highlights the pain he felt there. Anticleia, Odysseus claims, informed him that she died of a broken heart while waiting for her beloved son to return from the Trojan War. Her words register the deep suffering that "tore away" a life "that had been sweet." Odysseus responds to her emotional appeal with strong feelings of his own, describing his "turmoil" and strong desire to "embrace" his mother. However, each time he attempted to "hold her," she "fluttered" through his fingers "like a shadow, dissolving like a dream." These similes underscore the ephemeral nature of shades in the underworld, who cannot physically interact with the living. In his speech to Antinous's court, then, Odysseus appeals to the emotions of his audience, hoping to convince them to allow him to continue on his way to Ithaca without further interruption.
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Book 12
Explanation and Analysis—Scylla:
In an epic simile, the poem compares the monstrous Scylla to an "angler," or a person who fishes with a line and a hook:
Just as an angler poised on a jutting rock
flings his treacherous bait in the offshore swell,
whips his long rod —hook sheathed in an oxhorn lure —
and whisks up little fish he flips on the beach-break,
writhing, gasping out their lives . . . so now they writhed, [...]
screaming out, flinging their arms toward me,
lost in that mortal struggle . . .
Of all the pitiful things I’ve had to witness,
suffering, searching out the pathways of the sea,
this wrenched my heart the most.
Earlier, Tiresias prophesied that Odysseus and his men would have to cross either Scylla or Charybdis on their return voyage. While six men would be lost to the six heads of the Scylla, Tiresias notes that the whirlpool-like Charybdis will take down the entire ship. Knowing that this information will terrify his men, Odysseus keeps it to himself as he pragmatically directs the ship to cross the path of Scylla, who, as predicted, grabs six of Odysseus's strongest men, killing them. Here, the poem presents a classic example of an epic simile that characterizes Scylla as an angler who "whisks up little fish" using a road and bait. Like the fish caught by an angler, Odysseus's men find themselves "writhing, gasping out their lives" but unable to free themselves. This simile, then, highlights the helplessness of the men in the grasp of the monstrous but powerful Scylla, who dispatches them with ease. A distraught Odysseus characterizes this encounter with Scylla as the most painful part of his return voyage.
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