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Odysseus was a Rat
Odysseus was a rat. I often think that the worthy Oriental gentlemen who tabled the characteristics of the Rat Person had Odysseus in mind. When the Emperor Huang Ti introduced the first cycle of the Chinese zodiac in 2600 BCE, it was a good many years after the elderly Odysseus had met his peaceful death, but the Emperor must have known of my wily old compatriot. Last evening, in an idle moment, I dusted down the Chinese Scrolls section at the back of my cave, and unrolled the astrological information on the Year of the Rat .. and it was all so clear. Rat people are recorded as possessing an uncanny eye for detail, good memories, keen intuition, foresight, incredible inquisitiveness and sharp business acumen. They are active and pleasant, tactful and fantastic. They have broad interests, strong ability in adapting to the environment and able to react adequately to any changes. They devise new schemes on the run, and adversity sharpens their wits.. Above all, they are crafty. A perfect description of Odysseus! Odysseus had brains as well as muscles. He was a man of inquiring mind, of outstanding prowess and bravery, with a gift for evaluating the situation. (I always had a soft spot for redheads, especially an athletic one.) So what if he had a couple of minor weaknesses that prolonged his voyage back to Ithaca. Are they really so important? Pride is natural to have, although some might say that in Odysseus’ case he had too much of it. They refer, of course, to the incident on the Cyclopes’ island when Odysseus bragged a little loudly about his exploits and just missed being flattened by giant boulders hurled by Polyphemus. It was then that Odysseus unwisely revealed his name to the round-eyed brute and with that, Polyphemus called upon his father, Poseidon, to punish the man who had harmed him. This regrettable lapse of his usual intelligence caused Odysseus more trouble than a gang of drunken hoplites because Poseidon (one of the nastiest gods I ever knew) turned the poor man’s journey home into a long grisly nightmare. Yet another weakness of my old friend was his enthusiastic response to the fairer sex but you must remember that he was away from home for a long time and, although he stayed with Circe for a year and Calypso for seven, he returned to Penelope in the end. Odysseus survived all that happened to him. His courage, wits, and endurance carried him through each and every difficulty and didn’t desert him when he finally reached Ithaca again. Courage, wits and endurance. The marks of the Rat. And please don’t sneer at Penelope, imagining her sitting at the loom with only an old dog for companionship. She anchored the kingship of Ithaca. She was the queen. The system was matrilinial and Odysseus became king only by marrying her. If Penelope had given up hope of Odysseus returning, then the man she married would become king. The men who sat around in her hall eating her food (the kitchen bill for the suitors and their armies was horrendous) were hoping she would choose one of them. She didn’t. She confounded them instead, for twenty long years.
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Contributor's Note
After years of silence and hidden from the face of men, Medusa has stepped from her cave to tell her side of the story.
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May, 2012
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