Loyalty is something that today we look for in everyone and those who are loyal get rewarded with our friendship and in return our loyalty to them. So the theme is be loyal to your companions no matter what, and you will be content. Odysseus valued loyalty to him and his orders very highly. Unfortunately Odysseus lost the loyalty of many of his companions and they paid the price. In book 12 Odysseus tells the crew to not kill the cows on the island or they will all die and lose their ship. But the Crew does not listen to him and eventually kill the cows and eat them. Page 282 line 397-401 "I groaned in anguish, crying out to the deathless gods; Father Zeus! the rest of you blissful gods who never die you with your fatal sleep, you lulled me into disaster. Left on their own, look what a monstrous thing my crew concocted!" Odysseus’s crew was disloyal and did not follow his orders and because of it they angered the gods. Who later would destroy the crew and his ship.
Another example would be when Odysseus returned to his own country only to find that suitors and most of the women had betrayed him. The suitors believing that he was dead were trying to marry his wife Penelope and were squandering away his household. So Odysseus tested each person to see if they were still loyal to him. When he finally revealed himself he killed all those who were not loyal and saved those who were. “Look your crucial test is finished, now, at last! But another target’s left that no one’s hit before- we’ll see if I can hit it- Apollo give me glory! But Odysseus aimed and shot Antinous Square in the throat and the point went stabbing clean through the soft neck and out.” Page 439-440 lines 5-7 and 15-16. The Suitors did not stay loyal and they paid a heavy price. Even the maids who did not stay with him were given a dishonorable death.
The best example of loyalty is in Odysseus’s wife Penelope. She waited for him to return for many long years. All those years many power thirsty suitors tried to win her over so they could be king. Every night she wept for her husband to return and every night she refused the suitors advances. After the many years of being refused the suitors started to get frustrated and demanded that she pick one of them. So she devised a cleaver plan to have a contest. This contest would be to string Odysseus’s old bow and shoot an arrow through the handles of many axes. “Sly old fox maybe he’s got bows like it, stored in his house. That or he’s bent on making one himself. Look how he twists and turns in his hands. The clever tramp means trouble.” Page 437 lines 445-449 “Just as he sat but aiming straight and true, he let fly and never missing an ax from the first ax-handle clean on through to the last and out the shaft with its weighted brazen head shot free!” Page 437-438 lines 468-471. Penelope knew that only her husband could complete this magnificent task and by doing this she unknowingly revealed her husband Odysseus to everyone. She had already used many things to push back the suitor’s requests. I think that Penelope being loyal for so long is a great example of love keeping two people together through difficult times.
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