The Odyssey Ch. 13-15

Words

• "white barley" (p. 133) - I keep reading over this, so there must be some significance.  I can't find a site that explains it in context, but Wikipedia says it was the first domesticated grain and was sometimes used in the practice of alphitomancy (where a group was fed barley bread and the guilty person would get indigestion) or cornsned (A barley cake topped with ewe's cheese made in the month of may would be fed to a person.  If guilty, he would choke.)  Okay, I'm going on a tangent here, but:  Barley was also used as a measurement.  There were 4 or 5 poppy seeds to a barleycorn, and 3 barleycorns to an inch.  (copied almost exactly from WIkipedia)  It also says that they still use this in shoe sizes in Britain today.  Oh Barley!
• sagacious (p.138) - having good judgement, or shrewd
• chine (p.140) - the backbone

Phrases:

• "Must he too meet with sorrow...?" (p.130) - There's some phrase that says how a writer in jail is better than a writer experiencing nothing.  You have to go through hardships, or sorrow, in order to develop character.
• "the earth shall cover" (p.130) - good metaphor for dying
• "let fall the leather" (p. 132) - crack the whip?
• "Yet nowadays for them I do not greatly grieve...but longing possesses me for lost Odysseus." (p.135) - the swineherder wants to see Odysseus more than his own parents!
• "left without a name" (p.135) - the suitors don't just want to get rid of Telemachus because he's a pest.  If one was to marry Penelope, they would want Odysseus's family and name completely erased from their land.
• "different men delight in different deeds" (p. 136) - We're all talented in different ways!
• "Some God beguiled me into wearing nothing but my tunic." (p. 140) - just blame the gods for your poor decisions.
• "For a guest remembers all his days the hospitable man who showed him kindness." (p. 143)
• "certainly when you were small you wandered far from home and kindred." (p. 149) - A trip seems to be a common rite of passage.  The book also says Telemachus will be revered for his brave journey.  Don't Mormons have a two year trip where they can do whatever they want then decide if they really want to be  Mormon?  I think I'm confusing Mormons and the religion of a character in a Chuck Palaniuk book.  But it reminds me of something my grandpa told me that made me feel better when I quit college.  He said that I'd learn just as much traveling as I would  paying for an education.
• "for afterward, a man finds pleasure in his pains" (p.149) - we still love to tell stories of how bad we had it and show off our battle scars

Other thoughts:

• Odysseus sure does make up a giant lie to tell the swineherder.  I guess he had to make it intricate in order for it to be believable.
• Why does Telemachus take in Theoclymenus, who is a killer?  
• Each place, like each character, has defining characteristics stated after its name.  I would be ... Jahana White, daughter of Sam White, blessed by the gods with the gift of music as might be found by those on fair Olympus.  At a young age he wed kind Pamela, and together they traversed the land, doing for themselves what they found pleasant at each moment.  Upon gaining much experience, years and wealth (though not of gold, linens or flock, but of love) Pamela bore jubilant Jahana and two others- faithful Jenna and exuberant Janessa.  What's yours?