As I read book 19, I came across several lines that had me wondering if Homer was being symbolic through a childhood story. This story starts on page 403 line 458; however, I am going to focus on page 404 lines 483- 523. Autolycus' sons are symbolic for the gods, the dogs for the Acheaens and other men, and the hunt stands for the war at Troy, so in the story, Odysseus goes ahead of the dogs and Autolycus' sons and attacks the great bore. He expects to kill the creature and then be done with the hunt; however, he gets severely cut in the leg before he takes the bore down. Just like in the story, Odysseus expected to go to war and either return home or die there, but we know better. Odysseus gets wounded on his journey home by all the trials he faced and all the loss he suffered. Now, back to Autolycus' sons. They were with Odysseus during the hunt just like Athena helped Odysseus fight all those men; however, on his journey home the gods seemed to desert him kind of how the sons did not run beside him to attack the bore. Then after Odysseus has killed the bore, Autolycus' sons come to Odysseus' aide by fixing his leg which reminded me of how the gods came to help Odysseus AFTER he had gone through all the strife. Just like how Odysseus' family sent him home with "splendid gifts" so did the gods by sending him to the Phealecians first. At the end of the story, Odysseus returns home to his family just like how he has finally returned home after his long journey.
P.S. I commented on Caleb Zessin's.
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