What are two uses of light in this book? How are these uses examples of dramatic irony (the fact that the audience knows something that the actors don’t know)?

Question

The Odyssey Chapter 18 What are two uses of light in this book? How are these uses examples of dramatic irony (the fact that the audience knows something that the actors don’t know)?

Answer 1

Hi there!

One of the passages that comes to mind is within Book XIX of the Odyssey [my translation places this around line 31] where Athena holds a lamp to give illumination to Odysseus and Telemachus as they store away the weapons in preparation for the upcoming fight. Here the irony is that Odysseus and the audience know that Athena is helping, but Telemachus is unaware of this fact, as he remarks in XIX.40 that "..there must be surely a god here..."

Hope this helps!