figure
Odysseus
also: Ulysses
The cunning hero of Homer's Odyssey, invoked by Platonov as he embraces Anna Petrovna: unlike Odysseus, who had himself bound to the mast to resist the Sirens, Platonov claims no such defense against her.
Reading notes
- Untitled Play (Bezottsovshchina / "Platonov") §3148 Odysseus deserved to be sung to by sirens
Platonov's mock-mythological self-deprecation: unlike the cunning, resistant Homeric hero who had himself bound to the mast to survive the Sirens' song, Platonov claims he has no such defense against Anna Petrovna.
- To N. A. Leikin, 17 November 1884. Moscow. §12 Ulysses
The strangers at the Rossiya office asked Chekhov who 'this Ulysses' was, apparently a pseudonymous byline or figure in his Moscow feuilleton column that they had enjoyed without knowing they were speaking to its author.
- To N. A. Leikin, 10 December 1884. Moscow. §14 the mask of Ulysses
An oblique, coded reference to a piece Chekhov had ghostwritten or otherwise wished to keep anonymous; the classical allusion to Odysseus/Ulysses' disguises stands in for the secret of authorship that Palmin had apparently let slip.