The Odyssey Theme of Loyalty

Loyalty is tricky in the Odyssey. While our hero is delayed sailing home from war, his wife’s faithfulness is a beacon of steadfast devotion. On the other hand, Odysseus himself engages in multiple affairs before returning to his wife. Because of the cultural double-standard, the Odyssey doesn’t condemn its hero for doing so. This raises interesting questions of different types of loyalty: one of Odysseus’s justifications for cheating on his wife is that he never "in his heart" gave consent. In the world of the Odyssey, then, there are different types of loyalty (and accordingly many types of infidelity), ranging from physical to emotional.

1. Can Odysseus be justified in sleeping with Circe and Kalypso?
2. Many of Odysseus’s Ithakan friends and subjects believe he is dead, yet he still considers them loyal to him. On the other hand, when Odysseus is killing the suitors, he mentions that they didn’t think he was coming back. Home important is faith (so to speak) in Odysseus’s eventual homecoming as a factor in loyalty to him?

Penelope suffers more for her love of Odysseus than he does for love of her. Telemachos’s love for propriety and honor overrides his loyalty to his mother.