Liar

PENELOPE'S MAN : The Homing Instinct

--John Erskine--Bobbs-Merrill ($2.50).

Odysseus was ten years getting home from Troy. Therefore, Homer proves him a hero of the sort that is resourceful when shipwrecked, patient when detained. But Erskine proves him a liar of the sort that is shrewd enough in pursuit of romantic adventures, and shrewder yet in making them appear less romantic than brave. Not shrewd enough however to deceive Penelope with his tale of trying for ten years to get home. "Trying, my dear man! Who kept you back?"--"Fate."--"What was her other name?"

It seems there were a variety of names--Daphne, Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa--but all had the one purpose of beloving Odysseus, bearing his children, and getting rid of him when he grew boring. Daphne, lotus-eater, was perhaps the most charming--that is, until she referred casually to the custom of her country that would require Odysseus' death as soon as she was with child by him. Before he could complete, however, his mission as chosen father, he escaped to the next island and succumbed to the charms of Circe (he later described her to Penelope as "a witch, rather distressing to look at"). Calypso, "a large female, beautifully proportioned." endured him longest--seven years--and not until their several children all showed a lurking lack of virility did she decide that it was time their lazy father should return to his long neglected wife.

Not that Penelope cared. In fact she was enjoying her house-party of suitors, and had just chosen one of them when her grizzly spouse turned up with his detained-at-the-office fairytale.

Erskine's version, mildly amusing, suffers in that it cannot share the novelty of his Helen of Troy. Homer's, if less convincing, is nevertheless rather more entertaining.