Surprising but Inevitable? The Many Endings of The Odyssey

In distilling Aristotle’s Poetics, Aristotle believed that conclusions should be surprising but inevitable and it basically means that the events should be surprising while still making complete sense in terms of everything that came before, and instead of I knew it, we should be hit with of course. I have taken that little nugget into everything I’ve read and written, from essays to fiction, and it’s really a standard that can’t be overemphasized. When the ending just makes sense, even when frustrating, it can usually be attributed to this very experience.

So this week, let’s look at the conclusion of The Odyssey: Book 23 and 24.