Epilogue

When I came up with the idea for this story, I did a lot of research into the name Odysseus and a lot of interesting parallels came up between the name and the character of Bobby Goren. Many of these parallels have to do with aspects of LOCI canon that take place after the time period that I wanted to set my story in. So these are facts that I wasn't able to weave into the plot but I still thought you might enjoy learning about them.

Odysseus was the King of Ithaca and the hero of the epic poems the Odyssey and the Iliad. He was considered to be intelligent, cunning and resourceful. He was famous for figuring clever and tricky ways out of the adventures he found himself in, just like Bobby.

The root of the name may have come from the word odussomai which means hate. Now with Bobby's mother being a librarian, she would have been aware of both Odysseus' intelligence and cunning and the fact that the name means hate. This shows then how conflicted she may have felt at Bobby's birth: hope for her new-born son's intelligence and hate for the man who might be his father, Mark Brady.

It also seems prophetic that in the Iliad, Odysseus had to feign lunacy just as Bobby did in Unhinged. The name also makes prophetic sense in that Odysseus had trials and tribulations and even had to pass through the underworld to make his was back home to the woman he loved.

Another interesting aspect is that the Odyssey states that Laertes was Odysseus' father but another, non-Homeric, tradition states that Sisyphus was his true father. Laertes was a fairly decent King but was a minor character. Sisyphus was a deceitful man who violated the laws of hospitality by killing travelers and guests, much like Mark Brady. Was Frances Goren using the name Odysseus as a declaration to acknowledge the fact that either Mr. Goren or Mark Brady could have been Bobby's father?

I believe this doubt explains why Frances Goren treated the two boys so differently. She knew that Frank was Mr. Goren's son but with her doubt about Bobby's biological father, she put all of her focus on him, constantly comparing him with Frank. Not because Frank was so good, but because Frank was not Brady's child. I think she was always evaluating the differences between the two boys, searching Bobby for any sign of the man who had almost killed her and possibly left her with his offspring.

Of course, we have no way of knowing exactly what the initial O stands for but I think this makes a good case for the name Odysseus. Having Bobby share the name of such a legendary hero suits him, don't you think?

Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed you all are wonderful!! Kudos to Sexyscottishdoc for guessing the correct name about half way through the story, you rock!