Odysseus returns
- Returns on King Alcinous’s ship
- Must dress as beggar
- Athena is helper/guardian
Eumaeus
- Faithful servant
- Swineherd (pig keeper)
- Doesn’t know O b/c of disguise
- Welcomes/nice to O
Telemachus
- O’s son
- Traveled to Pylos and Sparta to find dad
- Athena said “go home”
- O’s house is over-run with suitors
- T’s mom must choose new husband
- Athena warns: suitors plan ambush
- T gets home secretly
- T has been away 1 year
Father and son meet
- Dogs play with T
- O doesn’t recognize T
- E is very happy to see T – acts like dad
- T says to E: I want to see you first
- First thing: T, E, and O share a meal
- T and O don’t know each other b/c O wears disguise
- Athena changes O to young and new
- T thinks O is a god
- T denies O is father
- T finally accepts O as father
- They both cry
Beggar and his faithful dog
- Argos = O’s dog
- Trained by O
- Hunter dog
- Sleeps on dung, abandoned
- Wags tail when he hears O
- Very good hunting dog
- No one takes care of him now
- Argos dies
Penelope
- P delayed the suitors by telling them she must weave a rug for lost husband
- Each night, she undid the work from that day
- One of the maids tattled on her
- P supports O (as beggar)
- P wants to talk to O about O
- P gets mad at T for letting O be abused by suitors
- P sings praises of O
- O and T later discuss plan
- O will test P and maids
- Some maids not faithful
- O tells P three things: (1) “Beggar” makes up origin when he talks to P; (2) O praises himself to P; (3) O tells P that he is on his way
Eurycleia and Odysseus
- P = happy at O’s news
- P tells Eury to wash O’s feet (sign of respect)
- Eury = O’s nurse / nanny
- Eury recognizes O by scar on leg
- O makes Eury promise NOT to tell
Penelope
- P decides to test suitors
- O is very mad at suitors and maids
- Athena says: don’t fear – suitors will die
The Test of the Great Bow
- P proposes “impossible” task for suitors
- String bow = impossible for all except O
- O left his bow in Ithaca
- Test is twofold: string bow and shoot arrow clean through 12 axhead sockets
- Many suitors try; all fail
Faithful servants
- Swineherd and cowherd leave; they are sad
- O asks them if they’d be faithful to O if he returns
- Both say they’d be faithful
- O reveals himself to them
- If they help O defeat suitors, he promises wives, cattle, and houses to both
- O shows them his scar
- Tells them to return to room
- When he asks for the bow, suitors will laugh
- Give him the bow anyway
- Tell women to bar the doors and lock them tight
- If they hear screams / fighting – don’t open the door
Odysseus revealed
- O asks for bow – suitors don’t like the idea
- P says O must have a chance – accepts him as suitor
- E removes P and all maids from room
- T had removed all suitors weapons from room before
- O tests the bow for weaknesses – suitors jest
- O easily strings the bow
- Zeus thundered
- O easily shoots arrow through axes
- T stands by his father with weapons, ready to defend
Death at the Palace
- O must deal with more than 100 suitors
- O confronts Antinous, meanest of suitors
- Antinous broke a stool on O; teased and ridiculed him
- O loses his rags and aims for Antinous
- O shoots Antinous through the throat
- Suitors are angry, but find no weapons or shields
- O reveals himself: “Your last hour has come. You die in blood.”
- Eurymachus tries to bargin with reason and bribery:
- Reason: why kill more? You already killed Antinous, the cause of all troubles
- Bribery: we’ll replenish what we’ve used
- O says: you all will die for what you’ve done
- T helps his father kill all suitors
- Suitors can’t leave because doors are locked
Odysseus and the maids
- O makes maids clean up dead suitors
- T “pays” maids by hanging them in courtyard
- They were loyal to suitors and had to be punished
Odysseus and Penelope
- Eury tells P of O’s return and defeat of suitors
- P still doesn’t believe – wants to test O
- T is angry at P for not welcoming O
- P says: she is shocked and confused
- Later, P says to move bed into hall
- O says: bed can’t be moved
- O says: he built bed around an olive tree
- P very happy that O is her husband