The Odyssey

Book 1: The Boy and the Goddess

• The Invocation: The poet calls upon the Muse to tell the story of the “complicated man” (Odysseus) who wandered for years after sacking Troy.

• The Divine Council: While Poseidon is away visiting the Ethiopians, Athena appeals to Zeus on behalf of Odysseus, who has been trapped for seven years on Ogygia by the nymph Calypso.

• Zeus’s Reflection: Zeus muses on human folly, citing Aegisthus—who ignored divine warnings, murdered Agamemnon, and was subsequently killed by Agamemnon’s son, Orestes.

• The Plan: Zeus agrees to allow Odysseus to return. Hermes is to be sent to Calypso to demand Odysseus’s release, while Athena goes to Ithaca.

• Athena in Ithaca: Disguised as Mentes (a family friend), Athena finds Odysseus’s house overrun by arrogant suitors who are consuming his wealth and courting his wife, Penelope.

• Inspiring Telemachus: Athena speaks to Odysseus’s son, Telemachus. She gives him hope that his father is alive and tells him he must grow up and act. She instructs him to call an assembly of the Ithacans and then travel to Pylos and Sparta for news.

• Penelope’s Grief: Penelope enters the hall and asks the bard Phemius to stop singing of the Greeks’ difficult returns from Troy because it causes her too much pain.

• Telemachus Asserts Authority: Telemachus surprisingly rebukes his mother, telling her to return to her quarters and asserting that “the bow [or speech/power] is work for men.”

• Confronting the Suitors: Telemachus tells the suitors they must leave his house. The lead suitors, Antinous and Eurymachus, respond with mockery and question the identity of his “visitor.”

• Nightfall: Eurycleia, the loyal old nurse who cared for Telemachus since birth, helps him to bed as he contemplates the journey Athena proposed.

Book 2: A Dangerous Journey

• The Assembly: For the first time since Odysseus left 20 years ago, Telemachus calls a formal assembly of the Ithacan elders.

• The Complaint: Telemachus tearfully denounces the suitors for destroying his estate.

• Antinous’s Counter-Argument: Antinous blames Penelope for the delay, revealing her trick: she claimed she would marry once she finished a shroud for Laertes (Odysseus’s father), but she spent three years weaving it by day and unweaving it by night.

• The Omen: Zeus sends two eagles that fight above the assembly. The prophet Halitherses interprets this as a sign that Odysseus is near and the suitors face a bloody end.

• Eurymachus’s Defiance: Eurymachus mocks the prophecy and insists that Telemachus must send his mother back to her father, Icarius, to arrange a new marriage.

• Telemachus’s Request: Realizing the assembly will not act, Telemachus asks for a ship and a crew of twenty.

• Mentor and Leocritus: Mentor (an old friend of Odysseus) scolds the people for their passivity. The suitor Leocritus shuts down the meeting, claiming Telemachus will never actually make the trip.

• Divine Aid: Athena reappears to Telemachus, this time disguised as Mentor. She encourages him, finds a ship (borrowed from a man named Noëmon), and recruits a crew of volunteers.

• Secret Preparation: Telemachus tells only Eurycleia of his plans, making her swear an oath not to tell Penelope for twelve days.

• Departure: Athena puts the suitors into a deep sleep, leads the crew to the ship, and sends a favorable wind to carry them toward Pylos.

Book 3: An Old King Remembers

• Arrival at Pylos: Telemachus and Athena (as Mentor) arrive at Pylos to find King Nestor and his people performing a massive sacrifice of black bulls to Poseidon.

• Telemachus’s Shyness: Telemachus is intimidated by the prospect of speaking to the legendary Nestor, but Athena/Mentor encourages him to trust his own wits and divine help.

• Nestor’s Hospitality: Nestor welcomes the strangers warmly before even asking their names, upholding the laws of xenia (hospitality).

• The Fate of the Greeks: Nestor recounts the history of the war’s end. He describes the falling out between Agamemnon and Menelaus and the scattered returns of the other heroes (Diomedes, Neoptolemus, Philoctetes).

• Missing News: Nestor has no definitive news of Odysseus’s fate after they parted ways at Tenedos, but he praises Odysseus’s legendary cunning and notes how much Telemachus resembles him in speech.

• The Agamemnon Parallel: Nestor retells the story of Orestes’s revenge on Aegisthus, explicitly holding it up as a model of how Telemachus should defend his own father’s honor.

• Athena’s Revelation: As night falls, “Mentor” declines an invitation to stay in the palace and instead transforms into an “ossifrage” (a sea-vulture) and flies away. Nestor realizes he has been hosting a goddess and vows to sacrifice a gold-horned heifer to her.

• Overland to Sparta: The next morning, after the sacrifice, Nestor provides Telemachus with a chariot and his own son, Pisistratus, to serve as a guide for the two-day journey to Sparta.

Book 4: What the Sea God Said

• The Spartan Wedding: Telemachus and Pisistratus arrive in Sparta during a double wedding feast for Menelaus’s children.

• Menelaus’s Nostalgia: Menelaus offers lavish hospitality. He expresses deep sorrow for his lost companions at Troy, stating he would trade two-thirds of his wealth to have them back—especially Odysseus.

• Helen’s Entrance: Helen enters and immediately recognizes Telemachus by his striking resemblance to his father.

• Drugs and Stories: As the group weeps for Odysseus, Helen mixes a drug from Egypt into the wine to take away all pain and grief. She tells a story of Odysseus infiltrating Troy disguised as a beggar; Menelaus counters with the story of Odysseus’s discipline inside the Wooden Horse.

• The Story of Proteus: The next morning, Menelaus tells Telemachus how he was stranded in Egypt and had to trap Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea.

• Proteus’s Revelations: Proteus informed Menelaus of the deaths of Ajax (killed for his hubris) and Agamemnon (murdered by Aegisthus). Most importantly, he revealed that Odysseus is alive but trapped on Calypso’s island with no way home.

• The Ambush in Ithaca: The narrative cuts back to Ithaca, where the suitors discover Telemachus has actually left. Led by Antinous, they plan to intercept and murder him at sea in the strait between Ithaca and Same.

• Penelope’s Terror: Medon the herald informs Penelope of the suitors’ plot and Telemachus’s journey. She is devastated.

• The Dream Phantom: Athena sends a phantom in the likeness of Penelope’s sister, Iphthime, to visit her in a dream. The phantom reassures her that Telemachus is under the protection of Athena, though it refuses to say if Odysseus is alive.

• The Suitors Set Sail: The book ends with the suitors lurking in ambush at the island of Asteris.

Book 5: From the Goddess to the Storm

• Second Council of the Gods: Athena again asks Zeus to help Odysseus. Zeus notes that his return is fated and tells Athena to protect Telemachus from the suitors’ ambush.

• Hermes’ Mission: Zeus sends Hermes to Ogygia to command Calypso to release Odysseus. Hermes flies to the lush, beautiful island and finds Odysseus weeping on the shore, looking at the sea.

• Calypso’s Protest: Calypso is furious at the decree, calling the male gods “cruel” and “jealous” for their double standard regarding goddesses having mortal lovers. However, she realizes she cannot oppose Zeus.

• Odysseus’ Skepticism: Calypso tells Odysseus he can leave. Suspecting a trap, he makes her swear a “mighty oath” by the river Styx that she is not planning his destruction.

• The Choice of Mortality: Calypso tries to tempt him to stay by offering immortality and pointing out she is more beautiful than Penelope. Odysseus tactfully acknowledges her superior beauty but insists his heart yearns for home and his wife.

• Building the Raft: Odysseus skillfully cuts down twenty trees and constructs a sturdy raft in four days. On the fifth day, Calypso provides him with clothes and provisions, and he sets sail.

• Poseidon’s Wrath: After seventeen days of sailing, Odysseus sees the mountains of Phaeacia. Poseidon, returning from Ethiopia, spots him and is enraged. He rouses a massive storm that shatters the raft.

• The White Goddess: Ino (Leucothea) takes pity on Odysseus. She gives him an immortal veil to tie around his waist to prevent drowning, instructing him to throw it back into the sea once he reaches shore.

• The Struggle for Shore: Odysseus is tossed by waves and nearly crushed against the jagged rocks of Scheria. Through Athena’s inspiration, he finds a river mouth and prays to the river god for safety.

• The Bed of Leaves: Exhausted and battered, Odysseus crawls ashore, hides in a thicket beneath two bushes (one thorn, one olive), and buries himself in leaves to sleep.

Book 6: A Princess and Her Laundry

• Athena’s Dream: Athena visits the Phaeacian princess, Nausicaa, in a dream, disguised as her friend. She tells Nausicaa she must go to the river to wash her wedding garments to ensure she is ready for marriage.

• The Laundry Trip: Nausicaa gets permission from her father, King Alcinous, and drives a mule-cart to the river with her slave girls.

• The Game and the Waking: After finishing the laundry and bathing, the girls play a game of ball. Their shouting wakes Odysseus, who emerges from the bushes naked, covering himself with only a leafy branch.

• Calculated Flattery: While the other girls flee in terror, Nausicaa stands her ground. Odysseus uses his “metis” (cunning) to deliver a highly persuasive speech, comparing her to a goddess and a “fresh young palm tree” rather than touching her knees in supplication (which might have frightened her).

• Nausicaa’s Xenia: Nausicaa recognizes Odysseus as a man of status who has fallen on hard times. She provides him with clothes and food and tells her slaves that “all foreigners and beggars come from Zeus.”

• The Transformation: Athena makes Odysseus look taller and more handsome, with hair like “curling tendrils of a hyacinth.” Nausicaa is impressed and wishes for a husband like him.

• Instructions for Entry: Nausicaa tells Odysseus to follow behind her cart to the city but to wait at Athena’s grove until she reaches the palace. She explains that he must pass by her father and supplicate her mother, Queen Arete, to ensure his safe passage home.

Book 7: A Magical Kingdom

• Athena’s Guidance: As Odysseus enters the city of Scheria, Athena meets him in the guise of a little girl with a water pitcher. She wraps him in a magical mist so the proud Phaeacians won’t see or insult him.

• The Description of Scheria: Athena points out the palace and tells Odysseus that Queen Arete is the one who holds the real power and respect in the kingdom.

• The Palace of Alcinous: Odysseus is struck with awe by the palace’s bronze walls, golden doors, and the orchard where fruit grows year-round regardless of the season.

• The Supplication: Odysseus enters the hall, throws himself at Arete’s knees, and the mist disperses. He begs for her help to reach his homeland.

• Phaeacian Hospitality: After an initial silence, the elder Echeneus reminds Alcinous to offer the stranger a seat. Alcinous moves his favorite son to give Odysseus a silver chair and orders a feast.

• Divine Suspicions: Alcinous wonders if Odysseus is a god in disguise. Odysseus reassures him that he is purely mortal and “a match for any man” in suffering.

• Arete’s Questioning: Noticing Odysseus is wearing the clothes she wove for her daughter, Arete asks him directly who he is and who gave him his garments.

• The Seven Years on Ogygia: Odysseus tells the story of his shipwreck and his seven years with Calypso, his departure, the storm, and his meeting with Nausicaa at the river. He protects Nausicaa by claiming it was his idea not to enter the city with her.

• The Offer: Alcinous is so impressed by Odysseus that he wishes the man would stay and marry Nausicaa but promises to provide a ship and crew to take him home the following day.

Book 8: The Songs of a Poet

• The Assembly and the Feast: Alcinous calls an assembly to arrange Odysseus’s passage. He orders a ship to be prepared and invites the lords to a banquet in honor of the guest.

• Demodocus’s First Song: The blind bard Demodocus is inspired by the Muse to sing of a quarrel between Achilles and Odysseus at Troy. Odysseus, overcome by the memory, hides his face in his cloak and weeps silently.

• The Games Begin: Noticing his guest’s grief, Alcinous ends the feast and suggests athletic contests. The Phaeacians compete in running, wrestling, jumping, and boxing.

• The Insult: Alcinous’s son, Laodamas, invites Odysseus to compete. When Odysseus declines, the athlete Euryalus insults him, calling him a mere “merchant” who cares only for “ill-gotten gains.”

• The Discus Throw: Enraged, Odysseus makes a speech about how the gods distribute gifts differently (some get looks, others get eloquence). He seizes a massive discus and hurls it far beyond all the Phaeacians’ marks.

• A Friend in Disguise: Athena, disguised as a spectator, marks the spot and declares that no one can beat him. Odysseus then challenges the Phaeacians to any sport except the footrace (noting his legs are weak from the sea).

• Song of Ares and Aphrodite: To soothe the tension, Alcinous calls for dancing and another song. Demodocus sings the humorous tale of Hephaestus trapping Ares and Aphrodite in a web of invisible chains while they were in bed.

• Gifts and Reconciliation: Alcinous orders the twelve lords of Phaeacia to each give Odysseus a talent of gold and fine clothes. Euryalus apologizes and gives Odysseus a silver-studded bronze sword.

• Odysseus and Nausicaa: After a bath, Odysseus encounters Nausicaa. She asks him to remember her when he reaches home because she “saved [his] life.” He promises to pray to her as to a god.

• The Song of the Wooden Horse: At dinner, Odysseus asks Demodocus to sing the story of the Wooden Horse. As the bard sings of the slaughter in Troy, Odysseus “melts into tears.”

• The War Victim Simile: The poet compares Odysseus’s weeping to that of a woman who falls upon the body of her husband who died defending his city and children, only to be led off into slavery.

• The Reveal: Alcinous again notices his guest’s weeping. he stops the music and asks Odysseus to finally reveal his name, his home, and the cause of his deep sorrow.

Book 9: A Pirate in a Shepherd’s Cave

• The Reveal: Odysseus finally announces his identity to the Phaeacians: “I am Odysseus, Laertes’ son, known for my many clever tricks and lies.”

• The Cicones: After leaving Troy, they first sack Ismarus. Odysseus wants to leave immediately, but his men stay to feast. The Cicones retaliate with reinforcements, killing six men from each of Odysseus’s ships.

• The Lotus-Eaters: A storm drives them to the land of the Lotus-Eaters. Three men eat the honey-sweet fruit, which makes them lose all desire to return home. Odysseus must drag them back to the ships and tie them up.

• Arrival at the Cyclopes’ Island: They reach a fertile, lawless land inhabited by the one-eyed giants. Odysseus describes the island with a colonizer’s eye, noting its untapped resources.

• Entering the Cave: Driven by curiosity and a desire for guest-gifts (xenia), Odysseus leads twelve men into the cave of Polyphemus.

• The Gruesome Feast: Polyphemus returns, scoffs at the laws of the gods, and begins eating Odysseus’s men two at a time. He blocks the exit with a massive boulder that no mortal could move.

• The “Noman” Trick: Odysseus gives the Cyclops potent wine to make him drunk. When asked his name, Odysseus replies, “My name is Noman.”

• Blinding the Giant: While Polyphemus sleeps, Odysseus and his men sharpen an olive-wood stake and drive it into the giant’s single eye. When Polyphemus screams for help, his neighbors ask who is hurting him; he replies, “Noman is killing me!” and they leave.

• The Escape: Odysseus ties his remaining men to the bellies of the giant’s rams. Polyphemus feels the backs of the sheep as they exit the next morning but misses the men underneath.

• The Fatal Hubris: Once safely on his ship, Odysseus cannot resist taunting the giant. He shouts his real name and home. Polyphemus, revealed as a son of Poseidon, prays to his father to ensure Odysseus never reaches home—or arrives late, alone, and to a “house of trouble.”

Book 10: The Winds and the Witch

• Aeolus and the Bag of Winds: They reach the floating island of Aeolus, king of the winds. He gifts Odysseus a bag containing all the storm winds so only the favorable West Wind will blow them home.

• The Folly of the Crew: They get within sight of Ithaca’s shores. While Odysseus sleeps, the crew, thinking the bag contains gold, opens it. The resulting gale blasts them all the way back to Aeolus.

• The Rejection: Aeolus refuses to help a second time, believing Odysseus must be cursed by the gods.

• The Laestrygonians: They reach Telepylus, home of cannibal giants. The giants pelt the fleet with boulders. Only Odysseus’s ship escapes; the other eleven ships are destroyed, and their crews are eaten.

• Aeaea and Circe: The lone ship reaches the island of Circe. Eurylochus leads a group to explore; Circe invites them in and turns them into pigs with a magic potion.

• Hermes’s Intervention: Odysseus goes to rescue them. Hermes meets him and provides “Moly” (a magic herb) to protect him from Circe’s spells.

• Subduing the Goddess: Odysseus follows Hermes’s advice: he threatens Circe with a sword when she tries to enchant him, then agrees to sleep with her only after she swears a “mighty oath” to do him no further harm.

• Recuperation: Circe turns the pigs back into men (making them younger and taller). The crew stays on the island for a full year, feasting and resting.

• The Next Task: When the men finally urge Odysseus to leave, Circe tells him he must first journey to the Land of the Dead (Hades) to consult the ghost of the blind prophet Tiresias.

• The Death of Elpenor: Just as they are leaving, the youngest crew member, Elpenor—drunk and sleeping on the roof—wakes up, falls, and breaks his neck. The crew leaves his body unburied in their haste.

Book 11: The Dead

• The Ritual: Odysseus travels to the limits of the world and performs a blood sacrifice to summon the spirits.

• Elpenor’s Request: The first ghost to appear is Elpenor. He begs Odysseus to return to Aeaea and give him a proper burial so he can find rest.

• Tiresias’s Prophecy: The prophet drinks the blood and warns Odysseus that Poseidon is vengeful. He warns the men not to touch the Cattle of the Sun on Thrinacia. He also predicts that Odysseus will return to a house of suitors and must later perform a final journey inland with an oar.

• Anticleia (The Mother): Odysseus speaks to his mother, whom he didn’t know had died. She tells him she died of grief for him. She provides news of Penelope’s loyalty and Laertes’s wasting away in the countryside.

• The Parade of Heroines: Odysseus sees a long line of famous women from myth, including Epicaste (mother of Oedipus) and Leda.

• The War Heroes: Odysseus meets Agamemnon, who recounts his murder by Clytemnestra and warns Odysseus to never trust women—even Penelope—fully. He then meets Achilles, who famously tells him he would rather be a living farmhand than king of all the dead.

• The Silent Ajax: The ghost of Ajax refuses to speak to Odysseus, still harboring a grudge because Odysseus won the armor of Achilles in a contest.

• The Sufferers: Odysseus witnesses the eternal punishments of Tityus, Tantalus, and Sisyphus.

• Departure: Overwhelmed by the rising “eerie cries” of the masses of the dead, Odysseus panics and retreats to his ship.

Book 12: Difficult Choices

• Burial and Briefing: They return to Aeaea to bury Elpenor. Circe gives Odysseus detailed instructions on how to survive the upcoming perils.

• The Sirens: Odysseus plugs his men’s ears with wax but has them tie him to the mast so he can be the first mortal to hear the Sirens’ song and live. He begs to be freed, but the men tie him tighter until they are past the danger.

• The Wandering Rocks: Following Circe’s advice, Odysseus avoids these rocks, which have destroyed every ship except the Argo.

• Scylla and Charybdis: Odysseus must choose between the six-headed monster Scylla and the ship-devouring whirlpool Charybdis. He chooses Scylla to avoid losing the entire ship.

• The Sacrifice: Despite his armor and spears, Odysseus cannot stop Scylla. She snatches and eats six of his best men. Odysseus calls this the most “heartrending sight” of his entire journey.

• Thrinacia and the Cattle: They arrive at the island of the Sun God (Helius). Odysseus orders the men to bypass it, but Eurylochus leads a mutiny, insisting the men are too exhausted to continue.

• The Forbidden Feast: They are trapped on the island for a month by unfavorable winds. While Odysseus is away praying and falls into a deep sleep, Eurylochus convinces the men that “starving is most miserable of all.” They slaughter and eat Helius’s sacred cattle.

• Zeus’s Thunderbolt: Helius demands vengeance. When the ship finally sets sail, Zeus strikes it with a lightning bolt. The ship is destroyed and all the men drown.

• The Sole Survivor: Odysseus survives by clinging to a makeshift raft. He is swept back to Charybdis, where he survives by hanging onto a fig tree like a bat until the whirlpool belches his timbers back up.

• Arrival at Ogygia: After ten days of drifting, Odysseus reaches Calypso’s island, bringing his narrative full circle.

Book 13: Two Tricksters

• Departure from Phaeacia: Odysseus concludes his long narrative. Alcinous provides even more gifts (tripods and cauldrons), and the next day, the Phaeacian sailors carry Odysseus—who falls into a sleep “like death”—back to Ithaca.

• Arrival at Ithaca: The sailors leave the sleeping Odysseus on the shore of a harbor sacred to Phorcys, stacking his many treasures under an olive tree, and depart.

• Poseidon’s Vengeance: Enraged that the Phaeacians helped his enemy, Poseidon gets Zeus’s permission to punish them. As the Phaeacian ship returns to its harbor, Poseidon turns it to stone. King Alcinous realizes the old prophecy has come true and vows never to help strangers again.

• The Mist of Athena: Odysseus wakes up but does not recognize his homeland because Athena has shrouded the island in mist. He initially fears the Phaeacians have tricked him and left him in a strange land.

• The Shepherd’s Guise: Athena approaches him disguised as a young shepherd. Odysseus, ever cautious, tells her a complex lie about being a fugitive from Crete who fought at Troy.

• The Reveal: Athena laughs and reveals her true form. She calls Odysseus a “clever rascal” and “master of deceit,” noting that they are kindred spirits in their love for tricks.

• Hiding the Treasure: Athena and Odysseus stash his gold and bronze in the cave of the Nymphs, sealing the entrance with a stone.

• The Plan for the Suitors: Athena warns Odysseus that he must remain hidden to test the loyalty of his family and servants. She informs him of the suitors’ three-year occupation of his house.

• The Transformation: Athena touches Odysseus with her wand, transforming him into an old, withered beggar. She gives him a tattered cloak and a staff to ensure no one recognizes him.

• Instructions: Athena tells him to visit his loyal swineherd, Eumaeus, while she goes to Sparta to summon Telemachus home.

Book 14: A Loyal Slave

• The Swineherd’s Hut: Odysseus (as a beggar) arrives at the farm of Eumaeus. The swineherd’s guard dogs attack him, but Eumaeus rescues him, showing proper xenia despite his own poverty.

• Eumaeus’s Grief: Eumaeus laments the loss of his master (Odysseus) and the insolence of the suitors who are eating the king’s best livestock. He is convinced Odysseus is dead.

• The Oath of Return: The “beggar” tells Eumaeus that Odysseus is definitely alive and will return within the month. He offers to be killed if his words prove false, but Eumaeus is too cynical to believe him.

• The Long Lie (Cretan Tale): Odysseus tells his second elaborate “Cretan tale.” He claims to be the illegitimate son of a wealthy Cretan who fought at Troy, was later captured in Egypt, and recently escaped from Phoenician pirates. He claims to have heard news of Odysseus in Thesprotia.

• Eumaeus’s Kindness: Though he doesn’t believe the news about Odysseus, Eumaeus continues to treat the guest with honor, preparing a prime hog for their dinner.

• The Test of the Cloak: To see if Eumaeus will provide for his comfort, Odysseus tells a story about a night at Troy where he was cold and Odysseus (the king) tricked another man into leaving his cloak for the “beggar.”

• Eumaeus Passes: Understanding the hint, Eumaeus gives the “beggar” his own thick spare cloak for the night.

• Loyalty in the Cold: Odysseus sleeps in the hut, but Eumaeus, ever the “noble slave,” goes outside to sleep with his pigs in the wind and rain to protect his master’s property.

Book 15: The Prince Returns

• Athena in Sparta: Athena visits Telemachus at Menelaus’s palace. She warns him to return home immediately because Penelope’s father is pressuring her to marry the suitor Eurymachus. She also warns him of the suitors’ ambush in the strait.

• Parting Gifts: Menelaus gives Telemachus a silver bowl, and Helen gives him a beautiful robe she wove herself, intended for his future bride.

• The Omen of the Eagle: As they leave, an eagle carrying a white goose flies by. Helen interprets this as a sign that Odysseus will return like the eagle and destroy the suitors (the geese).

• The Fugitive Seer: At the port of Pylos, Telemachus is approached by Theoclymenus, a prophet on the run for killing a man in Argos. Telemachus grants him passage and protection.

• Back at the Hut: Eumaeus and the “beggar” continue to talk. Eumaeus tells Odysseus about the death of Anticleia (Odysseus’s mother) and the grief of Laertes.

• Eumaeus’s Backstory: Eumaeus reveals he was born a prince of the island Syria. He was kidnapped as a child by a Phoenician slave girl and sold to Laertes. He was raised in the household almost as a brother to Odysseus’s sister, Ctimene.

• Safe Arrival: Telemachus reaches Ithaca, successfully avoiding the suitors’ ambush by following Athena’s alternate route.

• The Omen of the Hawk: A hawk flies by with a dove in its talons. Theoclymenus tells Telemachus this confirms that his family line will remain the most powerful in Ithaca.

• The Separation: Telemachus sends Theoclymenus to stay with his friend Piraeus and heads alone toward the swineherd’s hut.

Book 16: Father and Son

• The Arrival: Telemachus reaches Eumaeus’s hut. The dogs do not bark at him, which tells the “beggar” that a friend has arrived. Eumaeus greets Telemachus with the emotion of a father for a long-lost son.

• Hospitality for the Beggar: Telemachus meets the “beggar” and promises to give him clothes and a sword, but says he cannot host him in the palace yet because the suitors are too dangerous.

• The Message: Telemachus sends Eumaeus to the palace to tell Penelope that he has returned safely, but cautions him to tell no one else.

• The Revelation: While Eumaeus is gone, Athena appears to Odysseus (invisible to Telemachus). She tells him to reveal the truth to his son. She transforms Odysseus back into a tall, majestic version of himself.

• The Reunion: Telemachus is terrified, thinking the stranger is a god. Odysseus identifies himself, and the two embrace, weeping loudly.

• Counting the Enemy: Odysseus and Telemachus begin planning. Telemachus lists the suitors: 108 in total, including their henchmen. He doubts two men can beat so many, but Odysseus reminds him they have Athena and Zeus on their side.

• The Strategic Plan: Odysseus tells Telemachus to return to the hall. Later, the “beggar” will arrive with Eumaeus. On a signal from Odysseus, Telemachus must hide all the weapons and armor in the hall so the suitors are defenseless.

• Suitor Frustration: At the palace, the suitors are shocked that Telemachus survived. Antinous wants to kill him immediately, but Amphinomus convinces them to wait for a sign from the gods.

• Penelope’s Confrontation: Penelope, informed by Medon, enters the hall and publicly shames Antinous for plotting to kill her son. Eurymachus gives her a lying, hypocritical reassurance that he will protect Telemachus.

• The Transformation Returns: Eumaeus returns to the hut. Before he enters, Athena changes Odysseus back into the old beggar to maintain the secret.

Book 17: Insults and Abuse

• Telemachus Returns: Telemachus heads to the palace first, where he is greeted emotionally by Penelope and Eurycleia. He avoids telling his mother the full truth immediately, instead inviting the fugitive seer Theoclymenus to the house.

• The Journey to Town: Odysseus and Eumaeus begin their walk to the city. On the way, they encounter the goatherd Melanthius, who represents the disloyal servants. He mocks the “beggar” and kicks him, but Odysseus restrains his urge to retaliate.

• Argos: Outside the palace, Odysseus sees his old dog, Argos, who has been neglected and left on a dung heap. The dog recognizes his master’s voice, wags his tail, and dies—having waited twenty years to see him one last time.

• Entering the Hall: Odysseus enters his own home as a beggar, asking the suitors for scraps to test their character. Most give him food, but Antinous is particularly hostile.

• The Stool Throw: After a verbal exchange where Odysseus shames Antinous for his lack of generosity, Antinous hurls a footstool at him, hitting Odysseus in the shoulder. Odysseus remains unmoved, like a rock, and curses Antinous.

• Penelope’s Interest: Hearing of the beggar’s mistreatment, Penelope is outraged. She asks Eumaeus to bring the stranger to her so she can ask if he has news of her husband. Odysseus delays the meeting until nightfall to avoid further conflict with the suitors.

Book 18: Two Beggars

• The Rivalry: Irus, a common town beggar known for his greed, arrives and tries to bully Odysseus out of the palace doorway. The suitors, led by Antinous, egg them on and organize a fight for the entertainment of the hall.

• The Fight: Odysseus reveals his powerful physique (enhanced by Athena). Terrified, Irus tries to back out, but the suitors force him to fight. Odysseus lands a single blow that breaks Irus’s jaw, then drags him outside.

• Warning to Amphinomus: One suitor, Amphinomus, treats Odysseus kindly after the fight. Odysseus, feeling a moment of pity, warns him to leave the palace before the master returns to seek blood. However, Athena has already fated Amphinomus to die by Telemachus’s spear.

• Penelope’s Appearance: Athena inspires Penelope to show herself to the suitors to “open their hearts.” The goddess enhances her beauty with divine grace. Penelope reproaches Telemachus for allowing the guest to be abused and then shames the suitors for wasting her wealth instead of offering gifts as is custom.

• Extraction of Gifts: Odysseus is pleased to see his wife’s cleverness as the suitors, bewitched by her beauty, scramble to bring her expensive robes and jewelry.

• Melantho’s Insult: After Penelope returns upstairs, the maid Melantho (sister of Melanthius and mistress of Eurymachus) insults Odysseus. He threatens her, causing the maids to flee in fear.

• Another Near Miss: Eurymachus mocks the “beggar” and offers him a demeaning job. When Odysseus responds with a challenge of strength, Eurymachus throws a footstool, but Odysseus ducks, and the stool hits a servant instead. The suitors complain that the “beggar” is ruining their feast.

Book 19: The Queen and the Beggar

• Removing the Weapons: Following the plan made at the hut, Odysseus and Telemachus remove the shields and spears from the hall and lock them in the storeroom while Athena provides a supernatural light.

• The Interview Begins: Penelope and the “beggar” sit by the fire. She tells him of her long suffering and her trick with the shroud. Odysseus tells his most elaborate lie yet, describing himself as a Cretan prince who once hosted Odysseus.

• Penelope’s Test: Penelope, suspicious of his story, asks for a description of Odysseus’s clothing. The “beggar” describes a specific purple cloak and a golden brooch featuring a dog and a fawn—items Penelope knows well. She is overcome with tears.

• The Secret Recognition: Penelope orders Eurycleia to wash the guest’s feet. While doing so, the old nurse recognizes a scar on his leg from a childhood boar hunt. She drops his foot into the basin in shock, but Odysseus grabs her by the throat and swears her to silence.

• The Dream of the Geese: Penelope, unaware of the recognition, describes a dream where an eagle kills twenty of her pet geese. The “beggar” interprets it as the return of her husband to kill the suitors.

• The Archery Contest: Penelope remains skeptical and decides that the time has come to choose a husband. She announces she will hold a contest the next day: she will marry whoever can string Odysseus’s great bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe-heads. Odysseus encourages her to set the contest immediately.

Book 20: The Last Banquet

• Odysseus’s Anger: Odysseus lies awake on the porch, watching the disloyal maidservants sneak out to sleep with the suitors. His “heart barks” with rage, but he reminds himself to be patient, recalling his endurance in the Cyclops’s cave.

• Divine and Mortal Prayers: Athena appears and reassures Odysseus that he will succeed. Penelope, meanwhile, prays to Artemis to end her life rather than force her to remarry.

• Omens of Doom: Odysseus asks Zeus for a sign. Zeus responds with thunder from a clear sky, and a nearby slave woman—exhausted from grinding grain for the suitors—prays aloud that this will be their last feast.

• Loyalty from the Cowherd: In the morning, Philoetius (the loyal cowherd) arrives. He treats the “beggar” with respect and expresses his deep hope that Odysseus will return. Odysseus recognizes him as another potential ally.

• The Suitors’ Last Feast: The suitors gather for another banquet. They continue to plot Telemachus’s death, but an omen of an eagle with a dove in its claws convinces Amphinomus to suggest they abandon the plan for now.

• The Ox-Foot: Athena goads the suitors into further insolence to sharpen Odysseus’s rage. Ctesippus, a wealthy and lawless suitor, hurls a cow’s foot at Odysseus. Odysseus ducks, and Telemachus threatens to kill Ctesippus if he ever tries such a thing again.

• The Vision of Death: Athena strikes the suitors with a “mad laughter.” They begin to hallucinate; their meat appears bloody, and the walls seem to drip with gore. Theoclymenus sees a vision of the hall filled with ghosts and a “gloomy mist.” The suitors mock his prophecy, and he leaves the palace for good.

Book 21: An Archery Contest

• The History of the Bow: Penelope goes to the inner storeroom to retrieve Odysseus’s great bow. The poet explains its history: it was a gift from Iphitus, who was later murdered by Heracles. Odysseus never took it to Troy, leaving it at home as a memento.

• The Muscular Hand: In a detail emphasized by Wilson’s translation, Penelope’s “muscular, firm hand” uses the bronze key to open the storeroom. She retrieves the bow and weeps over it.

• The Challenge Announced: Penelope enters the hall and tells the suitors she will marry whoever can string the bow and shoot an arrow through the holes of twelve axe-heads set in a row.

• Telemachus’s Attempt: Telemachus sets up the axes in a trench. He tries to string the bow three times and fails. On the fourth, he is about to succeed, but Odysseus signals him to stop. Telemachus mocks his own “weakness” to maintain the ruse.

• The Suitors Fail: The suitors try one by one. Leodes, their “holy man,” fails first and predicts the bow will bring death to many. Antinous has Melanthius grease the bow with fat to make it supple, but even the strongest suitors cannot bend it.

• The Loyal Servants Recruited: Outside the hall, Odysseus reveals his true identity to Eumaeus (the swineherd) and Philoetius (the cowherd) by showing them his scar. They weep with joy, and he gives them their orders for the coming slaughter.

• The Beggar’s Request: While the lead suitors postpone the contest for a festival to Apollo, Odysseus (as the beggar) asks for a turn. The suitors are terrified he might succeed and insult him.

• Penelope and Telemachus Intervene: Penelope insists the guest be allowed to try, promising him gifts but not marriage. Telemachus then asserts his “power in this house,” scolds his mother, and sends her upstairs to her loom.

• The Climax: Eumaeus brings the bow to Odysseus while Eurycleia locks the doors to the women’s quarters and Philoetius bolts the outer gates. Odysseus examines the bow like a “musician,” strings it effortlessly, and shoots the arrow perfectly through all twelve axes. Zeus thunders in approval.

Book 22: Bloodshed

• The First Kill: Odysseus sheds his rags, leaps onto the threshold, and shoots Antinous through the neck just as the suitor is raising a wine cup.

• The Identity Revealed: The suitors are confused, thinking it was an accident, until Odysseus announces: “Dogs! So you thought I would not come back home from Troy?”

• The Failed Bargain: Eurymachus tries to blame everything on the dead Antinous and offers to repay Odysseus with gold and livestock. Odysseus refuses, stating no amount of wealth can stop his hand from slaughter. Odysseus kills Eurymachus next.

• Telemachus Joins the Fight: Telemachus kills Amphinomus and then runs to the storeroom to get armor and spears for himself, his father, Eumaeus, and Philoetius.

• The Treachery of Melanthius: The goatherd Melanthius sneaks into the storeroom (which Telemachus left ajar) and brings twelve sets of armor to the suitors. On his second trip, Eumaeus and Philoetius catch him, tie him up, and hoist him to the rafters to suffer.

• Athena’s Test: Athena appears as Mentor. Odysseus begs for her help. To test Odysseus’s courage, she first lets the suitors hurl spears at him, which she deflects. Only after Odysseus proves his martial worth does she raise her “deadly aegis” (shield/protection), causing the suitors to panic.

• The Slaughter: The four men attack the suitors like “vultures” attacking smaller birds. The floor runs with blood.

• Mercy and Justice: The priest Leodes begs for mercy, but Odysseus beheads him. However, at Telemachus’s request, Odysseus spares Phemius (the bard) and Medon (the herald).

• The “Crowing” Nurse: Eurycleia enters and begins to celebrate the victory, but Odysseus stops her, saying it is “not pious” to gloat over the dead.

• The Hanging: The twelve disloyal maidservants are forced to clear the corpses and scrub the blood and gore from the hall. Once the work is done, Telemachus hangs them all simultaneously “to make their death an agony.” Melanthius is brought out, mutilated, and killed.

• Fumigation: Odysseus has the hall fumigated with sulfur and fire. He finally greets his loyal servants, who weep over him.

Book 23: The Olive Tree Bed

• The Skeptical Queen: Eurycleia wakes Penelope to tell her Odysseus has returned and killed the suitors. Penelope is convinced the nurse is mad or that a god performed the deed.

• The Silent Reunion: Penelope goes downstairs. She sits across from Odysseus in silence, torn between recognition and suspicion. Telemachus calls her “cruel” and “hard-hearted” for her hesitation.

• The Fake Wedding: To prevent the suitors’ families from discovering the massacre too soon, Odysseus orders the bard to play a loud dance tune so neighbors will think Penelope has finally chosen a husband and is celebrating a wedding.

• The Ultimate Test: Odysseus bathes and is enhanced by Athena. He calls Penelope an “extraordinary woman” with a heart “harder than rock.” He asks the nurse to make up a bed for him. Penelope tells Eurycleia to move his “firmly built” bed outside the bedroom.

• The Reveal: Odysseus becomes enraged, explaining the secret of the bed: he built the palace around a living olive tree and hand-carved the bedpost from its trunk. It is unmovable. This “token” is the final proof Penelope needs.

• The Embrace: Penelope finally accepts him, explaining that she had to be cautious to avoid being tricked by “some bad man.” They weep in each other’s arms.

• The Night Extended: Athena holds back the Dawn so the couple can talk and make love. Odysseus tells Penelope about his wanderings and the final prophecy of Tiresias—that he must eventually take an oar inland to a place where people don’t know the sea to appease Poseidon.

• Departure: In the morning, Odysseus tells Penelope to stay hidden upstairs with her women while he goes to the countryside to visit his father, Laertes.

Book 24: Restless Spirits

• The Underworld: Hermes leads the “squeaking” ghosts of the suitors to Hades. They encounter the ghosts of Achilles and Agamemnon.

• Agamemnon’s Praise: Amphimedon (one of the dead suitors) explains their fate to Agamemnon. Agamemnon contrasts the “wicked, fiendish” Clytemnestra with the “virtuous” and “intelligent” Penelope, whose fame will live forever.

• Testing Laertes: Odysseus finds his father, Laertes, working alone in an orchard, looking ragged and miserable. Odysseus initially maintains his disguise, telling another “Cretan” lie to see if his father is still loyal.

• The Father’s Grief: When Laertes begins to sob at the mention of his son, Odysseus can no longer endure it. He reveals himself. Laertes asks for a sign, and Odysseus shows him the scar and correctly names the fruit trees Laertes gave him when he was a boy. They embrace.

• Rumor and Revenge: Back in the city, the goddess Rumor spreads news of the suitors’ deaths. Eupeithes (Antinous’s father) gives a “searing indictment” of Odysseus and calls for civil war.

• The Final Council: Medon and Halitherses warn the citizens that the gods were on Odysseus’s side and that the suitors deserved their fate, but more than half the men arm for battle anyway.

• The Final Battle: The suitors’ families attack Odysseus’s farm. Athena (as Mentor) stands by Odysseus. Laertes, filled with divine energy, hurls a spear and kills Eupeithes.

• The Intervention: As the fighting escalates, Zeus hurls a thunderbolt to stop the violence. Athena commands the Ithacans to “stop this destructive war.”

• Peace: Under the guidance of Athena (still disguised as Mentor), the warring factions swear “solemn oaths of peace” for all future times, finally ending the long cycle of violence.