Today I finished the last of Homer’s epics, the Odyssey. Here’s my book-by-book summary─go here for my analysis!
Book I: Athene visits Telemachus
The gods hold a council to commemorate the death of Aigisthos, the man who, we shall learn later, married Clytemnestra while her husband Agamemnon was fighting in Troy. Aigisthos and Clytemnestra murdered Agamemnon on his return, and the latter’s son Orestes avenged his father by killing Aigisthos.
Athene challenges Zeus on his plans for helping Odysseus who, she reminds him, is trapped on an island by the divine daughter of Atlas, who wants to marry him. Zeus assures Athene that he has not forgotten Odysseus, and the gods devise a plan to help him. Zeus sends Hermes to the island Ogygia to tell the goddess that the Olympians plan to return Odysseus to his homeland Ithaca. Meanwhile, Athene disguises herself as Mentes, an old guest-friend of Odysseus’ family, and journeys to the house of his wife and son Telemachos in Ithaca. She intends to persuade Telemachos to round up the Achaean army and to drive out the suitors that constantly harass Odysseus’ wife Penelope, urging her to remarry after Odysseus has been missing for so long.
Athene travels to Ithaca in disguise, but is soon recognised by Telemachos after he questions her on her purpose in Ithaca. Athene, still not disclosing her true identity, suggests to the mortal that Odysseus may still be alive, and persuades him to speak out to the suitors. Still, they refuse to leave, and everyone retires to bed.
Book II: The debate in Ithaca
Odysseus wakes on the island and dresses himself, but our attention is quickly turned back to Ithaca, where Telemachus is again trying to persuade the Suitors to leave his mother alone. They scorn him, even when two fighting eagles fly overhead─an omen which one man, a soothsayer called Halitherses, interprets to mean that Odysseus is returning home.
Unsuccessful in his second attempt, Telemachus retreats to the beach, where he prays to Athene to return and help him again. She reassures Telemachus by hinting at the dark fate of the Suitors that only the immortals know about, and encourages him to sail to Sparta and Pylos, where he might find out something about his father’s return. Arriving back at Odysseus’ palace, Telamachus’ nurse tries to dissuade him from undertaking the dangerous voyage, but his heart is set. The nurse swears that she will never tell Penelope where her son has gone for at least twelve days, to avoid upsetting her.
Book III: Telemachus with Nestor
Telemachus and Athene (still disguised as Mentes) travel to Pylos, where a huge religious ceremony is taking place outside the palace of King Nestor. After the offering is over, Athene helps Telemachus to ask Nestor if he knows anything about the whereabouts of his father. Although Nestor has no information about Odysseus, he does recount a story that took place after the Trojan War many years beforehand. Agamemnon and Menelaus had a serious argument which resulted in Menelaus’ immediate departure to Greece, while Agamemnon remained behind in Troy to make an offering to the gods. Nestor went with Menelaus to Greece, but Odysseus stayed behind with Agamemnon. Since then, Nestor explained, he had heard nothing of Telemachus’ father.
However, he adds that he was aware of the Suitors that stay uninvited at Odysseus’ palace. The reason that they are allowed to stay there is all due to xenia, a complex system of hospitality prevalent in Ancient Greek culture. Indeed, xenia is a concept which comes into play quite throughout Book III. When Telemachus and Athene come to Nestor’s palace, Nestor prepares food for them and makes them comfortable before asking who they are and what they want. The final paragraph casually mentions how in Nestor’s palace Athene and Telemachus “spent the night and received the gifts that hospitality dictates.”
Book IV: Menelaus and Helen
Menelaus and Helen, king and queen of Sparta, are celebrating the separate marriages of their son and daughter. Telemachus and Pisistratus─the latter of whom is Nestor’s son, who Nestor sent along to accompany Telemachus on his quest─are welcomed into Menelaus’ palace out of xenia, and dine with them at the ceremonial feast. The king of Sparta quickly recognises Telemachus as Odysseus’ son, as they bear a startling family resemblance. Menelaus and Helen recount tales of the bravery of Odysseus in the Trojan War, Helen remembering the time that Odysseus dressed as a beggar to slip inside the walls of Troy, while Menelaus narrates the story of the Trojan Horse and Odysseus’ cunning throughout the scheme. Having finished the feast, they all retire to bed.
In the morning, Menelaus and Telemachus talk privately. Menelaus recounts the story of his return voyage from Troy, and how, having displeased the gods by overlooking a sacrifice he should have made to them, he was detained on an Egyptian island for many months with some of the Achaean fleet. In order to escape, Menelaus had to restrain the Old Man of the Sea, who told him how to get to Sparta and also narrated the fates of some of the Trojan War heroes. He informed Menelaus that Ajax had drowned on his return journey; that Agamemnon was killed by his usurper; and that Odysseus, though still alive, is being held captive on an island by Calypso the nymph. Menelaus tells all this to Telemachus, who returns to Pylos with Pisistratus and prepares to travel to Ithaca.
Meanwhile, Penelope’s Suitors hear of Telemachus’ disappearance and plot to kill him on his return. When Penelope learns of this, she is distraught, believing that she will lose both her husband and her son and be married off to one of the Suitors. But Athene reassures her by sending a vision in the form of Penelope’s sister in her sleep, telling her that Telemachus will be protected.
Book V: Calypso
Hermes is sent by Zeus to Calypso, demanding that she return Odysseus. She passionately degrades all the male gods, claiming that they are allowed to have as many mortal lovers as they please, but that they always interfere with the love lives of the goddesses. Hermes leaves, and the next day, Calypso gives Odysseus the materials to build a crude boat to sail in, but the warrior comments as he leaves the island that it won’t withstand the temperamentality of the stormy ocean waters.
Odysseus sails peacefully along, but Poseidon spots him a short way from the island and realises that the gods have released him. Enraged─the god has been relentless in his fury with the warrior ever since Odysseus killed his cyclops son─Poseidon creates a huge storm. Odysseus is capsized under a wave, but quickly recovers his raft and climbs back on. An onlooking sea goddess called Ino, taking pity on him, instructs him to wrap a protective veil about his waist, abandon the boat and swim for his life to the nearby island of Scheria. Odysseus follows her instructions, but Athene is still forced to involve herself after he nearly dies on the rocky shores of the island. Disposing of the ambrosial veil, as per Ino’s command, Odysseus makes his way into the safety of a nearby forest.
Book VI: Nausicaa
Homer describes how a race of people called the Phaeacians had once lived among the Cyclopes in Hypereie, but had been moved by “godlike Nausithous” to the island of Scherie, because the Cyclopes had unfairly ravaged all the land that they shared with the Phaeacians. Athene journeys to Scherie at the beginning of the chapter and appears in a dream to the daughter of a man called Alcinous, who had become leader of the Phaeacians after the death of Nausithous. Athene appears to the daughter Nausicaa in the form of one of Nausicaa’s friends, and instructs her to take a waggon to the river and wash all her dirty clothes.
Nausicaa wakes the next day and, alongside her two maids, drives to the river in the waggon, washes her clothes and plays a ball game with the maids. Meanwhile, Athene has caused Odysseus to wash up on the shores of Scherie, where he stumbles upon Nausicaa and asks her where he is. She tells him everything he wants to know and lets him wash and dress himself. After commenting that she would like a husband as handsome and intelligent as Odysseus, Nausicaa allows him to return home with her and her maids on the condition that he follows her exact instructions. To avoid being mocked and degraded by the townsfolk at the sight of her with a young man, Nausicaa tells Odysseus to wait in a clearing before entering the village and asking for the whereabouts of Alcinous’ palace. That way, Nausicaa claims, no one would associate either one with the other. Odysseus agrees and the book concludes with a brief prayer from him to Athene: “Grant that the Phaeacians may receive me with kindness and compassion.”
Book VII: The Palace of Alcinous
Odysseus waits until he thinks Nausicaa and her maids have reached the palace before venturing out into the open. Athene wraps a mist around him to stop the townspeople from noticing him. Then she appears by his side in the form of a young girl, and Odysseus asks her where he might find the Palace of Alcinous. The disguised Athene shows him the way, and Odysseus walks into the middle of a great banquet. There he drops to Alcinous’ knees and pleads his case, begging for the means to a safe journey home. Alcinous displays a remarkable sense of xenia, preparing a great bed for Odysseus and letting him eat from the feast set out before them. Alcinous promises to help the lost warrior in the morning, and everyone retires for the night.
Book VIII: The Phaeacian Games
The next day, Alcinous leads Odysseus to the shore where the Phaeacians hold their assemblies. Meanwhile, Athene, disguised as a herald sent by Alcinous, stirs up the townsfolk with a message saying, “Follow me to the assembly, where you will hear about the stranger who has just arrived …; he looks like an immortal god.”
The Phaeacians meet at the assembly point, and Alcinous announces that some games are to be held in Odysseus’ honour. A blind minstrel plays a song about the Quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles which occurred during the Trojan War (Homer adds that, at the time of the argument, Agamemnon was secretly very pleased, as it seemed to fulfil a propechy that Apollo had once told him: that Troy would be sacked after the noblest Greeks had quarrelled. Interestingly, it was not after this quarrel, but after Agamemnon’s row with Achilles, that Troy fell). The Phaeacians are not yet aware of Odysseus’ identity, and don’t realise that they are, in fact, singing about the warrior in their midst. Odysseus begins to cry, which goes unnoticed by all but Alcinous, who orders the song to be ended and the games to commence.
A young Phaeacian nobleman called Euryalus notices that Odysseus is not joining in, and asks him if he will. Odysseus refuses, and Euryalus insults him, claiming that “I should never have taken you for an athlete, good at any of the games men play. You are more like a skipper … who spends his life … worrying about his outward freight … . No: one can see you are no athlete.”
At this, Odysseus becomes enraged, and hurls a discus further than anyone else just to prove that he is just as athletic as the Phaeacians are. The games are concluded and the blind mistrel finishes off the day with another song on his lyre─again, Odysseus weeps, and again, Alcinous draws the song to a close. The townspeople dance, and as evening draws closer, Alcinous begins to ask Odysseus questions about who he is, and what happened to him.
Book IX: The Cyclops
Odysseus begins his story at the Palace of Alcinous by describing how, on his return journey from Troy, he and his men sacked the city of Cicones in Ilium. Dividing the women and spoils between them, Odysseus encouraged his men to leave as quickly as possible, but his “fools of men” refused. They kept on “drinking and butchering sheep and shambling crooked-horned cattle” until the Cicones called to their neighbours for help. A gruesome battle then ensued, and the few survivors made for a land called Ismarus. Here Odysseus sent three of his men to see if anyone inhabited the island. These men did discover some inhabitants, the Lotus-eaters, who gave the men lotus flowers to eat (these are mythical flowers, that don’t exist in real life). These fruits caused the men to forget all thought of leaving the island, or reporting back to Odysseus, and it was three sobbing, miserable men that Odysseus managed to drag back to his ship and force under the benches.
After leaving the land of the Lotus-eaters, Odysseus and his Achaeans journeyed to the land of the Cyclops. The great warrior and some of his men found the cave of one of these Cyclops─a son of Poseidon, as it turned out. After getting trapped in the Cyclops Polyphemus’ cavern, Odysseus had to come up with a cunning way to escape. He got Polyphemus drunk, and told him that his name was Nobody. Then he waited for the giant to fall asleep and rammed a burning stake into his one eye. When the other Cyclops heard Polyphemus’ cries and asked what the matter was, the Cyclops cried that Nobody was the source of his troubles. The giants left Polyphemus, Odysseus and the Achaeans in the former’s cave. Odysseus and his men then climbed on the underside of the giant’s sheep which he had been herding. In the morning, when Polyphemus let the sheep out into the daylight, Odysseus and the Achaeans went with them, and, taunting the Cyclops for his stupidity, sailed away.
Book X: Circe
From the land of the Cyclops, Odysseus and his companions (minus the ones that had been eaten by Polyphemus) journeyed to Aeolia, an island inhabited by Aeolus and his twelve children. There they were entertained by Aeolus for a month, before he agreed to aid them on their journey home. He gave them a bag which had imprisoned inside it all the turbulence of the winds. Zeus had given Aeolus the gift to control the winds, and he now called up a calm westerly one to help them on their voyage.
For nine days they sailed, but then Odysseus, once in sight of Ithaca, went to sleep. As he slept, his crew plotted amongst themselves, deciding that the bag Aeolus had given their master was full of treasure, of which they were to receive none. They opened the bag, and the boisterous winds escaped, hurling them into a storm that drove all the ships back to Aeolia. Odysseus implored Aeolus to put things right again, but the king refused, claiming that his return showed that he was not on the side of the gods. So they sailed on for another six nights through the storm, where they came to Telepylus, an island of cannibals. Here some of Odysseus’ men came to the palace of Antiphates, where they were met by his wife, “a woman of mountainous proportions”, who called her husband. Suddenly Antiphates pounced on Odysseus’ warriors and ate him there and then. The other two men fled back to Odysseus, but Antiphates told all the other townspeople to sink the ships of the great warrior. They pelted them with rocks, and all sank but Odysseus’.
They next stopped at the island of Aeaea, homeland of the goddess Circe. She invited Odysseus’ scouts into her house, where she drugged them and turned them into pigs. With the help of Hermes, Odysseus managed to turn them back again, and he asked Circe if she knew the way to Ithaca. She said that he must travel to the land of Hades to consult the blind man Teiresias, who would tell them the way. They all got back into their boats─all but one man, Elpenor, who had got drunk the previous night, slept on the roof, fallen off and broken his neck.
Book XI: The Book of the Dead
Odysseus journeyed to the Underworld as instructed by Circe. There, the dead are portrayed as “insubstantial presences” and “mindless, disembodied ghosts”, the souls of the dead as opposed to their physical bodies (as shown when Odysseus tried to embrace his mother, but discovered that her dead body was intangible). After talking to Teiresias and learning of the situation back in Ithaca and the route there, Odysseus met the following people:
- Elpenor, “unburied and unwept” by Odysseus
- Anticleia, his mother, who died of heartbreak following the disappearance of her son after the Trojan War
- Oedipus’ mother, Epicaste, who hung herself after marrying her son
- Ariadne, killed by Artemis
- Agamemnon, killed by Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra
- Achilles, Patroclus, Antilochus, Ajax
- Tityus, who had vultures pluck his liver out eternally after assaulting Leto
- Tantalus, who served the gods his own son for dinner, and was punished by standing in a pool of water that disappeared whenever he tried to drink from it, and underneath trees full of fruit that were always just out of reach
- Sisyphus, who tricked the god Death twice, had to roll a boulder to the top of a hill, but it always turned and rolled back and he had to start over again.
Book XII: Scylla and Charbydis
On returning from Hades to Circe’s island, the first thing Odysseus did was to bury the body of Elpenor, which he had forgotten to do in his haste to reach the Underworld. Then, when everyone else had gone to bed, Circe told Odysseus what he could expect to find next on his travels. First, she told him, he will come across the waters inhabited by the Sirens, who will sing to him and his men and try to lure them into the water to their death. She tells him that his crew’s ears must be plugged with beeswax so they can’t be tempted by the Sirens’ song, but that he, Odysseus, should hear it. To avoid being lured into the water, she tells him that his crew must bind him up with ropes, and should he beg them to release him, they should tighten them all the more.
Circe says that, once they have survived the inevitable incident with the Sirens, they will come to a crossroads. Here Odysseus must choose whether to travel through the land of blue-eyed Amphitrite, and risk an almost certain chance of being shipwrecked in the turbulent waters there (the only ship to ever survive Amphitrite’s waters was guided by Hera, and Odysseus certainly couldn’t count on any of the gods to help him then), or to go to Ithaca via the two dwelling-places of the evil goddesses Scylla and Charybdis. Scylla, Odysseus was told, would use her six heads to eat six of Odysseus’ followers, while Charybdis, who lived opposite Scylla on another rock, would drink and spew up the surrounding waters, making the waters rough to sail on.
Odysseus set out on his journey and did as Circe bade him when it came to the Sirens. These he managed to avoid, and chose the route of Scylla and Charybdis (“better,” Circe told the warrior, “to lose six of your company than your whole crew.”). He met Scylla, to whom he lost six of his men, and Charybdis, whose waters he managed to avoid.
Circe had also advised Odysseus not to touch the glorious cattle of the Sun-god, which they came upon on their next destination. But, when Odysseus fell asleep on the Sun-god’s island, his men disobeyed him and slaughtered the cattle anyway. A huge storm was started by an enraged Hyperion, and Odysseus’ ship was wrecked. During that great gale he washed up on the island of Calypso, where he began his story to Alcinous.
Book XIII: Odysseus lands in Ithaca
His story to Alcinous finally over, the Phaeacians agree to set Odysseus on course for Ithaca. On the journey, Odysseus falls into a deep sleep, in which he momentarily loses all recollection of the land which he left twenty years before. When he lands at Ithaca, he is convinced that the Phaeacians have somehow tricked him and left him on a foreign shore.
Poseidon, not yet recovered from his wrath, is angry that Alcinous has helped Odysseus. He turns the Phaeacian ship to stone just as it enters Alcinous’ harbour, and, out of fear, the Phaeacians offer a sacrifice to the great sea-god. Meanwhile, Odysseus meets a disguised Athene back in Ithaca, who reveals her identity to him and agrees to help him if he will heed her exact instructions. She tells him to dress as a beggar and makes him look old and withered, so that no one will recognise him until Penelope’s Suitors have been disposed of. In the meanwhile, she tells him, he should visit his old shepherd, Eumaeus.
Book XIV: In Eumaeus’ hut
Odysseus, disguised as an old man, visits the shepherd as per Athene’s instruction. In a very kindly show of xenia, Eumaeus invites the ‘beggar’ in and offers him the prime cut of one of his boars. Disguised Odysseus tries to convince the shepherd that his master, for whom he has been waiting the past twenty years, is going to return that very month, but Eumaeus does not believe him. He claims that too many tramps over the years have tried to gain the favour of Penelope with made-up news of her lost husband. All the same, he invites Odysseus to stay the night with him, once he is satisfied by a completely fabricated story on Odysseus’ part that the warrior was from Crete, and fought in the Trojan War alongside Odysseus.
Book XV: Telemachus returns
Athene journeys to Lacedaemon to fetch Telemachus and Peisistratus and bring them back to Ithaca. While there, she warns him of the ambush the Suitors are prparing for his return and gives him instructions that will help him avoid it. She tells him to visit Eumaeus, the shepherd from Book XIV, before meeting anyone else.
At Pylos, a man convicted of manslaughter in Argos begs Telemachus to let him on his ship. Telemachus allows him to come with him, taking pity on his story, and goes as far as to promise hospitality for him when they reach Ithaca.
Odysseus hears the life story of Eumaeus back in his cabin, and they retire to bed. Telemachus’ return to Ithaca is left imminent at the end of the book.
Book XVI: Odysseus meets Telemachus
Telemachus returns to Ithaca and meets with the shepherd, only to find him talking with a stranger that is actually his father in diguise. Odysseus’ son is scared to take this stranger back to the palace with him, in case the suitors harm him, so Eumaeus goes alone to tell Penelope that Telemachus has reutnred. In the meantime, Athene tells Odysseus to reveal his true identity to his son, and, after a while, Telemachus is convinced that his father has returned.
Before Eumaeus has the time to secretly tell Penelope of her son’s return, word reaches the entire palace. Despairing at their failure to kill Telemachus, the Suitors assemble to plot yet another murderous scheme. Penelope confronts one of them after hearing of their plans through her maid, but he manages to soothe her under the pretence that he is concerned for her son.
Book XVII: Odysseus goes to the town
Odysseus, still under disguise, travels with Eumaeus to his palace. He is accompanied by his son Telemachus and a seer, Theoclymenus, who tells Penelope that her husband is on the island. She does not believe him, and Theoclymenus, like everyone else (apart from Telemachus) doesn’t know the true identity of the ‘beggar’.
On their journey to the town, they are confronted by a shepherd who insults the disguised Odysseus for his appearance. Still, they avoid a fight, and are greeted warmly by Penelope at the palace (though the Suitors jeer at the sight of the beggar). There is a particularly touching moment when Odysseus’ old, dying dog Argos recognises his master through the disguise, and both are overwhelmed with sadness.
Book XVIII: The beggar in the palace
A beggar nicknamed Irus approaches disguised Odysseus in the palace and, after insulting him and being insulted back, challenges him to a fist fight. Athene gives Odysseus extra strength and height and he makes short work of the astonished Irus, leaving him for dead by the city gates. The awed Suitors invite him into the palace and drink ot his health. One, Amphinomus, is so kind to Odysseus that the warrior takes pity on him and, knowing full well of his and the other Suitors’ fates, encourages him to leave the palace as soon as possible because Odysseus is supposed to return soon. Amphinomus despairs, but his death at the hands of Telemachus is already decided, and the Fates remove from his head any idea of flight.
Athene now puts it into Penelope’s head to come downstairs and meet her Suitors. She showers her with extra beauty and stature so that the hearts of the Suitors are helplessly captured. Penelope tells them all of what her husband said to her before he left for Troy: that, should he never return, she should wait until Telemachus had grown a beard and then marry one of the many men that will swarm at her house. Stringing the Suitors along on this false hope, she rebukes them, saying that any man worthy of her hand would bring her gifts, not take what was already hers for their own.
When Penelope had gone back upstairs, Odysseus told the maidservants to go up with her. This seemingly harmless suggestion stirs up a lot of anger amidst the Suitors, who all insult Odysseus, calling him a worthless drunkard. Odysseus, with the help of Athene, is enraged, and just as a fight is about to begin, Telemachus steps in and calms everyone down.
Book XIX: Eurycleia recognises Odysseus
Odysseus tells his son to gather the Suitors’ weapons while they sleep─presumably so that they cannot kill Odysseus when he reveals his true identity─while he talks with Penelope, who still doesn’t recognise him. She asks him about his ancestry, and he makes up a convoluted story that includes fighting in the Trojan War by Odysseus’ side, which eventually seems to satisfy her after he gives a description of her husband.
Penelope asks an old nurse, Eurycleia, to bathe their guest. The nurse seems slightly suspicious of how much the beggar resembles Odysseus, but he quickly persuades her that he is not that warrior. Still, when bathing him, she notices a scar above her knee that Odysseus sustained in a boar hunt, and cries out that Odysseus has returned. He manages to quieten her and persuades her to never disclose his identity to everyone, not even Penelope (who was distracted by Athene when Eurycleia cried out, and suspects nothing). The old nurse agrees.
Before retiring for the night, Penelope tells the beggar/Odysseus of her plan: the next day, she intends to pick out a Suitor to marry by seeing if anyone can shoot an arrow through a row of twelve axes (a feat which only Odysseus has been known to do before).
Book XX: Prelude to the crisis
Penelope and Odysseus, both tormented for different reasons, toss and turn that night, unable to sleep. The former prays to Artemis to kill her─helpfully listing some different methods the goddess could try─and her sobs wake Odysseus, who asks the gods for an omen that things will turn out all right. Zeus replies with a peal of thunder and a cry from one of the cooks, who begs Zeus that the Suitors shall leave so she doesn’t spend so much time cooking all day (it seems he replied to both her and Odysseus with the thunder).
The next day, the Suitors plot amongst themselves to kill Telemachus, but one of them persuades them not to after an omen in the form of an eagle prophesies a catastrophe ahead. At dinner, Athene stirs anger in the men, and one of the Suitors tries to throw a cow hoof at Odysseus. Telemachus threatens to ram him through with his sword, and the Suitors roar in incredulous laughter, failing to notice that the walls and their faces are running with blood (a particularly odd and somewhat unrealistic omen that a seer interprets as a confirmation of their imminent doom).
Book XXI: The great bow
Penelope fetches Odysseus’ bow and axes and Telemachus sets up the competition. Each of the Suitors attempt and fail to string the bow and shoot through all the axes─even Telemachus, who tries first, and is ashamed at his failure.
Meanwhile, Odysseus, Eumaeus and a trusted cowherd called Philoetius congregate outside the palace. Odysseus reveals his true identity to them by showing them the scar on his knee, and they agree to help him kill the Suitors. They go back inside and Odysseus, still disguised as the old beggar, stuns Penelope and the crowd by successfully stringing the bow and shooting through all twelve axe-handles. The Book concludes with Telemachus and Odysseus grimly arming themselves as the Suitors watch in astonishment.
Book XXII: The battle in the Hall
Odysseus shoots one of the Suitors, Atinous, threw the throat, and the battle commences. Though Athene has the power to immediately give Odysseus and his few allies victory, she chooses to test his and Telemachus’ courage and endurance by prolonging the fight. Eventually, Odysseus kills all his foe, but spares the lyre-player Phemius and the herald Medon. A priest called Leodes begs to be spared also, but Odysseus ignores him and he is slain along with the rest.
Book XXIII: Odysseus and Penelope
Eurycleia, the old nurse who first recognised Odysseus, goes upstairs to tell Penelope her husband has returned. At first, Penelope does not believe her, but Eurycleia eventually persuades her to go downstairs and see for herself. When she sees Odysseus and the dead bodies of the Suitors, Penelope is still sceptical. As a test for her husband, to see if he really is Odysseus, she casually asks Eurycleia to move her bed out into the hall. At this, Odysseus cries out that their bed is immovable, and that this would be impossible. Rejoicing, Penelope finally allows herself to accept that Odysseus is indeed that great warrior returned.
The next day, Odysseus leaves for his father’s home at the other end of the estate.
Book XXIV: The feud is ended
In the Underworld, Agamemnon and Achilles are recounting their deaths after and during the Trojan War, respectively. Agamemnon describes a length the burial rituals that came with Achilles’ noble death. Seeing the arrival of the souls of the dead Suitors, they ask how so many young men came to die. The Suitors explain their situation, and Agamemnon compares the loyalty of Penelope with the betrayal of his own wife Clytemnestra.
Odysseus greets his father Laertes, who is just as unconvinced as Penelope was in the beginning. Odysseus persaudes him of his true identity after recounting a list of all the fruit trees his father gave him when he was small, and showing him the scar on his knee.
Meanwhile, the parents of the dead Suitors encourage each other to rise up against the murderous Odysseus. Before Athene can put a stop to the battle that ensues, Antinous’ father is killed at the hand of Laertes. Athene removes all memory of the death of their sons from the fathers’ minds, and makes them worship the return of Odysseus happily. Thus the feud, and the Odyssey, is ended.
