CLASSICS 2D03 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Telemachus, Eurymachus, Odysseus
13 Jun 2018
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The Odyssey – WEEK #11
Homer – The Odyssey
Book 1:
• The narrator invokes the Muse, asking for inspiration as he prepares to tell the story of
Odysseus.
• Story begins 10 years after the end of the Trojan War (The Iliad). All the Greek heroes except
Odysseus have returned home
▪ Odysseus languishes on the remote island Ogygia with the goddess Calypso, who has fallen
in love with him and refuses to let him leave.
• Meanwhile, a mob of suitors is devouring Odysseus’s estate in Ithaca and courting his wife,
Penelope, in hopes of taking over his kingdom.
• His son, Telemachus, an infant when Odysseus left but now a young man, is helpless to stop
them. He has resigned himself to the likelihood that his father is dead
• With the consent of Zeus, Athena travels to Ithaca to speak with Telemachus
▪ Assuming the form of Odysseus’s old friend Mentes, Athena predicts that Odysseus is still
alive and that he will soon return to Ithaca.
▪ She advises Telemachus to call together the suitors and announce their banishment from his
father’s estate. She then tells him that he must make a journey to Pylos and Spart to ask for
any news of his father
• After this conversation, Telemachus encounters Penelope in the suitor’s quarters, upset over a
song that the court bard is singing.
▪ Like Homer with The Iliad, the bard sings of the sufferings experienced by the Greeks on
their return from Troy, and his song makes the bereaved Penelope more miserable than she
already is
▪ To Penelope’s surprise, Telemachus rebukes her. He reminds her that Odysseus isn’t the
only Greek to not return from Troy and that, if she does not like the music in the men’s
quarters, she should retire to her own chamber and let him look after her interests among
the suitors.
• Telemachus then gives the suitors notice that he will hold an assembly the next day at which
they will be ordered to leave his father’s estate.
▪ Antinous and Eurymachus, two particularly defiant suitors, rebuke Telemachus and ask the
identity of the visitor with whom he had just been speaking.
▪ Although Telemachus suspects that his visitor was a goddess in disguise, he tells them only
that the man was a friend of his father
Book 2:
• When the assembly meets the next day, Aegyptius, a wise Ithacan elder, speaks first.
▪ He praises Telemachus for stepping into his father’s shoes, nothing that this occasion marks
the first time that the assembly has been called since Odysseus left
• Telemachus ten gives an impassioned speech in which he laments the loss of both his father and
his father’s home – his mother’s suitors, the sons of Ithaca’s elders, have taken it over.
▪ He rebukes them for consuming his father’s oxen and sheep as they pursue their courtship
day in and day out when any decent man would simply go to Penelope’s father, Icarius, and
ask him for her hand in marriage
• Antinous blames the impasse on Penelope, who, he says, seduces every suitor but will commit
to none of them
▪ He reminds the suitors of a ruse that she concocted to put off remarrying: Penelope
maintained that she would choose a husband as soon as she finished weaving a burial
shroud for her elderly father-in-law, Laertes. But each night, she carefully undid the knitting
that she had completed during the day, so that the shroud would never be finished
▪ If Penelope can make no decision, Antinous declares, then she should be sent back to Icarius
so that he can choose a new husband for her
• The dutiful Telemachus refuses to throw his mother out and calls upon the gods to punish the
suitors.
▪ At that moment, a pair of eagles, locked in combat, appears overhead.
▪ The soothsayer Halitherses interprets their struggle as a sign of Odysseus’s imminent return
and warns the suitors that they will face a massacre if they don’t leave.
▪ The suitors balk at such foolishness, and the meeting ends in deadlock.
• As Telemachus prepares for his to Pylos and Sparta, Athena visits him again, this time disguised
as Mentor, another old friend of Odysseus.
▪ Athena encourages Telemachus and predicts that his journey will be fruitful. She then sets
out to town and, assuming the disguise of Telemachus himself, collects a loyal crew to man
his ship
• Telemachus himself tells none of the household servants of his trip for fear that his departure
will upset his mother
▪ He only tells Eurycleia, his wise and ages nurse. She pleads with him not to take to the open
sea as his father did, but he puts her fears to rest by saying that he knows that a god is on
his side
Book 3:
• At Pylos, Telemachus and Mentor (Athena in disguise) witness an impressive religious ceremony
in which dozens of bulls are sacrificed to Poseidon.
• Although Telemachus has little experience with public speaking, Mentor gives him the
encouragement he needs to approach Nestor, the city’s king, and ask him about Odysseus
▪ Nestor however, has no information about Odysseus. He recounts that after the fall of Troy
a falling-out occurred between Agamemnon and Menelaus, the two Greek brothers who
had led the expedition
• Menelaus set sail for Greece immediately, while Agamemnon decided to wait a day and
continue sacrificing on the shores of Troy
• Nestor when with Menelaus, while Odysseus stayed with Agamemnon, and he has hear
no news of Odysseus.
• He says that he can only pray that Athena will show Telemachus the kindness that she
showed Odysseus. He adds that he has heard that suitors have taken over the prince’s
house in Ithaca and he hopes that Telemachus will achieve the fame in the defence of
his father, that Orestes, son of Agamemnon, won in defence of his father.
• Telemachus then asks Nestor about Agamemnon’s fate
▪ Nestor explains that Agamemnon returned from Troy to find that Aegisthus, a base coward
who remined behind while the Greeks fought in Troy, had seduced and married his wife,
Clytemnestra
▪ With her approval, Aegisthus murdered Agamemnon. He would have then taken over
Agamemnon’s kingdom had not Orestes, who was in exile in Athena, returned and killed
Aegisthus and Clytemnestra
• Nestor holds the courage of Orestes up as an example for Telemachus. He sends his own
son, Pisistratus along to accompany Telemachus to Sparta, and the two set out by land
the next day
• Athena, who reveals her divinity by shedding the form of Mentor and changing into an eagle
before the entire court of Pylos, stays behind to protect Telemachus’ ship and its crew
Book 4:
• In Sparta, the king and queen, Menelaus and Helen, are celebrating the separate marriages of
their son and daughter
▪ They happily greet Pisistratus and Telemachus, the latter of whom they soon recognize as
they son of Odysseus because of the clear family resemblance
• As they all feast, the king and queen recount with melancholy the many examples of Odysseus’s
cunning at Troy
▪ Helen recalls how Odysseus dressed as a beggar to infiltrate the city’s walls
▪ Menelaus tells the famous story of the Trojan horse, Odysseus’ masterful gambit that
allowed the Greeks to sneak into Troy and slaughter the Trojans
• The next day, Menelaus recounts his own return from Troy
▪ He says that, stranded in Egypt, he was forced to capture Proteus, the divine Old Man of the
Sea
▪ Proteus told him the way back to Sparta and then informed him of the fates of Agamemnon
and Ajax, another Greek hero, who survived Troy only to perish back in Greece
▪ Proteus also told him news of Odysseus – that he was still alive but imprisoned by Calypso
on her island
• Buoyed by this report, Telemachus and Pisistratus return to Pylos to set sail for Ithaca
• Meanwhile, the suitors at Odysseus’s house learn of Telemachus’s voyage and prepare to
ambush him upon his return
▪ The herald Medon overhears their plans and reports them to Penelope. She becomes
distraught when she reflects that she may soon lose her son in addition to her husband, but
Athena sends a phantom in the form of Penelope’s sister, Iphthime, to reassure her
• Iphthime tells her not to worry, for the goddess will protect Telemachus
Book 5:
• All the gods except Poseidon gather again on Mount Olympus to discuss Odysseus’s fate
▪ Athena’s speech in support of the hero prevails on Zeus to intervene.
• Hermes, messenger of the gods, is sent to Calypso’s island to tell her that Odysseus
must at last be allowed to leave so that he can return home.
• In reply, Calypso delivers an impassioned indictment of the male gods and their double
standards. She complains that they can take mortal lovers while the affairs of the female
gods must always be frustrated. In the end, she submits to the supreme will of Zeus
• By now, Odysseus alone remains of the contingent that he led at Troy; his crew and the other
boats in his force were all destroyed during his journeys.
▪ Calypso helps him build a new boat and stocks it with provisions from her island. With
sadness, she watches as the object of her love sails away
Document Summary
The odyssey week #11: the narrator invokes the muse, asking for inspiration as he prepares to tell the story of. Odysseus: story begins 10 years after the end of the trojan war (the iliad). Penelope, in hopes of taking over his kingdom: his son, telemachus, an infant when odysseus left but now a young man, is helpless to stop them. But each night, she carefully undid the knitting that she had completed during the day, so that the shroud would never be finished. She pleads with him not to take to the open sea as his father did, but he puts her fears to rest by saying that he knows that a god is on his side. Clytemnestra: with her approval, aegisthus murdered agamemnon. Aga(cid:373)e(cid:373)(cid:374)o(cid:374)"s ki(cid:374)gdo(cid:373) had (cid:374)ot o(cid:396)estes, (cid:449)ho (cid:449)as i(cid:374) e(cid:454)ile i(cid:374) athe(cid:374)a, (cid:396)etu(cid:396)(cid:374)ed a(cid:374)d killed. Aegisthus and clytemnestra: nestor holds the courage of orestes up as an example for telemachus.
