Book XV: Telemachus's return | The Odyssey

Chapter summary

Athena goes to Sparta to remind Telemachus of his return. She finds him in the forecourt of the house of Menelaus: Peisistratus, son of Nestor, sleeps peacefully, while Telemachus is awake, kept in watch by worries about his father. The goddess tells him that it is not right for him to stay so long away from home, leaving his goods to such insolent men, who may devour everything while he travels in vain. She tells him to ask Menelaus to send him off, so that he finds his mother still at home: her father and her brothers already press her to marry Eurymachus, who surpasses the other suitors in gifts and has increased the bridal price. Athena justifies the warning by what she knows of women's hearts, which want to enlarge the house of the new husband and no longer remember the first one nor his children. Telemachus should entrust the house to the best of the maidservants until the gods show him a wife. She also warns of the ambush that the best of the suitors have set in the strait between Ithaca and Samos, but says she does not believe it will succeed, and that rather the earth will cover some of them. He must steer the ship away from the islands and sail by night, for a god will send him wind; on reaching the first headland of Ithaca, he is to send the ship and the companions to the city and go first to the swineherd, spend the night there, and send him to Penelope with news that he is safe. Athena climbs back up to Olympus.

Telemachus wakes Peisistratus with a kick and asks him to yoke the horses. Peisistratus refuses to set out in the dark night and reminds him that it is fitting to wait for Menelaus's gifts, because a guest remembers forever the host who gave him friendship. At dawn, Menelaus arrives, coming from the bed of Helen, and Telemachus, dressing in haste, asks to be sent off, for his spirit longs to return. Menelaus replies that he will not hold him back, and gives the rule: equally bad is the one who drives off a guest who does not want to leave and the one who detains the one who is in a hurry. He offers to wait for the meal and the gifts and, if he wishes, to accompany him through Hellas and Argos, where no one would let him leave without a gift. Telemachus refuses: he wants to return because he left his goods unguarded and fears to perish searching for his father or to lose some treasure of the house. Menelaus has the meal prepared and goes down to the storeroom with Helen and Megapenthes; he chooses a two-handled cup and a silver krater with gold rims, the work of Hephaestus, a gift from Phaedimus, king of the Sidonians. Helen brings the most beautiful and largest robe, the last in the chest, which shines like a star. Menelaus gives the krater, and Helen the robe, which she made with her own hands, for the bride of Telemachus at the wedding; until then, let his mother keep it. Peisistratus stows the gifts in the chariot's basket. After the meal, Menelaus accompanies them with a cup of wine and asks them to give Nestor his greetings.

Telemachus promises to tell everything and wishes to find Odysseus in Ithaca and to tell him how well he was treated. Then, on the right, an eagle flies by with a large domestic goose in its talons, pursued by the cries of men and women; it passes in front of the horses, and everyone rejoices. Peisistratus asks Menelaus whether the sign is for the two of them or for him alone. Menelaus thinks of the best answer, but Helen speaks first and prophesies: just as the eagle came from the mountain, where it has its nest and young, and snatched the goose raised at home, so Odysseus, after much suffering and wandering, will return and take vengeance, perhaps already at home preparing evil for the suitors. Telemachus prays that Zeus fulfill it and says he would invoke her as a goddess. They set out, spend the night at Pherae, in the house of Diocles, and the next day reach Pylos. There Telemachus asks Peisistratus to leave him at the ship, so that old Nestor does not detain him against his will, and Peisistratus, who knows the violent temper of his father, carries the gifts to the ship and urges him to embark before he reaches the palace.

Telemachus gives the order to sail and makes a sacrifice to Athena at the stern when the seer Theoclymenus approaches, a fugitive from Argos for having killed a man, a descendant of Melampus. He asks who he is, and Telemachus answers that he is from Ithaca, son of Odysseus, if indeed he ever existed, and now dead, and that for this reason he has set out in search of news. Theoclymenus says that he too is a fugitive, for having killed a kinsman whose powerful brothers pursue him in Argos, and asks for a place on the ship as a suppliant. Telemachus accepts him. Athena sends a strong wind; they pass Crounoi, Chalcis, Pheia, and Elis, and they sail on among the islands, wondering whether they will escape death or be caught.

In the hut, Odysseus and the swineherd Eumaeus dine with the other herdsmen, and Odysseus tests Eumaeus again to see whether he will keep him or send him to the city: he says he will go and beg and asks for a guide; he offers himself as a servant to the suitors, saying that no one surpasses him in putting wood on the fire, carving meat, and serving wine. Eumaeus is indignant: the servants of the suitors are young men well dressed, with oiled hair, and their insolence reaches the iron sky; let the guest stay, for no one there is bothered by him, and Telemachus, when he comes, will give him clothes and send him wherever he wishes. Odysseus thanks him, says that nothing is worse for mortals than wandering, and asks about the parents of Odysseus. Eumaeus replies that Laertes is alive and prays to Zeus every day that life may leave him, from weeping for his lost son, and that his mother, Anticleia, died of grief. He tells that, while she lived, he liked to talk with her and ask her things, because she had raised him together with Ctimene, her youngest daughter; when Ctimene married and went to Samos, the mistress dressed him well and sent him to the fields. Now, with the suitors in the house, there is no sweet word from the mistress, and the servants miss speaking with her and carrying something out to the fields. Odysseus remarks that Eumaeus was taken early from his land and asks how.

Eumaeus says the nights are long and it is better to talk, and he tells his story. He was born on the island of Syria, healthy, where the old die suddenly from the arrows of Apollo and Artemis; there are two cities, and his father, Ctesius, ruled over both. Phoenicians arrived, and a Phoenician slave woman of his father's household was seduced by one of them, at the time when she was washing clothes by the ship. She said she was from Sidon, daughter of Arybas, kidnapped by Taphians and sold to Eumaeus's father. The Phoenician offered to take her back; she demanded an oath and asked for silence, so that no one would tell the old man, and promised gold and, as payment for the passage, the boy in her care, who would fetch a great price if sold in a foreign land. They stayed a year. When the ship was loaded, they sent a man with a necklace of gold and amber, who made a silent sign while the slave women and Eumaeus's mother were examining the necklace. The woman took the boy by the hand, went out through the vestibule, hid three cups in her bosom, and they went to the harbor, where they embarked. Six days of sailing; on the seventh, Artemis struck the woman, who fell into the hold like a gull and was thrown to the seals and fish. Eumaeus was left alone, and the winds carried him to Ithaca, where Laertes bought him. Odysseus says the story moved him, but that Zeus gave him a good thing alongside the evil, in bringing him to the house of a good man, whereas he himself arrived there only after wandering through many cities.

Dawn comes, and Telemachus's companions make landfall in Ithaca, go down to the shore, and prepare the meal. Telemachus sends the ship to the city and says he will go to the countryside to see the herdsmen, coming down in the evening; the next day he will offer a banquet. Theoclymenus asks where he will lodge; Telemachus answers that his own house would not be good for him, because his mother shows herself rarely to the suitors and weaves up in her rooms, and he names Eurymachus, who is held as a god in Ithaca and wants to marry his mother to have the honor of Odysseus. Only Zeus knows whether the evil day will come upon all of them before the wedding. Then a falcon flies by on the right, messenger of Apollo, with a dove in its talons, and lets fall its feathers between Telemachus and the ship. Theoclymenus takes Telemachus aside and says that the flight is not without a god, and that there is no lineage more kingly on the island than his. Telemachus answers with a wish: if this came true, the seer would receive so many gifts that everyone would call him happy. He entrusts the guest to Peiraeus, so that he may welcome him until his return. He puts on his sandals, takes his spear, and gets down from the ship; the companions head to the city, as he ordered, and his feet quickly carry him to the courtyard where the swine are, among which the good swineherd sleeps.

Analysis

The book has two halves that the poem sets side by side. In Sparta and at sea, Telemachus receives gifts, omens, and a new guest; in Ithaca, Odysseus and Eumaeus trade stories of exile. The final line joins the two ends: Telemachus's feet carry him to Eumaeus's courtyard, and it is there, a line away, that the previous book was headed.

Warnings and omens say the same thing in different voices: Athena announces that the ambush will fail, Helen and Theoclymenus read the flight of birds in favor of Odysseus's house. The one who speaks is always someone from outside the house, and Telemachus answers both omens with a wish (15.180, 15.536) and never with certainty. The return voyage is that of a young man who acts quickly, avoids being held back, and leaves the rest to the gods.