Chapter summary
At dawn Telemachus puts on his sandals, takes his spear, and tells the swineherd Eumaeus that he is going to the city so that his mother may see him: she will not stop weeping until she finds him. He orders Eumaeus to take the unhappy stranger there to beg, because he himself cannot feed everyone, and adds that if the guest takes offense, so much the worse for him. Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, agrees: it is better to beg in the city than to obey orders in the sheepfold, and he will follow Eumaeus when the fire has warmed him, because the rags do not protect him from the cold of the morning. Telemachus crosses the courtyard with long strides, thinking of the ruin of the suitors, leans his spear against a column, and goes in. The first to see him is the nurse Eurycleia, who weeps and comes to meet him with the other maids. Penelope comes down from her room, embraces her son weeping, and tells him she did not expect to see him again, since he left for Pylos against her will and in secret. Telemachus asks her not to reopen her mourning, and tells her to bathe, put on clean clothes, go up with her maids and promise all the gods perfect hecatombs, if Zeus grants him revenge. He himself goes to the assembly square to call the stranger who accompanied him from Pylos and whom he left with Peiraeus. She is left speechless and obeys.
Telemachus leaves with his spear and two swift dogs, and Athena pours such grace upon him that the people admire him as he passes. The suitors surround him with kind words and wicked intentions. He moves away and sits with Mentor, Antiphus and Halitherses, friends of his father since youth, who question him. Peiraeus arrives with the guest and offers to send for the gifts of Menelaus. Telemachus replies that it is not yet known how everything will end: if the suitors kill him in secret, Peiraeus may keep the gifts; if he brings death upon them, he may bring the gifts home gladly to his house. He takes the guest home, where the two bathe, put on tunics and eat, and Penelope sits beside the pillar, spinning. She says she will go up to the bed that has been wet with tears since Odysseus left, and she reproaches her son for not telling her what he learned of his father before the suitors arrive. Telemachus tells her: Nestor received him as a father and had no news; he gave him a chariot and horses to go to Menelaus; there he saw Helen; Menelaus was indignant that weak men should want to lie in the bed of a strong man, like a doe that lays her fawns in the lion's den, and wished that Odysseus would appear among them as in the fight against Philomeleides at Lesbos. Menelaus repeated what the old man of the sea had told him: Odysseus is on an island, in the palace of the nymph Calypso, who holds him there by force, with no ships or companions to take him home. Penelope is moved. The guest who came from Pylos, the seer Theoclymenus, says that Menelaus does not know everything: he swears by Zeus and by the hospitable table that Odysseus is already in his land, sitting or walking, aware of these wrongs and plotting evil against the suitors. Penelope wishes the prophecy would come true, and promises gifts.
The suitors amuse themselves with discs and darts in front of the house. At suppertime the herald Medon calls them inside, and they sacrifice rams, goats, pigs and a heifer. From the countryside, Odysseus and Eumaeus get ready to go to the city. Eumaeus says he would rather leave him guarding the sheepfold, but he respects his master's orders. Odysseus asks for a staff for the slippery road and takes his torn bag; Eumaeus gives him a staff. Near the city, at the fountain made by Itacus, Neritus and Polyctor, with a grove of poplars and an altar to the nymphs, they meet the goatherd Melanthius, son of Dolius, who is bringing the finest goats for the suitors' banquet. He insults Eumaeus and the beggar, says the filthy one is good only for rubbing his shoulders against the doorposts, and threatens that if he goes to the house of Odysseus, his hair will fly about his head. As he passes, he kicks Odysseus on the hip, and Odysseus stands firm, weighs whether to kill him with the staff or throw him to the ground, and holds back. Eumaeus rebukes Melanthius and prays to the nymphs for Odysseus's return, which would scatter his arrogance. Melanthius threatens to sell him on a ship and wishes Apollo would kill Telemachus, since Odysseus is already dead. He goes ahead and sits at the table opposite Eurymachus.
Odysseus and Eumaeus reach the door, hearing the lyre of Phemius, and Odysseus recognizes the house and the banquet by their smell and music. Eumaeus proposes that one of them go in first; Odysseus chooses to stay outside, used to blows, and says that no one can hide his belly. At that moment a dog lying down lifts its head and ears: it is the dog Argos, raised by Odysseus before he left for Troy and taken hunting by the young men, now cast off on the dung heap, covered in ticks. Seeing Odysseus, he wags his tail, lowers his ears, and cannot come near. Odysseus wipes away a tear, hiding it from Eumaeus, and asks what dog that is, and whether it was swift or only for show. Eumaeus replies that it was the dog of a master who died far away, that it was swift and sure on the trail, and that now the maids do not care for it, because servants, without the hand of their master, stop doing what is just, and Zeus takes away half the excellence of anyone who falls into slavery. Eumaeus goes in, and death takes Argos as soon as he sees Odysseus after twenty years.
Telemachus sees Eumaeus first and calls him with a nod; Eumaeus takes the carver's chair and sits opposite him. Odysseus comes in as an old beggar and sits on the ash threshold, leaning against the cypress doorpost. Telemachus has Eumaeus take him bread and meat and tell him to ask all the suitors, because shame does no good to someone in need. Odysseus thanks him and prays that Telemachus be happy. He eats while the aoidos sings. When the song ends and the suitors make a noise, Athena urges him to ask for bread among them, to learn who is just and who is lawless, but even so she will not save any of them from ruin. He begs from hand to hand, and they give out of pity and wonder who he is. Melanthius says that Eumaeus brought him. Antinous rebukes Eumaeus: there are already too many beggars. Eumaeus replies that no one calls a stranger who is of no use, and that Antinous is the harshest with Odysseus's servants, which he does not account for while Penelope and Telemachus live. Telemachus tells Eumaeus to be quiet and tells Antinous to give without fearing his mother or the servants: Antinous likes eating more than giving. Antinous shows his footstool and says that if everyone gave as much, the beggar would be kept away for three months. The others fill his bag.
Odysseus asks Antinous, saying he has the look of a king and deserves a larger share. He tells a story: he was rich, he gave alms to travelers, but Zeus ruined him by sending him to Egypt with pirates; his companions plundered the Egyptian fields, were killed or enslaved, and he was given to Dmetor, king of Cyprus, from whom he came. Antinous orders him to keep away from his table, accusing him of insolence. Odysseus replies that appearance does not match the mind, and that Antinous would not give even salt in another man's house. Antinous, enraged, throws the footstool at his right shoulder. Odysseus stands firm as a rock, shakes his head in silence and plots evils; he returns to the threshold and tells the suitors that the blow is no matter of goods he guards, but of his belly, and that if there are gods and Erinyes of beggars, death will reach Antinous before his marriage. Antinous threatens to drag him away. The other suitors are indignant: he may be a god, for the gods travel through the cities in the guise of strangers to observe the arrogance and good order of men. Antinous does not listen to them. Telemachus feels the pain in his chest, but does not weep, and shakes his head as his father does.
Penelope, in her room, hears of the blow and wishes that Apollo would strike Antinous; the stewardess Eurynome agrees with her. Penelope says all the suitors are hateful, but Antinous looks like the black Ker, and she is told that he struck the beggar while the others filled his bag. She orders Eumaeus to bring the stranger so she can ask whether he has heard anything of Odysseus. Eumaeus says he was delighted with the guest, who had stayed three nights in the hut, who says he is an old guest of Odysseus, coming from Crete, and who heard that Odysseus is among the Thesprotians, alive, bringing riches. Penelope orders him brought and laments that the house has no Odysseus to defend it. At that moment Telemachus sneezes so loudly that the house resounds, and Penelope laughs and sees in the sneeze a sign of the suitors' death. She promises the stranger, if his account is true, a cloak and a tunic. Eumaeus carries the message. Odysseus replies that he will tell the truth but fears the suitors, whose violence reaches the iron heaven: he has just been struck without cause, and not even Telemachus defended him. He asks that Penelope wait until sunset and question him by the fire. Penelope finds the delay strange, and Eumaeus explains the reason. She judges that the stranger is not foolish.
Eumaeus whispers to Telemachus that he is going back to the swine and that he should take care, because many Achaeans wish him harm. Telemachus tells him to eat supper first and to bring the victims in the morning. Eumaeus eats and goes away. The evening falls on the suitors, who amuse themselves with song and dance.
Analysis
The book carries the disguise from the hut to the house itself and shows what it costs. Odysseus goes through three trials: Melanthius's kick on the road, the meeting with Argos, and Antinous's footstool in the hall. In the two blows he restrains himself; in the scene with the dog, the disguise takes from him the right to go to meet the only being who recognizes him. The plan to endure without revealing himself, agreed in the previous book, now becomes action, with the firmness of a rock.
The book also shows who welcomes and who strikes. Eumaeus and Telemachus give bread and shelter; Penelope wants to hear the beggar; the suitors divide between giving with pity and striking. Athena says what begging does: it separates those who have measure from those who have none, without saving anyone. The house shows itself in full, with its master among those who ask.
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