Chapter summary
A beggar known throughout Ithaca arrives at the palace, one who begs through the city and is famous for his insatiable belly: he is very big to look at, but has no strength or vigor. His mother named him Arneus, but the young men call him Irus, because he carries messages when someone sends him. He tries to drive Odysseus from the vestibule with insults, and gives as his reason that all the suitors wink at him and send him to drag the old man out, though he says that even so he is ashamed. Odysseus looks at him from below and answers that he has done him no harm, that the threshold is big enough for both, that he should not envy what belongs to others, because he too is a beggar and wealth comes from the gods. He warns him not to provoke him with his hands: old as he is, he can still bloody his chest and lips, and the next day Irus will not feel like returning to that house. Irus, furious, says the glutton talks like an old woman by the oven, promises to break his teeth, and challenges him to gird himself for a fight before everyone.
Antinous hears the two and laughs: there has never been such entertainment, a god must have brought it into the house. The suitors rise and surround the beggars, and Antinous proposes the prize: there are goats' bellies on the fire, full of fat and blood, for supper; whoever wins will choose the one he wants, will always eat with them, and no other beggar will be admitted to beg. All approve. Odysseus, whom the narrator says speaks with cunning, replies that it is not possible for an old man worn down by misfortune to fight a younger man, but that his belly drives him to accept the blows; he demands that everyone swear that no one will strike him with a heavy hand to favor Irus. They swear. Telemachus then tells the guest not to fear any of the Achaeans, because whoever touches him will fight against many: he is the host, and the leaders Antinous and Eurymachus, both sensible, agree.
Odysseus girds the rags at his waist and shows strong thighs, broad shoulders, chest and sturdy arms, and Athena, standing beside him, enlarges his limbs. The suitors marvel and say that Irus is going to bring upon himself an evil he himself sought. Irus loses heart, and the servants bind him by force and lead him away, trembling. Antinous reprimands him and swears that, if the stranger wins, he will send Irus by ship to King Echetus, who will cut off his nose and ears and give his genitals raw to the dogs. The two raise their hands. Odysseus weighs whether to strike him so as to take his life right there, or only to stretch him on the ground, and concludes it is better to strike lightly, so that the Achaeans will not notice. Irus hits him on the right shoulder, and Odysseus strikes him on the neck, below the ear, breaking his bones within; blood rises to Irus's mouth, and he falls groaning, grinding his teeth and kicking the floor. The suitors die laughing. Odysseus drags him by the feet to the courtyard, props him against the wall, puts the staff in his hand and orders him to stay there scaring off pigs and dogs, not to rule over guests and beggars anymore, and to take care that nothing worse happens to him. He hangs the torn bag on Irus's shoulder and returns to the threshold.
The suitors come in laughing and greet him: may Zeus and the other gods grant him what he most desires, for having made the glutton stop begging, the one they will soon send to King Echetus. Odysseus rejoices at the omen. Antinous sets a large belly before him, and Amphinomus offers him two loaves and toasts him with a golden cup, wishing him happiness in the future, since he now has too many troubles. Odysseus replies that Amphinomus seems sensible, son of Nisus of Dulichium, and tells him something: there is no creature more fragile than man, who expects no evil while the gods give him vigor, and when they send misfortune, he bears it against his will, because the mind of men is like the day that the father of men and gods brings them. He says he too should have been happy among men and did many unjust acts, yielding to force and trusting in his father and brothers, and that for this reason no one should be lawless, but should enjoy in silence what the gods give. He sees the suitors plotting unjust things, consuming the goods and dishonoring the wife of a man who, he affirms, will not be long away from his own; he wishes a god would carry Amphinomus home before he meets him, because he does not believe the suitors and he will part without blood when he enters the palace. He pours a libation, drinks, and returns the cup to Amphinomus, who crosses the house with an anxious heart, shaking his head, because he sensed evil; but even so he does not escape, for Athena has also bound him, so that he will be subdued by the hands and spear of Telemachus. He returns to the seat from which he had risen.
Athena puts into the mind of the prudent Penelope the desire to appear before the suitors, to open their hearts further and to be more honored by her husband and son than before. She laughs without wanting to and tells the stewardess Eurynome that the desire, one she has never had, is to show herself to the suitors, even though she hates them, and to advise her son not to mix so much with them, since they speak well and think badly behind one's back. Eurynome agrees, but asks her to wash her body, anoint her cheeks, and not to go with her face bathed in tears, because the son is now grown, as she has always asked the gods. Penelope refuses: the gods have destroyed her beauty since her husband left; she asks for the maids Autonoe and Hippodameia, because she is ashamed to go alone among men. Athena pours sleep over her, and she falls asleep in her chair; the goddess gives her immortal gifts, cleansing her face with Aphrodite's ointment and making her taller, fuller and whiter than ivory. Penelope wakes with the arrival of the maids, says a sweet sleep covered her, and prays to Artemis for an equally gentle death, so that she will not waste her life in longing for her husband, the best of the Achaeans in every virtue. She goes down with two maids and stops at the threshold, with her veil over her cheeks; the knees of the suitors give way, bewitched by love, and all of them pray to lie beside her.
Penelope reproaches Telemachus: he is already grown and handsome, but he no longer has judgment, for he let a guest be mistreated in the house, and this will bring him shame among men. Telemachus replies that he is not offended by his mother's anger, that he knows how to tell the good from the worse and is no longer a child, but that he cannot think everything through with sense, surrounded by men of evil intentions and without allies. The fight between Irus and the stranger did not turn out as the suitors wanted, because the guest was stronger, and he wishes Zeus, Athena and Apollo would see all the suitors defeated like Irus, who sits at the courtyard door, shaking his head like a drunkard, unable to rise. Eurymachus praises Penelope: if all the Achaeans of Argos saw her, there would be more suitors in her house, for she surpasses women in bearing, beauty and judgment. She replies that the gods destroyed her virtue and beauty when Odysseus sailed for Troy, and that if he came back, her fame would be greater. She recounts the parting: he took her hand and said he did not believe all the Achaeans would return from Troy, that he did not know whether a god would bring him back, that she should care for his parents and the house, and that when she saw her son bearded, she should marry whomever she wished and leave the house. She says all this is now coming true, and that the night of the hateful marriage will come. She adds what hurts her most: the suitors do not follow the custom of those who court the daughter of a rich man, who bring oxen and sheep and give gifts, but instead eat another man's house without paying. Odysseus rejoices because she draws gifts from them and charms them with soft words, while her mind is set on something else.
Antinous says she should accept the gifts that each Achaean wishes to bring, because it is not good to refuse a gift, and that they will not go to their fields or anywhere else until she marries the best of them. All send the herald to fetch a gift: Antinous, a great embroidered cloak with twelve golden clasps; Eurymachus, a gold necklace with amber; Eurydamas, two earrings with three pearls each; Pisander, a necklace. Penelope goes up with the maids, who carry the gifts, and the suitors return to dance and song, waiting for night.
At night the maids set three braziers in the hall and feed them with dry wood. Odysseus tells the maids to go to the queen, to distract her by spinning and carding wool, while he will give light to all; even if they wait for the Dawn, they will not defeat him, because he is used to toil. The maids laugh and exchange glances; Melantho, daughter of Dolius, raised by Penelope like a daughter but the lover of Eurymachus and with no share in her grief, insults him: she says he has lost his mind, that he should sleep in the forge, that he is drunk or is like that by nature, or that he has grown proud from defeating Irus, and that a better man will come and drive him out bloodied. Odysseus replies that he will tell everything to Telemachus, so that he will cut her to pieces. The maids flee in fear, believing he spoke the truth. Odysseus stays by the braziers, observing everyone, with other plans in his mind. Athena does not let the suitors stop abusing him, so that the pain will go deeper into his heart.
Eurymachus mocks him: the beggar did not come without the help of a god, for the light of the torches seems to come from his head, which does not have a single hair. He offers him work in the fields, repairing walls and planting trees, with food and clothing, but says he prefers to beg. Odysseus challenges him: at a spring harvest, going without food until night, or plowing with the best oxen, or in war with a shield, two spears and a helmet, Eurymachus would see who he is; he says the other is arrogant because he lives among few and weak men, and that if Odysseus returned to his homeland, the door, however wide, would be narrow for his flight. Eurymachus, enraged, throws the footstool; Odysseus dodges and sits by the knees of Amphinomus, for fear of Eurymachus, the text says, and the stool strikes the cupbearer on the right arm, and he falls groaning, the jug rolling on the floor. There is an uproar, and the suitors say it would have been better for the stranger to have died before coming. Telemachus orders them to stop their madness and lie down; he expels no one. The suitors bite their lips, amazed at how he spoke. Amphinomus proposes that no one be angry at a just word, nor mistreat the stranger or any servant of Odysseus's house; let the cupbearer serve the cups, they pour libations and go to sleep, and let the guest be in Telemachus's care. All approve, pour libations to the gods, and each goes home.
Analysis
The book tests what the disguise demands of Odysseus and shows that he knows how to measure. In the fight with Irus, he secures the oath that protects him, hides the strength Athena gives him up to the last moment, and in the blow he chooses the measure that does not betray him: he wants to kill and decides not to kill, because the Achaeans are watching. The same self-control makes him endure, later on, the insults of Melantho and Eurymachus without revealing himself.
The book also shows the two houses the disguise passes through. The warnings to Amphinomus and the threat to Eurymachus are truth spoken as hypothesis, and no one hears them as warnings, because the suitors take the beggar for a drunk or a madman. Penelope, adorned by Athena, receives the gifts while the narrator says her mind thinks something else, and her husband rejoices: each one plays on his own side of the hall, without the text saying they had agreed.
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