Chapter summary
At dawn, Telemachus gets up, dresses, puts his sword over his shoulder, and sends the heralds to summon the Achaeans to assembly, as Athena had advised him in the previous book. He goes to the square with a bronze spear and two dogs, and the goddess pours over him a grace that makes the people admire him; he sits in his father's seat, and the elders give him their place.
The first to speak is the old man Aegyptius, bent with age and full of experience, who has a grief of his own: his son Antiphus went to Troy with Odysseus and was devoured by the Cyclops, and another son, Eurynomus, lives among the suitors, although two others tend their father's lands. He weeps as he speaks. He is surprised at the summons, since there has been no assembly or session since Odysseus left, and he asks who called it and why: news of an army approaching, or some other matter for the people? He prays that Zeus grant the caller whatever he has in mind. Telemachus welcomes the good word, waits no longer, rises in the middle of the square, receives the scepter from the herald Piseonor, and tells the old man that he was the one who called the assembly, because he is the one who suffers most.
Telemachus explains that he brings no news of an army and no public matter, but a matter of his own, with two troubles: he has lost his father, who ruled over them with a father's gentleness, and now the suitors, sons of the best men of the place, are harassing his mother against her will. They avoid the house of Icarius, the father of Penelope, who would set the bridal gifts and give his daughter to whomever she chose; instead they frequent Telemachus's house every day, slaughtering oxen, sheep, and goats and drinking wine without measure, because there is no man there like Odysseus to ward off ruin, and he himself lacks the strength. He appeals to the shame of such gifts, to the opinion of the neighbors, and to the anger of the gods, in the name of Olympian Zeus and of Themis, and asks that they leave him alone with his grief, unless Odysseus has wronged the Achaeans and they are taking revenge on him in this way; it would be better, he says, for them to devour his property, because then he could claim restitution from the city. He ends in anger, throws the scepter to the ground, and weeps; pity seizes the people, and no one dares answer with harsh words. Only Antinous answers.
Antinous calls Telemachus a windbag and says the fault lies not with the suitors but with his mother. For three years, and soon four, Penelope has given each of them hope and has promised him through messages, but she has been thinking of something else. He describes the ruse: she set up a great loom in the palace and asked the suitors to wait for the wedding until she finished it, so that the threads would not be wasted, a shroud for the hero Laertes, for when death takes him, so that no Achaean woman would reproach her for letting him be buried without one. By day she wove, and by night, by torchlight, she unwove. She deceived the Achaeans for three years, until in the fourth a maidservant who knew everything informed on her, and they caught her unweaving the cloth; she had to finish it, against her will. Antinous then gives the suitors' answer: Telemachus must send his mother away and tell her to marry whichever man her father orders and who pleases her. As long as she keeps deceiving them, proud of the gifts of Athena, her skill at handiwork, and a cleverness no woman of the past ever had, the suitors will consume his property, and she will gain fame while he only loses. They will not leave before she marries whomever she chooses.
Telemachus replies that he cannot drive out of the house, against her will, the one who bore him and raised him. His father is in another land, alive or dead, and if he himself sent her away he would have to pay dearly to Icarius, besides facing the Erinyes that his mother would invoke and the reproach of men. Therefore he will not give that order. If the suitors are indignant, let them leave his house and feast at their own expense, taking turns among their homes; if they think it better to ruin one man's property without payment, let them keep on, but he will call upon the eternal gods, to see whether Zeus grants requital, and then they will die inside the house with no one to avenge them.
Zeus sends two eagles from the top of a mountain; they fly side by side and, when they reach the middle of the square, they wheel, beat their wings, look down at all the heads with a deadly air, tear at their own cheeks and necks, and depart to the right, over the houses and the city. The people are amazed and wonder what will come of it. The old Halitherses, son of Mastor, the best of his generation at reading birds, interprets the sign: Odysseus will not be far from his own; he is near, planning death for the suitors and disaster for many others in Ithaca, and for that reason it is better to stop them now. He speaks from experience, and not without grounds: when Odysseus set out for Troy, he predicted that he would return in the twentieth year, after many troubles, without his companions and unknown to all, and now all of this is coming true.
Eurymachus, son of Polybus, replies that the old man should prophesy to his own sons: birds are many and not all of them bring signs, and Odysseus died far away. He says it would be better if Halitherses had died with him, instead of inciting Telemachus, who is already irritated and hoping for a gift from his house, and he imposes a fine on him. He advises Telemachus, before everyone, to send his mother to her father's house, where her father will arrange the marriage and the dowry; until then the suitors will not leave the court, because no one frightens them, neither Telemachus, however much he speaks, nor the old man's prophecy. His property will be devoured as long as she delays the marriage, and they will go on vying for her worth, without seeking other women whom it would be proper to wed.
Telemachus tells the suitors that he will no longer ask or make speeches about this, because the gods and all the Achaeans already know. He asks them for a swift ship and twenty companions, to go to Sparta and Pylos to learn of his father's return, hearing it from a mortal or from a voice that comes from Zeus, who gives men fame. If he hears that his father is alive and coming back, he will endure one more year, even worn down; if he hears that he is dead, he will return, raise a tomb, perform the funeral honors, and give his mother to a husband.
Then Mentor rises, Odysseus's companion, to whom he entrusted the house when he set out. He says he does not blame the suitors, who act with violence out of wicked thoughts and risk their heads by devouring the house of Odysseus because they believe he will not return; he is indignant at the rest of the people, who, though many, sit silent and do not restrain the suitors with words, forgetful of the king who ruled them like a father. Leocritus, son of Evenor, calls Mentor a madman and says it is hard to fight men, even more numerous ones, over a banquet; if Odysseus himself came back and tried to drive them out, his wife would not rejoice, and he would meet a shameful death for fighting many. He orders the people to disperse; the voyage is left to Mentor and Halitherses, old companions of the father, but he thinks Telemachus will stay in Ithaca listening for news, without making the trip. The assembly breaks up; the people go home, and the suitors go to the house of Odysseus.
Telemachus goes alone to the shore, washes his hands in the sea, and prays to Athena, who had been in his house the night before. He follows her advice to search for his father, but the Achaeans, and above all the suitors, obstruct everything. Athena approaches in the form and voice of Mentor and encourages him: if he has his father's fire, the voyage will not be in vain; few sons resemble their fathers, most are worse, but he does not lack Odysseus's good sense, and there is hope the plan can be carried out. She bids him scorn the suitors, who do not know that death is near; she promises to get the ship ready and go with him, as a companion inherited from his father; and she sends him home to prepare provisions, while she herself recruits volunteers and chooses the best of Ithaca's many ships.
Telemachus returns to the palace with a heavy heart and finds the suitors preparing the feast in the courtyard. Antinous laughs, takes his hand, and invites him to eat and drink as before, saying that the Achaeans will give him a ship and oarsmen to go to Pylos. Telemachus refuses: he cannot feast in silence beside men who devoured his property when he was still a child; now that he is grown, and listens and learns, he feels his spirit rising, and he will try to bring disaster upon them, in Pylos or right here. Since he has neither ship nor oarsmen, because the suitors thought that best, he will go as a passenger. He pulls his hand from Antinous's. The suitors jeer: they say he will bring back defenders from Pylos or Sparta, or poison from Ephyra to put in the wine, or that he will perish far away like his father, and then they will divide the property, leaving the house to his mother and her husband.
Telemachus goes down to his father's storeroom, full of gold, bronze, clothing, oil, and jars of old wine kept for the day Odysseus would return, under the watch of Eurycleia. He asks her for twelve jars of wine and twenty measures of barley in leather sacks, in secret, so he can collect them at night, when his mother has gone up to her room, and set out for Sparta and Pylos in search of his father. Eurycleia weeps and protests: how can he go alone, an only and beloved son, if Odysseus died far away? The suitors will lay ambushes to kill him and divide the property; let him stay home. Telemachus calms her: the plan is not without a god. He makes her swear by the gods not to tell his mother before the eleventh or twelfth day, unless his mother notices his absence or hears of the departure from someone else, so that she does not ruin her skin with weeping. Eurycleia swears, and fills the jars and sacks.
Athena, in the form of Telemachus, goes about the city gathering companions for the night and asks Noemon, son of Phronius, for the ship; he gives it willingly. At sunset the ship is launched and fitted out. Athena then pours sleep over the suitors, who drop their cups and go to bed. In the form of Mentor, she calls Telemachus outside: his companions are already at the oars, waiting. On the shore he tells the men to carry the provisions, which are in the palace, and that his mother and the maids do not know, except for one. They embark; Athena sits in the stern with Telemachus beside her, sends a strong west wind, and after they hoist the sail and secure the ropes, the men fill the mixing bowls with wine and pour libations to the gods, above all to the daughter of Zeus. The ship runs all night until dawn.
Analysis
The book shows what happens when the one who calls the people is a young man without power: the assembly gathers, the people are moved, and nothing is decided. The ones who answer Telemachus directly are the suitors, and Mentor says where the fault lies, in the silence of many before a few. Even so, the assembly has an effect: his request for a ship and the plan to go to Sparta and Pylos were stated before everyone, including the one-year deadline.
What Telemachus wants comes out of the assembly by private channels: a goddess in disguise, the old nurse, an oath, a ship borrowed by night. In public he refuses to send his mother away, and in secret he sets out without telling her. The text does not resolve the tension between the two attitudes; it leaves both before the reader.
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