Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Homer -- Translations into English; Odysseus, King of Ithaca (Mythological character)
He wakens in Ithaca, which he does not at first recognise He learns
from Athene, for the first time, that the wooers beset his house. She
disguises him as an old man, and bids him go to the hut of the
swineherd Eumaeus, who is loyal to his absent lord. Athene then goes to
Lacedaemon, to bring back Telemachus, who has now resided there for a
month. Odysseus won the heart of Eumaeus, who of course did not
recognise him, and slept in the swineherd’s hut, while Athene was
waking Telemachus, in Lacedaemon, and bidding him “be mindful of his
return.”
DAY 37 (Book xv).
Is spent by Odysseus in the swineherd’s hut. Telemachus reaches Pherae,
half-way to Pylos.
DAY 38 (Book xv).
Telemachus reaches Pylos, but does not visit Nestor. To save time he
goes at once on board ship, taking with him an unfortunate outlaw,
Theoclymenus, a second-sighted man, or the family of Melampus, in which
the gift of prophecy was hereditary. The ship passed the Elian coast at
night, and evaded the ambush of the wooers. Meanwhile Odysseus was
sitting up almost till dawn, listening to the history of Eumaeus, the
swineherd.
DAY 39 (Books xv, xvi).
Telemachus reaches the Isle of Ithaca, sends his ship to the city, but
himself, by advice of Athene, makes for the hut of Eumaeus, where he
meets, but naturally does not recognise, his disguised father. He sends
Eumaeus to Penelope with news of his arrival, and then Athene reveals
Odysseus to Telemachus. The two plot the death of the wooers. Odysseus
bids Telemachus remove, on a favourable opportunity, the arms which
were disposed as trophies on the walls of the hall at home. (There is a
slight discrepancy between the words of this advice and the manner in
which it is afterwards executed.) During this interview, the ship of
Telemachus, the wooers who had been in ambush, and Eumaeus, all reached
the town of Ithaca. In the evening Eumaeus returned to his hut, where
Athene had again disguised Odysseus.
DAY 40 (Books xvii, xviii, xix, xx).
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