The Odyssey Book 20

"'????, lucky for you, by heaven, not to have hit him! He took care of himself, else you'd have had my lance-head in your belly; no marriage, but a grave instead on Ithaka for your father's pains. You others, let me see no more contemptible conduct in my house! I've been awake to it for a long time—by now I know what is honorable and what is not.'"

??? is Ktésippos, who Telemakhos says is lucky he didn't hit Odysseus with the cow foot

Who agrees with Telemakhos and tells the suitors not to attack the beggar/Odysseus?

Agelaus "'Friends, friends, I hope no one will answer like a fishwife. What has been said is true. Hands off this stranger, he is no target, neither is any servant here in the hall of King Odysseus.'"

"'Friends, no luck lies in that plan for us, no luck, knifing the lad. Let's think of feasting.'"

Amphínomos to the other suitors trying to prevent them from trying to kill Telemakhos

"'It goes against the grain, my lords, but still I say we take this hectoring by Telémakhos. You know Zeus balked at it, or else we might have shut his mouth a long time past, the silvery speaker.'"

Antinoos telling the other suitors to ignore Telemakhos at the feast before the competition for Penelope

"'Let me be blown out by the Olympians! Shot by Artemis, I still might go and see amid the shades Odysseus in the rot of underworld. No coward's eye should light by my consenting! Evil may be endured when our days pass in mourning, heavy-hearted, hard beset, if only sleep reign over nighttime, blanketing the world's good and evil from our eyes. But not for me: dreams too my demon sends me. Tonight the image of my lord came by as I remember him with troops. O strange exultation! I thought him real, and not a dream.'"

Artemis wanting to die to maybe see Odysseus as a shade. She had a dream of him coming back which was sent by a demon bc it was too good to be true

What does Philiotios say Odysseus trusted him with?

Cows in Kephallenia. It is hard to take care of them because the suitors want his cattle for themselves "'He entrusted cows to me in Kephallênia, when I was knee high, and now his herds are numberless, no man else ever had cattle multiply like grain. But new men tell me I must bring my beeves to feed them, who care nothing for our prince, fear nothing from the watchful gods. They crave partition of our lost king's land and wealth."

"Then Eumaios echoed him, and invoked the gods, and prayed that his great-minded master should return. While these three talked, the suitors in the field had come together plotting—what but death for Telémakhos?—when from the left an eagle crossed high with a rockdove in his claws."

Eumaios praying to the gods in agreement with Philiotios wanting Odysseus to return. The suitors also plot Telemkahos' death again as an eagle with a dove passes overhead

"'Bestir yourselves! you have your brooms, go sprinkle the rooms and sweep them, robe the chairs in red, sponge off the tables till they shine. Wash out the winebowls and two-handled cups. You others go fetch water from the spring; no loitering; come straight back. Our company will be here soon; morning is sure to bring them; everyone has a holiday today.'"

Eurykleia making the maids clean up for the guests coming

"'I would not be so quick to accuse her, child. He sat and drank here while he had a mind to; food he no longer hungered for, he said— for she did ask him. When he thought of sleeping, she ordered them to make a bed. Poor soul! Poor gentleman! So humble and so miserable, he would accept no bed with rugs to lie on, but slept on sheepskins and a raw oxhide in the entry way. We covered him ourselves.'"

Eurykleia telling Odysseus Penelope welcomed the beggar/Odysseus but he would not let them prepare a bed for him

"'The mind of our new guest has gone astray. Hustle him out of doors, lads, into the sunlight; he finds it dark as night inside!'"

Eurymakhos suggesting they kick the beggar/Odysseus out

What does Telemakhos come back to ask Eurkleia?

He asks if his mother has treated the beggar/Odysseus well. He thinks Penelope ignored him bc he slept on the ground "'Telémakhos, clear-eyed as a god, awoke, put on his shirt and belted on his sword, bound rawhide sandals under his smooth feet, and took his bronze-shod lance. He came and stood on the broad sill of the doorway, calling Eurykleia: 'Nurse, dear Nurse, how did you treat our guest? Had he a supper and a good bed? Has he lain uncared for still? My mother is like that, perverse for all her cleverness: she'd entertain some riff-raff, and turn out a solid man.'"

How does Odysseus react to Melanthios' comment? Who comes up to Odysseus next?

He controls his anger. Philoitios comes up next with an ox and goats. "Odysseus answered not a word, but grimly shook his head over his murderous heart. A third man came up now: Philoítios the cattle foreman, with an ox behind him and fat goats for the suitors. Ferrymen had brought these from the mainland, as they bring travellers, too—whoever comes along. Philoítios tied the beasts under the portico and joined the swineherd."

Who does Odysseus pray to? What does he pray for?

He prays to Zeus for a sign he was supposed to come "'O Father Zeus, if over land and water, after adversity, you willed to bring me home, let someone in the waking house give me good augury, and a sign be shown, too, in the outer world.'"

What does Ktessipus do to Odysseus?

He tries to throw a cow's foot at him, but misses "His hand went backward and, fishing out a cow's foot from the basket, he let it fly. Odysseus rolled his head to one side softly, ducking the blow, and smiled a crooked smile with teeth clenched. On the wall the cow's foot struck and fell."

How does Philioitios greet Odysseus?

He welcomes him and says he feels sorry the beggar is in rags. Philiotios hopes Odysseus is not in rags like his "'Welcome, Sir. May good luck lie ahead at the next turn. Hard times you're having, surely. O Zeus! no god is more berserk in heaven if gentle folk, whom you yourself begot, you plunge in grief and hardship without mercy! Sir, I began to sweat when I first saw you, and tears came to my eyes, remembering Odysseus: rags like these he may be wearing somewhere on his wanderings now— I mean, if he's alive still under the sun. But if he's dead and in the house of Death, I mourn Odysseus.'"

Who does Athena have pick on Odysseus first at the feast?

Ktessipus "There was a scapegrace fellow in the crowd named Ktésippos, a Samian, rich beyond all measure, arrogant with riches, early and late a bidder for Odysseus' queen. Now this one called attention to himself"

"'Hear me, my lords, I have a thing to say. Our friend has had his fair share from the start and that's polite; it would be most improper if we were cold to guests of Telémakhos— no matter what tramp turns up. Well then, look here, let me throw in my own small contribution. He must have prizes to confer, himself, on some brave bathman or another slave here in Odysseus' house.'"

Ktessipus saying he will give beggar/Odysseus food

Who gives Odysseus when he talk with Eumaios a dirty look?

Melanthios "During this talk, Melánthios the goatherd came in, driving goats for the suitors' feast, with his two herdsmen. Under the portico they tied the animals, and Melánthios looked at Odysseus with a sneer."

"'Stranger, I see you mean to stay and turn our stomachs begging in this hall. Clear out, why don't you? Or will you have to taste a bloody beating before you see the point? Your begging ways nauseate everyone. There are feasts elsewhere.'"

Melanthios picking on the beggar/Odysseus again for begging

"The servant's prayer, after the cloudless thunder of Zeus, Odysseus heard with lifting heart, sure in his bones that vengeance was at hand. Then other servants, wakening, came down to build and light a fresh fire at the hearth. "

Odysseus feeling better after Zeus has one of the women grinding flour pray that the suitors will leave that day

"His rage held hard in leash, submitted to his mind, while he himself rocked, rolling from side to side, as a cook turns a sausage, big with blood and fat, at a scorching blaze, without a pause, to broil it quick: so he rolled left and right, casting about to see how he, alone, against the false outrageous crowd of suitors could press the fight."

Odysseus lying restlessly in bed moving like a sausage

"'Aye, goddess, that much is true; but still I have some cause to fret in this affair. I am one man; how can I whip those dogs? They are always here in force. Neither is that the end of it, there's more to come. If by the will of Zeus and by your will I killed them all, where could I go for safety? Tell me that!'"

Odysseus telling Athena although he is home, he alone can't kill the suitors and if he did others would come after him.

"'Down; be steady. You've seen worse, that time the Kyklops like a rockslide ate your men while you looked on. Nobody, only guile, got you out of that cave alive.'"

Odysseus to himself after seeing the women come from the suitors' rooms. He is trying not to get mad

How does Odysseus prepare to sleep?

On the entry floor "Outside in the entry way he made his bed— raw oxhide spread on level ground, and heaped up fleeces, left from sheep the Akhaians killed. And when he had lain down, Eurynomê flung out a robe to cover him. Unsleeping the Lord Odysseus lay, and roved in thought to the undoing of his enemies"

Who does Penelope include in her prayers to Artemis? What is Penelope asking?

P'enelope asks Artemis to kill her and includes Pandareos' daughters who where pitied by the gods after their betraying father died "'O gracious divine lady Artemis, daughter of Zeus, if you could only make an end now quickly, let the arrow fly, stop my heart, or if some wind could take me by the hair up into running cloud, to plunge in tides of Ocean, as hurricane winds took Pandáreos' daughters when they were left at home alone. The gods had sapped their parents' lives. But Aphroditê fed those children honey, cheese, and wine, and Hêra gave them looks and wit, and Artemis, pure Artemis, gave lovely height, and wise Athena made them practised in her arts— till Aphroditê in glory walked on Olympos, begging for each a happy wedding day from Zeus, the lightning's joyous king, who knows all fate of mortals, fair and foul— but even at that hour the cyclone winds had ravished them away to serve the loathsome Furies."

When the beggar/Odysseus sleeps, who stays away?

Penelope "Raining soft sleep on his eyes, the beautiful one was gone back to Olympos. Now at peace, the man slumbered and lay still, but not his lady. Wakeful again with all her cares, reclining in the soft bed, she wept and cried aloud until she had had her fill of tears, then spoke in prayer first to Artemis..."

"'Who is this,' he said, 'Who is the new arrival at the manor? Akhaian? or what else does he claim to be? Where are his family and fields of home? Down on his luck, all right: carries himself like a captain. How the immortal gods can change and drag us down once they begin to spin dark days for us!— Kings and commanders, too.'"

Philioitios asking about the beggar Eumaios is with

"'Would god it all came true! You'd see the fight that's in me!'"

Philiotios after the beggar/Odysseus tells him Odysseus will return

"'My own feelings keep going round and round upon this tether: can I desert the boy by moving, herds and all, to another country, a new life among strangers? Yet it's worse to stay here, in my old post, herding cattle for upstarts.I'd have gone long since, gone, taken service with another king; this shame is no more to be borne; but I keep thinking my own lord, poor devil, still might come and make a rout of suitors in his hall.''"

Philiotios can't decide if he should stay in Ithaka to wait for Odysseus or if he should leave leave to escape the suitors'

What form is Athena in when she visits Odysseus during his sleepless night? What does she ask Odysseu?

She is in the form of a woman and asks Odysseus why he can't sleep "And out of the night sky Athena came to him; out of the nearby dark in body like a woman; came and stood over his head to chide him: 'Why so wakeful, most forlorn of men? Here is your home, there lies your lady; and your son is here, as fine as one could wish a son to be.'"

What does the woman grinding flour do?

She prays to Zues that that day will be the last the suitors stay "'Ah, Father Zeus almighty over gods and men! A great bang of thunder that was, surely, out of the starry sky, and not a cloud in sight. It is your nod to someone. Hear me, then, make what I say come true: let this day be the last the suitors feed so dainty in Odysseus' hall! They've made me work my heart out till I drop, grinding barley. May they feast no more!'"

What does Athena tell Odysseus to pep him up?

She says with her watching over him he could go against 50 bands of men "'Your touching faith! Another man would trust some villainous mortal, with no brains—and what am I? Your goddess-guardian to the end in all your trials. Let it be plain as day: if fifty bands of men surrounded us and every sword sang for your blood, you could make off still with their cows and sheep. Now you, too, go to sleep. This all night vigil wearies the flesh. You'll come out soon enough on the other side of trouble.'"

As the suitors feast before the competition for Penelope, what does Athena want?

She wants Odysseus to be offended more "Now public heralds wound through Ithaka leading a file of beasts for sacrifice, and islanders gathered under the shade trees of Apollo, in the precinct of the Archer—while in hall the suitors roasted mutton and fat beef on skewers, pulling off the fragrant cuts; and those who did the roasting served Odysseus a portion equal to their own, for so Telémakhos commanded. But Athena had no desire now to let the suitors restrain themselves from wounding words and acts. Laërtês' son again must be offended."

"Telémakhos placed his father to advantage just at the door sill of the pillared hall, setting a stool there and a sawed-off table, gave him a share of tripes, poured out his wine in a golden cup, and said: 'Stay here, sit down to drink with our young friends. I stand between you and any cutting word or cuffing hand from any suitor. Here is no public house but the old home of Odysseus, my inheritance. Hold your tongues then, gentlemen, and your blows, and let no wrangling start, no scuffle either.'"

Telemakhos letting the beggar/Odysseus sit next to him inside the hall the day of the competition for Penelope. Telemakhos tells Odysseus he will protect him from the suitors

"'By Zeus Almighty, Ageláos, and by my father's sufferings, far from Ithaka, whether he's dead or lost, I make no impediment to Mother's marriage. 'Take whom you wish,' I say, 'I'll add my dowry.' But can I pack her off against her will from her own home? Heaven forbid!'"

Telemakhos to Agelaus saying he will let his mother marry who she wants, but will not make he leave her home.

"'Before, I was a child. I can endure it while sheep are slaughtered, wine drunk up, and bread— can one man check the greed of a hundred men?— but I will suffer no more viciousness. Granted you mean at last to cut me down: I welcome that—better to die than have humiliation always before my eyes, the stranger buffeted, and the serving women dragged about, abused in a noble house.'"

Telemakhos to the suitors after scolding Ktésippos saying he is older now and will no longer tolerate their behavior

"'O lost sad men, what terror is this you suffer? Night shrouds you to the knees, your heads, your faces; dry retch of death runs round like fire in sticks; your cheeks are streaming; these fair walls and pedestals are dripping crimson blood. And thick with shades is the entry way, the courtyard thick with shades passing athirst toward Érebos, into the dark, the sun is quenched in heaven, foul mist hems us in . . .'"

Telemakhos to the suitors who laugh uncontrollably. He says he sees shades passing and sees them dripping with blood

What is Penelope and Telemakhos doing at the end of the chapter?

Telemakhos waits for his father to attack as Penelope watches "Telémakhos ignored the suitors' talk. He kept his eyes in silence on his father, awaiting the first blow. Meanwhile the daughter of Ikários, Penélopê, had placed her chair to look across and down on father and son at bay; she heard the crowd, and how they laughed as they resumed their dinner, a fragrant feast, for many beasts were slain— but as for supper, men supped never colder than these, on what the goddess and the warrior were even then preparing for the suitors, whose treachery had filled that house with pain"

"He prayed thus, and the mind of Zeus in heaven heard him. He thundered out of bright Olympos down from above the cloudlands, in reply— a rousing peal for Odysseus. Then a token came to him from a woman grinding flour in the court nearby. His own handmills were there, and twelve maids had the job of grinding out whole grain and barley meal, the pith of men. Now all the rest, their bushels ground, were sleeping; one only, frail and slow, kept at it still."

The beggar/Odysseus finishing his prayer to Zues. The last woman awake grinding flour at one of Odysseus' handmills stops

"'Herdsman, I make you out to be no coward and no fool: I can see that for myself. So let me tell you this. I swear by Zeus all highest, by the table set for friends, and by your king's hearthstone to which I've come, Odysseus will return. You'll be on hand to see, if you care to see it, how those who lord it here will be cut down.'"

The beggar/Odysseus telling Philiotios to wait, Odysseus will return

"'Now as the Dawn appeared all stitched in gold, the queen's cry reached Odysseus at his waking, so that he wondered, half asleep: it seemed she knew him, and stood near him! Then he woke and picked his bedding up to stow away on a chair in the mégaron. The oxhide pad he took outdoors.'"

The beggar/Odysseus waking up from Penelope screaming from seeing him in her dream

"The women ran to obey her—twenty girls off to the spring with jars for dusky water, the rest at work inside. Then tall woodcutters entered to split up logs for the hearth fire, the water carriers returned; and on their heels arrived the swineherd, driving three fat pigs, chosen among his pens. In the wide court he let them feed, and said to Odysseus kindly: 'Friend, are they more respectful of you now, or still insulting you?' Replied Odysseus: 'The young men, yes. And may the gods requite those insolent puppies for the game they play in a home not their own. They have no decency.'"

The maids get ready for the company and Eumaios brings three pigs. He asks the beggar/Odysseus about the suitors, who Odysseus say have not changed

What does Athena have the suitors do after Telemakhos tells Agelaus he won't kick Penelope out of her house?

They laugh uncontrollably "At this, Pallas Athena touched off in the suitors a fit of laughter, uncontrollable.She drove them into nightmare, till they wheezed and neighed as though with jaws no longer theirs, while blood defiled their meat, and blurring tears flooded their eyes, heart-sore with woe to come."

Although he says the suitors should respect the beggar/Odysseus, what does Agelaus think should happen?

They should stop waiting for Odysseus and Penelope should marry and go to her new husband's house "'Let me say a word, though, to Telémakhos and to his mother, if it please them both: as long as hope remained in you to see Odysseus, that great gifted man, again, you could not be reproached for obstinacy, tying the suitors down here; better so, if still your father fared the great sea homeward. How plain it is, though, now, he'll come no more! Go sit then by your mother, reason with her, tell her to take the best man, highest bidder, and you can have and hold your patrimony, feed on it, drink it all, while she adorns another's house.'"

What do the suitors do at the feast once the beggar/Odysseus leaves?

They start taunting Telemakhos "The suitors made wide eyes at one another and set to work provoking Telémakhos with jokes about his friends. One said, for instance: "Telémakhos, no man is a luckier host when it comes to what the cat dragged in. What burning eyes your beggar had for bread and wine! But not for labor, not for a single heave—he'd be a deadweight on a field. Then comes this other, with his mumbo-jumbo. Boy, for your own good, I tell you, toss them both into a slave ship for the Sikels. That would pay you.'"

Who passes Odysseus when he tries to sleep?

Women coming from sleeping with the suitors "Now came a covey of women laughing as they slipped out, arm in arm, as many a night before, to the suitors' beds; and anger took him like a wave to leap into their midst and kill them, every one— or should he let them all go hot to bed one final night? His heart cried out within him the way a brach with whelps between her legs would howl and bristle at a stranger—so the hackles of his heart rose at that laughter."

What does everyone do when first entering Odysseus' hall?

sacrifice sheep, goats, and pigs. "A grateful thought, they felt, and walking on entered the great hall of the hero Odysseus, where they all dropped their cloaks on chairs or couches and made a ritual slaughter, knifing sheep, fat goats and pigs, knifing the grass-fed steer. Then tripes were broiled and eaten. Mixing bowls were filled with wine. The swineherd passed out cups, Philoítios, chief cowherd, dealt the loaves into the panniers, Melánthios poured wine, and all their hands went out upon the feast."

"'When I need help, I'll ask for it, Eurymakhos. I have my eyes and ears, a pair of legs, and a straight mind, still with me. These will do to take me out. Damnation and black night I see arriving for yourselves: no shelter, no defense for any in this crowd—fools and vipers in the king's own hall.' With this he left that handsome room and went home to Peiraios, who received him kindly."

the beggar/Odysseus leaving the feast after being told he should by Eurymakhos. He stays with Peiraios