The Odyssey

1. The Odyssey Books 18-24 Summaries By Erin Salona

2. Book 18 • Iros, a real beggar, orders Odysseus to leave the hall • Iros challenges Odysseus to a fight • Athena secretly helps Odysseus look bigger and scare Iros • The suitors are impressed and offer Odysseus, the beggar, food • Odysseus, the beggar, warns them Odysseus will return soon • Melantho, the disloyal maid, insults Odysseus

3. Book NINETEENPenelope, the Beggar, and the Nurse • Odysseus and Telemachus discuss their strategy to kill the suitors • Odysseus wants to test the loyalty of Penelope and her maids • The maids have not been loyal and have been helping the suitors

4. Book 19 • Odysseus, the beggar, and Penelope sit and talk, and she tells him of her problems: how she misses her husband and how she doesn’t want to remarry • Odysseus, the beggar, tells a story about his identity and how he met Odysseus and he praises him

5. Book NINETEENPenelope, the Beggar, and the Nurse • Penelope cries upon hearing about her husband • Odysseus decides that Penelope passed the loyalty test • Odysseus, the beggar, tells her that Odysseus is sailing home • Penelope is hopeful and asks Eurycleia to wash his feet

6. Book NINETEENPenelope, the Beggar, and the Nurse • Eurycleia tells Odysseus, the beggar, that he is a lot like Odysseus • Then Eurycleia sees the scar on his leg from a boar’s tusk injury on Mt. Parnassus. • Eurycleia recognizes Odysseus. • Odysseus swears Eurycleia to secrecy

7. Book Twenty • Odysseus imagines killing the suitors as he tries to sleep • The suitors are sleeping with maids in his home • Athena assures Odysseus he will defeat the suitors; she will protect him

8. Book Twenty • Penelope is so miserable she asks the goddess Artemis to make her die • Odysseus hears Penelope crying and he prays to Zeus to give her a sign that he is home • Zeus sends thunder • The suitors still plot to kill Telemachus

9. Book Twenty • The suitors continue to abuse Odysseus, the beggar • Telemachus threatens them for bothering the beggar • The suitors insist Penelope choose a suitor to marry • Telemachus says he will not force his mother to marry • Blood from animals they eat streams from their mouths– an omen of death

10. Book Twenty-ONEThe Test of the Great Bow • Penelope tells the suitors that she will marry the one who can bend, string, and shoot Odysseus’s special hunting bow through 12 ax handles. • This contest takes place on a festival day for Apollo, the god of archery

11. Book Twenty-One • Nobody can work Odysseus’sbow. • Odysseus asks the cowherd Philoetiusand the swineherd Eumaeus to help him • Odysseus tells them that they were the only men who missed him

12. Book Twenty-ONEThe Test of the Great Bow • Odysseus will give the cowherd and swineherd wives, cattle, and homes if they help him kill the suitors • Odysseus shows them his scar to prove himself • Odysseus tells them to lock himself and all the suitors in the room when he picks up the bow • Penelope allows Odysseus, the beggar, to test the bow

13. Book Twenty-ONEThe Test of the Great Bow • Telemachus has removed the suitors’ weapons from the hall • Odysseus, the beggar, strings the bow and shoots it through the axe holes • Telemachus straps on his armor • The fighting with the suitors begins in the next book.

14. Book TWENTY-TWODeath at the Palace • *This is the climax. • Odysseus takes off his beggar rags. • Odysseus must fight more than 100 suitors • He attacks Antinous, the meanest, first, and shoots an arrow into his neck.

15. Book TWENTY-TWODeath at the Palace • The suitors run around, looking for their weapons and cursing Odysseus. • Odysseus accuses the suitors of such things as: “using” his maids and trying to marry his wife • The suitors, of course, don’t believe he is Odysseus • Eurymachus blames the suitors’ actions on Antinous’ commands

16. Book TWENTY-TWODeath at the Palace • Eurymachus tells Odysseus that he and the suitors will give him gifts if he lets them go • Odysseus replies, “There will be killing till the score is paid.” • Telemachus, Eumaeus, and Philoetius help Odysseus kill the suitors • Athena’s shield comes to life, and she, disguised as Mentor, helps kill the suitors • All suitors are killed by the end of the battle.

17. Book TWENTY-TWODeath at the Palace • The goatheardMelanthiuswho has insulted Odysseus, tries to bring the suitors’ weapons to the hall. Eumaeus & Philoetius string him up alive. • Odysseus rounds up the disloyal maids, forces them to clean up the mess of dead bodies, and then Telemachus hangs them • One suitor is even killed & fed to the dogs!

18. Book TWENTY-THREEOdysseus and Penelope • Eurycleia announces Odysseus’s return to Penelope. • Penelope suspects a trick from the gods and decides to test Odysseus • Telemachus chides her for doubting Odysseus’s identity • She tells Telemachus that she and Odysseus share secret signs • Odysseus tells Telemachus & the servants to stage a fake wedding feast so that nobody suspects the massacre

19. Book TWENTY-THREEOdysseus and Penelope • Odysseus is made handsome by Athena • Odysseus tells Eurycleia to prepare a couch for him to sleep upon • Penelope tells the nurse to carry their marriage bed out for him to sleep on—words meant to test her husband • Odysseus becomes upset because the bed was built around an olive tree that serves as a bedpost– it can’t be moved unless another man had sawed the post from the trunk

20. Book TWENTY-THREEThe Marriage Bed

21. Book TWENTY-THREEOdysseus and Penelope • Odysseus passes Penelope’s test and they embrace. • Athena delays the sunrise so the couple can spend more time together • Odysseus plans to travel to his father Laertes’ house and to seek revenge upon the suitors’ families.

22. Book TWENTY-FOUROdysseus and His Father • The ghosts of the suitors drift to the Underworld with Hermes’ help. • Odysseus goes to see his elderly father Laertes, but pretends to be a traveler who entertained Odysseus 5 years ago. • When Laertes begins to cry, Odysseus reveals himself, knowing his father is loyal • He proves his identity by showing his leg scar & discussing childhood memories.

23. Book TWENTY-FOUROdysseus and His Father • Odysseus, Telemacus, Laertes, and other loyal men eat together. • Athena makes Laertes look younger. • A battle erupts between the suitors’ families and the Ithacans; the families are furious due to the loss of the suitors • Laertes kills Antinous’ father Eupithes

24. Book Twenty-Four • Athena, under Zeus’ command, makes Odysseus call off the battle, and everyone lived happily ever after.

25. The End