Reading The Odyssey (continued)

By this time, the king and queen completely regret asking Odysseus about his journey and quickly pack him a ship and provisions in the hopes that he will never tell his story again.

Useful vocabulary in a conversation about the journey of Odysseus:

• Circuitous - Indirect
• Inept - Incompetent; useless
• Fickle - Unpredictable; easily swayed
• Solicit - To ask for, seek
• Vagrant- Beggar; person wandering without shelter

Finally, Odysseus reaches his home island of Ithaca, but rather than going directly to the castle, he stops at the hut of Eumaeus. Once again disguised by Athena, (who must really appreciate the element of surprise) Odysseus pretends to be a beggar and seeks shelter.

Athena guides Telemachus to Eumaeus’s hut and removes the beggar’s disguise so that Telemachus can see his father in all of his heroic splendor. They exchange hugs and immediately begin plotting the demise of the suitors. Odysseus will enter the castle in the disguise of a beggar. Once he is there, he and Telemachus will wait for the right moment to begin the bloodshed.

Odysseus returns to his own castle, and the suitors are obnoxiously rude to him. Odysseus enjoys the thought of killing them all for their disrespect. Telemachus erupts in anger at the suitors for being so rude to his, err - uh, guest. Penelope looks suspiciously at the beggar her son has defended. Later that night, as the suitors enjoy the sleep of drunken idiots, Odysseus and Telemachus remove all of their weapons and seal them away. The suitors will be completely at their mercy - excellent.

The next day, Penelope finally proposes a solution to the suitors - the man who can string the great bow of Odysseus and shoot an arrow through twelve axes will become her next husband and take over as King of Ithaca. This, incidentally, is a feat that only Odysseus has ever been able to complete. Think Penelope has a little something up her sleeve?

Each suitor takes his turn and each one fails. W all the men are exhausted, the beggar steps up to take his shot. The suitors, looking forward to making fun of his failure and healing their own injured egos, happily urge him to try. But the beggar, our own Odysseus, steps up confidently, strings the bow easily and shoots through all twelve axes.