The Odyssey summaries: Books 14-17
14: Hospitality in the Forest. Odysseus heads up to the swineherd Eumaios’ hut. The narrator uses a special reference when speaking of Eumaios: “oh my swineherd,” to emphasize his noble qualities. He is loyal, hardworking, cares for Odysseus’ estate. Odysseus’ wealth is to a large extent measured in his herds.
Eumaios saves Odysseus from the dogs who guard the herd. He praises his long gone master, is courteous and invites the wanderer in. Eumaios tells how the suitors are disrespectful of the gods and deplete Odysseus’ wealth. Odysseus tells a story, lying about who he is, but in his story says that Odysseus will return. The swineherd doesn’t believe him. There are many plot twists in Odysseus’ long digression—some of the details are similar to what really happened. (253-258)
The beggar says: kill me if Odysseus doesn’t arrive, and if he does, give me a new outfit and safe passage. Eumaios then feeds Odysseus. Odysseus tests Eumaios to see if Eumaios will lend him his cloak for the night. Eumaios proves kind, humble. At chapter’s end he beds down with the pigs and gives Odysseus his cloak for warmth.
15: How they came to Ithaka. Back to Telemakhos’ returning from his journey (he’s still in Sparta) to Ithaka. Athena comes to him while he’s lying awake and tells him to head back home, and she instructs him how to land and avoid the suitors who lie in wait to murder him. She instructs him to go directly to the swineherd’s hut.
Menelaos and Helen give Telemakhos gifts, and just before he leaves the gods send an omen—a bird sign – a wild eagle has a goose in its talons.
Read: 272-273, including Helen’s interpretation of the sign. (Just as eagle takes tame house bird for prey, Odysseus will take those men in his house.)
Just before leaving Telemakhos picks up a stranger who needs passage on a ship. This stranger is a seer; he tells a long story about his background—the point of which is that he has divining powers. Telemakhos is hospitable and gives him a ride.
Scene shift—back to Ithaka where Odysseus tests Eumaios again to see if the swineherd will let him stay longer at the hut or send him off to do chores at the palace. Eumaios says the palace is dangerous because the suitors are bad, and he invites the beggar to stay with him until Telemakhos returns. The beggar (Odysseus) asks about Odysseus’ parents, and Eumaios tells him about the state Laertes is in and that Antikleia died. Then Eumaios tells a long story about his own childhood. (279-283).
Scene change—Just as Telemakhos is about to land on Ithaka, there is another bird sign, a hawk clutching a dove. The stranger on the ship reads the sign and says Odysseus’ family will remain in power.
Double-signs (like double dreams in the old testament) mean the thing that is supposed to happen, WILL happen.
16: Father and Son: Telemakhos comes to Eumaios’ hut. He greets the beggar warmly and asks Eumaios about him. Telemakhos offers to clothe the beggar for the winter but not to send him to the palace to beg as the suitors are too dangerous. He then sends Eumaios to tell Penelope and Laertes that he is back. Athena appears then to Odysseus and gives him a sign that he should now reveal himself to Telemakhos. She makes him look no longer like a beggar but lithe and young.
READ: the reunion scene: 295-296
the count of the suitors, 297
and the instructions Odysseus gives Telemakhos: 298-299
Meanwhile the suitors learn that Telemakhos made it back safely—they had meant to board his ship and kill him. Now they plot murder again. Penelope hears about it from Medon, the Crier (herald), and she verbally attacks Antinoos—Eurymakhos steps up and protests that no such murder plot exists. He blatantly lies to the woman he is trying to court.
17: The Beggar at the Manor. Telemakhos leaves Eumaios’ hut for home. Eurykleia sees him first, then Penelope—both weep with happiness. He tells Penelope he must go fetch the guest who was on the ship with him. He brings Theoklymenos, the diviner, back to the palace, and they sit down to eat with Penelope. Telemakhos tells her of his journey—whom he saw and Menelaos’ story about what Proteus said—that Odysseus is alive but held captive on Kalypso’s island. Penelope seems distressed, but immediately Telemakhos’ guest, the diviner Theoklymenos, prophecizes that Odysseus is already present on the island and will bring black doom to the suitors. Telemakhos doesn’t reveal that he has seen Odysseus with his own eyes.
Meanwhile, Odysseus and Eumaios, the swineherd, head into town and are stopped on route by Melanthios, the goatherd who is a suitor “wanna be.” This Melanthios ridicules Eumaios and rudely insults the disguised Odysseus, actually kicking him. (317). The two men continue and as they approach the palace, Odysseus old dog hears his master’s voice.
Read: 319-321 about Argos, the dog
Odysseus enters his palace and is told by Telemakhos to beg among the suitors. Athena also appears to Odysseus (invisible to everyone else) and bids him to circulate and learn which of the suitors are decent, but also stipulating that ALL of the suitors must be killed. The suitors reluctantly give Odysseus food; Antinoos is especially rude to him and throws a stool at Odysseus, an act that even disgusts his fellow suitors. (326-327). Penelope hears of the suitors’ cruelty and asks to have the beggar brought to her so she can question him about news of Odysseus.