The OdysseyBooks 18-24 Summaries

By Erin Salona

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Book Twenty-One

• Nobody can work Odysseus’s bow.

• Odysseus asks the cowherd Philoetius and the swineherd Eumaeus to help him

• Odysseus tells them that they were the only men who missed him

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Book TWENTY-TWODeath at the Palace

• The goatheard Melanthius who 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!

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

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

Book TWENTY-THREEThe Marriage Bed

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.

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.

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

Book Twenty-Four

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

The End