Book 19

Penelope and Her Guest

Summary/ quotes/themes

Book 19 begins with Odysseus and Athena discussing the plot to kill the suitors.
They are going to grab all the weapons and armor and store them away. Odysseus
tells his son that if anybody asks where there weapons are tell them that you put
them away so that when they are drinking and a fight breaks out they will have
nothing to harm themselves with.

Telemachus does this at once and does not let his old nurse, Eurycleia get in his
way. He stores away all the weapons so the suitors will not be able to harm them.
Gathering the weapons and not letting anyone get in his way, he shows that he has
grown up and is becoming a man.

When walking down the hall Telemachus notices that “all sides of the hall, the
handsome crossbeams, pinewood rafters, the tall columns towering all grow in my
eyes like flaming fire!” (39-41) This reveals that the gods are with them, specifically
Athena.

Telemachus goes to bed while Odysseus stays up to talk to his wife, Penelope that
does not recognize him still because he is dressed as a beggar.

When Penelope is walking down the stairs to meet her guest (Odysseus) she looked
“like Artemis or golden Aphrodite” (57). This means that she is looking good
because those gods are very pretty. Aphrodite is golden because Paris said that she
was the fairest goddess and that she should get the golden apple.

The lady maid Melantho lashed out at Odysseus because she thought he was
leering at woman. Odysseus and Penelope tell her up and shut her up quickly.

Odysseus says that Telemachus comes of age at last, which means he is finally
becoming a man.

Odysseus and Penelope begin talking. He is able so talk his way into concealing his
identity which shows his wits. Penelope begins with a story of how she fooled all the
suitors for three years by telling them that she is going to weave a web and when
she gets done she will marry a suitor. Her plan was never to finish, but the suitors
eventually catch on after three years which shows her wit. Penelope asks who she
thinks is a poor person how he knows her husband. Odysseus tells her that
Odysseus has had a hard journey to get home from Troy but he is still alive and
should be arriving on Ithaca soon.

After they get done talking Penelope offers him a bed to sleep in but he refuses
because he is so used to sleeping on the floor that he would rather do that, but he
does allow Eurycleia to wash his feet. When she is washing his feet she notices a
scar that only Odysseus from a boar hunting accident has which she know this
beggar is Odysseus. She is overcome with so much happiness that she jumps to him
to give him a hug. Odysseus grabs her while Athena distracts Penelope because he
does not want her to give away his cover.

Penelope before she goes to bed she tell Odysseus who she thinks is a beggar still
that she has been having a dream that an eagle flies down and kills 20 of her geese
and says, “I am your husband, back again at last”(620). Odysseus explains to her
that the dream means that her husband is coming and when he gets home finally,
he will kill all the suitors. Penelope after he tells her this says that she is going to
pick a husband “that can string the bow with greatest ease, that shoots an arrow
clean through all twelve axes” (649-650).