The Odyssey final test

Eumaeus

Eumaeus

swineherd of Odysseus who faithfully raises his pigs in his absence

Eurymachus

Son of Polybus; a leading suitor and Ithacan; 2nd suitor to die; mocks Odysseus

Eurynome

Elderly head waiting woman who was faithful to Penelope

Elpenor

youth among Odysseus’ remaining crew who is not remarkable for his sense of courage

Penelope

cunning and loyal wife of Odysseus

Philoetius

stockman of odysseus in charge of the cattle and goats

Phemius

son of Terpes; the reluctant musician for the suitors

Phoenicians

famous sailors and traders who Odysseus claimed had helped him

Amphinomus

most agreeable suitor to Penelope because he was “ a man of good natural disposition”

Antinous

Ithacan leader of the suitors and 1st to die; the suitor Penelope hates the most

Anticlea

Odysseus’ dead mother who seems to have killed herself

Euryclea

Odysseus’ childhood nurse who still serves in his house

Dolius

father of Melantho and Melanthius; had six other sons who were also servants of Odysseus

Irus

nickname of Ithaca’s common tramp Arnaeus; a glutton and drunkard

Laertes

father of Odysseus; former king of Ithaca

Melanthius

goatherd and son of Dolius, the servant Penelope’s father gave her

Hermes

the messenger god; also a patron of the herdsmen

Melantho

Penelope’s maid, raised by Penelope; Eurymachus’ girlfriend

Sirens

singers in a field of flowers whose song enchants men, drawing them to the field where they rot away listening

Medon

Loyal servant of Penelope; herald in Odysseus’ hosue; suitors favorite servant

Circe

Goddess who lived on Aeaea; daughter of Hyperion, the sun god

Theoclymenus

seer and descendant of Melampus; mocked by suitors when he had a vision of their destruction

Cstessipus

a course and wealthy suitor from same who insults the “beggar” by throwing a heifers foot at him

Telemachus

Only son of Odysseus

“Good heavens… what a day I am enjoying: I do indeed rejoice at it. My son and grandson are vying with one another in the matter of valour”

Laertes to himself or to O and Telemachus

“My dear … heaven has endowed you with a heart more unyielding than woman ever yet had. No other woman could bear to keep away from her husband when he had come back to her after twenty years of absence, and after having gone through so much. But come, nurse, get a bed ready for me; I will sleep alone, for this woman has a heart as hard as iron” (337).

Odysseus to Penelope

“Dogs, did you think that I should not come back from Troy? You have wasted my substance, have forced my womenservants to lie with you, and have wooed my wife while I was still living. YOu have feared neither God nor man, and now you shall die” (320).

Odysseus to the suitors

“Cease shooting for the present and leave the matter to the gods, but in the morning let heaven give victory to whom it will. For the moment, however, give me the bow that I may prove the power of my hands among you all, and see whether I still have as much strength as I used to have, or whether travel and neglect have made an end of it” (314-315).

O as beggar to the suitors

“Unhappy men, what is it that ails you? There is a shroud of darkness drawn over you from head to foot, your cheeks are wet with tears; the air is alive with wailing voices; the walls and roof-beams drip blood; the gate of the cloisters and the court beyond them are full of ghosts trooping down into the night of hell; the sun is blotted out of heaven, and a blighting gloom is over all the land” (305).

Theoclymenus to the suitors

“‘Sweethearts, Odysseus is indeed dead, still, do not press me to marry again immediately. Wait—for I would not have my skill in needlework perish unrecorded—till I have finished making a pall for the hero ___________, to be ready against the time when death shall take him. He is very rich, and the women of the place will talk if he is laid out without a pall.’ This was what I said, and they assented; whereon I used to keep working at my great web all day long, but at night I would unpick the stitches again by torch light. I fooled them in this way for three years without their finding it out, but as time wore on and I was now in my fourth year, in the waning of moons, and many days had been accomplished, those good- for-nothing hussies my maids betrayed me to the suitors, who broke in upon me and caught me; they were very angry with me, so I was forced to finish my work whether I would or no” (281).

Penelope to Odysseus as beggar (Laertes)

“Man is the vainest of all creatures that have their being upon earth. As long as heaven vouchsafes him health and strength, he thinks that he shall come to no harm hereafter, and even when the blessed gods bring sorrow upon him, he bears it as he needs must, and makes the best of it; for God almighty gives men their daily minds day by day. I know all about it, for I was a rich man once, and did much wrong in the stubbornness of my pride, and in the confidence that my father and my brothers would support me. Therefore let a man fear God in all things, always, and take the good heaven may see fit to send him without vainglory. Consider the infamy of what these suitors are doing. See how they are wasting the estate, and doing dishonor to the wife, of one who is certain to return some day, and that, too, not long hence. Nay, he will be here soon. May heaven send you home quietly first that you may not meet with him in the day of his coming, for once he is here the suitors and he will not part bloodlessly” (269). 

Odysseus as beggar to Amphinomus

“So you are come, _____________________ , light of my eyes that you are. When I heard you had gone to Pylos I made sure I was never going to see you any more. Come in, my dear child, and sit down, that I may have a good look at you now you are home again. It is not very often you come into the country to see us herdsmen; you stick pretty close to the town generally. I suppose you think it better to keep an eye on what the suitors are doing.”

Eumaeus to Telemachus (telemachus)

““___________, if you insist on going I will not detain you. I do not like to see a host either too fond of his guest or too rude to him. Moderation is best in all things, and not letting a man go when he wants to do so is as bad as telling him to go if he would like to stay. One should treat a guest well as long as he is in the house and speed him when he wants to leave it” (218).

Menelaus to Telemachus (Telemachus)

“Poor unhappy stranger, I have found the story of your misfortunes extremely interesting, but that part about Odysseus is not right; and you will never get me to believe it. Why should a man like you go about telling lies in this way? I know all about the return of my master. The gods, one and all of them, detest him, or they would have taken him before Troy, or let him die with friends around him when the days of his fighting were done; for then the Achaeans would have built a mound over his ashes and his son would have been heir to his renown, but now the storm winds have spirited him away we know not whither.”

Eumaeus to Odysseus as beggar

“‘He must be indeed a shifty lying fellow […] who could surpass you in all manner of craft even though you had a god for your antagonist. Dare devil that you are, full of guile, unwearying in deceit, can you not drop your tricks and your instinctive falsehood, even now that you are in your own country again? We will say no more, however, about this, for we can both of us deceive upon occasion—you are the most accomplished counsellor and orator among all mankind, while I for diplomacy and subtlety have no equal among the gods’” (197).

Athena to Odysseus

“‘Come here,’ they sang, ‘renowned Odysseus, honour to the Achaean name, and listen to our two voices. No one ever sailed past us without staying to hear the enchanting sweetness of our song—and he who listens will go on his way not only charmed, but wiser, for we know all the ills that the gods laid upon the Argives and Trojans before Troy, and can tell you everything that is going to happen over the whole world’” (180).

Sirens to Odysseus

“Your wife still remains in your house, but she is in great distress… as he grows older” (162).

Anticlea to Odysseus

Events of the Odyssey

1-Cicones

2-Lotus eaters

3- Cyclopes

4- Aeolus

5- Almost Ithaca

6- Laestragonians

7- Circe

8- Hades

9- Circe again

10- Sirens

11- Scylla and Charybdis

12- Hyperion

13- Calypso

14- Phoenicians

15- Ithaca