Book I · Episode 3 of 3
Telemachus Defies the Suitors
Telemachus silences mother, warns suitors
Scenes
- Penelope silences the bard — Penelope asks Phemius for different song
- Athena departs skyward like a bird
- Telemachus filled with new courage
- Phemius sings of Greeks’ disastrous return
- Suitors listen to the song in silence
- Penelope descends veiled with two maidens
- Telemachus asserts authority — Telemachus claims song, dismisses mother
- Zeus alone inspires what poets sing
- Many Greeks failed to return from Troy
- Bids her tend the loom and spindle
- Astonished, Penelope retires to weep upstairs
- Athena grants her the mercy of sleep
- Telemachus warns the suitors — Telemachus warns of vengeance, Antinoüs mocks
- Feast may continue peaceably, not riotously
- Council called for the following morning
- Antinoüs hopes Zeus never makes him king
- Telemachus says he’d gladly accept kingship
- He’ll be master of his own house
- Night falls on the hall — Eurymachus asks, Telemachus names Mentes
- Telemachus no longer hopes father will return
- He secretly knows he entertained a goddess
- Suitors dance and sing until evening
- Eurycleia nursed Telemachus since infancy
- Lies awake pondering the voyage