Book XIV · Episode 2 of 5
Guarded Hopes
Eumaeus doubts tales, fears for Telemachus
Scenes
- Wary of Wanderers — Eumaeus trusts no beggar’s tale
- Odysseus presses for the missing king’s name
- Wandering strangers invent tales for a cloak
- His mistress weeps at every false story
- He believes his master’s bones lie scattered
- Eumaeus mourns him like an elder brother
- An Oath and a Story — Odysseus swears return, Eumaeus won’t wager
- Odysseus swears by Zeus and the hearth
- He vows to punish his wife’s suitors
- Eumaeus begs him to drop the subject
- He longs for Penelope, Laertes, Telemachus
- Eumaeus asks how he reached Ithaca