Book XV · Episode 3 of 4
Eumaeus’s Own Story
Odysseus tests Eumaeus, hears his past
Scenes
- Odysseus Tests Eumaeus — Odysseus proposes begging, Eumaeus refuses
- Offers to beg from door to door
- Proposes serving the suitors for scraps
- Eumaeus warns their household is insolent
- Advises waiting for proper clothing first
- Odysseus asks about his aged parents
- News of Laertes — Laertes grieves, Anticleia dead
- Laertes prays only for death now
- Anticleia died of sorrow before her time
- Eumaeus grew up alongside Ctimene
- Penelope no longer speaks with him
- Odysseus presses him about his childhood
- Isle of Syria — Eumaeus recounts royal birth on Syria
- Syria is rich in flocks and grain
- His father, Ctesias, rules the island
- Sailors seduce a bondwoman in the house
- She was born in Sidon to Arybas
- Taphian pirates seized and sold her
- Sold to Laertes — Plot succeeds, Laertes buys Eumaeus
- She agrees to flee with stolen goblets
- Promises Eumaeus will fetch a fine price
- A gold necklace signals the crew’s readiness
- Artemis strikes the woman dead at sea
- Eumaeus is left alone until Ithaca