Book XVII · Episode 3 of 6
Journey to Town
Melanthius taunts Odysseus nearing town
Scenes
- Suitors Called to Supper — Medon calls suitors to feast
- Suitors hurl quoits and spears outside
- They lay cloaks on the benches
- Slaughter sheep, goats, boar, and ox
- Odysseus and Eumaeus set out for town
- Eumaeus speaks first as they walk
- On the Road — Eumaeus, Odysseus set out, meet Melanthius
- Eumaeus fears his master’s anger
- Odysseus asks for a walking staff
- Road grows slippery in evening chill
- Slings on his old, cracked scrip
- Pass spring marked with Nymphs’ altar
- Melanthius’s Insults — Melanthius kicks beggar, Eumaeus prays
- Melanthius drives goats to the feast
- Jeers that like consorts with like
- Odysseus curbs fury, stays on path
- Eumaeus prays to Nymphs for his return
- Wishes Telemachus dead by Apollo’s hand
- Approaching the Hall — Odysseus marvels at palace, plans entry
- Melanthius sits favored beside Eurymachus
- They hear Phemius’s lyre from within
- Marvels at the rooms, walls, battlements
- Eumaeus warns someone might strike him
- Odysseus says he’s used to blows