Book XVII · Episode 5 of 6
Antinoüs’s Assault
Antinoüs jeers, strikes Odysseus
Scenes
- Antinoüs Rebukes Eumaeus — Antinoüs scolds Eumaeus over the beggar
- Melanthius says he’s seen him before
- Claims to know nothing of his origins
- Antinoüs accuses him of wasting goods
- Says only useful strangers get invited
- Antinoüs alone treats servants so harshly
- Telemachus Intervenes — Telemachus shames Antinoüs, who mocks him
- Tells Eumaeus not to trade words
- Thanks Antinoüs with biting irony
- Asks him to give the stranger something
- Antinoüs props feet, refuses outright
- Other suitors each give something too
- The Egyptian Tale — Odysseus invents a tale, Antinoüs jeers
- Praises Antinoüs’s kingly bearing first
- Tells of wealth lost to Zeus
- Egypt raid leaves men slain, enslaved
- Sold into a stranger’s keeping
- Says Antinoüs won’t spare even salt
- Struck by a Footstool — Antinoüs hurls footstool, Odysseus curses him
- Warns he won’t leave unpunished
- Strikes him on the right shoulder
- Odysseus stands unmoved, weighs revenge
- Says a cattle blow might be forgiven
- Prays death comes before Antinoüs’s wedding
- Suitors’ Uneasy Rebuke — Suitors warn gods may walk as strangers
- Antinoüs is the son of Eupeithes
- Threatens to drag him out, flayed
- His harshness angers other suitors
- One young man calls it wrong
- Warns gods may judge deeds in disguise