Book XX · Episode 2 of 5
Omens and morning stir
Thunder and a curse answer Odysseus’s prayer
Scenes
- Thunder and the mill-woman’s word — Zeus thunders, a woman curses suitors
- Thunder cracks from a cloudless sky
- Odysseus hears the peal with joy
- Weakest of twelve women at the quern
- Marvels thunder comes without a cloud
- Prays this feast be their last
- Telemachus questions Eurycleia — Telemachus asks Eurycleia of the stranger
- Odysseus feels vengeance now assured
- Maids wake and light the hearth
- Telemachus arms with sword and spear
- Guest ate and drank his fill
- Refused a proper bed for the porch
- Household prepares the hall — Eurycleia cleans hall, Eumaeus greets him
- Telemachus departs with dogs at heel
- Maids sweep floors, drape purple cloths
- Twenty women fetch water at the well
- Eumaeus drives in three fat swine
- Odysseus wishes the gods punish plotters
- Melanthius’s insult — Melanthius mocks Odysseus as shameless beggar
- Drives choice goats for the feast
- Ties the goats in the portico
- Threatens Odysseus with his fist
- Says other feasts await the Greeks
- Odysseus shakes his head, stays silent