Book XXII · Episode 3 of 5
Athena Turns the Tide
Athena tests Odysseus, routs suitors
Scenes
- Mentor’s Disguise — Athena arrives as Mentor, Agelaus threatens
- Four stand together against the crowded hall
- Odysseus believes Athena is his old friend
- Calls on Mentor for aid
- Agelaus warns Mentor he too will die
- Warns his house and wealth will fall
- Athena Tests Odysseus — Athena rebukes Odysseus, deflects spear
- Chides him for showing less valor
- Promises to stand by him
- Means to test him and Telemachus further
- Settles on the roof beam, a swallow
- Six suitors’ spears strike pillar, door, wall
- Volleys Exchanged — Eight suitors fall, Ctesippus among them
- Odysseus fells Demoptolemus in the first cast
- Telemachus cuts down Euryades in the volley
- A second volley only grazes two defenders
- Third cast drops Eurydamas and Amphimedon
- Philoetius taunts Ctesippus as he falls
- Rout Begins — Philoetius mocks Ctesippus, Athena routs
- Recalls the ox-hoof once hurled at Odysseus
- Odysseus cuts down Agelaus hand to hand
- Telemachus’ lance fells Leiocritus face-first
- Suitors scatter like cattle stung by gadflies
- Four hunt them like falcons among birds