Mortal · Character in Homer’s Odyssey

Eurycleia

The nurse who knows the scar

Devoted, sharp-eyed, close-mouthed; names the guilty without flinching.

She nursed Odysseus as an infant and Telemachus after him, and she is the first person in Ithaca to recognize the beggar — by the old boar-scar on his thigh, while washing his feet. She keeps the secret, and later names the twelve maids who went over to the suitors.

Bonds

• Eurycleia nurse of Odysseus — cared for him from infancy
• Eurycleia aids Odysseus — keeps the scar a secret
• Eurycleia nurse of Telemachus — helped him slip away by night

Appears in

• Book I Visit of Athena to Telemachus
• Book II Departure of Telemachus from Ithaca
• Book IV Conference of Telemachus and Menelaus
• Book XVII Return of Odysseus to His Palace
• Book XIX Odysseus Recognized by Eurycleia
• Book XX The Last Banquet of the Suitors
• Book XXII Death of the Suitors
• Book XXIII Odysseus and Penelope After the Slaughter

Scenes

1. Night falls on the hall — Book I. Eurymachus asks, Telemachus names Mentes
2. Provisions from Eurycleia — Book II. Telemachus secretly asks Eurycleia to pack
3. Lament and Comfort — Book IV. Eurycleia confesses helping Telemachus
4. Reunion with Penelope — Book XVII. Telemachus defers Penelope’s questions
5. Nurse and Torchlight — Book XIX. Telemachus dismisses maids for the night
6. Ordering the Bath — Book XIX. Penelope orders a bath, he wants an elder
7. Eurycleia’s Sorrow — Book XIX. Eurycleia mourns her master, washes his feet
8. The Scar’s Origin — Book XIX. Eurycleia recalls a boar gashing his leg
9. The Old Nurse Knows — Book XIX. Eurycleia finds the scar, drops the basin
10. A Sworn Silence — Book XIX. Odysseus grips throat, binds her to secrecy
11. Penelope’s Nightly Grief — Book XIX. Penelope likens herself to a nightingale
12. Telemachus questions Eurycleia — Book XX. Telemachus asks Eurycleia of the stranger
13. Household prepares the hall — Book XX. Eurycleia cleans hall, Eumaeus greets him
14. The Bow Passed Amid Taunts — Book XXI. Suitors jeer as Eumaeus delivers bow
15. The Doors Are Secured — Book XXI. Doors secured, Odysseus checks bow
16. Survey and Summons — Book XXII. Odysseus surveys dead, summons Eurycleia
17. Naming the Guilty — Book XXII. Eurycleia names twelve disloyal maids
18. Joyful Reunion — Book XXII. Odysseus purges hall, weeps for joy
19. Eurycleia Wakes Penelope — Book XXIII. Eurycleia announces deaths, Penelope scoffs
20. How Were They Slain? — Book XXIII. Penelope doubts, Eurycleia describes scene
21. Scar as Proof — Book XXIII. Eurycleia recalls scar, Penelope agrees
22. Odysseus Transformed — Book XXIII. Odysseus made radiant, bed ordered moved
23. The Bed’s Secret — Book XXIII. Odysseus describes the rooted olive bed
24. Night of Shared Tales — Book XXIII. Penelope, Odysseus share their tales

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