People · Character in Homer’s Odyssey

The Suitors

Wooers eating the house bare

Idle, ravenous, deaf to every omen; brave only in a crowd.

Young lords from Ithaca and the islands round it, camped in Odysseus' hall for years, slaughtering his herds and pressing Penelope to choose one of them. They also plot to murder Telemachus on his way home; in Book XXII they are shot and speared to the last man.

Bonds

• The Suitors dwell in Ithaca — camped in the hall they eat
• Melanthius aids The Suitors — smuggles them arms and armour
• The Suitors suitors of Penelope — devour his wealth courting her
• Penelope deceives The Suitors — the shroud unwoven each night
• The Suitors enemies of Telemachus — conspire to kill him
• Telemachus defies The Suitors — rebukes their unruly uproar
• Odysseus slays The Suitors — cuts them down in his own hall
• The Suitors dwell in Hades — join the shades in the asphodel
• Irus servant of The Suitors — runs their errands for scraps
• Theoclymenus warns The Suitors — sees them shrouded in night
• Halitherses warns The Suitors — reads the eagles over the assembly
• Dulichium home of The Suitors — fifty-two of the wooers
• Samos home of The Suitors — twenty-four more of them

Appears in

• Book II Departure of Telemachus from Ithaca
• Book XIII Arrival of Odysseus at Ithaca
• Book XIV Meeting of Odysseus and Eumaeus
• Book XV Return of Telemachus
• Book XVI Odysseus Discovering Himself to Telemachus
• Book XVII Return of Odysseus to His Palace
• Book XVIII Combat of Odysseus and Irus
• Book XXI The Bending of the Bow of Odysseus
• Book XXII Death of the Suitors
• Book XXIV Conclusion

Scenes

1. Telemachus’s Grievance — Book II. Telemachus denounces suitors wasting estate
2. Mentor’s Rebuke — Book II. Mentor rebukes Ithacans, Leiocritus ends it
3. Suitors’ Taunts — Book II. Suitors taunt Telemachus, hope he drowns
4. Suitors Learn of the Voyage — Book IV. Noemon’s question reveals Telemachus sailed
5. Suitors Set Sail — Book IV. Antinoüs silences suitors, ship departs
6. Plot Against the Suitors — Book XIII. Athena details siege, disguises Odysseus
7. Suitors’ Foiled Ambush — Book XVI. Suitors pause, Amphinomus spots the ship
8. Antinoüs Urges Murder — Book XVI. Antinoüs demands death, Amphinomus dissents
9. Feast and a Warning — Book XVIII. Antinoüs feasts Odysseus, who warns of blood
10. Gifts for the Queen — Book XVIII. Suitors send gifts to Penelope
11. Telemachus Ends the Uproar — Book XVIII. Telemachus rebukes suitors, all retire
12. Eagle omen, feast begins — Book XX. Eagle omen, Amphinomus halts the plot
13. Ctesippus’s insult — Book XX. Ctesippus flings foot, Odysseus dodges it
14. Telemachus rebukes Ctesippus — Book XX. Telemachus warns he’d have speared Ctesippus
15. Agelaus urges remarriage — Book XX. Agelaus urges remarriage, Telemachus assents
16. Leiodes Fails and Warns — Book XXI. Leiodes warns of deaths, Antinoüs rebukes
17. Eurymachus Slain — Book XXII. Eurymachus dies, Telemachus kills Amphinomus
18. Melanthius Rearms Suitors — Book XXII. Melanthius smuggles arms to suitors
19. Mentor’s Disguise — Book XXII. Athena arrives as Mentor, Agelaus threatens
20. Athena Tests Odysseus — Book XXII. Athena rebukes Odysseus, deflects spear
21. Volleys Exchanged — Book XXII. Eight suitors fall, Ctesippus among them
22. Rout Begins — Book XXII. Philoetius mocks Ctesippus, Athena routs
23. Leiodes Denied — Book XXII. Leiodes begs, Odysseus beheads him
24. Amphimedon’s Tale — Book XXIV. Amphimedon tells slaughter, Penelope praised

The Suitors is named in 66 of the poem’s scenes; these are the twenty-four that carry the most of the name.

See the map of bonds · All characters