David Crigler’s Reviews > The Odyssey > Status Update

Hermes guides the slain suitors' souls to Hades where they recount the massacre. Odysseus reunites with his grieving father, Laertes, proving his identity with his childhood scar. When the suitors' angry relatives attack, Athena intervenes and commands both sides to forge a lasting peace.

Eurycleia wakes Penelope to announce that Odysseus has returned and killed the suitors. Penelope remains deeply cautious and tests Odysseus's identity by asking a servant to move their bridal bed. When Odysseus angrily describes how he built the immovable bed around a living olive tree, Penelope finally accepts that he is her real husband.

Odysseus drops his beggar disguise and teams up with Telemachus, Eumaeus, and Philoetius to slaughter all the arrogant suitors taking over his home. With help from the goddess Athena, they win the brutal fight, execute disloyal servants, and clean the bloody hall.

Penelope sets up a contest for the suitors: the man who can string Odysseus's massive hunting bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe heads will win her hand. All the suitors fail to bend the bow. Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus succeeds with ease, signaling the start of his revenge.

An anxious Odysseus struggles to sleep while plotting his revenge. Guided by divine omens from Zeus and reassurance from Athena, he endures final insults from the arrogant suitors before the looming bloodshed of the upcoming contest.

Odysseus and Telemachus hide the palace weapons. Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus talks with Penelope, who does not know him. The old nurse Eurycleia washes his feet and spots a distinct scar from a boar hunt, recognizing him. Penelope then announces an upcoming archery contest to choose a new husband.

The disguised Odysseus fights a local arrogant beggar named Irus for territory inside his own palace. After easily breaking Irus's jaw, Odysseus warns one kinder suitor of doom, watches Penelope trick the suitors into giving her gifts, and berates disloyal palace maids.

Odysseus returns to his own palace in Ithaca disguised as a poor beggar. Along the way and inside his home, he faces cruel abuse from the arrogant suitors and rejoins his loyal son, Telemachus, while quietly laying the groundwork for his revenge.

Athena urges Telemachus to leave Sparta and return to Ithaca. She warns him of the suitors' ambush, instructs him to bypass the islands, and tells him to first visit Eumaeus the swineherd. Telemachus departs with Pisistratus, picks up a fleeing prophet named Theoclymenus, and safely reaches Ithaca, while Odysseus and Eumaeus share stories at the hut.

A newly returned Odysseus arrives in Ithaca and goes to the hut of his loyal swineherd, Eumaeus. Disguised as a beggar by Athena, Odysseus tests the swineherd's hospitality and loyalty, hears of the chaos caused by the greedy suitors, and fabricates a false background story about himself.