Why does telemachus go to eumaeus

An infant when Odysseus left for Troy, Telemachus is about twenty at the beginning of the story. He is a natural obstacle to the suitors desperately courting his mother, but despite his courage and good heart, he initially lacks the poise and confidence to oppose them.

At the showdown with the suitors in the great hall, he is shrewd enough to get his mother out of the line of fire and mature enough to be a real help to Odysseus. Why start with Telemachus and not Odysseus? Homer does this for two reasons. Why does Telemachus go to Pylos and Sparta?

Athena tells Telemachus that he might hear news of his father, Odysseus. Athena advises that he gather a crew and sail to Pylos and then to Sparta in search of information about Odysseus. You are no longer of an age to do that. Table of Contents. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. The prince reveals Odysseus puts his faith in Athena and Zeus. With that as a premise, the father and son devise their plan.

Telemachus is to return to town and mix with the suitors. Odysseus, in disguise, will follow. No matter how poorly the suitors may treat the old beggar, Odysseus and Telemachus are to bide their time and refrain from striking back until the moment is right.

At a signal, the prince is to gather all the weapons and place them in the storeroom. If challenged, he can say that he does this to protect the gear.

He must leave out weapons only for himself and his father. Antinous is the most aggressive of the suitors. Concerned that public opinion is shifting to the side of the prince, he wants to strike immediately, assassinating Telemachus before he can gather support. The suitors, especially Antinous, are haughty and arrogant, which prove to be their downfall. This outspoken leader's arrogant plan includes seizing all of Telemachus' land and valuables immediately after the murder and dispensing them among the freeloaders.

The palace itself will go to Penelope and, of course, the man she weds — a man Antinous believes to be himself. Only Amphinomus has the courage to speak against the plot. If on the other hand I managed to kill them, I shall be much obliged if you will kindly bring me my presents.

With these words he took Theoclymenus to his own house. When they got there they laid their cloaks on the benches and seats, went into the baths, and washed themselves. When the maids had washed and anointed them, and had given them cloaks and shirts, they took their seats at table.

A maid servant then brought them water in a beautiful golden ewer, and poured it into a silver basin for them to wash their hands; and she drew a clean table beside them. An upper servant brought them bread and offered them many good things of what there was in the house. Opposite them sat Penelope, reclining on a couch by one of the bearing-posts of the cloister, and spinning. Then they laid their hands on the good things that were before them, and as soon as they had had enough to eat and drink Penelope said:.

You failed, however, to make it clear to me before the suitors came back to the house, whether or no you had been able to hear anything about the return of your father.

He sent me, therefore, with a chariot and horses to Menelaus. There I saw Helen, for whose sake so many, both Argives and Trojans, were in heaven's wisdom doomed to suffer. Menelaus asked me what it was that had brought me to Lacedaemon, and I told him the whole truth, whereon he said, 'So, then, these cowards would usurp a brave man's bed?

A hind might as well lay her new-born young in the lair of a lion, and then go off to feed in the forest or in some grassy dell. The lion, when he comes back to his lair, will make short work with the pair of them, and so will Ulysses with these suitors. By father Jove, Minerva, and Apollo, if Ulysses is still the man that he was when he wrestled with Philomeleides in Lesbos, and threw him so heavily that all the Greeks cheered him--if he is still such, and were to come near these suitors, they would have a short shrift and a sorry wedding.

As regards your question, however, I will not prevaricate nor deceive you, but what the old man of the sea told me, so much will I tell you in full. He said he could see Ulysses on an island sorrowing bitterly in the house of the nymph Calypso, who was keeping him prisoner, and he could not reach his home, for he had no ships nor sailors to take him over the sea.

May Jove the king of heaven be my witness, and the rites of hospitality, with that hearth of Ulysses to which I now come, that Ulysses himself is even now in Ithaca, and, either going about the country or staying in one place, is enquiring into all these evil deeds and preparing a day of reckoning for the suitors. I saw an omen when I was on the ship which meant this, and I told Telemachus about it.

Thus did they converse. Meanwhile the suitors were throwing discs, or aiming with spears at a mark on the levelled ground in front of the house, and behaving with all their old insolence. But when it was now time for dinner, and the flock of sheep and goats had come into the town from all the country round, [1] with their shepherds as usual, then Medon, who was their favourite servant, and who waited upon them at table, said, "Now then, my young masters, you have had enough sport, so come inside that we may get dinner ready.

Dinner is not a bad thing, at dinner time. They left their sports as he told them, and when they were within the house, they laid their cloaks on the benches and seats inside, and then sacrificed some sheep, goats, pigs, and a heifer, all of them fat and well grown. In the meantime Ulysses and the swineherd were about starting for the town, and the swineherd said, "Stranger, I suppose you still want to go to town to-day, as my master said you were to do; for my own part I should have liked you to stay here as a station hand, but I must do as my master tells me, or he will scold me later on, and a scolding from one's master is a very serious thing.

Let us then be off, for it is now broad day; it will be night again directly and then you will find it colder. Let us be going, but if you have a stick ready cut, let me have it to walk with, for you say the road is a very rough one. As he spoke he threw his shabby old tattered wallet over his shoulders, by the cord from which it hung, and Eumaeus gave him a stick to his liking.

The two then started, leaving the station in charge of the dogs and herdsmen who remained behind; the swineherd led the way and his master followed after, looking like some broken down old tramp as he leaned upon his staff, and his clothes were all in rags.

When they had got over the rough steep ground and were nearing the city, they reached the fountain from which the citizens drew their water. This had been made by Ithacus, Neritus, and Polyctor. There was a grove of water-loving poplars planted in a circle all round it, and the clear cold water came down to it from a rock high up, [4] while above the fountain there was an altar to the nymphs, at which all wayfarers used to sacrifice.

Here Melanthius son of Dolius overtook them as he was driving down some goats, the best in his flock, for the suitors' dinner, and there were two shepherds with him. When he saw Eumaeus and Ulysses he reviled them with outrageous and unseemly language, which made Ulysses very angry. See how heaven brings birds of the same feather to one another. Where, pray, master swineherd, are you taking this poor miserable object? It would make any one sick to see such a creature at table.

A fellow like this never won a prize for anything in his life, but will go about rubbing his shoulders against every man's door post, and begging, not for swords and cauldrons [5] like a man, but only for a few scraps not worth begging for. If you would give him to me for a hand on my station, he might do to clean out the folds, or bring a bit of sweet feed to the kids, and he could fatten his thighs as much as he pleased on whey; but he has taken to bad ways and will not go about any kind of work; he will do nothing but beg victuals all the town over, to feed his insatiable belly.

I say, therefore--and it shall surely be--if he goes near Ulysses' house he will get his head broken by the stools they will fling at him, till they turn him out. On this, as he passed, he gave Ulysses a kick on the hip out of pure wantonness, but Ulysses stood firm, and did not budge from the path.

For a moment he doubted whether or no to fly at Melanthius and kill him with his staff, or fling him to the ground and beat his brains out; he resolved, however, to endure it and keep himself in check, but the swineherd looked straight at Melanthius and rebuked him, lifting up his hands and praying to heaven as he did so. He would soon put an end to the swaggering threats with which such men as you go about insulting people--gadding all over the town while your flocks are going to ruin through bad shepherding.

Then Melanthius the goatherd answered, "You ill conditioned cur, what are you talking about? Some day or other I will put you on board ship and take you to a foreign country, where I can sell you and pocket the money you will fetch. I wish I were as sure that Apollo would strike Telemachus dead this very day, or that the suitors would kill him, as I am that Ulysses will never come home again. With this he left them to come on at their leisure, while he went quickly forward and soon reached the house of his master.

When he got there he went in and took his seat among the suitors opposite Eurymachus, who liked him better than any of the others. The servants brought him a portion of meat, and an upper woman servant set bread before him that he might eat. Presently Ulysses and the swineherd came up to the house and stood by it, amid a sound of music, for Phemius was just beginning to sing to the suitors. Then Ulysses took hold of the swineherd's hand, and said:.

The next morning, Telemachus reaches the shores of Ithaca. He disembarks while the crew heads to the city by ship. He entrusts Theoclymenus to a loyal crewman, Piraeus. But Telemachus is afraid of what the suitors might do to them. Eumaeus thus goes to the palace alone to tell Penelope that her son has returned. When father and son are alone in the hut, Athena appears to Odysseus and calls him outside.

When Odysseus reenters the hut, his old-man disguise is gone, and he stands in the pristine glory of his heroic person. At first, Telemachus cannot believe his eyes, but then the two embrace and weep.

Odysseus recounts his trip with the Phaeacians and then begins plotting the overthrow of the suitors. The two of them will then seize the arms and slaughter the suitors. The suitors, dejected that their plot has failed, huddle outside to plan their next move. Penelope later finds Antinous in the palace and denounces him for the plot against her son, the details of which Medon had overheard and revealed to her in Book 4. Eurymachus succeeds in calming Penelope down with his lies and false concern for the safety of Telemachus.