Book 1: a scene-by-scene guide to what happens, who everyone is, and why it matters as the opening of the whole poem.
Ten years ago, a huge Greek army finally captured the city of Troy. One of its commanders was Odysseus, king of the small island of Ithaca, famous among the Greeks above all for his cunning.
That was ten years ago. The war itself took ten years. Odysseus has now been away from home for twenty years in total, and for the last several of those years nobody on Ithaca has had any news of him at all. Most people assume he is dead.
Common mistake. Don’t describe Books 1–4 as “the start of Odysseus’s journey”. By the time the poem begins, his journey is almost over: nineteen of the twenty years have already passed, and he has been sitting on one island for seven of them.
Back home, this absence has created a crisis. Penelope has not remarried. Telemachus, a baby when his father left, is now old enough to rule but has no real authority in his own house. And a large group of young noblemen, the suitors, have moved into the palace uninvited, eating through everything Telemachus should one day inherit.
This is the situation the poem opens on. It begins on Ithaca with Telemachus, and Odysseus himself does not appear until Book 5.
The poet asks the Muse for the story of the resourceful man who wandered after the fall of Troy.
Odysseus alone has not come home. Poseidon is away with the Ethiopians, and the other gods meet in Zeus’s palace.
Zeus complains that mortals blame the gods, and uses Aegisthus as his example.
Athene pleads for Odysseus, kept by Calypso. Zeus explains Poseidon’s anger over the Cyclops.
Hermes will go to Calypso, and Athene will go to Ithaca to rouse Telemachus.
The poem opens on Mount Olympus, home of the gods. Zeus is thinking about a man named Aegisthus, who years earlier murdered a king called Agamemnon and was, in turn, killed in revenge by Agamemnon’s son, Orestes. Zeus uses this as an example: mortals like to blame the gods for their misfortunes, but often their suffering is really the result of their own bad choices. Aegisthus was warned in advance, and did it anyway.
‘What a lamentable thing it is that men should blame the gods and regard us, as the source of their troubles, when it is their own transgressions which bring them suffering that was not their destiny. Consider Aegisthus: it was not his destiny to steal Agamemnon’s wife and murder her husband when he came home. He knew the result would be utter disaster, since we ourselves had sent Hermes, the keen-eyed Giant-slayer, to warn him neither to kill the man nor to court his wife.’
Book 1, workbook lines 31–38
Why this scene matters. It tells the audience, before anyone on Ithaca knows it, that Odysseus is alive and that his return is only a matter of time. Everything that follows is watched with that knowledge in mind.
Athene, who favours Odysseus, uses this moment to raise his situation. He has done nothing wrong, unlike Aegisthus, and he is trapped on a remote island, held by the nymph Calypso, who wants him as a husband. Zeus agrees that Odysseus deserves help, though Poseidon, who has a personal grudge against him, will keep making the journey difficult. Athene decides to act at once: she will go to Ithaca herself, in disguise, to encourage Telemachus.
Athene flies to Ithaca and stands at the door in the form of Mentes.
The suitors lounge in the courtyard. Telemachus sees the stranger, welcomes her and seats her apart.
Water for the hands, bread, meat and wine are brought for the guest.
While Phemius sings, Telemachus speaks of his lost father, then asks who the guest is.
“Mentes” gives a false history, says Odysseus is alive, and asks about the banquet.
Telemachus describes the suitors, and Athene wishes Odysseus were there to deal with them.
Call an assembly, then sail to Pylos and Sparta for news. Telemachus offers a bath and a gift.
She vanishes like a bird, and Telemachus realises a god has been with him.
Athene arrives on Ithaca disguised as Mentes, a chieftain from a nearby land and an old friend of the family. She finds the suitors lounging in the courtyard, and Telemachus sitting miserably among them, imagining his father returning and driving them all out.
Hospitality (xenia). Homeric society placed enormous importance on how a host treated a guest: correct food, a seat, and no rushing to business first. Telemachus does this instinctively; the suitors never do. More in Lesson 1 →
Telemachus is the first to notice the stranger and is embarrassed that a guest has been left standing at the door. He welcomes “Mentes” properly, leads him inside away from the suitors’ noise, and makes sure he is seated, fed and given wine before any business is discussed. Once they are settled, Telemachus explains the situation: his father has been missing for years, the suitors are eating through the family’s wealth, and he feels powerless to stop them.
“Mentes” reassures him. Odysseus is not dead, and will find a way home soon. She encourages Telemachus to take action: call a public assembly, tell the suitors openly to leave, then travel to Pylos and Sparta to ask the older Greek leaders for news. As she finishes speaking, she vanishes, flying off like a bird. Telemachus realises, with a shock, that his visitor was a god all along.
Key moment. This is the advice that sets the whole Telemachy in motion: call an assembly, then travel to find news. Everything in Books 2–4 follows directly from it.
‘Meanwhile I do urge you to find some way of ridding the house of these Suitors. Listen carefully to what I suggest. Tomorrow morning call the Achaean lords to Assembly and announce your decision to them all, asking the gods to witness what you say. Tell the Suitors to leave and go home. … Choose your best ship, man her with twenty oarsmen, and set out to inquire after your long absent father.’
Book 1, workbook lines 237–247
Phemius sings of the Achaeans’ return. Penelope comes down in tears and asks for another song.
Telemachus defends the bard and sends his mother back to her rooms.
He tells the suitors he will demand at the assembly that they leave his house.
Antinous mocks his bold tone; Telemachus replies that he will be master of his own house.
Eurymachus asks about the visitor. Telemachus names Mentes and keeps the truth to himself.
Inside the hall the suitors are feasting, and a bard named Phemius is singing about the disaster-filled journeys of the Greek heroes trying to get home after Troy. Penelope hears the song from upstairs and comes down, upset: the subject is too close to her own situation, and she asks him to sing something else.
Telemachus, newly encouraged, surprises everyone. He tells his mother, respectfully but firmly, that the choice of song is his to make, since he is the head of the household now, and sends her back upstairs. It is a small moment, and it is the first time in the poem that Telemachus asserts any authority at all.
‘… So go to your quarters now and attend to your own work, the loom and the spindle, and tell the servants to get on with theirs. Making decisions must be men’s concern, and mine in particular; for I am master in this house.’
Penelope was taken aback, but she retired to her own apartments, for she took her son’s sensible words to heart.
Book 1, workbook lines 311–316
He then announces to the suitors that he will call an assembly the next day and formally order them to leave. Antinous responds mockingly; Eurymachus, more smoothly, asks who the mysterious visitor was. Telemachus says the visitor was Mentes, an old friend of his father, although in his heart he knows she was an immortal goddess (workbook lines 359–366).
The suitors go home. Eurycleia lights Telemachus to bed, where he lies awake planning his journey.
As the suitors finally leave for the night, Telemachus goes up to his room, accompanied by his old childhood nurse, Eurycleia, who has looked after him since he was a baby. Book 1 ends with Telemachus lying awake, turning over in his mind everything “Mentes” told him, and thinking about the journey he is now planning to make.
He was escorted by the faithful Eurycleia, who carried a blazing torch. … she who of all the household women loved him most, for she had nursed him as a child. … And there, all the night long, under his woollen blanket, Telemachus lay planning in his mind the journey that Athene had suggested.
Book 1, workbook lines 372–387
| Zeus, Athene, Poseidon | the gods directly involved in Odysseus’s story |
| Telemachus, Penelope | Odysseus’s son and wife, on Ithaca |
| Antinous, Eurymachus | the two leading suitors |
| Phemius | the court bard |
| Eurycleia | Telemachus’s childhood nurse |
| “Mentes” | Athene in disguise |
Next. Now read the themes. Start with Lesson 1 · Xenia, which works through Scene 2 step by step.