Taking a Stand

The morning after Athene’s visit, Telemachus does what “Mentes” told him to do. He calls the first assembly on Ithaca since Odysseus sailed, speaks out against the suitors in front of the whole island, and then, when nobody will help him, sails away in secret by night to look for news of his father.

What happens

• Telemachus summons the assembly and publicly denounces the suitors for devouring his household.
• Antinous throws the blame back on Penelope, revealing the trick of the shroud she has used to put off remarriage for years.
• Zeus sends an omen of two eagles; the seer Halitherses warns that Odysseus is near and the suitors’ doom is coming.
• The suitors jeer at the warning. Telemachus demands a ship to go and seek news of his father.
• With Athene disguised as Mentor, he secretly gathers a crew and sails at nightfall, telling only the nurse Eurycleia.

Who we meet

Telemachus

coming of age, speaking in public for the first time

Antinous & Eurymachus

the two ringleaders of the suitors

Halitherses

the seer whose warning is ignored

Mentor

the old friend whose shape Athene borrows

Eurycleia

the loyal old nurse, sworn to secrecy

Why it matters for essays

Book 2 is Telemachus’s first public act, his growing-up in miniature. It puts the suitors’ guilt and impiety on record in front of witnesses, and Penelope’s shroud reveals her own cunning, the female counterpart to Odysseus’s mētis. The workbook marks Book 2 as unprescribed: read it for the story and its essay background, since it is not examined in context.

Have your Book 2 workbook open alongside this page. Line numbers on this page are the workbook’s own.

The assembly called 1–12

• At dawn Telemachus gets up, dresses, slings a sword from his shoulder, puts on his sandals and leaves his bedroom “looking like a god”.
• He orders the heralds to call the people of Ithaca to an assembly, and they gather quickly.
• Once everyone has arrived, Telemachus walks to the meeting-place holding a bronze spear, with only two hunting-dogs for company.
• Athene gives him such supernatural grace that every eye turns to him in admiration.
• The elders make way for him, and he sits down in his father’s seat.

Note. An assembly was a public meeting of all the free men of a community, where problems were aired and decisions made. “Achaeans” is one of Homer’s standard words for the Greeks.

Aegyptius speaks 13–35

• The first to speak is Aegyptius, an old lord bent with age and rich in wisdom.
• His son Antiphus sailed to Troy with Odysseus and was killed by the Cyclops in his cave when the giant made the last of his meals off Odysseus’s men.
• He has three other sons: Eurynomus, who has joined the suitors, and two who work on the family estate. He still grieves for Antiphus and rises to speak in tears.
• He points out that there has been no assembly or council meeting since Odysseus sailed.
• He asks who has called them, whether a young man or an older one, and why: perhaps news of an approaching army, or some other matter of public concern.
• Whoever it is, he blesses him and prays that Zeus will grant him his heart’s desire.
• Telemachus is delighted by these words of good omen. He takes his stand in the middle of the assembly.
• The herald Peisenor puts the speaker’s staff into his hand, and Telemachus turns to Aegyptius to answer him.

Aegyptius. One of his sons sailed to Troy with Odysseus and was later eaten by the Cyclops, so the losses of the war reach right into this room. The Cyclops is the one-eyed giant Polyphemus, whose story comes in Book 9; Homer expects his audience to know it already.

The speaker’s staff. In an assembly only the man holding the staff (Greek skeptron) had the right to speak. Handing it over was a formal act.

Telemachus accuses 36–76

• Telemachus tells Aegyptius that he himself called the assembly, and that he is in great distress.
• He has no news of an army and no public business: he wants to raise his own private trouble, a double affliction on his house.
• The first affliction is the loss of his father, who was once their king and as gentle as a father to them all.
• The second and greater one is the suitors, who are pestering his mother and are the sons of the leading men sitting in the assembly.
• He says they are too cowardly to go to her father Icarius and make a proper offer for her hand, and accuses them of spending every day in his house, slaughtering the oxen, sheep and goats and drinking the wine with no thought for the wealth being wasted.
• There is no one like Odysseus to clear them out, and Telemachus admits that he and his household are too weak and untrained to fight, though he would fight if he had the strength.
• He tells the Ithacans they should resent this injustice for their own sake and as a scandal in the eyes of their neighbours, and that they should fear the anger of the gods.
• Swearing by Olympian Zeus and by Themis, he begs them to leave him alone with his grief, and asks bitterly whether they are punishing him for some harm his father once did them by encouraging the suitors.
• He says he would be better off if the Ithacans themselves were eating his goods, since then he could chase them round the town until every item was paid back.
• As he finishes his passion rises; he bursts into tears and throws the staff on the ground.
• A wave of pity sweeps the assembly. Nobody has the heart to give him a sharp reply, and there is silence until Antinous speaks.

A crowd of Suitors are pestering my mother with their unwanted attentions, and these Suitors are actually the sons of those who are your leaders here. Too cowardly to present themselves at her father’s house, for Icarius to make terms for his daughter’s hand with the claimant he prefers, they spend all day in and out of our house. They slaughter our oxen, our sheep, our fatted goats; they feast themselves and drink our sparkling wine – with never a thought for all the wealth that is being wasted.

Book 2, workbook lines 45–52

Unpacking the passage

“the sons of those who are your leaders here”

Telemachus makes the audience share the blame: the men he is speaking to are the fathers of the suitors.

“Too cowardly to present themselves at her father’s house”

He accuses them of ignoring the proper way to court a woman, which was to go to her father Icarius and agree terms.

“They slaughter our oxen, our sheep, our fatted goats”

The list of animals spells out the scale of the damage, and the repeated “our” insists that the property belongs to his family.

“never a thought for all the wealth that is being wasted”

The suitors are careless consumers who have no regard for what the household is losing.

Icarius. Icarius is Penelope’s father. By custom a man who wanted to marry her should go to him and arrange the match and the gifts. The suitors ignore all that and simply camp in Odysseus’s house.

They slaughter our oxen. This is the suitors’ real crime: they are eating their way through Odysseus’s wealth day after day. It is xenia turned upside down, with guests devouring their host when they should be looked after by him.

Themis. Themis is the goddess of law and proper custom, the one who “summons and dissolves” assemblies. Telemachus swears by her to stress that the rules are being broken.

Worth noticing. The textbook calls this assembly a live, public bid by Telemachus to reclaim his household’s timē in front of the whole community. It also points out that the assembly is entirely male: Penelope’s future is discussed in a meeting she cannot attend.

Antinous answers 77–83

• Antinous mocks Telemachus’s speech and temper and asks whether he really means to shame the suitors and pin the blame on them.
• He says the suitors plead “Not guilty”: the culprit is Penelope, “that incomparable schemer”.
• For three years, nearly four, she has been leading them on, giving each of them hope.
• He claims she sends private messages to each suitor with promises she has no intention of keeping.

Antinous. This is the more aggressive of the suitors’ two ringleaders. He was also the first of them to speak in the poem, when he mocked Telemachus at the end of Book 1.

The shroud 84–115

• Antinous gives another example of Penelope’s “duplicity”: she set up a great web on her loom and began weaving a large, delicate cloth.
• She told the suitors that, now Odysseus was dead, they should wait for the marriage until she had finished, so that her spinning would not be wasted.
• She explained that the cloth was a shroud for Laertes, Odysseus’s father, ready for when he died, because the women of Ithaca would think it a scandal if a man so wealthy were buried without one.
• The suitors agreed, and Antinous says they did so “magnanimously”.
• By day she wove, and every night she had torches set beside the loom and undid the work.
• The trick fooled them for three years. In the fourth year one of her women, who knew all about it, gave her away.
• The suitors caught her unpicking the work, and she was forced to finish it against her will.
• Antinous then gives the suitors’ answer: Telemachus must send his mother away and make her marry the man her father chooses and she prefers.
• He warns that Penelope should not test the young men’s patience by relying on the gifts Athene has given her: her skill at handicraft, her excellent brain and her genius for getting her way.
• He admits that no woman, even in story, has had such wits, naming the famous beauties Tyro, Alcmene and Mycene, but says she has misused them.
• As long as she keeps to the course the gods have put in her mind, the suitors will go on eating Telemachus out of house and home. She may be winning a great name for herself, but at his expense.
• The suitors will not go back to their own estates or anywhere else until she chooses one of them and marries him.

So by day she used to weave at the great web, but every night had torches set beside it and undid the work. For three years she took us in by this trick. A fourth began, and the seasons were slipping by, when one of her women who knew all about it gave her mistress away. We caught her unravelling her beautiful work, and she was forced reluctantly to complete it.

Book 2, workbook lines 94–99

Unpacking the passage

“by day … every night”

Penelope works in public during the day and undoes the work in private at night, so the suitors see only the weaving and never the unpicking.

“For three years she took us in”

Antinous admits that the suitors were fooled for years. The complaint is his, but it shows how long her plan succeeded.

“one of her women … gave her mistress away”

The trick ends only because someone inside the household betrays her.

“forced reluctantly to complete it”

Once discovered, Penelope has no choice left, which is why the pressure on her is now so great.

The shroud for Laertes. Weaving was the proper work of the woman of the house, and this cloth is a burial-sheet for Odysseus’s elderly father. Nobody could object to Penelope weaving that, which is exactly why her excuse works so well.

Undid the work. This is Penelope’s famous trick: every night she secretly unpicks the stretch of shroud she wove during the day, so it is never finished and the marriage can never be forced. She spins it out for three whole years.

The matchless gifts that she owes to Athene. Penelope’s cleverness and skill are seen as gifts from Athene herself, the goddess of wisdom and crafts. Even her enemies admit she has no equal.

The web trick. The textbook calls this one of Penelope’s most famous moments in the whole poem: three years of buying time through cunning without the use of force, which shows that she is just as resourceful, in her own way, as Odysseus. It is the most sustained act of mētis in the Telemachy, and it failed only because a servant betrayed her, since the men it fooled never saw through it.

Worth noticing. The textbook points out the assumption under Antinous’s argument: that guests are entitled to stay until they get what they came for. That reverses a guest’s duty to leave. His praise of Penelope’s cleverness is also meant as an accusation.

Telemachus refuses 116–129

• Telemachus answers that he cannot throw out, against her will, the mother who bore him and brought him up, while his father may still be alive somewhere at the world’s end.
• Sending her back would mean paying a large sum to her father Icarius.
• He would also suffer at the hands of the gods, because his mother would call down the Avenging Furies on him as she left, and his countrymen would be angry with him.
• He declares that he will never give the order.
• If the suitors resent this, they should leave his palace and feast in each other’s houses at their own expense.
• If they prefer to go on destroying one man’s estate without paying for it, they can eat their fill, while he prays to Zeus for a day of reckoning when he will destroy them in this house.

But if you think it a sounder scheme to destroy one man’s estate and not make restitution, then eat your fill, while I pray that Zeus will bring a day of reckoning, when in this house I will destroy you, and not make restitution.

Book 2, workbook lines 125–129

Unpacking the passage

“destroy one man’s estate and not make restitution”

Telemachus names the suitors’ crime exactly: they are using up his property and paying nothing back.

“I pray that Zeus will bring a day of reckoning”

He calls on Zeus to judge the suitors, and the omen that follows immediately seems to answer this prayer.

“in this house I will destroy you, and not make restitution”

He repeats their own phrase back at them, so that his threat matches their crime. The killing of the suitors in the palace later in the poem fulfils it.

The Avenging Furies. The Furies were terrifying goddesses who punished crimes within a family, above all children who wronged their parents. Throwing his mother out would bring their curse down on Telemachus.

The omen of the eagles 130–139

• In answer to Telemachus’s words, Zeus sends two eagles flying down from the mountain-top.
• At first they glide down the wind side by side, wing to wing.
• When they are directly above the assembly, they begin to flap and wheel about, glaring down at the faces of the crowd “with looks foreboding death”.
• They claw at each other’s cheeks and necks with their talons, then swoop away eastward over the roofs of the town.
• The people stare at the birds in amazement and wonder what will come of it.

In answer to his words, Zeus the Thunderer urged two eagles into flight from the mountain-top. For a while they sailed down the wind with outstretched pinions, wing to wing. But as soon as they were directly over the meeting-place, where the sound of voices filled the air, they began to flap their wings and wheel about, glancing down at the faces of the crowd with looks foreboding death. Then with their talons they clawed at each other’s cheeks and neck, and so swooped eastward over the house-tops of the busy town.

Book 2, workbook lines 130–137

Unpacking the passage

“Zeus the Thunderer urged two eagles”

The narrator tells us plainly that the birds are sent by Zeus, so the audience knows the omen is real before anyone interprets it.

“In answer to his words”

The omen comes straight after Telemachus prays for a day of reckoning, as if Zeus is responding to him.

“looks foreboding death”

The eagles look down at the faces in the assembly, and the phrase points towards deaths still to come.

“clawed at each other’s cheeks and neck”

The calm flight turns suddenly violent, a picture of the bloodshed that Halitherses goes on to predict.

Urged two eagles into flight. Zeus answers Telemachus’s prayer by sending an omen, a sign, here in the shape of birds. Reading signs like this, especially the flight of birds, was how the Greeks tried to work out the gods’ will.

Halitherses’ warning 140–157

• At last the old hero Halitherses, son of Mastor, speaks. He knows more about birds and prophecy than anyone of his generation, and he cares about the welfare of his people.
• He addresses all of Ithaca but says his message is meant above all for the suitors.
• A great disaster is about to engulf them, because Odysseus will soon be back among his friends.
• He says Odysseus is already close at hand, sowing the seeds of a bloody doom for every one of the suitors, which will also bring trouble to many others on Ithaca.
• He urges the Ithacans to plan how to stop the suitors before it happens, or, better still, for the suitors to stop of their own accord.
• He reminds them that he is an experienced prophet. When Odysseus sailed for Troy, Halitherses foretold that he would come home in the twentieth year, after much suffering, having lost all his comrades, and that no one would recognise him.
• He ends by saying that all of this is now coming true.

Halitherses. An old seer, a man skilled at reading omens and foretelling the future. He reads the two eagles as a warning of doom for the suitors.

The twentieth year. The seer reminds everyone that his past predictions all came true. In Homer prophecy is always reliable, and ignoring it is a sure sign of a fool.

Eurymachus sneers 158–187

• Eurymachus, son of Polybus, replies with contempt: Halitherses should go home and read omens for his own children before something bad happens to them.
• He claims to be a better interpreter of signs himself, and says that plenty of birds fly about in the sunshine without being omens.
• He says Odysseus has died abroad, and wishes Halitherses had died with him, so that they would be spared his tedious prophecies.
• He accuses Halitherses of stirring up Telemachus’s anger in the hope of getting a gift from him.
• He makes his own “prophecy”: if Halitherses incites the young man to violence, it will go badly for Telemachus, and the suitors will impose a heavy fine on Halitherses.
• He gives Telemachus his advice openly: send Penelope back to her father’s house, where her family will arrange her wedding and a generous dowry.
• Until that happens, he says, the suitors will not give up, because they fear no one, least of all Telemachus with all his speeches, and they pay no attention to the old man’s prophecies.
• Telemachus must watch his wealth consumed without repayment as long as Penelope keeps them waiting; meanwhile the suitors will stay, competing for the “incomparable prize” and looking for no other bride.

Eurymachus. The second of the two ringleaders, smoother and more calculating than Antinous. Here he sneers at the seer and his omen.

Worth noticing. The textbook uses this moment to show how the gods communicate through signs that need an interpreter and leave room for disagreement. The suitors and Halitherses read the same omen in opposite ways, and the poem lets the audience see which reading is right. The suitors’ confident overreach is hybris, and the textbook sees the eagle omen as nemesis being signalled in advance.

Telemachus demands a ship 188–199

• Telemachus tells Eurymachus and the suitors that he will make no further appeal, because the gods and the people have heard his case.
• He asks for a fast ship and a crew of twenty to take him there and back.
• He means to go to Sparta and sandy Pylos for news of his father, either from someone who knows or from one of the rumours sent by Zeus that so often turn out to be true.
• If he hears that Odysseus is alive and on his way home, he will hold out for one more year.
• If he learns that Odysseus is dead, he will come home, build him a burial mound with proper funeral rites, and give his mother in marriage to a new husband.

Sparta and sandy Pylos. Telemachus plans to visit Nestor at Pylos and Menelaus at Sparta, two veterans of the Trojan War who might have news of his father. This journey fills the next two books.

Mentor rises 200–215

• Telemachus sits down and Mentor rises. This is the real Mentor, an old friend of Odysseus.
• When Odysseus sailed, he left Mentor in charge of his whole household, with orders to defer to old Laertes and keep everything safe.
• Mentor speaks out of goodwill. He says that kings might as well give up kindness, generosity and justice and become tyrants, since none of the people Odysseus ruled like a loving father give him a thought now.
• He leaves the suitors to their fate, saying they are risking their own lives by wasting Odysseus’s estate in the belief that he will never return.
• His anger is aimed at the rest of the Ithacans, who sit in silence.
• He points out that the suitors are few and the people are many, yet nobody has said a word to condemn or restrain them.

No, it is the rest of you sitting there in silence that stir my indignation. They are few and you are many. Yet not a word have they had from you in condemnation or restraint!

Book 2, workbook lines 212–215

Unpacking the passage

“the rest of you sitting there in silence”

Mentor turns the blame on the ordinary Ithacans, whose silence lets the suitors carry on.

“They are few and you are many”

He reminds the people that they have the numbers to stop the suitors if they chose to act.

“not a word … in condemnation or restraint”

The community has failed in its duty to Odysseus’s household by saying nothing at all.

Mentor. Mentor is an old friend of Odysseus, left in charge of the house while he is away. The name matters: Athene keeps taking his shape to guide Telemachus, and it gives us our word “mentor”, meaning a trusted adviser.

Leocritus breaks it up 216–229

• Leocritus, son of Euenor, jumps up and calls Mentor a crazy fool for urging the people to stop the suitors.
• He says it is a lot to ask men to fight over a meal, even when they outnumber the other side.
• He claims that even if Odysseus himself came back and tried to drive the suitors out of his hall, his wife would have no joy of his return, because he would die a shameful death fighting alone against so many.
• He declares the meeting over and tells everyone to go back to their own estates.
• He sneers that Mentor and Halitherses, as old friends of Odysseus, can help Telemachus on his way, though he expects Telemachus will never make the journey and will sit on Ithaca for a long time collecting what news he can.

A prayer on the shore 230–238

• The people accept the dismissal and scatter to their homes, while the suitors go back to Odysseus’s palace.
• Telemachus goes alone to the seashore, washes his hands in the surf and lifts them in prayer to Athene.
• He reminds her that she came to his house the day before and told him to sail in search of news of his father.
• He complains that his countrymen, and above all the suitors, are blocking him at every turn.

Athene as Mentor 239–267

• Athene answers the prayer by coming to Telemachus in the form and voice of Mentor.
• She tells him he will be neither a coward nor a fool if his father’s spirit has come down to him, and reminds him what a man Odysseus was in word and deed.
• She promises that the journey will succeed, and says she would only doubt it if he were not the true son of Odysseus and Penelope.
• She adds that few sons are like their fathers, most are worse and a few are better, but Telemachus has his father’s resourcefulness.
• She tells him to forget the suitors and their plots, because they are fools with no idea of the dark fate that will kill them all in a single day.
• As his father’s friend, she will find him a fast ship and sail with him herself.
• She gives him instructions: go home and show himself to the suitors, then prepare provisions, wine in jars and barley-meal in strong skins.
• Meanwhile she will gather a crew of volunteers in the town and pick out the best ship on Ithaca.
• Telemachus obeys at once and goes home, though anxious, and finds the suitors skinning goats and singeing hogs in the courtyard.

It is only if you were not the true son of Odysseus and Penelope that I would think your plans might come to nothing. Few sons, indeed, are like their fathers. Generally they are worse; but just a few are better. And since you are by no means lacking in Odysseus’ resourcefulness, and since you will be no fool or coward in the future, you can hope to succeed in this undertaking.

Book 2, workbook lines 243–249

Unpacking the passage

“the true son of Odysseus and Penelope”

Athene ties Telemachus’s success to his parents, naming both of them, so his character is presented as inherited.

“Few sons, indeed, are like their fathers”

She sets a challenge: most sons fall short of their fathers, and Telemachus has to prove he is one of the few who measure up.

“by no means lacking in Odysseus’ resourcefulness”

She credits him with his father’s best-known quality, the cleverness the textbook calls mētis.

“no fool or coward in the future”

The promise looks forward: Telemachus is still growing into the man he will become.

Remember. From here on in Book 2, “Mentor” is Athene in disguise, just as Mentes was in Book 1. The real Mentor spoke at the assembly; the goddess now borrows the face of a different old friend of Odysseus. The textbook calls this a different mortal face and the same method, and sees it as part of her consistent patronage of Odysseus’s family.

Antinous mocks 268–296

• Antinous runs up laughing, takes Telemachus by the hand and calls him a “fiery young orator”.
• He tells him to drop the hard words and thoughts of violence and to eat and drink with them as usual.
• He says the Ithacans will arrange a ship and crew for his voyage to Pylos.
• Telemachus refuses to sit down to supper with such a rowdy mob.
• He says they robbed him of his best while he was too young to understand, but now that he is old enough to know what has happened and to feel his own strength, he will do his best to destroy them, whether he goes to Pylos or stays on Ithaca.
• He insists that he will make the journey, even as a passenger, since they have made sure he will have no ship or crew of his own. Then he calmly withdraws his hand from Antinous’s.
• The suitors answer with insults. One jokes that Telemachus wants to cut their throats and is going to Pylos or Sparta for help, or to Ephyre for poison to drop in their wine.
• Another jokes that he might be lost at sea like Odysseus, which would only give them the trouble of dividing up his property and handing the house to Penelope and her new husband.

I tell you, now that I’m old enough to learn from others what happened and to feel my own strength at last, I will do my best to send you all to perdition, whether I go to Pylos or stay here in Ithaca. And I shall not be thwarted over this journey of mine.

Book 2, workbook lines 278–281

Unpacking the passage

“now that I’m old enough”

Telemachus marks his own coming of age, contrasting his present self with the boy who was too young to understand.

“send you all to perdition”

He openly threatens the suitors with destruction, to the face of their leader.

“I shall not be thwarted”

After Athene’s encouragement he is determined, and the suitors’ mockery cannot stop the voyage.

The store-room 297–316

• Telemachus ignores the suitors and goes down to his father’s store-room, a big, high room stacked with gold, bronze, chests of clothing and fragrant oil.
• Along the wall stand jars of fine unmixed wine, kept for the day when Odysseus comes home.
• The double doors are locked, and the housekeeper Eurycleia, daughter of Ops, guards the room day and night.
• Telemachus asks her to draw twelve flagons of the best wine, second only to the vintage kept for Odysseus, and to seal them.
• He also asks for twenty measures of barley-meal in strong leather bags.
• He tells her to say nothing to anyone, and that he will collect the stores himself in the evening, after his mother has gone upstairs.
• He explains that he is going to Sparta and Pylos to find out about his father’s return.

Eurycleia. The old nurse who brought up first Odysseus and then Telemachus. She is completely loyal and trusted with the family’s secrets; later, in Book 19, she is the one who recognises the disguised Odysseus by an old scar.

Eurycleia’s fear 317–333

• Eurycleia shrieks, bursts into tears and asks what has put this idea into his head.
• She reminds him that he is an only son, the apple of his mother’s eye, and that Odysseus is dead far away.
• She warns that the suitors will plot against him as soon as he leaves, kill him and share out his property.
• She begs him to stay at home and not go looking for trouble on the barren sea.
• Telemachus tells her not to be afraid, because a god is behind the plan.
• He makes her swear not to tell his mother for at least a dozen days, or until Penelope misses him, so that she will not spoil her looks with weeping.
• Eurycleia swears by all the gods, then draws the wine and fills the bags with barley-meal. Telemachus goes back to the hall.

‘Dear child, what on earth has put this idea into your head? Why must you go wandering all over the world, you an only son, the apple of your mother’s eye; and Odysseus, favourite of Zeus, dead and gone, far from his home in foreign parts? The moment your back is turned those men will be plotting mischief against you; and when they’ve done you to death, they’ll share all this between them.’

Book 2, workbook lines 318–324

Unpacking the passage

“Dear child”

Eurycleia speaks to Telemachus as the nurse who brought him up, with the affection of a parent.

“you an only son, the apple of your mother’s eye”

She stresses how much depends on him: he is Penelope’s only child and the household’s only heir.

“they’ll share all this between them”

She predicts the suitors’ plot exactly, and in Book 4 they do plan to ambush and kill him.

The apple of your mother’s eye. Telemachus is an only son, so the whole future of Odysseus’s household (his oikos) rests on him alone. If he is killed, the family line simply ends.

Worth noticing. The textbook notes that mistress and servant are kept in different states of knowledge by the young master of the house: Eurycleia knows the secret and Penelope does not. Eurycleia is a slave, yet one of the household’s most trusted members. (The textbook speaks of eleven or twelve days; Rieu’s translation has “a dozen days”.)

Athene prepares the ship 334–352

• Athene now disguises herself as Telemachus and goes through the town choosing twenty men, telling each to meet by the ship at nightfall.
• She asks Noemon, son of Phronius, a leading Ithacan, for his ship, and he willingly agrees.
• At sunset she launches the ship, stows all its gear, and moors it at the far end of the harbour.
• When the crew gather she encourages each of them.
• Next she goes to the palace and makes the suitors drowsy as they drink, clouding their wits and knocking the cups from their hands.
• Heavy with sleep, they leave the table and go off to their beds in the town.
• Athene takes Mentor’s form and voice again and calls Telemachus out of the palace.

Worth noticing. The textbook counts the departure as mētis: Telemachus leaves by stealth and avoids an open challenge to the suitors, with Athene arranging the ship and crew and Eurycleia sworn to silence so that his mother will not raise the alarm.

Away by night 353–381

• “Mentor” tells Telemachus that his crew are at their oars waiting for him, and that they should leave without delay.
• Athene leads the way to the shore, where the crew are waiting on the beach.
• Telemachus tells them to fetch the stores from the palace. He says his mother and the servants know nothing, except one woman he has trusted with the secret.
• The crew bring down the stores and load the ship, taking their orders from Telemachus.
• Telemachus boards after Athene and sits beside her on the afterdeck. The men cast off and take their places at the oars.
• Athene sends a steady following wind out of the West, singing over the wine-dark sea.
• Telemachus orders the crew to rig the ship. They raise the pine mast, fix it with stays and hoist the white sail, which fills with wind as the ship gathers speed.
• When everything is secure they fill mixing-bowls with wine and pour libations to the gods, above all to Athene.
• The ship sails on all night and into the dawn.

Telemachus then followed Athene on board. She took her seat on the afterdeck and he sat down beside her. The men cast the hawsers off, climbed in, and took their places at their oars. And now, out of the West, Athene of the flashing eyes called up for them a steady following wind and sent it singing over the wine-dark sea.

Book 2, workbook lines 366–370

Unpacking the passage

“followed Athene on board … he sat down beside her”

Telemachus sails with the goddess at his side, a sign of her protection over the whole voyage.

“called up for them a steady following wind”

Athene controls the weather to speed the journey, so the departure is shown to have divine backing.

“the wine-dark sea”

A famous Homeric formula for the sea, which ends the book on a familiar epic phrase.

Well-greaved companions. “Well-greaved” means wearing greaves, bronze guards strapped over the shins. It is one of Homer’s stock epithets for Greek fighting men.

Wine-dark sea. One of Homer’s most famous fixed phrases (a formula) for the sea. Ancient Greek had no ordinary word for “blue”.

Libations. A libation is wine poured out on the ground as an offering to a god. Before sailing on through the night, the crew pour one out, “above all to the Daughter of Zeus”, Athene.

Worth noticing. The textbook sees this departure as the mirror image of Odysseus’s situation: Telemachus leaves home deliberately so that a homecoming becomes possible.

Xenia

Telemachus describes the suitors slaughtering his flocks and drinking his wine, which is hospitality turned upside down. Antinous blames Penelope for their long stay, and the textbook points out the assumption underneath: that guests may stay until they get what they came for, which reverses a guest’s duty to leave. The eagle omen signals that this breach will be punished. See Lesson 1 · Xenia.

Nostos

Halitherses reads the eagles as a sign that Odysseus’s return is near and the suitors’ ruin with it, and the suitors laugh. Telemachus then sails by night, leaving home on purpose so that a homecoming becomes possible. See Lesson 2 · Nostos.

Kleos and timē

By calling the first assembly since Odysseus sailed and demanding in public that the suitors leave, Telemachus makes a live bid to reclaim his household’s timē. Penelope’s web protected the household’s standing by delaying a decision that would have damaged it either way, and Antinous grudgingly admits she is winning “a great name” for herself. See Lesson 3 · Kleos and timē.

Gods, fate and responsibility

Zeus sends the two eagles, and Halitherses and Eurymachus read the same sign in opposite ways; the poem lets the audience see which reading is right. The textbook treats the suitors’ behaviour as hybris and the omen as nemesis signalled in advance. Athene’s help as Mentor shows her steady patronage of Odysseus’s family. See Lesson 4 · Gods, fate and responsibility.

Mētis

Penelope’s web is the most sustained act of mētis in the Telemachy, combining delay, deception and adaptability, and it failed only because a servant betrayed her. Telemachus’s secret departure, with the ship arranged by Athene and Eurycleia sworn to silence, is mētis by stealth. See Lesson 5 · Mētis.

Disguise and recognition

Athene appears as Mentor, another trusted friend of Odysseus, to encourage Telemachus and to lead him to the ship; she also takes Telemachus’s own shape to gather the crew. The textbook calls it a different mortal face and the same method as Mentes in Book 1. See Lesson 6 · Disguise and recognition.

Women in society

The assembly is entirely male, and the men debate Penelope’s future in a meeting she cannot attend. Antinous calls her the cleverest of women and means it as an accusation. Telemachus keeps Penelope in the dark and trusts his secret to Eurycleia, so mistress and servant know different things. See Lesson 8 · Women in society.

Characters introduced in Book 2

Next. Follow Telemachus to Book 3 · Pylos.