Summary: Book 15

Athena travels to Sparta and tells Telemachus that he must hurry home to Ithaca before the suitors succeed in winning his mother’s hand. She also warns him of the ambush laid for him and explains how to avoid it. Finally, she tells him to go to the home of the swineherd Eumaeus, who will convey the news of his safe return to Penelope. Telemachus announces his departure the next day and accepts gifts from Menelaus and Helen. As Telemachus is about to leave the palace in his chariot, an eagle carrying a goose stolen from a pen swoops down beside him. Helen predicts that Odysseus is about to swoop down on his home and exact revenge on the suitors.

Once at Pylos, Telemachus has Pisistratus, Nestor’s son, drop him off at his ship, saying that he has no time to visit Nestor again. The ship is about to set off when Theoclymenus, a famous prophet’s descendant, who is fleeing prosecution for manslaughter that he committed in Argos, approaches Telemachus and asks to come aboard. Telemachus welcomes him and offers him hospitality when they reach Ithaca.

Odysseus tests the limit of Eumaeus' hospitality by offering to leave in the morning. It is a false gesture that, he hopes, will prompt Eumaeus to offer to let him stay longer. He asks the old man not to go out of his way and says that Eumaeus will earn if he keeps working for the suitors. But Eumaeus will have none of it. To get mixed up with those suitors would be suicide, he warns.

Odysseus and the swineherd then exchange stories. Eumaeus explains how he first came to Ithaca: the son of a king, he was stolen from his house by Phoenician pirates with the help of a maid. The pirates took him all over the seas until Laertes, Odysseus’ father, bought him in Ithaca. Laertes’ wife brought him up alongside her own youngest daughter. Telemachus too reaches the shores of Ithaca next morning. He disembarks while the crew travels to the city by ship. He entrusts Theoclymenus to a loyal crewman, Piraeus. As they part, the duo sees a hawk fly by carrying a dove in its talons. Theoclymenus interprets this incident as a favorable sign of the strength of Odysseus’ house and line.

Summary: Book 16

When Telemachus enters Eumaeus’s hut, he finds the swineherd talking with a stranger, who is Odysseus in disguise. Eumaeus recounts Odysseus’ story and tells the stranger to stay with Telemachus at the palace. But Telemachus is not ready to go to the palace as he is wary of the suitors. Eumaeus then himself heads to the palace alone to inform Penelope about her son's arrival. When the father and son are alone in the hut, Athena appears and calls Odysseus outside. Odysseus re-enters the hut in the pristine glory of his heroic person. Telemachus cannot believe his eyes but then the father-son embrace and weep. Odysseus revisits his trip with the Phaeacians and then plots the overthrow of the suitors. He devises a plan to launch a surprise attack from within the palace. Odysseus will enter the palace disguised as a beggar and Telemachus will hide in the palace’s surplus arms section where the suitors can-not find him easily. The duo will get hold of the arms and kill the suitors.

Before Eumaeus can give Penelope news of Telemachus’s return, the messenger from the ship arrives in the palace and announces that Telemachus has come back. Dejected that their plot has failed, the suitors gather outside the palace to discuss their next move. One of the suitor, Antinous, suggests killing Telemachus before he can call an assembly and air the suitors’ dirty plot. But another suitor, Amphinomus, one of the more thoughtful and well-behaved suitors, suggests they wait for a sign from the gods before acting recklessly. Penelope later sees Antinous in the palace and rebukes him for plotting against her son, the details of which Medon had overheard and revealed to her (Book 4). Eurymachus calms Penelope down with his false concern for the safety of Telemachus.