Odyssey Books 18-24 Summaries

The Odyssey
Books 18-24 Summaries
By Erin Salona

Book 18
Iros, a real beggar, orders Odysseus to leave the hall
Iros challenges Odysseus to a fight
Athena secretly helps Odysseus look bigger and scare Iros
The suitors are impressed and offer Odysseus, the beggar, food
Odysseus, the beggar, warns them Odysseus will return soon
Melantho, the disloyal maid, insults Odysseus

Book NINETEENPenelope, the Beggar, and the Nurse
Odysseus and Telemachus discuss their strategy to kill the suitors
Odysseus wants to test the loyalty of Penelope and her maids
The maids have not been loyal and have been helping the suitors

Book 19
Odysseus, the beggar, and Penelope sit and talk, and she tells him of her problems: how she misses her husband and how she doesn’t want to remarry
Odysseus, the beggar, tells a story about his identity and how he met Odysseus and he praises him

Penelope cries upon hearing about her husband
Odysseus decides that Penelope passed the loyalty test
Odysseus, the beggar, tells her that Odysseus is sailing home
Penelope is hopeful and asks Eurycleia to wash his feet

Eurycleia tells Odysseus, the beggar, that he is a lot like Odysseus
Then Eurycleia sees the scar on his leg from a boar’s tusk injury on Mt. Parnassus.
Eurycleia recognizes Odysseus.
Odysseus swears Eurycleia to secrecy

Book Twenty
Odysseus imagines killing the suitors as he tries to sleep
The suitors are sleeping with maids in his home
Athena assures Odysseus he will defeat the suitors; she will protect him

Book Twenty
Penelope is so miserable she asks the goddess Artemis to make her die
Odysseus hears Penelope crying and he prays to Zeus to give her a sign that he is home
Zeus sends thunder
The suitors still plot to kill Telemachus

Book Twenty
The suitors continue to abuse Odysseus, the beggar
Telemachus threatens them for bothering the beggar
The suitors insist Penelope choose a suitor to marry
Telemachus says he will not force his mother to marry
Blood from animals they eat streams from their mouths– an omen of death

Book Twenty-ONEThe Test of the Great Bow
Penelope tells the suitors that she will marry the one who can bend, string, and shoot Odysseus’s special hunting bow through 12 ax handles.
This contest takes place on a festival day for Apollo, the god of archery

Book Twenty-One
Nobody can work Odysseus’sbow.
Odysseus asks the cowherd Philoetiusand the swineherd Eumaeus to help him
Odysseus tells them that they were the only men who missed him

Odysseus will give the cowherd and swineherd wives, cattle, and homes if they help him kill the suitors
Odysseus shows them his scar to prove himself
Odysseus tells them to lock himself and all the suitors in the room when he picks up the bow
Penelope allows Odysseus, the beggar, to test the bow

Telemachus has removed the suitors’ weapons from the hall
Odysseus, the beggar, strings the bow and shoots it through the axe holes
Telemachus straps on his
armor
The fighting with the suitors begins in the next book.

Book TWENTY-TWODeath at the Palace
*This is the climax.
Odysseus takes off his beggar rags.
Odysseus must fight more than 100 suitors
He attacks Antinous, the meanest, first, and shoots an arrow into his neck.

The suitors run around, looking for their weapons and cursing Odysseus.
Odysseus accuses the suitors of such things as: “using” his maids and trying to marry his wife
The suitors, of course, don’t believe he is Odysseus
Eurymachus blames the suitors’ actions on Antinous’ commands

Eurymachus tells Odysseus that he and the suitors will give him gifts if he lets them go
Odysseus replies, “There will be killing till the score is paid.”
Telemachus, Eumaeus, and Philoetius help Odysseus kill the suitors
Athena’s shield comes to life, and she, disguised as Mentor, helps kill the suitors
All suitors are killed by the end of the battle.

The goatheardMelanthiuswho has insulted Odysseus, tries to bring the suitors’ weapons to the hall. Eumaeus & Philoetius string him up alive.
Odysseus rounds up the disloyal maids, forces them to clean up the mess of dead bodies, and then Telemachus hangs them
One suitor is even killed & fed to the dogs!

Book TWENTY-THREEOdysseus and Penelope
Eurycleia announces Odysseus’s return to Penelope.
Penelope suspects a trick from the gods and decides to test Odysseus
Telemachus chides her for doubting Odysseus’s identity
She tells Telemachus that she and Odysseus share secret signs
Odysseus tells Telemachus & the servants to stage a fake wedding feast so that nobody suspects the massacre

Odysseus is made handsome by Athena
Odysseus tells Eurycleia to prepare a couch for him to sleep upon
Penelope tells the nurse to carry their marriage bed out for him to sleep on—words meant to test her husband
Odysseus becomes upset because the bed was built around an olive tree that serves as a bedpost– it can’t be moved unless another man had sawed the post from the trunk

Book TWENTY-THREEThe Marriage Bed

Odysseus passes Penelope’s test and they embrace.
Athena delays the sunrise so the couple can spend more time together
Odysseus plans to travel to his father Laertes’ house and to seek revenge upon the suitors’ families.

Book TWENTY-FOUROdysseus and His Father
The ghosts of the suitors drift to the Underworld with Hermes’ help.
Odysseus goes to see his elderly father Laertes, but pretends to be a traveler who entertained Odysseus 5 years ago.
When Laertes begins to cry, Odysseus reveals himself, knowing his father is loyal
He proves his identity by showing his leg scar & discussing childhood memories.

Book TWENTY-FOUROdysseus and His Father
Odysseus, Telemacus, Laertes, and other loyal men eat together.
Athena makes Laertes look younger.
A battle erupts between the suitors’ families and the Ithacans; the families are furious due to the loss of the suitors
Laertes kills Antinous’ father Eupithes

Book Twenty-Four
Athena, under Zeus’ command, makes Odysseus call off the battle, and everyone lived happily ever after.

The End

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Odyssey Books 18-24 Summaries

by Carmel High School; Carmel, Indiana on Dec 09, 2010

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