Eurymachus acts as a leader among the suitors because of his charisma. Eurymachus Įurymachus, son of Polybus, is the second of the suitors to appear in the epic. When Odysseus finally returns home, disguised as a beggar, Antinous does not show him hospitality and throws a stool at him. Although his plan is vetoed by Amphinomus, Antinous continues to behave arrogantly. Antinous is the most disrespectful of the suitors and is the one who devises a plan to murder Telemachus upon his return to Ithaca. Important suitors Īlthough there are many suitors, three are particularly important to the narrative of the epic.Īntinous, son of Eupheithes, is the first of the suitors to speak in the epic and the first to die upon Odysseus' return. For reasons of oral presentation (i.e., a memory aid), the suitors are usually listed in the same order throughout the Odyssey. Together, Odysseus, Telemachus, Eumaeus and Philoetius kill the suitors and the disloyal maidservants. Once Odysseus returns home (after Athena initially disguises him as a beggar so he can plot his revenge in secret), his son Telemachus tells him that there are 108 suitors: 52 from Dulichium, 24 from Same, 20 Achaeans from Zacynthus, and 12 from Ithaca. In return, Athena urges Telemachus to stand up to the suitors and set out in search of his father. Telemachus laments to Athena (disguised as Mentes, one of Odysseus' guest-friends) about the suitors' behavior. Odysseus' son, Telemachus, now a young man, is frustrated with the suitors. The suitors behave badly in Odysseus' home, drinking his wine and eating his food. Slaughter of the suitors by Odysseus and Telemachus, Campanian red-figure bell- krater, c. Upon finding out, the suitors demand that she choose a husband from among them. The suitors learn of Penelope's delaying tactic when one of her maidservants, Melantho, reveals it to her lover Eurymachus. For three years, Penelope weaves the shroud during the day and unravels it at night, awaiting her husband's return. She claims she will choose a husband after she has finished weaving a funeral shroud to present to Odysseus' father, Laertes. Rather than simply rejecting the suitors, Penelope devises a plan to delay their courtship. Under the pretense of courting Penelope, these youths, called "the suitors", take up residence in Odysseus' home and vie for her hand in marriage. Although most surviving Greek soldiers return shortly after the end of the fighting, Odysseus does not return to Ithaca until ten years after the end of the Trojan War.ĭuring Odysseus' long absence, unmarried young men start to suspect that Odysseus died in Troy or on the journey home. When he departs from Ithaca to fight for the Greeks in the war, he leaves behind a newborn child, Telemachus, and his wife, Penelope. Prior to the Trojan War, Odysseus was King of Ithaca, a Greek island known for its isolation and rugged terrain. In the Odyssey, Homer describes Odysseus' journey home from Troy. Role in the Odyssey Penelope Unraveling Her Work at Night by Dora Wheeler Keith (1886) In Greek mythology, the suitors of Penelope (also known as the Proci) are one of the main subjects of Homer's Odyssey. Penelope and the Suitors by John William Waterhouse (1912).
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