Odyssey - Book 14 Summary

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  • Created by: z
  • Created on: 06-04-10 18:25
  • Odysseus (disguised as a ragged, old beggar) finds his swineherd, Eumaeus, who has just sent off a boar to the suitors. Eumaeus asks the stranger to eat, saying every beggar comes from Zeus, and slaughters two small pigs, which he mixes with barley and serves with honeyed wine. After eating, the beggar asks Eumaeus questions about his master. Eumaeus is convinced Odysseus is dead. The beggar says he wants a reward of nice clothing in return for his good news that Odysseus is returning.
  • Eumaeus tells the Odysseus-beggar that Telemachus grew up well, but then became imbalanced by a god and has set off to Pylos to find word of his father. Telemachus doesn't know the suitors are lying in ambush. Then Eumaeus asks for the beggar's story.
  • The Odysseus-beggar tells him it could take a year to tell and then begins. He is the son of a rich man and comes from Crete. His mother was a concubine and when his father died, the sons of the legal wife gave him a pittance. He won a wealthy wife, sailed, and fought in wars. Before Troy, he had led 9 raids and taken the lion's share of the spoils. When the Trojan expedition was underway, he and Idomeneus were asked to head a fleet. After the war, he went home, where he stayed only a month before heading to Egypt. His men plundered and…

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