The Odyssey
Book 24-Warriors, Farewell
Nicole, Eva, Justin, Tara, Tatyana and Lauryn
Lead to Hades
• Hermes leads the ghosts of the suitors
bearing the golden wand into the
Underworld
• On the way the suitors ghosts meet
Achilles’ and Agamemnon’s ghosts
• Achilles greets Agamemnon and begins to
pity his death
• Agamemnon then describes Achilles’ own
funeral
The Suitors’ Death
• Agamemnon recognizes one of the
suitors, Amphimedon, from Ithaka and
asks him how he died
• Amphimedon explains how Penelope
began to weave a shroud for Lord
Laertes, and every night she unwove it,
tricking the suitors
• He continues to tell how the swineherd
led Odysseus to the manor hall as a
beggar
• Odysseus bent Telemachus’ bow and
killed the suitors
Agamemnon
Odysseus’ Return
• Odysseus and his men finally return after
twenty years to the house of Laertes
• Odysseus searches for his father and finds
him in an orchard, pretending to be a man in
search of Odysseus
• Still posing as the foreign man, Odysseus
tests his father and asks him about his son
questioning his knowledge of him
• Finally, Odysseus tells his father who he
really is and proves himself by showing his
scar of the boar’s tusk from Parnassos
Odysseus
and Laertes
Pact of Peace
• News spread over town about Odysseus’
return and Ithacans gathered at an assembly
in his hall
• The father of Antinoos, Eupeithes, rallies the
people who did not agree with Odysseus
killing the suitors
• Athena goes to Zeus to ask what he plans to
do about these events and says Odysseus is
to be made king and the men of Ithaca
become friends once again
• Athena disguises herself as Mentor and tells
the men to call upon her and Zeus’ name
when the fight begins
• Eupeithes is killed very quickly but Athena
appears and tells the Ithacans to make peace
Peace is Declared
• Athena asks Odysseus to call of the battle,
warning that Zeus would become angry if
the fighting continues
• Odysseus obeyed the goddess and is
pronounced king
• Athena as Mentor proclaims peace
among the men of Ithaca.
Analysis
• Odysseus reunites with his father, Laertes,
but deceives him at first by pretending to be
someone he isn’t
• The feast at Laertes’ house symbolized the
reuniting of Odysseus and his family and his
return home
• Laertes proves himself in battle by killing
Antinoos’ father
• Athena disguises herself as Mentor again for
the benefit of Odysseus and the Ithacans
Return of the Hero
• Odysseus finally returns home to Ithaca
after twenty long years of adventure
• He reunites with his family
• Peace is made under the grey-eyed
goddess, Athena
• Odysseus is pronounced king under Zeus’
demand
• The journey of the hero ends