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 NINETEEN
Penelope, 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
Book NINETEEN
Penelope, the Beggar, and the Nurse
• 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
Book NINETEEN
Penelope, the Beggar, and the Nurse
• 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-ONE
The 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’s bow.
• Odysseus asks the
cowherd Philoetius and
the swineherd
Eumaeus to help him
• Odysseus tells them
that they were the only
men who missed him
Book Twenty-ONE
The Test of the Great Bow
• 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
Book Twenty-ONE
The Test of the Great 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-TWO
Death 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.
Book TWENTY-TWO
Death at the Palace
• 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
Book TWENTY-TWO
Death at the Palace
• 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.
Book TWENTY-TWO
Death at the Palace
• The goatheard Melanthius
who 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-THREE
Odysseus 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
Book TWENTY-THREE
Odysseus and Penelope
• 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-THREE
The Marriage Bed
Book TWENTY-THREE
Odysseus and Penelope
• 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-FOUR
Odysseus 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-FOUR
Odysseus 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