The Odyssey
Books 3-4
Directions: Read the summary of Book 3 below and then answer the 6 Book 3 reading questions. Then read the summary and excerpts of Book 4. The last step requires you to read pages 70-78 in the text. Finally, answer the Book 4 questions.
Book 3: The Lord of the Western Approaches
Telemakhos’s ship arrives at Pylos. Athena encourages Telemakhos to inquire about his father even though he feels shy. She reassures him that she will inspire him to say the words he cannot find within himself. King Nestor and his son Pisistratus welcome Telemachus to their feast and ceremony honoring Poseidon. Nestor is an example of a good host—when Telemakhos and his men arrive, “a hail went up, and all that crowd came forward calling out invitations to the feast.” They also make sacrifices to the gods before they eat which is considered proper. They are fed well and only then are they asked questions by Nestor about why they are there and what they want.
When Nestor asks Telemakhos who they are and why they have traveled to Pylos, Telemakhos asks about his father: “I am on the trail of my father’s widespread fame, you see, searching the earth to catch some news of the great-hearted King Odysseus, who, they say fought with you to demolish Troy some years ago.”
Nestor tells Telemakhos his memories of fighting with Odysseus, but he knows nothing of Odysseus’s fate once they separated after the end of the war. Nestor, who has heard of the trouble with the suitors in Ithikha, hopes that the goddess Athena (whom he does not realize is there in disguise) will help Telemakhos stop the suitors and show him the same favor she showed to Odysseus.
Nestor also tells Telemakhos about the fate of Agamemnon: When Agamemnon returned home after the war, he discovered that his wife, Clytemnestra, had been seduced by and married Aegisthus. Aegisthus murders Agamemnon with
Clytemnestra’s permission. Agamemon’s son, Orestes, returns home and murders both Aegisthus and Clytemnestra; this stops Aegisthus from taking over Agamemnon’s
kingdom. Nestor points to Orestes as a model for Telemachus in dealing with his situation with the suitors in Ithaka.
Nestor encourages Telemakhos to visit Menelaos and Helen in Sparta, as Telemakhos had planned, to seek out information about Odysseus. Athena suggests that Nestor send his son with Telemakhos and then reveals herself as a goddess by flying away in the form of an eagle. The next day, Nestor holds a feast to honor Athena, and
Book Four: The Red-Haired King and His Lady
Telemachus and Pisistratus arrive in Sparta as Menelaos’s son and daughter both celebrate their weddings. A lord, Eteoneus, sees them outside the court and asks Menelaus if he should bring them in or send them on their way.
Now when Telemakhos and Nestor’s son pulled up their horses at the main gate,
one of the king’s companions in arms, Eteoneus, going outside, caught sight of them. He turned and passed through court and hall to tell the master, stepping up close to get his ear. Said he:
“Two men are here—two strangers, Menelaos, but nobly born Akhaians, they appear.
What do you say, shall we unhitch their team, or send them on to someone free to receive them?”
The red-haired captain answered him in anger:
“You were no idiot before, Eteoneus, but here you are talking like a child of ten. Could we have made it home again—and Zeus Give us no more hard roving!—if other men Had never fed us, given us lodging?
Bring these men to be our guests: unhitch their team!”
Telemakhos and Pisistratus enter, and Telemakhos is amazed by the riches of Sparta. Menelaos confesses that he’d rather have one third of the riches and have his brother (Agamemnon) still alive. He also weeps for the lives lost at Troy. He continues to say he weeps for Odysseus as well as for Penelope and Telemachus. He says:
You must have heard your fathers tell my story, whoever your fathers are; you must know of my life, the anguish I once had, and the great house
full of my treasure, left in desolation. How gladly I should live one third as rich
to have my friends back safe at home!—my friends who died on Troy’s wide seaboard, far
from the grazing lands of Argos.
But as things are, nothing but grief is left me for those companions. While I sit at home sometimes hot tears come, and I revel in them, or stop before the surfeit makes me shiver. And there is one I miss more than the other dead I mourn for; sleep and food alike grow hateful when I think of him. No solider
How his old father and his quiet wife, Penelope, must miss him still!
And Telemakhos, whom he left as a new-born child.
Telemachus begins to weep, and Menelaus recognizes him as Odysseus’s son:
Now hearing these things said, the boy’s heart rose in a long pang for his father, and he wept,
holding his purple mantle with both hands before his eyes. Menelaos knew him now, whether to let him speak and name his father
in his own time or let him speak and name his father.
Helen enters and also immediately recognizes Telemakhos. Pisistratus confirms that they are right, and Menelaos is thrilled to have “the son of [his] dearest friend” in his house. They all cry thinking about Odysseus and other lost family members. Helen mixes a drug into their wine to stop their tears, Helen and Menelaus tell tales of Odysseus, and they all retire for the evening.
In the morning, Telemakhos explains his journey to Menelaos and asks for information about Odysseus. In response to Telemakhos’s problem with the suitors, Menelaos replies:
If only that Odysseus met the suitors,
they’d have their consummation, a cold bed! Now for your questions, let me come to the point. I would not misinterpret it for you; let me
tell you what the Ancient of the Sea, who is infallible, said to me—every word.
Menelauos tells of his journey home from Troy: he was marooned in Troy by the gods, but the goddess Eidothea, daughter of Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea, felt sorry for him. Eidothea told him if he captured Proteus, Proteus would tell him the way home. She helped Menelaos ambush Proteus by telling him to hide with his men under seal skins in a cave where Proteus sleeps. Menelaos followed her directions and learned his own destiny as well as the fate of his fellow Achaeans, including Odysseus. Menelaus tells Telemakhos that according to Proteus, Odysseus is being held against his will by the nymph Kalypso:
Laertes’ son, whose home is Ithika. I saw him weeping, weeping on an island. The nymph Kalypso has him, in her hall. No means of fairing home are left him now; no ship with oars, and no ship’s company to pull him on the broad back of the sea.
Menelaos invites Telemakhos to stay a dozen days, but Telemakhos instead returns to Pylos so he can return to Ithika with his news of Odysseus.
Meanwhile, the suitors realize Telemakhos has left Ithika.
The Odyssey
Reading Questions
Book 3 Questions:
1. How does Athena comfort Telemakhos?
2. Which does King Nestor do first, feed Telemakhos or ask who he is?
3. Does King Nestor have the information Telemakhos is looking for?
4. How does King Nestor connect Telemakhos to Orestes?
5. What does Athena do at the end of the book?
6. Who travels with Telemakhos to Sparta?
Book 4 Questions
1. What is happening when Telemakhos arrives in Sparta?
2. Who is the red-haired king?
3. How is Telemakhos received when he arrives? Include a line from the text.
4. How does Menelaos feel about his riches?
6. What information does Menelaos have that Telemakhos is looking for?
7. Back in Ithikha, what does Antinoos decide to do about Telemakhos?
8. How does Penelope react when she learns of Telemachus’s journey and his potential fate upon his return? Use specific evidence from the text.
9. How does Athena help Penelope?
