Book 19 summary

Question 1

What happens at the start of the book?

Answer 1

• As the suitors sleep, Odysseus and Telemachus lock up most of the weapons as part of their plan
• Telemachus goes to sleep

Question 2

What happens after Telemachus goes to sleep?

Answer 2

• Penelope comes to question Odysseus
• He tells her that he once hosted Odysseus in his home.
• Penelope weeps to hear her husband’s name, but she decides to test the stranger’s honesty

Question 3

How does Penelope test Odysseus’ story?

Answer 3

• She asks him for details
• Odysseus describes his cothes and his herald, making Penelope cry again, as they’re clothes she gave to him.
• Odysseus tells her that her husband has been at sea for a long time but that he’ll be home soon

Question 4

What does Penelope ask the maids to do?

Answer 4

• To bathe the stranger
• He refuses, and instead Eurykleia washes his feet

Question 5

What happened whilst Eurykleia was washing Odysseus’ feet

Answer 5

• She cried to hear Odysseus’ name, and remarked that there was a great likeness between her king and the old beggar
• She notices a scar Odysseus received while hunting with his grandfather Autolycus

Question 6

What happens when Eurykleia recognises Odysseus?

Answer 6

• She dropped his foot, spilling the basin of water and cried out in recognition
• Odysseus grabs her and threatens her to be silent, and she gladly promises to keep this secret.
• Athena distracts Penelope from noticing the scene.

Question 7

Analysis of scar recognition scene:

Answer 7

• Eurykleia seems to be connected to the spirit of Odysseus, and is therefore not tricked by his outwards appearance.
• Penelope and Telemachus, who love him for both his interior and exterior can’t see through the disguise
• The scar connects his changed appearance to his past, just as it cuts through skin to flesh

Question 8

What happens when Eurykleia leaves?

Answer 8

• Odysseus resumes his conversation with Penelope
• She ass him to interpret a dream in which an eagle flies down the mountains and breaks the necks of twenty geese in her household, and then announces that it is her husband who has just killed the suitors

Question 9

How does Odysseus interpret Penelope’s dream?

Answer 9

• Odysseus tells her it means certain death for the suitors
• However, Penelope is sceptical that the dream was a prophecy

Question 10

What is the last thing Penelope says to Odysseus in this book?

Answer 10

• She plans to announce an archery contest to finally choose a new husband.
• Odysseus promises that her husband will return before a single man strings the bow.