Entry 4

Book 16: Father and Son

In this book it is now finally time to return home. When he is there he must, as you know, take out all the suitors so Athena disguises Odysseus as a beggar. As he returns home, he meets with Eumaeus the swineherd who tells him everything that has been going on at home. So Odysseus goes to Eumaeus's house to meet his son, Telemachus. When he gets there, he notices Eumaeus and Telemachus have a great relationship.Telemachus treats him as a father but it is very ironic because Telemachus's real father is standing right in front of him! When Odysseus is standing there trying to talk to him, for some reason, Telemachus thinks that the gods are paying a mean trick on him and that the beggar is a god not his father. Odysseus informs him that he is indeed his father and they must no return to their home and get rid of the suitors, but not to tell the mother because she might give it away. Eumaeus and Telemachus treat him very well as a guest in the house, which is very ironic compared to what is about to happen.