The Odyssey

Ithaca, year ten since the fall of Troy. Odysseus sits on the shore of Ogygia, weeping, held by the nymph Calypso, who wants him for a husband and will not let him leave. Back home, his hall has become a feeding ground. One hundred and eight suitors occupy the palace: fifty-two from Dulichium, twenty-four from Same, twenty from Zacynthus, twelve from Ithaca itself. Night after night they eat through Odysseus's stores and court his wife Penelope, certain by now that he is dead. His son Telemachus, still young, still on the edge of manhood, cannot drive them out alone. Poseidon, who holds a grudge against Odysseus, happens to be away visiting the Ethiopians when the other gods meet to act. Athena takes the moment. Disguised as a stranger named Mentes, she arrives in Ithaca and finds Telemachus brooding among the suitors' noise. She tells him to call the men of Ithaca to the town's meeting ground at dawn, take his father's seat among the elders, and speak out publicly against the suitors there. It is not a rescue. It is a push. The next morning Telemachus goes to the assembly spear in hand and stands before the gathered townsmen and suitors alone in his cause. Only the old family friend Mentor speaks up in his defense. The rest of the crowd, including the suitors who still outnumber him roughly a hundred to one, does nothing to help him.