The Odyssey, Book 4. So it begins in media res, which means in the middle of things, and the structure of the Odyssey is quite unusual because of this. So Telemachus and Pisistratus, who is Nestor's son, arrive in Sparta at Menelaus's palace. This is very grand, and he is celebrating the impending weddings of his son and daughter. They're not getting married to one another, they're both getting married to separate individuals at the same time. Menelaus'squire sees them and asks the king whether to send them away.
He is shocked and tells him to offer Xenia, which he does. He thinks they look of divine descent. The reason that the Spartans are a little bit unsure about whether to offer Xenia, because obviously Xenia is a divine law that everyone must offer, it's hospitality, is because the previous... people that they offered Xenia to were the Trojans who um well Paris uh um seduced and stole Menelaus's wife so the Spartans are a bit uh concerned about offering this to foreigners again um Menelaus tells them about his past the man he mourns mourns for the most is Odysseus and this makes Telemachus cry um so oh yeah Telemachus compares Menelaus'palace to that of Zeus, and Menelaus says no man can compete with Zeus. This shows the respect for the gods.
So obviously, Telemachus crying helps Menelaus work out his identity, but he doesn't say anything. He doesn't say that he knows he's the son of Odysseus, because he wants Telemachus to say it himself when he feels like he can. Helen now enters and...
immediately recognises Telemachus and immediately brings it up, which increases Telemachus'kleos because he is compared to his dad who is this massive hero, so it shows his respect and his heroic qualities. Pisistratus says that Telemachus is too shy to ask about Odysseus uninvited. This is slightly bad for his kleos because he seems a bit weak. Menelaus says that Odysseus was a great friend and he had wanted to reward him on return from Troy, and they all begin to cry.
This would be, for example, giving him a town in Argos. Pisistratus says that they shouldn't cry, and Menelaus commends him for his good sense and says that they will discuss serious matters in the morning. Helen slips a drug into their wine to stop them from being sad.
She is a very manipulative character, if you've read The Odyssey or if you've seen my summary video of it or anything like that, you'll see that she is repeatedly characterised as this sort of sexual deviant, very manipulative, the epitome of sort of the woman that everyone hated. She talks about how Odysseus disguised himself as a beggar and snuck into Troy when the Trojan War was happening. She saw through his disguise and bathed and clothed him and then they told each other info because she was on the Achaeans'side. um she blames Aphrodite for the blindness which brought her to Troy.
Menelaus talks about Odysseus in the Trojan horse um and then the next morning Telemachus explains to Menelaus about the suitors um and asks about Odysseus's death um so there are 108 suitors back at um in Ithaca in Telemachus's house or Odysseus's house all trying to court Penelope, who is Telemachus'mother, Odysseus'wife. And so they are disrespecting the house, they are stealing food and eating up the inheritance. So this enrages Menelaus and he foreshadows their death. Menelaus tells the story of Egypt, where he was stuck on the island of Pharos for 20 days. Idathie took pity on them and told Menelaus how to catch Proteus, who would tell them their journey.
Idothy is Proteus's daughter. He is also called the old man of the sea. They did what she says, hiding four men under seal scales, seal skins. Proteus keeps seals and he counts them every day so this would, this is why they can be hidden there. And they would have to put ambrosia in their noses because obviously the seals would have smelt horrendous.
Proteus emerged, counted the seals and went to sleep. They grabbed him and he kept transforming until he gave up. So he is a shapeshifter.
He transformed into a lion, a snake, panther, water and a tree before eventually giving up. They ask him how to get home, travel the Nile and make offerings is what he says. And then they ask about his comrades.
Proteus says that two died on the way home and one is still a prisoner. The two that died on the way home are Ajax and Agamemnon. Agamemnon actually died when he returned home.
He was killed by his wife and her lover. That is in, if you want to see about that, that's in my tragedy summary for Aeschylus'Agamemnon. And obviously the prisoner is Odysseus. Menelaus offers Telemachus Xenia for 12 days and the gifts he gives, which are Xenia gifts traditionally, the host will, as they send the guest off, they will give gifts. These are three horses, a chariot and a cup.
Telemachus politely refuses because his friends will be tired of waiting for him in Pylos and he only asks for a practical keepsake. This is also because he can't really use the horses and chariot. back at Ithaca, so it would be a waste of the wealth.
Menelaus praises Telemachus'sensibility, so he says it very politely rather than a no I don't want your things. And yeah, no space for horses in Ithaca. Menelaus gives him a gold mixing bowl made by Hephaestus. Back in Ithaca, Neumann asks the other suitors if they know when Telemachus will return from Pylos. The others didn't even know that he'd gone.
And they are angry and ask when he left. So Neumann actually lent Telemachus his ship. So he aided and abetted this journey.
He seems like one of the nicer suitors, to be honest. And so after this, he returns to his father's house because, you know, he's like, calm down, guys. This is fine.
And he doesn't really care that much. The angry suitors plan to assassinate Telemachus on his way home. Antinous, who is the kind of leader of them, is described as having his heart was seething with black passion. The Herald tells Penelope about their plan.
She didn't know that Telemachus had gone and asks why he would be so stupid. And the Herald explains Telemachus'reasoning and Penelope cries. Penelope sends her servant to tell Laertes, who is Odysseus'reclusive father, perhaps this news will prompt him to return and sort out the suitors. So he's in recluse and... It would have been expected that he would take over the estate when Odysseus went to fight in the Trojan War almost 20 years ago now.
But I was reading some scholarly articles and essentially they said that the story needs to be that for Telemachus to grow up, he needs to have not known his father, so Odysseus had to have left just as he was born, basically. And then... um we need to see him growing up and we need to see him becoming a hero or sort of developing heroic qualities in his own right without seeing how his father behaves so this has to be about 20 years um because then he'll be a man and if Laertes had actually taken over the estate then uh Telemachus would have still seen this sort of masculinity and father figure in Laertes so um Homer really uses Laertes reclusiveness as a um device really to set the story up properly um euroclaya says that she knew about telemachus leaving and she tells penelope to wash and pray um she also says it is certain that at least one of them telemachus or odysseus will return to continue the line um so antinous picks his best 20 men and they all set up their ships penelope falls asleep and athene sends a phantom iptheme who says that you Telemachus will return home.
When Penelope asks her about Odysseus, she doesn't answer. Okay, so this is the end of book four, short summary. More will be coming later. Thank you for listening.