Standing Up in the Assembly — The Odyssey

At dawn Telemachus dresses like a young king and calls the people of Ithaca to assembly. This is the first council meeting since Ulysses left for Troy. Old Aegyptius opens by asking why they have been summoned. Telemachus takes his father's seat with Athena's help and speaks to the whole island. He names two disasters: his father is gone, and the suitors are eating up his house. They sacrifice his oxen and sheep, drink his wine, and will not go through proper courtship with his grandfather Icarius. He asks the elders to help him, appeals to their conscience and the gods, then breaks down crying.

Only Antinous answers with anger. He blames Penelope instead of the suitors. He tells how she wove a funeral shroud for Laertes by day and unraveled it at night for three years to delay marriage. The suitors say she is too clever and that they will keep feasting until she chooses a husband. Telemachus refuses to send his mother away. He again tells them to leave and feast at their own homes.

Then Jove sends two eagles over the assembly. They fight in the sky and fly away. Halitherses, the prophet, says this means Ulysses is coming home soon and the suitors will pay. Eurymachus mocks him and threatens Telemachus. Mentor, Ulysses' old friend, rises and scolds the whole town for forgetting their former king and doing nothing while suitors ruin the house. Leiocritus says even Ulysses could not fight them all. The assembly ends with no help.

Telemachus walks to the shore and prays to Athena. She appears as Mentor and tells him to prepare supplies while she finds a ship and crew. Back at the house, Antinous pretends to be friendly and offers a ship. Telemachus pulls his hand away and says he is going anyway. He secretly asks his old nurse Euryclea for wine and barley meal, makes her swear not to tell Penelope, and plans to leave at night. Athena gathers sailors, borrows a ship from Noemon, puts the suitors into a deep sleep, and calls Telemachus to the harbor. They load stores, raise sail, and sail toward Pylos while the town sleeps.