When Grief Breaks Through Performance — The Odyssey

At dawn King Alcinous calls an assembly to arrange a ship and crew to take Ulysses home. Athena walks through the city disguised as a servant and tells everyone to come see the stranger, who looks like a god. Alcinous orders a feast and asks the blind bard Demodocus to sing. The bard sings about the quarrel between Ulysses and Achilles at Troy. Ulysses pulls his purple cloak over his face and weeps, but only Alcinous notices his heavy sighs.

Alcinous changes the mood by starting athletic games in the open field. Young Laodamas invites Ulysses to compete, but Ulysses says his mind is on cares, not contests. He has suffered too much and only wants help getting home. Euryalus insults him and calls him a weak merchant with no skill in sports. Ulysses gets angry, picks up a disc far heavier than the Phaeacians use, and throws it beyond every mark. Athena marks the throw. He then challenges the whole crowd to box, wrestle, or run, except Laodamas, because a guest should not fight his host's son.

Alcinous calms things down and orders dancing and more music. Demodocus sings about Mars and Venus caught in Vulcan's trap, and the crowd laughs at the gods. Later the nobles give Ulysses cloaks, shirts, and gold. Euryalus apologizes and hands him a bronze sword with a silver hilt. Arete packs a chest of gifts and warns Ulysses to tie it shut before he sleeps on the ship. Nausicaa tells him not to forget her when he reaches home.

After supper Ulysses asks Demodocus to sing about the wooden horse at Troy. The bard describes the horse inside the walls, the Greeks bursting out, and the sack of the city. Ulysses listens until he breaks down completely, weeping like a woman over a dead husband while the hall goes on around him. Alcinous sees his grief, stops the music, and tells everyone the guest has been suffering in silence all evening. He finally asks the question everyone has been waiting for: who is he, where is he from, and what happened on his long journey home?