Welcome to the end of week 2! You should have read through books 3&4 for this week.

Next week we will be going over books 5&6.

I really enjoyed these chapters. We still haven't met Odysseus yet, but I'm okay with that.

Discussion questions are in the comments.

Summary:

Book 3: Telemachus and Mentor, Athena in disguise, witness a religious ceremony in which scores of bulls are sacrificed to Poseidon, the god of the sea.  Athena prompts Telemachus, who has little experience with public speaking, to approach Nestor, the king of the city, and enquire about Odysseus from him. Nestor has no new information to share with Telemachus about Odysseus.

He remembers that after the fall of Troy, Agamemnon and Menelaus, the two Greek brothers who had led the expedition, had a fall-out. Menelaus set sail for Greece immediately, while Agamemnon waited for a day and continued sacrificing in Troy. Nestor joined Menelaus on his way back home, while Odysseus chose to stay with Agamemnon. Since then, he has not heard about Odysseus. Nestor prays that Athena will show Telemachus the kindness that she showed Odysseus and adds that he has heard that the suitors have taken over the prince’s house in Ithaca. He hopes that Telemachus will achieve the renown in defence of his father that Orestes, son of Agamemnon, won in defending his father. Telemachus then gets curious about Agamemnon’s fate and asks Nestor about it.

Nestor tells him that Agamemnon returned from Troy to find that Aegisthus, a coward who had remained in Ithaca for the fear of death in Troy, had seduced and married his wife, Clytemnestra. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus later colluded to kill Agamemnon. Aegisthus would have taken over Agamemnon’s kingdom had not Orestes, who was in exile in Athens, returned and killed the duo. Nestor gives the example of Orestes's courage to Telemachus and wishes that he too follows him. Next day, Nestor sends his own son Pisistratus along with Telemachus to Sparta. Athena reveals her divinity by transforming into an eagle (depending on your translation) before the entire court of Pylos and stays behind to stand guard as Telemachus’s ship and its crew.

Book 4: In Sparta, king Menelaus and his queen Helen are celebrating the marriages of their son and daughter. They greet Pisistratus and Telemachus after recognising Telemachus as the son of Odysseus because of the clear family resemblance.

At the feast, Menelaus and Helen recount with melancholy how Odysseus’ cunning had shone in the victory of Troy. Helen particularly recalls how Odysseus disguised as a beggar infiltrated through the city walls. Menelaus recounts the famous story of the Trojan horse and Odysseus’ masterful gambit that got the Greeks inside Troy and the slaughter of the Trojans. Next day, Menelaus recounts his own return from Troy. He was stranded in Egypt and was forced to capture Proteus, the divine Old Man of the Sea. Proteus guided him back to Sparta and then told him of the fates of Agamemnon and Ajax, another Greek heroes, who survived in Troy but got killed in Greece. Proteus tells Menelaus that Odysseus was still alive but in the captivity of Calypso on her island. Telemachus and Pisistratus are elated with this news and return to Pylos to set sail for Ithaca.

Meanwhile, the suitors at Ithaca come to know of Telemachus’s voyage and hatch a plan to ambush him. The herald Medon gets a wind of suitors' plan and reports it to Penelope. She panics at the thought of losing her son in addition to her husband but Athena comes to her rescue by sending a phantom in the form of Penelope’s sister, Iphthime, to reassure her. Iphthime assures Penelope that the goddess will protect Telemachus.

Context/References

-We will be hearing more about Nestor in other works we read this year. He was an Argonaut and served as an advisor in The Illiad. He was already old when the Trojan War began.

-Agamemnon and Menelaus were brothers and leaders of the Trojan War. We will learn more about them in the Illiad. They are descended from Atreus, whose descendents are referred to in the plural as Atreides (any Dune fans out there?)

-Helen will also be found in The Illiad. It was her abduction from Sparta that sparked the Trojan War in the first place.