The word inasmuch means: "in the degree that" or "to such a degree."

Zeus has been reminded by Athena that Odysseus is stranded on Calypso's island. Zeus states that he has not forgotten Odysseus, but that Poseidon is still enraged for Odysseus's blinding of Polyphemus the Cyclops. In an effort to get Odysseus home, Zeus agrees that all the gods and goddesses should find a plan to convince Poseidon to cease his vendetta.

One of only a few servants to receive a name in The Odyssey, Euryclea is one of the oldest and most trusted servants in Odysseus's household. In the course of the poem, we'll see her working as a maid, a nurse, a confidante, and even a friend, as she helps both Telemachus and Odysseus with their plans.

This sheds light on some of the complex gender dynamics at work in this poem. While this is a male-dominated society, and women are considered property in many ways, their emotional lives are still as rich and varied as they would be now, and though women have no real political clout, they nevertheless wield some level of power over their husbands.

Telemachus, like his father before him, has grown suspicious of other people's motives, and this has led him to make a series of shrewd decisions, including confronting the suitors and making this display of power. This wisdom born of familiarity with deceit further develops the theme of lies, which will become more important as we get deeper into the poem.

"Sooth" means truth, so a soothsayer is literally a "truth-teller" and acts like a fortune teller. In ancient Greek and Shakespearean tragedies, soothsayers were wise men who foretold the future, but often left somewhat cryptic clues as to what that future would be. Penelope's desire to speak to a soothsayer signifies that she's become desperate for answers, whereas Telemachus had given up hope, until Athena came.

That is, before they could get to know his intentions. The suitors, having lived off of Odysseus' wealth for the past few years, are naturally very possessive and want to protect their claim to Penelope. Any outsiders, even Athena in disguise, would be considered a threat to their livelihood and would need to either be brought into the fold or eliminated.

The second suitor to speak out against Telemachus, his name means "wide-fighting one" and his reputation is one of cunning and deceit. Even though he promises in this passage that no harm will ever befall Telemachus, neither the reader nor Telemachus believes him or his fellow suitors. This exchange, terse with threats of violence and displays of courage, sets the tone for future scenes between Telemachus and the suitors.

In this case, both the people of Ithaca, whom Odysseus rules, and the servants of the house, whom he owns. In ancient Greece, most servants were slaves and indentured workers "won" (or captured) in war. Some of these slaves might also have been given as gifts, from one man of position to another, as a token of his esteem. Upon Odysseus's death, these slaves wouldn't have been set free but would've passed down to the heir, Telemachus.

This functions as both a question and a challenge. Telemachus knows very well that all the suitors would like him out of the picture and that they would, if given the opportunity, kill him themselves. It's possible they're already plotting against him. That Telemachus says this and that he goes on to say he'd like to be chief, like his father, indicates that he's coming into his own power.

Based on this line, we can assume that Antinous is one of the most aggressive suitors present, willing both to confront Telemachus and to speak for the others when Telemachus finally takes charge. Though he's bold enough to speak up, he's not foolish enough to believe that he's in the right. By extension, all of the suitors are perfectly aware of how rude they're being, which only makes it ruder that they're doing it anyway.

In ancient Greek tradition, women were subservient to men and were relegated to the roles of mother and wife. Though female gods like Athena were powerful in their own right, the Greek pantheon was dominated primarily by males, just like Greek literature. Speech or writing were part of the male domain, but there were still a few female poets in ancient Greece, of which Sappho is probably the most famous.

Unlike modern-day poetry, Homer's works serve a dual function as an epic poem and an historical account, with many people and events in The Odyssey (particularly where it pertains to the Trojan War) being, by some measure, factual. As a bard, Homer wouldn't have created this history, but he would have embellished its emotional and psychological content, which is what Penelope responds to here.

This refers to the region of Greece from Laconia in the south to Elis in the north that had the most concentrated development and most powerful Greek city-states, including the kingdoms of Agamemnon, Menelaus, Nestor, and several other of the most important Greek kings and war heroes. Odysseus, though not a king, would be well-known among them and listed in this category of great men.

This item, traditionally worn by widows, indicates that Penelope is in mourning for Odysseus, whose return seems less and less likely with each passing day. It appears that this veil is the only thing keeping her suitors from forcing her to make a decision about them, because, in spite of their bad manners, they still respect Greek traditions of mourning.

It's unclear whether Athena transfigures herself into a bird or merely makes use of her enchanted sandals to fly off into the air. If indeed it is the former, this fits into a larger theme of gods disguising themselves as animals. Perhaps the most famous example of this might be Zeus turning himself into a swan while pursuing Leda, one of his consorts.

Given what we know of Athena's intentions here, it's likely that the "gift" she gives Telemachus will be his father, returning at last from his voyage. It seems unlikely, however, that Telemachus will be able to give Athena a gift of equal value, since his father's return may as well be priceless to him. We will have to wait and see what, if anything, comes of this promise.

Although their situations aren't exactly analogous, the comparison to Orestes is apt, because he and Telemachus are both the sons of returning war heroes, and their houses are both in some way ruined by the time their fathers return. Throughout this speech, Athena tries to boost Telemachus' low self-esteem by comparing him to other great men, but it remains to be seen whether this tactic will be effective.

Until now, Athena has been presenting Telemachus with a reasonable course of action, but with this suggestion, her speech takes a dark turn emblematic of the gods themselves: while they're not in general that bloodthirsty, their idea of justice skews toward violence, and as a result the Greek justice system didn't adequately address problems like murder and rape.

It's unclear whether Telemachus means this in a literal or metaphorical sense. It may well be both, in the sense that he's afraid his for emotional stability (having to constantly cater to these unwanted guests) and for his physical safety, as a young man in a house full of older and stronger men with combat experience.

Homer never fully explains Penelope's indecision here. This line makes clear that, if she were simply to say no to all the suitors, then she'd have the authority to throw them out, but for some reason she isn't able to do this. Likely, she's afraid of the retribution this will wreak, and of the dangers of being a "widow" on an island full of drunken, jilted men. These suitors then become a form of protection against an even worse future.

In ancient Greek tradition, heroes were burned on a funeral pyre built of wood, then the ashes were lain in the ground and covered with a mound of dirt. Often in war men will not have this luxury, and when men are lost at sea, their bodies can't be glorified this way. Telemachus wishes there had been a body because that would've made him the rightful heir to Odysseus' home and solved all of his problems with the suitors.

Here we see the theme of man's fate versus the gods' will in action. Telemachus believes that the gods have done this to him, but we know from earlier passages that this isn't true, so the tension between gods and mortals becomes instead just a question of perception. In the end, Telemachus's inability to cast away the suitors isn't because of the gods, but rather due to his own youthful lack of courage and experience.

At this point in the narrative, Odysseus has been gone for twenty years (ten of which were spent fighting Troy). It's clear that, while Telemachus would certainly like his father to return, he's given up all hope and has begun to question if, after all this time, he can even refer to himself as Odysseus' son, since his father didn't raise him. This suggests that even in Homer's day fatherhood was more than a mere question of paternity.

That is, Helen of Troy. Originally hailing from the city-state of Argos, Helen later married King Menelaus, Agamemnon's brother, and was seduced by Paris, the prince of Troy, who took her away from Menelaus in an act sparking the Trojan War. Famed for her beauty, Helen's was "the face that launched a thousand ships."

This declaration, so obviously a lie, tells the reader that Athena's guesses about Odysseus' whereabouts are in fact true and that he will be taken hostage by a group of savages, but since we haven't seen this yet, we can assume Homer is foreshadowing something he'll relate to us later in the poem.

Odysseus' father. With Odysseus away, Laertes should've taken over his house, as the eldest male in the family, but the narrative requires that no strong figure be present in the household, and thus, Homer made Laertes old and feeble so he wouldn't be able to fulfill his duties to Odysseus. Athena mentions this as a way of commenting on the confluence of bad luck that led to this situation with the suitors.

A city on the Southern coast of Italy that was well-known for its copper mines. In ancient Greece, long-distance trading was conducted primarily by ships, with traders like the Taphians and the more famous Phoenicians dominating most trade routes. Copper would've been a major commodity at the time this poem was written and was used in everything from armor to coinage to buildings.

A poet, like Homer, who performs with his lyre in front of the suitors. Phemius has been forced to perform against his wishes, despite the fact that, as guests, the suitors have no authority to compel him to do anything. Only Telemachus, as the male head of the household, is allowed to give orders in the house, but because of his age, and because of his father's absence, he doesn't have the authority or the courage to speak out against the suitors.

In ancient Greece, even servants were divided into social classes, with "upper" servants working in the dining hall and the house proper and "lower" servants working in the fields or the stables. The upper servants weren't treated better in any way, and all servants were likely to be slaves or indentured servants working off a debt.

Odysseus' house and possessions are reflections of his great social standing, with items like this ewer, or oval pitcher, displaying his considerable wealth and prestige. Even before Odysseus fought in the Trojan War, he was a respectable man with lands and money to his name. His absence, however, has depleted his wealth considerably, as the suitors eat up his flock.

In the company of his mother's suitors, Telemachus naturally would rather not discuss his father, in case the suitors in their greed learn of Odysseus' location and take measures to make sure he'll never return home. This suggests both that the suitors aren't honorable men (as evidenced by their mooching) and that Telemachus understands the very real danger his father is in at this point in the poem.

A bearing-post "bears" the weight of a building and is essential to its structure. It recalls the image of Atlas, who bears the weight of the heavenly spheres on his shoulder, and foreshadows a more significant bearing-post that Homer will reveal later in the poem.

Ancient Greeks had a strong sense of etiquette and decorum. Their word for this was xenia, which dictates that hosts follow very formal procedures in the care of their guests. Any breach of xenia would've constituted an unforgivable breach of their moral code and would've reflected poorly upon Telemachus (and, by extension, Odysseus). In this tradition, any question the guest had would've been asked only after their other needs (for food and drink, etc.) had been met.

In ancient times, Greeks routinely mixed wine with water in order to dilute it and make it last longer. This practice was especially common among the nobles, who signified the status of their guests by how much or how little water was mixed into their wine. Basically: the stronger the wine, the greater their social status, suggesting that these guests, who have a great deal of water in their wine, are, in the end, not very important.

It often happened that the gods would disguise themselves as mortals when they wanted to interact with people on Earth. Here Athena chooses to be chief of the Taphians, a group of well-known traders and pirates, because she knows that Telemachus is familiar enough with the Taphians to respect Mentes and to believe that he has, indeed, heard of or met Odysseus in his travels.

Note the use of alliteration here in the repetition of the "s" at the beginning of each word. Homer didn't use alliteration in this poem, and there aren't that many examples of it in ancient Greek texts. It is instead a byproduct of the translation into English, which attempted to preserve the poetry of the original by using modern tools like alliteration and assonance.

Odysseus' home and final destination in his journey, Ithaca is a small island west of the Peloponnese. Of the seven main Ionian islands, it's the second-smallest, with a population around 3,000. In The Odyssey, Ithaca's exact population is unclear, but would've likely been in the hundreds, with a large number of able-bodied men living at Odysseus's home as guests while they attempt to woo his wife.

Zeus uses phrases like "of a mind" and "let us lay our heads together" to allude to Athena's origin story. In doing so, he aligns himself and Athena with wisdom, implying that, while she is the goddess of wisdom, intelligence and cleverness are not exclusively her domain. In this, we see a system of checks and balances by which the various gods keep each other in line.

Greek city-states. At the time, "Greece" wasn't yet a country and was, instead, a group of warring city-states all vying for dominance of the Peloponnesus. These city-states, Sparta and Pylos, lie east of Ithaca, Odysseus' island home on the Ionian sea, and therefore lie closer to Troy and the route on which Odysseus travels in his return home. It would've been difficult for news of Odysseus to travel much farther than Sparta.

In the beginning, Telemachus appears to be a weak young man, disheartened by his father's absence and uncertain of his position. With Athena's intervention, Telemachus will become, in the course of the poem, his father's son and will be able to stand up to his mother's suitors, thus taking control of the household.

A race of giants said to have been born with one eye in the center of their foreheads. Homer never explicitly states that the Cyclopes have one eye, but his contemporary Hesiod does, and modern interpretations of the text have used Hesiod's description, citing a lack of physical details in Homer's account. Odysseus will recount the tale of this blinding later in the poem.

Though not a Titan, Phorcys is said to have descended from Gaia and Pontus, a pre-Olympian sea god. Phorcys rules over the hidden waters of the deep and sired a number of monstrous children, including Echidna (the half-woman, half-snake) and all three Gorgons, including the infamous Medusa, who could turn men to stone by making eye contact.

In general, a blandishment is a piece of flattery used to manipulate someone. In this context, however, "blandishment" is a somewhat sanitized description of the truth, which is that Calypso is using her powers of song to enchant Odysseus and force him to stay with her. It's also suggested that she uses other means (potions, etc.) to keep him at her side.

A Titan, Atlas sided against Zeus in the war against the Olympians. For his part in this unsuccessful coup, Zeus decided that Atlas wouldn't be imprisoned with the other Titans in Tartarus, but would, instead, be condemned to forever hold the heavenly spheres on his back, thus preventing the earth from meeting the heavens and returning to its original state.

As the goddess of wisdom, Athena can be blunt where other gods wouldn't dare to be and here points out the essentially aimless tangent about Aegisthus, which serves no purpose other than to allow Zeus to speak ill of the mortals. Athena (and, by extension, the reader) notes the essential selfishness of this act and does her best to shift the focus to Odysseus.

A Titan, Cronus descended from Gaia, a personification of the earth, and Uranus (also known as "Father Sky"). He would later become leader of the Titans when he overthrew his father, only to himself be overthrown by Zeus and imprisoned in Tartarus (a dark abyss) with the other Titans. Athena alludes to this in order to emphasize Zeus' power and lineage. In that sense, it's an attempt to stroke his ego before she asks him a favor.

Daughter of Zeus, goddess of wisdom, Athena is said to have been born when Zeus, complaining of a migraine, asked one of the gods to split his head open. Athena, fully-grown, and dressed all in armor, emerged from his forehead and immediately became Zeus' favorite. Her fondness for Odysseus stems from his own wisdom and cleverness, for which he was well-renowned.

This phrase appears again and again in Homer's works. It means that one must necessarily do something or that it's in one's nature to do something. There's a tension in this about whether or not it's speaking to fate (as in, he must do this to finish the story) or if it's just a part of his character (as in, he would do that). In this example, it appears that Orestes "must needs" kill Aegisthus because he wanted to.

Messenger of the Greek gods, Hermes is Odysseus' great-grandfather and will often help Odysseus by informing him of all the dangers that lie ahead. Homer portrays him as a guide or a bringer of good luck in The Iliad, where he sides with the Greeks against the Trojans and helps them to win the war.

In Greek mythology and literature, there exists a tension between a man's "fate" and the unpredictable will of the gods. It often happens that men are ruined by the gods for no reason, and this results in feelings of resentment and distrust. A man might say that the gods caused his troubles instead of taking responsibility for his own actions because it was well-known that the gods were capricious.

Son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, Orestes wasn't home in Mycenae when Agamemnon was killed, returning only seven years later to avenge this death by killing both Aegisthus and his own mother Clytemnestra. In The Odyssey, he's used as an example for Odysseus' son, Telemachus, whose own mother is beset by suitors in Odysseus' absence.

King of Mycenae, son of Atreus, killed by Aegisthus upon his return from the ten-year Trojan War. His story parallels Odysseus' in that they're both returning from the war as heroes to find that their house is in shambles. The difference is: Agamemnon's wife cheats on him and plots against him while Odysseus' wife, Penelope, remains faithful.

Born of a rivalry between his father and the house of Atreus, Aegisthus grew up to kill Atreus so his father could reclaim the throne. Later, Agamemnon, Atreus's son, took the throne back, only to leave to fight in the Trojan War. While he was gone, Aegisthus had a torrid affair with Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, and the two murdered him upon his return.

Notice that the other gods are actively cutting Poseidon out of the loop on this. In Greek mythology, this kind of behavior was common on Mount Olympus and led to much inner turmoil, including an attempt by Hera to overthrow Zeus and take the throne for herself. Zeus punished Poseidon for his role in this attempted overthrow by forcing him to build a great wall around the city of Troy.

King of the Greek gods, Zeus rules from Mount Olympus and was known for his trademark thunderbolts and his affinity for women. Zeus was the son of Titans Cronus and Rhea and husband of Hera, with whom he gave birth to many gods, including Ares, the god of war. He sired more than 100 children in his time.

In ancient Greece, a public sacrifice of 100 oxen made to please the gods. The Greek gods were notoriously capricious and could only be appeased by means of incredible sacrifice, usually involving slaughter or wine. Since then, the word "hecatomb" has come to mean a great loss of life, particularly for a cause.

In ancient times, the known world was small, encompassing primarily Europe and the Mediterranean. Scientists also believed that the world was flat, which meant that it had an "end" or edge that ships were rumored to fall over once in awhile. In reality, Ethiopia is only about 2,300 miles from Greece.

The god of the sea, also known as the "Earth-Shaker" because of his ability to cause earthquakes and tidal waves. He hates Odysseus for blinding one of his sons, the Cyclops named Polyphemus. This story is recounted later in the epic poem and is one of many tales Homer foreshadows in these passages.

These opening passages function like a summary of what lies ahead in this epic poem. We haven't seen Odysseus with the nymph Calypso, nor have we seen the Greek gods decide to free him, but all of these things will come to pass. In that sense, these lines foreshadow the events to come.

Technically a nymph, Calypso is said to be the daughter of Atlas, the Titan who was condemned to carry the heavenly spheres on his shoulders for eternity. In The Odyssey, Calypso uses her voice to enchant Odysseus, trapping him on the island of Ogygia. Other accounts of the same story suggest that Calypso bore Odysseus a son or two.

In The Iliad, Odysseus was credited with the idea that ultimately led to the downfall of Troy: the Trojan Horse. Inside the horse were highly trained soldiers who would bust free and sack the city after the Trojans brought the Horse in, thinking it was a gift. This earned Odysseus a reputation as a strategic thinker and made him one of the heroes of the Trojan War.

After defeating Troy, Odysseus and his men were detained by various gods or nymphs. In addition to being punished for eating Apollo's cattle, they spent a year with Circe, a powerful nymph who turned several of Odysseus's men into pigs, and then spent seven years with Calypso, who enchanted them with her singing.

At heart, The Odyssey is a coming home story, and the central tension of the story is whether or not Odysseus is going to make it home in time to keep his home from falling apart. In the course of this journey, Odysseus's men are delayed, killed, injured, or enchanted, while Odysseus struggles to return to his wife when faced with temptations like beautiful water nymphs.

Calliope, one of the nine Muses, saidto be a daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory) and to preside over epic poetry. The other eight Muses are: Clio (history), Euterpe (flutes and lyric poetry), Thalia (comedy and pastoral poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), Terpsichore (dance), Erato (love poetry), Polyhymnia (sacred poetry), and Urania (astronomy).

In ancient Greek mythology, Apollo was sometimes associated with the sun god Helios and was said to have ridden in a golden horse-drawn chariot, the chariot of the sun. Every day, he drove the sun chariot across the sky, at night traveling through Oceanus to reach the chariot's original position in the morning.

Homer repeats the opening line of The Iliad, which in the original Greek reads, "Sing to me, O Muse." Poets in ancient Greece often performed or "sang" their poems for an audience and frequently called upon the Muses for inspiration. Here, Homer uses a poetic apostrophe to address Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry. There were nine Muses in all.

Nestor, one of the oldest Greek warriors at Troy and a great friend of Odysseus, made it home safely after the war, as did Menelaus, King of Sparta and his wife, Helen, whose abduction started the war.  Both Nestor and Menelaus would do all they could to help Telemachus in his search for Odysseus.

The Greeks (and Trojans) engaged in a form of biological and chemical warfare using poisoned arrows and spears. The arrow used by Paris to kill Achilles was, most likely, poisoned. The Greeks also developed a form of napalm, based on naphtha, which was called "Greek fire" and was used to set enemy ships ablaze.

In the original Greek, the word is man, not hero (an important distinction to make when you consider that Homer meant for this poem, unlike The Iliad, as a tale told primarily at a human level, with the gods playing a lesser role than they had in The Iliad).