ABSTRACT

In the first Book of the Odyssey Athene, disguised as Mentes, visits Telemachus, who is hard pressed by the Suitors of his mother Penelope. Athene advises him how to act. The following lines are a part of her advice: ‘If you hear that he (scil. Odysseus) is dead and no longer living, then return to your own native land, and heap up a grave mound for him, and perform funeral rites, a great many as it is fitting, and give your mother in marriage to a husband. But when you have accomplished these things and brought them about, then consider in your mind and heart, how you may kill the Suitors in your house, by stealth, or openly.’ 1 This suggestion by Athene has been criticized as futile and senseless, because the Suitors would of course—so it is assumed—leave the house of Odysseus after the wedding. 2 This assumption is based on the more fundamental one that the Suitors feast in the palace of Odysseus in order to press their suit for the hand of Penelope. Both these assumptions need testing.