7th+Homer+Boys+Bk+19

__The Odyssey of Homer__, Book 19 The Homer Boys

Summary
 * Odysseus is in Ithaca disguised as a poor beggar, and he visits his household.
 * Only Telemachus is aware that it is Odysseus at first.
 * Odysseus and Telemachus plan their revenge against the suitors with the help of Athena.
 * Their plan starts with hiding Odysseus's weapons in a storage room where smoke cannot reach them and cause soot and grime to form.
 * Odysseus and Penelope sit beside the fire and Penelope asks where Odysseus is from and who he is, showing hospitality, for she did not even know him before this.
 * Penelope has Odysseus's feet washed, and only Eurycleia meets Odysseus's standards.
 * Eurylcleia realizes that the poor stranger really is Odysseus, and Odysseus must quiet her.
 * We get a brief description of how Odysseus got this scar, from a boar's white tusk.
 * After his feet are washed, Odysseus meets with Penelope once again, this time because Penelope wants to discuss a dream that she had.
 * Penelope's dream is of her 20 geese feeding, and then a large eagle comes and breaks the necks of each one. Then the eagle tells Penelope that the geese represent the suitors, and Odysseus will strike the suitors to death.
 * Penelope explains of the two gates of dreams: ivory and horn. The ivory gate is for deceiving dreams that are not true, and the horn gate is for those that are.
 * Penelope then shares her plan with Odysseus to host an archery contest, the winner of which must shoot one arrow through Odysseus's old ax heads (12 of them). She will marry the winner.

Characters Involved
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Odysseus
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Telemachus
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Penelope
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Eurycleia
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Suitors
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Athena

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 210%;">Where? <span style="color: #0b9099; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 200%;"> Dective Work
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Ithaca
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Specifically, in Odysseus's household

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<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">In the end of Chapter 19 Penelope proposes a tournament to test the skills of her suitors. So I decided to do my detective work on ancient Greek archery. In ancient Greece, archers were held in less regard than the spear soldiers on the front line. In most early cases, only warriors skilled with the bow would be able to use it in war. That all changed around 500 B.C.E. when the Greeks created the crossbow. This greatly aided them in distance combat. This also gave them an advantage in the skill of warfare because it took less skill to shoot a crossbow accurately. Possibly the greatest thing about the crossbow was the costs it saved, which allowed archery to become a key aspect in the Greek wars. Archery skills are also attributed to some of Greece’s greatest heroes, and is talked about in both __The Iliad__ and __The Odyssey__. The Greek god of Archery was Apollo. For more information on this topic you can look at the Link connected to the Picture labeled Ancient Greek Archer.

<span style="color: #5b2f5b; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 200%;"> The Connector <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;"> Hospitality <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Odysseus, who is disguised, is taken in by Penelope, offered a bed, and has his feet washed. This is a very courteous thing to do for someone you have never met, but we have often talked about how hospitality was somewhat of an obligation back in this time period.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">Importance of Prophec <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 150%;">y <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Near the end of the book, Penelope talks of a dream she had which foretells and event. As described, Penelope is watching her geese feed in their troughs when a giant eagle swoops down from the mountains and kills snaps the necks of all of her geese. This vision is meant to represent Odysseus returning from his odyssey and ridding the suitors to regain the ways of his old family life.