8th+Ogygias+Book+15

**__//The Odyssey-// Book XV__** ​ **__Summary:__**
 * Athena tavels to Sparta to find Telemachus.
 * She appears to him in a dream and tells him to go home to Ithaca before his mother marries a suitor.
 * Athena also warns him of the suitors' plot to kill Telemachus.
 * Telemachus leaves Sparta in the morning with many gifts Menelaus and Helen.
 * Telemachus leaves on a chariot and as he is riding away an eagle carrying a stolen goose swoops down beside him.
 * This symbolizes Odysseus taking revenge on the suitors.
 * Odysseus returns Nestor's son Pisistratus.
 * The son of a prophet named Theoclymenus, comes aboard Telemachus's ship and goes to Ithaca with him.
 * Odysseus is staying with the swineherder, Eumaeus, at this point in the book.
 * Odysseus tries to test Eumaeus's hospitality by saying that he is leaving, hoping Eumaeus will tell him to stay longer.
 * They swap stories. Eumaeus tells Odysseus of how he was taken by Phoenician pirates.
 * Eumaeus was then saved by Odysseus's father, Laertes.
 * Telemachus reaches Ithaca the next day.
 * He decides to continue on foot, while his crew continues on the ship.
 * Just before they part, they see a hawk with a dove in its talons.
 * Theoclymenus interprets this as Odysseus line and house standing strong.

Telemachus Athena Pisistratus Menelaus Eurymachus Helen Theoklymenos Odysseus Eumaius Laertes
 * __Main Characters__**

__**Themes:**__​ ​​// Hospitality- Once Telemachus and Pisistratus plan to leave the home of Menelaus and Helen, he is sent off with his hunger and thirst appeased by Menelaus along with other gifts.

After Telemachus asks Pisitratus to drop him off at his ship in Pyls, Theoclymenos asks to come aboard. Telemachus agrees, and, when back in Ithaca, he gives Theoclymenos hospitality. //

//Justice of the Gods- As the book opens, Athena sees Telmachus and Pisistatus sleeping. She invades Telemachus' dream warns and of the suitors back home in Ithaca getting close to winning Penelope's hand in marriage. She also warns Telemachus of the suitors' plan to ambush him as he returns home.

Importance of Prophecy- As Telemachus and Pisistatus depart from Menelaus' palace, an eagle carrying a goose swoops down beside them. Helen views this sight as a vision symbolizing Odysseus swooping home and fulfilling his revenge on the suitors.

Once Telemachus and Theoclymenos arrive back home in Ithaca, a hawk is seen carrying a dove in its talons by the men. Theoclymenos interprets this sight as a symbol of the strength of Odysseus' house.//


 * In Greek mythology, Theoclymenus (Greek: Theoklymenos,** [|**Θεοκλύμενος**]**), son of Polypheides, was a prophet from Argos, who in the Odyssey had been exiled from that city after killing one of his relatives. He fled to Pylos and sought refuge with Telemachus, who had come there to inquire about the fate of his father Odysseus. He accompanied Telemachus back to Ithica** **where he read the auspices of the birds, interpreting to mean Telemachus would become head of the royal house of Ithaca. He also prophesied that Odysseus was already in Ithaca, disguised and watching events unfold. When he told Penelope of these signs she did not believe him. Later at dinner he had a vision of the death of the suitors, but they laugh at his predictions, not knowing they would indeed be killed that night.**