The Odyssey Summary:Book 23
Book Twenty-Three begins with Eurykleia, Odysseus’ nurse, telling Penelope that Odysseus has returned home and has killed the suitors (XXIII ln. 1-80). Penelope refuses to believe her at first because she thinks it is someone posing as Odysseus or that a god has come down and killed all the suitors. Finally, Eurykleia persuades Penelope to come down from her room to see Odysseus.
While going to see who Eurykelia is calling Odysseus, Penelope is questioning herself as to what to do when she first sees him. She does not know if she should run up and great him or withhold herself. She decides to withhold and sits down across the room from Odysseus.
Telemachus is frustrated with the way is mother is reacting but Odysseus reassures him that it is all well and that she does realize that it is Odysseus. Odysseus and Penelope both realize that each other have changed, but they still hold their past memories in their hearts. Odysseus has changed physically because Athena has made him “taller, and massive, too, with crisping hair in curls like petals of wild hyacinth but all red-golden” (XXIII ln157-160). Penelope has grown harder, in her personality, due to the fact of having Odysseus gone so long and having to deal with the suitors.
Finally, to test Odysseus to see if it is really him, Penelope suggests to the nurse to move their bed outside of their room. Odysseus gets very upset because he thinks that someone has ruined the bed that he built especially for him and Penelope out of a live olive tree that is growing through their house. This event marks the time when Penelope knows that it is Odysseus because only one other person knew about the bed being carved out of a tree.
Odysseus and Penelope join each other in bed to get reacquainted after being apart for twenty years. Odysseus tells of his travels and Penelope tells of the suitors. Athena even makes the night last longer so they can spend as much time together in bed as possible, because the next day Odysseus must leave and travel to the mainland on another one of his adventures.
Teiresias has told him to travel to the mainland with an ore until he meets men who have never seen the sea. Once there he must offer a ram, bull, and a buck to Poseidon. Although he does not know how long it will take, he told Penelope he will come home to her again (XXIII ln 271-283).