book four

• When they reach Lacedaemon, they find Menelaus entertaining a large company of relatives to celebrate his sending of off his son Megapenthus and daughter to be married.
• Etoneus asks Menelaus whether he should let them inside and Menelaus says of course they should as they have enjoyed "much hospitality" before
• Telemachus and Peisistratus marvel at the splendour of Menelaus' palace and are treated well
• Menelaus says they must be the "sons of kings"
• Telemachus compares Menelaus' palace to Zeus' and he replies that "no mortal can compete with Zeus" - clear hierachy
• Menelaus laments about his wealth, he feels as if it has come at the cost of the death of his "unsuspecting brother"
• Menelaus laments about the loss of his comrade Odysseus, saying it makes sleeping and eating feel "hateful"
• Telemachus cries at the memory of his father, and holds his purple cloak to his eyes and Menelaus recognises him
• Menelaus hesitates to say anything but Helen comes down and asks if he thinks this is Odysseus' son and Menelaus says he does
• Helen demonises herself for causing the Trojan war, calling herself a "shameless creature"
• Peisistratus tells them he is indeed Telemachus but he is too "bashful" to speak uninvited, and that he has faces many troubles without the security of his father
• Menelaus laments about his friend Odysseus, saying all he would have given him if he would have come home safe and did not get interrupted by a "jealous god"
• Menelaus' story causes them all to weep and Peisistratus rememebers his brother Antilochus who was killed in Troy
• Menelaus says Peisistratus talks which such "sense" that he is the "true son" of Nestor and "good breeding" cannot be hidden
• Helen "slipped a drug" that could remove bad memories in their wine
• Helen tells a story of one of Odysseus' "marvellous exploits" where he disguised himself as a beggar, killed Trojans and gained information to take back to the Greeks. Helen knew and supported this plan because she had repented the "blindness" Aphrodite gave her
• Menelaus tells a story of the wooden horse, when some god mimicked Helen, and Odysseus "clapped" his hand over Anticlus' mouth to stop him replying
• They go to bed
• The next morning, Menelaus asks Telemachus why he is in Lacedaemon and he says he wants the tale of Odysseus' return and tells Menelaus about the destuction of his household
• Menelaus recounts the story of Odysseus' return he received from the Old Man of the Sea. He meets his daughter Eidothee first who rescues him from his delay at sea and tells him to talk to Proteus who will direct him home and tell him "all that has happened"
• Egyptian episode - Eidothee instructs him and three men from his crew to disguise themeslves as seals and grab Proteus when he goes to sleep
• Egyptian episode - they manage to do so and Proteus tells Menelaus it is not "his fate" to reach home until he has sailed the Nile and made offerings
• Egyptian episode - Menelaus asks if all his countrymen made it home and Proteus says only two lost their lives going home (Ajax and Agamemnon) but a third is a "prisoner"
• Egyptian episode - Ajax boasted he escaped the "hungry jaws of the sea" and Poseidon got angry and split the Gyraean rock into two and Ajax drowned
• Egyptian episode - Proteus recounts the death of Agammemnon, revealing that he was "feasted" by Aegisthus then killed -> a big betrayl of xenia
• Egyptian episode - Proteus tells Agammemnon to stop weeping because either he will kill Aegisthus or he will make it in time for the funeral feast when Orestes kills him
• Egyptian episode - Proteus says Odysseus is "captive" in Calypso's home with "tears streaming down his cheeks"
• Egyptian episode - Menelaus is destined to live in Elysian Fields as the son-in-law of Zeus, he made rituals and returned home
• Menelaus asks Telemachus to stay for 12 days and take horses, a chariot and a cup, but Telemachus refuses to delay his return as well as the horses
• Menelaus agrees, praising Telemachus' way of speaking and gives him a mixing bowl instead
• In Ithaca, Noemon asks Eurymachus and Antinous Telemachus will return with his ship, thus informing them he had gone to Pylos
• The suitors question Noemon and Antinous seethes with "black passion" and plots to kill Telemachus at sea
• Medon tells Penelope of this plan and she laments at possibly losing her husband as well as her son
• Eurycleia admits she kept Telemachus' secret and that he didn't want to "spoil" her "lovely cheeks" with tears
• Penelope prays to Athene to save her "dear son" from the suitors' plot, while they carried it out in silence
• Penelope is compared to a lion surrounded by beaters closing in
• Athene appears to Penelope as a phantom of her sister Ipthime to comfort her and assure her Telemachus will return home safe
• Penelope says Telemachus is "untrained for action or debate" and grieves "even more" for him than Odysseus
• Athene as Ipthime tells her he has gone with Athene as "escort"
• Penelope asks for news of Odysseus but Athene refuses to give her any news