Ithaca

•  Odysseus introduces it as a ‘rough land’, which ‘nurtures fine men’
• Bk 13 – Athene talks of resources – ‘corn, wine, pasture for goats and cattle, timber and watering places that never fail’
• Life is hard, but people prosper
• Eumaeus gives an insight into the rural landscape
• Lives ½ day walk from the city – has to visit to deliver his pigs
• People have respect for divinities – water supply is presided over by a shrine and cave on the shore is home to nymphs
• Faithful servants in the palace have deep respect for Zeus, xenia and supplication 
• Sacrifices and libations are daily activities
• Even suitors keen to get divine support – employ Leodes to make their offerings and pray that Apollo will help in the contest of the bow
• Assemblies held to discuss important matters – little evidence of functioning properly
• Bk 11 – Anticleia reassure O that Telemachus attends public banquets – expected of him 
• Palace not described in detail – showy wealth not key feature as in Scherie
• Action takes place in main hall
• Courtyard mentioned with altar to Zeus and where a bed might be set up got a visitor
• women's quarters are upstairs, where they do their weaving
• told of well-stocked storerooms
• sturdy polished wooden doors provide security
• social life in the palace is presented by men in the open courtyard, women indoors, the loyal (Eumaeus, Eurynome, Eurycleia and Philoetius) and disloyal (Melanthius, Melantho and the 12 maids)
• whether people are freeborn or slaves is not stressed
• their loyalty is their defining characteristic
• Eumaeus and Eurycleia are sklaves only through being captured, patronymics are given, indicating they haven't lost their inner nobility
• slave women openly kept as concubines
• Laertes' not sleeping with Eurycleia is mentioned, presumably because it was exceptional
• life is not depicted as luxurious - Penelope weaves along with the other women
• dining is an important occupation - one suitor even brings his own suitors to carve the meat
• those responsible for livestock are essential - live in dunghills outside the palace
• farming not the work of heroes - comment provoked a strong reaction from Odysseus
• society is patriarchal
• Telemachus' attempts at pronouncing himself master and sending his mother upstairs = prime example
• references to P going back to her father's house or her father choosing a husband for her
• her conversations with Odysseus show that she is certainly as cunning as he is
• 12 of the Suitors are from Ithaca
• people seem to have accepted Suitors' presence and in bk 2 seen to listed to Antinous instead of Telemachus
• bk 23 - evidence that suitors are integral part of society