Book 20: Signs and a Vision

Odysseus
As I went to bed, I saw many of the servants going outside to the suitors’ beds. I was so enraged, I wanted to cut them all down at that moment. I managed to hold in my anger, but I will probably kill them all later anyway. I was enraged that my maids were so unfaithful to me but even more so that Penelope’s prospective suitors didn’t even care enough about her not to sleep with her maids. What pigs! Athena came to me, because I couldn’t sleep, and I told her my doubts about being able to kill the suitors. She reassured me and then rained soft sleep upon my eyes. In the morning, I prayed to Zeus to send a sign and that someone in the house might interpret it. Zeus thundered from the heavens and a servant prayed that I might return. Eurykleia continued with her duties as usual, readying the hall for the suitors’ feast. Philoitios addressed me kindly ans spoke about his concerns that Odysseus might never return. I tried to reassure him, feeling badly that one so loyal felt so little hope. Ktesippos threw a cow’s foot at me later but I dodged it. Telemakhos gave him a severe lashing for this. At the suitors proposal that he hand Penelope off to one of them, Telemakhos said he would never make her do anything against her will. My blood boiled when the suitors laughed at his concern for her.

Telemakhos
Odysseus clearly has some mental problems and he even begins to admit it here. However, when he has his realization, Athena distracts him from the true goal. He begins to doubt whether he, one man, can actually slay all the suitors by himself. Athena stops him from having these doubts and so further allows him to deny the real problems in his life. She enables him to believe that he can just muscle his way through life without facing emotional problems. The internal conflict within Odysseus is similar to that of the conflict with the suitors. He compares his internal and external problems (the suitors) to dogs.