Keyword Guide · study-guide
In The Odyssey Book 17, Odysseus returns to Ithaca disguised as a beggar, and his actions spark rage in three critical figures. Understanding these conflicts is key to analyzing his strategic choices and the tension building toward his revenge. This study guide breaks down each figure, their anger, and how to apply this to your class work.
Antinous is the most arrogant and violent of Penelope’s suitors. When Odysseus, in beggar’s rags, asks for scraps in the great hall, Antinous lashes out instead of following Ithaca’s guest-honoring customs. Odysseus’s quiet defiance and subtle jabs at the suitors’ wasteful lifestyle push Antinous to throw a stool at him, igniting a fierce, personal anger that makes Antinous one of Odysseus’s top targets for revenge.
Melanthius is a disloyal servant who allies himself with the suitors. When Odysseus encounters him on the way to the palace, Melanthius mocks the beggar, insults his appearance, and even kicks him. Odysseus’s disguised presence exposes Melanthius’s cruelty and betrayal, and the goat herder’s unprovoked violence makes him seethe with anger at the beggar—unaware he’s enraging the true king of Ithaca.
Ctesippus is a hotheaded suitor eager to impress his peers. After Antinous attacks Odysseus, Ctesippus tries to one-up him by hurling a cow’s hoof at the beggar, laughing at the attempt to harm him. This reckless, cruel act makes him furious at Odysseus’s calm refusal to be intimidated, cementing Ctesippus as another suitor marked for punishment.
For class discussions, focus on how each act of anger reveals the character’s core flaws (Antinous’s arrogance, Melanthius’s disloyalty, Ctesippus’s recklessness). For quizzes, memorize each figure’s specific act of anger and Odysseus’s disguised response. For essays, connect these conflicts to the theme of honor vs. cruelty in Ithaca, and how they build toward the suitors’ final punishment.
Odysseus’s disguised taunts and requests expose the worst traits of Ithaca’s most disloyal and cruel inhabitants. Targeting these three lets him test the palace’s moral decay and mark the most deserving suitors and servants for revenge.
These conflicts in Book 17 set the stage for the climactic revenge scene later in the epic. They also reinforce Odysseus’s role as a patient, strategic leader who lets his enemies reveal their own guilt before striking.
A strong thesis: "In Book 17 of The Odyssey, Odysseus’s disguised provocations of Antinous, Melanthius, and Ctesippus expose the moral collapse of Ithaca, justifying his eventual violent revenge and reinforcing the epic’s theme of divine and mortal justice."
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