Day 35 (Book xiii).

Odysseus is conveyed to Ithaca, in the evening, on one of the magical barques of the Phaeacians.

  Day 36 (Books xiii, xiv, xv).

He wakens in Ithaca, which he does not at first recognise He learns from Athene, for the first time, that the wooers beset his house.  She disguises him as an old man, and bids him go to the hut of the swineherd Eumaeus, who is loyal to his absent lord.  Athene then goes to Lacedaemon, to bring back Telemachus, who has now resided there for a month.  Odysseus won the heart of Eumaeus, who of course did not recognise him, and slept in the swineherd’s hut, while Athene was waking Telemachus, in Lacedaemon, and bidding him ‘be mindful of his return.’

  Day 37 (Book xv).

Is spent by Odysseus in the swineherd’s hut.  Telemachus reaches Pherae, half-way to Pylos.

  Day 38 (Book xv).

Telemachus reaches Pylos, but does not visit Nestor.  To save time he goes at once on board ship, taking with him an unfortunate outlaw, Theoclymenus, a second-sighted man, or the family of Melampus, in which the gift of prophecy was hereditary.  The ship passed the Elian coast at night, and evaded the ambush of the wooers.  Meanwhile Odysseus was sitting up almost till dawn, listening to the history of Eumaeus, the swineherd.

  Day 39 (Books xv, xvi).

Telemachus reaches the Isle of Ithaca, sends his ship to the city, but himself, by advice of Athene, makes for the hut of Eumaeus, where he meets, but naturally does not recognise, his disguised father.  He sends Eumaeus to Penelope with news of his arrival, and then Athene reveals Odysseus to Telemachus.  The two plot the death of the wooers.  Odysseus bids Telemachus remove, on a favourable opportunity, the arms which were disposed as trophies on the walls of the hall at home. (There is a slight discrepancy between the words of this advice and the manner in which it is afterwards executed.) During this interview, the ship of Telemachus, the wooers who had been in ambush, and Eumaeus, all reached the town of Ithaca.  In the evening Eumaeus returned to his hut, where Athene had again disguised Odysseus.

  Day 40 (Books xvii, xviii, xix, xx).

The story is now hastening to its close, and many events are crowded into the fortieth day.  Telemachus goes from the swineherd’s hut to the city, and calls his guest, Theoclymenus, to the palace.  The second-sighted man prophesies of the near revenge of Odysseus.  In the afternoon, Odysseus (still disguised) and Eumaeus reach the city, the dog Argos recognises the hero, and dies.  Odysseus goes begging through his own hall, and is struck by Antinous, the proudest of the wooers.  Late in the day Eumaeus goes home, and Odysseus fights with the braggart beggar Irus.  Still later, Penelope appears among the wooers, and receives presents from them.  When the wooers have withdrawn, Odysseus and Telemachus