Twenty years after leaving for the Trojan War, Odysseus fights his way home across a hostile sea only to find his kingdom overrun — and must return in disguise to reclaim his wife, his son, and his throne from the suitors laying siege to his house.

1. Scenes 1–9

   Ithaca frozen in a decade of waiting: Penelope weaving, the suitors feasting, Telemachus unheard.

2. Just before
3. Scene 9

   In the Ithaca hall, Penelope refuses the suitors' song of Odysseus; Telemachus defends a mistreated beggar-traveler, who urges him to seek news of his father from Menelaus.

4. Scene 10

   Telemachus trains at swordplay under blind Eumaeus's coaching, with the dying dog Argus at their feet, frustrated at his own lack of skill.

5. Scene 11

   Flashback: young, sighted Eumaeus is stopped by Odysseus from culling a runt puppy — the origin of Argus.

6. Scene 12

   This scene