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 15

   Present: Eumaeus coaches Telemachus to fight through hesitation rather than a perfect defense, and Telemachus finally lands a disarming strike on Mentor.

4. Scene 16

   Flashback: Eumaeus recalls Agamemnon conscripting Ithaca's young men for Troy by lottery, and Odysseus's grief at the cost to their fathers.

5. Scene 17

   Present: Eumaeus explains Odysseus drew Antinous into the war effort out of sympathy for the fathers, knowing it would be a long war.

6. Scene 18

   This scene