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. Scenes 9–27

   Telemachus needs proof of his father's fate; Penelope needs the throne secured before the suitors force her hand.

3. Just before
4. Scene 25

   Present: Penelope reveals no other man has ever managed the bow's feat, and Telemachus insists on sailing to learn if his father is truly dead.

5. Scene 26

   In the hall, Eumaeus is publicly humiliated and threatened by the suitors' servant Melanthius over his loyalty to Odysseus's memory.

6. Scene 27

   Telemachus secretly orders the old nursemaid to prepare a ship and supplies to smuggle him away before dawn.

7. Scene 28

   This scene