Antinous is true to his ancestry, he is
still a pirate. Strong words are these, which call forth a hypocritical
reply from another Suitor, Eurymachus, which she probably saw through,
for she goes into her upper chamber, where "she weeps for her dear
spouse Ulysses, till blue-eyed Pallas cast upon her eyelids sweet
sleep."

The internal weakness of the Suitors is exposed; it is manifest that
they are divided among themselves. In fact, how can they have any
unity? Each wishes to win the fair prize, which can belong only to one;
hence every other man is his rival, whom he tries to thwart. Hence come
jealousy and suspicion. The single bond they have in common is their
wrong-doing, which they feel cannot much longer continue, with
Telemachus so active.

III. On the other hand, we pass to the hut of the swineherd, where the
father and son show a complete unity of spirit and purpose. Eumaeus
returns from his errand; he brings no news specially except that the
Suitors who formed the ambush have come back to the town. But he is not
yet to be admitted into the grand secret; so Pallas stood again near
Ulysses, "striking him with her staff she made him an old man in
wretched rags." He resumes his disguise "lest the swineherd might
recognize him and hasten to announce the fact to Penelope, instead of
keeping the secret looked in his bosom." So the kind-hearted, sincere
Eumaeus cannot yet be entrusted with the important secret.

_BOOKS XVII-XXIV._

The time has arrived for this exposition of the Odyssey to be brought
to a close with some degree of rapidity. It has already expanded itself
beyond its original purpose; it, too, like Ulysses, has asserted itself
as limit-transcending. We shall try to indicate the general character
of these remaining eight Books, to find their place in the total
organism of the poem, and then give a brief outline of each Book
separately.

It has already often been stated that the Odyssey is a Return, an
outer, but specially an inner Return from the Trojan War and from the
alienation and disruption produced by the same. This Return, narrated
in the twenty-four Books of the poem, divides itself into two equal
halves, each containing twelve Books. The first half moves about two
centers, Telemachus and Ulysses; the former is to be trained out of his
ignorance, the latter is to be disciplined out of his negative
attitude toward institutional life, and thus be prepared to rescue
institutional li