th our while to make a little summary of these Returners in
classes, since in this way the thought of the present Book as well as
its place in the entire Odyssey can be seen best. First are those who
never succeeded in returning, but perished in the process of it; of
this class the great example is the leader himself, Agamemnon, who was
slain by his own wife and her paramour. Second are those who succeeded
in returning; of this class there are three well-marked divisions,
which are to be sharply designated in the mind of the reader.

(1). The immediate Returners, those who went straight home, without
internal scission or external trouble; unimportant they are in this
peaceful aspect though they were formerly heroes in the war. Four such
are passingly mentioned by Nestor in his talk: Diomed, Neoptolemus the
son of Achilles, Philoctetes, and Idomeneus. Nestor himself is the most
prominent and the typical one of this set who are the Returners through
Hellas.

(2). The second one of those who have succeeded in getting home is
Menelaus, whose sweep is far beyond that of Nestor and the immediate
Greek world, taking in Egypt and the East. He was separated from
Nestor, having delayed to bury his steersman; then a storm struck him,
bore him to Crete and beyond, the wind and wave carried him to the land
of the Nile. He is the Returner through the Orient.

(3). Finally is Ulysses, not yet returned, but whose time has nearly
arrived. In comparison with the others he is the Returner through the
Occident. But his Return gives name to the poem, of which it is the
greater portion.

Still the universal poem is to embrace all these phases of the Return,
and the son, through education, is to know them all, not by experience
but by information. Thus his training is to reach beyond what the life
of his father can give him; it must be universal, and in this way it
becomes a true discipline. We must note too, that this poem reaches
beyond the Return of Ulysses, beyond what its title suggests, and
embraces all the Returns, Hellenic, Oriental, Occidental, as well as
the grand failure to return.

Such are some of the thoughts which gleam out the present Book and
illuminate the whole Odyssey. We can now consider structure of the
Book, which falls into two distinct parts, determined by the Goddess.
When she makes ready to quit Telemachus, we enter the second portion of
the Book, and Telemachus continues his journey without direct divine
supe