The Odyssey Book 4 Summary

When Telemachos arrives, Menelaos is hosting a double wedding feast.
Telemachos is welcomed into the palace and totally awed by the place.
Menelaos serves them food before asking them to speak, which is a nice thing to do.
During the feast, Telemachos cannot help but whisper to Menelaos his wonder at the incredible palace.
Menelaos agrees; he was pretty happy to see it again after wandering the seas for seven years. But he quickly moves on from this happy note to tell of his sorrow at discovering his brother Agamemnon murdered.
Also, he lost a lot of friends in the Trojan war.
Menelaos misses Odysseus more than anyone, he says (although we think Penelope is probably a good contender for that title).
It’s during this remark that Menelaos finally recognizes Telemachos as Odysseus’s son. (Remember, he insisted on feasting with the newly arrived guests before hearing any tale of who they were or what they came for.)
Telemachos, meanwhile, has broken down at hearing the King talk so fondly about his father. He cries. Awkward silence.
Helen, Menelaos’s wife (and yes, the woman that started the whole Trojan war to begin with by getting herself stolen) enters and breaks the silence tactfully; she remarks on how much Telemachos resembles Odysseus.
This breaks the tension and Menelaos fondly recognizes Peisistratos as Nestor’s son as well.
Everyone gets back to eating.
Helen decides to drug the men’s wine with an anodyne of forgetfulness, hoping to soothe away their sorrows.
After treating the wine, she serves it and tells funny stories about Odysseus.
Helen tells about a time when Odysseus disguised himself as Trojan beggar – even beating himself up to make it look convincing – to get information from the Trojans. Ah, that was a good one.
Then Menelaos recounts the time they were inside the Trojan horse and Helen, whose loyalty apparently lay with the Trojans at the time, came around knocking on the horse and calling each man inside in the voice of his wife. Odysseus saved everyone from giving themselves away by urging them into silence and even clapping his hands over one man’s mouth.
Everyone enjoys these stories, clearly, and they’re all too drugged by the wine to feel any sadness. Telemachos suggests they all go to sleep.
In the morning, Menelaos finally asks Telemachos why he has come.
Telemachos explains his situation and asks for news of his father.
Menelaos is angry that suitors are annoying Odysseus’s household. He tells Telemachos another story.
Once, when Menelaos was stranded on the island of Pharos, Eidothea, one of the resident nymphs, advised him to capture the god of the island – Proteus – and hold him captive.
Normally, this would be suicidal, and therefore a really bad idea, but in this case, it’s the only way the god will tell them how to get off the island.
Eidothea helps disguise Menelaos and three of his men as seals. When Proteus surfaces to count his seal flock, they pounce on him and cling desperately while he shape-shifts into several different beings.
Finally, either because he gives up or because they were willing to cling to that much garbage, Proteus decides to answer their questions.
He reveals that Menelaos is trapped at Pharos because he didn’t offer a proper sacrifice to Zeus before departing.
The only way he can appease the now-angry god is by going to the Nile River and making them an offering.
With the diagnosis out of the way, Menelaos asks Proteus for news of his Greek friends.
Proteus tells him that Aias (little Aias that is) has died for foolishly challenging the gods.
[Mythological Context Lesson: Don’t get confused; there are two different characters named Aias in Greek mythology and they are of no blood-relation to each other. You may have heard of their names as Ajax, the Latin version of his name, which became the standard English version, for some reason. This one here is called little Aias, and the other is called big Aias, or, just as often, Telamonian Aias (his dad was a dude name Telamon). The deal with little Aias is that he raped and killed Kassandra (a Trojan Princess) on the altar of Athene. This was a big no-no—both for obvious reasons and because altars were sacred spaces. For his offense he was killed by the gods, so this references yet another lesson in piety.]
Menelaos adds that Agamemnon is dead (which we’ve now been told numerous times).
Lastly, we come to Odysseus. Proteus reveals that the man is being held as a prisoner of Kalypso and longs to go home.
Menelaos is all, "Thanks, man" and gets off the island.
OK so that’s it for Menelaos’s story.
He wants Telemachos to stay with him longer, but Telemachos begs leave because his men are back at Pylos with Nestor.
When Menelaos offers him practical gifts of horses and a chariot, Telemachos refuses them and asks instead for a keepsake.
Menelaos gives him a silver bowl set.
In the meantime, back at Ithaka, Noëmon, the rich merchant who sold Mentor/Athene the ship, asks Antinoös when Telemachos will be back from Pylos because he needs his ship. Athene appears to have not negotiated much longevity in the ship deal.
Antinoös freaks out because he didn’t know about Telemachos’s voyage at all. (Or else he wasn’t listening when Telemachos TOLD THEM ABOUT IT at the council meeting.) Mostly, he just gets all riled up because he’s a jerk.
So he calls a meeting with all the other suitors. Since Telemachos has been making their parasitic lifestyle so difficult and also, they all pretty much hate him, the men decide to sail out to sea, ambush the young man on his way home, and send him to his death.
Medon, the town crier whose job it is to make public announcements, overhears this and makes a not-so-public announcement to Penelope, who freaks out. We think she’s justified.
She didn’t know about the voyage either and laments wildly – first for her lost Odysseus, then for her son who is about to die.
Eurykleia, the old nurse, feels guilty about concealing the journey from Penelope and begs her mistress to pray to Athene for Telemachos’s sake.
Penelope does, and Athene hears her. (She’s got good ears, that goddess.)
Meanwhile, down at the docks, the suitors have set sail.
Athene, pitying Penelope, sends an image of the queen’s sister – Iphthime – to her in her sleep. Iphthime assures her sister that Telemachos will come home safely. When Penelope doesn’t believe her, the hallucinatory sister reveals that he has Athene’s help.
Penelope, all reassured by this, asks for news on Odysseus. Before answering, Iphthime fades away.
Penelope wakes up feeling as fresh as a daisy.
Meanwhile, the suitors wait in ambush.

Book 5

Book 3