Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Medon, herald of the Ithacan household, served the suitors in the hall yet is numbered among those Telemachus would protect. During the slaughter he wraps himself in an ox-hide and crouches under a chair. Telemachus, pleading for Phemius, adds Medon’s name; Odysseus laughs and tells Medon to come out, promising that Telemachus’s word has saved him. Medon and Phemius go to the courtyard altar. Later, when the suitors’ kin gather for revenge, Medon speaks in the assembly: he saw a god (Mentor’s likeness—Athena) standing by Odysseus in the fight, and he urges the Ithacans not to rush on doom. Medon is the household’s voice of public speech restored—spared herald becomes witness to divine backing of the king’s return.