Antinous Hurls the Footstool at Odysseus (*Odyssey* 17)

Antinous Hurls the Footstool at Odysseus (Odyssey 17)

Catalogue ID: 04-trojan-cycle/221-antinous-footstool-odysseus-odyssey-17

Cycle: Trojan — Odyssey / beggar in the hall / guest-abuse

Version line: Homeric — first major outrage against the disguised king

Sources: Homer, *Odyssey* 17.411–504; cf. 18.394–404 (Eurymachus’s stool); 20.299–302 (Ctesippus)

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/04-trojan-cycle/221-antinous-footstool-odysseus-odyssey-17.md

Characters

Antinous — chief suitor; hurls the footstool
Eumaeus — present in the hall’s beggar-plot
Other suitors — half-hearted disapproval
Telemachus — disguised beggar; endures the blow

Places

Mycenae — Odysseus’s megaron

Themes

Narrative

Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus tests the suitors by asking scraps. Most give something; Antinous refuses with insults. Odysseus answers with a sharp parable of a once-rich man fallen low. Antinous, enraged, seizes a footstool and strikes Odysseus on the right shoulder. Odysseus stands firm as a rock, silently shakes his head, and stores the crime in his heart. The other suitors murmur that Antinous did ill to strike a wanderer—gods go about as strangers—yet none stops the abuse. Penelope in her chamber hears and calls Antinous accursed; Eumaeus and Telemachus move in the background of the outrage. The blow makes Antinous the paradigm of violated xenia: first to strike the king-as-guest, first to die when the bow-contest ends.