Ctesippus Throws the Cow’s Heel (*Odyssey* 20–22)

Ctesippus Throws the Cow’s Heel (Odyssey 20–22)

Catalogue ID: 04-trojan-cycle/222-ctesippus-cow-heel-odyssey

Cycle: Trojan — Odyssey / suitors’ outrages / mnesterophonia

Version line: Homeric — Ctesippus’s “guest-gift”; later killed by Philoetius

Sources: Homer, *Odyssey* 20.287–319; 22.285–291

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/04-trojan-cycle/222-ctesippus-cow-heel-odyssey.md

Characters

Ctesippus — Samian suitor; throws the cow’s heel; slain by Philoetius
Eumaeus — kills Ctesippus in revenge for the insult
Suitors — audience of the mockery
Telemachus — target; dodges

Places

Mycenae — megaron
Sea between Ithaca and Samos — Ctesippus’s home island

Themes

Narrative

Among the suitors Ctesippus of Same, a wealthy insolent man, mocks the beggar Odysseus and hurls a cow’s foot (the leftover from the feast) as a “guest-gift,” aiming at the head. Odysseus slightly turns it aside; the heel hits the wall. Telemachus threatens death to anyone who strikes the stranger again. In the slaughter, after Antinous and Eurymachus fall, Philoetius the cowherd remembers the insult and drives his spear through Ctesippus’s breast, taunting him: that is the guest-gift to match the ox-hoof. Ctesippus’s episode pairs with Antinous’s stool as feast-weapon abuse—and his death by the loyal herdsman closes the cattle-and-hospitality theme in blood.