The Odyssey -Book 4- Telemachus visits Menelaus in Sparta

Menelaus takes Helen

Athena

Hermes

• Reading time: about 55 minutes
• This book continues Telemachus' journey to find out about his father with a visit to Menelaus.

• The splendor of Menelaus's palace contrasts with the simplicity of Nestor's. Again, Telemachus hears praise by others of his father but no hope that Odysseus is alive.
• Helen slips a drug in their wine. Opium was probably not the drug because it wasn't known or used in Greece yet.
• Helen tells her story first of Odysseus. Notice that Odysseus was a spy inside Troy — an example of the kind of cunning he will use when he returns to his home.
• Menelaus tells the story of how it had been Odysseus' idea to build the Trojan horse. Odysseus had to restrain the men in the horse as Helen walked around it and spoke.
• This is the last we see of Telemachus until Book 15.
• What further dimensions of Odysseus's character comes out in Menelaus' and Helen's stories about him? [Discuss Ody Bk04 Q01]

• The story returns to Ithaca.

• Why do you think Homer has the suitors plot an ambush of Telemachus? [Discuss Ody Bk04 Q02]
• The fuller picture of Penelope confirms her love of her son especially. The visit of Athena to Penelope to reassure her of Telemachus' safety reminds us that Odysseus and his whole family is under her special protection.