Commentary on Homer's Odyssey is the work of Eustathius, the 12th-century Byzantine scholar who became archbishop of Thessalonica, and the companion of his commentary on the Iliad. Its own heading is Parekbolai eis tēn Homērou Odysseian. A preface answers critics who reject the poem for its fables, arguing that Homer weaves myth into true history, and the notes then follow the Odyssey book by book and line by line, most of them opening with hoti.
The books are introduced by their ancient summaries and notes on their titles, and the notes range over grammar, accentuation, etymology, rhetoric, geography, myth and allegory, with proverbs and maxims drawn from Homer's lines and comparisons with the Iliad. Eustathius drew on the older scholia, grammarians such as Herodian and Heraclides, lexica, Strabo, Athenaeus and many classical authors, often citing them as hoi palaioi, and so preserves much from works now lost. The commentary survives complete, in manuscripts that include the author's own copy; the complete text in print is that of G. Stallbaum (Leipzig, 1825–1826).
Eustathius of Thessalonica Commentary on Homer's Odyssey: summary and contents (PDF)
Eustathius of Thessalonica Commentary on Homer's Odyssey: summary and contents (Markdown)
Contents
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Α Book I
A prologue answers critics who tear at the Odyssey for its fables, arguing that poets wrap history in myth and that the poem mixes true and invented matter on purpose. The commentary then works through the first book, chiefly on word-forms and usage, such as the vocabulary of eating, and ends on Telemachus turning over Athena's counsel through the night.
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Β Book II
Telemachus calls the Ithacans to assembly and tells the suitors to leave Odysseus' house; Eurycleia supplies his provisions, and Athena provides companions and a ship for his night departure. After the ancient argument, the notes take up the saffron-robed and rosy-fingered dawn, collect superlative forms such as kakopinestatos and lalistatos from Herodotus, Pindar, Sophocles, Aristophanes and others, and end on the vocabulary of ship and sea.
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Γ Book III
Nestor entertains Telemachus and Athena and tells what befell the Greeks on their way home from Troy. Athena departs and Nestor sacrifices to her, then sends Telemachus to Sparta by chariot with his son Pisistratus. Glossing the sunrise formula, Eustathius prefers to call Ocean a lake rather than a river; he also treats the question about Agamemnon's death and Aegisthus' guile, and a figure of inverted order.
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Δ Book IV
At Sparta, Menelaus receives Telemachus and Pisistratus and tells of the Greeks' homecomings, the prophecy of Proteus, Agamemnon's death and Odysseus held by Calypso, while the suitors plot an ambush and Athena comforts Penelope in a dream. Eustathius dwells on hollow Lacedaemon and the Eurotas, on Telemachus' speech stitched like a cento from lines used elsewhere, and on harbours and islands.
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Ε Book V
Zeus holds a second assembly of the gods and sends Hermes to Calypso to release Odysseus. On the eighteenth day Poseidon sees him and wrecks his raft; Ino lends a veil, and Odysseus struggles ashore in the land of the Phaeacians. Comment runs from the dawn and Tithonus through the days of the voyage and the poet's word choice to the praise of sleep.
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Ζ Book VI
Athena appears in a dream to Nausicaa, daughter of Alcinous, and tells her to wash the family's clothes at the river, since her marriage is near. She does so and plays with her maids; Odysseus wakes, begs clothing and food, and follows her toward the city. The notes consider Odysseus' favour with women, Nausicaa's wish for such a husband, and why Athena does not oppose Poseidon, explained from Artemis' words in Euripides' Hippolytus.
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Η Book VII
Nausicaa reaches the city, and Odysseus soon supplicates Arete, wife of King Alcinous. After dinner she asks where he found the clothes, which she recognises, and he tells of his voyage from Ogygia to the Phaeacians' land. The commentary treats the nurse Eurymedusa, Alcinous as ruler, the disputed origin of theilopedon, the sunny floor where grapes dry in Alcinous' vineyard, and the bedding laid for the guest in the porch.
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Θ Book VIII
The Phaeacians assemble over the stranger, a ship is launched, and their nobles feast with Alcinous; the games include the discus, and the singer Demodocus tells of Ares and Aphrodite and then of the wooden horse. Odysseus weeps, and Alcinous asks who he is. Eustathius reads the first song as an allegory of iron and charm, and ends on Alcinous' words about kin by marriage.
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Ι Book IX
Here Odysseus begins his own story: the fight with the Cicones, the Lotus-eaters, and the Cyclops Polyphemus, who eats six of his companions before Odysseus blinds him. The commentary opens on his praise of song and feasting before the Phaeacians, then explains terms for sheep and age, and notes lines repeated from elsewhere in the poem.
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Κ Book X
Aeolus sends Odysseus off with the west wind and shuts the other winds in a bag, which the companions open while he sleeps. After the Laestrygonians destroy eleven of the ships, Odysseus reaches Aeaea, where Circe turns half the crew to swine; Hermes' herb moly protects him. The notes treat the bronze wall of the Aeolian island, the swine's feed and Circe as an allegory of pleasure, and whether her potion had also made the wolves and lions round her house out of men.
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Λ Book XI
Following Circe's instructions, Odysseus sails to Hades, hears the seer Tiresias on his own and his companions' survival, and meets heroes and heroines, his mother, comrades from Troy and some of the damned. Ocean is read as both sea and river, the giants Otus and Ephialtes are set beside Orion, and the opening notes follow the ship's fitting out.
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Μ Book XII
Odysseus returns from Hades to Circe, then passes the Sirens, the Wandering Rocks, Scylla and Charybdis. His companions eat the cattle of Helios and perish, and he alone reaches Calypso on a plank. Eustathius explains why Aeaea is the home of the dawn, notes that Scylla is called an undying evil and not a goddess, and ends on Odysseus' refusal to repeat the Calypso story he had told the day before.
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Ν Book XIII
The Phaeacians set the sleeping Odysseus on Ithaca with his gifts, and Poseidon turns their returning ship to stone. Athena advises him about killing the suitors, hides his treasure in a cave and changes him into an old man. The notes include the epithet of Alcinous' palace, Odysseus' speech on waking in an unknown land, and the parting of Athena and Odysseus.
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Ξ Book XIV
Odysseus is received at his farm by the swineherd Eumaeus, and the two talk at length; he invents a history for himself and recounts supposed adventures. The commentary treats the rough Ithacan path, Eumaeus' honorific titles, the oracle at Dodona and its doves, and the hollow rock where Eumaeus sleeps beside the boars, out of the north wind.
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Ο Book XV
Athena urges Telemachus to go home; he leaves with Menelaus' gifts and, before sailing, takes aboard Theoclymenus, an Argive seer in flight for a killing. Eumaeus tells Odysseus how Phoenicians kidnapped him and sold him to Laertes, and Telemachus lands on Ithaca and goes to Eumaeus. Eustathius has Athena appear to the wakeful Telemachus plainly, not in a dream, and treats the rigging of the ship, the spelling and sense of labros for the wind, and the swineherd's sows, counted earlier and now called countless.
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Π Book XVI
Telemachus arrives at the farm, and Eumaeus is sent to tell Penelope of his return. Athena arranges the recognition of Odysseus by his son, and the suitors waiting in ambush return to the city. The notes discuss the old meals called breakfast and dinner, how Odysseus persuaded his son, and the gift of sleep.
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Ρ Book XVII
Telemachus reaches the city and tells Penelope the main points of his journey. Eumaeus then leads Odysseus from the farm into the suitors' feast, where the dog Argos recognises his master; Eumaeus goes back to the farm and Odysseus stays. Eustathius notes how Telemachus' words show his mother's love for him, describes the hound's speed, strength and tracking, and closes on the suitors' dancing and song as evening falls.
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Σ Book XVIII
Odysseus fights the beggar Irus, Penelope shows herself to the suitors and gathers gifts from them, and Odysseus speaks with Eurymachus. The commentary explains why the poet shapes Odysseus' unused hands for boxing, defends Penelope's unexplained laughter, and ends on the herald Mulius, Amphinomus' attendant, whom the poet calls a hero just as he calls Eteoneus lord, and on the origin of Mulius' name.
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Τ Book XIX
Odysseus and Telemachus put away the weapons from the hall. Odysseus tells Penelope that he comes from Crete, and Eurycleia recognises him by his scar as she washes his feet; the poet digresses to the boar hunt on Parnassus that caused it. Among the notes are counsel taken by night, the verb for mockery, and Odysseus' refusal of soft bedding and of a footbath from the maids.
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Υ Book XX
Odysseus wants to kill the maids who consort with the suitors but holds back, then speaks with Eumaeus and Philoetius, while the suitors talk among themselves. The notes cover his bed of hide and fleeces, Eurynome's cloak, the form egrēgoroōn for lying awake, the slave Melanthius' taunts and the contrast between a pleasant dinner and a joyless supper.
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Φ Book XXI
Penelope promises to marry whoever strings the bow. Odysseus tells Eumaeus and Philoetius to secure the doors, then sends an arrow through the axes after the suitors fail to bend the bow. The commentary explains the book's ancient title, taken from the setting of the bow, the senses of the grey iron of the axes, the old-fashioned key Penelope takes up, and the orders Antinous gives for fire, a seat and tallow.
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Χ Book XXII
The slaughter of the suitors: Odysseus strips off his rags, and with Athena present he and Telemachus kill them, then gather the bodies and purify the house. Telemachus and the household punish the maids along with Melanthius. Eustathius takes the stripping to bare only his legs, counts the six best suitors left standing, and ends on the loyal maids' embrace, which Odysseus answers with tears but no word.
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Ψ Book XXIII
Eurycleia brings Penelope word that Odysseus is home. Penelope tests him, the couple recognise each other, and Odysseus recapitulates his wanderings before he and Telemachus leave with the household. The notes treat the old nurse's joy, the heart of iron, and Odysseus' boast that he alone killed the suitors.
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Ω Book XXIV
Hermes summons the dead suitors and leads them down to Hades. Odysseus is recognised by his father Laertes, and Athena stops the unrest the killing has stirred among the Ithacans, so that the poem ends in a treaty. Eustathius explains the book's two ancient titles, comments on Laertes' orchard, and closes by setting this lasting peace beside the short truce that ends the Iliad.