| Book Sixteen
Telemachus evades the suitors' ambush. Following Athena's instructions,
he proceeds to the farmstead of Eumaeus. There he makes the acquaintance of
the tattered guest and sends Eumaeus to his mother to announce his safe
return. Athena restores Odysseus' normal appearance, enchancing it so that
Telemachus takes him for a god. "No god am I," Odysseus assures him, "but
your own father, returned after these twenty years." They fall into each
other's arms. Later they plot the suitors' doom. Concerned that the odds are
fifty-to-one, Telemachus suggests that they might need reinforcements.
"Aren't Zeus and Athena reinforcement enough?" asks Odysseus.
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