he Spartan one, for Menelaus seems to
have had no enemies in his house to dispute his Return, as Agamemnon
had and also Ulysses has. But Agamemnon perished, Ulysses will not.

II.

Accordingly the affairs of Ithaca are introduced, as they happened
after the departure of Telemachus. This thread is picked up from the
Second Book, where he had his final conference with the Suitors and
told them his mind. We must recall that Ithaca is the abode of conflict
and disorder; the Suitors and Household of Penelope are the two
antagonistic elements; upon both the secret departure of Telemachus
explodes like a bomb, and brings the characters of each side to the
surface.

Telemachus stands in relation to the Suitors as well as to his mother;
both are putting their restraints upon him which he has broken through
and asserted his freedom, his new manhood. One, however, is the
restraint of hate, the other is the restraint of love; both stand in
the way of his development. He must get his great education in defiance
of Suitors and of mother. The attitudes of these two parties are
described, and form the two divisions of this second part of the Fourth
Book.

1. The Suitors, when they hear of the deed of Telemachus, are not only
surprised but startled, and they at once recognise that a new power has
risen which threatens to punish their misdeeds. The youth has plainly
become a man, a man showing the skill and courage of his father, and
with the sense of wrong burning in his breast. Already he has declared
that he would wreak vengeance upon them, the day of reckoning seems to
have dawned. Previously they despised his warnings as the helpless
babble of a mere boy; now they have to meet him, returning, possibly,
with help from his father's friends.

What will the Suitors do? The most audacious one, Antinous, is ready
with a proposal. The boy will prove a pest, we must waylay him on his
return and murder him. Such is their final act of wrong, which is now
accepted by all, and the proposer gets ready to carry out his plan.
Hitherto it may be said the Suitors had a certain right, the right of
suit, which, however, becomes doubtful through the uncertainty about
the death of the husband, and through the unwillingness of the wife.
But now their guilt is brought out in strong colors, there can be no
question about it. They man a boat and lie in wait for their prey on a
little island which the youth has to pass in coming home.

2. The mothe