BOOK XIX

The Recognition and the Scar

Moonlight Scarlet Shadow

Setting

The shadowed cloister of Ulysses' palace, lit by Minerva's golden lamp and the dying embers of the braziers.

Key Objects

  • Minerva's Gold Lamp
  • The Purple Mantle
  • The Boar's Tusk Scar
  • Twelve Iron Axes

Major Themes

Identity, Deception, Memory, and the Gates of Horn and Ivory.

THE RECOGNITION

"As soon as Euryclea had got the scarred limb in her hands and had well hold of it, she recognized it and dropped the foot at once..."

🦵

Touch the limb to search for the mark...

Penelope & The Stranger

Penelope tests the stranger, asking for details of Ulysses' clothing. He describes the purple wool mantle and the gold brooch showing a dog and a fawn.

"Ulysses felt for her and was sorry for her, but he kept his eyes as hard as horn or iron without letting them so much as quiver, so cunningly did he restrain his tears."

The Eagle and the Geese

Penelope dreams of twenty geese killed by a great eagle. The eagle returns and speaks with a human voice: "The geese are the suitors, and I am... your own husband."

🦢
20 Suitors
🦅
Ulysses

Gate of Ivory

Fatuous and deceptive dreams that do not come true.

Gate of Horn

Dreams that carry truth and portend real events.