The Myth of Antinous | The Death and Fate of Odysseus's and Penelope's Suitor, Explained

At the banquet hall of the palace on Ithaca, one man sits as if he were the master of the house. The actual owner, Odysseus, has long failed to return after the Trojan War, and among the men who have been eating through the household's wealth while courting Penelope, this man is the most brazen of them all.

His name is Antinous, son of Eupeithes. While other suitors hold back or measure their words, he is always the first to speak and the first to act. And that place at the front ultimately leads him to be the first to die.

The Man Who First Clashed with Telemachus's Demands

One day, Telemachus, who has begun to seek news of his father, stands before the suitors and openly demands that they leave this house. The first of all the suitors to step forward and respond is Antinous.

He sneers at Telemachus, saying the gods must have taught him only the art of boastful talk. He even adds that, just like his father, Telemachus will never be allowed by Zeus himself to become the leader of Ithaca. Unlike Eurymachus, who was present and at least answered with softened words, Antinous makes no effort to hide that he has no intention of backing down.

With this single brief exchange, he effectively becomes the spokesman among the other suitors. All Telemachus can do next is formally summon these men and hold an assembly.

What the Assembly Revealed — and the Scheme Exposed

When Telemachus laments at the assembly both his father's absence and the suitors' outrages, Antinous steps forward once again. This time, he throws the blame entirely onto Penelope. It happened, he says, because she is such a cunning woman, not because of any fault of their own.

He then exposes a story that had long been hidden. Penelope, claiming she would weave a shroud for her father-in-law Laertes, had set up a great loom and, by secretly unraveling each night what she wove by day, had put off remarriage for nearly four years. Antinous reveals that the trick was only exposed in the fourth year, when one of the maids who knew of it confessed.

Not content with exposure, he makes his demands plain. Send your mother off in marriage to whoever your father chooses, he insists, and as long as she cannot make up her mind as she is now, they will continue to eat through this house's wealth and stay put. For Telemachus, neither the assembly nor his appeal moved this man an inch. In the end, he resolves to set out for Pylos and Sparta himself to seek news of his father.

A Cunning Ambush, Knowing of the Son's Voyage

The fact that Telemachus had secretly secured a ship and departed soon leaks out. When Noemon, who had lent the ship, asks when it will be returned, Antinous and Eurymachus finally realize that he has truly gone to Pylos and Sparta.

Antinous flies into a rage. The boy they thought incapable of anything had slipped away behind their backs, even taking a crew he had recruited, and he declares that this voyage is no ordinary matter. Then he moves straight to action. He asks for a ship to carry twenty crewmen, declaring that he will wait for him in the strait between Ithaca and Same and make him regret this journey.

Indeed, he picks twenty men, equips the ship with a mast, sails, and weapons, and anchors at the rocky islet of Asteris between Ithaca and Same, lying in wait. With harbors on both sides, the islet was a perfect spot to prey on passing ships. But Telemachus, warned by Athena, avoids the islets and chooses to land first at a place away from the town, and Antinous's ambush ends in failure, never catching him. With the plan against the son gone awry, the next target naturally shifts to the father returning to the palace.

The Footstool Hurled at the Beggar

When Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, finally enters his own courtyard, the first to drive away the swineherd Eumaeus who brought him in is Antinous. He rebukes Eumaeus sharply, asking why he brought such a person, and when Telemachus steps in to tell them to share food with the wanderer, he responds grudgingly, showing no graciousness at all.

When Odysseus tells the tale of how he came to wander and beg through Egypt and Cyprus, Antinous grows only angrier. Snapping that he will make him pay before he leaves this hall, he seizes a footstool and hurls it, striking Odysseus on the right shoulder. Odysseus stands firm where he was struck, unshaken.

One of the young suitors immediately rebukes Antinous. What if that wanderer were a god, he asks — why would you do such a thing? Telemachus, who was present, can only watch, swallowing his anger inwardly at the sight of his father being struck, and later, when Penelope hears the news, she says she hates Antinous as much as the darkness of death itself. The other suitors each gave the wanderer something, however small, but Antinous alone gave nothing and instead struck him — a fact that lingers in her words as well.

The Last Arrogance Revealed at the Bow Contest

When Penelope finally proposes deciding on a new husband through a trial with Odysseus's bow, it is again Antinous who sets the order of things. He urges the weeping Eumaeus and the cowherd, seated quietly before the bow, to sit and eat their meal, and even sets the rule that the attempt begin with the one who pours the wine and proceed to the right, in turn.

But when his own turn comes, Antinous cannot string the bow. Only he and Eurymachus remain among the suitors, yet both fail to bend it. And when the unfamiliar wanderer — Odysseus in disguise — steps forward saying he too will try, Antinous blocks him with harsh words. Sneering at his pitiful station, he even threatens that if he somehow succeeds, he will have him packed off to King Echetus, famed for his cruelty. That day ends with no one stringing the bow, and the suitors close out the day drinking wine and offering sacrifices to Apollo.

One Arrow — the First to Fall

The next to receive the bow is Odysseus, his identity still hidden, and without effort he draws the string and sends an arrow flying. Even in that moment, Antinous, sensing nothing amiss, is just raising a two-handled golden cup, about to drink his wine. It never occurs to him that death stands right before him.

The arrow pierces him straight through the throat. The cup falls from his hand, and a thick stream of blood bursts from his nostrils. As he thrashes, his foot strikes the table, which tips over, scattering bread and roasted meat all across the floor.

At first the other suitors believe this happened by accident. Leaping up from their seats, they denounce Odysseus, shouting that he will pay for shooting at a man like this, and that there will be no more contests today. Not one of them yet realizes that death has already gathered over all their heads as well.

Only then does Odysseus reveal who he is. At his single question — did you think I would never return from Troy? — the suitors at last realize that this death was no accident. Antinous, who spoke first and struck first, has become the very first to fall, even at the moment judgment begins.

Characters Whose Stories Continue

How Penelope, whom Antinous courted, endured these years can be seen again through her own eyes in The Myth of Penelope. The bow contest in which he lost his life, and the full course of the bed sign that follows, can be found in Odysseus's Bow and Bed.

How Telemachus, whom Antinous targeted even with an ambush, escaped that danger and reunited with his father continues in The Myth of Telemachus. If you wonder where this episode falls within Odysseus's return as a whole, you can trace it in order in The Plot of the Odyssey Myth.