The poem opens within forty eight days of the arrival of Ulysses in his
dominions. He had now remained seven years in the Island of Calypso,
when the gods assembled in council, proposed the method of his
departure from thence and his return to his native country. For this
purpose it is concluded to send Mercury to Calypso, and Pallas
immediately descends to Ithaca. She holds a conference with Telemachus,
in the shape of Mantes, king of Taphians; in which she advises him to
take a journey in quest of his father Ulysses, to Pylos and Sparta,
where Nestor and Menelaus yet reigned; then, after having visibly
displayed her divinity, disappears. The suitors of Penelope make great
entertainments, and riot in her palace till night. Phemius sings to
them the return of the Grecians, till Penelope puts a stop to the song.
Some words arise between the suitors and Telemachus, who summons the
council to meet the day following.