Odysseus returns...

While the shameless suitors to his beloved Penelope

party on his dime, abuse his people, and otherwise befoul his great hall,

the “guest” Odysseus —disguised as a beggar, and given a “share of innards”

to accompany a shower of insults— takes to his “rickety stool” and observes.* 

*see Homer, The Odyssey ([late eighth to early seventh century, B. C. E.] 1996), translated Robert Fagles, Book 20.

watercolour by the author (15 January 2022).