<P> Odysseus is shipwrecked and befriended by the Phaeacians . After telling them his story, the Phaeacians, led by King Alcinous, agree to help Odysseus get home . They deliver him at night, while he is fast asleep, to a hidden harbor on Ithaca . He finds his way to the hut of one of his own former slaves, the swineherd Eumaeus, and also meets up with Telemachus returning from Sparta . Athena disguises Odysseus as a wandering beggar to learn how things stand in his household . </P> <P> When the disguised Odysseus returns after 20 years, he is recognized only by his faithful dog, Argos . Penelope announces in her long interview with the disguised hero that whoever can string Odysseus' rigid bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe shafts may have her hand . According to Bernard Knox, "For the plot of the Odyssey, of course, her decision is the turning point, the move that makes possible the long - predicted triumph of the returning hero". Odysseus' identity is discovered by the housekeeper, Eurycleia, as she is washing his feet and discovers an old scar Odysseus received during a boar hunt . Odysseus swears her to secrecy, threatening to kill her if she tells anyone . </P> <P> When the contest of the bow begins, none of the suitors is able to string the bow of Apollo but then, after all the suitors have given up, the disguised Odysseus comes along, bends the bow, shoots the arrow, and wins the contest . Having done so, he proceeds to slaughter the suitors (beginning with Antinous whom he finds drinking from Odysseus' cup) with help from Telemachus and two of Odysseus' servants, Eumaeus the swineherd and Philoetius the cowherd . Odysseus tells the serving women who slept with the suitors to clean up the mess of corpses and then has those women hanged in terror . He tells Telemachus that he will replenish his stocks by raiding nearby islands . Odysseus has now revealed himself in all his glory (with a little makeover by Athena); yet Penelope cannot believe that her husband has really returned--she fears that it is perhaps some god in disguise, as in the story of Alcmene--and tests him by ordering her servant Euryclea to move the bed in their wedding - chamber . Odysseus protests that this cannot be done since he made the bed himself and knows that one of its legs is a living olive tree . Penelope finally accepts that he truly is her husband, a moment that highlights their homophrosýnē ("like - mindedness"). </P> <P> The next day Odysseus and Telemachus visit the country farm of his old father Laërtes . The citizens of Ithaca follow Odysseus on the road, planning to avenge the killing of the Suitors, their sons . The goddess Athena intervenes and persuades both sides to make peace . </P>

Who is odysseus and what has happened to him