Laertes was king of Ithaca before his son Odysseus. In his old age he retired to a farm on the island, where Odysseus found him tending his orchard upon his return from Troy.
Odysseus was king of Ithaca, the rocky island kingdom in the Ionian Sea. His twenty-year absence during the Trojan War and his subsequent wanderings left the island without its ruler and prey to the suitors.
Penelope governed Ithaca during Odysseus's twenty-year absence, preserving his household and kingdom through cunning despite the suitors' siege of the palace.
Antinous, the most arrogant of the suitors, occupied Odysseus's palace on Ithaca for years, devouring the king's wealth and abusing his household. He was the first suitor Odysseus killed upon his return.
Eumaeus, the loyal swineherd, tended his flocks on the rural outskirts of Ithaca throughout Odysseus's absence. His farmstead served as Odysseus's first refuge on the island and the staging ground for the assault on the palace.
Ogygia and Ithaca stand as mythological opposites in the Odyssey — one an immortal paradise of captivity, the other a modest mortal home Odysseus yearned for across seven years of exile.
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