Eurycleia
A loyal servant who nursed both Odysseus and Telemachus as infants, Eurycleia is one of the few in the palace Telemachus trusts enough to tell of his secret voyage.
Eurycleia in the Odyssey
Eurycleia is the old nurse of the house of Ithaca: she raised Odysseus and later Telemachus, and is one of the few servants who stay loyal through the years of the suitors.
Her great scene comes when Penelope asks her to wash the stranger's feet. Touching a scar on his leg, left by a boar during a hunt on Mount Parnassus in his youth, she recognizes Odysseus. He grips her throat and makes her swear silence, and she keeps the secret until the suitors are dead.
Key moments
- Book 2
She is the only one Telemachus tells about his secret voyage, and she prepares his provisions.
- Book 19
Washing the beggar's feet, she finds the boar scar and recognizes her master.
- Books 22–23
After the battle she names the disloyal maids, then runs to wake Penelope with the news.
Relationship to Odysseus
Devoted to the royal house across two generations, she keeps Telemachus' departure hidden from Penelope at his request — and will later be the one who recognizes Odysseus by an old scar.
Where this figure enters the journey
Eurycleia's loyalty holds the household together in Ithaca while both father and son are away, and while the suitors circle.
Open the map locationIthaca