Eurykleia fetches Penelope. She disbelieves, repeatedly, that her husband has returned, even when told of the scar on his knee. Finally entering the chamber herself, she views Odysseus carefully for some time, still refusing to believe it is him. Odysseus asks that the others leave the room so they may speak in private; as an aside, he tells Telemachos to get ready, because they've got some explaining to do to the rest of the townspeople about all the dead suitors. They should play music to pretend Penelope is actually having a wedding.
Odysseus bathes and approaches Penelope again. O: "Let's got to bed, and I'll really show I'm your husband." [Whoa.] P: "Sure thing; I'll have a servant bring the bed into this room." O: "Not likely-- I built that bed using an olive tree in the ground as one of the bedposts." Penelope finally knows it is he.
They weep together. Athene extends the night so they might have time together. Odysseus lets on that his journey is not quite over, that Teiresias told him he must travel and make sacrifices to Poseidon before finally returning home. Penelope is confident he will reach old age, though. To bed.
...After, Penelope tells of the constant struggle she endured, and Odysseus relates his whole journey. To recap: defeating the Kikonians, the Lotus-eaters, the Cyclops, Aiolos, Telepylos, Circe, Hades, Sirens, Charybdis and Skylla, cattle of Helios, Kalypso, and finally the Phaiakians. They sleep.
Athene brings the dawn. Odysseus vows to regather the riches the suitors deprived him of. First, he plans a trip with Telemachos to see his father, Laertes.
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Looks like two chapters of closing action, similar to The Iliad.
xxiii.295-296:
"When she had brought them to the chamber she went back. They then
gladly went together to bed, and their old ritual."
Delicate.
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