Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Irus.
The gallery
Odysseus Fighting the Beggar Irus
Francesco Primaticcio, c. 1540–1560
Primaticcio’s Nationalmuseum drawing stages Odyssey XVIII: disguised Odysseus floors Arnaeus — nicknamed Irus — before the jeering suitors. Fontainebleau line keeps the beggar’s challenge as the comic prelude to the bow contest.
Fight between Odysseus and Irus
Netherlandish printmaker, c. 17th century
Rijksmuseum RP-P-1890-A-15578: the palace fistfight that strips Irus of his place at the suitors’ door. Northern print tradition made the Ithacan beggar a stock Odyssey vignette.