After twenty years away, disguised as a beggar, Odysseus comes back to his own house and no one recognizes him. Not his wife, not his father. The first to recognize him is not a person at all: it is the dog he raised before leaving for the war, now an old animal, abandoned, that has been waiting for two decades.
A dog raised before the war
Argos was a puppy when Odysseus set sail for Troy. Two decades later, he is just an old dog, covered in ticks, thrown on a dung heap in front of his own house, with no one to look after him. That is the state Odysseus finds him in on his return, disguised as a beggar, with no one in the house aware of who he is.
The recognition that asks for no proof
Seeing his master approach, the dog reacts. Here is that moment, translated here from the Portuguese edition the house uses to check the poem's text:
"He wagged his tail and dropped both his ears, but he could no longer get close to his master. And Odysseus, looking away, wiped off a tear." (Odyssey, Book XVII; translated here from the Portuguese edition of Christian Werner, Cosac Naify, 2014)
Notice what sets this scene apart from every other recognition in the poem. His son will recognize Odysseus by his words. The old nurse, by a scar on his leg. His father, further on, by the very trees in the orchard that Odysseus himself gave him as a child. Every one of these recognitions needs some kind of proof, a sign that convinces. The dog needs none of that. He simply recognizes him, and he no longer even has the strength to stand.
Odysseus, so as not to give himself away in front of the suitors who have taken over the house, wipes away the tear in secret, without anyone noticing.
Twenty years, and the poem never returns to it
What comes next is told in a single line, with no build-up at all:
"The fate of black death seized him the moment he saw Odysseus, in the twentieth year." (Odyssey, Book XVII; translated here from the Portuguese edition of Christian Werner, Cosac Naify, 2014)
Argos dies right there, the instant he recognizes his master, after twenty years of waiting. Homer spends only a few lines on it and never brings it up again. There is no speech, no ceremony, no one else in the house who even notices the scene besides Odysseus himself, disguised, unable to react without giving himself away.
What the poem says about the dog's abandonment
Homer does not leave the scene at mere emotion. Just before it, the swineherd Eumaeus explains why an animal raised with such care ends up abandoned like that, and the explanation is not about the affection missing from a house overrun by suitors: it is about servitude.
"Zeus, who sees far, takes away half of a man's worth on the day that slavery seizes him." (Odyssey, Book XVII; translated here from the Portuguese edition of Christian Werner, Cosac Naify, 2014)
In other words, whoever becomes someone else's property loses, according to the poem, half of his own worth, and that loss is what explains why no one else in the house bothers to care for the hunting dog that was once Odysseus's pride. The scene of Argos is not only about a loyal dog. It is about what the master's absence dismantles around him, starting with what no one thinks is worth keeping.
The purest recognition in the book
It is precisely because of this economy, not despite it, that the scene has crossed nearly three thousand years without losing any force. Every other recognition in the Odyssey is negotiated: someone tests, someone doubts, someone demands confirmation before accepting that the man really is who he claims to be. The dog tests nothing. He recognizes his master in the simplest way there is, before a single word is exchanged, and he is the only character in the whole poem who needs no reason at all to know the truth.
The scene of Argos is a small piece within a poem about what it means to be recognized after a long time away, a theme the Odyssey works from beginning to end. The class "Odisseia, de Homero" walks through the poem's other recognitions, one by one, up to the most demanding test of all: Penelope's.
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See recommended readingsFrequently asked questions
Who is Argos in the Odyssey?
He is Odysseus's dog, raised by him as a puppy before he left for the Trojan War. Twenty years later, old and abandoned on a dung heap in front of his own house, he is the first to recognize his master disguised as a beggar.
Why does Argos recognize Odysseus before everyone else?
The poem does not explain the mechanism, only shows the effect, the dog wags his tail and drops his ears as the disguise approaches. It is the only recognition in the whole poem that needs no proof at all, no scar, no word, no recognizable object.
What happens to Argos after he recognizes Odysseus?
He dies right away, the very moment he sees his master, after twenty years of waiting. Odysseus, still in disguise, wipes away a hidden tear so as not to give himself away in front of the suitors.
Continue: The Odyssey, by Homer: summary and analysis · Nobody is my name: Odysseus and the Cyclops · Penelope and the test of the bed · Verba volant, scripta manent
Source class: Odisseia, de Homero