The suitors’ impunity hinges on their belief Odysseus is dead.

Evidence

But the suitors know, they’ve caught some godsent rumor of master’s grisly death! That’s why they have no mind to do their courting fairly or go back home in peace. — Homer; Robert Fagles; Bernard Knox, The Odyssey, 2769

Categorization

• XREF: Pays off the entire Odyssey premise: disguise and the recovery narrative depend on exactly this false certainty.