Argos' Significance in The Odyssey

In the book The Odyssey; Argos, the dog, symbolized Ithaca's loyalty to Odysseus. When Odysseus was there, the dog was very well taken care of. The dog was swift, healthy and strong. After Odysseus returns home to Ithaca in the disguise of a beggar, the dog was the only one who realizes that it is him. He found Argos had been cast aside and because of this the dog had become unhealthy and disheveled: “Treated as rubbish now, he lay at last/ upon a mass of dung before the gate-/manure of mules and cows. . .” (Fitzgerald 401). He stayed and watched faithfully over Odysseus’s palace for twenty years despite illness and neglect. After all these years, he was still devoted to Odysseus. When he arrived home, the dog died. I believe that here, Argos was used as a symbol to foreshadow that if Odysseus does not hurry home, things will dramatically change and Ithaca will not be ruled by an honorable king. If Odysseus had not been lost at sea, the dog may not have had a fate of sickness and neglect.
The significance of Argos was that he recognized his master even in the disguise of a beggar. Argos was a strong symbol of the people of Ithaca. Without Odysseus looking over the kingdom, the people in the kingdom began to collapse as there was no king. This was symbolized with Argos lying in fleas and dung. The people would be happy that Odysseus was home because then the country would be put back into order and the people would be the highest priority again. Ithaca had a similar situation to Argos because when Odysseus left, the country began to collapse. Before Odysseus left, Ithaca was a powerful empire and the people and environment were well taken care of. Penelope, the queen, had her attention steered towards who would replace Odysseus. The citizens of  Ithaca were not as high priority as they were before this time. Instead of looking after the people, there were contests and challenges to determine who the next king would be.

Fitzgerald, Robert, Trans. The Odyssey Book 17, from Collections. Orlando, FL:
Houghton  Mifflin Harcourt. 1998. Print.